Summer jam (and leather) on a dismal day

We've had some really damp dismal weather recently so it seemed that the best thing to do was get in the kitchen and make some summery-scented jam. It's also helpful that this involves clearing things out of the almost full freezer.






This time I went for a mix of raspberries and redcurrants .....





...with all the seeds sieved out....

At this point I put some purée aside for fruit leather. This is my second attempt and this time I spread it thinner to cover a baking sheet.

I'm not sure that it worked any better this way. Most of it dried quite quickly but being very thin, it was difficult to remove from the paper and broke into bits.

To the rest of the purée, I added 3/4 pound of red gooseberries (quite ancient ones from the depths of the freezer) and made into jam.

Lunch from the Lottie #5

'green salad' - ie chopped cabbage, rocket, baby lettuce, american land cress and cucumber - with tiny red and yellow tomatoes

'minestrone' with fresh parsnips and carrots and last year's broad beans and tomatoes from the freezer

chilli with 3 beans - french, broad and white. Used up lots of small wrinkled tomatoes, a variety of peppers and chillies, and added some fizzy ,turning to alcohol, homemade passata to thicken.

Alcoholic passata anyone?

Wanting to thicken some chilli, I opened one of last year's bottles of passata which gushed out almost like champagne. I assume the sugar was merrily turning into alcohol. Still I added it and no one fell into a drunken stupor after lunch so it must be ok to eat!

Finished - almost

Ta dah! My crochet waistcoat re-working is almost done. There's still a million and one ends to fasten off but the actual crochet and joining up are finished.

before...

If you carefully compare with the original  and the half-way stage you can see where one ends and the other begins.

Abandoned project - continued...

 I've been progressing again in an intermittent way with this bag project.

I cut out the strips for the handle.

Lined and turned the closing flap - which now needs top-stitching

Part of the delay with this project is caused by trying to use the material in two bags. 

The one below hasn't advanced much beyond piecing the front and back panels together using this cord material with some from a printed pair of trousers.

I'm just hoping that I DO have enough material for both.


Previous stage

Reviving an abandoned project

 I'm at last getting round to picking up an abandoned sewing project - turning an old pair of daughter's trousers into bags.

I'd got so far and then ground to a halt while I sorted lining material (old skirt).

lower pocket lining in place

I like to have as many pockets and zipped up sections in a bag as possible - not one cavity with everything jumbled up in it. So, the first thing to tackle was a zipped section

from the right side

 Beyond copying a bag I already own, I have no pattern so this is how I cut out pieces - using a finished section as pattern!

I'm hoping that now I've got this out again, I'll actually get it finished soon! 

Watch this space...

Lunch from the Lottie #4

 A lot of salads again - trying to make something different out of more or less the same ingredients each time

and for a change -- soup, with potatoes, carrots, parsnip and frozen broad beans from the freezer

Crochet waistcoat -

The re-make of an old crochet top is coming along. I'm now at the stage of checking I have enough circles (not yet) and deciding which goes where.




Previous posts  about this project

Not Throwing This Away

 Unpicking

Dull but necessary

I've been having a binge of mending recently - sewing on new buttons and fixing holes here (trousers) and there (sweater). 

Not particularly inspiring but necessary.

Hoping to get back to sewing something more interesting now.....