Alfajores

I'm getting a bit better with meal planning: I'm making yummy food for dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day. For example: this week we had mango cheese-cake popsicles, Colombian empanadas, a cold pasta salad and alfajores. I don't usually take pictures of when I cook or the process because I don't feel too great about my kitchen, there's not enough space or good spots for nice pictures and lighting is far from ideal. Also, I'm mostly cooking other people's recipes and it doesn't make much sense to do a tutorial of cooking what someone else made (and for which they already have a tutorial). Except perhaps to say YAY! Yummy.

I am adding successful recipes to a Pinterest board so that I can quickly go over them and repeat past successes.  But back to last week's experiments. Here are some pics of the alfajores I made:  I covered some in chocolate in the Argentinean style to add a little twist to the recipe.  When my beater wasn't working I worried about the cookies, but it turned out that creaming the sugar and butter by hand was just fine, the end product was just as delicious.  I'm now on the hunt for a round cookie cutter to make smaller cookies, for these I used a drinking glass and an empty crystal light canister, and ended up with just about 10 alfajores. Smaller cutter would equal more alfajores, making them easier to share.

Now that I know that the alfajores are yummy and easy to make, perhaps next time I will take some pictures, and document my own twists on the recipe. I'm thinking I could include some lemon zest in the shortbread, and then finish them differently, for example rolling the edges in coconut, dusting with sugar or coating with chocolate: 3 different kinds of alfajores to chose from, in dainty sizes to share. Sounds like a plan.

Volunteering at ScrapDC

 I've been working on a freelance job, so while it does not take up all my time, I find that once I sit in front of a computer, I tend to spend most of my day there, and it is  easy to get distracted from work due to shiny internet stuff.  However, I have been busy!

I volunteer at a creative reuse center called ScrapDC at 52 O St. NW and last week my schedule was packed with ScrapDC activities!  I went over there on Thursday to do my hours, where I usually organize shelves, put away things and sometimes make new things from the materials available at the store. A previous week, I spent the whole afternoon organizing the fabric area, and it ended up looking like this:

Not too bad for different sizes, weights and types of fabric!

Then on Friday I went to a neighborhood public charter school that we've been working with as a judge for a creative reuse vocabulary fashion show, where kids would have to illustrate through a costume a vocabulary word, ideally repurposing and recycling materials, instead of buying things new.  On Saturday morning we were at the Renwick: they were hosting a family day with crafting activities and we had gift packages made with empty toilet paper rolls and decorated with fabric, string and paper. Some great pictures of the finished products are on the Facebook page. I also had a chance to make stuff from the other organizations there: I made a pipecleaner kitty sculpture in a jar, and a beaded bracelet:

I love making things, and whenever I'm at Scrap I can't help but be inspired by all the materials around me. With the lack of craft, fabric or notions stores that are metro accessible in DC Scrap certainly fills a niche and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Making a Quilted Laptop Sleeve

So what have I been up to?  I've completed another of my "to do" tasks on the sidebar! I FINALLY finished the laptop sleeve I'd been making, tired of stuffing my computer without any protective layer inside my handbag, where all sorts of unsavory finish-marring characters hang around. I used some Marimekko fabric from the Crate&Barrel outlet for the inside, a scrap of poly-batting and then some kitenge looking fabric I got in the street market in Nairobi, Kenya for the outside. The hook and loop tape was repurposed from one of those cloth bags they are packaging bed sheets in nowadays.

 I have made laptop cases before, and I always use different methods. I, however do not have any photographs of either, which is one of the reasons why I'm doing this blog: I want to remember what I've made, and see it even after it leaves my hands. The first one I ever made used interfacing on the outside fabric and was lined with black fleece. I sewed around all edges with right sides together and then turned it inside out. I did a quick line of stitching around the opening edge and I think I used hook and loop tape to close it.  When I changed computers, I gave my old laptop to my mom, and the sleeve went with it.

The second case I made was for my netbook. I used leftover fabric from quilts, this time Kangas from Tanzania my sister in law had, and some cottons from Joanns. It had a french seam with binding around the edges, and the closure was a button and a loop of cord. Because there was only a center button and the edges weren't rounded, the edges would flip up and drive me mad, but only I noticed, it seemed everyone else complimented me on it! I gave the netbook to my sister when she was left with no computer and no money to buy a new one, and the sleeve went with it as well.

While making the current sleeve, I traced around my laptop and added a bit extra so that I would be able to put the cables or mouse in the sleeve with the computer if I needed to.  I quilted it first, making a sandwich with the fabrics and the batting, then I cut out the specific shape I had decided, and I sewed it with the lining to the inside and the edging on top so that I could fold it over and cover the seam allowances.  The front of the sleeve has more fabric than the back, to make room for the height of the computer. From the side, the binding is flat on the tabletop, instead of sticking out in the middle, which would've happened had the front and back been the same width. In the bottom, I just made some pleats to ease in the difference.

 I made the edging by ripping strips from leftover lining fabric, to tie the inside and the outside together. I could've done it on the bias, but because I don't have a cutting mat or rotary cutter, making strips with scissors on a true bias is not worth the effort.  I know that bias tape goes nicely around edges when ironed into shape. Because I didn't ease in the tape on the curves, there is less fabric going around the seam allowance than where it was sewn which makes the edging fold DOWN towards the laptop case, looking like it has a lip, and I like how that looks.

I also sewed on the binding by hand: first pass to attach binding and close sleeve was done with the machine, and I noticed my machine skipped a lot of stitches when it was going over bulkier areas. I didn't want to deal with skipped stitches on the finished edging, since they would be very obvious: so I sat down with Hemlock Grove on Netflix and after a few episodes, I was done.

So I now have a roomy laptop sleeve that reminds me of my travels. I'm glad I finally finished it, and quite happy that my laptop will be protected and in style!

Adding a cross-body strap to a purse

I have a handbag that I love to use. It is big and roomy and the olive canvas with brown accents is neutral enough that it goes with most anything. However, it keeps slipping from my shoulders whenever I use it, so whenever I wear it, I only have one hand free to do other things since the other is needed to keep the purse in place.  I decided to solve the problem by making a strap for it!

 Sometimes I need to force myself to just get things done: I had procrastinated the sewing of the strap because I wanted to sew it on the machine, make it adjustable, removable and I was waiting to find the right fabric, the leather remnant, the metal slides in similar finish and the clips so that it matched the rest of the purse.  And in waiting for the "perfect match" I was walking around with an unsolved problem.

In the end, my need was to have a cross body purse strap. Not to have the best looking, most amazing dead-ringer strap. So on the belief that anything is better than nothing, I just went ahead and made one with what I had in hand. Cost for the project = 0.

I cut a strip from an upholstery fabric remnant I had lying around that was in the same muted hues as the purse. I folded the raw edges in and then using embroidery floss I sewed a double sided running stitch.  For the end I just folded in the selvedge and did some cross stitches to keep it in place, with the sides being visibly whip stitched together.  

I liked this experiment in doing instead of thinking about doing. I call it success!