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.



Sex Without Strings!

Aren't there some super plant names?!  This time it is a bean plant.

After all the work I have finally started planting my veges.  So far I have sown the following in punnets to transplant later:

Silverbeet 5 colour mix

Garlic Chives, Sage, Thyme, Parsley Continental, Lettuce Royal Oakleaf, Mignonette and Flame, Silverbeet 5 Colour Mix, Chilli Tobago, Capsicum 7 Colour Mix,

And 7 colours of capsicum!

Capsicum Mini Sweet, Cabbage Red Drumhead, Broccoli Di Cicco and Romanesco, Tomato Currant Mix, Wapsipinicon Peach (what a mouthful!) and 3 Colour Zebra, and some cherry tomato & basil.

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.

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.