Paisley Dress

I have managed to plant out quite a few seedlings today in pots my only hope now is that the cool weather we have coming next week doesn't kill them.  They  have been protected so far in the greenhouse so it will be interesting to see how they get on outside.  The  seeds I planted straight  into the garden are no where near as tall so they may have a shock.

For me made May 2020 day 7 I am wearing this dress which I made not so long ago, it is quite easy, self drafted from a t shirt I think with a high/low hem, elastic around the waist and a tie belt.

This photo came out very blurry and I don't know why, anyway you get the idea, the fabric is very soft and it is another  comfy dress.  In fact I have been wearing it with trainers today as I did the garden so it is very versatile and it hasn't crumpled too much either.

Sewing wise I cut out and stitched up my new fabric, here you can see my fabric pieces on brown paper that I made quite recently from the Tilly stretch book. I will share more on this tomorrow as weather permitting I will be wearing this garment.

This brown baking paper from Tesco holds up really well for pattern pieces so much better than the flimsy pieces you often get in bought patterns

Evie from Sister Sun is interested in making the orange cake from yesterdays post and as I forgot to note the ingredients here it is today!

Orange Olive Oil Cake

 175g /6oz self raising gf flour
55g/2oz gram flour
1tbsp apple sauce
3 tsp baking powder
55g / 2oz ground almonds ( I used flaked)
225g/8oz brown sugar
zest and juice of 1 unwaxed orange
egg replacer for 1 egg
90 ml /3 floz soya milk
150 ml/  5 fl oz olive oil
75ml/ 2 1/2 fl oz coconut oil


  Crystalized oranges and syrup
1 large unwaxed orange scrubbed
100g/3 1/2 oz granulated sugar
350 ml/ 12 fl oz water


Method
Pre heat oven 180 c  / 350 f   /gas mark 4, grease a 9 inch cake tin, sift dry ingredients into a bowl add the orange zest, mix up the egg replacer, add to mix with the wet ingredients and fold in. Pour into the tin.  Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.   To make the syrup boil the water in a pan and set to simmer add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the orange slices and simmer for twenty minutes. Leave to cool on a drying rack.

When the cake has cooked , pour over the orange syrup from the orange slices, pierce the cake so it soaks in.  I didn't use all of it just spoon some over.  Arrange the slices when cool.

Here it is again

This recipe is adapted from Gluten Free Vegan Baking.

Happy baking everyone I hope that helps.

It's a Wrap

 Now today I am actually sharing a dress made with a pattern for me made may 2020 day 6, one from a magazine in fact and very easy to wear and I would also think an excellent make whatever your size due to the waist ties. They make the dress so versatile and I would also think this would be a  perfect maternity dress as it can grow with you for quite a few months.

 It is a wrap dress with very long ties that go through a hole in the side seam and then wrap around a few times to make a sort of kimono style dress.   My only reservation with this one is that it is so comfy that I do think are people wondering if I have left the house in my robe??  My husband said no it just looks like a summer dress, but I do have that  feeling that it looks very robe like, oh well I have seen people out of their homes in onesies at least this looks more dressed than that ;)

Another fun fact about this dress is that I made my mother in law a maxi dress with this fabric and she bought such a big piece that there was enough left for me to make this dress and line a number of bags.

Here is the pattern of you want to seek it out, I am sure you can buy back issues of the magazine, or you may have a friend who has it like I did.

My School are having a sort of virtual bake off this week so this prompted me to make a different cake instead of sticking to the trusty tried recipes.  I  have made this Orange Olive Oil GF vegan  cake with almonds.  There were still a few modifications to be made as I had a few ingredients missing, I am at a point now though where I will sub things without too much worry. I am finally starting to get a good feel for what I can and can't do with gluten free vegan baking, to the point where I know it is wrong by the way it looks sometimes.  This one looked right though, and my son has had a slice and says it is lovely, I am saving my piece to have with a cup of tea later.  He came down earlier and I said don't anyone touch the cake as I have to take a photograph for School!  So we actually have an image of a complete cake today, hurray. 

So the oranges on top you have to cook in sugar for twenty minutes and this also make a syrup that you pour over it at the end.   

My tester said it is just the right level of orange flavour.

I sat outside earlier and read some more of War and Peace yes I am still going with that book too and enjoying it more now.  At half way through it, it is a good job I am enjoying it as it is no light read.  I keep thinking it would help if the writing was bigger (it is really small print) but then I suppose the book would be far too big to hold then 987 pages as it is, plus additional info. This was why it was chosen a s my isolation book, it was a now or never kind of thing. 

Take care everyone and if you are in the UK  enjoy the lovely weather for the rest of the week.  If not have fun wherever you are. 

Going with the Flow

Another day at work in it's new location and the day passed by pleasantly, I felt a bit reluctant as I left for work yesterday in a different school and I thought this must be how supply teachers feel all the time never knowing what to expect or where anything is! For us of course this is only temporary while the children of key workers are cared for in specific School sites, I needn't have worried as it was completely fine.  Today I was completely fascinated by  pair of twins who kept changing the rules to a game we were playing outside. Now it was a made up game so of course they made the rules but it was just so interesting to hear them bouncing ideas off each other, agreeing then disagreeing but all the while keeping up! Children are so fascinating when you have time to listen and be part of their worlds, plus they were having such fun with this bean bag game of theirs it was a joy to observe and play along.

Todays me made May day 5 is another self drafted skater dress same as my red one ( there are a few of these!)  fabulous fabric on this one that washes like a dream, very bright after lots of wear and I have other items in the same fabric so watch out for it again this month.  My colleague loved it so much I took her to the fabric store and she bought some, I then made her a t shirt out of it.

 Here we are lucky enough for another outdoor picture, still in tights you will note but I have hope for tomorrow as it is supposed to warm up.  Things are looking leafy and green and quite a few of my seedlings in the greenhouse need potting on now so that is a job for tomorrow.  I have planted some straight into large tins that can go straight out as soon as they are large and sturdy enough.  The cook at out School last year saved me the large catering tins for tomatoes.  They make excellent planters some are still silver, quite a few are rust.  They only have flowers in them so the ones that are rusty looking won't affect the flowers will they? I wouldn't plant food in a rusty tin though, time will tell with the flowers.  I'm sure some gardening expert out there will let me know if this was a dreadful idea, I had intended on just recycling them when they lost their sheen but I quite like the rusty shade.

My exercise for the day was just dance with the children this morning in the hall, once again I feel the staff enjoyed it more than the children did.  We are all just clearly happy to be out in the world! I may in fact find some of these routines myself now and carry with at home for the rest of the week, it's not a bad way to start the day.

I've shopped my own bookcase and decided to revisit another title, this time The Four Loves  by C.S Lewis.  I do like his style of taking about life and getting you to think, he is not always easy to follow but definitely worth it.

Tomorrow I am home so I will have time for some making, I'm going to have a think now before I cut into my new fabric.  Stay safe everyone.