Refashioned skirt with a Mexican twist!

Hi folks, here's what I did during the holidays!

I had to go back to work, but here I am, pretending it's still summer...

Alright, just a refashion is not much...except if you count that it's not just any ol' refashion. Actually, it was also my first try at embroidery!

My first inspiration was Mexican style embroidery, but I also looked at old school tattoo style drawings of roses to get them the way they look.

And of course, this project wouldn't be complete without a fail : I actually inserted the zipper the wrong way and the zipper pull is on the inside of the skirt. Bummer. Fortunately, it does not prevent me from pulling it on and taking it off, so I can wear it all the same!

Some Cuisine : Rhubarb tart

Although it's mentionned in my blog's title, I realize there's not a single food recipe in here.

Thing is, I love to cook, but my schedule doesn't allow me to do it often, let alone document what I make! But I decided to remedy that, so here's a rhubarb tart recipe I tried during these holidays :

What you will need (serves up to 8 persons, depending on how hungry you are) :

• 3 stalks rhubarb

Sweet shortcrust pastry : 

• 150 g flour
• 50g sugar
• 1 egg
• 80g soft butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• cinnamon (to taste)

Cream mix : 

• 2 eggs
• 20g sugar
• 3 tbsp mascarpone
• 5 amaretti (or more if you really want to feel the taste)

Peel the rhubarb stalks and dice them. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

Pastry : mix the sugar and egg together. Apart, mix the flour, salt and cinnamon together, then, little by little, add them to the egg+ sugar until you get a crumbling texture. Finally, add the butter cut in small pieces, until you get a homogenic texture.

Roll it and put it in a baking pan, with baking paper to keep it from sticking to it. Pre-bake, 180°C, for 15 min.

Evenly scatter the rhubarb bits on your pre-baked pastry.

Cream : put the sugar with one tbsp of water in a saucepan and boil to make a syrup.
Break the eggs, separating the yolks from the white. Keep the yolks, mix them with the syrup and whip until it gets white and firm. Then add the mascarpone. Reduce the amaretti to a powder in a food processor, then add to the cream and mix. Pour the cream mix in the pastry, over the rhubarb.

Put in the oven for 30 min at 180°C (it should be slightly golden on the top), let it cool, and...enjoy!

Coming next : a Mexican-inspired refashion

I had this dress, which I had bought from Promod something like 3 years ago, when they had a 1950s-inspired summer collection. I liked it and wore it quite a lot, but it didn't fit very well (the side zipper was cutting into my armpit.)
As I still wanted to find a way of wearing it, I separated the skirt from the bodice. 

I will add a waistband (based on Colette Patterns' Ginger skirt waistband), which I'd like to embroider in a Mexican style (see Pinterest board below).

Follow Juliette MIJEON's board Buttons inspiration on Pinterest.

Stay tuned if you want to know how it turns out!

Unselfish knitting : finished!

Hi all, here are the little hats I knitted for the ladies in my family :

hats #1 to 4 were knitted in Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky, #5 (the yellow one) from Malou Light Baby Alpaca by Lang Yarns, because I didn't like the color of the Cascade yarn I had chosen previously. This yarn was much thinner than the Cascade and trickier to knit, and as the result this last hat looks more lace-y than the others, but I think it still looks good!

And here's how it looks on my head. It looks very slouchy after blocking, but it looks just like the picture on the pattern, so it's fine!