Running Sleeves

Where does General Washington keep his running armies?

In his running sleevies, of course!

My husband and I are runners.  He has been talking lately about getting some running sleeves. They are ideal for Spring weather--when you get too hot in long sleeves, but short sleeves feel chilly, especially for the first couple miles. These sleeves take that chill off, and allow your armpits to breathe. If you're a runner, you know what I'm talking about. Achieving the ideal body temperature while running is a true feat. So, on a run a few mornings ago,  we had the idea to try making our own.
     
My dear husband bought me a nice serger for Christmas with very high hopes of us eventually making all kinds of custom athletic and outdoor gear. So far, we've made several headbands, hats, and gloves....and now running sleeves.  

      

Making these were simple. All you need is 1/2 yard of a polyester-spandex blend fabric. I used my serger, but this type of synthetic fabric doesn't fray easily, so a regular sewing machine would work as well. I got two sets of sleeves out of 1/2 yard!

I made a pattern by measuring the length and width of the sleeve of one of my long-sleeved running shirts. I traced it, doubled it and added a couple inches for seams.

I won't post pictures of every step of sewing these--they are about as basic as it gets. I will give some tips based on my experience:

1. Pin A LOT. This type of fabric is very slippery. Sometimes my feeder foot had trouble grabbing it. Lots of pins will save you lots of heartache.
2. If you are serging, first baste with the sewing machine. It's a pain to be pulling out dozens of pins as you run fabric through the serger.
3. If you aren't serging, I suggest doing a double stitch to reinforce the seams since the sleeves are stretched and tugged to put on and take off.
4. My fabric came with finished edges on two sides, so I used that for my wrists. It looked nice and saved me some edge finishing. 

My pattern. 20" on the sides, 6.5" on the wrist end,  and a curved 13"-ish on the shoulder end. I made my husband's pair a couple inches wider. 

If you can't line up your edges to sew and have it lay flat, no worries!  Your arms aren't straight as a board either. :)

Here's a close-up of the pre-finished edge the fabric came with. It made a nice edge for the wrists.

Here's the underside of the finished shoulder. I did a double top-stitch. 

Not too professional looking up-close, but as my grandmother used to say, "Nobody can tell on a galloping horse!"

Mexican Meat Muffins

These turned out SOOO GOOD!  I was originally planning to make this into a full meat-loaf, but my hungry family didn't want to wait an hour for it to cook. The muffins were a good decision.  This is a fast, easy, YUMMY, way to have meat-loaf.  We had it alongside mashed potatoes and veggies, but  it would be yummy with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, and chips as well. 

Mexican Meat Muffins

2 lbs ground beef
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
2 packages (1.25 oz) low-sodium taco seasoning
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles, undrained
2 large eggs
1 cup shredded cheddar-jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 15 muffin pan cups.

Mix all ingredients except cheese in a large bowl. Don't over-mix (keeping some air in your meat will keep muffins from being too dense and dry).

Pat gently into muffin pans filling to 1/4 inch from rim.

Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Return and bake 5 more minutes.

Remove and serve hot. Mmm-mmm.

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Saturday Dishes

Leprechaun Corn

Or, "LepreCorn," if you will. (;

It's green. It's sweet. It's a must-make for St. Patty's!

What you need:

8 cups popped popcorn (microwave works)

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1 small package green jello

Marshmallows (optional)

Green/rainbow sprinkles (optional)

Wax paper

Preheat oven to 300. 

Line a roasting pan or jelly-roll pan with wax paper.

Make sure to get all the loose kernals out of your popcorn. We don't want any broken teeth! Put popcorn in a large mixing bowl. 

Put butter and corn syrup in a small saucepan and heat on the stove on low. Add sugar and jello and bring to a boil. 

Let simmer 5 minutes, stirring often

 Here's the green goop a'simmerin.'

Next, pour it on the popcorn, and stir it well, trying to coat as much as possible. 

Now spread it on the lined pan, and put it in the oven. 

Bake for 10 minutes, stirring once, halfway through.

When you take it out, immediately put the sprinkles on before it cools down. 

Remove from pan promptly. I put mine straight into a bowl. It cools very quickly, so no worry of it sweating if it's not spread out. 

Mix in marshmallows (I used about 1 cup), if desired. 

Enjoy! 

Chew-a-licious Cookies

(AKA Grape Nuts Cookies)

As cookies go, these little morsels are pretty healthy. With 1 1/2 cups of Grape Nuts Cereal, whole wheat flour, and about 1/3 less butter and sugar than most cookie recipes, you can eat without (too much) guilt! 

Right now our Costco has a HUGE box of Grape Nuts on sale, so I bought it with these cookies in mind. I haven't made them for several months, but they're always a favorite. 

What makes these so wonderful, other than the health benefits, is that you can make them a little different every time by changing your add-ins. This time I did white chocolate chips. I added Craisins to just the last pan-full, since not everyone loves them as much as I do. 

Here's the recipe:

Chewy-licious Cookies

1 1/2 cups Grape Nuts Cereal

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (all-purpose works, too)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup Craisins dried cranberries 

(Can substitute semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips, raisins, pecans, walnuts, dates, etc., for last 2 ingredients)

Preheat oven to 350. 

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or grease with cooking spray. 

Place cereal in a blender or food processor. Cover and process until ground.

Mix ground cereal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. 

Beat butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Add molasses, egg, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Gradually add flour mixture to wet mix. Stir in chocolate chips and Craisins.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. 

Bake 8-9 minutes until set. Cookies will be soft, but not wet. 

Cool on wire racks. Makes 40.

The One Yard Skirt

 

One yard of fabric is all it takes for this puppy. Just one--or less. This skirt pictured was actually about 3/4 yard--I got the end of the bolt.  And it is so cute and comfy! You will love making it!

Here's what you need to make a size 2- size 10 skirt: 

1 yard of fabric-- I used cotton here. A cotton-poly blend, knit, or just about any fabric you would like a skirt made from would work.

Thread in color that matches fabric

Elastic Thread--If this is new to you, no worries!  I explain how to use it in the instructions.

Paper/cardboard to make your pattern--Breathe. It's not complicated, I promise.

 

1. First, on your paper/cardboard draw an isosceles triangle with a 6 inch base that is 18 inches tall. Cut it out.

2. Now use a measuring tape to measure around the widest part of your hips. If you are 39-42 inches, your fabric width will need to be 44 inches, which is a standard piece of fabric and you don't need to trim it at all if your fabric is that width. If you are less than 39 inches, you can trim it down an inch or two, though it will still hang nicely without trimming. If you have a larger 56+" width fabric, trim it to 44 inches. 

3. Now lay your fabric out as one big sheet, unfolded. Trace and cut 4 of the triangles on the bottom of the fabric. Use as little fabric as possible by tracing them close to each other rotating them .

4.Once you have 4 triangles cut, trim the remaining fabric so it has a straight edge.

5. Divide the width of your fabric by 4. (Say your fabric is 44" wide, your answer is 11.) Now measure and mark every 11 inches across the bottom of the fabric with chalk.  You should have 3 chalk marks evenly spaced.

6. Now center the base of 3 of your triangles on each of the marks, so that the base lines up with the bottom of the fabric. Mark with chalk 1/2 inch below the top of the triangle. 

7. Set the triangles aside. Now cut a slit from the base chalk mark straight up to the mark above it. You will have 3 long slits.

8. Pin the 3 triangles into the slits, right sides together. Make sure to line up the base of the triangles with the base of your fabric. Sew the triangles to the skirt with a 1/4" seam allowance. The fourth triangle will be pinned to the two sides of the fabric, turning the piece into a skirt. Pin and sew up the edges above the triangle, closing the gap.  You should now have a skirt with a huge waist. 

9. Now for the fun part--the elastic thread.  I learned to use elastic thread from this video.

I like this brand pictured best, but others work well, too. The basic how-to is: put the elastic thread on your bobbin,  use regular thread on top, and widen your stitch length.

I ironed the top edge of the waist under like I was hemming it, then I used the elastic thread and sewed it closed. I continued to sew 10-12 rows of elastic. As the fabric gathers, don't try to straighten it out to feed it under the needle. Just let it go. I learned this the hard way a while ago. 

The outside of the waist will begin to look like this. 

The underside of your waist will look like this. See the thick thread? That's the elastic.

10. I learned this through trial and error. The very top of the waist may look a bit frilly when you are done. This can be fixed...

Do one last row of elastic stitching right along the tip-top edge of your waist. This will help draw in that froofiness. :)

11. Iron the waist. This step is skipped on several of the tutorials I have seen online. The one I linked to does include it. Ironing the elastic "shirred" waist will give it a truly finished look and shrink up the elastic. Don't worry, it will still stretch. But it will fit much more nicely. (Please overlook my old, stained ironing board cover in the picture. I should have put the iron there to cover it.)

12. Hem the base of the skirt. If you want it shorter, cut it. If you want it longer, uhhhhh, sew something onto it to make it longer. Hopefully you know how to hem. 

And you're done!!

Isn't it cute?!

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Tutorials and Tips Link Party

Easy Skillet Cobbler

Guess what I found hiding in the back of my freezer? Raspberries!! I thought the ones we picked and froze last summer were long gone, but I was wrong! 

I'm a Southern girl who is transplanted to the Pacific Northwest. So, surprise berries in the freezer means a cobbler in the oven!

I didn't have enough for a 9x13" pan, and we really didn't need a cobbler that big, so I decided to do one in a cast-iron skillet. Here's the how-to:

Skillet Cobbler

1.5 cups fresh/frozen raspberries

1 15oz can mandarin orange segments, drained

5 tablespoons butter/coconut oil (I used some of each)

1 cup whole white wheat flour (other flour works)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

Dash of salt

1 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place butter/coconut oil in the skillet, and place the skillet in the oven. 

While skillet is heating, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk in milk until smooth. Add egg and mix well. It will be a thin batter (about pancake batter consistency).

Take heated skillet out of the oven. Place it on an even surface so the oil is evenly coating the bottom of the pan. Pour the batter into the hot oil. Sprinkle the oranges and berries all over the batter. 

Return the skillet to the oven. Bake 30-35 minutes. Edges should be light brown and dough should be done in the middle. 

Enjoy! 

Art "docent" have to be hard.

How cool are these?  Pretty sweet, huh?

They are the artwork of two elementary school classes.  In our school system, we have an art docent program, and I am privileged to be the docent for a first and a fifth grade class.

Each year the school has an auction to raise funds for the art docent program, and each classroom in the school creates a piece of art to sell.  Prints are also made of the originals, so everyone who wants the artwork can have access to it.

 Here's what I did:

1. Out of nice sketch paper, I cut out a large (3.5" long) and small (2.5" long) petal shape for each student.

2. I gave them Sharpie markers and oil pastels and had them go to town decorating their petals to their heart's content. For the 5th graders, I did encourage the boys to use mostly cool colors, and the girls to use mostly warm colors.  But in the end, I don't think it really made a huge difference. They really did what they wanted to.

3. I painted a 16x20" canvas with acrylic paint.

4. I arranged the petals so the colors were well spread and coordinated.

5. Then, it was ModPodge time! If you haven't done much ModPodging-- it works best to use it generously to glue down each piece, rubbing the pieces to remove any air bubbles. Then, let them dry completely before you do a top coat. I did two top coats--one with vertical brush strokes, one with horizontal. This gives it a canvas-like finish.

6. Once it dries, it's done!  

These were the first graders' petals. Aren't they great?!?

I love this yellow! 

All laid out. I wrapped the ones that hung over around. It was challenging to get them to stick well. Cutting them off would be fine, too.

First Graders' finished piece

Fifth-graders' finished piece