How to Make a Fake Fur Stole/Collar

It all started when I unwillingly ventured into a fabric sale with two friends I will never shop with again, far too dangerous. With 50% off everything we touched was gold. Bargains on every cardboard roll. But the best bargain of all was the indescribably soft and cuddle-able fake fur. Though $58 per metre would be way past my normal limit it had sunk down to $29 and for the project I had planned a half a metre would do just fine.

I've been obsessed with the fur collars I've seen around at the moment. It's a constant feature in BeautyCrush's OOTDs and makes regular appearances on pinterest, chictopia and other such time burning websites. Despite the fact that New Zealand is currently right in the middle of the summer months I decided to make one for myself as I'm about to head off to europe for two months and I'll need as much padding as I can carry! 

So here's how I fumbled my way through making my fake fur collar:

Materials:
1/2m of fake fur
1/2m of SATIN lining (I'll explain why satin is important later)
1/2m of calico for the pattern (or use paper - whatever works for you)
Fabric scissors or craft knife
Ruler (I mostly used mine as a fabric weight... I'm not one for accuracy)
Thread
Sewing Machine

Step One: First take your calico or paper and cut a sausage like shape semi diagonally. The degree of the angle depends on how much you want it to wrap around your neck. I was going for a cross between a stole and a collar so I made it less severe.
 

Step Two:  Take the cut out pattern and make sure it sits at the length you want it to. I wanted mine to be quite long and this is how it measured up on me below. If it's not quite right cut out a new one or adjust what you already have to suit - you don't want to start cutting out your more expensive materials until you know it's right with the cheap disposable stuff.

 Step Three: Before you start ANYTHING make sure you are prepared for the onslaught of furry crap about to happen. The fur will go EVERYWHERE. Mine is still shedding a bit around the edges. I made sure that I moved my project outside onto the veranda and away from any carpet or other material that might pick up the fur easily. I did forget about my own dress but a lint roller will clean that up - I hope.

Step Four: Anyway, once you've sorted out where to cut it's time to get cutting. Using the pattern you previously made cut out your fur and satin lining. For the fur it is a lot easier and tidier to use a craft knife. My craft knife was not strong enough unfortunately so I resorted to the scissor approach but this resulted in giving my fur a haircut despite going as carefully as I could. This didn't really show on the final product but I couldn't help thinking it might have been nicer.

Step Five: Now that you have your two pieces pin them right sides together (aka. the sides you want showing together). 

Now let me explain why you should use satin (or a non-stretch alternative): stretch fabric stretches. I know - mind blown. But I didn't think of this on my first attempt and was left un-stitching for hours on end trying not to pull all the fur out of my fabric. The fabric stretched as I was sewing and pulled the collar round so it was completely twisted by the time I was done. The next day I went out and bought some non-stretch satin. Much much smarter. So on my second attempt I was much more successful. 

I found it helpful to pin from the centre out just to make sure it was even on both sides.

Step Six: Now SEW! Make sure to leave one end open so you can pull it inside out. While moving around the sides make sure to tuck in the fur as you go. If you do miss a few pieces just pull them out on the other side later with a pin.

Step Seven: Now all you have to do is pull the right side out and sew up the open end! Et voila! The perfect winter furry scarf/stole/collar! Wasn't so hard now was it?!

Hope you enjoy your new accessory and that this tutorial was somehow helpful! Feel free to give me feedback and send photos your completed masterpieces to me at whatsheepdo@gmail.com

Good Luck!

What Sheep Do's Clare

 

Bacon and Egg Pie Recipe

This is my favourite recipe for leftovers. The next few days I am just in heaven scoffing down tomato sauce drenched slices of bacon and egg goodness. So I decided since I felt like whipping one up I would take some photos and share my recipe.

Ingredients:

6 Eggs

4 Slices of bacon

 1 Onion diced

5 Button Mushrooms diced roughly

2 Pieces of Pastry

Salt and Pepper to taste

Milk

(I use soy milk but any milk will do!)

 Method:

1. Oil up your pie dish and turn the oven on to 200

2. Place in your onions

 3. Then your mushrooms

 4. And your Bacon

5. And finally your eggs!

6. Season with salt and pepper and place another sheet of pastry over the top. Poke in some air holes and brush the top with milk.

7. Place in the oven for roughly 40min or until nicely browned.

And there you have it! A lovely bacon and egg pie! My pie dish is actually a little bit bigger then other pie dishes so I have to use half another sheet of pastry to fill in gaps but still works fine!

I will have some more photos of the inside up later (I already had pizza for dinner so no pie tonight XD)

Good Luck

Clare from What Sheep Do

Martha's Pantry High Tea!

Having planned this event for months after I missed Robyn's 21st birthday party we finally headed to Martha's Pantry on Cuba St for our sophisticated 1950s ladies high tea. We booked a table for 3pm just in case, as we know how busy Martha's Pantry can get, but luckily, or unluckily, the weather was awful and we were given a table with plenty of space around us.

 The store itself is adorable. Tucked off the side of Cuba, it's a little hard to find but just look for the cute pink signs and you'll see it. They not only do high tea but also have a selection of cakes and teas for the walk in customer to choose from. On your right hand side as you enter is also a bunch of cute tea goods all very vintage themed so I know where to go next time for gift shopping!

We were presented with a large range of teas to choose from from all over the world and ended up going for the day's special pot, Pomegranate Green Tea, and a South African Honeybush Tea. Most of the teas on the menu are caffeine free so very "mental" friendly ^^

The Pomegranate Green Tea Special

South African Honeybush Tea

After being presented with our knitted tea-cosy covered pots we were presented with our cake tier with savouries at the bottom and sweets at the top. Being "good girls" we worked our way up from the bottom. It was worth the wait when we reached our final sweet, a chocolate peppermint truffle, the perfect end to our meal. The best savoury was, for me at least, the salmon pate which filled my mouth with smoothe and rich flavours and left me salivating when it was all done.

The cafe was perfect for catching up and managed to cover all bases from boys to mental health all while sipping on our sweet teas and munching on the goodies before us. We were totally overcome by the cuteness of the shop and every detail caught us out. Even the honey pot was adorable.

All this and the experience set us back $25 each (though my half was taken care of by the beautiful Robyn who kindly pushed me aside and paid the bill). I would more then gladly go back and experience Martha's high tea again as it is well worth the money for the atmosphere and the food. I would highly reccomend it to anyone in town or coming into town looking for a lady's (or gentleman's) morning or afternoon tea or just a cute place to eat some cake.


Enjoy!
Clare from WhatSheepDo

How did I get to this point?

It's a complicated process to get to the conclusion of suicide. So complicated in fact that it takes me writing this entry to fully comprehend the process myself. As a sufferer of both Generalised Anxiety Disorder and a current episode of Major Depression it may seem obvious to onlookers that mental illness would lead me to self harm and suicide. However, before being diagnosed with these issues I had absolutely no conscious bad thoughts at all. My main symptoms of depression were agoraphobia and lack of confidence. I hadn't even considered myself to be depressed due to my good relationship with positivity and humour.

I am of course aware that depression is not just negativity. In fact, in most cases the people who recover from depression require the strongest sense of willpower and hope for the future as the effort taken to battle a mental disease demands constant attention and strength. I feel I am very much a part of the cliche  that the happiest person in the room is most likely the loneliest and saddest of them all. There is not a moment of every day where I do not attempt to cover my pain with a smile from ear to ear. I even go as far as looking in the mirror in an attempt to convince myself of my happiness. But this kind of strategy will not get you far. Everyone knows that you cannot carry that kind of burden for long without collapsing. And though I may have fallen I did not fall as far as to consider before reaching out for help that hurting or killing myself would make things somehow better.

                Enter the question; how did I get to this point?                 

The most obvious answer to me as the subject is the use of medication. On all anti-depressants there is a risk of increased suicidal thinking in subject under 25 years old. This is a risk I didn't take seriously upon taking my first round of medication, Fluoxetine (Prozac). Much like the curse of the "Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers in Harry Potter unable to remain in their post for longer then a year (too nerdy?) I am now stuck in a circle of taking and discarding anti-depressants. I really could be a pharmacy at the moment with the amount of tablets lying around my bedroom. After taking Citalopram (Celexa) for just over 10 weeks my doctor and I decided that it was only making things worse and have once again switched over to a new drug Sertraline (Zoloft) which supposedly acts differently to the past two drugs in avoiding activating chemicals in the brain which increase anxiety. 

After only a few days of taking Fluoxetine I started to have bad thoughts which increased in intensity each day I was on the medication. Without hesitation I returned to the doctor and was prescribed Citalopram based on the fact that I needed something more then just therapy to get me better and Citalopram is said to have less side effects then Fluoxetine I took a weeks break and then continued on my quest for self improvement by commencing the Citalopram. Since all I had to compare with was the Fluoxetine things seemed up at first. I knew it would take weeks for good effects to come in but as the weeks passed by nothing seemed to be changing and the ongoing flow of suicidal thoughts set off by the Fluoxetine continued. 

In the past few weeks my emotional strength has been dwindling and my resistance to those bad thoughts has been weakening. Lack of sleep combined with ever increasing belief in suicide being the answer could not be settled with the simple increase of meds and prescription of Zopiclone (sleeping pills). With the occurrence of a serious episode which very nearly lead to my death I went to see my doctor and had myself taken off the Citalopram with the intention of refusing to take medication at all. However, I found myself being convinced yet again to go down the path of medical treatment and taking Sertraline at least until the doctor is able to organise a review with the Psychiatrist and/or Wellington Mental Health professionals. 

Today is my first day of the new medication and I found my rest period of 48 hours oddly freeing. Though bad thoughts were still dominant I felt somewhat relaxed in the thought that drugs I no longer trusted and did not fully understand were not coursing through my head trying to attack my brain into submission. Though the Temazepam (another stronger sleeping pill) certainly assisted in shutting down my brain at night. I only hope that, by some miracle, Sertraline has my brains best interests at heart and proves my doubts to be false. My intuition (which should not be confused with negativity) tells me differently...

All of this leaves me thinking; did they get the diagnosis wrong? Are anti-depressants, in fact, simply placebo drugs? Am I somehow resistant to all medication used for mental illness?

As far as I know, no one has the answers to these questions at the moment. There are still many mysteries when it comes to the brain and mental illness which is why I feel it's incredibly important that the people going through these issues such as myself contribute as much as they can to research. So much so that I have dedicated my youtube channel and this blog to exploring the process of mental illness treatment and sharing my experiences with those who want to know how the brain functions under the influences of chemical imbalances in the brain.

Please feel free to join me or just follow my day to day life as I attempt to soldier on through the difficulties in the hopes of one day defeating my illness or at least controlling it enough to be able to function in a semi-respectable way (let's not set our expectations too high ^^ I don't think my personality was ever considered "normal").

Kind regards,
Clare of WhatSheepDo

Crispy Sesame Onion Rings Recipe!

 I absolutely LOVE onions so any recipe with onions in the title goes into my list of favourites. Since onion rings are exactly that, ONION rings, they are number one on my list of easy to do snack/side dish or party foods. Here's a simple recipe for cripsy sesame onion rings as seen on my vlog here.

Ingredients:

+ 1 Onion

+ 1 Egg

+ 1/2cup of Breadcrumbs

+ A Sprinkling of Sesame Seeds

+Oil (I used canola oil)

(+ Soy sauce for dipping or just sprinkle with salt)

Method:

+ Peel the onion and cut into roughly 0.5cm pieces. Separate each slice into individual layers.

 

+Pour the oil into a fry pan covering the entire pan to about 1cm depth. Heat up the oil until bubbles rise and then place on a low heat.

   

+Put breadcrumbs and sesame seeds onto a plate

                                     
+Crack the egg into a bowl and mix with a fork. Now you have what you need to coat your onions.

+Dip a few of your onion rings into the egg...

+Then place into your breadcrumb/sesame seed mix. Continue

+It's quickest to place the onion rings in the oil as you are still crumbing the rest of the rings. Just keep an eye on the pan in case it get's too hot.

+When the rings are golden flip them over and brown the other side. Continue adding rings until you run out.

+Place into a bowl and either sprinkle some salt over the top or serve with your favourite dip (I always accompany with soy sauce)

And enjoy!

See you next time,
Clare from What Sheep Do ^^