These were meant to be cupcakes but turned into muffins as I miscalculated the flour. Adding chillies to the batter mix worked really well: it gave the hint of a warming kick without being overly spicy and was a lovely contrast to the chocolate butter cream. I think this would work really well as a rich chocolate chilli cake with a fudge sauce/icing. I added a finely chopped (or whizzed) chilli per egg into a normal batter recipe as I creamed the butter and the sugar.
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A friend held a Mexican Fiesta the other day so what better outfit to go for than a spicy chilli dress? The diagonal chilli tail was made by drawing a spiral around a plate on top of the two sides of the other t-shirt. The spiral makes it longer at one end and drawing it around a circle will make it fall in a more crinkly way. I then gathered it and sewed it to the dress. The dress is made from two red XXL men's T-shirts from Primark. I used the top band from the first T-shirt as the band for a strapless dress and then sewed the side seams to fit to the body. I turned the sleeves into the frilly shoulder sleeve and the strap on the other side. The hat is made from a cereal box cone, some glue gun, left over t-shirt fabric and some green felt for the stalk. Ascot ready! And to finish the outfit.... some chilli polymer clay earrings.
I've recently come into some fleece and thought I would look into dying it to see how easy it was: very easy! First was the wool with hot soapy water and dry it. Then leave it to soak in hot water and vinegar for an hour. Apparently this helps to bleach the wool so that it takes the dye. While it's soaking, make up some kilner jars of dye. I used Wilton food colouring: about a teaspoon handle, a splash of vinegar and a mug of hot water for each. I left them on the window sill for 24 hours and then dried the wool with kitchen towel. I like the mottled texture but if you wanted a more even colour you could probably get that by carding it first. I've started to make them into wool beads, jewellery to follow soon!
As we approach the revision season, during which sitting outside and using pages of notes to keep the Sun out of one's eyes is compulsory, what more does a budding fashionista want but an equation print dress? This is another Famous Frocks pattern, the Ava Gardener variation, although it's now pretty far removed from the original! I saw this equation print fabric on Spoonflower and knew I had to make it into this nerdy little number. The dress is a grey equation print cotton with black mid section and fully lined in black cotton. It has a halter neck top fastened with some black gossgrain ribbon and is backless. It needed about 2m of each of the cotton fabrics, 1.5m of ribbon, a 16" black zip and some black thread. I added the lining by making the skirt in the black cotton as well as the pattern and then attaching it to the main skirt before it was gathered. If you want to recreate this smart dress then you might want to experiment with the different types of fabrics available from Spoonflower. There's a lot of gathering in the skirt and this fabric is quite heavy so falls a little more stiffly than it should. At least it means there'll never be a Marilyn moment! The hemline is hand sewn and the edges of the bodice are top stitched 6mm from the edge to keep it neat. Overall, I think it's a fun summer frock and I LOVE the fabric. Sadly, I probably can't wear it at school with exam season coming up....
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