One and Done: Homemade Burp Cloths

Seems like everyone and their sister - including Dude's sister! - is pregnant right now so I've been going crazy pinning projects I want to make for everyone.  I pinned a variation of these super simple burp cloths by Dana at Made ages ago but just this weekend I finally busted out my sewing machine to whip up a few.

It's tough for me to pinpoint my favorite thing about these burp cloths.  It could be the fact that they take maybe 10 minutes to put together, or the fact that they look and feel much more expensive than they really are.  But really I think my favorite thing is that they stand alone as a great baby shower gift, and make you look like a freaking rockstar if you include them with another store-bought gift.

So anyways, all you really need to make 12 of these cute burp cloths is a yard of chenille fabric and 1/2 yard each of as many coordinating fabrics as you like.  You can use silk, cotton, knit, flannel, whatever tickles your fancy.  I was able to squeeze 3 out of each coordinating fabric with barely any leftover fabric.

Because these burp cloths are so small, take a look through your scrap bin for fabrics you can use as well.  Look at what I was able to find in my scraps!

How adorable are those girly skulls?

So here comes the hardest part.  Measure out as many 10" x 18" rectangles as you can on your chenille.  I went a little old-school geometry here and measured out 10", dropped the tape measure an inch, measured again, and so on until I had gone the entire length of the fabric.  Then connected all my little marks.

Repeat going the other direction for 18".

Now repeat the same procedure with your coordinating fabrics until you have a giant stack of 10" x 18" rectangles.

If you can't read it, the chili peppers are saying "Caliente!"  Adorbs.

Pin one rectangle of the chenille and one rectangle of your coordinating fabric right sides together.  If you'd like to include an extra layer of absorbent fabric, it should go on top of your coordinating fabric.

Leave a gap in the pins on one of the short ends.  You'll use this gap to turn the burp cloths right side out later.

Sew around the edge of cloths.  Using the picture as a reference, I started at the pink pin on the left, sewed the entire way around without stopping and ended up back at the mint-colored pin.

I sewed a pretty large seam allowance on this one, and it absolutely wasn't necessary, but it also didn't hinder the cloth either.  These burp cloths are pretty forgiving.

 
Snip off the corners so when you turn it right-side out, you'll have perfect corners with no extra foofy-ness.  That's a technical term.

Using the gap in your sewing, flip the entire cloth right-side out.

Fold in the edges of the gap and iron it.  You can pin the edges in place if you think they need it.

Sew around the edges one more time and seal up the gap.  Sew as close or as far from the edge as you'd like, so long as you still catch the extra fabric along the gap.

A decorative topstitch would be really cute here too!

Ta-Da!  Donesky!

Close up of the super-snuggly fuzzy side!

For my co-worker's shower this week, I wrapped up three with a piece of coordinating ribbon and added a bottle of natural baby lotion I happened to have on hand. 

Must have been on sale?

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Background Noise for This Project:  Girls, Season 1:  Episode 7: Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident, Episode 8: Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too

Birthday Cake Marshmallows

Ok, let's get this out in the open right now.  I LOVE marshmallows.  I think this love stems from when I was a kid and my Mom would use marshmallows as a bribe to get me to take my ear infection medicine.

On an unrelated note - was I the only kid to get ear infections constantly?  I remember at one point my Doctor telling me that I was not allowed to have any more ear infections because he was tired of treating me.

Maybe I made that up.  I was an imaginative kid.

So anyways, I found this recipe on Pinterest while Dude and I were in Arizona and it's been on my to-do list ever since.  Last weekend, I picked up a candy thermometer and I knew it was marshmallow time; and can I say, this recipe does not disappoint.  The marshmallows turn out light and fluffy, with just the right amount of cake flavor.

If you want to make them yourself, here's what you'll need:

• 2x 1 cup of caster sugar (I'll show you how to make your own out of granulated sugar)
• 2x 2 teaspoons of light corn syrup
• 2x 1 tablespoon of gelatine powder
• 2x 1 large egg whites
• 2 Tbs vanilla cake mix, sifted
• 4 Tbs chocolate cake mix, sifted
• Sprinkles
• Candy thermometer
• Vegetable oil or spray butter for greasing
• Icing sugar for dusting finished marshmallows

I made my marshmallows in two layers - a "cake" and a "frosting" layer.  If you don't want to go through the trouble, or if you're a marshmallow racist and don't like chocolate or vanilla, you can just make one thick layer in the flavor of your choice.  The directions below are to make two layers.

First up, cover a 9x9 pan with parchment paper and grease it really well.  I used a vegetable oil spray, but I think a butter spray or straight butter or vegetable oil would work just fine.

If you live in a hick town like me and can't find caster sugar anywhere, don't fret!  Caster sugar is just superfine sugar and you can make it by throwing regular granulated sugar in a food processor for a couple minutes.

To be honest, I don't think this step is 100% essential, but the perfectionist in me struggles to not follow a recipe exactly.

So the next step is to melt together 1 cup of your sugar and 2tsp of corn syrup with 100ml of water.  Why 100ml?  Because that's what my inspiration recipe called for and I can't do conversions.

Last time I attempted to convert something from metric to US, I used a half-gallon of milk in a recipe that was really calling for close to a quart.

So now that we can agree I'm an idiot.  Dump 1 cup of your sugar into a saucepan.

Then add two teaspoons of corn syrup.

And 100ml of water.

Set the burner to low and simmer until all of the sugar is melted.  

While you're waiting, measure out 100ml of water and pour it into a small bowl and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of plain gelatine over the top and let it sit while your sugar melts.  This ended up being roughly a packet and a half for me.

Once the sugar has melted, break out your candy thermometer and clip it to the side of the saucepan.  Increase the heat to medium high and boil until the temperature reaches 250° F.

When the temperature reaches 250°, immediately remove the pan from the heat and set it to the side while you complete the next step.

Separate one large egg white and pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer.  You can still make this recipe if you don't have a stand mixer, it'll just take a bit longer. 

Plus, think of how ripped your guns will be if you use a hand mixer.

Start the mixer at medium speed.

While the mixer is going, pour the now jiggly gelatine and water goo to the hot sugar mix.

Whisk them together until smooth.

Time to start moving, the sugar/gelatine mix will start to get super sticky and gooey pretty quickly.

Bump up the speed on your mixer to high and gradually add the hot sugar mixture to your egg.

Really slowly kids, unless you want to try scrambled egg marshmallows.

Wait, we may be on to something...savory marshmallows...  Someone else try this and tell me how it goes.

Beat the egg and sugar until it's glossy and white.  This took me probably 3 or 4 minutes.  With a hand mixer, I imagine it will take closer to 6-8 minutes.  (Think of your ripped biceps!  So worth it!)

When the stuff in your mixer bowl starts to look like marshmallow fluff, turn the mixer off and fold in 2 tablespoons of sifted white cake mix.  You can always add more if you want a more "cakey" flavor.

Then fold in as many sprinkles as you want.  I added 3 tablespoons.

Pour the gooey marshmallow fluff into your prepared pan and put it in the fridge while you make the chocolate layer.

Rinse and Repeat to make the chocolate layer.

Combine 1 cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of corn syrup and 100ml of water.  Heat over low heat until the sugar is melted.

Meanwhile, measure out 100ml of water again and pour it in a small bowl.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of gelatine over the water and let it sit while your sugar melts.

When the sugar is melted, bump the heat up and boil until a candy thermometer reads 250° F.

After that, immediately remove from the heat.  Separate an egg white and put it in your stand mixer.

Whisk the gelatine into the hot sugar; and when it is smooth, gradually add it to the mixing bowl with the egg white.

Let that sucker mix until you have a big old bowl of marshmallow fluff.   Or work your arms again.  Then you have a free pass to not feel guilty about licking the beaters and the spatula.

Actually I used a stand mixer and I will never feel guilty about licking the spatula.  That's just a rule I live by.  

Then add in your sifted chocolate cake mix.

Notice the tiny-ass bowl I was using here to sift the cake mix.  If you look closely, you can see the giant-ass mess I made on the counter underneath it.

Pour the chocolate marshmallow layer on top of the vanilla layer and put it back in the fridge to chill overnight.

Now, avoid turning around and looking at your kitchen for as long as you can.  And when you do, just know that I feel your pain.

When the marshmallows are good and chilly, you are less than an hour away from all the marshmallowy goodness you can handle.

The next steps are to cut the marshmallows and give them a light coat of powdered sugar to keep them from sticking together.  You can do this by either individually rolling each cut marshmallow in a bowl of powdered sugar...

...or put a little powdered sugar in a plastic bag and dump all your cut marshmallows in there and shake it up.

You can cut your square of marshmallows however you like with a greased knife, but Dude and I found that spraying some spray butter on a pizza cutter was by far the simplest method.

Set your cut and powdered marshmallows on a baking sheet and leave them to dry for an hour.

I know, I know, longest 60 minutes of your life.

To be honest, I didn't taste any difference between the marshmallows straight out of the powdered sugar and the ones that had dried for an hour and the ones that sat in the fridge for 3 days so all you rebels out there, feel free to disregard this final step.

In the name of science, I decided to make a s'more out of these marshmallows.  Check out what happens when you heat up homemade marshmallows.

Still good, just not really gooey like a store-bought marshmallow.

Worth every calorie.
Background Noise for this Project: House of Cards - Season 1, Episode 10:  Chapter 10

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Snowflake Curtain + FREE Printable Template

I'll be the first to admit, I had literally ZERO Christmas spirit and zero interest in decorating until I got a house and a Pinterest account.  Last year, Dude and I hit up the after-Christmas sales and bought our first Christmas tree, lights, outdoor lights, the whole shebang!  But I put everything up and thought we could use a little something extra in our dining room.

Some of the people I follow on Pinterest pinned some super cute paper snowflake templates and projects (here, here, and here), I got inspired and decided to make a window of snowflakes!

hi everybody, love dude  (see what happens when you leave your laptop on the couch??)

Ok, so let's decorate your windows with snowflakes!

First things first, download and print my free printable paper snowflake template.  It has 6 pages - one page with labeled folding lines and instructions, one page with just folding lines and 4 pages of cut-able templates to help get you started.  For all you perfectionists out there, once you start to branch out and cut your own designs, remember that you can't really mess up this project.

Alright, once you have the template printed, gather the rest of your supplies:

• Cute Junk I've Made 6-Pointed Snowflake Template
• Paper cutter
• Scissors, big and small
• Scrapbook paper (optional)
• Dental floss (yep)

Start with page one of the template and cut out the square just inside the black lines.  I like to start by cutting it out with scissors first and then come in with the paper cutter to get close to the outside lines.

Paper Cutter

Ready to Fold

First fold the square in half, along Line A, keeping the labeled lines on the top.

Now fold the pyramid in half, along line B, again keeping the labeled lines on the top.

Now you're going to fold the triangle into thirds.  It's not essential that your lines line up perfectly here.  Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't, depending on how straight you cut your lines and how straight your folding was.

Fold first along Line C.

Fold for the last section overtop of the Line C section to create a final product that looks kind of like an arrow or a wonky paper airplane.

Flip your arrow over and cut off the tips.

Now all you've gotta do is cut out your designs!  If you're using my templates - I think this goes without saying, but just in case - cut out the grey sections.

If you feel like it, grab some pretty scrapbook paper and print out the template on the back or just eyeball it.  Scrapbook paper is already a square (12"x12"), so that makes it easy to fold without the template.

And now, cut as many of them as you want.  I'll be honest, I cut out what feels like a bajillion of these things and I still haven't figured out the mechanics of the folded snowflake. I can't tell you where your cuts will show up or what they'll look like when you open up the folds.  Think of it as a fun surprise!

When you've got a big old pile of snowflakes

And a big old pile of scraps

Start stringing your snowflakes onto dental floss, fishing line, string, whatever you have on hand. 

 

Now hang it up and admire your handy work!

Hold up, you're not done yet!  Keep stringing snowflakes until you're happy with how it looks or until you run out of cut snowflakes.

Helpful hint:  Once you hang up these strands of snowflakes, make sure to cut off any extra string at the bottom.  Otherwise, your cute little dog may think it's a toy made just for her and rip the whole dang thing down!  This may or may not have happened 4 minutes after I finished this project.

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Background Noise for This Project:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season Three: Episode 16 & Episode 17