Making and Doing

Well another week passed and we have sort of settled into a routine here, my husband and oldest son are working from home again this week and they seem to be getting on fine this way.  A lot of what they do is on the computer or the phone so I suppose that sort of work is more suited to home working.  My husband was based in the office for the last two weeks as they are alternating the number of people actually in one place at a time, a sensible way to do it and that way it varies who gets to work from home.

I have been varying what I do during the day and also where I do it, having a change of room can be helpful I feel and that is why I never understand why my youngest lives in his bedroom. I know I was that age once and I'm sure I did the same but I at least went out in the garden.  The weather has helped and I have been busy planting more flowers, weeding and watering.  Yesterday  I treated the newly cleaned deck with a coat of protective oil so that was a couple of hours work.  It needs another coat but it won't be today as it looks like rain.   The lettuces I planted are just starting to come up and all kinds of flowers, I keep going into to the greenhouse for a peep and I am sure they are coming up by the hour just now.

My sewing scraps are greatly reduced but this is making me even more inventive with my bag making, I had a woven throw my friend passed on to me some time ago so  some of that has morphed into a bag.  Also I turned my sons chinos into knee length shorts last year for his holiday and saved the legs, these have also been repurposed into a bag and I really like they way the teal colour goes with the mustard scraps from one of my handmade skirts.

Just small pieces pattern fabric as that is all that is left of that.

I thought I would applique the birds to the pocket to bring it together a bit.

My daily walk is more appreciated than ever and fortunately we have had lots of sunlight to do it  in, I decided  to take a few photos the other day as the light was so beautiful in the park but a couple kept stopping about ten meters behind me so I had to carry on as I didn't want to hold them up. So I went a different way so that I wouldn't have to rush on and they stopped and changed direction and still came the same way!   How very odd, we wouldn't normally notice these things I suppose but with the social distancing we are all very aware that we don't want to get in each others way.  I did manage to snap a few so here they are...

Getting these three to sit down and pose is near impossible so I had to be very quick.

This week I changed my supermarket shopping day, I have been doing it Mondays while I have not been at work but after a fifty minute wait in the queue last week I thought I'd have a change.  It worked as the queue was moving along the whole time so I was only in it less than ten minutes, so Sunday morning first thing from now on. While I am on the subject of shopping I  had got into the habit of buying us these individual vegan pasties, not very cost effective at all but they were well received so I sort of got in a rut of getting them.  So this week I said no this is ridiculous as I make everything else I will make some, even with ready roll pastry it is much cheaper.  Yes I can make the pastry but this way it still keeps it a reasonably quick meal and you can get gluten free ready roll too.

It is a shame that the regular ready roll is £1 and the GF is £2 but that is the case with all free  from foods.  I used a whole pack of ready roll pastry and it made four pasties, but mine are not very pasty shaped more of a rectangle with a lid so little pies, but they tasted good.  Here is the breakdown if you are interested.

Lentil and Mushroom Pie

ingredients

one onion   20p

one can lentils in water  400g ( I like napolina)  60p

one pack mushrooms   70p

one knorr herb infusion stock pot   25p  (these are a £1 on offer at the moment)

one pack ready roll pastry  £1  (£2 if gf supermarket own)

oil

Method

Fry the onion in the pan until soft, add the mushrooms let these cook a little then add the stock pot and lentils.  Stir so it all heats together for a few minutes, arrange half of the pastry on a baking sheet and score either as a large piece or four small pies.  Score around the edge about a cm in then add your filling to here.  You won't need all of the filling you will have a little left to eat with a baked potato another day. Then arrange the tops of the pastry, cook in the oven but check your pastry pack for timings as they vary mine was about twenty minutes on a medium heat.

Here is one that was left, as youngest son doesn't like lentils.  I am no food photographer but they were really tasty and the verdict was better than the overpriced ones I have been buying.  So that is £2.75 for four pies or £3.75 for the GF ones.  Now the vegan pasties were £1.80  each so a big saving making your own and depending on the cost of your other ingredients/where you shop/if you make your own pastry etc it would be lower cost still.  So let me know if you try it and what you think.

That is all from me for now, back soon. 

  

The Sophia Skirt and Another Cushion

Hello I hope you are all well. That is an odd title I have chosen isn't it but I do find that when I am looking back sometimes I can't find old posts because I have given them obscure titles this one on the  other hand reminds me exactly want I have posted about.  So I have made the Sophia Skirt from the Simple Sew pattern this week and the pattern is really easy as the name suggests.  Now I do make a skirt pattern free very similar to this style so it was interesting to see how this version came together.  Very easy so if you want a loose skirt with pockets this is worth a try.  I'll leave it at that for now as the fabric is from minerva and they will have a more detailed post.

There are pleats either side front and back, pockets and a centre back zip.  The fabric I used here is quite heavy and has a bit of stretch, that is not needed for the pattern and this time of year would certainly be better in something light and drapey. I will save mine for colder days.

There is fabric left so I will probably make the top too.

Next up I made another scrap busting cushion for my bedroom to go with the one I made last week. I have tried to keep similar colourways so the two would tie together and fortunately I did have a bit of lemon cotton left so that pulled it in I think.

Now the fabric with the blue little waves on was a bit of shirt I ha a go at fabric painting on ages ago, I never used it  but saved it.  See these things do come in handy eventually.

So as you can see  they are different but similar and I like variety of fabrics among them and yes Jo there is some of the floral fabric you gave me in one plus bits from different dresses, pillow cases and a shirt.  It is like they tell a story and that is something you just don't get with shop bought items.  I am very happy with them and feel they are well worth the time they take.

As I have both sons at home during the day I made us a really nice soup, I thought I would share it here in case you want to try it.  You get a good sized portion each for four and it is thicker and no doubt healthier than a can, oh cheaper too of course.

Lentil, Carrot and Apple Soup

ingredients

3 large carrots 

1 onion

1 apple

1 potato

I stock cube

1 cup red lentils

2 tsp mixed herbs

1 tbsp tomato puree

water

A little soya milk

Method

Steam the carrots and potato until soft, cook the lentils in the water.  While they are cooking chop the onion and apple and fry in a pan. Once everything is soft add to the food processor with the tomato puree, stock, herbs and water.  The amount of water you add depends on how thick you like your soup, just add a little at a time.  When it is the desired consistency you can return to the pan or store for later.   When heating in the pan stir in a little soya milk as this gives it a creamier taste. Everyone enjoyed it so I hope you will give it a go.

While blog reading and browsing a few days ago I made the pledge for me made May, now this is not difficult as just about all of my clothes are me made anyway.  What I was wondering was do I post an image every day or do we save them all up and share once a week?  What is everyone else doing?  I have seen this in the past but never shared for the month, any tips would be appreciated.

 That is all for now, have a good week everyone and stay safe. 

April...ing

Hello, as we are halfway through April I thought I would join in with an 'ing' post I see Jo  and Christina  have already done thiers so go on over and take a look if you haven't already.  Here goes...

Sewing Fixing, repairing and using up all sorts of offcuts.  I am very aware at the moment of making the most of all my supplies and while I always try to be green with my making it is even more relevant  at the moment. My son needed new boxer shorts and had left a number of pairs at his girlfriends flat, obviously at the moment with restricted movement there hasn't really been any shopping going on other than for food.  I unpicked an old pair and have made him a set of new ones, he says the fit is really good and while I  did order the wrong elastic ( it is too narrow) I am very pleased with these.  They will be great in future for using up pieces of soft jersey, so I can see many more pairs on the horizon and what a useful way to use up scraps.

The bottom pair here I used the original elastic from the old pair and that is what I thought I had ordered, I obviously clicked the wider one and then when I was messing around choosing other colours it must have reset without my noticing, never mind he says they still hold up well.  I have a dress and t-shirt in that flowery fabric so I had my use out of that!  I have also has dresses out of the wardrobe that were not being worn for whatever reason and made minor alterations, altered sleeves, shoulders and general revamping so they will now get more wear.

I needed a couple of new cushions for my bed for when I am reading as the ones I have on there have looped detail and each time I wash them a bit more comes off? This is spoiling the look so in true scrap busting style I got out my scrap bag and decided on making more Japanese windmill patchwork.  I love this design and I  have made it before, I like to keep a bit of regularity to the pattern so it does require a certain amount of each fabric but it could be done completely random if you  want to use up lots of very small bits. So that I have a pair for my bed I need to now make another one but obviously I don't have any of the same fabrics left so I do have other scraps in similar colourways so I will try to make the other cushion as close as I can in terms of shades and hopefully it will go.

The scraps used here are some gifted, charity shop pillow case, old shirts and left over craft fabric, the back is charity shop duvet fabric as I will not go to all the trouble of the design on the back that you never see.

So as I mentioned I like to have some sort of order to the pattern so I lay my pieces out first but it could be totally random.

I have re-edged and redone the quilting on my sofa throw as it was coming apart at the edge and also some of my quilting was a bit bunched.  I have to say it took me ages to unpick the old sewing and I really must take more care in future, but as I have time on my hands I really enjoyed hand stitching through  it all again.

The pink stripy fabric used for the border is Paul Smith shirting, a small amount left over from a long time ago, cut into strips and stitched together.  I think it goes really well.

Reading now I did start The Silence of the Girls but I could not get on with it, I did try honest but it was just not for me so I have gone back to my bookshelf and picked up War and Peace again.  If ever there was a time to crack on with that one!   I got bored once before but have gone back to the start and I am giving it another go, the main problem with it I think is that the text is so small, it doesn't make for ease of reading.

Also loving keeping up with all your blogs, it is a good way to feel connected at the moment when we are all so socially distanced.

Watching the Nest, I enjoyed this series and there are not many real time shows we watch on the tv any more apart from Homeland which is also a favourite.  Also onto the second series now of My Brilliant Friend (in Italian) we are having to wait for each episode now though as we have caught up so no more binge watching, how impatient we have become due to on demand tv!

Growing flowers in my greenhouse, I finally got some compost but I am unsure as to the quality of it, it does not look as good as my homemade compost it is just a pity I didn't have more ready.  I perhaps need to dig to the back but I am somewhat put off by the million creatures that come out at me! So there are about eighty plants in the greenhouse if they all take, here's hoping.  Only a few little shoots popping up so far.

Loving seeing the garden coming back to life without any help, there are quite a few things that just take care of themselves.  All I had to do was just weed around a few things to give them space and they are bursting to life now that we have had a bit of sunshine.

I will not bore you with photo's of every tree and plant but it is just good to see a bit of colour, the bushes behind the fence have filled in green so quickly this last week.

Keeping to something of a routine, I am doing about an hour of Spanish a day on Doulingo, a couple of short pilates sessions with Robin Long on YouTube, a dog walk, some craft and some bible reading.  I make a note in my journal what sessions I have done, passages I have read and so on, I think that keeping variety throughout the day is good.  I always do home cooking everyday so no change there but it is less rushed.  The school I work for is concentrated to one school site at the moment, we are on  a rota and I am not due in for another 2 weeks.  There are only a small number of children in school (the children of key workers) so that is why  they only have a few staff working each week.  In a little while I need to go and do the strange weekly shop, with the queueing in the car park, necessary but eerie I have to say.

Appreciating all we have, the work done by others for our benefit and the many ways we can still stay connected at this time.

Stay safe. 

 

Kimono Style Dress

Now  this last couple of days I have had a few false starts, to begin with I have cut a few things out that did not inspire me ( sometimes the fabric really is everything and the ideas I had seen were not working with my offcuts!). Then of course there is fabric I have loved on other bags but when I tried to use too much of it at once I went right off it and that is this one...

Now don't worry it will be saved but this was just not doing it for me all in the same fabric, it will be paired with something calming at a later date.  For now it is safely back in the drawer.  It didn't help that I had a migraine all day yesterday and felt very sick so maybe I'm not fully recovered and the fabric is just too shouty!

I did settle on cutting out this simple sew pattern again however as I have made it before and though it is simple it just looks so good on.  There wasn't quite enough fabric so I have had to make it slimmer and shorter but it still works, leggings or tights under this one unless I am on the back garden.

It just ties around with the belt may times so you get a nice fit, ideally don't use a fabric that wrinkles much due to all the tying, this fabric is perfect.  The very long belt ties are stitched into the waist at the sides,  I opted to make them slimmer this time for a bit of variation.

 As you can see it is a blouse that I have lengthened, the last time I did it I made it much longer but I had more fabric that time.  If you want to see my last version of this it is here simple sew dress

When  I make something like this I am always amazed how well something so simple can look on, I am sorry there is no photo of me in I finished just as I was about to put the dinner out  so quickly tried it then ran down to dish up.  Do any of you sew while doing other things?   I am usually ok but there has been the odd time I have burnt the roast potatoes.

There has been a message from Minerva saying my fabric is on the way so I can get on and make more boxer shorts when that arrives, of course  there are a few pieces in there for me too, just bits and I have no idea what for?

Keep busy everyone, back soon.

Grateful Drawing

We have just come in from clapping for carers and we all have so much to be grateful for don't we, I know some more than others but still it is good to remind ourselves of the things that matter.  I had this lovely journal page saved and this evening was the ideal time to recreate it with a few thankful thoughts of my own.  You can see the original here on on Elvie studio I wouldn't want to take credit for the design I simply copied it but I thought it was so pretty.  I used my Derwent colouring pencils and fine tip pens, it would have been good if I could have made some of the colours a bit bolder.
  A friend of mine that  I just sent a photo to told me it would look great on a cushion, something to think about?

It is A4 size  I might just brighten the blue background a little and keep it near my sewing machine.

The fabulous thing about going through all the ideas I have saved is that I also keep finding all the blogs to go with them, then adding more ideas.  I will never reach the end of my to make list but that is ok as there will always be something to do. 

I added another book to my tablet earlier it is called The Silence of the Girls, it is another from my amazon wish list but I got it from the library so that is great.  I will let you know if it is any good. Just a short post today  as I am mainly trying to keep myself on target with my making this week.  

Take care everyone.

Pattern Storage Box

Today I thought I would have a go at improving some of my sewing storage, I have been using old boxes to keep my patterns in under my sewing table.  Unfortunately  when I keep pulling them out the sides have got a little torn, they are also boring so were in need  of a makeover.

I had an image on a board that I liked with faux leather handles so as I have some of this from my bag making supplies I decided to recreate it. I have done my design as a slip cover for the box as the box is good for stability and saves the need for buying special fabric stiffeners.  Keeping everything recycled again also saves the pennies and solves a problem, I also think these boxes could be made for anywhere in the house as they can be on display.  There is another to be covered tomorrow and that one may have different fabric on each side to use up more pieces.

Here is the first, I used left over dress cotton for the sides and sheeting for the bottom.

I have used recycled denim to frame it around the top then just slipped it over the box, that way when it gets grubby it can be washed.  To make the cover I just drew around the box and then allowed a seam allowance.   The handles are faux leather back to back then just stitched straight on top.

It is better than a cardboard box and easier to handle now too.

Most people have probably got the odd box in need of covering.

Earlier today I finished reading The Temple House Vanishing by Rachael Donohue, I enjoyed it but found the ending a bit too predictable.  It was an easy going read and ideal for just before bed as it was not too taxing.  

I am currently half watching Location, Location... and wondering how people with such massive budgets still manage to look disappointed with all the beautiful houses they view, too much choice maybe?

That's all for now, stay safe.