The tarted up shopping bag

I've discovered frozen yoghurt, eleventy million years later than everyone else, but it's the ideal low calorie snack, isn't it? Fat free strawberry yoghurt and fresh strawberries/raspberries. Lush! It also took me forever to catch on to the idea of overnight oats, but I love those too. I especially like the idea of making your breakfast the evening before. So when you're waking up, all bleary eyed and yawning, all you have to do is take a bowl out of the fridge and grab a spoon.

Speaking of being bleary eyed, I woke up stupidly early today and couldn't for the life of me get back to sleep. Ended up doing laundry at about 5.30am and hanging it out on the line before the rest of the neighbourhood had even opened their curtains. A good job too as by mid morning the heavens opened and we had thunder, lightning and a drenching downpour. All needed for the garden, so can't complain.

This afternoon I was watching old episodes of 'The Great British Sewing Bee'. I haven't bothered with the current series as it's all got too formulaic and the programme just serves as a vehicle for whatever comedian's fronting it. But I enjoyed the original format, and it's got me itching to try dressmaking. I'm thinking of buying the Tilly & the Buttons 'Stevie' pattern as I fancy making a simple tunic / dress. Something that's roomy, sleeveless and has pockets. The 'Stevie' is the nearest pattern I've seen to what I want, and it looks straightforward, even for a total novice dressmaker like me.

In the meantime, I finished adding patchwork pieces to a cotton shopping bag that'd seen better days, and which I decided to cover all over in a random design. It was just a plain cream coloured bag, the sort of thing we've all got tucked away in the bottom of a handbag or in a kitchen drawer.

I covered both sides of the bag and also the handles, which had got very tatty and discoloured.

And - because I know you're curious - here's the inside of the bag. All the stitching on show.

The idea is to keep patching up the bag as and when it's needed, and keep adding quilting lines, kind of in a boro fashion. Making do and mending, giving the humble cotton shopping bag a whole new life.

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Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

In praise of wool

Just a quick post today. I'm offering you a short but peaceful break from the overwhelmingness (is that a word?) of Christmas. By now you've probably eaten your bodyweight in sweets//roast potatoes/pigs in blankets/cake/After Eights ... whatever your festive indulgences are. You're under-exericsed, over-stimulated, feeling broke and possibly guilty about an argument with a relative or friend you've never entirely got on with. So, here's something to take your mind off all that. I've two videos to refresh and revive, and they both concern wool. Interesting fact. Well, I found it interesting. About 1% - yup, one per cent - of the world's textiles are made of wool. Out of curiosity, I also googled how much is made of cotton. That's higher, but it's only about 24% and that's heading downward instead of up. Synthetic fibres are the bulk of all textile manufacture. Anyway, back to woolly wonders. My firs...

Another week's flown by ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days. Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden. The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram. I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them. This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory. It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them. Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....

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