Tag Archives: buttons

Salad, Saving & Sewing

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I finally finished the summer pyjamas for Miss O.  Here is the top.

And the pants.

On Tuesday I went out to lunch with some of my work colleagues.  In the interests of both my waistline and my purse I opted to have the salad.  For $15 I had a full-sized plate of 3 different salads – noodle, green bean and Greek salads.  The flavours were delicious and it was a substantial meal.

After lunch I went to Lincraft to look for some buttons.  I have a piece of linen fabric that I bought a couple of years ago  and I want to make a summer top that buttons down the back so I wanted some really special buttons for it.  I used all the money I saved on my lunch and more when I bought 5 buttons for $2.82 each.

This is the fabric and buttons.  The fabric is pure linen with a pattern embroidered in gold thread.  I think the fabric was about $25 and the buttons were $14.  While this seems extravagant it is still much better value than buying a blouse of similar quality.

I will make the blouse when we get back from our holidays.

A One-Off Designer Original

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I did not post last night as I was having a blitz in the sewing room.  I keep promising myself that I will sort everything out and store my very projects and stash appropriately.

I have achieved quite a bit in this room over a period of time but one of the things that always seems too hard is the dressmaking patterns.  I bit the bullet yesterday and decided that the majority of the patterns would not be used again – outdated style, wrong size etc.  I checked all of the pieces to make sure they were complete and then put them in a bag and they went to the op shop this morning.  There are probably still a few that should not have made the cut but they can wait for another day.

With the room a bit clearer I decided to start on my latest project – bags for Miss O and Izz for Christmas.  We have bought tickets for them to go to the Wiggles concert but as we all know, 2 and 4 year olds need something to open on Christmas morning.

This is the bag I made for Izz.  It truly is a designer original.  I think you will agree that you won’t find one like that in the shops.  I made the entire bag from scraps.  The main fabric is blockout curtain material that I used to make curtains for Miss O’s nursery.  The redtrim and tab was a small piece in my stash, the handles are lined with calico and the tab has a velcro fastening.

Here are a couple more views of the bag.

I have started one for Miss O with different fabric so will show you that another day.

I have almost finished a summer blouse for myself from fabric I bought over 2 years ago and cut out last summer.  I still have to do the binding on the armholes as well as the buttons and buttonholes.  Since I do not have any suitable buttons I will go to Lincraft during the week and see what I can find.

Speaking of buttons I did find some in my op shop expedition yesterday.  I found these in the jumble in a big basket.

They cost me the princely sum of $1.30 (5c each).  Here they are all sorted out.

I finished the hand-sewing on the oven mitt and am pleased to report that I used it tonight and the old towel that I used as wadding was very effective in resisting the heat while removing a Pyrex dish from the oven.  I have cut out all of the pieces to make 2 more mitts.  The one thing worth remembering is that you need 100% cotton fabric when making the oven mitts.

Bargains and Collecting

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Even though I was working from home for part of the day yesterday I did not get around to posting.  It may have had something to do with how cold it was.  The temperature did not make it into double figures all day and although we do get quite cool days here things are not really set up to cope with that kind of weather.  It was grey and overcast as well which did not help my mood.

Anyway, I am back and keen to tell you about my latest acquisitions.  When I went into Maleny to do some errands and shopping I popped into the 2 op shops we have here in town.  I dropped some thing off to the first one and then had a look at their buttons.  Apparently any garments that are not fit for resale have any buttons cut off (still attached to a strip of fabric) and these are all tossed in a basket.  I went through the stash and found these to add to my collection.  They cost 5c each.

Then it was off to the other op shop to see if they had anything that caught my eye.  I was in luck and picked up a pair of jeans for Izz for $3.95.

They don’t look anything out of the ordinary from the front.  But the back view…..

…..is rather cute.

As I was heading back towards the counter I saw these for $5.95

A pair of unworn Clarks leather shoes.  They will not fit Miss O for a few years yet but too good a bargain to pass up.  They will be great with jeans when she is a bit older.

For those of you who are interested in my dialogue with Origin – I rang yesterday and they will be sending the bill as a priority so I should get it in the next week!  I did establish that the 1 month free is the offer I signed up for and it is an average of our usage over the past 12 months.  It is a credit of about $35 – every little bit helps.  I have changed the bonus offer so that we actually get 5% discount on all electricity used from the grid for the next 12 months so that will make the differential between the amount they pay for what we generate and  put into the grid and what we draw out even more substantial.  Bring on the savings!  I also asked how I could claim the credit from our solar panels.  Once we receive the bill/statement I will know much credit we have and I then ring and ask for it to be credited to us.  I am not sure yet whether it is paid as a cheque or directly into our account.  More on that another day.