January 2020 – THORNBERRY

adult's clothing, sewing

McCalls 6696 for Freya

Last year I offered to sew my cousin Freya a dress as her birthday gift. She asked me to sew her a classic shirt dress, so we decided on McCalls 6696 as the pattern. This pattern has 112 reviews on Pattern Review, the earliest from 2013, too many blog reviews to count, and video sewalongs on YouTube. And it’s still in print – it must be a big seller, and that’s clearly with good reason. So many people love it.

Although so many people love it, I hadn’t made it before. Regular readers of my blog know why – I don’t sew clothing for myself that emphasises my waist. Freya however has an hourglass shape and this type of dress is just perfect for her. We headed to The Cloth Shop, Ivanhoe and bought this divine digitally printed linen. So pretty!

Because this was pretty special fabric, and from reading many reviews, I knew that I’d need to make a bodice muslin. I sewed up size 12 from an old cotton sheet, then organised a time for Freya to try it on. We decided that she needed more room in the bust and waist, but the shoulders were fine. We also added a considerable amount to the length – Freya prefers her dresses to be longer rather than shorter. I recut the pattern pieces, grading where needed, then cut the fabric and eventually got to sewing.

There are lots of pieces to this dress, and lots of details. It’s not difficult to sew, but it’s comparatively time-consuming. Collar and stand, yoke attached burrito style, gathers in the back.

The waistband is interfaced and fitted, and the front bands are interfaced and cut to the final length of the dress – you need to determine the finished length prior to construction. And there are plenty of buttonholes to sew! My machine does a four-step buttonhole, so I need to pay attention to keep them consistent (I start with the buttonhole nearest the hemline of the dress and work my way up the front to the neck; practice makes perfect). The buttons are vintage, from last year’s Restash (thanks Libby). And there are all those pleats to do for the skirt.

So as you’ve probably gathered, this was a slow sew; many hours went in to making this dress. I wanted to do it well, and am really pleased with the construction. The linen was beautiful to work with. And a photo of the finished dress in it’s entirety? Here you go! Front, and back.

Now, the perils of sewing for someone else who is not available to try on as you go unfortunately came to the fore. When I finished the dress and gave it to Freya, it was too big through the waist and torso. So disappointing! This is why I’d sewn the muslin! The shoulders were okay, as was the skirt, but it just wasn’t fitting at the waist. Maybe the linen had much more give than the sheet I’d sewn the muslin in, and sewing the original size would have worked. The biggest difficulty with invisibly altering this dress is that the waistband is cut in one piece, so there are no seamlines to take in. I had constructed the rest of the dress with the sewing machine, only using the overlocker to finish edges, so taking the bodice along the side seams was definitely an option. But the waist couldn’t be altered without introducing new seams. Freya lives half an hour away from me and we both have busy lives, so she plans to take it to her local alterations place to have those adjustments made. I am really disappointed and annoyed with myself that it didn’t fit Freya properly, but at the same time I am also really pleased with the construction and overall look of the finished dress, and enjoyed the process of making it.

Hopefully Freya has been able to have it altered successfully, and at some stage I’ll update this post with a photo of her wearing it.

Friday, 31 January, 2020 by thornberry

adult's clothing, sewing

Style Arc Ascot tunic

This tunic was a Christmas present for my Mum. I think that it has all the features she prefers in a top – tunic length, high neckline at the back. Although actually, her favourite top is the spotted Style Arc Martha overshirt that I made for myself – I wasn’t wearing it so gave it to Mum, and it’s great on her! Anyway, back to this top.

This is the Style Arc Ascot tunic (I skipped the belt that is also in the pattern). From the pattern website: You will love this new free-falling tunic with its flattering “V” neckline that has been designed to hug the neck. The fashionable balloon shaped sleeve with its darted hem is a 3/4 length, that falls beautifully from the dropped shoulder line. To finish off this look a belt pattern has been included, this belt ties effortlessly at the front, why not hi-lite your style with a contrast coloured or a leather belt. FABRIC SUGGESTION: Crepe, rayon, silk, linen. ascot-tunic-and-belt If my memory is correct, I sewed size 14. The fabric is printed rayon from The Cloth Shop, Ivanhoe. Such beautiful colours, and the softness and drape that you come to expect from printed rayons.

The centre front seam allows for a lovely finish to the V-neckline, which is faced. The hemline is finished with a double fold, which I pressed and sewed before sewing the side seams. This allows you to get a nice curve from the bottom of the hem up to the side seams.

The sleeves are shaped and are in two pieces, as well as being darted at the bottom. A different fabric choice – something crisper and more structural than rayon – would really emphasise the ‘balloon’ shape of the sleeves.

I’ll need to encourage Mum to get some photos of this tunic on her, so I can add them to this post! And I’ll also need to sew this for myself at some stage – it’s a good thing that I bought the multi-sized version of the pdf pattern.

Thursday, 30 January, 2020 by thornberry

adult's clothing, Friday Pattern Company, sewing

Another Wilder blouse

I have a few un-modelled garments from last year to show you – they were gifts, and the recipients haven’t yet provided me with photos. This first one is a Friday Pattern Company Wilder blouse, sewn for my cousin Freya as a Christmas gift.

Isn’t that fabric absolutely divine! Slightly sheer, super soft, and stunning colours and print. It entered my stash from someone else’s, and I’ll be forever grateful.

The Wilder gown/blouse pattern is a good one for gifts, as it is quite forgiving fit wise. I think that I sewed size L this time; could have been M. It’s a roomy style but needs the ease so that the neckline gathers properly.

It’s also very straightforward to sew. I’ve now used this pattern three times – I’ve sewn myself the blouse and the gown – and I’ve noticed similar styles in the shops, so it’s clearly on trend.

Wednesday, 29 January, 2020Saturday, 11 February, 2023 by thornberry

miscellaneous, musings

About my weight

This blog post isn’t directly about sewing, or about travel. It’s about weight – specifically, mine. For anyone who has a history of disordered eating, this may be a trigger, so I suggest that you skip reading this post. I’m writing it because I have recently lost a fair bit of weight, and people have noticed and commented.

I don’t have a history of disordered eating, in a conventional or medical sense. I was a thin kid and adolescent. In my adulthood I gained weight. So I did intensive exercise and calorie restriction and lost it. Then I gained it again. And lost it again. Repeat. Ad nauseum. I think that every time I did it my resting metabolism dropped lower and lower. Eventually I read about the negative effects of diet culture and the impact of fatphobia – both societal and internalised – and decided to just stop focusing on my weight, and instead keep on sewing to fit the body that I have.

I made this decision for a few reasons – a major one being that I had no health imperative to change things. I have always been dubious about weight discussions disguised as concern for people’s health. It’s fatphobia, combined with ableism. Fat does not necessarily equal healthy, any more than thin does. It’s a false equivalence. There are plenty of thin people who have terrible health – both mental and physical – and plenty of fat people who are incredibly healthy and strong. My blood tests and external health markers were always in normal range. I like good foods, unprocessed and fresh, but I also enjoy potato chips, soft cheeses, chocolate, and wine.

Then last year I started getting gastrointestinal symptoms that were affecting the quality of my life. I was often uncomfortable. My day job involves reading medical records, and I’d been reading many, many records related to diseases of the digestive system, especially of the liver. I have a certain level of paranoia due to my job, so I booked in with my GP. She ran all the usual tests plus a few more (these were all fine apart from a protozoa in my gut that many people have, but only cause issues in some) and she also ordered abdominal ultrasounds. The ultrasounds only found one issue – fatty liver.

Now, fatty liver is not a good thing to have. It occurs when your body starts putting fat into organs in addition to increasing subcutaneous fat. To reduce it, I needed to lose weight.

As it happens, my husband – not an overweight man – was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes about ten years ago. He’s genetically susceptible to it; siblings also have high blood sugar. Until recently he’s managed to keep it under control via exercise and diet alone. We’ve done our own reading on the management of diabetes, and came across the work of Dr Jason Fung, a nephrologist. He recommends fasting as a key method of decreasing insulin production in the body, and therefore reducing the impact of diabetes along with a corresponding weight loss. Intermittent fasting has recently been popularised in the UK and Australia by Dr Michael Mosley. Both my husband and I have science backgrounds, and the logic inherent in the work of both these men makes sense to us. If you google fasting there are a myriad of articles about it – it’s becoming more and more well known and more popular.

My husband was already doing a complete fast two days per week, and in October I began doing it too. For two days a week – mostly Monday and Wednesday – I don’t eat. I drink black coffee in the mornings, and I drink plenty of water, but that’s it. Mosley’s version of intermittent fasting allows a small amount of food on fast days, but that only makes me hungry. I prefer to have nothing.

On the five days of the week that I eat, I choose higher protein/fat and vastly reduced bread/rice/potato and processed foods, and I avoid sugar. I’ve also reduced my alcohol intake – my last alcoholic drink was in December, but I expect that I will enjoy a glass or two of wine on occasion. I will sometimes have a piece of cake or some soft cheese and crackers, but not often. I don’t count calories/kilojoules or plan my food each day; this way of eating doesn’t take up much head space. I eat fresh foods, with as little processing as possible. I didn’t fast at all for the three weeks that we were away on holiday, but tried to follow the same eating principles, without snacking in between.

So far I’ve gone from the BMI calculator defintion of obese through overweight to now not far from the ‘healthy’ weight range. Most importantly, my gastrointestinal symptoms have improved significantly. I won’t know about the fatty liver unless I have another ultrasound. I’ll be interested to see what my other blood tests/health markers show next GP visit as well.

So yes, I do look different. It’s not just the change of hair colour (I’m growing in the grey, which could potentially be a whole other blog post) and hair length. Will I be able to sustain this lifestyle change? I think so. For me, it’s medically necessary. I want to feel well, and reduce my chance of developing liver and pancreas issues. I have tried fasting before, but that wasn’t with a health motivation. Societal weight expectations don’t make me change my eating behaviours in the longer term! This time, it’s different.

Detractors of fasting say that it’s just another diet and another fad that plays right into diet culture. I’m not so certain about this. Many cultures around the world incorporate fasting into their regular lives, whether for one day a week or for other periods of time. It’s not an unusual thing; billions of people do it. Here in Australia we are conditioned to eat every time we feel a hunger pang. Honestly, it’s not that hard to cope with feeling hungry every now and then. For me, it’s only until the next day. But there still isn’t any published research into the long-term effects of fasting. I’d also like to see more research on intermittent fasting in perimenopausal women and how women’s hormones interact with insulin. Most of what I’ve read has focused on men (which isn’t unusual when it comes to medical research).

Honestly, I was conflicted in writing this post. The last thing that I want to do is to become part of diet culture, but I suspect that just by writing this I have done exactly that. This post is just about me – sample size of one person – and I think it’s really important to remember that everyone’s journey and needs and health situations are different. You need to do your own research and figure what works for you and your body and mind, in a holistic sense, when it comes to things like weight and food and health. This is difficult in the society we live in. In general I don’t talk about diets and weight and weight loss, and I actively avoid placing value judgements on foods. There are more rewarding things in life to be spending your time and energy on; after all, you could be sewing!

Edited to add: Thank you so much to all the people who have commented on this post or contacted me in other ways. It has clearly struck a chord with many people. I was very interested to read how many of you have discovered that fasting has had a positive health impact on your lives, especially those of you my age and older. Thanks again for your responses – they are greatly appreciated.

Tuesday, 28 January, 2020 by thornberry

bags, sewing

Genoa tote in leather

How DO people get decent photos of bags and totes? I find it so difficult!

I’ve sewn the Blogless Anna Genoa Tote quite a few times, but this is the first time that I’ve sewn it in leather. It was prompted by a visit to Leffler Leather in February last year with a group of other sewers.

So much fabulous leather in so many colours, textures and patterns! I chose this metallic brown (rather than purple alligator or similar) and also bought some pre-cut handles of thicker leather.

You can see that I over did things when I hammered the rivets into place, leaving circular marks on the handle leather around them from the anvil edges. Bugger. I was so concerned with ensuring that they were as secure as possible that I didn’t even realise that was happening.

I used a printed barkcloth that I picked up at last year’s Restash for the lining, with a pocket from Japanese linen that I have had in my collection for a little while. This is the smallest of the tote sizes. Sewing the leather was a little challenging; it was thicker than preferred for this project – I’d use thinner and softer leather next time. However, overall I am pleased with the finished product.

Tuesday, 28 January, 2020 by thornberry

adult's clothing, sewing, teen

Style Arc Clare for Clare

I still have a few things that I sewed last year to get up on this blog. My resolution for this year is to blog as I sew! You may have already spotted these two garments in some of our holiday posts.

I’ve already shown you the rayon harem style pants that I sewed for both girls in anticipation of our trip. Clare also wanted some pants in a looser, wider leg style. We’d looked at some at the shops and the Style Arc Clare pattern immediately popped into my head as exactly what Clare was looking for. And of course, the name of the pattern was perfect! It was destiny!

Style Arc describe this pattern as follows: A wide leg is the standout pant shape of the season. The cleverly designed elastic waist sits flat at the waist for a slimming look. Featuring a tie belt and angled pockets you will love this easy to wear and easy to sew fashion forward pant. FABRIC SUGGESTION: Linen, crepe, fine wool.

clare-pant

This pattern starts at Australian size 4, and goes to Australian size 30. Style Arc have always been extremely inclusive in their sizing. I suspected that I would sew this pattern for me and possibly for my mum as well as for both my daughters, so I bought the multi-sized pdf version of the pattern. That way I can print it and cut it to whatever size I want, multiple times.

Clare chose this rusty coloured rayon from Darn Cheap Fabrics for her pants. I think that we bought 1.5 metres. I shortened the leg length a couple of inches before cutting out the pattern. The instructions call for 38mm wide elastic for the waistband – I used what I had in stash, which was around 30mm wide. I think it worked well for this smaller size.

Oh, size wise I sewed size 6 for Clare. Hip measurement is the key one for this pattern, and it’s drafted with a bit of ease, so since she’s at the lower end of the size bracket, I chose one size down from her measurements. She prefers proportionately less ease. One of the lovely features of this design is that the waist has elastic all around it, but it’s kept flat at the front between the two pleats. The elastic supports the waistband at the front, and creates lovely comfortable gathers around the sides and back.

Clare also wanted a pair of shorts – so we decided to use the same pattern, but at shorts length.

All I did was figure out what inseam length we wanted, and fold back the pattern pieces accordingly. When Clare tried them on at first they were still longer than she wanted; so I just folded back the hem again, stitched it in place, and she was happy! This also caught the bottom of the pocket bag in place, securing it from flapping around. An unintended but happy occurrence!

So this is the same size as the long pair, but in a slightly different fabric. It’s a pinstriped cupro, also from Darn Cheap Fabrics. I’ve just googled cupro and discovered that it is a type of rayon, produced from cellulose in combination with copper and ammonia. It is a breathable fabric, crisper when ironed than the drapey rayon I used for Clare’s pants, but it still wrinkles a fair bit. I’d definitely use this fabric again. I found a great blog post about regenerated fibres like cupro, tencel, viscose, modal, rayon – these are fabrics that I enjoy sewing and especially wearing.

Don’t look too closely at the stripe matching for this pair – because there isn’t much of it. I didn’t even manage to get the seam in the tie belt lined up exactly! I was a little bit pressured to get these clothes finished before our holiday.

There’s a lot of love for the Style Arc Clare pants over on Instagram – search for #clarepants or #saclarepants. Liz Alexandre (Sew Lizzie in Brizzy) in particular has sewn multiple pairs. There is an especially helpful blog post by Mie of Sewing Like Mad here. You’ll be seeing this pattern on my blog again too, I’m quite certain. It’s a great wide leg pants (and shorts!) pattern.

Monday, 27 January, 2020 by thornberry

sewing

I’m on a podcast!

Back in November, Anne and Maria asked whether I’d be interested in chatting with them about Sewjourn on their podcast Sew Organised Style. The episode has gone live today – so if you’re interested pop over and download it and listen.

It’s the three of us talking about what Sewjourn is and how I get organised for it, as well as me sharing my thoughts and opinions about a number of sewing related topics. I warn you, it’s an hour long – I clearly have plenty to say. For those of you who are overseas, I hope that you enjoy our Australian accents!

The podcast page for Sew Organised Style is here and a direct link to ‘my’ episode is here.

Sunday, 26 January, 2020 by thornberry

Borneo 2020, family

A day in Brunei

We flew Royal Brunei Airlines to and from Borneo, and they have a pretty clever trick for the homeward journey. Our very short flight from Kota Kinabalu got to Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital city of Brunei) quite early in the day – shortly after 9.00am. But the next flight onward to Melbourne didn’t leave until the evening. That left us with a day in Brunei. I had already arranged a day tour with Irene from Tours By Locals to make the most of our time.

Irene met us at the airport, then we headed straight for Jam’Asr Mosque (His Majesty’s Mosque). This mosque was built by the current Sultan of Brunei, and can hold up to 5000 worshipers. There are 29 golden domes (he’s the 29th Sultan, therefore 29 domes) and four minarets with height of 58 metres. I read somewhere that it cost over US$1billion to construct. The Sultan has his own private escalator entrance on one side. The workmanship and detail in this mosque and the surrounding buildings and gardens is absolutely exquisite. It was shoes off for all and long black coat on for women to go inside. We were able to tour the area where the men pray – women pray separately, and that area was not accessible to tourists.

I really love this style of architecture, and the tiled patterns and designs used for ornamentation. The colour combinations and the mosaics really are beautiful. Seeing this mosque reminded me of visiting Spain, Egypt and Morocco in my mid-twenties.

That’s a sneaky interior photo – isn’t that ceiling and the stained glass stunning! There are no picture or photos of people inside mosques – decoration is all colour, shape, pattern and text.

The building in the photo below was designed for people to leave their shoes in when attending the mosque. There’s a central raised bench to sit on to make it easier to put on and take off your shoes, and a number of racks to place them in. But this building is a victim to poor planning – because then you still have to walk a significant distance (shoeless) to the main mosque building then around to the side to the steps where the entrance is located. So rather than using this building, everyone takes off and leaves their shoes at the main entrance to the mosque.

From the mosque we headed to the river to jump onto a water taxi for a tour of the mangroves and the water village, Kampong Ayer. The village has been inhabited for centuries, and was the original capital of the areas of Borneo that are now Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. Settlement on land really didn’t begin until the twentieth century, and there are still more than 10,000 people living in the water village. It has a pretty amazing infrastructure, including primary and high schools and it’s own mosques and police and fire stations (fire is a pretty common occurence in these timber stilt houses). Electricity, drinking water, phone lines, tv and internet are all available. Sewerage services however are variable.

That’s a primary school in the photo above.

We started our visit by heading out to the mangroves along the river to see if there were any proboscis monkeys there. It was pretty much the middle of the day, so unsurprisingly we didn’t see any. It was low tide though, and there were plenty of crocodiles sunning themselves on muddy banks, being closely watched by herons.

Houses seemed to vary quite a bit in the quality of their construction. There were derelict and burnt out buildings dotted throughout, in various stages of either being disassembled prior to reconstruction, or just being left to slowly rot away. And there were others that were clearly being constantly improved. The water village also contains pubic housing; double storey buildings that can be purchased with extremely low cost government loans.

We were fortunate to be taken to our water taxi driver’s own house for a light lunch. He is the second youngest of eleven children, and lives in his parent’s house with his wife and young son. His father is a fisherman, and when we arrived the day’s catch was being sorted on the deck by the women of the house.

The house was built on a very large platform, with railings around the outside. The kitchen was on the platform, with all the mod cons incuding fridge, oven and stove top. In the centre of the large platform was another large building with a door.

The door led us into a loung room, full air-conditioned with wi-fi! Honestly, sitting in the lounge you’d have absolutely no clue that you were in a house built on stilts above the water. This house has seven bedrooms built off two living areas. Amazing! We were served some delicious local dishes – chicken and rice, beautifully flavoured, fish crackers, then the most divine thin and crispy banana fritters I’ve ever eaten. Brunei has lots of different types of bananas; clearly the perfect type had been chosen for the fritters!

That’s the living room from the outside – you can see the windows from the inside and the outside in the previous two photos. The cats were in their own enclosure – probably a good thing when you’re sorting fish a couple of metres away!

Time to carefully climb back down the ladder to the boat and continue on with our tour. This visit was really a highlight for me – I love seeing how people live. Maybe I’m just nosy! The next photo is the house from the water as we drove away.

People commute back and forth from the water village and the land for work (if they don’t work in the water village itself). Most catch a water taxi, as boats are expensive to buy. Many people have cars that are parked in lots on the land, so they travel across the water to their cars and then drive to where they need to go.

As Irene had noticed our interest in the ways that people live both now and in the past, she next took us to the Malay Technology Museum. The puzzle that Dan is attempting to solve is a traditional Bruneian game, Salok Salokan. We were quite entertained by the Museum’s toilet rating – this was a A grade toilet! Did you know that there is an ASEAN Public Toilet Standard?

The museum shows the traditional way of life in Brunei, and has three main galleries:

Water Village Traditional House Gallery: This gallery shows architectural structure of houses in the water village – Kampong Ayer in the late 19th up to the mid 20th century
Water Village Traditional Technology Gallery: This gallery depicts various types of handicrafts and cottage industries found in the water village. The display includes boat construction, roof-making, gold smiting, silver smithing, brass casting and cloth weaving
Inland Traditional Technology Gallery: This gallery contains exhibits of indigenous technologies of the inland people. It shows models of Kedayan, Dusun and Murut houses and a Punan hut. Techniques of production of Sago, brown sugar and handicrafts are also displayed.

Our next stop was to see the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque (the previous Sultan’s Mosque). This mosque was completed in 1958, and is considered one of the most beautiful in South East Asia. That’s 24K gold covering the main dome.

A park nearby contained this HUGE frame, positioned to perfectly highlight the mosque.

We had arrived at the mosque with only a few minutes up our sleeves to see the inside, so had a whirlwind visit. Once again it was shoes off for all, and this time a black hooded robe for all the women. Very Harry Potter. We snapped a couple of quick sneaky photos under the direction of our guide. This was an extremely beautiful building, in a different style to the current Sultan’s mosque. Nearly all the materials used in the mosque were imported from overseas.

Brunei became super rich when oil was discovered, although I believe that as a small country with a small population the Sultanate had aquired considerable wealth prior to that time. The Sultan’s family has been in control of the country for centuries, and the Sultan is one of the richest men in the world. Oil and gas production accounts for 90% of GDP, and a fair chunk of the profits go to the Sultan. We stopped briefly outside the gates of Istana Nurul Iman (His Majesty’s Palace).

The palace is gigantic – 1788 rooms! From there we headed to The Empire Hotel and Country Club. This was funded by the Sultan – and once again, it has to be seen to be believed. The marble, the gold, the mosaics, the swimming pools, the restaurants, the shops, the air conditioning, the detail, the architecture – and the toilets here were more than A grade! The building was immense. There are not major hotel chains in Brunei – it’s just not big enough – so this hotel more than fills the need for a luxury hotel for visiting celebrities/politicians/heads of state/anyone who can pay. There was an ASEAN tourism conference taking place in some during our visit. There’s no doubting that the Sultan is rich. Beyond my imaginings. He’s also a controversial figure in the west – you might be interested in this article and this one – although all those we met during our day in Brunei spoke extremely highly and respectfully of the Sultan and how he cares for the people of Brunei.

From there it was back to the airport to catch our overnight flight home. Flight time from Brunei to Melbourne is a little over six hours; not long enough for a decent sleep. When we eventually walked through the door at home it was 7.30am and we were exhausted!

The photo below shows you our souvenirs – fabric, bedspreads, a scarf, gifts for others, baskets, beadwork, coffee, tea and some masks. A few things that will bring back very special memories as we use them. It was a really wonderful time.

We’re now settled into our usual Melbourne routines, with Dan back to work and the kids getting ready for school. Clare starts year 12 and Stella starts year 7 in a few days time, so we’ve got a big year ahead. I’ve also got quite a bit of work booked, including some that’s interstate. Looks like I’ll have some time in airports and hotels to start planning our holiday for January 2021- to Japan!

Sunday, 26 January, 2020 by thornberry

Borneo 2020, family

Last day in KK

I assume by now that those of you who are reading my blog realise that we’ve actually been home for ten days – but I really, really want to get all of our holiday recorded! So please bear with me.

We didn’t want our last day in Kota Kinabalu to be too rushed – after all, this was a holiday! So it was another fairly late sleep in, then we caught a Grab to a little museum, Chanteek Borneo Indigenous Museum. I’d come across this little museum in a rather convoluted way – when we did the walking tour of Kota Kinabalu, I chatted to one of the other participants, who was a local man. As it turned out, his wife likes to sew, and is on Instagram. I of course looked her up – you can find her as @kuaitahir – and she sews and sells beautiful handbags, made from fabrics printed in traditional designs. And some of those fabrics are by Kain Chanteek (@kain.chanteek on Instagram) who are closely linked to the Chanteek Borneo Indigenous Museum. Phew! Thanks social media for leading me to a fun place to visit!

The museum contains over 300 Barbie-type dolls, all dressed in different indigenous costumes, arranged in dioramas to depict the lives of the different tribes in the past. It sounds as though it could all be a bit twee – but it’s really not! The exhibits are beautifully put together and are incredibly detailed. Each comes with a QR code that you can scan to get more information about the specific object or scene. A huge amount of effort has gone into the museum. And the fun thing – they also offered the chance to dress up in costumes from a variety of tribes.

We then sent the girls on the task to find the tribe their costume belonged too. This was more difficult than you would think!

The belts that each of the girls had around their waists were very heavy – they were essentially wearing their wealth, or dowries.

The exhibition also contained plenty of life sized objects from indigenous communities, with explanations of their use.

To make it even more fun, the girls and I did a little beading class, and each made a small bracelet. It took us about an hour to make each one; I have even more respect for those who make complex beaded items. It’s painstaking, time-consuming work.

We actually spent a number of hours at the museum. Remember that I said we’ve travelled by Grab about 50 minutes to get there? Getting back to KK was not so simple – there were no Grabs available in the area! Fortunately the museum staff then got on their phones and did some ringing around, and located another rideshare driver friend of a friend who would be happy to take us. Phew! He eventually dropped us back at Imago Mall, where we bought some highly indulgent afternoon tea. Starbucks (of all places) had been on Stella’s wishlist of places to visit, so we ticked that box, along with donuts from another shop that had been tempting Stella constantly.

Dinner that night was back at Madam Kwan’s. Then it was time to ensure that we’d packed absolutely everything before going to bed. There was an 8.40am international flight to Brunei to catch the next day.

Sunday, 26 January, 2020 by thornberry

Borneo 2020, family

Snorkelling in KK

Just three to eight kilometres off the coastline of Kota Kinabalu is the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park, a group of five small islands; Gaya, Manukan, Mamutik, Sapi and Sulug. The islands are not only incredibly close, but are surrounded by coral – which also means fish. So I booked us a boat and snorkeling trip through Amazing Borneo Tours. We were aware that we could have just gone to Jesselton Point and jumped on a local boat to the islands, but I thought that we’d have a better experience if we were snorkeling from a boat. I am happy with that decision! Sometimes it’s worth paying more for convenience, expertise and comfort.

The fun actually started as we pulled out from the private marina at Sutera Harbour Resort. The resort itself was extremely fancy – no dodgy fittings or plastic instead of marble at this resort! Definitely not in our budget to stay at, but nice to see. Our boat was a Seatango boat, run very professionally. We cruised out to our first snorkeling location, with beautiful views of Kota Kinabalu and Mount Kinabalu behind it. Stella loves travelling fast with the wind in her hair – the boat was perfect for her! Clare and I on the other hand have a tendency toward motion sickness.

The skipper and snorkeling guides checked out the visibility of the water – there had been a lot of rain the night before, which affected how much you could see – then we moved to another spot and jumped in.

Snorkeling with decent gear that doesn’t leak really is a marvellous thing! Although the water was a bit cloudy at first, it cleared as we got a little closer to the islands and the water got shallower. The reefs were amazing. It was a bit clouded over, so the colours of the coral were mostly on the green spectrum, but the amount of life under the water was incredible! So many fish, in so many colours; sea urchins with their glowing ‘eye’ spots, sea cucumbers, anenomes waving their tentacles, and some little jellyfish (luckily the box jellyfish weren’t out in force yet). Some people even spotted some sharks, and others a sea turtle! I was pretty happy floating around in the water with my family, with the occasional kick of the flippers. It’s an amazing world down there. We shifted to a second site, but unfortunately bobbing around in the water in combination with not wearing my glasses was really setting off motion sickness for me, so I returned to the boat (I figured that it would be better to vomit off a boat than to vomit into my snorkel and surrounding water). After around a total of one and half hours in the water (across the two sites) we headed to an island to have lunch and to explore.

There were monitor lizards and the ubiquitous macaques up one end of the beach, looking for morsels to eat. We wriggled our toes in the sand, spotting little crabs and pretty shells. There were also some trees that I didn’t recognise – does anyone know what this fruit/flower is?

There were a few people swimming off the shore, but really, we’re not ‘beach people’. We all whinge and complain about sand in crevices, salt water up noses, and the potential for sunburn. We really do prefer rivers and lakes – so an hour to explore the beach area of the island was just right for us; we didn’t need longer.

Wow, that guy was super skilled with a very sharp knife on those coconuts! The liquid inside was so yummy – super fresh.

Even from the jetty you can see plenty of fish of various sizes in schools. Our trip back to the marina only took around fifteen minutes or so, at speed (much to the girls’ delight). An absolutely brilliant way to go snorkeling. I’ve been snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns, and enjoyed this just as much – maybe even more because the boat ride to get there was comparatively so short! Dan says that this day was one of the highlights of the holiday.

We were back at our Air BnB by mid-afternoon, which gave us for reading and device time. Dinner that night was over at Imago Mall again, at Madam Kwan’s. What a lovely restaurant! We’ve never had as many attentive staff at once, and the food and drinks were all top notch. Dan gave the special durian cendol dessert a try (cendol is a refreshing Malaysian dessert consisting of shaved ice, creamy coconut milk, red beans, corn, palm sugar syrup (gula melaka) and little green strands of dough made from rice flour. To add more flavour to this delicacy, durian pulp or other fruits like lychee, as well as nuts, jelly and ice-cream are added), and we squeezed in a little more shopping at E-teen. Clare is very happy with her new outfit, and is still giggling at the words on the jeans and the fact that her top has a Toy Story character on it.

Wednesday, 22 January, 2020 by thornberry

Month: January 2020