JenMeister: November 2009

November 13, 2009

Morsbags from tea towels

It's my mum's birthday on Monday, so I decided to include a Morsbag in her gift.

This tea towel has lovely Australian Aboriginal designs printed onto linen. You can see them all when it is unfolded:

It has longer and thinner handle than the traditional Morsbag. The following one was also made from a tea towel salvaged from an op-shop:

I hope everyone's having a great November, things should calm down for me when exam period finishes. I have lots of plans for summer!

November 12, 2009

Here they are, a few days and a wash after I finished them. They seem to be doing well. They're a bit fluffy, but it's early days yet! I'm waiting to see if they mat further by themselves soon, otherwise I'll get the crochet hook out again...

November 7, 2009

Eugene wants a hug!

I finished Eugene last night, so he'll be off to join the everyone else's toys for the Softies for Mirabel drive soon :)

He turned out pretty well, though I had trouble with a few things. I struggled with the face stitching and ended up using small black felt circles for the eyes. I was incapable of sewing the horns on straight, and it took me ages to do the last step where you tuck in the bottom and sew on the legs... but it was worth it!

Related post: Udderly lovely cow for Mirabel

November 6, 2009

My local op-shop and recycling resources in Australia

I have become a bit of a recycling nut of late. I love sifting through the clothes racks, finding something I like, and getting that little thrill when I realise it's in my size.

My favourite op-shop in Canberra in Y's Buys in Kingston. I swear I'm in there several times a week. It's really small and has a high turnover. Also, it's cheap - the clothes are at least half as expensive as the ones that you find, say, at the Salvos in Fyshwick. They know me by sight, as I'm always sifting through the fabric bucket, sewing supplies, teatowels and pillowcases. I also go there to donate Morsbags. I love that they keep so many crafty things... today I picked up a big bag of polyster polyfill, a large wooden hoop for screen-painting, and a bunch of elastic, sewing machine bobbins and safety pins... all for $2!

Here's some of my recent loot...

Random lace, antique ribbon, old buttons... I'm in heaven... I'm always eyeing off their hugs assortment of knitting needles too, but I can easily restrain myself as I don't know how to knit yet!

I also thought the cross-stitched pots on the - what is that? A centerpiece for a table? - are cute. And so much of my summer wardrobe has come from that op-shop. Today I scored the cute singlet top pictured.

On the subject of recycling, Planet Ark runs a fabulous website on how to recycle and/or dispose of things correctly: Recycling Near you. It's got info for every state in Australia, and answers common questions like...

whether you can recycle drinking glasses
how to properly dispose of cooking oils
where old clothes can be dropped off to be made into rags
whether you need to wash jars before recycling them
when events such as kerbside collection and "Big Aussie Swap" parties are taking place

... and much much more! Definitely worth a look.

November 5, 2009

Udderly lovely cow for Mirabel

I'm sure many of you have heard of Pip's annual Softies for Mirabel drive. If you haven't, head over and read about it. It's a worthwhile cause and a good excuse to make a softie!

I completed my fourth-last piece of assessment for the semester today (optimistically worded!), a study of the morals and ethics in a short story by Isabel Allende. Since the essay's in Spanish, I read over it again and again, knowing that no matter how hard I try, there are always mistakes... very frustrating! At least when you're sewing, you can see the mistakes and unpick them... anyway, to cheer myself up I chose a softie to make, settling on Fliss Dodd's pattern: The Udderly lovely cow from Pip's Meet me at Mike's book.

{source}

It's been high on my "to do" list for some time, but I could never decide which fabric to use.

I took the plunge and chose soome fabric and cut out all the pattern pieces. The floral patterned fabric is from my parents' old sheets and the red clay-coloured fabric is from an op-shop. The horns are made out of gorgeous hand-dyed wool felt from winterwood toys, whereas the face & heart are straight acrylic felt.

Stay tuned for the finished product!

If you're thinking of sending in a toy, try and have it in by the 1st of December. They'll be on display for 10 days before being divvied up amongst the kids. Happy crafting!