Hello Sewing!

 

Emerson is quickly growing out of the closet full of vintage baby dresses I collected before her birth, and which were saved from my own childhood. I haven't been able to bring myself to pack them away yet. I've been searching op-shops, eBay and even antique stores for vintage dresses in toddler sizes to replace them, generally to no avail. Baby clothes get outgrown before they are worn out. While for toddler clothes the reverse is true, making them scarcer.

 

Tuesday, when Emerson woke up from her nap, I impulsively decided to sew her a dress. It's been a long time since I did any sewing, and I have never stitched a toddler dress before, but I was undeterred. There is no arguing with these impulsive rushes of inspiration, I tell you. We hunted through my stash of fabric and vintage patterns and found a sweet Japanese nautical print fabric (that I think I won in a giveaway, a long time ago) and a size two vintage dress pattern that had been gifted to me. Upon laying out the pattern pieces I realised there wouldn't be enough of the print for the bodice, but found some left over thrifted gingham instead. The red zip and embroidery thread were also thrifted finds residing in my stash. Sum total of the finished dress was probably $2.

 

I cut, pinned and stitched between scooting up and down the street with the children, helping with baths and making dinner. I continued once the rest of the house was sleeping, determined to finish what I had started. And I did, at eleven at night. Oh, the thrill of a finished sewing project! The fun of adding a little cross stitch to match the sail boats in the fabric! (Something I have not attempted since my mother taught me how to cross stitch placemats one Summer holiday as a child.) The satisfaction of trying it on my little darling and knowing it should fit perfectly by Spring!

 

I'm so pleased with how it turned out. The only thing I will change is to add a bit of elastic around the hem of the sleeve, to give that vintage puffy sleeve look that only children can get away with (view 1 on the pattern packet.) I love this pattern. Despite having a zip, gathering, bias neckline and gathered sleeves, I found it quite simple. I didn't realise how much I had picked up during all those years watching my Mother sew. There were things I knew how to do, without knowing how I knew.

 

I already have the next dress cut out.

Jam and romantic notions

I have long held on to the somewhat romantic notion of feeding my family from our garden. Of being more self sufficient. Of tuning in to the seasons. Of providing fresh, pesticide free produce with few food miles. Of noticing a difference in our food budget. Creating a cycle of adding nutrients to our soil to be taken up by plants, whose leaves, peelings and seeds will be added to the compost to break down before being added back to the soil. A cycle repeated throughout the seasons. Cycles that, combined with hard work, experience, knowledge and the will of mother nature, produce enough in the way of fruit, vegetables and herbs to eat, share and preserve. 

With each tomato harvested, each watermelon picked, each aubergine cut, each carrot pulled, each sweet potato dug, that romantic notion has become a little more of a reality. Recycled jars now house dried herbs, pickled vegetables or jam made from the gardens offerings. We acknowledge at each meal which part of it has come from our own garden, or been traded with like minded friends and neighbors. Cohen may ask, "is this tomato from the garden?" Or I will say for the one hundredth time, "Tinned beetroot has nothing on home grown pickled beets." The sense of satisfaction is difficult to explain to the uninitiated. 

Another long held dream of mine has been to grow enough strawberries to make jam. (In old Mason jars, of course.) And though I planted a dozen strawberry plants last year, and we were at times getting a punnets worth each day, the jam did not eventuate. Particularly not with a toddler who knew only too well how to pick them himself. The profusion of strawberry runners in the garden currently may make jam a more likely prospect this year, but in the meantime I have found a seemingly fail safe alternative. Rosellas. Cheap to buy - four seedlings for $4, easy to grow in Queensland - I didn't use any chemicals or fertiliser, and tart prior to cooking - which discourages little people from stealing and eating them all. Yesterday I harvested my first fruit off the three remaining shrubs (hubby pulled the fourth seedling out, thinking it was a weed:) and made jam using this recipe. And I must say, Rosellas produce a beautiful jam. It looks, smells and tastes wonderful. Sort of plum flavored and deep red. The fruit becomes soft and translucent.

 

The first flush of Rosellas from my three plants

A cup of tea and a lot of peeling - removing the calyx from the seed

The seeds are saved, covered in water and simmered for 20 minutes to remove the pectin, which helps the jam set

The seeds once the pectin is removed

The calyxs, an apple and the pectin water, ready to be simmered until soft, then have the sugar added

Five jars of beautiful jam in recycled bottles

The same sweet potatoes from three weeks ago, and some Rosellas drying on the windowsill for the purpose of making tea

There are plenty more fruit ripening on the bushes, so I intend to try my hand at Rosella cordial and flowers in syrup next. 

Do you have a similar dream of growing herbs or fruit and vegetables?
Have you ever grown or eaten Rosella before? Any recipe suggestions?
What's happening in your garden at the moment?

Monday Monday

1. Delicious baby profile

2. Starting to put together a thrifty Winter wardrobe - this hand knit was $2.25 from ebay

3. Prototypes for a new jewellery design

4. As decorated by the four year old

5. Knitting by request - so Teddy won't catch cold this Winter

6. Catching up in the garden - buying seedlings feels a bit like cheating!

And the winner of the Berlin Roses giveaway is Zara! Thanks to everyone who entered. 

Pop back tomorrow for another lovely giveaway.

A month from scratch

This morning I was making fresh orange juice for poor Cohen, who has a cold. First though, I peeled the oranges so as to make a citrus cleaner with the rinds. As I worked I was thinking about several things, one being our ninth wedding anniversary next month. That man must have married me for love, I thought. 

As a 21 year old bride I could bake, but I could not cook. And I only baked on special occasions. I would have failed if the way to Dave's heart had been through his stomach. My specialties were banana cake and scones. He still likes neither. (He's crazy, I know.) Our dinners then consisted of prepackaged food, frozen meals, eating out, or takeaway. Breakfast was simply toast and coffee, and we both brought our lunches at work. Although I had been cooking for myself since turning vegetarian at sixteen, I still really didn't know how to cook.

So much has changed since then. Motivated by Cohen's birth in particular, I started learning how to cook. I began relying less and less on prepackaged food. Becoming a stay at home Mum changed our budget dramatically and I could not rely on takeaway any more. But I had more time. I had a tiny person in my life that I wanted the best for. We found out about his allergies and I needed to be able to cater to them. I borrowed recipe books from the library. Printed recommended recipes from blogs. Borrowed recipes from friends. And slowly built up a range of meals that were healthy, thrifty and delicious. I got over the thought that people like me couldn't cook. I realised I had been standing in my own way, much like I was when it came to learning to knit. The only person stopping me was me and my assumption that I couldn't do it. But who cares if every meal is not perfect? Better to build on your successes than never try at all. 

Blogs further motivated me. The likes of Down to Earth, Soule Mama and Inner Pickle opened new doors to me. From growing our own veggies, to eating seasonally. From preserving food, to making even more from scratch. From keeping chickens, to stockpiling. Even just crafting practical things for the home. My focus expanded to consider economy and environment even more. There are some bigger picture things that we are working on for the future - solar power for the house, rain water tanks for the laundry and gardens and others that we have already accomplished - new roof with whirly birds, new ceiling insulation. But I am also interested in the smaller, more every day things - like making my own cleaning products, thus reducing the amount we spend on such things and reducing the amount of chemicals in our home. Or replacing disposable items like nappies, breast pads and tissues with cloth alternatives. (A box of breast pads costs $6 a week. While I have all the necessary items to make them myself and simply throw them into the machine with the rest of the washing. A savings of $60 every two and a half months.) 

Last night we ate creamy pesto pasta for dinner, with pesto made from the basil grown in our garden. I made enough for lunch today and two serves to freeze for a later date. After making juice and porridge for the little one this morning, I made a loaf of bread and baked two batches of jam drop biscuits for the week. Tonight we are having Spicy Vegetable and Lentil soup for dinner with the fresh bread.  I'll be making a double batch so that I can freeze serves for nights when we are in a rush or I don't feel like cooking - something Emerson's birth inspired me to do. Living simpler, healthier, cheaper has become a part of my mind set. But I know there is more that I could be doing. I've been inspired by Fi at Inner Pickle to challenge myself to a month from scratch and document some of those challenges on my blog.

And you? Are you inspired to take up Fi's challenge?

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We celebrated the New Year a midst the company of friends and family (and a friendly possum). Though we welcomed it tucked up in our beds, woken by the dog at midnight, barking at the fireworks. These first days of the new year have been spent about the house. Dave has been felling trees and working in the garden, generally after a morning surf. I have been pottering, planting seeds, nesting, knitting, reading and playing in the studio, as there have been some new additions.

Coralie Bickford-Smith designed Penguin Classics

On Christmas morning there was a rather large box under the tree with my name on it. A surprise from my sweet husband. I had mentioned to him in passing that I thought the Coralie Bickford-Smith cloth bound series was beautiful. This information he filed away until the lead up to Christmas, where he called and visited many a bookshop in the City to secretly amass this collection. I had not a clue as to any of this and was delighted Christmas day to be surrounded by the most wonderful books. (Another two books are still making their way by post!)

Which lead us to the first addition to the studio. Such lovely books surely deserved shelves of their own I thought, to which my husband agreed, even braving Ikea on his own to retrieve these Lack shelves. My search for a sofa bed to add extra comfort and practicality to the space lead to the next addition. I was thrilled to win this darling for only 99 cents on ebay, which folds out to a double bed.

I'm loving how this space is coming together. A light shade, a rug, some more frames, perhaps a coat of paint on the sewing table, and it will be close to being finished for a time. One day we plan to have the concrete floor polished also.

The details - The trio of prints are by Gretchenmist, the hanging tray and white frame were thrifted, the wooden hand is from Typo and a gift from my sister, the white chair was a free road side find, the camera on the shelf is my trusty Minolta from my Uni days, the white head statue beside it I brought back from Athens, the vintage sewing baskets on the shelf below are thrifted, as are the other baskets in these shots, the pillow is a thrifted gift from my sister and the throw is a crochet one I made.

PS. Don't forget to enter the Shabby Apple giveaway. The winner will be drawn on Thursday.

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Fabric brought on sale at Spotlight for $3 a meter

While I had the sewing machine out to finish off the maternity top I'd started, I also made some alterations to another dress I brought recently. I picked up this little dress up for $4.95 at Valleygirl, as I liked the fabric. However, it was too short to be a dress and unflattering as a tunic with the frill around the bottom, but it fits my bump nicely. So the frill got the chop, and a new hem was made and ta-dah, two more thrifty tops to add to my maternity wardrobe. 

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Two days ago I discovered punnets of strawberries for 69 cents each at our local fruit shop. I brought six punnets and two lemons in order to make jam the next day. Lovely fresh, cheap jam free of artifical colours, preservatives or flavors.

In the mean time Cohen ate one punnet, Dave took another punnet to work and I realised that all my jam jars were packed. Nor did I have any kitchen scales. Not a worry, thought I, having seen retro looking kitchen scales for $20 at the local hardward shop and preserving jars at the local grocery store. Scales secured I went to get the jars, only to find out that they has been 'deleted' and were no longer in stock. They had sold the small and large jars off at $1 each, but sadly I was a few days too late. I drove across town to another grocery store to no avail.

Concerned that my strawberries were not going to become jam after all, I wandered into 'Crazy Clarks' and there I found these sweet little jars at $1.40 each. I brought eight of them and took them home. In the excitement of hardware, grocery and variety shops Cohen had fallen asleep. I put him to bed, lugged all my jars and scales into the house, turned on some music and got to jam making.

And ta-dah! Two and a bit jars of perfect strawberry jam.

Which, when you count in the cost of the strawberries, the scales, the jars, the sugar and the lemons, my nice cheap jam suddenly cost $37.82. But we need not tell my husband this, as surely buying the scales and jars do not count, not to mention the petrol and time... instead I like to think that it was really only the fruit, sugar and lemons alone, thus this perfect jam cost about $4.20 all up. After all, the jars and scales are reusable, right?

High on my jam making success, I'm on the look out for anything else that I can preserve. Suggestions?

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Jam made using a combination of this recipe and the recipe in the latest issue of 'Frankie'.