Lots of the crafts and things I do on here are very involved and takes ages to make… so here’s a very quick little thing that takes no time at all 😀
This isn’t really a tutorial (because I think everyone’s done these are some point or other) but you can hopefully get some ideas ^_^ I used the last of the super cute yarn that Vintage Grrlmade for me 😀
James and I have been obsessed with a TV show called Pushing Daisies. It’s pretty much the cutest thing ever. Well we finished the series (it was cancelled ater 2 seasons) and since seeing all of the delicious looking pies on the show (the main character owns a pie shop) I’ve had a bit of an obsession with making pies. When we first started dating I used to make apple pies all the time but then we got busy with work and it just wasn’t a priority.
But now I am a pie making machine and I’ve been trying all kinds of different flavours. So I figured I would show you how I start with the basics. I can’t remember where this recipe came from, it’s been in my recipe file for years and I think it came from a book my Grandma gave my Mum from the 1960’s. Anyway, here’s how I make apple pies!
What you need, ingredients:
4 apples
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
Lemon juice
1/3 cup plain flour
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Puff Pastry (I’m using store bought because I’m lazy but I’m sure it would taste much better with home made!)
What you need, utilities:
Mixing bowl
Spoon for mixing
Measuring cups
4x heart shaped silicon cake tins (obviously you can do it in something else XD)
First thing will be to wash and cut up your apples, remove all the skin and chop them into fairly small pieces. Set them to the side. Preheat your oven to around 190 Degrees Celsius.
In a mixing bowl put a couple of squirts of lemon juice.
Add in the white sugar…
And the brown sugar…
And the flour ^_^
Now add the Cinnamon, I use a lot (like maybe 2 teaspoons) because James loves it. I personally can’t stand cinnamon but there are so many other flavours in this that it’s tolerable ^_^
Next add a couple of shakes of Nutmeg, maybe 1/2 as much as the Cinnamon you put in.
Mix it all together!
Add in the apple pieces and mix it again. The apples should be coated in the sugary substance. It looks dry now but once the apples sit while you make the pastry cups it will go all liquidy and sticky from the apple’s juices.
Clean your pie moulds and if you’re making pastry from scratch do that now and roll it out.
If you’re using the frozen pastry then make sure it’s thawed.
Drape it over the mould and press in to place. Pleat the sides so you can cover the base properly:
You should have something like this:
Cut off the extra leaving around 1cm around the edges and pop in the filling!
I decided to be fancy and make lattice tops. This is achieved by weaving strips of pastry together. If you’re doing this then cut a bunch of 1cm strips of pastry and start by making an X with 2.
Build it slowly by adding 2 more in each direction, this way you can weave them all very easily without disturbing too much.
Continue until the whole thing is covered…
You should get something like this:
Cut off the extra and pinch around the edges to seal it…
Taaadaa!
Repeat with the rest of them!
Ok one more pie-cam-whoring photo because I spent so damn long making them XD
Now put them into the oven! After 20 minutes check on them and make sure nothing is on fire then leave for another 20 minutes.
When you’re already hungry this seems like hours though -_-‘
Once you can see liquid boiling through the tops and the pastry is golden they are ready! Woo!
Take them out and leave them to cool for a bit. I like to cool them on the bottom too so they don’t get soggy as I don’t have a cooling rack.
And that’s it! Enjoy and eat! James likes to add icecream but I don’t really like icecream so I eat them plain.
Super yummy 😀
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and do let me know if you give it a try! Would you guys like me to post other flavour variations I make too? Like with the different fruits?
It was requested a little while ago that I make a tutorial on how to make a felt case for an iphone or ipad touch. I made one of these for a Christmas present so it seemed like a good chance to show you what I did ^_^
These could be used for phone or little bags, hell make it bigger and you could use it as an evening handbag ^_^
To what you need:
Felt
Scissors
Needle and thread
Pearls
So get whatever you’re making a case for, in this case an iPhone, and use it as a measuring guide on your felt.
Fold the bottom up to make a casing:
Fold the top down so it hangs as far as you want the closure to go…
Trim the edges so there is around 2cm overhang on each side to allow for the seams.
Using a blanket stitch, go up the sides to secure the bottom flap :
Now blanket stitch the first 1cm of the top flap. This is just to form a base that the pearls will attach to while keeping the shape of the bag when it’s held by the strap.
Now let’s make a big flower for the front. Cut out a bunch of petals like this in varying sizes…
Starting with the biggest petals, pleat them a couple of times in the middle and then stitch through to hold it in place.
Repeat for all of them and you get something like this…
Now let’s start putting it all together! Stitch the first row of petals into a circle. I used 3 large and 3 medium:
Continue with another layer of less petals. You should place them so their points sit between the points of the layer beneath ^_^
Keep adding layers until you run out of petals!
Finish it by stitching a big pearl in the middle to hide the ugly parts. I only had blue felt at the time but it would be really pretty if you used a gradient of different colours for the petals.
Ok so let’s put it all together!
Stitch the flower on to the flap of the bag. I added a green leaf too.
You can hide the stitches with another piece of felt or a dedication to whoever you’re giving it to ^_^ When it’s opened up it looks like this:
Lastly stitch a string of pearls at the top to use as a strap. You can clip cute cell phone straps there or use it to clip into your handbag so you never have to search for your phone again ^_^
There you have it! These make really cute presents for people and you can customise them with different decorations on the flaps to match the person ^_^
Following on from the previous hair tutorial requests, I was asked to do a more formal updo that was still nice and Summery ^_^
This style doesn’t look good on me personally because of the gradient in my hair but it looks awesome in dark hair because it’s textured enough to show up without looking over the top.
What you need:
Brush
Hair spray
Hair ties
Hair spray or frizz serum
Firstly section your hair in two like this and tie the bottom one into a high pony tail:
Put the top section to the side and clip it for later. Now divide the ponytail into 3 sections as if you were going to plait it. Put two of the sections to the side and then divide the remaining one in half. This style is created by repeatedly tying those two pieces into loose knots then pinning. It gives much more rounded interesting sections than normal plaiting would so it can be good for a change.
The knots you should be using are pretty much square knots or the kind you would use to tie your shoe, an example can be seen here: http://www.folsoms.net/knots/
Start with one like this:
If you do it evenly it should form a pretty pattern. Depending if you want the look to be messy and casual or sleek and complicated you might want to use frizz reduction serum or something similar before you start knotting. Don’t worry about not being able to get them undone later because the pieces of hair you’re using to tie them are so large they should just spring back apart like a plait.
Then keep tying the pieces over and over until you get something like this:
Now pull the section upwards and curve it toward the base of the ponytail. Pin it in place.
Repeat this process with the next section of hair but curve it a bit towards the right of the ponytail when you pin it:
The third section should be curved downwards and pinned at the bottom of the ponytail. After pinning all 3 parts you shouldn’t be able to see the hair tie in the ponytail anymore, it should just look like a big loopy bun:
Finally it’s time to do the top section. This is really what determines the final look so here are two options!
Brushing it to the side tie it in a loose knot about half way down:
Continue knotting from that point.
You have something like this:
Pull it backwards and pin into the main bun:
Add a little flower and you’re done ^_^
You can see how it looks a bit like a big swirl from the back:
Other side:
Front:
Top:
Another option for the top which makes it look a little more prom-ish is to tease/backcomb it a bit, pin it in place then knot the rest and add it into the main bun:
So yes while it doesn’t suit my hair very well it’s a decent style for those with medium length darker hair and can be dressed up or down accordingly ^_^
Yesterday I showed you how to make a jumper/sweater into a cardigan and at the end I mentioned that I wasn’t going to add buttons or ribbon ties because I wanted to use cardigan clips. This is how I made them!
Clips like this can be really useful in jazzing up a plain cardigan and are also great for girls with bigger busts who find it difficult to find cardi’s that actually fit in that area!
This particular one was made as a graduation gift for the lovely Celeste^_^
So what you need:
Pretty beads, I’m using pearls and pink crystals
Clip on earring parts
Thread, needles, scissors
Felt
Decorations, I’m using bows and some little heart dangly things
Glue gun
Start my working out how far apart you need the clips to be to keep your cardigan closed and laying out all of your parts.
I decided to put a bow on each side then the heart dangle then alternate between pearls and crystals. It’s really important to use fairly heavy beads otherwise the clips won’t hang down in that cute arched way, they will just get pulled straight from the cardigan.
Now let’s make the beaded part. Using your thread secure it around the first bead (in this case the heart dangly).
Thread on all of your beads…
Tie it on to the other side too. I used jewellery wire for this one but I’ve used plain thread in the past too.
Now let’s take care of the clippy part. You can of course by these from a craft store but I have got an excess of old clip on earrings so I removed the bases of those to use. I cut out felt pieces to cover the front and back of the clips:
Then glued them on…
So that makes a pretty good base.
Now let’s put both of the pieces together! I glued the dangly heart bits on first:
Then added the bows over the top!
Now this is very important: when you put it together, before you glue everything make sure that the clips are pointing in the right direction! They should be facing opposite directions so they can be clipped to the cardigan like this:
It’s a good idea to lay everything out before you actually glue it.
All finished! Very quick and easy to make and a fun way to add some sparkle to a plain cardigan ^_^
So I have this problem a lot… I buy Winter clothes because they’re pretty but you know, living in Australia and all, I don’t have that much use for them. Winter clothes are just prettier though!
This brings me to my current situation, I bought this jumper when I was 16 and living in North QLD (which for those overseas is ridiculously hot. There are pretty much 2 seasons: Summer and slightly more Summer with rain) and it never really fit in the right way. The neckline was really high and the middle had no shape, the shoulders didn’t sit right and generally it just made me look out of proportion… but the pattern was so pretty! So I’ve lugged this stupid sweater around through 3 cities, 7 houses and various different climates. Now living somewhere it does actually get kind of cold I thought “Hey! I’ll finally get to wear it!”… Then I didn’t. I didn’t wear it once through the whole damn Winter.
This time when I decided to clean out my wardrobe it didn’t make the cut… but somehow I still couldn’t let the damn thing go! So I decided to see if I could alter it and make it wearable XD That’s a long intro for this one tutorial but this is going to be the first in a lot of sewing tutorials as I become more ruthless with my wardrobe!
So this is how it started:
I decided to turn it into a cardigan.
What you need:
Sweater
Needle
Thread
Scissors
First thing fold it in half with the neckline on the outside like this:
Cut down the fold, only cut the front layer of fabric!
You should have something like this:
Now because I hated the neckline I decided to make it more flattering so I folded myself a new one which scoops down below the bust. In theory you could cut whatever neckline you want at this point.
Cut off the excess:
Starting on one side at the bottom we’re going to hem the whole thing. Because it’s a knit fabric you will need to enclose all the edges so it doesn’t fray. If you have an overlocker/serger it’s a good idea to go around all of the edges but not completely necessary.
So fold the edge over:
Fold it over again so the raw edge in sandwiched inside:
Thread your needle and using a blanket stitch start going down the seam.
This is the close up on what it should look like:
You could easily run down the seam with a sewing machine but this method (if you’re careful) won’t leave visible stitches on the front of the cardi.
Repeat on the other side and you’re finished!
Now you need some way to close it, you could add a button or ribbons very easily but I decided to leave it as-is and make sweater clips. I’ll show you how to make those tomorrow!
Because I took out a good couple of inches in the middle for the seams it’s now a whole lot more flattering and form fitting. I haven’t decided if I want to do anything else with it yet, I’m thinking it might benefit from some pretty embroidery or possibly some more shaping in the arm area. We’ll see! And if I decide to do it I will definitely post photos!
So there you go, first sewing tutorial in ages. More to come though, I’ll be digging out my sewing machine later this week to do some real work on it and everything XD
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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