PRAM COSY: to keep tiny toes warm

It's a very simple rectangle of red fleecy stuff with inch thick insulating stuff on the inside and some cream colours sheep wool effect stuff on the other side.

I hacked holes into it to let the straps through, which were secured with a scruffy bit of blanket stitch, and that's that. It just wraps around to keep my little one warm.

TODDLER TROUSERS: From an old pair of maternity jeans

It's quite simple really; I've salvaged elastic from an old pair of my husbands boxer shorts and used an old pair of toddler trousers that he's outgrown to trace a trouser pattern. I'll be making the outer layer from denim salvaged from maternity jeans, and the inner lining will be a nice cotton stripy stuff that I got from a shop nice and cheap. Photos to follow.

BREAD: delicious wholewheat bread

I've been making my own bread for a few months now. There's not much point in posting a recipe here as I think any pretty basic bread recipe will do once you're familiar with it.

Bread rising

I use a recipe I picked up at the Winchester City Watermill. Essentially 750g flour (combination of wholewheat and white, to your taste) and 450ml water. They also add butter which is not essential but seems to make my bread nicer!

Here is what I've discovered through my own experiments:

Your surfaces need not be too clean. I used to wipe down my service with an antibacterial wipe before I started needing. This is daft because as well as killing the bacteria on your kitchen surface it kills the yeast in your dough. This goes for hands too; obviously you'll want to wash them, but too much antibacterial soap will also kill your yeast.

Keep everything nice and warm, especially in winter. I use wheatbags (the ones you heat in the microwave and use to soothe your aches and pains) to warm the surface I'll be kneeding on, and also sit them beneath my 'tins' as the bread rises. I usually melt my butter into my flour by putting the whole lot in the microwave. The butter melts and the flour is nice and warm.

Add a dash of sugar (not too much or you get sweet bread) after you've knocked out the gas and kneed it in before putting your dough into 'tins' for its last rising.

I use silicone 'tins' not real metal ones, as the bread turns out of it so nicely. The trouble is that they are very flexible and if you aren't carful you can knock them flat when you're transferring to the oven. So I make sure they are sitting in a metal tray for their last rising (wheat bags under the tray). Then transfer tray and tins into the oven to bake.

To get the most delicious crusty crust and fluffiest lightest most yummy bread you'll need to use steam. I have an old baking tray at the bottom of the oven and pour in a much of water just as I transfer the bread into the oven.

Make sure the oven is VERY hot. Mine is fan assisted and electric (so I'm probably voiding my warrantee by using steam...) and heat it to about 220 degrees; you'll lose some heat when you open the door to put the bread and water in.

I'm not sure if I can blame the steam, but once our heating element gave up and we had to replace it. It would have cost at least £100 to call a man out to fix it. Or else order the part you need online and do it yourself. We found a video online that showed what an easy job this is. I'm not sure this is strictly related to the baking of bread, but it's useful nonetheless.

COAT: this is clearly not how you make a pocket

I need to conduct some research.

Well OBVIOUSLY you sew up the coat and THEN work on the pocket. And there should be no slices built into the pattern at all . How gutted am I... and all this information so readily available on the internet! I'll get it on the other side of the coat anyway... might need to recut a couple of pieces....

COAT: so far today

Well, hubby may not enjoy my singleminded coat obsession while the kids turn the house upside down, but I feel like I have made good progress and now I can put it aside and make dinner.

Here are the front right and rear panels. I'm particularly pleased with the rear pleat, which I think will work out nicely when it's all sewn up.

I need to loose a couple of inches from either side of the rear panel (just folded it over in the picture) which I think will be easy enough to do. I just need to position the original panel over the top and trim as appropriate.

Look at that crazy zigzag stitch down the front; silly error. I started slicing into the panel I had already cut out thinking that it was a spare piece. Instead of making a whole new panel I just patched it up. Doh.

Next I need to take off the excess from either side of the rear skirt panel and sew it to the top rear panel (currently it's held in place by loose taking stitches). Then fix an extra piece above the underarm section which seems to have come short given my SBA alteration.

After that I'll attach the front to the back at the shoulders and see if the side panles meet up nicely. Then, I'm not sure if I'll work on the sleeves or the neck. 

If anyone's reading this I'd love some advice / opinion on arms. The original coat had quite deep arm holes and I've thought about making them narrower at the armpit. I hope to add an insulating lining that the original one did not have so perhaps reducing the arm holes too much will make the whole too restrictive.... thinking thinking.

COAT: Today's errors

Firstly I sewed the whole pocket lining up and, so now I had to unpick the sides so that it could be opened out; I can't run the lower lip of the pocket under the sewing machine while the lining is behind it. I think it's ok to have the majority of the lining sewn as it holds it all together in the right way.


Secondly I've attached the upper lip of the pocket the wrong way up, so when you look inside you see lining where you should see coat fabric at the top... it's not a huge problem and looks nice enough.





Thirdly, see where I'm pointing? That seam should be higher up so that it's hidden inside the coat panel above.

The next job was to sew the panels around the pocket and then sew the under arm panel (above pocket) to the front panel.

If you're wondering what all that crazy zigzag stitching is about it's me reparing my panel - I accidentally started to cut out another shape from a panel piece! Silly! I could have recut the whole thing, but I decided just to patch it up for now. It's only the prototype and as long as I can recover the shape for my next attempt that's fine. It needn't look perfect. Shame it looks totally crap though.

COAT: Cutting new, altered shapes

I have this old curtain fabric which I'm using to make my prototype. I can experiment with the new shapes I want for each panel. I'm still not sure how the new standing collar will work, but I hope I will be able to figure it out. Here I've taken some slack out at the chest and I've extended each panel by several inches.

It's quite sketchy and wobbly looking. I hope it won't be too squiff.

3/12/11 - I've attached the under arm portion to the front panel today and can see clearly that it's now a bit too short to reach the arm hole properly. I'll have to patch it up and make sure the modified shape is used in the final version.