So far I haven't been too involved in the veggie patch. With the exception of talking to the tomato plants occasionally, G has done all of the work. So on the weekend I decided it was about time I contribute. I dusted off my trusty sewing machine, and set forth to make a shade cloth.
I should start by saying that I am very new to sewing. My experience to date is limited to numerous fluorescent hair scrunchies in the eighties, and more recently, cushions for our couch. Yeah, that's it. So, bear that in mind when you look at the results - I am just learning!
Firstly, meet Bernie (short for Bernina Bernette):
(I wasn't sure how she would cope with sewing the shade cloth. It's a bit more heavy duty than the scrunchies. But overall, I was very happy with how she went.)
OK, so for our vegie patch, we needed 2 shade cloths, each about 3 X 1.7m. I cut the shade cloth material out, allowing a little extra around the edges to allow for a hem. I then enlisted the help
of some bulldog clips to fold over the hem and hold it tight:
I'm really not sure how much the shade cloth will stretch out of shape once it's set up, but I wanted to minimise this as much as possible. I sewed the hem around all 4 edges using a triple stitch for extra strength. I did this along the join between the 2 edges of material (the main
shade cloth and the rolled over hem), as well as the very edge. This might have been overkill, and it might not even have made any difference, but as I am not very good at sewing straight, I figured it was good practice anyway!
I also decided to sew in a couple of extra strips of shade cloth across the width of the material to give it extra support. I folded over 3 1.7m X 10cm pieces of material lengthways, and stitched eached one closed. I attached one each metre or so along the length of the shade cloth using masking tape, then sewed them to the cloth, again using the triple stitch.
Once that was done (several rolls of cotton later - that triple stitch eats up the cotton fast!), I was ready to attach the tags that would hold the cloth onto a wooden pole. I enlisted the help of G to cut out 20 or so 25 X 10cm pieces of shade cloth. This gave the tags enough length to be wrapped around the wood we had chosen, as well as plenty to attach the ends firmly to the shade cloth.
I doubled each piece lengthways, then sewed around the edges.
I measured each one as I attached it, to make sure all of the tags would line up evenly when we attached them to the wooden pole (and also foudn the macro function on the camera :) )
Then, it was time to install it in the garden!
The tags were threaded along 2 wooden poles:
And then lifted onto 2 hooks attached to next door's garage (Note the healthy looking tomato plants - obviously talking to them has been effective!). The shade can be taken off for cool days:
Or stretched over to attach to the hooks screwed in to 2 star pickets hammered into the ground in front of the veggie patch:
Just in time for today's 39 degree weather!
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