OSF 6: The Pink Elastic Club

Are you a member of the Pink Elastic Club? Do you save those lovely little bits of pink elastic that hold your OSF fabric bundles together, just in case? What do you keep them in? Are they all a-jumble with other bits of trim, elastic, buttons and bias tape? Or do they have a place of honour in a special sugar tin that used to belong to a man selling his house across the street from the elementary school your son's grade 1 teacher strongly recommended he attend in the summer before grade 2? Have you used them for anything? Send pictures! I'd love to know what's happening with them.

When I first started volunteering with OSF, back when we were in the Frogbox building and still hauling out every box before the sale and packing it all up again at the end, we had been donated many boxes of the stuff. At the time we tried to sell it by the metre. Ha! My feeling was, "Curse you, never-ending boxes of pink elastic!" Then, some time after moving to our current location, and adopting the protocol of measuring and rolling our cut fabric for the sake of tidiness, in a moment of brilliant side-ways thinking, we started using the cursed stuff for keeping the bundles together. And now my feeling is, "Eep! One day we will run out, and then what are we going to do?" So hang on to those little bits. Use them! And if you don't want them, return them to us and we will gladly reuse them. Personally, I'm waiting for them to tell me what they want to be next.

And yes, that is my disgusting-looking ironing board. It's actually clean. Ish. Or has been clean at times. Made many years ago out of a piece of muslin, padded with a folded flannel sheet that once belonged to my grandmother, and secured with a length of kitchen string (the kind you wrap a roast with), it's a testament to hard use and utilitarianism and I love it. I keep toying with the idea of a fresh, clean, purpose-made ironing board cover but can't quite make the leap. This one works fine.

Speaking of ironing, may I introduce my iron? I'm embarrassed to admit it, but a photocopied article taped to the display model proclaiming it to be endorsed by Oprah (!) was what tipped me in favour of buying this baby. And I don't regret it for a minute! Not so much an iron as a powerful steam generator, this is the best I've ever used: heats quickly, erupts with massive steam on demand - even on low temp, never spits, doesn't leak.  And it's orange! What could be better?!


Halloween has come and gone, and I'm surprised to report we still have three boxes of disposable diaper fabric. Working within the parameters of the fabric was very interesting. Some friends took up the challenge and so far this is what we've come up with:

• a mummy costume
• a woven Christmas stocking
• a vest with vintage embroidery rubbings
• a coat
• several very nicely packed boxes of dishes in storage. This fabric makes awesome packing for breakables!

Now it's your turn. $30 per box, cool story included. (The fabric was purpose-made to test a prototype infant vest, its purpose to prevent strangulation by IV tube in hospital.)