hard labour

We went on a lovely short bike ride along the beach this morning. We got home and I plopped in front of the computer with a big spoonful of peanut butter. On the fourth trip back to the pantry I registered two facts: that I was set up to fritter away Labour Day on internet-faffing, and that there was hardly any more peanut butter. So I told Simon we had to go on another bike ride. To my parents place, to pick up a package I'd had sent there. We pedalled off again, along the Gardiners Creek Trail.

It was quite sunny today, and I was so thirsty the whole time we rode. We had to keep stopping for water breaks. Simon looked to be getting a bit of a sunburn and I told him so, and he said I was getting one too plus I had peanut butter on my nose. We got to my parents' place after a long stretch of there being no water fountains. My parents aren't at the house, they're in Coober Pedy.  Thought we'd get some water from one of their garden taps, or water tanks, or from a hose, anything, but I'd forgotten that Mum's got all the hoses on timers with funny valve-connectors and it's all systematised in such a way as I'm not sure which hose goes to which tap or tank and just what substance any hose might release, I know she's got greywater and something she calls 'poo juice' going on and I didn't want a mouthful of either of those. There was just NO WATER to be had. I had such a headache, and the worst peanuty cottonmouth. We grabbed the package and headed off to the bubblers at the school at the end of the street.

Anyway it was all worth it because the package I had picked up was a Holga lens for my DSLR. I got it so I can take thousands of out-of-focus, poorly-exposed pictures and not have to pay for all that film development.  I think the pictures look just as nasty as the ones you get from a real Holga plastic film camera. When I got home I was able to snap a few hundred frames and here are the least awful.

Our passel of tradie next-door neighbours have started on this garage wall piece. I don't think it's finished, I'm no graffiti connoisseuse but it seems a bit plain. The funny focus of the Holga lens is messing with perspective, making it look as though they have a triffid or magic beanstalk growing up next to it but that's actually just a vine on the fence. I shot this through a gap in between two rotten palings.

Next to the tradies, the freegans are flying their Eureka flag. Not just for Labour Day either- it's there permanently. I sort of want to take photos of their whole compound, because it's looking really interesting, they've dotted some reclaimed stonemasonry around the property and have also fabricated an art gallery out of found materials. I know its an art gallery and not just another lean-to because they have a sign stuck on the front of it saying so. But I'm not rude enough to go taking pictures.

Our garage door. This is sort of a pretty photo... I guess? Yeah, maybe not.

I hope you had a lovely Labour Day weekend!

wrinkly twill, diapered heron

Stash situation is Out. Of. Hand. Its taking up six Expedit cubes. 

I’ve made a firm commitment to reducing it:

I vow to make three more garments before the end of the month, using ONLY stash fabric and where possible, stash notions.

Last weekend I busted out my Burda back-issues, unfolded some stash yardage and tackled style 107 B from 02-2009.

Quick and straightforward. I love the buttoned-flap belt carriers - they remind me a bit of the gun flaps on a trench coat. Sharp. Looks like Modcloth had the same idea and ran with it even harder.


The fabric is a cotton twill, which could have done with a bit of synthetic percentage so as not to be so wrinklable! Also it really needs a wide gray belt to go through those loops. 


Had everything I needed on hand for this project except the invisible zip. So I went out and bought one, along with this lovely zingy blue and orange knit.

And it really was only while I was trying to knead it into an overstuffed cube that it hit me I’d broken my vow within 24 hours of making it. 


...Revised vow:

I vow to make three more garments before the end of the month, using ONLY stash fabric and where possible, stash notions; ONLY after this am I permitted to make something out of Zingy Knit.

In non-sewing news, two days ago I learned to walk on STILTS! To move with them on you have to lift your knees up high and straight, like a waterbird, while your thighs are apart as though you're a toddler wearing a nappy. The Diapered Heron. It was the most fun thing I've done at circus training so far.

easy piece

This top is going to get a lot of wear. Not with these blue pants. NEVER with these blue pants, but they were what I was wearing to sew in. Simon really likes this top and as soon as I finished the final hem and showed him he volunteered to take pictures, and I wasn't going to risk him changing his mind while I put on some coordinating bottoms. But it will be a great thing throw on over a simple skirt or pants in the dissociative fugue state of a workday morning.

The pattern is McCall's 6164, variation A. I cut a size smaller than my measurements by mistake but Big Four patterns always come with bonus ease so it ended up being a good thing. Simon vetoed the elbow-length sleeves at the fitting stage- "Too old-lady". I used Tessuti's Black Ladder viscose/spandex jersey, a fairly stable knit with moderate two-way stretch that I found very easy to cut out and sew. In stripes, because that's all I ever seem to sew unless I sew gingham. Next I'm going to try a spotted knit. I also might try lengthening the pattern into a dress, like Meg. Even easier to get ready in the morning!

In non-sewing news, I am loving circus training. At this early stage it's been mostly stretching, scarecrow tiggy, teddy-bear throwing (yep) and getting-to-know-your-name games on a super-spongy floor. But we have also done a bit of... not acrobatics, I guess you'd call it standing up on each other? in formation? and jumping down. As the sense of invading personal space/fear of crushing eachother recedes, we're getting a bit more advanced with it.  It's amazing that some things that look like they're going to be quite difficult, or potentially dangerous, end up not being. In a couple of weeks I reckon we'll be jumping and flipping around like we're in one of those cheerleader movies. Bring it on!

first recesky tlr pictures

I thought that just because I love putting together flatpack furniture, can (usually) decipher Burda magazine sewing pattern instructions and have already made the Recesky 3D camera, putting together the Recesky TLR would be quick and easy. It ended up being quite frustrating, took ages and gave me a surprisingly bad blister on my middle finger plus a bruised thumb. But its all good now and I would be keen to make another.

From a roll of twenty-four exposure film I ended up with only seventeen printable pics, and there's only really two that I like, where the blurtastic effect sort of works So. for now I've no tips on using it. I am just getting a feel for how it works. If you think you might like to make one I have outlined some things that are good to know before you start constructing it after the jump. It's not intended to be an exhaustive list of potential problems; I think making this camera will frustrate every individual in a unique way.

not so easy

McCalls M6241

Do you like my new fitted tee shirt? Never mind that its made from a pattern for a floppy draped tunic.

Floppy swathes of draped knit fabric generally do a curvy, five-foot-two-inch girl no favours. But I thought I could finesse this pattern into something that was drapey in the right places and fitted in others, an optical illusion that would make me look svelte and lanky. I'd sort of achieved it, by running it in at the side seams in stages. I had it looking quite good, there was looseness around the upper arms and bust that made it easyfitting and slouchy, with the waist coming in a bit more but still loose. But then I washed it. And it shrunk up heaps. So now I have a perfectly ordinary long sleeve fitted tee very much like others I already own. Oh well, could have been worse, could have been a wadder!

Unrelated: this week I joined a circus. Well, a circus-skills-training class. I want to learn how to do those Cirque de Soleil aerial tricks. Its going to be a very long time before I am able to do anything even mildly impressive but I am super excited about it.