Recipes and Invisible Zip Triumph!

Here are the recipes and/or recipe sources, ladies! I hope you enjoy them if you make them. One might ask why I would make homemade candy/candy bars but the answer is simple. My son has a severe peanut allergy and I vowed several years ago he would not miss out on life's little pleasures. Including candy bars. Although some people look at food allergies as a negative (especially since they can be deadly), I want my son to view the positives of it. And fresh, homemade candy is definitely a delight.

Caramel corn. I use the Jolly Time recipe found at this link: http://www.backofthebox.com/recipes/candies/baked-caramel-corn-g.html

Craisin clusters. Melted chocolate melted with your method of choice. I bought a tempering machine years ago but when I need things quick I don't use it. Simply craisins (or raisins) mixed with chocolate and poured into molds.

3 Musketeers. The nougat/candy bar recipe is found inTodd Wilbur's book, More Top Secret Recipes. I was going to post it but remembered about those copyright laws... One caveat to this recipe. A candy thermometer and heavy duty stand mixer are a needed for the nougat.

If I'm making Milky Ways, I have made my own caramel. However, this time I used the Kraft caramels. Where did I ever get my caramel recipe? I can't remember it's been so long. However, I do know it's such a simple recipe, maybe four or five ingredients? But a candy thermometer is an absolute necessity.

Chocolate covered pretzels. The no brainer. Either I buy the small pretzels and dip them or crush up big ones and mix them with chocolate if I'm pressed for time which I was.

The fudge will wait until next weekend, but this is my fave fudge recipe:

Nestle Holiday Fudge:

2 Tb. butter
2/3 cp undiluted evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups (4 oz.) mini marshmallows
2 cups (12 oz pkg) milk chocolate, semisweet, mint, (whatever!) morsels/chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine butter, evaporated milk, sugar and salt in medium, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Stir in marshmallows, morsels/choc. chips, and vanilla. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into foil-lined 8" square baking pan; chill until firm. Cut int 1 1/2" squares.

As for the truffles? I bought the heavy cream but didn't make them. When I do, I'll post the recipe. That's in my book library downstairs. I always seem to forget there's only so much junk food one can make and eat in a week!

Now, about my invisible zipper triumph! I am elated to tell the world I finally found out what was wrong and caused me so much grief and aggravation doing invisible zips.

Way back when I went to my dealer to buy an invisible zipper foot for my Janome Memorycraft 3000. They sold me the generic, plastic foot which I now know is designed for YKK invisible zippers. Almost every time I'd do an invisible zip on something other than a lightweight, thin fabric, the time and grief spent on doing them wasn't worth the effort. I'd get broken zippers, crummy zippers, anything but a nice invisible zip. It made me wonder why people loved doing them so much.

This past week I tried again on my wool mini. And yet again I ended up with a jammed, broken zipper. In fact, I even started a thread on invisible zippers and why they disgust me found at this link on Patternreview:

http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/sewingclasses/board.pl?t=28354

Well, well, well! A big problem is that I've always bought Coats and Clark invisible zippers. They simply do not work very well with the generic plastic foot which is actually designed for YKK zippers. Yesterday I went to Walmart and bought one more C&C invisible zipper, and just by chance looked up and saw the Coats&Clark invisible zipper foot. Another plastic foot, but I bought it anyway. Let me tell you, this C&C foot which is specifically designed for C&C invisible zips make all the the difference in the world!!! It is absolutely amazing what the right foot can do. No wonder I had so many problems.

So now I feel prepared! In my stash are two invisible zipper feet for the two different types of invisible zips--C&C and YKK. I feel like a liberated woman! Just goes to show you if you want to get the job done you need the right tools.

...So here it is, Saturday night. Did I get my sewing goals done for the week? 2 out of 3 ain't bad. The black leather skirt is 98% done, the wool skirt is 90% done. Unfortunately, the dress didn't get cut out. But that's okay. It's a holiday weekend too :) .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Update: Couldn't make the fudge. This is the second time in a year that I've opened up a can of Carnation evaporated milk and it was bad. Usually I have lots of it, but that was the last can in my cupboard today. It was like yellow water, not off-white milk. Yuck, it got tossed. I'll make the fudge this weekend. One of my weaknesses is coffee and fudge. Mmmm...that is such a delicious pair!

However, below are pics of some of the candy in progress:

Boiling the syrup for the nougat.

Craisin clusters and chocolate pretzel drops.

Nougat and caramel corn.

3 Musketeers ready for cutting--white chocolate on one side, milk chocolate on the bottom

The finished baskets--some homemade, some store bought.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It is likely I will not get much sewing done because I will be up to my ears in chocolate!!! My sewing update is that I'm almost finished with my leather skirt, almost finished with my wool skirt except for the zipper, and still have to cut out my mini dress. It is good progress.

So my activities today will be making lots of chocolate goodies for the Valentine baskets for my kids. On my list of goodies to make today:

Caramel corn
Chocolate covered pretzels
3 Musketeers
Fudge
Raisin clusters
Chocolate covered caramels
Chocolate/Rice Krispy drops
and if I get the chance--Truffles

And I better get started now!

Quick update

My green wool skirt is already stitched up, except for the invisible zip. I started a thread on Patternreview about why invisible zips disgust me, but perhaps my problems are due to the fact that I'm using a Coats&Clark zipper on the generic invisible zipper foot that is designed for the YKK ones. So today I'm ordering some YKK invisible zips and hoping the experience will be a bit more pleasant.

The skirt needs to be lined so I washed and dryed the lining yesterday. Today it will get a good press and since it looks to be bad weather tonight here in the Poconos with freezing rain and snow, maybe it can actually be cut out tonight.

One thing that is great about the skirt--the pattern is TNT. What a time saver and it's quick sewing too. The skirt was actually long, somewhat fitted, and had godets, but I cut to the part just above the godets, added a hem, and now it will be a mini skirt.

On my leather mini, I unstitched the side seams for the lining. It will need another long strip of lining fabric just like the leather did, so maybe that will get cut out today too. Once the lining issue is taken care of, everything else should be quick to get this done.

Lately, I'm trying to be fearless. For too long I've been looking at my stash, especially my more expensive wools from NYC, and just dreaming about what they could be. I'm actually cutting into them and making garments and it feels GOOD! Just like the leather mini. It's been sitting around while I'm thinking, "What if I screw it up?" And what if I do? (Which I won't ;) !) The leather can be used for something else. Somebody has the tagline at Patternreview which goes something like this, "Feel the fear and do it anyway." That's what I'm doing. Expensive fabrics seem to bring out that fear. But really, what is there to lose. It's not a life, just an expensive piece of fabric. Gotta keep it all in perspective.

The Reconstruction Period

And I'm not talking US History either. It's my leather skirt. I was SO proud of this mini skirt back in high school. Bought it when I was a Senior and felt so hip in it when wearing it.

Fast forward 24 years...my sister just gave the skirt back to me. I gave it to her once I started having kids, but she feels she'll won't be able to wear it. We both have to be at our skinniest to wear it. A couple weeks ago I previewed my retro Simplicity jacket and was wearing the skirt. I was really smiling in the pic because I felt like one of those pattern models. Everything looks good in the front, but don't look at the back LOL. My zipper wasn't zipped up ;) !

The skirt is such a nice length and is still such a nice wardrobe piece that I just can't part with it now, but it needed updating. I started deconstruction of the skirt so it could be reconstructed to my age 40-something size. It's great doing that and seeing what RTW manufacturers do in making their garments. The waistband was removed and I found a nice, stiff piece of hair canvas used for interfacing. Lots of glue too. Ribbon was used to secure the free-hanging lining to the side seams of the leather skirt. Last night I seam ripped the side seams and cut the waistband in half lengthwise. I'm using those waistband strips to create a narrow leather (about 1") insert strips down the side seam for some extra width. I really don't need the width at the bottom, just from the hipline up to the waist, but it seems like it will work out fine. There was a enough time last night to attach the side seam strips to the original back seamline. Today I will attach the other lengthwise strip to the front side seam. Tomorrow I'm hoping to work on adding some width to the lining. Here's a pic of the skirt in progress right now. On the left side you can see the waistband strip connected to the skirt back. The other side is the same. Just that little extra strip on both sides should help me get another 20 years out of this skirt :) .

Next Sunday's church outfit will be this black leather mini, my patterned lace hose with black heels and my new green wool short swing coat that I finished yesterday. The mini is actually long enough to look elegant and not sleazy so that should be okay for church.

I also plan on whipping up a matching skirt for my green wool swing coat. There seems to be enough fabric left and I have a great TNT pattern to use with it. Once I get that done, I've decided I'm going to need a black blazer. Slowly my dressy wardrobe for my go nowhere lifestyle is becoming more coordinated. And, of course, I need to make one more winter coat before focusing on spring dresses.

Oh...to many things to do, too little time. Focus! Must focus. So, my plans for the week are finishing the leather mini, cutting out and sewing up my green wool skirt, and cutting out my baby blue mini dress. These are my goals for the week.

Tomorrow I will write about a great book that I intend to review over at Patternreview. The inspiration for this book purchase was a comment/terrific idea in one of my garment reviews by Phyllis, one of the Sewing Divas.

Servicing your machine(s)

I was posting today in a thread over at Patternreview and the topic of servicing machines came up. I thought this was very interesting because there seem to be different views on maintenance. So my question is, do you service your machine yourself? What do you do with it? Or do you take it to the dealer for servicing.

I have a Janome Memorycraft 3000 sewing machine, one of Janome's low-end electronic machines. It does everything I want it to do, but the dealer (a big shout-out for Pocono Sew and Vac) www.poconosewandvac.com said not to oil it. It should never need oiling. Same with my Janome 300E embroidery machine. However, I know a few people have highly recommend oiling the 300E. My Pfaff serger, ancient by today's standards, is a 1991 or 1992 mechanical Hobbylock. Great machine, but it does need to be oiled and the manual is very specific about it.

The issue came up about teaching a prospective sewing student about oiling/preventative maintenance on their machine. I hesitate to make recommendations for specific machines and personally like to bring my machines in for servicing on a regular basis. I would recommend this to anyone, especially ones using an older machine that hasn't been used in a while. It just seems like common sense to me. One wouldn't learn how to drive on a car that hasn't been started in several years, would they? Why would someone want to learn how to sew on a machine that hasn't been serviced in what seems like forever. I would like to give sewing lessons. Not lessons in sewing aggravation. Starting on a new or newly serviced machine is what I would insist on for any student. And I would want proof (for an old machine) from my dealer that it has been serviced as they are the only dealer in our area that meets my high standards for quality and dependable service. They will let a customer know if it's not really worth it. They're not pushy, rather they state the facts and let the customer decide what to do.

There are the simple things every user should know like vacuuming/pipe cleaning lint and flossing thread tensions. But beyond that, I hesitate to make recommendations for things like oiling. Different manufacturers recommend different things and I'd like my students to hear what needs to be done from a reputable dealer.

If anyone thinks differently, I like to hear about it and why. If you teach sewing classes, what do you include about machine maintenance?

Another Winter Coat

Well, almost. It's just about done, but it hasn't been without a few problems along the way. Everything was going fine and although the jacket was supposed to be unlined as per the pattern, I decided to line it. I should have gone with a full, self-drafted lining, but used the stitch and flip method. Not having done this in a while, I encountered a problem when I was hemming. I tried on the jacket after it was hemmed and it was pulling in a really weird way in the back. Ugh! I hate that. I knew there were lining issues at that point. This is probably the one thing I don't like about the SNF technique. I usually don't use this technique and would have to make a jacket a few more times to work out the kinks to avoid this from happening in the future. And with that back pleat, IMO the jacket wasn't designed to be SNF'd anyway. I should have just spent about a 1/2 hour more developing a full lining piece on the front.

So, in the end, I ended up with a partial lining in the back. Because of the annoying pulling, I cut out the bottom of it up to the top of the pleat and finished the edges. It's not the prettiest interior close up, but from about 3 feet away it looks just fine ;) . The outside of it looks really nice though. Tomorrow I will do the buttonholes and buttons. After that, I'll tack down the front facings and be done with it.

There *IS* leftover fabric too :) ! I think there's enough for a self-drafted panel mini skirt with a contoured waistband. That's lucky. It will give me another wardrobe option. I'm still working on restyling my leather mini skirt from my high school days to wear with this jacket, but a matching skirt would like quite classy IMO. Hopefully I can post a couple pics or get a review done in a few days.

Home Stretch.

I am finally getting over the grave disappointment over a very poor judgement error by one of my children. Today I will be finishing up a list of "corrective actions" that will be taken over the next 12 months. It is really a big question mark in my brain how such an intellectually intelligent person can have a huge momentary lapse in judgement, however, we all make mistakes. Some big, some small, and we do get over them. Everyone has to take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences of one's behavior.

Moving on to jacket thoughts...I'm headed down home stretch with McCall's 5276, pictured below. The collar and facings are done, the sleeves have been lined and they're ready to insert into the jacket. Here's the jacket so far, although I still have to give it a good steam press today. The buttons (I love these buttons!) are simply placed on the fabric to get a better idea how the jacket front will look when done. The buttons are edged with a gold finish and have an abalone-like face. So unique! The kind of buttons one usually does not find in mall-store RTW. One thing I've noticed thus far with View C (the yellow illustration on the pattern cover) is that my collar is not nearly as big as the illustration. That's fine by me, just an observation at this point though.

When I was tissue-fitting the jacket, I was mulling over the addition to length. I decided on +1 1/4 inches, but now wish I would have left it at 2". It's still fine, and really, those short jackets are in so all is still well. The length is merely my personal preference. And what is really funny about these jackets lately is the proportion. The patterns are designed for a 5'6" pattern model and I'm about 5'7" with a very short waist. My height comes from my long legs, not my torso. Some of my jackets lately have been lengthened by as much as 3 inches to give me, what I perceive, a proper proportion. McCall's 5007, was one of those jacket patterns needing the 3". The hemline would have been virtually at my waist had I not added that length, and the pattern illustration for 5007 does not show the hemline at the waist either. It looks to me like it's about 3" below the waist in the pattern illustration. Here's the Patternreview link for my review on my most recent jacket from that pattern, with links to two others I made in that review.:

http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=21238

So I've been really checking the length of these patterns lately. They seem to be running overly short and I don't know why. Maybe it's a McCall's thing? We'll see. I think the next jacket I'm making is going to be a Burda that I purchased in October.

One thing for sure--I'm so glad to be using up some of my Pattern Review Weekend wools from 2006 and 2007.