Fight for the Future

It is easy when reading about climate change and peak oil to get into a panic.  Easy, but not useful.  So whenever I start feeling this way I try to step back and think about what positive steps I can take to mitigate the situation, remembering that I am only one person with an individual set of skills, resources and emotional energy.  Nobody can do everything.

So, here are some ideas, in no particular order.  Some are things to help my individual family, some are about my local community, and some are concerned with the wider national & world community.  Some are things I am already doing, some are ones that I am considering & others are ideas for the future.  I think these are important issues because I believe we are going to see significant effects, if not within my lifetime, certainly within that of my children.

Quilt Show!

After 10 years it's finished (or will be by tomorrow evening)!

Friendship Baskets - Queen size

If you want to see it on display, and are in the area on Saturday (27th August), come along to our show.
10am - 3pm at Milton State School (Qld Australia) in Bayswater Rd, Milton.

It's not just my quilt of course, you'll see a whole selection of the past two years output of my quilt group, Inner City Circle, in a huge variety of styles. Definitely something for everyone.
We are raffling a beautiful quilt with hand embroidered blocks. And there is an apron draw, 14 aprons to choose from, all different styles made by the members.
Add to that a sales table with many hand made items - looking for Secret Santa gifts anyone?
Your entry ($5) includes refreshments. And all proceeds go to Karuna Hospice, a local Buddhist organization who provide wonderful in-home palliative care, to anyone.
Hope to see you there!
Ravs.

Spring is Sprunging

Signs of the coming of spring are in the air!

Kangaroo Paw Spike

One of the Kangaroo Paws is coming into flower.  The spike is about my height (the photo was taken 1/2 way up the front steps).

Apple Blossom

I have my first apple blossom! No expectation of any fruit though - the other tree needed for cross-pollination hasn't even developed any leaves yet.

Carrots, Beetroot, Calendula & Garlic

The veges are still growing. The garden isn't overflowing as I would really like.  I put that down to a number of things: Lack of experience; lack of sufficient sunlight in their position; lack of sufficient water (we've barely had any rain & I am hand watering a couple of times a week); and the earlier depredation by the Brush Turkey.

Peas

The pea plants actually have pods on them though!

If you want to see a beautiful & prolific vege garden - go and visit Northey St City Farm.  It looks magnificent at the moment!  I am helping to take J4's kindy class on an excursion there on Friday.  They have started a bit of a garden at the centre.  I am looking forward to seeing their faces as they explore & discover all it has to offer!

The birds have also picked up considerably (magic stuff yoghurt!). Compare Blacky now:

Blacky after the moult (and probably with a gut infection).

 

 

 

To then (May):


You'd think it was a different bird.

I've also managed to do a tiny bit of refashioning.
I bought a denim Regatta jacket from our lovely local cafe, Bowerbird, great versatile colour and a really good weight for Spring (and Autumn) in Brisbane.
But it was a bit boring.
So I jazzed it up just a little.

Suffolk Puffs (or yoyos) added to front placket, pocket, & collar

It was a bit large & shapeless - so it got a 'tuck' to bring in the waist.

Closer detail of the collar & placket.

And of the fake 'belt' to dress up the tucks.

I wore it today to lunch at 'Sails' restaurant.  Early celebration of Mrs Skivvy's birthday.
Sat outside - and the kids were able to go play on the beach when they got bored - leaving the grown-ups in peace! Wonderful!

Bye for now, Ravs

Netted & Patched

The day after I last posted Mr Skivvy did come over, first thing in the morning, to help me put up the net over the vegetable garden.
And a good thing too - on a second look the Brush Turkey had done even more damage than I first thought.  I will have to replant a considerable amount.  Hopefully, given Brisbane's climate, it isn't too late.
When we put the net up we discovered that it wasn't quite big enough to fully enclose the ends of the frame - bad move thinking I could get away with the slightly smaller standard size of net and save money.  I will definitely not be fruit fly proof - but I'm not planting a lot of susceptible veges anyway.  And it will be safe from possums and turkeys and chickens.
Especially as a week later Mr Skivvy donated the remainder of the the net from their mango tree, which they had cut down for their vege garden.
With this I was able to cover the frame over the potatoes - becoming more tempting to chickens & turkeys as they poke their green shoots above the surface, and the open ends of the large vegetable enclosure.  I used baling twine from all those straw bales to 'stitch' the ends together.
And here is the result.

 I haven't had much time to sew - but I did manage a couple of repairs.
J4 had put holes in the knees of three pairs of trousers - so I had to patch them.  But no reason to have boring patches.

I patch both inside & out to make them stronger & longer lasting.  I use iron-on applique webbing on both the inside & outside piece of fabric, then zig-zag around them.
Here are a couple of earlier trousers.

The boys are really happy to wear them.  Might change when they are teenagers though!
Ravs

Bye Bye Octopi

On Friday a good friend, who also happens to be a talented artist and J4's kindy teacher (and previously L6's) had her last day of work - she's off to enter the land of parenthood herself.
The kindy had a lovely morning tea send-off for her, with pink balloons, all the kids together (of course, the only way all the staff could be there too), and a few parents, like myself, who could make it.
As she is such a special person I had wanted to make something special for her, and as her favourite animal is the Octopus, and her class are also called the Octopuses (all the rooms are named after sea creatures), I decided an Octopus for the baby would be appropriate.



Made with fabrics from my stash.  All the body fabrics have fish on them.



Sew Little

Day 11 Wednesday 6th April

I did so little gardening today - none in fact.  Unless you count buying some large pots and herb & vege potting mix ready for the herb garden on the front deck.
Oh, and some trellis wire for the vege beds.

But I did do some
Sewing
After childcare drop off, garden shopping, and literacy groups at L6's school I made it to the Chermside Library for the fortnightly Sisters of Stitch (SOS) group.
Honestly, some of the work being done among the groups members is absolutely exquisite!

But I was just working on something simple.

The day after refashioning the felted vest last week a note came home from L6's school asking for volunteers & donations for the Mother's Day stall next term.  I thought about what I could do and had a brain wave to make some more of the Suffolk Puff flowers as brooches.  They should be popular with the kids.  I even already have brooch backs.

The reason it is possible is that the Clover Yo-yo maker really does speed up the process, compared with the usual template method.  Yo-yo is another name for Suffolk Puffs.

My output thus far, with the small & large Yo-yo makers & a jar of buttons.

I plan to make a few more, including some from the grey stripe felt that I used for the vest, and then play with combinations & buttons until I find ones I like.  I'll post a photo of some of the finished product.

Here is something else I saw at SOS.  A lady opposite was knitting with this beautiful soft grey wool, and after a while this is what the ball looked like.

Doesn't it make a fantastic pattern?  My friend Mel has really made me start to look at ordinary things more closely.  Have a look at some of her fabrics here.

More soon
Ravs

To Bee, or not to Bee - is no longer the question!

Day 10 Monday 4th April

Garden
The Bee Question Answered
Actually - this happened on Sunday - Col delivered my (our?) bees in their hive!

J4 trying to get a bee to crawl onto his hand!

The bees are native stingless ones.  They are tiny, black & gentle.  They also only come out once the temperature reaches 17 C or higher.  If the bumblebee, a cold climate bee, ever makes it to the mainland, especially Qld these beautiful animals could be in trouble - they just would have so much less collection time.

The funny 'hat' is to help stabilise the hive's temperature.

The hive entrance.

These social bees make honey just like the honey bee, only slower, they are a lot smaller after all.  I couldn't get a good photo of one today, but we saw lots entering the hive with their legs covered in pollen.  They have been sited with the hive entrance facing approx NE right next to the passionfruit vine, in the first spot to get the sun in the morning.  They should be very happy here.  I am ever so excited to have these hard little workers to help in my garden - along with our other hard working 'pets', the chickens & the worms.

Did you know that most of Australia's bees are solitary?  It is really fascinating stuff.  This is a great site for information about our native bees.

Fencing
On Monday (Day 11) Mr Skivvy and I worked our b...s off, only stopping once for lunch.  I didn't realise how hard I had actually worked him until he left (after a mug of tea).  But we felt really good about it.

Almost since we moved in to this house over 5 years ago Himself (especially) has been concerned about the possibility of children falling off the edge of the lawn, over the retaining wall, and onto the pavers under the deck.  This worry increased after we landscaped the backyard - and added an extra 'step' to this drop.  And one child, visiting to play soccer, did fall down this first 'step'. So a few weeks ago we bought the materials to prevent this happening.

This is what it looked like 'before', or with only the fence posts up.  Getting them lined up and vertical was the longest part of the job - seeing the retaining wall base isn't perfectly aligned itself.

And then after all our hard work......

This shows you exactly what the drop is like - and why Himself was concerned about it!

The final result - not bad.

It was dark when we got home from collecting children (we went to the golden arches for dinner, as I hadn't had time to think and both the local thai and chippy are closed on Mondays), so it took Himself a little while to notice the change.  I had told him I planned to do some preparation work, but didn't let on I was also going to try to put the whole thing up!  He, L6 & J4 were thrilled!  Now they can use the full width of the pitch!  And he doesn't have to find the time to put the fence up himself.

Now I have another trellis to grow vines on.  Or I wonder how espaliered fruit trees would go here?  Whatever I do, they will have to be in large pots sitting on the gravel on the far side of the fence.  Hmmmm?

Today J4 & I added four further trellises to the garden, two at each side. I would rather not have them, I don't think they add to the aesthetics of the garden.  Their purpose then?  To reduce the frequency with which the soccer ball goes over the fence into the neighbours yards!  They have been placed directly behind the goalposts.
Are you getting a picture of a family of soccer mad boys?

  Sewing
As promised - here are the before & after photos of the felted woollen vest I finished refashioning on Friday.
It started out as a daggy hip or thigh length grey woollen jacket.

After felting, before refashioning.  15mm hole near bottom right front.

After refashioning.  Suffolk Puff & button flowers cover the hole, repeated at neck opening.  6 strand embroidery floss in matching colour to buttons, used to buttonhole stich around armhole openings.

 The larger Suffolk Puffs are made from that felted kimono jacket whose fabric I also used in the Junky Styling scarf.  The smaller puffs are scraps from my quilting, the buttons are from another cardigan I have recently felted, and the embroidery floss is from goodness knows what.  The vest is waist length on me.

It is intended as a gift for someone special.  I hope she likes it.  But what do you think?

TTFN
Ravs

Hot, hot, hot!

Day 5 Wednesday 23rd March

National Ride to School Day. Normally on Wednesdays (being a workday) I leave early with  J4 & Himself walks or drives with L6 to before school care.  But with me on LSL & us being keen cyclists we just had to participate in Ride to School Day.
We had already ridden in the Family Fun Ride on the last day of Bike Week, Sunday.  And both boys had ridden the full 10km under their own steam. - Not bad for a 4yo especially, and one who only started riding a pedal bike less than 2 months ago - never needing training wheels because of using a balance bike for the past 2 years.
Anyway - by the time I had ridden to & from school, via a longer than usual route to join with other riders, taken J4 & his bike to childcare, talked about bikes & riding to his class & returned home - it was already 10am & stinking hot.

Garden 
10am!  That mean's I had a total of 2 hours before I had to be at L6's class to help with Literacy Groups (I'm doing an extra session while on leave).  But that was OK - because it was too hot to garden anyway, way too hot!  In the mid-30's and humid.
Mr Skivvy (Dad) was right on time, and I jumped into the truck and it was off to that major Australian Hardware chain store.  The mission today?  8 bags of manure (I wanted cow, but they were out of that, so I compromised on a mix of cow, sheep & chook poo) and 5 of mushroom compost.
These bags are currently stored in our garage - too hot and heavy to cart them up to the shed.  Only problem?  Our garage is downstairs, and the ceiling isn't lined.  Yep, you got it, a small amount of the fragrance is permeating through the floorboards.  Thankfully it is not overwhelming, and they'll be moved tomorrow (Day 6).
I now have everything I need to construct the no-dig beds.  Fingers crossed for a milder day - I really want to break the back of it (and not my own!).

Sewing
I had always planned to attend Sisters of Stitch, as I rarely get the opportunity, but it was especially pleasurable this time- the library is lovely & cool, and finally being able to sit down for a coffee from the Coffee Hub (yes, Chermside Library has its own cafe), was almost blissful!

I don't know how many people were there - 50 perhaps?  Almost I'd say.  Very lively & some beautiful work being done.  It is impressive how many of the ladies in their post-retirement years are keen to learn a new skill.  One lady was trying tatting, another was doing some beautiful hardanger, her first attempt.
Me?  I just continued with a simple cross-stitch intended for my 5yo god-daughter.  I meant to finish it for Christmas, and then for her birthday a couple of weeks ago - but obviously I didn't make it.  Still it's getting closer.  I'm almost up to the back-stitch outlines.

So Day 5 was a busy one - but not with my projects!
Talk to you soon!
Ravs

Down on the Farm

Day 4 Monday 21st March
Garden
No sewing today.  Obviously at this point in time it is my second priority - it is easier to find segments of time for this activity than for the big jobs of the garden, and I am really keen to make significant progress over the next few weeks.

I borrow Dad as skivvy again today, and he persuaded me to borrow their 'truck' as well (a Toyota Land Cruiser used to tow the off-road caravan).  The reason?  To get 10 bales of straw and 5 of lucerne (or 'shedded hay') for the no-dig beds.  Even with the trailer attached we had to make two trips.  The 10 straw bales first, then unhitch the trailer & get the 5 lucerne on the second trip.  This sort of job really eats into the time for 'real' garden work.

We got the straw & lucerne from the same place we bought our chickens, guinea fowl & chicken tractor last year, Northside Produce.  I love visiting this place, even more so since they moved from Carseldine (opposite the Guide Dogs) to Albany Creek.  Now they not only have the chickens, ducks, parrots and fish, but goats, reptiles, pigs, the odd horse, pup & kitten as well.  Great fun and really nice people.  I get my chicken food here as well.  A genuine produce store.  It is more convenient now too, we can pop in on the way home from Mum & Dad's or soccer, therefore cutting our carbon footprint, and the time taken.

Now the place is starting to look a bit like a farm - I have my own hay stack!

 OK, that might be a slight exaggeration - but I did add one more traditional farm feature - the gate to the vege patch closes with a very simple post & loop, just like I used to use on friends' farms as a child.

First you slip the lower end of the post through a wire loop (left).
Then lever the top, tensioning the wire gate, and slip the upper loop over the top of the post (below).
I had this set up from last year, when I tried to make a bit of a chicken run down the side of the house.  But we soon gave that up and have let them truly free-range (they often visit the neighbours & the nature strip).
Anyway, the wire was fastened about 15cm above the bottom of the post, which is needed to slip it through the wire loop anyway.  But it did mean I had to add some wire to the bottom to stop the chickens just walking under.
I cut the left over wire and folded it to have a smooth edge at the bottom (didn't want the chickens cutting themselves).  Then I used the wire that had wrapped the roll of chicken mesh to 'stitch' the pieces together.

The paving stones, from under the front deck (where the haystack is now), placed under the gate, stop the chickens being able to dig their way in.

But that is about all that resembles a farm so far.  Our only productive items so far are our chickens, averaging at least 5 eggs each a week, possibly 6, so doing really well, and our passionfruit vine.
Both our neighbour P and ourselves planted passionfruit on our boundary fence, two different varieties.  They grew really fast.  P read that chicken manure was good for them and asked if she could collect some.  Unfortunately it was only later that we discovered that the manure had to be 'aged', fresh manure 'burns' the plant.  P's plant started dying off dramatically.  Ours, fertilised with diluted 'worm wee' has gone great guns, and I have never seen bigger, or tasted richer passionfruit.  It is a Panama Red.  Mum & Dad were so impressed when they tasted some (they wouldn't believe J4 at first that they came from our garden), that they have bought a Panama Yellow and planted it against their fence.  We'll swap fruit once theirs is producing.

This is the produce from the garden for Day 4.  I could have picked more passionfruit, but I am only collecting the ones that drop at the moment - can almost guarantee they are perfectly ripe as ripe fruit should be easy to pluck from the vine.
It is also part of controlling fruit fly organically - by not giving them a chance to lay their eggs in the fruit & then the maggots get into the soil.
The last part of the day's physical work was to lay the pavers in the vege garden to mark out the beds, and provide a place to work from when tending the garden.  Now we can better see the size of them.  After all this I was exhausted - to put it politely, and desperately in need of a shower!

Over the last week I had gone through my two new Diggers Club catalogues / magazines and marked all the plants I was interested in.  I then went through them again listing the plants in four groups, Legumes, Root Crops, Fruiting Crops and Foliage Crops - to match the four vegetable beds, plus herbs, companion plants and some strawberries for the hanging pots.  This enabled me to see where I might need to narrow down, or add missing crops.  I've filled my shopping cart, but the site seems to be having some problems with 'checking out'.
I joined the Digger's club because they seem to be a well respected group who encourage & supply heritage fruit & vegetables.  They also maintain two gardens for testing & education.  Of course the lower members price on seeds is welcome (I will have almost saved my 2 year membership fee on my first order, so no complaints there).  But a really big bonus is their excellent information about the plants, and easy access to heritage open pollinated seeds, that I can then save seeds from (provided I'm careful about cross-pollination in some cases).  I also don't have to stand in a nursery, trying to make my mind up on the spot, without all the information I need.

Sewing
Although I didn't actually get any sewing done - I did meet some fellow sewers who have formed a new group on the northside.
Called Brisbane Sewing there were 4 or 5 girls with sewing machines in one of the meeting rooms at Chermside Library when I took J4 & L6 on Sunday.  It was their first face-to-face meeting, they hope to meet there at least once a month, on a weekend. They will post their meetings on meetup-com. This could be great for me as I can't make it to Sisters of Stitch, which is fortnightly on Wednesdays, seeing as I am usually at work.
At least one of the girls is involved in another group, Brisbane Northside Knitting and Crotchet Group - also listed on meetup.com and they also meet mostly on weekends to accommodate working members.  Promising.
Cup of green tea (& maybe a glass of wine) time.
Bye for now
Ravs

The Bountiful Source

I thought I would tell this story now, while I have time (kids & husband asleep).

The two jackets mentioned in my post "Don't Fence Me In" came into my possession in the following way.

A very good friend of mine asked me to help her sort boxes & boxes & bags & bags of used clothing that, for some reason known only to herself, her mother had brought over in a container with her furniture when she 'moved' from New York to Brisbane.  The lady in question returned to the USA approximately 12 months later (about 5 years ago), leaving all the furniture & clothes behind (correct me if I am wrong A).
The clothing had belonged to various people, my friend (when she was in her teens), her two sisters, her grandmother, probably her stepfather, and her mother.  Who really knows how another mind works?
Being a keen op-shopper & having just got into refashioning, you can imagine what I said.  YES! of course.

It took several sessions, over a number of weeks to go through them all.  We sorted into the following categories.

• A to keep (not much went in this pile)
• Rags for A
• Op Shop
• Rags for Op Shop
• Me to keep (stuff that was the right style & size).
• Me to refashion (stuff that basically fitted & had great fabric, but that needed a bit of restyling).
• Me to repurpose (especially woollen jumpers, but more of that later).
• and lastly to sell, probably on Etsy.

This last group consisted of items that I said "No way are you sending that to the op shop!", but that really weren't my style, didn't fit, or were totally unsuitable for Brisbane and deserved a loving & caring home.  Things like
a calf-length, pure silk (lining too), heavily beaded cream dress or;
a pink bolero length Vogue of Paris jacket or;
a fur cape.
The list goes on - for three BIG bags full.
Aren't I just the luckiest girl?

I took the items home & put all of the ones from the last four categories that were made from protein based fibres (silk, wool, fur etc) into bags & then the freezer.  Like with my flour and rolled oats, this will kill any moth eggs and caterpillars that might otherwise damage the fabric.

After sorting them again (reclassifying some items) I checked the state of them & sent ones that were stained, but that I thought could be rescued with careful treatment, to my mother (I trust her skills far more than my own in the laundry department).  The rest went into those vaccuum bags, to seal & protect them from mould, & moths, until I get around to refashioning them, or putting them on Etsy .
When I do photograph them, & put them up, I'll let you know.  Might even post some photos here as well.

Now, back to those woollen jumpers.
These I cut the arms off & then put them (in light & dark batches) into the washing machine.  Temperature turned as high as it goes (I usually wash in cold water).  They came out beautifully shrunk & felted, even in my gentle front loader.
One of the items, which had started out as a long, daggy, grey cardigan, came out looking like quite a trendy short sleeveless jacket (when I dress it up a bit with some appliqué) - potential for my brother's partner in Tassie.  And the sleeves were sooooo soft they called out to be made into a soft toy for a friend with a baby coming due.
This is what eventuated.

Now, normally I am anti-rabbit (they are just too big a pest in this country) but, with those lovely long ears to grab & suck, it just had to be.
Completely my own design I call him 'Recycled Rabbit'.
His body, arms, legs & back of ears are made from that lovely soft felt; the tail & front of the ears are made from the sleeves of a lacy jumper I felted at the same time; the jacket is from a felt calendar, double layer with the writing inside so you can't see it; the face is embroidered with thread left over from other projects, he is stuffed with scraps of wool & cotton batting left over from my quilts and the bag is a piece of fabric that was wrapped around a present I received.  How's that for recycling / repurposing?
I am thrilled with the result, and I really hope R's new baby girl J grows to love him!

Bye for now.
Ravs.

Don't Fence Me In!

OK - I won't, but I will fence you out!

Day 2 Wednesday 16th March
"Hang on, where did Tuesday go?" you say. "This should be Day3."
"Ahhh." I reply, "but I'm only counting child free days, because it's impossible to get anything really significant done when J4 is home."
"Right" you nod with understanding.


Garden
As it was 'Ride to Work Day' and I just had to take J4 to the members sausage sizzle at the RBWH Cycle Centre (I tow him to work & childcare in a Chariot attached to my bike). So I was a little delayed getting started - but I had planned for that.

Today's job was, as you might have guessed, to fence the chickens out of the vege garden site.  And, aside from the entry gate (which I'm still thinking about) we got it done. In an hour & a half!

I had planned to attach the support wires with staples (that's nail in ones, not the sort you use for paper), but Dad pointed out that they can be right b*&%^$'s to nail in, and he is right, I've done it before.  So he found our one & only drill bit that is long enough to pass all the way through the fence posts - and discovered it is the largest one that will fit in the drill bit (weren't we lucky?).
After marking each post at three points we drilled the holes & started threading the wire through.  Once I had tied one end off (wrap around post then around itself multiple times) we had to tension it.  We wrapped it round the head of a hammer & PULLED using the hammer handle as a lever.  Not quite the way the professionals do it but, as I said to Dad - we're not dealing with cows or horses here, just chickens and Brush Turkeys.

This is not a Brush Turkey, this is Fasty Africa, our Guinea Fowl, he helps keep the chickens pest free, and is rather cute!

So we ran three wire strings along the front, then did the right hand side separately (does anyone else have to concentrate every time they spell that?).  Next we attached the chicken wire.
Now, on a farm you would have a giant roll of the stuff attached to a special fitting on your tractor, it would unroll beautifully as you drove along and somehow would keep its tension  - well, we just manhandled it.  Smaller quantity & no room for a tractor.
It was actually quite quick & easy once Dad had figured out that you put the links in the crimper & then around the support & fencing wire.  Rather than the way I started, which was positioning the links, then trying to get the crimper in place with my sausage fingers in the way!

So here it is - finished, and good enough for our purpose, though hardly a work of perfection.

In that space there are going to be 4 vege beds, each 1.5m wide by 1.7m deep, so I can rotate my crops to maintain soil quality & reduce disease.  I am going to make them no-dig beds as well, and lay a drip irrigation system, with automatic timer, under the top layer of mulch (I plan to qualify as a lazy gardener).  Might start laying the pavers to mark out the beds on Day 3.

 Sewing
Helped out with literacy & maths groups in L6's grade 1 class, which is fun & enlightening, so I don't really mind that it cuts into my sewing time.  I was reading 'The Cat in the Hat' with L6's group today, talking about rhyming words.  They came up with some great ones. How's 'game' & 'maim' or 'fox, box, dots, lots, socks, blocks & clocks'?

Anyway - it was way too hot & humid to spend at the machine in the sewing room.

It doubles as a guest room, by folding up the cabinets & opening the sofa bed (on right).

So I decided to do some handwork, sitting on the deck, watching the chickens & contemplating my new fence.
The project I chose was the refashioning  of a jacket that had come into my possession (and I will probably tell that story another time).  Loved the fit of the bodice & the fabric, but the arms were too short, and, let's face it, jackets don't get an awful lot of wear here.
So - turned it into a low-backed waistcoat/vest and a scarf instead.
Today's job was finishing sewing on the binding over the cut edges.  I machine sewed the first side weeks ago.  The jacket has/had a cotton velvet collar, plackets and covered buttons.  To look any good the binding had to be the same - and I was lucky to find what I would consider a perfect match.  But turning cotton velvet into bias binding? Not a lot of fun.  It doesn't hold a crisp fold very well.  Next time (?) I'll use some spray starch I think.  Still, the binding is on & has turned out OK.

Unfortunately, due to a combination of lost weight & removed fabric - it makes me look HUGE! Because (as you can see below) there is not much fabric left at the back, the sides gape, making me look much wider than I am.  I had intended this to be a 'sexy' backless number, but as it is it would be positively indecent!
We (Mum & I) think we can improve it somewhat by putting a small tuck/dart at each side underneath where my arm sits in the photo below.
I also may add a ~ 4cm wide strip down the spine, flaring out at the bottom, or from below the shoulder blades to join the base.  This would leave the back still fairly exposed, but prevent the collar riding up and causing the front to gape again.
What do you think?  Black lace? Net? Other suggestions?

The other thing I made from the jacket was a scarf, from a design by Junky & very basic diagrams & instructions in their book Junky Styling (which I found at my local BCC Library ).
Very little of their stuff would be my style (very London street) but I liked this one.

To make it you
a) take the sleeves off the garment, cut perpendicular to the length.
b)Cut another length of fabric twice the width of the cut end of the flattened sleeve (or two pieces once the width) plus seam allowance.  The fabric needs to be long enough to wrap comfortably around your neck, see picture.
c) Sew this piece into a tube and, leaving it wrong side out, insert one sleeve, so the right sides of the tube & the sleeve are together. Pin the ends & sew using the free arm of your sewing machine (ie you maintain the tube).
d) Do the same with the other sleeve at the opposite end. But with the sleeve oriented so that the buttons (or whatever you are featuring) faces the other way to the first one (you'll see why in a sec.)
e) Pull one sleeve through the other to turn the whole scarf right-side out.
f) If you now lay your scarf flat on the table the buttons will be facing up on one sleeve & facing down to the table on the other.  This is necessary because you are going to fold the downward facing sleeve back on itself to form a loop.
e) Check this loop is large enough to slip the other sleeve through, and then stitch down.

How do you like it?
The extra striped fabric is from another, pure wool, hand tailored, Japanese style jacket (from the same source) that I unpicked and felted. The side against my neck is more of the cotton velvet I used to bind the waistcoat.
I think it is probably more suited to a man than me, and it certainly looks good on the bloke in the book, so I might make a present of it.  My brother lives in Tassie, where he would get more wear out of it due to the more frequent need for scarves.  Not sure if it is his style though.


That's it for Day 2.  This blogging business could get addictive! But tell me if it is too long.
Ravs

Let's Begin!

Here goes nothing!  Completely new to this blogging business, but hopefully you'll find something interesting here.

Started Long Service Leave (LSL) on Monday - 6 weeks with 3 days a week child free!

Selfish?  Not really (I think) - I have a plan, it involves finally getting a heaps of projects completed.  Primarily involving the garden, and sewing.

 Here is the back garden viewed from the deck, taken the day before I started.  New shed on the left, posts ready for the vege garden fence at the back, to keep those chickens from digging up or eating all our food!.

I'm not sure how much difference will be visible at the end of my leave, but hopefully it will be noticeable.

I've made a list of jobs, which will probably be added to, but it is a start.

Day 1 Monday 14th March.

Dad came over to help as some jobs need extra hands, and the first one on the list was one of those.

He held the ladder while I cleaned the gutters and installed the gutter guard on the shed ready for the two 2kl tanks that will be going in.  Can't have veges & fruit without water.   I'll get a professional in to do the house - no way I am climbing that high!

Job 2 goes against my generally organic bent, but some things just need a bit of extra help - non-voluntary euthanasia for the sacred bamboo behind the shed!

I had already tried cutting it back and digging it out.  The roots might only be about 10cm below the surface, but they are matted like a Turkish Carpet! And I discovered my back can really only manage about 10 minutes with the mattock before I feel in danger of long-term injury.

So out with the Round-up.  Dad cut the bamboo back, and I, very carefully, applied the poison direct to the cut surface.  This is also the only way I have found to get rid of that dreadful weed, Asparagus Fern due to its underground rhizomes.

The plan is to garden in the morning & sew in the afternoon on my child free days.

Starting with two environmental projects. The first was to (finally) make my muslin vege bags (that's the Australian use of the word, not the American, see curves patterns and pins for more on this).  No more of those plastic bags for my cucumbers, grapes etc.

I managed to get 8 out of the fabric I had.  Because they are purely functional, and don't need to look pretty, I was able to do this really quickly.

Muslin Vege Bags - Method

a) Take your fabric & fold selvage to selvage.  The selvages are going to form the open end of the bag, the fold the bottom.  This works best with a 90cm width fabric, otherwise the bags are too long.

b) Fold the fabric lengthwise, until it is a width that you like for your bags. I had about 2m, so folded it in 8ths which gave me about 25cm widths.

c) Cut along these folds to separate into individual bag pieces.

d) Sew along one side of each bag, fastening off by backstitching at start & finish.  Use string-piecing to make this quicker.

e) Do the same on the other side of each bag.

f) Turn the bags inside out & sew down the sides a second time, sealing the raw edges inside the second seam.  This neatens the edge, but more importantly makes the bags much stronger, they would never stand up to use for carrying veges otherwise.

g) Feel virtuous for reducing your environmental impact by cutting out another source of plastic waste in your life!

The second project was making dishcloths out of some of my stock of fabric nappies.

No longer needed in bulk for protecting clothing from 'possets' or cleaning up 'accidents' (yeh!), I am going to make a whole heap.  I can then have clean dish/bench cloths everyday if I want & just chuck them in with the rest of the wash.  No more unhygienic & throw away sponges for me!  Provided I can get hubby to go along.

Because they are pure cotton they can even be composted when they eventually fall apart completely!

I got 6 from one nappy.  Just cut it up and hemmed the raw edges.

The muslin vege bag (with broccoli) is on the left, the nappy dishcloth on the right.  No fancy or creatively stimulating sewing - but feels good to have it done.

Ravs.