Monday, February 11, 2013

Alteration Trials and Tricks

Related to my addiction to clothes is my alterations passion. Rather than give away clothes which I previously loved and wore BCDD (before celiac disease diagnosis when my stomach was bloated almost 24/7), I learned to alter garments so that they fit my current (flat abdomen) body. I haven't posted again on my blog since my birthday, because I've been busy doing alterations on dressy pants.

Several years ago I bought wide leg pants with high waists. I loved the high waist part, but I'm really too petite (short and thin) for wide leg pants. I also dislike the constant flapping of the pants bottoms against my legs. Those are dark colored, light weight wool. So I would wear them in the winter, but the wide legs don't provide much warmth. Similarly I bought flare pants, which got wider below the knee. Again too much flapping for me. So I've been working on reducing the flare (and flap) on 3 pairs of pants. After I get those to hang straight, I'll tackle 2 more pairs of wide leg pants. I'm also altering a wool bias cut skirt (from long to short plus narrowing the sides a bit).

I did include 'tricks' in the title of this post. So I need to add that if you take in one side of a pant leg (i.e. outer seam) below mid thigh, you need to take an equal amount off the other side (i.e. inner seam). Otherwise, the pleats don't hang straight.  If you have narrow hips (yeah that's a rare problem, but I have that), A-line skirts may 'collapse' on the sides and create 'tails' in the front and back of the skirt. So you need to fit the skirt pattern to your own hips or alter the finished garment (which I usually do). Bias cut skirts tend to collapse more obviously in the front and back, when your hips are too narrow. So, instead of tails, you get inverted tails or ruffles over your knees with a deep indentation between your legs. SIGH The heavier the material, the more a bias cut skirt can collapse, rather than forming even little ruffles at the  hem. I plan to take in the hip area and use a serged rolled hem to create even ruffles on my wool bias skirt.

Amidst all that I need to find time to make Valentine's Day cookies. I doubt I'll post again until after this week.



Sunday, February 3, 2013

Cake Occasion

I love frosted cake. Even with 7 food allergies (gluten, dairy, soy, cane sugar, egg, vanilla and nutmeg) I can bake tasty, allergy free cakes which I LOVE to eat.  I consider every holiday a 'cake occasion' or at least a cooky occasion if a cake occasion will occur in the same month.

Today is my birthday. Because we'll be busy all day attending church, seeing a movie, shopping and having 'birthday' dinner at PF Chang's, I made (and ate) my birthday cake yesterday. I hadn't baked a bundt cake since my husband's birthday 2 years ago, when I made a lemon poppyseed cake with lemon glaze. We enjoyed that cake so much that I wanted to try a recipe for apple spice bundt cake.

I like to 'enhance' recipes.  Besides the suggested cake batter ingredients (all gluten/dairy/soy/egg free), I substituted finely chopped pecans for raisins (one of my husband's allergies). Instead of vanilla (an allergy for both of us), I used my favorite 'ginger peach' flavor. I also added ginger and cardamom to the recommended cinnamon spice. I always substitute beet sugar or coconut palm sugar for cane sugar in recipes, because I'm allergic to cane sugar.

I totally changed the recipe's glaze. I tried combining maple syrup with powdered sugar (per the recipe), but I hated the flavor (icky sweet). I always taste what I prepare, esp. glace or frostings. LOL Rather than the sickening sweet syrup/sugar combo, I decided to add some Earth Balance soy/dairy free spread (like a soft margarine) and more ginger peach flavor,  I spent awhile adding and tasting, before I created the taste and texture I wanted, but I liked it. While the cake cooled, I refrigerated my version of the 'glace'. Later before dinner I set the glace on the counter to soften a bit, because refrigeration hardened it beyond spreading.  Even after an hour at room temperature,  I still had to spread the glace rather than pour it.  However, after the glaced (frosted?) cake sat on the dining room table, while we ate dinner, the glace began to melt and run off the cake just a little. So we'll store the cake in the refrigerator.

I enjoyed the cake part, but still thought the glace/frosting was too sweet. My husband suggested that I just scrape off the frosting, when I cut a piece of cake for myself, and put the extra frosting back on the cake or cake plate. He assured me that he would take care of any extra frosting. LOL I suspect I will enjoy the frosted cake on a day when I haven't been preparing and tasting frosting. I can easily get sweets overload!

I won't mention my age, because I feel healthier and more energetic than I did 25 years ago. Age is relative and most related to mindset.  My ACIM lesson for today is "I could see peace instead of this".  That's my favorite lesson so far.  I may find situations in which to practice that today.