Cakes, Crafts and Customs

No, I haven't made any cakes in the past few weeks, but one of our local news stations, WAPT, is having a cupcake challenge in a few weeks. On their website, in the weeks leading up to this event, they have a section called "Show us your cakes," where people can upload photos of cakes/cupcakes that they have made. I uploaded a few of my favorite cakes last night so I need you to go in and rate them on the webpage. You do have to create a profile, but it doesn't take long at all. Here is the webpage address that will take you directly to my cakes: Ctuminello11's Cakes on WAPT.

Okay, on to the crafts that I have completed lately. I have loved getting to know my sewing machine, although we have had our fair share of yelling matches. The first project that I completed is a blanket with tons of old t-shirts. I have had stacks and stacks of t-shirts in my closet for years. T-shirts from high school, college and beyond. T-shirts that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of. T-shirts that bring back tons of old memories - such as the night that my college friends and I were having a mud fight on campus and I got a large amount of mud in my eye, had to go to the hospital to get it flushed out, and then had to wear an eye patch for a week. My roommate taped an eye from a magazine on top of my eye patch and it was so freaky. More to her than me, because when I would sleep my eye patch eye would stare at her!! Yes, I had to smile when I got to that mud stained t-shirt and included it in the blanket! This was a good project to start sewing on. It was simply sewing squares and t-shirt material was really easy to sew on. It doesn't unravel on the edges, so you don't have to hem it at all. And it turned out HUGE. I have 36 -  14" squares on each side, making it the size of a queen size quilt. I don't have any pictures of it, but I'll take some and post soon.

After making my blanket I have tons of leftover t-shirt scraps so I've been trying to practice my sewing on that. I made Taelyn a tiered skirt and then attached a shirred top to it. I don't like the two together though so I think I'm going to take the top off and do something else with it. I can't decide if I want to leave the skirt a skirt or make it a dress. The skirt has a lot of seams and doesn't look great if you are looking closely! But it taught me how to gather and make ruffles. And I loved shirring the top. Supposedly, Brother sewing machines can't shirr, but mine shirred like a charm. I didn't have any problems at all. I actually had less problems with the shirring than I did with sewing with regular thread. (How many times can I use the word shirr in 3 sentences. It's kind of an awkward word!). My lower thread tends to "birdsnest," according to google. I think it is a problem with my tension, but I can't figure out where it needs to be. It may be that the machine is just cheap. I am looking at new machines since I actually enjoy sewing!

So, I am definitely going to take the shirred top off of the skirt and add some sleeves to it. I may just leave it a little shirred top. Or I may attach it to something else that looks better. I'll let you know once I decide! It's nice working with scrap material because when it turns out looking badly you don't feel like you've wasted a lot of money!
Last night I wanted to do something quick with some tie-dyed t-shirt material from one of my high school t-shirts. I wanted to do a comfy little play skirt for Taelyn to bum around the house in. I was able to make it quickly before dinner. It isn't fantastic... it would probably help if I would attempt to use a pattern, but I haven't tried that yet. I tend to envision things in my head and then just go for it. Doesn't usually turn out like I hope, but at least I'm increasing my sewing skills, huh?

I have a picture of her wearing it (and she LOVED it!), but she doesn't have a shirt on in the picture. I don't want to exploit my child on the internet, so I decided not to post that one! I'll put her back in it with a shirt so that you can see it on!

On a different note, Scott is back in the country (hence the "customs" portion of the title)! I'll post more on their trip in the next few days once I've managed to drag all of the stories out of him! He doesn't volunteer information willingly, so it is a process!