When you make stuff, there are going to be duds.  It's inevitable.  But this week I've been on a winning streak.

On the weekend I finally got my act together and finished up another one of Gertie's dirndl skirts.  "Dirndl" is a great word, and this is a great tutorial.  My skirt looks a little flat in the photo, but it's fuller and pouf-ier when on. 
I bought this yellow/grey fabric for a pleated skirt and didn't have enough, but I'm glad it became an incarnation of a skirt after all, and one I'll get lots of wear out of. 

And stoveside this week, I've had a string of Smitten Kitchen successes.  (Sometimes I think that I should call a spade a spade and just rename this website the "Smitten Test Kitchen".)  Anyhow, I'm trying to work my way through recipes that I've bookmarked, especially as so many of them have been languishing in my favourites folder for months, or even years.  (The oldest of them all?  Chocolate babka.  What am I waiting for?  Seriously?). 
So on Sunday, upon returning from a matinee, I was able to crank out both Red Kidney Bean Curry (a perfect combination of easy, delicious and healthy) with jasmine rice, and Pepita Granola (my best granola effort yet; despite the combination of honey/brown sugar/sweetened coconut, this wasn't overly sweet.  I found that it needed a mere 15 minutes of baking time and it will now be my new go-to granola recipe).
Then yesterday afternoon there were hand pies.  This pastry is just fantastic; it's easy to make, easy to work with, can be used for savoury or sweet, and is flaky and delicious like you wouldn't believe.  For my variation on the recipe, I halved the quantity of dough, and made 8 hand pies to get the dough/filling ratio that I was looking for.  Instead of peaches (obviously not in season), I sauteed apples with butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and Calvados.  My photos of them were really crappy, but rest assured that I died and went to apple-hand-pie heaven. 
Next up?  Not babka, but indian-spiced vegetable fritters.  And dealing with the mess that is my kitchen.

Nancy asked me to make two baby bibs for her friends.  It's hard to say no to Nancy.  She just sent me Season 6 of Dexter on DVD, and she never told me to get my act together when my baby present to her ended up being  4months late. 
This is a tomato bib for Julian.

This is obviously a bib for Ella.  (Also, stitching in cursive embroidery is one of my things.)
Apparently I made a customized bib for Ella's older sister a few years ago.  Now that I've been reminded of this, I vaguely remember it (I think), but honestly, once I finish something and give it away it's very much out of sight, out of mind.  Anyway, apparently Ella's mom liked the first bib very much and framed it, and very much wanted a bib for her second child.  When someone likes what you've made that much, it's hard to say no.  It also puts a lot of pressure on the second attempt; she could take one look at this and say "I was going to frame it, but actually, I'll just use it and let it get stained with mashed sweet potato instead".  (Speaking of which, I never ever mind when things that I make get used and spoiled.  Sweet potato stains come with bib-making territory, after all.)

The 21st century flea market is a good place to go to stock up on fancy cutlery, china dishes, and pyrex ovenware from the 60s.  Susannah inaugurated me yesterday, and I saw so many items that my mom has (or has had) in her kitchen.  I only picked up one place setting of nice silverware from 1947, and am now planning on replacing my very-not-special dishes with china dishes.  May as well make good use of not having a dishwasher.

When topstitching, it's really important to use a longer stitch length in order to prevent the edges of your fabric from getting all curly.  This is something that will drastically improve my sewing, and something that would have been really useful to know a long time ago. 

There is a Saint Bernard breeder on Lasqueti Island.  (Those dogs must scare the living crap out of Lasqueti's feral sheep population.)

I'm such a picky shopper; this is one reason why I don't shop much and another reason to sew more.  Here are some vintage patterns that I have my eye on:

Advance 4331.  A bathrobe for warmer weather.  I particularly like the one with the scalloped edge.

McCall 3416.  An elegant bathrobe/housedress for drinking tea and doing one's hair.

McCall 8973.  I think I would get a lot of wear out of this one.  And clearly I like fitted bodices and full skirts, it's kind of my thing.

McCall 4263.  For work.

Vogue 5767.  I already bought this pattern and have some fabric which might be appropriate (although perhaps a little bright; I'm thinking that an intense blue might not suit a 40's shirtdress.  We'll see.)  I'm planning on making the short-sleeved version with no front pocket.

In addition to sewing vintage frocks, my other plans for this year include improving my pastry skills (making pastry is not one of my strengths, but since I seem to be eating more pastry these days, I might as well make my own).  So far I've shied away from trying my hand at puff pastry, but with Michel Roux's help (a 3 star Michelin chef who wrote a book simply titled "Pastry"), I feel confident that I can, at least somewhat successfully, create rum babas with chantilly cream, apple turnovers, and proper croissants.  I'd like to cycle to Port Ludlow in April, taking a detour to La Connor to see the tulips in bloom.  I'd like to go to England in the fall.  I'd like to write up patterns to post on this website.  I'd like to start learning Spanish.  And I'd like to find a new poker group (our former poker group sadly dissolved when half our members moved away).  But a 1940s shirtdress for the summer would be a good start.

I have an annoying habit of wanting to sew, and then not sewing.  Or sewing something in painfully slow and infrequent installments.  It was time for an intervention, so I staged an easy win using Gertie's extremely helpful half-slip tutorial.  For me, these slips are super functional, since they prevent your skirt from sticking to your hosiery, as well as kiboshing any potential transparency issues.  (The two points where I veered from Gertie's instructions were to make my slips are slightly narrower at the waist than at the hem, and to sew my elastic on the lazy way: just a zigzag stitch on the right side, and no steam shrinking.)

This one is very twee.

Different lighting and slightly less twee.

Now that these are done, it's time to finally get cracking on Vogue 8379, inspired by the Selfish Seamstress.  I think I pre-washed my fabric for this dress in the summer.  INEXCUSABLE.

I haven't kept track of the number of baby bibs I've made over the last several years.  My best guess would be about 200 (maybe more, maybe less).  Each time I make them I start with enthusiasm, and each time I surprise myself all over again by taking longer to finish them than seems reasonable and necessary.  Here are a few of the latest batch (done! at last!): 

Pea pods - a perennial favourite.

A tomato with bad lighting.  (The tomatoes always have a face; and only the tomatoes have a face.)  This time I didn't finish the usual trio with a carrot bib, but made a sushi one instead:

This is a woodland bib; even the ties have birds and squirrels and mushrooms on them.

The final step - throw in some washcloths!  My work is done.