My Second Clutch/Wristlet

Ok, second time around. Made a few alterations from the first one.

My second clutch

The first change I made was to add interfacing to it to add body to the fabric. Here’s what I used.

Interfacing body

I put it between the pieces of fabric to add body. I also used it in the credit card second.

Inside peek

Look at all that junk!

Man, I carry a lot of stuff! One of the best things about this clutch is my epi pen easily fits in it. I could fit it in my first one, but I had to work at it and it took up so much room. I made this one a little bigger specifically for my epi pen. Bonus – If it is big enough for my epi pen, it will also hold my glasses!

It is about 10×6

10×6

I used Velcro it close it and the same kind of elastic on the wrist hold as the first one.

Velcro close

So pretty

I like the contrast of the dark fabric outside and the red fabric inside.
I used fat quarters from a novelty pack I got a Joann.
I used one whole fat quarter to make the inside of the clutch and half a fat quarter on the outside fabric.

My first clutch

I made a clutch today out of some scraps I had in my stash.  I wasn’t sure how it would turn out so I wanted to use scraps.

 

My First Clutch

 

This is my own design and the first time I have made a clutch.  There may be an easier way to do it, but I got inspired and made this.  The inspiration came from one of my fellow nursing students, Andrea, who carries a small clutch instead of lugging around a purse along with our two tons of books.  I thought I’d like one too so, I did it my way…

I started with a piece of fabric that I folded in half (pretty sides together) and sewed up three sides except for a two-inch hole so I could turn it right side out.  I did the same thing twice more with pieces that were slightly smaller in width and a couple of inches shorter (to allow for the folded flap to close it).

Make 3 rectangles. One of which is larger.

So now you have 3 rectangular pieces of fabric that have the pretty side out on both sides.

3 rectangles

Pretty on both sides

Now you want to fold one like an accordion to make pockets for your credit cards, insurance card and ID.  I took some gift cards to the ironing board and started folding and pinning the fabric with the cards in them.  I made three rows.

Side view of credit card section

Now sew a center line so you will have 6 slots for credit cards. and sew as close to the edge as you can on each side.  Use your finger to make sure there is enough slack in the fabric to put in credit card(s).

Credit card section

 

Now take your large piece of fabric and figure out where you want the bottom to be.  Fold it three pieces.  Like an envelope.  I left a two-inch (ish) piece at the top to act as the flap to close it.  Once I did that then I sewed Velcro on it to close it.  I folded the edge of the top flap over so it would be more sturdy, then sewed on the Velcro.

Crease your large piece of fabric with the iron and fold the remaining smaller piece in half.  This will act as a divider inside the clutch.  It will give you three separate sections.  Then sew the two pieces together along the crease.

Sew the two pieces together.

Now sew the credit card section to the large piece.  You can choose where you want it.  I felt like it was better furthest to the back so I can see the cards when I open it.

Sew in the credit card section

I sewed it in following the same center line I sewed earlier to create 6 slots.  Then I sewed as close to the edge as I could on each side and across the bottom.  I did not sew up the top.  I happened to notice that it was just the right size for my iPhone, so I left the top open which give me two pockets that for my phone and whatever else I might want to stick in it (monthly girly items).

Unexpected iPhone pocket

Next I laid it open flat and sewed the dividers as close to the edge as I could.

Sew the sides of the dividers down

Now make a strap.  I made mine out of some elastic I purchased to make hair ties.  I got some that was velvety on one side and elastic on the other.  Turns out it isn’t stretchy enough for me to use as a hair tie (I like things easy), so now I have a use for it.  I looped it so the velvety side would be against my wrist. You know, because I am a princess and like nice things.

I folded my clutch in half and sewed up each side and enclosed the strap when I did.  Voila, one clutch.  Like I said, this was my own design, so there are probably easier ways of doing this, but I had a blast making it!

Look at all that stuff!

 

Chocolate Torte – Baked – Super easy!

This is the second of the two chocolate tortes I made over the holidays.  I made this one for my Mom’s birthday.

Torte Ingredients:

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp strongly brewed coffee

3 large eggs (or 1 cup egg substitute)

1/2 tsp allspice

Ganache Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 tsp allspice

Supplies Needed:

Measuring cups and spoons

Double boiler or equivalent

Rubber spatula

Whisk

Pan to heat cream in

Prepared pan for torte

Instructions for Torte:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare your baking pan by greasing it with butter or oil.  I used coconut oil.

In your double boiler melt the coconut oil and chocolate together.  Once melted, transfer to mixing bowl.

Melt chocolate & oil

Add salt, coffee and eggs.  Beating until smooth.

Add the cocoa powder and mix until combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25 minutes or until done (passes knife test).

Bake

Cool it in the pan for 5 minutes.  Loosen edges and turn out onto serving plate.  Allow cake to cool completely.

Ganache Instructions:

Heat the cream over gentle heat stirring constantly.  Heat until it is hot to the touch.  Remove from heat and add allspice and chocolates.  Stir until smooth.

Mix until smooth

Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature.

Pour over cake. I put the left over chopped nuts from the No Bake Torte I made on top.  Chill for at least one hour.

Chillin

Chocolate Torte – No bake

Over the holidays I made two chocolate tortes.  Today I am going to show you the no bake one I made.

Ingredients:

8 oz 70% bittersweet chocolate, chopped ( I used Ghiradelli 70 % Extra bittersweet)

8 oz heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon allspice

2 tbsp strongly brewed coffee

1/4 tsp salt

one cup toasted, finely chopped almonds

Supplies:

skillet to toast almonds

food processor to chop almonds

double boiler or equivalent

rubber spatula

whisk

measuring spoons and cups

knife

cutting surface

baking pan

pan for heating cream

Oil or butter to grease pan

The first thing I did was toast some almonds then chop them in the food processor.  I wanted them finely chopped.  I toasted them in a dry skillet over medium high heat.

Toast almonds in a dry skillet

Chop in food processor

Toast and chop almonds

Chop the chocolate

chop chocolate

I melted the chocolate in my “homemade double broiler” (a glass measuring cup over a pot of boiling water).  Worked like a charm.

Melt chocolate

Melting chocolate

Heat cream over gentle heat and stir in allspice, coffee, salt and orange extract.

Add allspice, coffee, salt and orange extract

Heat cream over gentle heat

Stir it constantly so it doesn’t stick to the pan.  When the cream is hot to the touch, remove from the heat and add the melted chocolate and stir to mix.

Add chocolate

Stir to mix

Ganache

Pour into prepared (grease with butter or oil – I used coconut oil) pan and cover with nuts.

Pour chocolate into pan

Cover with nuts

Chill a few hours to overnight.  When ready to serve, remove from the pan, let it come to room temperature (ten minutes or so) slice and serve.

Please note, if you aren’t fond of bittersweet chocolate, exchange half of it for a sweeter chocolate.

Homemade Crackers

I’m still on a low carb kick. It is a lot harder than I expected. I’m always on the lookout for a low carb replacement for high carb deliciousness. Last night I made some flax seed crackers to eat with my soup. They were delicious. I can already see them being a staple with soup. They are so versatile you can flavor them with anything!

Ready to eat!

Here’s what you’ll need:

400 degree oven

Baking pan

Parchment paper or baking paper or silicone mat

Medium sized bowl for mixing

1 cup flax seed meal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

chives to taste

sesame seeds to taste

Mix the dry ingredients together then add water and mix.

Mix dry ingredients

Pour, spoon or use method of your choice to put the mixture onto parchment paper or silicone baking paper.

I laid another sheet of baking paper on top and smoothed it out with my hand. I did not want to get out my rolling pin for some reason.

Roll out to desired thickness

As you can see in the above picture I am smoothing it out as I took the picture. As for how thin to make it…. It is your cracker so your choice. If you like it thin roll it out thin. Whatever thickness you choose be consistent. The thinner it is the faster it will bake. So you don’t want parts of it to be thin and other parts to be thick.

I did not take the time to make sure mine was perfectly shaped. I really didn’t care. I was in a hurry to get it in the oven and baking so I could try them. I can be so impatient!

Rolled out crackers

I was worried about cutting them afterwards so I scored them before I baked them.

Scored crackers

I baked them for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven then cut them while they were still warm. I also ate my first one while they were still warm. YUMMY!

Cut crackers

Ready to eat!

MMMMMMM. Just look at all that cracker-y goodness!

We ate them with some hummus and our soup (click on links to see posts on those). I made about 24 crackers and we ate them all. I think next time I will try garlic and rosemary and see how delicious those turn out! How about some spice for some low carb fire crackers? Oh the possibilities are endless!

You know… you could even involve the kids with the rolling out. If they helped make it they would eat it. Think of it as a sneaky way to get your kids to make a healthier choice.

Kiss My Lips

Lip Balm

I made lip balm!  I purchased some lip balm base at my local Sunflower Shoppe and added some goodies to it.

Lip Balm Ingredients

I purchased the Vitamin E oil and the Sweet Almond oil at the Sunflower Shoppe as well.  I purchased the grapefruit oil at Central Market some time ago for another project.  The coconut oil was purchased at Costco and has been used in several projects and much of my cooking.  Man, I love that stuff!

I purchased some lip balm tubes and a filling tray and spatula at SKS Bottle & Packaging Inc for a great price.

I put my tubes into the filling tray then set the whole thing on a piece of parchment paper (to catch any spills).

Ok, so I did this the easy way.  I microwaved it.  If you know me, then you know what a big deal that is.  I hardly use my microwave for anything except heating some water for a cup of tea.  Even then, I prefer to boil water on the stove.  For some reason it tastes better.  I think its in my head, but that’s what I do…. Anyway… getting out of my head now.  (scary place to be!)

I used my 4 cup glass Pyrex measuring cup.  I emptied the lip balm base into my measuring cup and put in some coconut oil (maybe 1.5 tbsp) and microwaved it for one minute on high.  I watched it to make sure it wasn’t going to get too hot.  It didn’t.  It wasn’t completely melted.  I took it out and stirred it with a spoon until it was completely melted.  Then I added about 10 drops of grapefruit oil, 5 drops of vitamin E oil and 5 squirts of sweet almond oil.

I stirred it until I felt like it was all mixed then poured it into my lip balm tubes.  I had a little bit left over so I poured it back into the lip balm base container and will add it to the next batch.

Filled tubes in tray

 

This is the hard part… Now you wait.  I had to walk away and go sew.  I tried going into the other room and messing around, but I kept coming back.  I needed a real distraction so I sewed myself a maxi skirt.  I took my time deciding which material to use and pulled up an old episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix and started sewing.  I managed to distract myself for 35 minutes (didn’t finish the episode). I went and checked and it looked good.  However I was worried it wouldn’t be completely set so I went back and sewed some things for my nieces’ dolls and managed to kill another 45 minutes.

That did the trick.  It was ready!  I immediately slathered some on my lips and it felt wonderful!  A little more slick than I expected, so I think I will cut back on the coconut oil a bit next time.  The smell is amazing and my lips are so soft. Kiss-ably soft.  Now all I need to do is come up with a clever name and label them to give away as Christmas gifts.

Lip Balm

 

 

Napkins – Great Hostess Gift

I made some cloth napkins to take with me to Thanksgiving dinner.  I showed up with pumpkin pie and napkins.  Yea for me not coming empty handed! (as if I would)

I bought a novelty pack of fabric at Joann.  It had 5 different fabrics in it.  I wanted a dozen napkins so I made two out of some brown broadcloth I had on hand.

Novelty Pack

I did a rolled hem around each napkin.

Rolled Hem Napkins

Rolled Hem View

Washed them, ironed and folded them.  I tied them up with the ribbon they came with and presented them that way.  They looked great!

One Dozen Cloth Napkins

Tied in ribbon

The whole project took me less than an hour to do.  Ok, well if you include washing and drying them, then it took two hours.

Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler

I had a little incident with a bag of frozen blueberries on Thanksgiving morning.  Our dog was having a rough night Wednesday.  The only way I could get her to sleep was to hold her.  So she slept and I didn’t.  Thursday morning I got up (notice I didn’t say woke up) and made John a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries.  I for some reason in my sleep deprived state put the blueberries in the refrigerator and not the freezer.  I don’t recall doing it, but I know it was me. We didn’t figure out my mistake until we got home that night.  I was left with no other option but to use the blueberries before they went bad.  That meant blueberry cobbler.  We took one to a friend and the other to my sister’s house.  They were both appreciative.  More importantly the cobblers were delicious!

Ingredients:

Blueberries (once frozen, now thawed lol) – purchased at Costco

One apple (washed, cut, unpeeled)

Cinnamon to taste

Ginger to taste

Cloves to taste

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp arrow root

1 tbsp honey

Two recipes of Just Nuts Crust.

I poured the thawed blueberries into a pot and cut up an apple and put it in as well. I added everything but the arrow root and cooked it for about 10 minutes.  I dissolved the arrow root in a little water and put it in the pot to thicken it up.  I turned off the heat and stirred in the arrow root until I thought it was thoroughly dispersed.  It was thickened a little bit.  It will thicken up more as it bakes.

Cook with one apple

Pour it into a pan with one recipe of Just Nuts Crust in it and top it with the other recipe of Just Nuts Crust.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is browned.

Blueberry cobbler

Serve warm. Refrigerate the left overs.

Plated blueberry cobbler

No Knit, No Crochet Scarf

I found the easiest way to make a scarf from yarn without knitting or crocheting!  It is super simple and fun.  All you will need is some yarn, coordinating thread and a sewing machine.

Take your yarn and zig zag it then sew right down the middle.  I used a straight stitch.  Go slow.  It is much easier to keep the yarn in line if you go slow.  At least for me it was.

Zig Zag your yarn and sew down the middle

I used the plate on my sewing machine to make the zigs and zags about the same size.  I also used a chunky yarn to make this go faster.  You could by all means use a worsted weight or sport weight yarn.  I had some chunky yarn on hand and since this was an experiment, I wanted it to go quickly.  Who knew it would turn out so awesome?!

Freshly sewn yarn

This is what it looks like just after sewing it.  You could easily go back and sew another one or two times to strengthen it, although it seems to hold up just fine with one.

Completed Scarf

Here it is all finished.  I used my arm because all the pics I took of myself wearing it were awful.  Me, not the scarf.  The scarf looked cute, I on the other hand looked hideous.  I looked like a troll with a lovely scarf around my neck.

So here’s what I am thinking about doing different next time:

• maybe not make all the loops the same.  Do some long and some short.
• using more than one color of yarn
• maybe layering yarns

The options are endless, but you get the general idea(s).

Most importantly, HAVE FUN WITH IT!

 

Tshirt to a Skirt

Everyone was doing it and I felt left out.  I grabbed one of my boyfriends shirts from the donation pile and took my scissors to it, then some need and thread. Well, really the sewing machine.  Look at what I did in about 30 minutes.  It was surprisingly easy.  I googled a tutorial and followed the instructions.  Actually I looked at a few of them before I tried it myself, but then that’s what I do. Research it until I am comfortable then dive in!

Tshirt to a Skirt

I’ve made several of these and I love it!