Category Archives: Self-reliance

A Clean Slate

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It is well over a week since my last post and quite a bit has happened since then.  I did not anticipate being away from my blog for quite such an extended period of time.  However, the combination of a busy final week at work before the Christmas break as well as organising and hosting a couple of family events on Christmas Day and again 48 hours later meant that the blog was firmly on the back burner in the final days of 2016.  The internet has not been entirely helpful either which made the prospect of shooting off a quick blog post seem all too difficult.

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But here we are, on the first day of the new year.  A clean slate which is completely unsullied and just waiting for us to make our mark.  I have plenty of plans but there will be more about that in some upcoming posts.

I have not been idle during my absence from the blog and I have have even remembered to take some photos of some of my projects and I will share them with you, too.

Tomorrow I will review a few things from Christmas – the successes and those which did not quite go according to plan.

I hope you had a warm and loving Christmas with those who are near and dear to you.  May 2017 bring you kindness, joy and peace.

Running Repairs

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I feel as though I could open my own repair cafe at the moment.

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Yesterday I repaired the cover for my iPhone rather than buying a new one.  I have a tiny tube of supa-glue and I managed to re-attach the plastic case to the cover and also re-join the split along one side of the plastic case.  I did such a good job that it is not really visible in these photos.  Unfortunately, I did not get any ‘before’ photos as the battery for my camera was flat and I had to recharge it.

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Tonight I did the second step of the repair when I replaced the small magnet which actually secures the closure on the case.  I had lost the original one some time ago so it did not actually fasten.  The replacement magnet was salvaged from the cover of a little notebook.  The notebook had become detached from the cover and my grand-daughter was ready to toss the cardboard cover so I retrieved the magnet before she did so.

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While I had the supa-glue out, I also repaired a Christmas ornament which had a mishap when being hung on the tree.

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The antler and the oar back in place.

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Finally, this is a dress which belongs to my grand-daughter.  It is strapless but not really practical for a 9 year old.  It needs some shoulder straps and I have found some black fabric which I will use.  I will do the sewing on the weekend during daylight hours as I find it too difficult to sew with black fabric and thread at night.

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Making Progress

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In amongst various other jobs I managed to do some sewing this weekend.  I had some patchwork blocks I had made ages ago with nothing particular in mind so I decided to put them together to create a small quilt.  It will be given to a work colleague who is pregnant with a baby girl.

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Here it is draped over the ironing board with the batting and backing attached.  I have begun stitching it together by machine stitching along the joins of some of the blocks.

I know that my techniques are nothing like quilters would use, but it is made entirely with scraps, offcuts and thrifted fabrics and a generous dose of love and care.

 

A Touch of Luxury

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Tonight I had a quick rummage in my stash and found a couple of offcuts of silver panne velvet.  This was perfect for my latest project. I wanted to make some little presentation pouches for the pieces of upcycled jewellery which I have for Christmas gifts.

It did not take much fabric or time to make these up.

Packing the contents.

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All done and ready for giving.

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Rather than trying to create drawstrings, I decided to anchor the ribbon tie with a few stitches on one side of the pouch and then simply gather it up and tie.

The satin ribbons came from my collection.  The black and cream ties are bits salvaged from when I cut them off the shoulder seams of purchased tops.

Finally Finished

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It is 2 months since I wrote this post about buying the fabric to make a new cover for the day bed.  I had made a small start a few weeks ago but today I started seriously sewing.

I have now finished the cover apart from the fasteners for the straps which will hold it in place.  I will buy some more this week.

Here is the end result.

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As described in my earlier post, the other side is vinyl so that I can leave it reversed when not in use so that if the cat sleeps on it the cat hair will be easy to remove with a damp cloth.

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I am very pleased with the result and the colours match the other furniture and details on the verandah.

Like a Duck

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I have been feeling a bit like a duck lately – all calm on the surface and paddling furiously beneath the surface!

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Work is busy and I have deadlines and targets to meet before Christmas.  I am hopeful of achieving them but I can only do what is humanly possible.

On the home front it is about the mundane things – washing, ironing, preparing meals as well as keeping the house in reasonable order.

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A menu plan written on the weekend is a must to keep me on track during the week.  Tonight was Mexican quinoa and while that was cooking I steamed a chicken breast fillet in preparation for tomorrow night.  In the morning I will take a tub of sweet and sour sauce and some rice from the freezer.  Tomorrow evening will be a simple matter of shredding the chicken, adding to the sauce and heating along with the rice.  Dinner will be ready in no time.

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Last night I did some ironing and tonight the folded clothes were put away.  A little bit each night helps to keep on top of the ordinary tasks and leaves me time for extra jobs on the weekend.

On Sunday we cleaned up the vegetable gardens and planted some new seedlings.  I hope to have some photos of the progress in a couple of days.  We also picked several kilos of cherry tomatoes which are washed, packed and frozen for later use.

 

Ferreting in the Freezer

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After 5 1/2 years of writing this blog, I sometimes feel like I am just going over same territory again and again.  Tonight I want to share something that came to me in a blinding flash this morning.

I had done a menu plan for the next week and almost everything was from the freezer.  I wanted to check what I had with a view to using some of it up.  The fridge in the kitchen has a sizeable freezer at the bottom which is 2 large drawers and we have a small, upright freezer (the size of a bar fridge) downstairs.

Once I had cleaned the freezer in the kitchen, I had the bright idea of collecting all of the items I need for the meals for the week and put them all together on the left-hand side of the top-drawer.

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There will be no more discovering that there is no pre-cooked rice left or that I need to make a new batch of refried beans and so on.  I am not sure why I did not think of this years ago but I guess it is better late than never.  It means that each week I will do a mini-stocktake of the freezer and locate what I need for meals in the coming week.

The home-made pizza bases are on top of the other containers and the rest of the space on the right-hand side has other meals for future meal plans.  Having them here together means that at a glance I can see what meals I have available.

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I have tried various lists and inventories of my freezer but none have been terribly successful as the state of my freezer is dynamic, a moveable feast, you could say.  I am hopeful that simply having the next things that I plan to use all in the same place will assist in keeping some order in the freezer.

Technology Marches On

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I planned to write this post several days ago but life managed to get in the way.

Anyway, here I am back again.

We are usually fairly prompt in organising our tax details to send to our tax agent but this year was a different story.  We headed overseas in the middle of July and did not return until the end of August.  There were plenty of other things that seemed to demand our attention so the tax was put aside.  Last weekend we finally collected up everything we needed to send.  There were several digital files which we saved and attached to the email.

However, a couple of things almost defeated us.  There was an email which we needed and we could not figure out a way to save an email as a file so decided to print it and then scan it and save the scan.  Sounds easy?  I thought so but that did not turn out to be the case.

We have recently upgraded our desktop computer and have a Microsoft tablet/laptop.  Both of these are running on Windows 10 and we discovered (after much trial and error) that our printer is not compatible with Windows 10.  Aargh!!

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The printer sits on top of the desk and is very rarely used.  We could have waited until the next day and printed the email at work but decided to resort to another rather circuitous route.  GMan retrieved our old laptop from the cupboard where it had been gathering dust and connected the printer to it.  Thankfully, that laptop was still running Windows 7.  So, we printed the email, scanned and saved it on the old laptop, copied it to a USB drive and thus transferred it to a folder on the desktop computer and we were back on track.  It was a somewhat convoluted process but worked adequately for our needs.

At some stage we need to decide what to do about getting a new printer/scanner.  It is something we want to have but are not desperate to have it immediately when we know that we have a workaround solution.

If anyone knows of a way to save an email as a file (preferably a pdf) I would love to know about it.

 

Finally Finished

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I finished making a top for myself which has been a long, drawn-out process.  I bought the material about 3 years ago because it caught my eye.

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Am I happy with it?  Not entirely.

Will I wear it?  Definitely.

What is there not to like?  It is a bit on the short side but still wearable.  The style is too boxy so I would not make it again.  I would prefer something with more shaping through the body of the garment.  However, the fabric I used is a knit but does not have a lot of stretch so probably would not work in a more fitted style.

I am happy with the final finish on the v-neck which was my own creation.  I did have 3 attempts before I was satisfied.

I have been making clothes for the best part of 50 years but I still struggle with sewing knit fabrics, in particular, getting a professional-looking finish on necklines and hemlines.  I have never owned an overlocker and continue to vacillate about the value of them.  Would it make a real difference to sewing knit fabrics?

Since the spotted fabric did not have a lot of stretch, I managed a hem that looked acceptable.  I then turned my attention to a plain navy top which I bought in Canada.  It ticked almost all of the boxes – navy, v-neck, fitted style – the only thing wrong is that it was too long on me.  It was quite a bargain so I decided to buy it despite the length as I felt that I would be able to shorten it.

I did the alteration but due to the fact that the fabric has some elastane in it and consequently more stretch, the finish is less than perfect.  Once it was pressed it is OK and I will wear it but I still feel a degree of disappointment in the result.

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I really want to be able to make my own v-neck and scooped neck fitted knit tops in a range of sleeve lengths from sleeveless  and short sleeved to 3/4 sleeve and long sleeved versions that are the correct length in the body for me.  This would allow me to choose colours and designs that I like and not be limited to the range which some fashion buyer has deemed will be available this year.

Would an overlocker help, do you think?  All comments gratefully accepted.

Meanwhile, I will go back to sewing garments from several pieces of woven fabric which are awaiting my attention.

A Quick Return

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Today I picked the first zucchinis of the season.  For an outlay of $2.50 for a punnet of 4 healthy seedlings on 12th September I have harvested 4 zucchini with a total weight of 1.2kg.

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This is only the start as there are plenty more small zucchini and flowers yet to mature.

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In just less than 6 weeks – 40 days to be precise – the transformation was complete.  The leaves are drooping in the heat of the day.  You can also see the last of the lettuce and bok choy which were planted at the same time and we had been harvesting for about 3 weeks.

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I have not grown a great deal over the past couple of years as I just seem to have been too busy but I am determined to make more of an effort and successes like these definitely inspire me to keep going.