Freezing Blueberries

Mmmmm...blueberries. I love them. They are so delicious and so good for you all at the same time! But man, are they expensive. That is, unless you can score them during the couple of times of year that they actually go on sale.

I got this giant 5 pound box at City Market last week for $8.88! That's $1.78/lb!



I made blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, ate a bunch fresh, and still had a whole bunch left over. That's when I decided to freeze them. The best way is to freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, then put them in a container.

First, wash them and drain them pretty well. Any water leftover on them will just freeze them together and to your pan. Then spread them out in a single layer on any type of pan with sides. Sides are important.

Let them freeze for at least an hour. You want to them freeze individually so that when you put them into a container and put them back in the freezer, you don't end up with a brick of blueberries. You'll probably have to use a spatula to free them from the pan, unless they were completely dry to begin with.

Put them in some type of container. I used a freezer bag, but any kind of container would work just fine.

Now you have them ready for anything! I like to use them frozen in smoothies or thaw them out for pancakes or muffins. And here's my tip for putting them in pancakes. Instead of adding them to the batter, drop them on top right after you've ladled the batter onto the griddle. Delicious!

Chenille Burp Cloths

I have four kids and have used a lot of burp cloths. My boy, Jack, was especially good at spitting up. I think that makes me an authority on the subject and I will say that these really are the best. They're cute, absorbant, and soft. And they don't look like an attempt to disguise a cloth diaper.

Materials needed:

-Cotton print fabric of your choice. The remnant bins are especially good for this.

-White flannel for the middle layer. I've used whatever leftover flannel I've had and it works fine, but it can sometimes show up through your top layer if you have a light print. I like to use the plain white for this purpose.

-Cotton chenille. You can find it with all the other baby soft fabrics, like minkee. It can be pretty spendy, like $12/yd, so try to buy it on sale or with a coupon. I have found it at both Walmart and JoAnn, but prefer the stuff from JoAnn because it is softer.

The rest is super easy. Cut one 11" x 18" rectangle out of each fabric, the cotton print, the flannel, and the chenille. If your print has a pattern with a definite up or down, be sure to pay attention to that.

Lay out your flannel layer first and smooth it out. Then put your chenille down, right side up. Then put your print on top, right side down. This is really important! You want what will be the front and back of the burp cloth facing each other. Smooth everything out and pin the heck out of it to hold it all in place.

Sew with a 1/2" seam allowance. We're going to sew most of the way around, but we need to leave an opening for turning. I start on the short side, a few inches away from the bottom corner. Sew all the way around, turning corners as you go, until you get back to the same short side that you started with. Sew a few inches down that side and then stop, leaving a hole for turning.

I seem to NEVER remember to take pics while I am actually working on the project, so here's a little illustration of how to sew to leave the hole open.

Clip straight across each corner, being careful to not cut any of the stitching. This will help the corner turn easier and look better. I use my seam ripper to gently pull the corners out nice and neat. The last thing is to just top stitch all the way around, which is going to close the hole. Before you start sewing, fold the hole in so that it matches the rest and pin the hole shut. I start sewing at the top of that hole and just work my way all around. Use an 1/8" seam allowance.

If I am giving them as a gift or selling them in my shop, I either use two of the same fabric like in the picture, or I'll use two coordinating fabric. Then I tie them together with a ribbon to make it pretty.

I'm on vacation!

I have a few new readers, so I wanted to make sure that I don't lose any of you! I'm on vacation in Dallas and will be here for another week or so.

P.S. It is fricking hot here!

Shirred Sundress

This is my neice, Whiteney. Isn't she cute? I am glad she was willing to be my model because my own kids are spending a couple of weeks at their grandparents' house and I just couldn't wait that long. The dress is for my neighbor who just turned four. Nevermind that her birthday was last month and this is really late. Better late than never, I always say.

So to preface, this dress is very basic. It is a rectangle with shirring on the top. Then the sleeves are rectangles with elastic thread sewn down each side to make it gather. I read tutorial after tutorial about how to do the shirring and it seemed easy enough. Just hand wind the elastic thread onto the bobbin and sew at a regular stitch and regular tension. I tried that but it didn't work. I tried machine winding the bobbin. I tried messing with the stitch length and the tension and nothing worked. The bobbin thread was always super loose and it didn't tighten up. Then after reading the comments on one blog (I'm sorry, I don't remember which one it was!), I found out that apparently, you can't shir with a Brother machine, which is, of course, what I have. So I went to my mom's to use her old trusty Elgin and it worked like a charm. So all of my future shirring will be done at my mom's house. It's a good thing she lives close because I am in love with shirring.

Here's the how-to. Cut a basic rectangle. You'll need it to be double the circumference of the subject's chest and however long you want it to be, plus about an inch for hemming. Since I was trying for a size 4, I just used the whole width of the fabric, minus the selvage edge. I can't remember how long I made it. You'll also need two rectangles for the sleeves. I believe mine are 12 x 4 inches.







Now on the sides of the dress, place the right sides together and sew up the length of the dress. I used my serger, but if you don't have one, then you'll want to finished the edges somehow. One way is to sew your seam allowance with a straight stitch and then zigzag close to the edge to finish it. Or use an over locking stitch.

Once you have it sewn into a tube, hem the top and the bottom edges all the way around. I just use a rolled hem and eyeball it.





Hem both long sides of both sleeves. Then finish the short raw edge. I serged mine, but zigzagging would work, or you could do another rolled hem.






I don't have any pictures of the shirring, but here's a basic run down.

1. You need elastic thread. My shopping options are Walmart and a local quilting store. I was able to find it with the notions at the quilting store.

2. Hand wind the elastic thread onto the bobbin, making sure not to stretch it at all. Use whatever matching thread you want on top.

3. Turn your fabric right side up and start sewing your lines. I started pretty close to the top of the dress. Backstitch a couple of times to secure it and then sew all the around, stopping in the same spot that you started. Be sure that your elastic thread in on the wrong side of the fabric, underneath.

4. I used my pressure foot as a guide on how far apart to make the lines, so they were about 1/2" apart. I made 10 rows. Your first row should be gathered, but it won't look like it's gathered nearly enough. Keep going. The more rows you get, the more tightly it gathers.

5. Once you get all of your lines done, mist the shirred part with water and watch it shrink up. It is really cool!


After you've gotten the dress body done, turn your sleeves right side up and sew along each long side to gather them up. I sewed about 1/4" in to give it a little ruffle on the edge. Then mist them with water to shrink them up.


Now you'll need to sew them on. I eyeballed where they needed to go because I didn't have a model to test it on. I made my back straps a little closer together than the front and I think I like it that way.









Don't stretch the fabric out where the straps are going to attach. Pin them on and sew into place. Be sure to back stitch a few times on each edge to make them nice and secure.

And there you have it! One adorable little sundress. And one adorable little Whitney.

Epic Fail

I love smores and I love cupcakes. I had a church pot luck to go to on Saturday and needed to bring a dessert. I thought I'd make Sumo's Sweet Stuff's Smores Cupcakes. They look delicious and fun, and we've already established that I like the "wow" factor. Well, they sucked. I don't know what I did wrong because they just melted in my oven and made a mess. I do know that my brownie batter wasn't nearly as runny as hers, so maybe that affected it somehow. Who knows. I think I'll just stick to cupcakes and smores all on their own for now.

It's Crunch Time!

I am a procrastinator. I alway have been and I don't see that changing anytime in the near future! I have a craft fair coming up on Saturday that has been on my books for months and I am just NOW (well, starting last week) getting sewing for it. My office/sewing room looks like it threw up fabric, but on a positve note, I am cleaning out my fabric stash so that I can feel better about buying more when this is over.

I'm making ring slings, bibs, appliqued tie onesies and maybe some hairbows if I don't run out of time. Stay tuned for a tutorial or two.

Mod Podge Memo Board

I found this memo board probably three years ago at Joann's.

Want to know the best part?

Today was Saturday and with my husband working, which is usual these days, I needed a project to do.

I started by cutting my fabric into strips. I didn't get a pictures, but using a rotary cutter makes nice straight pieces.

Then, I applied Mod Podge in sections. I started doing about a foot at a time and realized that it was better to do it a little bit at a time, like maybe six inch sections.

For the corners, I just used sissors and cut it off at an angle. Eye-balling it worked just fine.

I made sure to keep the fabric even on both sides so that I could wrap it to the inside edge of the frame. Does that make sense? Do that same thing all the way around and down the front strip and that's it!

Now I need to find a place to hang it.

And, yes, that is pink carpet.