More Pearl

I have seen links on toddler sewing before but I had thought it would be too hard for Pearl. Not so! She saw me sewing yesterday and insisted on pulling the needle through after I positioned it.

Today I gave her a blunt needle and some felt anchored in an embroidery hoop and look what she made:

Dying felt

I have been experimenting with natural dyes on felt.

By far and away the best is beetroot:

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The onion skins made a pretty yellowish colour, much stronger than I had remembered from dying Easter eggs as a child. Unfortunately it also embedded a strong onion smell which I also did not remember. (Possibly felt holds smells more than egg shells).

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Tea adds a delicate shade of brown and an illusion of antiquing. (And it smells nice!)

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But coffee makes it look like just rubbed the material in the dirt.

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Plastic-Free February

It’s Plastic-Free February but I’ve not been doing the big challenge (http://www.rodale.com/plastic-free/). What I have done is keep track of what I’ve used and thrown out today:

2 bags covering bread
1 plastic nappy bag
1 bin liner
1 bag containing new bin liners
1 shopping bag re-used for soiled nappies
10 straws
1 bag covering biscuits
1 bag covering ham
1 bag covering cheese
2 plastic wrappers over the wax wrappers on individual cheeses
8 nappies

Mapping it will, I hope, let me see where to save on waste.

The obvious one is nappies. Of course I know disposibles total the planet. And yet. I tried cloth ones on both kids and if they wore more than one or two a day they got horrible nappy rash. So I chose their comfort now over their planet in the future.

Food in bags would be a good place to save. I have decided that I am going to try ordering dry goods on-line from Coles next time. Shopping with two kids is ridiculously hard. If I do the main shop on-line I can go to a butchers and a specialist green grocers - that should save a little packaging.

And straws. We go through a lot of straws because Pearl likes to drink from multiple straws at the same time, and she has milk so the straws must be chucked pretty quickly int his weather. I have dealt with this - we are using up the straws we have now and I have bought us some steel straws to use in the future.