E is for Elsa dress

We have a birthday at our house this weekend, and an Elsa ensemble had been requested. Grandma and Grandpa provided the accessories, and I made the dress.

I used the general idea from Made By Rae's Christmas present for her daughter. I got the white t-shirt at Target - it has smocking on the top so I thought it would be "fancy" enough. I had the blue in the pile of fabric I got from my mom when she downsized her house a couple of years ago. It's actually a fairly sheer layer of ... something - I have no idea what it's called, and a darker blue of the satiny lining stuff underneath. The white sheer train was from the home dec fabrics at Hobby Lobby. I put it together the same way I do all my regular play t-shirt dresses - cut the skirt fabric to the length I want, run a gathering stitch around the top, and attach. This was a little more tricky because I was attaching 3 layers, and then added a thin silver ribbon at the white/blue seam. If you click to enlarge the picture, you can see the silver better.

The dress is a bit longer than I'd anticipated - it drags on the ground a good amount. But the shirt is loose on her so that means she has PLENTY of growing room in it. And if her last princess dress is any indication, she'll be wearing this for a LONG time. Her other princess dress was made when she was 2 1/2 - she's now 5. Still wears it.

This was taken last Halloween - her 3rd year in a row of wearing that same dress. Looks like we have a new entry in her Halloween princess wardrobe. And holy cow - look how much she's grown up in just the last 6 months.

F is for Frilly Fuchsia Fairies

 Added some butterfly ruffles to the bottom of a pink shirt. 

To make it special I painted some wings onto the back of the shirt.

And even more special, I made two!  One for Cupcake and one for her cousin Kitty.

E is for Edited Elephants

I made a dress this morning.  An enormous elephant evening gown.  I liked parts of it, but the length of the teal was driving me nuts, and the elastic around the neck was too short.  It was annoying me, so I edited it.

The biggest change was trimming the teal, and making the whole thing a shirt instead of a dress.  I also lengthened the elastic in the neckline.  MUCH better.

I'm getting more comfortable with knits.  I especially love using pre-existing hems from old shirts - which I did for both the sleeves and the bottom.  That made this come together really quickly, even with all the editing.  And I love the colorful elephants - yet another sheet from the thrift store!

Recipe 32: Chicken Parmesan Casserole

I found the recipe here, but I don't trust the site to always be there, and I thought this was worth writing down.  Not so much a recipe as a list of ingredients to dump together, but that's my kind of recipe anyway.  Fast, easy, and yummy.  Next time I want to add spinach.

Ingredients

• chicken breasts (however many you need)
• olive oil (just one dollop)
• minced garlic (a smattering)
• red pepper flakes (leave these out if you don’t like any heat)
• marinara sauce 
• Parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese (twice as much as the Parmesan)
• croutons (we used Italian-seasoned)

Cut up chicken breasts (or leave them whole, but add more cooking time) and put in the bottom of the pan with the oil, garlic and pepper.  Pour sauce on top.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Add croutons (we crushed ours a little).  Add more cheese on top, if you want.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.