The Art of Juki

I finally cracked open the box and got out my new  Juki today.  That's right, the time has finally come for me to own a serger!  I am so excited!  You wouldn't have known it if you had seen the box lying by the front door unopened for about a eight days.  The week when it arrived was somehow filled with activities and involved a lot of rushing here or there (although for the life of me I can't remember what all the fuss was about now)  I was forced to neglect my Juki until I could clear space in the sewing room which I promptly did yesterday after completing Adam's Halloween costume.  Actually I had a small window to open the Juki last week before Adam woke up from his nap so I tore open the box....only to find a smaller box (pictured above) inside.  Doh.  Then Adam woke up. 

I spent a bit of time online reading about different sergers before I settled on the Juki MO-654DE.  From what I've read it's a workhorse, small but powerful with quite a number of features.  Here's another detailed review of it.  The choice was between this and the Brother 1034D which is more affordable and known for being very user friendly.  Ultimately I thought the Juki would take me further in my sewing and wanted to put in the investment.  I searched online for deals, sales, coupons, etc.  Didn't find much other than full-price models which run several hundreds of dollars.  I finally settled on buying a store model on eBay (new but opened from box for display purposes) which was being sold at a discount.  Of course, when I was presented with the C.O.D (collect on delivery) charges it was like a slap to the face.  I've never seen a C.O.D for that amount. It basically wiped away the savings for buying a store model.  Although I didn't really have any other option since all other Juki's I found were also being sold from the U.S. and would have had just as high a collection fee.   There may have been one or two older Juki models being sold for a bargain in Canada second-hand but since I don't know anything about sergers [yet] I didn't want to risk buying a dud (and not even realizing for months while I tampered with it).

I've gotten as far as removing it from its packaging and drooling over it.  Now I just need to read through the manuals before I start so I don't do something foolish and muck it all up.  It supposedly came already threaded and ready to go but I should flip through the manual first just as a precaution.

English anywhere?

Yay, at least some English on these pages

Perhaps I'll be doing more skimming than reading...

Babysaurus Rex Part Two: The Torso

Aside from making the semi-successful pumpkin granola this weekend I also finished off Adam's dinosaur costume.  Last week I started with the head. Then, after three attempts at the inner lining I finally got something that fit properly around his torso.  I mostly sew during Adam's naps and this means I can't try things on him as I go along.  I try to use some of his shirts as guidelines and sketch up pseudo-patterns to follow but it's not really the same as having a physical model to try it on.  However once I got the sizing down the rest was just a lot of fun.  

I wanted a round, stuffed belly for the dinosaur as well as a stuffed tail and spikes all down the back.  I debated for a while about where to put the opening for the torso and didn't like the idea of a zipper running through his belly or interfering with the scaly spine.  In the end Velcro did the trick and I used it along one side of the torso and shoulder strap to secure the costume together.  Velcro is certainly simpler than installing a zipper and I should have thought of that from the start!

Scrap fabric for inner lining

Velcro closure along the side

Orange felt for the spikes

Tonight Mike helped try the costume on Adam and check the fit.  Halloween is gonna be awesome!

"Raaargh!"

Thanksgiving Granola with Pumpkin

Happy Turkey Day everyone!  The Thanksgiving long weekend always means a traditional turkey dinner with Mike's family and a very non-traditional feast with my family.  But good food is good food and I'm very grateful for it all.  In fact, I am quite happy to have the mix because otherwise the second dinner would just be a rerun airing too soon after the show.

My family celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas in true Chinese fashion - with a potpourri of your favourite dishes (all delectable but in no way related) and enough food to pack lunches for a week.   On Saturday night my aunt made turkey for her first time.  I would have never guessed it.  The turkey was yummy...as were the grilled vegetables with mustard dressing, the crispy shrimp pancakes, the smoked salmon with red onion, my mom's signature steamed sticky rice with dried shrimp and Chinese sausage.  And just when I started to dream of elastic waistbands my aunt handed me a steaming bowl of pho with beef brisket and coriander.  Heaven.

Now for the traditional.  I never had a real traditional Thanksgiving dinner until meeting Mike.  His mother makes wonderful turkey and in just a fraction of the regular time because of their convection roast oven.   For the 14-15 lb turkey we had last night it took less than 3 1/2 hours in the oven.  I always enjoy the turkey, the stuffing, the turnips and mashed potatoes.  Dill pickles and cranberry sauce add a pop of colour and flavour.  And then dessert.  Mmm pumpkin pie. My very first slice of pumpkin pie ever must have been made by Mike's grandmother Joan.  Her pies are superb, mostly because of the incredibly flaky pastry.  Last night's pumpkin pie had a pretty braided crust and was delicious as always.  Lucky us - we got to take the other half home.

The only baking I got around to this long weekend was a pumpkin granola using a recipe from Looneyspoons, my go-to book for cooking these days.  It seemed appropriate for autumn.  Unfortunately the end product didn't quite live up to what I had envisioned after smelling the pre-bake mixture.

I didn't follow the recipe to a tee...yes, perhaps that's why it didn't turn out properly but I swear I thought it was close enough.  I figured I couldn't really go wrong with this mix of ingredients: rolled oats, shredded coconut, cinnamon, almonds, pistachios, raisins, ground flaxseed, honey, butter, mashed pumpkin, and vanilla.  

unsalted pistachios

Actually the recipe called for almonds or pistachios but I used both and just made sure the combined amount came out to what was specified in the recipe.  I didn't have chocolate chips on me, added pepitas (pumpkin seed) which weren't called for...and surprisingly I couldn't get dried cranberries at the grocery store so I substituted with raisins instead.  See? No major changes.

pepitas

The recipe specifically says not to use pumpkin pie filling but canned mash pumpkin so this is the kind I picked up from the baking aisle.   I used a third of a cup with honey, vanilla, and melted butter to create the ooey-gluey goodness which should have held the granola together.

Next step: mix, mix, mix!

While the oven was preheating I remembered I still needed parchment paper so I ran out to the corner store but found only aluminum foil or wax paper on the shelf.  Wax paper...parchment paper, same thing right? I grabbed the wax paper and headed home. Mike was skeptical.  I was getting out the baking dish when Mike read aloud from a Googled webpage that people who have used wax paper instead of parchment paper were often met with a burning smell halfway through baking their cookies.  Ok, I was convinced...better stick with the aluminum foil.

After 25 min in the oven at 350 degF the granola smelled divine thanks to the coconut, pumpkin and cinnamon.  And the granola actually tasted quite good but the main issue I had with it was the texture.  I was hoping for something crisp...brittle almost.  Instead it didn't hold together very well and felt a tad on the sweaty side.  Clearly there was a problem with my ratios of fruits to nuts to oats.  Or was it the missing chocolate which would have melted throughout the granola? Or did it not finish cooling before I sliced into it?  Too many variables.  Now I'll actually have to go back and follow the exact original recipe to find out where I went wrong.  I'll be sure to share the secret...but in the meantime let me just pop a few more of these granola crumbs :)

Babysaurus Rex Part One: The Head

Halloween is just around the corner and this year we are playing dressup!  Two years ago Mike and I attended a terrific costume party as Maverick and Generic Flight Attendant (guess who I was).  How funny was it when the host came out dressed in the same Top Gun outfit?  Looks like one of them had to be Goose instead.

Last year we wanted to get dressed up but I had trouble thinking up a good costume for my 7-month pregnant body.  I Googled a bunch of costumes for pregnant women but just wasn't in the mood to paint my tummy a pumpkin or a basketball....or fish bowl...or bowling ball. You get the picture.  We ended up just carving a Frankenstorm pumpkin and handing out candy to children in the rain.  No costumes.  Just nice, loose sweat pants with elastic waist bands - ohhh yea.

The really great part about handing out candy last year was that we got to see just how many children there are in our neighbourhood!  I was shocked. We ran out of candy waaay before 8pm and I'm sure we must have had at least 60 kids, rain and all.  I had no idea!  Now that I'm on maternity leave I'm getting to know the children in the neighbourhood and regularly see groups of them at the splash pad down the block (or at least I did in the summer).  It's great to know Adam will have lots of children around him as he grows up.  

We've decided that even though he won't understand what's going on yet, Adam is going to participate in Halloween fun this year.  He's going to get dressed up and sit by the door and "help" hand out candy. What is he going to be, you ask?  A Babysaurus Rex!

I got the idea from this site - now isn't the "fuzzy dinosaur" costume just adorable??  But paying $70+ for it at Pottery Barn Kids is much less than adorable so I'm going to make him one instead.  Yup...I paid a visit to Len's Mills and raided the scrap bin for fleece.  I would have preferred green but blue was on sale.  I'm sure a blue dinosaur is every bit as believable as a purple one, right Barney?

I've only finished the head so far but it's a pretty big accomplishment.  I modeled the inner lining after a hood on Adam's zippy.  I knew I wanted the head to be puffy so I sketched the outer shell to be roomier than the lining, creating a big pocket for batting.   After attaching teeth and spikes I was ready for stuffing - the fun part, right?  Actually it hadn't occurred to me (though it should have) that stuffing the pocket would turn it into a big awkward ball rather than a helmet-shaped dinosaur head!  There was no way it was fitting on Adam's head.  I also realized it only made sense to stuff the top portion of the head, not the part that sits at the back of where Adam's head would go.  Oh well, you learn by doing.

I ended up having to tack down a whole bunch of spots, essentially pinning together the inner lining to the outer shell.  This seemed to help shape the head back into a nice helmet-shape.  I'm eager to try the finished head on Adam but don't think it's a good enough excuse to wake him up so I'll leave it til morning.  On to the torso and tail - hooray!

Nine Months In, Nine Months Out

It took only 38 weeks to grow such a beautiful little person in my belly...and when another 38 weeks flew by that eager little person started to crawl for the first time.  What an incredible journey.

When I look at Adam's monthly photos I am taken aback by how much he has changed. Was he really so pudgy at two months?  And check out 3-4 months when he lost his hair - now that was an awkward phase.  I love month 7.  I wish I could remember what the joke was.

Adam got to celebrate nine months with good friends. No no, it wasn't a planned party...or at least, not a planned birthday party (I'm not that silly to celebrate nine months with cake).  It was however a planned slumber party, albeit probably the shortest one these kids will ever have.  It was only twelve hours altogether including sleep time but we were still delighted to have Brigitte and her family crash at our place on their way from Ottawa to Vineland.  And the babies were delighted to be reunited.

"Oh good, it fits!

Little Red Riding Bonnet

Making baby clothes is so much fun!  The projects don't require much fabric so your scraps are perfect...plus they don't take nearly as long to make as adult clothes.  Sometimes I can whip up something over the course of just two or three good baby naps.  The downside is that babies outgrow clothes so darn quickly...and sewing sleeves for a tiny shirt can get pretty finicky.

Here's a new red bonnet that I just finished for little Delia who will be twelve months old by the time this post is published.  :D My fingers are crossed that the little bonnet will fit.  It certainly does on Adam who is three months younger which sort of concerns me.  I actually Googled "head circumference for babies" and one site said that growth slows down after the first six months.  By one year the average circumference is about 18".  Hm....I think Adam's head is already at 18.5" :O  But then again it's hard to take a head measurement for a squirmy baby so it could have just as easily been 16.5" with all of his bouncing and hand waving.

Here's another shot of the hat with the inner lining in focus.  I used this fabric for Lily's dress last year and Grace's flat cap earlier this summer.  See what I mean about scraps coming in handy?  It works so well with this red wool that came from an old skirt belonging to Mike's grandmother.

I had some leftover black piping lying around which was just long enough for a floral detail on the side of the bonnet.  I have a thing for using piping or binding to create floral detailing.  I've used binding in this manner for several past projects including my green wool skirt and ribbon shirt.  The first time was on my Boxing Day shirt.  It can be a bit time consuming but really worth the effort.

Well I was just about to post some cute photos of Adam with this bonnet on but Mike vetoed it because he said the hat makes Adam look like a little girl.  He was just trying it on for Delia! No big deal, right?  Oh well.  I can save the photos for Adam's wedding slideshow to be presented some day far into the future ;)  I don't know which of the two will be more horrified.

Blue Owl Wrap: Part Two - Baby Carrier Blanket

It's day six of my cold and my voice is as hoarse as ever.  Not much relief on the coughing yet either.  No time for sulking though...it was back to work on the Blue Owl Wrap!  Today I added the finishing touches to make this stroller blanket compatible with my Beco Butterfly baby carrier.

This morning I created some simple tabs with snap buttons using the same fabric from the bottom edge.  These simply allow me to attach the blanket to the shoulder straps of my carrier.

Then I added a second drawstring horizontally across the blanket, just above where the shoulder zippers begin.  This was pretty easy to do since the blanket is already made with two layers (the minky and fleece) so I just sewed a track through both layers of fabric, cut a short slot into the minky layer, and threaded the shoelace.  No problem.  The drawstring wasn't absolutely necessary but it helps to keep the blanket snug around Adam.  Here's how it looks from the inside.

And finally the Velcro tabs were already there from yesterday so I just had to 'reconfigure' the bottom for baby carrying.

Honestly, the trickiest part of today was just getting a photo of the finished product with Adam in the carrier!  That guy sure is squirmy :D

Blue Owl Wrap: Part One - The Stroller Blanket

How did a month go by since my last post?  I totally dropped the ball on doing anything with those wine grapes from our backyard that I mentioned last time.  "Challenge accepted!" I had exclaimed?  More like challenge forgotten!

Ugh, and now the fall weather has set in and I've got a nasty nasty cold.  It's terrible...the kind with body aches and a burning fire in your chest, a wet and angry cough, fire in your eyes.  How did I catch such a nasty thing from this smiling little baby??  

Something has been going around, that's for sure. My brother and sister-in-law were under the weather a few weeks ago. Then their daughter Gracie had a runny nose.   It's not surprising Adam had it next after a few play-dates with several shared toys.  Then, on Friday the 13th of course, in this miserable game of Pass the Cooties the hot potato landed in my lap with extra dressing.  My only hope is that this mega-cold can't be passed back to Adam or Gracie.  Sick babies are no fun at all.

Fortunately with the noticeably cooler weather Adam can now make use of his new Blue Owl Wrap.  I started it about a week ago thinking there was plenty of time before he'd need it (remember that two-day heat spell of 35+ degC weather?!) but no, we've already taken it along with us on strolls.  

For some time now I had been wanting to make a convertible baby blanket that would be useful for both the stroller and my Beco baby carrier but I took a while thinking about the design.  I know there are some pretty good multi-functional baby blankets out there online but this was too good of a project idea to pass up.  I actually have a bit more work to do (just missing some snaps to attach to my baby carrier) but I can write about the stroller blanket part this time.  

First I started with an owl blanket I happened to see at Toys R Us.  Yes, I was gonna order the raw materials online and start from scratch...but then I came across this cutie and heck, it meant I could start the project ASAP without waiting for delivery!

I made three slots in the blanket to install zippers and accommodate the 5-point harness on the stroller.  It's pretty awkward putting in a zipper where there isn't already a seam!  The ends turned out kind of wonky so the fabric doesn't lie flat.  Oh well.  The two longer vertical zippers (beige) open up to allow for shoulder straps and the short horizontal zipper (white) is for the centre buckle.  

These slots definitely made up most of the work on this project.  Once I cut into the fabric it was clear that the fluffy soft underside would need binding along the edges in order to prevent some serious fraying.  It looked like I had been shearing sheep by the time I'd finished!

Next I basted in the zippers.  Then the real challenge was using the machine to sew the zippers into the top minky layer without going through the second fuzzy layer.  It gets tricky when you have the minky layer on top and you're just feeling around underneath to make sure the sewing foot is always within the hole you've just added binding to.

Zipper basted in place

Finally I hand-stitched the bindings to the back sides of the zippers so that the two layers of the blanket were re-attached.  

Yay for zippers! Once those were installed I played around with some design ideas. I wanted to extend the blanket to leave more room for a baby who's growing up too fast for my comfort :(  That's where the cream-coloured flannel came in.  I added a fleece layer in between for warmth and sewed some diagonal lines to give it a quilt-like feel.  Then I got some white shoelace and my good ol' Peekaboo Partridge cotton to finish the bottom edge.

One more zipper to go!  I put in a 26" plastic zipper to close up the front of the blanket and then sewed in a few velcro tabs to complete the project.  I'll explain in my next post why I chose to make the bottom of the blanket this way.  It would have been far simpler to just sew close the entire bottom portion and ensure Adam's little toes never poke out into the cold but this design decision was made with the baby carrier blanket in mind. 

Velcro tabs to help bottom edge stay closed

Today Adam and I took the stroller out again with the blanket.  We were outside for over an hour and he was still toasty by the time we got back to the house :)