He was drinking some herbal concoction of his own making. Tanis could see small, feathery green leaves floating in steaming water. It gave off a bitter, acrid odor and Raistlin grimaced as he swallowed it.
«Dragons of Autumn Twilight» by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
I’m a fan of loose-leaf tea, and there are some teas work very well in the early afternoon to calm down a little. I would be skeptical whether valerian works, but judging from the «low heart rate alert (< 40 bpm)» alarms after drinking a bit much late at night, I guess it works. However, carrying it with me is a bit difficult.
The first version of a, well, tea bag, or rather, bag to carry tea was a simple bag with a ziplock bag inside. Works okay-ish:
However, I did not like that the velcro was easily exposed to the tea. Also having a separate ziplock bag inside … looked a bit like cheating.
So, the second idea was to simply sew a foil onto the fabric:
Which turned into a sewing pattern:
The only foil I had (that was suitable for food) was a ziplock bag, so I cut it to size:
Sewed it onto the fabric (yeah, won’t hold any fluids anymore):
Next I did sew back the future openings (folded it twice):
Then I added the velcro to keep it closed (you have to roll the bag for it, and yeah, the left side is not exactly parallel) and some, uh, really cracrude embroidery (which makes the foil even more … leaky):
Here from the foil-side:
Then sewing the sides (left-on-left, so the foil-side is outside):
Then simply turning the bag inside out, so the right side is outside:
Not really symmetrical, but works:
The velcro to keep it closed:
And the other side:
Rolled the velcro sides match and the bag stays closed.
Not pretty, but it works:
With a bag sewn inside.
Only downside, the bag is a bit too large for tea. But it works very well for holding different kinds of nuts. So, now I have a nice «only meal of the day is delayed» emergency ration. 🙂
As usual no warranty. My sewing machine went through the material without problems, but I guess it wasn’t that happy about it (when it worked its way through fabric, foil and velcro at the same time). Hmm, I wonder whether it can do leather … 😉
