What I made in July and August

 

So I was terribly unhappy with my scrap fabric situation. Slowly over the years, I've thrown away some tiny scraps which aren't useable but there's so much left. In fact it keeps growing because I keep buying new fabric and using them. It's an endless cycle but I wanted to at least try to use a tiny portion of the scraps in small art quilts so I'll have something pretty to look at instead of heaps of scrap fabric. 

The first quilt I made is a no-brainer. Birds flying in the sky towards the sun. The formation of the birds were ripped off Singapore's national day fly past. Just imagine the birds as small planes flying towards a Singapore flag. The birds were kept simple - raw edge with running stitches. The sun was originally an applique but I wanted something shiny so I sewed sequins anchored by seed beads. And as always, I got tired after a few sequins but had to keep going because I disliked unpicking more.

I noticed that I tend to make quilts with birds flying in the sky when I'm not feeling great. Such as being in a pain cycle or just sick of living. Making birds quilt somehow make me feel better and less trapped. So that's kind of my therapy. 

Speaking of feeling trapped, here in Singapore we were finally allowed to eat out a few weeks ago. Not being able to eat out is very upsetting especially since we've had the freedom to eat out taken away a number of times already but what can you do? To be honest, we don't eat out that often, maybe once a week. It's just that having the option to eat out makes life so much better. Has the new covid-19 variants reached your country? We had a new wave of infections and our leaders got cold feet and brought back some restrictions. On paper, Singapore isn't going to pursue a zero covid-19 case strategy anymore. Instead, we're aiming to live with covid-19. Did I say on paper? That's the aim but when we will really move from pandemic to endemic is still up in the air. Regardless, one thing won't change. We, in Singapore will have to wear masks in public for a long, long time. 

Do you guys use an oximeter or know what an oximeter is? We were given one per household to monitor our blood oxygen level. If the blood oxygen level is between 90 to 94, you have to see a doctor. The device is not super accurate because I've gotten 94 before and when I test again I got 96 and then 98 when I used another finger.  

Here's the next quilt I made with lots of scrap fabric. The quilt started with the orange fabric. I've used this orange fabric frequently in my quilts. There was so much of it and slowly I managed to use up most of it. I had 5 pieces of the orange fabric cut into squares lying around forever. Finally I stitched 4 of the squares with some other remnants into a patchwork of sorts. I joined the patchwork to a piece of calico and after that I had no idea what to do with it. That was in 2019. The pieced fabric sat in my storeroom waiting for me to be inspired. I would look at it from time to time, audition some fabric but nothing came to mind until last month when I suddenly decided I would applique a vase of flowers. The applique is turned under and I used my usual loosey goosey method of applique - draw the shape on the right side of fabric, cut it with a small seam allowance and applique away. The backing is my mother's batik. I have tons left. <sob> 

I love how this quilt turned out. It makes me so happy to look at it. So bright and cheery.

I wanted to knit very badly but projects that take a long time aren't good for me at the moment. So I knitted 2 beaded cuffs. Joining both ends of the cuff together was the hardest part. I can never do it neatly.

In July, I got bitten by the beading bug and spent some time making pendants using a plastic bead, a stone and a crystal rivoli. This video explains how to bead around a rivoli quite well. For the Galaxy pendant (bottom pic), I followed this video. Why do I keep making these pendants when I've nowhere to wear them to. And of course when I heard Beads etc was closing down, I went and bought myself more beads even though they weren't discounted! 

I made another blouse just to test the fit. My daughter has narrower shoulders. I wanted to make a bodice (similar to what I made here) that fits both of us. That way we can share clothes!

Finally, some update on my frozen shoulder. It is healing slowly. I've continued with my therapy sessions and daily exercises. One setback is I hurt both my elbows. It's probably due to wear and tear and some of the exercises I had been doing. So for one week I stopped all housework and cooking. It coincided with hubs being down with gout and he couldn't walk for one whole week. He went through such excruciating pain it made me very sad. Because he couldn't walk, he couldn't go to the doctor to get strong painkillers. Instead he used over the counter painkillers which barely worked. The "good" thing that came out of the gout episode is hubs can finally relate to my pain and how one can feel so hopeless and helpless when stuck in the pain cycle. Still I hope he doesn't suffer like this again. One parent with pain issues is enough.

This month there was a small breakthrough in my recovery. I was finally able to reach behind my back all the way up to my waist. I still can't wear my bra but at least I can bring my hand behind. Also, I can now open both my arms wide at the sky. You can't imagine how happy that made me. <I'm almost normal> I'm now at the worst and hardest part of my frozen shoulder recovery - loosening my shoulder blade. Every time the physiotherapist tries to loosen it, it hurts like %$#@. If only I could tolerate the pain, I would be healed by now. Instead we have to do it slowly, bit by bit. I have to go to the swimming pool soon for some water therapy. I'm not allowed to swim because I will get injured. Instead the focus is on strengthening my arms. Gosh, I hope I don't get sun spots!

 

Basic Bread

Since 2017, I've been trying to attend a Basic Bread class. I would sign up for it and somehow things would happen and I would not be able to attend. Finally one day I managed to get a confirmed class and was ready to go for the class. Then a phone call came to inform me the school was closing down and therefore the class was cancelled. I decided to give up on the class because I've been baking bread for a few years using knowledge gained from friends, youtube, instagram and blogs so I probably already have basic bread baking skills. Instead I tried signing up for intermediate/advanced bread classes. Unfortunately, I was always told to take the Basic Bread class before attempting the more difficult bread classes. Which brings me back to square one - the damned Basic Bread class.

To me, the Basic Bread class is a jinxed class. It's like the Universe is conspiring to prevent me from taking the class. Last year, yup, during the pandemic when vaccines weren't available yet, I signed up for the Basic Bread class. Remember the baking school which closed down? It had reopened under a new management (before the pandemic) and I had been thinking about giving it another go. Except it was hard to get a place. So I waited and waited and finally I was given a confirmed class starting end March. 

Great right? Except I had my frozen shoulder and March was the period when it hurt the most and my left arm was super stiff. I kept thinking I should withdraw from the class but in the end I decided to go for it. The Universe was on my side for once. One day before the first class, I had my first appointment with my physiotherapist and he managed to reduce my pain and made my arm a little less stiff!

So all the stars aligned and I went for my first class. The first thing that happened when I was entering the classroom, I banged my left shoulder onto the door and almost died. Yup, the damned jinxed class. Fortunately, the pain went away after a while and I need not pull out of the class.

There were a total of 4 days for this class from 9am to 6pm on Saturdays. The last day is purely assessment. Every day, there is some theory and we bake twice - once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The pace is leisurely. 

On day 1, we baked a pullman loaf and an open top sandwich loaf, both with bread improver. We worked in groups of 3 and we shared one mixer. So the weighing of ingredients, mixing of dough was done together in our group of 3. Once the dough was divided, we were on our own. We didn't have to handle the oven as the teacher did it for us. Our teacher was pretty patient and doesn't hesitate to help whenever required. I've had very lazy teachers before! I was a bit worried that I would have problems doing lifting, carrying of trays. The Universe gave me a young couple in my group. They did all the heavy lifting and washing up. I was very, very thankful.

On day 2, we baked an open top sandwich loaf, this time without bread improver so we needed to do a 1 hour bulk fermentation. The 2nd loaf was also an open top loaf but we did a sponge and dough method and for shaping we braided the dough.

On Day 3, it was French bread and soft bread roll, using bread improver. In terms of shaping, I learnt the most because we made 4 different shapes.

On day 4, for assessment, we baked an open top sandwich loaf and French bread. For the French bread, the teacher wanted to make it more interesting so we did a sponge and dough method. We used a different kitchen and oven and our bread turned out a bit lighter than usual. Our bread mould was also different. At the end of the day, there was an oral assessment for each of us. Everyone passed. It wasn't difficult at all and I didn't even study for it. All you need to do is pay attention during the class and of course be able to bake the bread. On assessment day, we worked in twos and I was paired up with a total stranger. She was omg so fussy. She disagreed with me frequently and wouldn't stop mixing the dough and I wanted to cry. Finally I put my foot down and stopped the mixing. Thankfully my bread turned out fine. She wouldn't stop handling her own dough and her bread ended up really ugly. But since it didn't affect me, I couldn't care less.

I'm so glad I finally attended the Basic Bread class. Despite having baked bread for a few years, I did pick up some knowledge and skills, particularly in shaping which is my weakness. Of course the best part is I paid $0 for the class as it is a WSQ funded class (90%) and the remaining 10% I used my Skillsfuture credits. 

I thought I'll share some stuff I picked up from the class:

Bread improver: It's used only when you are short on time. You can skip bulk fermentation if you use bread improver but it doesn't improve the taste of bread. I would never use bread improver because I bake at home and I should make the time. Plus I'm always chasing the taste of bread so I tend to take the longer route to bake bread just to improve the taste.

Bread tin - The teacher doesn't use any formula to calculate how much dough goes into a bread tin. Instead he relies on the info given by the manufacturer. The loaf tin we used were 450g to 550g so that's the amount of dough we could use per tin. In class we used 500g and to be honest, I did notice the bread sank a bit after it was demoulded. I was hoping the teacher could show us a scientific way to calculate dough per tin.

Yeast - I've always thought low sugar (10%) and high sugar (>10%) yeast could be used on any kind of bread recipe. It turns out low sugar yeast can be used in any bread recipe but high sugar yeast can only be used in high sugar bread recipe. Glad I got this sorted out.

Internal bread temperature - Checking for doneness of bread is done using a thermometer. 95 deg C to 98 deg C is considered baked. Of course colour is another factor. I now obsessively check my bread using a thermometer. 

Bulk fermentation - How to tell bulk fermentation is done? Poke a finger through the dough and the hole should stay and not close up immediately. Previously I've always used 1 hour as a gauge.

Final proof - How to tell dough is ready for baking. Press the dough and it should spring back slowly. If it springs back quickly, it needs to proof longer. If it collapses, it's over proofed.

There are two more bread classes I want to attend. Hopefully all the stars will align for me once again. If you live in Singapore and you're either a citizen or PR, you can sign up for wsq classes. Just google. There are lots of options. Don't be afraid of the assessment. Like I said, pay attention during class and you'll pass.

March, April, May and June Makes

This year's been incredibly cruel to me. It's one hundred percent due to my bad judgement. I had injured my left shoulder last year and it was very slowly healing on its own. I did see a physiotherapist (subsidized) once and he did a few shoulder manipulations (press here, press there, pull here, pull there) and taught me 2 very simple exercises to do every day which he said should fix the problem. By the way, he was insistent I did not have a shoulder issue. He was very sure I had a neck issue. Also, he told me I'm not allowed (by him I suppose) to see him again for the same ailment unless I go back to the doctor to get another referral to see him. It had taken me a 3-month wait to see this idiot physiotherapist in the first place so no thanks. 

Well, things were going well shoulder-wise until January when I went to throw rubbish down the rubbish chute. In Singapore if you live in a flat, the rubbish chute is where you dump your rubbish. In very old flats, the rubbish chute is inside the flat. Mine is a shared rubbish chute with my neighbours located a few steps outside my flat. On that fateful day, I made a bad mistake of throwing a bag of trash that was way too big for the rubbish chute opening. I ended up jamming the door which couldn't close completely and it couldn't open either. The sensible thing to do would have been to call up the town council to fix it. But I opted to do the stupid thing. I used both my hands to yank the door open. And yes, I managed to pull the door open but the force from the impact of the door opening suddenly sent me flying backwards and you guessed it - it aggravated my bad shoulder. The pain was so bad I thought I was dying. I squatted down howling like an animal. Eventually the pain subsided but the damage was done. The good news though is I managed to free my trash down the chute and the rubbish chute door was not damaged.

At first I didn't see a doctor because you know what doctors say about injured shoulders? Do nothing, it'll heal on its own. So with that wisdom in mind, I left my shoulders alone. Which was a very big mistake because my left shoulder slowly became very bad to the point where every little thing made it worse, causing great pain. It felt almost random. Like if someone touched my shoulder, if hubs sneezed (he sneezes a lot), if my shoulder touched a chair, if someone brushed past my shoulder, if someone pulled my left hand, if I moved my left arm an inch, if I breathed deeply, if I turned... 

One day I told myself I had better find myself another physiotherapist because on its own, my condition was getting worse. I went to this clinic which I go to for health checkups and you know what the doctor said? Do nothing. It'll heal on its own. But he did refer me to the clinic's physiotherapist. Unfortunately, physiotherapist services at this clinic is not subsidized so it costs about 100 bucks each time. But since it's not subsidized, I could literally see the physiotherapist as many times as I wanted. The thing is the physiotherapist only came fortnightly so there was a waiting time to get my first appointment which was in end March. 

Now this story would have a happy ending if I hadn't been impatient. After my first visit to the physiotherapist, my pain was slightly reduced and he confirmed I have a frozen shoulder. A very bad one but he said it's treatable. I was given a few exercises to do at home and I started to feel hopeful. Unfortunately, my next appointment was more than a month away. I felt very desperate and decided to see a traditional Chinese medicine doctor (sinseh) for acupuncture. After all, the doctor had suggested acupuncture at a hospital but I rejected it because I had been there before and the experience was not good.

There is a traditional Chinese medicine clinic near where I live and I made an appointment. The sinseh I saw spoke English so I was rather relieved and maybe trusted him more. He placed a few needles on my arm and shoulder plus a couple on my right foot near my toes. He explained that there's a meridian relationship between the injured area and the non-injured area. Anyway, after the acupuncture, he asked if I wanted a massage (tui-na) of the injured areas. He said why not try his method and see if it worked. This sinseh was convinced I did not have frozen shoulder. He said I had injured certain muscles around my shoulder. Anyway, the tui-na was super painful. He basically felt around my shoulder/arm that hurt and rubbed away. I felt sore as hell afterwards but after 2 weeks the pain went away and believe it or not, I went back to the sinseh a second time for the same treatment. 

This time though, things didn't go so well. Firstly, before the sinseh inserted the needles on my right foot, he didn't do it near my toes like the last time. Instead he pressed and rubbed very hard on my front right ankle. It was crazy painful and I told him so. And the sinseh said that the pain told him he was hitting on the correct spot. Then he placed a needle on the very painful spot (created by him). It was unbearable and I told him I couldn't take it. So he took out the needle and put it on another location. The rest of the acupuncture went as normal. After that, he tui-na my shoulder/arm as before. Except, this time he sounded a bit lost as if he didn't know what the hell he was doing. He would press and ask, this hurts right? When I said no, he would dig around for another location and kept on until he found a spot that hurt and he would rub until tears came to my eyes. I don't know why I trusted the sinseh despite all the pain he was giving me. The next day I could tell the sinseh had worsened my shoulder/arm. The pain was so unbearable and wouldn't go away for weeks. On top of worsening my shoulder, the sinseh also injured my right ankle which was fine before. Could this get any worse?

Yup. One day I discovered I couldn't eat without getting stomach pains and bloating. It got so bad even a drop of water could cause me great discomfort. The good ole' gastrics was back. It was probably due to all the painkillers I had been taking. Plus the stress from the shoulder pain. I stopped taking painkillers immediately and went on gastrics medication for a month. After a month or so, I could finally eat like a human being again. Honestly during the month I couldn't eat and I was also still in pain from the shoulder, waking up each day all I could think of was: another day of pain, another day of suffering. I really hated being alive. How I managed to go through each day without painkillers is beyond me. It's all a blur to me.  

Over the years I've taken my fair share of painkillers. Doctors have warned me about the dangers. Well, it's finally come to bite me in the ass. Recently, my doctor told me that my test results say that my kidney may be impaired. They don't know what caused it but I can't take strong painkillers anymore. Panadol is all I'm allowed from now on. The kidney issue can be taken care of with medication so it's not like I will lose my kidney right away. At the moment it's still wait-and-see. After the next test results, the doctor will likely prescribe me some kidney-loving medication.

Well, I learnt my lessons and decided to stick to the physiotherapist. He's patient and his skills are decent. If only he's a miracle worker...If only I didn't have to pay almost a hundred bucks per session... At first I saw him fortnightly. In May, he started coming to the clinic once a week so I jumped at the chance to see him weekly. Hubs nearly fainted when he saw how much I had spent on my treatment. 

So far I have recovered some movements and flexibility. I have a long way to go before I could consider myself fully healed. Due to long period of not using my left arm, my muscles had become very weak. So apart from recovering my arm flexibility, I had to work at rebuilding my muscles. Every day I have to do some specific exercises. Each time I do the exercises, especially the harder ones, I risk aggravating my injury. The thing is I have to bear with some pain but not push it too far. It's tricky. I have injured myself a few times. Some weeks it is 1 step forward, 3 steps backward. Once I injured my back. Fortunately it got better after a few weeks. Some weeks, especially when I don't see any progress, I feel like a frail mess. I try not to think about all the things I cannot do. Instead I think about all the actions I've regained. That way I don't feel like so pathetic.

After a lot of hard work, perseverance and pain, I am now able to do the following:

• hang laundry (boo)
• cook independently 
• bake (hubs has to carry the mixer for me)
• cut fabric (it's still awkward when I spread out a large piece of fabric)
• remove my T-shirt the way humans do over their heads (I had to wear very loose T-shirts and remove them like a skirt. Sad)
• hug someone (yay for my daughter)
• tolerate hub's sneezes (no more pain every time he sneezes!)
• wash my hair with 2 hands
• clean my right armpit (woo hoo!)
• use the rotary cutter (I almost cried)

On my wish list are just 2 things I hope to do even if I don't achieve full recovery (touch wood):

• sleep on my left side
• swim (breaststroke)

Lately I've started using my left arm more. Definitely no heavy lifting but really just to use my left hand naturally when I go about the day. I've also been sewing quite a bit. 

This sleeveless shift dress I actually made just before my shoulder got really bad. I tried it on and had a hard time removing it because there's no zipper or buttons. The fabric is a Ikea remnant I had bought years ago. The neckline and armholes are finished with bias binding. I included one pocket. Why not 2? I forgot why. The edges are serged and I wish I had taken the trouble to change the serger thread to white. To draft this dress, I followed PatternLabLondon's youtube video. You need to have Adobe Illustrator tho'. Honestly, drafting patterns on paper is a lot faster. I gave this dress to my daughter who says she'll wear it a home.

After I had sewn a Gemma top for myself in January, I wanted to sew one for my daughter. (even though she hadn't asked for it). I think I sewed this in March and back then my arm was still in bad shape. It was really hard handling the fabric with a bad arm. Fortunately it's only a blouse so it took me maybe a week to complete. I'm so pleased the serger thread matched the fabric. Sadly, my daughter said she may not wear the blouse because it's sleeveless. I do hope she gets over the phobia of wearing sleeveless clothes like I have.

This gingham shift dress (pattern from Christine Haynes Skirts and Dresses book) was my first attempt at sewing after regaining some flexibility. My left arm was still pretty weak but I could move it around and it did its fair share of the work. It took me one whole week to complete the dress. I don't know why I chose this pattern. Is it hideous? It's pretty shapeless but it was an easy sew. Anyway, I made the mistake of using this thin fabric so it's a bit see-through. My daughter says she'll probably not wear it because it's too see-through. My bad. I haven't tried on this dress because I'm not confident I can get out of it. Yup, another no zipper, no buttons dress. The sleeves aren't cut separately so no finishing required. The neckline was finished with bias binding. The raw edges were serged and again I wished I had changed the serger thread to white.

My daughter said if I were to sew anything new for her, it must have sleeves. So I worked on a pattern for a blouse with inset sleeves. Getting the fit right took ages. It's still not perfect but it's not too bad. I wanted this blouse to be a top she could wear to work so I chose a light colour. The fabric is calico with white print. The closure is invisible zipper. The neckline is finished with facing. I made the mistake of cutting the facing too narrow and it couldn't stay down naturally so I had to hand tack it all around. What a rookie mistake. For this blouse, I made the effort to change the serger thread to white. It took me 2 whole days - 1 day to thread it correctly and 1 day to recover.  

The last item I made is basically the blouse with sleeves and invisible zipper but lengthened with 2 pockets. I took the trouble to change the serger thread to grey and this time it only took me a few hours. My daughter prefers the dress with a belt as she doesn't like to wear shapeless dresses. When I was a hot young chick back in the days, I wore this kind of dresses all the time. I cut the neck facing wider for this dress and it lay down obediently.

My next project is likely to be a shirt or blouse with buttons. This shirt no.1 which I made in 2018 and never wore became invaluable to me during the period when I couldn't remove T-shirts over my head. Suddenly clothes with buttons were badly needed. I only have 4 buttoned shirts and shirt no.1 with buttons very quickly became my favourite. Who knew this shirt would come in so useful? Since I've come to love buttoned shirts, I would like to make one for my daughter. Hopefully she won't reject it! See you in my next post and I pinkie promise not to bitch about my frozen shoulder anymore.