PEPPERS, PEPPERS, PEPPERS

I love cooking with peppers.  During the summer I grow a vegetable and herb garden.  When the summer is over I still like to cook with fresh vegetables and herbs, some herbs grow all year round such as rosemary, thyme and oregano.  I can pick these herbs from my garden year round but I have to purchase peppers from the grocery store during the winter months.

When the peppers are on sale for $1.00 each, I purchase a few in each color, green, red, yellow and orange.  I slice them and put them in freezer bags to use during the winter months. 

I also put them in containers in the refrigerator to use on  my salads and omelettes.

I cannot image cooking my food without using peppers.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Your talent is God's gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.  

                                                                                                       Leo Buscaglia

CROCK POT SPINACH ITALIAN TURKEY MEATBALLS

Sewing and cooking are my two favorite things to do.  Well, sewing is my PASSION!!!

When I cook dinner on Sundays I also cook enough for my meal prep for the week.  I do not like to cook during week, I'd rather come home and sew, LOL!!!

This past Sunday (March 1, I'm a little late posting this) I made Crock Pot Spinach Italian Turkey Meatballs, I got the Italian Turkey Meatballs recipe from Skinnytaste.com and I added thawed frozen spinach to the recipe.

Skinnytaste has some AMAZING recipes, here's the recipe for the Crock Pot Italian Turkey Meatballs.  

The recipe used crushed tomatoes for the sauce, I opted to use a jar of Romano & Ricotta Cheeses Pasta Sauce I bought from SAM's Club.  I like the taste of pasta sauce.

I had the meatballs on top of Plant Based Garlic Parsley Fettuccine Noodles I bought from my local Giant grocery store, they were in the 50% off section, I bought 3 bags.

This is what the noodles looked like when they were cooked.  You can see specks of the parsley in the noodles.

Below are pictures of the preparation of my meatballs.

Spinach added to the ground turkey

I LOVE crock pot cooking, you can put everything in there, set the timer and do other things around the house and/or run errands.  When you come back home, your dinner is ready. I also use Slow Cooker Liners when I use my crock pot, it makes for an easy clean up.

This dish was DELICIOUS!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Your talent is God's gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.  

                                                                                                       Leo Buscaglia

MY FINAL MUSLIN

This is my final muslin for the prom garments I'm making for 2020.  I'm ahead of schedule and it feels good.  My plan this year was to meet with my clients early in the year so I would not be stressed close to the prom dates trying to complete the garments. This muslin looks soooo good that it can actually be a final garment. 

The fitting went very well, now it's time to move on to making her actual prom dress.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Your talent is God's gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.  

                                                                                                       Leo Buscaglia

I'M MAKING PROGRESS

I'm making progress on my test garments (muslins) for my prom orders.  I've made a muslin for a jacket and a dress, I have to finish the bottom of the dress and I have one more muslin to make for another dress.  My clients will come over for a fitting of their test garments before I make the actual garment out of the fashion fabric.

I remember when I was first told about making a muslin before I cut into the fashion fabric.  I fought the idea of making a muslin until I was told it will save me money replacing the fashion fabric if I have to make changes.  Now making a muslin is a norm for me.  Some people say it's a lot of work.  Yes it can be a lot of work and yes, I am making the garment twice but I'm only making the shell, such as the front, the back, the sleeve, the collar, the pant legs and waistband.  I do not make a muslin of the lining, I only make the outside pieces.  Making a muslin will give my clients the opportunity to make alterations to give them the exact fit they want.

Once all of the alterations are done to the muslin, I will take it apart and use it as a pattern to make their garments out of their fashion fabric.

I LOVE sewing and I Thank GOD constantly for blessing me this talent.  This is definitely a GOD GIVEN TALENT!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Your talent is God's gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.  

                                                                                                       Leo Buscaglia

PINK AND BLACK SEQUIN TOP

I will be attending a Pink and Black Event in March, the event will consist of dancing, dinner and a live band.  I LOVE to dance, I'm a "hand dancer".

I knew I was going to wear a pair of black pants but I didn't have a pink blouse to wear with the pants.  When I visited my favorite fabric store "Sarah's" with one of my prom clients, I decided to take some extra time to look for some fabric to make a blouse.

I found this beautiful pink and black sequin fabric.  I said "bingo", this will be perfect.  I knew I wanted to make a blouse where the fabric will speak for itself.  

I decided to use Simplicity Pattern 7013, I made View A. I think the pattern may be Out Of Print (OOP).  The blouse turned out beautifully.  Of course I will take pictures of me wearing the blouse.

I loved the fabric so much that I went back to Sarah's and purchased some more to make a sheath dress for this coming spring/summer.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Your talent is God's gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.  

                                                                                                       Leo Buscaglia

IT'S THAT TIME.... PROM SEASON

It's Prom Season!!!  That's right, it's that time of the year already.

I have 2 dresses and a male jacket to make.  I'm starting off pretty good this year, I've met with all of my clients, I took their body measurements and discussed the garments they want to have made.  I've purchased the patterns, I've scheduled a trip to Sarah's Fabric Store for all of my clients.  Sarah's is one of my FAVORITE places to take my prom clients to purchase their fabrics, they have such a wide selection of fabrics.  If I can't find what I want at Sarah's my #2 favorite place is Vina's Fabrics which is across the street from Sarah's.

I'm getting an early start on making the muslins for each garment, I've already cut out one pattern and I'm working on laying out the muslin.  I don't want to be stressed out near their prom dates. Prom season is VERY BUSY for me but I love the look on my clients' faces when they see the final product.

I will not be posting or blogging the pattern numbers or showing pictures of the final garments until my clients have posted them and have given me permission to post their pictures. 

For now, the work has begun. 

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Your talent is God's gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.  

                                                                                                       Leo Buscaglia

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! COATS, VEST, TOP AND SKIRT

Happy New Year! I know we are just about through the month of January but this is the first opportunity I've had to create this blog post. I stopped making resolutions years ago. I'm going into 2020 with goals to accomplish for my sewing business and some personal things as well.

One of my goals is to blog more this year, In 2019 I let A LOT of content go without blogging about it and it was a busy year for me.  I was teaching sewing classes in my home, the classes grew so much I had to move my classes out of my home and into a sewing studio where I rent space to teach my sewing classes.  I taught A LOT of private group sewing classes as well.

Another one of my goals is to replace my Ready to Wear (RTW) clothes with clothes that I make. For every garment I make, I will remove a RTW garment from my closet. The goal is to eventually have 90% of the clothes in my closet what I made myself.  For example if I make a skirt, I will remove a RTW skirt from my closet. I did remove a few things from my closet in 2019 and I donated them.

Moving forward my blog will not only be about sewing it will be about all of the creative things I do from sewing, cooking, gardening and teaching sewing classes, my blog name says it all "LaToriaSewCreative".  LOL!!!

Now onto my first makes for 2020. I had a 3 month nice long break from teaching my sewing classes, so I decided to make myself as few things before prom season starts.  I didn't make as much as I wanted to but this is a start.

I made 2 coats (as the pattern calls it) and a vest from Simplicity 8265 it's very easy and quick to make.  You can dress them up or down as you will see in my pictures. This tan knit fabric was given to me by a young lady in my Church, it was her mother's fabric.  I can't wait to wear it to Church so she can see what I made from it.

I paired this coat with two different skirts, I love both looks. The black skirt was made from Simplicity 1072. The patterned skirt is a pencil skirt I made last year that was made from my body measurements.  I also made the tank from Vogue 8138, this is my go to top when I want to make something quick.

This is what the top and skirts look like without the jacket. 

This coat was made from fabric from my stash. I made this coat with the slit on the sides which is View E. I paired it with the tank top I made and a pair of leggings I made a few years ago.

This coat has a back seam, for this particular one, because of the print I laid the back pattern piece on the fold so it could be one piece.  It turned out really nice.

This is what the top and leggings look like without the coat.

The last one I made was a vest, I purchased the knit fabric from Joann's Fabric, I removed some of the fabric from the back seam because I wanted a more fitted look with this vest and I shortened the hem by 4 1/2 inches.  I love the color red, I paired it with a striped dress I made last year.

 I also paired it with a pair of RTW skinny jeans. I can see myself rocking this a lot on the weekends.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my first makes in 2020.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Your talent is God's gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.  

                                                                                                       Leo Buscaglia