SIMPLE SKIRT

Simple Skirt

Materials needed to make this simple skirt are : 2 fat quarters measuring 18x21 inch or 1/2 yard of fabric would do, or the simple way to do is measure your kids waist multiply by 2 that's the width of the fabric you need, of course if you want your skirt with more frills you could make even triple the size of the hip. My kid's size was 21inch so i have used two 21 inch width fabric that totals to 42 inch, and for the length of the skirt, measure the height from your kid's hip to knee add an inch to whatever number it is for the seam, I wanted the skirt to be long, so i just left it to 18 inch

                                                      Lay the two layers of fabric with right sides facing to each other and seal the edges like this along the length of the skirt.

                               

Now for the waist fold the fabric like this for about 2 inches, with wrong sides facing each other and measure the width of the elastic, mine was about 0.8cm so I made like three seams each measuring of about 1cm remember do not sew it all the way long leave at least couple of inches unstitched to insert the elastic.

                               

 

Now insert the elastic into each of the spaces and double stitch the elastic, and the length of the elastic depends on the hip size, say if the hip size is 20 inch, the length of the elastic should be 18 inches. And sew the leftover gap make sure that you don't run stitches on the elastic.

                     


This is how it should look once your done. now time to hem the bottom edge, double fold the edge to your desired width and stitch it.

                     

Front and back view of the skirt. You can follow the same steps to make an adult skirt.

                     

TOFU PARATHA

Here's you what you need to make these parathas - Tofu, onions, green chilli, ginger, garlic, turmeric and of course chapathi dough.

You can use any kind of tofu, it does'nt have
to be firm or extra firm coz any how you
are gonna crumble it, so regular tofu would
also be fine.

     Grate the tofu and squeeze out the extra
              water again as you could.               

After opening it drain the water in the pack to a container you can use the water to make the chapathi dough and squeeze out as much water as you could, that will cut down your cooking time.

          
            
             Add some oil(any kind) Saute the onions till it becomes translucent.

    Add the ginger garlic paste and green chillis, saute it for about 1 to 2 mins and then add the grated                                                                 tofu and turmeric powder.

Cook it till the moisture is completely gone, this is where it tests your patience, takes at least 8 to 9 mins for it to become dry, keep sauteing it or else it will burn quickly or the texture would turn out to be too rubbery, so be careful to not to make it very dry. Once its done cool  down the stuffing till it comes to room temperature.

Divide the chapathi dough into equal portions and the mixture as well, depending on the number of dough balls you have got, make sure the mixture portion is of the same size as the chapathi dough, coz if its more the stuffing would come out wile rolling the parathas.
Mould the dough ball into a bowl shape and stuff it with the mixture, seal it and make it into a ball again.

                                                                                   


Roll it out like this and cook it for about 1 to 1.5 mins on each side.

Frozen heart pillow

                                                           HEART PILLOW

                         Materials needed:   *Fabric of any kind, size of it depends on how big you want                                                               your  pillow to be, i have used 1 yard of fabric.
                                                            *Poly fil to fill the pillow

 

Measure and draw the heart on a large
paper or you could use a template, i have
 used gift wrapping paper since it has inch
size boxes in it  so you  wont screw up while
drawing the heart

              

           Draw an inch size bigger than you want

     your pillow to be, for the seam allowance, place

       it on the fabric and make sure it fits.

            
 Double fold the fabric and place the heart  on it  like shown and cut the fabric out, make sure not to cut the top and bottom points of the heart sharp,coz when you stitch the sharp points  the pillow gets pinched so while cutting make it as a curved edge.

NOTE: lay the fabric in such a way that the pattern in your fabric is pointing in correct direction, coz i made the mistake so in my pillow the characters are standing upside down.

                                    
                          This is how it will look like after cutting it, remember to make the points                                                                         curvy not pointed like this.

To add the fringes for your pillow cut strips of about 1and1/2 inch, hem the raw edge on one side with whatever design stitch you like and make frills my folding the fabric for 1 to 1 and 1/2inch or so, depends on how close you want your frills to be. you can also stitch the frills by pinning the folds to be more perfect, but i just gave it a try without pinning, it came out well.

Now comes the tricky part stitch the fringes to the heart by pinning it to the right side of the back piece
so now wrong sides should face each other, stitch it leaving 1/4 inch seam.

 Now time to attach the front piece, pin the right side of the front piece facing the right side of the back piece like shown and while pinning and stitching make sure the fringes are laid straight and well inside coz you don't want to run stitches over the fringes.

NOTE: leave at least 2 to 3 inches open to fill the poly fill. 

Use the open to flip the pillow to the right side.

        

Stuff the pillow with polyfill and hand stitch the open using blind stitch technique.

This is how your finished piece would look like.

Easy Fish Curry

Tilapia Fish Curry

                                                     

Here are the ingredients you need, onions, tomato, red chilli, ginger, garlic, jeera and cashew nuts.                                

                 

                 Heat up the oil.

Add the jeera seeds and let it splatter

Incorporate all the remaining ingredients and saute it.

Cook it for about 10 mins, once its done,
 let it cool down.

Grind the mixture to desired consistency 
by adding
water but remember when you 
add the fish the gravy
will become more thinner.

Cut the fillets to your desired size.

             

  

Add the fish and turmeric powder when it comes to boil
and cook it for about 3 to 4 mins and time to check for the salt.

                              

       
Let the fish cook for about 3 mins and add the curry leaves,that's it your yummy gravy is ready to be served.

You can try this gravy with whatever fish you like, but mackerel and pomfret doesn't come out well since the texture of the fish is bit hard it won't get soaked up well in the gravy but red snapper and tilapia came out well for me, so just go ahead and try it out with whatever you want.