Another Recycled Pallet Planter

Well the veg are growing so nicely that I am now wondering where to put them, things need to be transferred outside but up out of the dogs reach.  So currently I have large Kale plants on a sort of make shift shelf that my husband made, the chard is up on the hanging planter and now there is lots more purple kale and lettuce.

So we had another pallet and I asked if this one could be free standing and have legs, because if my dogs can reach they will eat anything.  I also had these large tins that the cook from work had been saving so they have hole drilled in the bottom and the front panels on the pallets were moved to fit these.

The whole thing has had a lick of varnish here as well, purple kale in the bottom and some lettuce in the top.  I had to stop at this point as I has ran out of compost, there are still eight kale and ten lettuce to repot as well as peas but I have been and got the canes and some pots for those today.  I am very happy with this to think is just made from items that would have been discarded and it has solved a problem.   I am not expecting to last forever but how many things do, maybe some upkeep on the frame.

These kale grow quite big so there will be another move at some point for these, with the younger plants going in here but they will be good for a while.

 The lettuces looked a bit sad after being moved but have perked up again now.

 How about this gorgeous flower on the courgettes, one opened the other morning and then it closed up and now this one today,  A lovely surprise when walking into the greenhouse.

We had intended a day at Bakewell today but as it was overcast and gloomy we stayed home and just had a walk and some lunch.  Also a long wait in the post office to post two dresses that were sold on ebay for a couple of pounds each, hardly worth it really but at least someone will get some use out of them.  I will stick with taking them to the charity shop I think,

Simple Summer Dress

This afternoon I made a dress because I needed to sew something rather than needing the dress. I have had the fabric for  a couple of months and it is a light summer fabric despite the fact that it is black which I suppose is not a very summery colour. However  I know it will get worn because it's black, sometimes I choose wild prints and then feel they are too dressy for work or every day wear so at least this is a practical colour.

It was another pattern free affair, I made sure I cut out a top shape big enough to pull over my head without any fastenings and then cut a semi circular skirt.  Not quite a semi circle each piece just a little under.

Now the shape of the skirt has made for a nice swirl but also a bit of a worry on a windy day so it may need an under skirt I don't really want to be adding a lining to this one.  Now do they still do underskirts is it worth making one?  I can honestly say I have never owned one but thinking about the amount of times the fabric is thin or floaty it might be worth it.  Maybe I am just showing my age but I don't want a see through skirt, and usually I just line everything.

I added a thin elastic at the waist, and a little turn up on the sleeve which pressed in nicely in this fabric.

 The reason I have gone for sleeves on this summer dress is that I have a few with bare shoulders and sometimes you need a cover up.  I am loving the sunshine we are having but it is hitting the shoulders so an option with a cover up it is.

Here I tried a pale pink belt to lighten it up a bit, not sure which I prefer.  The dress was a quick make up due to the lack of fastenings and detail, I also have a couple in jersey in this style and they are quick to iron so quite a no nonsense item.  I did try the outdoor photos today but the breeze was blowing the dress about!  That was what alerted me to the need for an underskirt.  

On a different theme the cook where I work has been saving the large tins from food and I now have a little collection that I can use for planting so there will be veg going in those soon.  Lots of lettuces are coming up now so it may be those but up away from pets.

Quick Sew Solution to Loose Fitting Sandals

I have a problem with shoes being too big and no I can't buy a smaller size as my feet are long and narrow.  If you have this same problem you will know what I mean when I say in winter this is not an issue, I can use an inner sole and socks or tights but sandals never ever fit. My feet just slide to the front and over, this can be very uncomfortable when out walking and any kind of inner sole shows and looks silly.

After coming back from a walk yesterday I had made my mind up that the sandals I had on were going, but after a bit of thought I decided to try something.  Now I wouldn't buy these sandals today anyway as I no longer buy leather but I already own them so in the interests of no waste which I hate, trying to make them a bit better fitting seemed to be the way to go.

I cut a paper template and then put my foot on top to see if it was in the right place and wouldn't show, I also need the padding to be here as this is where the shoes sits above my foot.

I flipped the paper over to make the same one for the other side and had a look in my scrap fabric collection, luckily I had this bit left that is just the right colour. (May as well try and make it pretty.)  This involved cutting two pieces of this fabric for each shoe then I experiment with layers of denim two and three layers, then layers of fleece.  I found two layers of fleece inside was just right for me you may need to experiment depending on the fit of your sandals.

Once I was happy walking around on these I zig zag stitched all the layers in place, this was nice and quick.  I also added a little double side tape to the bottom when I put it in the sandal but it didn't really need it, due to the shape of it there isn't any movement.  That was all there was to it, now my feet don't fall out of the front and it's a little bit of extra softness under foot.

I hope that has been of use and perhaps save a few pairs of sandals from being discarded, you often see wide fit shoes but never narrow ones, or only in selected styles at places like Clarkes, and chunky socks and sandals don't quite go do they?

Last year I actually bought a pair that were fine across the front but the elastic was too tight at the heel, I cut the elastic, added ribbon and did a bit of a refashion on those as well. That can be seen here, Shoe Refashion.

Catching up, Growing and Vegan Ice Cream

This week has seen a lot of alterations some mine, some not but no photos. I started the week by getting rid of all the little jobs I had been putting off. So I added a zip to a dress that I felt was not fitted enough, re-doing the waist yoke on a skirt, taking in another dress, altering the sleeves and shoulders so I will actually wear it, fixing some of the boys clothes then  finally taking up and adjusting two brides maid  dresses for somebody.  The lack of photography does not mean it hasn't been busy but I will try to take some updated pics of some of my items this week as I wear them and I will link back to their original posts.

In the garden my husband  has now made me some planters from pallets that are hung on the fence, the reason for this is that the dogs insist on digging in newly planted things and I don't want my veg dug up as they are put out!  Obviously this won't work for everything but we thought for light things like lettuce it may be ok, currently they have viola and pansies in there oh and my swiss chard is up there for safety.

We have had that swiss chard in a salad now twice already so I am impressed with that little plant.

A quick peak at a few other things growing...

Strawberries, I think these will just stay inside to at least give us a chance ahead of the birds this year.

Tomatoes and courgettes going wild but I don't know why there are now white marks on the courgette leaves, I will look that up in a  bit.  Tomatoes smell so lovely I keep rubbing the leaves to have a little smell of them.

Curly kale also growing nicely though this gets big so will have to go out I just need to decide where.

On a different theme yesterday I was in the mood for something sweet and cold so I made this ice cream alternative.  It is really easy and just requires you being near the freezer so if you are home it's not a problem.

Vegan Ice cream 
Chop one banana and put it in a bag in the freezer, leave it for a few hours then take it out and mash it up.  Add 1 tbsp. peanut butter, 2 tsp cacao powder and a squirt of maple syrup.

Give a good mix then put it in a shallow tub and back into the freezer, after an hour take it out and give it a good break up and mash down again.

 Put it back for another 2 hours after this time it will be ready to scoop.
See easy, if you are home it is no big deal to walk past the freezer and give it all a stir is it. The good thing about this is that you know there is nutrition in there and not just cream and sugar as with regular ice cream, it is the kind of snack you can have after a long walk or a run when you need an energy boost.

Yesterday I picked up a couple more books from the library,  I had been reading The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock but I just couldn't get into it after a hundred pages so I took that back.  I am now reading The Utopia Experiment by Dylan Evans and this a non fiction work, I have to say I am half way through already as it is intriguing.  I have been watching a few videos recently  on youtube about small communities living small and so on, so this caught my eye while I was browsing.

Now don't get me wrong I don't think we should all go and live in yurts or anything like that, but shouldn't energy and water preservation be more of an issue in that it was something we had to do, a colleague of my husband's was saying how in Germany they still have coin return on bottles and it appears other European countries are ahead of us in these areas. I don't know why we lag behind.

Lily Blouse

This blouse has taken rather longer than it should, sometimes I decide to do something different and then don't know where I am going with it, I don't know if anyone else has that too.  I started this last week then it sort of hung around for a while quite literally because I couldn't decide on the sleeve shape.  I have also really shrunk down what would have been larger pleats front and back to little tucks as I thought it looked too much.  Here is the finished blouse then I will go through the process.

I was going to do short raglan sleeves then went for  capped raglan and to be honest I don't really feel the top gains anything from the different style of sleeve I probably could have just cut the top as a front and back piece with the sleeves included but you have to try these  things to see don't you.

So I began by pinning my fabric to the mannequin to see how it would look, then I added some pleats which then turned to small tucks.  I also cut the shape of the neckline using paper then cut this out from the fabric, lining fabric for stiffness and interfacing.

I then had a play around with different shapes for the sleeves, I finally settled on a  capped raglan which was going to have pleats at the shoulder but it looked too fussy. (old fashioned)

I hand stitched the pleats in place once I had pinned them so that they didn't move about when I removed it from the mannequin.  The sleeves were trimmed to fit and notched at the centre shoulder.

When I had joined my neck pieces together I pinned the front and back pieces to them so I could get an idea how it would look, this was to save on unpicking later but because of this fabric shifting and fraying there was lots of that anyway.

I added a band around each sleeve for a neater finish and because it was a bit flimsy without.  There are belt loop each side, in the photos it is a ribbon tie belt but I have also tried it with a slim patent belt.

I like it now it is finished but there has been a bit of cursing going on under my breath mainly due to the amount of fray!  

The rest of the day has been quite a lazy one as I did not want to miss any of the sunshine, we get a little crazy her in the UK don't we at the first sign of sunshine because who knows how long it will last.  A bank holiday weekend with sun is particularly unusual we opted not to go anywhere as the traffic would have been mad so I just nipped to the shop for beer, to drink in the sun of course. I hope everyone else has been enjoying the weather too.