I've been collecting fabrics for a few years now, probably five or six, if I'm honest. I don't know how the habit started, but it has seen me stash away quite a lot of fabric over this period. Mainly eBay or charity shop buys. Some vintage, some new and almost all now stored in my sewing room awaiting use. In that time the cost of fabric and particularly cotton fabrics has risen quite dramatically and it is difficult to buy cottons cheaply anywhere anymore. In many ways, I have bought well, providing I use it, of course.
More recently, the compulsion to buy more fabric has receded, and I rarely add to my personal collection now, save for occasional jumble/car boot sale or charity shop finds, if it is something very special and catches my eye.
Instead, I am now finally getting around to using some of my collection, to actually make clothes or things for our home. I figured what is the use of a collection, if you merely squirrel it away and don't even look at it, let alone use it? I was becoming a fabric hoarder, collecting it for the day when I would do some patchwork and use it. Finally, I am actually starting to do this and I am enjoying it very much. It feels so much better to have the fabric made into things you can wear or that are visible and useful around the house, where you can appreciate their beauty on a daily basis and benefit from their utility.
Having said this, I must admit that there is something very special about uncut and unused fabric. It has an untapped potential and it is sometimes lovely to look through it and contemplate the possibilities. I think there will always perhaps be a few special fabrics I find it hard to use or need to wait for just the right project before I'm prepared use them. In the mean time, I can keep them intact and indulge in a little quiet contemplation occasionally.
Joining in with Mum from Mum's Simply Living, in her Backwards Alphabet blogging challenge.
Friday, 7 March 2014
Thursday, 6 March 2014
A Spot of Sewing
After finally buying the correct needles for my sewing machine, and spurred on by watching The Great British Sewing Bee on Tuesday night (I'm liking this series even better than the last one), I finally got around to doing a spot of sewing this week.
Initially, to test the new needles, I made a couple of lavender bags. They seemed to work fine, so I progressed onto doing some work on my double quilt/eiderdown, by attempting to attach the front of the quilt to the old duvet that I'm using as wadding.
Unfortunately, the duvet is so thick that it wouldn't fit underneath the sewing machine foot, so I took the foot off and tried sewing without it on. It was a bit of a disaster as I didn't have good control and gave up. When I went back to it a couple of days later, I decided to sew the front of the quilt to the duvet by hand. I then did the same with the back. It's not particularly neat, but I used a very strong thread so that it wouldn't break and come apart easily. It will be covered by the binding anyway eventually. I was really pleased when I was able to use the sheet I originally intended using for the back. It now fitted as I had had to cut down the quilt front and duvet as it was far too big.
As a consequence of the above, once sewn and trimmed, the eiderdown/quilt is now taking shape and looks great. Here's a picture of how it looks before I sew down the seams of the strips of fabric on the front and add the binding to the edges.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this with the machine or not, but if not, I will have to do it very neatly by hand. I'll post again when it is completely finished.
Initially, to test the new needles, I made a couple of lavender bags. They seemed to work fine, so I progressed onto doing some work on my double quilt/eiderdown, by attempting to attach the front of the quilt to the old duvet that I'm using as wadding.
Unfortunately, the duvet is so thick that it wouldn't fit underneath the sewing machine foot, so I took the foot off and tried sewing without it on. It was a bit of a disaster as I didn't have good control and gave up. When I went back to it a couple of days later, I decided to sew the front of the quilt to the duvet by hand. I then did the same with the back. It's not particularly neat, but I used a very strong thread so that it wouldn't break and come apart easily. It will be covered by the binding anyway eventually. I was really pleased when I was able to use the sheet I originally intended using for the back. It now fitted as I had had to cut down the quilt front and duvet as it was far too big.
As a consequence of the above, once sewn and trimmed, the eiderdown/quilt is now taking shape and looks great. Here's a picture of how it looks before I sew down the seams of the strips of fabric on the front and add the binding to the edges.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this with the machine or not, but if not, I will have to do it very neatly by hand. I'll post again when it is completely finished.
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Monthly Round Up
February was a reasonably straightforward month financially, in which I managed to meet my financial goals of paying another £100 off my overdraft and continuing to pay off my credit card balances on a monthly basis. I wasn't quite so successful with regard to the no spend days I achieved, as I only managed 3 this month, which is pretty poor, mainly due to dribs and drabs of spending throughout the month The total for the year now stands at 12/100, so I need to try much harder next month.
I attempted a February Food challenge, to try to use up lots of food in the cupboards and freezer that needed to be used and thankfully I did manage to use quite a bit of it, but will need to continue with this challenge in March, to use up as much of what is left as possible. I didn't managed to save any money on food as I'd hoped, but it wasn't the main purpose of the challenge, so I'm not to worried.
Aside from this challenge, I have been continuing to join in with Dreamer's 52 Projects challenge, Mum's Alphabet Backwards challenge, Laura's (Circle of Pine Trees) The Year in Books, plus several other challenges and as a consequence, I feel like I've been getting lots of things done and making progress on lots of fronts. The book pile is slowly going down, as is my outstanding to do list, and I feel like I'm moving forwards.
In March, I'm hoping the weather is going to improve, so that I can make more visits to the allotment and carry out more sowing and planting out for the new growing season ahead. I want to also start thinking about making some new clothes for the spring/summer, take a good look at my wardrobe and reorganise it for the (hopefully) warmer months. I'm hoping that not too many gaps will appear and that I won't need to spend much money to fill these.
I've got tickets to attend the Ideal Home Show and the Knitting and Stitching show at Olympia in March, so I'm looking forward to these days out and we are having visitors towards the end of the month, so I will be doing an impromptu spring clean in preparation. There's also Mother's Day and a couple of family/friends' birthdays coming up, so March should be an interesting month. Feels like I'm slowly coming out of hibernation.
I attempted a February Food challenge, to try to use up lots of food in the cupboards and freezer that needed to be used and thankfully I did manage to use quite a bit of it, but will need to continue with this challenge in March, to use up as much of what is left as possible. I didn't managed to save any money on food as I'd hoped, but it wasn't the main purpose of the challenge, so I'm not to worried.
Aside from this challenge, I have been continuing to join in with Dreamer's 52 Projects challenge, Mum's Alphabet Backwards challenge, Laura's (Circle of Pine Trees) The Year in Books, plus several other challenges and as a consequence, I feel like I've been getting lots of things done and making progress on lots of fronts. The book pile is slowly going down, as is my outstanding to do list, and I feel like I'm moving forwards.
In March, I'm hoping the weather is going to improve, so that I can make more visits to the allotment and carry out more sowing and planting out for the new growing season ahead. I want to also start thinking about making some new clothes for the spring/summer, take a good look at my wardrobe and reorganise it for the (hopefully) warmer months. I'm hoping that not too many gaps will appear and that I won't need to spend much money to fill these.
I've got tickets to attend the Ideal Home Show and the Knitting and Stitching show at Olympia in March, so I'm looking forward to these days out and we are having visitors towards the end of the month, so I will be doing an impromptu spring clean in preparation. There's also Mother's Day and a couple of family/friends' birthdays coming up, so March should be an interesting month. Feels like I'm slowly coming out of hibernation.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
The Year in Books - March
Joining in with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees and many other bloggers for The Year in Books challenge, to read at least a book a month for a year. Last month saw me reading Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire by Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat and other titles and former CEO of Veuve Cliquot Inc. I really enjoyed this book. I love her no-nonsense approach to life and business and her views on one's conduct in the workplace. There were ideas in there about mentoring, manners, eating and drinking, dressing for work, finding a balance and acting with positive self interest when making decisions and career moves.
It was incredibly interesting to read the views of this remarkable woman, who wants to encourage women (and men) to succeed at work and do well in business. There were even some recipes in the latter chapters that could be used for business entertaining at home, which might be useful for some. I'll now be looking out for future titles by the same author and other titles of hers that I haven't already read, such as French Women For All Seasons.
As I finished the above book before the end of February, I started to read this book in February too.
The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton by Catherine Alliott. I started it whilst we were away for a week in the Yorkshire Dales and I was able to indulge in a bit of reading on morning lie ins. Since we've been home, it's been more difficult to find time to finish the final few chapters, but I have finally done so this weekend. It's a funny and entertaining read, but with incredibly tear jerking moments too. I borrowed it from this Little Free Library down the road.
This particular branch was opened by someone in our neighbourhood, and it is a wonderful socially conscious idea. I took this book back on my Monday morning dog walk this week, but I didn't pick up another book as my book pile is still piled far too high. Better to leave them there for someone else, who will probably get around to reading them sooner. I must admit I've had this one a while, at least now someone else can enjoy it too. Check out this website to find out more about the little free library initiative. littlefreelibrary.org.
My first and foremost book for March is going to be this one. The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend.
As I've spent the first couple of months reading self-help type books, I've now started to enjoy reading fiction again, which is good, as the majority of my pile waiting to be read, is fiction. This one sounds funny and I always appreciate a giggle and a bit of absurdity. I read a couple of the Adrian Mole books when I was younger and I can remember enjoying them, so this caught my eye in the charity shop and captured my curiosity.
I've made a start on it and I am enjoying it so far. If I manage to finish this book before the end of March, I will then be starting on the book pictured below, as I've been looking forward to reading it for a while and at the moment I'm in a bit of a knitting phase. I've not read any by this author before, but believe one of her books has been serialised for TV.
You'll note that many of the books I read are quite light hearted. I do find it quite hard at the present moment to get stuck into more serious titles, but you never know I might just surprise you one of these days.
It was incredibly interesting to read the views of this remarkable woman, who wants to encourage women (and men) to succeed at work and do well in business. There were even some recipes in the latter chapters that could be used for business entertaining at home, which might be useful for some. I'll now be looking out for future titles by the same author and other titles of hers that I haven't already read, such as French Women For All Seasons.
As I finished the above book before the end of February, I started to read this book in February too.
The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton by Catherine Alliott. I started it whilst we were away for a week in the Yorkshire Dales and I was able to indulge in a bit of reading on morning lie ins. Since we've been home, it's been more difficult to find time to finish the final few chapters, but I have finally done so this weekend. It's a funny and entertaining read, but with incredibly tear jerking moments too. I borrowed it from this Little Free Library down the road.
This particular branch was opened by someone in our neighbourhood, and it is a wonderful socially conscious idea. I took this book back on my Monday morning dog walk this week, but I didn't pick up another book as my book pile is still piled far too high. Better to leave them there for someone else, who will probably get around to reading them sooner. I must admit I've had this one a while, at least now someone else can enjoy it too. Check out this website to find out more about the little free library initiative. littlefreelibrary.org.
My first and foremost book for March is going to be this one. The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend.
As I've spent the first couple of months reading self-help type books, I've now started to enjoy reading fiction again, which is good, as the majority of my pile waiting to be read, is fiction. This one sounds funny and I always appreciate a giggle and a bit of absurdity. I read a couple of the Adrian Mole books when I was younger and I can remember enjoying them, so this caught my eye in the charity shop and captured my curiosity.
I've made a start on it and I am enjoying it so far. If I manage to finish this book before the end of March, I will then be starting on the book pictured below, as I've been looking forward to reading it for a while and at the moment I'm in a bit of a knitting phase. I've not read any by this author before, but believe one of her books has been serialised for TV.
You'll note that many of the books I read are quite light hearted. I do find it quite hard at the present moment to get stuck into more serious titles, but you never know I might just surprise you one of these days.
Monday, 3 March 2014
February Food Challenge - Month End
This challenge was to use up lots of foods that had been sat in my kitchen cupboards for months, untouched. Many were very close to or over the best before dates, so it wasn't a case of me being able to donate them to the food bank, and I just couldn't possibly bring myself to throw them out so I have set about trying to make every effort to use them up this month. I was hoping that in the process I might be able to clear a cupboard and hopefully save a bit of money on the food budget, which could then come off the overdraft .
It turned out to be a longer challenge than just one month. In my last post, I described how I'd used some of the items and in the intervening couple of weeks we have managed to use up a few more. We've now eaten the braising steak from the freezer, the solitary pork chop, half of the last packet of crème brulees and a few more sachets of jelly. We've also used up the frozen Crispy Duck, the Peshwari naans, the last Curried Chickpea Pan Soup Mix and another Spaghetti Bolognese Mix pack, so further progress has been made.
Unfortunately, due to us going away for the week, I completely lost track of food spending, so I haven't managed to save any extra money this month on food. To be honest, I bought far too much extra food at the beginning of the month, in an attempt to use one of the money off vouchers and would have fared much better in the challenge if I'd held off, ignored the vouchers and used up what was in the freezer first. Also, some of the food did not get used, as I still had open packets of the same food in the cupboards, which needed using first. As a consequence, I'm continuing with the challenge next month and creating a menu plan for March that is much more geared towards using up most of the remaining food and trying to avoid buying in new food until most of it has been used up.
Here's an update of what is left on the list:
Herby Dumpling mix 5 x 180g packs
Ainsley Harriot Pecorino Cheese and Garlic Croutons x 2 95g packs
Popping corn 1 x 500g pack
Chicken Oxo cubes 7 x 6 cube packs and 2 x 4 cubes Knorr Chicken Stock cubes.
1 pack Spaghetti Bolognese Mix
1 pack Fajita Seasoning Mix
3 packs Tikka Masala Seasoning Mix
Lasagne Sheets x 1 pack
Hellman's Light Mayonnaise x 1 Jar
Dijon Mustard x 1 bottle
Cream Crackers x 1 pack
Melba Toasts x 1 pack
Quince Jelly x 1 Jar
Homemade Rhubarb Jam x 3 jars
Quince Paste x 1 pack
Packets of Polo mints x 1
Oat So Simple Porridge mixed pack of 9
Bottled water x 1
4 Stuffing balls (frozen)
Carrot and Coriander Soup (frozen)
Pot of Grated Parmesan Cheese x 1
Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausages x 1 pack (frozen)
4 Breaded Cod Fillets (frozen)
Strong White Bread Flour 1kg
Wholemeal Self Raising Flour 1kg
Yeast sachets x 4
Raspberry Jelly sachets x 3
Crème Brulee sachet x 1
Trifle Sponges x 4
Instant Semolina x 1 box
Anything missing from this list has either been used up or has been opened and is in use. I think if I can at least halve this list next month, including using up all of the frozen foods, I'll be very happy. The remainder I'm happy to gradually work my way through as required.
If nothing else, this challenge has kick started me into using things that I just wasn't bothering to use before, so even if there are some things left, I'll be a lot happier and much more careful about stockpiling too much in the future. I'll post at the end of the month to let you know how I've done.
It turned out to be a longer challenge than just one month. In my last post, I described how I'd used some of the items and in the intervening couple of weeks we have managed to use up a few more. We've now eaten the braising steak from the freezer, the solitary pork chop, half of the last packet of crème brulees and a few more sachets of jelly. We've also used up the frozen Crispy Duck, the Peshwari naans, the last Curried Chickpea Pan Soup Mix and another Spaghetti Bolognese Mix pack, so further progress has been made.
Unfortunately, due to us going away for the week, I completely lost track of food spending, so I haven't managed to save any extra money this month on food. To be honest, I bought far too much extra food at the beginning of the month, in an attempt to use one of the money off vouchers and would have fared much better in the challenge if I'd held off, ignored the vouchers and used up what was in the freezer first. Also, some of the food did not get used, as I still had open packets of the same food in the cupboards, which needed using first. As a consequence, I'm continuing with the challenge next month and creating a menu plan for March that is much more geared towards using up most of the remaining food and trying to avoid buying in new food until most of it has been used up.
Here's an update of what is left on the list:
Herby Dumpling mix 5 x 180g packs
Ainsley Harriot Pecorino Cheese and Garlic Croutons x 2 95g packs
Popping corn 1 x 500g pack
Chicken Oxo cubes 7 x 6 cube packs and 2 x 4 cubes Knorr Chicken Stock cubes.
1 pack Spaghetti Bolognese Mix
1 pack Fajita Seasoning Mix
3 packs Tikka Masala Seasoning Mix
Lasagne Sheets x 1 pack
Hellman's Light Mayonnaise x 1 Jar
Dijon Mustard x 1 bottle
Cream Crackers x 1 pack
Melba Toasts x 1 pack
Quince Jelly x 1 Jar
Homemade Rhubarb Jam x 3 jars
Quince Paste x 1 pack
Packets of Polo mints x 1
Oat So Simple Porridge mixed pack of 9
Bottled water x 1
4 Stuffing balls (frozen)
Carrot and Coriander Soup (frozen)
Pot of Grated Parmesan Cheese x 1
Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausages x 1 pack (frozen)
4 Breaded Cod Fillets (frozen)
Strong White Bread Flour 1kg
Wholemeal Self Raising Flour 1kg
Yeast sachets x 4
Raspberry Jelly sachets x 3
Crème Brulee sachet x 1
Trifle Sponges x 4
Instant Semolina x 1 box
Anything missing from this list has either been used up or has been opened and is in use. I think if I can at least halve this list next month, including using up all of the frozen foods, I'll be very happy. The remainder I'm happy to gradually work my way through as required.
If nothing else, this challenge has kick started me into using things that I just wasn't bothering to use before, so even if there are some things left, I'll be a lot happier and much more careful about stockpiling too much in the future. I'll post at the end of the month to let you know how I've done.
Sunday, 2 March 2014
52 Projects - Week 9 - Making a Herb Garden/Planter
One of the many things on my extensive on going 'To do' list is to create a herb garden somewhere at home, so that I can use the herbs when cooking. As we are hoping to revamp our small city garden this year, and as I am impatient and can't wait for this to happen before I make the herb garden, I decided to plant one up in a plastic trough planter that I found discarded in the street last year. I had been trying to use it to grow salad at home, but hadn't had too much success, so I decided it would make the perfect container for a herb garden.
I made a start a few weeks ago when I bought a couple of herb plants in Lidl for £2.67 each. The plants themselves were rosemary and oregano and looked very healthy and established and they came in clay pots which I can paint and reuse in the garden. Here's a picture of the plants.
I then found some more herbs on sale in ASDA this week at £2 each so I bought a purple sage, a silver thyme and a curry plant to go in the trough too. These also looked to be very healthy plants and were even more reasonably priced.
I'm not sure if I need any more, but I may sow some parsley and chives between the one's I already have. Mint, if I decide to grow it, will have to be grown separately on account of it's invasiveness and I already have bay and lemon balm in the garden, so I think I'm just about covered on the herb front now.
Once the weather perked up a little and I'd gathered all the plants together that I needed, I cleared the planting trough and set about planting them out into it. I just had enough compost left over to top up what was already in the trough. I was quite pleased with the results, love their respective scents and colours and am looking forward to using them more in my cooking. Here's a picture of the finished herb planter.
The gap where the fork is, is where I sowed some chive seeds that I had left over from last year. I'm not sure if they are still viable, so if they don't grow I will try again possibly with parsley seeds. Not the most frugal option I realise, but I'm happy that I've got a go to supply of ready grown herbs when I need them.
Joining in with Dreamer at Living a Slow and Simple Life in her 52 Projects challenge to get on and complete a task a week from all those tasks that you keep putting off and never getting around to.
I made a start a few weeks ago when I bought a couple of herb plants in Lidl for £2.67 each. The plants themselves were rosemary and oregano and looked very healthy and established and they came in clay pots which I can paint and reuse in the garden. Here's a picture of the plants.
I then found some more herbs on sale in ASDA this week at £2 each so I bought a purple sage, a silver thyme and a curry plant to go in the trough too. These also looked to be very healthy plants and were even more reasonably priced.
I'm not sure if I need any more, but I may sow some parsley and chives between the one's I already have. Mint, if I decide to grow it, will have to be grown separately on account of it's invasiveness and I already have bay and lemon balm in the garden, so I think I'm just about covered on the herb front now.
Once the weather perked up a little and I'd gathered all the plants together that I needed, I cleared the planting trough and set about planting them out into it. I just had enough compost left over to top up what was already in the trough. I was quite pleased with the results, love their respective scents and colours and am looking forward to using them more in my cooking. Here's a picture of the finished herb planter.
The gap where the fork is, is where I sowed some chive seeds that I had left over from last year. I'm not sure if they are still viable, so if they don't grow I will try again possibly with parsley seeds. Not the most frugal option I realise, but I'm happy that I've got a go to supply of ready grown herbs when I need them.
Joining in with Dreamer at Living a Slow and Simple Life in her 52 Projects challenge to get on and complete a task a week from all those tasks that you keep putting off and never getting around to.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
The Great (or not so great) Household and Cleaning Products Challenge - Month 6
This is a challenge I set myself, to spend no more than £125 in a year on cleaning and household products and the list of items in this challenge was quite extensive, including all cleaning products, dishwasher/laundry tablets, toilet rolls, sandwich bags, bin liners, kitchen rolls, etc. etc.
I must admit that I never really kept in budget with this challenge from the beginning and had I calculated at the start how many toilet rolls we used each month, I would perhaps have made the budget a little more generous, as these constitute a pretty large part of it. Anyway, I didn't, so I'm seriously struggling with this challenge, although I must admit I have made some irresponsible and unnecessary purchases along the way, which certainly haven't helped.
This month wasn't actually a bad month all things considered. I managed to spend only £10.80 which sounds a lot, but it includes the toilet rolls we will need for next month bought in advance. This just goes to show that when you put your mind to it you can spend less than you think.
This takes my total in this challenge to £106.67/£125 after 6 months.
This month's expenditure was spent on the following
Toilet Rolls x 30 (for February) - £5.50 - Bought from Morrison's and ASDA, so slightly more expensive than my usual Poundstretcher bargains again, as I never made it to the store until the end of this month.
Toilet Rolls x 36 (for March) - £5 - I managed to get to Poundstretcher the other day when I was in the vicinity, so I bought next month's toilet rolls. Hopefully as a result, I shouldn't need to spend too much next month.
Disinfectant x 1 - 30p
Total Monthly Expenditure £10.80
I was helped this month by the fact that we were away for a week and some toilet rolls and other products were provided with our accommodation, which did cut down on a small amount of usage and expense, but having said this I did take and use my own dishwasher tablets and some toilet rolls too. Towards the end of the month, I held off from buying some washing liquid/tablets too and dug out some old soap nuts I had in the back of the under sink cupboard to use for washing clothes. This saved me some money from this month's budget and I think I might continue to use them for a while longer to keep costs down.
I must admit that I never really kept in budget with this challenge from the beginning and had I calculated at the start how many toilet rolls we used each month, I would perhaps have made the budget a little more generous, as these constitute a pretty large part of it. Anyway, I didn't, so I'm seriously struggling with this challenge, although I must admit I have made some irresponsible and unnecessary purchases along the way, which certainly haven't helped.
This month wasn't actually a bad month all things considered. I managed to spend only £10.80 which sounds a lot, but it includes the toilet rolls we will need for next month bought in advance. This just goes to show that when you put your mind to it you can spend less than you think.
This takes my total in this challenge to £106.67/£125 after 6 months.
This month's expenditure was spent on the following
Toilet Rolls x 30 (for February) - £5.50 - Bought from Morrison's and ASDA, so slightly more expensive than my usual Poundstretcher bargains again, as I never made it to the store until the end of this month.
Toilet Rolls x 36 (for March) - £5 - I managed to get to Poundstretcher the other day when I was in the vicinity, so I bought next month's toilet rolls. Hopefully as a result, I shouldn't need to spend too much next month.
Disinfectant x 1 - 30p
Total Monthly Expenditure £10.80
I was helped this month by the fact that we were away for a week and some toilet rolls and other products were provided with our accommodation, which did cut down on a small amount of usage and expense, but having said this I did take and use my own dishwasher tablets and some toilet rolls too. Towards the end of the month, I held off from buying some washing liquid/tablets too and dug out some old soap nuts I had in the back of the under sink cupboard to use for washing clothes. This saved me some money from this month's budget and I think I might continue to use them for a while longer to keep costs down.
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