Hilary's growing frock and spiced mandarins

Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was sunny, but not too hot, and I spent the morning sewing and preserving. What fun!

Preserved mandarin segments in spiced syrup

First up was a dress for Hilary, who needed something to see her through all the gigs she has booked in the lead-up to the birth of her second child.

She was after a simple A-line dress with capped sleeves that she could wear on stage, sometimes over jeans, and then layer up as the weather gets cooler. Oh, and of course the dress needed pockets, as all the best frocks have.

vintage floral pockets

The result is a bias-cut A-line dress, cut extra wide in the front, but with a tie at the back so that it can grow as required, and then be pulled back in once the bubba is born. The brown spotty is the last of a queen size quilt cover I picked up at some stage, that has seen me through quite a lot of sewing projects. I love the irregular polka-dot! The dress has doily cap sleeves (thanks Zara!) and pockets from a vintage floral print. 

doily sleeves and stripey bias binding

Turns out that Hilary and I are exactly the same size, so I got to try the dress on to make sure it was alright. I checked I could fit a pretty big bump in the front (yes!) and then contemplated keeping it for myself, as I very often do when I make something I particularly like for a similar-sized lady. 

Tie at the back to make it just the right size, all through the growing

Once the dress was all done, I set to work preserving some mandarins that came our way recently. Last week sometime we came home to a big bag full of mandarins sitting on our outside table. We had no idea where they came from - there was no note or signal of any kind - but we were grateful nonetheless and immediately ate several each. A few days ago Oscar and I were across the road picking native raspberries (yes! It's that time of year!! I love that we can tell the date by what we're picking and eating off the side of the road) and our neighbour's dad came up and asked us if we'd like more mandarins. Mystery solved and yes please! But what to do with them all? While they are tiny and delicious, there's only so many a family of four can put away. I thought some preserved segments in some kind of sugar syrup would make a pretty great winter dessert teamed with Tilba Jersey cream, so here's what I did:

First up, I sterilised my jars in boiling water. 

While they were boiling away, I peeled the mandarins, getting rid of all the white stuff. That stuff is the pits, though I did force myself to eat it when I was pregnant because apparently it has something good in it... 

Then, I made my sugar syrup, which was about 2 parts sugar to 5 parts water. I added to this a couple of cloves, a star anise and half a cinnamon stick, which I fished out of our chai mix for extra tastiness. 

When the sugar was dissolved I packed the mandarin segments into the jars, poured over the syrup, then closed up the jars and boiled them in a water bath for 20 minutes. 

I haven't tasted any yet (gonna wait 'til fresh mandarins are all gone and I'm hankering for some sweet citrus) but they sure do look purdy.

Still lives

So far, the teatowel-a-thon has been fab! A nice steady flow of orders, getting us ever-closer to our goal of purchasing a sausage cannon, but not enough to make me overwhelmed, and leaving me time to work on my other projects like rag rugs and crocheted stubby holders and the platform for our wood-fired pizza oven. Balanced. Not insane. Just the way I like it.

And I've had some lovely folks making special requests for various teatowel themes for their boleros/cushion-covers/pinafores and frocks, which has prompted me to look quite thoroughly through my collection to take stock of what I have.

After posting the gorgeous still life last week, and finding a few more choice still lives in the rummagings, I thought it might be nice to do a still life themed post.

But what exactly is the plural of 'still life'? I've gone with still lives,  because I kind of like the thought of lives that are still. Not still in a stagnant, non-moving kind of way (no way! Not that!!), but still in a quiet, peaceful kind of way, if that makes sense...

In one of those kind of fortuitous/spooky/funny coincidence things, when I uploaded the photos I took today of a handful of still life teatowels, I also uploaded some photos from this week that are beautiful little still lives of their own. Just hanging out there on the camera, moments that I just found to be beautiful and so took a photo with no particular plan for them. They both feature goings-on from our big outdoor table. Even now, in (almost) the middle of winter, it's so central to our lives, every single day. It's bathed in sun all day, from the moment the sun comes up til the moment it ducks over the western hill, and I'm particularly in love with sitting out there in the sun stitching up the big coiled rag rug I've been working on for.. well... about 2 years. But that's another story.

The table is also our eating-place and our crafting place and a playing place and a place for the kids to climb up to escape from the neighbour's dog who's threatening to steal their bikkies out of their hands. It's where we wash and tie up our bunches of veggies each week before we take them into town to sell to the co-op. It's where we chop up food and do the dishes, and it's where I cut out and sew whatever clothes I'm working on.

And sometimes things look so beautiful on it (sometimes it just looks plain messy) we just have to take a photo. And I guess that action makes the life of our table be still for just a moment.

The still lives of the teatowels, on the other hand, are waiting to be given a new life! They're waiting to be unfolded, to be cut (sorry Kylie!) and re-made and worn by people who are going to the markets and out to see music and to have tea with friends. These still lives are waiting to be made into cushion covers to decorate and soften couches and sleeping nooks, and to see the light of day once more.

So if you like one, let me know! pearlandelspeth@gmail.com

Dear Pump up the Dam supporters...

Thank you all for your patience, and thank you for supporting sun-powered hand-made!

Even though our solar system was actually installed some weeks ago now, we haven't really been able to use it yet on account of an unfortunate incident involving a food processor and an inverter. The problem has been remedied now, however, and I have been in a happy sewing frenzy. In fact, the first lot of Pump up the Dam goodies were posted today, including, but not limited to...

a vintage floral bolero for Meg

A not-too-flared-out rosey-print for Beth

Some classic 70s greens and a couple of lorikeets for Siggy

A 70s bonsai print bark-cloth bolero for Alexis (who is also the recipient of other associated package 4 goodies which refused to be photographed in any constructive kind of way)

A quite-beautiful big flowery teatowel pocket on some navy striped mattress-ticking for Meg

A package number 4, including doily bunting, preserved lemons and gorgeously-gorgeous yellow-y sunny print bolero and skirt (with a deer-print pocket!) for Katherine

And a beautiful pink-and-purple rosey print skirt for Siggy as well.

I had fun, and hope you have fun wearing your goodies. It was nice to get reacquainted with my fabric and teatowel collections. It was nice to sit outside in the evening air, chatting with Pearlie and taking in the view as I pottered along. I felt so happy knowing that I could use my own hands to make these goodies to sell to you kind folks, so that we can buy the little pieces of infrastructure we need to make this tiny-farming adventure of ours a little easier. I felt grateful to all of you for taking a moment to think a little about positive ways to spend your money, so that your hard-earned bucks can go towards a little positive change in the world, and not just line the pockets of a greedy chain-store owner who makes clothes that rip off the makers, consumers and our poor old beleaguered planet.

Thank you all. I feel humbled and honoured to be able to sew like this, just a little, sometimes, when the need and desire arises. I do hope you enjoy wearing your gear.

To those of you still waiting, there is more coming, soon. I promise. We've almost reached our goal, so tell your friends that if they're quick I can still make a couple more packages for this sale of ours. Or, if you're happy with what you get, you can buy one for a friend as a Christmas-time gift. Trust me - it'll be a gift that keeps on giving, and I promise to think of each and every one of you and your lovely skirts every time I don't have to haul water by hand.

You rock.

x annie

PS. I have to say a special in-particular thank you to Katherine for giving me the go-ahead to use yellow. It's not a very commonly-requested colour, but it's one that I absolutely adore. The combination of not-commonly-requested and I-totally-love-it-but-am-kind-of-irrationally-scared-to-wear-it-myself-even-though-I-freaking-love-it means that I have a LOT of very beautiful yellow-toned fabrics that don't get a lot of play. I have to say, Katherine, that I absolutely and positively sewed your package vicariously for myself, and I loved every minute of it. I hope you love it all too. Especially the deer...

Introducing the inaugural Bothy skirt

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

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

Life in the high-tech P&E sewing space

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

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

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

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

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

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

long live the queen

Not really, but we are super-grateful that Australia hasn't gotten over its colonial status enough to drop the queen's birthday long weekend (though a spot of sorry day or invasion day public holiday would be pretty nice too). We're revelling in the fact that we have 3 days to work on our little house, and have called a working bee to celebrate! But that's for tomorrow...

Today, Pearlie cooked and I hung out with the kids and sewed up some matching pyjama/tree-climbing pants for Olive, Taylor and Taylor's doll, Isabella.

These came about after Tay admired Pearlie's almost-falling-apart pair of 70s purple floral PJ pants that I made for her from an awesomely decorated sheet. I promised that as soon as I found a suitable sheet, I'd make some for the girls too. The sheet came along quite soon thereafter (that tends to happen when you're a compulsive op-shopper/fabric hoarder). Fortuitously, it was orange-themed (these girls love their orange) so we were all set to go. I would encourage you all to have a go at making some sheet PJ bottoms. They're fun and beautiful and pretty good for beginners who want to learn how to copy an item of clothing they already own. If you're interested in a tutorial, leave a comment and I'll post some instructions.

After the pants were all done, Oski, Evan and I headed up to the land to try to sort out the major erosion issue that cropped up after the spillway on our dam kind of failed in the rain we had at the beginning of this week. Well, truth be told, the spillway would have been fine had it not been for the fact that a section of the dam wall was actually lower than the spillway. This is not the way it's supposed to be, and what it meant was that as the dam filled (yay!) it actually started to flow over the dam wall, washing out quite a large gully as it went (definitely not yay). Before I worked out what had happened, I thought a wombat had burrowed into the dam wall (that's what it looked like!) but then I had a look at how everything was arranged and realised what had happened. So the first job was to fill in the wombat hole, then build up the dam wall.

 Tomorrow I'll dig out the spillway so it's the right height.
While we were up there I realised, with no small degree of horror, that our water tank was leaking! Just a little drip, coming from where the tap is attached. Unfortunately our giant shifting spanner was too small but a trip to the nursery we got the tank from soon fixed that - the dude there lent me his big wrench!

It was a pretty glorious, productive day (my favourite!) and to celebrate, we all went to look at the house we're about to start minding.

Yep, it's a crazy beautiful old tiny farm cottage nestled at the bottom of Mumbulla Mountain, with outrageous, panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. We're excited.

Dear Michelle

As you know, I was pretty excited to make your skirts. I was so chuffed when you emailed me to order some P&E to cheer you up. How wonderful to cheer people with sewing!

I actually ended up making you 2 skirts, so you can pick which one you like the best, and I will send the other one to Georgie Love, so someone else in need of cheer can snaffle it.

The cool-flavoured one I cut out as a demonstration skirt at a remake and remodel workshop that I ran at the Candelo Town Hall on tuesday night.

It is, of course an ex-tablecloth, but I can tell you that in all my years of collecting and sewing with tablecloths, I have never seen one coloured like this. The pocket is an ex-placemat, courtesy of my little sister Meg, who is an avid rural traveller/op-shopper and extraordinary fabric scout. The red ric-rac around the pocket is, I think, kind of fancy. It's the first time I've done something like that, but I can safely say that it's my New Favourite Thing, especially since I organised my fabric/haberdashery stash and discovered about a billion little bags of it that I've been picking up over the years but never actually using.

The warm-flavoured one is a skirt that I'd cut out a while ago, which had been lost amongst my extensive 'in-progress' pile. I came upon it while I was looking for fabric for your skirt, and when I measured it, just out of interest, I found that it was exactly your size. I shit you not.

I decided that it was providence, so sewed it up for you, adding a birdie pocket as per instructions. The 'Fig parrots on Eriostemon' were leftover from the tablecloth I used for Ally's wedding dress.

I love that the birds and the plant are both identified in such a no-fuss way, almost like you're looking at a text book. A tablecloth text book - now that's something I could look at...

Anyway, let me know which one you like best, and I'll get it in the post to you. I hope the cheering works!

x

Poster-girls and happy campers

"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!

The trouble with a loose weave...

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

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

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.