Oh Yes, I did....

...that's right, I made hamburger buns from scratch this evening:



I've just been waiting for the weather to cool down enough that I felt like turning on my oven.  These buns turned out great, but were not without some mishap on my part.  First of all, the recipe calls for "instant' yeast....but the front of the yeast packages say "Rapid Rise" not instant.  It took me a bit standing and pondering all of the yeast packages before I thought to check the back.

Then, I decided that I didn't want to mix these by hand so I decided to try the dough blade and my food processor....  I'm not sure what went wrong here, but they weren't rising...  So, I tossed those and just mixed up another batch by hand.  Well, I did the first part of the recipe with my regular mixed and then mixed in the second half of the flour with a spoon.   As you can see, they turned out very nicely. 

They taste delicious, too!  I actually put a grilled chicken breast on my bun tonight.  I can't wait until lunch tomorrow so that I can use one to make another sandwich for myself.  The bonus to making your own buns is that you know exactly what is in them, which I like.  I will definitely be making these a lot in the future.

Wordless Yesterday.....

Colette Sorbetto Top

Please excuse the fact that this is not the best photo in the world.... my husband took the photo and it took 10 or more tries to get this minimally acceptable photo (and a couple verbal skirmishes, too).

Before the summer really began, I had seen the link to this Colette Patterns Sorbetto Top.  I had added it to my summer sewing list in the hopes that I would actually get to it before the summer was over.

A couple weeks ago, when the heat index was 100+ºF for multiple days in a row, I decided it would be a good idea to sew up this top.  My goal was just to use some fabric that I had already purchased.  I think I purchased this fabric last summer and I'm not really sure what I had intended to use it for.  However, it seemed like nice summery fabric.

The actual body of the top went together very quickly since there are only two pieces.  I did opt to make my own bias binding, which took some additional time.  I love how it matches, but I'm not sure I would spend the time doing that again.  It did take a bit of time to pin and then stitch on the bias binding.  I also ended up attaching bias binding to the bottom edge instead of hemming the shirt.  I think it gave the shirt a nice look, but really I did this because I needed the extra length as I am long in the torso.

I've washed and dried my top several times now and excluding the fact that it has to be ironed each time (and you can see in my photo that I was a bit lax when I ironed before this particular wearing), it looks great.  My top is a tiny bit loose just in front of my underarm area, but not so loose that I  (as pretty much a non-garment sewer) would go to the effort of adding in an additional dart.

Colette Patterns also has a cute free download for some bloomers.  I think they are adorable, but I'm pretty well endowed in the bottom area, so I don't know if I'll attempt these or not.... 

Otherwise, I've just been working on some odds and ends in the sewing dept. and doing a small bit of knitting, too.  I have another full week before I go back to work, so I really need to make a list of what I would like to most accomplish in the next week.