Dress Resizing

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There's a clothing store outlet near my office that I love. Its a bit of a hunt, and hit or miss on what is there, but dresses are usually $12 or less.  Often they have dresses in XS and XL, but I don't wear either of those sizes.  For a dress that is just a few dollars, I'm willing to tailor it to make it fit.  In this case, I bought the XL dress for $8.  I looked at the construction of the dress--no pockets, no side zippers, no darts etc..., which meant it wasn't too hard to fix. 

First, I put the dress on my dress form (a luxury for sure, but it makes sewing for  myself so much easier) inside out and pinned it where I needed to take it in.  If you don't have a dress form, just put it on and pin it and take it off. 


Once you know how many inches you will be taking off each side, cut off the sleeves.  Yup, you need to cut the sleeves off because you will be taking the same number of inches of the armhole opening that you do off the sides.  I had determined that I would be taking 2" off each side seam.  I measured 2" in from the seam and marked it, then ran it under my serger (you can also just use a sewing machine).  I sewed from the bottom hem all the way through the arm pit. 


Next, you have to reduce the size of the sleeve.  Since I took 2" off the armhole, you need to take 2" off the sleeve, except that to do that, you just measure the bottom seam in 1" (because you are taking in 1" off of each side of the seam--which will add up to 2"). 

Now that the sides and sleeves are all sewn, you have to reset the sleeves of the dress.  Flip the dress inside out and leave the sleeves right side out and slide them inside and pin all the way around and sew back on. 

The neck opening is a bit wider than I might prefer, but not enough to warrant messing with it. 

An hour later, I've got a dress that fits me!  This is not a procedure that works if there are complicated seams, pockets or zippers along the side seams. 

Deviled Baked Pork Chops

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I was watching America's Test Kitchen and realized I had all the ingredients I needed for this meal already in my house.  It was easy, didn't use many dishes and I added roasted potatoes and green beans as a sheet pan meal.  Perfect!

I used the recipe from the TV show, but here's a site that had it posted.
3 Tbs. butter 3/4 c. Panko bread crumbs 1/4 c. Dijon mustard 2 tsp packed brown sugar 1/2 tsp dry mustard 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 4 3/4 to 1-inch thick pork chops Directions: Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Spray a baking rack or parchment lined rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray Melt butter in a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add panko and stir crumbs are golden. Set aside. In a small bowl, stir together dijon mustard, brown sugar, dry mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Dry meat surface with paper towels. Brush tops and sides with mustard mixture. Sprinkle just the tops with panko crumbs. Place on baking rack and bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until temperature reaches 140 degrees. For great sides, add some baby red/white/yukon potatoes and fresh green beans (I steam them in the microwave first, the coat with olive oil, salt and pepper and add for the last 20-25 minutes of baking).

Peruvian Pan Roasted Chicken

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There's a restaurant in St. George, Utah called Viva Chicken that I really like.  Since its a 4 1/2 hour drive, I don't get there as often as I would like.  I looked around for some recipes that might be similar and I've done 3 different dishes.

This is a super easy version of the chicken. I like to buy the frozen, boneless, skinless chicken thighs from Costco (I love chicken breast too, but the thighs bake up so nice and moist).

I used this recipe for the marinade, but I just dumped it in a zipper bag with the chicken thighs for about an hour.  I pounded the thighs a bit before marinating so that they were an even thickness.

To make a complete meal, I started with a glass baking dish and microwaved some baby red potatoes and fresh green beans (add 1/4 water and cover with plastic wrap) until they were tender, about 5-6 minutes.  Empty and left over water, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and put in a 400 degree oven.  If there's enough space in the vegetable pan, add the chicken--but if not, put the chicken in another parchment lined pan next to the vegetables and bake for about 15 minutes until cooked to 160 degree internal temp.


Another recipe I've tried from Viva Chicken is the stuffed avocado.  The fastest version is to buy the quinoa salad at Costco, balsamic glaze from Trader Joes and Sriacha mayo from the condiment aisle.  Pick a ripe avocado and cut it in half.  Spoon some quinoa salad into the hole, drizzle with balsamic and mayo.  If you want to add some chicken from the recipe above, it makes for a great lunch.

The last recipe I made was their chopped salad.  At the restaurant, they use the chicken, but I made it with leftover roast and it was delicious. Make a bed of lettuce (whatever kind you like) and top with avocado slices, corn (cut fresh off the cob is yummy, but thawed, frozen is fine), mango, crispy bacon, cilantro,  red cabbage, crunchy fried chickpeas (find them in the bulk bin at Winco) and use a cilantro ranch dressing (Costco sells one in the refrigerator section). 

Navy Bean Soup

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I love soup on a cold day!  Last week we got 18" of snow on one day, so I was happy to stay home and just sit in front of the fireplace with a bowl of soup and some cornbread!  If you have canned or already cooked beans, this is a 20 minute dinner!   You could tweak the recipe by either cooking it in the slow cooker with dry beans or even do the whole thing in the pressure cooker.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 celery stalks, diced
1 small onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth (or 2 cans)
1-2 cups cooked navy beans
1-2 cups ham, cubed or shredded
2 teaspoons parsley
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium stock pot, heat the oil over medium and saute the celery and onion until soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).  Add the carrots and continue saute for another 3-4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook til fragrant (30 seconds) then add the broth, beans and ham.  Simmer for about 10 minutes until warmed through and vegetables are tender.  Add parsley and salt and pepper.  I served it with corn muffins made from a mix. 

Star Wars Day Painted Shoes

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Are you ready for May the 4th, aka Star Wars Day?  I was looking for ideas to celebrate and found this awesome blog called DoodleCraftBlog on painting shoes for Star Wars.  I looked around my house and I had all the things I needed (well, after looking for 45 minutes for the gold paint, which isn't where it was supposed to be and 15 minute trip to the store solved that...I'm sure to find the old bottle now).

I had a pair of shoes in the bin by the door that I slip on when I need to go outside to turn of the sprinkler or take out the trash.  Just some cheap canvas shoes.  If I had had lighter colored shoes, it would have been better--painting over the black was tricky.

Clean off the shoes (and by clean, I made sure there wasn't grass clippings still sticking to it).  Use a foam brush to paint the shoe.  I mixed my craft paint with a textile medium so that the paint will be more flexible (usually on the same racks as the craft paint).   I ended up with about 3 coats to cover the canvas.  I used a hair dryer to speed up the dry time between coats.


Just like on DoodleCraftBlog I sketched out the design with a Sharpie and painted the blue, red and then outlined everything with the black.  The next morning I covered the paint on the decorated end with clear coat to protect the design.

Funny thing, I had stopped by a thrift store looking for another accessory for Star Wars Day and saw the exact same pumps that DoodleCraftBlog used (I was tempted to purchase, but I am highly unlikely to wear them all day at work--I'm more of a flats kind of person).  I really enjoyed painting these shoes.  I might do it again, maybe Disney!

Patent Office Prints-Free

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Have you seen art prints that have the patent schematics and diagrams for inventions?  They are cool!  And did you know you can access them for free?  The images are usually low-quality PDFs, but with a few tweaks in your photo editor, you can adjust the resolution and add pixels! (If you have a Mac, you can use Preview to Adjust Size.  You can use apps like Photoshop, Gimp or Paint too-there are plenty of tutorials out there, just search for resizing).  Most of the time pictures for the internet are 72 pixels per inch.  If you want to print them, they need to be about 300 pixels per inch.


If you want to find patent prints, just do a Google image search.  When you find one you like, look for the patent number.  Go to the US Patent Office site and do a search for the patent number.  Look for the button that says Images and click it to get the PDF.

I've been a science educator for over 2 decades, so I really like science-y things.  I grabbed some fun patent images of lab ware and I'm going to put them up in my office. If you wanted large-scale size prints, you could use Staples to do Engineering Prints--they are very inexpensive and perfect for black and white prints.

You could look for prints for :

Musical instruments
Science equipment
Sports gear
Machines
Christmas
Atari 
Sewing
Clocks
Fireman or Police gear
Trains
Camera
Shoes
Bikes

Have fun!

Subway Tile Laundry Remodel

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Winter is a good time for the small, indoor project.  Its cold outside or the inversion has set in and I prefer to hang out inside.  My house has a pretty good sized laundry room and I did a little updating when I first moved in by adding some cabinets (recycled from one of my Dad's projects) and a laminate counter top.  I love subway tile and am thinking of adding it to my kitchen, so I thought the laundry room would be a good place to practice.  

If I were doing this again I would have repainted the wall before tiling...the pale green peeks through at the bottom near the counter and the top near the ceiling (like any 60 year old house, no level walls).  

I already knew that I wanted to replace the wire-rack shelf with a thick wooden shelf.  I debated the order of installation, but decided that I'd get the holes into the studs done first, and then tile.  It worked out great (if you pull the shelf out, you can see a couple gaps in the tile, I cut out some notches, which was easier than drilling a hole through the middle).  

I used 5/8" threaded rod (12" long).  I found the studs and drilled 3" into the stud.  Be careful to stay really level while you are drilling--you need the rods to point straight out of the wall (not up or down).  I had to use some pliers to twist the rod in 3" (mark the rod with a sharpie at 3" mark so that you know when you have reached the right depth).  

The hardest part of this project was drilling the 10" holes in the back of the 14" shelf.  I bought a 1.5 inch thick board at the home center and had it cut about 1 inch shorter than the width of my room (again, walls are not level and having the shelf 1" shorter meant I could finagle the placement).  To drill the holes, I measured the location of the rods (my wall did not have 16" on center studs...so I measured the distance between the rods and transferred those measurements to the back of the shelf. 

My drill has a level built in that helped me keep going straight into the board.  I opted to use a 1" bit, which gave me enough wiggle room to slide the shelf over the rods in the wall.  

Once I knew the shelf would fit, I took it off and started on the tiling.  You always tile from the bottom and move your way up the wall.  Use a level to draw a straight line.  I checked for level every single course, just to be safe.  I chose to use premix mastic rather than thin set (because I was pretty sure I would spend a couple days on the project).  I bought an inexpensive tile saw at Harbor Freight and a nice diamond blade.  My first course started with a full tile and the next row I started with a 1/2 tile--and I followed that pattern up the wall.  

I debated on the grout color.  I really wanted the gray, because its so in-fashion, but I worried about it being too trendy.  But I decided to do what I wanted, not the safe choice--and I'm glad I did!  I love the gray.  

I repainted the walls a soft gray and the cabinets are now white with dark hardware.  The last update was to the counter top.  Eventually, I'll have a new top made--but for now, I spent $8 on two rolls of marble-look contact paper (Lowe's).  Measuring and unrolling slowly, I smoothed on the sticky paper.  It looks amazing and its held up all year with no trouble (I use the counter for folding, unloading laundry).  

 

Including the cost of the tile saw, the entire remodel cost about $240

Wood for shelf-$20

Rods-$15

Stain -already had some $0

Extra long drill bits-$9 (Harbor Freight)

Tile saw $45 (Harbor Freight with coupon)

Diamond Tile Blade $15

Subway Tile (Lowes) $35

Mastic $20

Grout $20

Gray Paint $22

White Paint $22

Contact Paper $8 (Lowes)

Cabinet hardware $5 (super clearance find)

Oversize outlet plate (to hide cut tile) $4