The Mending Pile

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Posted on July 17, 2011

In between other domestic chores I managed to do a few things from my pile of mending. Nothing was too difficult but it is just a matter of making time to do it.

I let the hem down on Izz’s dressing gown and also added ribbing cuffs to the sleeves to gain a little extra length. This will now last her until the end the winter. I made the gown for Miss O and they have both worn it.

I also added ribbing band to the sleeves and body of Izz’s pyjama top. The t-shirt fabric which I had bought from Spotlight had stretched a ridiculous amount so the bands will make it wearable again.

Then for something completely different I darned a hole in a woollen pullover that belongs to The Duke. It is only worn around the house since it was eaten by moths a couple of years ago. Now, I use it for darning practice and The Duke continues to wear it.

I redid some stitching that had come undone on 2 purchased tops of mine and then finished shortening the sleeves on a jacket I bought at the beginning of the year

I think there are still a few more things to be mended lurking under the piles on my sewing table but I am gradually making progress.

While on the sewing theme I wanted to show you the pinafores I made for Miss O and Izz. Here they are being worn. I am very pleased with how they turned out.

And another view

Sewing Stuff

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Posted on June 22, 2011

Today I want to share a few organising tips from my sewing/craft room. Generally, this room is anything but organised – in fact it is the untidiest room in the house. Part of the reason for this is that I really want to sort things out properly after too many years of having things just shoved willy-nilly into boxes. Here is a mobile set of drawers which I bought from Officeworks a few years ago for work-related papers but it has since been re-purposed for some of my sewing things.

The drawers fit nicely in the corner spot between the door and the built-in wardrobe with my cutting mat slipped in between the drawers and the wall. The top 3 drawers hold containers of buttons, bobbins, thread, pins, needles, safety pins, elastic and bias binding as well as my scissors, tape measures and quick unpicks. Drawer 4 has interfacing and the bottom 2 drawers have small to medium sized pieces of fabric. I do not usually buy storage containers for things as I can find boxes or jars to use. Here is a box I salvaged from work (about 20 years ago) and covered in some leftover contact.

I store my knitting needles in it.

Finally, here is some of my button collection.

This is a container that came from my mother’s place so I have put it to use sorting some of the buttons by colour. These are ones where there are several the same and they may actually be used on a garment that I make. The others are loose in a jar for when I need a random replacement button or something like eyes for a sock puppet. Now I am inspired to go and organise some more things in the sewing room. One day it will be in a state that I will be able to show you the whole room rather than a few random pieces.

A Winter Wardrobe

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Posted on June 16, 2011

This is not about my winter wardrobe as it is pretty much the same as last year. In fact I don’t think I have bought any new clothes this season. That may change, of course, but I don’t really need anything extra.

Miss O and Izz are a different story as they are still at the age where they grow out of almost everything from one winter to the next. So, I have have been busy sewing for them and here are some of the results.

A dressing gown for Miss O

……and a nightie – I actually made 2 of them.

Pyjamas for Izz

Corduroy pinafore for Izz

Finally, a hooded jacket for Miss O.

These projects have been successful on two fronts – the girls now have more clothes that they needed and I have less fabric in my stockpile to be used up. Lots more to use and numerous other things I want to make.

I am looking forward to doing more sewing. I must admit I had forgotten how rewarding it is to make garments for small children.

Some people believe that it is not economical to sew but I have to disagree. These things should not be compared to the cheapest you can buy but mid to top-range garments which are of similar quality fabric and construction. It is also important to remember that hand-made garments can be custom-sized with extra allowance in seams and hems to allow for growing, thus ensuring at least 2 years wear out of most items.

Sewing, like knitting, cooking from scratch and growing our own food is a skill which we should all have if there is to be any degree of self-reliance. We cannot simply expect that mass-produced, cheap imported clothing that is produced in overseas sweatshops will always be available.

Do you sew? Maybe knitting or crocheting? Do you use your skills or teach others so that these arts are not lost forever?

Stamp of Approval

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Posted on June 7, 2011

Today I spent about an hour with Miss O as Belle had a specialist appointment for Izz. I took the various garments that I am making for Miss O so that I could show her, check the fit and length for hemming and generally gauge her opinion. Everything got the thumbs up so it will be full steam ahead to complete them all. The yellow pinafore/sundress with red pockets was extremely well received. She seemed particularly keen on the contrasting pockets and was eager to slip her hands into the pockets to try them out. I will have to have another look through my stash and see if I have got other suitable pieces of fabric as I think it will be a very practical style for wearing to daycare.

On another note, Origin Energy are not looking like getting a stamp of approval from me. We normally receive our bills about 3-4 working days after the meter is read. Last quarter the meter was read on 28th February and the bill was not generated until 5th April. When I rang to inquire about a month after I expected the bill I was offered some vague explanation about the delays being due to the floods. I am not sure how that works. The meter was read last Tuesday (I was home so I saw it being done) and we still have not received the bill. If it does not arrive by Thursday I will be phoning Origin to find out what is going on. Just strikes me as a bit odd because these are the first 2 readings since the solar panels were installed and our account is in credit that there seems to be a delay in notifying us. Call me a cynic if you like! I want to know how much credit I have so that I can request it to be paid to us. Better earning interest for us than Origin.

Watch this space for an update on me vs. Origin.

Sunday – Sorting, Sewing and Stepping

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Posted on June 5, 2011

I have a moderate-size walk-in pantry in the corner of my kitchen. It was not spectacularly untidy but I did need to clean the shelves, check for any ‘orphans’ lurking in the back corners and generally get things sorted. I do not have a before photo but here it is when I had finished.

I only store the things that I am currently using in here as I have bulk stores in 10 litre buckets downstairs as well as another stock cupboard in the kitchen where I keep quantities of tinned food and extra packets of pasta, dry crackers etc.

The container in the middle of the bottom shelf is a few things I found that were not likely to get used so I have put them all together and made a note to myself to use them up. One thing in this bundle was some rice noodles which have been used the the stir-fry for dinner.

Today I did some more sewing for my grand-daughters. Here are the results of my efforts over the past week or so. I still have more that I am working on and will add the photos when they are done.

This the pinafore made from the sea-green corduroy I mentioned in yesterday’s post. I have yet to do the hem. The photograph does not do the colour justice and it is difficult to see the little embroidered flowers also.

While I had the pattern out I decided to make a summer one as well. It can be worn with a blouse or t-shirt underneath or alone in really hot weather. The fabric I used was originally a caftan I made for my sister many years ago. The only variation I needed to make was contrast fabric for the pockets and facings as well as a join in the centre front of the front and back bodice pieces.

This is the pattern I used – originally bought in 1986 and still going strong.

Here are a pair of basic trackpants I made.

That is it for today. I am still working on a dressing gown for Miss O as well as a hooded polar fleece jacket. I bought material today to make some more winter nighties for her and I have material here to make singlets and skivvies for both of the girls.

I managed 7,500 steps today which is not too bad since I did not go walking as such. That was just incidental at home and also at the market and Spotlight.

More Sewing

Shopping & Sewing

Waste Not, Want Not – False Hems and Fitted Sheets

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Posted on April 2, 2011

As promised, today I am able to unveil the final photos of the doona cover and curtains. Like so many things in life there was no firm plan to make these but they just evolved because of an email I received from someone selling pieces of fabric in order to downsize their stash. One of the pieces was 1.9 metres of ‘Dora the Explorer’ fabric which was impossible to pass up since I knew how besotted Miss O is at the moment with everything ‘Dora’. I had no preconceived ideas about what I would make as I was unsure of the quality of the fabric or the size of the design. One thing led to another and I decided to make a patchwork doona cover and some curtains for her room. I bought the plain fabric from Spotlight and also some sheeting to make the underside of the doona cover.

And here is the other window. Miss O is very pleased with her newly-decorated bedroom.

In order to preserve every bit of fabric that I had I used some unbleached calico from my collection to make false hems on the top (for the casing) and bottom (for the hem) of each of the curtains. This meant that there was about 80cm of fabric that I did not need to buy.

I also created a ‘new’ set of sheets each for Miss O and Izz. There were some older single bed sheets that had come from my mother which I re-vamped. I had one off-white fitted sheet so I paired that with a faded but OK flat sheet with a pink and green floral pattern. I added a 15cm border of plain pink sheeting (from the backing of the doona cover) to the top edge to freshen it up. I then made a plain pink pillowcase to complete the set. Izz has a blue flat sheet edged with some mauve patterned fabric which I found in my stash. There was a matching blue pillowcase so I appliqued some patches of the mauve fabric onto it and then found an off-white flat sheet which I turned into a fitted sheet by measuring the mattress, marking and making mitred corners before adding elastic. The colours will look great with her bed that I recently re-painted.

Meanwhile, with the offcuts from the mitred corners of the fitted sheets I made 4 small serviettes. They are lovely strong cotton and 2 of the sides were already hemmed (from being the edge of the sheet) so it was a simple matter of hemming the other 2 sides. These will be perfect for our picnic lunch kit which we will take with us when we travel in a few weeks time.

A Fresh Start

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Posted on March 12, 2011

This is a brand new blog, so here goes.

Come and join me on my journey towards an organised, sustainable existence.

This will be a random selection of happenings at ‘The Castle’ which I hope will prove to be both informative and interesting. Please comment, make suggestions and generally let me know what you think.

I expect that there will be photos, recipes, hints and tips as well as some more personal thoughts.

Today I have been working on making a patchwork doona cover for my grand-daughter. A few weeks ago I found that someone was selling a piece of ‘Dora the Explorer’ fabric online so that was too good an opportunity to pass up since Dora is a firm favourite with Miss O at the moment. I bought some plain fabric from Spotlight to go with it and am very happy with the effect so far. There is also a small pile of mending to be done so I might try to get that done tomorrow.