stitch: Last minute Valentine’s Day Gift

 

I decided to make mini aprons for all my single girlfriends this Valentine’s with Alexander Henry’s “Game of Love” fabric paired with Moda’s Pink Ombre fabric. I mean, who wouldn’t want to receive this on Valentine’s right? Right.

Supplies:
– 1/2 yard for the front, cut 22in x 18in
– 1/2 yard for the back, cut 22in x 18in
– 4 ft of coordinating ribbon

Directions:
Place front fabric and back fabric right sides together. Cut the 4 ft of ribbon in half. Place and pin one ribbon in the upper left corner 1/2 in from the top (between the front and back fabric), with about an 1in of the ribbon sticking out. Repeat the same process on the right hand side.

Pin the rest of the sides together, sew the fabric with a 1/2in seam, but remember to leave an opening at the bottom of the apron. Turn apron right side out. Iron bottom seam close and top stitch with 1/4in seam.

Viola! Valentine’s Day apron is finished.

Enjoy! xo Kristi

stitch: Wiksten Tank Pattern Review

I made the Wiksten tank over the weekend with a fabulous print from Liberty of London (which I had purchased 3 years ago while traveling) and couldn’t believe how easy the pattern and step-by-step instructions were. Seriously, start to finish it took about 2.5 hours (due to tracing the pattern out first). Initially, I envisioned myself wearing this tank with white skinny jeans and heels, aka typical summer attire in Dallas. Once I tried it on though, I realized it was just a bit too short in the front on my frame for jeans. Happy to say though, the tank looks great tucked in to a pencil skirt!

CityCraft  blogged about the Wiskten Tova Top last week, which will be my next weekend project as well. If you’re in Dallas you can purchase both patterns at CityCraft, otherwise they’re available online here. Cheers! xo Kristi

whisk: chocolate covered cinnamon bears

going, going, gone.
Chocolate covered cinnamon bears are my absolute favorite candy in the world. But I hate that I can only find milk chocolate covered in the stores. So the other night, on sugar craving whim, I decided to make my own using a combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate. After tasting these bad boys, I know I’ll never go back to store bought again.

Here’s what you’ll need:
+ 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao)
+ 4 oz. milk chocolate
+ store-bought cinnamon bears
The key to this is tempering the chocolate, which essentially means, controlling the temperatures. So to do this, start by filling a pot with about 2 inches of water. Heat over medium heat until it just simmering. While the water is heating, take 4 oz. of bittersweet and 4 oz. of milk chocolate chop/break into pieces and place in a glass or metal heatproof bowl. Next, take a sheetpan/cookie sheet line it with parchment paper and place a cooling rack on top. Set aside.

When the water is simmering, remove from heat and place the bowl on top and stir with a spatula or metal spoon until it is just melted. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir in the remaining 4 oz of bittersweet chocolate. Stir until all the pieces are melted and then place back on top of the pot for about 30 seconds. If there are chunks, remove using your spatula or metal spoon.
Then about 10-15 at a time, add the cinnamon bears to the chocolate, roll them around until they are covered. With a pair of tongs gently shake the excess chocolate from them and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat until all of the chocolate is used and/or you are out of gummy bears.

Let the chocolate dry for at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove from the rack, serve and/or store. Consider yourself warned, these won’t last for long.

They are such a great combination of spicy with a hint of chocolate from the outer thin layer, I’m almost tempted to buy an enrobbing machine and open a sweet shop. I made about 4 dozen of these in 30 minutes on Tuesday night and 24 hours later, they were gone. I will admit that I took down my fair share of these bears and I’m nervous psyched to try others. I’m wondering if Sour Patch Kids can stand up to the heat of the chocolate and red swedish fish. I’m sure I’ll be back to share those results. In the meantime, melt some chocolate and share these with someone you love.

xoxo,
Katie

stitch: Chevron Tutorial

Now that you know how to create the squares for your chevron fabric (thanks Katie!) I’m now going to show you how to assemble your  fabric into a chevron pattern with a quilt that I’m currently working on. Step one, figure out how many squares will be in one row and then place the squares in two piles (indicated below). My Chevron quilt consists of one row of ten squares = 5 squares in two piles.  

Step two: Place the squares in a row, creating the top half of the chevron pattern. Then stack the squares on top of each other, starting to the left. I’ve found this is a great way to keep your squares in order when sewing them together.

Step 3: Take the top two squares, place right sides together and sew with 1/4in seam. Then take square 3 and place it right side together with square #2 and sew with 1/4in seam. Continue down the line accordingly until your stack is complete.

Step 4: Place your completed row right side down and begin to assemble the second row underneath row one. Once row two is complete, repeat steps 1-3.

Step 5: Place row one and row two right side down (to double check that the chevron pattern is correct) and then pin the rows right side together and sew with 1/4in seam.

Steps 6: Congrats, your chevron pattern is now complete! For those of you who want a step-by-step illustration on how construct a chevron row, download the MDG_ChevronSteps PDF.  Below is a sneak peak of my chevron quilt that is halfway finished. Quilt top is done, now it’s on to the back. xo Kristi

stitch: Last minute Valentine’s Day Gift

I got home last night and realized I had yet to create something for my friends at work for Valentine’s Day. So I rummaged through my fabric stash and came across the mother of all Valentine’s fabric, Alexander Henry’s Look of Love. Thank you CityCraft for carrying such awesome fabric.

Look of Love indeed!

Be still my heart! I had just enough to make coasters for my co-workers desk. Perfect accessory for the office, right? Right. I cut 4 inch squares, then placed the fabric wrong side together, top stitched with a 1/4 inch seam and then trimmed each coaster with pinking shears.

This project took all of 5 minutes folks, which is a big win in my book for last minute gifts.

Happy Valentine’s Day! xo Kristi

stitch: iPad case Tutorial

I finally had the chance last week to finish my iPad case. You can read about my first attempt here.  This time around I used a lightweight interfacing and it made all the difference in the world. Click here to download a PDF of the tutorial. Cheers!