Traditional Scottish Shortbread

Shortbread is one of the simplest cookies to make and tastes so good.

Here's how to make your own Traditional Scottish Shortbread.

You only need 3 ingredients: 

250 g (9 oz) plain flour

75 g (3 oz) caster sugar 

175 g (6 oz) butter

First heat the oven to 160C, 325F or Gas Mark 3

Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Then kneed the mixture well to form a smooth ball of shortbread dough.

Roll this out into a rough rectangle shape around 1 cm (0.5") thick.

Don't ask me why my rectangle isn't straight on my board...things don't always work out the way you plan! :)

Using a flat knife, cut into small rectangles the size you want your shortbread to be.

Transfer to a greased or lined baking tray and prick with a fork to decorate.

Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes until pale and golden.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea!

If you like this recipe you can find more here. 

Luggage Tags from Jeans Pockets - an Upcycle Tutorial

We're off on a family holiday to Japan in a couple of weeks time, so I finally got around to making some luggage tags that will be easy to spot when we're collecting our luggage at the airport.

Since I do a lot of jeans upcycling, I thought, what would be better than some upcycled tags from jeans!

So here's how to make your own distinctive luggage tags from jeans pockets.

You will need.

A pocket unpicked from a pair of adult jeans, a length of jeans seam (around 20 cm (8")) scraps of co-ordinating fabric, a little clear vinyl, slightly bigger than the size of a business card (you can cut a piece from the packaging of something like a sheet); and a business sized card to write your address on.

First take your piece of clear vinyl and sew fabric strips onto two opposite sides.

Open up those fabric strips, then pin and stitch another two on the other two sides of the vinyl like this.

Now trim the border you have stitched around your vinyl so the edges are all straight.

Now place this 'window' on the front of your jeans pocket with the card with your address on underneath so you can read the address through the window. Fold the edges under and pin then stitch all the way around.

I stitched a double row of stitching around my window.

Now take your jeans seam and fold it in half. Place the ends at the top back of your jeans pocket. Pin then stitch into place.

Finally lay your pocket face up on your co-ordinating fabric. Trim the edges of the fabric so it is around 2 cm (1") wider than the pocket.  

Fold the raw edges in behind the pocket and pin then stitch in place all the way around.

Again I did a double row of stitching - just as is used on a jeans pocket itself.

Now you can attach your tag to your bag and you're ready to head off travelling!

If you liked this tutorial, there are over 100 Free Sewing Tutorials to explore here on my blog, for all levels of sewing ability.

Please do take a look at 

My Free Sewing Tutorials Pages.

7 Adorable ways to Upcycle old Jeans

Do you have an old pair of jeans that you never wear, don't fit any more or have holes in them?

Don't throw them away - upcycle them into something you can use!

Here are 7 great ideas, using large and small pieces, or even just the pockets! So many things you can make.

Messenger Bag 

iPad sleeve

Water Bottle Carrier

Pot Holders from Jeans Pockets

Gift Bag with pocket

Tic Tac Toe Game

Denim Sofa Tissue Box Cover

If you like these ideas - there are heaps more sewing tutorials on my Free Tutorials Pages.  Many can be made using old jeans or other clothes - or in fact any fabric you choose!

There are over 100 tutorials to choose from for all levels of sewing ability. Please take a look here.

Ginger Oat Cookies

These are one of my favourite cookies to bake. They are super simple and taste really good with a nice cup of tea!

My girls love them in their lunch boxes too.

Here's how to make them.

Ingredients

8 oz (200g) Margarine or Butter

2 dstsp golden syrup

6 oz (150g) demerera or raw sugar

4 oz (200g) SR flour

8 oz (200g) Porridge Oats

2 rounded tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 160 C  (320  F) Gas No 3

Melt the margarine and syrup together then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well then roll into balls and flatten on a baking tray.

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes.

Makes around 30 cookies.

As I mentioned earlier - they are delicious with a cup of tea!

If you like this recipe - why not take a look at the other recipes I've shared too! Click here.

What I learned from Crocheting a Dish Scrubbie

This week in my 2016 quest to learn to crochet, I made myself a couple of dish scrubbies.

I've been browsing my Crochet Pinterest Board to find things to make and settled on this pattern on Ravelry for a spiral scrubbie.

The pattern looked fairly straightforward, and there was also a Youtube video of the tutorial which I watched as well.

You basically crochet a diamond shape and then stitch it together to form the spiral scrubbie.

My first attempt went a little wonky.

It took me a while to 'understand' what I was doing with the pattern.

In the end it was a very straightforward - increase the row by 2 stitches on one end, and decrease by 2 on the other end.

It's all worked in single crochet.

I learned that it can be very important where you put your crochet hook in the stitches. For this scrubbie - you have to crochet in the back loop to create ridges in the crochet - just what you need for a scrubbie!!

So I learned what the 'back loop' is 

(working this crochet from right to left)

So here's my first finished scrubbie. Despite being a little wonky, once stitched it seems to look OK.

I had to make another one straight away to try and get it more even, and reinforce what I'd just learned.

This one turned out much better - although I had fewer stitches in each row at the end than I started with. Not sure how I managed that...

Stitching it together is very straightforward - you fold the corners over to make a tube, stitch that, then weave around both edges of the tube and pull tight to create the round scrubbie.  I also added a chain stitch loop on this second one as mentioned on the PDF version of the pattern, so I can hang this one up!

So there you have my two crochet dish scrubbies.

I timed myself making the second one and all up it took 45 minutes. 

(I was just curious as to the time)

I'm very pleased with this week's crochet creations and am looking forward to using them and seeing how effective they are at cleaning my dishes! Maybe I can persuade my girls to be the official 'scrubbie testers'  They might think washing dishes is more interesting with pretty coloured scrubbies to use!

I haven't yet decided what to try making next week - any suggestions welcome as always!