Here is my first attempt at using my MiniMe. This Simplicity pattern is a slip-on, and my dress form made that quite a challenge since I gave her "cap sleeves." (see below)

This was really fun, though. I made it twice, since the first attempt was for gorilla shoulders. I reworked it and finished it this morning.

I did finally stuff my dress form this week, as you can see here. She's full of poly-fil and grocery bags and a bit of cardboard, plus I anchored her with a copy of Quicksilver, which I regret reading and won't read again.

Grecos

Sorry. Been travelling around. Just cooking repeats for awhile.

However, tonight we had Greek-ish tacos, or Grecos as I will call them from now on. I think the recipe came from epicurious, but we made a few changes to keep it real.

We are not red onion people, so I omitted that first thing. And I really like the convenience aspect of this one, as I have discovered the rotisserie chickens in our pretentious grocery store. We took the advice of the article and used the carcass for stock. Lots of stock.

The recipe calls for naan which I couldn't remember to pick up in the pretentious grocery, and our humdrum grocery didn't have it. I used some sort of flatbread, wrap like product, which worked fine. I just cut them in half and didn't toast them for too long in the oven.

I think this would work with Greek-ified pork or lamb, too.

Grecos (or Greek Chicken Gyros)

Rotisserie chicken, picked clean of meat, and carcass reserved for stock
1 1/2 c greek yogurt
2 seedless cucumbers
4-5 garlic cloves
lemon juice
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 c mint, minced
1/3 c parsley
diced red onion (or not)
1/3 c olive oil
1 t dried rosemary
1 t dried oregano
naan, unpocketed pita, or flatbread of some sort
iceberg lettuce, shredded

Peel and grate one cucumber. Squeeze out all excess water and place in a medium bowl. Add the yogurt, 1/2 t lemon juice, salt and pepper, and about 1-2 cloves worth of garlic. (You have just made tzaziki.) Set aside.

Dice the other cucumber in 1/4 inch pieces and place in a medium bowl. Add the tomatoes, mint, parsley, red onion if you must, salt and pepper and some more lemon juice. Set aside.

In a small skillet, heat the oil and add the rest of the garlic and the dried herbs. Cook 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Toss about 3 T of this with the shredded chicken. Use the rest to brush on the bread.

Heat oven broiler. Brush oil on the bread, put the bread on a sheet pan and cover with foil. Heat 3 minutes, then remove foil and let it brown until some dark spots appear.

Assemble the Grecos: Place the chicken on the bread, then top with the tzaziki, salsa and shredded lettuce.

Torture, or Revenge?

I have been learning to sew. Teaching yourself is really hard, but gets easier the more proper tools one acquires. Sewing for yourself is really hard to adjust; somehow pinning things to yourself and standing back from yourself and looking at yourself is all so difficult. You need a dressmaker dummy for that.

I have been researching making a dressmaker dummy online for a few weeks now. Several sites were helpful, but reading them all made it a bit easier. I suckered Shaw into helping me; Shaw is a VERY GOOD HUSBAND/SPORT.

Two rolls of duct tape later, we finished in about two and a half hours. I haven't stuffed it yet, but the form is totally assembled. Here are some entertaining pictures Shaw took of the process.

We started with an old undershirt, cut and taped up to be more form fitting, and added more of another shirt to the bottom for length. The first two layers are in black duct tape. (Did you know they made duct tape in colors?)

The next is my favorite. Just more tape than the last one. The whole top part of me is encased in black duct tape, and although I am holding scissors in a stylish fashion, what you don't know is I can't move my arms up or down and it was my only option.





Hours later, the final layer was white duct tape. I was pretty tired of standing perfectly still at this point in the process, so I used the wall for support.




I've got to name this little thing now and start sewing something. I can't call it a Mini Me since it is the same size. And now that I know the exact size of my backside, we've started exercising in the mornings again. Argh!

Sophie Rags

My first little sewing project for Sophie was a direct order from the blond herself. She requested something pink, with flowers and four leaf clovers, and also a matching dress for Blue Eyed Baby.

Couldn't find four leaf clovers (and boy did she notice that), but I did find this cute print at Joann's and picked out a pattern, Butterick 5019.

This pattern is for freakishly wide-shouldered little girls, and sure enough, Sophie was too narrow for it. I took it back home and put some little pleats in the front and back to make it more narrow. Let's hope it works; I'll try it on her this weekend at the farm. Blue Eyed's dress fit her perfectly the first time. Something about plastic heads make it easier I guess. I'll post a picture when she tries it on.