Introducing the inaugural Bothy skirt

About a week after we packed 99% of all our worldly possessions (including my sewing machine and fabric collection) tightly into a bright yellow shipping container in the top corner of our block, I got a skirt order through Georgie Love. There was a very brief moment spent considering how I could dig into the container to retrieve my sewing paraphernalia, but the moment was quickly ended by memories of hours spent meticulously packing every nook and cranny in the container to ensure everything would fit. I emailed the skirt-ordering-lady and explained our predicament, and she was happy to wait until we were settled into our little house. How nice!

Now we're in, and the container is a little less tightly packed, having been relieved of some items of furniture and a few boxes, so I thought it was time to get started on aforementioned, Georgie-Love-ordered Australian-flora-themed skirt - the first skirt ever to be made in the Buckajo Bothy! Lovingly cut from a gorgeous linen wattle and carnation (!) print tablecloth and a sweet 'Australian wildflowers' teatowel, it was assembled at night, by head-lamp, sitting on the couch using the kids' toy basket as my 'sewing table'. 

Life in the high-tech P&E sewing space

I had originally planned to make it outside on our new multi-purpose yeller-box table, but the fact that it's technically almost spring has yet to impact upon our Began climes, so the nights are still a tad chilly out of doors.

The first interesting obstacle to be overcome was our lack of electricity. That's right. Our solar system is still under construction, so no power is to be had inside the bothy. I'm actually really enjoying the no power thing. We cook with gas, use a small camping gas lantern and beeswax candles for lighting, and charge things like our phone and computer at our places of employment (hence the slow rate of blog posting - computer power is oh so precious these days!). But the sewing machine, lacking a rechargeable battery, as it does, was different. 

Then someone reminded me that we do actually have a generator, which we bought to run our power tools while building. I've always thought of it as a strictly out-doorsy kind of thing, only to be used with out-doorsy kinds of things like circular saws and angle grinders. But of course, a generator can also power a sewing machine.

So, in addition to being the first Bothy-produced P&E, Siggy's skirt is also the first (and hopefully the last) fossil-fuel-powered P&E. Sorry about that.

If it's any consolation, I sewed it really quickly, and it's quite lovely, if I do say so myself....

Inaugural Bothy-made skirt has a little lie-down on some newly-laid straw mulch (there's a bit of that around these days...)