You’re looking at my creations – they’re all here!
My beautiful daughters. The things that I crochet. The clothes that I sew. Everything else that I sew!
They are my creations. This blog is my creation.
Since I have recently upgraded my crochet tools with two new sets, a set of bamboo hooks and a set of Clover Soft Touch hooks (both bought via eBay), I thought that they deserved a nice new hook roll all of their own!
I think that the outer fabric is by Michael Miller (but I could be wrong); the binding is some of the many metres I made with fabric from Spotlight.
The interior fabrics are a mixture of Alexander Henry’s Birdseed fabric, Moda’s Summer in the City stripe, and the Spotlight floral. I used a layer of Pellon fusible wadding inbetween the lining and outer fabric. The roll is based on this tutorial.
I learned a big lesson while making this roll – listen to my instincts. I made a one to two hour sewing project into a five hour one. Voice inside my head says to apply the binding by hand. I ignored it and tried to apply the binding by just wrapping it around the edges, then machine sewing it into place. Disastrous – wonky sewing that didn’t catch the binding on both sides. Time to unpick, stitch by stitch. Second try – sewed the binding to the outside by machine. That went fine. Then while ignoring the voice inside my head that says to apply the binding by hand I wrapped the binding around to the inside and pinned it all into place to machine sew it down. Finished result – wonky stitching once again that wasn’t all stitched in the ditch on the other side. Time to unpick, stitch by stitch. Sit down, watch a movie, and handsew the binding into place. Much, much better. Don’t ignore the nagging voice.
A friend told me recently about the Reverse Art Truck in Ringwood (a suburb of Melbourne). They are a non-profit organisation which collects rejects, seconds and factory offcuts for distribution to schools, early learning centres, community groups and individuals. I went there yesterday morning, and left with this:
An almost full green garbage bag full of bits and pieces for $20. These are some of the craft things that I collected for Clare:
She’s had a lovely time with them today creating rockets and space ships – she’s just been to the movies to see “In the Shadow of the Moon” (a documentary on the moon landing) with her dad. I picked up these bits and pieces for myself:
Two books of upholstery fabric samples, other large pieces of fabric, leather belts which will become bag handles, pieces of vinyl and leather, buckles, as well as pieces of card and old folder & diary covers which I intend to cover in fabric.
The variety and volume of materials available was astounding. I thoroughly recommend it as a place to source materials for children and for any crafty person! I assume that other cities may have similar schemes. Materials available include timber, dowel, fabrics, pointed cones, fluoro paper, matt board, card, rubber, foam, containers, silver & gold foil paper, rope, cord, elastic, sandpaper, cardboard, drums, wooden blocks, sheepskin, vinyl, leather, small and large reels, wrapping paper and ribbons, plastic tubing and hose, boxes, wire, twine, polystyrene, and more. I imagine that the stock changes often as different materials become available. If you are thinking of visiting, go without children – it’s fairly crowded and everything is tightly packed together.
I have mentioned a few times on my blog that I do often feel guilt for buying fabric, books and crochet hooks from overseas rather than from Australian retailers. A retailer commented on a recent post that if we don’t support our local shops, we won’t have them, and that she was disappointed when people come into her shop, check out fabrics and books, then brag about buying from the net on their blogs. After thinking about this (a lot) overnight, I feel that I need to respond publicly, even though my blog is really just a simple “show and tell” (with not all that many readers, I might add).
As a consumer, how many of us would pay more than double to buy exactly the same item locally when you can buy it elsewhere? More than double? I’d be happy to pay 10% more, possibly even 15% more to support local business, but for exactly the same item, to pay over 100% more? No.
I do lots of my fabric and craft shopping online. I have two small children. It is convenient for me to research online, get information from retailers and from blogs online, and shop and pay online. If Australian online shopping can provide me with what I am looking for at the same or a comparable price as overseas online shopping, I will buy from the Australian retailer – and I often do. If not? I’ll buy from the overseas retailer.
I will continue to blog about where I buy things, because my blog is a “show and tell” blog, it acts as a personal record, and because I appreciate this sharing of information when I read other people’s blogs. It is how I have found many of the online retailers that I now use. And – it’s my blog! I try to keep it predominately craft and sewing based, but obviously my opinions will creep into it. Because it’s my blog.
I do feel sorry for the Australian retailers (hence my guilt). I understand that they are in a difficult position. It is an issue that they will need to grapple with and come up with creative solutions to in the international world that we now live in. It is something that they no doubt need to band together on and work through with their suppliers. I would definitely be sorry to see Australian retailers close – but blaming the consumer for not supporting them is not going to solve the problem! The reasons WHY consumers are going elsewhere are what need to be addressed.
At this stage there are many craft and fabric consumers that aren’t on the internet, and/or have no interest in shopping online. But that is the way that things are moving. Many brick and mortar stores still provide lots of things that online shopping can never provide – personal service and the ability to touch and feel items and see what they look like “in real life”. Many hold retreats or workshops, really get to know their customers, and form a vital part of the crafting community. For people like myself who can’t get to them very often – online shopping is simply easier. In the past I have often gone to a brick and mortar retailer only to find that they haven’t had the product I’m looking for in stock. Online research takes up less time, petrol and child-care organisation and circumvents this problem.
And the bottom line? I’m not going to pay more than double for exactly the same item that I can buy elsewhere. (Hubby adds that he wouldn’t want me to either).
When pregnant with my first child, we decided that we would mostly use cloth nappies (diapers, for any Americans reading this). We decided this for a number of reasons – cost, environmental factors, and because I’d rather poo go down the toilet than be put into a rubbish bin wrapped up in plastic then go to landfill. Okay, enough of the soapbox there. Fitted cloth nappies were just starting to become readily available in Australia at that time, so I made a few (a lot) myself.
There are plenty of patterns available to make fitted nappies and covers if you are interested. I used the Mama Bird fitted diaper and Ottobre cloth diaper patterns (and did a fusion of the two as well). These have an outer body of printed flannelette and inner soakers made from old towelling nappies. They do need a cover – I prefer PUL (polyurethane laminate) covers such as those by Bummis or Baby BeeHinds.
In the four and a half years between having each of my daughters, there is a huge range of cloth nappies now available, both online in Australia and in retail (our local bulk disposable nappy retailer also stocks lots of cloth nappies and covers). In my opinion, the secret is in the covers – you need good covers, then there are less leaks than with disposables. We do use disposable nappies when it suits us, such as overnight and when away for a whole weekend (we’re not completely purist) but the majority of the time our baby is in cloth.
The fitted nappies make it easy – just wrap around and do up, like a disposable, then the same thing with the thin cover. No pins etc. I wash every second day, line dry, don’t soak (storing the nappies in an empty bucket works fine, and there aren’t any stains), and use flushable liners inside each nappy to make poo disposal easy. The fitted nappies I made were used by my first daughter, then a friend’s child, and now by my second daughter. It makes them very economical! If you want to make your own, you can use whatever materials you have on hand, such as old flat cloth nappies, towels, flanelette etc or buy specialised materials retail or from stores such as Bubba Earth.