Flying Potatoes And Tutorial

Two more gifts finished.

And the extras put into the etsy shop. (Yay! me).

I still need to finish an outstanding purse order from five weeks ago. The fabrics are cut out and interfaced - there's a procrastinating slug inside me about this project. However, the 12 hour days are now scheduled and not merely an emergency. It needs to be finished today.

These microwave potato bags are a must-have if you want restaurant quality baked potatoes in a quarter of the time it takes in the oven.

Dear hubby's last one finally gave up the ghost after three years of continuous use.

It caught fire. Which is alarming. But expected.

Even though I use 100% cotton materials in these bags, this is a known hazard.
These bags produce the moistest, fluffiest baked potatoes. The minimal risk is worth taking instead of using an entire hour to bake potatoes in a traditional oven.

If you want to make your own, I've written you a tutorial at the bottom of the post.

 Look who walked into work the other day? One of Santa's elves!
Is this not the cutest outfit - she even styled her purse with a pompom.
Delicious. (fred meyer stores!)

 Canby's Light Up the Night commenced Friday night with a parade featuring Santa texting? Well, he's not driving...

They formed up the parade right outside my workplace. Since I couldn't get out of my parking lot, I enjoyed the excitement. Small town parades. Big smile

 I found some wine for gifts featuring a biplane from a local vineyard. Be still my heart.

And, finally, my son sent me this photo of his girlfriend's mom's chickies wearing their best outfits sitting on Santa's lap.


Potato Bag Tutorial:

Cut from 100% cotton fabrics;
Try to use cotton thread.

11" x 22" Main fabric
11" x 22" Lining fabric
11" x 22" Warm & Natural 100% cotton batting


Make a quilt sandwich of Lining fabric face down, batting on top, and them place Main fabric face up on top. Quilt as desired.

Trim to a rectangle of 10.5" x 21.5".

Serge(overlock) the short ends. Or, use a tight zigzag. Or, make it more work - fold under twice and stitch.

With Main Fabric face up on table, fold down top serged edge 4". Fold up bottom serged edge 7" (or so). The serged edges will overlap 1 inch.

Baste where overlap is at the side seams. This keeps the top edge even when serging in the next step.
Serge side seams. Or you can use your tight zigzag to finish the edges. Knot off serger tails and trim.

Turn and enjoy:::

Anything polyester has a lower melting point than cotton. Try for 100% cotton.
The bag gets old and breaks down which is why it eventually catches fire.
Do not leave microwave unattended.


MICROWAVE BAKED POTATOES

Wash potatoes, pat dry. Do not prick with fork. Place up to four potatoes in bag and put in microwave on Baked Potato settings.

Marion asked in the comments how many minutes this takes as she doesn't have a baked potato setting on her microwave? I think it's about 5 or 6 minutes. You might need to experiment - adding 45 seconds until you get the fluffy just right.

Keep potatoes inside bag until meal is ready to stay hot.

These bags make the fluffiest baked potatoes with just the right moistness.

Elf Costume for a Darling Little Girl

I have bought the material for the Tangerine Dress but here is another that is so inspiring.
An Elf Costume for Little Girls
The maker is selling it on Etsy.

I was perusing the pattern books here and there are a few dress patterns for little girls, a LOT of bridal/formal dresses, nearly nothing in knitwear, and one pattern for the boys (formal).
Kidding about the boys (there were two), but where are the REAL clothes that children wear?

There are actually more patterns out now then there were when my children were young.  I learned then that if I wanted the clothing to fit, it was better to make a pattern from something ready-made and make it from that. The kids sewing patterns are HUGE on the little ones and for a beginning seamstress, it must cause huge headaches trying to downsize the garment so it fits.
The sizes on the back of the envelope are part of the headache.
Burda had the most 'realistic' patterns for children - utilizing knits. Most kids wouldn't know what to do with all the formal wear here in Oregon - where we tend to call our newest sweats our 'nice' clothes and think REI   is our formalwear store.