My Obsession with Gluten-Free Cookies, or I'VE COME UNGLUTENED

I have a problem. I can't stop making gluten-free cookies from my friend MiaHalf's recipe's here. They are ridiculously freakin good to eat.

This is a problem for the following reason:

It's easy to convince myself they are healthy since they contain no wheat or white sugar, and are rich in nuts and fruits. They still contain sugar in the form of molasses or honey. Probably more than I should be ingesting when I convince myself that these cookies constitute a meal.

Unfortunately, I also have several friends and co-workers who don't or can't eat wheat due to allergies or disease or just diet choice, so I tell myself I'm doing something nice for them. However, I usually eat most of the cookies myself.

The ones pictured above were a slight variation on the apricot almond cookies, using dates instead of apricots. These were my boyfriend's favourite.



My favourite are these molasses macaroons. My last batch burnt a little :( They are not as sweet as normal cookies, and the bonus is that they have nutritional value (other than just sugar). This results in them actually making you feel full, so there's no chance you'll eat a whole bag of them and still feel hungry. Their affects on my figure remain to be seen...

Haramaki and Underwear Galore!

Today, I spent the day sewing like crazy! I made the above 3 pairs of panties from old T-shirts (the two Spiderman pairs were from a single shirt). The old Tinkerbell shirt I have had for years, and it has been a part of so many different projects... I'm not sure how long these underwear will last, but there are so many memories associated with this shirt that I just couldn't help myself. Some detail on the Tinkerbell are below:

She's just a little bit faded...

I also took the White Queen costume from last week, and made the bottom into a little slip. It was the only part of the original costume that really fit me well - I'm happy with how it turned out! I just cut the original slip, folded the fabric over some elastic and sewed the whole thing together with a zig-zag stitch. Voila! Insta-slip!


I also made an old black T-shirt into a tank top (straps yet to be added). When I make tank tops, I like to buy the adjustable bra-type straps to use (or just scavenge from old bras). It always seems to me that tank top straps always stretch, and I hate that, so this is my way of avoiding that.

And, the piece de resistance of the day is my new haramaki! What is a haramaki you ask? A haramaki is a piece of japanese fashion that has been around since the time of the samurai. It's basically a belly warmer - a tube of fabric that covers your mid-section from your hips to your ribs. I fell in love with the idea a while ago, and let me tell you why:

I'm tall. At 5'8", I'm not exceptionally large, but most of my height is in my midsection. As a result, shirts are pretty much never long enough for me. Add to that the fact that I don't like the waist of my pants to be too high, and I am pretty much constantly showing off a circle of flesh around my midsection. Not too pretty, especially from the rear...

Enter the haramaki. It can be worn under the clothes so that if ever that area between the shirt and the pants peek through, all that shows is a little pop of colour. It can be worn over the clothes as a focal point. They are wonderful for those expecting, because they will cover the part of the body left exposed by ill-fitting T-shirts.

I really love the colours of this one I made - reversible yellow and orange. Both colours come from old T-shirts, and I love the way they look together. Makes me want to eat citrus...

Wool Coat is Complete!

Yay! I finally finished my coat... now that the weather's warming up in Vancouver :)

This is the first big project I have completed in a while, and I am very happy with how it turned out. This is also the first coat I have ever made!


My favourite part about this coat has to be the buttons. They caused me some grief as the buttons I had originally bought didn't go that well with the leather - but then I found these vintage faux wood numbers at Button Button and fell in love! The only problem was that the buttonhole attachment for my sewing machine didn't make buttonholes large enough for my buttons to fit through... there are fancy buttonholes with no stitching showing (not sure what these are called any more...), but they take a lot of time and I don't think they would work with such thick fabric. So, I just put my machine on a zig-zag stitch and did them manually:


To say the truth, I think I prefer this to the machine made ones, as I have more control. My machine is probably older than I am, an I have never been fond of the buttonhole attachment.

I also had a moment of panic when I tried on the coat after putting on the buttons and had a thought that I looked like a clown... No idea where it came from, but after I saw it, it wouldn't go away. I asked my boyfriend, and he unwisely agreed with me, so I had to continue to panic until his sister came over and assured me that the buttons looked great. I now love them again!


Other than that, I pretty much followed the pattern. There are lovely hidden pockets in the front seams, and I'm really happy with the cream coloured lining. I wound up adding an extra line of stitching to make the collar sit right. I have a horrible time remembering which side to sew the upper collar to, and which side to sew the under collar to, and I seem to get it wrong every time - this was no exception. Unfortunately, you can't re-sew leather without destroying its integrity, and so the collar remained upside down. This may have something to do with it sitting funny... Hopefully I won't make that mistake again, but it looks good the way it is.

I can't wait to wear it tomorrow!

Amazing Letterhead!!

I found the most amazing letter paper at the dollar store today! It's Korean, and I can't get over how ridiculous it is. Most of the paper is taken over by that amazing image. Here's a close-up of the detail at the top:


And here is a close-up of the little stickers that come with it.
My favourite is the happy little dear leaping in front of a rainbow in the upper right-hand corner. You can't read it in this image, but the text below it reads: "Don't Touch Me"!!!

White Queen and Adventures in Matching Plaid

On Friday, my friend had an Alice in Wonderland Dress Up "tea" (aka booze) party. I had just gotten back from Maui (that's right, you're jealous) and I thought I was going to have no time to throw together a costume, but felt inspired at the last minute. So, I went out and bought a white slip and a ton of lace and made the following costume:

I can't believe how well it turned out considering how last minute it was. (See the real White Queen here) The only serious downside was that the wonderful tan I picked up on vacation really didn't help the costume. In fact, I think that with the blonde wig it made me look more like a drag queen than anything. Also, white is not my colour.

I also had to throw together a costume for my boyfriend at the last minute. I was inspired by this post I found through the Craft Magazine blog while at work, and so I "Recycled" a couple of filing folders into a Dormouse mask. It took 15 minutes to make!

He looked so adorable with it on, too.

I also have had some time to work on my wool coat, and I love how it's turning out. I bought all the fabric they had left on the roll, and boy am I glad there was 0.6 meters more than I needed. Plaid that big is a BITCH to match. I double checked the match before I cut anything out. A good thing too, because I caught some mistakes. I also had to re-do so many seams because the plaid was just a little too much off.

I learned something while cutting out the fabric. I have a new rotary cutter and self-healing mat (so nice!) that I was using to cut out the pattern, and I learned the hard way that rotary cutters do not work well on pattern paper! It does not cut with a soft background like fabric, it TEARS! Cut out the pieces to fit you before placing them on the fabric!!

Sadly, I finally cut into my lovely leather coat to make the collar. I like how it matches, but I think I need to add some stitching to make it sit right. I also had to go and buy new buttons to match with the leather, since the original ones didn't quite look right.

With a little luck, the coat should be finished in the next day or two. Now, I'm thinking I will have to make a matching wool-and-leather purse with the leftover fabric.

Coat and Olympics!

Yes folks, that time we've all been dreading has arrived. The Olympics have arrived in Vancouver! The torch just happened to be passing by a block from my apartment, so I thought I'd go check it out. My friend pointed out that I went to see the torch in Canada's most densely populated neighborhood - Kitsilano. I feel very Canadian.

With all the Olympic hype, it's been difficult to get into. I thought it would just be a pain, preventing me from getting to work, making everything expensive and low quality (which it is already doing. My lunch today was an olympic-sized pain in the ass), and just plain annoying. Then I thought: Well, they're coming, and I have to pay for it for years to come, so I'm going to enjoy as much free stuff as I can.

And so I shall. I saw the torch. And I will see it again tomorrow afternoon as it passes by my work. And I will watch the opening ceremonies on the computer, then go see Bedouin Soundclash for free at Science World (It is NOT the Telus World of Science!!). I will see Blue Rodeo. And Damien Marley. I will go see Canada House. I will cheer on our hockey team at the pub. Heck, I may actually enjoy all this Olympic stuff. when's the next time I'm going to experience it? I'm actually getting excited!!

To be honest this excitement has sort of come in the wake of some crafting excitement... I ordered my first pattern online, and I have been bouncing off the walls for a week and a half waiting for it to arrive. The first line out of my mouth when I call my boyfriend from work, or walk through the door has been "Did my pattern arrive??"

I felt like giving up hope when, yesterday, he calls me at work, so I ask the customary question, not expecting a positive response when, lo and behold, he said yes!!!

Boy, then I was really bouncing off the walls...

And so today I went to Dressew and picked out a nice wool blend plaid - brown and pink, with some cream lining. The fabric just jumped off the shelf at me, and there was JUST enough left on the roll for me. I tell you, it was fate...
The only negative to this fabric is that it is slightly scratchy. I had planned to make the coat all out of the fabric, and skip the accent collar and bow. However, after some poking and prodding from a friend more fashionable than I, it occurred to me that I should replace the collar to make it less itchy. And the leather from the coat I am replacing could be a good candidate. Here's the old, cheap leather coat that's starting to fall apart:
Now that I know I can sew leather with my machine, I was going to turn it into a purse, but I'm sure I could keep enough to make a collar, and maybe an accent belt out of it (no bow!). It's really nice, soft leather, and I bet it will be a dream to work with. I really hate having to say goodbye to this jacket, but I really shouldn't be wearing it, what with all the holes... You don't see them in the photo, but they're in the side, and back, and sleeve, and inside...

Adventures with sewing leather!

Today I had my first experiences sewing with leather!

I have an aging leather jacket that I bought at a vintage store that was closing down - for about $3, and I love it to pieces. It is a lovely golden shade of brown, and the leather is the softest I have ever touched. It is my go-to jacket for just about everything, but sadly it has started to collect rips. It was old when I got it, but it's getting to the point that I can't ignore it anymore.

And then the other day, a button fell off. Now, I could easily sew that button back on, but I have chosen to take this as a sign that it is time for that leather jacket to be put out of its misery. But, at the same time, I can't bear to let it go. I love that jacket so much, and so many parts of the leather are still good. So, I have decided to cut it up and make it into something new.

But, before I cut into my favorite jacket, I needed to find out if I could sew leather with my 30ish year old sewing machine. And so it was that I made my way down to Dressew to purchase a handful of small leather scraps for practice. Here are a few things I learned along the way:

-Dusting the plate, presser foot, and your work with baby powder makes things much easier. Seriously, it made a huge difference to how the leather slipped under the needle.

-Keep the stitch-length long. I was practically using a baste stitch. If the stitch is too short, the leather falls apart along the sewing line. Think perforated paper.

-I had to keep my speed up for the machine to have enough power to penetrate the leather. It needed the extra momentum I guess. This meant that any detailed areas or corners took a little extra effort, especially since the long stitch length meant the needle was moving extra fast. I have heard that you can lubricate the needle, either with commercial needle lubricant or, barring that, with whatever lotion you have lying around. I will try that next time.

-Buy a leather needle!!!

Other than that, my little project was fun, and done in a flash! I made a black and white leather cuff, attached with velcro and lined with fleece for comfort. It's very warm on my wrist... I'm thinking my jacket will probably become a nice new purse in the near future.