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Make, Do and Mend


The cyber-diary of what this homemaker makes, does and sometimes mends.
My motto is "if you do stuff, stuff gets done"

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Sewing and bananas

Life is getting back to normal. Husband's knee surgery was 3 weeks ago and he requested a light duty work release and went back to work this week.
Not sure how normal things are ever are around here though!

I've done a little sewing.
One small project to alter Elizabeth's Easter dress. Her momma ordered it from a company called Southern Tots. It was a little big so I shortened the elastic in the neck casing and added a casing with elastic at the waist to make the dress more fitted.


Grandbaby #5 is due in April and his mom requested a stack of flannel burp cloths shaped like 8s. The snuggly flannel was on sale at Joann's. I had fun picking out some prints and fun sewing them up.

Somewhere in the past, I heard a tip that keeping bananas in a bag keeps them from ripening quickly. Well, it works! At least first time I tried it.
We bought a bunch of bananas at Aldis on Friday. They were just ripe enough to eat that day. I have kept them in a sealed bag at room temperature. We've been eating one or two each day. The last 2 were eaten today and they were only slightly riper than on Friday but still  just right for eating.
Usually our 5 day old bananas are too ripe for eating and ready for banana bread.
I hope this was not a fluke. Bananas are one of my favorite fruits and it would be wonderful to keep them at our preferred ripeness longer.





Burp clothes- reversible





5 day old banana after being kept in a sealed bag

18 comments:

  1. The banana thing REALLY works! I just double 2 grocery stacks and tie them up separately. The burp clothes are so cute! I have 2 nieces expecting and would love to make some- did you use a pattern? Thanks, Angela

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    1. thank you, I drew off my own pattern using folded newsprint and a dinner plate, really easy. I will put an example up soon. Your nieces will appreciate them.

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  2. Thank you for sharing the banana tip!

    Smiles,
    Carol

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  3. I got some of the same fabrics for burp cloths for my new nephew who was born today!!

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    1. did you really Lena? Joanns had so many cute prints to choose from. Even though we know the new baby is a boy, I tried to pick out prints that could work for boy or girl babies if these burp cloths get passed down.

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  4. Bananas around here never have time to go bad. LOL I eat one everyday as per the doc. Seems my body does weird things with potassium, so good thing I like bananas. But thanks for sharing the tip, as we will try it.

    blessings, jill

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    1. Hi Jilly, I like bananas every day too, I just don't like to go the store very often. hope it works for you.

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  5. Bananas are one of our favorite fruits too. You never get a bad one and they're good for you and budget friendly. I read that if you keep the bunches together they ripen more slowly and on pinterest I saw a tip where you cover the stem with foil. But I haven't tried that yet.

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  6. Good tip to know about the bananas, thank you. Strange, but in our house for the past 2 months or more we have bought LOTS of bananas for the purpose of letting them ripen for banana bread (which has NEVER been a problem in the past), but now EVERYONE keeps eating them and complaining about how come we don't have ripe bananas for making bread! {sigh}. I'm going to make zucchini bread :o)

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  7. Thank you for the tip about the bananas, I am going to use it the next time i buy bananas.
    Elizabeth's dress is adorable, she and her mama are lucky to have a grama like you. In fact they're all blessed to have you!
    Hugs, Cindy

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  8. I like everything..the adorable easter dress, the burp cloths and the banana tip! :)

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  9. Super cute dress, adorable burp cloths, wish I had a banana to eat right now!

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  10. I am going to try that banana tip too! That would be great! Love those burp cloths! I make them for gifts but for some reason mine are always crooked!

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  11. The dress and burp cloths are beautiful. I would love to be able to sew like you.

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  12. Yes, it works. I've used that trick the last three times I've bought bananas. In fact, if you buy them green and don't take them out of the bag...they don't get ripe! I've had bananas last two and half weeks this way, just taking out what I want to ripen and leaving the rest. I couldn't believe it worked so well.

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  13. Love the burp cloths. They look soft so they won't scratch baby's face.
    The banana trick, I learned years ago when I worked at a Ice cream parlor. We made so many banana splits and sometimes they were green {banana} when they came off the truck...so we had to unwrap the plastic so they'd ripen quicker. I forgot that by keeping them covered they'd last longer...thanks for the reminder! :)
    Pat

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