Russian Garlic

Elephant Garlic also known as Russian Garlic.
The cloves are HUGE.
Mum gave us some cloves from her garden a couple of years ago.
Mum said once you plant it it's there forever and she's right so far. It came up by itself this year.
It's classed as an environmental weed in WA
I dug up the remainder of our Garlic crop this afternoon.
Washed, dried and sliced it

and put it in the food dehydrator.
The house now is aromatic. (stinks of garlic).
This years crop should last us until next years.
We have a crop of chillies and Lemongrass I want to dry next.

The story of Faith Hope

The story of Faith Hope

A story of Love... This is distressing but beautiful too. An incredibly brave story of love.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

I spent the morning sewing. I made Fern a blouse to go with her skirt. It's an Enid pattern so I blogged it over on my Enid blog. I spent the afternoon making tomato sauce. Using my tried and true recipe. Last year I had the use of my friend Lisa's Moulin. This year I bought my own.

Peter helped and washed and de-stalked all the tomatoes.
The new stove is a lot bigger and the pots sit without overhanging. I can get 3 large stockpots on the new stove. I struggled to get 2 on my old stove.

A moulin makes it so easy to get the seeds and skins out of the sauce.
I found my Moulin on Ebay on a buy it now. I was so happy as I only paid $16.95 with free postage and the ones on the Auction had been going for over $40!
I prefer these old metal Moulin to the modern plastic ones.

Here's the results. The large jars are 750ml.

Baby and Children's free quilt patterns 2500!

Op shop fabric skirt

I was lucky enough to find all of this in an Op-shop in Pt Pirie.
I paid less than a $1 a meter.

I drafted up a skirt for Fern.
This is very simple to do. I used Ferns hip measurement and the length I wanted the skirt.
I played around with a curved hem line.

I added a ruffle to finish the hem.

Fern likes it.
I need to make a nice top for her to wear with the skirt.

Nintendo DS Pouch Tutorial

Nintendo DS Pouch Tutorial

I designed this pattern for keeping my DS in. My mum is a BAD influence and after seeing her DS I had to get one for myself. I bought it for the Weight Management game, that was my excuse anyway. I spend most of my time playing Zelda on it.

Requirements:
woven fabrics. (2 fat quarters would work well)
Wadding (interfacing would work too)
thread
Ric Rac (optional)
Snaps (or another fastener.. buttons or velcro would also do)
Rotary cutter, mat and rulers make the cutting easy
General sewing bits and pieces

Cutting


Pouch outer two pieces 5 inches by 7 inches
Wadding two pieces 5 inches by 7 inches
Pouch lining two pieces 5 inches by 7 inches
game pockets two pieces 3 inches by 7 inches
pouch flap one piece 5 inches by 6 inches


Making the game pockets


Fold the pocket pieces in half, matching the long ends. Press.


Position the bottom pocket first. the folded edge lines up with the bottom edge of the lining piece. sew across the raw edge with a 1/4 inch seam.


Flip the pocket piece up. Press.


Position the second pocket piece. Line up the raw edge 3/ 8ths away from the top of the first row. Stitch with a 1/4 inch seam.


Flip the second pocket place up. Press. Mark the pockets into sections to create the small game pockets. Measure 2 inches in from each side and draw a chalk line. then draw the center line which is in the middle and creates 1.5 inch pockets in the center. The outer pockets are currently bigger because they include the seam allowance.

You could choose to make similar pockets on the other lining piece.

Preparing the pouch outer fabric


Lay your wadding onto the wrong side of your pouch outer pieces. You can baste them into place, I did not. I find wadding tends to cling and is not that hard to handle on such a small project. The wadding and outer are now treated as one piece.


I added some ric rac to the front piece of the pouch outer. You could be very creative here and applique the owners name or add some stitchery.

The pouch Flap


Fold the flap piece in half right sides together. Stitch along the shorter ends.


Turn the flap to the right side. Press and baste with an 8th of an inch seam to the top of the back outer piece. Make sure you center the flap.


Putting it all together


Lay the lining and the outer piece right side together and sew them along the top sides using a 1/4 inch seam. Make sure the pocket openings are positioned towards the outer fabric. You don't want to sew them in upside down. ( Yep done that!)


Open up the pieces. This is what you should have now. I put my lining with the pockets on the back piece as I want my pockets to be at the back of the pouch.


Place the pouch pieces right side together. Carefully match the seam. You want the outer pieces to be together and the linings to be together. Sew a 1/4 inch seam all the way around. Leaving a 4 inch gap at the top of the lining fabrics, this is to allow a hole to turn the pouch through.


To create the flat base of the pouch you sew little triangles ,as in the photo above. Flatten the side seam to the bottom seam and stitch 1/2 an inch from the point. Do this to both the pouch outer and lining fabrics, all four corners.


Turn the pouch through the opening you left in the lining. Close the opening. I folded in the seam allowance and top stitched it closed.


Push the lining into the pouch. Edge stitch around the top of the pouch, to keep the lining in place. I stitched from the inside of the pouch.


Attach your snaps. You could use a button and a button hole. If using velcro it would look better if you added the loop piece to the flap before you folded it, this would hide the stitching.


Now load it up with your games and DS!

You are very welcome to make and sell from this tutorial.

Nintendo DS Pouch

The DS is mine not the kids or Peter's.
Peter kidnaps it at times.
Fern and James get a turn as a reward for helping with the house work

I designed this little pouch to keep the games and console together.

I added little pockets to store the games.

This little pouch was very quick to make.
I want to write up a tutorial, so I will to make another pouch.
I think I'll add a wrist strap to it. I'll try and get the tutorial done tonight, once the kids are in bed.

Oppps It didn't work... back to the design stage

I wanted to make a pair of slippers for Michael.
Wendy's mum gave me some scraps of this double sided fleecy
I drew around Michael's foot and drafted a pattern for a simple pair of slippers.
But .. the uppers were way too big.
I had splayed the pattern too much and put too much room into the top piece.

They are swimming on him. The length and width of the foot are fine but there is too much height in the top and the cuff is way too big.

Ok I can fix this..
I'll just pinch out the extra and snip it out and sew it back together.

They look pretty but....
Can you guess what happened?

The slipper won't go onto his feet.
There is no stretch in the cuffs so they can't be pulled on over his wide little toes!

I need to do a little more thinking on this one.
A ribbing for the cuffs?

Stay tuned to see if I can fix this mess ..

...come back Crafty Mamas I miss you!!


I solved it.
It was easier than I thought. I chopped a centimeter off the cuff.
Excuse the flash photo and the rug that needs a vacuum.

Snake Pattern Weights Tutorial

Snake Pattern Weights


Very handy for holding down a pattern and fabric while cutting out curves.

Requirements
fabric scraps at least 4.5 inches wide can be a variety of lengths.
rotary cutter, mat and rulers make the cutting easy
sewing machine a threads
An iron.

Cut fabric 4.5 by 18 inches.

Hot dog fold. That is to fold the two long sides to meet.
Stitch along the long side and one end.
Turn the tube to the right side.
I use my dressmakers scissors to help, by pushing the point into the end seam and rolling the tube onto the shaft of the blades.

Fold in a 1/4 inch and press the open end.

Fill the snake with rie or another weighty filling.
Only fill 3/4 full. If it is too full it won't bend around curves.

Topstitch the end closed.


Make a few in different lengths. They are handy for different sized curves.

The top one here is 4.5 by 13 inches
the middle 4.5 by 16 inches
and the bottom one 4.5 by 18 inches.

Wild Flower Pincushion

Wild Flower Pincushion
Another free project this time from Better Homes and Gardens.
I saw this on Whimsy and Wonder Blog.
Thanks for inspiring me Mrs R.

Humbug Pattern Weights Tutorial

HUMBUG PATTERN WEIGHTS

I've been meaning to make myself some pattern weights forever. I finally got around to it this afternoon.

Requirements
Scrap fabrics at least 8.5 inches by 4.5 inches
rotary cutter and rulers
rice or other filling to add weight.
Thread and sewing machine.

Cutting
A rectangle 8.5 by 4.5 inches for each weight.

Cut a rectangle 4.5 inches by 8.5 inches.

Fold the rectangle in half. Matching the short ends.

Sew a 1/4 inch seam along two sides leaving the top open.

Fold in the top edges a 1/4 inch and press them well.

Fill the bag 3/4's full with rice. (or other weighting)

Pin the bag closed. Have the seams meeting in the center.
I put the pins an inch below the opening to keep the rice out of the way while top stitching the bag closed.

Top stitch the bag closed.

Make a few more. Add to them as you get scraps from projects.

These should save me having to pin my paper patterns to my fabric in future. I'm planning on making a few long skinny ones too for holding down the curves of necklines and arm holes.