Saturday 3 July 2010

Things that stop me from sewing


I have not been too well for the last week - I have a summer cold which is dragging on and on. I was so muddled headed that I had to put away sewing my dress and skirt as I was making too many small mistakes.

Other things that stopped me sewing were the arrival of five binbags of childrens' clothes from my in-laws. For a few days my downstairs looked like a second hand clothes shop. We are very lucky as my kids have a boy cousin and a girl cousin just the right age to pass on clothes. It took me a couple of days to sort out the clothes as there were more than we need, and I made up one bin bag for Little I's friend. Another friend came over and took a large bag for her son. I took a four carrier bags to the charity shop and the rest we are keeping. I still have to pack away some clothes for the winter and for next year. Then I have been putting some of my RTW clothes onto ebay to sell.

And spending time in the garden - that has stopped me sewing. We are allowed to pick strawberries from my neighbour's garden. Little I is out there at least once a day with her bucket, issuing instructions while we pick a handful, we often eat them straight away, but last week I was organised enough to make strawberry jam (yes, I am turning into my mother).

I made four jars and let me tell you a secret... making strawberry jam is really, really easy! I thought it would be some kind of long, hot ritual in the kitchen but no, it is quick and very very simple. Honestly, if I can do it, anyone can. (And look, there in the top picture, is my jam on some bread)

5 comments:

  1. I love jam but i never seem to get round to making any. Hope you are feeling better now. xx

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  2. We went strawberry picking last weekend and ended up picking far too many.Angel 5 (2yrs 3mths)kept walking all over the plants but it was fun,had thought about making jam and now reading your post I think I will,it has to be easy for me as I have never made jam!!!!Wow how lovely to get lots of clothes for the little ones,mine get very excited rummaging in the bags as if it's Xmas.Hope you are feeling better I have had the same this is my 2nd week now and it has effecting my ears.Love your blog by the way,xx

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  3. Hi. we didn't manage to get to the thinktank when we went to Birmingham, hopefully next time though i really want to visit. Hope you have had a great weekend.

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  4. Great to hear clothing, particularly childrens, gettting redistributed! It seems to me that here in Spain they consider making their kids wear secondhand clothing a form of child abuse! Everything needs to be brand new, even if it's shit quality and will break in five minutes. How are kids going to learn to avoid excessive consumption? Thanks for the heartening post! xxx

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  5. Hi Debbie,

    Thanks so much for your comment on my blog. i did reply but in case you didn't read it and think I had ignored it, I wanted to respond directly:

    Great minds think alike and all that, I wrote a piece about exactly the topic you mentioned, about the differences between UK and Spain regarding second-hand. You can read if here, if you so wish:
    http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2009/10/second-hand-and-vintage-in-spain.html

    It's something I wrote for a fashion blog I used to write for, so had to be directly about clothing, but I expanded the idea and wrote another piece for Mixtape which will be included in the latest issue. I'll post the piece on my blog after the zine has come out. Since we are clearly on the same wave length regarding these issue, I would love to hear your thoughts if you find the time to read the pieces.

    Thanks again, you rock!
    Zoe xxx

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