Home Ec Sewing

The girls are both supposed to take some kind of sewing classes in Home Ec at their Japanese school this year. I don't know for sure if it will happen in term one when we are here, though Sophie's class seemed to indicate that, but if so, I wanted them to have what they needed. 

It was pretty basic stuff, but I didn't have anything to put it in, so rather than taking apart what I had in my housewife, I just picked up a small sewing kit and thread from the 100Yen store near us. After doing that though, I realised it would be good to have something to keep the thread and sewing supplies together, so I ended up making a thing anyway. 

I used some of the leftovers from the girls bags. Not wanting either girl to feel I was favouring them, and also not wanting to make two of the same thing, I just made one reversible thing. 

Everything fits nicely. I don't know how or why that white ribbon ended up coming to Japan with us, but it was rather perfect for this little project. 

And then you flip it out, and suddenly, it's a whole new pouch. Is this Housewife 3.0? Don't think I'd go that far, but it does the job and I can't complain about another little sewing project to keep my hands busy while I practice listening to Japanese. 

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! 

Housewife

I have recently been doing a lot more hand sewing. All the kimono that I've made this year, have been actually entirely hand sewn (see here, here, here and here). Which is kind of fine when I'm sitting a home sewing in front of the TV and I can just leave my little stash of fabric and supplies in a corner, but for that last kimono, I did a stack of travel sewing, from our winter holiday, to church each week. 

When I did this, I just threw everything into a brown gift bag, which worked, but was pretty average. Towards the end of it's life, it was also falling apart. I was toying with the idea of finding a better solution, or making something to pop all the supplies in, when I stumbled across this video from Sewstine on YouTube, about the 18th century sewing kits known as a "Housewife". 

Lots of information there, but suffice to say, these little sewing kits were well used by males and females throughout history. I loved the idea of having all my gear in something that could just roll up and out with everything easily accessible, so of course, I made one. 

I used the measurements roughly from the one that Sewstine does, though I didn't bother to embroider all the panels. I did consider some embellishments, but in the end, I just wanted to have something I could use and didn't want to take extra time. 

Maybe I'll make another one that's fancier, but this one is pretty great. I used up material from my stash for it. Rachel actually commented to me the other day "Mum, how come when you want to make something, you have everything already?" which I thought was pretty funny. You might recognise the outer fabric from this skirt, these skorts and this dress. The inner lining (and binding on the edge and the tie) was just from my stash, probably from my mum or even my Yia-yia. 

The watermelon pockets are actually some fabric I salvaged from taking apart a pencil case. A pen had leaked on the outer fabric, but the zips were still good, and the inner fabric was this beautiful watermelon print. There wasn't much, but I'm glad I saved it, because it was perfect for this. The scissors pouch was lined with a scrap of wool from my cape, and the outer fabric is a final remnant from my mum, which I used for the purple skirt in this post. 

On the inside, there is a big pocket at the bottom for threads, the scissors pouch, with a ribbon to keep them from slipping out and a scrap of felt (from Vulpix) for needles. Going up there is another little pocket and a pin cushion next to it. Then there is a little loop of elastic for my unpicker. Made it slightly fancier with a little silk flower. 

When I was sorting out the layout, I thought the small pocket near the pin cushion was a bit silly, but I didn't want a bigger pin cushion and I also didn't want a gap, so I put it in anyway. I'm actually really glad I did, because it's great for storing any little scraps or bits of thread that I cut off when I'm sewing until I can get home and pop them in the bin. 

I hand stitched most of the inside bits on, and even secured the ribbon with a bit of fancy embroidery. I think it kind of looks like the rose/flower that I was going for. I did stitch the first round of the binding on with Sally, but then I did finish it by hand. 

There's the other side, just so you know how it looks. The tie is only stitched on near one end, and it all folds up so nicely. Pretty chuffed with this little housewife.