Peppy and Cheap: Mini Embellishment Project

Most people have one or more specific items which bring out the penny-pincher in them; one thing that they just can't justify spending their hard-earned dollars on. I am incredibly cheap when it comes to tee shirts. Why? no clue. But it bugs me to no end when retailers take a plain tee, stitch a tiny amount of ruffle/ribbon/trim to it or add a few gathers and then jack up the price to $36.

Anyway, my inner Scrooge cackled all the way to the register the other day, as I scored some cute, but plain scoop-neck tees for $5 each at Old Navy. They had a pretty feminine shape that I thought had potential. So, once I got them home, I took the black one:


And $6-worth of trim from Pacific Trimmings:

And made my own flower trimmed tee.

I think I may add a few more flowers to it - it's looking a bit too conservative for me. But I am totally psyched at this $11 effort, all done while sitting in front of the TV.

Weekends and Evenings

It's difficult to maintain focus and not get frustrated when you are a weekend and evening sewist. And lately, my other pursuits, which I love and could not give up - yoga, cooking, running (oh my god! did I just say I loved running? I really must be losing my marbles!) - are cutting into my evening time.

But after last week's visit to New York Elegant Fabrics, a garment district store I hadn't been to before, I think my mojo has started to return. There were so many beautiful and fun fabrics. I also scored some patterns on the cheap from SewingPatterns.com. Here they are:

How ridiculously cute is that duck stuffy?!?!

And this is for me. I have made so many other people bags/totes.
Time to make one for myself!

Anyway, I have a mini embellishment project that I am working on in the evenings (I'll post about it soon), and I plan to get lots of sewing done this upcoming weekend, since I have Friday and Monday off. Stay tuned!

Meet Justin, my personal running trainer

I know what you're thinking. The resemblance to Lee Adama is striking.
But this is how I picture Justin.

Justin is my Ipod Personal Running Trainer. With the help of his 4 Weeks to 1 Mile training program, I ran my first mile last night. Considering that I haven't run this far since freshman year of high school, I'm really quite proud of this modest achievement.

I couldn't have done it without Phineas' help, either. He planned the route that we ran, which ended with a gentle downhill to help me to the finish line. And he trotted along with me at my ridiculously slow pace, toting a water bottle and encouraging me along the way.

Now, on to the 8 Weeks to 5K program...

Mmmm... gnocchi

For whatever reason, Phineas and I were on a picture-taking roll last night. So, here is the gnocchi making adventure in pictures.

Mound up your grated/riced potatoes and make a well in the middle.

After kneading in an egg, salt, pepper and nutmeg, add 1/4 c of parmesan.

Then add flour, 1/2 c at a time or as needed. (We used about 1 1/4 c.) Phineas was a sweetie and kneaded the flour in for me since I hate touching raw flour. (eeeewwwwww).

Gather the dough into a ball and cut it into 6 pieces.

Roll each piece of dough into a half inch log and then cut half inch pieces. Then shape your gnocchi by rolling the pieces into balls and give them their characteristic lines by rolling them down the back of a fork with your thumb.

Cook them exactly like you would cook pasta. About a minute after they float, they are done.

And now for the sauce, made almost entirely of leftovers!

While the gnocchi were cooking, I sauteed some fresh chopped sage in a little butter and then added some remnants of Serrano ham (you could use proscuitto or bacon) that were left from the weekend.

When the butter was browned and the whole thing was fragrant, I added some (again, leftover) half and half and Parmesan cheese. (Really, I don't think I could cook without Parmesan. It is an absolute staple for me for weeknight cooking.)

Reduce the sauce until it is thickened to your liking and adjust the salt/pepper. Add the drained gnocchi to the pan. I also added a little of the cooking water since my sauce had thickened a bit too much.

Enjoy your gnocchi with a side of broccoli rabe or a nice salad. Buon Appetito!

The gnocchi were light and delicious. I think they could have been lighter if I had used a ricer instead of a grater to make the potato more fine. And I would add more salt to the dough (2 tsp). The only real challenge was that it took a while to get the hang of shaping the gnocchi. Half came out rather ugly and misshapen. But they all tasted great!

This was a truly over-the-top weeknight meal. However, cooking the potatoes the day before made the gnocchi making much more manageable and less time consuming (one hour from ingredients to plating up). It really did not take long for the dough to come together. What I would recommend is making a big batch of gnocchi and freezing it for weeknight use, which is what we did with the left over half of the batch that we did not cook up.

Spuds

Potatoes. That was the starch of choice for my family when I was growing up. Sure, rice and pasta were served once a week for variety, but your daily carbs were from spuds. Mashed, boiled, baked, as fries, in stews and casseroles, or however else you could dream of serving them. I get many fewer potatoes now that I live in a Chinese-American household. So, for the Blue Plate Special this week, I am making potato gnocchi.

Gnocchi was not a part of my childhood diet, but I love them anyway. The really good ones are light and fluffy; the love-child of penne and mashed potato. MMMM...

For tonight's adventure, I am using a recipe from Lidia's Italian Table by Lidia Bastianich, that doyenne of Italian-American cuisine. Here it is:

3 large Idaho/baking potatos (about 1 3/4 lbs)
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
pinch nutmeg
1/4 c grated parmagiano-reggiano
2 c flour as needed

To prepare for tonight's gnocchi making, last night I baked the potatoes and then peeled and grated them. Tonight I will make the gnocchi dough basically using the same method as pasta making - mound up the spuds, make a well and add the wet ingredients in the middle. Add flour as you knead until the dough is the right consistency. Then shape the gnocchi and cook.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly...

As usual, I didn't get as much crafting done over the weekend as I would have liked. But I did make some good progress on a few of the projects I outlined on Friday and not so good progress on others.

The Good
My maxi dress is ready to be cut out. I just have to spend a little time laying it out so that the pattern falls attractively.


And this tank top is also ready to be cut from a slinky black jersey from my stash.

The front pattern piece looked rather large once I cut it out, so we will have to see how it goes. I am not a good judge with knits since my experience so far is pretty limited.

The Bad
My final piece of pattern prep work was for Magenta's pants. Unfortunately, that did not go very well. I was a very inexperienced sewist when we decided to make her pants. And the patter that I made from her pants has several major flaws. This project really is one step forward, two back.

Also, my "Editing" didn't go so well. I thought that the pants and capris that I wanted to alter would be a cinch. But neither worked out quite as easily as I thought, so I have some finessing to do.

The UGLY
I did sew the button holes onto Phin's too snug shirt. Buttons will be added in front of the tv during the week and then I will post a photo or two. Why ugly? Mostly because the project just irritates me. In addition to the shirt being snug, I've decided that the fabric is cheap. I got it on sale, so it was actually cheap. But it just doesn't feel great and the fabric looks like it has little pulls where I sewed the button holes.

Finally, I am trying to do a spring/summer cleaning and get rid of clothing, books and all kinds of things that I just don't need/want. One thing I don't know what to do with is the growing bag of scraps that I've accumulate thru sewing. The scraps aren't really big enough for other projects or to use as rags, and I don't know if I can find a purpose for them. Any suggestions?

Weekend Crafting: So many projects, so little time!

I am trying to psych myself up for a weekend of craftiness. I'm not sure how far I will get, but here are the projects/tasks that I have to choose from (in no particular order).

1. Maxi dress - trace/cut pattern and lay out pattern on fabric.
   
2. Tank top - trace/cut pattern and lay out. I've had this in my to do pile for a while. I've been wanting to work with more knits and it would be good to have a TNT tank top pattern that I could add different kinds of embellishments to. I plan on making pattern D (worn by the girl on the cover) in black jersey
3. Summer Pants for Magenta - true the pattern that I made last year and prep fabric
4. Phineas' shirt - buttons and buttonholes. It is going to be snug on him. But since he has decided that he is going to trim down a bit, it may fit very soon. Anyway, at least it will be out of the "to do" pile
   
5. New pants sloper - At some point this weekend, I have to have Phineas take careful measurements of me so that I can get to work on a new pants pattern. I bought a roll of enormous graph paper for the job. And, once I get a good pants pattern, I have any number of great fabrics to turn into pants for myself.
6. "Editing" - The pile of clothing that needs alterations has overtaken the rocking chair in the corner of my bedroom. Time to deal with it!
   

For most of my sewing "career", I've worked on one project at a time. But lately, I've been trying to have several projects in the works simultaneously. That way, I can group my tasks for maximum efficiency (ie. trace multiple patterns at once, cut several projects in one session, etc) and also, if I get stuck or frustrated on one project, I can work on another until I am ready to return to the first. The goal for this weekend is to get these projects started so that I will have things to work on over the next few weeks.