Blitherings – Page 153 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Mole for Thanksgiving

No, we did not dine on that furry little critter that lives underground. The picture above is not a burnt mole, but sautéed dried peppers.

I made mole from scratch, using a recipe for mole poblano from Pati’s Mexican Table as the basis. I was able to find all the ingredients in a local store which caters to the Middle Eastern, Asian, and Mexican populations, so there are far more exotic ingredients available than in the local chain grocery stores.

This is what I used:

Dried chilis: ancho, pasilla, mulatos, chipotles – about 20-25 in different amounts. I cut off their stems, and poured the seeds into a custard cup, to be added later on. In a large Dutch Oven, I sauteed the chilis in oil, removing them from the pan, and draining them on towels; I did this is in small batches.

Once the chilis were done I added more oil to the pan and sautéed up a chopped white onion and an handful of chopped garlic. Then I added about a quarter cup each of raw almonds, peanuts, raisins, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds. At one point, I added all the saved seeds from the dried chilis. Next came about a teaspoon each of whole cloves, anise seeds, and coriander seeds. A stick of whole cinnamon followed along with a pinch of allspice, thyme, and marjoram. These I sautéed and then added some tomatoes and tomatillos I had roasted over an open flame on a grill – two or three tomatoes and about eight large tomatillos. The blackened skins of these were removed. As a thickener, I tore up thin corn tortillas – about six. Once all this was put together, it continued to simmer a bit on the stove, with a bit of stirring.

Once I was happy with the melange – it smelled wonderful! – I added about six cups of homemade chicken broth, the sautéed chilis, and 7 ozs. of 85% dark chocolate, specifically Valrhona. From there, I let it simmer another 15-20 minutes, and let it cool. The final step was to run it through the blender until smooth.

This makes very thick paste. I ended up with more than a quart, which can keep for several weeks in the refrigerator, or frozen in small batches, to be used later on.

Making the mole was really easy – it only took a couple of hours as I did all the prep work as I moved along. If I had been more organized, I doubt it would have taken even that long.

Anyway, mole sauce can be used with chicken or turkey (or moles?). We had chicken. I browned the chicken on all sides, and then took about 2 c. of the mole paste, and another quart of chicken stock, and put them in a slow oven – 300 degrees – for about 3 hours. The result was heaven, and went well with saffron rice, cranberry sauce, salad, and tirimisu.

I hope your Thanksgiving feast was as tasty as ours!

Outdated

Jacket 3

This pattern dates from somewhere in mid-nineties. Original intent was a birthday present for a friend, but, like many things, got set aside because of other distractions. Now, resurrected, it surely does not appeal to me, but I am determined to finish it, even if I never wear it and just give it to a local thrift store. The experience, at this point, is the point.

Additionally, this is the very first project I ever used with my serger. And it was the last, until, like this jacket, I resurrected my serger. Can you believe at least 15 years have gone by for both of these?? I admit, the serger just scared the hell out of me – so fast, so complicated – but with my renewed interest in sewing, I decided that the serger was going to come out of oblivion.

Elna 2

This serger was one of the top of the line during the 1990s. It is an Elna Pro 5 DC, is a 5-thread machine, and has a really cute and convenient LCD display that one can program to put in settings for each of the many stitches it does. Unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of a problem with it because it beeps at me, and the red lights turn on and off. For now, though, I am going to use it until the jacket is finished, and then bring it in for a check up at Art & Jenny’s. I have it set up for 3-thread overlock, and for now, that is where it is going to remain. I’ve had the fun experience, already, of cutting through part of the upper left sleeve while finishing the side seams, so it got patched with some fusible interfacing and a mending stitch. Experience is the best teacher!

Jacket 2

Besides not being a talented serger-ess, I also seem to have not bought enough material to provide a facing for the yoke of the jacket. I will have to wander over to Joann’s later today and find something along the same weight, and maybe color, as the turquoise poplin. And, my threads don’t match the original I used back in the 90s . . . Gosh, life sure is tough!

Jacket 1

Distractions & Toys

A couple of weeks ago allergies flared up, turned into a sinus infection, and now I am enjoying the enforced silence bronchitis brings about. Talking makes me cough. The funny thing is that I don’t really feel sick, and never really was down. I am staying home for two days because I have to talk when I work, and coughing fits are hardly conducive to good instruction. I am glad, though, that I hied myself to the doctor, and with modern chemistry am probably well on the road to recovery. I also broke my toe last night, stubbing it on a bed post.

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That said, I have taken off on quite a sewing tangent, and have really been enjoying it. The problem is that everything else gets tossed to the wayside, such as knitting projects and photography and painting. I pulled out all my machines, and did various things with them, played with attachments and drive bands and such, but then settled down to do some sewing, some serious sewing with specific goals in mind. It’s really fun because I am not sewing out of desperation or for an eighth grade home economics class. Instead, I am being mindful of what I am doing, with the focus on accomplishing certain goals with each project. This may mean paying attention to little details, such as clipping curves and staystitching, to overcoming longtime fears and frustrations.

Doing all this sewing has made me really value having good equipment. Equipment does not have to be fancy, but fancy stuff does spoil one, such as the automatic needle down / up on the Janome machine. A good iron and ironing board, room to work, and lighting are equally important, as are good quality pins and scissors. Another plus is I am actually quite pleased with my work because it is good. Not perfect, but I feel pretty skilled compared to the stuff I made in high school! And the results are blouses I am not displeased with.

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In the midst of all this sewing, it turns out that my primary mechanical machine – meaning an electric, open-arm, larger-than-a-featherweight – was no longer functioning. This machine is a Viking 19e, dating from the mid 1960s, and is the one I learned to sew on. It went in to be checked out at my favorite sewing machine repair place, Art & Jenny’s in Ventura, California, and was found to not be worth fixing. I decided I wanted to replace it, as a back up and for the open arm. My final decision, after weeks of research, was a Bernina 930e, which I won on eBay, and which arrived last week in excellent shape. It came with a lot of accessories, but no dust cover; today, I made one out of a remnant of quilted fabric! Of course, the Bernina was put to work to make it.

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This machine is really nice. It handles thick and thin quite easily. No complaints so far. Using it and my other machines, I have made four blouses in the past three weeks, with another one cut out and begun, this time to be done completely on the the Bernina, except for the buttonholes. The Janome can take care of them, or I’ll try one of my mechanical ones out . . .

The Flamingo Shirt

This project took me a fairly long time to complete, much longer than my normal shirt-sewing excursions. The reason is simple – I took my time, and did things as I knew they should be done. The result is better than my usual rush job, and my sense of satisfaction is certainly there. I also finally have a new, 100% cotton blouse that is well made.

To complete this project, I did a number of things I have not done in the past. The first is I sewed bias tape to all the seams except the shoulder seams; since I had forgotten to do those, I zigzagged them. I worked on the sleeves slowly, and they turned out without too much stress. The buttonholes, though, required a lot more work.

How many of us have ruined something through inexperience, fatigue, or impatience? For me, buttonholes have always been a point of sheer frustration, and the cause of a garment in ruins. Consequently, I often have made loop buttonholes instead of ones cut into the fabric. To conquer this, I pulled out all stops – I have my old Singer buttonholer with the bight and width adjustment. I also have a clamp-on for straight stitch machines with templates. I have another clamp-on with templates for use with zigzag machines. And finally, my high-end Janome MCP 6500 has a buttonhole attachment. In the end, I decided on the latter, and practiced making buttonholes. I think I made fifty or so. But, the blouse does have buttonholes on it that I do like, but the reverse side always looks better to me . . . maybe I’ll just do them upside down next time.

Retro with Flamingos

Like I said, I have gotten the sewing bug. And a taste for a bit of nostalgia.

Yesterday, I went to a local Joann’s and came home with a couple of really fun prints to make up some shirts / blouses. The fact is, today it is almost impossible to find any 100% cotton blouses or short-sleeved shirts for women. Almost everything is either a knit, a slimy synthetic, or a cotton blended with 3-4% spandex. The latter is really uncomfortable as far as I am concerned because that little bit of spandex takes away all the breathability of pure cotton.

Flamingo Material

This flamingo pattern caught my eye. I am a sucker for wild Hawaiian prints, and really, the worse they are, the more fun. Here in California, prints like this are totally okay, but probably not for NYC in the dead of winter. There was only 1 yard and 19 inches left on the bolt, but I took it, and got a 50% discount as it was the end of the line. From my earlier days, I used to make shirts with only 1.5 yards, so I figured I could do it. And I did, but I have put on a few pounds since my youth, and really needed a bit more for an easy layout, and while I did get it, but the neck facing was scrimped a bit.

Flamingo Shirt Pattern

I rummaged through my patterns, and luckily, I found this one. Short sleeves, sorta Peter Pan collar, and five easy pieces.

Featherweight 222K and Flamingo Friend

In keeping with nostalgia, I decided to dig out the Singer Featherweight, a 222K with the open arm, reverse stitch, and droppable feed dogs. All straight stitch otherwise. I also decided to sew this without the use of attachments, except for the buttonholer (which is later, and with trepidation), and use techniques required of a straight-stitch machine.

Bias Tape on Facing

In some ways, I think this was actually a good choice. I always zigzag every piece before I sew it because I hate raw edges, but I could not do that with this project on this machine. In reality, I think it may be okay because the material is not constricted by the zigzagging. I did all my staystitching and edge stitching, and I clipped and layered the collar seams. In other words – I took my time!

Still a Great Book!

I also refreshed my sewing skills by pulling out The Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Sewing, a present from my father back in the 60s or so. Compared to more recent books on sewing, this is a real encyclopedia of information and technique; when I was younger, it was too tedious for my helter-skelter approach to sewing, but today, I really appreciated it. I read about facings and collars and edge stitching and stay stitching. I also read about using bias tape to finish edges, which I had thought about prior to the project, but learned that into a curve you do one thing, and out of a curve, you do another.

Pointing Collar Corner

One thing I didn’t learn in my sewing classes in school was that there is a technique to put a nice point on collar – take some thread on a needle, double knot, and once you have pulled most of the collar out, run the needle into the corner on the inside, and push it through the corner on the outside, tug, and cut. A very nice point is the result! Like I said, the Reader’s Digest book is full of good information!

Sleeves

The blouse is far from finished, but I am fairly satisfied with my progress. It was interesting to use a straight stitch machine that is belt driven. A couple of times, the machine didn’t like the thickness of the blouse, but with some encouragement, we got through it.

What remains to be sewn are the sleeves, side seams, hem, and making the buttonholes. I am not too sure how long that will take – it may not get looked at until next Friday, because some of my days are pretty long. In the meantime, I will re-read about setting in sleeves and other good things. Nothing like a sense of accomplishment – until I destroy it with badly done buttonholes. Buttonholes are my nemesis, and I need to practice them all the time.