SOME QUESTIONS

[kaberett]

1. Vegan waffles. What do? We've tried this recipe with almond milk and it stuck to the waffle iron hideously, even greased; we reduced the sugar some and it stuck less, but still stuck. We are a bit reluctant to Invest in flax seed etc etc etc so would be Interested In Your Recommendations. Our default eggs-and-dairy waffles are smitten kitchen's & very happy with them we are, too.

2. Bathroom grout. PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME THE WAY OF THE BATHROOM GROUT. It seems to me that living in a hard-water area there is Nothing One Can Do to stop it getting grotty, and if one scrubs it it... scrubs off... and needs replacing... and is even grottier in the meantime... and I am intimidated and dismayed by all of this, basically, but I want to learn how to Fix It and indeed if there is any way to stop the problem arising in the first place. (Presumably a better option than scrubbing the scale is to apply descaler and then very gently & tenderly remove it when the sponge side of a sponge?) (In related news: turns out I was avoiding cleaning the bath because I felt A Moral Obligation to use up the Open Bottle Of Bath Stuff, of uncertain vintage and provenance, in spite of the fact that I was allergic to it, resulting in... never cleaning the bath... until I peremptorily summoned A in the middle of a shower last week to Request that he tell me to be Sensible. Bath: now clean.)

3. ... oh right that was my third How Adulting question: I have some hiking trousers that have unhemmed themselves & torn a bit. I've stuck the hem back up with the ironing webbing Stuff (i.e. got A to do it when I got scared of the iron) but I also want... to do it a bit of a hem... and I'm intimidated. I have access to a basic sewing machine and also a desire to learn some hand-sewing principles. Advice & guidance?

Comments

Best guesses

[ewt]

Vegan waffles: Reading the recipe my instinct is try adding some vegetable oil of some description. Coconut milk has a good deal more fat in it than standard almond milk does, and it looks like the only source of fat in that recipe (whereas the smitten kitchen one has some in the butter, and some in the eggs, and probably some in the milk unless you use completely skimmed milk).

Bathroom grout: the big stuff (the silicone seal around the bottom of things) just needs actual replacing every few years, as far as I can tell. This requires sealant, a sealant-applying tool, and a wet finger to smooth it down. The stuff between tiles, well, you can get grout sealant and that will help it last longer, and you can bleach the ever-living crap out of it (but this stinks etc). Spraying it with vinegar regularly and using a squeegee to dry the walls after showering can help some, I think.

Fixing torn fabric depends on the kind of tear. There are a few techniques at https://sewguide.com/clothing-repair-mending-tears/ which might help, but I probably can't tell you which one will work without looking at it.

If you have some scrap fabric that's a similar weight/material to the hiking trousers, you can practice on that.

I am also fond of this leaf-shaped darning technique, but it really depends on the hole:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXBo-r0RwN4

Re: Best guesses

[fyreharper]

Oohh. Many Thank for the leaf!

Re: Best guesses

[ewt]

Also! Coconut milk that comes from a can is a *very different* thing to coconut milk that is meant to be a milk substitute for putting into tea or coffee or whatever.

Re: Best guesses

[davidgillon]

There are plastic tapes (as in shaped plastic on a roll) you can buy to do the wall to bath seal. They don't last forever, but do better than grout in my experience (which may not be typical as my bath is improperly mounted underneath, so flexes _a lot_). Most have a divide up the middle so they fold into a right angle, but I found one divided into thirds worked much better, but never could find it again.

For between the tiles, I'm sure I've seen someone advocate tippex on the same principle as sweeping the dust under the carpet.

Re: Best guesses

[ewt]

Thanks for this, I will look out for the plastic tapes next time our bath needs re-doing.

Re: Best guesses

[kaberett]

I had totally failed to register that coconut milk is That Much Higher Fat even though obviously it is, as I know from otherwise cooking with it, so thank you for flagging that up! And yes, my go-to cooking Coconut Milk is "a sack of a couple of kilos of powder, to make up to anywhere between cream and milk depending on purpose", so.

Bathroom grout: thank you lots for the reassurance that This Just Happens. Good shout re spraying-with-vinegar; I currently have a different cleaning-spray but can perfectly well fill a bottle with cleaning-vinegar also.

Torn fabric: this is just "the bottom of the hem ripped, as hems are wont to do, so I have sliced off the offending piece of fabric and am just trying to pin it back up" rather than any More Complex Darning, but thank you for links!

[vass]

Agreeing with ewt about adding oil. Alternatively... waffle recipes are generally similar or identical to pancake recipes, aren't they? The standard vegan pancake recipe back when I was a vegan used to be "substitute a small mashed banana for the egg". As I recall, it was possible to get reasonable pancakes with that, but they weren't as forgiving as the egg sort, so one had to watch them closer and be a lot gentler when turning them.

[kaberett]

My default pancake recipes are all crêpes, and I have been Contemplating the merits of just substituting banana or apple, but I don't really understand Raised Waffles so was dubiously poking around at More Options. Will have a think about giving Vegan Pikelets a go in a waffle device, though!

[starlady]

+1 on adding a coconut product, but I would actually recommend coconut cream if you can find it. I've had them this way and they cook up nicely crispy and delicious.

[kaberett]

Coconut cream is fairly trivially available in London! Though in fact I just have a big bag of coconut powder to be made up to cream or milk depending, so we will try that next time; I completely failed to think through (it being A Morning) that coconut milk obviously has lots more fat...

[sonia]

I was looking at the website recently for the person I have clean my carpets once a year, and it turns out he cleans grout, too! So now the grout in my bathroom has been steam-cleaned and looks great. I'm in the US, but I'm guessing there are businesses that do that in the UK too.

He suggested putting grout sealant on, like ewt said, so I'm having someone do that sometime soon. I'm also getting the caulk around the tub replaced.

Good luck with yours and yay for clean bathrooms!

[kaberett]

Thank you! I am trying to work out whether learning to do this is an "after the PhD" or a "while procrastinating write-up" problem.

[boxofdelights]

What I learned from living with hard water (40 grains per gallon of calcium, before it hit the water softener; don't know how hard it was after the softener, but scale still accumulated.):

1. Lime scale will accumulate. Plumbing parts will have to be replaced more often that if you had soft water. Do not despise yourself for this fact.

2. Lime scale will accumulate more slowly if you wipe the water off instead of letting it evaporate. I kept a squeegee in the shower to wipe down the walls after each use, and kept a towel by each sink specifically for drying the sink and faucet. It seems like a lot of extra work, but I believe it is less work than scraping the scale off.

3. Get even small drips fixed right away.

[kaberett]

Yeppp, I grew up in a hard-water area and have promptly moved to another different one, so to some extent I am resigned to scale; my main problem with it is honestly that London scale is this really weird and offputting pink. I don't get it and I Do Not Approve.

Squeegee already lives in the shower for doing the shower glass with (albeit that mostly only happens once a week); I shall Contemplate whether we have useful space for bonus cleaning-clothes to reside.

[passingbuzzards]

idk about bathroom grout generally but if it's actually hard water residue definitely just apply baking soda sorry, VINEGAR, that was supposed to be, assuming the grout is not made of something that it would destroy?

[kaberett]

Grout is A MYSTERY to me such that I don't actually know whether it's susceptible to acid-based destruction! But I shall Contemplate this and probably gingerly try it out.

[rydra_wong]

I am a self-and-internet-taught hand-sewer. I don't know if I can explain stuff over the internet but I have recently resolved to try to meet more people in London in person, so if at some point we both have sufficient spoons, that could be a thing?

*runs away*

[kaberett]

[yes please, I would actively like that, I have not been asking because Asking Is Difficult, and response has been delayed because What Even Are Brains, but -- yes please!]

[rydra_wong]

I generally have a very flexible schedule when I'm in London (which I currently am), and am good at getting to places which can be reached by Tube. So I guess let me know what might work for you, when spoons permit?

[cesy]

Jumping in to say if you would like to meet up with other people in London, I enjoyed swimming with you and tea that time, and would be up for something again.

[rydra_wong]

Yes, definitely! I am bad at getting round to arranging things, but keen!

[ninetydegrees]

In addition to all the excellent advice other commenters have given you about bathroom grout, I've found that brushes with super hard bristles like this one can help with tile joints (if that's something you'd be comfortable using): https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61WlpOkzNoL._SL1500_.jpg.

[kaberett]

<3

[hilarita]

Hemming: depends on how good you want it to look afterwards.
If you want to put the dropped hem back at the same level it was before, and the crease is still there, good news! If you're OK with seeing your stitches on the outside, and them being uneven, even better news! It's entirely feasible to fix that by hand. I am terrible at sewing, and I can do this. (I am so epically terrible at sewing that in school Textiles classes, I had to go back to hand sewing because I stitched my jumper to the sewing machine - while I was wearing the jumper.)

The main bit there is learning how to start your hand-sewn bit so that you tie down the thread end, so it doesn't keep chasing after you through the holes. Also, work from the seam - this will provide you with a place to tie down the thread. In theory, your stitches are meant to be even, but in practice lolnope. Pin the fabric in place so it doesn't escape too much, and you will need a thimble unless the fabric is very, very thin.

My repairs, while terrible, have lasted long enough that the trousers have died from other causes before the repair failed.

[kaberett]

:) Many thanks for encouragement!

[sporky_rat]

I'm sort of decent at hand stitching and I keep referring back to here:
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-sew-basic-stitches-221433
for some of my references.

[kaberett]

Thank for reference!

[rugessnome]

pfft I wrote up a reply last night and then lost it, the salient points of which were:

no idea about grout

I concur with the full-fat coconut milk has more fat than almond milk crowd. I think I've had success using plain ground flax (i wouldn't expect it to be super expensive?) mixed with water in place of eggs once in American pancakes, but it's been a while. A yeasted overnight waffle recipe in one of my cookbooks mentions subbing veg oil for the butter in it (but that doesn't address the milk...)

I am not sure how much I can convey over text, but I grew up "paging through the Reader's Digest Guide to Needlework in clothes mostly sewn by my mom" which lends me the impulse "I can help!", despite not being an expert. (Or too helpful on the mending front, if it's not an actual seam)

My thought is that most hand hemming stitches, while nice for clothes for looks, might be prone to snagging or ripping in hiking trousers, so I'd recommend either machine straight stitch or a simple, basic running stitch by hand (as others say, you may need a thimble, esp with iron on webbing in the picture).

It's quite possible/probable? that your sewing machine has a removable accessories ~drawer(which isn't a drawer but I can't think of a better word) on the bed/arm that you sew on, removing which will help with sewing round narrow things like trouser legs, because then you can stick them onto the remaining area. If you can stitch straight around them with a medium length straight stitch (probably from the inside so you can get close to the edge), that should be serviceable and decent looking.

(You want two folds to your hem to conceal the raw edge, but the one at the raw edge can be shallow--we shoot for 1/4 inch in American parlance but I think 6-7mm may be appropriate? The other fold is for length, but could be as narrow as "covers up the turned under edge". I'd start snipping some of the leg off if you find you want the inside to land much more than 3ish cm up from the bottom fold. (...if this is making any sense). I expect hiking trousers to be fairly straight legged, but if they look more like \| or /|than || near the bottom, you may want to make the hem narrow, else there'll be difficulty fitting the edges to the cloth above it.)

I don't think I can explain running stitch verbally, but it should be easy to find online; to avoid snagging I'd probably try for 5mm or less stitch length, though depending on the fabric that might be difficult. It's okay if it's not super even, you just don't want long bits that might catch on twigs, briars, or other things of the woods.

[momijizukamori]

Seconding the sewing advice here - I'd honestly just machine-stitch it if they're going to see a lot of wear because it takes a fair bit of practice to get hand straight-stitch small and even enough to be really sturdy (which is to say - I've been sewing for twenty years, and I'm only now approaching that point, though I'm primarily a machine sewer).

I can take illustrative photos of any of these steps when I get home this afternoon, if that is helpful.

[kaberett]

Thank you for the offer! I am Familiar with the general concept of running stitch and this is I think sufficient to be going on with, so, gratitude :)

(Context: I have used a sewing machine albeit getting on for 15 years ago now since I last used one in anger; I did do cross-stitch for a while; my grandmother did A Lot of sewing; I know a fair amount in terms of very basic principles but tend to freeze up a little at the concept of Choosing a Stitch for a Repair as opposed to decoration.)

[kaberett]

Thank you for the vote for running stitch! To be clear, these are trousers that I'll mostly be wearing while gardening rather than ~proper hiking~, but that does lend itself to being attacked by brambles and raspberry canes if nothing else :)

I do have some Basic sewing knowledge (and even spent a while doing cross-stitch!), I just get intimated by Actual Repairs. The encouragement is very much appreciated!

[crazyscot]

Grout: Don't scrub. As you've found, it's bad for the grout staying in one piece (and you risk taking the top layer off the tiles, and it all goes downhill from there). Chemistry may be the answer; my gut instinct is that vinegar would be a good place to start thinking about it. Various sources suggest white vinegar or carbonic acid (from vinegar + baking soda); my chemistry is an awful lot rustier than yours, but perhaps you can pick it up from there..?

[kaberett]

White vinegar for cleaning is indeed a thing we own, so I will bear that in mind for once I have repaired the current Situation...

[ludy]

I don't have much experience with hems (i'm content o let them get tattered and other bits of my clothing tend to go first) but i am a big fan of the idea if Visible Mending which is prolly a useful search term for specfic techniques
(https://visiblemending.com is just one example)

Fix your Clothes by Rayleigh Briggs is a helpful little booklet with useful techniques and advice and
Mend it Better by Kirsten Roach is a more comprehensive book

[kaberett]

Thank you for links!

[sfred]

This is probably way out of date now, but I am a moderately experienced machine and hand sewer and I would definitely do hemming and mending by hand.

[kaberett]

Ha, I think you substantially over-estimate the speed with which I ever Get Things Done ;)

[sfred]

<3