Mat-ching!

I was impressed with the success of my hair towel project, so decided to make something else for my holiday kit - a mini bath mat!  It may seem OTT but I've often remembered the bath mats at Mortlake and thought I could BYO a smaller version.

This one is a cut-down hand towel, that had been retired from use.  I rounded the corners and then topped with more of the bed cover fabric.  

It's not perfect but will be quite fine to stand on after a shower.  Looks pretty flash, eh?!  

Hair it is!

I've previously showed the contents of my brown beauty case (purchased to pair with my Gladstone bag).  

I like all the bright, happy colours and bought a similarly cheerful towel last year from Ace Drapers in Roma.  It was labelled a beach towel but I think of it as a holiday towel!

In recent times I had a yen for a co-ordinating hair towel and spent a fair bit of time looking for one that was pre-made or alternatively a bath towel I could use to sew a custom version.  

Nothing really appealed and Nick half-jokingly suggested I dye a hair towel already here.  At first I didn't think much of his suggestion but when I was up super-early yesterday morning, I did some Googling.

Earlier this year, I dyed tea-towels with - tea!  I didn't fancy a brown-ish hair towel but thought onion skins and turmeric might have potential as on-hand natural dyeing ingredients (that didn't require a mordant).

While I was boiling those, I did some running repairs on an old, white hair towel. It's elastic was stretched and some of the stitching had failed. 

I strained the skins and tumeric powder from the dye, then returned the liquid to a large pot.  I put the repaired towel in and brought the dye bath to the boil again.  

I'd already booked several activities for the day, so turned the heat off before leaving the house and left the towel to soak till my return - around 6 hours in total.

It's not as bright a colour as I hoped but I'm quite happy with the result.  

Since our very early camping days we used a particular cover on our bed.  I had some fabric from that and cut a flower motif to applique on the towel.  

When testing it became obvious the elastic loop needed shortening and I added an orange button also, sewn with bright pink thread.  Hah - how's that for a custom bath accessory, using materials already here?!

Laundry revamp ...

My ironing board cover was part of a larger laundry revamp.  

When we moved in there was a laundry tub downstairs - and that was the limit of built-in storage under the house.  We later bought an old, $10.00 cupboard from an opshop, which provided some much needed bench-space and additional storage. 

Progress stalled after that.  A lot happens here behind the scenes and home-making generally takes a back-seat when we deal with other stuff.

This cooler part of the year is good for more physical projects though and a recent cancelled property inspection (along with a bout of vertigo) highlighted the need for much better organisation.  

As there had been no dedicated clothes sorting area previously, clean washing was brought upstairs and often left in baskets inside the back door or on the table - which caused chaos.  

Moving to Queensland prompted a wardrobe overhaul for me and I now wear dresses much of the year.  I like them to be ironed and there was no actual ironing area, so an ironing board was often set up in the air-conditioned lounge room, using a bookcase for hanging the pressed clothes.

I watched quite a lot of YouTube for laundry inspiration but most tutorials were aimed at home owner renovators rather than tenants.  I didn't want to paint walls and build cupboards. I just wanted to create a simple, cheap, pleasant work area - that could be dismantled and taken with us at some later stage.

After much pondering I purchased a $49.00 portable wardrobe from Kmart.  Once it was up, I could measure the shelf compartments as their size wasn't noted on the box.  BigW had white baskets that fit well.  I bought four baskets and two large grey tubs - another $47.00.  Everyone has a basket and clean clothes are sorted accordingly.  As the youngest, Vaughan's is on the bottom but I may change than as it's quite low and bending can be an issue for me.

We bought a second-hand dryer very recently.  It won't receive a lot of use but is a handy thing to have.  It's sitting on an old coffee table adjacent the washing machine.  I've placed one of our folding camp tables over the coffee table, to fold clothes on.  The ironing board is set up in the same area, so clothes can be ironed and hung directly on the racks.

The window had an ancient, too-long venetian blind covering.  It fell down every time I tried to adjust it, so has now been stored out of the way.  Nick put up a curtain rod this afternoon (which was part of a lot of block-out curtains I purchased soon after moving in).  I'd been given a set of long maroon curtains and we hung two of those behind the wardrobe, though I expect they'll stay open most of the time.

You can see some of the floor in the photos.  The tiles are cracked, broken and there are bare patches.  I'd like to put down a mat but in heavy rain periods, some of the downstairs area suffers flooding.  We've had ankle deep water in a former bathroom and less deep but still annoying issues in other places - hence our hesitation to use anything that could be damaged.  

I did some ironing this afternoon and folded a few clothes also.  I'm liking the ease of having everything in the one place.  Nick and I were culling downstairs the other night, so set up a bluetooth speaker and listened to Spotify while working - and that could be an option for longer ironing sessions, too.  

It's early days yet but I can see an improvement upstairs and feel we've done great work for less than $100.00 (or just over $105.00 if we count the $10.00 cupboard).  Three cheers for us!

Not board!

The current cooler weather is very welcome for our reorganisation projects - hooray!  Even better, we can see progress being made.

We hired a skip bin recently, which was great for clearing out the garage/shed.  (Some stuff had survived the Great Cull of 2015 but was superfluous to our Queensland life).

Given the downstairs flooding of early 2020 (and lesser incidents since), we have become cautious about what we store - and where. More culling and organisation is on the agenda.

The various reshuffling has also prompted other projects.  Yep, I made an ironing board cover today - finally!  

I can't remember exactly when I bought the board but it was after arriving in QLD.  The cover was well-used, so I put a bright tablecloth over the top.  Easy, no-sew fix!

Last night I unpicked the old cover while watching TV.  It was funny to see the flower imprints!

I trimmed that batting piece this morning, as it had been too long for the board.  I then rediscovered an insul-brite remnant in the stash, for extra padding.  (I think the remnant was $4.00 and I still have another one for the intended use).  It wasn't exactly the same size as the original layer but covers the top and most of the overhang.  I sewed both pieces together with a zig-zag stitch.  The floral fabric was a $2.00 Dalby op-shop find from our overnight trip last September.  It had some marks and fading but I was able to use the best area for the cover.  

I'd watched a few YouTube tutorials yesterday and pretty much followed the common construction method, using elastic to fit the cover snugly over the padded layer.  It turned out really well, which made me wonder why I hadn't made one sooner! Of course, there was some fabric left over and I've used a bright section to trim two hand towels, upcycled from an old bath towel.  I'm really liking the co-ordinated look (and may also make more lingerie bags, trimmed with the same fabric).  The laundry area never looked so good!

Bee happy!

I really liked using my travel bowl cosy while away in Canberra - and decided to (finally) make a set for home.

The sunflower bee print is one of my images, printed on metal.  It's displayed in the kitchen and other bee art (including a gorgeous original painted and gifted by Kerry) hangs adjacent the kitchen doorway - so it made sense to feature this lovely bee fabric.  

I don't remember where the sunflower yellow batik came from but I'm sure it was a bargain!

I've watched many YouTube tutorials on bowl cosy construction.  There is much emphasis on using cotton fabric, batting and thread to ensure safe microwave use.  I watched a different presenter this morning, who offered an alternate view in terms of safety - and I was pondering her approach while viewing the next clip, of a cosy that had caught fire in someone's microwave!  

Although we used our travel set in the hotel microwave without incident, I'm thinking I'll mainly use this new set as bowl holders, to protect hands/laps after food has been reheated.  They fit our standard soup bowls quite well, though are a bit roomier around the pasta/porridge bowls.  I went out today and tried various Kmart and BigW bowls.  They were all quite similar in size.  It occurred to me that I could adjust the darts for a better fit around the deeper bowls but then the shallow bowls wouldn't sit well, so I'm just going to accept that's the way it is - and bee happy!

Cosy mornings!

Earlier this year I made two padded carry bags for our owl mugs, purchased during our anniversary splurge.  

The bags were a bit roomier than necessary, which has proved to be an expected bonus - now that I've added extra items to each.

Nick and I are heading off on another short adventure, staying several nights in a Canberra motel.  

Our room has a kitchenette with microwave and we've decided to breakfast as usual, so will take our preferred porridge/oat mixes.  We use large bowls at home when cooking our porridge, so thought it best to pack similar - because the larger volume bowls ensure no boil-over/less mess when cooking. 

Obviously the bowls get quite hot in the microwave.  I sit mine inside a cereal bowl when serving, to prevent burning my hands.  I've made bowl cosies previously as gifts but finally decided to make a pair for us.  They will provide extra padding for our bowls when in transit - and then serve their intended purpose when microwaving.  As it happened, there was just enough lining fabric leftover from the padded bags to make two cosies, so the sets look quite co-ordinated.

The cosies are intended to be used with the bowls inside (to protect hands/laps from heat).  When in transit, the cosies will sit inside the bowls to provide padding between them and our mugs.  The mug rugs will tuck around the mugs - and all will pack sideways into the bags.  I'm quite pleased with how it's all come together!

Glad to go shopping?!

I have bursts of sewing creativity and really enjoy having my infamous stash to work from.  It's been carted along (in various forms) to our many addresses - and made two interstate moves.  

There are inherited fabrics from my Mum and Granny, some others that I bought years ago and then more recent remnants / op-shop bargains.  (As well as fabric, there is haberdashery).  

I've made lots of shopping bag sets as gifts.  Typically, it took longer before I made a larger set for use at home.  

I'd been thinking of making a holiday pair to take away with us - and finally started on them last night.

There's considerable pondering when I make these bags, pairing fabrics together and trying to create combinations meaningful or pleasing to the recipient.  I wanted this holiday pair to be a bit special.

Our at-home set is used often and definitely brightens our grocery shopping.  The outers are furnishing fabric with brighter linings (leftover from previous projects). I've double-stitched all seams, to ensure extra strength. We're often complimented on those bags, so they're a nice talking point.  

I don't remember when or where I bought the floral denim.  I've had it a long time.  I decided it had languished long enough, waiting for the perfect project.  When I measured the piece, there was just enough for two shopping bags.

After discarding several lining possibilities, I spotted the tartan. It was quite a recent op shop find. It reminded me of travel rugs and picnic blankets, so it seemed a good choice for holiday shopping. The remnant was actually a t-shape when unrolled but with careful cutting it yielded linings for both bags. I finished them this morning.  

When I showed Nick, he commented that the tartan was a great choice as our Gladstone bags are similarly lined.  How good is that?!