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. 

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.

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.

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!