Letting Go

These little girls in bikinis were very daring for the 1970's.

I have been collecting patterns, pattern books and catalogues for most of my life.  I love them.  Can't get enough of them, but the time has come to let some things go.  These in particular are hard to part with.  I bought them in Paris, in some little haberdashery shop near Montmartre in the 1970's.  I needed inspiration for a small mail order business I had then, making and selling children's clothes.   

Two weeks ago, Hubby and I braved the loft, with the intention of clearing it out.  We are both hoarders, so it was hard to do.  We lasted two hours and I made several trips to the tip and local charity shops, feeling very virtuous when I had finished. We will  need to do it again, but your back gives up after two hours of being bent double under the beams.

I threw away a large dustbin bag of patterns that I knew I would never use again, nor would anyone else.  I saved some of the better ones to sell on ebay. I would happily donate the good ones to a charity shop, but I have seen them wrap china and breakables in old patterns.  They do not sell them on. 

I will be sad to see these go, but hopefully someone will use them or put them in a museum.  

And in a way, letting go is very liberating.  Now for the fabrics...

Does anyone remember kids in jumpsuits?

These little denim jackets are almost fashionable now.

Very French.  I love the side closing on this dress.

Chic little raincoats.

How about these duffle coats?

Awkward Patterns - A Monday Moan

 Occasionally I run into difficulty with a pattern because the instructions are incomprehensible or incomplete.  When I chose this pattern, I thought it would be okay because:
It is a Simplicity pattern.
It is a costume.
How hard can that be?
Let me tell you, it can be quite hard.  When I got to the sleeves, the instructions might just as well be written in Greek. For one thing, I did not want to line the sleeves because that would make the garment bulky.  For another thing, although there was a view with ordinary sleeves, there was not a pattern piece for them. I had no choice but to make the split sleeves.









Fine.  I remembered that I had a real kimono somewhere in the back of the wardrobe and was able to work out the pattern by looking at the construction of a traditional one.

The drawings looked like this:

 See what I mean?  What are all these triangles???
At least this one had a happy ending.  I finished the kimono and it looked good.  See below:

The next story did not have a happy ending.  Admittedly, I chose an Advanced Vogue pattern, but as I am quite experienced in sewing, I expected to be able to figure it out.  Somewhere along the way it all went wrong.

This is the pattern.  It really doesn't look that difficult. The coat is a work of art and I had three different furnishing fabrics to make it in.  Beautiful fabrics.  Expensive.  All went well until I got to the collar.  The neckline was much smaller that the collar.  Help.  I tried everything,  but eventually gave up. The fabrics are probably still languishing in the attic.  They may become bags or cushion covers. Maybe some time...

 You may be able to just see what I mean although this is not a clear photo.  More incomprehensible instructions.

Note to pattern makers.  Put in more details.  Show more views.  I'm willing to have a go, but I want a good result. At the moment I am making a very simple capsule wardrobe for a trip to Rome in August. Easy patterns.  No problems. But that doesn't mean I won't tackle something more difficult again. In fact I am really inspired by 'The Great British Sewing Bee'.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter.  It should be sunny and warm, but it isn't. Winter is still hanging on in England, so our Easter Egg hunt will have to be in the house.
I made this wreath yesterday to hang on the wall next to the front door. ( It looks so bare once the Christmas wreath is gone.) The wreath was quite easy to make, and if I had been more organised, I could have done a tutorial.






Too late now, but for future reference, it's easy.

 I got an oasis wreath from my florist and soaked it for an hour.  Then Hubby and I 'pruned' the privet hedge for some greenery.  I snipped those into small pieces and pushed them into the wreath at an angle, being careful to cover the whole thing.  Next I pushed some small flowers in, then added the (plastic) eggs with a ribbon to hang the wreath from.  It took less than an hour. Very effective as long as we don't have a very strong wind.


We will be celebrating Easter with our children.  The menu is turkey, chestnut stuffing, roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and broccoli.  (Sounds like Thanksgiving?  You're right.) The turkey was in the freezer, begging to be cooked.
Dessert is courtesy of Marks and Spencer.  Apricot and almond tart and cheesecake.  The pastry chef is having a day off.

Happy Easter

Jaffa Sponge Cake - Just in time for Easter

Jaffa sponge

 I made marmalade in January and we have been enjoying it on toast and in bread and butter pudding ever since.  I thought that as Jaffa cakes are so popular, I could reproduce that flavour in a home made orange sponge with a marmalade filling and a chocolate fudge icing.
 If you don't have homemade marmalade, commercial marmalade will be just as good.
This cake would be great for Easter. You could use orange icing, decorated with mini chocolate eggs








Orange Sponge Cake

Ingredients
8 oz soft margarine (Stork or Flora)
8 oz sugar
4 eggs (medium - large)
8 oz Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
Grated rind and juice of one large orange.

Method
Grease, line and lightly dust two 8" round cake tins with flour
In a mixing bowl, cream the margarine and sugar until it is pale and golden.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Adde 1 teaspoon Vanilla essence and the grated rind of one orange.
Fold in the flour.
Lighten the mixture with the orange juice.
Divide evenly into the two tins and bake at 350 F or 180 C for 20 minutes.
The cake is done when it springs back when lightly pressed in the centre.
Cool and spread marmalade over the bottom layer.
Place the other layer on top.

Chocolate fudge icing
In a small saucepan, melt 2 oz of butter and add 3 Tablespoons of milk.
Add 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder and stir.
Sift 8 oz of icing sugar and add to the pan.
Whisk until smooth, adding a little more milk if necessary.
While the icing is still warm, spread the icing evenly over the top and down the sides.
Cool and serve.

Here's a slice for you.

Borscht - Beetroot Soup, Warming and Delicious

Borscht - Beetroot Soup. It really warms you up. made

Borscht is beetroot soup.  Delicious.  Sweet, savoury and hearty, it is a staple in Eastern European cooking. When I was growing up we ate it often and my mother's recipe was complicated and included meat, probably a bit of boiled beef.
When I was in my teens, my mother acquired a new and easier borscht recipe and that is the one she used for the rest of her life. We all loved it because it contained tinned tomato soup, which probably made it sweeter.  I have made it many times too, but this time, I tried my niece's recipe. It's more authentic and it is certainly more delicious.

You can find it her recipe http://herselfgluten-free.blogspot.com along with some other fabulous recipes. This one appeared in November 2011.

Have a look at it. Try it. If you don't feel up to it, you can always make the recipe for easy borscht below:

Easy Borscht
Ingredients:
3 or 4  large, raw beetroot, peeled and diced (If you can find them, you can use canned beetroot, but they must not be cooked in vinegar.)
1 onion
4 cups water
1 can tomato soup
2 cups frozen peas
1 stick (4 oz) butter
2 sprigs of dill (dill weed)
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper

Method:
Peel and dice beetroot and onion.
Put into water, add salt, pepper dill weed and bay leaf.
Bring to boil and simmer about 15 minutes until the beetroot is cooked.
Add butter and tomato soup.
Bring to boil again.
Add frozen peas and cop for 5 minutes.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream in each bowl.
Peel and dice the beetroot and chop the onion.

Jenny's Kimono

 Having promised my friend Jenny a year ago, that I would make her a kimono  I am pleased to say that it was finished and delivered on Friday.  It came out well, even if the pattern was incomprehensible in places and I just had to make it up as I went along.  But that's another story.  Soon I will blog about pattern instructions that are difficult or impossible to follow.  I imagine anyone who sews has had that experience.
The kimono is made of a bright pink and purple polyester cotton.  As it is going to be a dressing gown it will be easy to care for.  I used purple ribbons for the ties and made a matching purple obi.  The finished look was very pleasing and Jenny was delighted with her kimono.









Below you can see the kimono laid out with the purple obi loosely tied around the waist.  Notice the split sleeves.  Once I worked out what to do (no thanks to the pattern instructions), they were not too difficult. An added bonus is that everything was done on the machine.

Kimono with purple obi

A closer view of the split sleeve

Jenny in her kimono

Celery Soup with Stilton and Croutons

Cream of Celery Soup with parsley, croutons and crumbled Stilton cheese.

It's bitterly cold in London (and the rest of England) this week.  Soup is the perfect warmer.  When Hubby and I are at home for lunch (about once a week), I often make soup.
This time I decided to make celery soup, loosely based on a recipe by Delia Smith.  It is fairly quick to make and uses up things found in the fridge. It can be a bit bland, so I decided to liven it up with a few garnishes. The first one was inspired by 'The Barefoot Contessa's' oven croutons. I used two slices of  a big round of French crusty bread and it made delicious croutons.  There was also a piece of Stilton in the fridge so I used that too. A final garnish of parsley gave it a bit of colour.

A garnish of home made oven croutons and crumbled Stilton cheese.

Ingredients:

1 oz butter (about a walnut sized piece) and about 1 Tablespoon olive oil

6  stalks of celery, chopped

Celery leaves

1 medium onion

1 medium potato

Salt and pepper

1 pint (2 1/2 cups) water 

1 vegetable stock cube

5 oz single cream

5 oz milk

A little freshly grated nutmeg

Croutons (optional)

Crumbled Stilton or blue cheese (optional)

Method:

Gently melt the butter and oil in a large saucepan.

Add the chopped vegetables and sweat them, covered, for about 15 minutes.

Add the celery leaves, seasoning, water and stock cube.

Bring to a boil then turn the heat right down and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes.

Using a stick blender (mouli) or a potato masher, puree the vegetables.

Add the cream and milk and reheat gently.

Serve with croutons and crumbled Stilton if desired and garnish with a little chopped parsley.

Home made croutons:

Cut up two generous slices of crusty bread into cubes and put them in a bowl.

Sprinkle over 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and some seasoning.  

(I used ground pepper and 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning.)

Place on a baking sheet in a hot oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.  

Keep your eye on them as you do  not want them to burn.

Sprinkle them over the soup just before serving so they stay crisp.  The contrast with the creamy soup is wonderful.