Eggplant Casserole and Sewing Project

Eggplant custard casserole.

 

Covered with yummy cheese and sesame seeds!

 

Eggplant Custard Casserole

2 medium to large eggplants (aubergines) peeled and sliced 1/2-inch thick
4 eggs
2 c milk
pinch of salt, dash of pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 grated carrot
1 minced onion
5 pressed garlic cloves (less if you're a vampire...or just don't like the taste)
1- 16-oz can diced tomatoes and juice, blended in a food processor
Fresh(chopped)or dried basil and oregano...to taste
1/2 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded.

Peel and slice the eggplants into rounds and lay them flat (not overlapping!) in two greased 13x9-inch baking pans. (Cut some in half to fit.)

Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper until smooth and pour over the eggplant.
(Custard should come up just even with tops of the eggplant slices, not over.)

Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes, or until custard is firm.

While the custard bakes, saute onion, garlic and carrot in oil for 5 minutes.

Add spices and tomato sauce and simmer for 10 minutes more.

Pour the sauce over the eggplant custard.

Sprinkle with cheese and seeds.

Return to hot oven for a few minutes, until the top is lightly browned.

Enjoy!
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Re-purposed vintage tablecloth that I made into a raw fleece storage bag.

 

Action shots of the bag! Giggle.

 

I got some new Icelandic fleece the other day...

...and needed a new storage bag for it.

In looking through my considerable fabric stash...

...I was delighted to discover a heavy linen tablecloth with a wide faggoted hem.

Since I rarely iron, it's unlikely that I'd ever use it for it's intended purpose...

...so I sewed up the edges and made a casing at the top, for a new bag!

I took a discarded grey tie that came with a dress...

...and fed it through the casing, making a drawstring closure.

Now my fleece has a new home...

...and there's one less lonely and unused piece of fabric in my cabinet! :)

Part 4 (Finally): The Purse

 

 

 

 

As you can see...

...the bottom of the original project has become my purse.

I fashioned handles by measuring my 'grip width'...

...cutting long, oval holes in the front and back sides of the bag.

I zig-zagged around the top edges...

...in order to keep the fabric pieces from fraying.

Notice how the lace and linen fabric ruched up during felting...

...and how the wool yarn has become completely incorporated into the felt.

I wanted to reinforce the handle edges, so I sewed fold over elastic (FOE) to the front of the bag...

...then pulled it around to the back and zig-zagged it.

I thought that it would be easier to use than cotton fabric due to its built-in stretch...

...but I found that it was hard to both stretch and sew around such small openings, and I wouldn't recommend using it (unless you practice first on a test piece!)

The finished bag is a surprisingly nice size, even after all of these modifications...

...11-inches tall by 13-inches wide.

Just right for a wallet, keys and some lipgloss.

3-In-1 Project-Part 3: Pencil Box

 

 

 

 

Over the past year, I've realized that I much prefer making seamless felt...

...to treating handmade felt as fabric and assembling projects by hand- or machine-sewing.

Besides saving the schlep to the sewing machine...

...the 3-D aspect of feltmaking is magical!

(It does take a bit of thought, though!!)

Since this project was a 'retro-fit'...

...only the sides could be made from a single ring of felt.

Instead of making a round box like my bread basket...

...I decided to make an open-topped cube, just the right size for pens and pencils!

I did have some sewing to do, of course...

...since the project needed a bottom.

Also, because I had used so many fabric inclusions this time...

...the felt edges required zig-zagging, to keep all of the fringy-bits from fraying.

I also needed to subdue the 'wild wanderings' of my red burlap piece...

...so machine embellishment was especially necessary in this area.

It's interesting, since I wasn't thinking about anything but catching all of the unraveled bits as I stitched...

...but now, looking at the red burlap section, I see that a strong, female figure has emerged!

Coincidence or subconscious machinations? You decide.

In order to make the ring into a box, I flattened it and measured its width...

...and since I wanted four equal sides, I halved this number.

Next, I cut a square with these dimensions from a piece of leftover felt...

...and sewed the ring to this square base with a small seam allowance.

At this point, I cut a piece of thin cardboard the same size as the bottom...

...and used it as a marking guide to even up the height of the sides, so that a perfect cube would result.

The thickness of the felt gave the project some structure...

...but I decided to run a vertical seam along each of the four corners for shape.

Next: Part 4: The final frontier-"The bag as it was meant to be".

The Good, the BAG & the Ugly:3-in-1 Part 2

 

 

 

 

Ok-first the 'UGLY' truth...

...a couple of bad things happened with this project.

If you look closely at the top photo...

...you'll see a wonky bit of red burlap peeping out.

The problem wasn't what my friend Kelly most feared---the 'pink underwear phenomenon'...

...(yes, it faded and ran a little because I hadn't washed it, first...

...but, luckily, it didn't affect the overall color of the bag).

The issue was that it partially unraveled during felting...

...both, because I hadn't washed it first, and also because of the way I sewed it to the pre-felt. (I didn't leave much cloth for a 'seam allowance'!)

It looked pretty bad, and I thought about just removing it altogether...

...but ultimately chose to zig-zag stitch it by machine, after it dried.

Additionally, as you can plainly see...

...that I did something very wrong while laying out my roving. (Not enough lengthwise fibers, maybe?)

I ended up with a much narrower bag than I had intended...

...and one that was really, really deep!

Honestly, I have enough trouble fishing around in my 'regular' purses for things as it is!! Har.

So...what to do?

I decided that there was enough felt, with the addition of a few pieces from my stash...

...to make three projects out of one failed bag.

For this portion of the 3-in-1, I cut off the very top part of the bag...

...the portion containing what would have been the handles.

I evened up the edges with a rotary cutter...

...maximizing the available felt and aiming to match the length to my shortest zipper.

Utilizing a piece of leftover needle-felted landscape (which I later wet-felted a bit)...

...from my John C. Campbell Folk School class last summer...

I fashioned one half of the zipper purse.

For the other side, I added a leftover piece of the flat felt that I had made...

...for the bottom of my bread basket.

I machine stitched the zipper to each flat half...

...then sewed together the bottom and sides.

"Where is the "GOOD" in all of this?", I hear you ask...

...I think it's two-fold.

First of all: Felting is a very 'low-waste' sort of art...

...since scraps (or entire failed projects) always come in handy, somewhere down the road.

Secondly, I really like this technique of sewing with wool yarn...

...it makes a finished piece of felt which looks like it's been embellished...

...but without as much work!! :)

Next: What I did with the middle-third!

Clutch Giveaway Winner!

 

 

 

 

I've collected vintage, hand-embroidered linens for some time, now...

...and I have quite a few small pieces that have been waiting patiently for new lives.

I just love to imagine all of our fore-mothers and fore-grandmothers carefully stitching away on these beauties in their rare free moments!

This little flower piece was part of a larger, partially-stained runner...

...so I rescued it and sewed it up into a little pocket.

I put velcro in it to keep things safe...

...and hand-stitched it to the inside of the bag.

I received four entries for this giveaway...

...Deb, Kelly, Mariana and Cameron.

Random.org chose #4-Cameron!

Thanks to all of you who entered!!