DIY Brown Bag Microwave Popcorn

I love popcorn.

Back when I was a kid, one of my favorite memories is when my dad made us popcorn fresh from the stove.

Oil, pot, popcorn kernels, butter and salt, and of course, our super-sized yellow tupperware bowl. He'd fill it to the brim with piping fresh popcorn and we chowed down as many handfuls as we could.

Realizing I ran out of microwave popcorn the other day, my husband suggested making popcorn in a brown paper bag. Ha! Whatever you say. (I'll be honest, I was doubtful. Shame on me.)

BAM! Turns out, it's just as good, if not better than the microwave popcorn you buy in the store. And it's cheaper overall. We bought a whole stack of brown paper sacks for $1.99 and a bag of popcorn for about the same price.

Okay, I'll get to it. You've got to try it for yourself.  
Here's what you need to make your own Brown Bag Microwave Popcorn:

• 1 Brown Paper Sack
• 1/3 c. dry popcorn kernels
• between 1/2 to 1 Tbsp butter OR olive oil OR canola oil
• Shakes of salt

• Melt your butter or pour your oil in a measuring cup
• Add kernels
• Add salt
• Stir around, coating all kernels

Pour your buttery/salty goodness right into the bag. I put a plate under the bag to prevent an oily mess.

Fold over the brown bag 3 times to seal. It will slightly unfold during cooking which is ok as long as its not all the way.

Put it in the microwave on its side for 3 minutes, but be prepared to stand by and listen to see when the popping starts to slow down. Mine took about 2-1/2 minutes or so. It can burn. So beware. Put your listening ears on.

When it first started popping it was like a happy surprise! It's working!!

Transfer freshly popped popcorn into a bowl.

Mmmmm...light and fluffy just like Orville makes it.

And if you time it right, only a few stragglers remain unpopped, just like in those "other" microwave bags.

So far we've made 3 different batches, trying for perfection.

• Butter & salt = really good
• Touch of butter + Olive Oil & salt = maybe even better than just butter
• Just plain kernels, nothing added = burned. I'm still smelling it, thank you very much.

Make a new fun family tradition of making your own brown bags of microwave popcorn! Try different combinations, add different flavorings, and you'll get to eat the whole bag yourself! (That's the best part!)

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Add Belt Loops to a Shirt - it's so easy!

Want an easy way to add definition to your waist?
Add simple belt loops to your favorite top, along with a coordinating belt or ribbon, and all at once, you've improved your waistline!

A while back I posted a very similar tutorial on how to add belt loops to a shirt. It's so easy, that I decided share this tip again, this time with a cute sky blue linen tank.




This is the shirt before adding belt loops. 
All you need is a measuring tape, piece of matching embroidery floss and a needle with a medium width eye.

First, put your top on and decide where you want your sash/belt/ribbon to be. Your belt or sash should hit the smallest part of your waist.

Either check the measurement from your armpit down, or mark the spot with a safety pin and then take it off and measure the length. Make the measurement the same for both sides.

Next, cut off 2 pieces of embroidery floss. Mine were about 3 inches long. If you have a wide belt, you'll want to cut bigger pieces.  Tie a knot on one end of each piece.

Thread your floss through your needle, careful not to split the threads.

Insert your needle from the inside seam out.

Then go back through the seam to the inside. Make sure your width is wide enough to accommodate your belt/sash/ribbon.

Tie a knot on the inside, other end.

Gently pull the loop out on the right side of your top. Now on to the other side.

 It's kind of hard to see (and that's a good thing!), but this is the tank top with the added belt loops.

Now just add a ribbon, belt or whatever you choose.

Looks like it was made this way!

And the great thing about these simple little belt loops, is that if you're not in the mood to accentuate your waist? You can go inside the shirt and pull the floss tight and it barely shows on the outside.

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Make a Small Shirt Bigger II

With summer just around the corner, I thought I'd better get this white under-tee ready for use, to wear under sheer tops or anything needing a little extra coverage.

Many moons ago, I posted How to Make a Small Shirt Bigger with a black under-tee, that was very popular. Hopefully this will help many of you as well. Same idea, different color.


This under-tee is meant to be tight fitting, but after washing it, it became more of a sausage casing. I hate the feel of underarm squeeze.

By adding panels to each side, it gives the under-tee a little more breathing room and is much more comfortable.  This easy adaptation can be applied to any small t-shirt to give it some more room.

Here's how:

First, measure the side seam from the armpit down to the base seam. 

*For a sleeved t-shirt, measure from the outer edge (under the sleeve) down to the base. 

Find t-shirt material you want to insert into the side seams. I chose to cut up a white clearance t-shirt, into two 3" strips. How much wider you want your shirt will determine how wide your inserts should be.

Next, lay out your shirt and cut off the side seams on both sides, just up to the armpit.

Pin your strips right sides together, to each side seam.

For jersey knit, I use a ball point needle. Regular needles can make permanent holes in knit. And, since knit is stretchy, I also turn my pressure dial down to between 1-2, to prevent a wavy seam.

Sew the seams together.

Once your panels are added, turn the shirt right side out and trim off the excess. Knit doesn't fray, so you're safe to have a raw edge. You could also have turned the edge under previous to sewing, but since my knit was a little heavy, I left it raw to prevent bulk.

And you're all done! It really is quite simple.

Here's the before again...

And the after:

See how those panels give it a little more room? No more sausage casing.
Now it's ready to wear...and much more comfy.

You might also want to try adding colorful side panels to a top for a little color blocking. Might be fun to try for summer. Even with a top that already fits!

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Fix a low neckline: t-shirt refashion update

After tumbling head first into a love for sewing a couple years ago, I immediately started "refashioning" pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I loved the thrill (and admittedly, still do) of cutting something up and turning it into something else. Maybe I should have been a plastic surgeon.

This was a t-shirt refashion I did back in 2010. My, how time flies.

I bought 2 of these cute square neck aqua t-shirts (1 to wear and 1 to cut-up) and 1 spool of coordinating satin ribbon.

Still being a sewing newbee at the time, I didn't have the wherewithal to make my own tutorial. I recall cutting ~1" strips of fabric, and using 1" strips of satin ribbon, ruffling them, pinning them to the shirt, and sewing right over the top of the flowers to secure them.

I love how this shirt turned out. Aqua is one of my absolute favorite colors. Truth be told, however, the newly added weight of the flowers dropped the neckline just slightly lower than I'm comfortable wearing. Drat! So it went in my "to-be-fixed" pile.

Flash forward to 2012. As in last weekend. I was rummaging through my piles of "to-be-fixed" & "to-be-refashioned" and was reunited with my BFF. "I have to fix you. You weren't meant to be in a pile of discards."

Enter: extra fabric and a touch of elastic.

I cut a piece of matching neckline, left-over from the extra shirt, threaded a 1" piece of elastic through it, and secured the sides at each inner corner. The extra fabric lifted the neckline, while the elastic helped pull it together so it wouldn't gap, as if it was always meant to be there.

Oh happy day!

NOW she's ready to wear.

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Easy Pajama Pants with Comfy Jersey Waistband - sew your own!

When I was about 13 years old, I remember my older sister trying to sew her own pair of red and white flowered cotton capris.

Unfortunately, they never made it past the sewing room floor. I'm not sure what happened, but somewhere down the line one leg ended up smaller than the other. It was quite a disappointment. That's the last time she ever tried to sew her own pants. And at the age of 13, I made a mental note never to try it either.



Flash forward...hu hem, a lot of years...and I decided to break the pants-sewing curse and take my chances on sewing myself a new pair of pajama pants.

Since I'm driven, curious, motivated, stubborn, or whatever you call it and insist on making it myself rather than following a purchased pattern, I consulted a couple of Pajama Pants Making sites:

Simple Pajama Pants Tutorial (for kids pj pants that I just modified) and Making Pajama Pants Part 1 video (you can also watch Part 2 if you want to use elastic instead of a t-shirt waistband). Check these out if you want to make your own, as they are more detailed than my how-to.

And based on what I learned, away I went.

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First, I took an old pair of pajama pants to use as a "pattern". *Make sure you use a pair of pj pants you like the fit of! I made the mistake of using an old pair of jumbo jammies & ended up with a jumbo pattern that I had to cut way back.

I used wrapping paper as pattern paper, folded the fabric in half (right sides together) and cut both pieces at the same time. These giant pieces will be folded over for each pant leg.

Next, I sewed up just the straight part of the leg seams and then secured the fabric edge with a zig zag stitch to prevent unraveling (I don't have a serger.)

The pictures might be hard to follow, but in preparation for sewing the crotch seam (I've always hated that word), you put one leg inside the other to create a giant U shape that is the crotch seam (there I go again). Pin, and stitch it all the way around the giant U.

Tada! Here are my jumbo jammy bottoms before I cut them back and finished the waistband...not quite done yet.

As I told you, I made the mistake of using a pair of pj pants as a pattern that were way too big for me. Here, you'll see my pink pants that fit, against my new jumbo jammy bottoms. Oops. Had to trim/sew them back quite a bit. Save yourself the headache!

Newly trimmed pajama pants, ready for the waistband.
I opted for a very comfy t-shirt knit waistband. I simply cut a wide strip from a t-shirt and sewed up the sides. You want your waistband to fit snug, so the cut will seem small but trust me, it will stretch.

Since I was making a fold-over waistband, I inserted it -right side of band -inside wrong side of pants. Then pinned in four places: the front and back seams, and the two sides.

The trick with a jersey knit waistband is to stretch as you sew so it fits with the cut of your pant waist and pulls it all together at the same time.

After sewing the pieces together, I pinned it down and flattened/secured the seam with a zig zag stitch.

Then I folded it over to finish it off.
I just wanted a free fold so I didn't tack down the fold.

Hand made pajama pants can be hard to tell the front from the back, so I made myself a faux tag for the back.

All finished!!
These are the MOST comfortable pajama pants I think I've ever worn!  And I'm not just saying that.

Is it wrong to wear them out in public? I didn't want to take them off.

It's official. The pants-sewing curse is broken! 

Good triumphed over evil and all is well in the land.

P.S. There's a story about this soft, flowered cotton fabric: did you know it once was my favorite set of twin sheets? They're practically new since I bought them, as a single, for my twin bed...but swapped them out for a king sized bed and a husband. :) They're either Laura Ashley or Ralph Lauren, so with the high thread count, they're as soft as they sound. So far I've made a few pillow cases and pj pants. What's next?!~

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