A sun hat for myself

 I made myself a hat!

I used the free Set Sail Hat from Patterns for Pirates. I made the biggest brim size but ended up trimming a few centimeters off and finishing with bias binding. The interfacing was some old stuff I had at home sand ended up being rather floppy so I added extra interfacing and lots of top stitching. It's still a little floppy so I might trim another couple of centimeters off and see if that helps. Probably would have been smart to just buy what was recommended...

Anyway I'm really happy with it, and even happier that I don't need to keep replacing my straw hats that never last long and can't be washed!

An english mulberry tree

 When I went to visit a plant nursery, I was looking for maybe a mandarin or a few natives, I definitely didn't plan to bring home another mulberry tree!

Terrible photo I know, but this is an English Mulberry which has very different leaves to all my others... obviously I had to buy it! So I've got the cuttings from my black mulberry we had at our old house, the native mulberry and this new english mulberry.

And then Ray went to "Coles" and bought me a weeping mulberry for Valentine's Day! And yes he did go to Coles on his way home, I was wondering what was taking him so long!

Beetroot harvest

 Most of my garden has not been enjoying the heat, but thankfully the beetroots have done well!

The varieties I planted were cylindra and golden globe. Both grew well and tasted nice, but I got the cylindra variety thinking it would be easier and more consistent to slice.

Beetroots are actually pretty versatile, the leaves are edible so we used them fresh on sandwiches, and have used them like spinach in stir fries as well. Some beets were grated raw into our salads, and added to the pan for roasting, while the rest were boiled and pickled following a recipe by Emma on Kitchen Mason. I did the first batch with white vinegar because I didn't want to drive to the shop just for vinegar, and the second batch using brown vinegar. Now we're trying to wait two weeks before we do a taste test!

I did pull all the beetroot out of my garden bed because it was in need of a refresh, but I regret it now that we don't have any beetroot leaves for salads or beets to add to roasts! I have sown more seeds, and will be doing succession plantings to have a continual supply of beets ready for whatever we need.

Garden apron

 I made myself a garden apron! Because half my clothes don't have pockets which is really annoying when you're on acreage.

Of course I'm happy to finally finish my new apron, but nowhere near as excited as Lily is! I tried it on to show her and she was stuffing all her pens in the pocket - I assume it'll be full of 'pretty' rocks whenever we go outside.

This is the tutorial I followed, with a couple of changes. First, I cut the pocket front and lining the same size so I could keep as much of the print visible so I don't have the decorative trim at the top. Second I didn't have any D rings so I cut the tie piece 9" longer - I can just tie it in a bow, so definitely needed to add a few more inches.

And then I went and made an apron for Lily using the same fabric...

I used this tutorial, but when it came to sewing I found it easier to follow their video. I didn't add a pocket into the bib as I turned the skirt into one huge pocket! It is simply a second skirt layer with some hand holes cut out of each side, I finished the pocket edge with bias binding since it was a curve.

Versailles sunflowers & bees

 Well I've made yet another Versailles dress for Lily, so that's three of them in the same size - and there's still plenty of room for her to grow.

For the first two I used the full single ruffle collar so I tried the double ruffle collar this time. It looks so cute, but the lace I used was too thick which made it a little difficult to sew. My plan for extending this one in the future is to add a white band at the bottom and add a band of the same lace on top.

The fabric (which I could not remember buying) is a cute poplin from Spotlight, I found it in my box next to the sunflower fabric I was planning to use!