Let's be honest here, i'm not even entirely sure what qualifies as Boho Chic!  But, when the Renegade Seamstress said that she wanted to see Boho Chic, I did my best.

This dress is actually a refashion of a refashion.

DURING

The "During" section of this dress was kind of a mess.  You see I purchased a very summery dress in the fall.  Here's the original dress.

Original Dress

I liked it but it was WAY to small in the chest area and WAY too big everywhere else.  My idea was to combine it with a fall top and make a fall maxi.

Proposed Top for my fall Maxi Dress

Also, because i'm used to buying lycra dresses that are too small and making them bigger, I was looking for a dress that had lots of gathers.  This dress had a giant gather in the front that I knew would make it much bigger.

UGLY

The resulting dress was, in a word - UGLY!  I still kind of liked the skirt fabric but I HATED the top!  So I just set the dress to the side and trusted that I'd figure it out later.

A few months later an idea struck.  I could just cut this mess into a plain shift dress and be done.  I cut off the yellow top (I don't have the patience to use a seam ripper).

Giant gather in the middle became a cowl neckline.

Using an old dress as a pattern I cut the shirt into a dress.

After #2

New neckline

That large gather from the front of the skirt became a cowl neckline.

I like this dress, but for some occasions, it's WAY too much pattern!  I tone it down with a little sweater or shrug.



When I want to be a little more boho, I wear this dress with funky jewelry!

I made the earrings

Funky flea market necklace with homemade earrings

Because I work in a conservative kind of place I wasn't sure where (or if) I would wear this dress.  Recently some friends and I took a group picture for a game show we wanted to be on.  I told the ladies to wear something bright and festive.  This dress was perfect for the occasion!



For more Refashions Click HERE!

Every year I give an overview of all of the places that you can find marching Christmas pajamas.  Recently I've noticed that I'm getting a LOT of hits from people using the search term "Family Pajamas" or "Matching Christmas Pajamas".  

If you just can't wait - here's the link to last years overview.

Otherwise, look to newly updated Christmas Pajama information in about a month or so.  Feel free to subscribe to this page so that you're notified when it gets posted.

Until then, enjoy the last days of summer!

Basil Chicken (made with Basil Paste)

Just a few days ago I stopped by the farmer's market on the way home.  I got yellow tomatoes, eggplant and fresh basil.  My entire kitchen smelled AMAZING!  I roasted the eggplant, tomatoes and a few other veggies to make delicious ratatouille.   The problem is that I didn't use all of the basil.

The next morning  my basil was looking a little blackish.

Day old Basil

 There had been some dark spots when I bought it, but this was CRAZY!  I didn't want to throw it out, so I decided to make it into basil paste.

Store bought basil paste

Let's be clear, I've NEVER made basil paste before and I wasn't sure what was in it.  As is my custom, I decided to just wing it!

My basil looked bad, but still smelled GREAT so I cut the basil from the stems.

Remove the stems

Then I rinsed the leaves thoroughly.

Thoroughly rinse the leaves

There was a LOT of sand in the leaves so I'm glad I rinsed them well.  I didn't dry the leaves, I drained them and stuck them in the blender.

Into the blender they go

I knew that they'd need some sort of liquid to get things moving in the blender to I added about 1/4 cup of olive oil.

Not smooth enough yet

With the blender running I drizzled in approximately another 1/4 cup of olive oil until the mixture turned into a smooth paste.

Basil Paste!

That's it!

My original plan was to freeze the paste into an ice cube tray, but I couldn't find my tray.  So, I just put it into an air tight container.

Homemade Bail Paste

Because I wasn't sure how I would use it, I didn't add any additional ingredients.  This is just basil and olive oil.

NOTE:  The mixture was a soft paste when I made it.  Once refrigerated it thickened into a much more solid (but not hard) paste.

Serving Suggestions:
Use Basil paste on warm pasta, on garlic bread, in place of red sauce when making pizza.  You can also use it as a marinade for Basil Chicken!

A day or two later I decided to make

Easy Basil Chicken
My kids were away for the night so I made a small meal for 2

Homemade Basil Chicken

1 Large Boneless Chicken Breast Sliced
2 Tablespoons of Basil Paste
1 medium onion, chopped

Put the sliced chicken in a Ziploc bag.  Add chopped onion and basil paste.  Squeeze the bag closed until everything is well coated in basil paste.

Chicken and Basil in a ziploc bag

Return the bag to the refrigerator and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.


Add the chicken, onion and basil to a non stick pan.  Cook over medium heat until the chicken is no longer pink and the onion is tender (about 10 minutes depending on the size of the chicken slices).

Basil chicken with ratatouille

I added a little bit of left over ratatouille.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve over warn rice or pasta.

All done!

PRO TIP:
Basil chicken makes a GREAT burrito!  Roll warm basil chicken, rice and chopped mozzarella in a tortilla.  It's the best way to use leftovers!  

For more recipes, click HERE!

This week i'm doing dual duty.  Not only is this a refashion, but it's also an ikea hack.


In the spirit of full disclosure, I saw this duvet at GoodWill and I liked it.  It wasn't until I began to cut it apart that I discovered that it was from ikea.

Turns out, this $7.99 duvet is actually an Ofelia Vass ($49.99) duvet from Ikea.  Who knew!?



Anyway - on to the dress.

This weeks challenge for the Refashion Runway was to make a maxi dress or shirt.  I'm a fan of the Maxi, but as a plus size girl it's hard to find a garment that has too much fabric.  In the absence of some obscenely long thing for me to cut into a dress, I opted for this duvet.

The dress is a simple design accented with a bright silk sash from a failed refashion that was on my sewing room floor.

I had a very general idea of what I wanted to make.  The most important thing to me was the lines.  I LOVE the lines in this fabric, and I wanted them to be horizontal across my chest and vertical in the skirt.

Sketch of dress

Here's what I did:

Shirred top

Failed Refashion

Before Singe

After Singe

net mesh veggie bag became a veil

Silk hydrangea completed the diy veil

Instant wedding veil

ikea wedding dress and silk flower pens

Refashion Challenge clutch

Handmade earring complete the look!

Wedding ready

Ofelia Vass wedding dress