pinned it. did it. {with doña}

Doña has done it again with another fun Pinned it. Did it. post! Love this idea. I can think of about three skirts I'd like to do this with and make some fun new dresses for Ellie. And her time-saving hemming tip might have just changed. my. life. Read on...

***** 

Recently a friend told me about the horrendous bridesmaid dress she refashioned for her daughter into something cute and actually reasonable to wear. If I recall correctly, the process involved removing the bodice, turning it backwards, reworking the waist pieces into a folded collar and changing the length of the skirt.

I was impressed. I love the idea of re-fashioning clothes (and hope someday to take a class from the talented Emily Falconbridge on this topic), but I just can’t seem to imagine how to take apart an item of clothing and see it as something else. Let alone make it.

So I was pretty proud of my accomplishment this month, turning one of my old skirts into a dress for my preschooler. 
 

Mind you, this is a very simple re-fashion, but it gave me more confidence to try other things. 

I bought this skirt back when I was pregnant, while visiting my grandparents in Canada, both of whom have since passed. Honestly, it never looked good on me and I don’t really know why I bought it. But I did like the fabric pattern and because of the connection to my grandparents it has hung around through several closet purges. But I knew I wasn’t ever going to wear it. One day I realized that skirt length on me equals dress length for my daughter – I could turn it into a dress!

I found a very simple pattern on Pinterest for a dress with about the same shape as the skirt panels, took some measurements, and started disassembling.

It turns out this skirt was quite well made, with French seams and lining. Taking it apart was the hardest and most time consuming part of the whole project!

Once I had the waistband off and the lining removed, I had to figure out how to shape the actual dress. The original skirt was made of six panels but I didn’t need that much width, so I removed two panels and sewed that side seam back together to make a narrower tube.

Then I followed the instructions and measurements to cut armholes and the neckline casing.

I recently made my first project from a Japanese pattern book, and I picked up an awesome tip. When you are pressing a hem or folding in and pressing a casing, mark an index card with the width you need for each fold and use it to turn and press the fabric. This is so much faster than the way I learned to do it way back in high school!

The old waistband piece turned out to be just long enough to make a nice tie, so I sewed the long edge together and threaded it through the top edge casings.

And that was it!

The final dress is a bit big for my daughter right now, but it should be perfect next summer, and may even fit another summer after that.

I could not for the life of me get a not-blurry picture of her in it, but she did ask me if she could get married in it, which I am happy to take as a complement of the highest order.

Have you ever taken apart a garment to make something else? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Doña Bumgarner is a writer, artist, mama and a craft project-collector from way back. She loves Pinterest and uses it to help solve a household dilemma at least once a week (see her “Pinned and Done,” Handmade Gifts, and What’s For Dinner boards). She lives in Santa Cruz with her partner, their little one and his almost grown one, and a collection of cats and chickens. She blogs at Nurtured Mama.

Registration for her popular 21 Days To A Peaceful Holiday class, designed to help you create a simpler, more intentional holiday season, is now open. You can read more and register here.

Note from Liz: Over here in my corner, I'm focusing on how to "use Pinterest for good." I really see it as a community of people trying to see the beauty and possibility in their lives. I'm continuing to add a few new features here on my blog inspired by or directly about Pinterest as a way to invite others to look for this beauty within a social media community. Connect with me on Pinterest here. Read other "Pinned it. Did it." columns here.

pinned it. did it. {with doña}

Note from Liz: Doña is back with a mouth-watering Pinned it. Did it. post. As in I wish I was her neighbor so I could eat some of these kind of mouth-watering post. I heart Pinterest and all the good things we find over there. Read on!

*****

My Pinterest research this week was all about donuts.

Donuts are one of those things that I *could* make at home but would rather not. I just don’t like to make fried food. It is hot and messy and time consuming and then you have all that oil left over. And so unhealthy!

But I found a 6-donut baking pan recently and I knew I’d seen some baked donuts go by in my Pinterest stream. When my daughter asked me this week if we could go get donuts this weekend I decided it was time to tackle the problem of how to make a healthier, less messy, donut at home. 

Baked donuts are big on Pinterest, it turns out. There are simple ones and gourmet ones and everything in between. 

I chose two recipes to try. The first was Banana Donuts with Browned Butter Glaze. My kitchen helper and I got straight to work.

These donuts might even be considered healthy - not much oil or sugar, because they use banana for moisture. The glaze is pretty much a sugar-butter riot, but it is also so incredibly good. The browned butter elevated them from a kid treat to something special for the grownups, too. The best part about this recipe is that it is really fast. Just about 20 minutes, start to finish. Make the glaze while the donuts are baking and it will be ready to go by the time they are out and cooled. Make sure to let them cool in the pan for a while - these are so moist that they want to fall apart. 

The second recipe I tried was this French Breakfast Donut. I don’t remember eating donuts for breakfast either of the times I travelled in France, but I’m happy to adopt this “breakfast tradition” the same way I’ve adopted the questionably French eggy pancakes that are my Saturday morning specialty. 

These had a longer baking time, but no glaze to make. I was intrigued that the texture of the dough was completely different than the first recipe. Although they both contain similar ingredients, they are in very different proportions. The batter for the banana donuts was very soft, almost like pancake batter. The batter for the french donuts was thicker but the additional baking powder made it light and full of bubbles before I even spooned it into the pan. 

I made two adjustments to this recipe. First, I used soured milk instead of regular by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the milk, which is basically like using buttermilk. The vinegar may have been why my batter was so bubbly! Also, instead of dipping the cooked donuts in butter before dipping in the cinnamon sugar, I sprayed them with coconut oil (I find this at Trader Joe’s and use it in place of non-stick baking spray). That allowed the sugar mixture to stick, but without quite so much fat. 

The French donuts were my favorite, but my small taster liked the glazed ones best. Of course, she added sprinkles, because what is a donut without sprinkles? 

I’ll definitely make these again. I generally have all the ingredients on hand and they were fast and satisfying. They are also healthy enough that I feel pretty good about feeding them to my kid. Though I might up my game a bit with these Caramel Cider Donuts once the weather cools off...

Sorry donut shop down the street. It doesn’t look like we’re going to be visiting any time soon!

Disclosure from Doña: Some links are affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you purchase from the links.

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Doña Bumgarner is a writer, artist, mama and a craft project-collector from way back. She loves Pinterest and uses it to help solve a household dilemma at least once a week (see her “pinned and done” board here. She lives in Santa Cruz with her partner, their little one and his almost grown one, and a collection of cats and chickens. She blogs at Nurtured Mama. If you are needing extra support to round out your summer while the kids are home, find her Welcome To Summer resources and printables pack here. 

Note from Liz: Over here in my corner, I'm focusing on how to "use Pinterest for good." I really see it as a community of people trying to see the beauty and possibility in their lives. I'm continuing to add a few new features here on my blog inspired by or directly about Pinterest as a way to invite others to look for this beauty within a social media community. Connect with me on Pinterest here. Read other "Pinned it. Did it." columns here.

pinned it. did it. {with doña}

Note from Liz: Doña is back with another post inspired by Pinterest. Love this honest insight she's given into her experience and the suggestions for what to do when tackling a sewing tutorial found on Pinterest.

*****

Have you ever used Pinterest as a search engine? Like Google, but with pictures for every hit?

It is one of my favorite ways to use it. When I decided recently that I wanted to make my own maxi skirt, I skipped Google and went straight to Pinterest. With their new search tools, it is even easier to hone in on what you are looking for. You can even search in your own pin boards if you use the “just my pins” filter. 

Searching with the words “maxi skirt” mostly returned fashion boards with styling suggestions and skirts for sale, but “maxi skirt pattern” hit the jackpot. There are many many free patterns, but most of the ones I looked at were poorly written and confusing. Here’s one good one. Eventually I found this pin and followed links to this post and this pattern for sale on Etsy.

I downloaded and printed out the pattern, bought some stripey bamboo jersey fabric, and got to work. 

But all did not go as planned. 

This was supposed to be an easy project! There are only four seams, what could go wrong? Well, a lot, it turns out. 

It all turned out well in the end, but I learned some lessons. So that you may have an easier sewing experience with this project (or any other), I’ll share them with you here:

1. Check your measurements carefully. Like two or three times. Because most of this pattern is based on your waist measurement, be very sure that you measured it correctly! Ahem.
2. Read through the directions to make sure you understand them before you begin. I’m a pretty experienced sewist, so I may have skipped this step. As a result, I missed an important detail which made all of my pattern pieces twice as wide as they needed to be. Whoops.
3. It is generally not a good idea to cut out fabric late at night after having a beer with dinner. Luckily, I figured out all of my errors before actually cutting anything out so no fabric was wasted. This could easily have been a disaster.
4. Also not recommended is cutting out a large piece of fabric on the floor with three frisky cats in the house. 
5. Unpicking mis-sewn seams is not the end of the world. But if you need to do it, and you are sewing black fabric with black thread, make sure you have good lighting.
6. Sometimes it is easier to cut off a seam than unpick it. Only use this shortcut if you have a little extra fabric to spare (my waistband is 1/2” shorter than originally intended).
7. Taking the time to line up the stripes for the skirt’s side seams is worth the few extra minutes. It really makes your work look professional.
8. Using a sewing machine needle intended for stretch fabric really does make a difference. I forgot to change out my needle until just before the last seam. That last seam is beautiful. The rest are a little messy. 

If you follow all the directions correctly, this is a really straightforward and rewarding project. It is also pretty fast. Even with all of my mistakes, it only took me a couple of hours. It would not be unreasonable to finish this in an hour. 

I love my new skirt and I will be making another one soon. Maybe not after a beer, though. 

Doña Bumgarner is a writer, artist, mama and a craft project-collector from way back. She loves Pinterest and uses it to help solve a household dilemma at least once a week (see her “pinned and done” board here). She lives in Santa Cruz with her partner, their little one and his almost grown one, and a collection of cats and chickens. If you are needing extra support to ease into summer with the kids at home, find her Welcome To Summer resources and printables pack here. 

pinned it. did it. {with doña}

Doña is back with another Pinned it. Did it. post and it involves margaritas. Yes, please. Read on!

*****

My love affair with spicy cocktails began on a sweltering day in an upstairs cantina in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Coyote Cafe makes a Hatch Chile-infused margarita called the Norteño, so good it is even mentioned their TripAdvisor reviews. Hatch Chiles are grown in the Hatch Valley and not widely distributed outside of New Mexico. They are everywhere in Santa Fe. They are often served roasted, smoky and mellowed, much like the Ortega green chiles I’m familiar with in California. 

That chile-infused margarita, ordered on a whim, was so good that I ordered another, which was one more than I generally drink in an evening but something I only regretted slightly in the morning.

When I returned home I wanted to make my own version so I read up on infused and spiced drinks. I discovered that there are two ways flavors are added to a concoction. Most often, the alcohol is infused with the flavoring. Stoli Vanilla Vodka is a common commercial example. This is how the Santa Fe margarita was made. It is simple enough. Just add the flavoring agent - roasted chiles in this case - to a bottle of alcohol and let it sit for a while. For best results, let it sit for a couple of months. 

I tried infusing a bottle of tequila with roasted Padron peppers late that fall, but by the time the bottle was ready to use I had fallen pregnant. The peppers had turned the alcohol the most gorgeous stormy grey, but even the smell turned my stomach and I gave the bottle away to someone who would appreciate it. Margaritas didn’t figure in my life for quite a while after that.

Last spring I was again reminded about spicy cocktails when I saw a photo of this Spicy Grapefruit Margarita in Ali Edward’s Instagram feed. This recipe uses the other infusion method - flavoring the simple syrup. This method is faster. Just simmer the seasoning in the sugar water and it is ready to use. I got as far as making a jar of the infused simple syrup but the very next day I found out I was pregnant again.

Sometimes I’m sure the universe is conspiring against me.

Another whole year has passed and I’m determined to make my own spicy drink at home! 

Success. And delicious. This drink will be on rotation in this house this summer for sure!

I tripled the proportions for the simple syrup from the original recipe to make enough to store in the fridge for quicker drink-making. I went with the 1/4 tsp suggestion for cayenne, which gave just enough heat and flavor, but is not overwhelming. Warming, but not really hot. You could add more if you prefer truly spicy.

I halved the rest of the recipe to make a single drink - her proportions will make two. Make sure to shake the ingredients with a lot of ice to get them nice and cold and blended well. I prefer the mellower aged flavor of reposada tequila so that’s what I buy, but I really don’t think it matters for this drink. 

I did try her suggestion to use rubbing spices for the rim and it was delicious. I’m going to try smoked paprika with salt next time.

My man, who eats every meal with a fork in one hand and a bottle of Sriracha sauce in the other, doesn’t like hot flavors in his cocktails. It was easy enough to make his drink plain by just using non-infused simple syrup in his glass and plain salt on the rim.

I’m officially a spicy drink convert. Once we hit the cooler months, I’m going to try this Chai Honey Old Fashioned. I like to drink the brown alcohols in the cooler months. 

Doña Bumgarner is a writer, artist, mama and a craft project-collector from way back. She loves Pinterest and uses it to help solve a household dilemma at least once a week (see her “pinned and done” board). She lives in Santa Cruz with her partner, their little one and his almost grown one, and a collection of cats and chickens. If you are needing extra support to ease into summer with the kids at home, find her Welcome To Summer resources and printables pack here. You can also connect with her on Instagram, Twitter, as well as on Pinterest, of course.

pinned it. did it. {with doña}

Doña is back with another inspiring post about a DIY she found on Pinterest. I've seen these Story Stones and love how accessible Doña makes them. Read on!

*****

I’m a creative person. I’ve worked hard at building, feeding, and nurturing creativity in my life. As a mother, I love witnessing my young daughter’s innate creativity. How much we are all born with! But I also know how easily that creativity can be squashed.

It might be squashed by teachers who are trying to get a classroom of energetic kids in line, by schools with a focus on academic achievement, by people who don’t understand or who are threatened by the unusual, and sometimes by well-meaning parents. 

Because I know she probably has that road ahead of her, I feel it is my duty right now, while she’s young, to build extreme creative resilience.

I do this, mostly, by giving her lots of open ended toys and unstructured play time. We have blocks and peg dolls and play silks and more. I have a whole Pinterest board of Waldorf-style toys that I love for their open-ended playing qualities. I also make sure to let her see me being creative - in the kitchen, in the garden, while playing with her, as well as in my studio with my own craft and art projects. She loves to work alongside me at my “big desk."

One area where my creativity is lacking, however, is story telling. Bean is getting to be an age where she’s making up stories and playing pretend a lot. I wish I could say I tell her stories at bedtime, but after “Once upon a time…” I freeze up. I simply don’t know where to go next.

Recently in an attempt to jumpstart my own story-telling abilities, and also to encourage hers, I started looking into story stones. I had heard of them, but had never seen them, and wanted to make my own. Pinterest, of course, had a wide variety of ideas.

There were these with highly detailed monochromatic drawings. These make the whole stone a character, instead of just having a picture on the top. These use the stones as puzzle pieces to create new character combinations. 

I decided to make a set like these – simple, colorful and fun. 

I had some rocks leftover from a friend’s landscaping project, so I picked out 10 flat-ish ones and scrubbed them with soap and water to get them pretty clean. These stones are a nice size - a handful for my daughter, but not enough to really hurt if she dropped one on her foot. If you are collecting rocks from a beach or river for this project, just looks for stones that have one flat side for the image and have a fairly smooth surface.

I decided to use images of things that my daughter is drawn to or talks about often already, so my pictures included a house, a baby, some flowers, and a bug. I showed her the first couple and then got her input on what other pictures she’d like. “A bird!” she said, “and a kitty cat.”

I used a combination of Montana acrylic paint pens and Sharpie oil markers, because I had them already, but I think the Infinity Markers that Liz used for these Soul Mantra Stones would work really well. You could also paint your pictures with a brush and some acrylic paint.

The stones I’ve seen for sale are all sealed with some kind of top coat, but I didn’t bother. Since my daughter loves the sound of them hitting each other, I’m sure it is only a matter of time before the pictures wear off. No matter, they only took me about 30 minutes to make!

As with any other new toy, she had a surge of interest when I first introduced them, and then left them to play with something else. It may take a few weeks before they cycle into regular use. I’ve put them in her toy box where she can find them when she’s ready.

PS: If you love the idea of story stones but don’t want to make your own, here’s a seller on Etsy who makes several themed sets.  

Disclosure from Doña: Some links are affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you purchase from the links.

Doña Bumgarner is a writer, artist, mama and a craft project-collector from way back. She loves Pinterest and uses it to help solve a household dilemma at least once a week (see her “pinned and done” board). She lives in Santa Cruz with her partner, their little one and his almost grown one, and a collection of cats and chickens. She writes about the practice of moms feeding their souls in the midst of raising a family on her blog, Nurtured Mama, where you can also download her free Mothering Moments ebook.