SWINGTAG

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2010-10-11T23:36:00.001-07:00

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New shoes!

2010-03-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

Last week I bought these Poetic License shoes from Redpath - one of the few places in Canberra that sells interesting shoes. I particularly liked the scalloped edges and the shiny heel.

No idea where or when I'm going to wear them though.

Epic project fail :(

2010-03-07T01:19:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had those sewing disappointments where the pattern fits, the toile looks ok, but there's something about with the finished product that doesn't suit you?

The last thing I tried to sew was a Simplicity dress, 2724 (the pink version without the front ruffle) in a navy blue stretch cotton sateen.

The first issue was that the bust allowance was ridiculously small - the front, which is meant to sit at the waist, barely covered my ribcage. 3 drafts later for FBA, I was good to go for the final cut - or so I thought. After carefully finishing the dress with the straightest invisible zipper I'd ever sewn, I tried it on and found that the dress made me look top-heavy and frumpy.

I've had similar dresses before and they always looked good, so I can't figure out why this one looks stupid. What a waste of fabric. I suppose the only thing that can be done is salvage the bottom and make it into a skirt.

Pear and Blue Cheese Salad

2010-01-22T20:14:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make something easy, but kind of gourmet, to take to a friend's place for dinner. So I made this pear and blue cheese salad.

Ingredients:

Bag of mixed leaf salad

Small handful of pine nuts

4 pears

Extra virgin olive oil

50 grams of blue cheese (I used English Stilton)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Put pine nuts onto a baking tray and lightly spray with olive oil. Toast for about 5-10 minutes or until deep yellow or light brown.

While the pine nuts are being toasted, core and slice the pears. Mix with the salad leaves and drizzle olive oil on top. Crumble cheese into the salad. Add toasted pine nuts and toss.

Serve at room temperature.

New Bittersweet shoes

2010-01-05T03:21:00.000-08:00

I normally don't buy vinyl shoes given that they don't last long, but these were too cute to pass up when I saw them at Scooter today.

A simple dinner of carrot salad (ommok houria)

2009-12-03T00:52:00.000-08:00

I had a half a bag of carrots that has been sitting in my fridge for a few weeks. Instead of letting them go to waste, I decided to make Ommok Houria, or Mother Houria's carrot salad. This is a Tunisian recipe which, according to the North Africa cookbook, can be topped with sardines or tuna. I didn't have all the ingredients so made do with substitutions (in brackets) which IMO taste just as good.

Ingredients

1 pound carrots, peeled and thinly sliced (I used 5 carrots)

12 flat-leaf parsley sprigs (1 tablespoon of dried parsley flakes)

1 teaspoon ground caraway (1 teaspoon of caraway seeds)

2 tablespoons olive oil (3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil)

3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar (1 tablespoon of raspberry vinegar, which is quite sour hence only 1 tablespoon)

2 garlic cloves, minced (1/2 teaspoon of bottled garlic, because I was aiming for subtlety)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (Unnecessary IMO because of the harissa and the olives)

Harissa to taste (1 teaspoon of harissa paste)

12 kalamata olives

2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

Instructions

Boil carrots for 10-15 minutes, or until fully cooked. Drain and transfer to a medium bowl. Add the other ingredients and mix together. Serve at room temperature.

Too easy.

Aubergines Farcies (Stuffed Eggplants)

2009-11-29T02:53:00.000-08:00

Another yummy vegetarian recipe from the North African cookbook. I like this even more than the mint quiche.

I love black tomatoes and when I saw them in the shops today I decided to use them in this dish. Black tomatoes are actually a dark greenish-purple colour and have a strong smokey, slightly sweet taste that goes well with baking.

Ingredients:

2 large globe eggplants (or 1 humungous one - for this recipe I used 1 cut into quarters)

Extra virgin olive oil

Olive oil spray

1 onion, chopped

4 tomatoes

2 garlic cloves minced (or 1 teaspoon of bottled garlic)

1/3 cup wheatgerm

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

12 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, minced

8 fresh basil leaves

1 teaspoon of harissa (if you can't find harissa, use sambal olek which is available in Asian grocery stores)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Trim stems from the eggplants and cut the eggplants in half lengthwise.

Using a sharp knife (I recommend a paring knife), remove the flesh leaving a 2 cm thick shell. Chop up the flesh and set aside. The cookbook doesn't mention this but I recommend putting it in a bowl of salted cold water to prevent the flesh from turning grey, which is what happens to sliced eggplants when left out for a while.

Spray the shells with olive oil spray. Also spray the skin as this helps the eggplant keep its purple colour. Place the shells in an ovenproof dish lined with baking paper and bake for 4-5 minutes until light brown.

Put olive oil in a frypan and fry the onion until light brown. Chop 2 of the tomatoes and add them to the onion.

Remove the chopped eggplant from the water and pat dry with a paper towel. Add it to the frypan and reduce the heat to medium. Cover the frypan and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the eggplant is tender.

Transfer the eggplant mixture into a bowl. Mix it with the garlic, wheatgerm, cheese, parsley, basil, and harissa. Fill the shells with this mixture. Slice the remaining tomatoes and place on top of the stuffed eggplant. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve immediately.

Harissa

2009-11-29T02:45:00.000-08:00

Harissa is a chilli paste used in North African cooking and basically consists of ground chilli and garlic.
According to the North African cookbook, before you can make harissa you need to make tabil. Since I hate recipes where you have to make Dish A, B and C before you can actually bloody well start cooking dinner (which is why I don't normally do Japanese cooking), I just buy harissa off the shelf from the local deli. If you don't have harissa, a good substitute is sambal olek - a Malaysian chilli sauce which tastes similar to harissa. Sambal olek is sold in the Asian section of supermarkets as well as in Asian grocery stores.

Here are directions for making your own harissa.

Tabil
1/2 cup ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground caraway seeds
11/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chilli powder

Mix all the spices together and store in an airtight container. Use within 2 months.

Harissa
6-8 dried red chillies
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon of tabil
1/2 extra-virgin olive oil

Chop up the chillies with scissors and soak in hot water until soft. Drain them and use a paper towel to remove excess water. Put the chillies and other ingredients into a blender and mix into a paste. Place in a glass jar, cover with a thin layer of olive oiil and seal tightly. Refrigerate for up to 3-4 weeks.

Makhouda Nahna (Tunisian mint quiche)

2009-11-29T01:49:00.000-08:00

This delicious and nutritious dish is from The Vegetarian Table: North Africa by Kitty Morse, which a coworker lent to me. Makhoudas are more like a frittata than a quiche and can be served at either room temperature or hot. It can also be used as a filling for foccacias.

This recipe was quite easy although there's some pre-preparation involved with the bharat (Tunisian rose petal seasoning) and the parsley. It's essential though as the combination is what gives this dish its distinctive flavour.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
8 eggs
1 can of navy beans, drained and mashed with a fork (if you can't find navy beans, butter beans or rinsed and drained baked beans are good substitutes)
20 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, minced
210g of Swiss or Gruyere cheese (I used a small packet of Mainland Swiss cheese slices)
3 tablespoons dried bread crumbs (use wheatgerm for a healthier alternative)
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon bharat*
1/2 teaspoon salt (really not necessary given the amount of cheese involved)

Lemon wedges for garnish

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Brown onion in a frypan and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and add the onion, mashed beans, parley, mint, cheese, wheatgerm, paprika, bharat and salt.

Grease a 20cm baking tin (or line the tin with a baking sheet and spray with olive oil). Pour egg mixture into the dish and bake on the middle rack until golden brown and firm - 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before placing onto a serving platter.

Cut into slices and serve a room temperature with lemon wedges and green salad.

* How to make bharat
Bharat is a seasoning made from rose petals and is used to add flavour to meat and egg dishes.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons dried rosebuds (I used the rosebud tea from T2), stem and calyx removed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnanom.

Grind all ingredients together using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.

Pesto rice with tuna & broccoli

2009-11-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

Very easy to make. Bacon and tuna sounds like another strange combo but actually tastes good.

Ingredients:
2 cups of rice
2 cups of broccoli florets (frozen or fresh)
1 yellow capsicum
4 slices rindless bacon
1 250g tinned tuna in brine, drained
1/4 cup of basil pesto
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions:
Mix pesto and lemon juice together. Boil rice until cooked; boil broccoli florets until cooked (take care not to overcook them). Remove seeds and stalk from capsicum and cut into squares. Cut bacon into small pieces and fry until cooked.

When rice has cooled, add the pesto and lemon juice mixture. Add the capsicum, bacon and tuna and stir through, ensuring that the ingredients are evenly spread through the rice.

Linen skirt

2009-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

I actually finished this skirt ages ago - in January. I saw this linen fabric on sale and thought it would be perfect for the Michelle pattern from Burdastyle.com. It was easy to make although ensuring that the contrast bands around the waist were sewn on straight was time consuming. The bands were made from the underside of the fabric.

The original pattern has box pleats but I didn't like them so I changed them to knife pleats that point inwards. I also omitted the contrast hem because I wanted to keep the design simple.

The linen was scratchy to wear so I used cotton voile for lining and bias tape for the waistband facing. The triple stitching around the waist is for decorative purposes (not that anyone will notice) and also helps to stitch down the bias tape. The zipper is on the right-hand side of the skirt.

Total cost: about $55

Baked Pork Chops with Pears and Potatoes

2009-10-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here's another dish I made for dinner recently. Pears and potatoes with mustard and pork sounds like a weird combination but they actually go well together.

The recipe is from "Simple", released by Australian Gourmet Traveller. It's a good recipe if you want to try something different but it's also time consuming because the chops need to be marinated and the pears and potatoes have to be baked separately.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
3 cloves of garlic, crushed (I used 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic in the jar)
2 tablespoons of chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
Olive oil
Olive oil spray
4 pork loin chops
4 beurre bosc pears (I recommend 6 if you like baked pears)
500g chat potatoes
grated parmesan cheese

Optional: cinnamon

Directions
Mix lemon juice, mustard, garlic, parsley and olive oil in a glass or ceramic dish.
Marinate pork chops in mixture for a least an hour

Put pears and potatoes in a baking dish and spray with olive oil. Sprinkle cinnamon onto pears - this brings out the flavour. Bake until cooked.

Brown pork chops in a fry pan for 1-2 minutes on each side. Place chops in the baking dish on top of the pears and potatoes. Bake at 180c for 10 minutes or until pork is fully cooked.

Remove pork and rest for 5 minutes before serving with the pears and potatoes, sprinkled with parmesan. Serve with dijon mustard.

Pumpkin and Fetta Pie

2009-10-18T01:47:00.001-07:00

Here's my first recipe since I last updated my blog. This pie is easy to make and I had some for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:
3 sheets of puff pastry
500 pumpkin, chopped into small pieces
150 grams fetta cheese
1 cup of spinach leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil spray

Equipment:
21 cm springform cake tin
Food processor

Directions:
Boil pumpkin until soft. While it's cooking, crumble fetta cheese by mashing it with a fork and grind up spinach leaves in a food processor. Combine pumpkin, cheese and spinach in a bowl, and add salt and pepper if desired.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Spray the inside of the cake tin with olive oil (the spray is a healthier alternative to butter). Line the bottom and sides of the tin with a sheet of puff pastry. Pour the pumpkin, cheese and spinach mixture into the tin. Cover with the third sheet of pastry (fold the sides over the top). Lightly spray the top with olive oil.

Bake for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.

It's been a while

2009-10-18T01:23:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since I last updated this journal. I've been quite pre-occupied with work and various RL activities - in fact nearly a year's gone by since my last post, which I can't believe.

I'm still sewing and trying out new recipes and will post photos when I have time.

The Body Shape Bible

2009-01-31T23:14:00.000-08:00

My latest read is The Body Shape Bible by Trinny and Susannah (from the TV show What Not To Wear). Women's bodies vary a lot more than the standard 4 body types (hourglass, top heavy triangle, bottom heavy triangle, and rectangle) so Trinny and Susannah have extended these categories into 12 types which factor in other issues like leg length and build.

What I really liked about this guide was that it explained why some clothing styles work and others don't, complete with photos. Being a Vase, I should avoid smock tops, sleeveless tops and chunky shoes. The good thing is that Vases can wear glamourous styles like fitted blouses, pencil skirts and big hair for everyday wear and not look over the top. It just so happens I'm making the Kasia skirt which is so appropriate.

The Daily Mail has a summary of the 12 body types and the sorts of clothes and accessories that look best on each type.

Bias cut t-shirt with dolman sleeves

2008-12-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

I made this t-shirt over the weekend with a pattern I drew up myself. I traced the outline of one of my t-shirts onto paper and made the sleeves into dolman sleeves. The front and back are the same, except that the front neckline is slightly lower. Instead of having a plain hemline at the bottom, I scalloped the sides.

The fabric is heavyweight cotton knit with terry-towelling backing. I was actually looking for a plain red-and-white stripe jersey when I saw this horizontal striped fabric in the bargain box. Normally I don't go for rugby stripes but since it was cheap ($4/metre, 150cm wide), I decided to make a bias cut top to accentuate the stripes.

Playing House: Contemporary Dolls' Houses 1957-2007

2008-12-06T22:40:00.000-08:00

Today I went to a dollhouse exhibition at the Canberra Museum & Gallery. The items on display belong to miniature enthusiast Anna-Maria Svlatko.

My favourite one is the Mod House, designed by US company Kaleidoscope.

I was also suprised by the amount of detail and workmanship put into the furniture.
Some chairs were replicas of designer furniture.

Tonight's dinner

2008-12-01T02:21:00.001-08:00

Pan fried haloumi cheese sprinkled with lime juice. Canned salad (canned tomatoes, canned butter beans, canned peas) with extra virgin olive oil and oregano dressing - my own recipe. Fresh cucumber (leftovers from another dish).

Normally I soak the cheese in water to reduce the saltiness but this is a late dinner and I was too hungry to be bothered.

Sewing aftermath

2008-12-01T02:07:00.000-08:00

My carpet floor after sewing that blue jacket.

Artsound Open Day

2008-11-30T03:24:00.000-08:00

Artsound radio station had their annual open day today, so I went along to check it out. It was great weather for a BBQ and live jazz performances, and I wore my new jacket that I finished sewing yesterday.

One of the presenters took us on a short guided tour which was interesting because I'd never been inside a radio station before. He told us some interesting factoids about the Artsound premises (well, interesting to me because I don't work in the media). All the studios are identically set up, right down to the chair and desk layout, so that presenters can continue their show in another studio if equipment breaks down.

Artsound also broadcasts 24/7 so there's a music server that will automatically start playing a default track list if programs can't be broadcast. We also went inside the recording studio (Artsound started this service so that local musicians and students didn't have to travel all the way to Sydney to record their work), where the walls and ceiling jut out at crazy angles to divert echoes into the floor.

After listening to a jazz ensemble and a South American folk music group, I went to an exhibition inside the PhotoAccess gallery, which is next door to the Artsound studios. I came in just in time for some cheese and crackers and the launch of Residue, an exhibition by sisters Holly and Valentina Schulte. They had some very striking photos of inner-city and suburban buildings.

I also found a vintage Polaroid on the counter. I wonder if it doubles up as a camouflaged surveillance camera.

Cotton jacket

2008-11-29T15:13:00.000-08:00

I've just finished sewing a jacket that I started at the beginning of this month. It's
a Burda magazine pattern from February. It's made from canvas-weight stretch cotton drill. The seams are covered with bias binding and the sleeves are lined with contrast polyester bemsilk.

I chose this pattern because I liked the asymmetric front closure. To make the design more streamlined, I removed the horizontal pleats across the chest, omitted the extra row of buttons along the front, and replaced the gathered pockets with pleated ones. I also removed the sleeve cuffs and added epaulettes to the shoulders.

Unfortunately this jacket doesn't fit me properly anymore because I've dropped a dress size since I made the toile last month. I'm certainly not complaining about that but the jacket is baggy around the upper waist area because the front darts don't sit properly anymore. It's too troublesome to fix because I'd have to remove the bias-binding, the pockets and the sleeves; re-position and widen the darts; take in the side seams; then re-attach the pockets, sleeves and binding. I'll stick with taking in the side seams as much as I can.

Extra virgin olive oil

2008-11-29T02:33:00.001-08:00

This is extra virgin olive oil from Greece. I only use extra virgin oil because of the strong taste. As you can see, this one is green which I wasn't expecting - the bottle is also green so I couldn't see the colour when I bought it. The oil that I previously tried (also from Greece) was dark yellow. Both are delicious, especially with a few drops of raspberry vinegar which I enjoying eating with bread, but this one has a slight bitter aftertaste.

Handmade market

2008-11-29T01:55:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I braved the horrible afternoon weather to visit the Handmade Market. Although I didn't end up buying anything, there were a lot of unique handcrafted items that were interesting. I particularly liked some of the wooden/acrylic jewelry and Amy Butler fabric bags but decided not to splurge because I couldn't think of any coordinates in my wardrobe. Oh well, there's always the next market in February.

Houseproud - not!

2008-11-14T22:08:00.000-08:00

When I'm sewing, I don't like to do anything else. That includes cleaning and putting things away. With projects involving sewing or computers, I need to work very intensely and continuously until I'm physically unable to continue - I don't like to stop and start, stop and start.

As a result, this is the current state of my loungeroom:

Note: That white lump in front of the window is a Burda World of Fashion pattern sheet that I used for a jacket pattern. I stick it to the window and use the natural light to help me trace it onto plain paper.

CSS in progress

2008-11-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

I never quite got the hang of CSS (cascading style sheets). This blog layout needs an overhaul.

My new blouse

2008-11-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

My blouse, which has been a work in progress for several months, is finally finished! If the weather isn't too warm next week, I might wear it to work.

The pattern, Simplicity 4112, is a Built By Wendy design. Although it's meant for cotton fabrics, I decided to make it from a sheer nylon jersey that had been languishing under the bed for 2 years. For the parts that required interfacing, I used polyester organza - just as well I also used it under the puffed sleeves, or they would've sagged.

New cushion cover

2008-11-02T23:26:00.000-08:00

Behold my new cushion cover:

"Before" and "After" shots of the loungeroom:

How to buy Burdastyle patterns by credit card

2008-11-02T02:47:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to get the Ute blouse pattern for a while and decided to pay by credit card since the paypal link doesn't work. After some messing around, I was finally able to buy the pattern.

If you're a Burdastyle member and you're buying a pattern for the first time, here's how to do it. Basically it involves clicking on the Shopping Basket link after every step in the purchasing process. This makes the web pages display your updated details so you can move onto the next step.

(Note: the Burdastyle team is working on fixing the technical issues so these instructions may not apply in the near future)

Select the pattern you want to buy and click on Buy pdf. The screen doesn't change so you think nothing's happened, but click on the Shopping Basket link (on the right-hand side of the screen) and your pattern will be in there.

Click on Checkout. Add your billing information and credit card details. Click on the Make Primary option and press Submit. The screen doesn't change but your billing details have been saved as you'll see in the next step.

Click on Shopping Basket and then click on Checkout. Your billing details are now onscreen. Enter your shipping details and click on the Make Primary option. Press Submit. Again, the screen looks the same but your shipping details are in the system.

Click on Shopping Basket and click on Checkout again. You can now see both your Billing Details and Shipping Details. Scroll down the page to the credit card payment option. You should now see a Submit Order button. Click on the button to complete your order. You'll then see a new webpage that has links for downloading the pdf pattern.

If you click on Shopping Basket now, it should be empty.

If you need to change/delete your billing and shipping details, go to Account Info under My Profile.

New patterns

2008-11-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

All patterns at Lincraft were half price this week so I bought 2 bag patterns, Simplicity 9949 and McCall's 5198. I've never made a bag before, apart from a basic drawstring bag, but I recently found some nice printed canvas that would look good for summer.

How to eat pickled herring

2008-10-26T01:21:00.001-07:00

I bought a jar of Swedish pickled herrings out of curiousity recently. Unlike the tangy flavour of pickled cucumbers, pickled herrings are incredibly salty. The texture is like sushi since the herrings aren't cooked.

Apart from seeing Detective Moser from Inspector Rex eat them out of the jar, I wasn't sure how to prepare them. This is what a German friend suggested:

We eat them for lunch together with cooked and buttered potatoes. Or you can make a salad (herring filets, onion, gherkins, apple, pork sausage, boiled eggs). Often people eat it as salad on brown bread (no pumpernickel!). Here´s a recipe for 1 person:

4 spoons plain yoghurt
a.. 1 small gherkin
b.. salt, pepper
c.. 75 g pickled herring
d.. 1 apple
e.. 100 g green salad
f.. 1 small red onion
g.. 100 g beetroot
h.. 2 branches dill
i.. 40 g whole-grain bread

Cushion cover fabric

2008-10-25T23:54:00.001-07:00

This is my lounge room. It's rather drab and I'm tired of the boring floor cushions. The ugly blue feature wall doesn't help much either.

I've wanted new cushion covers for a while but couldn't find any fabric that I liked - until today. This rough cotton fabric is from Japan. At about $24/metre, it's the second most expensive fabric I've ever bought but I really like it.

The colours aren't as bright or as pink-dominated as they appear to be in this photo and the background colour is pale taupe, not off white. I liked it because I wanted a pattern that would brighten up the room without being too bold. I also wanted to get away from typical home colour schemes of brown and beige because it's just too easy to accessorise them with more brown and beige things.

I have to pre-shrink the fabric first before I start sewing but this is what it would look like as a cushion cover.

Sneakers in the mail

2008-10-19T01:01:00.000-07:00

Today I bought a pair of ecoSNEAKS shoes from the Simple Shoes website (I don't know of any local stockists otherwise I would've bought the shoes instore). ecoSNEAKs are partially made from recycled materials such as old tyres and plastic bottles.

I'm looking forward to receiving them, although I can't say the same about the exchange rate conversion on my credit card.

Hmmm, interesting

2008-10-17T01:10:00.000-07:00

I've just discovered that I can only access Burdastyle.com if I change IP addresses, which is bizarre because I haven't had this problem until recently.

Since last week I haven't been able to access the website from any of my computers at home. I cleared out the cache and made sure my browsers and internet settings weren't blocking the site, but still no luck (thanks anyway Alden, it was worth a try).

On my lunch break today however, I was able to view Burdastyle at the local internet kiosk but when I tried again at home, the same problem occurred. So this time I went through a web proxy that gave me a different IP address - and it worked.

Flower fashions

2008-10-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to Floriade and saw these outfits on display. They were created by Canberra art students and it's hard to believe they were made using only leaves, flowers and bark - especially the Strictly Ballroom-inspired tango dress with the flounces.

Burdastyle.com

2008-10-13T02:10:00.000-07:00

Looks like the Burdastyle website is down again. I haven't been able to access it since Saturday - and just when I started participating again :( Before I stopped visiting around May because I was busy and because the pages took so long to load.

I really enjoy Burdastyle, not just for the free patterns, but also to see other people's projects and find out how they were made. Since I enjoy making things, it's a good place to see what like-minded people are doing.

The Braille Window Project

2008-10-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

I spent half the day at the National Gallery today. In between looking at the exhibitions, I attended a couple of talks at the Fullscreen08 forum. Fullscreen showcases the work of selected artists who use digital media, eg: AV recordings, blogging, computer-generated art.

The stand-out project for me was the Braille Window Project by Anne Walton. This work consisted of a shop window covered in transparent braille texts. People passing by could feel the texts, while blind writers were invited to type up their observations and have them pasted onto the window.

I found this project interesting because art is normally such a visual medium that blind people are excluded from it. I didn't fully realise this until Anne pointed out that art has nothing to offer blind people because they can't interact with it in the way sighted people would (think of your typical art exhibition or museum collection, with objects hanging from walls or behind glass windows).

After meeting blind advocate Bruce McGuire, Anne was very conscious of creating an art installation that would include blind people without tacking them on as an afterthought, or treating them as a "special needs" group. I think she succeeded with this project.

(Interestingly the main toilets in the National Gallery don't have braille signage, so pity the poor blind person who wanders into the wrong toilets by mistake.)

The Tokyo Look Book

2008-10-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

One thing I regret about living in Tokyo (I lived near Shinjuku for a few years) is not taking more photos of the Shibuya/Harajuku fashion scene.

This book, which I found in the Australian National Gallery bookstore, perfectly captures up all the fashion tribes I saw during my time in Japan. On weekends, if you go to Shibuya 109 or hang round outside Laforet or Gap in Harajuku, you can see hundreds of young people all dressed up, to see and be seen with their friends.

Since appearance is very important in Japan (perhaps a bit too important), it's important to get the look right and a lot of these people to spend at least a hour getting ready before they go out(in some Before and After photos I've seen, they look like completely different people). If they're lucky, their efforts may be rewarded with a feature photo in the next edition of street fashion magazines like Fruits or Kerouac.

Works in progress

2008-10-09T04:13:00.001-07:00

The pattern used for this shirt is a Built By Wendy design

The material is a fine stretch polyester knit, with organza interfacing.

This design has puffed sleeves. I haven't attached them to the body yet because I haven't made sleeve heads for them (being a flimsy knit, the puffed bits will sag without the sleeve heads).

This trench coat was cut from a Simplicity 4084 pattern, which I'm not particularly impressed with. The pictures indicated that it's meant to have a semi-fitted, a-line shape but when I made the toile I found it was rather boxy and goes straight up and down. I had to cut the bottom parts wider to give it some extra flare. The sleeves also needed adjusting because they were way too big and too long.

Another thing I didn't notice until I began sewing with the actual material was that the shoulder flaps get in the way of the roll line. This means that if I were to wear this coat as displayed in the left photo, the flaps would be scrunched up under the roll line.

At the moment, I'm working on fixing the right side, which isn't as curved as the left; adding some shoulder pads and sewing in the sleeve lining. Although the sewing mannequin isn't as sturdy as I'd expected (it sinks when heavy items like this coat are placed on it), it's really made a difference in getting the right shape for this coat.

I hope I can finish it before summer arrives.

New sewing mannequin

2008-10-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! I bought this today after saving up for a while. No more crumpled works in progress, and hemming will be much easier too. But before I unpack it, I have to clean and rearrange my lounge room.

Pattern Drafting and Dressmaking

2008-10-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is an an easy to understand book for learning how to draft your own patterns. I bought my copy off eBay earlier this year (mint condition; received as a gift but never used - great bargain \O/). Still haven't had the time to try out any of the patterns in this book though.

Lydia top, Autumn 2008

2008-09-28T02:53:00.000-07:00

Lydia was the first Burdastyle pattern I tried. It's a simple pattern and I altered the sleeves to make them puffy (they look saggy in the photo but they really are puffed sleeves). The style was too fitted for my liking so I also made it slightly looser.

This top was made over one weekend but it can be done in one day if you have time and are an experienced sewer.

I really liked this pattern and ended up making an identical top in black. I wear both tops quite a lot.

Cotton floral shirts, Summer 1997

2008-09-28T02:44:00.000-07:00

I drafted the pattern for these shirts myself, using a block from the now-defunct Making magazine. Making was the equivalent of Mrs Style Book (a Japanese fashion magazine) for young people but was discontinued when Mrs Style Book actually became more fashion forward.
It was a pity since Making promoted local designers such as Milk and Multiple Marmalade and art school graduates.

Tonight's dinner - courtesy of Moro East

2008-09-28T00:46:00.000-07:00

Moro East - Sam and Sam Clark

I originally saw this fabulous cookbook in a newspaper review earlier this year, and I'm glad I didn't rush out and buy it on the spot. My hardback copy was recently purchased from the local discount bookstore for $30 (RRP AUD 59.00). So there.

I'm not much of a cook because I'm lazy and rarely buy cookbooks, but the story behind Moro East is interesting. In East End London, there used to be a communal gardening area called Manor Garden where local residents could grow their own fruits and vegetables (Seems to be like Melbourne's own allotment gardens in CERES. Incidentally the photo of the river beside the Manor Garden sheds could even pass for Merri Creek, which runs behind CERES).

When the Clarks moved into one of the allotments, they discovered a multicultural community with its own unique methods of gardening and cooking. The recipes in Moro East incorporate the produce that was grown in Manor Garden and are easy to follow. Several are based on what the Clarks learnt from the other residents, as well as what they experienced in their travels around Europe.

Unfortunately Manor Garden was demolished last year in preparation for the 2012 Olympics and the gardeners were moved onto another allotment.

Tonight I'm going to try the braised celery with tomato, olives and coriander. I didn't have green olives, so I used Spanish black ones instead.

In preparation for future recipes I also stocked up on ingredients such as harissa paste, preserved lemons, red wine vinegar and various herbs and spices commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern cooking.

Handy measuring spoon

2008-09-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

Instead of fiddling with several measuring spoons or trying to guess what 1/2 a teaspoon looks like, I found this handy slider spoon today:

Previous projects

2008-09-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Grey flannel jacket, 1997
The design came from an old raglan-sleeve t-shirt which I cut up and traced the basic shapes onto paper. It was specifically made to wear over a couple of batwing and leg-o-mutton tops, but it's still a bit too large for me.

Seam and button details

Not the first post

2008-09-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

This is a replacement for my previous sewing blog, which I lost because I don't even remember what it was called let alone which email address it was linked to. I rarely updated it anyway because I was, and still am, stuck on sewing a trench coat. Now with the weather getting warmer, I don't think I'll even get to wear it this year.