Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Bean Bags

Teaching Japanese this year, I wanted to promote this relatively new subject with an all grades cultural festival day. I had been planning it for term two, but the deputy organised for a group of Japanese students to visit the school in the last week of term one and asked me to move it forward. 

So I did. With Japanese students here, it made sense to make it a mixed Australian and Japanese cultural day. This worked well, because it meant that for a first time event, teachers weren't being asked to do completely new things all day, but a mix of things they were familiar with and other new things. 

Anyway, one of the activities I have planned is a Japanese game called γŸγΎγ„γ‚Œ (tamaire) which translates as "ball in". It's a game where you have a basket on a pole and then the kids throw bean bags in. The team with the most bean bags (or the team that does it in the shortest amount of time) is the winner. You need roughly 100 bean bags per team, so I asked the sports teacher how many we had. 

She said we had about 25 without holes in them, so I asked if we could order more. I was relieved that she ordered them early, because I'm an organised person and it makes sense to me to have everything ready to go three weeks in advance. I was less relieved when she told me she'd ordered 50. This was a fair bit short of the minimum of 100 I had said we needed, but unfortunately those 50 bean bags had cost $400, so there was no way to order more and still have any money left for the rest of the year. 

What is one to do, but solve the problem with sewing. 

I looked through the material I had in my stash for something sturdy enough to become bean bags and found two of the blue stripe curtains that I'd made when we first moved into the house. You can read about them here if you are really interested. These were not in use anymore, so I figured they would make great bean bags. 

Cutting them out was incredibly satisfying, because I could snip and rip. I watched/listened to the Emma miniseries while I did it and ended up with 240 squares of fabric to make into 120 bean bags. It took somewhat less time than I anticipated to actually sew the bean bags, and I did bother to snip the corners to make turning them out easier. 

Both girls helped me to turn the bean bags, and I did a huge chunk of them in church listening to the sermon one Sunday morning. Then I came home and filled each one with 80grams of rice which happened to be on special at Coles that week, making it the most cost effective thing to fill them with. 

Ten hours of work and $20 in materials (only the rice, since the material was recycled), and I'd estimate that these would have cost $300, which is considerably cheeper than the 50 we ordered for school. Mine are also environmentally friendly, since both the cotton fabric and rice inside will compost when we are done with them. 

Not a bad effort for one weekend and now, I can rest easy knowing the bean bag toss station on the cultural festival day has more than enough bean bags to function as it should.  

Friday, February 16, 2024

Garden Bed

This post is nearly six months old at this point, but why wait when you can catch up now? When we planted the front gardens, we just had two trees in the front right in the lawn. You can see them pre-fence here. Unfortunately we discovered that having two trees sitting in the lawn (albeit in their neat cubes of garden mulch) were annoying to mow around right next to the fence.

Steve and I kicked around the idea of a garden bed along the front, with the two trees from the sides encased in it. I think we had been talking about it back and forth for at least four months, when suddenly we were kicked into gear last October and decided to build the garden bed out. We had some leftover hard wood fence palings that we figured we would repurpose into garden bed edging. 

Thinking to kill two birds with one stone, we ordered some top soil for the nature strip out the front, thinking that when we dug up the Sir Walter grass to make way for the garden bed, we would be able to replant it out on the nature strip. The whole nature strip was so weedy post-renovation and not at all level, so having a good amount of top soil would help things immensely. Unfortunately, the dirt arrived a whole week ahead of schedule, so we had to do a bit of a rush job with the grass transfer. The girls loved playing in the dirt pile though. 

Anyway, we did manage to get the new garden bed boxed in and ready for some plants. We want to keep it pretty simple out there, but it is prime real estate for growing things, so I have been getting a little carried away. 

Initially I just planted flowers and ground cover (herbs and pig face), but I got a stack of free seeds from school and decided Rachel needed a job one afternoon. It was a very hot October when we planted them, and I honestly thought nothing would grow (way past the recommended planting time), but suddenly we had spinach, beans, chilli and coriander growing in full force. I was so surprised at the coriander, since I've never been able to grow it from seed before. 

We also had a stack of tomato plants pop up from the compost (as well as pumpkins, but I've pulled them out since it's really not the place for them), and a random cucumber plant. It's been a very fruitful garden all up. Always so wonderful to eat your own salad at the end of the day. 





Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Bright Orange Jumpsuit

Otherwise entitled one of the most re-purpose-able custom-made costumes I've ever made. Let me explain. 

The saga of making costumes for Steve's work Christmas party of 2023 continues here with the final instalment; my costume. I was going as Chell from Portal. Her costume over the two games (Portal and Portal 2) does not change much and is essentially an orange jumpsuit. I had already made her Companion Cube (since that was way easier to sew than a Portal Gun). 

Image from Wikipedia

Given the heat of the Australian summer, I decided I'd be going for more of a Portal 2 look, so then I could have the jumpsuit top tied around my waist, rather than have to wear long sleeves. I grabbed the Heath Jumpsuit Pattern from Mood Fabrics and went to town on it. 

The colour of the orange in the photos varies depending on the light (below is a "sewing at night" shot). It was pretty bright orange, but I actually loved it. 

Aperture Science Logo

I added lots of pockets, all trimmed with some faux white piping to match the reference images. The waistband got a bit of hacking to get the colour change from white at the back to orange at the front. I lengthened the sleeves and added tabs and buttons for when they get rolled up and the legs got tabs and buttons too. The only real "detail" that I left out was the line of white piping around the lower chest. It was just too fiddly and specific to bother putting in. 

I did work hard on the Aperture Science logo which goes on the back, since I figured that was the most recognisable part. And I lined the bodice with white (I think a bedsheet?) because that's what shows when you look at the reference images. I'm nothing if not accurate... or trying to be anyway. Biggest change to the pattern was the buttons down the front to a zip, and an invisible one at that! 

Have to say, I was pretty darn happy with the result, even if the party day was so freaking hot. And, the more I think about it, the more re-wearable this orange jumpsuit is. Naruto anyone? Or any of the "Orange is the New Black" characters (not that I've ever seen it, but you never know). Also the Guardians of the Galaxy all wear orange jumpsuits in prison. 

Honestly though, this jumpsuit is super comfy, so I can see myself using the pattern to make stuff I can wear all the time that's not bright orange. My only take away is that my arms are kinda too buff for the rolled up sleeves. It was hilarious. I can get my arms in fine, but when I went to roll up the sleeves, the extra fabric was quite tight on my biceps. I'm thinking the next jumpsuit will just have short sleeves, to be on the safe side.

Monday, February 12, 2024

Companion Cube

So knowing I was going to go to Steve's work Christmas party (not going to happen every year, but this was year one, so I was keen to at least put some names to faces) I wanted to make a good impression with the costume. Again, I had costumes that would have worked, but they were all TV related. Steve's work literally has "game" in the company name, so I wanted to show my commitment. 

Steve's character, Guybrush Threepwood does have a pretty epic boss girlfriend in the game, who I was interested in being, but in the end, I felt like I would be an imposter to be dressed as someone from a game I haven't played at all. That left me with very few characters I could actually be. The two games I've played the most (aside from Tetris), are Plants Vs Zombies and Portal. I was uninspired by the Plants Vs Zombies idea, but being the main character from Portal seemed like a good choice, and would mean I could make accessories. 

So I made my accessory first. Because why not? Also, I figured that the Companion Cube would be the most recognizable thing I could have to make it obvious as to who I was, or at least, what game I was from. 

This Companion Cube was made from some fleece that I bought from Spotlight for this project. Even though I don't love the thought of just buying fabric for something that might only be single use, I did know that making it out of soft fabric would pretty much guarantee a long and happy life. Spoilers: I was right, but more on that later. 

I read through a couple of blog posts from people who have attempted a Companion Cube in the past, and looked at pictures of the cube for reference, then just drew my own pattern and got to sewing. Pink hearts went onto grey circles and then all the pieces (pink stripes, grey corners and grey/pink heart circle) went onto the dark grey. After each side of the cube was done, I sewed them together and added the grey patches over the edges. Stuffed the whole thing with leftover stuffing and two old pillows. 

It was possibly the most outrageous thing to turn up to the Christmas Party lunch with, but it was a good conversation starter and nice to lean against when I was tired. 

The Companion Cube was fun to have at home for a week after but also kind of impractical, so I took it apart and made three cushions for the lounge room instead. These are going to live long and happy lives.


Sunday, February 11, 2024

Guybrush Threepwood

Though I ended last year and started this year with good intentions for regular blogging, I again find myself with a set of posts that are now at least two months out of date. Alas. Still, aside from potentially being hard to find when I need to look back for them, it's not like it's a real problem, so on with the blogging! 

Steve started a new job at the end of last year, and their Christmas party turned out to be a dress up/costume type event. Sounds like they had a pretty hard core group of cos-players/LARP-ers at one stage, so the standard was pretty high, which to me, was just music to my ears. For 2023, the theme was a pretty broad "games and tv" (I guess they were branching out from their usual "games"). 

I did have a fair few already made costumes that we could have chosen from, but given that this was Steve's first Christmas party with the company, I wanted to make a good impression. Steve had just started playing through Secret of Monkey Island and requested to go as Guybrush Threepwood. 

Guybrush Threepwood image from here.

Guybrush Threepwood does journey through Monkey Island to become a pretty swager-full pirate (see here), but for so many reasons (time crunch, money for the costume, knowing this may not be worn again and not wanting to contribute to the growing "single use" problem the world has, not to mention the freaking hot Australian summer that was in full swing), we went with one of the early versions of a Guybrush costume. 

Steve already had a pirate white shirt that I made way back in 2005 or 2006, and a pair of gray pants from his kung fu days. The red sash was in the dress ups from who knows where, so all he needed was a pair of long white socks (thanks Big W) and a brown vest. 

I whipped up the vest out of an old bed sheet one night in an hour and I think he looks pretty great. Too bad we didn't commit to a blonde wig, but even that light cotton costume was so hot on party day. Stay tuned to find out what I did for my costume!


Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Library Mural: Part 2

The second installment of the school library mural! This was completed with a bunch of parents who had time on the holidays in the first week of January. We had a stack of kids come and just hang out with us too while we completed the next panel. 

The first part we did in the September holidays last year. This second part of the mural continued the lorikeets and native flowers around to another wall. This banksia flower below was done by a student who graduated grade 6 last year! I also let my girls help by allowing them to paint some of the background blue between the leaves (after I cut it in of course). 

We got more creative with the design as we went, and also updated the first part with an upgrade to the wattle blossoms and the grevillea. I think there is more we could add, and the leaves behind our original lorikeet still need to be continued over onto the next wall, but after two solid days of painting, we were all a bit done and just had to call it. Maybe next holidays we will do some additions and finish the final panel (the wall to the left of the original - biggest one yet)

Even though it was fun to paint, I think the best unexpected bonus of this mural is that now it makes it really easy to tell people where P&C meetings are - head to the building with the lorikeets! :D

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Housewife 2.0

My very handy housewife has been traveling around with me for all the sewing for over a year now and I honestly love it so much. It's incredibly convenient to throw into a bag with whatever sewing project I have on my way out the door. Often I'm just using the un-picker, but man, is it so great to have the whole lot there. 

It came to my attention sometime in 2023, possibly term 4, as I lost a button on a jumpsuit I was wearing at work, that really, having a housewife is great if you know you are going to sew something. Equally as great to just have on hand if you are out and about and, like me, find yourself in a bit of a fashion emergency. 

I suppose the easy option would be just to pack my existing housewife in my work bag. It would certainly solve the problem, but as I only work part time, I felt for my colleagues who might find them selves in a similarly compromising position on a day that I was not in the office. The only solution I could see was to make a second housewife. (Actually, to be honest, I did consider purchasing a small travel sewing kit pre-made from Spotlight. But I have an abundance of almost everything that would go in it, and fabric to make one, so it seemed to be the more environmentally sustainable option to make my own.)

So I did. I went through my fabric stash for some suitable fabric to use up and found some final scrap of this cool flamingo and cactus print that I had made shorts for Sophie way back in 2020 and then a pillow case cover for one of these Christmas tree cushions. I also had a strip of that bluey-green stuff that felt a little fancy and made me worried about washing and ironing it. The bluey-green strip gave us the dimensions for this housewife as I just used exactly what I had. 

It's a little longer and thinner than my original, but has similar features. I used some very small scraps for the inside features like the Ikea fabric, (featured in this dress for Rachel, skorts for both girls and a skirt for me) and some final remnants of some beautiful animal print fabric (initially Rachel's Nature Bag but also her pencil case and library bag for school). No idea where the little floral scrap was from, but it's a lovely highlight. 

On what works out to be the "flap" part when it's all rolled up, I was inspired by some sashiko style stitching that I saw on the internet and wanted to have a go at. It's a Japanese style of hand stitching patterns into fabric. I think I've got room to grow, but it was a fun to experiment with on this project. 

I bound it all up by hand with some more self-made bias binding from a Lorraine Lea pillow case (which I've used before to bind things here). The housewife folds up in a similar way to the last one, and is all ready to live at work for a just in case emergency. I can already see it getting use patching some friendly classroom soft toys that experience a little too much love from the students (like this Happy Cat from Sophie's school). Hooray!