wardrobe essentials 2025 - a leopard print denim jacket (and other news)

I was off Monday and Tuesday and enjoyed every moment. I needed Monday to recover from yet another Iris escapade, which concluded with Iris sleeping in the porch after announcing she wasn’t coming home at all. I left her warm coat in the porch in case she was cold while wandering the streets but expected her to ring the bell before long. She has  no keys, lost them months ago and refuses to get new ones cut with her generous bursary. She didn’t ring the bell or call be let in but must have been in touch with James because she had all her bedding in the porch. It remains a mystery why she didn’t come in but chose to camp in the porch. I wonder what the milkman thought when he delivered our Monday bottles? 

Anyway, I spent Monday relaxing and for me, that means making something. In the morning, I finished making quince jelly with my own quince. A lot of quince jelly. It has the perfect wobble and is a beautiful colour. In the afternoon I sewed cosy pyjamas with fabric, pattern and notions from yet another Guthrie & Ghani Sewing Society kit. I bought this back in March when I went to London for the Stitch Festival. I was determined to finish and finish I did, just before bedtime. On Tuesday, I got my flu shot (courtesy of my employer), then went into town because I wanted to visit the newly opened Uniqlo. I bought two merino tops, two long sleeved ribbed cotton t-shirts and a pair of mittens with slits to poke fingers out. In the afternoon I made a lentil soup following a 5 O'Clock Apron recipe on the Instagram. I love Claire Thomson's recipe reels, made quite a few meals based on these.

I like keeping busy. I felt refreshed on Wednesday, when I went back to work. 

I want to share another sewing project, which I finished ages ago but never shared. I might have actually started this in 2024, not sure. It was a slow project, like my jeans. Meet my leopard print denim jacket. This was so much fun to sew - until I had to make the final button hole in the waist band. 

I used the Sorrento jacket pattern by Sew Over It, a pattern I have used before. It is a pattern in the book “Sew a summer capsule wardrobe”. The fabric is a Fabric Godmother design, the Ace Animal Print Denim. This is a medium weight denim fabric. I do love Fabric Godmother fabric designs, they are funky and unusual and never boring. For the topstitching, I used a brown thread for this so not as visible as your average golden/yellow top-stitching in a blue denim garment. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a denim thread, not a traditional top-stitching thread because the latter is a thicker. It does not fit through the eye of a normal denim needle and I had to change both needle and thread all the time. Even with the special needle it was difficult to thread, my automatic threader was unable to do its job. I swore a lot. The actual construction was a breeze, the instructions are clear and easy to follow. 

In other news, my obsessive personality traits reared their ugly heads this week... I went for some messages on foot on Wednesday during a short work break. I checked my Garmin watch to decide how fast I had to walk to get back for my next meeting and noticed I was not wearing it. I left it on the charger. This made me break out in hives and sweat because we all know that steps not recorded never happened. Although of course my phone recorded them so technically they did happen but it is not possible to transfer activities from my phone to Garmin, just the other way around. Does it matter you may wonder. Well, sort of. I have an entirely self-imposed challenge to keep above my goal step for 100 days and at that point I had an unbroken streak for 92 days. But.... the challenge is on my Garmin watch and app... so you see, the steps did not happen after all. My step goal (12,500) is determined by my "need" to achieve maximum daily activity points on another app, which qualifies me for a free coffee every week. In a chain that has no branch nearby. Yes, I probably need help. To cut a sorry story short, I then had to free up time to make up for lost steps because I could not countenance defeat. At the end of the day, once I fell into my bed with an aching hip, my Garmin watch recorded 13,023 steps, my phone 17,351 steps. Another day ticked off. I don't know why I get so obsessed with seemingly pointless stuff. Although, so much walking keeps me fit and that’s a good thing. An added bonus to pounding the pavements just now is the crunchy leaf litter, still dry. I love walking through it.

Today, Saturday, I spent a beautiful day creating wildflower meadows in Ruchill Park. The Friday group spent the day scything the tall grass in a quite substantial area. Today we raked the cut grass away and prepared to ground with a hired rotavator, to break up the hard compacted ground before spreading the seeds. It was a large area, we had an entire wheelbarrow full of sand with mixed in seeds. So much fun! I am pleasantly exhausted and will spend the evening eating pizza and watching Star Trek.

And just in case you wonder how I get that much done, I did no housework all week, I spent next to no time watching the telly and I worked evenings. 

Now I must go! Thanks for visiting 😊