Circle Skirt

I love sewing for my girls and one of the easiest things to start out with is the skirt. I loved this simple, circle skirt idea from Dana over at her blog MADE. If you aren't following her, you should, she has some fun ideas. Dana has some instructions to make an adult version, which I think I shall make when I have a waist again. CLICK HERE for the skirt tutorial.

Great skirt for twirling.

Aria was in a school dance performance last week. She came home and said she needed a poodle skirt for a 50s routine they were doing. She really just needed to were a skirt and white shirt, but the circle skirt was perfect for a 50s costume.

We had some leftover fabric and Aria requested one for her Sing-a-ma-jig.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Do you like butter or margarine in your chocolate chip cookie? Mostly I use margarine, but if the recipe specifically asks for butter I use it. I like the buttery taste you get when using butter, but sometimes the cookies can turn out hard. Where margarine can yield you a softer cookie. But really the key to a great chocolate chip cookie is to not over melt your butter/margarine, it should be at room temperature. Also for a soft cookie is to not over bake and I never leave my cookies to rest on the cookie sheet after baking, I immediately remove them. I really despise and over baked cookie. I found this recipe and thought it would answer all problems of using butter versus margarine, because it has both. It really was a tasty cookie. You got the buttery taste and then the margarine to keep the cookie all soft and chewy.


Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ c. butter
½ c. high-quality tub margarine (I used Blue Bonnet)
¾ c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
¾ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. baking soda
1 12-oz. bag chocolate chips

Cream together butter, margarine, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop onto cookie sheet by tablespoon

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned

Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites

The proof is in the picture

I want you to make these Chocolate Chip Cookies

Faux Chenille Baby Blanket

Baby #3 is coming in about 10 weeks so I wanted to sew something for the little guy. Each one of my previous kids have their own baby blanket. My oldest has a baby quilt that I made in High School, when I was taking my first sewing class. It is an around the world quilt and I just tied it with yarn to finish it. For my second child I received a blanket that Brian's mother had made, it is a hand quilted blanket. When I found out I was pregnant and after I got over all the morning sickness and the holidays I wanted to make this Faux Chenille Blanket. It does require a lot of sewing, but very simple and did not take to long to complete. I am very happy how it turned out.

You can find the tutorial for the blanket at MADE. I love Dana's blog and have made a couple of things from her site. Dana made her blanket from all 100% cotton material and it was very adorable. But Dana had a link for another blog called AESTHETIC NEST, were she used a regular cotton print and the faux chenille side was 3 layers of 100% cotton Flannel. I liked the flannel and went with her idea.

This project requires some very sharp scissors because there is a lot of cutting, but my fabulous husband started cutting and couldn't stop. He cut the whole blanket for me and even lost some feeling in his thumb.
I chose a pre-packaged satin, blanket binding to finish it off. Or Dana also has a great tutorial on how to make your own binding/bias tape HERE. Happy Sewing!