De-Fashioning: A Silk Dress into a. . .Beauty Pillowcase?

So this one is going to be a little backwards. . .That's why I called it "De-fashioning."

I have been trying to sell the following dress on eBay for TWO YEARS, and it has been hanging in our spare bedroom. I bought it on sale for next to nothing from an online consignment store--even though it's totally opposite my body type--thinking I could resell it and make a profit. It is 100% green silk satin. It is "Laundry by Design" and was originally $300, or something! I had it on eBay for some ridiculous price, like $13. Lots of people viewed it and a couple people added it to their watch lists, but no one ever bought it or even made an offer!

This is the back. 

So, now we come to the epiphany that I had today. I have been reading more and more (from very informed places like fashion magazines and. . .Pinterest), that I should be using a silk satin pillowcase. It's apparently good for your hair, because it doesn't strip your hair of oils like cotton does, and doesn't promote breakage due to its slippery nature. It can also benefit your skin by not promoting acne and wrinkles because it's organic. So, here's the epiphany I had: Why should I pay money for a silk pillowcase, when I already have one hanging in my closet?

See how it's backward? Normally, a DIYer tells you how to make something from nothing. Here I am telling you to cut up a frickin' $300 dress to make a pillowcase!!! 

Now, here's why I'm posting this: You can create a beautiful silk pillowcase yourself by frequenting thrift stores and looking for silk items on their sale/dollar racks. I just bought a 100% silk hot pink over-sized shirt yesterday for $.40! So, it can be done! I once found a 100% silk zebra print prom dress for a dollar. (I blogged about that one here. I turned it into a skirt.)

So here you can see the metallic sheen. (It's actually much greener in real life.)

First step.

I opened the dress out. The part on the left was polyester lining that I discarded. The part on the right is silk.

It's hard to explain, but the bottom strip of the dress was sandwiched between the lining and the fashion fabric. In order to free it, I cut this seam off.

So, here is the dress in all its fundamental parts.

The part on the right is the bottom strip I was talking about before. (You can see the ironed fold down its center that I opened out.) I used this measurement as my guide for cutting the bigger section of the dress. That part I'm cutting off on the bottom of this picture will come up later.

After I cut, I "trued" up all the sides. This took awhile because silk satin is EXTREMELY slippery.

I got all my sides cut. If you look on the left-hand edge, you will see a seam. That is an original seam of the dress. I figured that would be one less seam I'd have to worry about sewing, so I used it!

This is that little part I cut off earlier. This would become the opening of the pillowcase.

I measured it out and trued it up as well.

I sewed both ends of the band. . .

. . .and then I folded it in half, ironed it, and set it aside.

Even though it had straight seams, I still used pins because it wanted to slide all over the place.

So, here you can start to see the pillowcase coming together.

I made sure to zig-zag all my seams, because this fabric was fraying like crazy!

All I needed to do now, was attach the band.

And through the magic of blogging, it is now attached.

I cut off all the excess fraying.

Okay, I know what you are thinking. "If she is worried about wrinkles, doesn't she realize she has a big old seam down the middle?" Don't worry, I'm way ahead of you.

See? I have one of those chiropractic pillows where you sleep on your back when your head is in the middle, and on your side when you are on either side. You can see the seam is in the perfect place. My face will never rest there.

Okay, another tip, and I would've explained this earlier, but it was too confusing. Anyways, if you make a pillowcase like this, make sure that the slippery part goes from side to side and not up and down. You move from side to side in your sleep, so you want the sheen to go with your movement and not against it.

So, I pretty much used the entire dress for this. I just wanted you to see. (That big part is the lining. Look at what is left of the actual silk! Not much!)

The End!

Eggplant and Chicken Polenta Casserole

I wanted to make something that would use up the ripe eggplants that my husband has been growing in his garden, but I make Eggplant Parmesan all the time, and I wanted a change. I searched for a recipe into which I could also incorporate some of his ripe tomatoes, sage, and fresh basil.  I found a recipe for Eggplant Polenta Casserole in my vegan "Forks Over Knives" cookbook, but since my husband wishes he could get more protein, I added a chicken breast and two eggs. (If you do it my way and add chicken, you will end up with about three cups of extra chicken broth that you can use for something later.)

Polenta:

The recipe called for five cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of cornmeal, but I didn't have cornmeal, so I improvised.

5 cups water

1 cup washed quinoa

1 cup flaxseed meal

dash of sea salt

(handful of mushrooms)

(1/2 cup of grated cheese)

(2 eggs)

I boiled 5 cups of water and gradually added the quinoa and flaxseed until the mixture was creamy. It took about 15-20 minutes, stirring often. Then, I added a dash of sea salt. Once that was finished, I put it into a glass mixing bowl and set it aside to work on the next part. (Before I put it all in the oven is when I beat two eggs, 1/2 cup of grated cheese, and the mushrooms into it.)

Casserole Filling:

1 large onion, diced

1 large bell pepper, diced

2 eggplants, diced (My husband's organic garden variety are about half the size of the steroidal ones you get at the grocery store.)

1/4 cup minced garlic

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 cup fresh, chopped basil

1 sage leaf, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Once I set aside the polenta from the cooking pan into the mixing bowl, I used the same pan to sear and then boil a frozen chicken breast. I boiled it in 3 cups of water for 10 minutes. While that was happening, I went ahead and chopped my onions, bell pepper, eggplant, and garlic. I came back to my chicken breast and let it rest on a plate while I converted the stock into a glass jar for using in soups later. I don't know why it looks cloudy in this picture, because it's actually translucent.

Then, I put my chopped vegetables into the same cooking pan and started sauteing them while I diced the chicken breast on its plate. After that, I diced the tomatoes and added them to the other vegetables and continued to saute (about 10 minutes overall). I preheated the oven for 350 degrees. While the vegetables were continuing to saute, I chopped the basil and one sage leaf and added them and the chopped chicken breast into a 9"x13" casserole dish.  Then I added the sauted vegetables to the casserole dish and tossed them all together. 

This is the point where I then beat two eggs, a handful of mushrooms, and 1/2 cup of grated cheese into the polenta. I poured the polenta on top of the vegetables and put them into the oven for 40 minutes. (You can see in the picture that I also sprinkled some dry basil on the top. That was just to make it more photogenic.)

After 40 minutes, I opened the door to take this picture, but then I turned the stove off and let the whole thing cool down on its own--Free cooking energy! (I also burned my finger when I pulled the shelf out to take the pictures, and I'm icing it while I type. . .which is so annoying, and I don't recommend it!)

The End.