SweetMyrtle

making gifts

Now i have finished work i am enjoying sewing gifts.

These are Morsbags which are simple cloth bags, designed as an alternative to plastic bags. Because of the availability of plastic bags since the supermarkets sprang into action in the 70's people seem to have forgotten to use cloth bags. My parents generation always used cloth and many still do. ( & mum had a brown shopping trolley which me and my sister used to argue about who had to pull it! )

A movement was set up in 2008 by Clare Morsman to raise awareness of how plastics pollute the environment, break down and end up in marine life. She created www.morsbags.com sharing a great tutorial on how to make the 'Morsbag' and suggesting ways to create 'pods' and community groups to make them en masse and give out free to members of the public.
They are super easy to make and can also be made from upcycling fabrics from curtains or worn house linens. The fabrics i have used were from small sample curtains in the remnant bin at my local fabric store. The bags are great as they fold up small and are perfect to keep in your car glove compartment or bag so you always have one when you go out.
If you fancy making one then check out the Morsbags Sociable Guerilla Bagging site.

calendula salve

our garden is a place to share with  the bees, birds and butterflies, providing food for them and also for us. the clever blackbirds discovered our morello cherry tree recently as well as our blueberry bushes which are on the patio. thankfully our cat was asleep at the time!

as well as providing food, i am beginning to use the plants for teas ; the chamomile i cropped a few weeks ago is now dry and we have been enjoying the tea. i am also looking to preserve and use them medicinally.

We have some wonderful cheery orange pot marigolds on our plot and I saw on the permaculture blog a great recipe by Carl Legge for making Calendula salve so i had to try it. 

Calendula makes up part of the hyperal cream i get from the health food shop for cuts and grazes and is well known for it's calming and anti inflammatory actions so the thought of a soothing healing ointment straight from my garden spurred me into action.

if you fancy making it too, do go and follow the original recipe and please note that I did reduce the quantity greatly for my trial run , only using 3 flower heads.

 after picking the petals off 3 flower heads i added them to a saucepan with some good quality olive oil

the recipe recommends using a double burner to gently heat the oil and by a process called maceration, the goodness from the plant matter transfers to the oil. i thought it would be good to have separate pans for making 'potions' and found some pretty cornflower pyrex ones in my cupboard, which i had inherited from my in-laws.

after simmering the water in the large pan for 4 - 5 hours (topping up when needed) the petals were strained off through muslin and the oil returned to the pan. i then added some beeswax which helps the mixture to solidify when cooled, so it it easy to apply.

beeswax can be sourced from your local beekeeper or find a good supplier. i discovered this one online.

ideally dark glass bottles are best for keeping ointments but any small glass jar kept out of direct sunlight will do. i picked these up for a pound each at a local shop. The recipe didn't mention sterilising  the bottles but i did as we do for making jams; popped in a saucepan of boiling bubbling water with the lids and then air dried.

once the wax had melted i carefully poured the mix  in to the jars and was surprised at how quickly it solidified.

i have kept 2 jars and gifted one to a friend. I am planning to make some more for gifts and had a tweet conversation with Carl's wife Debs the other day who suggested making up the oil which keeps for about a year in the cupboard and then adding it to the wax when i want to make the salve for a gift. I have also read that the petals can be dried and then made into the oil and salve later in the year.

and I am now waiting for someone to fall over so we can apply it!

ideas for a homemade/handmade christmas #3

 

Morsbags

Have you heard of Morsbags?

 

Morsbags is a not for profit organisation set up in 2007  by Claire Morsman who was so shocked by the devastating effect plastic bags have on marine wildlife that  she decided to promote the making and giving away  free of reusable cotton bags to show that there really is an alternative to plastic.

I first learned about Morsbags through Emma and Rachel at That little bit greener  and in 2009 made my first Morsbag. I wrote about it here and i gave some away on my blog. i also made some for my family as Christmas gifts.

They are really so easy to make and the Morsbags site even has a great animated tutorial to show you how.

If you get addicted to making them you can even join together with friends and set up a pod to create and distrubute them within your community. Many pictures of bags created at pods can be seen here.

i shall be making and gifting some more bags to friends as gifts this year. (best get to it though as it's only 5 weeks till Christmas.. eek!)

ideas for a homemade/handmade christmas #1

Knitted Dishcloths

We all need them as we all have surfaces to clean, dishes to scrub or you could you them to clean your body too (only don't do both with the same cloth!).

Even if you like me only a basic knitter,  a knitted dishcloth or wash cloth is not difficult to make, knits up pretty fast and makes a great gift. Tie a few up some ribbon, add some natural or homemade cleaning materials such as vinegar, lemons or bicarbonate of soda and you have a useful gift for an eco loving friend.  My old blog post on natural cleaning has a few suggestions and links on natural cleaning.

 

Alternatively wrap your knitted wash cloth with some handmade soap purchased from a local maker or made yourself.  There are lots of great  tutorials online for making soap too or you could go on a course. The lovely Sarah Harper from Rowan Tree Studios teaches one at her home in Devon. She also makes and sells gorgeous soaps too.

When making your dishcloth avoid wool and choose a cotton yarn. Dishcloth cotton is, as it states on the label, especially designed for dish cloths. Any cotton yarn of a meduim weight would do though. You could even make your cloths in lovely organic cotton in other colours to the basic cream or white that dishcloth cotton usually comes in. For a posh cloth in a beautiful shade this organic eco baby cotton looks lovely!  Washability and durability is important to consider though. Kate Carpenter has written an excellent article on choosing the best yarn for dish and face cloths.

 

There are so may great dish cloth tutorials online and free patterns that you are spoilt for choice.

The first cloth i made was using Deb's Waffle dishcloth tutorial on Homespun Living.

If you are a beginner knitter though this is the most simple method;

•   cast on 36 stitches (on size 6 uk needles)
•   knit a garter stitch. (knit each row in plain).
•   Knit till the cloth is your desired length.
•   cast off.
•   tie in the ends and you're done. (link for techniques here or try youtube videos or good knitting books)

Dishcloths are great for practicing knitting stitches. I rather like Moss stitch, so i found out instructions on how to do the basic stitch and then  knitted my dishcloth up rather like a sample.

If you need some inspiration then take a look at this wonderful Pinterest board by Tracy Settle or try Tipnut which links to some great free tutorials. Ravelry is a good place to go too.

Don't forget if you are handy with a crochet hook you can crochet them too!

Do share any good tutorials you have found, other dishcloth gift giving ideas/variations or send us a picture of your homemade cloths.

november 1st & ideas for a Homemade/ Handmade Christmas

hello november!

i am thinking, a new month,  and a new start... back into blogging.

as well as being very busy with my home and working life i have been spending  my online time more on twitter and pinterest recently and haven't quite been able to have the mental space to write a blog post.

But today inspired by some twitter communication this morning with a new twitter friend Jen it seems that an idea has taken shape (partly) and will hopefully, organically transform into some blog posts.

Let me first tell you about Jen.

Jen has set up a blog to document a year of not buying anything new and will make do and mend, salvage, refashion, upcycle or source second hand all her and her family needs for the following year. She writes about her reasons and self imposed rules here.

Having been brought up in a very make do and mend family;  mum was a primary school teacher, think Blue Peter and dad is very handy with his hands and even made me a netball post  when i was younger, you will realise that i  love reading about these type of challenges. To me it's about resourcefulness, about being creative and valuing what we have. It's also a lot of fun and you can develop new skills which result in a great feeling of accomplishment, not to mention the pleasure sometimes of having saved yourself some money.

This morning Jen tweeted that it's first of November so Christmas is getting close. Obviously she has a challenge to make, find or upcycle stuff to create into gifts. We were chatting about suggestions  and i thought that perhaps my blog was a good place to share some ideas and to show some of the gifts that we as a family have made in the past.

Hopefully it will get me motivated for this years gift making too.

If you would also like to share your gift making ideas , please do email me with  gifts you have created or are creating and i will either add them into a post or link to your blog post.

What do you think? a good idea? would you like to share and join in?

i am not going to give myself any rules (you probably know i am not good with those) so am unsure whether the ideas will be themed or random.  I will however aim to link to some great tutorials and inspiration and also may even do a tutorial myself. Hopefully it will open discussion and also help us all get motivated. are you up for it?

thank you for reading and do let me know if you'd like to contribute and share your ideas.

Gx