Sewing one‘s own clothes is usually more expensive than buying fast fashion*, but there are ways to keep the costs down, like harvesting fabric from thrifted items. When Goodwill hunting, I look for large sections of cloth, unbroken by seams, preferably in natural fibres like linen. Maxi dresses, robes, and sheets are good sources. Or, if your name is Maria (my middle name is a variant), there’s always curtains.
*Leaving aside the environmental and human costs of fast fashion.
Beets are so fun to paint in watercolour, with those luscious jewel tones.
I had a lovely morning at the estuary with the Channel Islands Nature Journalers. The fish noticed the osprey before I did!
I spotted this beauty in the house; after catching it for some closer observations and ID, I released it into the veggie garden. Maybe it will hunt cabbage white butterflies—one can hope!
Our most common garden butterfly is one that does not delight me. The cabbage white has a natural range across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It was accidentally introduced to Canada around 1860 and spread rapidly throughout North America. Estimates show that a single female of this species might, in a few generations, be the progenitor of millions.
That’s a lot of caterpillars eating my brassicas 😖
It’s a jungle out there.
Wearing a me-made dress while sewing some summer tops. Grateful for the skills, tools, and materials. Life is good.
Ink + watercolour + oil pastels
My firstborn, Tui, was named for the 58th I Ching hexagram. We later learned it was a fairly common name (and a beautiful bird) in New Zealand.
This tree honours a recent conversation that she and I had. Happy birthday, precious.
We threw a party for K’s birthday. It was fun, it went kinda late … and today all I want to do is lie on the couch and binge-watch sewing videos.
hashiworks 