"Business Casual" In Progress--Pamella Roland V1265

I've been doing a lot of college interviews lately, and it has been posing challenges for my wardrobe. 

Most requests for an interview come with the dubious instruction to dress in "business casual". Well I don't really own a blazer or a pair of slacks, so I end up wearing a full pantsuit and heels, and then my interviewer looks at me like "This is your idea of CASUAL?!?!" and I make a bad joke about how I'm an attorney on my school's Mock Trial team and this is my Prosecution Suit.

So I decided that next up on my sewing queue had to be a garment that was sharp, business-themed, and stylish, but slightly less imposing than the suit I use when I'm (hypothetically) trying to send people to jail.

Pamella Roland to the rescue! Let's all agree that Pamella Roland has some amazing suitdress patterns!

V1233

V1279

Look at that action shot! V1232

And my muse...

V1265

I love this pattern! It's tailored, professional, and sophisticated, but it's also cute and even feminine. Where's the femininity, you ask? Wait a minute...

BOOM! RUFFLE! (Look at that sly smile, she knows she's wearing an awesome ruffle ;) )

I wanted my fabric to reflect the same business-with-a-twist aesthetic. After extensive searching I found a great fabric for a steal while fabric shopping in New York.

I bought this at Paron fabrics. I love the fact that it takes a typical, menswear-like pinstripe and puts a playful, feminine twist on it. Purple power pinstripe! 

Romantic Raspberry Danish: an Entenmann's Copycat Recipe

It was my parents' anniversary this past week. 20 YEARS!!! That's a really long time!

I wanted to do something nice for them for their anniversary. I decided to make them breakfast, so that they could get up and have a nice meal without having to worry about putting it together themselves (for once!). However, this posed a problem because I actually have to leave for school at 7:00 in the morning, meaning that even if I did find time to make a meal, my parents probably wouldn't be up to eat it!

So I looked for something that I could make ahead and that would still be nice and fresh and tasty in the morning, and that would be special for my parents--that is, though I have several delicious breakfasts in my arsenal, I wanted to surprise them with something new.

Does anyone remember these Entenmann's pastries?

Entenmann's Raspberry Danish

Probably not--but they used to be a breakfast staple in my household when I was little. My dad would pick them up from the grocery store to have as a special treat. Then Entenmann's discontinued them. My family was discussing them wistfully the other day. Lightbulb!

I ended up finding this recipe from Rate. Bake. Create. that looked pretty much exactly like what I was looking for: a pastry dough topped with icing and raspberry jam. I need to give tons of thanks for this recipe because it was the only one I found that had everything I was looking for--it was easy, basic, no cheese impinging upon my raspberry jam, and it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS.

Plus, it was pretty fun to photograph because of how curious this piece of pastry looked.

Look, it's Santa's sleigh!

An edible sundial!

And here it just looks really really yummy.

Here's the recipe and pictures!

What do I think of Vogue Patterns' new spring 2015 collection? Not much.

I got home late last night, unhappily resigned to sitting down at my dining room table until 1:00 finishing the chem homework due the next day that I had put off in favor of sewing, when I checked my email.

PUT EVERYTHING ON HOLD VOGUE RELEASED THEIR NEW COLLECTION GOTTA SEE THE NEW PATTERNS!!!

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm waned when I actually arrived at the website :(

I had high hopes for Vogue. After a couple of shockingly mediocre collections, their fall 2014 series included several notable gems, such as this mouthwatering Mizono blouse, and this funky DKNY dress, and, my personal obsession, this Ralph Rucci coat, which I wasted no time in making up for myself.

But this time around, I'm afraid my friends, there are once more slim pickings.

Here are some of the better patterns I found. 

Kay Unger dress

This one, V1432, looks so plain in the styling that I almost missed it! Look at this line drawing! 

Isn't that seaming on the bodice so cool?! But if I were to make this dress, I would definitely be using alternating fabric for the strips on the bodice, because on Vogue's rendition you can't even see the detail! 

 

This Tom and Linda Platt jacket, V1435, looks relatively interesting, until the model turns around and you realize that the gentle draping that makes the back look so delicate and elegant makes your front look enormous and absurd because your dog ate the bottom half of your jacket! Oddly, I don't think I would mind the drapey silhouette if it were waist-length in the front as well; but something about the uneven hem seems to make her breast look saggy and her tummy look prominent...(which doesn't even make sense because the jacket doesn't even approach her stomach! It's just not good.)

Vogue 1419: My Winter-White Winter Break Coat

It's done! After over two weeks of working on this coat over my whole winter break, it's finally done!

I'm really proud of this coat. For one, it's the first Advanced/Plus Difficile Vogue Pattern I've made! More substantially, it really pushed the boundaries of my sewing knowledge. It's probably the most meticulously tailored garment I've made so far. I learned a lot of new sewing techniques, like bound buttonholes and welt pockets (see my last blog post for detailed pics/tutorials!) And I think, for all the work it entailed, it turned out really well!

Here's the pattern I used--the oft lauded and blogged Vogue 1419 Ralph Rucci coat. I (like a lot of us), fell in love with it on first sight. Here's the line drawing so we can admire it more.

Isn't it cool?!?! The coat has no shoulder seams! It has a front panel and a back panel, and then there's a piece that goes over the shoulder and a side panel/gusset that connect the front and back to form a sleeve. Aren't those some awesome style lines? And the silhouette--a flared skirt, flared sleeves, and nipped-in waist--is very flattering.

Bound Buttonholes, Welt Pockets, and Other Perilous Details

I had a weird experience the other day.

I was at my grandmother's house and she had a department store catalog on her sofa, so I was flipping through it absentmindedly when a perturbing trend stood out to me.



Wrap Coat

                                Open Wrap Coat

...this looks like a glorified robe!














                             

Oooooh look, it's a button!!!

Are we seriously at the point where even ridiculously-priced department stores are so cheap that they don't even want to put proper closures on outerwear?!?!

Hence, the very simple reason I have spent the last week sacrificing my time, my eyesight, and my fingertips to my latest sewing project: If I don't make myself a coat with respectable buttonholes and pockets, there's no way I'm ever going to find one in a store!

I'm currently working on Vogue 1419, a Ralph Rucci coat pattern that features nearly every painstaking and exquisite detail available to a coat--particularly, mitered corners, bound buttonholes, welt pockets. All of which are a little tricky and nerveracking. In general, I think anything that requires a seamstress to cut into an already-assembled garment without being able to preview the final look is guaranteed to be tricky, not to mention nerveracking! (P.S. Take a look at the finished coat!)

Now I've never done any of these techniques before, so I'm teaching myself as I go along and my coat isn't quite done yet. But I thought I'd post on the techniques I've been learning so you can see what I've been up to lately!

DIY Cake Stencil Out of Stuff You Have Sitting around Your House!

Cake stencils are a really intricate, professional-looking way to decorate your confections quickly and simply. This tutorial is going to teach you how to design and make homemade cake stencils out of stuff you have lying around your house! Getting rid of junk AND beautiful dessert? Win-win ;)

What is a cake stencil? 
They're a perforated piece of plastic that you use as a template to paint/sprinkle a design onto your cake. They can get super intricate!

Picture courtesy of Baking Pleasures

I usually put mine on top of the cake and then sprinkle some sort of powder--like sugar or chocolate--over it, leaving a really beautiful design on the cake!

Design in powdered sugar

Design in Cinnamon

Here's how you do it!

Celebration time! Chocolate Hazelnut Torte, here I come!

I took my last final two days ago...I finished my last college app yesterday...it's winter break and I have no more essays to write...

I am now OFFICIALLY a second-semester senior!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY (and PHEW!!!)

Time to cook and sew to my heart's content!!!

Yesterday I was so intoxicated by my newfound freedom to do whatever I wanted (as opposed to studying and writing essays bleagh) that when Serious Eats emailed me a recipe for a chocolate-chestnut torte, I was like LET'S GO FOR IT!

I actually ended up adapting a hazelnut-chocolate torte recipe instead, because I like hazelnuts better and I didn't have any chestnuts. Unfortunately, I didn't have any eggs either, which I was so excited to get started that I didn't realize until halfway through making the confection, which led to me running down the street in my slippers to borrow eggs from my angelic neighbor. Thank you Edye!!! I also accidentally added double the sugar I was supposed to at the beginning, so I had to make a batch of cookies instead and start the cake over (you can't let butter and sugar go to waste!). Not my smoothest dessert, clearly. Cut me a break. I'm still getting back in the groove ;)

But eventually all the right ingredients ended up in the mixer together. I think the cake came together quite nicely, don't you?

I decorated the top with powdered sugar using a homemade cake stencil. Within a few days I'll post a tutorial about how to make your own reusable cake stencil from stuff you probably have lying around your house! If you're reading this thinking, "Less art, more eating!", a liberal dusting of powdered sugar would, I'm sure, look just as inviting plus have the added advantage of covering in all the bald spots. Or you could just cut to the chase and slather the thing with Nutella ;)

The cake turned out to be pretty good! It was moist and fudgy and tasted like Nutella. Here's the recipe!