Fabric Confessions: Panic Buy

I talk a lot on here how I want to be more sustainable with my sewing, one area of that is using fabric you already have instead of purchasing more. Normally I am pretty good at using stash fabrics first before going out and buying more. I know some people keep track of the amount of fabric they buy vs the amount they sew up, I would love to be that structured but I’m not. A few years ago I went a little overboard and purchased fabrics without a real project in mind but lately I have been a little more controlled. Saying that yesterday was not of one those days….

Sydney Frocktails is in October. Last year I did a lot of sewing for Frocktails but this year I was going to keep it more simple. I mentioned in April that I had already planned out my outfit using stash fabrics. Roll forward to the end of August where I’m looking ahead of what I need to sew in the coming months, I’m not getting the amount of sewing time this year that I had last year. When it comes to sewing anything for the top half of my body I struggle with the fit around the neckline and upper back area. The dress pattern I was planning on making for Frocktails I was going to try making a toile of the bodice section first before making the actual dress from my chosen fabrics. Yesterday panic set in as I thought about my sewing projects over the coming months, aside from my Frocktails outfit I still need to finish off making the charity bags we are filing in November plus the toiletry bags which we will include in them. I’m not going to have the time to make a toile plus make the dress of a pattern I have never made before.

In Australia we have now only have one major craft chain store which has physical shops left that you can go and purchase from. I often buy stuff online from it but I haven’t actually been inside one of their physical stores since about 2018/2019 maybe? The location of them isn’t the easiest for me to get to (about 40 mins on a bus each way plus a walk down a steep hill) Tomorrow I will have the opportunity to actually visit a store as I’m going to another shop nearby to purchase something so I thought why not drop in and take a look so yesterday I started browsing online….

Shiny Blue Fabric

My brain was in panic mode that I needed to change my planned outfit for Frocktails. I came across shiny blue fabric, I am a bower bird so all things blue and shiny draw me in instantly. Murphy’s Law the colour wasn’t instock at the shop I was planning on visiting so if I wanted that colour I need to order it online. I ordered 5m of the shiny blue fabric (enough for a top pattern I had made before and extra to make pants or something) After purchasing the fabric I read the fabric description in detail more and discovered it probably would be too thick for the top I was planning on making… That’s ok I could still use the fabric to make pants and maybe a pinafore but I would still need to buy fabric tomorrow as I have to make something for Frocktails!

I have the day off work today so I had time to actually look at my fabric stash. Straight away I came across some fabric which I have had in my stash for years. It isn’t blue however it does have hearts on it (another thing I’m drawn to) It has the drape of a rayon but I think it is a polyester. You don’t have to make new items to wear to Frocktails but it should work well with the top pattern I have in mind which I have made before. Whilst the fabric is out on my cutting table I might even get some pants cut out as well from the leftover fabric. I’m not pushing to get the pants made as well but they may get made in time to wear as an matching outfit otherwise the top can be worn with a velvet skirt I made years ago for Frocktails. The fabric has now been washed and is currently drying behind me as I type this.

I’m not angry with myself over my panic fabric buy. The fabric is a colour and composition that I do wear in terms of it is blue and cotton so it will get sewn up and worn at some point. This incident and another in which last weekend I went to a 2nd fabric sale and didn’t buy anything but then 30mins later walked into a fabric shop and brought 3m of fabric just because I was a fan of the fabric designer. It is just a reminder to myself to stop and think before making purchases. Don’t get caught up in the moment, stop and think first do you really need it or are you just buying it because you’re in panic mode or because of the name on the selvage.

Oh and I have decided tomorrow I will not actually visit the craft store as I don’t actually need anything.

Cassiy

An Evening With Mark

In my 2025 books roundup post I mentioned that I read Fahrenheit-182 (a memoir by Mark Hoppus the bass guitarist from Blink 182) and that he was doing a speaking tour in March which I had purchased a ticket for.

I wasn’t sure what format the talk was going to be, whether someone would be interviewing Mark asking questions or if it would just be Mark alone talking. It is just Mark onstage by himself with a screen behind him telling stories and showing some clips. The ticket clearly started that it wasn’t a musical performance but just Mark speaking on stage. The talk was in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. As a people watcher I observed an eclectic mix of people attending the opera house that night. You had your more traditional opera house attendees dressed up in their finest clothing, the people you would expect at the opera house on a Saturday night. Then you had your punks / goths dressed in their finest black outfits with boots or sneakers (there were a lot of sneakers) and finally you had those who looked like they should’ve been at the skate park not the opera house. I have never seen so many people look awkward and out of place in my life. When Mark came on stage he made the comment along the lines of we were in the Concert Hall, a place which has held so many beautiful operas and performances and he was going to stand there and tell dick jokes. Attendees may of felt awkward outside the room but inside together they were with “their people” I was actually surprised by the number of people that attended on their own. I have no issues with going to things solo but I know a lot of people don’t feel that comfortable doing so.

A lot of the stories he told he’d written in the book but he did go into some in a little more depth. Aside from a couple of stories from the bands early days he didn’t really talk about much more than what was in the book. At the end Mark did an acoustic version of Damit with members of the now defunct Australian band Violent Soho. I must admit I had never heard of the band before (I have been a bit distant from the Oz music scene since the mid 2000’s) but to others in the audience it was a big deal. Despite not knowing who was on stage it was still a good way to end the night.

There was merchandise for sale: t-shirts, posters the usual stuff as well as copies of Mark’s book which had a signed photo in it. Music fans love buying stuff and the queue to buy things was really long. I already had the book so didn’t bother to get anything, I think I heard the book was $36 which I thought was reasonable since you got the signed photo as well.

In my books post I mentioned I was hesitant to buy a ticket to the event or not. I’m glad I did as I did enjoy myself. Despite my hesitation the seat I got was actually really good as I could see the entire stage. It is not often you get to hear a musician speak for any length of time, it is always in short interviews. Womble and I made a weekend of it and stayed at our favourite hotel for a couple of nights which is just down from the Opera House. We went out to dinner, the rocks markets and to our favourite shops we like to visit when we are in the city. It was a lovely weekend.

Cassiy

Duckie Bag

Confession the reason for making my Duckie pants at Easter was so that I could use the leftover fabric to make this bag by May.

Scenario: A change in work environment where I would be regularly moving between levels in a building and would be required to carry things

Solution: Make a bag that I could carry things in and free up my hand

For those readers who aren’t aware of my situation I walk with the aid of forearm crutch leaving only one hand free to carry things. I can actually carry a lot with one hand/arm if I have too but my preference is to keep my hand free. I often walk around with things hanging off me so I like things with straps or clips.

I had a shoulder bag which I worked out was over 20 years old. I got it from like a hippie store but it was something that you pick up in Bali or at hippie market (do they still have them?) It was just a simple polycotton bag that had a zip front pocket and zip internal pocket. The internal pocket zip I think broke years ago (before my sewing days) and was replaced with a zip that didn’t match by my mum I think but I can’t remember. The outside zip has been broken for years and I just never got around to fixing it. In the later years I’ve had to watch what I was wearing with the bag as the broken zipper tape would catch on knit items. I kept using the bag because it was so useful. When it came to making a carry bag for work I wanted to replicate it. The outer fabric is the duck print, the lining fabric was a yellow polycotton I found in my stash. I don’t like using polycotton, I only have it from my mum’s stash of fabrics so it was chance to use it up in something.

The bag design I came up with was slightly different to the original bag. I was replicating the size and function of the bag but not the construction. I didn’t need pockets and I wasn’t making the strap as part of the sides of the bag like the original. I drew up a really basic sketch for the bag body in my notebook and for the first time tried to replicate it above using Microsoft Word, this was like my template to cut my pieces by. If you have made bags before it was just a basic square tote pattern with box corners. The strap was a rectangle cut 54″ x 5″. From the lining fabric I was able to cut a piece on the fold which measured 14″ x 14.5″ this allowed me not to have a bottom seam. When it came to cutting out the duck print I didn’t have enough to essentially cut 2 squares 14.5″ x 14.5″. On the fold I was able to cut the fabric 14″ like I did with the lining fabric. I decided to add to width by cutting out 2 additional 2″ strips. Instead of adding the extra width needed at the side which would mean an extra seam within the box corners I decided to slice the fabric in half at the centre and add in the 2″ strip in the middle.

This bag was made over 2 days.
Day 1 – I designed it, cut out the fabrics and started sewing. At the time of making this my sewing machine was playing up (it badly needed a service) but I desperately wanted to get this bag made. I had to piece together the straps and top stich the join to give it extra strength. I opted for the join not to be at the centre of the strap so it is part way down the strap. I also stitched up the sides of the lining bag.
Day 2 – As I adding the centre piece to the middle of the outside bag I realised I only needed a single 2″ strip so set the other aside. As I was piecing the bag I realised the height was going to be shorter than I had planned out. I forgot that when doing box corners you lose the bottom and side sections to the base and gusset of the bag once the corners are stitched into place.To overcome the shortness of the bag I decided to add the remaining cut 2″ strip I had to the top of the bag. As I hadn’t sewn together the sides of the front I just stitched on the strip to each edge. From the lining fabric I cut out an extra 2″ strip but as I had already sewn the sides I had to sew the sides of the strips together to form a loop and then attach it to the main lining matching up the side seams to that I already sewn. It took a little extra time as I was ironing seams as I went but it was worth it in the end.

The strap was formed by just folding the strip in half and then sewing around the open edge leaving a turning gap. It was attached to the outside of the bag once the bag had been completed.

I enjoyed making this bag despite the hiccups on day 2. I used up most of my duck print scraps and some polycotton from my stash. My poor sewing machine badly needed a service but I was desperate to get this bag finished before I sent it away. The machine was having a tension issue most times when you started it. Once I got sewing it was ok but I was getting lots of birds nests before it would kick in and sew without issue. Making this bag I actually tried to always have part of the bag under my sewing needle so I was chain piecing between tasks, if I didn’t have a section of the bag I could sew I had a scrap of fabric I was sewing just keep the momentum going. Probably wasn’t the best thing to do but sometimes sewist do things we shouldn’t.

Side by side comparison to my original bag

The bag holds a notepad, pen, my phone plus any additional paperwork or items I need to carry. Unless I’m going to the bathroom I pretty much put it on each time I leave my desk to go into another room. I can safely use a set of stairs holding onto the handrail as my hand is free and not trying to juggle things. The bag makes people smile and I’ve had a lot of compliments on it. When I’m not wearing it I hang it over the side of my cubical divider. As the bag is soft and scrunches up when I have to sit at another computer for a short time (15 – 30mins) I twist the bag around to the back of me so I still have it on me but I can be comfortable sitting back in the chair.

Will I make another version of this bag to replace my other one? Yes but next time I would have it at least 16.5″ tall not 14.5″. I would also include an internal zipper pocket within the lining bag so that I can store my keys in. I might also reduce the length of the strap slightly too. I have leftover brick fabric from my other pants I made at Easter so it might be a good project to use it up on as it is nice and sturdy fabric.

Cassiy

Binny

Every so often I come across and I become hyper focused about it. I’ll be in two minds if I should buy it or not and I will keep going back to the website its on to look at it or I’ll start looking to see if others have made it. That was the case with the Binny Bolster.

The Binny Bolster is a yoga bolster pattern by Kylie and The Machine. KATM as she is affectionally known is an Australian designer most known for her funky sew in / sew on fabric labels. She also a series of PDF patterns. The Binny Bolster is a pattern she released earlier this year. The bolster is designed in mind to be filled with your fabric scraps. The pattern gets its name from a nickname we have for a native Australian bird called an Ibis which is often referred to as a “Bin Chicken” as it is known to eat out of rubbish bins. Binny eats your fabric scraps. I must admit after I first stumbled across the pattern I went onto Youtube and found a series of free patterns and tutorials but I really liked the Binny. It looked like a robust bolster which had a hand strap and came in two sizes plus bird crazy me liked the origin of the pattern name. I do have a soft spot for Ibises, at our old rental a juvenile who had been kicked out of his flock once spent the night sleeping on our balcony railing and we became an Ibis Hotel (it is the name of a hotel chain in Australia) With advice from WIRES he moved on and didn’t become a fixture at our place. This project is so simple you could easily make one in less than a couple of hours (I would even say 60 mins) but it took me two days….

The fabric suggestions for the bolster were for more hardwearing and robust fabrics (denims, corduroy, twill, velvet) When I purchased the pattern (I had to wait until we weren’t having a No Spend Day) I thought I had plenty of those kind of fabrics in my stash. I had some time to kill before work so I randomly walked into my craft cave and remembered that years ago I had cut out a wrap skirt in a corduroy but had never stitched it up. The paisley corduroy fabric had been sitting cut in my stash since at least 2019. I decided the Binny was the perfect project for the fabric since I clearly never going to make the skirt. As mentioned the pattern came in two sizes, I had enough of the paisley fabric to make either size but I really couldn’t decide what size to make. Throughout the day I kept trying to decide when I had a sudden thought, in my stash I was certain I had some leftover corduroy from when I made my jacket last year. When I got home I went to my stash and discovered yes I did have a large piece of uncut fabric but also a heap of scraps and offcuts from cutting out my jacket pattern pieces. All the scraps started to fall into place. For some reason the last couple of months I have been using the quote “Cinderella you shall go to the ball!” a lot but this really was a “Cinderella you shall make both size bolsters!” moment. Between purchasing the pattern and tracing everything out I did wash and dry the paisley offcuts only because they had been sitting in my stash for so long, the corduroy had been sitting on my clean shelf so I knew it was ok.

Day 1
I traced out the pattern pieces. If I have one small suggestion if you make this pattern is that you don’t need to print all the PDF pattern pages only those which have the circular end pieces as the main body piece is a giant rectangle. The rectangle measurements aren’t in the pattern instructions but are printed within the circular pattern pieces. I didn’t know this until after I had printed out the entire pattern.

I played around with my fabric offcuts and worked out which size I could make from each fabric. All my offcuts where different sizes and shapes. I found two smaller odd shapes which fitted the round pattern pieces. The rest of my offcuts I trimmed off to form rectangle shapes to make piecing together easier. I measured my rectangles taking into consideration seam allowance on pieces each side of the rectangle to see what pieces I needed to piece together to form my giant rectangle. Most of my striped offcuts were narrow but I did have 2 larger rectangles which I decided would be the 2 pieces I would seam together and install the zipper. I used them as a base to piece the other rectangles two. From the paisley fabric I had 2 pieces which were wider enough to go around but not long enough at the sides for the length. On those pieces I opted to attach a side piece to each one but offset them so the piece was on different ends on each side of the bolster. I did two rows of stitching when I pieced together the fabrics to add strength. I often do a double line of stitching on all of my seams when I make bags. As corduroy has a nape I had to take care that each piece I pinned together all went in the same direction. On the striped fabric it was easy as there was an obvious difference in feel but on the paisley it was little harder. I spent a lot of time patting fabric that morning. I had enough paisley fabric to cut out a handle but I didn’t in the stripe fabric so I opted not to have a handle. Once I had my two rectangles and two end pieces for the bolsters ready I then traced out pelon interfacing to the size of each piece. I was about to start fusing the interfacing but then I heard our birds wanting to get up. Our birdcage is on wheels, on nights when I’m home the next day our birds are moved to our bedroom for a “sleepover” so that I can make noise in the lounge area without disturbing them. Days when I go to work I turn minimal lights on and then I leave the house but if I’m home I’m up doing quiet activities and they decide they too want to get up at 5am and make a lot of noise. I don’t like to fuse interfacing to fabrics when the birds are in the room or are about to come into the room as it can give off fumes and I don’t want to make them sick so I like to fuse fabrics early so any fumes can clear from the room before they enter.

Day 2
In the early hours of the morning I fused the interfacing, there were some fumes but not as bad as I was expecting.  Gathering other offcuts of the paisley fabric which I trimmed them down into rectangles and pieced them together to make a handle for the smaller I bolster. I then installed the zippers and finished constructing the bolsters. Normally on a curve such as the round ends I would hand baste the fabric into place instead of just pinning it to make it easier to sew at the machine. On this project I just used pins and even on the smaller bolster it was easy to do. By late morning both bolsters were finished but stuffing would be for another day.

Ok so Day 2 didn’t go as smoothly as that….

The Binny has a lapped zipper. The instructions have you sew the body in one single tube with the only seam being the one you do the lapped zipper in. I knew I would struggle with that (even though there are instructions on how to do it in a tube) I opted for flat open rectangles. Even if I hadn’t pieced my fabrics I would’ve sliced my main piece to do it that way. I’ve done lapped zippers heaps of times before. When I was doing these ones I didn’t sew my seam allowance wide enough. When I ironed the seam open flat for the zipper the seam folded back but not enough. I pinned both zippers in place but luckily I started with the smaller zip first. I stitched it very slowly with the zipper facing down (it was navy thread so I wasn’t worried what the top stitching would look like on the front. I went as close to the teeth that I could but when I flipped it over I noticed I didn’t catch all of the folded back lapped seam allowance. All my seams were sewn twice except for the basting stitches for the zipper placement. I needed to unpick the zipper plus the seams on the smaller bolster plus the seam on the larger one as it too didn’t have a wide enough seam allowance. It added about another hour to the project with all the unpicking, repining and sewing. I was kicking myself for such a rookie error but I didn’t get angry as there was no point the mistake happened I just had to rectify it. I pulled out the unpicker removed the tiny stitches.

Better zipper seam

Normally when I use an unpicker I just use the blade section so I have the safety ball on top and flick out the stitches using the blade. When it came to removing the basting stitches between the zipper opening and I flipped over the unpicker so the safety ball was at the bottom. It glided through the stitches with a breeze.

I very much enjoyed making these as it really was an exercise in sustainable sewing. I used up offcuts and cut out fabrics lingering in my stash just doing nothing. I have made 2 practical items which once fully stuffed I can use. I will post a picture once they are both fully stuffed but it might be a while yet. It is actually refreshing going through my fabric scraps and culling bits I know I won’t use to stuff this with, this was the project I referred to in my Wool Felt post. I guess it is easier to let go of something if you know it is going to be used in something and not just going to landfill.

Cassiy

Lemon Socks

I have a sock knitting addiction at the moment that I really can’t help. The day I finished my grape socks I cast on my next pair.

Up until I sat down to write this post I was calling these socks my Citrus socks. The yarn I’m knitting my socks with is Regia Cotton Color. The ball bands on the yarn don’t have a colourway name on them just a code number, some are fruit based so have an image of fruit on them, others have no indication of the name. The ball band of these had lemons and lime hence why I was calling them my Citrus socks but Goggling the code number the colourway is lemon or code 02424.

Do these socks have a story in the making of them? When I first cast these on they remined me of my old school socks which I wore in my last 3 years of high school, my socks were pale yellow but they didn’t have funky lime stripes. On sock 1 I had finished the rib section and was working on the leg section when I dropped a stitch which I only noticed a few rows on. Instead of trying to pick it up I took them off my needles and re-cast them on. On my previous 2 pairs of socks I noticed joins within the yarn which ended up occurring on every sock. With these I only had a join on sock 2.

Speaking of sock 2. When it came to grafting the toe section I almost made a very big boo boo. Normally grafting occurs when I’m on my own and I have the lounge area to myself with silence and I can concentrate. Our birds are allowed out to roam some of the time but I don’t like to use needles (even darning needles) or scissors around them. When they are out you also have to watch they aren’t going to areas they aren’t allowed (which they do when you aren’t paying attention) The birds had been out as I was finishing the toe and by chance they went into the cage just as I was got to the 20 stitches required for the graft. I quickly locked them away, grabbed my scissors, cut my yarn and then realised I hadn’t knitted around to the side section of the sock where you graft across. Luckily after the incident on my Apple socks where I didn’t really leave a long enough tail to graft now I make sure I cut my tail yarn long, almost the length of the foot. I had enough yarn to knit to the side of the sock and do the graft. I was a little rattled and as I was doing the graft I thought I had created an extra stitch on needle one and that I dropped a stitch. Sometimes instead moving the around the needles as I graft I accidentally go over needle one or slip a stitch off needle one as I move the yarn to needle two. I was stressing myself for no reason, no extra stitch or dropped stitch. It was actually one of the best grafts I’ve done.

The sock addiction hasn’t waned and within minutes of these finished I had randomly selected my next ball of yarn and cast them on. I did let the birds out as I was casting on the next pair, as I wasn’t paying attention Custer got up to mischief. It took a long time to get to 60 stitches as I had to keep putting down my cast on to retrieve him from an area off limits.

Cassiy

Daily Writing Prompt: Home Decoration Style

Daily writing prompt

What’s your home decoration style?

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My home decoration style is that I don’t have one or is not having one a style within itself?

I fully respect anyone that does follow a style or trend when decorating their home. Your home, you do it your way. Following a certain style or way has never been me. I don’t get excited walking into a shop and seeing all the pieces within a range or collection thinking I want to buy it all or flick through a magazine looking for inspiration to create a certain look. I’m also a person who likes practical things so I don’t tend to buy things unless they have a useful purpose.

Our home is a mismatch of colours and textures. All our bookcases are white, I got white Ikea bookcases in my teens so when we needed to buy more Ikea bookcases about 10 years back I just got more white ones as I still had the other ones. When it comes to buying coloured items my first choice is blue and then green but I don’t really mind if I can’t get either. Last year we got a new lounge and it is a different colour blue and fabric to our recliner chairs as we kept the recliners from our previous lounge suite. Do we care? No we just wanted a lounge that was functional and there was no point wasting our previous chairs which still worked and were in good condition.

I don’t do decorative things around the house. Our bookcases have some random photo frames mostly from my 20’s when I put a lot of photos in frames. Mostly our bookcases in the lounge are for function to hold books/magazines/cd’s/sewing items. If we have blankets around they are for Womble to put over him and not to be aesthetically pleasing. Our linens around the house don’t match, for bath towels it is easier for us to tell who’s who if they are different colours. In the kitchen our tea towels are a mismatch of homemade, purchased ones and ones we’ve been given.

I like our little apartment. It isn’t a showroom, it is lived in. The items within it show what we value as important to us, a more simple practical environment. Not every house has about 10 grabbing tools around it but with two disabled people ours does and it works for us.

Cassiy

Wool Felt Stash

I’m in the process of doing a bit of a tidy up / declutter of my craft supplies. My wool felt stash has been something I have been pondering a while.

In my toy making days I used felt a lot for facial features on dolls / bears but I’ve also made entire projects out of felt for both kids and animals. Wool felt was the best as it was machine washable. I had a lot of it in my stash. I had it stored in a drawers in a desk organising unit. The felt sheets I would buy fitted nicely in the drawers. I had never thought about blogging about it so I never bothered to take a photo of it.

2 years ago I made the decision to stop making toys and the gifts that I give. I just didn’t have the time anymore to commit to it and the kids I made for weren’t little kids anymore. My felt stash is the last big thing remaining from my toy making days that I can’t use in other projects. For months I have looked at the drawer unit on the shelf in the study and contemplated getting rid of it. I know I’ll never use it again but I still just couldn’t part with it.

Last week I was in the process of looking for fabric scraps to use as stuffing in another project (which I will share soon) I started going through the felt shelves looking for any small pieces which I know I wouldn’t use. I made the decision that it was finally time to part with it and packed it all into bags. I was going to take it to work to see if collogues wanted it for their young kids to play with or take to their daycare centre but then I remembered that the hospital where I work has a room that kids and their siblings can go to play game and do craft activities. I decided to donate it all to them instead. I sorted it into a bag off cuts and odd shapes and a separate bag which has larger uncut of mostly untouched pieces that the staff can cut up. I told womble of my idea and he loved it. Instead of it just lingering at home for weeks I took it into work the next day. The staff were so excited to receive the donation. One staff member instantly started coming up with ideas and activities she could use the different pieces in.

I had to fill out paperwork for the donation and one of the questions was the cost of the item I was donating. I put down $50 but I underestimated forgetting how much each sheet of felt cost so I think it was more $100 – $150. It sounds like a lot money but I wasn’t thinking of the felt that way, I was thinking it as items on my shelf just sitting idle. I would rather it go to place where it can be used instead of just sitting on a shelf. It made me smile as the staff member started telling me her ideas. I know I picked the perfect place for the felt to go to. I brought the felt originally to be mostly used in kids toys and now that I’m no longer doing that it is still getting used to make kids who need a distraction from what’s going on around them happy. That’s made me happy.

Cassiy

Daily Writing Prompt: Basic Skill

Daily writing prompt

What’s a skill you consider basic, that most people don’t actually know how to do?

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When I first read this writing prompt my mind started thinking, you don’t often think of the skills that you have. Naturally my first mindset was to think of my crafting skills (knitting, sewing, crochet, embroidery) but then I thought of something else I do nearly every day.

Back in 2000 during my tertiary education I learnt how to touch type which I picked up easily except for typing tests. I can type fast but just not under pressure. What they didn’t teach us which I really wanted to learn was how to use the numeric keypad on the keyboard. Growing up when you used to go into an actual bank and visit a bank teller to get money out of your account I was fascinated by how fast the tellers used the numeric keyboard. There focus was on the screen but their fingers were moving so fast typing away at the numbers without them looking at it.

In 2001 I was looking for work. I enrolled with a temporary employment agency. At the agency’s office you could book time on a computer which had programs to improve your computer skills. One of the programs they had was on using the numeric keypad. If I wasn’t working I would book time in and learnt how to touch type the keypad. At the time I had no use for it but I really enjoyed it and figured it might come in handy in future. I went on to find jobs which involved data entry at times I was able to use my newly learnt skill there. In 2003 when I got work in a hospital which involved a lot of data entry I started using the numeric keypad every day and have been ever since. To me using the numeric keypad is so basic but I know to a lot of other people it isn’t, just don’t ask me to do a speed test on it 🙂

Cassiy

Pullman Pants

I haven’t done a clothing To Sew for 12 months but on the last one I did winter pjs were on the list. In May this year I actually made them.

In the past I have used a couple patterns for pjs thinking about it now I still haven’t posted about the last pair I made back in 2024. The pattern I decided to use this time around was the June pants by Helen’s Closet patterns. I love this pattern now, it is easy to make and is very comfortable to wear which is what you want for pj pants. Summer pjs are also on my to sew list. Back in November I actually cut out my summer pjs using this pattern but I haven’t gotten around to sewing them yet. They are a completely different colour to these pants so I couldn’t sew two at once like I did with my duck and lego pants. I make my June pants without the drawstring in the waist and on this version I omitted the pockets as I don’t need them in pj pants.

The fabric used is flannelette purchased from my local small fabric shop, I like purchasing from that shop if they have what I need just to keep small businesses going. Having no pockets these were a very quick make which I finished in one morning. I needed to test out my large sewing machine on her return from service so I opted to make these as I was hoping to have them finished in time for our June weekend away, keep reading to find out why. Happy to report my machine is working great again.

In a previous post I mentioned that I only wear elastic waisted things now. If the elastic is all the way around the waist (which most garments are) I do my waistbands different to most pattern instructions. Most patterns with a separate attached waistband will have you either fold the waistband in half leaving a bottom gap to thread the elastic through, close the gap and top stitch the stretched elastic in the middle of the waistband or only stitch one long of the waistband to the pants, have you join your elastic in circle, fold the waistband over the elastic and stitch into place around the top of the pants. If in future for whatever reason you need to replace the elastic you need to do a lot of unpicking to get to the elastic. I opt to leave an open gap where I join the short end of the waistband together that I can thread the elastic through once it is stitched onto the top of the pants. To stop the elastic flipping within the waistband I stitch across the elastic at the sides and sometimes the front and back. I don’t add tags into my clothing, on pants like these where it isn’t obvious which side is the back the gap is my indicator. As these are pj pants in a light weight fabric I was able to use some of my thinner strength elastic. I’ve happily worn these and the elastic is strong enough.

I said I wanted these finished in time for our June weekend away. Firstly it was because I knew the hotel room would have space for us to take photos and I wanted these photographed when they were new before I spilt food on them. All the rooms in our favourite hotel have the same colour scheme. As I was making these I knew I would match the hotel room feature wall which is how I came up with the nickname Pullman pants for these pants. When I purchased the fabric last year I only went for this print as it wasn’t girly or childish. I do like bright funky childish fabrics but sometimes I want calm and muted. I wasn’t even thinking it was the hotel room colour scheme.

Cassiy

Book: How To Keep House While Drowning

A little background info before I go any further back in 2010 around this time of year Womble retired from work due to illness and I became the sole income earner of the house. In the early years Womble was able to contribute to some of the domestic chores but over the years as his condition deteriorated more I took over more and more of the chores. These days I do about 90-95% of everything. Early on Womble had a cleaning schedule he would follow, doing a little each day. As I took on more things I’ve kind of tried to develop a schedule but without much success. I haven’t ever really taken the time to sit down and write out everything that needs doing and the frequency in full. Over the last few years my cleaning schedule has seem to be do nothing and then do everything. I’ll decide I’m having a sewing weekend and sew in the mornings for a few hours both days if we are home and that is all I do (generally the afternoons are spent relaxing watching tv together and me knitting) Every so often I will decide it is a cleaning weekend and spend the mornings cleaning. I have never really been able to get the balance right between sewing and cleaning. What I started doing without realising was I was waiting until Womble was in bed before I started doing any cleaning so I wouldn’t make him feel guilty watching me do it when he couldn’t. Sometimes it was in the evenings, sometimes it was on weekends. When he got up sometimes I would point out to him all that I did whilst he was sleeping (like I was a child who wanted a gold star for doing something) It was silly because
a) adults don’t get a gold star for doing stuff that needs to be done
b) it defeated the purpose of me doing whilst he wasn’t around so he wouldn’t feel guilty.
At one stage I did address the issue of me not wanting to clean in front of him. Whenever I got home from work he would tell me to relax instead of doing some chores. Yes it is nice to relax but relaxing doesn’t get the chores done. I told him that I need to do things in front of him and neither one of us should feel guilty for that.

In my Simple Living Fraud post I mentioned I had read “How To Keep House While Drowning” by KC Davis. I was able to borrow it from my local library. It is only a small book (151 pages) but it is packed full of easy to digest ideas and information. It was an interesting little read which put things into perspective. The book talks about changing the way we view household chores and how to tackle them in small ways. I read the book twice, the first time was just general reading, the second time I sat with a notebook and scribbled down different parts which jumped out at me. I think the book is written for those who have ADHD or are neurodivergent but really is for anyone who is feeling a little overwhelmed and struggling with domestic chores. I must admit I have never really read much about neurodivergence so I don’t know a lot about it. I have made no secret on here that I have OCD and have sensory issues but I don’t know if that makes me neurodivergent. KC describes this book as a “self help book for those who don’t like self help books” After reading the book I tend to agree with her.

KC doesn’t refer to cleaning tasks as chores but instead calls them “care tasks” Not to be disrespectful but reading it my first instinct was “ok this is a little Kumbaya” When I think of the term “care tasks” I think of it as personal care like helping someone shower so it is a struggle for me to think of mopping the floor as a care task. I understand her reasoning for calling them “care tasks” as they are tasks you do around your house to care for your family. I also struggle to think of our house (2 adults, 2 birds) as a family as I tend to think of family in the legal context. I kept an open mind and continued reading. I do like the idea of not calling them chores and for thinking about the reason why you are doing each task eg “Cleaning up the kitchen bench and taking out the rubbish each day so that you don’t encourage bugs” or a big thing in our house I should remember “dusting to prevent breathing problems” It puts things into perspective. In general I like to know the reasons why behind things so you understand why you do them.

One of the big messages in the book is that we put too much unwarranted pressure on ourselves. We put expectations on ourselves that we must do things a certain way or our surroundings need to be a certain level of clean all the time. We see it as a shameful failure if we don’t meet these expectations. We need to stop applying pressure to ourselves and take a different approach to how we view things. You need to start doing things in a way that works for you and your situation.

The main big things I took away from it were

1. Resting is not being lazy – You are allowed to sit and do things you enjoy without the guilt of “I should be doing something else right now”
2. Every room in your entire house will never be clean all at the same time and that is ok.
3. You are not responsible for all the environmental issues going on in the world, in your situation if you need to use or do something that isn’t “eco friendly” to function then do it / use it
4. You don’t need to have kids for your struggles with care tasks to be valid
5. Clean to keep a space functional – Look at a space and decide what needs to be done to maintain its function.
6. Good enough is perfect – Your idea of what level is considered clean or tidy doesn’t need to be the same as someone else’s
7. Cleaning schedules are good but
   • Lists are there to serve you not you serve it
   • It is ok to do things out of order
   • You don’t need to complete everything on the list each week – Sometimes you won’t and that’s ok
8. Motivation causes motivation – When you see progress you often motivated to keep going and do more
9. Think about why you are doing a task – Health and safety, comfort, happiness

Another big thing in this book is that you don’t need to do things the traditional way just because that is the way it is expected you do it. She uses the example of she doesn’t fold a lot of her laundry as she has young kids and it doesn’t matter if their stuff has wrinkles as they are young kids and no one is going to notice, why waste your time folding clothes if you don’t have too. I’m still trying to work out what areas I can use apply this logic to in our situation. She also suggests breaking large tasks into smaller more manageable steps so they don’t feel so overwhelming for examples gather all the dishes you need to clean into one space and sort them out and then start to wash them. To some that might seem a little bit obvious but when you are very overwhelmed and don’t know where to start it is small step to getting things done.

A good book gets you thinking and that is what this book did. I’m now looking at the way I do things around the home with a new approach. I have another book which I’m yet to blog about which lists out what cleaning tasks need to be done in each area of your house. I will grab a notebook and using that book as a guide go room by room in our house looking at what needs to be done to make that room functional for us. Once I can see all that needs to be done and how often I will devise a cleaning plan that works for us being mindful of what I can do at certain times during the day due to living in a high rise apartment (no taking the rubbish or recycling out at 5am) No longer am I putting pressure on myself to have things clean to other people’s standards, I’m happy at a level which keeps us healthy and safe. I mentioned earlier that I struggle to think of us as a family, I do often refer to us a flock (yes I am bird crazy) I am doing the best I can to care for our flock and that is all that matters.

Cassiy