Cot pockets organiser Mark 1

I recently saw "cot pockets" somewhere on the web whilst googling baby stuff, and asked my daughter if she'd like some. Yes please she said. I particularly liked some that had multiple pockets on them, and decided to have a go. This is the final version, photographed on the cot that awaits our grandchild. (The photos don't seem very good - not sure why. More investigating to be done...)

I made these out of some old curtains that a friend gave me ages ago (recognise them, Barbara?), and the plain cream backing was from a bag of offcuts I was given from the wonderful Wesley-Barrell furniture factory in Witney a while ago. Daughter has still to choose some fabric that goes with the lovely wall paper in the background and the other bits and pieces in the room.

Diagrams and maths!

I had taken measurements of the cot, as I wanted the pockets to fit in the right place with regard to the position of the bars, so that it looked neat and tidy. At this stage I also worked out how big I wanted the hems to be, and the size of the pockets.

Top layer and backing cut to the same size.

I cut four pockets, and stitched a double hem on the top
and folded in a single hem on the bottom. The sides don't need hemming as they will be tucked under the backing when it is turned over to the front.

I turned in a single hem all round, and then placed the backing on top (wrong sides together).

I didn't take enough pictures, but then this wasn't meant to be a tutorial, more just to give you the general idea of how I did it! Across the top of each pocket piece I sewed twill tape, for decoration and for added body. I then stitched the pocket pieces to the main piece at the sides only, very close to the edge - just to hold it in place. I turned the backing over to the front - at the bottom the backing sits just below the pocket bottom. I was intending to do mitred corners, but as you will see later on I changed my mind and didn't as it was easier. (I was making it up as I went along!)

Here I have now added the top pockets as well, and turned over the edge all the way round, and tacked it. I stitched down the centre of each pocket. In these two pictures you can see that I have pinned in place the gussets at the sides and centres of the bottom pockets. (The creases you can see at the bottom of the pockets is probably the original hem fold of the curtains.)

 I then pinned in place all the gussets, and stitched them in place across the bottoms of the pockets. I stitched the hems all the way round, on the outer and inner edges, and added twill tape to the back of the top corners for attaching it to the cot.

NOTE: Regarding safety, I would not tie the tapes in bows with long loops like I did in the first picture. I would wind them round the bars to shorten them and then tie them in double knots. I will probably add some more tapes along the top as well, otherwise the whole thing might end up sagging down in the middle once the pockets have stuff in them. 

Of course, this organiser could have all sorts of uses, e.g. on the back of a door attached to hooks, or on the inside of a wardrobe (although I think it is too nice to be shut away!).

The pockets are a good size for small soft toys, and even for books. I love the idea of a favourite soft toy being tucked into one of the top pockets, and the baby, once it's at the standing up stage, reaching over to pull it out! Or maybe reaching in to get its copy of Mrs Armitage on Wheels, or Burglar Bill (said daughter once sat up in bed at about the age of two and ripped up the copy of this - naughty girl! - that I had bought when I was young and worked in the children's department of George's bookshop in Bristol) or Cops and Robbers ("Here are the cops of London town, hardworking, brave and true....") or one of the Mog ("in the morning we have a little stretch!") books, or The Tiger who came to Tea (he drank all the water in the taps) or Lucy and Tom (I once met Shirley Hughes in said bookshop).......can't wait to read these again....

And speaking of Mrs Armitage (if you are not aware of my blog's connection to this book then you haven't read the About Me page!) I must write a letter to her (c/o Quentin Blake) apologising for pinching her words without asking. Another post perhaps!

Has anyone else made cot pockets? Any tips?

And now, I'm off to check over my bike which has some funny noises coming from it. Hopefully I'll get in a decent ride in the next day or two while we have this lovely weather!

Lizzie

This "feed" lark........

Just a very short post.And no, this isn't about food or feeding someone, but about that other sort of computery bloggy sort of feed, often preceded by the initials RSS. The reason for this post is not to explain what "feed" is (I can't!!) but to say that I knew my "follow by email" gadget wasn't working. 

As a result I spent ages delving deep into the depths of the internet/the computer/my blog settings/my brain trying to work out why it wasn't. I had windows open all across the screen, flitting from one to the other, trying to sort it out and get it to work. And I have! I tested it out by subscribing to my own blog - which means that now I will know when I have published a new post because I will get an email to tell me so!! 

So if you are one of the hundreds er well ok one or two oh all right then ONE (if I read my feedburner stats correctly!) who had signed up to follow me by email, then hopefully you will now get those emails! 

I still have to sort out adding (and making sure it works) an "RSS feed" gadget (which I understand is important. Is it.........?). 

As my son-in-law would say, "Happy days!"

Off to get the tea now.

Lizzie

Elderberry syrup, how to make it and what to do with it.

Because the process of setting up this blog involved so many hours spent sat in front of the computer (not my favourite occupation)   I was a little afraid that writing the thing would also involve too much time spent in front of this screen, and that actually doing the things I wanted to blog about would take a back seat. Which if it proved true would be a bit ridiculous....

But I think that having a blog could perhaps have the opposite effect in a way (am I making myself clear?). It did on Sunday anyway. My daughter (the pregnant one, who has already commented that there isn't enough about her on this blog!!) and her husband were coming round for a visit and so after washing up in the evening (we eat early so it was still light) I decided I had time to squeeze in some elderberry picking before they came if I got move on. It didn't take long - fifteen minutes or so to walk across the fields to the spot where I knew there were plenty, thirty minutes or so picking, and back home to find said daughter and son-in-law had arrived early. She came with a tin of her home made cakes of which we partook, with tea/coffee.  [There, I've written a bit more about you, daughter.]

This is the recipe I use:

I'd advise taking a pair of scissors when you go to get elderberries - cutting the stalks off is easier than trying to twist them off.

1 Use a fork to remove the elderberries from the stalks. Don't worry about removing every little bit of stalk as the bits will just stay in the jelly bag later.

2 Place the berries in a large saucepan or stockpot with enough water to cover them.

3 Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

4 Strain the mixture through a muslin or jelly bag. When it seems to have stopped dripping squeeze the bag and you will get quite a bit more juice out.

5 For each pint of juice you get, add 1 lb of granulated sugar.

6 Slowly dissolve the sugar, then boil for 10 minutes.

7 Let it cool slightly , then pour into sterilised bottles. Use ones that have a plastic seal.

I got my bottles free by asking a local pub/restaurant to save their screw top bottles for me, which they kindly did. They are 500 ml water bottles. As lots of places serve water in individual bottles these days (ridiculously wasteful) there are plenty of places that would probably happily save them for you. 

So, on to the making......and apologies for using both imperial and metric measurements. Am I the only person who does this?

  I picked about half a carrier bagful of elderberry stalks, and the next day I forked them off the stems.

I had 1.8 kg. Then I put them into the largest of my two stockpots, with enough water to cover them. While they were simmering I did my usual rigging up of my jelly/straining bag on this upturned stool, and carefully ladled the elderberries in once they were ready. You can probably see how I dripped the mixture onto the table.....and it does stain if you don't wipe it up quickly!                                                                                                                                                                        

   
How to rig up a stand for your jelly bag if you haven't got a "proper" one. Why spend money on a proper one though when an upturned stool will do?

















I ended up with 4 pts and 4 fl ozs of juice, to which I added 3 lbs 2 ozs of sugar.

And when it was ready I poured it into sterilised bottles, using my invaluable juice funnel - something I didn't have when I first made this syrup but which makes the job so much easier. I have just found out that there is one you can get with a removable strainer. That would be even more advantageous.









It has a very high hmmmm... factor, particularly when taken poured over lemon cheesecake, my dead easy recipe for which came off the side of a tin of Carnation condensed milk and which you can probably get off their website.








This is a rather badly designed post in terms of getting text and pics to wrap round each other nicely. I hope that by the time I do my next post I will have learnt how to do it better. And I've got to add a "Preserving" tab at the top of the page.

Now get out there and pick some elderberries..... After the first frost I will tell you about making rose hip syrup, which is equally delicious.

Oh, and I would just like to add, in case my husband reads this (unlikely) that while waiting for photos to upload I did some hoovering and rinsed out the mops I'd used for washing AND polishing the elderberry-juice stained kitchen floor.....

Bye for now

Lizzie