Feijoa Jelly

When my grandparents retired in the mid-1980s they went to live on a farm in the Bay of Plenty. My poppa is a great lover of native trees and growing things, so instead of using the land to raise animals, a lot of their farm remained as native bush with some areas cleared for growing produce to sell and a couple of paddocks leased to neighbours. They had a large vegetable garden, kiwifruit and passionfruit vines, apple trees and a huge citrus grove. But by far the thing I loved the most was their huge feijoa hedge. Come autumn they would give us boxes of feijoas to gorge ourselves on. Visits to "the farm" meant Nana's feijoa and apple crumble, feijoa sponge pudding and best of all, feijoa jelly.

They have long since sold the farm, so I don't usually have a supply of free feijoas. I have been meaning to try and make feijoa jelly myself, and since the tree I planted in our garden last year only produced three fruit (!) this year, I had even considered buying some feijoas to make jelly. But last week my boss offered me some from his trees.

I used the Edmonds cookbook recipe because I don't have my Nana's recipe but I think it's pretty standard. This post at Laurasaur follows pretty much the same steps that I did. The end result is not quite up to my Nana's standard and is much cloudier than hers, but it sure tastes good and brings back memories. If you have access to a supply of feijoas, I highly recommend it!

An apron dress

Apologies for the unplanned blog break. I haven't been crafting much in the last week - my head cold is still hanging around so I had some more time off work.

I did manage to make it to the wedding of a high school friend on Saturday though and even wore an outfit I had made (first time for me).

I made a silk wrap-halter-apron-dress. I cut a pattern from a top that my step-Mum owns and made a couple of modifications based on some other similar tops I've seen in shops like Max, Principals and Carly Harris.

Here is a not-so-good photo of it, taken late at night, just after I'd finished sewing (I hadn't even trimmed the hanging threads). I wore it to the wedding over a short-sleeved deep v-neck black top with wide-leg black pants. From the back you only really see the skirt part of the dress and it's pretty see-through so you have to wear at least leggings under it.

You may recall that this is my second attempt at a top like this. The first attempt was consigned to the "chuck or restyle" pile. The problem the first time was that I was trying to use a rolled hem on my overlocker (serger) but because I was sewing on the bias, the hem stretched the dress out of shape. This time I went old school and used my sewing machine and did a basic double hem. I think it turned out OK. I can see myself getting a lot of wear out of this top - it looks great worn casually over jeans as well as dressed up.

A spot of thrifting

One of my favourite things to rifle through in an op-shop (thrift store) is the children's books. I often find gems that either I owned as a kid and no longer have, or books that I wished I had owned as a kid. Here are some favourites from last week:

The New Zealand ABC. Each letter includes pictures of uniquely NZ things. My favourite is K. If you look carefully on the cover you might also be able to spot a lamb and a takahe. I think this will be a favourite with visiting littlies.


Horrakapotchkin! A Ready-to-Read book. It's a bit like a school journal, with short fiction and true life stories from NZ authors plus a play or two. I remember reading out loud from this book when I was in J2 at Primary School (I think this is now called Year 2)
And lastly, my favourite of this bunch: the New Zealand girls' book of crafts, pets, sports and hobbies. This one falls squarely in the "I wish I had owned it" category. It was published in 1972 and looks like an early NZ version of the Daring Book for Girls. You can see a bigger version of the index here, but it contains information on (almost) everything a young girl in the 70s might want to know about, from astronomy to codes and ciphers to kites, paper mache, tadpole collecting and so on. I've included a picture of the fabric printing page below.

Stripy Scarf

Wow, it's been almost a week since I last posted. I have been a bit sick with a head cold and also busy at work (don't you hate it when you are too busy to take much time off? I managed a day but I could have done with several days at home.) Despite the fuzzy head, I still managed to get some craft projects finished over the weekend.

Here is my new winter scarf, just in time for the icy weather that has hit in the last week or so.

I think I linked to the pattern in an earlier post, but just in case, this is the one I used. A simple diagonal lace pattern that shows off the variegated yarn nicely. The yarn I used is called Hummingbird Calliope. It still needs another blocking to stop the sides curling in and to get the stripes nice and straight but I'm pleased with how it ended up.

Lucky Dip craft night at Juniper

I spotted this on the Juniper Gallery blog and thought I'd give it a plug to you Wellington people.

I've already booked my spot. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Image "borrowed" from Juniper blog.

Baby Sewing

The winner of the cat giveaway is Jo from Craft Yourself. Please email me your address and I'll post the cat off to you asap.

I had a nice long weekend in Rotorua catching up with family and doing some crafting with my Mum. We tried out a new-to-us super-quick "loop pieced" method for making a patchwork quilt. My youngest brother and his girlfriend are expecting a baby in October so Mum and I were trying out the method in advance so she can make the baby a playmat. It is really simple and quick and could be adapted easily for other shapes or sizes. You can find the instructions here.

Today I was at home with a head-cold but managed to finish off a baby gift for Alex's step-brother and his partner. I made their little girl a couple of pairs of baby shoes and some matching bibs. I redrafted the Bend-the-Rules Sewing bib pattern so that it fastens to one side (a request from another friend I made some bibs for) and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I heart freezer paper stencils

I've seen a lot of great freezer paper stencils around blogland (check out the Flickr pool for inspiration), and had been meaning to give it a go, but it was the video of Amanda from SouleMama demonstrating just how easy it is that finally pushed me to try it. Freezer paper is a bit tricky to get hold of in NZ, but I managed to buy some at a quilting shop. You can also pick it up on TradeMe occasionally.

There are several tutorials out there, but I pretty much followed this one from Angry Chicken. I used FasTex (Fas textile ink), which you can pick up for around $15 for 6 small pots of colour. I tried out the technique using a few basic shapes on calico squares first, thinking that I would rather mess up a calico square than a brand-new baby onesie, but I like them so much I might use them in a doll quilt. The shapes are from a free dingbats font I downloaded a while back (can't find the link just at the moment), but you could draw freehand shapes, or use outlines from books, google images, stencil sites etc.

I also stencilled some merino knit fabric, which I sewed up into a scarf for me. The fantail outline is traced from an old bird-spotting guide I found at the library. I used two layers of soft merino and it is nice and snuggly - just right for the cold weather that has arrived in the last week or so.

I'm really pleased with the results of my stencilling so far, and I can see that this could get addictive! I've already made a list in my notebook of a few other projects I could use this on - tshirts, bags, teatowels, cushions...

It's a long weekend here in New Zealand, as we commemorate ANZAC Day tomorrow. I'm away for the weekend, but I'll be back next week to draw a name for the giveaway.

Thank you and a giveaway

I thought it was about time to have a giveaway, and when I checked my list of posts, I realised that it was my 6-month blogiversary a couple of weeks ago, so what better reason?

Writing this blog has been a lot more enjoyable than I'd expected. Not many of my "real-life" friends are crafty, so I really enjoy the contact I've made with a community of super-talented, inspiring people. I read and appreciate each of your comments, even though I don't always have time to respond to you individually.

So to say thank you, I'd like to host my first giveaway. This sweet little cat has been keeping me company on my sewing table for a couple of weeks, but it's now time for her to go to another home. She is made from new and thrifted cotton, denim and acrylic felt. Her face is embroidered and she is filled with polyfill. She is willing to travel anywhere in the world to her new home.



If you would like to go in the draw, please leave a comment below. I will draw a random number next Monday, May 28th.

Tutorial Roundup - bags

I’ve been thinking about starting a semi-regular post where I share links to my favourite tutorials on other blogs. Hopefully this will serve two purposes – the first is to showcase some of the great free tutorials and patterns I’ve found out there in internet-land, the second is to allow me to easily find my favourite patterns ! Over the next few weeks I’ll focus on a different topic, either sewing or knitting.

So, the first in this series is bags. There are a huge number of great tutorials out there; the following are just some of my favourites:

1. Jordy Bag: When I first got back into sewing in a big way, the thing I started with was bags, specifically the Jordy Bag on Craftster. This is a great, very popular, beginner pattern for a lined square-bottomed bag. There are a lot of variations on Craftster to give you ideas of how to adapt the pattern to make it your own. This pattern can be easily adapted to make a basic tote bag by making it bigger and adding two small handles rather than one long handle.

2. The Wasp Bag (see picture above): one of my favourite patterns. I love the slouchy look of it and the pleats and round bottom mean you can stuff a lot of stuff in this bag! This has become my everyday handbag. The construction method used for this bag is slightly confusing, so I recommend you don’t attempt this pattern if you are a newbie sewer.

3. Triangular Cosmetics Bag: Another Craftster tutorial. I adapted this pattern slightly and made a lot of these for Christmas presents last year. Don’t be put off by the zip – the instructions include lots of pictures to guide you through.

4. One Hour bag: I have yet to make this one, but it looks super-easy and is a nice shape.

5. Hobo Bag: Another one on my to-do list.

6. Skipping/Bucket Bag. Great tutorial from Melissa of Tiny Happy. Another variation of the same shape of bag (slightly more complicated construction) can be found here at LulaLouise.

Many more bag tutorials can be found here on Craftster.

Hope you find these useful. If you have any other favourites, I'd love to hear about them. Happy sewing!

Sewing with knits

I spent a good part of last weekend playing with my new overlocker (serger). I had a quick lesson in the basics (threading and few of the stitches) when I picked it up, but I'm still learning. I got a couple of free lessons included with the purchase of my overlocker, but I don't have a lesson booked for a couple of weeks, so in the meantime I'm teaching myself/fumbling along.

The first project I made was a disaster and has been consigned to the "chuck or remake into something else" pile for now - I attempted an apron top with a rolled hem edge, based on a top I already own. It was a bit ambitious for a first project, and the silk fabric I chose was too lightweight so the cowl neck doesn't sit quite right. I may try the pattern again with a heavier fabric, but I decided to move away from rolled hems on slippery fabrics to something more suitable for a first project...

Here is my first (of many I suspect), long-sleeved merino knit top:

I had been scared of sewing knits up until now, as I always ended up with wavy seams when I used my ordinary (but quite old) sewing machine. But the overlocker makes it so easy to do side-seams in one go. And the differential feed means the seams are flat and not wavy! Hallelujah - a whole new world of sewing knits has been opened up for me.

I used some fine merino knit that I picked up from Fabric Warehouse for $18 a metre. I think I used about a metre of fabric in total. I cut the pattern off an existing merino top. Around the neck I used some stretchy binding that is made specifically for knits. The lady in the Fabric Warehouse assured me that it was easy to use, but I had trouble getting it to sit properly on the hem and sleeves and ended up unpicking it and adding bands instead. For some reason the binding looked much better on the neck. Next time I might try and experiment with hemming the bottom seam on my sewing machine.

The fit is pretty good, given that I am no pattern-making expert. It fits a smidgen more snugly than I wanted however, because I made the fatal error of forgetting to include the width of the overlocker hem (7mm) in my calculations, so I added a 12mm seam allowance and then cut all of it off when I did the seams (I should have only cut off 5mm). Whoops. But it still fits at least, and I needed a fitted warm top to wear under short-sleeved tops anyway (I like how I can justify my stuff-up!).

I can see myself making a few merino tops; maybe a wrap cardigan style (an adult-sized long-sleeved version of this from Tiny Happy perhaps) or adding some embellishments, like a freezer paper stencil (I really like this one that Jessicah at Spinning a Yarn made).

In addition to the merino top, I also had a practice at re-styling some baggy tshirts to make them more fitted. Also a lot of fun, but more on that later.

Edited to add:
A couple of people have asked me about the stretchy binding I used. It is called Foldover Elastic Binding. It's about an inch wide with a thin piece along the middle that allows you to fold it in half easily. One side is matte, the other side is shiny. It is the same stuff that is used to bind the necks of some merino tops you can buy from places like Max. From some google searches, it looks like the same stuff is often used on home-made cloth nappies to bind the legs.

I had trouble getting the seam to lay flat. I was applying the binding in one step with a straight stitch, catching the front and back at the same time and using lots of pins - I think I was stretching the seam too much as I sewed. I have since found some tutorials online that say to apply the binding to the back using a zigzag first and then fold it in half and straight stitch the top. That might give a better finish - I will do some experimenting.