Away from my machine

I am away from my sewing machine at my in-laws place. But yet my dreams, thoughts are all about the new things I could make if I had my sewing machine with me. My husband promptly noticed how much I missed my machine. And he was quick to grab the opportunity to give me  something new to work on. No its not sewing or painting or anything related to crafts. He wants me to learn a new technology !
Joomla.
Since its new, something that I have never tried before, I decided to give it a try. I have been clinging onto my system since morning trying to learn it. Of course I did a lot of housework in between. Like cleaning and cooking and of course looking after Richu. In a way its good to be busy. Its when you have the least amount of time, one does maximum work.
Yes so Joomla is basically a very powerful content management system that provides a wide range of features. It seems interesting. Lets see how far this goes :)
By the way ... have I ever mentioned that I am a Software Engineer by profession??? Well I am... And hence Joomla :)

Captured a moment onto a paper

Was just lying down on my bed looking outside... Thinking about something that I dont remember anymore. Just then something caught my attention... A small butterfly fluttering around. Thats when for the first time in all these years I noticed I had such a wonderful view of nature. I Just had to look outside to appreciate the wonder that god has created for us... And a small butterfly helped me see it. I couldnt let go that moment. I ran and grabbed a paper and pen and captured that moment into that scrap of paper !

The view from our window

To see more of my drawing Click Here - Line Drawings & Paintings
I would love to hear what you think of them !!

Diaper Bag - My First Major Project

       Hi guys... I am back with yet another project... This time a more complicated one - A Diaper Bag. This was the first time I spend more than 4 hours to sew something. In fact this time was spread across 2 days. The first day I was making calculations... How big I would need my bag to be... The length of cloth required... searching all my stash to find a suitable fabric that wouldn't fray and is sturdy. I was running short of the sponge (ideally I should have used batting) that I was going to sandwich between the fabrics. So I needed to account for that too to come up with a suitable size bag which would be big enough to carry my baby items when I go out for a small trip. And this was the final product !

       I know its not a great looking fabric. I made this out of a old bedspread. Since this is the first time I am making a bag... I decided to go for a less fancier material. Experiment till you get it right and then tear apart brand new fabrics... That's my Motto ! :)

My Notes , Calculations..

OK Now about the bag. I fitted Velcro in the main flap. Like this. also the front part, I kind of did a quilt like design. Its not visible here.... I should have chosen a more contrasting thread 

It also has a back flap...

The inside of the bag has small compartment attached to the wall to store bottles, diapers .  I threaded an elastic on the top of the compartment to keep things in place

Ill probably post the steps next time I make a better one. As I said to was just an experiment. Do let me know your thoughts.

Travel Pouch or Cosmetic Case

I have been busy like hell the past few days. Primarily because I have been assigned the responsibility of teaching my 2 cousins - Nebeen & Nazreen... They both are planning to relocate to my hometown and hence need to get admitted to a new school here. School admissions are so hard to get these days ...with all the tough interview and exams kids have to take to get admitted. Well so this is the first time I have been given such a responsibility. Its now I realised how hard its to bring up teenagers...particularly boys ! I am virtually running around the house with a book in my hand to get  Nebeen to sit and study for a few mins !!! phew really tiring... But I guess I have started to like it too.... :-)
Then there's Rihan my baby too... The other day he started bringing his hands together... :-)  He even tried to clap !
So in between all this commotion I desperately want to sew something. Every time I see my machine my heart sinks.. Finally today I found some time off in the evening and I decided to jump for it.. MY FAVOURITE pastime these days - Sewing !
I decided its been a while since I have made purses. THIS TIME I though of making a travel pouch which can also be used as a cosmetic bag. Also this is the first time I am using Interfacing for my project. Here's my brand new travel pouch.

Actually I made 2 pouches. The first one didn't turn out the way I wanted. I made a wrong cut and ended up with something like this.

Nevertheless I decided to try again and that's how I got my travel case spot on the second time. Anyways I now have 2 pouches. 

I was just admiring my new creation before Nebeen grabbed the bag and ran and  Nazreen started to protest how she too needed one. So now my pouches are no longer filled with travel items. Instead its filled with pencils and color pencils ! :-)

Nabeen with his new prize

Mustard Pillow with Ruffle Cover

The thought of making something new and blogging about it here simply excites me. I guess now blogging is the motivating factor for my sewing too... In a way I now have 3 hobbies simultaneously - Sewing , Writing & Blogging ! Woww !!!
So today I bring to you the latest creation - Mustard Pillow with rufflled case.

You must have noticed I mentioned Mustard Pillow.. Yes its a pillow with mustard filling. And why I used mustard was because my caretaker mentioned to me how a mustard pillow will help in shaping up my baby's head and also gets him to sleep straight. He's just 3 months old ! So I decided to give it a try and also fancy it up with some ruffles :-)

My Baby's new pillow

Things needed :
Mustard - 1kg
Inner pillow cover - light fabric - 6" * 4" - 2 pieces
Outer pillow cover fabric front piece - 6.5" * 4.5"
Ruffle piece- twice the circumference - 44"  of different color
First stitch a sac to fill the mustard. This becomes the inner pillow. Fill the sac with mustard. And stich and seal.
Check if this pillow suffcient by making sure your baby can rest his head comfortably. And he shud like it too...
I had him get used to the plain mustard pillow for a day or two before I decided to stich a cover for it. Well my baby liked it.
Next is the Ruffled pillow cover. First you need to make the ruffles on the lengthy cloth by doing a gathering stich. Set your machine to max tension and increase your stich length to the max. Start stiching but dnt do a back stich at the end.

Now arrange the pieces in this fashion.
1) Front piece right side up
2) Ruffle right side down edge aligned to the corner
3) Bottom piece wrong side up

Now stitch the corners and you are ready !!
Slip in your mustard pillow. and done !!!

Grocery Bag holder in just 10min

Today was a fabulous day... Created an extremely useful stuff in just 10 mins.And guess what... It'll keep my home a more organised place. Presenting to you the very useful - Grocery Bag Holder.

At home after a shopping, I always end up having loads of plastic bags. I stuff them up in bigger plastic covers. Or they end up lying on the floor. It was just a few days back I saw this grocery bag storage bag in the Internet and decided to give it a try. I must tell you it is a super cool thing to have.

Just drop your plastic bags through the opening on the top like this

And when you need plastic bags later. Fetch it from the opening at the bottom like this ...

Cool... isn't it....???

Well Its very simple to make too. 

You;ll need a fabric about 25 inches long and with width 20 inches. I used an old table cloth which I no longer used.

Also you;ll need 2 pieces of elastic - 11inches & 7 inches long.

Sewing Machine & Threads...

You are ready to go

Fold the 20inches edge about 1/4 inches and stitch to make an elastic casing. Make another casing at the bottom too.

Now thread the longer elastic(11 inches) through the top casing . Coz you'll need a bigger opening to stuff your bags.Thread the small casing too.

Now you have both the opening secured. Stitch the length wise opening.

Attach a ribbon on the top. So that you can hang it anywhere you please.... 

With that you are ready to go... :)

My  mom simply loved this. I am sure you'll also love it too !!!

The Cooking Spree

   All those who know me well will also know that I am not a big fan of cooking. In fact kitchen was one of the least visited place at my house. But things change and so do people. Got married... have no choice but to cook. And guess what... I have been so bored lately that I turned my attention to cooking. I have cooked An Orange Cake, Carrot Halwa and Gulab Jamuns in the past three days... Phew !!
  The Orange Cake didn't turn up so good. But I must tell you the syrup was lovely. The orange flavor was just so yummy. The problem occurred because I have never used the microwave at my in laws place before. So I thought it'll have a temperature setting by default. But unfortunately it wasn't there. Probably there was one but I couldn't find it...he he.. Anyways my sister in law and me tried in vain to find one. finally we pressed some preset key and allowed it to bake for 40 min or so... In the meantime while I was changing my baby's diaper when my sister in law came running to tell me how the cake had almost burnt and she stopped it. So we ended up with a cake burnt at the edges but nice at the center.

   The Carrot Halwa and Gulab Jamuns were delicious. That's what people who ate it said.
Generally people prepare Jamuns with the instant mix that one gets in the store. But the Jamuns I made were completely home made. Today I'll be sharing my Ami's recipe to make the delicious mouth watering jamuns.

To make 13 -16 jamuns you'll need
1) 1 cup Milk Powder
2) 1 egg
3) 1 tablespoon flour (Maida)
4) A pinch of baking soda
5) 1 tablespoon oil




Syrup
1) 1 cup sugar
2) 3 cups of water
3) 3-4 cardamom

  So to make the jamuns, mix all the ingredients for Jamuns to make a soft dough. Keep aside for 10 min. Make small balls out of the dough. Deep fry in hot oil till its golden brown. Drop the jamuns into the boiling sugar syrup.
To make the syrup add the syrup ingredients and boil till its slightly viscous.
Refrigerate for a few hours. Chilled jamuns taste the best !


Gulab Jamuns is one of my favorite Sweet. Try it out and let me know how you liked it.