Upcycling Pillowcases

As a fundraising stall for the school's fair this year, a group of enterprising parents has proposed an Upcycled Clothing Stall.  This entails taking a piece of clothing or manchester that is no longer used in its present form, and modifying it to make it wearable again, or cutting it up and making something else entirely.  A good friend of mine has dabbled in making children's clothes from pillowcases (thanks for the inspiration, Lib) and I decided to have a go and make a prototype for the clothing stall.  I based my dress on the tutorial found on this blog:

 http://vintagesheets.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/smocked-pillowcase-dress-tutorial.html

I started with a vintage pillowcase that doesn't match any other sheets in the house, and never gets used.  Miraculously, 2 rolls of thread in my collection matched the fabric - how often does that happen?!?


 

Vintage pillowcase

Vintage sewing machine

2 spools of matching thread!  I chose green.

I proceeded to follow the instructions on the above blog.  Since my model for the dress is a tall 7yo, I only cut the minimum of 2.5inches from the sealed end.  It makes me think that a cutting board and rotary would be OH SO NICE instead of the old fashioned method I used.  But then the old fashioned method goes rather nicely with the old fashioned sewing machine, does it not?!?

The first cut

A short household survey on the topic of shirred dresses revealed that they MUST NOT be itchy.  The itchyness arises from the shirring elastic being next to the skin.  SO I did 2 bands of 5 rows of shirring at what will be the top of the dress, with a 2cm gap in between the bands.  I then folded the top band over to the inside to make a facing.  So the shirring elastic is now hidden in its own little bit of facing.  Problem solvered, as the add says.
I quickly realized that my next problem was that a single pillowcase does not make a long enough dress for a tall 7yo.  Oops.  Should have measured that at the start!  So I grabbed a plain pink pillowcase from my Upcycling Box, and to my delight, it was slightly wider than the patterned one.  Why is this so exciting, you might ask?  Because it meant I could gather it and have a little ruffle going on at the join.

Dress extension

I joined it on, and then, just to be a smartypants, I made the shoulder straps from the pink as well, thus making it seem like a 2-toned dress was the plan all along.  Tada!

My beautiful model

What I have learnt from this project is to (1) always measure first!!!!
(2) Pillowcases would make a suitable length dress for a 3-5yo, or a top (with shirring at the waist also to bring it in a bit) for an older girl.
(3) Upcycling is fun and very satisfying.

The Juice Fountain

Grandad's Apple Tree

Carrots to last a month at least

                                                                       I have borrowed a juice fountain from some good friends of mine (thanks H&G!).  The name Juice Fountain generated an image in my mind of putting fruit and vegetables in the top and seeing a lovely arc of juice flowing from the spout into my waiting glass.  BUT NO.  This juicer is not for wimps.  This juicer kicks serious butt.  This juicer is a monster.......devouring whole carrots and apples in a few spins of its ferocious spinning blade.

The monster.......

50/50 Carrot and Apple juice

      The resulting juice is delicious.  I never knew carrots could taste so good!  And I am amazed at how sweet pure apple juice is - almost sickeningly so.
My favourite mix so far is 60/40 carrot/apple, with a 2cm cubed piece of ginger and one stick of celery.  I also like orange juice (although I learned the hard way that putting the whole orange in produces a bitter juice, although it's very impressive watching the juicer demolish the oranges).
My initial motives for juicing were to (1) get more vegetable nutrients into the stomachs of the smaller members of the house, (2) increase my energy levels.  Partial success on the first front - Keith likes anything with apple in it, but Nicole hates the lot so far.  Great success on the second front - for the first time in a while, I don't feel the need to have a rest after lunchtime every day.

Carrot pulp in the chicken's feed bowl

The chickens were offered the leftover pulp generated by the juicing process but they declined to eat it.  Oh well.  That's the price we pay for living in a democracy - you can't please everybody all of the time ;)
 

The Photo on the Rock

On the rock at Mt Barker Summit.   The birdies and teddies that Kate is carrying are to represent Sophie.

Grass Trees

 ANZAC Day has different meanings to different people.

On ANZAC Day, Australians and New Zealanders think about the fact that many people have gone to war to preserve the freedom that we now enjoy in our countries.  In particular, we may think about family members who fought and possibly died, not only in WWI, but in any armed conflict since that time.  I think about both my Grandfathers, who fought in WWII and survived into their 80's.

ANZAC Day is also a day that Ben and I met.  On ANZAC day in 2000, I hosted a BBQ at home, and a couple I knew asked if their friend Ben could attend.  Sure, I thought, why not.  Ben arrived at the front door, spluttering about our mutual friends running late.  I found out later that he'd waited out in the car for some time, cursing their name for not arriving to accompany him into the house. A little over 2 months later, we started dating.  On ANZAC Day the following year, we became engaged.  Every ANZAC Day since then, we climb Mt Barker Summit and pose on the same rock for a photograph to mark the passage of another year.
As we look back over the years, we marvel at the sprawl of the Mt Barker township, which can be seen in the background behind us.  The amount of rainfall over the summer preceding each photo can be seen by the state of the flora on the mountain.  This year we had good rain.  Lots of flowers.  I can also report that the millipede population is still very healthy on the mountain (beats me why they want to live somewhere so cold).
This year was also a sad year for the photo on the rock.  If Sophie had lived, this would have been her first year in the picture (technically she was in last year's photo, but quite small in my tummy).  In the photo she is represented by the birdies (which have become a symbol for her life) and the teddies we were given at her birth.  I have also recently started redistributing all the baby paraphernalia that we were given for Sophie, and while this is also tinged with sadness, it is also liberating in a way, allowing me(us) to move on to the next phase of our lives, with our other wonderful children being more independent and able to enjoy camping, cycling, and various other activities with us.

2011

2011.  Unusually warm, as you can see by our clothes.

2010

2010.  The Ned Kelly look is in this year.  The beard started at Easter time 2 months earlier out of laziness, and I liked it so much I asked Ben to keep the beard.  So he did.  What a great guy I married :)

2009

2009 was so rainy and windy that we had to huddle behind the monument and hope we didn't get blown over.  We didn't dare leave the camera alone to take a photo on the timer.

2008

I say, look at that clean-shaven face.  He hasn't aged at all since last year, has he?!?

2007

Ah yes, I remember that phase.  2 kids in nappies.  Yeeha.







And that's as far back as our electronic photo records go.  I'll have to dig deeper to find the previous years.  Stay tuned!

Garden Pizza

I always struggle with the same issue when making pizzas at home - how do I get all the ingredients on it without making it so tall that it won't fit in my mouth?

All the vegetables you see (except the mushroom) came from either our garden or my parents' garden - they kindly went on holidays recently, allowing us to harvest all their veggies.

The pizza base is not covered simply in tomato sauce, it is in fact tomato puree covering up basil pesto.  (Foolish me though that the kids wouldn't notice the pesto if it was disguised with tomato paste).  Then there is roasted capsicums, silverbeet, mushroom and fresh tomatoes.  To appease the carnivores in the house, some bacon and a generous topping of mozzarella was added.  I would have loved to have added anchovies and olives too, but unfortunately the height of the pizza was getting out of control.

Sadly the younger members of the household did not appreciate the wealth of goodness contained in the "Garden Pizza", but to their credit, they did pick all the bacon and cheese off and eat that.  They refused to eat the pizza base because it had "green stuff" on it.   Note to self - use thicker layer of tomato-puree-camouflage next time....

I read in a parenting pamphlet on fussy eating that you need to offer a new food up to 15 times before a child will accept it and eat it.  Riiiiiiight.  This is #1 for Garden Pizza.  All the more for me if they don't like it :)

Introducing the Green Clover Nest Blog

Welcome to The Green Clover Nest blog.

I hope you enjoy this format of catching up on what's going on in our lives.  Thank you to my faithful blogger friends who have assured me that blogging is safe, and a great way to communicate with friends and family who are far away.

1982 Home Economics

 The information about the grain is still current.  I guess grain hasn't changed much in the last 30 years.  Only I have.  I used to crave white bread when sandwiches in my school lunchbox were always multigrain.  Now my kids beg me for white bread.  "I don't want that bread with the bits in it, Mummy".  I'm amused that it's taken me so many years to get to the point where I really care about what food goes into my body.  I hope my kids don't take the same amount of time.  The body becomes less forgiving as one gets older doesn't it.