Experimenting with Neck Ties and Bow Ties

Wow! It’s been over 2 weeks since I’ve blogged. I’m terribly sorry. Between traveling for work, taking care of a sick dog and a sick husband I’ve been busy. I haven’t even had time to sew. One of the last projects I was able to work on is my experiment below.
 
I created it using six coordinating men’s neck ties. They will be available for sale in my shop soon. No two will be exactly the same, and each one will come with some sort of belt or sash for the waist, or you can swap it out for your favorite belt.
Oh…and before I forget, by request, I have started making and selling men’s bow ties! In traditional Jen Ell’s Revenge fashion they aren’t the typical prints and patterns that you will find in the store, and many of them are recycled out of other clothing or fabric scraps. To make them extra fun, all of them a reversible, so you get two for the price of one!

You can purchase one for yourself or a loved one here.

Pinterest Fail – Cauliflower Crust Pizza

I’m trying to be sensible about carbs, so I figured I would give this cauliflower crust pizza a try. Doesn’t it look yummy?

Source: eat-drink-smile.com via Mary on Pinterest

Unfortunately, mine turned out looking a bit like this:

It completely fell apart when I tried to get it off the pan because the center of it was not done at all. It still strongly resembled a cauliflower mash versus an actual pizza crust.
Here’s a slight disclaimer: the pin I linked to above is not the recipe I used. I couldn’t find the recipe I used, which is probably a good thing. There seemed to be a few details left out.
Now I’ll share what I may or may not have done wrong so that you won’t make my same mistakes:

• I was completed unprepared. I thought I had tomato sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella. Wrong! I didn’t have any of that, so I improvised.
• For the cheese I used a combination of co jack and parmesan in the crust and co jack on top. Different cheeses have different levels of oil and cook differently, so this could have caused a problem.
• I didn’t measure anything, unless I am baking I generally don’t. all sorts  of things could have been wrong here.
• My oven is possessed. Sometimes it cooks way too fast, and others way too slow. The crust was turning a golden brown color, and I didn’t want it to burn, so I figured we were getting to a done point, unfortunately no.
• The recipe I used didn’t tell you how big to make it, or how thin to spread it. I like thick crusts, unfortunately I think combined with not measuring, and potentially having too many ingredients led to a  soggy, not done crust.
• The lack of pepperoni and tomato sauce was really no biggie. I used bacon and ham. Everything is good with bacon, right? I even made my very own tomato sauce with diced tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. The sauce was sooo good. I will probably do that from now on. It only took about 10-15 minutes. I’ll give you a recipe for that later when I have a good picture of it to show off!

Soooo, in the end I ate it. It tasted great. The edges that we done were pizza like, but the center was gooey. I will try i again. Hopefully I will have better luck next time.

Labels: recipe, pinterest

DIY – Make Your Own Undies

I have made a lot of things in my life, but undies are truly a new adventure for me. I’ve been meaning to make them for a while now, but just never did. Now, after losing weight some of my existing undies are getting a bit baggy, not to mention I’ve been wearing things more fitted and high waisted. Regular bikini undies or thongs can leave some unsightly panty lines, so I needed something that comes up higher and helps alleviate the dreaded panty lines. Once I made the first pair I couldn’t stop. I also wondered why on earth had I not done this before, because in all honesty, they are quite easy.
Materials:
Old undies to cut up and use for a pattern
Sewing machine
Scissors
Stretchy fabric
Picot Elastic or Fold Over Elastic
Instructions:

Cut all of the elastic edges off your old undies and cut them apart at the seams. Once you get done you will be left with a perfect pattern. I didn’t take a picture of mine. Suffice it to say that they were quite sad looking, but they fit great, hence the reason why I had not thrown them away. Pin them down on your pretty new fabric and cut out one front, one back and one crotch piece*. For mine I chose to use a polyester knit for the main part of the undies and a cotton knit for the crotch. I used the poly because I didn’t want my clothing to cling to it.
* You should have two layers of fabric in the crotch area. I left one layer (the outer (pretty) layer) attached to the front piece and cut off the inner layer, which is what I cut out of the cotton. If you look at the image you can see that the front pieces are longer and will go between the legs and attach to the back piece.

My first step was to sew the front, back and crotch piece together. You’ll line up the crotch seams with the front and back right sides together, and then put the crotch piece behind the back piece. Stitch straight across this crotch seam. Please excuse the threads, I screwed this step up the first time.

Next, you’ll lay them out with the front and back spread out right sides down. Flip the crotch piece so that it covers where you just sewed the three layers together, line it up to the back piece, pin and sew down with a zig zag or stretch stitch.

Attach the elastic to the leg seams. This is where the fold over elastic(FOE)cot elastic comes in. If you’re not familiar with FOE here’s a little video with instructions for sewing with FOE. Be sure you get both layers when you are sewing through the crotch area.

Line up the side seams with right sides facing and sew them up. If your fabric has 4-way stretch then use a stretch stitch or zig zag, otherwise a straight stitch is fine. You can also use a serger, but since they were for me I didn’t bother.

Add elastic to the top. You can use the FOE, picot elastic, or be like me and use some pretty stretch lace.

If you’re like me, you can’t stop at just one pair.

This is a great way to use up your stash, scraps and even old tees. The crotch pieces on all of these came from t-shirt sleeves that were cut up and turned in to tanks and summery tops like this:

The polka dot fabric is something that I ordered, but when it came in it was quite thin and flimsy so I never really used it. The burgundy that is peeking out is some random fabric that I found in a scrap bin. It has a weird texture, but it holds it’s shape and clothing doesn’t cling to it, so it was perfect for undies.
If anything is unclear feel free to ask questions. I can’t wait to make some more, so if you need more pics or explanation I will be glad to give it.

Labels: diy, tutorial