Kindergarten!

For more than a year now Little Miss Lou has been talking about when she was little. Because you know that at 4 going on 5 you are all grown up and ready to take on the world. Or really just take on kindergarten. And that’s just what she started doing last week.

As a complete, rambling aside….How did this happen? It was but yesterday that I met her for the first time. She was tiny little thing, only slightly bigger than a five pound bag of flour. Her car seat seemed to consume her and her beautiful, pink baby flesh. And poof, overnight, she’s five and getting ready for her first day of school. I certainly don’t feel five years older but one look at her and I realize time has been marching along. And in that gap of time a beautiful kid emerged, full of energy, imagination, politeness, and the occasional bad joke.

So, what was I to do but make her a kindergarten wardrobe? I may not be able to stop those hands of time but I can certainly turn out a handmade wardrobe special enough to mark this amazing milestone.

Of course, the patterns are from Oliver + S. They are simple, classic silhouettes and they’ve never let me down. I picked the jump rope dress (because I not so secretly wish they had an adult size), the Sunday brunch jacket and skirt, and the 2 + 2 blouse and skirt. For fabrics I wanted a palette of red, orange, turquoise, and blue. That led me to prints from Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, Cosmo Cricket, and Anna Griffin. And because not everything can be a print I chose some red broadcloth and red fine wale corduroy that feels as soft as velvet.

I couldn’t be more proud of the wardrobe I came up with. It’s perfect for a girl her age and will take her from late summer through fall and early winter. Imagine the dress on chilly days with tights and a cardigan. Or those blouses with a cute pair of cords and a long sleeve T underneath. And then there is the brunch jacket with a dark pair of jeans, some wild socks, and a pair of brown mary janes.

But all that pales in comparison to how proud I am of Little Miss Lou. Though she was a bit nervous she handled herself with such confidence that first day. Congratulations, my sweet Lou! I hope you enjoy every day of this new adventure.

A Year in Sewing

See that? Up there? That's just a portion of all the sewing I did in 2009. Would you care to hear the full list of my comleted sewing projects? Yes? I thought so.

5 charming handbags, 12 coffee cozies, 3 clutches, 2 patchwork table runners, a swing swing smock, a chef's hat, a sleep mask, 4 Oliver + S playsuits, 2 comfy jumper dresses with bloomers, a flower girl dress, a smocked sundress, 8 yoga mat totes, a birdie sling, 2 patchwork belts, a set of embroidered dolls, 2 mousepads, 2 lazy days skirts with matching embroidered Ts, 8 half aprons, 2 full aprons, an oven mitt, a patchwork scarf, a ruffled spring blouse, a baby quilt, 3 zippered wristlets, a fabric flower pin, a weekender bag, and a stuffed elephant

It's a pretty impressive list, if I do say so myself. For a few of those projects I plan to share more details soon. For instance, the elephant I wanted to keep for myself but didn't and the bag that nearly killed me.

Coconut Cupcakes

Yeah, so I actually made this cupcakes back in July. But it snowed last night and when we woke up to a world covered in lovely fluffy white stuff, I remembered that I had promised to send the recipe to a friend many months ago (sorry, Kelly).

I started from this recipe, but made a few modifications that I think are essential to giving these just the right density. I made them gluten-free and they stayed moist and crumble-free for several days.

Cupcakes:

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs + 1 egg white

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon pure almond extract

1-1/2 cups gf flour*

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons buttermilk powder

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a standard-size muffin pan with paper liners.

Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand-held mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer running on low, add the eggs and egg white, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the gf flour, buttermilk powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until just incorporated. Stir in the apple sauce.

Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full with the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a baking rack and cool completely.

*I used the Gluten-Free Pantry French Bread & Pizza Mix, but you could substitute any all-purpose GF flour mix you have on hand, although I would recommend staying away from one based on garbanzo beans as these cupcakes have a rather delicate flavor that would likely get lost. I'm sure you could use regular wheat flour as well if you didn't need them to be gluten-free.

The original frosting recipe called for cream cheese, but my husband considers the addition of cream cheese to any dessert an "abomination" so I decided to try my hand at seven minute frosting instead. It was a snap to make and held up extremely well to the July heat and humidity. I will warn those of you unfamiliar with this stuff that it is very, very sweet (and delicious) but sweet. Ok, enough said.

I covered each cooled cupcake with approximately 2 tablespoons of the frosting which was plenty. The recipe made enough for at least two batches of cupcakes.

I then dipped the frosted cupcake into a bowl of shredded unsweetened coconut and, voila, a pretty and delicious cupcake emerged.

Semi-home made, crafting edition

I love giving hand crafted gifts, but there are many occasions when I can't find the time or summon the energy to pull together a Made by Elise original. Lately I've been whipping up last minute gift bags for purchased outfits, books and the like. They're quick to make and are a lovely way to individualize a present. And, quite honestly, the bag is likely to still be in use long after the contents have been outgrown.

This little bag was made for my niece's third birthday. I used some re-purposed linen from a dress I bought at the thrift store for $2 and appliqued on a Wee Wonderfuls Tulip Fairy Stitchette that I stitched up on linen a while ago and had hanging around. I even managed to use the hem of the dress for the top so the bag literally came together with three seams, four button holes and a yard of purple cording I found in my box of random sewing stuff (everyone has one of those, right?). Inside the bag was a little outfit I put together (but didn't manage to photograph) comprised of a Lazy Days Skirt in a printed corduroy and a T-shirt and tights from Target.

For a birthday gift for a certain one year-old, I made this simple tote from a fairy tale print purchased long ago from Superbuzzy. The handles are 3/8 inch grosgrain ribbon that I stitched on by hand, adding four buttons for detail. Inside was another Target outfit and a little board book that I thought would delight his hip Vancouver parents as much as the sushi-loving birthday boy himself (I was correct).

Next up, a new baby/new mom gift that I'm heading straight to the sewing room to finish.

I'm back!

Why, hello there. Remember me? I can't believe it's been five months since I posted but thankfully Tory has been doing an awesome job keeping the blog going in my absence. And the reason for my absence, you ask?

Yes, I am pregnant, and with triplets no less. Things were, shall we say, rough for many, many weeks and in addition to having no desire to craft or pick up my camera, I just couldn't defile this happy space with detailed descriptions of just how sick I was feeling. Things are much improved at this juncture and I am in full-on sewing, knitting and nursery planning mode. I need to take some photos of my recent projects and then I'll be back to share.

Let There Be Ruffles

Being a bit of a planner and organizer I like to get my Christmas shopping and making done early. However, my colleague put me to shame in this regard when, in May, she requested that I make some aprons for her to give as Christmas gifts. That’s right…more than seven months in advance.

A week later I showed her piles of beautiful fabrics. She chose some of my favorites from Heather Bailey and Amy Butler, prints she thought would perfectly suit her mom and sisters. The style she requested was a half apron with a ruffley hem, cute pocket, and ties long enough to come around to the front. No problem!

I suffered with a mental sewing block before finally getting around to putting these together though. I think I feared the ruffley hem. But then I found my sewing mojo and the gathering foot I bought more than a year ago. Yep, I’d completely forgotten about it. I wish I hadn’t.

What you can do with that foot is amazing. You start with two perfectly flat, boring fabrics and in a minute or two you are left with one gathered piece of fabric attached to a flat piece of fabric. From now on everything shall be ruffled!

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Apple Cider Doughnuts
Source: Food Network Magazine

Ingredients: *****
The stars of this recipe were our freshly picked apples and the locally pressed apple cider. With such fresh, delicious ingredients it’s really hard to go wrong…even with a doughnut.

Preparation: ***
Doughnut making is not for the weak of heart. It requires time to make the applesauce that goes into the dough. Then there is the chilling time, rolling, and cutting. All that is doable. What comes next though can be a little scary: the deep-frying. I went with a relatively narrow saucepan, about 7”-8” across, with tall sides to keep everything well contained. You also need a good thermometer and patience to get the oil heated to the proper temperature. Don’t try to speed this up. My final word of advice in prepping these: don’t crowd the pan. Two to three at a time worked perfectly with my pan size and meant the temperature stayed pretty steady.

Taste: *****
These doughnuts were delicious. They were everything I’d dreamed about and I’d dreamed quite a bit in the week since we went apple picking. Usually I just go for instant gratification and get half a dozen doughnuts at the orchard. However, the orchard we went to this year did not have a single doughnut. Shocking, right? I’m glad they didn’t though. It gave me just the push I needed to try these. And in the end they were better than anything I could have purchased. They were just the right combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and apple. The best part may be what they didn’t have - that heavy in your stomach feeling. So go ahead and sit down with two doughnuts next to your steaming mug of cider. You’ll be happy you did.