Mini Cheesecake Recipe

12 servings
Prep time is 20 minutes + chilling
Bake time is 15 minutes + cooling

Ingredients:
1 c. vanilla wafer crumbs
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp lemon juice
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg

Topping:
(use pie filling)
1 lb. pitted canned or frozen tart red cherries
1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
Red food coloring, optional

Directions

• In a bowl, combine crumbs and butter. Press gently onto the bottom of 12 paper-lined muffin cups. In a bowl, combine cream cheese, vanilla, lemon juice, sugar and egg; beat until smooth. Spoon into crusts. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until set. Cool completely.
• Drain cherries, reserving 1/2 cup juice in a saucepan; discard remaining juice. To juice, add cherries, sugar, cornstarch and food coloring if desired. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally; boil for 1 minute. Cool; spoon over cheese cakes. Chill for at least 2 hours.
  

Nursing Cover

This lightweight cover gives you privacy during nursing while a boned neckline allows eye contact between you and your baby. The wide neck strap is very comfortable and trimmed to fit perfectly avoiding the need for D rings or velcro that can snag clothes and cause injury. The unique cutting and construction utilizes all of a ¾ yard cut of fabric and can be completed in 30 minutes or less!

Cutting Instructions
Trim each cut edge to make them straight with the grain. An easy way to straighten the edge is to take a snip through the selvage and rip it. Cotton quilting fabrics always tear straight with the grain.

Trim off the selvage edges (selvages wash differently and will make your hem wonky if you leave it on.)



Cut a 6 inch by ¾ yard width off one selvage side of the fabric. Save this piece for the neck strap.


Sewing Instructions

Making the neck strap:
Press the 6 inch strip in half lengthwise (making a 3 inch wide strip.)


Open out and press the raw edges to the center.


Press in half again. Your strip should now be 4 thicknesses and 1 ½ inches wide.

Stitch close to the edge down each side of the strap. Set aside.


Hemming the Body
On the bottom 3 sides of the cover, press under ¼ of an inch twice. Top stitch close to the edge.

On the top side press under ¼ of an inch and then ½ an inch.


Find the center and pin 6 inches on either side of the center.

Pin the neck strap piece in place tucking the raw edges under the hem. The outside edge of the strap should be on the pin. Try it on to adjust length of the neck strap. You want it long enough to get it over your head easily, but short enough that you are covered while nursing.


Top stitch the 12 inch section close to the edge, double stitching over the neck strap sections. Stitch across one end near the strap as a stop line for the boning.

Adding the Boning
There are many different types of boning available. The boning used for this project is made from polypropylene and sold by the yard covered in white cotton casing. This boning has a natural curve in it from being coiled on the spool that can be ironed straight for building corsets. The curve is perfect for this project so we will leave it as it is. You can slip the plastic boning from the casing it came from or stitch the casing ends shut for this project.

Slide the 12 inch piece of boning into the casing just made making sure the natural curve will hold the fabric away from you when you have it on. Stitch on the open side of the boning to hold it in place.

Finish hemming both sides of the top of the cover. All done!



Website Reference

Flower Hair Clips

The hair clip:

Depending on the size of your clip, measure out the amount of ribbon you’ll need to cover both the inside and outside of the clip. For the clips I used, I needed just under 7 inches…


Now, go grab your glue gun, and let’s get started!
I use the hot setting on my glue gun. The lower temperature glue won’t work well, so make sure it’s hot…

Begin by gluing the ribbon to the lower inside portion of the clip. Pinch the clip open while gluing, and be careful to keep the ribbon straight!


Then, add some more glue to the back of the ribbon, and wrap it around to the bottom side of the clip. Make a nice crease at the point of the clip.

Add some hot glue on the inside of the clasp, and glue ribbon.


Then, add hot glue to the remaining amount of ribbon. Pinch clasp, and wrap all the way around and under. Again, make a nice crease at the point.

It should look a little something like this…


The flower:

First… remove flower from stem, then remove all plastic parts from the front, back, and check between the petals, too…

Now… add a smidge or little circle of hot glue in between each layer of petals, to glue the layers of flower petals together…


Once the glue has dried, glue on a pretty jewel or button to the center…

Now, go grab your clip, and add some hot glue onto the top of the clip…

Now, attach the bottom of the flower to the glue on the top of the clip…

Have fun experimenting with different colors, layering flower petal colors, and jazzing them up with pretty jewels and funky buttons…


You can also vary the size of the flowers! And… don’t forget ~ these are interchangeable, so you can attach different flowers to different headbands…

Car Seat Canopy

1. Choose fabrics that coordinate or contrast. Pick any style of fabric, and the colors or patterns don't necessarily have to match the car seat itself. You may choose a lightweight fleece for a colder area, or a more water-repellent material for a rainy climate. Cotton is the most versatile material, as well as the most breathable.

2. Measure the car seat to determine how much fabric will be needed, and to ensure that the edges of the canopy will not drag the ground. Often one yard is enough, but by measuring from the handle of the car seat to a couple inches from the bottom of the seat, you will keep your handiwork looking neat and clean.

3. Cut two 2 1/2-inch strips from each fabric's longest side to use for the connecting straps. These will prevent the canopy from slipping off the car seat. Set this material aside for use later.

4. Lay the fabrics together, one on top the other. Face them with the wrong sides to
gether before folding them in half lengthwise, so when you cut, everything is even on both pieces of fabric. Put a mixing bowl or a large dinner plate on the corners to trace perfectly rounded corners.



5. Cut a rectangle (with rounded corners) to measure 40 by 34 inches. Unfold the pieces and lay them with the right sides of the fabric together. Pin everything together with straight pins.

If you wanted to add a ribbon trim or any kind of border, you would pin the border between the two fabrics in this step.

6. Stitch the fabrics together, either by hand or with a sewing machine. Leave between 1/4- and 1/2-inch seam allowance and remember to only stitch three sides together so that you can turn the fabrics with their right sides facing out for a reversible canopy.

7. Trim the corners. At this point, press the canopy to help it lay flat before you add the straps. Top stitch the fabric all the way around, paying special attention to the side that was not sewn shut.

8. Cut four straps out of the material you set aside. The straps should be around 2 1/2 inches wide by 8 1/2 inches long. As you did with the canopy itself, face the wrong sides of the fabric together and stitch along three sides. Turn the material right-side out and stitch the remaining side together. Iron the fabric flat before top stitching the last side together. Attach the hook-and-loop fastener to the straps of fabric.

9. Pin the straps in place on the canopy before stitching them. After you've positioned them properly and made sure the canopy will hang the way you intend, do the same to the straps on the reverse side of the fabric. Pin these straps in place as well.

10. Sew through both sets of straps, preferably with a square or rectangle with a stitched "X." This reinforces the straps' connection to the canopy and will make it less likely to rip. At this point you can decide to embellish the straps with bows or buttons, or leave as is.

Website Reference

Baby Carrier

This is a baby sling inspired by the K'tan.

1. Using a soft measuring tape, measure from the tip of your shoulder to your side just under your ribs (your waist). Double this measurement and add 2" for a seam and 2" for shrinkage (total of 4"). This is how much fabric to buy.

2. Go to Joanns/Hobby Lobby and buy a stretchy fabric of your choice. Don't go for the 100% polyester unless you want to be really hot really fast. Also, don't buy something that's super stretchy. You want almost no stretch along the LENGTH and a moderate amount of stretch across the fabric. A good pick is the jersey knit interlock. Find something that is 60" across too. This will give you enough for the two rings and support sash

3. Take fabric home, prewash and then cut into 3-20" pieces along the length. You should end up with three pieces of fabric 20" wide (stretchy) and your measurement from #1 long (non-stretchy).

4. Take one piece and sew it together along the short ends with a french seam. Repeat with the second piece. The loops are done (unless you want to hem the sides, but you don't have to).

5. Now the support sash. This uses the third piece. It isn't going to be long enough to tie in the back, so you need to either sew on some fabric to the ends to extend it enough to tie or do what I did: buy two rings like you would use for a ring sling and sew them onto one end (just like for a ring sling). You use it just like normal except that instead of tying in the back, you thread the free end into the rings like a ring sling.

6. Download the instructions and start wrapping.

Baby Leg Warmers

1. Cut the feet off the bottoms


2. Turn them inside out and fold up the bottoms


3. Stitch around them and turn right side out



Website

OR

STEP 1: First cut the socks into sections as pictured below. You will toss the heel & toe scraps, but keep the bottom of the foot. Note: for this tutorial I am working with crew socks, but the process is the same as with tube socks.

STEP 2: Take the section remaining from the foot & you want to fold it inside of itself as pictured below. You should have the nice side of the sock on the outside & inside with a fold on one end & both raw edges on the other.

STEP 3: Stick the long section of the sock inside your newly created tube. This would give you 3 raw edges on the side we are going to sew, the other side will have the folded edge & the finished edge that was originally the top of the sock. If you have a pattern such as stripes or argyle as I used you may try to get them to line up. Once you are happy with the positioning pin together. Make sure to pin just 3 layers, not all 6 or you won’t have a hole to stick your little ones leg through when you are finished.

STEP 4: Time to Sew! Set the stitch length on your sewing machine to 4 (longest stitch), this will allow the most stretch. If the long straight stitch just doesn’t stretch enough for you can also us a narrow zig zag stitch… width at 2 & length at 3. You want to stretch the pinned side over the arm of your sewing machine & sew a straight stitch all the way around. If you can’t get it to stretch over then you can use what ever method you use to sew circles normally, or you can simply stitch it together with a needle & thread the old fashion way.

STEP 5 (OPTIONAL): Your finished seam should look similar to this. For a cleaner more professional look you can use pinking sheers, a zigzag stitch, or serge the seam for extra strength & to prevent unraveling.

Then simply fold the trim down (putting the seam inside) & TADA… a baby & toddler leg warmer simply make another one & test them out on the nearest happy child!

Here are pictures for this website.

French Seam

Step 1

Make note of the of the difference between the “right” and “wrong” side of the fabric you are using. The nature of a French seam's construction requires that you be aware of the difference during construction so that they are properly oriented in each step.

Step 2

With the right sides facing out, pin material together, pinning entire length of edge where the French seam will be.

Step 3

Stitch a 1/4" seam allowance along the entire length of the edge pinned in Step 2. Remove pins after the seam allowance has been sewn. Note: contrasting thread shown in photo used for clarity only.

Step 4

Cut seam allowance (sewn in Step 3) to within 1/8" of stitches. Although you may use pinking shears, they are not required. The cut edges will be protected (and hidden) by the completed French seam.

Step 5

Unfold with the right sides up. Press entire length of trimmed seam allowance, pressing both edges flat and to one common side. DO NOT press seam open! Be sure to use a setting on your iron that will not damage the fabric.

Step 6

Fold material along newly created seam with wrong sides out.

Step 7

Press entire length of seam flat at fold on wrong side. Be sure to use a setting on your iron that will not damage the fabric.

Step 8

With wrong sides out, pin folded material together, pinning entire length of pressed seam created in Step 7.

Step 9

Stitch a 3/8" seam allowance along the entire length of the edge pinned in Step 8. Remove pins after the seam allowance has been sewn. Note: contrasting thread shown in photo used for clarity only.

Step 10

Unfold with the wrong sides up. Press entire length of seam flat to one side. Be sure to use a setting on your iron that will not damage the fabric.

Step 11

Give yourself a pat on the back. Note that the right side of the seam is neat and flat. On the wrong side, the cut (or pinked) edges of the seam created in step 4 are now concealed. You're done!

For pictures, refer to this website.

Wrong Side of Fabric

Inspect the packaging

How the fabric is wrapped around the bolt is generally indicative of which side is the right side. Cottons and linens are wrapped on bolts or folded with the right sides out. Wools are folded with the right sides facing in. Delicate fabrics are generally wrapped with the wrong sides out to protect the right sides. When wrapped around a tube the right side generally faces in.

Inspect the selvage

Fabric is rolled through various processes on rollers with pins which stick up to hold it in place. After the fabric is removed from the rollers holes are left in the selvage. When the fabric is placed on the rollers there are prongs which poke through. Because the right side up for printing and finishing applications, the prongs first go through the wrong side and come out through the right side. The prongs go in the wrong side smoothly and punch out the right side of the fabric, leaving a rough hole on the right side. So the right side is the side with the rough holes. However, if you wash the fabric this may no longer be visible. Generally the selvages appear less finished on the wrongs sides and are smoother on the right side. Inspect the selvages for nubs, slubs, or irregularities, and for smoothness.

Inspect the fabric

The right side of fabric is usual more resistant to abrasion and dirt. On printed fabric, the print is usually bolder and clearer. Smooth fabrics are softer and/or shinier on the right side. Textured fabrics are more textured on the right side. On the right side slubs generally stand out more, ribs stand out more or are only visible on the right side, twills are more distinct. The fabrics will generally have small irregularities on the wrong side. Fabric with special finishes usually only have the finish on the right side. A finish can usually be identified through touch or visual inspection. Fancy weaves are smoother on the right side. The wrong side may have loose or uneven floats. The cut edges of knits will generally roll towards the right side when stretched in the direction with the most stretch.

Starting Up

Here is my new blog. I was talking to someone about having people ask you for instructions for something or a recipe and you left it at home! This is a way to keep them in a place that you can pull them up and it doesn't matter where you are! It will be so much easier! Now when I go to visit my family in Texas, it will all be here and I don't have to try to find another one on the web or something. So, if you are reading this, enjoy!