Zoe Ward

This is a new thing for me, I've not done sprouts before :) I used green lentils as I had some on hand. Soaked for 24 hours initially then rinsed and drained daily for a further 4 days. Eaten today in a sandwich with fermented carrot chutney. It was yummy.

I have multiple pairs of pants that the elastic is fraying on and one where it had come adrift from the fabric. I sourced some organic cotton and rubber elastic and tried to replace the elastic. They are functional, but it was my first time trying to sew with elastic. I removed the old elastic, cut a new piece and sewed to make a circle of elastic, then pinned in place and sewed to the fabric. It was difficult to get the fabric level with the elastic and keep the elastic under a good amount of tension. I discovered you need to apply the tension either side of where the needle is, otherwise it gets stuck.

I liked the idea of a cross-over apron made using linen. I found this youtube video and found an extra large men's linen shirt to make it out of.

Essentially you deconstruct the shirt (remove sleeves and cuffs and collar). The body of the shirt becomes the apron when worn back to front. Lots of fussing about required to get it to sit right. The sleeve fabric is used for facings and the button plackets used for the straps. I especially liked the cuffs made into pockets.

Pics are deconstructed shirt, sewing the pockets on and finished apron from front and back.

My husband wears through the elbow on his shirts. The last one I mended looked a bit scruffy so this time I did two patches. The first with a piece of old t-shirt to stabilise the hole (what I did last time), and the second to cover that up (linen patch). It looks much better with the second patch on as well.

It is possible to get organic cotton and rubber elastic. I'm tempted to get some to try to make underwear from old t-shirt material. I'll let you know how I get on.

https://jamestailoring.co.uk/product/organic-elastic-18mm/

Woohoo, I made it to BB40! I've done 12 badge bits in the last 9 days. Need to keep the momentum going, maybe one day I will actually get a sand badge!

Here is my pizza submission. I made 4 but I'm just going to show one.

Dough
600g bread flour
3tsp dried yeast
2tsp sugar
1tsp salt
warm water
70ml olive oil

Mix together yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup of warm water and leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate. Then mix with flour, salt and oil and add enough warm water to make a dough. Knead for 10 minutes and then leave dough in warm place to prove. Our kitchen was quite cold so I baked a cake whilst I waited for the dough to prove to warm the kitchen up :)

Toppings
Tomato sauce leftover from pasta earlier in the week
Mozzarella
Mushrooms (on two of the pizzas)

The pizza peel is coated with cornmeal to help the pizza slide off and we preheat the pizza stones in the oven. I only remembered to take the picture of the pizza before cooking just as I put it in the oven, sorry it is blurry!

I deconstructed 3 tshirts, a pair of pj bottoms, a pair of cargo shorts and a pair of jeans. I took the easy route and cut around the seams. I kept the patch pockets from the jeans and cargo shorts and also the waist band from the shorts. I put them in a box and made a label from a piece of the jeans fabric.

My husband always splits his shorts in the butt. He also keeps wearing them until the hole is too big to easily fix! I used the fabric from one pair that no longer fit to patch another pair that do. I tacked the material in place, then sewed around the patch from the right side using a straight stitch on my sewing machine. Then I used a zigzag stitch all over the patch to stabilize the torn edges. It isn't pretty but that area isn't generally visible.

An old pair of PJ's had a hole in it. I'll harvest the rest of the fabric for other projects.