Saturday, 30 January 2010

"birthday dress" - reversible slip dress

inside my little birthday parcel (thanks to Ms Genie J) were two v pretty sheets of sheer, silky fabric... one with repeated hexagonal dots, squares, herringbone and floral motives,
the other, a glistening lining of snowwhite silk

immediately the fabric morphed into a dress in my mind - a loose fitting slip dress... but how was i to transform my "birthday (fabric) dress" into a reality with my v limited sewing skills?

objectives = 1)maximise the display of both fabric esp the sheer quality 2)include multiway elements (reversible & extra scarf/belt) 3)techically easy to make
i searched on various sites for ideas and patterns... i wore my stripy silk dress for insipration...
in the end, i decided on a patternless design...
first i cut a strip off both fabric for my scarf / belt (thinking... even if i stuffed the dress up, i would still have a pretty scarf to wear!)

making the scarf wasn't too hard technically... i only had to sew straight...
now that i had the scarf / belt / tie done, i could get on with the dress (which proved to be much more diff than i first thought)


design elements = 1)reversible dress (pattern-side and snowwhite-side being interchangable, had to remember finishing the seams on both sides) 2)changable neck opening / neckline (so it could be worn with a tight high neckline - sort of halter neck looking, or a loose draping neckline) 3)french-seaming every raw joining edge (to stop fabric from fraying)
a day later... well into the night... i finished!

pattern-side, halterneck style, wide snowwhite belt

snowwhite-side, halterneck style, wide patterned belt

snowwhite-side, loose neckline, loose fitting patterned belt

snowwhite-side, loose neckline, wide patterned belt

pattern-side, loose neckline, loose snowwhite belt

there were numerous mistakes and re-sewing, re-sewing, re-sewing...
the draping was not perfect... the stitches and finishings were pretty rough...
but i learned so much!
snowflake said the pattern-side is prettier and the snowwhite side looked "inside out"... i quite like the snowwhite-side...

well... my "birthday dress" might always look "homemade", but at least i can accessorise with my "birthday scarf/belt" which looks more professionally made!

Sunday, 24 January 2010

taking our time Olafur Eliasson's Take Your Time at MCA

things cooled off today... we didn't let the rain dampen our weekend... instead we headed to town to enjoy a "show of light"...

http://eliasson.com.au
@ MCA

all the good memories from the serpentine & tate came rushing back as soon as i caught a glimpse of the giant "disco ball' with external scattering light and internal splitting images...

we spent alot of time in the "yellow room", thinking that we had total color blindness (being monochromats), seeing things only in black and "white"... we were in a 1920s movie!

sadly there were numerous camera nazis around and very few kodak moments could've had...



best was left till last when we spent mintues and hours building our knife, fork, bowl, champas glass, tea pot and mug on the white lego table...
unlimited fun for senses for $15pp - bargain!
recommended:
- ‘360° room for all colours’ (2002) - surrounded by a wall oflight, transfixed by a smooth transition of emotional colours. best viewed up close and personal with the colour wall (as though your entire world was cover in electric blue... morphing into softly softly lavender... then morphing again into sunny golden yellow etc etc
- ‘The structural evolution project’ (2004) - make your dream objects come true in white legoland
- the yellow room - "am i totally colour blind?" peer out to the exit and find everything outside in a tinge of purple

Monday, 18 January 2010

happy bday! tank q mcduck & snowflake!

tank q for mcduck's generosity by taking me back in time, into the decadence of art deco, sampling the ultra-fattening long aged steak / wagyu steak
http://www.rockpool.com.au/sydney/bar-and-grill
contemp art deco... all these "window", "square" patterns look v shanghai 1930

the crusty soredough started to filled me up..
the aussie ham platter was v nice
the $110 wagyu steak with marble score 9+ was v juicy... each bite lubricated with copious beef drippings... mcduck's aged grain fed fillet was a revelation (although it was cooked to only "blue", it was not bloody, just soft and tender)



mcduck enjoyed the rubarb pud...
i liked the brittle-popcorn and passionfruit mashmellow better... will def be researching to recreate the brittle-popcorn...

we enjoyed the end of the night at the jazzgroove futures festival...
http://www.jazzgroove.com
bday cake as well (curtesy of snowflake)

Thursday, 14 January 2010

handmade leather headband


after this... lots to do with the rest of the leather...

with a bit of uneven cutting...

braiding...
braiding...
and more braiding...
and more
i got my "how to"--> http://www.stringpage.com/braid/medbraids/medbraids.html


sewing the elastic on was difficult without a leather needle... so an hour or two later...


love it!

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

DIY sous vide at home: lamb steak

it must have been heston's feast on sbs that reminded me of molecular gastronomy...
suddenly, the harold mcgee book came out... and i discovered there were website such as sous vide extreme...
there must be a way to do "cooking a piece of meat in a vacuum bag in a water bath at a constant temperature" at home and cheaply without forking out few thousand bucks for a prof cooker...
after much web surfing and a visit to the local coles, came my light bulb moment, "coles prepacked steak, already marinated, cooked in topstove water bath with my trusty thermometre" (not forgetting that i had no food saver vacuum pack machine nor the prof water bath at hand)

the piece of steak had to be thin enough so that i didn't have to watch over the stove for hours and hours on end...

and it helped that the piece of meat was already sealed (thanks coles) and protected in a tasty marinade (thanks coles)
so with my candy thermometre showing the water temp being held at 58 degrees celcius, i floated the meat package (bottom sitting on top of a pair of chopsticks so not to touch the bottom of the pan) for 45 min or may be an hour at the same temp...
this was achieved by first getting 58 degrees in the roasting pan, then putting the pan over the smallest flame on the stove & watching the themometre, adjusting the flame if required...

the cooked meat in the bag did not look v appetising... however, the colour change of the meat pre and post cooking could be well spotted...

with the bag cut opened, i had instant sauce as well...
i did not bother to do any surface high heat searing for extra caramalisation or for any extra taste enhancing millard reaction... i simply sliced and served...

sliced marinated lamb with isreali couscous, mint and orange carrot salad with pumpkin seeds & simple broccoli

the nicest piece of lamb i have ever tasted! it didn't even taste like lamb... v tender, v juicy with a subtle meat flavour - and it was just a $4 piece of premarinated coles lamb?!
heston, thomas, farran and the gang are right...
next time i'll try some even cheaper, stewy cuts - according to bloggers out there, it would be like eating prime fillet cuts...