Once again I interrupt regular catching up to bring you something from 2022. This time, it's making reusable Christmas Crowns.
Last year, I subscribed to Peppermint Magazine blog, and they had a post about making your own re-useable crowns, encouraging people to think about ways to reduce single use waste at Christmas time. I'm here for it, and I had Christmas fabric I wanted to use up, so I went into a crown making spree.
These were pretty straight forward to sew, and used up a good amount of fabric and ribbon that was otherwise languishing with no future. I like that they are double sided, so people can choose what they want when they put it on.
Of course, I did start with six, but couldn't stop there, because I figured, it's pretty easy for Christmas to turn into a much larger affair. We only ended up needing four last Christmas, but maybe this year will be different.
This was possibly one of the most fun things we did at home this year. Lots of just hanging out, but so much quality time together.
For some back story, Bluey is an Australian kids show, aimed at four to seven year olds. My girls were either on the older end or older than the target demographic when it came out, and we don't watch too much TV as it is (Play School all the way), but gradually we found ourselves enjoying the Bluey. As far as children's TV goes, it's so quality. Both the writing and animation is great, not to mention the topics covered and portrayal of kids imagination play and positive parenting just blows every other kids cartoon out of the water. Suffice to say, we love it.
I'd seen a fair few episodes and had even started using them in the music classroom (such quality music, both original and remixed classics) but Steve had been missing out. Somewhere towards the start of 2023, we started watching the episodes together whenever we needed a bit of a break. It was really nice to sit down every now and then to watch a few episodes and just enjoy the good quality humor that was Bluey.
At the start of November, ABC announce they would run "Bluey Fest" which was where they would play Bluey episodes all day from 6am to 7:30pm. People were encouraged to vote for their favorite Bluey episodes for the count down of top 100.
We voted.
And also planned our day.
Sophie had bought a Bluey Cookbook, which I've mentioned before, and since we had seen all the episodes, we had a lot to choose from. We planned, all our meals around food that appears in Bluey, including snacks, though Steve vetoed another Duck Cake. We also printed the charades cards that Sophie coloured and I laminated.
Rachel helped cut out the fabric to make a Bob Bilby puppet.
I printed Bluey bunting.
Even though it sounds like the actual day was going to be a lot of TV watching, it really wasn't. The girls did watch a bit before breakfast (proffertjes), but then we ate and went to church just like normal. When we got home, we popped it on again, but the girls were also colouring some Bluey pictures while we watched and chatted.
We took a break for our Bluey themed lunch (sausages and capsicum salad with Aunty Mary's dressing) and Hugo came over, so the three kids went off to have a swim together at our neighbor's place.
Steve was sadly missing most of this day, since he and his brother went to Bundaberg for the weekend to help his dad move. He made it back for the last hour of Bluey though, so did get to see the top ten. It was so fun to watch together and we all agreed the top episode (Cricket) was an excellent one.
Still not sure why the grannies episodes are so high up though.
I interrupt the regular programing of 2023 (otherwise known as "blogging about things that happened a while a go") to bring you a special post (otherwise known as "catching up on things that happened in 2022). Exciting times I know. This post starts with a very ramble-ly backstory, so strap yourselves in.
Seventeen years ago, Steve had a 21st Birthday party that was a multicultural themed costume party. I had wanted to make a flamenco dress, but in the interests of time/money/skill I had just made a red skirt with ruffles and white off-the-shoulder shirt instead. (You can see a quickly snapped photo of it here if you are desperate.)
Sixteen years ago, for my 21st, Steve gave me the pattern and most gorgeous red material to make my flamenco dress dream come true. What a true champion he was.
I didn't blog about it at the time, because I was rather disorganized about blogging in those early years, but sometime between April of 2007 and July of 2007 I not only broke my hand, but also managed to sew a flamenco dress for myself.
I wore it first to a winter ball in 2007, and then not many time since. Maybe to a fancy dress party or two over the years. It was an easy costume for anything with a movie theme because it is pretty much exactly what Fran wears at the end of Strictly Ballroom. (If you have not seen this Australian classic, you must. Right now.)
I did most recently wear it to a Christmas party for work in 2021. It was masquerade theme, which I figured lent itself to a somewhat fancy dress. There is nothing more amazing than this beautiful dress for a night out, let me tell you.
Welcome to 2022, I notice that I have exactly this much of the original fabric left and I think to myself, maybe I can make a skirt.
Decided I wanted as much of a circle skirt as I could get (turned out to be a half) and I made it slightly longer in the back (and promptly got zero good photos of that). Inquisitive Rachel helped me with the pattern.
Then I added pockets, sewed the waistband and had a perfect skirt for Christmas.
But here we are, Christmas time again. So why not record it now, before it's forgotten forever?
I was not planning on making this. Indeed, when my nephew called with the request, my initial response was thanks but no. Unfortunately it turns out I love a sewing challenge more than is probably healthy.
So he is the scenario: My nephew Hugo, flushed with cash from spending two hours cleaning the house, decides he wants to buy a Stormtrooper costume. Not wanting some cheep polyester rubbish (can't blame her!), Sarah redirects this request by suggesting Hugo ask me to make it and pay me instead. As I said, my initial thought was no. Stormtrooper costumes are so complicated and layered and yuck. Not something I wanted to venture into.
But I told Hugo I'd think it over and let him know. When I hung up the phone, I was thinking it over and my mind refused to let it go. How could I solve this puzzle? A comfortable, wearable and also recognisable Stormtrooper costume. Was it possible?
I did a bit of research on the internet of what other people did for a DIY Stormtrooper costume, and found that people resoundingly made them out of foam or cardboard, but that the reviews were "looked great, kids loved the photos, but they couldn't wear it long term, it was too uncomfortable". So could I make one that was comfortable enough for my nine year old nephew to run around and have a nurf gun battle with his mates? Also remembering that this is Australia, and he's likely to overheat even in October.
I broke down the parts, and figured it came down to the vest, waist part and belt. If I could make those and potentially a pair of basic white pants, he should be right to go. Fabric is way more comfy than cardboard to wear, and all it would need would be some strong interfacing, which I happened to have leftover from making some obi earlier in the year. So, I got to work.
I did this costume in a week and a half, so not many photos at all. I traced around the girls for a basic pattern, dug out white fabric from my stash (I think I bought it for cheep table cloths for Christmas over ten years ago) and got going. I hand sewed the features of that waist part at church. Everything else was pretty simple, and I managed to have all the parts in my stash - black elastic that had come from someone's stash at some point, a sturdy clip for the belt and some scrap velcro from who knows where.
The vest needed a bit of extra shaping along with the super sturdy interfacing, so I added a layer of cotton batting. The belt has blocky parts on it, which I sewed on and stuffed with some random stuffing from an old pillow. I did end up having enough time (and fabric) to sew together a pair of white pants and we were good to go.
Hugo had a mask and a white shirt at home already, and he was over the moon with his costume. I'm pretty happy about how it turned out too, for a week and a bit of sewing with no pattern at all, and no trips to Spotlight for whatever I didn't have. Hooray!
A little project for the September school holidays: just painting another mural at the girls school. This was designed by a local tattoo artist and is on the walls of the Library building. The decking outside the building has garden beds with grevillea and wattle flowers in it, often frequented by the colourful noisy lorikeets that inspired the mural.
We did this one panel, but the plan is for the mural to wrap around to the adjacent walls too. Maybe next holidays?
Wearing traditional Japanese clothes, at least through the cooler autumn to spring months, has become increasingly regular for me this year. I like the comfort and simplicity of the yukata and the warmth of the kimono. Even though I've historically worn my kimono significantly less, I'm really beginning to appreciate the warmth through the winter months these days. Maybe I'm getting old and feeling the cold more, who knows!
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| Side note - love this kimono so much! Such a beautiful warm wool! Made it myself and same with the obi. (So hard to photograph at ten to six in the morning by yourself in a bathroom that is currently having a sink drain replacement!) |
Since July though, I've had extra reason to be reaching for these when I'm considering my wardrobe choices in the morning, because I picked up an extra day of teaching Japanese at a new school. I wasn't really looking for more work, though Steve and I had thrown around the idea of me increasing to four days next year, but my principal came to me and said she had a friend who really needed a Japanese teacher. I figured why not?
The job was literally handed to me (I got to choose my classes and day that I worked), and it was the same school system, so I figured if I liked it, a transfer would be easier. I just signed a six month contract, thinking that would be enough time to see if I firstly, could actually handle four days a week, and then if I liked it enough to stay.
A day a week at a new school solely teaching Japanese was the perfect chance to wear a different kimono each week. I actually have enough that I could have worn them with no repeats, so that was a little bit my motivation, especially to challenge myself to wear some of the kimono that I haven't gotten out for a long time.
I started pretty strong, but a kimono does take longer to put on in the morning, and the weather did warm up, so I switched to yukata toward the end of term three. I'm glad I did challenge myself to give it a go though, because I did learn that one of my kimono is just too small for me (pictured below). It's a vintage one that Sarah bought in Japan the first time she went, so it's beautiful, but small. You can still wear it, but it takes a lot of fiddling to get it looking just right. Sadly not worth it in my books, especially when I have eight other options I can choose from.
Challenging myself to wear theses each week with no repeats made me really work hard mixing up which obi I wore with each yukata/kimono and finding new ways to tie them. Even though no one else noticed, I loved it! I forgot to take photos of myself every week, but hopefully this gives you an idea.
In term four, I figured I would make it through October but have to give up in November as the weather is usually just a little too hot for comfort by then. I was right about the end of October being a little uncomfortable, but November started unseasonably cool. I could have made it at least another two weeks! Alas, I had already spent an afternoon packing up all of the yukata and kimono from the floor/walls of my room and I wasn't committed enough to get them out again.
I had an uncharacteristic amount of Japanese outfits to clean up because my family had joined me in traditional dress for a Japanese evening in the Botanical Gardens. We sat in the Japanese Gardens eating our bento and enjoying Japanese music together.
Perfection
While I've sewn many a yukata or kimono now, I don't think I've ever made an obi that I've gone on to wear. This year, I was gifted a box of fabric from some family friends which included two silk wrap things. The moment I saw them, I knew they were destined to be obi.
I washed them, unpicked them and lay them out.
They had the most beautiful embroidery on them and I loved the colours, particularly the black and gold. Everything about these made me happy for sewing and the potential of taking something that wasn't being used and making it into something else. Hooray!
I bought some fancy interfacing stuff that I think is generally used to make jackets and lapels sit correctly, because I really wanted the silk to hold up as an obi without crinkling. Then it was a matter of cutting them into rectangles and sewing it all together.
