sewing night

Cut out the pieces to make pyjama bottoms. Yakked.

Pattern borrowed from my Mum. Soft flanelette from the Sallies. I have old soft long sleeved t-shirts for bed but not soft bottoms so only planning on making the trousers.

Next week is sewing up time.



Do you see the price of petrol now? ? ? ?

Sewing night

I finished all of my refashioned dress-into-skirt except I have to sew the elastic ends together. And I yacked a lot. We shared stories of what we've done with the placentas of our children, which prompted one lovely woman to move to the other end of the room. We finalised the details of our local event for the International Knit in Public Day. Except we're having ours at night, at a local venue of our affections where the coffee, wine, beer and food are superb.

My head has spilled over with thoughts and information about food. I spent another while at the doctor's talking about immune systems this afternoon. I have been dimly aware that I put a lot of energy into making sure the children get lots of nutritional goodies and frequently forget or forgo myself, which is something which I'm changing. So I'll be into the aloe vera juice shortly. We have our own aloe vera plants in pots, but for the meantime, I'll buy the juice from the health food shop and keep ours for dealing with burns. Or to keep looking at and imagining that I'll remember about our aloe vera pot plants next time I burn myself cooking.

So next week at sewing I could do sensible things like learn to replace a zip in my son's jacket. I'm not reaaaaalllllly feeling like being sensible though. I fancy making something sumptuous, with sumptuous material. Easy-to-make kind of sumptuous garment, because I wouldn't want complexity to get in the way of having fun with my sewing friends. Maybe I'll find some pictures of inspiration on the net and share.

sewing night

Went to sewing class for the first time tonight and had a great time. Got some sewing done as well. I have four friends also doing the class and really enjoyed the company of the other women there who I had not already met. I made some nappy wipes out of my stash of lovely patterned pillowcases which I find irresistible at the Sallies. Mucked up the tension on my machine by the end. It's not a sewing session if I don't do that, it seems. Might buy a Bernina bobbin for next week so I can use the school machines. I will move on to the purple skirt project next week. At some point I want to have a go at replacing a zip with the tutor's guidance. That really would be a useful skill to have.

We also got to yak about book groups (I started one with a friend two years ago but we seem always to get unappealing books this year). We talked about various food coop possibilities and I discovered that my friend Emily has previously done coop orders from Havoc Farm and despite my earlier intention to not buy more meat for a while, I put my hand up.

I also learnt about International Knit in Public Day in June 14, 2008. So we're planning a knit and chat and coffee session (simultaneous) on that day.

We didn't talk about gardening which was a sad omission. I would like to get a local food growing group going so we can share ideas and experiences and tips which relate to our very local growing conditions. I'll get there.

refashioning and roses

I wish this post was announcing that I have chooks. I don't have chooks, but I want some. I've been making noises about this yet again. I think they could go well in the grassy spot outside the garage which is otherwise going to produce potatoes next summer. Sometime I will get results.

I pulled more stones out of the garden in front of the lounge this afternoon and then piled horse poo thickly on top. Then I took to the roses with secateurs. Brutally. I haven't seriously considered digging them out before because I didn't think I could within such a narrow strip but now I'm rethinking that assumption. They really are in the wrong place. They should be rambling up a tree or over a fence, not sprawling unattractively out of the narrow garden bed and over the driveway.

Tonight I have started to unpick the waist seam of my purple frock. I bought this long purple velveteen dress in an op shop in Ilford, Essex in 2001 or 2002. It wasn't as long as I wanted so I bought some deep red material and paid the mend it man at the dry cleaners in Goodmayes, one station east of Ilford to add it to the bottom and to edge a scarf to wear around my neck with the dress. It is a roomy and comfortable dress, so much so that I wore it to a christmas work do in 2002 when I was eight and a half months pregnant.

I wear it a lot these days and today as I took it off the washing line it occured to me that I could alter it and extend it's life and give my wardrobe a little new energy. It is an empire line dress and I'm unpicking the skirt from the bodice. I have some elastic to turn the bottom into a stand alone skirt. I'll see about the bodice later. I have a purple organic long sleeved t-shirt, also from my London days. They could be an 'outfit'. A girl has to have a few things to complement her gumboots.

sewing progress

I liked this post from Eating the Seasons recently. While I am some distance from making my own outer clothes of the type which can then be worn to work not on funny clothes day, I have achieved a few small victories in the sewing department today. At 6am actually. You might as well do some sewing if you are up early with the five year old who is shouting with excitement because today is the inaugural rugby league practice day for the first time for him ever even though it is still at that point a) dark and b) 11 hours until league practice.

I've now replaced the elastic on two pairs of Fionn's pyjamas. I have also made myself an item of washable sanitary protection. When we lived in England, WEN (Women's Environmental Network) spent some time thinking up a snappy name for products which deal with menstrual bleeding but which are reusable. Back when our grandmas used rags, probably no one talked about it to require a name. 'Sanpro' was the best WEN could come up with at the time. Here in NZ I find washable fabric pads are often called 'mama pads' which strikes me as odd for a product by no means restricted to mothers in it's use. I started my project with part of a worn out baby bib, folded it in half and sewed it together and then encased it in the lower half of the baby outfit which I cut up to make this a few months ago. Then I sewed some domes on to do it up. Twice because I sewed the dome the wrong way up. There are some fancy machines called snap presses available these days which make lovely fastenings but I had domes in my sewing bag (snaplock Glad freezer bag) and I'm all about using what I've got at the moment.

I have plans for more items made solely out of things we already have in our home. No doubt I'll be skiting here about anything which makes it to functional stage, no matter the unpicking involved. I even had to unpick the pyjama trousers and I would wager that many a seamstress would think it impossible to muck up changing elastic. It's not impossible. I promise.

Lastin. Fancy title. You buy it from specialty online shops. I'd heard about it in home made nappy circles. You know what? Down at our local Bernina shop, where the staff are so lovely I want to adopt them to be some more aunties for me, they sell the same stuff, for a fraction of the price. No fancy names for it either. 'See through elastic' they call it. Buy local ladies and gentlemen. It has perks.

Using up the cupboard day 4

Rogan Josh with red rice. Didn't have any plain white rice.

I used the last of the organic beef I bought in Spring, probably six months ago. I organised a coop and made a day trip down to Ross (150km round trip), had a great day out with friends who live there, collected the meat from the organic farmer when she came up to Ross to collect her children off the school bus and came back with lots of meat for five families. Disappointingly, the butcher had not done his job correctly and the meat has been bloody and not up to it's usual high standard. Put that together with my learning about grain to meat conversions for different animals, and I may not order more beef for a long time. For the amount of grain which is required to make a kilo of meat, chickens and pigs are much much better than cattle. There hasn't been mention of sheep in any of my reading on this topic, so I assume they are not the worst and not the best.

The Rogan Josh mix was a pile of spices in a sticky paste which some clever marketer sells in a glossy packet for goodness knows what and which probably languishes on cupboard shelves all over the country. Our good friend Brian probably had them on his shelf for a fair while before he passed them to us when he moved out of town. I have two more to use up yet.

I also used a bit of canola oil to cook the meal, meaning I actually started the bottle which is already just past it's use-by date. Not sure why I bought canola oil, but I won't be again for some time. Now we have moved from gluten free to a low gluten diet, I am hoping I will be much less tempted to buy all sorts of items just because I saw them in the NZ allergy society recipe book. Just egg free is much more straightforward given that we aren't huge fans of pre-prepared foods. I keep a jar of Hellmanns' mayonnaise in the back of the fridge just for me. That never goes past it's use-by date.

The Rogan Josh packet didn't include any vegetables in it's serving suggestion. Blasphemy. I fitted in plenty of cauliflower, butternut squash and swiss chard. Not really a meal without Sandra squeezing in some swiss chard somewhere.

Well tomorrow is the much awaited pay day, much awaited partly because now we refuse to use credit cards, the significance of pay day has increased hugely. I have managed to feed the four of us over the last eight days and only spent NZ$145, which is easily $50 less than usual. That is for every meal, including bought fish and chips one night. Most interestingly to me (yes this is my new or at least current obsession), now I've got into the swing of using up the cupboard and realised quite how full the larder is, I don't feel like we have no food and desperately need to go to the supermarket. I usually would by now.

The garden is supplying all the greens at the moment, plus herbs and celery. Everything else is bought. Given that lentils and beans are cheaper than meat, my treat is that I get organic lentils and beans whenever I can get hold of them (the dried, uncooked versions). I am feeling deserving of an order of Puy lentils and black beans from the organic supplier over the hill, but I need to use up more of my cupboard yet. I also need to find out whether the organic food coop 40 kms south of here might have these items. I haven't supported them as much as I'd planned, though the fact they didn't put me on their mailing list as they had offered to hasn't helped.

Also today, I sewed a nappy. All by myself. I usually think of myself as fairly crunchy. A sandal wearing paid up hippy on a number of fronts. But today at the nappy sewing class, I was just a softy. Not much crunch at all by comparison with my sewing buddies. It was a good project to promote Real Nappy Week. Cos disposables are fake nappies it would seem. I've spent very little money on disposable nappies in my parenting time thanks to some good advice and purchasing when Fionn was a tiny baby. So although we have plenty of washable nappies at our house, thanks to today's class we now have one more. Megan the tutor also showed me things my sewing machine could do that I had no idea about. Three stitch zig zag, nice to meet you.

Out in the garage, our new letterbox is looking increasingly funky. Bright yellow and black, it now has a picture of a racing car painted onto it. Fionn chose the picture and then Favourite Handyman made the stencil and Fionn painted it on. I will have to get the camera out and share that one soon. I bought some cement this afternoon for anchoring the letterbox into the ground. I buy and FH digs. Marriage made in heaven, played out here in earth. Just as well I'm cooking so well of late, especially as the budget has largely precluded beer. Good cooking seems to help diying along nicely.

Using up the cupboard day three

Too cold for sushi.

Made banana muffins which used up the overripe bananas. Used an icecream tub of vegetable and pork bones broth which I made and froze a month or so ago for dinner. I'm also clearing the small freezer as of yesterday (the bottom of a fridge/freezer unit), because I've heard that Rayleen has more roosters for us.

Then the using the ingredients from the dry goods list project: Buckwheat and sunflower bread. The outside was like a brick, but the inner part was reasonable. I didn't notice anyone go back for seconds of the bread, only the soup. So I used some: buckwheat flour, molasses (pungent stuff that!), yeast which I've discovered is only two weeks from it's use by date and sunflower seeds. Didn't manage to empty any packet, but progress nevertheless.

I do feel a bit like I've woken up in a health camp. Not that it is massively different from our usual eating patterns, but the bread did scream health-freak-gone-far, especially the brick hard outer.

Better get moving. Once again I lost my night computer time. Day three of the holidays was more fun though. I need to get my sewing machine sorted because this week is Real Nappy Week and I've opted to learn to sew my own nappies. Brighid has enough nappies but I thought this would be good for my sewing skills and I wanted to support Fi, the fabulous nappy junkie who works very hard here in wetville to promote cloth nappy usage.

Oops!

Nearly forgot I had a blog.

Here in wetville that had turned into droughtville, we finally had some rain for most of this week. My friends on tank water supplies are able to use their washing machines again. My garden is looking quite reasonable and I'm aware that I need to get Favourite Handyman to download some photos. You know, so you can tell I'm not a fake. Cos' you'd all be reading if you thought I was a fake making up my garden, huh? Or just because I don't have any home photos for ages and this is supposed to be an at least partly illustrated diary of my gardening journey.

I've been thinking about global and local food supplies untilI overloaded today and it all fell out of my head. No doubt I'll be thinking about it again soon.

Last night at my local book group we talked about old fashioned skills like sewing. One of my friends said 'nobody knits anymore' and I elbowed her to disagree, just like at school (though then I'm sure it wasn't about knitting). Some of us are learning to sew nappies for Real Nappy Week next week and spurred on by that opportunity, we are organising for an evening sewing class at the Adult Ed section of the local high school. Not everybody learning to sew some naff sundress at once (I still remember that at school when I was eleven. I have yet to see a fashion era in which that sundress looked passable). We would each bring our projects and problems and our tutor would be able to help us with them. Crucially, there would be no one year olds at the class.

Cos I'm old fashioned (or a new fashioned greenie peak oil-aware person as an alternative description), I am indeed knitting. I've knitted a jersey for my daughter and a garden hat for me and now I am really being adventurous and knitting myself a cardigan out of alpaca and merino wool. Photos on my next photo post. I'm wary of putting a time on when that will be. Who was that in Alice in Wonderland who was always late?

I've found another source of chicken poo and will be collecting that very soon. Clearly not all chicken keepers are keen gardeners.

Our scarecrow has fallen over completely before we could get him to look awesome.

I've been catching more mice. I'd better go and bait some more traps now. Also want to get some rocket and mesclun planted for growing on the windowsill and some sprouts going. Maybe some bread.

I think this adds up to getting pressing "publish post" and getting lots more active for the next hour.

green things (and brown)

Green things activity #1. Decided to plant broad beans along the length of the back fence. Yes I know it was going to be lupins yesterday and probably something else the day before. But the sun was shining, I had broad beans in my seed box already, and I had a bag of garden mix to help me plant. So into the layers of wood chip and lawn clippings, I made thirty small holes, put a handful of dirt into each one, then a bean, then a big handful of dirt on top. Only time will tell if this is a great idea. My finished work is in the photo above. We plan for the fence to be smothered in flowers and vegetables next Summer.

Brown things activity. Collected four bags of chook house lining (bark and chicken poo mixed together) from Rayleen. Superb compost material. Saw lots of horse poo for sale on the way home but you can only fit so much poo into the car at once.

Green things activity #2. Made a St Patrick's Day dress for my daughter. It's rough but it's a dress and I made it. She owned a kind of romper (I think that is the correct term) outfit and I cut the material off just below the bodice and sewed some shamrock material on. Didn't need to hem it because it was all done for me. Why? Because the shamrock material used to be a small round tablecloth and I kept the hem from the original. So that will be thrift shop item plus home sewing plus refashioning an existing item of clothing. Do I feel clever? Oh yes yes yes.

Here is the spot for our scarecrow. The rich brown earth colour to the left is where Fionn and I sowed Beneficial Insect Blend yesterday. To the front is pea straw mulch resting atop earth which has Bokashi buried in it. This garden is getting a lot more sun than when we moved in and is also less squelchy underfoot. I'm thinking (as of today) of planting some veges in the pea straw. There are a lot of slugs in this patch (it's the one I ususally refer to as my invasive garden patch, so probably silverbeet (swiss chard) as they don't seem to like it and maybe some kale. The scarecrow will go where the strawberry cage netting, the paddling pool and the pile of weeds currently sits.