Coat Pocket Repairs (Tutorial)

A bit of repair work was needed today on my raincoat.  I had washed it as after a school trip a couple of weeks ago it was a bit muddy but this must have been one wash too many and whatever was holding the fabric around the zip pockets has started to come away.

Now I know a lot of these coats say dry clean only but this has been washed a number of times and it is only just having issues.  So as going to the dry cleaners is expensive and inconvenient I will continue to wash my coats.

So the best way to tackle this is to go in on the inside by making a hole in the lining seam by unpicking it a bit.

 So the space you make in the side doesn't have to be very big, just big enough to get your hand inside and manipulate the fabric.  I chose to remove the labels at this point also.

Once you have your opening place the pocket to be repaired under

the machine making sure you can feel the gap is stretched open underneath so you are not catching it, I chose to just topstitch down the side that had come away.  When you get so far you will have to lift the zip and move it behind before continuing stitching.

Now when you have finished close the original side seam, I continued in pink cotton but you could change to an exact colour match if it would bother you.

A bit of pink stitching doesn't bother me, also I don't like wasting the thread on the bobbin.

Here it is finished, now I just need to get a can of that spray on waterproof as this jacket lost it's waterproof properties a while ago, it's ok unless it really rains heavy which it has done a few times.

If you are repairing a side seam you can go in exactly the same way but obviously it's easier to open the lining seam closest to the one that is damaged.  Then you would pull the side seam of the outer jacket through the hole and repair on the wrong side, then close the lining seam as above.

Flow, Books, TED Talks and Stretching

That is quite a title for a post I know but I just didn't know where to start. You know how sometimes you find yourself saying that you haven't been up the much when people ask.  Not that you haven't done anything but rather that you feel you haven't been anywhere noteworthy, so people will  not be interested. 

Often when I am asked at work if I've done anything at the weekend I have said no, nothing much, when really I have been out walking with the dogs a number of times, done all the house related stuff, read a book or two, made a new dress, cooked all out meals (sometimes a new recipe) listened to music, sometimes practiced Spanish or guitar and perhaps any list of other things that may vary from week to week.  However because I have not been anywhere I feel compelled to say 'nothing much' I am very happy being around home and I do like to go out too, I think I need to look at my self talk in that area perhaps.

So this week the book I have loved the most is Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  Fantastic and thought provoking I thought and I have the strange feeling I have read some if not all of it before (must be getting old!).

So if you haven't read the book flow is the state you are in when you are completely absorbed in a task and don't notice the passing of time, therefore you are in a state of contentment.  This is a rather simplified description so you will have to read the book to get the full picture, but basically we have all been in that state at some point.  For some it could be washing the dishes but for others making music, art, playing with the children, it doesn't matter the activity as it is different for everyone.  It does state later on in the book that improving activities give the greatest scope for this feeling and that if there is a certain amount of difficulty to overcome the pleasure is greater.

I found it interesting but not surprising that difficulty in an activity is better than say watching T.V, because although we all enjoy T.V sometimes it probably doesn't add to lasting memories or a sense of achievement.  It also relates well to something we have been discussing in school which is the growth mindset.  The book Mindset by Carol Dweck is a good one to read on that if you are interested.

I have also nearly finished A brief history of tractors in Ukranian.  This book I have been  dipping in and out of so more on that later.  I read a post by Nina Sankovitch the other day who vowed to read a book every day for her blog for year, you can find her blog here, go take a look I am inspired to up my game in reading more.

While still on the subject of books, a really good talk I saw on TED was again titled Why I read a book a day by Tai Lopez.  He explains how he got lots of advice as a young man in search of direction from reading the ideas of great people  who had succeeded in various fields, he goes on to state that this information is there for all of us, so we should use it to our advantage.

There have been quite a few TED talks watched this week and not while sitting passively either.  I got it into my head that I am not flexible enough, well it's not just in my head I'm not! So I have set myself a target to do some stretching exercises everyday, I do some when I get up then some later in the day. The ones I do later in the day I have found are an ideal partner to watching a TED talk while I am on the rug trying to hold a position.  I think exercising alone can  be dull so this is the perfect use of my time.

Anyway it is that time of day so I am off to do some of that stretching now.

The Best Dhal

Today I tried another recipe from Naturally Sassy and I have to say it is one of the best dishes I have made in ages.  I really love spicy food so I regularly make a korma with any variation of  veg and nuts in it, I have to say though I have generally bought dhal.  I am now thinking why? I know how to cook lentils and I put them in all sorts of things so why has it taken me so long to make a dhal.

I saw this recipe this morning as soon as I went to look on the Naturally Sassy blog and decided to make it today for lunch. It is really colourful, which is always a good sign and smells amazing.  It does state it serves four but I had a second helping however there are two portions left which are now in the fridge.

If you haven't looked at the blog before do so now, this lady is amazing, she is a ballet dancer, cook with her own book not to mention she runs lunch events.  I would love to attend but I am a bit out of the way up here in the North.  It certainly gets you thinking when you see what some people achieve, but mostly I admire her positive attitude towards food.  So as I mentioned before go take a look now, if you follow the link Naturally Sassy it will take you straight to the page with recipe for the dish above.

Something that is very satisfying about cooking more things from scratch is that you don't have that moment where you are reading the ingredients on some container thinking 'now what on earth is that?' I like knowing exactly what is in my food and that it is all there for a purpose and. not just as a filler which is what many ingredients in pre-packed foods are.

I hope at least a few of you take a peek and find something scrummy to make, I'm sure I have probably mentioned the blog before.