Rachel the Cow

Here is another snapshot in the Sewing Adventures of Rachel. 

Rachel (loving cows as she does) decided she'd like to go to the school bush dance as a cow so I suggested she make a onesie herself. (She has made a jumpsuit before, so this didn't seem like too much of a next step.) I strategically suggested a fabric birthday present for her which her godparents obligingly provided, much to Rachel's delight. 

We traced a jumper and pair of jeans and did a rough draft out of a doona cover. Rachel was pretty good at sewing the draft version, even though it wasn't as fun as the final fabric. We did a fitting and tweaked a few things before cutting out the real deal. Rachel herself suggested the udder and had the idea to make it a functional pocket, which I thought was just hilarious. 

Then we scheduled some serious sewing time together. Having already sewn the draft, she was pretty clued on as to how it would go together, but still needed some reminders about how the flat pieces would go together to cover a 3D body. 

I was very impressed at her fortitude with sewing a pretty tricky fabric, including giving the zip a good go.  In the end, I did have to get that in for her, since all the layers of fabric (including the udder!) there were very bulky, but that was all I sewed. While I did that, she worked on ear placement for the hood and then finished it off. The zip, btw was salvaged from an art case that was broken and not working. It was pink, still functional and very long so it worked a treat! 

The delight that Rachel had when she finished sewing the hood on was catching. This cow onesie is the most outrageous thing ever. Rachel wore it and won best dressed on the night of the bush dance. 

Japanese Kimono Haul

I was fairly restrained in Japan when I was buying kimono related things, given that I already have quite a sizeable collection, but here are some of the things I did get! Not sure I'd really call it a haul as such, but I will say that I'm really pleased with all of what I got, since I've worn everything a number of times this year already. 

This new obi matches the yukata I made nearly 18 years ago so perfectly!

For those interested, in the winter months of the year, I tend to dress in Japanese traditional clothes most work days and then some other days just for fun too. Since I'm now working a four day week, it means I'm actually in Japanese style more than western. Have to say, I love it, since kimono are comfy, warm and surprisingly easy to layer so I can adjust things as the day heats up. 

This obi is a different style, but is so versatile that I wear it all the time. 

First up I bought three obi (waist tie/belt things). The top one was such a fun sashiko design that I was in love with it instantly, even though it was a more maroon-red colour that I wasn't sure would go with many of my yukata. It has surprisingly matched way more of my kimono collection than I thought it would and I have worn it a stack. Especially since it's reversible with a different pattern on the other side. 

This bright yellow and orange one is also so fun. Can't get enough of the dual colours and I love to mix up how I wear it too. 

Same obi as above, but looking completely different! So cool!

The light is bad, but the yukata really is more a white than yellow. This is the other side of the first obi from above. 

I also bought two yukata, a white one with sunflowers and a white with blue and purple stripes. I felt these were different to what I already have (which, to be honest, is a lot of shades of blue with flowers) so I was happy with them. 

New yukata with this obi (that I made) and a new obijime (tie).

I got one haori, which is a jacket to wear with kimono.  Again, I looked at so many of these, since they are really common in the second hand shops and the size on them can be quite forgiving, unlike a vintage kimono, which is almost always going to be on the too small size. I found this one on our day in Shinjuku and I really love it. Most of my other haori are dark, so it's nice to have a lighter choice. 

Lastly, I bought my very first hakama! This is a skirt (or pants) that you can wear with your kimono. They were worn by loads of people, notably samurai, and also used to be part of the school uniform back in the day, because it means you can run and move really easily in your kimono without and fear of things falling open when they shouldn't. This hakama took a while to find since I wanted one made out of natural fibres rather than polyester. I got a 100% wool one, which means it's pretty much only going to be worn in winter, but I love it. 

First real outing for the hakama here, with my sunflower yukata on. I'm still working on tying it at a good length, and it def looks better with boots since it's shorter. 

I was a bit disappointed when I put it on the first time, since I had been expecting it to be a bit longer and found it short, but I've made my peace with it and I have been wearing it a stack in the last few weeks at school. Since it is short, it actually looks really good with a pair of boots, so winning there. 

I did get three new obijime (obi ties), one of which I wear all the time, but the two others not so much. Still, very satisfied with the new additions to my collection. Since I've been wearing kimono pretty much non-stop for the last three months, I've also gotten my dressing time down to about 15mins for a full kimono, which is pretty dang good. I was wondering last week if it was worth it, but then on Thursday I had a stack of students tell me they loved what I was wearing or commented on a previous days dress, so I guess they are noticing after all. 

Farewell to Single Digits

Just like that, Rachel is 10. 

As with Sophie, we celebrated with a room make over for the birthday girl. Rachel is a bit of a hoarder of the most random stuff, so I was honestly pretty stoked to have a reason to completely empty her room and start with a clean slate. She had a lot of random boxes that she often just piled things into that I was resolute were not returning. We emptied it all out into the living room and I began painting.

Thankfully, Rachel did come to the party and the clean out was not too painful. I think it helped that a couple of weeks earlier, Maria had done a sewing machine upgrade and given her old one to Rachel. Within half an hour of having it, the sewing machine was set up and making heat packs, which was great, but Rachel did notice that it was tricky with all the other stuff on her desk. 

The colour chosen for the feature wall (done with much less deliberation than Sophie) was Hot Pop Blue. I was a little dubious, but on the wall it just looks bright and fresh. Also a bit Greek Island holiday. She used birthday money to buy her desk and is planning on a cow-themed chair or curtains too. 

Rachel has been leaning hard into her love of cows for at least the last twelve months. She's had her beloved cow Moo-Moo since Christmas of 2019 and Mini Moo-Moo since January last year. Maybe it was Mini Moo-Moo that really increased her interest in these funny animals. In any case, when it came to her birthday cake, she asked for a cow. 

And I delivered. 

We had a family afternoon tea with onigiri, cheese twists, fruit, pumpkin scones and a cheese board. All easy fare and enough kids among all the cousins and family friends to keep everyone occupied for a couple of hours of eating and playing. 

Happy birthday Rachel. We love you; crazy, cows, double digits and all. 

Sashiko

Knowing that our travel around Japan for two weeks in April would involve lots of train rides (not to mention the plane rides!) I wanted to pack something that I could easily stitch when we had a bit of time to keep my hands busy. My current project at the time was a hand-sewn kimono, which I guess would fit the bill, but was also a little bulky for our travel. 

I had borrowed a book from the library on sashiko, which is a style of Japanese and stitching that is becoming popular as a way to mend or repurpose clothes, and I wanted to give that a go. Two days before we were due to leave, I grabbed out some fabric from my stash and prepped with with four different designs to try out. 

There was a lot of prep work for this. You have to sew the fabric into a bit of a loop and then draw up a grid so you can trace your designs evenly. I ended up with four different designs, in what I hoped was going to be progressively challenging but not too far into the deep end for me. The girls were really keen on a tortoise shell design that was just a bit too much at first. 

You can see all the grid lines and the rough outline of the design I wanted to do here. 

I read all the rules on taking sewing things on planes and was fairly confident that I could get my housewife on board, but I did pack a spare set of everything, just in case. I also pre-cut a bunch of thread so if they took the scissors off me at security but left the needles, I could still get work done. 

As luck would have it, I didn't have any troubles getting the scissors through security, though they did tell me that if I flew out of Sydney or Melbourne it would be a different story. I started stitching the first one on the plane over - please excuse the photo in the cramped seats of economy and with the bad plane lighting. :P 

My guide lines are on the other side, but this was starting to look good!

I took these with us when we went to Hakone and sewed them on the pirate ship on Lake Ashi, and also on the shinkansen to and from Tokyo. They were perfect. I did a bit of experimenting with different colours for the boarders and in the designs as I got more confident too. 

I'm pretty dang proud of how they turned out, though I'm not sure what exactly to do with them now. Possibly turn them into featured sides of a reusable bag? Or make a zippered pouch out of them? The cool thing is they are very reversible, but I'm not sure how the stitching will hold up if being attacked by pencils all day, so I feel I'd have to line it with something anyway. 

That however is a problem for another day. For now, these are done and were the perfect thing to travel Japan with us. 

Kimono Sewing

I haven't made a kimono (or yukata) since 2022 when I made four in one year, all by hand, but I was digging through my stash at the start of the year, looking for a simple hand sewing project to keep my hands busy at church and I found one. This fabric came in a bunch of hand me down stuff that a friend of mine gave me ages ago. In the same batch as the fabric I used for this despair dress maybe? And I'd had that fabric in my stash for ages before I used it last August (like, I think I used a part of it to cover a display board back when I was running a family day care in 2018 or 2019). Anyway, I had just thought it was a bunch of fabric, but when I unfolded it all, I realised it was actually a pre-cut kimono. 

A little known fact about kimono is that you don't really wash them. Since you wear other layers underneath, the kimono (or yukata) is the not right next to the skin and just gets aired after use and spot cleaned if needed. Eventually, if your kimono does need a wash, you actually unstitch the entire thing and wash the fabric strips. Since the fabric is just rectangles and only has one cut for the shoulders on the main body pieces, see the photo below (these are tacked closed with a basting stitch for the washing process), this works totally fine and you sew it back together once it's all dry. 

It's been pretty cool to start sewing this knowing that someone else has already worn it and took the time and care to take it apart to launder it properly before passing it on. Unfortunately, it does also mean that it was cut to the size of the previous owner, who was shorter than me. I have the ability to make a few adjustments in the sewing though, so I was hopeful I'll still be able to get some wear out of it when I'm done.

I took it to church a little bit at a time (you start with just the sleeves) and stitched away while listening to the sermons. I started it back in March, but if you are only sewing an hour or so a week, it's a project that's going to take some time. I also took it to the P&C meetings that I didn't have to take notes at, since I've stepped down as secretary, so that added a bit of time. 

I guess it didn't really take too long after all, since I worked on it in March, missed most of April and then finished it in May. For a project that was only getting an hour a week on average, that's a pretty quick turn around. When I tell people that I sew kimono, they are generally impressed, but the reality is, it's all rectangles and straight sewing, so it's honestly about as simple as it can get. 

Anyway, it's done now! I put it on with trepidation last week and to my delight it fits perfectly! I won't go into the details of what I adjusted or how I thought it was going to turn out unless people comment/ask, but given that you'd probably really need to be into either sewing or kimono (or both), I'm not expecting it. Happy to be surprised though. 

I absolutely love the feel of this kimono. The fabric is a beautiful cotton with a satin like feel and it is just fantastic to wear. Good thing I have a job that warrants wearing these pretty frequently! By the way I missed sewing this in April during our Japan travels since it was a little big to take as a project for the plane, but I did take something else, so I'll update you on that next time. Stay tuned!

Hats!

After we lost Sophie's hat somewhere in Japan, I noticed that both my girls were struggling with what to wear to school. Even though Rachel still had hats and there was even one offical school hat in the basket, neither of them were wearing them. I wonder if Rachel's old ones have actually gotten too small for her but she hasn't put two and two together yet and is just avoiding them since they are now uncomfortable. 

Anyway, as always with a problem, I turn to sewing for a solution and with hats, there are plenty of sewing solutions to be found. Even though I had made hats for the girls before, I had found a new pattern from Liz Haywood that I wanted to try out. 

Did a quick look through my stash and came up with some options for fabrics, most of which were heavy weight enough not to warrant any interfacing, so that was good. Then I sat down, cut out and sewed some hats. Why make just one for the daughter who truely needs it, when you can make one for each daughter with a spare just in case? 

Rachel's is actually made out of some more of this great Ikea fabric that I've used before in a dress and skorts. The one Sophie loves the most is made from some scrap fabric my mum gave me after making Sophie a dress out of it. I think it came from Japan and is a navy blue with kangaroos in various wrestling poses on it. 

The only one I made fully reversible was this other one for Sophie. It was made from a fat quarter of space fabric that I had lying around. The inside is lined with a grey pillowcase that I got from a friend who works for Lorraine Lea. It might be last the last of the pillowcases she gave me to sew with a few years ago. 

But even though it's fun and reversible, Sophie is yet to wear it beyond these photos. Oh well!

Greek Easter

Taking a break from sewing, here is a post about food! Greek, or Orthodox, Easter is something that my family have always celebrated to some extent. Sometimes it lines up with "normal" Easter and we enjoy the long weekend at the same time as the regular folk do, and other times (more often than not) it's on a completely different weekend. 

This year, it was at least a month after Easter was celebrated by most Aussies. My parents had skipped the country on another travelling adventure, but I still wanted to have some Greek Easter festivities. So for the first time in my life, I made the Greek Easter Bread (Tsoureki) and the Greek Easter Biscuits (Koulourakia) and dyed the eggs red. 

It was honestly really strange doing all of these things myself since my mum has always been in charge of them, and before that, her mum or aunts. Greek cooking is very matriarchal it seems. The girls helped with the short bread (below), which again, was special to share with them. 

It was a real delight to have family and friends over to share the roast lamb and all the other things I take for granted at Easter time that others have never experienced. We all said the Greek greetings and had fun cracking the eggs. It was honestly just so great to be together with people we loved too, and felt very much "out of Covid" at last. 

Yay for Greek Easter. I'm honestly so lucky to celebrate what Jesus did for us twice every year. 

Rachel's Sewing Adventures

Just another snapshot. Rachel spontaneously made this at the end of Term 1 for her teacher from last year. 

Miss Bunney liked her new creature and promised Rachel she would put it in her collection of Special Things From Students. 

Pre-Flight Sewing

Something that can make you feel pretty amazing is when you notice the new jeans your daughter has just put on in the last half hour that previously had a "cool stressed knee patch" look, now have a "obvious hole in the knee" look. Well, maybe not that realisation, but ten minutes later when you have finished the emergency knee patch right before you walk out the door to fly to Japan you sure do. 

Rachel's jeans have the quickest turn around of mending I've ever made in any clothes. Usually, whatever needs some TLC languishes on my sewing desk for a few months at least before I can bother to do anything with it. Even the smallest fix needing the least amount of my time and effort. 

These however, got done in the speediest way I've ever worked. I actually sacrificed a perfectly good rectangle of fabric to cut a square off for the patch. The little cat that would end up peaking out of the hole in the jeans was well worth it. 

Furoshiki and Other Omiyage

When we went to Japan in April, I knew I'd be seeing a fair few friends that I would need to have omiyage for. Omiyage is like a souvenir or gift that you give someone. Japan is big on this kind of gift exchange etiquette. I knew I'd have to transport them in our luggage so I didn't want anything breakable, and I also wanted something more meaningful than Tim-tams (delicious though they are). 

So I turned to sewing. I bought some lovely Jocelyn Proust fabric from Spotlight (native Australian flowers are her thing) and some other Australian themed prints. Then I cut them up and sewed the hems to make furoshiki. 

Furoshiki is a term that refers to cloth that you can wrap things up in. They come in all sorts of sizes and the most common use for them is for Japanese lunch boxes. I used one every day at school when I was in Japan, and I also had a comparatively enormous one to wrap and carry all my kimono gear to my tea ceremony classes. 

I thought some Australian furoshiki would be a nice omiyage. 

I also made (for my homestay brother's girls) this little dress up dress. It had been a while since I'd made one (2018 and 2016), but the design is so great it went together fine. I wanted to use up as much of this fabric from my stash as I could, so I added the ruffle on the skirt. 

The little girl was very pleased with her dress, and I was happy to see that fabric finally used up - it was leftover from when my mum made me a dress from it when I was 11 or 12! The last thing I popped in was a headband from the plethora I made in January, which had turned out way too small for my girls. 

Funny story about the furoshiki, I had made them, I'd given them and I'd talked about them. Then, on our last night in Kyoto, I was at a shop asking the store person if she had some when I came to realise, I was using completely the wrong word. Some how, my mixed up dyslexic brain had thought they were called fukuroshi, instead of furoshiki. The shop person very kindly gave me a history lesson on where the word came from so I'll never forget again.

Headbands

It feels like I made these headbands a life time ago now, since it was January and we are suddenly in May, but here we are and I thought I'd document them anyway. 

I was honestly trying to make headbands for the girls to wear at school (the blue checked fabric) from an old school dress they were no longer wearing, but thought I'd mess around with other scrap fabrics I had on hand as well to tweak the sizing and style. 

Rachel liked the style with the bow on the front, while Sophie preferred it to be flat. I used a couple of free headband tutorials from the internet, but ended up redrawing and lengthening them, so they kind of feel like mine now. 

And even though I did make all of these (and more actually!) the girls have subsequently lost a number of them and neither of them have bothered to wear them to school this term either. 

I try, you know, I try.