Baking - jam tarts, orange biscuits and banana and peanut butter icecream!

So, as well as sewing to keep me sane, there has been some sanity baking too! These have all been made from whatever was left in the cupboard in moments where there were no snacks and I had a desperate need for something sweet and tasty! 

JAM TARTS 

Easy peasy, I had left over shortcrust pastry from making pies the day before, which I rolled out, cut out circles, lined a cupcake tin with, and plonked some jam in the middle (well, cherry and apricot preserve) and made some stars with the final dregs of pastry....! Takes five miniutes, 10-15 mins in the oven on 180 degrees: 

ICECREAM 

My icecream machine arrived from amazon the very day the sun came out,  this ice cream is from http://veganicecream.blogspot.co.uk/2006/09/peanut-butter-banana-ice-cream.html here. 

Really easy, REALLY scrummy, and my ice-cream disliking omni boyfriend loved it! Gotta be a good sign.

  

Orange iced shortbread 

Another what-is-left-in-the-cupboards masterpeice. I used a normal shortbread recipe, replaced butter with soya margerine and added in lemon zest, orange zest and the juice of 1 orange. I had ready-made icing in the cupboard left over from my christmas cake, which I mixed orange peel (and orange food colour!) into it, rolled it out, cut it and put o top. Sweet, zingy and tasty.

Sewing projects - table mats and a denim bag (and a metal cushion)!

Hello! Okay  I've been super busy with exams, but in spare moments I have been doing some sewing and baking and cooking - I just haven't updated this blog for a while! So here are my quick sewing projects that have been keeping me sane during exam season...

 FABRIC TABLE MATS:

This was really a project of nessesity, my table mats are looking grubby and I had visitors, luckily I had just enough flowery tough fabric to wizz up four table mats - using a linin tablecloth my mum picked up reduced for about £2 to back them! 

Now I SHOULD have measured them out, but for some reason, absent minded dash-happy me didn't. You should though! Or they'll come out different sizes like mine did. 

I then just sewed them back to back with right-sides together, leaving a gap to turn them the right way out and then sew around the edge to give them a nice finish. 

They look pretty busy on my tablecloth, but you get the idea! The best thing is I can just wash them in the machine when they get dirty which is really easy.

SHOPPING BAG - made from old jeans.

 So I had an old pair of jeans, and I wanted a MASSIVE shopping bag that would hold heavy things like books for when I am scouring charity shops for a good read. 

I basically cut off a leg of the jeans (they were baggy style jeans so there was lots of material, but since the bag is pretty big, you could easily make a smaller one with normal jeans) and split it down the inside leg. I then bent it over, so that the fold was down the bottom of the bag, to make a square. You can then just make handles (I cheat and fold fabric in half, tuck the edges inside, and just sew around the edge), sew over the top and along the sides and voila! 

What I did was cut out two strips of fabric to edge the top, and also give it a bit more height so the shape wasn't too wide. I tucked over the edges and just sewed it along eachs ide, albiet a bit wonkily! I really love this fabric - my mum picked 16 meters up REALLY cheap and it's brilliant quality, and she gave me two so I have plenty left. I also think this gives it a neater edge around the top. I tried to take a picture (right) of it on me to give it some side, so sorry about the dodgy mirror picture!

Finally... a really quick project... a children of bodom cushion for my boyfriend. He had an old top, and I just cut off the front and back (so that the pictures were complete) and cut one in half to make a flap, sewed along the edges, added a popper, sewed the fabric together, and it was done. I had to resist the urge to decorate it with buttons and ribbon...