pearl & elspeth

2012-01-25T21:13:00.007+11:00

Today Pearl and I had (yet another) brush with what I like to call 'The War on DIY'. You may have noticed that the current political and economic system of hyper-consumption (yep, I'm talking about the 'C' word) doesn't want you to feel like you can do/make/fix things yourself. They like to make you think you need to pay someone to do/make/fix things. It's disempowering, and it gives me the shits. Because what it results in is a massive level of disconnection between people and the things they consume. I first came to this realisation about 4 years ago when Morag and I made a dining table for Pearl.

Pearlie, being the consummate entertainer and hostess with the mostess, was yearning big-time for a big, lovely old dining table. These, we soon discovered, are, without exception, expensive. Like, out of our league expensive. Being a gung-ho German who aims to please my lady friend, I figured I could give a bit of furniture-making a go. How hard can it be, right? Enter Morag (lovely, also gung-ho, hands-on type lady) some old tongue and groove floor boards from Coastie's big shed and a few bits of treated pine we found lying around somewhere. We devised a pretty rough strategy for building the table, based on nothing in particular, then set to work. A few hours later, we had a pretty big, wooden dining table that can happily seat 10 people, and squashily seat 12. Sure, it's a bit rickety on account of neither of us really considering, oh, you know, bracing or anything like that, but boy were we proud. And empowered.

Since then I have been suspicious when people tell me I can't do something. Not to detract from professionalism - hell no! Some people are just good at doing stuff! But you'd probably be surprised by the amount of things you can do a decent job of yourself. Read some books! Have a go! If you use recycled materials, which are usually cheap and/or free, it kind of doesn't matter if your project falls over (unless it's house, I guess) - just try something smaller next time. And remember to brace it.

Obviously, my current, kinda big DIY project is the building of our home, owner-builder style. This is what the authorities (namely the bank) are trying to thwart. But we shall overcome! And I just know that our place is going to be more awesome, and more true to the life we're trying to lead, if we have to do it our own way, with our own resources, even if it takes a little longer.

In celebration of our disregard for The War on DIY, I'm passing on the instructions for a cute, quick, recycle-y craft project: The beach poncho.

Made from a muslin baby wrap (I had a ton I was hanging on to but didn't know why) it is perfect for when your little friends get out of the water, all shivery and wrinkled, needing a little warmth and sun-protection on their adventures on the shore.

First, fold your wrap in quarters. Next, on the folded corner, cut out an approximately head-sized hole (can be good to use a hat for guidance - you don't want to make it too big).

Now, on your sewing machine, use some bias binding to finish the edge.

I decided to make some bias tape (that would be a strip of fabric cut on the bias) for this one, but the thick bias binding you get at a craft/sewing shop will be perfect (that's what I used on the green one Olive is wearing in the pictures). Always be careful when you're sewing on bias binding that you don't stretch either the fabric, or the tape as you're sewing it on. In this case especially you want to make sure you don't stretch the neck-hole too big.

Then you're done! Feel good! Feel empowered! And remember that if you want something, you'll feel a lot happier with it if you make it yourself.

Farmin'

2012-01-21T19:45:00.008+11:00

When Sharon, of Gordon, ACT sent me the following email, she made my day.

"The blog is great. I spend 7 1/2 hours a day underground in the basement of Parliament House surrounded by machines. Day in day out same old dark cold environment so it’s just nice to see your sunny photo’s and imagining what it would be like to live off the land and not under it."

And she's a returning customer - love 'em.

When she sent me the teatowel she wanted me to use to make a skirt for her, she made my day again! Gotta love a bit of a bucolic-scene-teatowel when you're trying to craft a simple life out of the earth.

So it's official: Sharon's a day-maker (2 out of 2 is good enough for me).

And of course, the skirt was super-fun to sew. Like Sharon, I love all the colours in the skirt, especially red! So was pleased to be able to incorporate a little bit of spotty action. And I just happened to have a bit of drill the exact same tone of blue as the roofs and clouds and the little farmer-dude's overalls. Don't you just love a fortuitous fabric-matching event?

The teatowel had a few holes in it, so a pocket was necessary for cover-up (yes, the pocket is lined in red polka-dot. Couldn't help myself). It's a little higher than your average P&E pocket, but I just could not bring myself to cover up the little clothesline.

Pretty much one of the cutest teatowel features I've ever seen (and believe me - I've seen a lot of teatowels).

things in bottles

2012-01-20T20:28:00.006+11:00

My sister used to tell me that I was a natural born homemaker. She even made up a song about it. And yes it is a little bit true. Despite my strong feminist sensibilities I do get a bit Virgoan about domesticity. I like wearing ye olde aprons and I like things to be nice and I like arranging and cooking and boy, do I like preserving. It started off with tomatoes, a few years back. I started to get really antsy about the number of tins of tomatoes we were buying. Tins from Italy (have you wondered how it's even possible for Italy to supply so many tomatoes to the world?). It's not just about the tomatoes from across the seas factor but also the incredible amount of carbon emitted + embodied energy in all those bajillions of tins we all use, not to mention the freaky BPA in the lining of said tins. We decided to take matters into our own hands. If we were going to eat tomatoey things when tomatoes are not in season then we needed to take charge of preserving them when they were seasonally available. Enter the Fowlers Vacola preserving system. We have a gorgeous green preserving pot from many years ago and it's such a joy to use with the thick sturdy glass preserving jars. I'd order 10kg boxes of organic cooking tomatoes from Alfalfa House in Sydney and we'd spend days jarring up tomatoes for the cooler months. We did a really basic raw pack method where you just shove chopped tomatoes into your jars then put the special lids and clips on and boil them from 40-minutes in the big pot. One year we ended up with around 60 jars - enough to see us through to October! We've not begun the big tomato preserve for this year mainly on account of us now living in southern climes where tomatoes have only just started to ripen.

However we have not been without the tomatoey preserve action entirely. Our local food co-op - Candelo Bulk Wholefoods is really great at marking down fruit and veg when it starts to get a little worn. So over the course of a week I compiled a mega bowl of $1 - $2 a kilo organic tomatoes and what better way to start the tomato preserving than with tomato sauce. Wowee, has it gone down a treat! Oh and just to be clear I'm talking tomato relish type sauce, you know, sweet and spicy good with sausage rolls and cheese toasties and meat and eggs. I used a variation of a recipe we got some years ago from our friend Claire. But just today realised I'd unconsciously used the recipe from Frugavore by Arabella Forge. I guess there are only so many ways of making tomato sauce. Part of the thrill has been how readily the kids have adapted to this homemade version of the sauce from a bottle from the supermarket they love so well. Ah sweet relief.

Prior to the tomato beginnings I dipped my toe into the realm of savoury jams a la onion jam. Our local producers market was experiencing the Spring paradox wherein Spring has sprung yet the produce is still catching up (of course!) so there's a bounty of silverbeet, onions, leeks, potatoes, lemons and that is all. What's a preserving lover to do but make some onion jam?

The end result was a dark, sticky mass of sweet fragrant deliciousness so good with sausages!

The house was awash with the aromatic amazingness of apple cider vinegar, sugar, lemon, cloves and caraway seeds. It took my breath away. I'll post the recipe at the end for those so inclined.

PS: The plums on our tree have ended and for a last hurrah I whipped up this pretty little cake. It's a stone fruit cake rich with vanilla bean and polenta and yoghurt and rapadura sugar. A real delight after a light meal.

Onion Jam

(makes about 8 - 10 small jars)

3kg of onions (peeled weight)

3/4 cup salt

12 cups sugar

6 cups of apple cider vinegar

3 tblsn lemon juice

6 tspns whole cloves

9 tspns caraway seeds

1 tblspn of grated lemon rind

Slice the onions thinly (preferably in a food processor). Mix with the salt and leave to stand for 2 hours.

Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water.

Place the cloves in a small piece of muslin and tie at the top.

Bring the sugar, lemon juice, lemon rins and vinegar to the boil while stirring. Add the bag of cloves, caraway seeds and onions.

Bring back to the boil for 2.5 - 3 hours or until a jam-like consistency.

Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Pour into warm, sterile jars and invert until cool.

Extra-delicious tomato sauce

(makes 4 - 5 passata size jars)

4kg of ripe tomatoes

6 cooking apples

6 onions

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

5 cups of apple cider vinegar

4 cups of sugar

salt and pepper to taste

2 tspn mixed spice

2 tspn whole cloves

2 tspn cayenne pepper

Peel and core apples and chop roughly. Peel and chop onions. Chop tomatoes.

Put chopped veg into large pot and add vinegar and garlic. Cook for an hour or more.

Take off the heat and blend.

Return to the heat and add the spices, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook for another hour or until thick.

Pour into sterilised jars and invert until cool.

Frocks for growing

2012-01-17T20:03:00.008+11:00

You may remember Megan and Ben from around this time last year when I made them some bunting for their gloriously lovely wedding fest. Well, now they are growing a baby - yay!

Megan, like many other pregnant ladies, has been having a ghastly time finding non-ugly, non-sweatshop and non-expensive clothes to accommodate her growing tum. P&E to the rescue!

I made her some Megan-sized versions of the skirts and dresses that Pearl and I wore when we were pregnant, to see her through the coming months of growing-ness.

The dress is my basic bias-cut A-line. Flattering, with a good mount of give for bubba expansion, and made from an op-shop sheet Olive and I bought from the Narooma Vinnies on the day we moved to Bega (we had to make many, many stops that day, on account of Olive's car-sickness, the highlights of which were the op-shops and Bateman's Bay mini golf).

When I think of Megan, I think of blue and green, for some reason, so this sheet was an obvious pick.

When I was cutting it out, Olive asked if she could help. Of course! I love having her hanging around helping when I'm sewing - it inevitably leads to her making up some elaborate, gorgeous costume/landscape/scenario involving the offcuts. On this occasion she decided she wanted to make a dress for her toys, so I grabbed the opportunity to show her how to make what I think is the cutest, simplest dress/top ever, which can be adapted for toys, babies, kids and adults alike.

It's based on a little top I had when I was a baby, which my mum made. I made a bunch for Olive when she was little, and a few for other cute babies I know as well. It's a really great, basic design, good for beginners, and it's easy to adapt and fancy-up, if you're that way inclined. Here's how it goes:

Firstly, measure the length you want the top to be. For Olive's Niki-cat, this meant floor length. Note that the edge on the left is a folded edge, so the rectangle Niki-cat is lying on is actually doubled over.

Now, make a long rectangle that is the length of the dress on one side, and 2x the total width of the bottom hem of the dress on the other.

Now, fold your long rectangle into quarters. Measure the length from Niki-cat's neck to her shoulder, and mark this same length from the top of the folded rectangles. Cut a little scallop shape half moon thing. This makes the sleeve (if you're making this top for anyone other than a toy, you'll probably want to encase the scallop-cuts in bias binding so they don't fray when you wash it).

Now, you need to make something to thread your drawstring through. We used some braid that I found on a council clean up, but if you don't have anything like that, just fold the top over twice and sew along to make a tube, kind of like if you were hemming it.

Now, thread your drawstring and pull it around the neck, then tie at the back. Cute stuff!

Depending on who you're making it for, and how often it's going to be washed etc, you'll want to finish off the hems and edges properly, either with bias or just by turning them under. Give it a go!

When I was finished making Niki-cat's frock, I got started on Megan's skirt, which was to be made using a phenomenal 'Australian Wattle' teatowel, which she and Ben hand-delivered to my workplace in Bega as they kayaked and camped their way up the coast from Melbourne to Sydney.

I LOVE the teatowel a) because of its unashamed intermingling of the common names and latin names of the wattles it features, b) because it's wattles, and wattles are cool and c) because it's from the wool capital of the world!

The skirt is pretty much exactly the same as the classic P&E A-line, but with no zip, a slightly gathered-above-the-rump thing, and a big wide stretchy band on the top to accommodate pregnant expansion.

THE COMFIEST SKIRT EVER. I wore mine looong after Olive was born, especially in the winter, when the stretchy band keeps all lower-abdominal areas extra-toasty.

I'd always been quite partial to a bit of wattle action, having been in the yellow wattle 'house' in primary school (you know the groups you're in for athletic carnivals and such??). When the local Landcare co-ordinator (also, handily, our neighbour) came to check out our land to see what was happening, we traipsed all over the place, oohing and ahhing over the many varieties of little baby seedlings coming up everywhere on account of the cessation of decades-long grazing. I felt so thrilled to see the diversity of native flora that was hanging out, just waiting for a chance to rise above the dairy-cow fodder. Amongst these many little seedlings and native grasses were several tiny Acacia mearnsii - Black Wattle.

Some people consider these to be weeds, but we choose to see them as an asset. Firstly, they are short-lived, meaning that you can use them as 'nursery' plants to shelter your precious fruit trees and delicate natives like Indigofera australis - Native Indigo - while they get established. While they're growing, supporting and sheltering your orchard, they're also fixing nitrogen in the soil, because they're leguminous. When they're growing, you can prune them and use them as mulch, and then when they die - more mulch! I don't know about you, but this all seems very exciting to me. And having nursery trees on a baby-growing skirt is pretty ace.

More t-blouses, more figs

2012-01-16T20:23:00.008+11:00

Yay! More t-blouses! This time for Bec, (she of the super-colourful skirt) so bound to be fun times. Bec authorised "cute" so I felt emboldened to use this sheet that I've been carting around, loving, for quite some time. You may well recognise the print - it was a favourite from the era of my childhood, and I'm pretty sure I had a little baby quilt from the same fabric. Maybe the reason I love it so much.

I've always been a bit nervous to use it for some reason. Perhaps it's too cute? Perhaps I am alone in my appreciation of the bold, primary-coloured lions and weird letters and funny bear things in hot air balloons?? But I figured if one person was going to appreciate it, it was Bec, so I'm giving it a whirl. Bec: if I'm way off the mark with this one I promise to make you another.

Now, a word on Bec. I have never actually met this lady, but I freaking love sewing for her, and I freaking love (almost as much) emailing with her. She is pretty much the funniest email-writer of all time. Seriously!! (No, really, I never exaggerate and I never make hyperbolic statements). It's one of the absolute joys of this sewing gig - 'meeting' people, getting to 'know' them, then making them a bunch of clothes they love, and sometimes, when I'm lucky, getting feedback about how the clothes have been heading out to the beach, riding bikes, picking fruit and what not.

Now, for the second top. Bamboo and some kind of non-descript daisy flower thing. Love the contrast. What more can I say?

Luckily for me, and Florence (she wanted a night off) and especially you, dear reader, Bec and Pearl are pretty much exactly the same size. She resisted, but I eventually managed to rope her in to modelling for me, posing her in front of our fig tree, which seems to be heaving with a second round of figs coming on. Don't know what that's about, but it certainly makes for a delightful background for Pearl in Bec's tops.

And it will hopefully furnish me with a chance to try out some car-drying, helpfully suggested by the delightful chaps over at Little Eco Footprints. Charming, exciting stuff.

The Best Lady

2012-01-15T20:54:00.003+11:00

Lovely Beth, of Marrickville, will soon be attending a wedding. How glorious. In addition to the already inbuilt gloriousness of a wedding, I suspect that this wedding is probably going to be a bit extra-glorious on account of the fact that a) it's at the Vanguard in Newtown, and b) the invitation looks like this

Furthermore, Beth is going to be the best lady at the wedding. Needless to say I was pretty dern excited when Beth asked me to make her a dress, and when the link she included in her request email suggested that she was a fan of one of my extra-special vintage patterns. You may have noticed that I find it hard to get past my favourite dress pattern, ye olde V neck-circle skirt 50s number. Especially when I have a superb circular tablecloth just waiting to become a circle skirt on a fab-o frock. I really enjoyed sewing for Beth - she was an excellent ladyclient! - most notably because she had a great idea of what she wanted, and what would suit her body shape. This is a huge bonus for a sewing-person like me, who is more often than not sewing things for people I can't actually see or try things on. Even with Florence's help, this is still a kind of tricky thing to do, so I love it when people can say "hey, I think I look rad in a full skirt" or not, as the case may be. Top stuff.

I was slightly nervous about using the tablecloth (even though I am in love with it, and had actually been saving it for my own personal use) because the bride had apparently requested no white, pink or red. But a bit of email back-and-forthing cleared this up. I'm glad, because whenever I hear "no red" I think "why??". Makes no sense to me. Like people who don't like beer...

In addition to aforementioned circular tablecloth, I also used a green sheet and another tablecloth that was cream with grey embroidery, which I used for the bolero. When I made the bolero, I was actually kind of keen on the cream and grey (what is happening to me??), but when Florence tried it on with the dress, it was kind of, how should I say, a little bit blah, so I embarked upon a little dyeing adventure.

Back in the day, I was a huge dyer or petticoats and what not. Basically anything I could get my hands on became rainbow coloured at the mercy of my special, dedicated dyeing pot and a cute little tin of dye. I cannot get my head around the fact that Dylon no longer make the cute little tins, and always struggle with the new-fangled sachets, but I get there in the end. Even after all these years of making things change colour, I still love the feeling I get when I see a billion items hanging on the line, all in the same colour. Beautiful. I get the same feeling when I go into op-shops that are arranged by colour. Why on earth would you not do that when it looks so freaking great??

But I digress...

Beth's bolero, we decided just had to be purple, to pull out the beautiful purple flower buds in the kick-ass circular ex-tablecloth.

I hope you'll agree, this was the right choice, and I was super-pleased with the resultant colour combo. I also love how the dye pulled out the embroidery, because it's a bit unusual and a bit beautiful, I reckon.

Happy kids on a breezy Autumn-like day

2012-01-13T22:00:00.008+11:00

Yesterday was sunny and cool and breezy here in the south. One of those days that feels almost Autumnal, yet we are so far from Autumn we know it will be hot again any day soon...In recognition of the deliciousness of the day we headed to our land for an early dinner and dam swim for the kids.

I dunno about you but the dam swim is mucho unappealing to me, not only is it shallow and muddy but it's currently covered in Azolla. Not that Olive and Oscar seem perturbed, in fact quite the opposite. They bound down the hill towards the dam shedding shoes and clothes in order they can immerse themselves as soon as possible. Once in they roll and loll in the muddy waters happy as, well yes, pigs in mud. It warms our heart to see them so at ease and so happy in this place that will soon be our home (just as soon as we build our mini-straw bale with Frank Thomas and get a water tank and some solar panels etc etc.. but plenty more on that later). For now, our 7 acres is a place for picnics and plans and discovery and rolling in mud.

We built our fire and cooked our corn, It is truly the most delectable corn you can imagine. Grown nearby on the river flats it is almost obscene in its sweet juiciness. While the corn cooked we heated up a pot of our version of Jude Blereau's Cowboy Bean and Quinoa stew. Now it's hardly fine dining but golly, it is more-ish and nourishing and the nude, wet, happy kids eat so well when anything resembling tomatoey beans are on offer. Some people say I'm a little neurotic about ensuring the kids eat well and maybe I am but it is certainly satisfying to my mumma sensibilities to see our kids eat whole foods I've prepared for them. I'll post the recipe at the end for those in need of some easy pease, protein rich meals to satisfy the discerning kids in your life.

This recent land visit confirmed that the plums are finito but the blackberries are on the brink of readyness. We're torn in our relationship to the blackberries choosing, at this stage, to focus on their culinary attributes rather than their pestilent weedy nature. It's such a thrill to see the number of native raspberry plants cropping up across the acres as we imagine summers of the future and the berry cornucopia we will enjoy together.

These simple times together are so good. They fill our hearts with warmth and strengthen our resolve that this crazy shenanigan of building our own straw bale house and creating a food forest garden from nought + relying on the sun for our energy and rain for our water is all gonna be ok. And not just ok, actually pretty great.

Beans and quinoa stew adapted from Jude Blereau "Wholefood for Children"

will provide 2 - 3 meals for a family of 4

1 cup quinoa

1 tablespn lemon juice

1.5 - 2 cups of black eyed beans

olive oil

1 onion, slices

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 green capsicum, seeded and finely diced

large pinch of dried oregano

large pinch each of cumin and dried coriander

1 - 2 carrots, finely diced

1 sweet potato, finely diced

1 zucchini, finely diced

2 tblespns rapadura sugar

2 tins of diced tomatoes

salt and pepper

Place the quinoa in a bowl, add the lemon juice and cover in water. Leave to soak for at least 6 hours. Drain and set aside.

If using dried beans you should soak them overnight. Drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a big pot, add onion and garlic and gently fry. Then add the herbs and spices and cook for a few minutes. Add the diced veg and put the lid on and cook for 5-minutes until it's starting to brown. Add the tomatoes and a little extra water, bring to a simmer. Then add the beans and quinoa and enough water to cover them. Cook gently with the lid on for a couple of hours until the beans are soft. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

We like to eat it with some Barambah sour cream and grated cheese. And if we're feeling really fancy we make it into a Nachos kinda thing with some extra special organic corn chips.

Oti: the Force will be with you... always

2012-01-12T22:35:00.006+11:00

In addition to the quilt I made for Rochelle's baby who's still on the inside, I also made this Star Wars quilt for her little boy, Otis. I just had to share these pictures because he is the most adorable little dude!!! And doesn't he look like the Force is with him?!?!?

Rochelle requested this quilt for Otis as a little sweetener for the dummy handover. So far, things have gone well! The quilt is made from a bit of vintage fabric Rochelle bought online, and it's lined with wool batting. The back is soft blue jersey, to make it all extra snuggly. The 'handle' is made from a piece of tape I cut out of the inside of a vintage suitcase. I loved the texture and weight of it. I then hand-stamped it with 'THE FORCE WILL BE WITH YOU... ALWAYS', just for a little extra somethin' somethin'.

And I have to admit, even a luddite like me can see the benefits of a vintage-looking iphone photo when we're talking about a quilt like this one.

Dear Suse, I'm so happy to be making your frock...

2012-01-12T21:39:00.007+11:00

I think one of the many reasons I love making wedding dresses so much is that my own wedding day was super spectacularly fun and wonderful. I know how great a wedding can be! So I always feel honoured to be able to participate in and contribute to other peoples' weddings in such a special way.

Pearl's and my wedding day was a gloriously handmade affair, with all our loved ones pitching in to provide food, decorations, music and blessings. And, because we're not technically allowed to get married because of the havoc we will inevitably wreak upon the nice ol' convention of the nuclear family's precious values, we didn't have to get a stuffy celebrant to be in charge of our special day. Instead, we had our dear friend Sarah as our MC, while the lovely and extremely talented Ms Genna played us a love song on her fiddle. Couldn't have been more perfect.

My mum and I made our dresses, Pearl's wedding ring was handmade, and mine was a gift from my nana, which she gave to Pearl as a part of the ceremony. Not a dry eye in the house!!

I was reminded of all this recently when I received the fabric selection provided by my latest wedding dress client, Suse. The colouring, as you can see, is so similar to my own dress I couldn't help but laugh. How lovely!

When Suse sent me some pics of the dresses she's into, I was pretty excited because they were mostly all from 'my' era, the 20s and 30s. Somewhat ironically, I actually met Susan when I taught her at Uni... a course on modernist literature from the 20s and 30s. Freaky dude! So it is especially fitting that the vintage component, including the AMAZING beaded collar you see before you, has an appropriately and authentically 'between the wars' story behind it. When I was a child, you see, my mum volunteered for Animal Welfare, and met tons of crazy cat ladies. I thought they were all pretty cool, but one in particular was a standout. When she died, she left her whole house to Animal Welfare, including her collection of costumes and accessories from her time on the stage in the 30s and 40s. Hello suitcases full of amazing, beautiful, glittery, feathered velvet stuff. This collar belonged to that lady. It's showing its age, and, if we decide to use it, will need some extensive repair work along the lines of those falling down barns on Grand Designs that need about a million tonnes of concrete poured under them because they're slipping down a hill. But I reckon it'll be worth it, because the thing is beautiful and totally unlike anything I've ever seen.

But back to the dress. I'm thinking we use the collar, we have a nicely-falling gathered boob bit, which is I suppose a bit 'Ancient Roman meets 20s Paris", we use the spectacular piece of dusky pink and gold rose lace trim (also from suitcase of cat lady) across the front of the dress, and then we have a flowy, very long skirt with even a bit of a train, if you're up for it.

The back of the dress is totally open to the waist, but there's a huge flowy cape coming down from the back of the collar, which goes to the floor (can cover a bra strap if you want to keep the ladies contained). In all, it goes a little somethin' like this...

I'm not 100% attached to any particular colour combo, and I'm not sure what you had in mind when you bought the fabric in terms of layering or whatnot, but I think you'll agree that the collar looks totally ace next to the dusky satin, and I reckon the graduated pink would look fantastic on the cape, with the darkest bit at the bottom. There's also some blue lace, also from the suitcase, which is amazingly fine, and very unusually wide, but I couldn't quite see where it would fit, so it's not in my drawings. I reckon it could do something awesome in your hair, but not sure what you're thinking for your 'do.

The drawings, but the way, are pretty indicative of the main reasons I never did design or art at school, though Olive thought they were "very neat" which I suppose for a 5 year old, they are.

Azolla love

2012-01-11T21:16:00.004+11:00

As I lay in bed last night, excitedly devouring 'Water in Permaculture' by Bill Mollison, I was absolutely thrilled to discover my good friend Azolla on Bill's list of totally awesome must have dam plants. Cool! admittedly, we don't have any of the other plants he mentions (yet!), but the azolla is currently covering THE ENTIRE SURFACE of the dam, so that has to count for something, right?

When I arrived home from work this afternoon Pearl suggested we go for some plum therapy - visiting the land and stopping off at 'our' plum tree. Obviously, she didn't have to ask me twice, so we bustled off up the hill, buckets and bowls in hand. Pearl and the kids stayed at the tree while I trotted on down to the dam to collect me some azolla. Our little vegie patch was in need of a good mulch, the azolla crop was totally out of control and, excellently, we'd just had a substantial dump of rain (and Olive's first ever hail!) so the timing was perfect.

The wind, this afternoon, was absolutely howling. The noise of it rushing through the trees up on our hill was simultaneously thrilling, beautiful and terrifying. And the volume of it was quite unbelievable. The immense wind had blown all the azolla to one side of the dam, and a huge flock of ducks were dipping in the bit of dam that had been left exposed, presumably excited to be able to access the water without the hindrance of pesky floating ferns.

As I luxuriated in the delicious contrast between the warm muddy dam-water on my feet and legs and the cold wind whipping my face, I collected handfuls of azolla. Anyone who knows me will be unsurprised to hear that I collected a lot more than I could comfortably carry, but I struggled on anyhow.

Pearlie, meanwhile was breaking in her brand new remodelled King Gees.

After searching for months for a pair of Pearlie-sized farm pants, to no avail, I decided to take matters into my own hands and picked up a couple of pairs of King Gees at the Bega Valley Swapsies clothes swap. I unpicked the side seams of the best pair, and used the other pair to make extender strips to sew down the sides so as to lovingly accommodate the awesome curvature of my lady friend.

Mission accomplished, and mission successful! Pearl declared them to be "the most comfortable pants of all time!", and they proved to be perfectly suited to azolla collection and distribution.

2012-01-09T21:23:00.002+11:00

After the wild success of our fig-drying, I was keen to experiment with some other, more low-energy drying methods. Some gorgeous morning sun was hitting the kitchen table before work the other day so, with my backpack already on my back (I was just about to head out the door to work when this brain-wave hit me) I decided to start the air-drying procedure. I quartered the figs and put them on racks, then set the on the table in the direct sun, then covered them with some light muslin cloth, which I tucked in tight to keep out the critters.

I was pretty happy with myself, and trotted off to work feeling all excited about the figs happily dehydrating while I single-handedly rid the Bega Valley of waste. Alas, my fantasy was ruined when, 3 days later I checked the figs and discovered that some of them had grown mould and/or gone mushy. Poo. Genevieve helpfully pointed out that 60% humidity is probably not the best environment for air-drying food. Point taken.

The mushy ones went in the compost and the remaining ones went in the oven, for a repeat drying in a more controlled environment. This led to more success, so I was happy, though I have now been prompted to investigate the construction of some kind of solar dryer for our bounties.

Oh Plums

2012-01-08T20:20:00.006+11:00

As Annie mentioned we had a pretty special Christmas, just us four, in this place that is newly our home. There was plenty of good summertime eating, swimming, jumping, laughing, cuddling and just a little bit of gifting. However I think it would be safe to say that the discovery of a very laden plum tree across the road from our land was the highlight of our festive season. Hmmm yes probably not everyone's idea of a good time but it is ours. This tree kind of snuck up on us and we didn't find it until it was heaving with delicious red and yellow fruit. The delight we felt from this unexpected discovery was immense. It's an old old tree, gnarly and withered and so bountiful that the birds have had their share and there's still plenty for us, our friends and passers by (not that there are many of those on our hilly, dusty road).

We ate our fill that happy day and returned the next, wet and sandy and salty from the sea, this time with box in boot. We filled that box with fruit while feasting on the native raspberries that seem so happy to grow in and around our plum tree.

The native raspberry is a revelation for us, it's sweet and sour and uber-raspberry all at once. They seem happy in these southern climes. We recently found the most extraordinary grove growing atop a headland that we were traversing in search of a special secluded beach. We didn't find the beach but the raspberry bounty made our day.

We spent Boxing Day preserving plums for some winter pies and custards referring to our trusty little "The Big Book Of Preserving the Harvest" by Carol W. Costenbader. Carol is a tad obsessed with the threat of botulism and is very rigorous in her approach to preserving. We are a teensy bit less pedantic so if you don't hear from us after Autumn ends the big B may have gotten us. We did the raw pack method and made a light sugar syrup, cut the fruit in half and packed it into clean and sterile Vacola jars then added the syrup being careful to leave a spare centimetre at the top, closed up the jars with the excellent little rubber seals, metal lids and clips then boiled them up in our old school Vacola preserving pot. Before they were boiled they looked like little jars of sunset. Not so much the sunset look after the big boil but pretty nonetheless.

The fruit on "our" plum tree is getting riper and riper and the end of the season may be near. But for now, there's more preserving, eating and the anticipation of next summer's bounteous harvest.

2012-01-05T21:21:00.006+11:00

In the last couple of months I've really enjoyed making a couple of baby quilts for a pair of babies who have done a pretty bloody awesome job of choosing their parents.

Traditional quilting, with its requirements of accuracy, patience and attention to detail is not exactly my cup of tea, which is why I've blazed a trail through what I like to call freeform quilting. I dig it. Not to say that these quilts aren't tricky and somewhat time consuming - they are both of these things, which is why I've made a sum total of 5 in my whole life - but they're full of joy and you can pretty much do whatever the heck you feel like doing, with whatever fabric you have available.

When I heard that Ally and Richard Happy Earth were making a little Happy Earth baby, I pretty much had a heart attack, I was so happy. All I could do was cry. These guys are a couple of the most inspiring humans I've ever met, mostly because they live and work according to their ideology, and I think this is a pretty awesome thing for us all to aspire to. Like Che Guevera, for example, who Jean Paul Sartre described as "the most complete human being of our age" and the "era's most perfect man." because "he lived his words". And while I don't subscribe wholeheartedly to most of what Sartre came up with, let's remember that he was good enough for Simone, and let's face it - living your words is a pretty shit hot way to go, methinks.

So, impressively, little baby Happy Earth is gonna have a couple of complete and perfect parents, on account of their inimitable word-living. Yay!

What to make for such a lucky little bubba? A biodiversity-themed, rainbow coloured play quilt, of course! It got the Oscar tick of approval as soon as I laid it out to photograph it.

The second quilt is for the 3rd (!) baby of my friend Rochelle, possibly the most driven, passionate, determined and intelligent woman I know. Rochelle and I shared an office when we were doing our PhDs. We gossiped, read trashy mags, comisserated over the slog that is PhD-writing and dreamed of one day being mummas. And now, here we are, with almost 5 of them between us.

Rochelle was conscious that her 3rd bubba needed something special, all of its own given that it would be born into a super-busy household full of love, siblings and hand-me-downs. She thought that a special quit was the way to go, and I was super-excited to make it for her.

When Rochelle's first baby, Otis was born, I made her a set of safari and animal print sheets, cushions and bunting. Rochelle ABSOLUTELY has her own style, and I love the way she pushes me to make things I wouldn't normally make. Take, for example, her new baby's quilt. She wanted yellows, greys, black and white.

As you know, I'm all about the hysterically bright colours, so this is not up my normal alley. But sometimes it's nice to take a detour, with a friend, and I'm so glad I took this one because I think the quilt is beautiful. Cheers mate!

Have fun with your bubbas, ladies and gents!

2012-01-05T18:59:00.012+11:00

Thanks to the stellar efforts of my mum, brother and Jen, we are now back on line. I think feelings of relief are abounding, given that poor little Pearlie has been technology-free now for a couple of months. Not a bad thing in itself, but when you're home alone with kiddies, in a new town with only a couple of very very new friends, the need for a little adult communication becomes, well, kind of important for one's sanity.

We've also both really missed doing the blog, which is interesting given that we are both total luddites. It's been interesting to reflect on what it actually is about the writing process that we have missed. For me, it's the documentation, the 'making real' of this journey which, especially now in its tentative planning stage, can seem unreal. My drive for progress and results makes documentation satisfying. But enough of that...

What have we been up to? So much! The 2 most exciting things that spring to mind are that we got our DA approved

and we found a ginormous, beautiful and bountiful plum tree across the road from our land, understoried with native raspberries which are, if you've never had the pleasure of tasting one, exquisite.

Spectacular!

So as a result of these 2 most notable events we now have an exciting-looking land-planning wall

and were able to enjoy this outrageously beautiful christmas lunch,

which we feasted on at the most amazingly spectacular place on the far south coast, Nelson Lagoon, aka our local swimming spot.

What a day! In addition to the plums (which are the most delectable combination of sweet juicy flesh with a slightly tart skin) was an olive loaf, baked by my love, featuring the olives I picked and pickled last year, an olive tapenade from Towamba Station Olives (local - yeah!) and goat's cheese from the SCPA markets. We are seriously busting our of our skins with excitement to be able to have a christmas day like that, let me tell you.

In addition to the aforementioned beauty, deliciousness and excitement, we've also been drying figs from our backyard tree, which is producing way more figs than we can possibly eat.

To dry them, you just quarter them and put them on a tray in the oven on the lowest heat possible. Prop the door open with a wooden spoon to let the moisture escape and keep checking on them, though they do take a while - ours were in overnight, around 8 hours.

We also made onion jam for our friends for christmas,

plaited mermaid necklaces and hair braids,

made a table runner for my mum's birthday featuring antique doilies, tablecloths and Olive's drawings of our Began adventures,

a spangly bolero for Kirstin in Thirroul,

and a skirt and top from Solomon Island souvenir sarongs for Meg in Nana Glen.

And then, at the end of the day we ate fire-roasted Buckajo corn while wading in the dam (check out that azolla crop!) and catching up with friends from afar.

Lots of other things too, but they deserve their own posts so stay tuned...

AWOL

2011-11-18T12:49:00.002+11:00

Just letting y'all know that out computer is busted, so we'll be offline for a few weeks while my baby bro does his best to get it back up and running. Apparently he got a lot of computer genius genes, which is lucky for me because I got none... Hopefully I'll be better at building a house than I am at operating electronic gadgetry...

2011-11-14T06:40:00.003+11:00

There's nothing I love more than a Very Productive Weekend. People say to me "Dude, you should relax! Just sit down and chill out for a bit!" and I say to them "No way! Impossible! My genetic makeup dictates that I must be busy at all times!". And so I pretty much am, and that's fine, because I love getting shit done.

This weekend was fab because I hung the hammock between the fig and the mulberry, bottled my ginger beer, spent a morning chopping out thistles on the land, mowed the lawn at our house, made 2 tops, a bolero, and a skirt, went on a bike ride to the river with the kids and picked up an awesome 20 litre drum which will be perfect for watering the windbreak we're about to plant, and went for a swim at Nelson's Lagoon. Now it's sunday night, and I'm buggered, but man, am I feelin' gooood!

The tops are for Sally, as a thank you for all her help with my skirt sale.

The bolero is for Lilli of Frocks n Frou Frou, who requested a wattle/native flower-flavoured bolero for the springtime.

Any time someone requests a native flower theme, I call upon a souvenir from WA, as this is the wildflower state (and also the black swan state - awesome!) and the souvenirs are gorgeously reflective of this. I LOVE the linen tablecloth I used for this, and had actually cut out a skirt for myself from it, but never got around to swing it together. So I chopped it up for a bolero for Lilli. And super-excitingly, and totally by fluke (or course, because I am disorganised and planning is not a strong suit of mine) the fringed Lily is on the front! Lilli, I hope you dig fringes...

The skirt is a repeat for Kelsey, in Seattle, who was comin' back for second helpings of Australiana. That's what I like to see.

The beer is my inaugural Bega batch! I got my home brew kit for christmas a few years ago and it was seriously one of the best presents ever, because I LOVE beer and I LOVE making stuff. If you've ever thought of making your own beer, just do it. It's not at all difficult, it's super-fun, makes a nice gift for your man friends if you're a bit man-craft challenged like me and it's awesome for ye olde planet because you get to reuse your beer bottles over and over and it's not transported from lands far far away. Also looks very nice sitting on the kitchen bench with afternoon sun filtering through it.

Also good if you're a beer snob like me, but the We're Actually Building A House budget is prohibiting the purchase of gourmet microbrewed 6packs valued at $20 each, then home brew is the way to go. Once you get good at it, you can even experiment with fancy schmancy ingredients like chocolate malted barley. Woooooooo. But for summer, I'm giving ginger beer a burl, with the intention of having a bit of a dark and stormy summer.

But the thistles... That was hard one. I think that thistles are beautiful. I love having them around. So much so that I actually have quite a large tattoo of one.

But they are a weed! And they are not child friendly! So they must go. Chop chop. Gave me an excuse to traverse the land, looking at plants, so not really a dreadful experience.

2011-11-08T19:40:00.010+11:00

When we bought our land - hey, well before we bought our land - we knew that we would build our house from straw. Building my own house has been a steadfast bee in my bonnet since the age of about 15 when I visited the mud brick home of a friend of my dad's. She'd built it herself, and it was small, imperfect and, in my mind, absolutely beautiful. Mud brick, however, with all its attendant labour, waiting, labour and more waiting, was most definitely not the medium for me. Strawbale, on the other hand, is for me, and for many many other people, the most perfect building material imaginable. Strawbale building is quick, easy for the novice owner-builder, super Earth friendly (local, waste material with fab, off-the-scale insulation qualities) and kinda cheap, amongst many many other outrageously endearing qualities. In other words, I'm in love.

While working at the Watershed, I was lucky enough to meet Tracy, a building designer with the awesome double-whammy skills of strawbale and working-with-council experience. Tracy, you see, designed the award-winning Nalawala hall for Fairfield council. Yep - awesome.

We knew that it would be incredibly beneficial for us to have some input and feedback on our humble house plans, so approached Tracy to be our plan-drawer-upperer and general sounding board, though the scale of our project was positively minute in comparison to the Nalawala phenomenon. Over the last 5 or so months, though, our relationship has evolved into something more. Tracy has absolutely gone above and beyond our expectations, and she has done a brilliant job, not just of drawing up our plans, but also talking us down from crazy, rash decisions, helping us through the not-super-fun DA process (actually, she pretty much did it) and, most specially, totally accepting our budgetary limitations and general low-fi approach to home planning and building. Early on we negotiated a bit of a half-barter for the work. Tracy needed some sewing and gardening done, and we needed some house designing. Cool. What ended up happening though, was that Tracy got so into our project we ended up doing the whole thing as a labour exchange - LETS style, and crikeys were we grateful! Being as we were in the midst of relocating our entire life to a little town over 300km away, our families pitched in too, my Nana and mum taking their share of the sewing and mending work, and Pearlie's little sister Meg helping me with garden makeovers and chook-shed building. And you know what? I think we all got something out of it, though I have to admit that the stunning drawings Tracy did for us are, ultimately, the awesomest.

So, after all that rambling back-story-creating, I finally get to the crux of this post, which is the felt leaf collar that, in addition to the mending and sewing and planting and weeding and building, formed part of Tracy's trade.

The collar is going to a wedding this weekend, teamed with a black dress and some flash shoes, I believe. And suitably so, too, because it was, let me tell you, a labour of love. So many felt leaves!!! But I actually kind of liked the process. It was like building. You layer, and stitch and layer and stitch, and all the while the collar gets bigger and stronger and more able to hold itself together and then finally, one night, it's done. It's strong and, I reckon most excitingly, it's totally dimensional! I utilised Florence's neck, and actually kind of moulded the leaves into the shape of a neck as I stitched them together. Not as easy as it sounds! But all OK, because the end result is pretty great, I think, not least of all because it looks like something out of Wildwood, Olive's and my current fave to end all faves. If you haven't seen and/or read it, do yourself a flavour. It's simply stunning.

So, here's to trading skills, keeping it real, getting the Fams involved in your bartering shenanigans, felt and the mighty strawbale.

We have a bit of a plan... by Pearl

2011-11-05T20:44:00.009+11:00

You may recall our recent discussion around what we are actually going to do with our 7 acres. So this morn we 4 rolled out of our beds, a little bit excited, and breakfasted on pikelets and buttery pears sitting in the grass on our land in the sun while awaiting our site analysis and mini-consult with local permaculture trainer John Champagne.

We know that we want to grow enough food for ourselves and our visiting friends and family and that maybe we want to extend into some kind of semi-commercial venture in the future - olives? pomegranates? goats cheese? heirloom pumpkins? But right now we have a slopey block with no water and a bit of a weed problem. We also have two young children and not much money. Our experience of gardening to date has involved urban and suburban food growing and while we know you can do some truly amazing things with a suburban block, 7 acres provides a whole new array of possibilities.

Some books that have influenced our thinking and opened our minds to what's possible are The Earth User's Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow and Smart Permaculture Design by Jenny Allen. While an array of possibilities should equate to pure excitement I'd be lying if I didn't admit to some anxiety. It's odd how anxiety-inducing an array of possibilities can be (especially in a world that tells us that Choice is King), but maybe it's just a sign of my privilege, given how truly horrible a lack of possibility really is.

We talked with John about our ideas and about what we want to achieve, we wandered around the block and mentioned what we had observed so far. And within 2 hours he had drawn up the beginnings of a plan. It's a broad plan but it's a plan and frankly, it feels good.

For now we will be focussing on excavation. Far out. Big machine cutting into the earth and moving it around in order that we can build a house and garden that allows us to live more gently on the earth. Not entirely sure what I think of this, but maybe it's one of those things that requires more pragmatism, less thinking especially given our ex-dairy farm is far from being an unadulterated landscape. John must have noticed our soft city sensibilities warning us that the excavation would be somewhat traumatic and that the earth would indeed shake. Goodness. So we'll be sketching a little plan of what we want - driveway, studio site, house site, pond and a bit of extra flat-ness to aid in our Zone 1 veg patch and orchard and hoping against hope that the excavators can do it within our meagre budget. There'll be quite a bit of bush regeneration occurring, in part, to aid as a windbreak against hot westerly and northerly winds and to work as a shelter belt against bushfire but also to provide balance to the overall landscape. We'll be planting a woodlot in order that we can harvest our own wood to burn in winter. We'll be fencing an area for our immediate food production - fruit trees, nuts, berries, veg, herbs, chickens and ducks for eggs and meat with an eye and an ear to what else we may want to grow in the future.

Oh but we can't excavate until our D.A is approved. It's been lodged and the hefty fee has been paid. We're still reeling from the crazily mammoth heft of the fee. In the meantime we continue to research off grid solar systems, follow every lead towards free recycled hardwoods, search for cheap, local native plant tube stock, work out what where we can get a large number of excellent fruit and nut trees for the littlest amount of money and pontificate on exactly what the kids' cubby should be made of.

2011-11-04T20:14:00.006+11:00

Last time we went up to the land (for a gorgeous picnic of local lamb and vegetables, delectably roasted by the roasting queen, Pearl) we were a little concerned by the extreme growth of the floating plant on our dam. It had basically doubled its empire in the space of 2 days, which was a little scary given that we didn't know what it was.

In the back of my mind were several thoughts concerning the identity of the plant, most of which involved fears of noxious plant status and/or toxic algal blooms. I took a little sample home, and got to studying my trusty Robbo, who revealed the plant to be Azolla filliculoides, an apparently cosmopolitan floating fern.

Cool! But is it a pest? Its quick growth on our dam indicated that it could well be, so I consulted the interweb and found an awesome gardening site, extolling the virtues of Azolla spp. as a "super plant". Could it be? A super plant already growing on our land? It fixes nitrogen! It takes up nutrient from the water to actually prevent algal bloom! It provides habitat and food for tons of little water-dwelling creatures! You can use it as a green manure (as people in China have been doing for eons between their rice crops)! It inhibits the capacity for mosquito breeding in your water! And its frenetic growth is seasonal, so it dies back in the cooler months.

Still, it was a U.S. website, so I was still wary of little Azolla's status in the Bega Valley. Enter the friendly weeds lady from council, who I emailed this morning (yes, working at council certainly has its perks in the know-how department). She sent me an awesome fact sheet, confirming all of Azolla's super-plant credentials and confirmed that she's A-OK to grow to her heart's content. Woo hoo!!!

Boy, did my mind start to race, concocting many ideas of what to do with our little water-borne gold mine. The most exciting, in my mind, is to use it in the pond at the end of our phytoremediation wetland, which is going to treat all our kitchen, laundry and bathroom water instead of having to get a stinky (and quite frankly kinda weird) septic system.... Ah but that for another post. For now I'm pretty much just thrilled to bits by the auspicious surprises that life chucks up at ya when you're just sitting around eating yer lamb.

Some garden ramblings from Pearl

2011-11-02T21:17:00.007+11:00

Before this life-crafting blog goes any further it is most definitely time for us to acknowledge that the traditional owners of our land are the Djiringanj people of the Yuin-Monaro nation.

So we planted a little vegetable garden in the backyard of our new temporary house. It's teeny tiny and oh so burgeoning but we hope will soon provide some summer abundance - heirloom tomatoes, basil, chard, beans, zucchini and squash, cucumbers, parsley, mizuna, watermelon, pumpkin and some other tastes of summer. Wowsers! How good is summer eating from the garden! And so daggily exciting for us, the mulch for this little garden came from grasses on our land. Fear of impending snake activity was giving us the willies so we cut a path from the top of the land down to the dam for easy walking and snake spotting throughout the warmer months. It's early days.. baby steps etc but we did get a little thrill about not having to buy mulch from north Queensland in plastic bags from the nursery.

It's a funny thing to plant a temporary garden in a temporary house when we have 7 very permanent and lovely north facing acres just 8 minutes up the road. However those 7 acres are also populated from time to time with wombats, kangaroo, wallabies and god knows what other forms of garden eating wildlife. And while I am really very happy that 150 years of dairy farming hasn't totally desecrated our native friends, the wildlife factor leads us to move slowly lest our efforts be in vain. Jackie French is very adamant about the need to share share share with the native fauna. I love sharing, totally into sharing, total sharing addict. However it seems that initially it will be less a case of sharing, and more a case of wombat takes all. If you have any thoughts or special little tricks for how we can get things started without losing all to our furry friends please, you know, share. My gut tells me there must be some kind of tricksy companion planting that may help ward off the worst of the predation, so any pointers? Oh but another reason for the delay is that we're fundamentally grappling with what to do with our 7 slopey acres... fruit trees, olive trees, nut trees, chickens, berries, herbs and vegetables with a side of bush regeneration yes yes yes, ah but how?

We know that part of the process is to observe and feel - the land, the sun, the wind, the rain to start to get a feel of how things might work together in this place. And it is an interesting thing to stop and observe and to feel ok in this seeming lack of doing. We're going to have a bit of a chat with local permaculture trainer John Champagne this Saturday to get the garden conversation started....Exciting and a little bit heart in mouth scary. Scary because it's so big, so much land. Ah but who said this life crafting bizzo would be quick and easy?

2011-11-01T20:28:00.003+11:00

You may have noticed that things have kind of dropped off on the P&E production line front. That's because my family and I have relocated to a new town, where we are about to embark on the big, giant-sized, family craft event that is going to (hopefully) set us up to be as self-sufficient as possible. We like to call it 'life craft'. That is, the craft that is involved in building a house - strawbale, passive solar, off-grid power, water, and waste-treatment - and setting up orchards of fruit and nut trees, berry groves and vegetable beds. I'm still going to be sewing and crafting, of course - how could I not? I'm compulsive! - and P&E custom items will still be available if you want to tell me what you want, but my energies from now on are going to be focused on another kind of crafting that primarily involves strawbales, mud, a bit of timber and a shitload of plants. Some of which will be grown from the seeds sent to me by poster-girl Amber Rules, as a thank you for her skirts. Lovely!

Hopefully this crafting will also involve adventures on the farm (which we've already been enjoying!), feasting with friends and learning a lot. And it's the 'learning' bit we mostly want to share because we've found it, at times, overwhelming. To want to do the right thing by the Earth, to build a house that is as gentle, simple and beautiful as it can be, and to try to do all of this with your own hands takes a lot of help and a lot of know-how.

Now, I want to introduce to you the 'Pearl' from Pearl and Elspeth. My muse, my love, my co-collaborator on exciting projects of many kinds but none as momentous as this life-craft shindig we have planned. She's going to be co-writing from now on, too, which is, I assure you, going to be a treat.

So now you can be prepared for the change in direction we're about to take. Not that it's a change, particularly, just a different kind of craft.

2011-10-27T21:07:00.003+11:00

If there's no rest for the wicked, then I reckon there's also no rest for the compulsively-concerned-by-the Earth's-wellbeing, either.

Within 24 hours of landing in Bega, Olive and I were down at the farm, organising the capture of our very own hive full of bees.

The hive was delivered some weeks ago when my Parps and I traipsed down the hill to the dam, carrying the delightfully sturdy (read: heavy) Kenyan top bar hive through the rain. (The hive was built for me by Mr. Richard Happy Earth, as a trade for Mrs Ally Happy Earth's wedding dress, which I made.) We deposited the hive on the dam wall, providing, as recommended, a clear flight path for the bees. That's what they like, you see.

I learned this, and many other useful, weird, wonderful and quite frankly, frikking amazing facts about bees when I attended Milkwood's natural Beekeeping course, taught by Tim Malfroy of Malfroy's Gold honey (who is, I should say, awesomely inspirational and downright cool). Amongst other things, Tim recommended trying to catch a swarm and then house it, rather than buying bees in from somewhere else.

So I diligently purchased a swarm lure (I know - cool!!) which is basically a pheromone for attracting the scout bees who go out looking for a new home. This lure was supposed to be put in the hive when Parps and I delivered it, but I diligently left it (and the delicious Feather and Bone salami sandwiches that were keeping it company in the esky) on mum's kitchen bench.

So, first farming project was to attach the lure to the top of the hive. Now, we wait.

But while we're waiting, we have plenty of other things to occupy us, like swimming in the dam,

watching the ducks,

hanging out with the resident frogs (who seemed to think the hive was quite fetching), watching the bees bumbling around en masse in the mud next to the dam

("Hey! Did you guys see that awesome Kenyan top bar hive over there?") and planting up a bit of a kitchen garden at our rental house in town.

Like I say, no rest. But I'm pretty sure that if you look up "chicks and a little dude who fully dig being busy" in the dictionary, there's a picture of us, so it's OK.

2011-10-17T20:30:00.003+11:00

Pretty much the best thing about this crazy moving sale I just got through is the number of cool people I've 'met' because they've ordered P&E. The next coolest thing about the sale has been the feedback - so many happy campers! It fills my heart with joy and satisfaction to be able to make people so happy just by making them a skirt. Yay!

Just today, after a pretty insane day moving all my worldly goods out of our treehouse (my stuff's now in its way to Bega!) I dragged myself back to Pearl's parents' place, where we're staying, checked my email, and got a few excited little emails. They go somethin' like this:

"Dear Annie

just a quick note to say thankyou so much for the skirt you made me. (Greetings West Australia) I absolutely love it and in fact haven't wanted to take it off since I ripped open the package! It's perfect!

Kind regards

Louise"

And this lady posted me on her blog! And what a super-cute blog it is, I have to say...

Ah. How lovely. Happy, lovely, skirt-wearing ladies all over the countryside. And now, I will sleep.

2011-10-16T20:33:00.002+11:00

OK so we're moving TOMORROW and as such, I have nothing to report. I did finish a skirt yesterday, but the camera and out laptop are both packed, awaiting pickup by the removalists, so there is no hope for a post about them.
In P&E news though, is a mention in the Sydney Morning Herald, which I cxan't upload or link to because I have the computer skills of my cat, Bunn,
and a post by the lovely Kelsey, who is very fond of the Australian bird skirt I made for her.
These are exciting items that both lift my spirits in what could possibly be a somewhat stressful time (ie. relocation of the entire family and home contents to a faraway land).
So next time I attend to my blog, I'll be sitting in our luxuriant, 5 bedroom mansion in sunny Bega. Fun times.

2011-10-10T21:22:00.009+11:00

So it's now less than ONE week til we move. I have ONE more skirt to sew, several more boxes to pack, and a few more friends to see before we embark upon our southern adventure. Sewing, you will be pleased to know, will still be on the agenda, though I must admit I am looking forward to - shock horror - sewing a few things for MYSELF!

But for now I'm still sewing for a few more lucky people, including Sharon, of Gordon, ACT, who ordered 2 'surprise' skirts. How fun! As you know, I love a bit of creative licence, especially when the (very broad) brief includes the word "cutesy". Cutesy, like kitsch, is one of those things that I LOVE, while also recognising that it is definitely Not For Everyone, so I do not use it with gay abandon. But I always collect it, for skirt requests like this one, then I go to town.

My mum bought this fabric for me a few months ago and I've been absolutely itching to use it. I think it's so cute! Check out those birds at the bird bath! I know, it's like put a bird on it, by accident! But I digress...

I made up the skirt in the normal A-line style, but then I knew something was missing... And that something was a pair of green and brown scoopy (that's the technical term. Sometimes it's hard to avoid jargon) pockets made out of barkcloth, which were completely and utterly inspired by those classic pockets you get on 70s flares like the ones the dude is wearing on the fabric. Is that meta??

Meta or no, I'm pretty sure the pockets work.

The 2nd skirt for Sharon has less of a story, mostly because I can't really remember where the fabrics came from... But actually there is an interesting fact about the main fabric of the skirt, which is that after I acquired it I soaked it because I think it had some stains on it. The stains came out (yay!), but some of the blue dye ran. At first I was sad about this, but then I realised that it gave the fabric quite an unusual tone, because the blue is barely perceptible, almost like a bower bird - you know how they're only blue when the light hits them just so, and the rest of the time they're black? That's what happens with this skirt. Depending on the light it can look white or very very pale blue. I think it's cool, and quirky and colourful, which is always nice. I'm also digging the giant roses that don't fit on the joey pouch, so they're kinda decontextualised, which makes them seem.... quite awesome.

Also on the almost-last-but-definitely-not-least sewing agenda was a skirt for Louise, of Woodside SA, who likes old pillowcases and teatowels, but not clashy colours or 70s. At first I was a bit thrown by this. No clash!? But I LOVE red and pink! Not to mention green and blue!! I figured the mention of teatowels was a green light for some Australiana, so settled on a beautiful Perth tablecloth with native flowers, black swans et al, which I teamed with a very complementary (and therefore not clashy) green drill.

Now, I would like to draw your attention to my favourite favourite feature of this tablecoth, which I didn't actually notice until after the skirt was cut out. The little message on the front, around the swans, says "Greetings West Australia". As far as I can tell, this is not a shout out from WA, but a big Hey Ya to WA. Now, if you asked me to explain why I actually think this is so funny, I probably couldn't articulate it. I'm just hoping you get my drift.

And then a chicken walked past and she looked purdy so I took her picture (yes Jay that's your chicken!).

Good morning, Denise

2011-10-07T21:07:00.005+11:00

Dear Denise,

I felt so happy when you ordered a couple more wrap skirts after receiving the last one I made for you. For a humble maker like me, it is a huge compliment when people come back for seconds. I especially liked that you made some more specific requests regarding the kinds of details you wanted on your skirts, not least of all because I LOVE tea, and I LOVE cats.

I have to say, I've never had a request for either of these things before, so I was thrilled to finally be able to use a few pieces I've had hanging around.

The teatowel I made your cat pocket from was actually very stained, so I was only able to salvage one of the cats from it.

But what beauty! I am particularly fond of very frowny cats (my beloved cat, Bunn, was chosen from the cat protection society on account of the fact that she was absolutely the frowniest cat in the joint), so the cat on your pocket is particularly appealing to me because of her cute, furrowed brow (I've decided she's ever-so-slightly torty-tabby). I hope you feel the same.

And the teacup - well! There was a bit of teacup/teapot action to choose from, but in the end I found the opportunity to work with this somewhat bedraggled-looking placemat too fantastic to pass up.

Yes, it was stained, and had a couple of huge holes in it, so there was no way I could use it whole. But crikeys - did it have some potential! And that potential, my friends, was realised with the aid of - yep, you guessed it - vliesofix. Just iron on, cut out, and apply. She's friendly, she is.

I know that when you requested pockets you probably wanted more functional ones than a little embroidered and crocheted teacup-sized one, but seriously - isn't that the cutest thing? I reckon you could probably fit a few $2 coins in it, at the very least. And the "Good Morning" coming out of the cup?? I dare anyone to not feel at least a little bit cheery when they see this skirt.

Posting monday, so you should have them sooooooon! Thank you ever so much - I had a ball. And yes, I will absolutely most definitely be making more skirts after we move to Bega, so if you, or anyone else for that matter wants another one, please do let me know.

x annie

2011-10-03T19:33:00.006+11:00

I've felt kind of self-conscious about "putting a bird on it" since I saw the Portlandia sketch, 'Put a Bird on it'. So true! Not that I've felt self-conscious enough to stop putting birds on things, especially when an overwhelming number of people actually make special requests for bird features. And why not, right? Birds are freaking awesome! They can fly (you tried it lately?)! They build nests (tried that? It's like ultra-craft)! There are so many different kinds! With so many awesome features and characters! And there are so many teatowels with birds on them!

So I still do a lot of bird-related craft, and I still have a whole wall in my house (though it's currently packed up) full of bird paintings and embroideries and wall-vases and ceramics and tiles and nests, though all the while, in the back of my head, is Carrie Brownstein's face with a weird plastered smile saying "put a bird on it!". That's cool man. I'm into self-reflexive irony and laughing at oneself (hard not to when you're a wholefood-eating, organically sustainable lesbian who does craft). No probs. I fully dig it.

Now that I've said all that, however, I need to clarify that it was a total coincidence that the following skirts, all but one of them featuring birds, were all completed and photographed today. Just goes to show that a. birds are cool and b. people still want them even when bird craft is having the piss taken out of it on a pretty mega scale.

So, without further ado and/or complicated rambling, here are said bird skirts.

These Australian birds are heading off to Seattle! A lovely lady called Kelsey ordered them after harbouring a longstanding desire for a P&E of her own ever since she saw the galah on Frocks and Frou Frou.

And these little babies are going to sunny Earlwood. I have an inexpressible feeling of love for the little parrot on the bottom of this skirt who's cleaning his tail.

The totally spectacular and freakishly detailed Indian scene on the blue wrap skirt has several birds in it.

I don't even think I've seen them all. It's one of those designs that's so intricate that you see something new every time you look at it. There's even a peacock!

There aren't many things in life more awesome or cheerful than a colourful seersucker tablecloth, except perhaps a colourful seersucker tablecloth that's been made into a skirt featuring a patch-pocket made out of a teatowel with birds on it.

The teatowel used for this pocket was a little worse for wear, but, like the horsey teatowel, it was deserving of a second life on account of it's beautiful-ness. So, once again, I called on my friend vliesofix, and revived and strengthened ye olde teatowel by ironing it onto some sturdy and fetching 70s curtain fabric.

I then used my pinking shears around the edges, and sewed it on. Lia, of Bayswater WA, this one's for you. Please wash it gently on account of the ancientness of your pocket.

This skirt, featuring some kind of Asian, bamboo-dwelling little chirper, is actually made of wool. Yes, I know that October is a weird time of year to be making a wool skirt, but this lady does live in Tasmania, so I'm guessing she's a got a little time before things really hot up. Also, she requested grey and this was all I had left in my stash.

Besides which, it goes excellently with the bamboo/bird situation, and is lifted and brightened (and therefore cool-spring-ified) by the red vintage buttons and red stitching. Sold yet?

This one is the only non-bird skirt in today's lot but by jingo by crikey (what does that mean?) it is not by any means less exciting for that reason. For one, I'm sending it to Melanie, of Jabiru in t he Northern Territory. NT is somewhere I've never been and is, in my mind, by far the most exotic place in Australia. To me, it seems like it should almost be another planet with all that crazy shit they've got going on up there. So I get excited when I think of this skirt, on Melanie, wandering the streets of Jabiru. Second reason I'm excited about this skirt is that I have had the fabric for forever (2.5 years, to be precise), but have never understood how it would 'work' as a piece of clothing. Enter my friend Nicole, who is beautiful, clever, and very very flash in the creating department. After dinner and a few wines, while rummaging through my fabric, Nicole held up this fabric, wrapped it around herself, and showed me just how awesome it was. The colours! The intricate pattern! The bold black lines!

Melanie, I hope you're feelin' it.

2011-10-02T22:13:00.004+11:00

I figured that the photos on my blog couldn't get much worse, so decided to let Olive take this photo of the bolero I made for a very very lovely, generous and appreciative lady called Jedda.

Jedda, like many other people, loved the bolero I made about a year ago from some freakin' crazy-good vintage fabric. Luckily for her, in my fabric clearing our bonanza I actually came across some more of this divine fabric, so I made her a replica (minus the spotty binding - spotlight had run out grrrrr).

I was so happy to be able to make Jedda this bolero, from the fabric she loves. Furthermore, my heart was warmed by the fact that she values my work so much that she actually paid me $50 instead of $30 for the bolero, having decided, off her own bat, that $30 was way too cheap. I have to admit that, after announcing the bolero sale price of $30 I did suffer a slight pang of regret on account of the fact that boleros actually take longer to make than skirts. But something in my brain tells me that because they're smaller, I should charge less. Don't ask me what that's about...

Anyway, for the most part I didn't mind making a few super-cheap boleros for a few lucky peeps, but boy was it nice to hear someone say that I deserved more, and then to actually cough up and put their money where their mouth is. Divine! Thank you thank you!

The verdict is in...

2011-09-30T11:15:00.001+10:00

"Aaaaaaaannnnnnnniiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I love them ALLLLL and well the horse skirt, super, fabulous, scrumptious, stunning (as are all of them actually!) and again thanks for remembering me on that one. You never cease to amaze me and well I can not wait to receive my extended P&E wardrobe! and also for good measure I love the way you write your blog :) and I feel very privileged with my title.

OK, re payment, very happy to Paypal me, can you email me an invoice or can I just email a payment to your normal email address? Please let me know if I owe you any extra for postage as I know it may have added up etc etc..........

Thank you, thank you, may you continue with such happy sewing..................."

VIP&E

2011-09-29T12:21:00.008+10:00

The bunch of skirts featured here are going to be sent off to Switzerland this afternoon, where they will adorn the bod of my very first (and only) VIP&E, Yolanda. "What," you may ask, "has Ms Yolanda done to afford herself such a glamorous and extravagant title and status?". Well, for starters, she owns more P&E than anyone in the world, other than Pearl. She started off with a greenish skirt and snowballed to dresses, skirts, and more skirts. When the sale was announced, Yolanda promptly up and ordered 4 skirts! And as if that wasn't enough, she said, upon ordering them "I really love the work you do and each skirt / dress I have from you, just feels pretty special whenever I wear them so that is enough for me :)". There is nothing more rewarding, as a crafter/artist/sewing-and-making-person, than a client putting their absolute trust in your ability to make them something they love. Yays-ville!

So, I went to work. I wanted to continue on the trajectory of making "pretty special" clothes for Yolanda, so selected some of my favourite and special pieces, including this vintage embroidered lilly-pad.

I had originally planned to make it a pocket, but I just couldn't get it to sit right (the top of the flower kept sagging down). So after much deliberation, I just decided to make it into a decorative patch. I think it works! I LOVE the contrast in texture between the super-fine, pinstripe wool of the skirt and the quite dimensional, chunky and slightly wonky hand-hewn satin stitch of the flower.

Another favourite is this apron, which has been kicking around for a while now. Aprons and pinafores are something that I usually can't resist picking up at op-shops, in account of the fact that they're BLOODY cute, and usually right next to the linen section (my favourite!). They're a bit hard to do stuff with though, short of cutting them up for pockets, which I do, but this one I was just too attached to, and thought it needed to maintain its integrity. So I came up with something of an experiment, hopefully not stretching the long-ish leash that Yolanda gave me.

I am REALLY happy with it. I think it works because you can see all the gorgeous details of the apron - the fabric, the pocket, the gorgeous binding on the bottom hem - and it's still an apron, in that I didn't cut it at all, and yet it's a skirt which, I reckon, somehow doesn't look too apron-y. You think?

Skirt #3 is made from some lightweight upholstery material that I scored from somewhere or another. I think the print on this is outstanding. For the pocket I used a cute little embroidered serviette. Sweet!

The skirt is gored, which means that there are 4, instead of my regular 3 panels. It's still an A-line (obviously) but it has a little extra kick on account of the seam at the front.

And if that all wasn't cute enough ('cute' is, I think, the keyword for this collection) I also made this next skirt out of a tablecloth that I had actually been planning to use for... well... for covering my table. WHACKY!!! But I thought I'd sew it up and send it to Yolanda instead. (PS. I have no idea why this section of text is underlined. Apologies.)

But I have to say, and I hope you'll agree, that the main event of this collection of 5 is actually the horsey skirt that is pictured at the start of this post.

Way back at the beginning of our clothes-making and wearing relationship, Yolanda had told me that she likes horses. I too, like horses, and like to fantasise about owning a horse one day and taking the kids to school on it. But that's another story... For now, I satisfy my horsey inclinations in fabric form, though this is also difficult given the veritable dearth or horsey linen around. Seriously! In a good 5 years of very solidly collecting, hoarding and obsessing over all the teatowels I can get my hands on, only TWO have come my way featuring horses. As Olive likes to say - What the???

ANYWAY... This really really faded horse teatowel found its way into my collection recently, and I remembered Yolanda's request (she is, after all, a VIP&E). As it was, the horse was a little bit too daggy to use. Faded almost into blankety-blankness, and ripped and torn as well. The solution? cut off the ripped bits to make it pocket-sized, iron it (using good ol' vliesofix) onto another bit of fabric to give it strength, and then embroider the details of the horse to reinvigorate it's freaking adorable little face.

Here is the horsey before and after reinvigoration projects:

Cute eh?I was super-pleased, though I have to say there were moments, while embroidering, when I looked around our half-packed house, at the stack of fabrics set aside for the backlog of custom skirt orders I accumulated thanks to the sale

(if you're waiting on a custom skirt, I swear, it is in one of these fabric bundles. Promise), and thought "why now?". But really, when I look at that horsey on it's red-spotty-plisse, I know it was totally worth it. And now, I await the verdict from my patron...

2011-09-27T21:34:00.004+10:00

This is what I like to see. People so excited to receive their P&E that they put it on immediately, take a photo of themselves on their iphones, then email me the photo with the subject "Couldn't wait to put it on (:".

So, without further ado, here is Annette, wearing her bolero, which Pearl delivered to her today.

Such happiness all round! Annette was not at al bothered by my disregard for her instructions re. the bolero. Nay, she in fact loves Almodovar, and, ergo, primary colours. Perf!

And anyway, it apparently goes with everything enough for her to be able to just whack it on, right then and there at work. I have 2 words for this: Yay, and yay.

2011-09-26T13:10:00.004+10:00

A work-buddy of Pearl's called Annette wanted to take part in the fabulous fabric clear out, and so ordered 2 skirts and a bolero. What champ! She and Pearl are fighting the good fight at the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, meeting and greeting all kinds of famous and glamorous celebrities, so it's important that they look EXCELLENT at all times.

Hopefully some ex-tablecloths and tea-towels featuring fauna and fauna will fit the bill.

Annette will be the recipient of "Galah: Mark 2" featuring the same tea-towel as the skirt I made for Lilly, of Frocks and Frou Frou, a while back. This time, the birdies have been teamed with some grey cord, which I was pretty bloody happy with. I was also in the mood for some stitching and buttoning, so these got a little look in too. I like this kind of detailing because it adds a bit of interest, and is also functional, holding down the top of the little pleat that I sometimes like to add into the front of my skirts, especially the ones with a tea-towel panel.

I generally don't include the "greetings from" bit of the teatowels, just in case the person receiving the skirt has some bad memories of a holiday taken to the place, or some such. But the font on this "Greetings from Nambour" was too great to cut off.

It's a piece of art unto itself!

Skirt number 2 is made from a pretty gorgeous linen tablecloth featuring some Australian wildflowers. It was in immaculate condition, so the linen is really beautiful and textured. Red patch pocket for fun and practicality and to bring out the gorgeous red of the waratahs. I had really wanted to use green spotty binding on the top, but Spotlight were all out! I was disappointed at the time, but after I substituted with the cream and black, decided it was a very very close second.

Now, the bolero. While it doesn't technically fit the briefing Annette provided for me (pale, neutral colours to go with everything) I just couldn't resist using this fabric which I have had for ages, but had forgotten about because it was hiding under the kids' bed.

When I found it, I wanted to use it immediately, and thought it would make a pretty rad bolero. And it does! And it is pale (kind of) and I reckon it will go with lots of things, if not everything.

Also hot off the sewing machine in the last 24 hours, "Lyrebirds: Mark 2".

I love making 2 of the 'same' skirt, because they're never actually the same! This one was for a friend of Pearl's mum's. What a radster! She was keen on the lyrebird skirt I made for Lizzie, and had expressed an interest in venturing into some brighter sartorial territory, so I thought this was a good little segue. The grey cord brings it down a little, but the greens and blues are still there for the appreciatin' and the little button array (again, holding down the pleat) highlights them. Di, I hope you like it!

Last drinks

2011-09-25T11:37:00.002+10:00

So I was sitting on the couch with Pearl this morning, discussing our move, and she's informed me that we're actually moving in three weeks, not four. I was feeling quite comfy about a move in four weeks, but three? That's another story!!

So I'm hereby notifying everyone that I'm only going to be accepting orders for skirts at sale price until midnight tonight! After that, they're back to regular price, otherwise I'm just not going to get them all made before we move. And that would be... well... it'd be crappy. And stressful. And not fun. And seeing as I'm a big fan of fun, I just want to avoid all un-fun-ness.

So tell yer friends that if they want to snavel the cheapest ever handmade bespoke skirt, they only have about 12 hours to order one.

The end.

Happy birthday, beautiful

2011-09-24T21:47:00.006+10:00

"Sheesh!" you may well be saying. "That lady sure is taking it easy for someone with about a bazillion skirt orders to attend to!". It's true. I haven't made a skirt in about 3 days! A rarity in this time of crazy-ass $50 skirt sales which, let me assure you, bring in the orders like ducks to a loaf of semi-stale bread, seagulls to a paper packet of chips and butcher-birds to some newly-weeded earth.

But I have a very good excuse! I have been engaging in some very serious (OK... Maybe not that serious... I seldom am very serious, it's true) and important happy-birthday-wishing business up north where I was celebrating with my exceptionally gorgeous and inspirational friend Jay.

Now, Jay, being extraordinarily talented and charming with a needle and some embroidery thread, regularly dishes up quite the breathtaking present. Each year the gifts get more elaborate and more beautiful, and her stitches just get tinier and neater!

For my birthday this year, she went crazy and made this:

Holy shit, right!? It is incredibly beautiful, and it reminded me (like I need reminding...) that handmade presents make you feel VERY special. And then, as if that wasn't enough, she made this little baby for Pearl.

Miniature embroidered details of plants and flowers, framed to look like photo-booth pictures. Amazing, I tell you!

In addition to being totally out of control fabulous in the craft stakes, Jay is very special to me and my family, so I wanted to make her something a bit spesh too. I figured an embroidered owl swooping through trees was a good place to start so I got to photocopying a swooping owl out of an amazing book called Panorama, which our also-quite-gorgeous-and-special friend Ruth (yes, that Ruth) gave us for christmas. Next up, I traced the owl onto some vliesofix, and ironed it to the wrong side of some spunky grey corduroy.

This seemed like a good idea at the time (can't remember why) but turned out to be one of those things that make your brain hurt because it meant I had to embroider the whole owl backwards, in reverse, and from the wrong side. Sometimes I just don't know what I'm thinking about... But, with a little help from my buddy, princess Olive,

the owl was done, ironed and stitched onto the waiting tree-scene which I made from some Ikea fabric that Ruth gave me for my birthday. What a friendly affair! Finished, the skirt looks like this:

She's hot yeah? And boy does that swooping owl look fetching teamed with an awesome speckledy t-shirt with lovehearted owls on the collar and sleeves. Or, if owl on owl doesn't tickle your fancy, there's always the yellow flying-seagull top.

And can I just say at this juncture how freaking exciting it is to have such a beautiful model filling out my humble creations!

Also on the birthday gift agenda, a hot water bottle cover that I made from scraps of tapestry thread I collected from the op-shop. This was meant to be done for winter (obviously) but took me AGES because the only crochet hook I could find was tiny, and I'm not the fastest crocheting person at the best of times, so luckily for Jay, it was done just in time for summer!

Cold water bottles, here we come!

And, after Jay made some appreciative noises regarding the bird skirt with the mustard pocket that freaking everyone loves, I used the leftovers to make her a bolero. Love that kingfisher sniffing the armpit - yeah!

I also made the hat and skirt that Jay's wearing in this picture. The skirt from some German embroidered wool that my Oma gave me, and the hat from one of my favourite pieces of fabric EVER. The hat was a bit of a "hey why don't we just make one?" moment, which happened after Jay tried on and admired Pearl's hat. I'm not at all accustomed to making hats, and they're usually a tad sub-optimal, but this one was actually OK. But the exercise definitely furnished me with a deep appreciation for more profesh cloth-hat-making enterprises like my favourite, Hyde.

But back to the important stuff...

I love you Jay. It was the most special-est being able to spend your birthday with you, eating deliciousness, dancing like loons in the loungeroom, loving you and hugging and kissing you whenever I bloody-well felt like it! Here's to more of the same, I say.

Poster-girls and happy campers

2011-09-17T19:34:00.003+10:00

"Someone once told me I look like her grandmother's living room exploded on me (which was a compliment, swear.)"

So quoth Ms Amber M Rules (I know! What a name!) of Balmain, my new 4th best friend and Pearl & Elspeth poster girl. What does it take to be a poster girl? Well, when Amber emailed me to order her custom skirts, she told me a little bit about herself. She loves "gingham, spots, plaids, kitschy 1950's stuff like tiki/luau/hibiscus/leaf prints or cowboys/horses/horseshoes, Japanese or Chinese style lotus flowers. And I love bright colours. I aim for super classy 1950's housewife meets Peggy Bundy and Rizzo's lovechild". Cool. But then she said "I love your shiz so much, you could sew me a paperbag and I'd dig it". Anyone who is, or knows a Leo, like me, will know that this is perfectly acceptable commentary. I read this out to Pearl, who said "Wow - that lady was made to wear P&E". So true!

So I was pretty excited to make Amber some "shiz", on account of the fact that we kinda love all the same stuff, and she's not afraid of colour and kitsch. Tick! Tick! Tick!

Here's what I came up with:

The joey pocket with a kangaroo on it was Amber's idea, and boy was it a good one. I love green and pink, so thought a pepperminty stripy lining for the pocket was in order (though it's not visible in the picture - trust me, it's there, and it's a winner). Hibiscus - check! Ex-tablecloth pocket - check! Grandma explosion - check!!

And another tablecloth or 2 here, featuring poncho-on-the-beach lady! I love that she is on a variety of Australiana souvenirs. Nothing says 'Australia' like a lady on a beach wearing a poncho, right?

There wasn't enough of the Queensland tablecloth to do the back as well, so I improvised with some native flowers. Fun times!

In other news, I got some 'happy camper' emails today, which always make me happy. It is VERY nerve-wracking sending out my little creations into the world. I'm a very paranoid kind of person, so I'm constantly worrying about whether my clients are happy... So when I get emails like these ones, I'm pretty chuffed.

"Hi Annie,

Just wanted to let you know that my skirt arrived yesterday...a lovely surprise waiting in my letterbox. Although the weather here is still mostly cool and yesterday was wet and stormy, my new skirt reminded me that spring is just around the corner.Thankyou so much, it's perfect! Are you still offering custom skirts for the same price? If so I will think about what I want and order some more. BTW, just had a look at your blog and I totally agree with your philosophy on clothing and the importance of a connection between maker and buyer, careful use of the earth's resources, etc. I love the way even your packaging is recycled."

That one was from Denise, who got the flowery wrap.

Awwww.. shucks! But wait, there's more!

"Annie! The clothes arrived today and they are fabulous! I was terrified I had measured wrong and that they wouldn't fit but they are perfect, I can't thank you enough... they are wonderful. The linen skirt is amazing, I adore that one. I have a wedding next weekend and it'll be just perfect. I couldn't figure how to post a note on your blog to let everyone know how much I loved them but I really just wanted to thank you for them xx Meg".

Meg was the recipient of the much-coveted linen bird skirt, as well as a few others.

Yay and yay. Thanks so much for letting me know people. It warms my little heart.

And Amber, I hope you are TOTES happy with your skirts!

Free stuff - come 'n geddit!

2011-09-16T11:14:00.007+10:00

I was sorting through some boxes under the house this morning and came across some ye olde P&E stock, which I'm going to give away. Right now. Email me if you want any of these things. They're free, though it would be tops if you could swing ten bucks my way to cover postage and whatnot. Or, if you wanted to buy a custom skirt as part of the crazy-ass moving sale, then I'll just chuck it in for free.

Firstly, I found a bunch of dresses that look like this one (yes, there are stacks of packing boxes in the background. It's how we're rolling at the mo').

I made them as samples about 2 years ago, just to see how they'd sell. I didn't sell a single one. I was flabberghasted, but didn't make any more. I think they're cute! And comfy! They have a stretchy jersey top, and cute vintage skirts with little collar details, vintage buttons

and tie belts.

The red one pictured here got caught out in the rain at the markets, so has some kind of pinko staining on the skirt that's basically unseeable. If you look really closely at the photo you might be able to spot some pinkiness. The waist measures about 34 inches around, but remember they have tie belts so you could probably 'cinch' them if you're that way inclined.

There's also one with this combo of fabrics and buttons.

It's my favourite, and probably if no-one else wants it, I'll keep it for myself (the others will go to the op-shop). It has no stains! Waist measures about 36.5 inches around.

There's also this one,

which measures about 44 inches around. It also has nothing wrong with it.

And last but not least, this one, which is a really gorgeous barkcloth. This one is about 40 inches around.

Oscar bumped me while I was taking the photo, but then I decided to just take one of the fabric anyway, because the design is gorgeous in a way that you just don't see any more. I think it's that combo of geometric whatevers and floral. Rad.

There's also a skirt that looks like this,

which is quite full and beautiful, and has a lacy-edged pocket on the front. It has a 44 inch waist.

And this is pretty much the only kids' skirt P&E has ever made.

It has a whopping 25 inch waist, and is very very cute.

As is this radster 70s butterfly wrap n go, which has a 41 inch waist, but could be worn slightly larger because of the wrap factor.

It has a couple of water marks too, but I am definitely 100% sure they will come out in the wash. Especially if you use napisan or some such.

I'd love these to go to happy, P&E-loving homes, so drop us a line if you fancy any of them. Or I guess you could wait and try your luck at the oppie in a few weeks, though I can guarantee you they won't be free anymore.

handmade: a happy kind of making

2011-09-14T12:50:00.004+10:00

One of the things I LOVE about making custom clothes for people, is that, while I'm sewing, I have some ideas about the person I'm sewing for. I have a sense of their likes and dislikes, their interests, their size, and where they live. So while I'm sewing up their skirt/s and/or bolero/s or whatever, I'm thinking about and imagining what they might be like. It's a connection. And while I have someone in mind - even if my imaginings are completely off-track - I'm feeling great about what I'm sewing, thinking about it going to its new home and being worn and hopefully loved by the recipient. Sometimes, when I'm lucky, people send me photos of themselves at weddings and on holidays, wearing the clothes I made. Sometimes I see my clothes on people in the street. Beautiful!

The good thing about this sale is that I've been CRAZY BUSY 'meeting' new people who have asked me to sew for them. I have really enjoyed this. But at the same time, I've also felt sad because, unfortunately, the vast majority of clothing that is bought, worn and then thrown away when it's no longer 'in' is made without any connection between the maker and wearer. I reckon this is a loss for both ends of the chain, though most obviously for the poor, usually exploited manufacturers who are responsible for making most of the clothes worn by us privileged whiteys. I know, I know, some things are hard to make - like undies! And even if you find some at the op-shop you sometimes might not actually want to wear them. But for most things, a more earth and people friendly option is usually available. Obviously, the op-shop should be your first port of call. Cheap and non-exploitative. What's not to like? But for new stuff, what to do? Well, you could support handmade-in-Australia type situations, like Pearl & Elspeth.

Check out Etsy! So much fun, interesting, imaginative stuff going on. And sure, it's more expensive than Target, but hey, at least the work that's gone into your clothing is being properly appreciated and valued. Surely this is worth something?

For me to make a skirt for fifty bucks is alright. I feel good about that amount of money. I'm not, by any means maintaining some kind of wild profit margin. But I'm lucky, because I love what I do. I love working with interesting fabrics, I love making people interesting clothing that's one-of-a-kind, and I love the connection I feel with the items I sew. When I imagine those people working in sweatshops, churning out probably hundreds of the same item every day, I feel, in my heart, the luxury of my position: I will never have to do that. Why should anyone?

So, to those of you who support, directly, the makers of your clothes - you rock. Like Meg, of Nana Glen, for example. She is the lucky recipient of the much-coveted native bird skirt (seriously Meg - people love it), a yellow wrap n' go, and a couple of boleros.

I had fun making this stuff for her, used up some reclaimed linen, and the money I made will go towards building a passive-solar strawbale home for my family to live in. If that's not a win-win situation, I don't know what is.

The trouble with a loose weave...

2011-09-13T11:32:00.003+10:00

is that no matter how small the stitches are, it will, when you wear it, probably pull through and start to fall apart. Not what you want from a totally beautiful skirt with a bird on it.

A few months ago the lovely Louisa asked me to make her a skirt from a teatowel she had found, which was nothing short of stunning, and some freakishly complementary fabric that she had found somewhere else. I sewed up the skirt, using my usual tea-towel-smack-bang-in-the-front-of-the-a-line skirt pattern mostly because it seemed just too beautiful to cut up. I was slightly apprehensive about the loose nature of the weave on the tea-towel, so selected a short stitch length, overlocked, and then folded over the seams and sewed them down. This sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't.

As you can see, not so successful this time.

Back to the drawing board, which in this case was not so bad, and it has been unanimously agreed that the new skirt is better than the original - phew!

So, what did I do to mend this tremendous error? Well, I made a whole new skirt out of some navy drill I had hanging around.

There wasn't enough of the freakishly complimentary fabric to make another skirt, so it had to be happy as a little feature strip on the side of the front panel.

The bird, we decided, would do well as a little applique, so I ironed it onto some vliesofix (seriously, your best friend when doing anything related to applique) and then stitched it very carefully and very thoroughly onto the front of the skirt.

And then it was done, and I was happy, and Louisa was happy, and I think if the bird wasn't just an illustration of a bird cut out from a teatowel, it would have been happy too.

If you love something, give it away

2011-09-10T20:45:00.006+10:00

You know those people who only have beautiful things? Like, everything in their house is gorgeous and admirable and stylishly arranged and not dusty? Well, I am not one of those people, but my friends, Lizzie and Ness most definitely are. Like, crazy stylish. All their clothes and their stuff and their house and their new bathroom and their hair... all of it. Gorgeous. It's actually kind of nauseating. Especially when they ask me to make clothes for them. The standards!!!! So, what to do when such stylish people ask for some bespokie-dokie? You use the best fabric you can find and you sew very very carefully.

First up, a plaid skirt for Nessie. This is some spunky plaid wool that Jay gave me about a year ago, which I had been planning on using to make myself a skirt for this winter but never got around to it. Anyway, I thought it was perfect for Nessie, and was inspired by the immortal words of Conor Oberst - if you love something, give it away. I admit, I do have a tendency to take music lyrics very seriously, but this one's good! A good one to live by!

So anyway, the fabric's so great that I left the skirt kinda plain - a couple of little pleats and some vintage red buttons and she's done.

Next up, lyrebirds for Lizzie.

Again, Jay is the source of this tea-towel and yes, it's spectacular. Look closely, and you will see fungus sprouting from the tree behind the lyrebird's head. That's the kinda detail money just can't buy. Well, obviously money can buy it, but it's a heck of a lot cooler than money... hopefully you get my drift. I was particularly proud of the detailing on the pocket, lined with a little offcut of lyrebird tail.

Both ladies requested boleros so, again, favourite fabrics were dug out.

The birds... holy crapola, right? They have banners with their names on them!!

And the yellow-breasted sunbird is on the breast! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Geddit? Yes... I really am that immature. Remember the map of Tassie? But seriously, if anyone has any ideas as to why the 'b' in 'breasted' is lower case, give me a hoy. I'm bothered by such irregularities.

Such birds could only be bound by 'fancy' binding, from back in the day when things were actually made in Australia. Crazy shit.

The pink floral tablecloth was a very new arrival, sent by my incredibly thoughtful and diligent linen scout, Claire. What a boon! I was slightly nervous to use it, since Lizzie had specified that "floral does not make her happy" but seriously, it's gorgeous, so I sent her an email to check. Of course, it was OK. She is uber stylish, after all. Come to think of it, there was a lot of calling and texting and emailing going on during the construction of these items. That's how stressed I was. Coz, apart from being crazy gorgeous, these people are my beloved friends, and I want to make them happy!

Brightness is a possibility

2011-09-10T09:19:00.003+10:00

Recently, I got a skirt order from Bec (of Georgie Love fame) requesting that her skirt be "as bright as possible", with a "large overlap so the wind doesn't blow the skirt open to expose her unmentionables". I was excited. Brightness, you see, is one of the reasons I started sewing. At a very young age, I was disappointed not to be able to find Cyndi-Lauper-esque clothes in shops, so my ma and I embarked upon a years-long, ongoing project to create clothing that was "as bright as possible". Yep, I was one of those girls with flouro pink and/or red hair, wearing lots of sequins, faux fur and clothes made out of kids' sheets. Yay! And while I'm not so much into the kids' sheets and sequins any more, I still love a brightly coloured tablecloth or 7, and a multitude of coloured tights, red shoes, electric blue mascara etc etc.

Sooooo... apart from Bec being one of the funnest people to sew for (see this blog post about her top) she's also a woman after my own heart when it comes to brightness.

The fabric I chose for her brighter-than-bright wrap skirt is a totally wowsers floral number that I picked up from Pearl's slightly eccentric Aunty Margot. Now, a great deal of my fabric could be categorised as "not for everyone". This piece though, kind of takes that category to a new level. But I knew it was right for Bec. So, Bec, here's letting you know that brightness is indeed possible. I hope you dig it. Oh, and the overlap flap is made of yellow seersucker. Here's to modesty.

In other brightness news, I had another request from another Georgie Love lady, Sal, to make a skirt for her BFF who is, apparently "sunny" and also into bright. Now, can I just say here that Sal and I have only met in person ONE TIME. At this meeting she, with a little help from DH Lawrence, talked me into buying a very very flash pair of red linen sailor pants made by High Tea With Mrs Woo. The most expensive item of clothing I own. By far. But they look like this, and I love them, so it doesn't matter.

Though I have to say I NEVER wear mine rolled up, but whatever... horses for courses...

Anyway, Sal is tops. She has been super-encouraging and supportive of my little sewing venture and probably, if it weren't for Sal and Georgie Love, P&E would be... well, I'm not sure exactly what, but definitely not as productive, that's for sure. AND she's gorgeous. And funny. And, somewhat unsurprisingly, has a BFF who's sunny and into vintage, colourful, pink, yellow, animals etc.

So the skirt, then, was kind of easy. I picked out my favourite fabric in my collection which, I think, almost fits into the "not for everybody" category, being as it is quite pink and green and red and yellow. To add the animal and vintage element, I used an ex-kids' curtain from the 60s. I know it's from the 60s coz it came out of the bedroom of my friend Jan, who's 53. Her parents hung it when she was a baby. Voila: sunny, colourful, vintage animals. And toys. Fun times, no?

In fact, this skirt is so fun that it actually falls into the category of "wish I made it for myself". Oh and then, after I took the photos of the skirt, I walked inside and saw this flower arrangement that Pearl had made for her birthday

and I thought "crikeys, I wish that was a repeat pattern on some fabric". But it's not, but that's OK because it's in my dining room, right next to my sewing machine so I get to look at it. It reminds me that brightness is not only possible, but also loverly.

Next stop, Bega!

2011-09-07T12:36:00.003+10:00

My beautiful mumma came to visit on monday. She's the one who taught me to sew, so if you're happy with your P&E and you know it, clap your hands for my mumma!

It's a bit of a regular thing we have going on, where she comes and hangs out with the kids while I sew/tidy the house/hang out and, now, pack up our belongings.

She usually brings me some little treat such a chocolate bikkies, some tea-towels or other delightful linen, but this visit brought a very beautiful and special leaving gift, which was made by mum's next-door neighbour, Cindi, who has just started up her own design company called ladmore designs. In what can only be described as crikeys-what-a-small-world quirk, turns out that Cindi also did the logo for my friends Ally and Richard's website, Happy Earth (remember the wren wedding dress?).

But anyway... the gift! How lovely! And so special because it's modeled on something that I think is quite beautiful, in that amazing, utilitarian way - a list of tram/train stops - and personalised to reflect my own journey. Ahhhh. Thanks mumma.

Blue and green should absolutely, definitely be seen

2011-09-05T20:06:00.004+10:00

Whoever came up with the ridiculous adage "blue and green should never be seen" was obviously a moron who had never witnessed the following things: the contrast of May-blue sky sitting right on top of trees and/or grass, a flowering borage, or this lot of P&E skirts I just whipped up. I've been impressed by the number of people requesting blue and green in their skirts, because I totally dig this colour combo, and think that, like pink and red, it's way underrated.

This little baby is a wrap skirt, made from an awesomely gorgeous sheet. Check out the little bluebells!

I thought it fitted the request for "blue, green floral" most perfectly. I used a contrasting sheet for the waist band, just to mix it up a little bit (it's floral with polka-dots. Coolio).

Next blue-and-greenie features a linen kingfisher pocket. If the lady this skirt belongs to loves kingfishers half as much as I do, she'll be stoked, coz he's a cutie.

The pocket on the wrap skirt can present an interesting dilemma. This is why the wrap 'n' go can be awesome as the pockets form part of the design and function (they hold up the waist-tie/belt thing). Awesome. But this little kingfisher detail is a bit of an experiment for me, having never done anything just like it before. I am a fan of the hemline pocket - a bit sneaky, cute and different - and had been thinking that it might be sweet to put one in the curve on the front of a wrap skirt. The lady I made this skirt for requested a bird, so I thought I could add in the kingfisher in the form of a pocket, but didn't want to detract from the pattern on the tablecloth too much. Perfect opportunity for the sneaky-hem-pocket!

This next one was made for my mate Kylie (we did our PhDs together, and I've made her a few clothes over the years). The fabric is, I reckon, pretty spesh, and I've been saving it up for a very special occasion. Like, my own special occasion. But I also thought it would be pretty great for Kylie and now that I've made it into a skirt for her, I'm glad. I think this print is AMAZING. And also glorious. I reckon if you're wearing this skirt, you should feel pretty happy. Not to talk it up too much... But seriously! Those flowers! I love a big print, especially when it involves blue and green... and HOT PINK!

Last, but certainly not least (Pearl reckons it's her favourite of the most recent lot) is a native-bird themed one for a lady who has ordered 2 skirts and 2 boleros! What a champ! I LOVE this print (Pelican! Black swan! Eagle thing! Kingfisher!), and I love that it's on a really chunky, almost raw linen. I'm pretty excited about the other stuff I'm making for her too, so stay tuned.

And can I just say a special thanks to Olive's cubby house bunting for acting as the clothesline for this photo shoot. I daresay there will be a repeat performance as I am generally an astoundingly average photographer and these ones actually look alright.

Not exactly a pet-free household

2011-09-05T19:32:00.003+10:00

Those of you who are cat people will know that cats, for some reason, have an inbuilt radar that can detect non-cat-lovers. When said radar goes off, the cat invariably climbs on/smooches/rubs their face all over the detected non-cat-lover. I find this kind of funny. My cat Bunn, for example is a notoriously un-smoochy cat. That is, of course, unless you are decidedly ambivalent towards cats. Then she turns on the charm.

For this reason, I'm assuming that the skirt she paraded all over this afternoon while I was trying to photograph it, has been made for a non-cat-lover.

The skirt in question was first cab off the rank in the extraordinary avalanche of custom skirt orders that has been steadily heading my way since I announced the grand P&E moving to the country sale. Phew! Who woulda thought? Well, apparently Pearl thought ("yeah, I kinda wondered what you were doing...") but didn't say anything. So now I'm in the thick of it, though achieving my objectives of a: raising a slush fund for the move and b: getting rid of some of my fabric stash so there's less to move. So all's good, really.

And what's more, I'm getting to sew some really fun skirts!

This one, sewn for the lady who may-or-may-not be a cat lover, is a beautiful soft mustardy summer cotton, with a pocket and waistband detail in a sweet little vintage floral print in browns and reds. This fabric has been hanging around FOR AGES. I totally love it, though it was a bit of an annoying size. But perfect for a waistband and pocket. So when my lady said she loved mustards, reds browns and pockets, I knew just what I had to do. I hope she's happy, and not disgusted by the fact that a cat paraded on it.

P&E goes to the country

2011-08-27T20:59:00.006+10:00

Big changes are afoot dear friends! Pearl and I are getting closer to embarking upon our journey towards self-sufficiency, and to celebrate, I'm downsizing my fabric collection. This photo shows le proverbial tip of le proverbial iceberg.

What does this mean for you? Well, it means that for the next 6 weeks or so, all P&E custom skirts are a phenomenally cheap FIFTY BUCKS EACH! Holy crap, right? AND that includes gift certificates that are claimed before the start of October. Seriously folks, tell your friends. We ain't talkin' 'bout no sweatshop-made-exploitative-disposable type clothing here, we're talkin' 'bout handmade-just

-for-you-in-the-coziness-of-my-own-dining-room type clothes. HUGE difference.

Tops and boleros are also looking pretty attractive at $30 each, but let's face it - if you're wearing a P&E, chances are it's a skirt.

The rules? Well, there's basically only one rule, and that is that the skirt has to be made from fabric that's already in my collection. Here's a close-up of some of what you have to choose from. It's all vintage and/or reclaimed and/or repurposed, so you can rest assured that our poor old planet will be shedding no tears on account of your choices (quite frankly, she's got much more depressing things to cry about).

You can give me colour guidance and general preferences, of course - this is your P&E custom skirt we're talking about, after all - but the whole point of the exercise is to get rid of fabric, so NO DENIM REQUESTS PLEASE!

You can place your order by either emailing me (payment by paypal or direct deposit) or through the Georgie Love website (if you want to use a credit card).

Exciting times.

Oh, and I'm pretty much in love with all this caper from some super-cool couple who live in Brooklyn.

What the heck? Do you need to be talented in the red-felt-fox kind of way and live in Brooklyn? But seriously, who needs Brooklyn anyway... I'm off to the country!

Dear Bec

2011-08-24T11:09:00.005+10:00

I finished your top last night! I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I think the olive was an excellent choice!

the fabric I chose for the sleeves is a little beauty that I picked p from repro depot years ago. I love it, but I realise that little ducks aren't everyone's cup of tea, so I've been reluctant to use it. But I knew you'd love it because you are SO FUN to sew for, because you are absolutely not scared of cute and/or kitsch (2 of my favourite things).

I used red bias binding on the inside of the neck, so a little extra flash, and to bring out the little head-scarf worn by the mother duck. I know! A head scarf on a duck! Cute central!

And thank you SO much for sending the remnants of that other fabric, especially the donkeys, which I was absolutely in love with when I sewed your skirt. I can't wait to work with it again... and I think this time I'm going to use it for myself.

Beautiful but dodgy - what to do?

2011-08-23T21:15:00.005+10:00

The trouble with ye olde kids' books, circa 50s, 60s and 70s is that, while the illustrations are sometimes gorgeous and/or irresistably kitsch, the stories at times leave a lot to be desired if you're trying to raise kids who are aware of gender and class difference and independent of extraordinarily gendered representations of nuclear families. (Obviously more contemporary kids' books have these issues too, but for now I'm just talking about the older ones because they are the ones I most commonly find in op shops, and they pretty much invariably have the best illustrations.)

I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for a beautifully-illustrated book, even if the story is more than a little dodgy. So what to do? The answer is... drumroll please... CRAFT!

This evening, while Pearl was at Alfalfa House's management committee meeting, I had a rather hedonistic time eating chocolate, drinking beer, crafting and browsing itunes. Was I in heaven? Pretty much. And I have these cool cards to show for it. Here's how you do it.

Firstly, you get a box of some kind, which you've been diligently saving for just such an occasion. My personal favourites are Ryvitas (amazing with butter and cheese) and Weet Bix (amazing with butter and raw sugar, and can I just say at this juncture that mis-spelling something for the sake of branding is lazy and annoying). I'm pretty sure that other boxes work just as well.

Flatten out your box, and, using your sewing machine, stitch your chosen illustration to the printed side of the box. The book I'm using is called The Mouse's Wedding. I found it in the op shop in Tathra, which was a veritable GOLD MINE of kids' books, both dodgy and otherwise.

Now, cut out the picture, quite close to the stitching, so on one side you have a bit of lovely, unbleached cardboard for you to write your messages of love on, framed by some stitching, and on the other side you have a cute/kitsch/beautiful/nostalgic illustration. Cool! If you're adventurous, and can be bothered changing the thread on your machine, you could use something other than white. This could complement your illustration, and would also make the stitching show up in any photos you might take for your blog.

And now you have a super-cute, one-off, totally recycled, easy to make and awesomely awesome card (or pile of cards) for some people you love. Easy peasy.

And the edges of the boxes make super-duper bookmarks.

The end.

All P&E Georgie Love skirts are now on sale!

2011-08-15T13:00:00.002+10:00

Check 'em out! Because even though it's the end of winter right now (hence bargain prices on wintery woollies), it'll be the start of winter again soon enough, and then you'll be sorted. If you know what I mean...

Bubba the sock bunny

2011-08-15T11:58:00.004+10:00

For my little friend Ilo's 2nd birthday, I decided to make him a sock bunny. Closely related to ye olde sock monkey, the sock bunny is, I think, a bit cuter and more fun, because you can tie bows around its ears. Though I do have to admit that the sock alien, crafted here by my friend Claire, is also quite outstanding, and a hit with baby Oscar.

When I first started making sock bunnies I was making them for EVERYONE. Seriously, I was obsessed. Then I kind of got over it, because everyone I knew already had a sock bunny, so I had to stop. But then people started kids, thereby creating a whole new generation of people who don't already have sock bunnies! Yee har!

Things I like about the sock bunny (or other sock animal, if you're that way inclined and, unlike me, can move beyond single-species sock-crafting):

* You can use your "I-lost-my-partner-somewhere" lonesome socks. Nothing better than giving something a new life.

* The lips!!! They're made from the heel of the sock! Hilarious!!!!

* Every one you make will have a different character, and you won't know the character of the bunny until it's finished. Cool.

* You can tie ribbons on its ears!

* Kids love 'em, though I suspect Ilo was moderately freaked out when he first saw the bunny, he did eventually give it a cuddle and name it Bubba.

* They're easy to sew while you're doing something else, like watching the terrible ending of series 4 of Big Love.

So next time you find a lone sock, make it into a bunny or some such. It's worth it.

handmade love

2011-08-09T13:16:00.008+10:00

As you may have noticed, I love craft. I mean, I really love it. I love sewing, I love embroidery (especially small things that don't take too long), I love cutting stuff up and sticking stuff together. It's cool. And, more importantly, it's fun. The bad thing about loving craft however, and believing wholeheartedly in the joy and love that handmade gifts not only embody, but also create, is birthday season. Yes folks, a close succession of birthdays is enough to strike fear into the very heart of any avid crafter, and I am, at present, in the midst of such terror.

It starts of kind of gently, in June and July, when I make things like home-brew, aprons, photo collages and clove oranges for my grandparents. Smooth and pleasantly-fragranced enough. But come August, things really start to hot up.

First there's my little sister Meg who, being a bit of a P&E fan, usually scores a skirt or something. This year, she was the recipient of a fruit-flavoured bias cut scoop neck dress. It's gorgeous, and she looks hot in it.

Next up is my little baby Olive who, today, turned 5! When she turned 1, I made her a scrap book of her first year. I'd always thought scrap-booking was a tad dorky (and seeing as I am decidedly un-dorky, thought this was not for me).

But let me tell you, it's crazy-fun. And the accessories - oh my! Little paper-cutting knives, shiny stickers, heart and star shaped brads (!)... The bad thing about this is that even though I'm making a home-made present, usually a bit cheaper than a shop-bought do-dad, the budget usually gets a little out of hand because it's all just so exciting. Oh, and it takes AGES. Each year, I tell myself I'm going to start early, or even make a page per month. But I never do. I just cram for the 3 weeks before her birthday, staying up late cutting and glueing and sifting through photos, laughing and crying as I remember all the hilarious things she's said over the year, and thinking about how much she's grown.

It's actually an amazing process, because it's such a focused kind of reflection. It really makes the presentation of the book, on birthday morning, extra-special, as I've spent so much time thinking about how far we've come in the last year. This kind of reflection is, I think, the best thing about birthdays and anniversaries. It's a time to look backwards and forwards and every which way. And if you're hand-making something for the birthday-ee, you really have time to think about them, about your relationship, and how much you love them. And then all the love gets stitched or glued into whatever it is you're making. Awwwww shucks!

So this morning, my little Olive was the proud recipient of a stuffed rocket, made using a pattern from a pretty neat little book called One Metre Wonders, a pair of dragonfly wings made from a curtain we found on the side of the road, the Little Rosie Book #5, complete with embroidered Olive tree on the cover, some books, a tiara, and a unicorn costume (totally crazy, last minute addition found by mum and I at the op-shop yesterday).

After Olive, I take a little breath, but don't dare take a night off, because I know there be no respite 'til the end of September. Between now and then I've got my love of loves, Pearl, one of my bestest and most beautiful friends, Jay (who always sets the bar extremely high in the handcrafted birthday stakes, thereby simultaneously invoking and freaking out my competitive spirit), and both of Jay's kids. Holy smokes!

So let me tell ya, I'm swamped. But secretly loving every minute, because handmaking love is the best of the best.

Square necks a winner

2011-07-07T15:15:00.003+10:00

The last navy/square neck dress was a hit! And I've had requests for more, including this one, for a super-friendly lady who is a biodiversity officer (cool!) and, I believe, an ex-bush-regenerator (even cooler!). She thought some flora/fauna could be in order so as to reflect her interests, hobbies and occupation, so ye olde Australiana tablecloth once again gets a work out, the colours and texture of the linen I think adding a beautiful contrast to the navy broadcloth of the dress. Yippee for biodiversity, both in the world, and on frocks!

The story of a bespoke P&E

2011-05-22T19:24:00.005+10:00

The last couple of days have seen me busily attending to a custom order for a lovely repeat P&E customer. Before I go on, can I just say that repeat customers give me the warm and fuzzies. As if it's not flattering enough that someone wants to buy the things you make, some people like to buy them again! And in Yolanda's case, AGAIN! So thanks. It feels good, and it's fun for me, and you like wearing my clothes, so seems like no losers in this situation.

While I was sewing, I was actually organised enough to take some pictures of my progress, so that I could assemble a bit of a photo essay showing what exactly goes into me making a custom piece for my sweet ol' clients.

Yolanda's order came through Georgie Love, so I first got the heads up from Sal. I then emailed Yolanda direct, to confirm what she wanted: 2 dresses, a wrap 'n go, and a skirt like the black deadwood-inspired one I made a few weeks ago. Okie dokie. Yolanda's dealt with me before, and knows I'm generally trustworthy and fairly familiar with what she's into, so was happy to give me pretty free reign on this order. Super fun times!

Firstly, I set Florence to exactly Yolanda's measurements.

Olive likes to help me with this - I think, after me, she's Florance's biggest fan.

It's my favourite time of year right now, and the days have been spectacular, so I've been working with Florence on our super-lovely verandah. Lucky me, I know...

Yolanda had ordered a dress, so I had a look through my collection of vintage patterns to see if I had anything suitable.

I ended up picking out a 50s pattern with a V neck (one of Yolanda's requests), which I then modified to include an A line skirt (another request). Easy peasy. Now for the fabric. I recently acquired a pretty spesh tablecloth, made from some kind of wacky giant flower print. Actually, it's not really that wacky I guess. Unusual, yes, but very very beautiful. This one for the dress.

Other specs included 'birds, leaves, earthy tones', so I picked out some of them too. Once I have my fabric collected, and I make sure I have enough (especially problematic for dresses as they use up quite large pieces, which are not always easy to come by when you're working with vintage finds) I start to cut out.

When I'm working with a pattern, and I have to say right here that this is a minority of cases as I generally find them good for inspiration but over-complicated to actually use, I use the above method for holding the paper in place. Borrowed from my lovely, talented and inspirational friend Nicole, this method involves the use of cans of food (and jars of sewing oddments) instead of pins, which can and do damage fabric and paper patterns, especially if you're using them over and over.

Now, because my patterns are of various sizes, a fair amount of adjustment goes into making them fit my client exactly. This is where I get serious with my pins, held safely and handily in my trusty wrist-holster-pin-cushion. Yee har! I pin the garment together on Florence, so it fits snugly in all the right places, and hangs just so. I really like this bit, as it's the first time I get to see how the garment is actually going to look.

After she's pinned, I sew it all together on the trusty Combi DX and voila! Frockage complete.

I have to admit I was a little bit pleased with myself when I tried this dress on Florence, and kind of wished I'd made it for myself. It's hot. And matches my kids' bucket and toy truck perfectly. Just what you've always wanted, right?

The second dress featured a square neck, as per Yolanda's request, and is made using a cute little pattern I made a few years ago. It's bias cut, for flattering snug-fitting-ness, and has a little tie belt. If you look here you can see another one I made a few months ago. The style also works well without the belt when you're pregnant, as Pearl found out the summer before Oscar was born.

I'm usually a huge fan of scoop necks (just because I like them for myself and am such an egomaniac I assume that means everyone else likes them too) so was slightly apprehensive about making this one with a square neck, but once Florence had it on, I realised it was right. And cute!

The skirts are also nice, though, given my pleased-ness about the frocks, a little less exciting somehow. I believe that the wrap n' go from fancy crepe-like wool blend in a lovely rusty red, with vintage kind of oriental (bamboo??) bird print pockets is suitably autumnal.

And last but not least, the ruffly Deadwood-inspired pleated black skirt.

And I actually took a photo of the ruffle this time!

Loving the t-blouse

2011-05-12T11:07:00.000+10:00

What do you wear when you need something a little more fancy than a t-shirt, but you don't want to deal with buttons and a collar? A t-blouse!

I first made one of these for Pearl about 5 years ago, an since then have made quite a few for her, myself, and anyone else who asks me nicely. My own t-blouse is so well-worn that it's almost falling to pieces and has rips and holes all over it (ironic, I know, given that I could just make myself another one, but there's so much else to sew! I can't just sit around sewing for myself!!). I really love wearing it with my skinny jeans, as it does an excellent job of covering up the ubiquitous muffin-top associated with such pant items (it is ubiquitous, right??). Sweet!

These little babies I made for my totally HOT and awesome friend Niki. She admired my muffin-disguising top about a year ago, so I made her one of her own. She's a fan, so I made her 2 more. Nothing like a series, right?

They're made from cotton (sheets, tablecloths etc), have cute little cap sleeves (or longer if you, like Pearl, are a fan of being protected from the sun), and are cut on the bias so they have a nice amount of stretch and fit just right, in all the right places. And of course, a lovely scoop neck. Yay! So the key-words here are: flattering, comfy and kinda-smart. Winning combo, yes?

I LOVE that Niki picked the mustard-with-pink-and-purple-flowers tablecloth, as I absolutely adore it. It's going to looks gorgeous on her, and I'm kind of happy it's staying in the family.

What exactly does 'corporate' even mean?

2011-05-02T12:23:00.004+10:00

So it seems that there's quite a gap in the market for the stylish and quirky lady who is unfortunately constrained by the paradigms offered by the 'corporate' work wardrobe. I personally have no idea what 'corporate' dress actually is, though I've always assumed that it basically means plain, kind of boring and usually made up entirely of black, grey and navy. How dressing in this way makes you more 'professional' or hardworking has always escaped my comprehension. As in high school, where I cast aside the bleach-blonde hair, ugg boots and tracksuit that made up my school's 'uniform' in favour of pink dreadlocks and army shorts, in the few jobs I've had where 'corporate' attire was required, I could never resist the temptation for stripy tights and bright red cardigans with holes.

Given this history of mine, I was thrilled to be helping out the drab situation by crafting a pair of lovely, 50s inspired dresses a few months back that were, though black and grey and kind of conservative-looking, also interesting enough to free my ladyclient from the shackles of complete and utter sartorial boredom.

I was commissioned recently to undertake another 'corporate' venture, this time in the form of a pair of skirts, based on the client, Maarinke's current favourite, but with some P&E quirk added to ward off the aforementioned boredom. After some to-ing and fro-ing regarding adjustment of length, and a few hurdles arising from my own lack of comprehension of what a corporate wardrobe is and why it needs to exist in the first place, I was actually pretty happy with the results.

I'm quite partial to a bit of brown, so was happy to team this luscious chocolate with a beautiful vintage tablecloth that's all pinky-red and olive green. An autumnal delight, methinks! I was inspired recently by a skirt my exceedingly talented friend Ness made, which featured a totally hot bit of wide, pink bias-binding around the hem on the inside! Totally interesting and awesome, but not overwhelming for those afraid of flashing too much pink. I thought this would be the perfect touch to the chocolate brown number so added a similar band, which I detailed with 3 rows of gorgeous, deep-red stitching.

The black skirt is slightly influenced by the fact that I've been watching a little too much Deadwood at the moment. Not that it's in any way evocative of the North American frontier of the 1800s, but it does have a teeny-tiny bustle-inspired kind of ruffle thing on the back at the hem. Just a little one. Almost imperceptible. But I know it's there, and I rather like it.

This skirt also has trim made from a vintage tablecloth, though the colours in this one are more of your greens and purples (though of course the sun was shining SO brightly for the first time in about a week that the colour's all but washed from the photos). I also added buttons at the bottom of the pockets (which are lined with the same fabric as the hem and waist trim), just because buttons are cute and I was feeling kind of adventurous. Woo. Radical.

Here comes the rain again

2011-04-12T10:06:00.003+10:00

You know the expression "when it rains it pours"? Well that's how I'm feeling at the moment. Major upheavals in my life are going on right now - major! Exciting and scary and thrilling and daunting. My mind is occupied by about a million different thoughts and emotions, and of course, RIGHT NOW happens to be the time when I get the opportunity to expand P&E to another retailer. I applied for a space at in.cube8r gallery about 6 months ago, and was super-excited to get an email about a week ago saying they had a spot. Of course, I went into overdrive, sewing up a record 10 skirts in 2 days.

When it came to posting them and signing the contract for the space however, I was, for a variety of reasons too intricate and kind of boring to list here, seized with apprehension and pulled out at the last minute. I know, I know - disappointing, a hassle, a pain for the owner of the shop who now has to find someone else to fill the space (though this shouldn't be hard - it's an awesome idea, and looks like a super-fun shop). But when I'm feeling overwhelmed I really just want to stick to the things I know, love and trust, like sitting on the lounge with my love drinking red wine, hugging my best best friend... and sending 10 skirts to Georgie Love!

So yesterday, instead of going to a little shop in Fitzroy, the skirts I sewed started on their journey to a happy place where you can find awesome amounts of gorgeousness.

Features of this batch include a souvenir from the City of Angels (a detour from Australiana, it's true, but irresistible nonetheless).

This lovely grey wool almost inspires me to use the word 'sumptuous'. It was a big piece, so I made a few skirts, including one with a great 70s vegetable soup print pocket.

And one with a grape panel and some vintage buttons. This is a copy of my most favourite skirt I ever made for myself, which has a panel of horsey-print fabric on the front. I wear it ALL THE TIME, almost to the point where you'd think it was the only skirt I actually own. Anyway, it's a gem of a design. I hope the future owner of this little baby is as happy with it as I am.

Given that I seldom make a batch of skirts without a Wrap and Go, I also made this number from an awesome 'wattle' print ex-curtain with some cool, still-life pockets and a corduroy tie.

And a little wrap mini with a kind of coffee, tropical fruits and palms print. Whacky. (And a special thanks to my little photographic assistant, Olive).

There are others too, but it was a really rainy day when I took the photos, so everything looked a bit dark. Keep checking Georgie Love, and they will appear, looking much more glamorous than I'd ever make them appear.

Loveliness

2011-03-29T11:22:00.004+11:00

Pearl and I were both a little bleary-eyed this morning after staying up way too late last night checking out the gorgeous and inspiring blog, Frocks & Frou Frou. What a dazzling gem! Not only is this lady so beautiful that you really don't mind looking at photo after photo of her, but she's so talented in the clothes-wearing and remaking stakes that, in addition to being delicious eye-candy, she's super-inspiring as well! What a delight!

I hadn't looked at it for a while (2 jobs + 2 kids + sewing = not much time for perusing the internet) which is a shame because it's so great, but Lilli emailed me with an enquiry about one of the skirts I just sent to Georgie Love, so I thought I'd check out what she's been up to. What a treat! Pearl was inspired to put together a new outfit involving a Yoshi Jones blouse and P&E skirt that she's had for years, but for some reason had never worn together. Isn't it weird when that happens? Especially when you finally do put them together and they go so well!

I went to work madly planning Pearl's Autumn wardrobe, which is to involve some T-shirt blouses (stay tuned!) and very full, kind of Frida-ish skirts. I cannot wait to get started on these!

I was exceptionally thrilled to see the galah skirt I had made for Lilli a few months back featured in a glorious concoction of an outfit which, quite simply, blew my mind.

Isn't she something else? I have to say I always get a kick out of seeing my skirts out and about in action, on the streets, at gigs, in shops etc. It's nice to see them out there having a happy life. But to see them like this, on the big bad internet, is a bit extra-special. And so great to see the positive comments! Though, seriously, how could a comment not be positive with this kind of thing going on?

Made me realise though, I need to work on my photographing techniques though. Lilli's are incredibly, consistently good. Any tips?

I made it!

2011-03-27T20:52:00.005+11:00

I was seriously disappointed when, on Friday evening, I hadn't made my intended quota of 10 skirts by the end of the week. Then I realised: Saturday and Sunday are called the weekend! While the typical 5-day working week ends Friday pm, the actual week ends Sunday pm. So here I am, sunday evening, after a lovely long lunch with totally gorgeous friends (featuring home-grown Russian red and Tuscan black kale and mystery greens), adding the finishing touches to my 10-skirt package for Georgie Love.

Last night, as Pearl was whipping up a stunning chocolate and pear tart for our lunch today, I was whipping up my final 4.

The 2 linen Australianas are made from a beautiful and quite large tablecloth. While the small square souvenir tablecloth is not super-rare (though less frequently encountered than a tea-towel) one of the stature of this one is basically unheard of. It's the only one I've ever seen - big enough for 2 skirts - yay!

I cut out all these skirts a couple of weeks ago, prior to the skirts I made for Serena of Esperance. I was pretty excited then, to discover that one of the skirts actually had Esperance - and a sheep! - on it!

I reckon this is a massive co-inki-dink, given that I'd barely heard of the place and then within a month I'd made 5 skirts related to the place. Whacky.

The blue white and black skirt was made from an offcut of "ugly or cool?" fabric we found at the op-shop last week. I often have those moments involving clothes and fabric, most often at the op-shop because it's basically the only place I shop, where I ask myself "Is this thing ugly or cool?". Pearl assured me it had "cool potential", so we bought it. I was a little nervous when I found out it was from Ikea (!), but after I'd made up the skirt I was pretty happy with the result. Bold leaf print, 2 front pleats and a cute little applique owl on the butt can't be too far off some version of cool, methinks.

These Kangaroos are Jay's favourites, and perhaps mine too, especially given their close relation to the outstanding koala cushion that graces the large cane chair in our dining room.

I love that the artist of these 2 tea-towels makes his or her native animals look like total dudes. Especially the koalas - they look like they're in a gang! You can practically hear them growling. I LOVE it!

To the future owner of the kangaroo skirt, these dudes have got your back.

Seconds world take 2

2011-03-26T09:42:00.002+11:00

So I have been informed that the email address I posted on my seconds world blog post is actually incorrect. Yes, a lady with a PhD in English literature, who prides herself on being a little particular about matters relating to spelling and grammar (except in instances where I take it upon myself to make up words) has mis-spelt her own email address in the public arena. How embarrassment. Here goes my second attempt:

pearlandelspeth@gmail.com

Email me if you want one of the seconds skirts. They're still around, though the top is gone. If you want one for free, I'll probably give it to you if you send me a chocolate/beer/bottle of wine and promise to hand out some business cards to your friends.

3 more down, 4 more to go

2011-03-23T22:16:00.004+11:00

My quest to send 10 skirts to Georgie Love by the end of this week continues. Last night and today's efforts include 2 Frankies and a totally cool hand-embroidered geometric thing. I was so excited I took Florence outside for a photo shoot.

"Frankies?" I hear you mutter? And well you should! The Frankie is what I like to call the design I first made as a sample to send to the magazine of the same name in an effort to get mentioned therein. I whipped up this little baby,

which just so happened to fit Pearl perfectly, so never made it out of the house. I kept the design, because it's flattering and smart, and good for making skirts that are perfect for a slightly-more-conservative situation where a huge map of Tassie on the front of your skirt isn't necessarily going to cut it. So it's your standard P&E A-line, fits in all the right places, and has snappy, bias-cut (for extra-lovely fit) panels of tea-towel down both sides. Yes, there are 2 panels, though I seem to be struck by an insurmountable impulse to always photograph this skirt from the side, so who'd know what's really going on...

Yes people, that skirt has a glass of red wine on the hip. Just what I've always wanted.

The linen scouts seem to be in overdrive at the moment, so I'm being hit with some overwhelmingly beautiful and pristine (some still have stickers on them!) tea-towels at the mo', perfect for making The Frankie over and over again.

The 3rd skirt is the result of my finally bringing myself to use an amazing tablecloth I've been hanging onto for years. I was quite keen to make something for myself from it, but was struck by a revelation that it's rightful journey ought to spread it's totally unique goodness to climes further afield. I am whoppingly attracted to the hand-stitched geometric pattern on this thing.

However, what's even better than all these intersecting circles and squares and trapezoidal concoctions, is that the person who was making it actually planned to do more! There are, in the background, some ever-so-faint pencil-markings indicating more shapes that the embroiderer wanted to do. Now, maybe I've just spent too long studying modernist literature ("You know, man, art is like, never really finished...") but this, to me, is outstanding.

As I was stitching up the skirt, looking at the pencil lines, I actually felt connected to the person who'd done the embroidery, and was thinking about what the thing would have looked like if they'd done all they wanted to do. So I left them. A relic of the never-ending art-project which is life. Heavy, man.