See, here is a pic of a normal-sized loaf and the larger one next to it. It's big. You'd have to buy special plastic bags to fit…and you know what? Bread stored in plastic doesn't taste as good as bread left out or put as is in the breadbox. However, I needed to transport bread! The bag breathes and keeps things clean. Excellent.
{I like this size pan because with many children do you not find that by the time you've cut into a regular loaf you are at the end of its usable sandwich-making area? It's like, crust, a few slices, crust. Crust is fine, but sometimes in a homemade loaf those end pieces are too small.}
Anyway.
In other sewing news, I wanted to catch you up on Bridget's Easter dress. I used this pattern:
Nothing in life being simple, Bridget wanted an overskirt and ribbon, and I wanted not to construct with facings, which I detest. Usually much better to make a lining, which just involves a second bodice attached to the first.
However, the pattern, which I love for being unusual, presents some issues. First, the overskirt. Yeah, those pocket thingies.
Then, the otherwise appealing facts of how the sleeve is actually part of the neckline and the neckline is gathered combine to make fashioning a lining problematical. The facing is designed to lay flat. But extending the facing is a feat of engineering I'm not up to.
Doing what I would normally do, just make another bodice, presents bunching issues. Not to mention conceptual 3-D imaging issues brought on by the sleeve/neckline combo (the whole figure out how to put it together inside out gag, either you know what I mean or you don't…). It took a lot of what I call “finicking,” especially as I had to arrange the gathers to fit her chest.
But I think it's cute! I'd like to make the dress again without the overskirt, but I'm afraid of the lining. It was a pain.
Charity says
I love the idea of using cloth bread bags rather than plastic! The dress is really lovely – so sweet.
Woman of the House says
I love the dress, and Bridget is adorable! My sewing skills are not up to doing anything this complicated, alas, but I am learning.
Sara says
It's adorable, but the overskirt wasn't one of the options, was it? Good job figuring that out, too!
elizabethe says
Hi there, I came over from Conversion Diary. The dress is adorable.Also, I'm pretty sure I'm you, just 13 years younger. Your whole description of the reasons why you didn't garden (the mental block of changing clothes) was brilliant. I try to explain things like this to people and they think I am crazy.And your post on the secret to cleaning (remove everything, clean, THEN put the things away) was, like, genius. It has revolutionized my cleaning. Whenever my house starts to get cluttered, I realize it's because I'm straying from the secret and trying to put things away first.
Margo says
How funny! I used a twill tape from TJMaxx to make a big bag for a quilt! I felt odd saving the tape, but it was so nice.I'm curious about the bread in plastic thing. You store regular, yeast raised bread in cloth on the counter? For how long? It tastes better? I've never heard of this – am I missing a useful trick?? I make sourdough bread, slice it and freeze it. I thought it would go stale if it wasn't in something airtight. Do enlighten me! I would love to make bread bags!
Polly says
Her dress is lovely! It looks like you did a great job w/ the fitting, too. Would you believe that the entire stash of patterns I inherited from my grandmother (vintage) were all folded & placed back into the sleeves/envelopes after having been cut? I have no idea how she did that. Hundreds of them. *I* have preserved them just as you wisely suggest–in FREEZER bags!
Amy says
I never thought to use a cloth bag for bread. I always assumed it would get stale. I love the dress. I love to sew, but am no that adventurous. I stick to small simple things!
Leila says
Charity, WOTH, Sara, Elizabeth…thanks!Margo — no, this is my first bread bag. I do usually keep my bread in plastic bags, either re-using the bags from the pita bread, english muffins, or what have you that I buy, or freezer bags. Since I often make free-form loaves, I end up hoping that I have some big bag leftover from something else.I have a bread drawer, so I usually leave the plastic bag open so the bread can breathe. Occasionally, if I need to put it away and it's not quite completely cooled down, I just put it in there without a bag.A nice thick crust will be its own protector. I do think that the bread tastes better if it's not completely enclosed in plastic, but there's the practicality of just having loaves tossed in there…Think about it, though. Real bakeries don't wrap their bread until they are ready to sell it to you. The cloth bag was a remedy for not having a plastic bag big enough for that extra-large sandwich loaf. But I like the idea…if I come across more thick cotton (it's like a kitchen towel in texture, really…hmmm….) I think I'll make more!Polly — Well, I remember spending a long time getting the stupid things back in the packages myself…and for whatever reason I don't think there was quite as much to deal with.The day I realized I didn't have to do that was a good day for me 😉
Leila says
Hi Amy! Yes, I like the simple things too, but sometimes you have to go there for a daughter who can't find an Easter dress she likes!
Ginny says
The dress is beautiful!
Mominapocket says
Darling dress! Also,the feed sack reminds me of the feed sack pillows I saw at an antique store in Savannah with a pricey price tag. Amazing what a little bit of sewing skills & inspiration can create! Nancy
Sophie Miriam says
It's so cute! Why do you detest facings?
Sue says
That dress is so adorable! I love the over skirt.Bridget in her dress and cute little hair-do reminded me of the Trapp Family Singers, and I wanted to thank you for the book recommendation back in your post about living the year with the Lord. I started the book some years back while staying in a borrowed cabin, but had to leave it behind when we left. I had been wanting to read it ever since, so after I saw your recommendation I went ahead and ordered it. I could not put it down. I loved, loved, loved it!
Katherine says
How do you store your patterns? I have about five 20 year old pattern boxes that are getting worn and dog-eared. They lots there lids long ago. I'd like to find something pretty (and cheap) to store them in since they're exposed on an open shelf in my laundry room.I like facings! I hate doing linings (although I will break down and do an easy one for a boy's vest). You must have had a traumatic experience with facings in your youth and have never recovered?My paternal grandmother stored all her baked goods in a drawer in her kitchen. The smell when I opened that drawer is a fond memory. Perhaps closing up bread tightly and not letting it breath is likely to produce mold even before we actually see it? In old books I've read of someone eating "newly baked" bread and getting sick. I wonder if bread gets better with age??
Katherine says
That was supposed to be "They LOST THEIR lids long ago." I think I'll go frost that chocolate cake now…..
Shawna says
Beautiful dress! Bridget is lovely.Do you have a bread recipe that yields 5 LARGE loafs? I've been using the one on Hill Billy Housewife but the loaves are small if I make 5 and I really don't have time to bake more than once a week. (Although my 11 yo dd is doing it now she still needs plenty of guidance).
Dawn says
Love the dress!
Leila says
Thanks for the dress compliments! I am happy with how it came out, after all.As for facings, here's the problem. A facing never really lies flat. It keeps popping up, even if you under-stitch it. It requires the extra step of hemming it. With delicate fabrics, you end up with a visible line from the facing hem, which messes up the smoothness of the bodice, and then you end up needing another layer under the bodice anyway for modesty and general comfort or so the bra lines don't show.So why not just make another bodice (out of lining fabric, muslin, or the same fabric as the bodice). All the finishing that's required is then at the armholes (either at the shoulder or the hem of the sleeve) and stitching it down at the waist.You have something that will stay put and add another, smooth, layer.You don't need interfacing, most of the time, I find, with a lining.However, with the neckline being both gathered and fashioned in that way with the sleeve top, it was tricky — a little bulky. If I were really clever I could have morphed the facing pattern into a lining pattern, but considering that I started the Saturday before Palm Sunday (i.e. one week before Easter) and we had a flood that week, I had to just make do!As to the bread, Katherine — however one stores the bread, yes, it needs to cool completely out in the air.Somewhere I read that in France, by law, bread must rest 20 minutes out of the oven before it can be sold, but I can't confirm that at the moment.In any case, it makes sense that it is still giving off whatever gases make it rise. And if you gobble it up, that could make you feel weird.I do think that it molds faster if left tightly closed. Also, don't touch it with moist hands — and don't you find that as long as you are in the kitchen your hands are always wet!?!Shawna, I don't really use a recipe for my bread, but when I use 8 cups of flour I get 3 loaves, so I bet if you use 16 cups you will get 5 big loaves.
Leila says
Forgot to mention how I store the patterns (other than in ziploc bags) — mine are in a shallow plastic bin without the lid, sort of a file drawer on a shelf in the linen closet. If you have to keep them out in the open, all I can say is…decorative box such as the ones they sell at Marshall's?
Sarah says
The dress is adorable! And what a fabulous idea for your homemade bread ~ a bread bag!!
Freckled Hen says
I love the dress, the overskirt is so pretty.
Anne R Triolo says
super cute dress bridget! I love the red and pink together and the ribbon with the overskirt. What made you think of doing it that way?Thanks for the tips on storing bread…
Leila says
Annie, we chose the pattern together, and when Bridget saw the white embroidered material she just loved it. She had wanted an overskirt style, so we chose the pink to go with the white. Then she chose the dark ribbon to bring out the dark embroidery.I think she's hoping for contemporary over von Trapp 🙂
Leila says
I'm revisiting this pattern and re-reading my post — so I thought I'd mention to Polly that in our defense, regarding pattern storage, I remember when you bought a pattern for ONE SIZE. Now the patterns are most of the sizes together, and you have to refold all that unused, yet pouffed out, tissue paper. The old way, you were removing most of the extra tissue paper when you cut the pattern, making the resulting bit to store significantly less, albeit not factory flat, than how it came. All that seems like a lot of irrelevant info, but necessary for the collective memory, I thought 🙂