Winter Solstice Baking and Decorations )O(

Merry meet all,

I am not happy that the weather became so miserable. I worried about losing power which never happened. I postponed the holiday baking. However, I did have some success with presents. 

I assembled a fire starter kit and coffee for my brother and lip balm for my mother. I placed moss, a pinecone I painted white, a bit of birch bark and matches in a glass jar. I put the moss in first followed by the pinecone, then the matches secured with string and a white candle. If he ever loses power, he is prepared for any event or disaster. I also poured instant coffee into a jar with a cinnamon stick and 2 star anise. I had no gift box or packaging so I improvised. 

I used a brown paper bag to store the gifts but first I painted it! I traced a tree from a cookie cutter onto the bag and outlined it in black and green. Then I painted the tree I traced on green. I painted the rest of the bag white. I had to be careful because brown paper bags are delicate when they are wet. I hole punched the bag and wound twine through the holes and tied them. I placed the fire starter kit and the coffee in the bag. I baked the pumpkin bread in a bundt pan. 

I made a small tin of peppermint and sweet orange lip balm for my Mom. In fact it smelled so good I made a tiny pot of it for myself. I am sure she will enjoy it. I can’t wait to wrap it. 

I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread and I added crushed walnut. I have to make the frosting for it. I want to use orange food colouring to frost the bread and add cinnamon and orange zest to the frosting. I plan to make peppermint bark, gingerbread, gingerbread cookies, and yuletide bread. My family will love me for such delicious treats. Or their bodies will hate me. It is the time for feasting though. 

Gingerbread was a tradition of my grandparents. I want to make a loaf because they are gone now and I know it was what they would have baked this holiday season. I can remember being at the cottage during the holidays and they would bake it fresh. Tomorrow nothing will stop me. I want to use up a lot of ingredients and such festive baking is surely the answer to that. I have a lot of dried orange peel in my icebox which is perfect for this. I’m going to bake the yuletide bread in the bundt pan too. I have to candy the lemon peel and orange peel. I have the ‘cranberry and raisin’ raisins for that recipe too. I think it will be delicious. 

I bought a beautiful festive bag from the dollar store which will hold the sweets and gifts. Penny is celebrating Christmas dinner with us of course. She will be part of all the fun. Of course. Penny is family! I tidied up her litter box tonight. Penny loves to lounge on the red tree skirt which definitely doesn’t look pagan but very christmasy but oh well- I do my best. 

I’m celebrating the Solstice solo. Well I am not really alone. I have the company of cats and the spirits here. I have some organic locally sourced hamburger meat. I plan to cook an awesome meatloaf and have an amazing meal and perform a ritual. It is the Christmas dinner with my family I am really preparing for. 

I also saved the best news for last (but not least): I am so happy to share that Wicked Shadow Press published my horror flash fiction story, Winter Solstice Spell in their upcoming anthology, Yule Cat Codex! 

The Yule Cat Codex by Wicked Shadow Press featuring my flash fiction story and many others

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I foraged for wintry goodies from the nature trail. I foraged eastern white pine, common juniper and Sikta Spruce. I cleaned, trimmed and am now drying the herbs in brown paper bags. If the weather is better tomorrow, I will dry the herbs in my dehydrator. I did create a smudge stick with the juniper, pine and I have to add rosemary. 

I still want to make some decorations out of salt dough. I was inspired by a video I watched. I never lost power today but I did no baking. I could have been so much more ahead. I am having dinner with my family on the 24th. Everything will be perfect.

The best part of baking and making gifts is wrapping them. I don’t have a lot of gifts to give but it feels good. I did already gift my mother the iron tonic syrup. I am sure she will love the minty sweet lip balm. Either way, I can’t wait to wrap it all and package the baked goods but tomorrow I plan to do some last minute shopping. Then it will be bake, bake, bake and create, create, create!

Of course though, I look forward to that. I am a diehard kitchen witch with a rep to maintain.  I can’t wait to begin! 

Don’t let the Yule lads get the best of you! I watched the version of A Christmas Carol with George C Scott the other night. I am so in the mood for the Solstice! I enjoyed the movie so much! It was the best version ever. 

It is almost time for me to strain the Pear Liquor. I can’t wait to enjoy it on the Solstice. I need a pretty jar. I can’t wait to try it. 

https://www.milkglasshome.com/pear-liqueur-recipe/?fbclid=IwAR0OHTTUT4bydi42jwOGnEBdRfEdHJJLArMMjfMypQn-S7epB8P8DDvql40

In other news, I  created a herbal vision board. 

I do believe I will enjoy baking and decorating! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blessings, Spiderwitch 

 

 

Wool coat of my dreams in the Making

Merry meet all,

I am bitten by the sewing bug once again! My next sewing project is a wool coat. Inspirations seized me! I wish the muse would arrive and help me with writing the same way but that’s another story. The coat will be tons of hard work. I am nervous about sewing it so to combat my anxiety, I have researched how others have done it and how it is done. I have been lucky so far. The pattern is vintage and has lots of details: a lined hood with darts, buttons and buttonholes, facing and interfacing, upper and lower collars, a centre front and back with middle fronts and backs, and side front and side back. It is enough to scare the most seasoned sewer. 

This project will not be an instant overnight effort. It may take me a week to a month to sew the coat. I have the lining fabric, I have cut out the pattern tissue, the pattern pieces. I want to do a mock up of the whole garment but I can’t afford it right now. I did a mock up of the sleeves. I am really glad I did for two reasons: I realized I needed to add an inch to the lower hem of the under sleeves on each arm and I learned how to sew the under sleeve to the upper sleeve. I also learned how the sleeve would feel on my body. I can easily move my arm up, down and in a circle. Making adjustments early on in the construction of the coat saves a person so much pain later on. When I cut out the pattern pieces (of the wool), I laid the whole 4 meters down on the floor and cut each pattern piece out in a single layer. I had to sweep and mop the floor – cat hair much? Then I flipped over the pattern tissue to cut the pattern on the left side. The fabric covered the kitchen floor. 

I like the colour of the lining for the coat. It matches the coat and has a brown reddish colour but it will do. The interfacing is black except for the belt. The black interfacing will match the brown wool coat. The fabric for the coat is a gorgeous brown soft wool/polyester fabric. I love it. Oh so beautiful! The interfacing for the belt is white but it will be concealed. I have the threads, a belt buckle, the belt pattern is cut out and ready to go and I cut out the pattern too for the belt carriers. The belt does not go with the McCalls 6800 pattern B, but I love how couture it looks. So the belt stays. 

I pinned the centre front, middle front and side front patterns together and tried it on. The centre front pattern piece stops just above my knee. The pattern of the coat has a high and low hem. I hope it all fits me correctly. I might get a bit of fabric from Fabricville so I can do a mock up of the rest of the coat. Or if that isn’t possible, I can pin all the pattern pieces together and try it on and see how it fits on me. I don’t own a full length mirror or a dress form (at least not one that truly mirrors my figure), so I have to wait until I can get a mirror. In the meantime, I will pin all the pattern pieces together then see how it fits on me. Again, if I am to make a mock up of the left side of the whole coat for myself, I need newspaper, tracing paper, muslin etc, to do it. 

I still have to cut out the lining and the interfacing for the coat. After that, I need to transfer all the markings and notches to the wrong side of the pattern on the wool fabric. I am going to make my own press cloth. I don’t want to scorch the wool and so I will not be pressing on the top right side of the garment, only on the wrong side. I sew the facings to the lining and sew the lining and facing to the coat. That is so just nightmare inducing. I can’t get my head around how I turn the facing and lining to the inside of the coat. But I am not at that stop yet. I am grateful that I had enough fabric for all these pattern pieces. I searched for the fabric at Fabricville but I didn’t see it there. I purchased 4.5 meters of the beautiful soft brown wool. There was not much remaining on the bolt after that. I also bought the wool on sale – 50% off a meter! Excellent. 

Anything that is worth doing is worth all the hard effort. I am confident I will turn out a beautiful brown wool coat. This investment has to last a lifetime. Wool is a resilient fabric! I completed the bodice corset that I sewed to accompany the awesome black witchy top I bought from Killstar. I need to add on a black bias tape so the lining of the corset doesn’t show on the outside or top side of the bodice. I need to stock up on extra bobbins. 

This may be extra ambitious of me well, anyone hoping to sew a wool coat is ambitious period, but I’m sewing my own press cloth. I just laid two pieces of white cloth together and tucked in the raw edges. I ironed and pressed it. I will sew it once I have an extra bobbin. I was hoping to go to Fabricville today but I have to wait the delivery of a parcel- a bad ass hoodie from Wish. I have muslin for a press cloth fabric but the sewing machine won’t sew muslin. Argh! I am not the patient type but in order to make the coat, I shall have to try. 

The next turn in the Wheel of the Year is Imbolc! I shall keep you posted!

 

Blessings, Spiderwitch

Miranda Spiderella the Goth Doll )O(

 

 

Merry meet all,

I hope you all had an amazing holiday! 

I watched an episode, Demon under the Stairs, from the Haunted Museum recently. As I did, I suddenly experienced the worst pain in my jaw. It might be coincidental but the timing sure is worthy of note. Like I am not kidding, it was the most painful thing I ever experienced next to the nightmarish experience I had at the dentist’s office. Needless to say, I am no longer visiting that dental office. I am buying a big chunk of selenite to protect me from anymore possible ‘attacks’. I mean you know, just in case. 

I watched a video about demons on YouTube in the past. As I watched, I felt a big muscle spasm between the shoulder blades. That really hurt too. Maybe it was coincidental or maybe I need to up the ante of this pain I suffer when watching certain videos. For any of you who are reading this, I do have psychic protection posts I wrote in the past on this blog. 

Energy is real and all around us. Energy makes everything happen. We are composed of electromagnetic energy. The Universe is energy. A leaf has an energy as does an orange. As I type, rain falls from a grey leaden sky. I keep pining for summer but winter is here. Sometimes I have seen so much ice and snow in my backyard it seems that summer would never return, but it does. I hate winter but I know it passes. The change of the seasons never ceases to amaze me. Everything is energy and nothing is finite. 

 I am inspired to sew a scary doll. She is not haunted but she will be hopefully if I take her places that are speculated to be haunted. The photo shows the layout of the pattern pieces. The body of the doll is white. The hair which will be mostly made up of black and some purple yarn, she will have buttons for eyes, and her dress is a black and white spider print fabric I stashed in the sewing cart. The sleeves are the same fabric as the dress. The stockings are a grey fabric with a black bat print and the boots are black. She will get a witch charm necklace, a broom and a witch hat. I think she will be so Goth and cute. I can’t wait to work on the doll! Then of course, she will need a name. No, I will not name her Morticia. There are a thousand dolls named Morticia. Claudia would suit her though. Maybe she will need fangs and a driving hunger for blood? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ha! The entire doll – the body of the doll and the dress has to be sewn with a 1/4″ inch seam allowance. I had to find out how that is done. My needle plate shows a 3/8″ inch, 5/8″ inch and 7/8″ inch seam allowances. So the 1/4″ inch seam allowance is before 3/8″. You can now imagine that means a tiny, narrow seam allowance. Now I know where that is indicated because 1/4″ inches is 2/8″ inch. I have to see slowly and carefully. Wow. I will never be so precise as now. I made a doll in the past and I was never this careful. That’s because I am now using a pattern. To make it worse, the body of the doll and the clothing which will forever be a part of the doll is white. It will all show if I screw up. I will mark with tape where the mark is where I have to sew. Sewing slowly and keeping an eye on it will be the only way to get this done. This is not a rush job. I have  never needed to sew in a 1/4″ inch before. Needles to say, I don’t look forward to it but it is not impossible. That’s why marking rulers and understanding math can come in handy- and patience!

I can’t wait to stuff the doll and sew the costume. But that comes after patiently sewing the doll and minding the seam allowance. Or it is all for naught. Too much work to go through for nothing. But anything worth doing is worth doing well. I will post photos as I go along. This will be a fun weekend project. I googled goth scary witch dolls. I am going for a scary cute goth look. The buttons I wanted to use might be too big for her face. I ordered black skull buttons online at Amazon. I don’t want to use regular buttons on the doll. I need a button at the collar and on her boots. Skull buttons will make her look edgy and with attitude. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to make this doll, use the pattern by Kwik Sew 4390. That is the pattern I used. You have to have all the fabric at hand that you will need. The clothing is sewn to the doll’s body and is never intended to be separate from the doll. The body of most of the doll is white. The stockings and the booties (See legs of doll in the photo) are the clothing. The arms are white and the face and neck. The hair piece that gets sewn to the head of the doll has to be the haircolor and the yarn has to match. Since the yarn hair was black, I used black cotton for the hair front and hair back. Be sure to use matching thread. Sew the eyes on last or before you attach any other parts to the doll. I wanted to use big buttons for her eyes but the buttons were too big.  Here are some photos I took on the progress of the doll: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you sew the arms and legs, you cut out four pieces. The arms have to look right on the doll and are reversed of each other. One right arm and one left arm. The same goes with the legs. Our arms and legs face a certain way. It is no different with a doll. 

When you sew the head to the body (front), keep a straight seam allowance. If you want to, you can use a pencil and mark a very light straight line from the notch marked on the forehead all the way down to the neck. The seamline of the head of the doll to the body must be straight. The notches and points have to meet. It is the same with the back of the doll. I stuffed the arms and legs tightly and packed the stuffing down firmly using a wooden dowel but not hard enough to tear fabric or seams. You have to get the details of the doll’s body right or otherwise don’t bother. 

Leave the back of the doll open for turning and stuffing. Take your time with this. Take your time making the entire doll. This is an act of creation so go slowly. Sew the doll with love and it will show. I sewed the smile on and traced a light line on for the smile with pencil then stitched over the pencil marks. I sprinkled in mugwort and mandrake then stitched the back of the doll by hand. Once you have correctly and nicely sewn the body, you can progress with the clothing. 

The right arm of the doll’s sleeve cap features spiders. The left arm of the sleeve cap features the webs (where the spiders hide!). I drew an eyebrow on her brow very carefully with a sharpie pen and I did the same with her lashes. The pocket fabric is upside down and the collar fabric is wrong side up but it somehow works. The pocket can still hold spells!!! For the hair braids, you sew the braids to the head where the darts are. You can use whatever color yarn you want, but have lots of it on hand. If you want, you can sew a weft of the yarn hair and then sew it on by hand. You have to sew the yarn on by hand, Mark with a water soluble marker where you want to sew on the yarn. I have included a video here to better demonstrate how to sew on the yarn. Before you sew anything, watch this excellent video!: 

I highly suggest you sew on the yarn by hand. If you use a hot glue gun, you will regret it. It won’t have that seamless look. Hot glue makes a mess. Sewing with needle and thread spares you lots of agony. I made the doll a dress and tacked it on to her body the same I did with the collar. I sewed on a pocket to the dress before I sewed the dress together. I had to sew the dress by hand because for some frustrating reason the machine refused to sew this fabric together. The dress comes with a slip. I gathered the fabric together but I had more luck just cutting the fabric to truly fit her body and I pinned the slip to the doll. Make sure to use thread that is the same as the yarn and the head of the doll. 

I made the doll!!!! I love her and she is just sooo cute! I was successful in sewing the slim seam allowance. I stuffed the arms and the legs then I sewed the back of the doll’s head to the body. I sewed the back of the doll to the front of the doll. If you want to make your own doll and are trying this, you can’t catch the seams of the arms and legs when doing this. Then I finally stuffed the doll. Tear the wool into little pieces then put the stuffing into the doll. Be sure to pack it in carefully. You also have to stuff the doll’s head firmly because you don’t want the doll’s head to be floppy. I recommend watching how the woman in the video sews the doll body if you are inspired to make a doll yourself. It is incredibly helpful. I love my doll Miranda Spiderella. She is cute and scary!  A perfect combination. 

I might hunt a little rocking chair for her for a nice place to sit. I am sure I will eventually find something. This will be fun and hard work. I will let you know how it turns out!!

After this project is complete, I want to sew myself a brown winter coat. 

Blessings, Spiderwitch