T-Shirt Embellished with Fabric Flowers

I have a ton of these T-shirts.  They come in a rainbow of colors, they’re super soft and they’re cheap.  However, they’re quite plain.  So I’ve started embellishing some of them.  I freezer paper stenciled a dark blue one and I added flowers this one.

I started with two grey T’s.

I cut the long-sleeved one into 2” strips.  Then I ran a basting stitch up the middle of each strip and gently pulled one thread to gather the fabric.  Check out this gathering tutorial for help.

I hand sewed the gathered strips to a scrap of knit in a spiral shape to form rosettes. Then I trimmed the the edges of the fabric scrap around the flower.

I noticed that one side of the gathered strip automatically ruffled up better than the other so play around with it a little before your start sewing.

Once the flowers were constructed, I hand stitched them onto my T-shirt.

Grape Jelly

Last week we picked two large bowls full of grapes at my boyfriend’s grandma’s.  I made juice out of some of them and jelly out of the rest. 

I’ll be honest, I’ve never liked grape jelly.  The commercially produced, neon purple variety always seemed flavorless to me.  However, these grapes made jelly that is both sweet and tart and highly flavorful. 

I simply followed the directions on the pectin box and within 30 minutes I had a dozen jars of jelly.

Fall Fabric Sale and Columbia Freebies

Okay, so it’s not really “fall” fabric but it was on sale and it is officially fall here in Portland.  I spotted these lovely prints at Craft Warehouse and, at less than 3 bucks a yard, I couldn’t resist. 

These two most likely will end up as skirts next spring.

This is going to be a baby present including burp cloths, pacifier clips and a receiving blanket.

Oh how I love these guitars.  I actually purchased the brighter lime green, grey and turquoise version a few months ago and made it into burp cloths for a friend of mine.  However, all evidence of those, and the matching onesies, was destroyed in the techpocalypse.  So, maybe these new guitars will make a little one happy or maybe they will find a new use.

A few days ago my boyfriend came home from work with a stack of fabric samples from Columbia Sportswear.  He got it for free at work.  Apparently they have piles of it up for grabs all of the time.  What?!  How is it that I’m just now hearing about this?

It’s mostly woven cotton with some tech (the ultra breathable stuff) fabric and knit thrown in.  Each piece is about 1/4 yard.

Then there is this piece of breathable, waterproof fabric used for making jackets.

So what should I do with all of these? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. 

Game Day Asian Chicken Wings

I don’t know about you, but at our house fall weekends are dedicated to watching football.  This means, at least according to my boyfriend, wings. In fact I have been blamed for our team losing because I made something else and broke tradition. 

Ingredients

30-36 wings, thawed and patted dry

1 shallot or small onion, coarsely chopped

1 jalapeño, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 large clove garlic

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 tbs. fish sauce (optional)

2 limes, juice and zest

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. chili flakes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450.

Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Spray with non-stick spray.

Place chicken in a large bowl.  Using a food processor, blend the rest of the  ingredients to form a thick sauce.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and mix with your hands until all of the chicken is coated.  Arrange the chicken on the cookie sheet and pour the remaining sauce over the top.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Flip each wing over.  Bake another 15-20 minutes until wings are browned and sauce has thickened.

Sparkly Pink Necklace

I’ve seen a few versions of dangly necklaces like this in stores and online.  It took less than 10 minutes to make.  I used beads that I had on hand from a necklace that I took apart a few months ago.  Quick and practically free!

Supplies: Enough chain to go around your neck plus a small length of chain (6-7 links), 5 head pins, jump rings, 5 coordinated beads, clasp, round nose pliers and regular pliers with a cutter.  I also used 5 seed beads because the holes in the main beads were so big that the head pins slid right through them.

1. Slide a seed bead (if needed) and a regular bead onto a head pin. Cut the head pin off 1/2” from the bead.

2. Hold the end of the head pin with the round nosed pliers.  Hold onto the bead with the other set of pliers, being careful not to scratch or break it.  Rotate the round nosed pliers, wrapping the wire around one side of them to form a loop. Keep rotating until the loop meets the bead.

Repeat with all 5 beads.

3. Open a jump ring and thread it through the last link on the small chain.  Add the largest bead and close the jump ring.

Open another jump ring, thread it through the next link in the chain, add a bead and close the jump ring. Repeat for the rest of the beads.

4. Cut off any links that do not have a bead on them. Open a jump ring and place it through the link with the last bead on it.  Find the middle of the long length of chain and add it to the jump ring with the last bead. Close it.

5. Add the clasp and you’re done!