Recent Projects

One thing I find quite enjoyable to do on a Saturday morning is visit garage sales. I often check though local paper listings for potential bargains but really they’re quite hit and miss. For really good bargains it’s worth keeping an eye out for “moving interstate/overseas – all must go” sales. They are usually quite desperate to get rid of stuff.

Like the other weekend my husband managed to buy a set of golf clubs together with bag and balls for $25 – and no we did not discuss this first! The next garage sale we visited we ended up buying an Elna sewing machine – a really sturdy Swiss made machine complete with accessories for $30. I was planning on buying a beginner’s Janome new but decided to take the plunge with the Elna. It’s about 30 years old and runs perfectly. The whole package was an old woman’s pride and joy who could no longer use it. I’m a beginner myself but I envisage many years of use with this great machine. However hubby beat me to it and immediately used it to do a few patch-up jobs on his jeans! My first project was to make some baby wipes out of some old flannelette material and they turned out really well. I was quite proud of myself.

Another thing we recently completed was a type of wall hanging. I love those old train/tram destination blinds and I saw a tea towel version on ebay which featured suburbs I had grown up in. I was surprised at the amount of bids but I was the eventual winner. I immediately got my husband to stretch it over some board and we clipped the ends back. There’s actually a spelling mistake in one of the names and it’s really bothering me as I’m such a stickler for spelling. I really like it though – only cos I’m from the northern suburbs.