the long silence.

Oh dear me. My blogging has been terribly slack lately.

It all started with training for the marathon: all interesting cooking plans were dropped in a haze of exhaustion or due to complete lack of time to get to the shops for interesting ingredients.
Then straight after the marathon came the final few weeks of organising our wedding. Small and low key, but still plenty to be done. And by keeping it low-budget it meant lots of crafting and baking to be done by yours truely.

And now? What's my current excuse? Well, concurrent with planning our wedding I started the process of launching a mini business. Why? Well, next year I hope to start training as a tailor. Its a bit of a leap into a whole new career, but one I've longed to take for years: Well, I'm finally doing it folks! I have a place on a bespoke tailoring training course starting February 2013 in London.  This does of course mean that I will have to leave my sensible, full time, pension-providing employment and take a leap of faith hoping that the new career will pay off. Its looking possible - I've approached some menswear shops in my local area all of whom tell me they haven't enough alteration tailors for the volume of work they receive. I now have about 7 months to save up some money to help me get to and from London for the training course, and also to establish some earnings from sewing that will help bring in at least some cash to our household during the first few months of my training. - Hence the new business.

I have tentatively dipped a toe in the water of becoming a Crafty business. I've been experimenting with designs and making up childrenswear. I've taken on a few orders from friends and colleagues to make dresses, skirts and jackets. I've made a few trinkets and gifts; pocket squares, hankies, hair slides. Last month I took a stall at our local Farmer's market.

Market stall

So far I couldn't honestly say its been lucrative, but there's a little drip of money, some good feedback, and so far minimal outlay. And afterall, I've only been going for 6 weeks! I have a few skills I must prioritise and put time aside to learn, but I'm on my way.

I will be creating a blog for my business and so I don't expect to be having time to regularly write on this one too. To be honest, I feel that the cookery challenge has come to a natural end. It was hugely enjoyable and brilliant for learning new skills and braodening my food horizons, but now I'm saying "over and out".

If you would like to keep up with my sewing business I will update with a link to the new blog shortly, or you can find me on facebook: Whim wham clothing

wedding crafts

Dan and I married 10 days ago. So the million dollar question is, how did I get on with the crafts?

Cake:
Very tasty. The unintentioned use of stem ginger to replace some of the dried fruit was a rather lovely touch. Turns out the cakes really didn't need to be taller - there was plenty to go round with some to spare.
Despite the process of covering the 2 tiers with marzipan and icing (on the warmest day of the year) being a sticky and bad-language-inducing process I managed it. The decorations by my Mum's friend were inspired - fun, not too serious. An excellent reflection of the spirit of our wedding.

Bouquet:
A big hit! Everyone loved its quirkyness. The kids fought over holding it. It did take a bit of a battering, but survived relatively intact. And best of all it'll last way longer than real flowers.

Bridesmaids's dresses
Finished in time. Both girls seemed comfortable in their pretty dresses. They looked very lovely in the ceremony, but were comfy enough to run around in the park after.

My dress

Completed with a few days to spare. I learnt lots from the process. A few flaws in the finished dress, but nothing too crucial. I was very relieved not to have messed up my beautiful fabrics.

that's me in the middle





Bunting

I cheated! I stapled a bunch of old playing cards to tape and used that to string up as bunting. I did the same with some butterfly shapes cut out of multi coloured felt. Given that the rain started that night and destroyed all outside decorations I was glad I hadn't expended a lot of time and effort on them!

So there you are: wedding crafts complete!

Although we didn't ask for any gifts we had some wonderful handcrafted ones: paintings, wood turning, knitted items, cupcakes. We had a brilliant couple of days.

Wedding craft project: An update

Today is 9 days until I get married, so time for an update on project 'craft your own wedding'!

Progress so far:

1. Cake
Baked and regularly dowsed with brandy. Last night I covered the 2 layers with marzipan.
Good things:
#1 The crumbs I had tasted good.
#2 A friend of my Mum's has offered to decorate it. She's an artist so I have high hopes of a very pretty result.
Possible worries:
#1 The cakes a quite stumpy - about half as tall as most wedding cakes. Hopefully that's fine and everyone will be happy with having a higher ratio of icing to fruit cake!
#2 I forgot to brush the cake tiers with apricot jam before covering with marzipan. Hopefully that's not a completely crucial step.
To do:
Ice with white icing in a couple of days time and deliver to my mum for decorating by her friend.

2. Bouquet
Brooches collected, ribbon flowers made, all attached to wire stems and gathered together. I've made a fabric and tulle yoke made to sit round the top.

To do:
Bind the stems with ribbon.

3. Bridesmaid dresses
One completed, one needs the hem finishing off. This is the completed one:

To do: give both dresses a good press, finish the hem of the other dress.

4. My dress
Silk cut out and sewn, lining attached, zip inserted. Buttons bought, covered with silk and sewn on.

To do:
Sew on loops to close the top of the bodice, hem the lining of the skirt, hem the outer layer of the skirt, inserting horsehair braid to give it some body.

5. Bunting
Not started yet. Oops! To be honest though, it wouldn't matter terribly if this didn't get made in time as we have quite a few other decorations: pretty lanterns and strings of lights etc.

I'm pretty sure that this is all do-able in 9 days, with a full time job to juggle and various other organisational tasks for the wedding. It should be possible I think. I have a schedule, so as long as I don't slack off it should be all good.

I'm enjoying feeling crafty. My employer might not be enjoying the fact that I'm consistently 10 minutes late to work at the moment!

the wedding craft project

I'm getting married 4 weeks today, and because I do like a project its a very DIY wedding. Is it wrong to turn your own wedding into a craft project? I'm quite liking having lots of crafts to do, but now the deadlines are drawing close so the pressure's on!

Here's my to do list. I'll post an update nearer the day to let you know if I managed to finish everything in time.

Make my wedding dress
Progress so far: Practice version made in calico, practice bodice made in fabric similar to the real thing, real fabric chosen, bought and cut out. Started sewing the bodice.


Make bridesmaids dresses
Progress so far: Nearly done! Just need to hand sew the waist bands and hem the dresses.

Make wedding cake
Progress so far: 2 fruit cakes baked. Currently being dowsed in brandy at regular intervals so that they are suitable boozy by 2nd June. Will need to ice them a couple of days before the wedding and make a sponge or carrot cake for the final layer.


Make bouquet from vintage brooches
Progress so far: brooches collected, wire and tape bought to turn them into a bouquet.


Make bunting to decorate the garden for the party
Progress so far: None, but I have loads of fabric scraps so I' m sure it will be quick to do.

Its a fair amount to complete in 4 weeks, but hopefully I'll do it.

Birthday Cake

I am a bad girlfriend. It is Dan's birthday today. I forgot about it entirely until saturday, and then it was because my Mum mentioned it that I remembered. Not that Dan minds in the slightest, but I feel guilty.

Cue urgent ordering of a present (which hasn't arrived yet - oops), and slightly frantic wednesday evening efforts on the cake-baking front.

So here's Dan's birthday cake:

Its called a Passion Cake. Not sure why, but its essentially a banana and carrot cake with walnuts (I know that sounds a bit wrong but you can't taste the carrots so its just a moist banana loaf). I sandwiched it together with cream-cheese icing and sprinkled a few walnuts on the top. The walnuts looked lovely - they were foraged late last year in the woods near where we live and have been drying out in a bowl in our living room. It was good to find a suitable occasion to use them.

I won't get to taste-test this one as Dan has taken it to share out at work, but hopefully I'll get feedback. With any luck I managed to cut off all the singed bit on the top caused by the wierd hot-spot in our oven!

UPDATE: Dan said he was the most popular man in the office yesterday, all the cake went in about 2 minutes, and there was much disappointment from those that were too slow to get a piece. 

Goose eggs

Sometimes village life is surreal.

Last weekend in a neighbourly fashion I took a few slices of ginger cake over to our neighbour. In return I got to meet the 1 week old puppies his terrier has just had, and I also came home with these:

That's a normal sized pudding bowl they're in - ie these eggs were HUGE! Apparently there's a farmer nearby whose geese lay for a couple of months a year.

Well, it had to be eggs for breakfast. Bob (the neighbour) suggested soft boiling (8 minutes). That actually resulted in a slightly harder-set yolk than would be my preference, but they were tasty and very filling!

Finally some cooking!

I've failed dismally in the cooking stakes over the last few weeks. Marathon training has completely taken over my life, and has not left much time for browsing cook books to come up with interesting dishes.

However, this weekend being a 4-day weekend I actually found time to both run and cook something good! I had a little bit of a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall moment, and had a go at making (a very small quantity of) homemade yoghurt, and also a Jamaican Ginger cake from the River Cottage Everyday cookbook.

Hugh's programme was on the TV last night, which is what finally prompted me to have a go at the yoghurt. Dan had mentioned the process a few months back but we hadn't tried it out up until today. After my breakfast this morning I had a scoop of yoghurt left in the tub, so it seemed an opportune time to have a go. My jar of yoghurt-to-be is currently sitting on the hearth swaddled in tea towels to keep it warm, where it will stay until 9pm tonight: Taste test in the morning! If it works I'll buy a thermos flask to keep it warm next time - its not very practical to light the fire every time you want a bit of yoghurt!

And so to the baking. I felt I was overdue a baking session, and my old neighbour does like a slice or two of cake when I'm making it, so today I flicked through my books until I found a recipe where I already had all the ingredients. Jamaican ginger cake was the choice, although I did swap the rum for brandy because that's what we had (and surely once cooked in a ginger cake it would be pretty tricky to tell the difference anyway). Despite the industrial quantities of golden syrup, sugar and black treacle the cake didn't turn out ridiculously rich and sweet. The ginger and allspice gave it a little kick. Dan wants to try in with creme fraiche, I think a roast banana would be a yummy addition, either way its a good cake.

jackets jackets jackets

Its getting obssessional now: I must sew something other than jackets!

The latest jacket I've made, finished last week:

This one wasn't for me, so I can't vouch for fit and style as I haven't yet seen it on the person it was made for. I'm told its good though. (Not wishing to sound big headed, but she said it was amazing.)

Anyway, next up are 2 bridesmaids dresses and an evening dress, so I'm temporarily getting away from tailored styles. I'll be back with a vengeance once the dresses are finished I'm sure!

March 10 on 10

So here's the deal: take 10 photos through 10 hours on the 10th of the month. Today I was trying to be a good Aunty, and here's the evidence:

For other participants in the 10 on 10 photo project look here:

a new machine and lovely tweed

There's not much interesting cooking going on in my kitchen at the moment. In between sewing and training for the marathon I'm not finding all that much time to plan interesting meals or shop for ingredients.

However, the sewing is progressing nicely. A couple of weeks ago I finally aquired an overlocker - its a purchase I've been hankering after for years. Well, I finally bought a machine, and I've been making tentative steps towards getting to know it properly.

Here it is: Meet my Frister Rossman Knitlock

New toy - an overlocker

And the first project which I've used it for was for this jacket

Linton tweed jacket

The multi coloured material is Linton Tweed - the UK based manufacturer is celebrating 100 years in business this year and used to supply Chanel with her tweed fabrics. Illustrious company indeed! My sewing skills need some work before I'm at that level, but I'll definitely be using their fabrics again, and the overlocker was the perfect tool for the job. The pattern was from an old copy of the Burda sewing magazine. I'd need to adjust it a little around the back of the arms if I made it again, but otherwise its not a bad fit.

My other project in the last couple of weeks was to draft the pattern for a double-breated waistcoat to my own measurements. I drafted away, carefully measuring and using a set square for the first time in years. I then held my breath and made it up in fabric.

And would you believe it: It actually looks like a waistcoat, and it fits!

Double-breasted waistcoat

My clothing sewing now has its own facebook page, which can be found here:

www.facebook.com/Whimwhamclothing

Jackets

I've been mostly sewing with wool in the last few months. Its such a lovely, tactile, and malleable fabric to work with that it has been a joy.

Having signed up for some sewing lessons at the beginning of November I decided that my first project would be a jacket. It seemed a good place to start - incorporating linings, sleeves, lapels, button holes it ticked off a lot of the things I wanted help with. I chose a Vogue pattern, some beautiful heather-y green wool and was good to go.

This was the pattern I chose to make, Vogue V8543:

But then I got over-ambitious and spotted this pattern, which I thought my Mum would love (Vogue V1146):

So I decided to make that for her for Christmas. My word, it needs A LOT of fabric. And that makes it very awkward to work in the last few steps (of which there are nearly 100), as it gets very heavy. Never say I'm not up for a challenge!

So there I was, the wool was purchased, the tasks were set. Would I mess up, sew something on upside down, cut my expensive fabric incorrectly? Well, yes is the short answer. There was some unpicking and resewing, but fortunately no cutting errors, which would have been more serious.

I battled through acres of fabric to make the coat. I kept waiting for the bit that would take it from 'medium difficulty' to 'advanced' as stated on the pattern envelope, but fortunately it never came. Maybe the difficulty grading was just because of the sheer weight of material making it difficult to work at times. I completed the coat in time for Christmas and my Mum was thrilled with it. (I'll get a better photo some time soon.)

By Christmas my jacket had stalled. It was close to completion, but I couldn't find the perfect buttons to finish it, but then last week I finally found the perect ones. Hurrah!

I admit, I was scared to make the button holes. Cutting into the fabric at the final stages felt terrifying in case I ended up ruining all the hard work I had put in. But with a sigh of relief I completed them without major mishaps, and here's the final jacket:

So, onwards - what should the next sewing project be?

February Daring Cooks Challenge

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

I make my own burger patties reasonably often as I like to know what's gone into my burgers. Also, I don't eat beef and it is often a bit tricky to find burgers made from any other meat. I  liked the idea of making patties for this month's challenge, but having previously tried out recipes for lamb, pork, chicken and turkey burgers I didn't want to make a meat recipe this time. Instead I chose to make some fishcakes - I figured they were the same shape and cooking method so technically could be counted as a patty!

I decided to use a combination of mashed potato and lightly smoked salmon fillet. To this I added some sweetcorn kernels, finely sliced spring onions, and peas, as well as an egg to bind it all together. I crushed some wholegrain crackers to crumbs and sprinkled these over my patties to make a crunchy crispy outside.

I then grilled these (the challenge was to shallow fry or bake the patties, but I hope I can be forgiven a minor transgression!) and served them with some homemade amai sauce (vinegar, ketchup, tamarind, soy, sugar), new potatoes, and crunchy vegetables. Yummy.

Thank you to the Daring Cooks for getting me to look out a new recipe: I think this one will become a regular feature on my dinner table!

The Guardian Comfort Food

So, did you collect the recipe cards in The Guardian newspaper last week?

I missed the Ottolenghi one, but my Dad is a gem, and knowing that I'm a fan he saved it from their copy for me. I love the turkey and sweetcorn meatballs recipe in the Otolenghi cook book, so it seemed a fine idea to try out the new recipe for turkey and courgette meatballs with a wasabi guacamole. It sounded a healthy and highly nutritious meal - just what I need now that I'm training for the London marathon. (About that - I may not have all that much time to cook exciting things between now and April.)

The meatballs were very easy to make. I thought they didn't sound like a meal by themselves so I served them with rice. This really wasn't the best accompaniment. I loved the flavours of the meatballs - courgette, turkey, mint and cumin are a wonderful blend - but next time I will make them into burger patties and serve them in toasted pitta breads with the guacamole on top. With some potato wedges it could be a dinner, or without the potato it would be a good weekend lunch.

So, the recipe's a keeper, but the serving needs some adjustment.

Find the Ottolenghi Comfort Food recipes here.

An update: these are WAY better as burgers - serve in a warm toasted pitta with paprika potato wedges and minty yoghurt. 

home decoration

This week I failed on the cooking front (no new recipes), but I did only get back from holiday on Monday afternoon to an empty fridge and bare cupboards, so I'm using that as an excuse!

I did, however, complete a blind for the house. We have a long window at the front of the house which is too long and too narrow for an off-the-shelf blind, so I decided to have a go at making a roman blind. Basically, I was tired of the neighbours seeing me in my pyjamas when I stumble out of bed and downstairs to make coffee every morning!

I was pretty pleased with the final result:

I thought it wasn't too bad for a first attempt. I followed some instructions I found online, with some minor adaptions, and it turned out to be quite straight forward to construct. The only awkward part was marking out (accurately) such a large shape for cutting the pattern.

10 on 10 January 2012

I'm late posting my 10 photos from the 10th January, but I hope I can be forgiven since I was on holiday somewhere with slow and intermittant internet access.

For other participants in the 10 on 10 photo project look here:


Here they are; my 10 photos taken on 10th January in Vinales Valley, Pinar del Rio Province, Western Cuba.