Letters from Wetville

Once upon a time I was really very interested in the slow movement. Slow food, sustainable practises to look after the earth, smelling the roses, child-led home learning, walking instead of driving, cloth nappies and food cooked from scratch. I stopped short of a few fascinating innovations like hayboxes, but I was all for it. As I dug up lawn to turn it into vege garden, washed cloth nappies and tried out home made cleaners, I assumed that I (and my household) was moving in a forward, progressive, somewhat linear fashion towards a slower and greener life. But in the midst of these things I enjoyed pursuing, I liked my job. The one I had before Fionn and in between Fionn and Brighid. The one I chose to go back to very part time when Brighid was a year old and the one I am doing more of this year. The one I still like. Which has something to do with the shift in the way we live. Today's finest achievement: 2.35pm: leave work and head to supermarket. See free range chicken pr...

I've spent more evening time at my sewing machine than in my garden this summer. Now that I've finished my sewing goals for the moment and it is still balmy of an evening, I'm back outside. I had to admit in the weekend that the summer has been gorgeous and the soil neglected and now it is very dry. Tonight I did lots of watering, some weeding, fed the compost, pruned the herb garden and planted some cavolo nero kale. Two months ago I sowed bergamot, white sage and evening primrose seeds. The problem with sowing seeds of plants I am not familiar with, is trying to sort the weeds from the intentional seedlings. Direct sowing isn't always the easiest method. I have several plants growing which I thought might be bergamot, but as it has belatedly occurred to me to check by bruising and smelling a leaf tonight, I can report that I've merely let some slightly uncommon weeds flourish. Brighid had a fabulous first day at school.

Carrot harvest. I also harvested the rest of the garlic and some of the beetroot. I weeded the chook grave garden and replanted it with geraniums and kale. I took this photo last night. It is a carrot plant gone to seed in its first season, which carrots are not supposed to do. It happened to several plants, rendering those carrots very tough and inedible. All of the seeding plants were the white belgian variety, which I have read is well suited to winter growing. Maybe I would have more success if I planted the white belgian seed in autumn. Tomorrow is all go, Brighid's first day at school. She is very excited and I am really pleased that we have time release from work to both take her on her first day.

The blue cardigan is done. Notice how in the photograph the light is bad, the cardigan looks green and the background appears to be a slovenly mess of unmade bed? The only part which is an illusion is that the cardigan is blue in real life. I read and adore some truly gorgeous blogs where people wait days and even weeks to get good light and someone to take good photographs of them modelling their creations. This is not a gorgeous blog; it is the blog of impatient woman who is learning to sew. Anyways, I am quite pleased with the cardigan. There is a little bit of puckering but I figure it is only by sewing more that I will get any better at that bit. I actually still sew quite wonky seams and I may never ever sew contrasting thread topstitching. But a little wonky puckeringness is way better than cardies which stop half way over my bosom, which is the only kind shops sell. I do like how the sleeves aren't too long as well. Will I make it again? Maybe. Possibly in a sligh...

The world of paid work is not just knocking gently. Tomorrow it will be an alarm clock going off loudly. It has been a great summer with much to love and cherish. Brighid had her actual fifth birthday earlier this week which was a furling whirling lovely day of visitors and visiting. Tonight I remembered to go to the supermarket and buy food for school lunches. Mostly, I've been fitting in sewing my blue cardigan, as though it represents organisation itself. If I can have it finished for Monday (no chance for tomorrow), the Global Fabrics sewing project will be complete. It seems almost talismanic, as if completing the sewing will confer order on my world, despite the rational element in my brain noting that time spent sewing is time ignoring everything else which needs doing. A few days ago it looked like this: A cardigan which reaches to the centre front is a rare and wonderful thing for me. It may still be a smidgen small but that is because I altered to measurements t...

Geraldine Brooks' The People of the Book is my best read of this year. Possibly last year also. This morning the children got to make themselves ice creams in cones and drink powerade and help themselves to chocolate all so I could concentrate on reading People of the Book . Eventually, with some regret, I finished it, and re-entered my usual world. It is both a marvellous and absorbing read and also for me a constant reminder of the relentless persecution of Jewish people over many many centuries. Next beside my bed is a Linda Grant novel. Sewing. The pattern alterations aspect has gone fairly well, but matching the band on the cardigan to the altered fronts has involved a lot of pinning and repinning and a lot of unpicking. I've left it for the evening and altered my 50 cent op shop slip instead. Now it fits perfectly to go under yesterday's $15 teal dress and today's $15 black dress. Postie Plus has a store here in Wetville and sure enough, they had the sam...

This making clothes fit lark requires some brain power, endless thinking and consultation of Palmer and Pletsch's Fit for Real People . Then lots of practising. I'm part way through all that and have far to go. Below is the full bust adjustment I did for the top in New Look 6735 . I feel like I learnt a lot just making this adjustment, but there are still a lot of pulls in the fabric when I wear it. This time I am making the knit cardigan from the same pattern, which has a similar shape, so I thought I would try a new FBA method. Although FFRP advise that for alterations of more than 1.5 inches per side, a "Y" bust dart alteration is the best method, that seemed too hard at the time. Now it seems I have the requisite bravery (and the knowledge that I bought the fabric and if I don't sew it up, then I have wasted quite a bit of cash on the merino). Here is the cardigan front with the "Y' bust dart alteration. I'm part way through sewing the ca...