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Monday, April 9, 2012

Finished Bra, Spring Purging, and Ice Cream

I finished the bra I was sewing as part of the Ooh La La Sew Along. My fit isn't perfection, to say the least. I made the band too tight, and am going to pick it apart and re-sew it tonight. But, in the tradition of not focusing on my flubs, I'm going to bask in the glory of my rather tidy elastic application.

I sewed in a small tag with my initials and the date. Though it looks rather utilitarian in these admittedly awful iPhone photos, I think the silk makes it pretty in person.

I have a reversible vintage style bikini in the works that uses this bra for the top. I hope to finish it up within the next few days, but the closure for the shorts has been a slight hiccup. Any suggestions on how to make them so the closure can be worked from both sides? I am leaning toward snaps.

Other goings on at the homestead involve a major purge. I got tired of the clutter, and I loaded up 3 full garbage bags of baby toys and clothes, my clothes, linens, etc. and took them to a local charity based thrift store for donation. I had to move fast, as I have been known to root around in the bags and pull stuff back out if they sit too long. Getting rid of this crap felt great, and though the house is still a cluttered mess, I lightened the load a little.

It was really neat to look into my closet and see that I had 9 dresses hanging that I sewed myself!

On a totally unrelated subject, does anyone make their own ice cream? I found a very nice ice cream maker at the thrift store recently, and tried my hand at a homemade frozen concoction. I made banana pudding with soy, and then I churned it in the ice cream maker. It was a big hit at my house- we ate it with chocolate chips on top.

What I really like though is salty sweet nutty ice cream flavors, like pecan praline and butter pecan. And I have an itch to try out this recipe for Guinness ice cream soon too. What can I say? I love Guinness. And ice cream. If I decide it's too much of a pain, we have a local creamery that makes fabulous ice cream using their own milk. Things are good here in rural America!

How about you? Any bathing suit sewing going on? Any advice on closures for reversible garments? Any tips on making ice cream? Recipes? Do tell!

3 comments:

  1. The bra turned out great - It looks very nicely sewn!

    For reversible closures... they make zipper pulls with either 2 pulls, or a single pull that swings from front to back (when pulled all the way open or closed). Years of working in fabric stores... we used to sell zipper by the yard, and the reversible pulls separately. They look like this:
    http://www.seattlefabrics.com/Vislon%20Slider%202of3.jpg or http://www.google.ca/imgres?start=105&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=-yv_Mqsp5d5L7M:&imgrefurl=http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/240235744/CFC_Zipper_Slider_Reversible_zipper_slider.html&docid=4XhD_QBRGke5kM&imgurl=http://img.alibaba.com/img/pb/336/839/231/1260766634095_hz_myalibaba_web12_1429.jpg&w=800&h=656&ei=nh6ET6-sMufe0gG_85n5Bw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=178&vpy=121&dur=1300&hovh=203&hovw=248&tx=143&ty=110&sig=113947545455097087201&page=5&tbnh=137&tbnw=163&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:105,i:94

    I'd check a store that also sells upholstery and drapery fabric. The zipper by the yard and pulls are usually sold in that department. It is a little fiddley, but relatively easy to assemble a zipper. I would sew it in centre split style.

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  2. I love that bra--it looks so comfy! :D I recently bought a bunch of supplies to make a few bras, but haven't gotten to that project yet. Perhaps this summer...

    Growing up, my family always made homemade ice cream during the summertime. We used my grandfather's recipe, which was surprisingly simple and absolutely delicious! This is one of my absolute favorite ice cream recipes EVER: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/coffee_ice_cream/

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  3. Love the outfit! As for homemade ice cream, DH and I bought an ice cream maker on sale several years ago, and it gets a workout in the summer. I love vanilla, with real vanilla beans added. Yum!

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