Homage to Kowtow

Last time Kowtow had a sale I missed out on getting an Elda denim jacket.

 They just had a other sale, and I found a Blueprint jacket on sale

 but they had none left in siz size 😥.

So I had a go at sewing my own. I used the Merchant and Mills Ottoline jacket pattern. The only intentional mods were to shorten the jacket body a little, shorten the sleeves a lot, and change the shape of the collar (to make it more like the Kowtow ones). There were some major muckups (ie the unintentional mods) but I think I turned out something I can wear proudly.

Worn over Sea Shephard tee, Next Union Jack singlet and thrifted jeans

My unintentional mods were at the sleeve vents. Ok and the side vents.

The green tinge to the denim inspired me to used green top stitching thread. It's a nice backdrop for my Extinction Rebellion badge 😁

Taking nibble out of coastline litter

You will have all seen the photos, of rubbish islands in the ocean and litter-coated beaches.
A couple of weekends ago I decided to finally go next-level with my occasional litter picking, and join a beach clean-up organised by Sea Shepherd.

Unfortunately when I got to the beach there were no Sea Shepherd folks to be found, tho there were three other willing volunteers. I did also meet a woman who was just finishing up her own beach cleanup session and she gave me a rubbish bag in case I wanted to go ahead and pick up rubbish anyway.

So the 3 volunteers and I set to work on the beach.

 As I was wearing my Sea Shephard t-shirt - and probably because I was the oldest one present - I seemed to be the de facto leader of the cleaning pack. This meant that though all of us were on foot I was the one who would have to take the back of bottle tops, straws, coffee stirrers and unidentified plastic crap to my rubbish bin at home.

This meant that we had to stop after about an hour. This half-filled our council rubbish bag once I got home (ie equivalent to one week's worth of household refuse).

The universe wants me to stop buying fabric

Summer suddenly arrived and I developed a hankering for above-ankle widish leg linen pants, and i wanted to sew them up myself.

The Fabric Store has some lovely linen in different weights and luscious colors.

Well, twice during the christmas period I tried to go to The Fabric Store. And both times the shop was closed.

So I took the hint and when I got home I customized some mustard coloured king fu pants instead.

I added the shirt fabric cuffs plus the triangle of matching fabric on the "skirt"

This week's Fridays for Future placard

I brought this one with me on 27 December. 

Only after I arrived, did I realise I should have done something a little more Christmas-y. Like, "Have a merry climate emergency".

But that's ok. It was the first F4F protest that I'd been able to attend for the full 2 hours, and there were quite a few others present which was a relief.

Getting behind OMV eviction

OMV is intent on making full use of their licence to drill for oil off New Zealand's coast. So one Saturday morning I joined a small band of fellow planet-lovers to protest and create some social media messages.

This is the sign I made for the event

Yes we do have a petrol car. But I also use public transport and walk. In any case, I would like the big fossil fuel companies to think about more than their profits and use those massive funds of theirs to develop cleaner fuel and cheaper vehicles that use clean fuel.

And better (clean) public transport would also help a helluva lot too.

It's the Judean People's Front vs the People's Front of Judea all over again

Today I went down to Parliament to support World Animal Protection in their stand for the Maui dolphins (of which there are only abut 50 left, from memory).

I walked down from work taking the usual path, which takes me onto the lawn via Parliament's carpark. In the distance I spotted a small group of folks holding placards, so I walked straight up to them.

Then I stopped because their placards all had the name "Julian Assange" them. Obviously there were two protests outside Parliament today.

So I tapped one of them on the shoulder asked where the dolphin protest was. That protester waved his hand over to another small group of folks holding placards, just on the other side of the steps. "It's a bit like the People's Front of Judea, isn't it?" I called out jokingly. They got the reference, because another one of them shouted in reply "I'm an individual!!".

The second lot of protesters seemed pleased to see me. They were only perhaps 5 people with placards to spare. They invited me to grab one that was lying on the grass and I did.

Then I noticed my placard had the word "methane" on it."Funny", I thought. "what's methane got to do with saving the dolphins from terrible fishing practices?". That's when I realised I was at a small climate change protest. How awkward. I apologised guiltily and asked them where the dolphin protest was. They pointed to a small group of people gathered quite a long way away, on the far side of the Parliament lawn.

And that's where I went.

Behind the barricade

We are finally starting to see signs of summer. And in  summer I like to have the back door open as much as possible (along with the windows).

It's for the cooling breeze, the circulation of fresh air, and our way of opening up the house to the outdoors ( because we have no ranch sliders or decking).

But there's a wee grey cat in the neighbourhood  that likes to run inside the house and make itself comfy. Fortunately its friendly enough that we can remove her without risk to life and limb. But it's a pain to have to do this. It wouldn't be a problem if I weren't allergic to cats.

Anyway I have found a solution in the box that the boy's latest toy came in. I'm using it as a cat barrier...

In which TLM wins a school prize

We had not planned to go to TLMs school prizegiving, unless she was getting a prize. As far as we knew, she wasn't getting one. And TLM was pleased to get most of the day off school on rehearsal day.

Then, I got a text from TLM with - teary eye emoji - saying that actually she did won a prize and wouldnt get that day off after all.

So of course I was motivated to attend the school prize giving  now. I was even wondering whether I would draw disapproving looks if I whooped it up when her name got called out.

But in the end we could not get tickets to attend, because this year the venue that was not to large enough to accommodate the parents of all the prize winners.

Then I had the teary eye emoji...😥

It was only after I arrived to pick TLM up to bring her home (at 10pm!!) that I found out what the prize was for - science 😊.

Being specific

I have been taking part in the Fridays for Future protests in the last few Fridays, standing with Ollie and about 1 or 2 dozen others in front of Parliament during my lunch break (the others stick around for 2 hours).

The government has come to an agreement that farmers will work out their own emissions reduction process over the next four years, and if they haven't by the end of that period they will automatically be covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme.

I don't think that's going far enough.

I decided it was time to actually suggest to our Prime Minister what I actually want her to do.

Here is my first message -

Because you cant take alopecia out of the girl...

After the last time all  my hair fell out  although there was regrowth soon after it actually took almost a year before I had total hair cover again.  By that, I mean there were no obvious bald patches.

But I waited several  months before I felt ready to get my first cut at a hairstylist, because it seemed that going to a hairdresser (or a new one) seemed to always precipitate a new bout of alopecia.

So, while I could walk around wigless from about March this year, i didn't make an appointment for a haircut until August.

Then, in the three weeks between making the appointment and actually attending it, i started to get fallout again.

This time around its patchy. I have a noticeable bald patch at the front left of my head which is covered by   not too obvious comb-over, except when its windy. Which is most days. I also have thinning around my part, which is less obvious.

I try to be glad that  it's not all coming out at once, but I'm annoyed that I might be facing another summer of having to cover my head in public.

In desperation I have been googling hair loss treatments. I will not buy any product that is tested on animals, especially if their efficacy for my type of hair loss is uncertain.

But I will have a go at Weleda hair tonic, which has rosemary as the active ingredient, and at a rosemary shampoo and conditioner by Angel.

But first I have to do skin sensitivity tests to ensure they don't irritate my skin...

In which I get to feel like part of something big

Today, New Zealanders young and old protested for greater climate action. It was the third in 2019. The first two were organized by and for school students. I, and some other adults, turned up as support and to add to the numbers.

This one was open to everyone. So I arranged to have  the day off work, made a placard (above) and spent most of today surrounded by like minded folks.

I was so proud of our young people because without them 170,000 Kiwis would not have turned all over the country to have their say.

And just to make it all about me - I felt pretty damn staunch walking to the bus top with my placard, getting on the bus with it, bringing it into a fancy cafe for an early lunch with my friends, shouting and chanting with 39,999 other people, and walking around town with it afterwards, raising my eyebrows in recognition when spotting a fellow off duty protester.

What a day of triumph.

And now for makeup

For years I've been using the big name brands (Clinique, Revlon) to cover up the blotches that I am so prone to , thinking that surely no one is testing on animals any more.

But I was so wrong. Never mind the mica that is mined mostly in India by little kids.

So I have had to work back a bit in my search for low-waste skincare and go back to basics.

So the QV lotion gets to stay because they don't test on animals and their plastic bottles are recyclable. But I'm still looking for a body moisturiser and may have to accept plastic containers as that are recyclable - for now.

I've found a few brands of foundation to try. One is Oasis Beauty which covers all of the above products and fits the above criteria. Others I want to try are Napoleon, Inika and Jane Iredale.

So, quite a few options as long as you aren't trying to give up plastic!

There is a possibility that Ecostore will start offering moisturiser refills, but the two products of theirs I've tried so far do not do a good enough job on my skin.

It might be greener to eat out

Our family has always been high-protein, though while growing up at least I ate tons of stir-fried veges to go with  all that chicken, beef, lamb, pork and fish.

With the boy doing most of the evening meals these tend to be of the meat-and-two-or-three veg variety (but they are usually really tasty).

I am trying to move to a more plant-based diet but this would require me to do a whole lot more of the cooking and do a whole lot more careful meal planning so that the family gets all the nutrients we need.

I have done a few vegan meals here and there, for my lunches during the working week - and some of them have even turned out well, to my taste buds anyways.

But, you know that thing where you learn to cook new stuff and end up with tons of excess herbs, spices, sauces etc? yeah that's me.

Plus, when you buy little packets of stuff to avoid food waste you also end up buying lots of little bits of un-recyclable packaging.

So I'm moving away from that. During the week I'm eating out at one of the vegan eateries once a week, and having banana and peanut butter sandwiches the rest of the week!

On the "plus" side, because the boy was recently diagnosed with gout he is occasionally cooking vegetarian.

What I did for Plastic-free July

Not much actually, that I wasn't doing before:

• Getting our dish detergent, laundry detergent and hair conditioner bottled refilled at a local Ecostore refill station.
• Intercepting compostibles before the boy puts them in the rubbish and diverting them to the compost bin
• putting empty, clean, bread bags (and other suitable plastic bags) in our reusable shopping bags so they can be used to hold fresh produce items.
• emptying out our plastic-bag-lined indoor rubbish bins into the big rubbish bin (rather than lifting out the bags as well)
• picking up bits of rubbish off the street and putting them into a nearby bin, if there is one.
• avoiding buying stuff we don't need
• eating vegan most breakfasts and lunches (the boy does the dinners and they are usually carnivorous)
• Taking my own containers when I buy my lunch, or eating at the cafe instead of taking away
• saving up for a set of period undies for TLM (who is not yet at the stage of needing them)
• washing my face with bar cleanser
• using cloth napkins instead of paper towels
• trying to use handkerchiefs instead of paper tissues (unless I have a cold and need a LOT)

Next up I am deciding whether to replace disposable pens with pencils or with fountain pens and bottles of ink.

And I still haven't been able to satisfactorily replace my moisturisers with waste-free versions (as it's winter and my eczema-ry skin does best with the petroleum-based stuff with added urea). But I have had good results with basic mango butter + almond oil mixes which I buy in a glass jar. And I may try to do it myself so I don't end up with a ton of glass jars with plastic tops over time.

I also haven't had great luck with bar shampoo yet, but there are quite a few to try so it's only a matter of time (surely!).

A sewn, woven cardigan

I had it in my head that I really wanted a v-neck cardigan. A slouchy one that I can wear over a shirt, buttoned up, and then walk around with my hands in my pockets. Sort of like this one from Envelope -

I spent some time knitting one up from The Knitter, using leftover acrylic/alpaca yarn left over from the jumper I made for the boy. It had a column of Viking-inspired cables going up each side, front and back. Then I tried it on and it was a bit tight.

So I gave it to The Little Madam (now nearly 14 years old!) and resolved to make another one.

I went to the local yarn shop but I couldn't decide on a yarn. I went online and couldn't decide either. So in the end I bought some double-sided fabric on sale from the Fabric Store and used my Tamarack Jacket pattern to sew one up.

I did have to cut it down a lot in size. I probably should have used the cutting lines for a size 6 or 8 instead of for the size 10. After all, there as none of the thickness involved that the jacket is designed for.
As the fabric is reversible I wanted the finished product to be too. The red side is the "fun" view and the black side is the "business" view.

This is the black side out 

This is the red side out. after taking this photo I did fix the pockets so they are more symmetrical.

I fell off the green wagon on our weekend away

I thought that it was hard to minimise waste in HK. Well it turns out it's hard to minimise waste when away from home.

We stayed in a really nice little apartment in Christchurch - but it had no recycling bins let alone compost bins. I did consider asking Reception about it, and I should have. But after I had to tell them about the bed having a loose leg I felt like that was enough complaining for one stay!

At least we did not do takeaways, instead eating out a nice eateries or else buying small amounts of food from the supermarket to make our own food. But yeah, by the time we left we had also left a few uneaten bits and pieces that would have made great compost...

We also have a few more shopping bags than we really need now.

I shall pick up more litter to absolve myself.

Patchwork jeans

After cutting out my selvedge jeans pieces I thought there was enough fabric left over to make most of another pair of jeans. So I did. Though I did need to supplement with pieces salvaged from a pair of the boy's discards.

I used the Style Arc Sandra pattern again, but created a seam down the front and back of each leg (by folding each leg piece in half before cutting). I used the leftover selvedge denim to  make the inside front and inside back pieces, the yoke and waistband; and the boy's jeans to make the outside front and back pieces, pockets and belt loops.

The boy's jeans were a bit holey when I first got hold of them, and I'd originally made this long skirt out of them (which I liked, but didn't wear much).  The patches are from another, dark blue pair of jeans of his and a tartan-y piece from TLM's old jeans.

Something happened around the front pockets so that they are a tad higher than they should be  -but this is really the only thing that is slightly off. They fit really well. I think the softer denim at the sides helps these jeans to be comfy and have a bit of "give", compared to the selvedge jeans which are still quite stiff even though they have eased a bit with wear.

After taking these photos and wearing them for a day I shortened the hem just a little, about 2 cm. I have left the old denim raw at the hem but hemmed the dark denim bits. To me they are just about perfect!

I made myself a pair of selvedge jeans

I did it. I cut into my rigid Japanese selvedge denim and sewed myself some selvedge jeans (sorry no photos yet).
The sewing pattern I used was the Style Arc Sandra narrow-leg jeans, with the leg shortening and rise shortening described in my earlier post (about the jeans made with minimal stretch denim).

I made these additional modifications:

• a flat bum modification in the back leg pattern, to reduce the amount of below-the-bum wrinkling 
• redrew the legs so that the side seams are straight up and down, and the inner leg seams are moved to keep the leg width the same - based in this diagram on Pinterest (thanks Reyna Lay).

I decided to wash the denim before cutting into it. I can't tell for sure whether the fabric is raw or sanforised, but if it's raw and I wash it I'm sure the jeans will still fade nicely - just not as markedly as they do on unwashed raw denim.

Once I cut out all of the pieces I realised that I might have enough denim to make another pair as the leg pieces take up less than half of the width of fabric. Or I might make something easier to wear, like a skirt!

Apparently rigid denim jeans are supposed to fit tightly at first, and they should loosen as you wear them and conform to your body. So I made them tight around the hips.

I've started wearing these in, though they still don't have or hems. They might shrink in the next wash, or I might decide they are just too uncomfortable to wear and not worth finishing!

These definitely fit better than my last pair as there are less back thigh wrinkles, but its difficult bending down in them.  I followed the advice to do the squat and lunge while wearing them, and squatting is a bit of a strain.  Am I too old to be breaking in stiff jeans?

On the difficulty of being a discerning and conscientious consumer when you have health needs

I was going great with the solid moisturiser bars until winter struck and with it, ezcema flare-ups.
I did push on through but my skin was just not getting enough hydration, so I have had to go back to my plastic bottle of sensitive skin moisturer made from petrochemical ingredients, plus my plastic tubes of body moisturiser with the urea from petrochemical ingredients.

I will keep trying though!

I lost a friend and patted a cheetah

So during Queens Birthday weekend I found out that I had lost a dear friend. She had been living in Taipei (TLM and I had stayed with her at the end of 2018) and was looking forward to finishing up there after one more year, and then retiring early. I was in shock for a couple of days after finding out. We saw each other at least once a year although we were on opposite ends of the earth, and have known each other since I was about 16. I'm so going to miss her.

...

The boy recently had his 50th birthday, and he wanted to do a Close Encounter at the zoo with their two cheetahs. And because he is lovely he wanted me to do it with him.

The zoo's cheetah's are hand-reared so apparently the cheetahs both enjoy human contact. One went straight to the far corner, looking over now and again. The other strolled over, strolled past and repeated - sometimes stopping by for a pat.

It was quite different from having a close encounter with the red pandas, but that's the be expected...

These are all photos of the same cheetah - either Cango or Kunjuka, I forget which. Behind him are the boy's lower legs and, to his right, mine.