My First Pie

Many of you know I don't cook. I just don't like it and am very grateful for Jeff because he keeps me fed.

Despite this, I DO love to bake. I make a mean double chocolate chip cookie! :-)

Well, for 2008, one of my goals was to bake a pie from scratch. I had never done that before. Guess I just concentrated on cookies and cakes. Maybe the fresh fruit part bothered me.

In the summer issue of Victoria magazine, there were many great recipes, one for cherry tartlets. Well, I had just bought a bag of sweet cherries and decided to make my first pie. (I don't have tart cups yet, but I do have a Pyrex 9" pie dish.) Jeff took a picture of me while I was getting the crust ready.

Trimming the excess dough around the pie plate.

Here are the mixed ingredients before it all came together.

And the final product: Yummy almond cherry pie!

Costume College and eBook Craziness

Hi all!

So I have finally de-stressed from the crazy/busy push for Costume College 2008 and also publishing my new eBook.

This year's College was really great. I taught two classes: my fourth year of 19th Century Corded Petticoats and Regency Outerwear. Both were unlimited, lecture classes.


The Petticoat class was packed (again), literally; Standing room only in our small room. I had over 25 people show up that were very attentive and asked lots of questions. I had a hard-copy of my Feature Report from Cloak & Corset that I gave away in a drawing.

As for the Outerwear class, after doing all the research, I very much want to make several pelisses, a couple spencers, and a fur tippet (stole).

For more info, and a full report, please see my post at the Historical Sewing Blog.

In addition to the usual preparations for College, I was writing and finishing my first eBook: Modern Sewing Techniques for Historical Costume Construction.


In Costume College 2004 I taught a class (with Lana) about modern sewing techiques. That class and accompanying 17 page handout is why I started Cloak & Corset as a educational business. The handout was completely restructured into the eBook that is currently 267 pages of content with 170 color photos! My, that was a lot of work.

I am glad it's finally out there. A second edition is planned for a December '08 release as I have more photos and chapters that were not able to get into the first edition. (If you're reading this and are interested, don't wait to buy as you will get the 2nd edition *free* in December.)


But even though I have de-stressed somewhat from all the past several weeks, my plate is still full. My Civil War group, Historical Citizens, will have a full-blown set-up at the Huntington Beach event over Labor Day weekend. I'm doing a bit of sewing for it (e.g. new shirt for Jeff and new apron for me) so the cutting table is full again with fabric.

I also have a new design picked out for an 1830 day dress that will go with my new bonnet purchased at College this year.

And of course, the continued writing for Cloak & Corset with monthly ezine articles and Guinea Pig features, along with new products, I will be kept busy.

Drop me a quick email to let me know how your summer has been!