Packing - again ...

When I was about 8 years old, my parents decided on a round-Australia road-trip.  I talk about it on a long post over at Happy Hamby Campers (my main blog).  I remember lots of packing.  

Proper tea-chests were bought to safely house our belongings, those that would be stored in my Granny's garage till the end of our travels.

Those tea-chests were made of plywood and some still had small amounts of tea in them, which was fun!

The younger me was tasked with selecting toys and books for my brother and I keep in the caravan.  Yep, I've been culling and packing from a young age!  Scroll forward 40-plus years and I'm once more culling/packing, faced with a moving deadline set by someone else.  

We were given our Notice to Leave a week ago and have achieved such a lot in that short space of time.  I'm very chuffed with all that's been managed so far.  We've sourced 56 great boxes for packing and four of those were stuffed with packing paper - bonus!  Nick and I collected some boxes, swathes of bubble wrap and foam sheeting from a retail dumpster and I was also given other packing materials via FaceBook marketplace.  We bought two tape guns, heavy-duty tape and special tape labels from Bunnings, for just under $50.00, which is our only outlay so far.  

I read one marketplace ad where the seller had purchased all-new moving boxes etc for $700.00!  Just amazing.  We've always strived to spend as little as possible on moving, so mostly do our own packing - using whatever boxes and packing materials we can find.   (Once we've unpacked, we've happily given away boxes, paper and so on). 

Although we've been fortunate to stay at one address since moving to Queensland in February 2017, we have a lot of moving experience.  (In 2015 we even self-packed a 20-foot shipping container for interstate relocation and only suffered a couple of breakages). I talk about those moves in more detail here, which was the starting point for our Great Cull of 2015.  

We had 110 days notice of our 2015 deadline.  Queensland's notice periods are different, so we have just 60 days - which will see us very busy till mid August.

I wake early, have my breakfast - and start packing.  When I was little I would watch my Granny wrap freshly-laid eggs for us to take home with us.  She'd roll them deftly, using half-sheets of newspaper - two eggs per neat little parcel.  I was reminded of those compact packages when I was packing fragile china and glassware this week.  I used white packing paper but there was a similar rhythm of tearing sheets, rolling, creasing and so on.  The house is quiet and my mind drifts doing this simple, repetitive work.  Little concentration is necessary.  At this early stage, packing is almost enjoyable.  Almost.

Week 1 tally.  Boxes sourced:  56.  Boxes packed:  27.  Boxes donated:  5.  Tape used:  one roll.

More picnic upcycling ...

Erin's picnic project was the catalyst for more pleasant upcycling.  

I'd made several high school art cases for her, around 12 years ago.  

I've used the purple-trimmed pencil roll in my beverage case for ages.  It holds various teaspoons and some other items.  Now the green case is Erin's picnic cutlery roll.  (The rainbow ribbons were the girls' hair ribbons from primary school).

The autumn floral lino tool case was folded differently and modified slightly to become storage for Erin's cheese serving set. 

I've recently been enjoying some hand-sewing and enjoyed slow-stitching the new geometric ribbon tie to the upcycled cheese tool case. 

I also made a cover for a picnic salad bowl - which was a lot easier than I expected! 

The salad servers were last to be housed.  After pondering I decided on a padded case for those, using some pre-quilted fabric from the stash (which I probably had since before Erin was born)!

I quilted over the original fabric, using several of the fabrics that feature on her other picnic items - along with a few other choices.  (Erin isn't big on matchy-matchy but had specified bright and cheerful).

Re-usable rainbow metal straws are accommodated in a lightly padded pencil case(ish) zip pouch.  The bird print was part of a 50c remnant - and also features on the upcycled library bag.

I'm really pleased with how all the pieces look together.  It's definitely a fun, happy theme - which was the aim.  Of course, it's nice to be able to upcycle some favourite items as well.

Now we just need to test it all with a proper picnic!

Picnic upcycle ...

I mostly keep track of my sewing projects in a personal FB album but even so, there are items I made long before social media was ever a thing.  Yep, really!

When my girls were in primary school, I made each of them a library bag.  The bags were quite similar, they just had different coloured stitching around the applique, which also matched the colour of the straps.  Those two library bags were my first-ever totes!

Erin has hung onto hers all these years and recently requested it be upcycled into something more useful (as she has other, newer bags for her craft work). 

There was a lot of pondering and lengthy discussion before deciding on the bag's transformation. She was putting together a picnic set and wanted a bag to store plates, which were too large to fit inside her cute picnic basket.

I took the library bag apart and washed it.  Erin then had fun spray-bleaching the denim outer, trying to disguise some of the fading - while being careful not to damage the bright bird applique.  

After the bleaching, there were still darker areas, so I replaced the original straps with similar (decorative) dark blue webbing.  

Once I'd decided to make a large zip pouch, the rest of the upcycle was quite straight forward. I had a bright green zip in the stash, which worked well with the original bird print.

I'd picked up a different bright bird print at an op-shop on a road-trip, so used that as part of the revamp, together with a scrap of macaw fabric.  

In funny co-incidence, I was using Erin's macaw ruler when measuring during various stages of the upcycle!  

I'd taken very rough measurements of the plates before starting but really, the fact that the pouch fit snugly on top of the basket was a marvellous fluke!

Here's hoping the "new" picnic bag does most excellent work for another 20-plus years!

Bagged a bargain!

Nick and I have recently returned from a 23-day road trip. It was an awesome adventure and we've been easing back into the real world.

I took a laptop for photo processing while away.  The bottom of the carry bag was deteriorating though and I'd started thinking of a better option, preferably one that was in keeping with our Gladstone bags!

We had a couple of outings over the weekend.  One was to collect a "new-to-us" mower and from there we ventured further to explore some local-ish areas we hadn't previously visited.

There were a few op-shop stops along the way and one of those had all items listed at just $2.00 each.

This bag caught my eye.  I could see it had been very well made, though was in serious need of TLC. 

On the way home I googled and found a new one listed on Amazon for $304.92 as well as a  few on Etsy for varying prices. Yep, a great $2.00 bargain!

It was a little different working on this bag than when I've given my Gladstone bags their spa treatments, because this leather is softer.

As usual, I started with a saddle soap clean - and then decided the best approach would be some rejuvenating shoe cream.  The local bootmaker had the right tint for just $9.95.  (The bag has an expansion section that looked to be it's original colour and I matched the cream to that).

I applied several coats of cream yesterday, buffing with a soft brush between applications.  I did a lot of hand-washing also!

You can see how well the bag now looks.  A vast improvement, eh?!After the leather was nourished, a lot of the rub marks/fading were far less noticeable.

The bag had obviously been extensively used but now it looks cared for, which was my aim.

A great outcome for just $11.95 total spend!

Totes great!

I've been thinking of making a specific shower tote for a while. 

On our last trip I used a small bag received when I attended my last mammogram.  It was a good colour to co-ordinate with my vanity case but a bit small.  (I carry all my shower and skincare products in my vanity case but still need to take a towel and clean clothes etc to the amenities block).  

I haven't posted them here but in recent years I've made quite a few shopping bags.  I did a test with one of those to see whether it would hold my towel, spare clothes and any other possible needs.  It was better than the free mammogram bag but I decided a bit more room was necessary.

Based on that quick test, I was able to rummage in my fabric stash and craft a custom sized shower tote.  I had enough of the bright, funky floral to feature that on the outside of the bag.  It will match my bathmat, hair towel and face-cloth - not that anyone other than me will see them!

I had waterproof PUL fabric from another project, so used that to line the bag.  I included a loop in the side seam and will put a small clip through to hold keys.  (I found a little torch when looking for something else and thought that might be a good addition, too).

Once finished the bag was a lot larger than I had envisaged but it held all my belongings nicely and I was very chuffed with my work.

I showed Nick and suggested he might like a custom shower bag also.  His features rather dapper foxes on the outside and has the same waterproof lining.

We went to Bunnings today and bought a pack of carabiner clips.  We'll each have one of those attached to the inner fabric loops.  Nick suggested an over-door hook might be useful, for those shower cubicles with limited hangers - so we purchased some of those as well.  

I'll put a spare glasses case in each bag, to keep our specs safe and I might even shout Nick a $2.00 Kmart torch!

Collaring the jewellery storage - part 2!

I did a lot of YouTube research when I was pondering my collar box conversion.  One idea was to create a layer of rollers, similar to DIY frames for ring display.  I'd gone into Kmart to source hair rollers for that idea but realised it wouldn't work as hoped. 

Another thought was to use the layers of a bamboo steamer inside the collar box - but again, that plan didn't go ahead as the diameter of the steamer was a smidge too large.

Some brooch collectors store their pieces in plastic stationery drawers, lined with non-slip matting.  I decided to see if I could find something circular that would fit the collar box and adapt the stationery drawer idea.  

I'd measured the collar box before heading to the local shopping centre and took a tape measure with me.  The Reject Shop had these pot saucers that were just the right size for $3.00 each.

That $6.00 was the only outlay for this project.  All other materials were already on hand.  I wanted a dividing layer between the two saucers.  I cut circles from one of my custom calendars.  Four or five circles were glued to create a firm divider.

While rummaging for possible handles, I found these two opal cufflinks and a single collar stud - which seemed appropriate!

I cut two leather circles.  I already had two circles of brown blanket, that were surplus from another project - and I cut another two circles from purple polar fleece.  I layered these into two sets with a smaller leather circle to space the layers along the length of a cufflink.  

I'd considered leaving the layers open but decided to sew around the perimeter instead.  I did that very carefully this afternoon, using my machine.  I was going to use a contrasting thread colour but I'm glad I changed my mind!  

The weight of the leather covers should hold the brooches firmly in place against the non-slip matting, though the theory is yet to be tested.  Stay tuned!

Collaring the jewellery storage - part 1!

Nick and I restored a $5.00 leather hat box at the beginning of 2021 and then took it with us on our anniversary splurge. It's a beautiful piece and only cost $10.00 in total!

I saw a leather collar box on FaceBook marketplace around that time but missed out on buying it.  I found another one later in the year, during our Byron Bay trip and purchased it for $50.00, which seemed a good price given my quick research - and we can't always nab $5.00 bargains!

Some projects require a fair bit of pondering, so the collar box has sat in our dining room since May, awaiting inspiration and motivation.  I had thought of using it for jewellery storage (particularly brooches) but wasn't sure how I would go about the transformation.

I have a small jewellery case, purchased during an overnight trip to Dalby in 2020.  It was a $20.00 find at a second-hand shop in Oakey.  I like the design more than the colour but it's not really intended for brooches - and there was a fair bit of overflow on a recent trip. 

I've been working on the collar box these past few days.  I do a bit, then wander off for other missions while I think about the next step.  There's no rush and I'm enjoying the slow pace.

Collar boxes were used to store men's collars, back in the days when those detached from shirts (held in pace by collar studs).  I googled and found one very similar to mine, described as being an early 20th century piece (with 1910 mentioned).  

Given it's age, there are some flaws.  The strap was broken and the buckle piece barely hanging on.  I decided not to replace those, so removed both.  At some stage a dodgy repair had been effected to the bottom band, using too much glue - and I took that off, also.

A spa treatment was long overdue.  I did a gentle saddle soap clean and  followed that with some deep conditioning.  I then applied shoe polish to even out the colour on the outside of the box.  

The lip of the bottom section was very dry (with some damage) and I gave the interior several coats of neatsfoot oil, which were rapidly soaked in.  As expected, the oil darkened the leather but little of the interior will be seen when the box is in use.