Late to the party - bits and bobs

We have  been struck down by seasonal coughs and colds and a stomach bug.  Yuk.  Yuk. Yuk. I knew I was ill as I didn't want to read any blogs! Apologies for lack of comments.  I now have two recovering kids off school so any reading is out of the window.   But fingers crossed we are recovering now.  Today,  I have been dealing with the seasonal sink unblocking.  And the seasonal five year old tantrum.  Oh and the unseasonal car repair bill.   Ho ho ho. 



I have completed just one present this year

Finished and ready for posting - a scarf from my granny hexagons.  Some of them turned out to be octagons but never mind!  I edged them all with pale grey thrifted wool and stitched them up to make a bright textured scarf for an old friend. 

Christmas bits and pieces are appearing around the house. 

While Rocket Girl slept last week I finally, finally, FINALLY, cut out my first Renfrew.  I am so late to the Renfrew party.  All the cool sewers have moved onto to something else I know.  I bought the pattern in May, so it has been waiting 6 months.  I am using some purple cotton jersey given to me by the lovely Scruffybadger.  Hopefully it won't be another 6 months before I sew it up. 

Tova pattern hanging up

I also finally printed out my Tova pattern last week (I am so late to that party too) which I bought as a PDF about 6 months ago.  Now I am just sticking it together, which so far is straightforward.  I know I won't get any work done on it till after New Year and the return to school. 

So anyway, I hope you all have a peaceful and happy holiday.  On Sunday  I am off to stay in a house with no internets....eeek.  The good news for me is I am not cooking Christmas dinner, tee hee.  See you on the other side. xx



Have a chocolate, go on....



Works in progress

 Despite not posting much recently,  I have been busy with sewing in little bits of snatched time. Did you read Tilly's  recent post about sewing in fifteen minute segments.  I feverishly commented that this was my sewing existence with Rocket Girl on the scene.  Here's what those fifteen minutes have been adding up to.    I am making some bibs for RG and some for my friend's son's Christmas present. 

I have almost finished my winter skirt. Just the lining left to hem now.   My proposed autumn sewing plans were cast aside when I bought a length of floral cordory in the charity shop.  At £2.50 I had to buy it.  After much consideration of skirt patterns, looking at some Ottobre ones, I went back to the tried and trusted Sew U skirt from the first Built by Wendy book and used her slant patch pockets to make two front pockets.  The Built by Wendy knits book has come in for a lot of new attention recently in the sewing blogosphere but I am going to put in some love for the first Sew U book which has trouser, shirt/blouse and skirt blocks and such very, very useful pocket pattern pieces.  Those pocket pieces enable me to create my own skirts with details I like.  Plus sewing in short bursts means I cannot really try out new patterns - that just seems too scary.  

Polka dot lined pocket

I had enough cordory to make Little I a skirt.  It is a bit more exciting than mine, featuring ruching, lace trim, ric rac, oversized shiny buttons and a polka dot underskirt.  Can you bear the dotty, shiny, ruch-y (is that a word?) excitement? Oh, to be five years old.   It is nearly finished and deserves a post of its own. 

Making paper bowls

Preparing the pulp

Stirring the pulp

I have written out how to make the paper bowls - I hope that you can understand this!

You will need: bowls to be the mould - I used some small plastic bowls bought in the supermarket (originally for jellies at parties) , but you could use china or glass bowls. Petroleum jelly to grease the bowl
Plain flour
Waste papers - we used sugar paper in red, pink and yellow (not newspapers) Sugar paper gives a soft colour

Optional - cotton linters. These are used in craft papermaking and help to make your homemade paper stronger and smoother. They look a bit like sheets of blotting paper. We just added a one sheet to the mix. (This is where I usually buy linters in the UK, http://www.papershed.com last time I looked they were £3.15 for 250gm)

A blender or food processor

Coloured threads or glitter for decorating

A large plastic container - we used a big storage tub

Making bowls this way is quicker than the tearing strips of paper method that you may done in school.

1. You need to prepare the pulp the day before you want to make the bowls. Tear the paper into small pieces about 2cm square and add hot water to cover - this will help soften the fibres. I leave this over night.
2. Blend the papers adding water till you have a mix that is a bit like fine porridge. Stir it up before using as the fibres will sink to the bottom of the tub.
3. Coat the inside of your plastic bowls with vaseline to act as a release agent.
4. You will need to use a starch-based glue - we used flour and water (3oz flour: 1 pint water) but you could use wallpaper paste. We added the flour and water to the pulp mix and stirred it in.
5. It is useful to sieve the pulp as you go along, we would sieve some pulp over the tub and then put it in the mould bowl. You neeed to firmly press the pulp into the sides of the bowl. If you want to decorate the bowl with coloured threads you put them in now - think about whether you want them to show on the outside or inside of the finished bowl. As we pressed the pulp into the bowl excess water comes out which we tipped away as we went. You can also add glitter at this stage. Make sure there are no spaces left uncovered by pulp or you will have a hole! At this stage I gently pressed an absorbant J cloth over the bowl to take out some excess water.

We stood the bowls on the radiator to dry and they took two days to dry out. Once dry you should be able to slip them out of the mould. If the bowl is hot form the radiator be warned any vaseline left on it will show up but it will disappear once the bowl cools down.

The wet bowls in their moulds