Sew Frustrated!

The good, I did not let my frustration get the best of me.

The bad, the seam ripper became my new best friend tonight.

I was making #2 of the travel diaper pad and that darn bias tape got the best of me.  I ripped it off and put the project away until I can get wider bias tape.  An-noy-ing.  Also, discovered that I accidentally bought upholstery thread instead of regular thread - kind of reminds me of fishing line but it seemed fine, I didn't have the same thread in my bobbin as in my top thread (technical term?) and the bobbin thread didn't sew as nicely as normal but it is fine...not going to take out my new BFF (seam ripper) for another spin tonight.

SO.  Since the lack of appropriate bias tape put the kibosh on that project I started a taggie blanket.  Naomi received one as a gift when she was a baby and I really liked it, so much that I bought one for a friend of ours that had a baby...then Ryan saw the price tag and about fell over...solution - make my own! 

This will also be part of the new baby gift package I am assembling for those little preggo ladies.  It was truly very easy, with the exception of a little early on pinning confusion (enter seam ripper to save the day yet again) it was quick to make.

I picked up a heap of fabric at Abby Ben Franklin last weekend - they had a great bargain table full of fun fabric! 

Step 1 - cut out 2 pieces of fleece fabric - you could use the same fabric for front and back but I liked the look of a solid and a print.  My pieces were 12 x 17 - no reason for those dimensions, I just like the longer rectangle size.

Step 2 - cut up strips of ribbon into 6-8 inch pieces pending on how long you want your taggies to be.  You can use all one color or multiple colors - I used 4 different colors.

Step 3 - Fold the strips in 2, with the right side of the fabric together place the loop of the ribbon between the 2 right sides and there should be a little of the ribbon coming out of the top of the fleece.  Pin the ribbon in place, repeat for the length of your fleece. 

This is the WRONG way to pin the ribbon...for an experienced sew-er they probably would have noticed this right away but not I, I sewed right along, flipped it over to check my stitching and NO TAGS...doh!  Luckily, the seam ripper was already out of my sewing box and sitting right there!

This is the CORRECT way to pin in the ribbons.

Step 4 - Sew along the edge of the fabric, when you get to the ribbon double back over the taggie in case the little peanut that will be playing with the blanket really pulls on them this way it won't rip out.

Repeat this process on 3 sides of the blanket.

When you get to the 4th and final side you have 2 options, you can turn the blanket right side out and have a fully exposed seam or you can keep it wrong side out, sew your ribbons on and then turn it out and run a short seam on the right side after turning out.  I opted to go with the fully exposed seam, I did turn the fabric under so there was not a raw edge though.

Voila!  Snuggly baby gift ready to go!  After I showed it to Ryan he asked how much this one cost and I would rough estimate it to be about $4-$8 pending on where you buy your fabric.  So in comparison to the blanket we bought for our friends its a $15-20 savings and still sweet, perhaps even more so since it's homemade.  Plus you can take that $15-20 and buy the new parents some diapers...or coffee...nearly of equal importance in those early days!

Pizza Hot Dish and Baby Travel Pack

Tonight we had our new recipe of the week dinner - Pizza Hot Dish.  Which actually was fantastic on a number of levels:

1) I put everything together last night for the dinner because I knew that I had an appointment after work tonight so that Ryan could just preheat, put it in the oven and walk away.  So when I got home I literally just made the veggie to go with and dinner was done.  Presto! 

2) I doubled the recipe so not only did we have a homemade dinner ready in a flash tonight but we also have a few spares tucked away in the freezer for future meals.  I love being able to make double recipes and squirreling away a few extra to be able to pull out on a night when we either don't have a lot of time or I don't have a lot of motivation.

3) They liked it, they really liked it!  Naomi is going through a cute stage of saying nummy, nummy whenever she is eating something that she likes and there were nummy, nummy's a plenty with this one.  Ryan liked it as well but didn't think it was very pizza-ey as the title says.  The only adjustments I would make would be to add some minced garlic and a lot more herbs but it's a great base.  You could also throw in whatever toppings you like on your pizza.

Kudos and a shout out to Jennifer for sharing the recipe with me from at our playdate a few weekends back.  I hope you don't mind me sharing it!

Here is the recipe:
Pizza Hot Dish
1 lb. hamburger
1 large onion
8 oz penne pasta
1 can tomato sauce
1 can pizza sauce
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 pkg. pepperoni
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Brown hamburger and onion, cook noodles according to package instructions, my suggestion would be to leave slightly more al dente than what the package says - you are going to be cooking it with lots of pasta sauce that will absorb some of the liquid.  Mix the hamburger and onion with the pasta, sauces and soup and 1 1/2 cups of the mozzarella cheese - place in a pan (when I doubled the recipe it made up 3 very generous 9 x 9 pans which will allow us a couple of days of leftovers) and layer pepperoni's over the top. 

Bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes, add remaning 1/2 cup of cheese and bake uncovered until bubbly - about 15 minutes.  Some additions I would have made, I would have put 2-3 cloves of minced garlic with the hamburger and onions and added a handful of oregano (I am not very good with actual terms of measurement in cooking - I prefer handfuls, pinches, dashes and scoops :) ha!). 

It would also be fun to throw in your favorite pizza toppings, i.e. olives, peppers, etc.  Overall I was really happy with the recipe and will be making it again.  Great comfort food for a family that likes pasta and cheese on a cold winter Wisco night!

On to the second portion of this post which will be about the finished sewing project to go along with the travel changing pad - I also made a bib and 2 matching burp rags to go along with the changing pad.  I think that everything all tucked together and rolled up will work fabulously in your regular purse as a quick throw in on the way to run errands or when you aren't going to be out for long but don't want to lug the entire diaper bag with you. 

The bib was very simple, I traced one of Naomi's bibs on the wrong side the fabric, cut it out, pinned and cut on the corresponding wrong side of the other  fabric and sewed around the perimeter of the bib - I left a little space open on the bottom in order to turn the bib out  then just ran a stitch very close to the edge of the big.  I added velco for the closure but threw around the ideas of a button or ribbon for future bib projects...viola bib city. 

The burp rags were also super easy and quick - I measured the fabric against some store bought cloth diapers to 1/3 of the width of the diaper, turned and pinned down the edges, and sewed them down.  Then I pinned the fun fabric rectangle to the cloth diaper in the center and ran it through the sewing machine. 

All in all including the changing pad, the project took about 4 hours for a newbie like me and I now have a baby gift to give to a friend (if any of you are preggo and reading this - sorry to ruin the surprise but guess what you are getting - haha) whenever their new little bundle of joy arrives.  I loved receiving homemade presents for Naomi, the personal touch and thought goes a long way, plus there is always a history and story behind it then.

It's A Start

I am hoping to use this blog as a place to pool all of my thoughts/projects recipes and ideas as well as post some fun pictures.  Projects/goals that I am currently working on:

1) New Year's Resolution - try 1 new recipe a week, thus far aside from a lethally spicy jambalaya incident from last week has been going well.  An addendum to my resolution is going to be to post the picture and recipe for the newbie of the week.

Don't let the veggies fool you - after adding the spice packet and pre-seasoned andouille it got S-P-I-C-E-Y!

2) I am JUST starting to learn to sew and I would like to keep a log of pictures and details of projects that I am working on to keep them in order and to watch my progress :)

The one below is a Changing Pad and Pocket Set courtesy of Sewing Republic - FUN to make, easy enough for a novice like me and will make a cute gift for one of the many preggo ladies I know :) 

3) Of course I am going to post pictures of Naomi, that's just silly to think THAT wouldn't happen.

Note the sad little tear trail on her cheek - she had a little bug this weekend and it was hard being a toddler, luckily we could just snuggle up and watch Dora while eating saltines and drinking pedialyte. 

4) I got a new camera for Christmas from my lovely husband Ryan and am hoping to learn more about the camera and will keep track of the progress/learning process there.

Also, I am a big fan of Pinterest right now and have blog envy of a few of the posts I have seen therefore I am hoping to get some inspiration from them. 

So here we go....