Banana Split Cake: Perfect Sleepover Fuel

My daughter, Olivia, turned 8 today.

I married into a family with a cruel tradition of awakening the birthday girl or boy with singing...

but at least there's also doughnuts (with a candle)...

and presents

To celebrate, five of her best friends walked home with us after school for a sleepover. My husband, truly a good sport, pulled a wagon loaded with pillows, sleeping bags and stuffed elephants for the 5/8-mile walk.

After makeovers, manicures and pedicures in the front yard,

I presented this rather unconventional birthday cake...

Wanna' see how to make it?

First, assemble all ingredients:

8 ice cream sandwiches

one gallon strawberry ice cream (or your choice)

hot fudge sauce

banana

maraschino cherries

whipping cream or whipped topping (not pictured)

nuts (optional)

You'll also need a 9-inch springform pan which you should place in the freezer a few hours before.

Working quickly, so the ice cream doesn't melt ... slice eight ice cream sandwiches in half lengthwise

Then crosswise,

You'll have 32 ice cream sandwich quarters:

But, you'll only need 31...

er... I mean, 30

Remove the springform pan from the freezer and line with the ice cream sandwiches.

And fill the inside with the strawberry ice cream... you won't need the full gallon.

Fill it to the top

Then, return the pan to the freezer and freeze for several hours.

When ready to serve, un-mold, place on serving dish and top with warmed hot fudge sauce, almost to the edge.

and whipped cream ... freshly whipped is best:

add sliced banana:

and a cherry:

How easy was that?

And since my girls' birthdays are only 10 days apart, next weekend we get to do it all over again!

I'll Have One of Everything Bag

"I'll Have One of Everything" Bag

My husband and kids gave me Anna Maria Horner's book, "Seams to Me," for Mother's Day and I'm really enjoying it. I like her style of writing and her patterns are very easy to follow and simple in their design. As soon as I started paging through it, I knew the first thing I would make would be the "I'll Have One of Everything Bag."

or, "How Many Echino Fabrics Can Fit On One Bag" Bag

I've been holding on to a lot of these Japanese import fabrics for some time. Most are leftovers from other projects, and like the good little fabric hoarder I am, I hold onto every last scrap. I have a serious problem with this as I have bins in my sewing room specifically devoted to small scraps of fabric that have no useful purpose... well, no useful purpose until a gem of a pattern like this comes along!

The beauty of this pattern is that it uses fairly small pieces of fabric - perfect! Most of the bag is made up of Echino prints by Etsuko Furuya - some are quite rare like my favorite dove on moss - and I've been holding on to some of them for close to three years.

sweet little dove

It's about time they've been rescued from the fabric bin and put to good use! There are also a few gorgeous prints by Daisy Janie, a Heather Ross linen from her Kokka collection, and some Gunilla from Ikea for good measure. Later, I decided it needed a little pop, so I made a tattered flower using this tute, and pinned it on near the handle. I used a voile from Little Folks, my nod to Anna Maria. The voile makes the prettiest, softest flowers.

soft voile tattered flower

The pattern was very straight-forward and the bag went together fairly easily with no problems. The only changes I made were to skip the interfacing since I was using heavier home-dec and linen blends for the piecing. Also, the braided strap is made from three strips instead of six. The lining is a light gray brushed canvas. I love the drawstring for the handle and I think it would be great on an apron as well.

I love how the bag looks ... not sure how it will function. While the bag itself is fairly large and has lots of space, the opening is pretty small and therefore I can foresee problems when I need to find something quickly. Of course, the smaller opening also means the contents won't have a chance to scatter if I drop it!

black hole

Emmeline Apron: My Mother's Day gift to me!

This is my favorite apron pattern ever! It's the Emmeline Apron by Sew Liberated. So feminine and flattering - it almost feels like I'm wearing a beautiful dress. I've sewn it three or four times for friends and family, but never for myself. Until now! I finished it late Saturday night as a Mother's Day gift to myself... actually, the uninterrupted sewing time was a gift from my incredible husband.

I made a few changes, specifically, I made it non-reversible. Might be a little too optimistic that I won't need a reversible apron from spills and messes in the kitchen, but it's heavy home dec canvas, and I was afraid it would be too bulky if I made it reversible. The fabric is from the County Fair line by Denyse Schmidt - which is similar to her Flea Market Fancy line - one of my all-time favorites.

The pattern instructs the sewer to bias bind the bodice with the neck strap fabric, but since I hemmed the entire apron, I just attached the neck straps to the top of the apron with a zig-zig stitch. The side straps, which are normally sandwiched between the two sides, were also attached with a zig-zag stitch. I serged all of my raw edges so that it's neat on the inside.

I see myself wearing this apron daily ... while making dinner, giving the twins a bath, or when I just want to feel pretty.

My first Ottobre: Harebell Dress

I finally ordered an issue of Ottobre! I first learned of the Finnish magazine with children's sewing patterns a few years ago, but never got around to ordering one. I was anxious to get some cute little boys clothing patterns, and this issue is especially boy happy! Don't ask me why the first thing I made was a dress for Little Man's twin sister. She needs another dress like I need a another yard of fabric...

I made the Harebell dress ... what the heck is a harebell? It's a flower, more commonly referred to as a bluebell in the States. I digress... I love this dress soooo much! It is so cute, went together beautifully and, if I do say so myself, looks RTW! Okay, on to the dress...

If you've never seen an Ottobre in real life, it can be a tad daunting. Okay, a lot daunting. Gorgeous pictures of cute kids in even cuter outfits and patterns for all of the clothing in a pull-out section in the middle. The pattern pages look like blueprints for the Golden Gate Bridge - millions of lines in all different colors overlapping each other, along with numbers and words written all over. In Finnish. Yeah. Each pattern coordinates to a particular color, and luckily, it's really not that difficult to focus on one particular color when tracing the patterns. My husband was pretty impressed when he saw what I was doing last night. Until he realized I was making yet another dress...

One note about tracing patterns... of course it's necessary for Ottobre, but regarding other patterns, I held out for a long time on this step. And, I still don't always do it... especially when I'm using a pattern from one of the major pattern companies and I paid .99 for it at Joann's. But, when I'm sewing a pattern from a European company like Farbenmix, or a pricier pattern like Modkid or Portabello Pixie, I always trace the pattern so I can use it for several sizes. Anyway, I use and love pattern paper from Joann's. It's behind the cutting counter along with the interfacings. It's less than $2/yard and it's super-wide, so really a terrific bargain. I've seen a lot of recommendations for Swedish Tracing Paper, or STP, but I've never tried it because it's only available online where I live. I think this is probably pretty similar and comparable in price. It's like a lightweight woven interfacing, so it's flexible, see-through and easy to trace, cut and pin.

Ottobre patterns don't include seam allowances, so I added those after I traced the pieces. I flubbed up on the yoke because I didn't realize that it was cut on the fold and I added seam allowances to that part... I figured it out before I sewed it, but I had to re-cut that piece. It still didn't fit right after it was sewn, so I'm not sure what I did wrong there, but I trimmed the overhanging fabric and it was fine. I'm sure it was a problem with my tracing.

The dress fastens with an invisible zipper - practically the only kind of zipper I use since I started making Barcelona skirts. I think it still needs a hook and eye, since there's a little gap at the top... I'll add that tonight after petunia is sleeping. (That's not her real name ... just a fitting moniker ... oh, I'm a little petunia in an onion patch ....

My favorite part of the pattern is the facings for the neckline and the armholes. I'm so used to doing bias binding, that I almost finished them that way, but I think this way looks so much better with the style of the dress. Love the sleeveless design that still covers all of her shoulders. I would probably add about an inch to the hemline, because I like to make her dresses a little longer in case she hits a growth spurt.

Here's the finished result! For the 98 cm size, I used less than 5/8" yard of pink gingham and the Amy Butler Midwest Modern (one of my all-time favorite prints) was scraps left over from another project. About four hours work, including tracing time, a break for lunch, and an emergency hunt for a missing dinosaur.

So, my very first Ottobre, but certainly not my last! I swear I'm going to make an outfit for the boy next!