March Apron

I know this is really late. I am sorry. I had these done for a little while now but just have been so busy sewing other things (that I will post about later) that I just haven't had any time to post this.
This apron is very simple and fun. I guess I should tell you the background story first. Last month on the 22 of February, I found the FLY Lady. She has changed my life. I have to tell the truth that I have lived in CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome) for years. I am a little ADD (OK maybe a lot) and I get lots of projects going and then move to the next and live a very busy life. House cleaning is not my favorite thing to do. I have never been very successful at it. I just seem to get so distracted with it that I end up starting everything and finishing none of it. Things seem to pile up and I don't know where to begin. Well, when I was led to the Fly Lady site, things changed for me. She has a wonderful plan of baby steps that helps the distracted to focus on their messes for only 15 minutes at a time. This concept is changing my life. My home is now not perfect yet but I can have people over without just dieing of mortification. My family is also slowly picking up these good habits and we are seeing family changes that are making life so much better. I know that her program isn't for everyone, but if you have been living with CHAOS or have clutter problems, I recommend giving her site a visit.
The March Apron was inspired by the Fly Lady ideas. It is my Fly Baby apron. It is simple in design so it can be quickly made and it is very functional. I use it when I am cleaning house. The pockets in the apron are made to carry my timer too help me manage my work. There is another pocket for my notebook. I use it as a mini "control journal" to keep me focused on what I am doing. I have spot for a pencil and a large middle pocket to put those things you pick up and need to put away. I love this little apron and hope you do too. You will have fun making it.

Here are the instructions:
First, get a good heavy dishtowel. If you don't have one then just cut out a rectangle of heavy fabric and hem it up. My dishtowel is 27 1/2" by 17 1/2" finished.


Next I attached the ties. For this apron I had my good friend Jill over and she brought her grommet press and put grommets in for me 3 1/2" down on each side. We did this so that the top of the apron can fold down in front over the apron ties. You can do it this way or you can attach them at the top corners of the apron. You don't need to use grommets. We just liked having and excuse to use the press. Hee Hee.
Here is a close-up of the holes. We added a scrap of heavy fabric to the back to re-enforce the grommets.

Next I made the pocket for the aprons. I made these of patchwork strips of fabric.
The pieces are :
black 10 1/2" x 5 1/2"
black 10 1/2" x 3 1/2"
red 10 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Plaid 10 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Sew the 5 1/2 black to the plaid. Sew the red 5 1/2" to the black 3 1/2". Next sew those two sections together.

Now attach the pocket to the apron. To do this, I top stitched around the outside of the apron. Then I stitched the pocket spots down. I went over about 1 inch for the pencil. Then I went over 4 inches from that and stitched along the seam of the black and plaid for the notebook pocket. On the right side of the pocket, I wet over 4 inches into the red fabric for the timer pocket.

To finish off the pocket I added a little patch with Mama Byrd on it. She is my little logo for Mama Byrd Creations.

As usual I did make up some extras and this time Rebecca got one for being my Fly baby partner and always cheering me on. Jill got one too for helping me with the grommets.
I do have a few left over and will put them on my Etsy site. Sorry these instructions are so sketchy but I feel really terrible that I didn't have them on before and really need to post them for you all.

To Vea, Michelle, Emma, and Jill

Yes this one is just for you (all other's reading are welcome too.) I was led to this site today and when I saw it I knew that you had to see it. I also know that I won't remember to show it to you for weeks if we have to rely on my memory so here it is. Eat your little aproned hearts out!

Easter Bunnies

My niece and I have been working on this doll. I am thinking of making a pattern for it if there is enough interest.

I got a custom order for one of these for Easter this year so I made up several at once and they sold really fast before I could get them loaded in here. I have 3 left and they are posted in my Etsy store now.
I have a Dark Chocolate Bunny,

A Carmel Bunny,

And a Marshmallow White Bunny.

Each mama bunny has 3 baby bunnies hidden in her skirt.

My girls love them. So does Jeddie. I am trying to work up a Daddy bunny version now with pockets or a backpack for babies. Little boys need to play "Family" too.

Conchas

We have a new Paneria that opened up in Neosho. We are so excited to be able to get Mexican treats not. However, we decided we wanted to try these at home. So I searched Pan Dulce recipes and did some tweaking so I could eat them too. I love Pan Dulce but can't have that many carbs all at once. I have come up with a whole wheat version that I like and my kids like. Even Bryan ate them which was amazing.

Here is my version.

Here is my recipe.
Whole Wheat Conchas
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 Tbsp yeast
2 tsp salt
6 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbsp Gluten
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
2 Tbsp Lemon juice
4 Tbsp Flax Seeds
Melt the butter and milk together in a pan to 110 deg. F.
Mix the yeast, salt, gluten, and 2 cups of the flour with a whisk. Add the milk and butter mix to this and beat well for 2 minuets.
Add the honey, eggs, lemon juice, ground flax seeds, and 1 more cup of the flour. Beat for 2 minutes.
Add the remaining flour until you have a stiff dough. (no more than the total 6 cups - remember that whole wheat flour takes time to absorb the liquid but when it does it can leave a stiff dough very dry, NOT GOOD).
Kneed the dough for about 5 minutes. Cover with a dish cloth and let rise for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, make the topping.
Vanilla and Cinnamon topping
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup white flour
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 tsp vanilla
Yellow food coloring (optional)
In a med bowl bead the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour, vanilla, and salt and mix until it has the consistency of thick paste. Divide the paste into 2 containers. Add the cinnamon to one and the food coloring to the other. (in the bakery they have yellow, pink and brown conchas).

When the dough is done rising, divide it into 16 equal balls and place them on a greased baking sheet (or two). Divide each bowl of topping into 8 balls, and pat them flat. Place the circles of topping onto the balls of dough and pat down lightly. Cut grooves into the topping like a clam shell (thus the name conchas or shells). To do this I used a canning jar lid. Cover them and let them rise for about 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375*F and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

You can make chocolate topping by adding 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder to one of the bowls of mix.
These are great warm or cold and with the wheat and flax seed in there they don't make a bad breakfast. :o)

Behold the Bread

I made this bread in my oven. I am still amazed! And yes, it did taste as good as it looks. So chewy and good.
My friend Jill came to my house for a diaper making day and brought a loaf of this bread and the recipe with her. I am so glad! I love bread and I love making good bread. I have dreamt of making bread that looks like this and now I have. Here is the link to the original recipe. When I made it, I did 4 times the recipe and added 2 Tbsp. gluten. This make 2 nice big loaves. I have tried this in whole wheat and am still working on the recipe to make that work well.
Here is how you do it.
First you mix the dry ingredients.

Then you mix in the water by hand or with a spoon.

This is what it will look like. Very wet and sticky.

Then you cover it with plastic wrap and let it set for 18 hours. It can go up to 24 hours if you need to. This is what it will look like.

Now dump it out onto a floured board and fold in thirds one way and then turn it and turn in thirds again.

Cover with an inverted bowl and let rise for 2 hours. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 450* and heat a lidded dutch oven for 1 hour.
Plop the dough into the hot dutch oven and put the lid on.
Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on. Then remove the lid and bake another 20 minutes.

Pull the loaf out of the oven and let it cool and a rack completely ... if you can. Hee Hee
Then Slice it and enjoy.

New Computer

Bryan got me a new computer today with more memory so I can do things so much faster. It is a nice upgrade. However, he forgot to make sure that the user was also upgraded. Soooo. I am almost in tears now with the frustration of trying to learn a new system. I have not felt the dumb in a while. I am going to have to learn a lot of things over again.
Argggg. Well at least I can still log onto the internet and at least get here and log in. I really shouldn't be posting anyway because I have some custom Easter Bunnies to sew up and I need to get things ready to post the March apron pattern. I am going to have to figure out how to use this computers photo program. !!!! HELP !!!!!!

Missouri Walking Sticks

Ok, if you are on any kind of diet, STOP reading this now!!! This will kill any diet but sometimes you just have to do that!!
This treat is Bryan's favorite. We buy them from our favorite candy house. They are not cheap but we only get them at Christmas (Or Bryan does in his stocking and I get a bite).
They are called Missouri Walking Sticks. I decided to try to make some at home and save myself the torture of a trip to the candy store when I am not supposed to eat any of it.
Here is what I did.
1. Melt down some caramels. You may have to add some cream or canned milk to soften it a bit.

I didn't have any so I just made up a batch of caramel from a recipe I had.
2. Take long pretzel sticks and dip them in the caramel. Give it a good twist to cover the end.

3. Now roll it in chopped nuts. I used pecans.

4. Set the stick on a lined tray to cool.

5. Drizzle the end of the sticks in chocolate if you like. I like so I did. :o)

I guess my drizzle turned out to be more of a dip.
6. Now you are done.

Now are the confessions. Obviously, Mine don't look like the ones in the store. They do taste good, I think. The other confession is that the caramel I made had only a list of ingredients and no clear instructions. Soooo.... I ended up cooking it too long and they got rock hard when they cooled. As a result we had suckers not chewy caramels. Still pretty good though.

My Funny Valentine

This is one of Hannah's Valentines. I just love them. We cut out doggy bone shaped pieces of tissue paper and stuck a sucker through the center, twisted them and secured it with tape. She wrote her name on them and took them to Pre-school. She was so thrilled to get to do what the big kids do and have a "class party".
By the way, her preschool teach had her first baby this weekend. She had a little girl named Elli. Hannah is so excited. We made her a custom Piggy Bag. I hope she gets a lot of good use out of it.

New Monkeys

New Not So Sock Monkeys have arrived on the scene.

These ones are actually making it over to my store. You can visit them here.

February Apron

I finally have to photos of the February Apron ready to be posted. This apron was pretty easy to make but I had some learning to do.
First off, I thought I would be smart and cut out all the aprons I was going to make all at once. Well that was a mistake! As a result, the mistake I made was multiplied by 4, instead of lesson learned and mistake corrected. I never learn! too ADD. :o) As you can see there are extras this time. One went to my grand-niece, the lovely Miss Ana. The rest are for sale here.
This apron was a lot of fun in spite of my mistake. What I did wrong was guessing on the size and thinking that it would fit all 3 of my girls. Instead they all fit Hannah. Like she needs that many aprons. This is the second time I have made this mistake and Sarah and Caroline are getting a little impatient for an apron that actually fits them and isn't all about princess Hannah. :o) Sisters!

To get started you need to assemble your tools.


Fabric Cuts: (I am giving the measurements for children you can size them up to fit an adult. I am just not posting both as the child apron worked so much better for me.)
For the skirt: cut a rectangle the size you want - I used the width of the fabric (from salvage to salvage) and then cut it 13 inches long for my little girls.
For the ties and strings: cut 2 - 2 1/2" strips the width of the fabric (2 1/2 x 44")
For the bib: cut out a paper heart that fits your chest (remember to keep seam allowance in mind and make the heart slightly bigger. Fold the bottom edge of the heart (the point) up about 2 inches or so. This will fit into the waist band and there is not need to cut it out of your fabric.

Place the heart onto your fabric and cut 2 out (these can both be of your print or you can have one out of muslin)


For the pocket: Cut out 1 heart the size you want for the pocket. This should be in a contrasting color.

Sewing instructions: (seam allowances are about 1/4")
1. Make the neck ties. Take 1 of your 2 1/2" strips and cut it in half. Take one of these pieces and cut it in half again. This gives you 2 - 2 1/2" by 11" or so strips. Fold these in half lengthwise and sew along one and and down the side. Turn them and press.

2. Attach the neck ties to the heart. Take your 2 ties and position them on the top of the heart where they look good to you and pin in place.

Now place the lining heart on top and pin in place. Sew around the sides of the heart.

Clip the curves and turn and press.

3. Find a good helper.

This isn't necessary but nice to have! I couldn't resist this happy face. He came in and "helped" me sew this part.
4. Make the skirt. Take your skirt piece and remove the salvages. (why? Because as they are washed and dried the shrink up more than the rest of your fabric and will make things pucker over time. Not pretty.) I curved the edges of the apron to make it easier to sew. To do this, place a bowl on the corners and cut around it.

Now finish off the edges of your skirt. You can do this several ways. My original idea (and the reason I cut the curved corners) was to put bias tape trim all the way around. However, I couldn't find the bag of 100+ tape trims I have. (you don't want to see my sewing room!!) Sooo. I went to option 2 which is to turn and fold and top stitch down. This works much better if you didn't already curve the seam. Yes my curve looks crappy. So on the second one I made I did a rolled hem edge on the serger. It looks much better.
Now you need to put a gathering stitch along the top edge of the skirt. Do this with 1 or 2 rows of wide stitches. I like 2 because it is more stable.
5. Now get your strings ready. Take the remaining 2 1/2" x 44" strip and cut it in half. This leaves you with 3 - 2 1/2" by 22" strips. Sew these together into a long string. I know this sounds crazy but trust me it works this way.

What this does for you is defines your waistband on a child's apron. On an adults apron you would do it similarly but you need much longer string pieces. You do the math for that. :o)
6. Attach the bib and skirt to the strings. Find the center of your string, skirt and bib. Mark it with a pin.

Layer them together. First the string, right side up. Then the heart, right side up and last the skirt right side down. (FYI- the heart is upside down in my picture here. I fixed it but forgot to take a new picture. Sorry)
Now adjust the gather of the skirt to fit inside the waistband section of your apron strings. Pin the layers in place.

Now sew these in place. You might want to increase your seam allowance unless you like picking out your gathering stitch. I am too lazy so I widen my allowance here.

6. Now you need to sew up the strings. I didn't get good photos of this but think you can figure it out. Take each string and fold it in half lengthwise. You will sew this up starting at the end of each string and going down the sides. Stop when you reach the skirt and back stitch.

Here I have folded the string and pinned it where the tie meets the skirt to remind me not to sew past this point.
Turn and press your strings.This is what your apron should look like now.

7. Top stitch waistband to finish. Now fold the back of the waistband under and pin in place.

Now you can whip stitch this in place or if you are too lazy like me, you can turn it to the front now and top stitch the waistband. You will fold the heart part up now and stitch right across it.
8. Make and place the pocket. Take the heart pocket you cut out and place it on a square of muslin. Stitch around the heart leaving a space for turning.

Trim the heart and clip the curves.

Turn and press. Top stitch around the heart.
Place the heart onto the apron where you want it and pin in place. Stitch around the heart leaving the top open.

YOU ARE DONE!!!

She is a doll! :o)