New Shirts

I've been sewing away at the t-shirts I'm making for DD, and am down to the last two. In fact, when I finish this post, I'll probably go and try to get them finished, leaving way for the next sewing project. She's been wearing them as fast as I'm sewing them, meaning it's hard to get a photo, but I'll try to add some to this post before I post it.

Out of 3 metres of fabric, I've made about 7 t-shirts, the entire lot costing me less than $20. There is plenty of material left over, just no pieces big enough for the front of the shirts. I will probably make some skirts as well or perhaps some pants.

I deliberately bought 3 co-ordinating colours so that I could mix and match, and ended up with some interesting colour combinations at the end, some deliberate, some just the material I had left. Each shirt I made is different in some way, perhaps a different colour binding, or different coloured sleeves/back. Only problem I've found is that because most of them are patterns, it's harder to match them with DD's patterned skirts.

There was a time not so long ago when you could by clothes for cheaper than you could make them, but it seems that is passing. I wonder if it's the material getting cheaper, or the clothes getting more expensive? Or perhaps it's just that I'm sewing for a smaller person now! It can't only be that though, because I'm finding it cheaper to make clothes for myself too, so long as I stick to the simpler patterns, which is really what I prefer anyway.

I've taken to cutting up the junk mail catalogues as they come in, picking out the clothing pictures I once would have gone out to buy, and sticking them into a scrapbook for inspiration when sewing. Nearly every picture I see is a relatively simple alteration on a basic pattern, so are easily reproducible without much added expense. Now that we've solved the immediate lack of t-shirt issue, hopefully I'll have time for some pretty and frilly additions!

Edited to add: Not any time soon though, overlocked is broken again! I had the same problem a few weeks after I bought it, so I'm not happy that it's happened again. Back to the repair shop yet again!

Present Pictures

And here are the promised princess tent pictures. It really was a nightmare to make. Cutting out the windows let the walls stretch out of shape, the wire around each piece buckled, and you don't want to know the gymnastics it took to get those pieces under the food of the sewing machine. I did hand sew some of it, but I would never have gotten it finished if I had tried to hand sew all of it.

DD loves it though, and has played with it every day since Christmas. She doesn't see any of the crooked stitches, the seams that show, the walls that aren't the right shape, or the roof that sags. And in the end, that is what I was aiming for, something that made DD happy, so I'm trying very hard to overlook all those imperfections myself.

I'm much much happier with how this doll turned out, although she does seem to have rather a lot of hair...

DD of course, seems less keen. She's far happier dressing up Big Bird or Simba. The fairy dress (made after Christmas to match DD's) has helped though, and today she has been asking to have her hair in pigtails like dolly, so I guess there is hope.

For anyone who is interested in trying their hand at making one, I bought my pattern for download from Dancing Rain Dolls. It was a really easy to follow and comprehensive pattern, and I definitely think I'll be purchasing some more of her patterns in the future.

Christmas Preparations

And I was under the mistaken impression that December would be quieter than November, and I would have more time to post. How mistaken was I?

In previous years, we've bought all our presents. We've made sure we get toys and items with long term playability, and preferably good quality and educational, but still all that shopping and deciding is a major undertaking especially at this time of year. This year, I've been looking around at all the toys in the shops, and been very disappointed in what was on offer. Most things are plastic, and have very little long term playability. Maybe it's DD's age, and the fact that things are becoming very commercialised (why does everything have either Dora the Explorer or Disney Princesses on it?), but I have found very little that I wanted to buy for her. We have purchased a couple of presents online, but the plan this year was/is to make the majority of DD's presents, as well as everyone else's.

Of course, being presents, and given the fact that many of the recipients read this blog, I can't even post any interesting pictures of all the crafting that is happening! The pic above is the beginning of DD's Waldorf doll, that is nearly finished now. I will write more about it and post some pictures after Christmas hopefully.

As if making all those presents weren't enough, I had this crazy idea half way through the month to make an advent calendar! We've been doing it slowly, doing a pocket a day (usually in a rush after DD is in bed!), and though it's nearly finished now, I'll save the final picture until the past pocket is on.

We've had a lot of fun with it though. Instead of going the commercial route for surprises for each pocket, I've been trying to stick with things that we've made ourselves, or things that are some sort of activity we can do with DD. In this picture, you can see the paper strips that were our first surprise, used to make paper chains. We've also had bubble mixture, Christmas cookie cutters, and a treasure hunt. It has been lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to making it a yearly tradition. Hopefully it won't be so stressful next year when the calendar is already made! (And hopefully I'll come up with some ideas throughout the year so that I'm prepared.)

Sewing Day

After spending a few hours last night surfing blogs and following link after link to cool tutorials, I decided to try some of them out today. These are door stops, made from this tutorial. Very simple and easy, and very practical. Since DH put some grease on the toilet door, it mysteriously closes itself whenever you aren't looking. Not a problem, except when you're trying to help a 4yo in there, and one of your bumps yourself on a door in the wrong place. So the blue one is in the toilet, and the white stripy one is in the laundry, who's door often blows closed with an annoyingly loud bang (usually when I'm out hanging up the washing, and trying to her DD yelling something inside.)

Since DD was so taken with the rice filled pyramid door stops, and was determined to carry them around, negating their usefulness in preventing doors blowing closed, I made her these bean-bags to throw instead, based on this tutorial (which I had read, but not planned on making, so going on memory). She was successfully diverted, and the door-stops have remained (mostly) in place.

And this was my final project, finished only because I hate to leave things undone. It's a floor mat, and a woeful attempt at the quilt in this tutorial. Unfortunately, I don't have a roller cutter, making it kind of hard to get the squares, well, square. I also made the strips between the pieces a little too thick (those white ones), and it was only saved from awfulness by the pretty blue border. Luckily, aside from the border, it was all made with leftover scraps and recycled materials, so I don't feel too badly about it. It's a learning experience, and I'm sure when it's on the floor and we're wiping our feet on it, we won't notice all the many imperfections. (Well, anyone but me probably won't anyway.

Ditching the Plastic

Plastic bags that is. We've actually been plastic bag free (mostly) for a while now, but I've only just gotten around to taking some pictures of these. While we used green bags for our groceries for quite a while, it took a little longer to ditch the plastic fruit bags. When we started going to the markets regularly, it seemed somehow even more silly to be still putting our fruit in plastic bags, so I made up these vegie bags from some old curtain material. They're just simple drawstring bags, really easy to make, although it did take me until yesterday to get around to putting the drawstring in. They worked just fine without it though.

The trick to making these is to use as lightweight materials (material and drawstrings) as possible, so that they aren't adding weight to your fruit and veg prices. Also, make sure you use something see-through so that the cashiers can work out what you're buying. Finally, I used french seams to make sure that they weren't going to break at an inopportune moment. Several months of use, and they're still going strong. When we get home from the markets, I empty the fruit into the cupboard/fridge, and chuck them in the wash so that they're ready for next week.

Here they are full of fruit, they're about the size of an A4 page, which seems to be a pretty good size, although we usually buy two bags full of bananas! Since my green bags are nearing the end of their days, and actually aren't that green being made from what is basically plastic, I'm working on making some replacement cloth bags for general grocery shopping. This is my prototype, made form an old sheet (which is poly-cotton, so not great for clothes). It works great, but still needs a bit more fiddling with the shape and placement of the handles. I much prefer it over the green bags, although I think it could benefit from being a bit stiffer in places.

Personalised Softie

Softies, as they seem to be called, are all the rage, seems like I see pictures of them everywhere. I've never been a big fan myself, being more of a realism person, but DD saw a stuffed striped giraffe at an organic store I visited with my sister yesterday, and really wanted it. Thankfully she was placated with promises of making one. So make one we did, only ours, of course, is a dinosaur. Not just any dinosaur either, but a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

DD was thrilled to join in with drawing up a 'pattern' for us to use. I told her she had to draw it big, or she wouldn't get a big dinosaur, and she obliged.

DD chose out her material, and I cut out some rough pieces for the body, arms, legs, tail and head. And an extra plain piece for the face. Since DD drew single lines for the arms, legs and tail, I had to make them a bit wider, and occasionally change the length a bit. Overall, their placement is the most important bit to keep the childlike composition of the finished softie I think. I also had to be careful to make them thick enough to sew, turn and stuff. The tail ended up being too narrow, and I had to cut out a second one.

Then I had DD draw the face on the pink material in pen (pencil would have been better, but I couldn't find one), and I embroidered it in 3 strands of embroidery cotton, then slip stitched it to the head piece, turning the edges under as I went.. I made the eyes slightly bigger, but otherwise followed the lines she had drawn. Which was quite a challenge, let me tell you. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and spend way too much time trying to get faces to look just right. Of course, I think this one worked out just perfect, without any adjusting from me.

Then I put all the extremities right sides together, and overlocked around the edges. I had to round off the bit where the neck joins the head a little to get around it with the overlocker, but I wanted the pieces to be strong, and not start coming apart in a few weeks.

Then we turned them right side out (with the help of the end of the scissors), and stuffed them. DD enjoyed helping with the stuffing, although she did make them a little on the soft side, so I had to add a little bit to the ones she did. I left the ends a bit floppy because they're going to be sewn to the body.

I positioned the arms,legs, tail and head on the body again, using the picture to get the locations right.

Then turned them all to the inside and pinned.

Then decided to overlock them in place before trying to sew the body pieces together.

I also overlocked the other piece, then joined them on the sewing machine, leaving a nice big gap to turn it right side out.

Then we stuffed the body, slip-stitched the opening closed, and DD gave him his first cuddle. She's been carrying him around all day (by the neck!) and has now taken him to bed with her. I think it really means something to her that this is HER representation of a dinosaur, not someone else's, and that she helped design and make him.

Now, of course, she wants to make all the other types of dinosaurs...

Spring Quilting

It wasn't until I was editing the photos for this post, and trying to decide on a title, that I realised how well the colours of this quilt fit to Spring. The beautiful, bright rainbow really brightens up the room, and when you look at it, you can't help but feel light and happy. Perfect for a little girls room.

There's very little frugal about this quilt, it's made from (almost) all new material, and didn't come cheap, although the main body of quilting is made from material I have had in my cupboard since before DD was born. I didn't even buy it myself, my mum saw it in her local quilting shop, and couldn't leave it there. 24 fat quarters, hand dyed, all in carefully arranged shades through the rainbow. (Although we only used 23, several of the pinks were so similar I took one out, as the quilt was going to be very long anyway). I have put off cutting up this material, trawled through many quilting books and magazines for the perfect design, but eventually it was time to just give it a go, and we decided on a really simple design, that would show off the beautiful shading without any fancy patterns detracting from the simple beauty.

First step was to cut the material, not into squares, but into strips. We were going to carefully measure each one, but in the end, we just cut along the fold lines, giving us 4 strips very close in size to what I wanted.

I worried for a while about how to keep the colours in order, as some of the shades are very similar, and in the end we decided to lay them down in order. We pinned each colour (4 strips of each) at the top to prevent them blowing away. (This is on my mum's veranda, you can see the grass in the top left hand corner, so it was a little windy.)

This type of quilt is much easier (and quicker) to sew with two people. My mum sewed each strip together as I handed them to her in order. If I had been on my own, I would have had to constantly get up and down to get each piece, and I'm sure some of them would have ended up out of order.

I was a little concerned about how to keep track of the order anyway, as so many shades are so similar, but came up with this simple strategy to keep it in order. Each time I took a strip off the pile, I turned the pin the other way. That way I could quickly and easily work out which strip to grab next. It worked too, not a strip out of order.

Once we had joined all 23 strips, we then sewed the first strip to the last one, making a continuous loop like this. I hope the photo shows what I mean, as this is the step that made doing the staggered pattern so simple and easy. We made 4 of these loops.

Each loop was then folded into quarters, and cut into strips the same size as the origional strips (so that the patches would be square). As you can see here, there was a small bit at the end left over that wasn't big enough to make another strip, but those will get used later.

Then I unpicked one seam on each strip, moving one square through the colours each time, and sewed these together (as we went). This was a little tricky, as some of the colours were hard to tell apart, but in those cases I looked back to a strong colour change, and worked from there. Again, I did the unpicking/arranging, and my mum sewed. I deliberately arranged it so that the pink colours were around the middle of the quilt, as my DD loves pink. We picked out a pink border at the local quilting shop, and found some bamboo wadding for the middle. If you haven't heard about bamboo, it's a wonderful new alternative to cotton, which is grown with far less pestasides, making it far more gentle on the environment. And it has a wonderful, silky soft feel. Seems almost a shame to hide it away in the middle of a quilt!

Of course, the quilt isn't entirely new material. The backing is a white sheet I bought at the local op shop for $4! And the bias strip around the edge is the end bits left from cutting out patched strips. It was almost exactly the right size to go around the quilt, only 4 squares left over. Quite an economical use of material really.

Doesn't it look beautiful on DD's bed? She loves it, and has been sleeping in her bed again since we bought it home. She had had a run of bad dreams, and moved back in with us full time, and I was hoping this would make a difference, which it has. Not that we mind having her in with us, in fact DH and I both sleep better with her nearby, but I also want her to enjoy her own room, which she is now doing. We bring her in with us when we go to bed, so that she isn't waking up alone in the dark.

For anyone who is thinking of trying their hand at quilting, but is afraid to give it a go, don't be. My mum and I aren't perfect quilters. We don't measure things terribly carefully, and if we make a mistake, we don't let it stop us. For example, we cut off the edge of one of the last strips by acciden, so that it was about 5mm shorter than all the other strips, but carried on anyway, and in the end, you can't even tell which one was the shorter square. I also accidently bought about 2 inches less batting than we needed (I forgot to calculate for the wider border), so that it doesn't go right to the edge, and had a similar problem with the backing, but we just fix those up, and keep sewing. In the end, these little mistakes are unnoticable among the larger quilt, a quilt that never would have been finished if we'd let ourselves be deterred by simple mistakes.

Happy Sewing!

Sheet Wardrobe

I've been sewing up a storm the last few weeks, making some summer dresses for myself (in among making all those clothes for DD). So far I have these 6 dresses (can you tell what colours I like?). Some of the material has been bought new, but most of it is recycled, and about the only place you can get this much material in one piece is in old sheets! So what I'm wondering now, is can you guess which ones are the sheets, and which ones are the new material? Most of these I plan to wear around the house anyway, so it doesn't really matter that they look like sheets, but I am curious how many of them are obvious.

The patterns are from my Stitch House book, which I officially LOVE. All of these can be made with 2m or less of material! Pretty good for an adult dress. They're also really cool and comfortable, which is a very important characteristic.

I popped my soap out of the moulds this morning too. Well, popped is probably the wrong word, wrestled is more like it. But it's out, and it looks WAY better than the last lot. The picture doesn't show it, but it actually looks kind of green, not quite sure why, but the colour is even, and the consistency is right (the last lot was crumbly and patchy), so I think this lot is going to be great. I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

I'm off for a few days to a week tomorrow, visiting my mum, so probably won't be posting. But expect lots of crafty pics and op shop finds when I get back!

Rainy Days

It's been raining on and off the last two days, so we've spent a lot of time indoors. DD made this flower out of paddlepop sticks, all her own idea, although I suspect it was sparked by our flower collages a few weeks ago. I'm really impressed at her craft work lately, she's coming up with a lot of ideas on her own, and has the manipulative skills to turn them into actual objects. She also made some letters out of the paddlepop sticks, although she messed them up before I could take a photo.

We were really glad to see this rain, as it's the first we've had since the last lot I wrote about, over a month ago! Very unusual for spring.

I know, I write about the rain quite a lot. But when you're living simply, it really does have a big effect on your life. And not in the annoying 'I'm going to get wet walking from the car to the shops' kind of way either. We rely on the rain to fill our water tanks so that we have fresh water to drink, shower and wash with, and to water the garden. Nothing makes the garden grow so much as a good soaking from the rain. Somehow, it's totally different to being watered with the hose or a watering can.

The rain inspired me to spread the rest of the sugar cane mulch around the front garden. It's well and truly soaked now, as is the ground underneath it, so hopefully even if we have another dry spell, it will stay wet, meaning I will have to water less, and what watering I do do will be more efficient. I hope it hangs around long enough for me to get some more mulching done, although I have so much else to do in the next few days, not sure how that will go.

It also inspired us to jump in and do a job that has been needing to be done for a while, digging a channel down the side of the house to drain some of the water that usually collects there. A good half hour in the rain, and we had improved things substantially. And of course, both DH and I needed a good shower! DD had a ball playing in the rain while we worked though.

While we were out there, DH cleared the gutters again, as they were overflowing yet again, even though it was only a few weeks ago that we cleared them last. We were debating over whether the cost of professional gutter guard was warranted, but after seeing that, it's definitely necessary, so we'll organise that on Monday.

Today I also managed to knock over another few jobs that have been on my mental to-do list, making soap, and making yogurt.

This is my second attempt at making soap using the tutorial on Down to Earth. The first lot was definitely usable, although not exactly pretty. I think my biggest problem was that I was stirring by hand, and after more than 20 minutes, had still barely reached trace. That was solved though by my wonderful sister (who will have some soap delivered to her in a few weeks) giving me her old stainless steel stick blender. One of the seals was gone, making it unsafe for blending food, but still fine for soapmaking. I reached trace so fast I was staring at it thinking it couldn't have happened that quickly, and wondering if I'd done something wrong!

This time I used a slightly different recipe also, listed here, which cut out the rice bran oil, and used copha instead of coconut oil (which is very hard to find). All up, it would have cost about $15. I would expect there are at least 15 bars of soap here (I'll find out tomorrow when it's set enough to cut!), so that's a pretty good price for this quality of soap. It's also totally unscented, with no other additives, very very hard to find in the shops! Now just to wait impatiently for it to cure (up to six weeks, if we can wait that long!), then we get to try it out.

I'll post more about the yogurt experiment tomorrow, it's still... what do you call it when yogurt is making itself? It's not really cooking, is it?

Sewing Spree

After discovering this free pattern a week or two ago, I've been itching to try it. Unfortunately gardening, and all the other sewing I've been doing hasn't given me a chance until today. DH was away for the day, so DD and I got stuck into some sewing. (Or rather, I sewed, she played around me, although she did help choose the colours.) This pattern is very simple, and makes up really quickly. I made these four skirts in only a few (interrupted) hours. They look really cute on, and I'm sure will get lots of wear. I'd definitely recommend this pattern for any new sewers wanting something easy, yet professional looking.

While I was on a roll, I had a go at this tutorial for pillowcase dresses. As usual, I was making it from memory, so didn't follow the tutorial exactly, and I decided to do the thread through ties rather than the elastic and ties she used in the tutorial, but the basic idea is the same. These two dresses are actually made out of pillowcases! And they look surprisingly cute (and non-pillowcase like) on.

So in one day, using only material I already had, I made DD four new skirts, and two new dresses! And given my material stash, I have plenty more sewing days like this ahead! I wondered for a while if I would have the time and materials to be able to make all our clothes this year (well, mine and DD's, I draw the line at men's clothes, too difficult), but I'm off to a pretty good start. I can't see it being a problem to make our entire wardrobes. Well, I am making an exception to my t-shirts. 100% cotton interlock is very hard to find, and when you do find it, it's not cheap, so I'm buying my shirts second hand at the op shops.

In amongst all this sewing, I have been working on my spring garden, but it's not quite ready for photographs yet. I popped up to the old garden up the paddock this afternoon though, and harvested these. (Well, the eggs are from the chicken pen, and I actually took them out of the fridge, as they were collected this morning, but I've really been looking forward to adding the eggs to my harvest photos, so here they are.) We had the potatoes and peas for dinner, along with a pumpkin we harvested a week or two ago. We're getting closer and closer to a truly home grown meal!

Recycled Planter Box

You may remember from July's Unfinished Projects Challenge, that I mentioned a mysterious planter box. Well, here it is, FINALLY all finished. When I went back to find the initial photos of putting it together, they were back in my MAY folder. This is one project that's been too long in the finishing. But now, finally, my little raspberry plant has a safe home, where it can't take over my yard or grow out of control. Hopefully now it will provide us with lots and lots of fresh raspberries.

It's made out of two old pallets that were left behind (or rather, snaffled with the overseer's permission) from our house building. These were the ones that the bricks were on for the house.

And, just in case anyone has a hankering to make one of these, here are some photos and basic instructions.

First, cut both pallets in half. We used the chainsaw for this. You want to end up with a piece (well, two actually, but you'll only use one of them) like this for the base.

And two pieces like this. They will make the sides.

Pull the back board off each side. These will be cut up to make the ends.

Attach first side with these hammer on connector thingies. (I'm really good with technical names.)

Then attach the other side. Then let it sit and weather for 4 months or so. Or, if you're the sort who likes to finish jobs in one go, you can skip this step...

Then cut the boards you pulled off into two pieces (one slightly shorter than the other if you have an angle like ours), and screw or nail them onto each end.

I then moved the planter to it's final place in the front garden, up against the fence, near the compost heap. Of course, it's not finished yet, since it's hardly going to hold soil like this.

I lined the planter box with weedmat on the bottom (left over from making DD's sandpit), and shadecloth on the sides (recycled from DH's parents pergola).

It's attached on the inside using the staple gun. Doesn't look too tidy, but it's about to be covered in soil anyway, so you won't be able to see it. Using pretty much all recycled materials or stuff we had lying around, all up it cost nothing more than the price of a few screws and staples. Can't go wrong there.

Then add your soil and plant your plants! It took quite a bit of soil to fill this up. Half the compost from my compost heap (on the bottom since it's still quite fresh), and about 4 bags of compost/potting mix from the garden store. The raspberry only takes up half of the planter for now, so I'm thinking I'll plant carrots in the other half until it grows a little.