My dear sister-in-law S gave to me a length of precious “Outback Wife” barkcloth for my birthday… soooo thrilling to finally get a piece of this gorgeousness for myself! I’ve bought other designs of this once or twice before as gifts for others but never for myself for some strange reason, I know not why … Because, oh my gosh this stuff is just so lovely, sews up like an absolute DREAM!! I’m in love! I’m seriously thinking about sneaking out to Calico and Ivy and buying more! For meeeee!
I turned to my ol’ reliable, tried and true,Vogue 1247 for the skirt… my copy of this is now a little bit tattered, not surprisingly since this latest is version number 23, ahem. I just counted, and wow, that’s a shock, even to me! Yes, I really do need to move onto a new pattern… A lot of my V1247’s have been straight, sans pockets, because to be honest, although the pockets in this design are really cool I actually don’t really use them all that much. Very occasionally for my phone and keys and it’s very rare I shove my actual hands in them.. I worry about distorting the lines of the skirt and contributing to premature pocket sag. And if there’s one thing NO ONE needs in their life, it’s premature pocket sag, am I right? Quelle horreur!
But for old times’ sake, I put the pockets in this version.
I über-carefully cut my pieces so the print matches up practically everywhere, along both horizontal skirt seams, and as well the centre back seam, and even the waistband seams matches as well as it is able. This took only a little bit of frowning and sighing, and moving my pattern pieces around more times than the most diligent of sleight-of-hand operatives, but it’s always a worthwhile thing to do, I reckon. Otherwise, the not-matching pattern would probably bother me forever.
At the same time as I was making my skirt, I happened to notice in my stash two lengths of very thin jersey knit that I’d bought at the Fabric Store in Melbourne during one of my trips over there with Mum and Cassie, one a bottle green and the other in deep teal blue; both an absolute perfect match for the skirt! It was meant to be!! I quickly whipped up (k-tchaaaaah!) two long sleeved modified Nettie tees. These are practically identical to each other, narrow neckline bands and wide sleeve and bottom bands.
It’s so funny to me, looking at these pictures. See, S actually gave this fabric to me back in early June, yes, it was a very early birthday present! and I made the skirt and two tees up straight away, like within a week. And took the pictures of the tees on Bessie, though it was too cold to actually wear them at the time… then a few months later, early September to be exact, I took the wearing-with-black tights-and-boots pictures. And did precisely nothing with those pictures, either. As it happens, I’ve been in a bit of a funk over the past few months, feeling a little intimidated, like I’m just not capable or good enough, almost on the point of giving it up entirely. Generally speaking, it’s been taking me a looooong time to write a blog post lately, like almost as long as to make a little dress for myself. And so I’ve just been feeling… less inclined, and oh so lazy about it, to be honest; even though I want to write.
Anyway; yesterday, it was a perfectly beautiful day and we went out walking at the beach, and I wore the whole lot of them, the skirt and both the tops too. Meaning, in my funny weird little world, a blog post must transpire. Eeeek! Quick sticks!! so I gave myself a bit of a pep talk. Just lay it out there. With minimal fiddling. Just spill, organically. I mean apart from spelling. I am as it happens, the biggest spelling nazi imaginable. I roll my eyes on the regular, at the newspaper, at advertisements on instagram; at all the offending “your”s instead of “you’re”s and so on. I’m sooo judgemental, the absolute worst, in fact! But, I’m getting off track… where was I? Ah yes, writing without pause. Letting the words flow, flying from my fingertips, of their own volition. That’s what this is. Stream of consciousness blogging, for better or worse. Well, that’s what blogging is supposed to be, right? It’s supposed to be a personal journey? Just me, being me? SO! I hereby free myself of further worrying, right now. Begone, thy treacherous feelings of inadequacy!! Vamoose! Whooooosh!!! And; this house, is clean *… I hope!
* … name that movie 🙂
Details:
both tees; loosely based on Closet Case patterns Nettie, thin cotton jersey
Skirt; Vogue 1247, in Outback Wife barkcloth
Tights; made by me, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique
So, we were going to Bali to attend our friends L&L’s wedding in early May… and I decided I wanted to make a special new ensemble to take away with me. Not to wear to the wedding, because, well … is ivory still a no-no for a wedding guest? I’ve always thought so, but then I did notice a few white-ish ensembles at the wedding anyway. So maybe times are a-changing… but I digress.
Making this 
Then I vaguely thought maybe a navy blue skirt would make it a nicely complete set, and she desperately needs skirts for work too … and lo and behold what should be lounging languidly about in the very next aisle but this teal blue suedette, which is a PERFECT colour match for the rooves. BAM! DECISION MADE. Lugged them both to the counter without a second thought, brought them home, tossed into the washing machine.
The suedette “looks” nice and perfectly suede-y, but it frays like billy-o. I finished all the raw edges on the overlocker, and the lower hem with a bias cut binding cut from a scrap of purple/blue micro fibre. 
The Tshirt is made up just like the pattern, except for the neckline… I’m lazy with my Inari necklines and have pretty much finished them all off like this! Just overlocked the raw edge, turned it under and topstitched from the right side. Since it’s quite a wide neckline and doesn’t stretch out when you put the Tshirt on and take it off, the stitches won’t snap and this kind of finish works perfectly well.
The lower hem is finished with my twin needle. Lisa asked about channelling with a twin needle.. all I can say is that I’ve never had channelling and what’s more I have no idea how I’ve avoided it so far either!! Only thing I can think of: I always finish the raw edge on my overlocker, then topstitch with the twin needle, and that’s it! Maybe the overlocked edge stabilises the fabric and that’s what stops a channel forming? That’s the only reason I can think of anyway. 🙂
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Funny story; I made this nearly two months ago… and risked 
