Tutorial - turn a t-shirt into a bubble dress

I have this long t-shirt that I bought for my daughter Nuha, but she don't really like wearing it. She is now 2+ and is already kind of choosy about her clothes. But she loves dresses, so I guess it's time to change it into a dress and see whether she'll wear it.

Because the t-shirt is kind of long, I cut the t-shirt at waist length and use the extras as the inner part of the bubble skirt. If you are using a normal t-shirt, then you can always substitute this with an inner fabric.

I then measured the width of the t-shirt, and it is about 10 inches (per side), 20 inches (all around). I times this measurement by 2.5, as such, the width of the fabric needed will be 50 inches wide.

As for the height, I measured the heights that I wanted for the dress (from waist down) and added in a few extra inches to bubble in the skirt. In my case, the height that i wanted is 9.5 inches, and I added in another 3.5 inches to bubble in (all in all 13 inches long).

I then cut my fabric - 50 x 13 inches and iron. Fold the fabric into two (at its long side, right side together) and sew the shorter side together (i.e. the length of the skirt). If you have a serger, serge the top part of the fabric. I don't have a serger, as such, I double fold the edge of the upper part of fabric to avoid the fabric from fraying. Don't bother hemming the lower part of the fabric as it will be sewed onto the inner fabric and turned right side out.

Now, gather the bottom part of the fabric to the inner fabric, right sides together and sew. Turn the fabric right side out. Then, gather the upper part of the fabric to the inner fabric, wrong sides together and sew, this will be the upper part of the dress skirt.

This is how the bubble skirt should look like on the inside

The key to making the skirt 'bubble' is that the width of the inner fabric should be lesser that the 
width of the outer fabric.

To finish, attached the upper part of the dress skirt to the t-shirt, right sides together and sew. You can top-stitch for a cleaner look. 

I'm glad that Nuha loves her new bubble dress.

Agar-agar santan gula melaka

Awal bulan Februari yang lepas, waktu balik rumah nenek kat Melaka, sempatlah jugak Shas beli gula melaka. Stok yang kat rumah dah tinggal sikit, dan Shas memang tak tau nak beli kat mana gula melaka kalau kat KL ni. Kalau balik kampung, selalunya beli kat Bemban. Pernah la jugak beli kat R&R Ayer Keroh, tapi rasa yang jual kat Bemban macam lagi ok.

So,  petang Khamis lepas sempat la jugak Shas buat agar-agar santan gula melaka. Lama dah tak makan agar-agar ni. Resepi berasaskan resepi agar-agar pandan yang Shas pernah buat sebelum ni.

Shas tukar sikit-sikit resepi agar-agar pandan tu, dan Shas kurangkan sikit gula sebab gula melaka macam manis sikit berbanding gula biasa. Resepi seperti di bawah:

1 paket serbuk agar-agar 10 gram (Shas guna jenama Swallow Globe)

2 helai daun pandan, disimpul

210 gram gula melaka

750 ml air

200 ml santan (Shas guna santan kotak)

1 biji telur

1. Campurkan serbuk agar-agar, simpulan daun pandan, gula melaka dan air, dan masak sehingga mendidih.
2. Dalam bekas yang lain, campurkan santan dan telur.
3. Apabila campuran serbuk agar-agar tadi dah mendidih dan gula melaka dah hancur, campurkan santan dan telur.
4. Kacau campuran dan biar atas api sehingga mendidih.
5. Tutup api dan tapiskan campuran agar-agar ke dalam acuan (Shas guna loyang empat segi 7 x 7 inci).
6. Biarkan sekejap pada suhu bilik sebelum dimasukkan ke dalam peti ais untuk disejukkan.
7. Enak dimakan sejuk.

My second crochet flower

I'm still in the mood for crocheting, this time around I've tried a different version of crochet flower. This is also a beginners' tutorial I would say, as the instructions are easy to follow. Tutorial link can be found here.

I attached the crochet flower onto an alligator clip to make a hairclip for my daughter.

Belajar mengait

Dari kecik lagi saya memang teringin nak belajar macam mana nak mengait.. dulu-dulu my mum selalu jugak mengait. Pernah juga belajar, tapi tak boleh-boleh jugak. Banyak kali juga cuba, tapi tak pernah jadi.

Malam semalam, tetiba rasa nak belajar mengait lagi. Bukan apa, geram tengok crafter-crafter buat crochet flower. So, saya pon cari la benang dan jarum kait yang memang sedia ada dalam kotak barang kraf. Then, buka youtube untuk belajar. Try buat sikit-sikit, boleh pon mengait walaupun tak cantik sangat. Dapat buat sekejap je sebab Nuha dok tarik benang kait.

Pagi tadi, lepas Amirul dan Faiz pergi sekolah, saya cuba sekali lagi. Tak sangka boleh, seronok sangat sebab ni first time saya berjaya mengait.

My first ever crocheted items, ok la walaupun x berapa kemas sangat.

Kat sini saya share link kepada siapa-siapa yang teringin nak belajar mengait, simple je bunga ni.. bila dah dapat basic dia, lebih senang la nak follow other tutorials yang berlambak-lambak kat youtube tu.

Tutorial - cara menjahit coaster

Tutorial menjahit coaster, langkah demi langkah:

Bagi menghasilkan sekeping coaster, potong 2 keping kain cotton berukuran 4.5 x 4.5 inci dan sekeping batting berukuran 4 x 4 inci.

Susun kain seperti dalam gambar di bawah - kain cotton helaian pertama (bahagian yang betul ke atas), kain cotton helaian kedua (bahagian yang betul ke bawah), diikuti dengan batting.

Selarikan kain-kain cotton dan batting tadi:

Jahit di sekeliling batting dan tinggalkan lebih kurang 2 inci bahagian yang tidak dijahit pada salah satu tepi, seperti dalam gambar di bawah. Kita akan guna bahagian yang tidak dijahit ini untuk menterbalikkan kain supaya bahagian kain yang betul berada di bahagian luar.

Terbalikkan kain melalui bahagian yang tidak dijahit tadi dan betulkan sudut-sudut tepi coaster:

Jahit coaster supaya lubang yang digunakan untuk menterbalikkan kain tadi tertindih dengan jahitan. Kemudian bolehlah dijahit dengan corak mengikut kreativiti masing-masing:

Contoh corak-corak jahitan yang boleh dijahit di atas coaster:

Chocolate chip cookies - remake

Made this last Thursday whilst the older 2 were in school. Nuha was fast asleep and she woke up right after I'm done making the cookies.

I used the same recipe that I previously used (really love this recipe!), recipe can be found here. This time around, I added in some melted chocolate to the ingredients. Love the result, absolutely delicious!

Fancy ice cream cookies

Me and the kids spent our Wednesday evening making these cookies. The kids really enjoyed themselves, as I let them decorate the cookies to their liking using sugar stars and sugar balls. I actually wanted to make chocolate chip cookies as per the one I recently made since the earlier batch lasted for less than 2 days, but I guess that can wait since the kids seem overly excited when I told them that we're gonna be making cookies in the shape of an ice cream.

They loved the cookies very much, and the cookies were gone in less than a day!

Here's the recipe that I used to make them, I've made slight changes to the amount of ingredients used as the dough feels too soft to roll-out. Original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

130 grams butter

60 grams icing sugar

160 grams all purpose flour

30 grams corn flour

20 grams potato flour/starch

20 grams custard flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

20 grams ground almond

Dark compound chocolate - melted, and sugar stars/balls/crystals etc for decoration

1. In a mixer, beat the butter and icing sugar until fluffy. 
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients (flour, baking powder and ground almond) a little at a time on low speed until well incorporated.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll-out the dough. Then, cut out the cookies using cookie cutter.
4. Preheat the oven to 160 degree celcius and bake the cookies for 20 minutes.
5. Decorate as desired using the melted chocolate and the sugar stars/balls/crystals etc.

My go-to bread machine recipe

I've tried a few white bread recipes since my hubby bought me a kenwood bread machine a few months back, but this is my favorite recipe thus far.

It is a very simple recipe, and require very little time and effort to prepare. My kids loved the homemade white loaf made using this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 egg plus enough water to make 240 ml, mix lightly

1 1/2 tablespoon butter, melted using microwave for 30 seconds

375 gram high protein (bread) flour

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried yeast 

1. Pour the egg and water mixture into the bread machine pan, and add in the melted butter.
2. Sprinkle over the bread flour over the water/egg/melted butter mixture.
3. In separate corners of the bread machine pan, add sugar, salt and dried yeast.
4. Set the bread machine to the basic setting, 500 gram size and choose medium crust and press start.

*Update: I now have a new favourite bread recipe, and the recipe is even simpler and can be ready in less than 2 hours. Here's the link to the recipe: Rapid white bread recipe.

Agar agar roti marble bercoklat

Dah lama sebenarnya buat agar-agar roti ni, cuma tak sempat nak kongsi resipinya lagi. Petang ni baru berkesempatan nak update blog.

Resepi ni Shas dapat dari myresipi.com, resepi dikongsi oleh hana. Shas ubah sikit-sikit resipi agar-agar roti ni dan tukarkan sukatan 'cawan' kepada 'gram' ataupun 'ml'. Resepi asal boleh didapati dari sini.

Bahan-bahan:

650 ml air
10 gram serbuk agar-agar (Shas pakai serbuk agar-agar seperti dalam entry ni dan ni)
130 gram gula
190 gram susu cair

80 gram susu pekat

2 biji telur

4 keping roti (dibuang kulitnya)

1 1/2 sudu besar butter

2 sudu besar serbuk koko

Adunan agar-agar dituang secara berselang-seli bagi mendapatkan effect 'marble'

1. Didihkan air, serbuk agar-agar dan gula.
2. Blend susu cair, susu pekat, telur dan roti, kemudian campurkan ke dalam periuk agar-agar yang dididihkan tadi.
3. Masukkan butter dan kacau sehingga sebati, kemudian tutup api.
4. Bahagikan kepada 2 adunan. Campur serbuk koko kepada salah satu adunan dan kacau sehingga sebati. Boleh juga dicampurkan coklat emulco bagi menggantikan serbuk koko.
5. Tuang ke dalam loyang secara berselang-seli bagi mendapatkan effect 'marble'.
6. Sejukkan sebelum dihidang.