Christmas baking : not too sweet ideas

Yes I know.

I am still marking.

However that doesn't mean I don't go AWOL every once and a while and surf the web during break time.

I am often amused by the cookie recipes published this time of year, based on the assumption that your average busy person, with a job, family and 8,000 responsibilities has spare time to make ganache, dip delicate cookies in chocolate and role in toasted pecans, or ice up little numbers like these:

I can tell you for sure that anyone who is spending her time on projects like this is way behind in making up her Lazy-boy tops.

Way behind.

There is also a limit to the amount of icing sugar, cream cheese and butter a person can buy these days when the rest of world has gone diet responsible. Not everyone tucks away the sweets like they used to, or I still want to.

So with all of that in mind I was quite interested in, and wanted to share, these Washington Post recipes for off-beat Christmas cookies.

I might actually make some of these.

Sharing a breath

I will get to those instructions, or find them in a book, soon. I really have to keep soldiering on with the marking though, students and administrators are waiting, before I can take time out to do that.

There is however one fast story I want to share.

Back in the early summer when we adopted Miss Daisy, many pounds and vet treatments ago, she was a small terrified wreck. The first day she came home with us she lay on the floor shaking like a seizure.

I didn't have a clue what to do.

So I decided to think of the safest she had ever felt and wondered if that was with her mother when she was a puppy. So, no other ideas in my head, I lay down on the floor with her, pressed my body all along hers and did strong slow breathing. The kind they tell you to do to help with the pain in labour - it didn't really work then, but I figured I was dealing with some kind of pain I didn't understand and it was all I had to reach for.

After a while she calmed down.

Last night we had a thunderstorm. 

Unlike the first time she was in a storm with us, when we lost her for hours since she was in the back of a closet where her little black self was invisible, she wanted up on the bed and she crawled up to the pillow between us. 

She lay there, pressed to the wall and I could not believe how she was shaking, how a little body could have those many tremors in it. 

So I just did what I did before. 

I put my hand on her back and my face next to hers and I just breathed,  slow and deep, like a person who isn't afraid of anything would breathe just before they went to sleep. Just like a mother who knows something about the thunder you don't and just knows it will be OK.

After a while I could feel her breathing matching mine and she feel asleep. Even while the wind continued to blow.

This has me thinking of Mr. Billy the baby.

Billy sticks to my daughter's body like a mussel to a rock - we joke he is four months old and has agoraphobia, all he wants is to be plastered to her at home in his own house.

I wondered this morning if maybe all he is doing, quietly in a way we are not noticing, is matching his breath to hers before he lets go.

I wonder.

Lazi-boy top #2

It should be pointed out at this stage I am not a lazi-girl (84 more papers to mark but who's counting) but I really want to be.

In the meantime I am sewing aspirational tops during break times.

The latest was this one from Burdastyle, one of those digital patterns you tape all those pages together. Here is the picture of how it looks on someone who is not me and actually never was me:

They made their's in a sort of fake fur but I decided against that in case the folks around here thought it was a Halloween costume.

Besides I had some of that purple loopy knit like I used in the first Lazi-boy top and a purple scarf with wiener dogs on it which I don't get a call to wear as often as you might think.

Here are the pictures. 

They show this is a really big top, even on me and suitable for wearing with leggings or any time you might want to disguise your actual true body shape, as I often do, or if you are unexpectedly carrying triplets. One of these is a better shot of the top, the other one is included because for once I don't have a dopey look on my face or am inspecting fleas on the ceiling:

This is an excellent top for schlepping around, marking papers, or cutting out Lazi-boy top #3.

Now some technical notes.

Probably because they actually thought someone would make this top, and not as a Halloween costume, in fake fur the neckline is finished with bias tape turned under and stitched.

Even before I started following these instructions (or as my friend Sue likes to call them the destructions) I knew this woven binding, even in a bias, on a knit is a bad idea.

I figured it would distort the knit and bow out the V neckline and for once I was right.

I still tried it out though. 

You never know. Sometimes in the rare instances in which I actually follow the instructions (like when I can find them and haven't thrown them out with the back neck facings) I learn something new, which since I am in education is probably an experience I should support.

Back to the neckline.

Once I had established in the bathroom mirror that this did stick out and look horrible I just cut the binding right away from that neckline. A lot faster than unpicking a knit. Borrow this idea if you want.

I then installed my super easy cross over V for idiots that always works out and requires no thought.

Here is how you do it:

1. Cut a long piece of knit twice as wide as you want it finished ( you will be folding the band in half lengthwise) and much longer than the measurement around the neckline ( you can cut off the extra later- apply the band with a good few inches extra hanging around at the bottom of the V)

2. Starting at the point of the V stitch up one side of the V, without stretching the band, stretch slightly around the back of the neck so it will cup a bit, and back down in the direction  the point of the V on the other side - Stopping a few inches before the point of the V on the second side.

3. Lay the whole unit out on a table right sides out and tuck the end of the side of the band that was stitched from the point of the V into the gap left unstitched on the other side. Arrange it around so it looks alright from the right side. Pin it in position.

4. Go back to the wrong side and finish stitching that bit of seam on the second side you left unsewn through all layers of band that are there. 

5. Cut off any extra band length.

Now I want you to know that I tried to take pictures of this but it came out as one dark purple blog and despite the fact I am fully aware that instructions without pictures are useless - I can and should do instructions later.

It is a great method.

Perfectly fool proof and about 1000% easier than all other methods I see described anywhere else I look on the www.

If I get enough requests I will do a proper tutorial like a decent blogger.

But right now I have too much brain numbness after the many assignments I have already marked today.

You know when all you can think of to write at the bottom of a paper is "You mean this is it? You're kidding right? " it is time to call it a day.

For educational purposes.

Lazi-boy top #1

A few years ago my husband went out and got himself a Lazi-boy chair. At the time I thought we didn't need another chair in this house and particularly one that was  such a cliche. 

You know how cool I am. It's well-known.

Of course the minute that man was out of the house away for work I was right in that old Lazi-boy, feet flipped up and enjoying myself a lot.

Eventually I bought one for myself, once it became apparent he wanted his back.

Yes that's right. 

We have his and hers Lazi-boys down in the family room in the basement. So much for cliches.

Listen I admit it, being comfortable is a real default and for good reason. If you were coming home after a day standing up teaching and generally being pulled in four hundred directions and just wanted to cruise the pattern sites and pretend you were going to actually sew all those things, where would you plant yourself?

As illustrated above or, in this:

I hope I am not insulting anyone's design sense or living room, but I kind of rest my case.

It has occurred to me that I do this with some of my clothes.

Go for the chic picture and forget how I will feel in it.

I need more Lazi-boy tops.

I know I would wear them a lot.

With that in mind I pulled out this pattern I have been meaning to sew for a long time:

I am a big fan of shawl collars, as I am of details that are from the culture of women's clothes, so I always liked this pattern.

I decided to add about 4" total to the width, and inch each side at the underarm, to make it more a tunic but still maintain the fit in the shoulders, and I added the same to the length.

I used a sort of loopy knit that is kind of a cross between a fleece and a terry and here it is:

There is no head in this picture because the photographer focused on the dog and not me and my face is a little blurry, not to mention the hair is vertical.

Here is the close-up of the collar:

Now if this doesn't say ready to recline, I don't know what does.

My very smart kid

My middle child and his colleague room mate have just launched a sports newsletter for people who don't follow sports. 

People like his mother, who sometimes want to be able to make some kind of conversation when they are surrounded by people who really follow this stuff.

Tomorrow morning they are sending out their Thanksgiving football recap.

The site is called the Casual Spectator and in their words this is what it is about:

Casual Spectator is a super-simple newsletter about major sporting events for people who don't really follow sports. Twice a week, we preview the biggest events in sports with the context you need to have fun watching and a better time discussing. 

If you are interested here is where you go to subscribe.

Holiday sewing

Don't get excited by the title. 

Things are pretty slack in Santa's workshop these days.

I decided a while ago to aim for any big project gifts, if I felt like it, for birthdays since those are spaced out and to be sort of random at Christmas. Many of us have passed through those phases of making a lot of gifts to spread around the resources but have eventually realized that the supplies add up and the time runs out.

This year I am dispatching the spouse to Florida for a few days in early December. 

It is against policy for him to do fun stuff without me, my policy, but he has been working very hard lately. Plus I went to New York and to be fair a few days of golf and sun would do that boy good since I suspect they are sending him to the North Pole again after Christmas, which if you remember is in the middle of winter, and the North Pole is place he can go to without me thanks.

So Florida for a few days seems like a good idea.

We have a post office address in St. Augustine and once the spouse announced he would do all my shopping for me at the outlets (this being the man who once gave his entire side of the family microwavable slippers from Canadian Tire bought at 15 minutes to closing on December 24th one year) I decided to do a lot of proactive online ordering to head that off.

He can golf and then bring home a full suitcase which will suit me fine.

Freed up from the responsibility of doing any serious gift making or buying, I am making some fool around small things that are sort of fun to do but are not consuming much time so that if folks say "what was mom thinking?' and throw it out when I am not looking I won't be hurt.

To give you an idea of how likely this might be, here are a couple of owl sleep masks that I crocheted, despite the fact I cannot yet, after a continuing gigantic investment of time, crochet.

At all.

In fact I wasted a whole Saturday afternoon trying to crochet some snowflakes, envisioning a garland for the mantle out of them. Unfortunately they did not look at all, not one bit, like snowflakes but they did look an awful lot like rolled up white athletic socks and a string of those over the fireplace would be too much even by my low standards.

Back to my owls. 

To give you an idea of the depth of my crochet expertise these were made from the exact same pattern but are totally different sizes. Thank goodness I can sew or I would begin to wonder about my head:

My friend Trudy, on the other hand, knows what she is doing. 

The Saturday before last she came over for a sew-a-thon and got well into the 36 cosmetic bags she is speed serging up. She is the serger ace and did all the center gathered panels with the gathering foot on her serger which impressed me a lot.

Here is a shot of her in action and one of her bags complete. Me I managed to put a collar in upside down but I did make lunch:

Off I go for dinner. 

Next post, when ever I can get free of work this week to do it, will be of my latest top in what I am calling my Lazi-Boy collection.

When you see the top you will know why.

p.s.

My massage therapist said something really interesting today that I feel is sewing relevant.

"Some people are buried with their gifts."

These would not be cosmetic bags or owl masks I don't think, but gifts of the spirit, or talents. Use them as much as you can so they can all be given away in your lifetime she meant.

I ordered some more fabric after that.

Picture heavy

In keeping with my policy to have the blog with the worst pictures on the web here are a bunch of one of my latest efforts.

I know, I know. 

I should get a tripod and a remote. I should sign up for Instagram how-to courses. I should get lights. I should allow more than 40 seconds for photo shoot. I should be like one of those mommy bloggers who have the photographic skills of Yosef Karsh  (famous Canadian photographer), but that would affect my sewing time.

So in this blog, unfortunately, what you see is what you get.

So here we are.

I got this fabric in New York recently, sort of a heavy knit lace at Parons, who usually are a better source for quality wools and boucles.

I was wary of something with too many seams to interfere with the lace.

I have also decided for the next little while to pursue a new approach to my sewing - I am going to try to sew only things that I will actually wear - as in reach for in the morning when I am in a rush.

This is a new tactic for me, and so original I am thinking of patenting it.

So with that in mind I decided to use this basic dolman top I have used before - knowing from experience that tops with sleeves like this actually work better in fabrics with some body as they go all droopy and is-that-an-old-rag-you-have-hanging-from-your-shoulders if you use something light like a jersey.

Counter intuitive I know but what I have experienced based on bathroom mirror research.

So this is the pattern I used, out of print but there are tons similar:

I also got the bright idea to do the scoop neck version but to make a ring to put on over it to look sort of like a cowl so this top could be more trans-seasonal.

I first tried a long infinity type ring but it was way too many layers and I know would be hot flash inducing, so I cut it down to something that went around my neck once.

I have to tell you that quite honestly I have had my struggles being really crazy about the infinity scarf with everything look. I know I am the only person in the universe who feels this way but my neck feels sort of stuffed into too much fabric when I wear them. 

Maybe I was scarred by a forceps delivery or by having my mother tie too many scratchy wool scarves around and around my neck in Manitoba in the winter (you might get strangled but at least you would be warm was the rule) to really be enthusiastic about the scarved up look.

Enough talking.

Here are the hanger shots:

And here are the shots on me, taken by the only available photographer, the charming Miss Scarlett who was home for lunch (we have lunch together twice a week at my house because it fits both our school schedules) on "pyjama" day:

Here is the result of our photo shoot:

Note lurking Daisy, I didn't want to press the hems, which I did by hand, in case I flattened the lace but seeing these shots I think I will.

The thing with this top of course is you have to wear something under it. I tried a camisole but what is the point of a nice comfortable top if you have to wear body armour under it?

Since I have decided to actually try some of the patterns in my long standing collection I went searching for something to make out of some coincidentally totally matching rayon single knit. It really is too easily wrinkled (rayon is a wood based product and of course single knits can act like paper) for a real top.

I pulled out one of my meaning-to-trys, the tank from Pamela's patterns twin set.

I followed the instructions to choose the size based on high bust measurement. This gave me a medium, and although this was absolutely perfect for what I wanted, nice and loose, it would have been way too big for an actually summer tank as you can see. I could even see the bottom of my bra underneath in the arm holes for example. 

Good to find that out and very nice when your wearable muslin is actually useful. I may in fact extend this to make a sleeveless night gown for summer and now I know that about this pattern:

More tomorrow but right now I have dogs agitating for trips to the park.