MAKE A MILKWEED DOWN JACKET

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

However, if advanced stitchery is above and beyond your ability, you can (as I do) simply buy a lined nylon "trainer's jacket", open its bottom seam, and stuff the garment with milkweed down ... enclosing the insulation in little sewn compartments as you go! (The lightweight, cottonlined jackets are available in most clothing and sporting goods stores for somewhere between $6.00 and $8.00.)

Use large stitches for sealing the down in your "pockets" (the eight-stitches-to- an-inch setting on most sewing machines will work well), and stuff each pouch very full ... as We down will settle a bit when in use. Be sure, too, that all the milkweed-filled compartments are sewn completely shut ... in order to prevent the fibers from leaking out of one section and into an adjoining pouch.

It's also quite easy—though not necessary—to modify the pointed collar of your filled trainer's jacket into the short, vertical style that's generally seen on storebought down parkas. Simply fold under each point, turn the collar under, too, and sew it in half.

Finally, if your jacket came with snap closures—rather than a zipper—you'll probably want to supplement the fasteners with a strip of Velcro ... to assure a tight front seal. .

That's all One is to , except—as you brave the storms of the coming winter snugly wrapped in your new milkweed creation—to give an occasional thanks to Mother Nature for another marvelously free gift.

MORE MILKWEED MAGIC

Once you've located a stand of Asclepias, you'll want to visit the patch often ... because—as noted above—his generous plant can provide good spring and summer eatin' and still produce enough down for your autumn stitchery projects! (It's important, however, to positively identify the milkweed before eating any part because butterfly weed—A. tuberosa, which resembles the edible plant but lacks milky sap and has orange, rather than pink flowers—is poisonous.)

If you'd like to learn more about milkweed eats, pick up a copy of Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons (David McKay Company) at any good bookstore or-for $3.95 plus 95¢ shipping and handling—from Mother's Bookshelf, P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28739.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print