DIY Pencil Skirt

I love pencil skirts!  I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't find a less insistent chevron fabric, but after all I think it turned out very well.  I bought everything at Hobby Lobby.  Here's how the cost broke down:

Simplicity Pattern #2475, $16.95 on sale for .99
Chevron Fabric 8.99 x 2 yards -40% off coupon 10.79
Invisible Zipper 2.71
Thread 1.50
New Skirt:  15.99

Front

Back

So I should begin by saying this is not really a beginner's project.  The skirt is really quite easy, even back kick-tucks.  But the chevron--oh, the chevron.  I foolishly assumed that matching chevron would be as simple as matching stripes.  But I was very wrong.  It turns out one must match horizontally as well as vertically.  So where one must adjust for stripes by moving the pattern pieces up and down, with chevron you have to adjust sideways as well.  Also it's very important to open up the fabric and made sure both layers match so both pieces cut will be identical.

The easiest way to match up the chevrons is to iron under the seam allowance and match it up as the seam would come out; then pin it together in that position and stitch exactly in the crease.

Iron under the seam allowance

Lay the pieces across each other to match chevron

Pin down and stitch in crease

The good thing is that this is the perfect pattern for this sort of thing.  I've always struggled with patterns that were drafted for women with tiny waists and large chests and hips, like barbies.  I'm built rather boxily, my waist, chest and hips, are all similar in size, so I have to adjust patterns a lot after cutting them out--which would ruin the chevron matching up.  This pattern allows for all types--I cut a larger size in the slim fit.  Which allowed me to match chevron without worrying too much about fit.

I say too much because I did need to adjust some sizing. I realized it was matching chevron or sizing, and that I couldn't have both, so I compromised by matching up in the front and back and not bothering on the sides.

Chicken Livers

Remember my tirade/speech/spiel about the value of adventurous cooking?  How one must use new ingredients and not get in a rut?  How one must expand one's cuisine with new flavors and ideas?  Yeah, well, I'm dangerously close to Completely Abandoning and Never Using Questionable Ingredients for Questionable Dishes again.  The incomprehensible fact is that recipes exist that are not just bad, as in, bad proportions or bad instructions or whatever, but awful in their very conception.  These recipes may appear on reputable websites with food critics waxing eloquent.  And they will disappoint you bitterly.

Enter Chicken Liver Pate, stage right.

Okay, so I should have known: chicken livers don't exactly say "snacktime!"  It's a great delicacy in [insert remote land here...]  But I've had chicken livers before, in fact I think they are pretty good when covered in flour and deep-fried in fat.  And I believed the author of this recipe when they said this dish was delicious.  I couldn't wait to transform a lowly ingredient into a surprisingly good concoction.

Oh, the optimism before my fall!

So I've eaten chicken livers but never cooked them, so I was a bit apprehensive when I opened the package from Martins.  I should have known what to expect--livers clean the blood, so it would stand to reason that they would be full of and floating in blood.  Okay, so that was a bit gross.  I cleaned them and cooked them as instructed (only slightly nauseated and beginning to wonder).  I strained more blood (now cooked) out of the broth I cooked them in and transferred them to my blender.  (actually my food processor and I had a disagreement about where this dish was meant to end up.  I said inside the food processor.   But it had other ideas....)





First of all, I am quite sure that the consistency was off.  But before I tried to fix that, I dipped in a finger to taste the TRANSFORMATION FROM NASTY TO DELICIOUS. . .  Aaaaand almost lost my lunch.  Just the memory of that taste/smell/texture makes me feel sick.  So then I had a kitchen that smelled nasty, looked nasty, and was covered in ground-up chicken livers.  All I can say is the first cut is the deepest.

Meanwhile, on another burner, red sauce was bubbling away happily, so innocent and so vegetarian.

Thus ends my Adventures in Experimental Cooking...