Snap press arrives!!

My new beautiful snap press arrived last weekend and I thought it was worthy of a photo!

Ed made (welded) one for me nearly a year ago but it never quite snapped right- was a hinged version, where it really needs to squash the snaps vertically.

So I've re-snapped some nappies that I had made over the year and there all work like they should now! I'm on a quest to invent the best cloth nappy ever and have been trialling patterns I've downloaded and patterns I've started from scratch with adjustments here and there. I've also bought a few different brands to try out, and borrowed others from friends.

I've only use covers and pockets and experimented with different inserts- not into all-in-ones.

Betsy Homemaker - preserving the last tomatoes

I'm boiling up the last of the tomatoes into pasta sauce. It's been a bad year for tomatoes- very slow to ripen and attacked by late blight. Ed's harvested most of the tomatoes green before they were completely spoiled. A month ago we had ample zucchini so I sauced those then, and today's brew contains purple beans. Has turned out well.

I hear they don't recommend bottling anything without a high vinegar or sugar content, but we really don't have the freezer space. Half the idea of growing our own food is to save money so buying a bigger freezer and running it kind of defeats the purpose, if there's other options for storage.

We're leaving the rest of the purple beans to dry out on the vine. We've done this already this season with black beans which dried well and are sitting in the pantry in glass jars. All set for hearty winter soups. Minestrone - yummo!

Mr J and I are about to make banana muffins and, he insists, chocolate muffins. Feeling quite domesticated.

Cute Summer Dresses

I'm glad to be getting some extra mileage from Roo's Summer dresses on the recent not-so-hot days we've been having. Both dresses were based on New Look pattern 6692.

For the denim dress I added pink bias binding, a gathered pocket and large applique flower with large button trims.

I altered the pattern to allow for gathering around the neck and armholes for the second dress and this eliminated the need for a zip in the back. I love the material -a vibrant quilting fabric.

Easter Bunnies

Last week I was inspired to make some bunnies for Easter. After finding some scraps of demin and a pretty floral fabric, I started with Roo's. Mr J was happy with the finished product and put his order in for a fire fighting bunny.

My first thoughts were "groan...now I have to make little clothes for the bunny..." then soon realised that I could modify the pattern to make his body out of the yellow fabric. Mr J also insisted that Fire Fighting Bunny have braces and the ribbon trim met his approval.

I was realy struggling with what materials to use for the face and experimented with felt, beads and buttons. In the end Mr J asked to "have a go" and pinned the beads on. I so wouldn't have pinned them on the way he did (I'm more of the symetrical, retentive type) but I'm really impressed with his work. I'm glad he had such an interest and influence in the way it turned out.