How's them apples?!

I really like my cheerful apple tablecloth!

We are still packing here, with no real idea of where we will be living beyond 5 December.  My sewing machine and overlocker are set for storage, so I have had bit of a sewing blitz while I still have a work area to work in.

As stress-relief, I have been enjoying planning my picnic case conversion.  Happily Anaconda had a sale and I was able to purchase a 25-piece melamine picnic set for $24.99.  I collected it yesterday. At $1 a piece it was cheaper than anything I could source on eBay. Rather conveniently, Anaconda occupies the lower floor of a building - with a Spotlight store overhead. I left my family downstairs and enjoyed some time alone browsing the fabrics. I bought a length of rather funky retro apple print.  I washed and hemmed it last night. Given my suitcase/picnic case is red my plan is to have a red/green apple theme.

I am still thinking about the lining. My other smaller case was designed as a picnic-for-two hold-all, so it was originally constructed of material already backed with vinyl - and from time to time I wipe over the interior with a damp sponge. The red suitcase is lined with paper as presumably the manufacturer saw no need for waterproofing. When I google some people have re-lined these cases with fabric but it seems they intend to use them for storage or craft. Given I want to use mine for picnics (and based on my experience with my existing, smaller case) I think some sort of robust, wipe-out surface would be better but am still undecided as to the best means of doing that.

The picnic set included a salad bowl and I already had the salad servers purchased for 50c a piece from a liquidation warehouse. Nick and I have played this morning and everything fits into the case - including my large salad bowl, so I am rather chuffed with that.  Nick has thoughts of creating some light plywood dividers to hold everything in place as we trundle along but that might be a project for a bit later when life (hopefully!) settles again.