Easiest Pumpkin Puree - Happy Thanksgiving

In honor of the holiday here in the US, I am posting my super easy cheater method for pumpkin puree.

Seriously guys, this is the easiest thing in the world.  You basically just take a whole squash (in this case a pumpkin), roast it in the oven, and then scoop out the already soft flesh.  So much simpler than trying to cut open a hard skinned squash and deal with it raw.

Step 1: wash your pumpkin (you don't know where it's been, hehe), dry it, and put it on a cookie sheet.

Step 2: put it in an oven preheated to 390 degrees for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.  You can try pricking the skin with a fork to make sure it will go through the flesh to make sure it's done.

Step 3: look at your shriveled pumpkin while you take it out of the oven and let it cool until it's ok for you to handle.  I usually leave it about 15 or 20 minutes so the flesh is still warm.

Step 4: slice the pumpkin in half.  This is the easiest part since the knife cuts through like butter.

Step 5: scoop out the seeds and bits of stringy flesh.

Step 6: since the flesh is already cooked, the strings mostly melt away when you strain the seeds with water.

Step 7: pick out the larger pieces of pumpkin strings left over. 

Now you have lovely pumpkin seeds without making a huge mess of raw pumpkin stringy goo all over the place.  These seeds are now ready for roasting if you'd like.

Step 8: scoop out the soft pumpkin flesh from the skin.

Step 9: the pumpkin comes out super soft and is easily mashable in this state.

Step 10: if you want it extra smooth you can run the puree through the food processor.

This is how I make all my winter squashes.  With Bean, we did baby-led weaning and I made all her "baby" food so for us winter squash and sweet potato were staples.  Being able to just throw a whole squash or potato in the oven without fussing with a knife or peeling the skin made it so easy. 

But I have to say, now I'm most excited about how easily the seeds clean up.  I really dislike all the pumpkin goo and having to run my fingers through to get out all the seeds is not my idea of fun.  Since the goo has been roasted inside the pumpkin already, it is soft and practically dissolves in the strainer which is so helpful.  I hope this little tip works for you too!

Also, I should let you know about a couple of pattern sales going on right now:

Blank Slate Patterns (*affiliate link) is having a sale through the end of day on Friday.  They don't have sales very often, so you should consider taking advantage of this one.  Use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY to get two patterns for just $10!

Go To Patterns (*affiliate link) is taking 25% off of Andrea Pannell's patterns through December 2nd as well as a couple of other coupon codes you can check out here.

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Reversible Table Quilt

I know you've all been eagerly anticipating this month's JoAnn Fabrics' #turkeytablescapes post topic which I alluded to last month - How To Make a Reversible Table Quilt - so lets get right to it!

This is a sponsored post, but as always ALL opinions are mine.

First, what is a table quilt?  No, I'm not talking about a table runner or a mini quilt that you put in the center of your table as decoration.  My definition of a table quilt is a lightly padded quilt that fits snugly on your expensive dining table in the room where your toddler spends 90% of her time to protect the table from being destroyed by said toddler.

The table quilt needs to wrap around the edges of the table to protect the edges, but also so that it will not be able to be pulled off by grabbing the edge of the quilt.  I didn't want to use straps to hold it in place because Bean also spends a lot of time UNDER the table where she would quickly figure out how to undo the straps.

While I was making our bed one day I realized that I needed something that would work like a fitted sheet for a mattress.  Snug on top with nice looking corners, but held in place by elastic underneath.  Once the idea was in my head I couldn't get it out and I've been dreaming of a table quilt ever since.  By making mine reversible, I was able to get some fun Halloween decorating involved on one side, while still having a great looking fall/Thanksgiving themed look on the other side which really extends its wear. 

You could easily make your own reversible table quilt with just two fabrics you like quilted together (or some of the fun pre-quilted fabrics) instead of the elaborate Halloween quilt top pattern I put together.  The Thanksgiving side of the quilt is very simple (I treated it like a backing) and it still looks great.  Below are the instructions for making a basic reversible table quilt using your own rectangular table's dimensions.

You will need the following:

a quilt sandwich - bottom and top with some sort of batting between, quilted together.
coordinating strips for binding with batting attached to the wrong side.
1/4" elastic
your table dimensions

Sew all four corners together:

Fold the binding in toward the edge of the quilt and hand stitch in place.  Leave about a 3inch opening so you can fit the elastic through later.

Machine stitch about 1/2inch from the folded edge, leaving another 3inch opening.

Using a safety pin, thread the elastic through the outside casing and sew the ends together.

Stitch both of the openings closed, adjust the elastic so it's somewhat evenly dispersed, put your table quilt on your table, and admire.

For more fun holiday ideas, check out JoAnn Fabrics Celebrate the Season site or look through their craft catalog.  Use the coupon above to get 50% off through the 30th of November.

Figgy's Banyan Tee

One of the patterns in the spring Sew Fab Bundle was the Banyan Tee from Figgy's Patterns.  I had seen a few of them around the internet at the time and really wanted to make one for Bean.  Finally, in late July I made one. 

That tiny pocket! I don't think I'll ever get over such tiny pockets hehe.

I used a really light-weight knit from the clearance section of JoAnn.  The stripes are a dark navy, but sometimes they look a little black too.  I used the same fabric for the peter pan collar of the Tee Times Three I made for Bean this summer.  It's drapes well so the handkerchief points at the sides of the tee are really lovely.

Bean wore this tee many times in the early fall.  It was cut at the shirt length, but it was more of a tunic at the late summer.

The finishing method at the handkerchief hem is really smart.  It makes the perfect angle without a lot of crazy finagling. 

Bean has grown taller in the last few months, so the tee it's a perfect shirt length now which is great.  The picture above was taken while were at a local embroidery shop just last week.  They are smart enough to have a little kids' nook where they have a bin of toys.  It is SO much easier to pick out your embroidery threads where you have to look for all the numbers and make sure you have everything when your little one is occupied with something other than trying to unravel every skein, hehe. 

As you can see, the tee goes perfectly with a cute pair of shorts and tights for fall/winter.  The shorts are of course the Bubble Pocket Shorts I made in July. 

These last two pictures were taken on our last trip to IKEA.  She found this little tea party display and played here with the animals for a good 20 minutes.  She poured them all tea and cooked their supper, hehe.  After a long day at IKEA with mama it was fun to just let her play for a while.  Does everyone else spend an entire day once you get to IKEA?  There's so much to look at!

Flip This - ABC Shawl Collar Dress

For those of you who didn't see this post originally on Frances Suzanne's site as a part of their ongoing Flip This Pattern series, I thought I'd bring it home.  Bean was wearing this dress today so I thought it was appropriate to give an update.  We LOVE the the two dresses I made using this "flip."  Now that the weather has turned (MUCH) colder it is so nice to have the extra layer around her neck and chest so I know she is cozy and warm.  As I mentioned in the BBC Vest post earlier this week, she rubs the shawl collar and says "I nice and warm now" whenever she wears them.  If you're interested in flipping your own BBC Vest pattern (*affiliate link) into this adorable Shawl Collar Dress, you can check out my tutorial I posted here.  Anyway, on to the original post:

When I first heard about the Flip This Pattern series, I knew immediately I wanted to participate. I loved the idea of the sew-alongs each month and the friendly competition was icing on the cake. Looking at the list of patterns that were lined up for each month I jumped at the chance for September.

This month's challenge allowed us to choose one of the Alphabet Collection patterns from Pattern Anthology. Before the patterns were even released I knew well enough that they'd be amazing and they didn't disappoint.

It was a tough decision, but finally the pattern I chose to flip is the BBC Vest by Shwin Designs.  I love the racerback detail in the girl version and just couldn't get it out of my head.

Even though my two year old daughter Bean doesn't go to school yet, I thought it would be fun to go along with the alphabet theme and make an autumn back to school dress.  The BBC Vest "flipped" to the ABC Shawl Collar Dress.

I added some width to the vest collar to give a little more warmth to the neckline and extended it to reach the side seam to look like a shawl collared sweater dress. 

It is faux-wrap, but I made a cute little button loop and used an oversized button for a fun detail.

The basic shape of the bottom of the dress is from the Anywhere Dress by Go To Patterns.  I added a band to the hemline to add to the sweater dress feel and to give Bean some room to grow this winter.

The back is my favorite.  I kept the racer back shape of the original vest, but it's color blocked and pieced instead of cut out.  I wanted the dress to be one piece so I attached the three quarter length sleeves from the Anywhere Dress pattern.

The fabric is a purple knit from JoAnn Fabrics.  As I was cutting into the right side of the fabric, I realized that I liked the "wrong" side a bit better so I used the wrong side for all the main pieces and the right side for the color blocking accent pieces and collar.

Now I can't wait for the cooler weather to come so Bean can wear this cozy dress!

Thank you to Emily and Ashley for a lovely series that I've been enjoying both from the sidelines and now as a competitor.  Also, a big thank you to Shwin Designs for an amazing pattern.  I made one of the girl style vests from the pattern and it's pretty much the cutest thing ever and only took an hour to make. 

One more thing, if you sign up (*affiliate link) for the Newsletter for Go To Patterns they occasionally will send a free pattern along in the email.  Here's a hint: November's newsletter is one of those times, hehe.

Train Day

Our library hosted a Train Day over the weekend and with Bean's obsession with trains I thought it'd be fun to take her.  The library is attached to the local senior center and the event was mostly hosted by the seniors.  They had a great band, a train themed story time, a hobo lunch, and several rooms filled with train sets.  It was so much fun seeing how excited both the seniors and little kids were.  It was a great event for bringing generations together.

When I told Bean we were going to the library for a train story time she went into her room and came back out a few minutes later saying "I have another idea."  She says this ALL THE TIME which is hysterical.  She doesn't really mean "another idea", but rather "look at what I'm doing."  I assume she picked the phrase up at some point watching PBS with her daddy.  Anyway, she had taken two items out of her closet and her "idea" was to wear both of them like this.  It's not necessarily a style I would have picked out myself, but I do love how they came together - once they were put on properly that is, hehe.

Since I had just finished another pair of Hosh pants the night before, I thought it'd be fun to see how the tops paired with them.  They are made with this soft suiting fabric I found in the clearance section of JoAnn Fabrics about a year ago.  I used it to make this Goodship Dress earlier this year.

The shirt is the Viewfinder Tee from See Kate Sew.  It is part of her Nostalgia Collection and you can see my remake of her Bubblegum Coat from the same collection here.  It's a little hard to see how cute the tee would be on it's own, but I have another one I made (I was a tester) that I'll have to remember to show you soon.  This one was a test version too, and somehow I got a drop of bleach on the front so until I add a patch or something to the front, she'll have to wear it with a vest or cardigan.

The vest I have talked about before.  It's the BBC Vest (*affiliate link) from Shwin Designs and I just love it.  You can see my two remix versions here.  They are worn all the time.  She seems to really like them.  The little square button is my favorite part of this vest.

It's made using some knit from JoAnn for the lining and a soft velvety fabric from my stash (I had a pocketbook made out of this stuff ages ago) that I've been hoarding.  Lets be honest, that fabric was probably from JoAnn at one point too, hehe.

As you can see, the 2T size of the vest is getting a little too small for Bean, but she really likes it and the cropped look is pretty adorable.  Whenever she puts it on, she rubs the shawl collar and says, "I all warm now."

That racerback gets me every time.  I think it's looks great with the green/blue of this tee. 

Bean LOVED the train day.  She looked closely at all the train sets.  She had a hot dog as a part of the "Hobo Lunch" and she said "mama I eat at the library."  She was amazed that the library had food.  Now I'll have to explain to her that she won't be getting food every time we go to the library.

She sat herself down in this chair to admire the trains, which cracked me up.  This one had multiple rails so there was a lot going on - even a Thomas train, hehe.

They gave out free train whistles at the story time and she was really excited about that.  In this video she is trying to get her Ozzie cat to play the whistle too, when her back is turned to the camera.  It was pretty cute.  I may not LOVE the whistle sound, but it's fun to hear how funny she thinks it is.

But maybe her favorite part of the whole experience is when she found TWO of her favorite book Poppy The Panda in the stacks.  She knows where it is and always goes to find it, but normally we have one of them at home (we pretty much have it constantly checked out) so she didn't know the library had two copies, hehe.  That was a thrill.

Also, I should tell you there's a sale going on at Go To Patterns (*affiliate link) right now.  There are a few great patterns on sale, but you can also use the code NOVEMBER5 to take $5 off your order of $25 or more.

Catching Up - KCW Fall Recap

I mentioned on Wednesday, I have some catching up to do with you.  This post will have a lot of Instagram pictures, so I apologize in advance for the quality.  Now, lets move on to KCW fall which was the week before Halloween.

It was actually a very productive Kids Clothes Week for me. I finished a lot of garments, but didn't get much housework done - as evidenced by the picture below, hehe.

These are my KCW piles.  The one on the right is all the things I was able to sew, and the one on the left is a hideous pile of laundry that needs to be folded and put away.  Including that tub of mismatched socks, hehe.

Anyway, back to the fun part!  I made three more bubble skirts like the one I made for Bean's Halloween costume for the girls we were visiting in Michigan.  I still can't get over how cozy these microfleece skirts are.

Besides the Rainbow Bimaa and the bubble skirts, I also made Reversible Zippy Hoodie for the little boy in Michigan.  It's size 18M/2T with the 18M length.  This is a Kitschycoo pattern and it lived up to all the hype.  It's truly reversible (except I didn't have a reversible zipper on hand) and the construction is really smart.  I have another one in the works for Bean already.

Since the seasons have changed, I realized that Bean didn't have many winter pajamas so I mainly focused on those staples.  I have to tell you first how much I love the bottoms of the Ruffled PJs by Once Upon a Sewing Machine.  Don't get me wrong, I love the top too - it's ADORABLE - but the bottoms are super quick to cut out and sew with really cute results.  They work great for hanging around the house lounge pants too, so I made a few pair. 

These are a great way to use a fun fabric that you know will get a smile from your little one.  Bean saw these kitties in Halloween costumes at JoAnn Fabrics and just letting her hold the bolt of fabric kept her entertained for enough time for me to get everything else I needed to get that day.  It was totally worth the money spent on a relatively small cut of fabric to see how excited she was to wear them when they were finished.

sorry these are wrinkled - they've been well worn!

I'm not a huge fan of "character" fabric, but pjs are a fun way to use a special print.  Bean has really been interested in Winnie the Pooh lately, due in part to the great set of first reader books her Nana gave her.  We've been reading story after story about the Hundred Acre Wood and a couple of weeks ago I even showed her the new (ish) movie and she LOVED it.  So to say she was excited about a pair of Pooh PJs is putting it mildly. 

And hey, if some fun prints means she'll keep her pants on for more than two minutes in our house, then I mark that as a win. 

Next is the Alex and Anna Winter PJs (*affiliate link) from Peek A Boo Patterns.  This was another bolt of fabric that she fell in love with.  I fell in love with just how soft the fabric is.  These come together really quickly and are just a perfect pajama pattern.  I want a pair for myself.

You know how some of the printed knits can be a little rough or not hold up after washing?  This is a much better quality knit that has really held up so well.  I want to snuggle them when they come out of the dryer.  They are that cozy.  I'm really happy JoAnn fabrics has started carrying some decent knit fabric.

I also made a fun Zermatt Bow Swing Coat (*affiliate link) from See Kate Sew.  It's made from some leftover fleece from Bean's Turtle Costume last year.  The bow is made from a lighter green fleece of which I had just the exact amount needed.  I love how it turned out.  It's a great between season layering piece.  I made the arms slightly longer since it was already really chilly here when I finally started sewing it. 

Can we talk about Bean's cowlick for a minute?  She takes all of her bows/elastics out of her hair and then spends the rest of the day "saluting" me to hold her hair out of her face.  I can already see the years ahead of me constantly asking "can I pull your hair back so it's out of your face?"  Luckily, when we're out she keeps her clips in for the most part.  It's just around the house.  Any tips??

I also made myself a quick infinity scarf one night during KCW because the double gauze from Imagine Gnats' shop was screaming to become one. It's even softer the more I've washed it.

And that's for the most part what I've been working on in October.  Now it's on the holidays.  Among other things, I'm excited about Shaffer Sisters' Homemade Christmas series coming up.  You can use the hashtag #christmashomemade to follow along.