But was it really black? You be the judge:

Pretty close to black, I say. That's black cocoa on the left, natural process cocoa on the right. And on hands and counters, it looks even blacker. Seriously, I looked like I'd been shoveling coal! So, I got to work, making the recipe but replacing the baking chocolate with the equivalent in cocoa powder and oils (I used a little less than 1/2 black cocoa, natural process for the rest). It passed its first test with flying colors -- the batter was probably the tastiest brownie batter I've ever eaten, and everyone else in the house agreed. Then it was time to bake -- and the result was, well, pretty evil looking:

We couldn't wait for them to cool, so I cut few pieces as soon as possible and wow, these are some dark chocolate brownies!! So cool!! Ta-da!

We loved them. Unfortunately....the following day was when we all started getting sick. So I ended up eating, maybe one of them. Evan ate several though, and said they were great. Emily hated them though -- and she will eat ANY crappy brownie on the planet. She just didn't like the color, mainly. (Although there is a slightly odd taste from the black cocoa -- I saw it described somewhere as slightly chalky, like the taste of the chocolate cookies in oreos.) So I promised her that future batches of these brownies would actually be brown. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of this black cocoa!

Okay, that's an online edit of the original, not a new detail photo but I think you can see the dart clearly? So basically, every a-line skirt I've ever seen had vertical darts that led to the waist. This pattern has four horizontal darts that hit around the hip area, left and right, front and back. The waist curve is much deeper than usual, but when you sew the dart, it all pulls into this nice curvy shape. Honestly, I didn't think it would work since I'd never seen it done before (and found no examples on google of such a thing) but it actually fits better than patterns I've used in the past with the usual darts to the waist. I'm totally sold!!

I made no adjustments to the pattern at all, just figured out my european pattern size (on Ottobre's size charts, which you can download as a pdf here, btw) and cut the pattern out. So far, farbenmix has yet to disappoint! (if you're interested, take a look at the official design gallery.)

I got my replacement Spoonflower fabric quickly and the grainline is much straighter -- still a bit off but nothing like that first batch. One thing I did notice -- the colors are slightly different on the monster fabric (not on the milk & cheese fabric), not obviously, but just a tiny bit brighter. So you're definitely going to want to treat each print run as a new dye lot and don't expect to piece them together. Although, sometimes you'll be able to (just like different dye lots of regular fabric, yarn or whatever). Order the amount you need in one go! And what's happening to all this lovely fabric? Well, I haven't been able to get back to making any more stuff (sorry for those of you waiting!) but Emily finally got her wish. It's not a dress, but I think it may work even better than my original idea:

The pattern is the same Japanese pattern I used for her brown polka dot skirt; the solid tiers are a pink denim I've had forever (which was still slightly less stiff than the spoonflower fabric), and the trim is a "mauve" velvet ribbon. She was wearing it within oh....15 minutes of it being finished? The fabric works well pieced in like this, I think I will keep trying to come up with ways to work with it.

Then I decided that I really needed to start trying to sew for myself as well..and this is the result:

It's the farbenmix RÖMÖ skirt pattern (which is actually a mother-daughter pattern in all sizes!), made out of some....ah! Amy Butler fabric. I bought this from someone I knew because I liked the color and the silhouette pattern. It's lined instead of faced, and trimmed with more velvet ribbon (plum, this time). It's very comfortable, and fits well. The horizontal darts kind of freaked me out but they actually work! The only thing I don't like about it is that I had to use a regular zipper as my local hellhole Joanns had invisible zippers in about NO sizes and NO colors. I'm thinking this'll be great as a winter skirt in something heavier, too! But first...Emily wants a matching skirt. Luckily, I have fabric leftover and this pattern includes her size! If the kid version is as easy as the mom version it'll be done in no time at all.

Anyway, more later as we slowly catch up!

Okay, I'll let you see them for real:

Pencil cases and (refillable) Moleskine jackets for the large and small cahier notebooks (my favorites, notebooks included)! A look at one open:

Whoops, that's my own with graph paper! Anyway, we will have a very small number of these for sale at our table, and only 3 or so Monster items in the whole batch (the "or so" meaning, depending on if Emily successfully snags one for herself). So if you're interested, stop on by!

For those of you interested in the process, a few notes: I was slightly wrong about the skewed fabric being totally fine for something like this. It was totally possible to work with it, but omg did I have trouble NOT following the grain when I was sewing! It was giving me conniptions to sew what seemed to be such crooked lines. But other than that, the fabric worked beautifully for these. Here are the prototypes I made while working out my pattern:

#1 - the hedgehog fabric: I decided I hated how it looked with binding around the edges. It works fine, I just didn't like it.
#2 - not pictured: actually, I threw this one out. It was close, but not quite there.
#3 - the frog fabric: this was the one I made once I was sure the pattern was what I wanted, I like this one a lot.
#4 - the robots! Here's the final prototype, after playing with it a bit I decided to add an elastic strap (like the full-size Moleskines) to keep it closed. This one I loved. And in fact, this one is the one I'm using right now.
And finally, the prototype pencil case: no changes from this one, although there was an earlier version that didn't work right. And now I have a matching frog set!

Anyway, that's it, time to pack and get ready to get out of here in the a.m. Have a good weekend!

The fabric looked almost exactly like I expected -- slightly lighter, which is probably because I did it so quickly I didn't proof the files on another monitor; and the blacks are a little washed out. But the line weight was good, better than my proof on paper at home. And there is always, always color shifting when you print, especially in RGB. The fabric is a bit heavy -- good for a skirt or jumper, or crafts; definitely too stiff for anything like a blouse, it has very little drape. But all in all, I was very happy with the results:

Then, I went to prewash the monster fabric that I intended to make something for Emily out of. It came out of the wash (warm/cool) looking great, no fade or color loss. Came out of the dryer (low heat), again, looked great. I ironed it, and measured it for shrinkage (it didn't shrink at all along the length, and shrunk to about 96% of the original width) -- no effect was visible on the print at all. But suddenly I realized that the print was slanting quite a bit -- and I was certain it had looked perfectly straight before. I tried to square the fabric (in other words, get the grainlines squared to each other, read more about this here), and then realized I couldn't, because it was squared. Thinking I was crazy, I got out a clear ruler -- and sure enough, the print is way off the grainline of the fabric (ignore the apparent curve of the ruler, it's because I used the macro setting):

I checked the Milk & Cheese fabric, and sure enough, the fabric (this one is unwashed) is printed perfectly perpendicular to the edge of the fabric:

Unfortunately, the grainline is not perpendicular to the edge of the fabric. You can see how much it slants compared to the print here.

My guess is, the fabric as supplied to Spoonflower is already pulled way out of square -- they are printing on it perfectly straight, but once the fabric is washed and straightens itself up, the print is thrown way off. From the front, the grainline is not obvious and you can't really tell -- but if you wash it or attempt to square it up you can never go back. Essentially, this means the fabric is unwashable and not suitable for garments or anything that might need washing. Which was a major, major disappointment for me as the monster fabric was specifically meant for a dress for Emily. (I wouldn't have made it pink if I was going to try and sell things made of it!).

This would probably be fine for a very random print with no straight lines; and of course it is fine as long as you are making items that will never need to be washed. And the good news is, I didn't wash the Milk & Cheese print, so I can still use it (and look for a sneak preview in the next day or two of what I'm doing with that!). And I may be able to salvage the monster fabric -- I am going to try and steam some small blocks back into looking okay; and maybe I can figure out a way to use it as an accent (a ruffle or trim, maybe?) on an outfit when we get back. And fingers crossed this is a problem that can be worked out so I can make Emily her monster dress sometime in the future!!

At 0:25 you'll the see monster fabric I made up from Evan's monsters for Emily....it's a surprise, if the fabric washes well she'll be getting an outfit out of that. Then at 0:32 there is some tasty Milk & Cheese fabric which is destined for some items we hope to have at Heroes Con in a week. Depending on when it gets here and how fast I can sew!! They look exactly like I had imagined in the preview -- fingers crossed they look as good when they arrive!

Friday I finished her Moomin dress (using the farbenmix pattern Vida, with panels made of vintage finnish Moomin fabric, and heck was that hard to get hold of). We all love Moomins here (more on that some other day), but she is crazy for them in the way only a 3-year-old can be (note the "mymble knot" hairstyle -- this alternates with "pippi tails", i.e. pigtails as her regular style). She was so excited that her dress (starring! Little! My!) was done she insisted on wearing it to Mocca on Saturday (and then again today, to tell the truth!). I was really happy with the dress, the pattern is excellent. But here, I'll just show you! I got some cute pics of it while she was running around in our little corner.

front:

back:

I did not get a photo of the faced hem, which was a fun detail to add. if you see the underside of the skirt there is a very wide band of bright yellow dotted fabric. I needed to do a faced hem because of the Moomin fabric (I was barely ekeing those panels out as it was and couldn't afford a hem allowance!) so I decided to have some fun with it. It came out pretty cute -- even though it was extra work I will definitely do it again! The pattern was a little intimidating (so many pieces!) but actually incredibly easy and quick to put together. And lots of room to grow -- I think this dress will wear out before she grows out of it!

As an added bonus, she ate lunch out of her Moomin bento box both days (thanks uncle tim!!!) -- no photos, but it was nothing exciting (grapes, macaroni, and cutout pancakes). She was a happy Moomin-loving girl all weekend. And now...off to the shore to get out of this heat!!

Some polka-dot jersey and pink interlock, plus a little green baby-rib from an old t-shirt. The pattern is Zoe from Farbenmix -- it looks a little like a rashguard to me, but it came out pretty cute. Emily certainly loves it! Strawberry and stem were freehanded and then cut out. (Is that even English?) I also tried the Farbenmix-recommended triple zig-zag on the hems, and I actually really like it a lot. I will definitely be doing that on knits from here on out! I did not try the recommended ironing-the-shirt-before-you-take-a-photo technique there, apparently. Oops!

If you are in a strawberry locale, I hope you enjoy your June berries as much as we do!!

Emily was very excited by this and couldn't wait to see what happened. A few days ago we went back and went straight to the nest to see what was up -- and what did we find?

Three fluffy little goslings, and two proud parents. I swear, Emily was as proud and as excited as if they were her own little hatchlings. Good job, mama goose!

I was not kidding when I said Emily was practically harassing me over wanting robot pajamas. Every day it was "are my robot pajamas done?" "Can I wear robot pajamas tonight?". Finally, finally, she has robot pajamas. Sorry for the wrinkly photo, they're back on her the minute they're out of the laundry.

These were so easy and simple, but just getting going was a saga! I had several vintage kid's pj patterns, but all way too big or small. I went to Joann's with a list of patterns, and, my local Joann's being a total pit, not a single one was in stock. I started flipping through catalogs and found a really nice looking Burda pattern (out of stock of course) and finally a New Look pattern that was actually IN. THE. STORE. At last. Making the actual pajamas was simple. Cut a single pattern piece twice, sew it up, add elastic, sew an applique on a tank top from Old Navy (Emily hates sleeves at night). Okay, maybe that's a slight over-simplification. Still -- so easy, I have already made her 3 more sets!!

And then amazed to pull this out of the box.

Seriously, so cute you could pretty much just die. And, we have used it already and the Fry-Panda III is in fact an excellent pan. There is only one thing wrong with this pan, in fact. It's the biggest of a set. Ack!

The pattern is from the Spring 2008 Ottobre Design magazine, and it was my first Ottobre project. Really very simple and I was really happy with the results. The dress came out a bit short, but we found leggings that went with it perfectly and the outfit has already been worn to a friend's wedding and looked great. Emily actually spotted this cherry print online and asked for it! She was happy to finally get her "cherry dress".

And want to know why don't I get more done? Look at this photo and check out that print lined up on that back seam. Why did I do that? That's called being totally anal overly meticulous. I mean, it's a kid's dress. She'll have grown out of it by Fall. Note to self: relax.

Then I finished up this little top:

it's another farbenmix pattern, "Hannah". I shortened the sleeves, accidentally cut off part of the seam allowance and Emily made me cut off almost 4" from the bottom. And it's still a bit blousy on her, so I'm going to say this one runs kinda big. Still cute on, though! It was originally just going to be a plain basic for wearing under jumpers, but she insisted on a heart applique so she would have a top "like her Nele doll".

Next up: if Emily has her way, it will be Robot Pajamas. She asks for them every day. The fabric is here, now I'd best get looking through my patterns!