The Nest - Velux Window and Tab Top Curtains

In my new apartment, we have a mixture of Velux and normal windows. For ease of use and visual interest, we have decided to go for blinds at three windows, tab top curtains for the easy to reach windows and also curtains on the Velux windows. These will be completed by fixing a metal cafe rod to the top and bottom of each of the windows, and sliding curtains curtains onto the poles so that they slide open and closed, with ties on the back to keep them open. 

I roped my expert curtain maker (my mum!) in to help with this project (she's amazing at turning my every fabric whim into reality) 

The below photos show the process of making the curtains for the velux windows, whist the photo on the bottom shows hand sewing the cream pompoms onto the bottom of the tab top curtains. These pompoms will also feature on the blackout blinds that we plan to use in the kitchen, landing and study.

Making the ties for the back of the Velux window curtains

Attaching the ties to the back of the Velux curtains

Measuring and pinning the curtains

Pinning the pockets for the cafe rods to slide through

Hand sewing the pompon trim to the bottom of the tab top curtains

The Nest - Chair Upholstery

After the success of painting the chairs, I have been focussing on upholstering the seat pads and the backs for the last couple of weekends. I have never tried upholstery before, but I can now confirm that you need a lot of patience plus nerves and fingertips of steel!

The seat pads were fairly simple. We added extra padding to the seats with a layer of wadding, and then attached a layer of white fabric (Old sheet is excellent for this if you have one lying around) over the top and attached it in each corner. To cover the pad, I cut a piece of fabric to size, and then pressed a small seam allowance to neaten the edges. To make sure that the fabric is stretched evenly, attach the corners first, using a staple gun (Make sure you have a good quality one, ours was a little old and cranky and we spent the majority of the time removing wobbly and ineffective staples!).

It helps if you have a couple of willing volunteers for this task, as you need a lot of hands to make sure that the fabric tension is correct and it isn't pulling in any strange directions. This isn't so important with a floral or a plain material, but with a stripe it's essential! Neaten the corner sections by pulling each side over the top, and stapling firmly in place. Mark the fabric lightly with a pencil to show where the holes are for screwing the pad back to the chair.

Carefully measure the fabric to make sure you have enough

Two hands are always better than one!

Stapling the fabric in place

Marking the screw holes onto the back of the seat pad 

(When it comes to screwing the pad in place, cut the fabric slightly to create a small hole, otherwise the screw will pull the fabric)

The finished pad back in the seat.

The backs of the chairs were a little more difficult to say the least...! To make them easier to remove for cleaning, I decided on an envelope closure with buttons and reinforced with velcro, rather than sewing them directly to the chair. We managed to get three backs completed today, but the fourth defeated us. The last one had a slightly knobbly section on the underside of the back that completely threw out the alignment of the stripes, and we decided it was wise to leave it for another day before we threw it out of the window in anger!

However, before that it all went swimmingly! Using the fabric that we took off as a template, we cut out the fabric and attached interfacing to the inside to give a better finish. We sewed around the curves at the top, and fitted it tightly to the top corners. We pressed the sides of the fabric to the correct width to wrap around the chair, attached the velcro with the ribbon fastening and then covered the buttons for the fastening. We then put the cover onto the chair, wrapped the bottom section up to the top, and then hand sewed the buttons on in the correct place. I am really pleased with the three that we completed, and this is only overshadowed by the defeat of the last one, I hate having to leave a project unfinished for another week!

Covering your own buttons

Cut out the circles of fabric for that you want to use for your buttons using the template on the back of the pack

Sew a loose running stitch around the outside of the circle, making sure that you have a knot in the end of your thread.

Place the button without the back in the middle of the circle

Gather the fabric around the button using the loose thread. Smooth any wrinkles around the edge using your fingers

Make sure that the fabric is as smooth as possible and then snap the back on to the button

Covering the chair backs

Pinning the fabric and interfacing to follow the shape of the corners

Snipping the fabric to smooth the corners 

Pressing the sides to fold around the back

Showing the velcro strips and the ribbon fastening for the buttons.

Placing the buttons, checking that the loops are the correct size and then hand sewing to attach

 The finished dining room chair with one of the next Sherlock chairs (currently minus its legs!)

6 of the best...Pieces of Kitchen Equipment

When you're putting together your collection of kitchen utensils, you will work out what you cook the most and what kitchen equipment you will need that best suits your style. However, as I do a lot of baking and it is my speciality, I have listed my top 6 pieces of kitchen equipment that every keen baker should have.

Rubber Spatula

Titter ye not, rubber spatulas are essential when you're baking! They get every single scrap of ingredient out of the bowl, and are perfect for bending around difficult shaped receptacles like the inside of a food processor. I like to have mine in bright colours to brighten up my utensil pot.

Electronic Scales

Another essential, weighing ingredients is of paramount importance when you're baking. Too much or too little of something and the recipe could go horribly wrong. My scales weigh in many different measures, and come with the option of placing your bowl on, and then pressing zero to start weighing. You can also zero once you've placed the first ingredient in the bowl so you can weight all of your ingredients in the same bowl. They may not be as pretty as a traditional kitchen scales, but you will find your recipes will improve with electronic accuracy.

Palette knife

Essental for spreading butter icing, I couldn't do without one! In fact I have three, all in different sizes. A little one for icing cupcakes, a middle sized one for filling and covering a middle sized cake and bigger one for bigger cakes! You could use just a normal eating knife, but you don't get a smooth finish and the outside can look a bit rustic. However, if this is the look you're going for then carry on!

KitchenAid

Not just an essential piece of equipment, it also looks beautiful on the counter. Not just a food mixer, you can buy so many extra attachments for it, it becomes a one-stop for just about every kitchen task you may have. They come in so many gorgeous colours now, you have a hard task to pick your favourite. But mine is the duck egg blue one...!

Cake Tins

The right sized cake tin for the recipe makes everything 100% easier. A helpful tip from Mary Berry is to write the sizes on the bottom of the tins in permanent pen, as this way you wont have to measure them every time you get them out of the cupboard (something I must get around to doing!) I favour the loose bottomed cake tins, as they make everything so much easier when you're getting the cake out of the tin. A springform tin is also a must for making other delicious treats like cheesecake!

Measuring Spoons

Just like electronic scales, measuring spoons are essential for accurate measurements of small amounts of ingredients. However, most electronic scales are so accurate that they are capable of measuring such small amounts, but for baking powder, vanilla essence and salt, these are essential. Again, a brightly coloured set will brighten up any utensil drawer.

A Weekend of Baking...Bow Birthday Celebration Cake

My latest cake commission has been an adventure into a new method of decoration, but one that I have enjoyed immensely. I've been reading and watching lots of sugarcraft tutorials for a while now and I was really looking forward to trying some of my new-found knowledge out on a new cake, and I got the chance when I was asked to make a lemon drizzle birthday cake, complete with oversized blowsy bow!

I found the tutorial for this particular bow on The Cake Journal (http://cakejournal.com/tutorials/how-to-make-a-gum-paste-bow/), another fantastic cake craft website which includes lots of brilliant sugarpaste tutorials. 

I learnt about a very important ingredient when reading this tutorial, Tylose powder, which you knead into your fondant icing. This enables you to roll it out really thinly, and makes sure that your creations hold their shape. Tylo glue is also a recently found essential, made by mixing a teaspoon of Tylose powder with about 30 tsps of water. Give it a good mix and shake, leave overnight and you have something that resembles wallpaper paste but sets anything rock hard on cakes, it's amazing!

I would recommend you use a template for your bows unless you are a genius at holding measurements and shapes in your head (I'm not!) Measure your cake and cut out a template for the bow to make sure that it wont be too big or small for your finished masterpiece. 

A little tylo glue goes a long way, so don't smother your icing. if you do, you'll probably get to stuck to it as well, and no one wants your finger attached to their cake!

To shape the folds in the bows, the tutorial recommends you use a cardboard tube wrapped in kitchen roll, however I found this was too big for my bow. I used fabric wadding shaped into a sausage and then wrapped in kitchen roll as I found that this gave a better shape. 

Tip: Put the fold of the kitchen roll on the bottom as if it raises slightly, it can create a ridge in your bow. When you need to remove the kitchen roll, gently pull it and it should come straight out. When you're fixing your bow, be careful not to get glue on the kitchen paper, as this will also stick it tight and it will make it very difficult to remove. 

Leave the bow to set for as long as possible, I left mine for about three days, as this ensures that the icing dries hard. I was amazed when I picked mine up how resilient  it was, which is essential when placing the bow on the cake. 

My new favourite piece of sugarcraft equipment is a silicone rolling pin. It makes rolling icing so much easier than the traditional wooden version and gives a lovely smooth finish. A must when working with small amounts of sugarpaste, I don't know how I've lasted this long without one!

When you have attached the cake to the cake board, place the letters to make sure you've got enough space and that the placement is correct, you don't want any misspellings when everything is stuck down!

Make the tails using the same template for the folds. I spent a lot of time trying to make sure that both of my tails were identical, and if that's what you want, then it will take a little bit of time. However, when tying a bow with fabric ribbon, has yours ever looked completely symmetrical and perfect? Probably not, so don't panic, it's a lot more realistic when it has a few little quirks of its own. 

Place the different elements on the cake and make sure that you are happy with the placement before you stick it down with the Tylo glue. Make sure that you use enough glue to make sure that the bow is stable on top.

The tylo glue is also brilliant for sticking on silver dragees. I found the best way to attach them was to paint the glue directly onto the cake when I wanted them to be placed, then used my paintbrush to coax them into place. 

The finished cake! I was very pleased with the finished result, and the use of the complimentary fuschia pink ribbon to match the icing really tied it all together. Now I have completed my first big bow, I have lots of ideas for different colours and designs that I want to try, and I look forward to posting some more pictures of my experiments and cakes in the future.

A Weekend of Baking...Chocolate and Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

For my boyfriend's birthday, I gave him a choice of birthday cake, and he chose a peanut butter and chocolate cake. The recipe can be found here if you fancy giving it a go! The Little Loaf blog is fantastic, full of really gorgeous recipes that you can't wait to try and some brilliant links to other excellent foodie sites.

http://www.thelittleloaf.com/2012/10/12/chocolatepeanutbuttercake/

I was a little dubious as I read through the recipe  to start with as it contains no butter or other fats, just vegetable oil, which will obviously result in a very gooey chocolate cake, but I was a little worried about the taste. However, once you get the icing made, you'll forget all about that. 

The warning about the batter being quite liquid is also very well founded. I would describe it almost like pouring hot chocolate into the tins! (Tip: make sure the tins are well lined and you might want to put a try down on the bottom of the oven just in case they leak) 

The cake was lovely and thick and chocolatey and resulted in two of the flattest cakes I have ever made! That saved a bit of time when it came to assembling eveything. Do, however, be prepared for them to sink slightly, so I wold recommend leaving them overnight to cool completely and settle.

The icing (or frosting!) calls for icing sugar, double cream, butter and peanut butter all mixed together and spread over the cake. I whisked up the cream and a little icing sugar and made the butter, peanut butter and icing sugar mixture, and then decided to leave out the cream. I thought the combination of the three ingredients was perfectly tasty on its own, and I thought adding the cream would just be too much, so I decided to leave it out. I also made a slight alteration to the type of peanut butter. The recipe called for smooth but I decided to use chunky to give a bit of bit and crunch to a smooth cake. I think it worked really well so feel free to experiment if you're a lover of the crunchy stuff rather than the smooth one.

Decorate with Reece's Peanut butter cups and you are good to go with a peanut butter lovers dream!