Our woman in BA

My friend is a wonderful writer.

Here’s to writing adventures in blogland.

Serendipitous wrong turns

Found a fantastic shop tucked away on Alma Road after I took a wrong turn on my way to see my sister.

I’m not sure who had more fun at Little Sparrow – me or Piaf.

After kvetching about our throwaway consumerist society, I staggered out with an armful of goodies. As Miz Steiner Shelley said, maybe to assuage my guilt, they will be turned into a few projects. So it seems I haven’t turned into a total Kim Kardashian.

There was so much handmade, wooden and woollen fantabulousness to pick up and look at. Picking up after Piaf wasn’t a hassle because every time I did, I’d see something hiding on a top shelf or at her eye level.

I also got the lowdown on the Steiner Stream at East Bentleigh Primary School. I wasn’t sure if, embedded in the mainstream system, it would be true to the Steiner philosophy.  Shelley – an Abbotsford veteran –  has heard it  works really well. I know from passing Rob Hudson’s electorate office down the road that they’re about to get a veggie garden, a la Stephanie.

So… back to the nest foragings at Little Sparrow. I found these buttons to go with this jacket:

This lay around for months, just waiting for me to attach the binding around the neck. It’s one of three jackets I made out of a workshop I went to last year  at Amitie, run by Trish, who doesn’t believe in detailed pattern instructions (because she doesn’t need them!) but graciously  allowed me to trace her patterns in different sizes to remake this at home.

It’s a bit fiddly to make  - like fabric origami – but very satisfying once you get it right. Many mistakes later – sewing sleeves shut, or sewing them together as one continuous sleeve (very useful, that!) –  I’ve written my own detailed instructions to keep the guesswork down in future.

I finished it this week, inspired by the fact that I’ve done about five Oliver & S popover sundresses, which have taught me a lot about attaching bias binding.

Here’s a close-up of the fabric, which came from Patchwork on Central.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit Piaf at all. She’s too long and skinny (definitely takes after her dad who looks like he’s been put through a pasta machine in his childhood photos). But I know that it does fit other kids who have some of that delicious baby plumpness.  I’ve redrafted the pattern to approximate her build, but haven’t tested it.

Next was The Big Gun birthday present for Piaf, who turns two in a few weeks:

Ages seven and up? You kidding me? …. the instrument itself is great. Tried it out, good sounds.

I got a kaleidoscope to round out the birthday package, which will also include these homemade goodies:

Then I got some felted bobbles – some for a birthday banner I’m making, and others just to have around, y’know?

And some chenille, which will be turned into cushions.

And lucky last…. some ribbon to go on an as yet to be thought through pinafore….

There were some amazing wooden chook sheds with felted chooks inside, built by two sisters. Piaf got a peek. And a toadstool house built by same. Made me gasp.

When it was time to leave, Piaf chucked a tantrum. In her shoes, I would’ve too.

More aprons

From a pattern from Joanna at Stardust Shoes (also posted on Michael Miller’s blog).

This be a hardworkin’ pattern. Very simple to assemble. I texted my friend Trev yesterday to ask when his twin boys’ fourth birthday was. I get a phone call saying, “Uh, come over on Saturday. We got a bit slackarsed about it.”

As you do with twins plus a six year old.

So I popped into the kitchenwares shop round the corner, got some dinosaur cookie cutters, plus some of hands and feet and other cool stuff, and made these.

The boys make cupcakes possibly every week with their mother and sister.

So, the perfect pressie to whip up in a hurry, good for boys and girls.

And … for womens and mens. (that’s a family joke that would take a while to explain and probably not be very funny).

What I love about getting better at sewing is being able to go to Spotlight and see the potential in different fabrics much faster and efficiently. I went in yesterday about 15 minutes before close and picked up winners.

And it means I don’t shell out anywhere near as much for expensive quilting fabrics … they get purchased for something special (like their sister’s birthday dress, later this month; so many birthdays right now, and it’s a joy sewing for them)

As usual, I bought far too much, but these are such a good standby gift I imagine I won’t have these fabrics in my stash for too long.

Fathers Day at St Kilda Adventure Playground (could this happen in Glen Eira?)

(Very St Kilda)

We’d been told about St Kilda Adventure Playground and figured it would be a cool place. Nothing prepared us for just how imaginative, creative and crammed it is with possibilities for adventure, when we went down today, Fathers Day.

You get there via a series of dog legs from Neptune Lane or Eildon Road, between Grey and Acland streets. Blink and you’d miss it. It looks like nothing until you land on top of it and find yourself peeking into a wonderland.

A flying fox … a Go-Kart ramp …live  chooks … a pirate ship …. trampolines… cubbies… a place for adults to share food and make tea and coffee … a kids’ make-believe shop, young peppercorn trees … and lots of sculptural creations and whimsically painted wood surfaces. It’s messy and handmade and it is utterly seductive.

It made me wish I could slip into that childish state of mind where you really do weave magical worlds to play in all day. I know the kids who go there are lucky because this place will feed and sustain their imaginations well into adulthood.

At a month shy of two, Piaf is a little small for some of the playground’s installations, and was a bit overwhelmed by the older kids tearing about, so I will try it on a weekday with one of her little friends.

Maybe I’ve been looking the other way when people have been talking about this place, but I must say I’ve heard no buzz at all about this place. And I am a big fan of Collingwood Children’s Farm and what’s been done to make Abbotsford Convent an arts and community hub.

I imagine a lot of Port Phillip residents would want to keep this place a secret. It’s special.

I got chatting with some of the parents there and asked them about where things were at with the Council. Most municipalities including my own, Glen Eira, would, I know regard such an adventure playground as a total liability nightmare. And then some.

But no, apparently it’s all much safer than it used to be and kosher from a legal perspective, and you enter at your own risk.

Could this be replicated in Glen Eira?

There is a lack of cool things to do and cool places to visit in the southern suburbs. Especially if you don’t have a backyard – which admittedly is not a big chunk of the population, but it is a growing one (and includes us until we get around to walling in our front yard). But for me, it’s more about being in a community, and meeting people.

There are some great parks here – Glen Eira has put in some superb equipment. But what’s missing is the sort of facility that acts as a community magnet. By default, it seems, everyone is assumed to stay put in their backyard. I know there is a place for indoor play centres but I loathe them with a passion. Leisure is very privatised here. That is how these “garden suburbs” were designed. Postwar havens, the refuge of the family and vegie patch.

But there is now a chance to create a community space in Glen Eira: at the the decommissioned bowling green at Carnegie’s Packer Park.

The Council wants to sell it to developers for flats.

When we got talking about this last week via another issue, Councillor Jim McGee (Tucker Ward) told me that the Council would sell it for flats “Over my dead body”.

We talked about how fantastic it would be for this opportunity to be used as some sort of community place that would bring together all ages. I don’t live near Carnegie but would happily travel there for something like it.

I’ve since discovered another councillor, Neil Pilling, has a blog and has reported a fair bit of discontent on the Packer Park issue.

I love the adventure park model. The Port Phillip website has a short rundown of the playground’s history as taken from a Danish postwar experiment, rooted in a philosophy of giving kids from disadvantaged homes and their parents a hub for play, skills development and interaction But as with so many things devised to cater for “disadvantage”, this description misses the point that affluent kids and their parents need these sorts of interactions too. (Like “art therapy” – shouldn’t creating art be everyone’s birthright, not just a remedial activity?). And of course, the people who go there are a mix of backgrounds – you can tell from the snatches of conversation around the coffee table – “Yes, well I’m working on a pilot for the BBC …. yes, the backers are American even though it’s filmed here…”

Another cool local hub could be one inspired by the community house and garden at the St Kilda Botanic Gardens in Blessington Street. WE visited last week, got chatting to a couple of people who showed us around the lovingly tended vegie crop, and compost bins. It was great seeing Piaf’s face as she saw compost worms writhing around. I like the idea of being able to tap into these experiences without having to possess or own or buy them. A taste of other people’s lives and passions.

I feel a community campaign coming on.

If life gives you lemons, make lemon butter (Then add vodka)

Apologies to Farouche for ripping off their vodka line… but honestly, that “if life gives you lemons” adage is just too smug without a dash of something 80-proof.

Di over at Clementine’s Shoes has been busy making lemon curd. Beat me to it.. we too have bowls of lemons just waiting for this (when I can get rip myself away from the sewing machine.

Di got her recipe from Stephanie whatsername’s cookbook (for someone who’s never had a drug habit, I’ve got a shocking memory).

Mine is from an old book, Four Seasons by Margaret Costa – maybe the Stephanie of her day when England was stating to get into exotic foods like olives and capsicums and pasta.

If you see a copy in an op shop somewhere, snap it up! It was reissued a couple of years ago in hardback – it really is a classic and a lot of it is applicable today, especially the cakes. I saw a copy at Books for Cooks a few months ago.

[Hmmm... just noticed an Amazon review where someone says the recipe for scallop and artichoke soup alone is worth the price of the book - $2 in my case!)]

Costa has a recipe for ‘convent curd” which she got from real nuns (!). A total time-waster but apparently even more explosive on the palate than regular lemon curd:

“Rub off all the rind of 6 large lemons on to 2lbs of lump sugar”.

Luckily she has an everyday recipe that just calls for humble grated rind (this was written back in the days before that term, redolent of hardened, stale cheese gave way to “zest”)

Work is lean right now so I think I’ll spend Monday while Piaf is at creche cutting several Vivienne toddler pinafores from a pattern sadly no longer available on the Burda website, now that I have mastered buttonholes at sewing class.

And making a few jars of lemony, buttery loveliness.

Maybe Kristen, who posted wonderful free pdfs of jam jar labels could also do one for lemon butter. Though I reckon that’s pushing it.

Yum. Suddenly I’m hungry.

Sewjourn giveaway

Well, maybe my one reader in New Zealand will enter and win ….

The leddies at Sewjourn are giving away a day at their crafty getaway in Lancefield, to celebrate their coming of age (which in crafty country retreat terms is a year … a bit like dog or cat years).

Soozs told me about Lancefield over a lunch a few months ago through which she knitted furiously. It sounded like a lot of fun though I couldn’t hope to match her amphetamine-esque output.

I wonder if in addition to all the wine and haute cuisine tourism Victoria seems to be promoting to death, we will one day see a craft-led tourism revival?

Popover sundress #2

Once again – in the space of a fortnight? – I’ve made another Popover Sun Dress from Oliver & S’s free pattern.

This time, I added pockets from their Puppet Show shorts pattern. I adore these pockets. I spent ages admiring them.

This would have to be the most stylish little summer number for a girl aged around two.

Not sure whether to keep this one for Piaf or whether it will end up as a Kris Kringle gift for when our mothers’ group chucks a birthday party for all the kids later this month.

The fabric is from Spotlight – from memory $8 or maybe $13 a metre. A metre and half yielded enough for two dresses – one a size four, for Piaf’s cousin Mahalia, as well as this size 2. I will have to piece together the bias strips for the straps for the second dress, but who cares?

Then M said, what about bloomers? Ah, back to the store again. See if I can get the grey fabric I used for the yoke – though it may only come as a fat quarter.

I was a little dubious at first about this fabric. It seemed a little dull and twee on the bolt. But it looks fantastic made up … it allows the details to shine. And I guess that’s what Liesel was getting at in this tutorial.

I bought another quilting fabric that I love, but it’s rather loud – like a slate and red and yellow jacquard. I think it’ll look either fantastic or not quite right. Be interestign to see the contrast between busy and loud versus demure dusty pink.

I cut two dresses in a size two yesterday while Piaf slept and then went to Grandma’s for visitors.

I still can’t get the bias binding right around the armhole. Maybe there’s a good online tutorial somewhere.

Oh, it’s not disastrous – just that if I make a neat edgestitch on the front it invariably doesn’t catch the binding on the inside.

And if I catch the binding on the inside, the outside looks puffy and weird. I mean, no one notices except me, right?

Here is a close-up of the pockets to die for:

Right now, it’s hanging in my hallway. I love that time, soon after making a piece, when you just bask in the satisfaction of having done something very cute. And your fingers and your sewing foot are itching for the next project.

Curtains are up!

Four dollars a metre? Are you kidding me?

Yes, that’s Ikea’s Cecilia fabric in grey, now up on my lounge room window, draping down in lovely pencil pleats. it’s a beautiful design in grey, slate and white, and is so evocative of a pale, northern winter, with its oak leaves, acorns and leaf skeletons. My adventure in curtain making was guided by a fantastic little book I bought from Spotlight about 10 years ago – $3.95 and it has almost everything you could want to know about making curtains.

The lining cost more than the curtain fabric. I bought a one-pass for abut $7. In hindsight I would have gone three-pass, which is maximum blockout. I do love the translucence of this fabric as it is, but am mindful of the coming blasts of summer heat.

It’s so incredibly satisfying having your own handiwork on view in your own home every day. We’ve been curtainless in our lounge room for so long. Having them up really frames the beautiful leadlight windows.

And it offers insulation (I felt guilty spending most of the winter with the heater on knowing that so much would escape through the unadorned window). The curtains’ arrival also suggests other changes we could make to the room, because they subtly alter where the eye falls and our perception of the room’s dimensions. So it seems we need a few pictures above or at the level of the picture rail. And some cushions.

What I love is that this fabric and the other which I’ve used to make a curtain in my office-cum-craftroom below, just leapt out at me. No other designs/colours would do.

The office curtain started out with a rod pocket header, but then we realised it would be important to be able to open and close the thing. So a bit of unpicking, purchase of more curtain rings (go Lincraft – they sell bulk savers packets of 100 for $10 – whereas Spotlight will sell 10 for $2.80), and some header tape, and … presto.

There’s a story to the cardboard suitcase on the pie dresser. I walking around Elwood near the canal when I saw a whole lot of stuff being turfed out on to the nature strip. A guy came outside and I asked him about the case, which says “W Braun, Melbourne, Cabin Room”. His great-uncle (?) came out from Poland via Shanghai to escape the Third Reich. Someone recently told me it was mostly White Russians fleeing the Revolution who took that route, but I once worked with someone now in his 50s who was born in Shanghai. At school, his teachers always accused him of lying when he told them where he was born.

So I asked this guy why he was chucking out such a resonant object. He said his girlfriend wanted to de-clutter.

Sigh.

Oh wow!

Oh thank you Liesl at Oliver & S for posting this free pattern, which I heard about via whipup!

It’s gorgeous. And I love the fact it has been drafted as a size 2-8. That means it will be reincarnated over and over as gifts for other little girls of my acquaintance.

It was so easy I cut it out yesterday when Piaf was napping, and sewed it up today.

The Ric rac is from Amitie, the main garment fabric is form a beach robe I bought in Northcote a couple of years ago which has never looked good. The yoke is made form some cheap broadcloth from Lincraft.

It just makes me want to go out and increase my stash ten fold so I can make this over and over. Somethign very satisfying about making your own bias binding and finishing an armhole with it- it looks so cute and neat,

No trying on today though – it’s freezing in Melbourne today. High winds and a top of 16. Hmmmm…

Hot Patterns

Oh joy! I got three hot patterns (indie company operating out of Florida) in the mail last week, courtesy my cat-lovin’ pal Jenny Schlueter, with whom I shared a house in Madrid a few years ago, when she was running Petra’s bookshop (that’s another post, maybe another blog or better still, a book).

I’m tracing the patterns tonight. I’m amazed at how many different sizes I am. 12 around the bust and under bust, a 20 (!) in the biceps (either due to chocolate or lifting Piaf, who is getting heavy, or both), and around a 16 everywhere else- waist, hips etc. It makes it tricky to know when to “blend” the cutting lines. I’m hoping a 12 around the armhole, tapering out to a 16 for width (I do know I’m broad along the back) will do it.

There are some measurements on the pattern envelope that baffle me – for example, what is Cetre back waist floor? and centre-front waist floor? I tok a punt and came up with figures nowhere near within their range. and how do I measure from shoulder to shoulder, back and front? Is it the sharp end of the shoulder, or the full, rounded bit (yes, I know on some people they are one and the same!)? Questions for class next Saturday.

I am busting to do up a calico tomorrow while Piaf is in creche of this, the Riviera Pennant Blouse:

I have no short-sleeved summer shirts, so fingers crossed this will be easy and look good, so I can make a few. I’m still working on a McCalls long sleeve shirt which many reviewers on patternreview.com say is dead easy but which has been a nightmare for me because of my bulging biceps (the bodice was no problem at all, but yep, sleeves are the hardest because they must allow for the biggest range of movement of any garment part).

I’ve read on other blogs that Hot Patterns’ instructions leave a little to be desired and certainly in the 3 patterns I’ve ordered there seems to be a bit of disparity in the detail, suggesting they might have taken this criticism on board. On the other hand, this is what I go to a sewing teacher for, for all that accumulated knowledge and judgement known as expertise. Once you start fiddling with a pattern big time, you really have to bite the bullet and learn a lot.

I love their Riviera range. I want to purchase just about every pattern in it, but have restricted myself to a cardigan-jacket, and a Wong Singh Jones coat that I’m dying to do in a pale khaki (puce?) velvet from Tessuti with black fake fur trim. Let’s hope if these adventures turn out, the exchange rate will be in my favour for future forays.