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

stitch: Color Block Clutch Tutorial

Color blocking has been all over pinterest lately, so I decided to make 2 color block clutches this weekend. I worked out the kinks last night with the template and the color block clutch tutorial is now ready to download.

I’m so excited to make additional clutches – the color possibilities are endless. Please send us pics of your clutches at moderndrygoods@gmail.com. Cheers! xo Kristi

make: anchors away!

I’m a sucker for anchors.  Maybe this has something to do with the fact that summer is coming and I can’t believe that I live in a landlocked state (why is the ocean so far away from Colorado!?!).  For the last few months, I’ve been pinning freezer paper transfer tutorials and I finally decided to give it a whirl.  In true Katie fashion, it took me a few attempts to get it right but all of my issues had more to do with my human error (hello paint spills) than the process itself.  This really is so easy, I made the sweatshirt above in about 30 minutes last night.  God I love it.

Supplies:
+ Item of clothing
+ Freezer Paper
+ Scissors
+ Fabric Paint
+ Iron
+Fabric paint brush or foam brush
+X-acto Knife
+ Hair dryer (optional)

Start by deciding what you would like to paint and where you would like to paint it.  I found an anchor image that I liked here.  I printed it out and then using a pen, traced the anchor onto the matte side of the freezer paper.  Then using your X-acto knife, cut out the image.  Remember, you are creating a stencil, so you want to cut the shape you are painting.  So for me, I had to make sure that I cut out the hole in the top of the anchor.

Once you have cut the image out, trim the freezer paper so that you have about 2 inches of excess paper around the stencil.  You will have some paint around the stencil, so make sure you give yourself the room.  Then place the the freezer paper, shiny side down, on the piece of clothing and iron in place.

Then using your foam brush or paint brush, paint in the stencil.  Make sure that the paint layer is even.  Let the paint dry for about 2 hours and paint a second coat.  If you are impatient (like me) you can speed up the process by drying with your hair dryer.

Once you are done painting and it has dried, carefully peel away the stencil.  Then place a scrap piece of fabric over the painted design and iron to seal it.  That’s it!

I love this and I can’t wait to start embellishing everything.  Wonder if I can pull of a monogram… Be sure to let us know if you make one!

xxoo,

Katie

make: chevron throw pillow cover

After my sewing debacle earlier this week, I decided it was time to repair and finish the Chevron Stripe pillow.  Boy am I glad I did, I love this bad boy.

As I mentioned on Monday, the original back to this pillow was supposed to be black, white and grey striped but as you can see in the picture above, I failed to calculate and measure properly and ended up with a back that was 2 inches too short.  Of course, I figured this out after I had already sewn in the invisible zipper.  I knew I didn’t want to go back and have to start over, so I decided to repair it with a quick and easy fix.  I simply measured the black section of the first back and cut it four inches from the zipper.

I then cut another piece of black fabric 4 x 20 to be the bookend on other side.  Then I measured and cut the center panel so that it was 13 x 20.  This gave me 1/4 inch seam allotments to sew the center panel to the left and the right to the center resulting in a 20 x 20 back.  If you measure correctly the first time, you won’t need to do this.  I recommend that you simply cut a 20 x 20 piece to start with and skip this whole headache.  But if you do happen to screw up like I did, realize for the most part there are ways to save a project.

If done properly, pillow covers are a cinch to make.  Start with two matching sizes panels, my pillow form was 20×20 so that’s the size of the panels I used.  Sew the invisible zipper along one of the sides.  For more on how to do this, see this post here.

Then once the zipper is in, pin the panels right sides together along the remaining three raw edges.  Make sure that your zipper is open at this point.

Sew using a 1/4 seam allotment.  Trim the excess fabric and turn the pillow right side out.  Insert form and there you go.  Houston, we have a pillow.

To learn how to make your own chevron stripe fabric, check out our tutorials here and here.

Let us know if you make these, we’d love to see your new pillows.  Enjoy the weekend!

xoxo

Katie

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