Mundaring raincoat

30/01/2021 11:56 pm \ 5 Comments \

Hurrah!  Cassie and I have finally finished making our newest pattern!  please give a warm welcome to the Mundaring raincoat pattern, currently for sale in our shop, the linky dink to which is over to the right in my sidebar there… or you can just click on the this pattern picture just to the right here.

So, the Mundaring is a pattern for a loose-fitting, below hip length raincoat with raglan sleeves, large front zippered pockets with inbuilt weather flaps, a back weather flap covering a hidden vent panel, roomy hood that can be tightened with a hood cord.  Closure is by an open ended zip, hidden underneath a front band.  The pattern includes separate pattern pieces for an optional lining with additional inner breast pocket, and an appendix with tips for weatherproofing the seams of your raincoat.

I know it’s taken me a long time to finally finish getting this together, I first made this design for myself back in 2012 when I made my blue raincoat…

this is actually a great little raincoat and I love it and still wear it!  Then I made a pink and blue colour blocked version for Cassie, improving on the design a little more.

Then I fine-tuned the design to be just about exactly what I wanted, albeit in unlined form, when I made my mustard one…

this is when I got actually got serious about turning it into a proper pattern and studying the grading criteria.  btw the mustard one has been a really great raincoat too, and I still wear this one when the colour of it is what an outfit requires  😉

In testing the design I’ve made multiple Mundarings since that time, several in each of the five sizes each… plus another “proper” one for Cassie in this chic, pale grey pleather.  And finally, the cheerful yellow one for myself, and then a lovely blue one for my sister-in-law S.

Doesn’t she look gorgeous?  I’m so grateful she agreed to be my model again!

Both my latest are made using a fabric called Oxford Waterproof that I bought from Remnant Warehouse.  btw, NO, I am not getting free fabric or recognition or anything for promoting it, and these are not affiliate links even, I bought this fabric and am recommending it because I am genuinely a fan and think it is the perfect fabric for my design!

My raincoat is this colour, the Gold colour-way, and S’s is the Royal colour-way.   I fully lined both these raincoats using matching polyactate lining fabric from Fabulous Fabrics, and both of them have white zips and white cords and cord stops, which I think looks really nice  🙂

I sealed the seams on both raincoats using this stuff…

I selected it because it is an adhesive sealant with high flexibility, and bonus that while comes out of the canister kind of cloudy it then dries to be quite translucent.  In my  opinion it’s absolutely perfect for this purpose!  I’ll update this post with the exact product as soon as I can, and am truthfully kicking myself right now I did not take a picture of the canister before (doh!)

The pattern is for sale in pdf form here… we are working on getting a paper pattern up and running, and will update the shop with a paper pattern once we’ve got all our ducks in a row vis a vis that.  But in the meantime… here is is!!  I’m so happy to finally have it out in the world!

Here are some of the specs!

Pockets?  Why, of course!

Details:

All raincoats; Carolyn & Cassie Mundaring raincoat pattern, in Oxford Waterproof from remnant warehouse
White tank top; my hand stitched Alabama Chanin tank top.. it was the first one I laid hands on in the drawer!
Jeans: Closet Core patterns Morgan boyfriend jeans, blogged here
White shoes; handmade by me, blogged here

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Theo

25/01/2021 11:00 am \ 15 Comments \

… so first post for the year! the most exciting news of all for us is the arrival of our darling little grandson Theo; Cassie and Daniel’s baby boy.  He’s very little right now so he is extremely busy eating and sleeping… in fact, more sleeping than usual since he was a tad on the early side.  I’m so proud of Cassie how she has coped in difficult circumstances… Mum and baby were sent home from hospital only a couple of hours after birth, and coming from a generation that was typically spoilt with about five days in hospital for your first baby, this is pretty shocking to me.  She’s doing amazingly well!!

Anyway, I made little onesie for Theo, just before he was born; in fact I gave it to her at his baby shower which was held just barely a scant week before he arrived actually.  Man, things went so fast… anyway, here it is!

O course there is a little story behind this… a few years ago, Cassie made a few workout tank tops for Tim and Sam for Christmas pressies.  She drew the screen prints and printed them herself, and then sewed up the tank tops too.  She gave one each to Tim and Sam, and I’m not sure what was the story with this particular one but it has sat unworn in the fabric stash every since.  She can’t remember now either!  Maybe it was always an extra?  Anyway, I always thought it was such a thoughtful idea of hers, and it’s a pretty cute and clever print too.  Couldn’t possibly just let it continue sitting there!  So, I dug it out, and in the tradition of babies in this family; I made a little onesie for Theo out of it.  The pattern is my own, I just had to make this one a bit bigger, because the writing on the back would not fit on the smaller size I’d made previously for newborns.

Pretty cute, huh?!

I’ve also made a much-needed, new maternity dress for Cassie, the same design as the white one I’d made previously.   I had a few … issues… with this one, suffice to say stripes are always a nightmare and even when you think you’ve accounted for all stripe contingencies that may arise, a new one IS probably going to crop up and surprise you.  Ok, guess I may as well go into it… somehow, despite careful measuring and checking, I STILL somehow managed to hem the dress with an extra stripe along one side seam than the other.  Honestly thought I’d cut them the same, but well, turns out I had not.  I had to cut off the old hem and make a new one.

The other disaster was that I somehow managed to stitch the separate tank front INTO THE WAIST SEAM! thus rendering it useless for its intended purpose as a maternity dress.  DOH!  This required unpicking the seam plus the overlocking, because OF COURSE I overlocked it before I’d noticed!  in what is actually quite a delicate fabric, and well, fixing up the whole shemozzle.  So, for a simple little make it ended up taking most of my day, which I can ill afford right now, to be honest, but at least it got done.

And she looks lovely in it, so it was all worth it actually.

I’ve finally finished another very long-term thing recently too… for me! and am hoping to get it posted in between packing boxes and organising some minor work done for our new house as well as this, our old, one.  Oh, and of course our new pattern, which is far more challenging to finish now that I’m on my own with it, since my helper has her precious new baby to attend to.  Aaahgh, my head is going to explode…

Onwards and upwards!

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2020; a retrospective

01/01/2021 11:53 pm \ 22 Comments \

Yes, I know I’m a day late; maybe even two days late by the time I get this published! but well… I’m a bit busy right now.  All will become clear in my next post  🙂

So it’s the end of the year, and I’m looking back on my year of sewing and blogging.  First up, I’m posting some of my favourite pictures for the year, one per month…

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

So.  It’s been a strange year; I dare say a BIG year for everyone.  One of the happier big things in my own year was of course Cassie’s wedding in March, the preparations for which brought us much happiness and excitement, although the last week was tinged with growing uncertainty as we didn’t know whether the gradually impending threat of covid would cause problems… it was such a weird time and no one knew what to expect!  With incredible good fortune, everything went ahead and only one week later lockdown restrictions were imposed that would have made the wedding impossible.  So, MAJOR stress at the time, but ultimately a very happy and extremely lucky outcome! I wrote more details addressing this subject and how we handled it at the time in this post here…

I want to say too that I was very pleased for our government’s swift action that has definitely saved us from the virus all this year, and was more than happy for Perth to have a strict lockdown just to make sure.  We were in lockdown for basically all of April and extended well into May, and I have to say my sewing output reflected the general level of anxiety that I had at the time.  In fact I think that like everyone, my anxiety kept me from being productive in just about every aspect of my life! but honestly I have no complaints.  I’m just grateful to be here, to live in a place that took the virus seriously and a government that had our safety and truly our best interests at heart, and acted accordingly.  I truly feel like I live in the absolute best place in the world right now.  I’m so very grateful.

The other huge thing I’m grateful for is the arrival of our darling first grandchild, Arthur.  He is an absolute joy and delight. and we are all totally in love with this precious human being.  And Cassie is expecting!  I can hardy wait to meet her little bunny!

But ok, now on with my sewing!  I might have had a crisis of confidence and motivation, but I did manage to keep making things!  I kept up with my planned “make 12” and saw it through, even if once or twice that thing for the month was my only thing for the month!  My picture for May above was a kind of lockdown game in which you gathered all the things in your house you could find in your favourite colour.  It’s downright embarrassing how many red things I’ve accumulated!

What did I make??  well, I managed 91 things this year… 91!  I’m shocked because honestly could have sworn I made hardly anything apart from a wedding dress!  Anyway, the breakdown is: for me; 15 dresses, 2 coats, 6 skirts, 8 tops, 3 sets of lingerie, 1 pr of shoes, 7 sockettes, 1 knitted jumper, 2 hats, 1 pr trousers, 1 hoodie and 1 raincoat.  For Cassie; the aforementioned wedding dress! including 3 separate petticoats, 2 tops, 1 skirt, 1 pr shorts, 3 maternity dresses; for my nieces, 3 bridesmaids dress, and 1 dress for Mum.  For babies; 6 onesies, 6 blankies, 1 huge “texture” quilt, 1 knitted beanie and 1 baby swing.  For Craig’s Mum; 7  masks and 1 bag.  Oh and I also made 27 kangaroo pouches, that I’m not including in the total of 91 things.   Aaaad.. I also made another sewing pattern?!  It hasn’t been released yet but will be very very soon.  Maybe even… tomorrow?!  Ooh, did I just spill the beans in a big way!  I’ve wanted to make more patterns for ages but sewing wedding dresses took precedent in the last two years.

Favourite makes of the year?  hehe, obviously Cassie’s wedding dress! and I also really loved the girls’ bridesmaids’ dresses and my own mother of the bride dress too.

My most worn items for this year…?

I love most of these things pictured, but not all of them, strangely.  I think during lockdown and the subsequent many many days of not going out by my own choice, I took up the habit of wearing daggy things that weren’t my favourites, simply because I wasn’t going out and didn’t need to “dress up”.  I’ve decided this is very very silly and I’m going to only wear things I absolutely love from now on.  yolo!

In other stuff, I fulfilled a long-held fantasy and took up learning a language!  I chose Japanese because I love Japan, would love to visit again some day – although that might be a pipe dream! and I love the visual appearance of the language and kanji.  I also felt in the need of a mental challenge. And boy, has it been a challenge!  But I’m pretty thrilled I made it into the top 1% on the duo lingo app.  Who me, competitive?  Oooh, I never  #TOTALLYcompetitive  I also managed to top the platinum league, one crazy intensive week in which I did virtually nothing but study Japanese.  Hmmm, did I mention… competitive??  #dirtyword

It says I studied French but i actually only did a few days dabbling in that, and the one other language was Celtic, which I eventually decided was just too hard to extend my brain to that AND Japanese.  I’d still like to learn Celtic one day because it is my heritage after all, but I think that can wait until I’ve got a bit further in Japanese.

So what does 2021 bring for us all… much better times, I hope! and a world that can come together again and regain trust and health as soon as possible.  I know this takes time, and maybe the world will never go back to the way things were.  Every now and then I wonder if this is the start of a completely different world and what if something else unexpected is lurking just out of sight around the next corner?  But really, we can’t dwell on the uncertainty too much, just keep on keeping on, chin up and continue doing the best for the important people in our lives.  I just hope the worst is behind us.  And that good times are ahead.  And mostly that the vaccine WORKS!

Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read this silly blog, and even to leave a kind comment or two.  I really really appreciate everyone who does.  I hope the year brings you all much happiness and joy, good health, peaceful thoughts, appreciation of our home towns, and making many delightful memories with the important people in your life.  Cheers!!

 

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creamy broderie anglaise…

30/12/2020 5:31 pm \ 6 Comments \

Oh, hey, I made a dress!  and not just any old dress but this the final thing in my little mini make-nine challenge which of course was actually make-twelve!  So happy I managed to squeak it in for the end of the year!  Phew!

This is sorta based on the Named Inari tee dress pattern, and the fabric is a heavy clotted cream coloured, broderie anglaise cotton that I bought in Mood when I visited New York with Yoshimi on our holiday there last year.  GORGEOUS fabric.  I feel like I’m wearing a wedding cake, in a good way!

I’m so thrilled with how my dress turned out… in the end!  It has a few features that I shall now proceed to explain…

a. the shoulders have a sort of raglan effect, but still with the set in sleeves.  There is a reason for this that I shall delve into further, later… ahem…

b. I utilised the broderie edging as much as possible, in the sleeve edges, the hem edge at the bottom, and to form the upper edge of the patch pockets.  Love how this turned out!

c.  To get the best effect of the broderie “stripes” I did not make the inari with its traditional stepped hem . ie. longer at the back and shorter at the front; because I wanted the broderie edge to finish the entire hem, and also wanted the broderie pattern to match along those side(-ish) seams.

Btw, to digress for a bit… when it comes to pattern/stripe matching, I admit to being a fiend for this in the past, however lately I’ve felt a little ambivalent towards the rabid mania for extreme pattern matching that seems de rigeur for the sewing world.  Sure, there are definitely times when strict pattern matching is necessary, but I’m starting to crave the artistic possibilities that come with a less rigid approach.  For example, when a patch pocket is so excellently pattern matched that you can’t even see it’s there.  WHY?!  Sometimes I just find myself wishing for something a bit more exciting.

That’s not relevant to this, my latest thing though, because I decided a good pattern match was indeed essential to the dress looking good, so I went there.  There is no pocket matching whatsoever with the pockets and I like this look a lot.

Now to be real here; my initial “make 12” plan actually included a different pattern Vogue 8968, and I really did make this fabric up in that pattern too.  And it looked … absolutely terrible.  Behold the awfulness.

Yeah, it looks kind of ok on my dummy but on me it looked pretty bad, like a big broderie anglaise circus tent.  No modelled pictures because twas only “finished” for a minute or so before I starting cutting it up anew to make this.  To be honest, when I first did my make 12 plan I did not plan very thoroughly, and just chose 12 patterns and 12 fabrics with the thought I was just going to jam them together and make it work somehow, and unfortunately the last pattern and fabric were not a good match for each other after all.  I absolutely love this beautiful fabric though, so I’m very happy to have “saved” it!

see that little patch of bias-cut cream muslin sitting behind my label?  I had to put it there because without it you could see the red back of the label through this very lightweight fabric!

As it is, it’s absolutely essential to wear a slip with the dress.  I’m wearing it here with my ivory slip dress, the pattern is the free Ruby pattern by the very generous Sheryll of pattern scissors cloth, available here…

Oh, so the change of pattern is kinda the explanation for the funny, half raglan, half set in sleeve look.  True, Vogue 8968 doesn’t have raglan sleeve, haha; but bear with me.  I decided a raglan sleeve would look better than the big cut on, non-sleeve of the pattern.  Does it sound like I took a bit of a dislike to V8968? hmmm I think so, yes.  Anyway, I changed it to a  raglan sleeve.  Then when cutting out the Inari, I ended up keeping the perfectly finished bias-bound neckline of the original dress along with the raglan seams, and still cut out the armholes for the Inari too.  The Vogue dress was so big I was able to cut out my amended inari sleeves from the original sleeves too.  I got the patch pockets from the extra hem length cut off the sides.  So that was a bonus!

Of course, in peak 2020 style I made a little matching mask.  We’re not yet wearing them over here in Western Australia because of zero community spread, but who knows what the future holds?  I’m slowly building up a small collection of masks to have ready, just in case.

So that’s it for my little mini “make nine” challenge for this year!  Yay, I did it!

The thing is that I say “mini” challenge but it turned out to actually be a bit of a bigger challenge for me  than I thought, for some reason.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think it’s something to do with the fact that spontaneity and the whim of the moment are important motivators for me when it comes to making things.  And when the spontaneity and whimsy are not there then I actually find it … well, not quite a “chore”  but something quite close to that anyway.  Terrible, huh.  Truthfully though, in spite of making it sound like (back-hand to brow) oh how I struggled! … I did not, because I love sewing and I really love all the things I made during the challenge.  However I don’t know if I will do a make nine again next year or not.  Maybe I’ll think of a new challenge… hmmm….I’ll have to give it some serious thought, because I only have one day to decide!

Details:

Dress, sorta Inari tee dress pattern by Named patterns, cream cotton broderie anglaise from Mood fabrics in New York
Mask, from this tutorial
Shoes; ancient, from an op shop

 is this thing even working?!  *camera click* 

 

 

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baby swing and coconut ice

27/12/2020 4:33 pm \ 6 Comments \

Tim and I made this adorable little swing for Arthur!

peekaboo!!

Kelly found the design and Tim suggested it be a joint project between us, with me making the swing and Tim taking care of the woodwork etc… Kelly and Arthur and I went to Spotlight together and bought the stuff… apart from the fact that it was like 41C that day it was fun!

Arthur’s first trip to Spotlight!

We bought this cute orange-based kangaroo? wallaby? print which Kelly thought would go really nicely with their deep blue/grey walls and jarrah floors, bamboo wadding, which I used doubled up for extra padding, and white webbing and a white clip-in catch to make a safety belt too… also Tim got pine dowelling and nylon rope from Bunnings.  We based our swing on this one on a blog the Thud… I think that Kelly had found it through Pinterest? I think?  anyway I recommend checking it out because she is hilarious!!

I did have to make adjustments to practically every dimension though for several reasons:

a. the dowel Tim had was 2.54mm (1″) instead of the 19mm dowel used in the tutorial so extra height was needed at every top edge.

b. we wanted the back rest to be above the arm rests because it makes good sense to have the back highest, I think and also makes a nice visual to the layers.

c. I wanted all the kangaroos/wallabies to face UP, so I split the bottom/side piece into two, and cut and joined so the animals stood up each side.  Furthermore, I arranged it so the seam in the back/side piece was on the opposite side for each piece, the inside and outside of the swing, if that makes sense.

d. I added a little seat belt for safety.  The part that goes around his waist is stitched in each side of the back piece of the swing, and the front is stitched in with the seam between the front and the bottom/side piece,

e. I also made a little flat, square, seat cushion, partially for comfort and also so the kangaroos face up when you look inside the swing too.  In addition, I made an extra, super-fat cushion to sit in the back of the swing, which looks cute, and also narrows the opening a little so he’s less inclined to pull his knees up and try to stand up in it.  Although, Tim and Kelly tell me that when he’s in it he just loves chilling out in his swing, mostly just sitting quietly resting against the cushion in it, and happily swinging.

Here is my (amended) pattern…

and Arthur, chilllaxing in his swing … CUTE!!

Oh, and of course everything is going to be an anticlimax after that cutie patootie! but anyway… so, every Christmas I usually make some sweet treat as a gift for extended family and friends.  This year I made coconut ice, but partly due to small supplies of red food colouring I decided upon a slightly different colour scheme from the usual.

I think it all turned out super pretty!  Also, delicious, obviously!  btw, this quantity pictured looks a bit mean but is really just for “pretty” photographic purposes, because everyone got at least four times this amount in little reusable lunchboxes.  I used this recipe from Taste.com…

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I’ve been making a whole bunch of stuff…

22/12/2020 8:01 pm \ 13 Comments \

Ok… stuff!   I just have to write this quick blog post or … I dunno, explode or something!  because right now I am the Red Queen, running as fast as I can just to stay in the same place… and if I don’t just get on with a thing right this very minute then will it ever ever get gone on with, at all?!  That is the question?  So, on with the stuff!

So, a while ago I’d written about how the Burda baby onesie pattern I’d been using for Arthur had proved itself to be too wide for the height of it? Like way too wide, fall off the shoulders wide, while the poppers at the crotch were straining to stay shut?  Well, I made a new pattern, and it’s super cute.  Of course it is!  When are tiny weeny baby clothes NOT cute, hmmm?  Exactly!

So above is the first one… yellow striped cotton jersey from Spotlight stores…  At the same time that we got this fabric, we also bought some lengths for bunny rugs for the baby.  When I say “we” by the way, that is NOT the royal we, although I am indeed in the thick of watching the Crown at present and as such am become quite proficient in such conversational niceties…  no, actually Cassie and I went to Spotlight together and selected fabrics for the new baby’s, new nursery.

I had also previously bought some white cotton jersey, to make a maternity frock for Cassie.

She’d sort of semi-designed what she wanted in the dress, a tank dress, with the tank front able to be lifted up for breast-feeding, layered over a sort of boob tube with an elasticated top edge underneath.  The skirt is a quarter circle skirt. It’s a pretty simple design and style, and she loves it!

Side note: I’ve had to look at the messy lower half of this dresser for years.  It took putting the house on the market for me to finally do something about making this a wee bit prettier to the casual observer.  Voila!!  A sweet lace curtain!  Side note to the side note;  we sold the house… very quickly as it turned out.  The beach house also sold very  quickly, like before it even went officially on the market.  My head is spinning!!  I’ll talk more about this later, right now it’s all still a bit overwhelming.

Next!  I bought this shark print cotton jersey from Spotlight… actually, ALL these fabrics are from Spotlight, to be honest!  I bought this fabric months ago, pre covid, always with the intention of making a little Watson bra and briefs set… ta da!  Simple, pretty – well as pretty as a shark can get I guess! – and comfy.  And finally done!

Lastly, I had a small bit of sharky leftovers.  So, obviously…  🙂

This one is a little bit bigger than the yellow one.

So, I think that’s it for now!  I have a few other things in the works, and will definitely/hopefully?! be posting everything before the end of the year.  I’d better pull my socks up, eh?

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madder and madder…

30/11/2020 11:19 pm \ 13 Comments \

I made a dress, using this very precious piece of fabric that I have been too frightened to cut in to for years now … ok so I’ve just checked back and it first came into my life back in August 2015,  FIVE YEARS AGO!!  well it’s about well overdue that I made it up, hey…

So what is this, hmmm?  well I did a fantastic one day, natural dyeing workshop with Niji iro Kitta during which I dyed a length of pure white linen with natural madder root.  They had two options; you could either choose to dye with madder, or indigo.  I (obviously) chose madder, the natural dyestuff from the root of rubia tinctoria and since I later got a chance to also dye with natural indigo too, I’m so glad I chose madder this time!  I went along with Nicki (this is moonlight), Sue (fadanista) and Megan (meggipeg), and first posted about it here…

It was heaps of fun!  I remember our fabric had been soaked in soya water and dried first, which apparently helps the dye “take” thoroughly.  Before dyeing, we had to embroider our initials or something marking the fabric as “yours” in some way.  I did mine in red thread; and when it came time to cut out my dress, I carefully made sure to cut around and save the corner with my initials.  And rather than use one of my usual labels I stitched the little square of linen featuring my embroidery inside as a sort of reminder of the day.

I used Vogue 2900 to make my dress… I’ve used this pattern twice before and I really love it!  I think it’s all of comfortable, elegant, classy and beautiful too… I mostly made it just about exactly as per the instructions, topstitching all the seams with matching thread.  I think my only difference was leaving off the pocket facings because I had enough fabric to simply cut the pocket piece and lining also from the self-fabric linen.  I also had enough fabric for a mask!

Hmmm, I wonder if we’ll ever need to wear these here?  I could be making all these masks for nothing!  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  I sure have nothing against wearing one.  Also, I know I sound like a broken record, but again we are so lucky to have no community transmission of the virus here.  So lucky!   for now!

I finished all the raw edges inside with red overlocking thread, and used a red invisible zip in the CB seam. The natural madder root produces a colour that I would describe as more of a coppery pinky-orange rather that a red actually… and I really like the red inner workings inside against this colour, I think it’s a really pretty contrasting feature.  Of course a pretty contrasting feature that no one is every going to see, haha.  I mean, that’s ok, because who do we do this for but ourselves anyway, hmm?  Exactly.

This is the eleventh thing in my list of 12 things I was going to make this year, from the 12 fabrics I nominated as well… hurrah!

 I have just one thing left on the list, and I think I’m going to be able to manage it.  And I love this dress!  I adore the colour, and the style is right up my alley, so I’m so happy Yoshimi recommended the pattern to me all those years ago.  🙂

 

Details:

Dress; Vogue 2900, madder dyed linen
Mask; using this tutorial
Sandals; super old, from an oppy… I love these and really really need to replace them!

I propped up my phone in a tree and snapped a quick picture on our walk, even though it’s a bit blurry… oh well!

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separated Cissy… and it’s green

27/11/2020 11:14 am \ 8 Comments \

Seems like a bit of a non-sequitur, but kinda sums up the whole process actually.  Let me explain…

So I set out to make another Homer and Howells Cissy dress for myself because I was so pleased with the rust lace one that I’d made first off the block.  This is back in April by the way, back when we were in a lockdown of sorts here in Perth, when we were all terrified of the virus and didn’t know as yet that there was no community transmission here.  Yes, I do indeed know how very lucky we are! and it’s fantastic that everyone here is working hard to keep things that way too… but I digress!

I needed a sewing project!

I had some khaki-olive-blue-grey, slightly crinkly cotton in my stash  that Mum had chucked my way, when she cleaned out her own stash, and it was just enough to cut out the Cissy pieces.  Awesome!  It was meant to be!  However when I put it together I was just like…. blah.  I think when you’re feeling anxious and depressed then your soul cries out for cheer and vibrancy, or even just strength, even in colour form; and drab colours just kinda drag you down … however at the time I determined a waist was what was needed.  So I proceeded to cut a straight waistband from the scant remains of fabric, miraculously I had a strip just long enough! I took off the bodice and skinny-hemmed it, making a cute little loose crop top.  I the sliced up the centre back of the skirt and inserted an invisible zip, re-folded the skirt pleats into my new waistband, and stitched on a button.  Ok! I thought.  This is going to be great!

ORIGINAL COLOUR… yeah it’s not awful, I guess

 

It lay in my wardrobe during winter and I was anticipating a lot of wear once the warm weather hit… and when I did my rainbow week mini-challenge I thought it would be my “green” ensemble…  I frocked up and took a few photos, a sample of which is below, and man, at that moment the not-greenness of the whole thing just killed me, so it did not feature in that week after all.  I still thought the ensemble had promise and I was on a mission to save it now!  I wanted GREEN!   I had to wait until Spotlight had restocked its dye supplies but finally they came in.   And into the spa dye-pot it went!

looked terrible in this light!…

I used a whole pack of Rit Kelly green, and I very happy with it now, I think the strong colour is just what it, or maybe I – needed!  The crop top is very cropped, and I have to be careful about lifting my arms up too high, and I’m planning next to make some pretty little lace camisoles to wear underneath.
Watch this space!

Details:

Top and skirt; from the Homer & Howells Cissy pattern, old cotton, overdyed by me
Caramel sandals; super old, originally from an op shop.  I need to replace these, desperately!

Green turtleneck: modified Closet Core pattern Nettie in green merino
Black tights; my own design, black stretch poly
Black booties, from Zomp boutique

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