FOODIE - Cornish Hen

Hello Everyone,

I love to cook just as much as I love to sew.

When I cook on Sundays, I cook enough food to the last the entire week, although I like cooking, I don't want to cook EVERYDAY.

I prepare a meal prep for the week, Saturday is a free day (no cooking), I normally eat out on Fridays and Saturdays.

This week, I made Cornish Hens, I used fresh herbs from my garden (yes, I also grow a garden).  I used basil, rosemary, oregano and thyme.  I love using herbs and veggies from my garden.

I washed and dried the herbs, then I used my chopper (Pampered Chef Chopper) to chop the herbs to make a rub.

I mixed the seasonings Adobe, lemon pepper and olive oil with the chopped herbs to make a paste.

I pat dried the Cornish Hens, and I lift the skin on the Cornish Hen to rub the herbs paste directly on the meat.  I placed two small celery pieces inside.

I baked the Cornish Hen on 350 degrees for 1 hour.

The local grocery store had all peppers (green, red, yellow and orange) on sale for $1.00/each.  Since my peppers are not ready to be picked yet, I bought 2 of each and sliced them and put them in the freezer for later use.

I steamed broccoli and added the frozen sliced peppers to the broccoli along with adobe and lemon pepper seasoning.

I made Sun Tea by sitting a class jar of water with 4 tea bags in the sun on a table on my deck.

This was my Sunday dinner along with Sun Tea

GRAFFITI MAXI DRESS

Hello Everyone,

When I go shopping with my clients, I focus on helping them pick their pattern and fabric, if I see some fabric I like, I make a "note" of it in my pad and I keep my focus on my client's project.  Well, when I saw this beautiful graffiti fabric, I feel in love with it and I knew I had to have it. This fabric feels absolutely wonderful, it's a knit fabric.

I kept my focus on my client "that day".  Two days later I went back to the fabric store to purchase this beautiful fabric. During my drive to the fabric store, I prayed they still had it, and they did.  I purchased the fabric from Vina's Fabric and Bridal in Langley Park, Md.

I knew I was going to make McCalls 6559, View D, I had to make a dress that was going to totally capture the beauty of this fabric.
  
The fabric is thin, so I made an underlining with tricot fabric, I don't like for people to see thru my clothes (I still wear a slip, I'm "ole skool").  

The lining gave the dress a very nice weight and it feels very soft against my body.

I'm using my new fabric care labels in my clothes now.

The first day I wore this dress was to see the "Born For This: The BeBe Winan Story".  After the play, I was standing outside the Arena waiting for the Valet to bring me my car, a young lady commented on my dress, I told her I made it the day before, all of sudden I was having a conversation about my dress with about 10 women who wanted my business card and what to feel the dress.  I was asked a lot of questions about my sewing skills.  

One lady said "it only took one person to say something, now you are passing out your business cards."

PURCHASING THE RIGHT IRON

I've been sewing for over 30 years and I've been doing custom sewing for 10 years now.  I've burned out several irons over the years.  Having the right iron is very important.  Sometimes you think you're saving money when you purchase an inexpensive iron, the truth of the matter is, you really don't, especially if you're using the iron for a business.

Over the years I've purchased a lot of irons which later burned out because of the volume of pressing involved with the amount of sewing I do for my business.  Throughout the years, as my knowledge in sewing expanded, I found the irons I was purchasing were the wrong kind/type.

My most recent disappointment with an iron was the Oliso.  The first year I had the iron, it started leaking.  I would have to keep a hand towel on the ironing board to catch the leaking water so it would not damage the fabric.  Two years later, my Oliso iron had burned out completely.  When I tried using it one day, I filled it with water and the water ran right through the iron onto my ironing board.

I was very disappointed because I had several projects that needed to be completed.  At this point I was fed up with irons not lasting so I decided to invest in a professional iron.  I did some research on several irons, I also talked to a few of my sewing buddies who had professional irons.  Several irons were recommended, such as the Reliable and the "Hot Steam SGB-600".

After reading some reviews, I decided to purchase the Hot Steam SGB-600 from Wawak.  

During my research I read the hose that's attached to the water bottle that leads to the iron needed to 3 feet above the iron.  One of my sewing members used a plant hook at the top a doorway in her business, someone else used an expanding hook in her "ceiling", I definitely didn't want to do that.  A suggestion was made to use an IV stand, that's right an IV stand.  Again, I did my research because I was concerned about the IV stand being able to hold the water bottle once it was filled.  I decided to give it a try.  I purchased the IV stand from Amazon. 4 leg IV Stand

Once I had everything I needed, I assembled the iron and the IV Stand, I attached the water bottle to the IV Stand and it worked.

I now have the right iron for the volume of work I do for my business.

EMBRACING MY GRAY HAIR

From the first time I started seeing a few strands of gray hair (which have been a few years now), I've been coloring my hair to hide my gray.  I would not let my gray strands see the light of day, LOL!!!

Well, since I've been working my sewing business full time from my home I was not venturing outside as much because I was trying to get a handle of the business.  I was not in constant contact with people like I was when I was working a full time 9 to 5 job, which meant I did not have a need to color my gray hair as often.

One day I decided to take a trip to the grocery store and I forgot I had not colored my hair.  I ran into one of my girlfriends while I was shopping.  She said "LaToria, don't color your hair anymore".  I said "what?"  I had completely forgotten my gray hair was now visible for the world to see.  She said "don't color your hair anymore, that gray looks nice on you."  This took me by surprise.  I told her I would give it some thought.  She kept staring at me while we were in line waiting to pay for our groceries.  As we walked to our cars to go home, she said "don't color your hair anymore".

A few weeks later I was going to a meeting, a man was coming out of the building as I was entering the building.  He said "I like your hair", I smiled and said "Thank You."  This made me think about what my girlfriend told me in the grocery store.  Of course, when I got home I told her about it.  She said "see I told you."

My sister-in-law saw me recently, she told me the gray looked sexy on me with my cute face, LOL!!!

I used to wear my hair on my forehead, but one morning when I took my scarf off  my head, my hair was pushed back off my forehead showing my gray hair and I looked at it a few times and I began to like the look.  Now, I wear my hair off of my forehead with my gray showing around the frame of my face and I'm embracing the change.

MOTHER TO BE DRESS

Hello Sewing Family,

A few weeks ago I received a telephone call from a friend whom I made a dress for her Birthday Celebration.  She wanted to know if I would make a dress her niece for her baby shower, of course I said "yes".

We took a trip to Hancock's Fabrics to look through maternity patterns and to pick out fabric.  For the fabric, she picked out a beautiful red ponte knit.  It had a beautiful feel and weight to it.

BODICE OF DRESS:

We found Simplicity Pattern 1468 for the top of the dress, I used View B because she wanted long sleeves.

ADJUSTMENTS:
I basted the top of the dress together and I had her come over for a fitting.  We made minor adjustments, such as, making it crisscross in the front a little deeper so she could show a little cleavage (her suggestion), and we made the side seams a little tighter for a closer fit.

She also wanted the left front the of bodice to go under the right breast.

BOTTOM OF DRESS:

My initial thought was to use the bottom of a dress pattern but instead I decided to "drape" the fabric around her stomach.  The fabric was 60"wide so it was more than enough to go around her stomach.

I made gathers at the waist of the skirt and added a left front slit.  I gathered the waist of the skirt to fit the bodice.

She looked beautiful in the dress.  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of her wearing the dress at this time because she was not camera ready, but she did promise me that she would take pictures at the baby shower and send them to me.  So pictures of her in the dress will be posted soon.

SEWING BEHIND THE SCENE

Hello Sew Family,

It's been awhile since I've posted something, but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing.  I've been doing A LOT of teaching for the past 8 months, I had no idea teaching others to sew was going to be such a big hit for my business.  I thought the custom sewing was going to keep me busy.  Speaking of custom sewing, I've been doing some sewing for my clients in addition to teaching others how to sew.  A client asked me to make her some pencil skirts and A-line skirts for a fashion show she's participating in at the end of February.

I made a total of 11 skirts, she picked up the skirts tonight and was very happy with the end result.

Here is a picture of the pencil skirt I made.  I only took one picture, but I made several of these skirts.

Look at the unique, beautiful fabric she wanted the A-line skirts to be made from.  I would not normally look at this type of fabric, but after seeing the outcome of the skirts, I will definitely think outside the box when it comes to different kinds of fabric.

I had to pay attention to how I positioned the pattern so the faces would be in the right position (not upside down).

FIRST CLIENT SEWING IN 2016

One of my students is a nurse, she didn't trust her sewing to make her scrubs, so she commissioned me to make them for her. I love the fabric she picked, especially the military fabric. I added the contrast color on both of them, I can't wait for her to see them.