Books I am reading

This is a quick post to let you know about a couple of the crafty books by my bed at the moment. The first one is called Bread Matters: How and why to make your own by Andre Whitley. I have been making my own bread for a while, mainly because I find it a little terrifying how long a loaf of store bought bread will last, staying as soft as the day you brought it for weeks. What are they putting in there? This book is particularly good as it has an extensive section on how modern bread is made and why it is not good for us. Two big things I took away from this was, that you can not trust the ingredients listed on the packaging, as enzymes do not need to be listed. Now apart from the emerging science that some of these are bad for us, some enzymes are derived from animal products, meaning vegetarians aren't able to make informed choices about what they are eating. Secondly, to get the full range of vitamins and minerals that bread used to provide, we need to stick to stone-ground wholemeal flour, as the other 'wholemeal' flours have had many of their ingredients removed. What I like about this book (apart from the pages and pages of lovely recipes) is that the authors claims are backed up by scientific research. I am very weary of people who make claims without proof, but Andrew Whitley has really done his research.
The second book is a very new one that I am already loving, Sew It Up by Ruth Singer (this appears to be called The Sewing Bible in the US). This is full of tips on how to create really good finishes on your sewing projects, from zips to hems to buttonholes to pleats. I will find this very useful as I know the basics of sewing, but I lack the skills to finish off my garments so they look really professional (particularly zips, mine look terrible!). So far I have only read a few pages, and flicked through to see what it covers but I am impressed and am looking forward to using some of these techniques on new projects.

Both these books are avaliable from Fishpond

Dahlia

Today I feel uninspired, which means I am not making the most of my photography, being uncreative and trite. So, here instead is post about another project I made a few weeks ago.

I found a tutorial for a lovely Dahlia brooch on Holidash, and suddenly I was obsessed, and while I knew I would never wear it as a brooch I saw many other opportunities. First up, as we have just moved into a new flat, a new very very white flat, I have been trying to add a little colour. My idea had been cushions, covered with dahlias, I worked it out as each cushion would need nine flowers. But, as I had three cushions to do it didn't take me too long to do the math and realise I would need to make 27 flowers, and as each took me about 2 hours, this simply was never going to happen. So I have made two big dahlia's and stuck them one smack bang in the middle of each cushion, which I also quite like.

Next up was one in a beautiful blue, which I also had some matching vintage buttons. I have decided to usethis one in one of my millinery projects, possibly the fascinator with sinamay leaves. I think this could work quite well?

One small adjustment I made to the pattern was instead of glueing the petals, I hand-stitched each one on. This was mostly because I could not find a decent glue here in Sydney, but also I suspect that for cushions stitching might be a bit more durable. This was also one of my first times working with felt and I really enjoyed it. I think it might have opened up a few more creative doors for me. But, we will see.

The Pin Cushion

This is a project I made about three weeks ago - as you can tell I am still getting used to blogging, and blogging regulary...

The two fabrics that I had, when looked as as a whole both seemed very green so I thought it would be fun to make an apple pincushion, who doesn't love apples right?

Well after looking on line at other peoples pincushions, (did you know there are whole groups dedicated to pincushions on Flickr), I thought I had it sussed, so with all the confidence in the world I started cutting and sewing. This was the result.

As you can see, while this is very convincing garlic, as an apple, not so much. So I spent a bit of time figuring out what went wrong and I came to the conclusion that each piece was to wide (it is made from six pieces). So I tried again...and still no apple! At this point I gave up on the apple, stuck a button to the top and now I think I have a perfectly nice non-fruit (or garlic) like pincushion.

Who says giving up is for losers? Worked perfectly alright for me :-)

Tomato relish

Yesterday I made a very yummy tomato relish so thought I would share the recipe, which my sister-in-law gave to me while we were in Papua new Guinea. She thought it was so good because of the tomatos there but I think it is just as good with any other tomatos.

Ingredients:

8 tomatos

3 Onions

25g salt

1 cup sugar

white vinegar

Chop the tomatos and onions, sprinkle with the salt and leave to sit overnight. Then add the sugar and vinegar, just pour enough vinegar in so that you can just see it through the tomatos. Simmer for 1 and a half to 2 hours. Let it cool and enjoy. I highly recommend it in a toasted cheese sandwich ;-)

Hats, hats, hats

One of Catherine's beautiful hats

I had my first millinery class last night and it was so much fun!  My tutor is Catherine Kelly, a Sydney based milliner, who as you can see from the website makes some amazing hats.

http://www.embellish-hats.com/

I was lucky enough to get a peep into her studio and I was just like a kid in a candy shop.  We make two hats, a fascinator and a felt or straw hat.  Catherine believes in teaching traditional techniques so every thing is going to be hand done.  

Last night we started blocking our fascinators, which is a lot easier then I could have imagined, and now I want to run out and buy a block!  We also had a play with the sinamay, a banana leaf based product, that we use to make out fascinators.  It turns out that it is really easy to work with and create some amazing shapes.

We also choose the base for our next hat, which we then use to mold into the final product.  I have chosen a beautiful red felt, and I am picturing some giant silk flowers on it.  But I will let my imagination run free and see what I come up with.