I finally dug out the molds and chocolate I had bought a while back to make these adorable chocolate mushrooms. Emily and I tried our hand at making them and here is our result!

It was our very first time making molded candies, and I was surprised that they came out looking at decent as they did. We definitely learned a lot...the colored chocolate (white, red and pink) was brushed into the molds first, then a nice thick layer of dark chocolate was put in. We filled them with strawberry-laced buttercream I had leftover and then assembled them.

Definitely not professional looking, but pretty cute. Unfortunately....they were unbearably sweet! None of us could get through more than about half of one and we have had no desire to repeat the experience. I think they'll be getting thrown out tonight. I might try them again, but fill them with something (relatively) lighter, like marshmallow fluff. But I think it'll be a while. They were fun to make, though, and we'll definitely be trying more molded chocolate one of these days! Just.....not so big. And not full of frosting.

Poking around British Pathe's archives this morning (taking some badly needed downtime after the huge avalanche of work finally ended yesterday*) I came across this really funny clip from the 1960s - the first half is about fashionable London women who are allegedly running around knocking over men and stealing their "manly goods" in the name of fashion (see the lady above, shoving men aside to get into a scooter shop and steal their touch-up paint for her nails)! The second half features some cool Mary Quant outfits being modelled down at the river. Silly fun for a Saturday!

*We barely, and I mean barely, made the deadline yesterday, but we did it! Yay! No-one wants to be responsible for screwing up the Treehouse of Horror. I thought I was going to go blind working on that strip....but hopefully it does actually look good. We'll all see in October!

So far this summer has been HOT (we don't have central air, just two rooms in the house have window units and we're enduring official heatwave after official heatwave - it's been well over 90° in the house more days than I want to think about) but very busy. I've been doing a lot but it feels like I've been spinning my wheels quite a bit. A lot of work and not much to show for it, really. I've also spent a lot of time just contemplating...a ton of things really, and I think some of them may end up here. Someday. I've also spent some time feeling pretty out of sorts, okay, in the dumps really. But I think we're digging our way back out these days.

I did make a set of seven nightgowns for my poor child who'd grown out of every pair of PJs she had (all also made by me). Why seven? I had the knit fabric pieces and now I'll never run out. Also, two of them are too heavy for summer wear. Here are four of them!

Do you notice a theme? Maybe if I decribed the other 3...let's see, there's pink fabric with little hello kitty faces....light pink with pink butterflies....and heck, I can't remember the last one but yep, you guess it, PINK. I use the farbenmix Hannah pattern, just made them long, long, long. She should be able to wear them for years.

I also managed to make three versions of advance 6936, the first polka dot version, a version in moomin fabric, and a version in a pink pirate skull fabric. Too unorganized to have good photos or a post written up, but I'll get to it! Eventually! When it's not so HOT.

Emily also got some capri-length leggings to go under all the dresses; black and white stripes for the pirate dress, white ones for the moomin dress (it's orange and white). They're the Laguna pattern from Studio Tantrum, just chopped off below the knee and finished with stretch elastic. They went over like gangbusters, no photos have been managed yet though.

Two projects are in the works for Emily, one is this raincoat, the other is the "Rose Dress" that I've been figuring out for her for months now, that's a whole post on its own! I'd hoped to have it done early this month for summer wear, but instead I've been caught up in sloper-making....the little bits of sewing time I've scrounged in the last 2 months have been spent trying to finally get better fit in her clothes and so far? It's like banging my head against the wall. I have high hopes for today's effort though! If it's cool enough tomorrow am downstairs I'll assemble it and fingers crossed I'll be done at last.

Once that's done, it'll be time to finally work on my own sloper so I can at last make my clothes fit with a lot less work. The learning process has been a bit grueling so far but I have no doubt that it'll pay off!

That's maybe half of it, but I'm obviously way behind....stay tuned for actual project posts including a giant FAIL coming soon eventually. I'm also standing firm on my stashbusting! But more about that later, too.

I've also accumulated a ton of interesting links and info I've meant to post, but my organization just goes out the window over about 90°! Here's one that I think is really cool -- I found this on the site for the Smithsonian's libraries. It's a guide put out by Greist in 1957 with info on how to use all their attachments. I have a similar one that was adapted for teenagers that's got slightly different info, but this one is really cool. Click to open! (Note - on the slotted binder attachment, the packaged bias tape they call #5 is the equivalent of today's 1/4" double fold or 1/2" single fold.)

Enjoy and thanks for putting up with my rambling today! I'm off to stand under an avalanche of work that's about to fall on my head -- hope it doesn't hurt too much!

How cute are these kits? I found them on ebay, the seller has a whole bunch of them! The whole dress pattern is printed on the fabric, ready for you to "Cut 'n' Sew". I know from experience that it would be useless to get one of these and make it for Emily since I doubt you can alter them and they would be far too short (or too wide if I got a larger size). And I can't really justify buying one just to display....although I think it would be an awesome thing to put on the wall of a sewing room! (You know, if I had a sewing room....). Something to keep an eye out for, I'd definitely grab one if I ever find one thrifting someday!

That is an ice cream cone I ate in Toronto two weeks ago. The flavor was "MIckey's Birthday Cake" and it was cake flavored ice cream, with frosting swirled in (frosting!!) and lots of sprinkles swirled in as well. With whipped cream and a mini-oreo on top. Holy smokes. To heck with everyone else and their "cupcake" flavored nonsense. It was amazing. But....I had to let Evan eat half of it and I still felt awful later! Emily had french vanilla and said it was delicious. (Both bought at "The Big Chill" which was, I think, right on Bloor College! Thanks, Gal!)

I stumbled across the most amazing set of ebay listings yesterday -- six portfolios of sewing and design samples by a 1930s (late 1930s, I think) Belgian fashion student named Hilda Servotte. Seriously, you must check them out while they are still up! Two albums are full of her clothing designs, the other four are actual sewn samples of all sorts of things. A few of my favorite pages:

from the "pockets" portfolio (yes, nothing but pockets! and all gorgeous!)

Buttonholes I wish I could make (from the "Intuition" portfolio),

All sorts of detailing techniques on one piece (from the "Lingerie" portfolio), and:

bias application - I love those stripes! Possibly the most amazing portfolio is the one that is nothing but mending. It took me a few minutes to realize what it was, most of the mending is so amazingly clean. It's an incredible display of work!

I do actually have two very different sets of samples -- one is a class notebook from 1913 with some sewing samples and notes (very small, nothing like this) and the other is a 1950s Singer Sewing Center album of techniques with sewn samples. But these are astounding, and they'd be on their way to my house right now if I had that kind of money to casually toss around. I hope they go to a good home! (Preferably one that I can visit to see these in person, ha ha!)