Cinderella Tutu - Happy Birthday Karyann

My daughter-in-law is running in the Walt Disney Princess Half Marathon in Florida at the end of February.  She needs a princess outfit with a pocket for her cell phone.   Karyann sent me these photos of what she had in mind.

Having never made a tutu before I jumped at opportunity for a new challenge.   I used this no sew tutu tutorial, but could not find anything with a pocket.  Karyann pointed out that the runner in this photo had pockets in the bustle. 

So Karyann's tutu will have a bustle.  I bought this pattern.

This is Dorothy, my dress maker's form, she usually wears a men's long sleeved shirt.  Now she is getting all dressed up in Karyann's cinderella tutu.

These are the materials:

The 1/2 inch wide elastic was cut three inches smaller than Karyann's waist measurement and then the ends were sewn together.  The elastic waistband was put on Dorothy while I cut tulle strips.

I cut nine yards of light blue tulle into strips that are six inches wide by 22 inches long.

The strips were folded in half width wise, then folded in half again length wise to make the loop that was looped around the elastic waist band, with the ends of the tulle pulled through the tulle loop to make a knot.

 

 

 

There is something magical about a tutu.  It got very poofy, very quickly.

The bustle is 100% cotton, I made two because the first one did not turn out it looked funny in the front.

So on the ironing board was the first effort,  made from a modified pattern piece to be shorter than the one in the photo on the pattern envelope.  I scrapped this piece and cut a new bustle using a dinner plate to round the corners on two long rectangles.  The only piece that worked from the bustle pattern was the waist band. 

 Bustle front.

 

 Bustle back without and with waistband.

I made this pocket without a pattern, it turned out exactly as expected.  I put a zipper in because Karyann will be running 22 kilometers in this tutu, I do not want her worrying that her stuff falling out of the pocket.

 

Pocket sewn into the bustle with my cell phone peeking out.

Zipped shut with my cell phone in it.

The pocket is on the right hand side of the bustle, designed to sit underneath the tulle.

 The pocket is invisible with the tulle down.

The bustle ties on in the front.

Next I attached the tutu to the bustle with white tulle strips.

Having the elastic tutu waistband attached to the bustle should make her costume stay put throughout her run.

 

 This is the back the tiny white ribbons were cut off after the photo.

  My Dorothy has never looked better.

 Oh I just love the way her pocket is concealed under the tulle.

Happy Birthday Karyann!  I love you with all my heart.  Your tutu will be mailed to you tomorrow.

May all your dreams come true.

Polar fleece hooded vest. Handmade Christmas Challenge January 2014.

My daughter Shannon often plays roller derby in unheated arenas.  Because she wears elbow pads and wrist guards, she wanted a hooded vest with a zipper in the front.  I went through all my patterns and ended up using these two patterns.

 This vest had a zipper but no hood.

This pattern had a hood but no zipper.

Pocket pieces.

 The hood is Kelly green with a black polar fleece lining.

Both the hooded jacket and vest pattern had a collar, so I modified the hood to the width of the collar piece of the vest pattern.

Since Shannon is a Saskatchewan Roughrider fan, the team logo was embroidered on for a finishing touch.

Shannon knit these lovely woolen socks for me for Christmas.

 

 I just love them, they are so warm and soft.

 

 This is my dear friend Deb modeling Shannon's new vest.

This hand made vest was actually Shannon's Christmas 2013 present, so it was been mailed to her this week.  My Christmas 2013 sewing projects were postponed to January 2014 because Véronique's son was born December 14, 2013 four weeks premature.  I quickly sewed a dozen receiving blankets, fitted crib sheets and curtains for the nursery.  Better late, than not at all is my motto.  Those lovely hand knit woolen socks were started in 2011.

Happy stitching all.

Home made pizza recipe.

This past weekend it was warmer on the planet Mars, then in Manitoba Canada where I live.  Cold weather makes me crave comfort foods, like soup and pizza.  Dough Ingredients:

• one cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp wheat gluton plus enough whole wheat flour to make half a cup
• 2-1/4 tsp quick rise instant yeast (I use Fleischmann's)

Place dough ingredients in bread machine in order shown.  Make a well in the flour to put the yeast in.  Set bread machine to dough setting.  Mine makes dough in 1.5 hours.  This is enough dough for two 12 inch pizzas.

Grease pans with canola oil then sprinkle about a teaspoon on cornmeal on each pan.  Cut dough into two equal size pieces, shape, roll and form into pizza pans.

My son-in-law AJ used to work for a pizza place.  He said that they rise the dough in the pans for one hour before baking.  So I let the dough rise in the pan for half an hour.  I won't be doing that again, because both pizzas stuck to the pan and were very difficult to get out.

For thick topping pizzas, bake the pizza crust for 8 minutes at 400 degrees F° before adding favourite toppings.

Slice veggies and meat in food processor.  The big bowl of green food is fresh chopped spinach with about twenty fresh chopped basil leaves.

Spread about half a cup of tomato sauce on the pizza crusts.

 

Layer on sliced mushrooms.

 Sprinkle Italian seasoning on top the mushrooms.

Add red peppers, onions and meat.

This is summer sausage.

Photo above is the summer sausage one before adding the cheese.

Hmmmm... pepperoni veggie.

This time I used shredded pizza three cheese blend and some shredded mozzarella.  Other times, I have shredded mozzarella, Parmesan and cheddar cheese.  When making a greek pizza use greek seasoning instead of Italian, crumbled feta with the mozzarella cheese, fresh tomato slices, scramble fried ground beef and sliced black kalamata olives.

 

Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon per pizza of crushed red chili peppers on top of the cheese.

 Return to 400 degree F° oven and bake for ten minutes.

Bake an additional 2-5 minutes longer if you prefer your cheese browned.

Remove pizza pie from pan, turn onto large cutting board and slice. 

See how the pizza stuck to the pan...no more rising in pan.

  This honey whole wheat crust is absolutely delicious!

 These  pizzas were baked for 12 minutes after the toppings were added.

 Bon appétit!