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Spring must really be in the air for me to think about a print, and not just any ol’  print but a floral one yowsa!  Not that I don’t love florals; I do, but in moderation and in general preferably on other people…  🙂
This is an old dress now, that I first made back here, and I’ve worn it here on the blog before.  In fact I was clad in this very same outfit for my favourite day during self-stitched September last year and the dress was a year old then.  It’s stood up pretty well, I reckon…  this is my darling Mum’s favourite dress of my creation,  and I’ve alway loved how the sleeve cuff/ties worked out and thought they were a particularly serendipitous detail.  
So of course I do repeat outfits, sure.  As we all do…  And especially if I have found a fab combo that really works for me, or in this case a dress that needs nothing further to make it perfect for … well, anything!  Even though this is kinda “pretty” I’m not precious about any of my dresses and don’t take particular care with them.  When I took this to Melbourne I rolled it into a ball and stuffed it in the corner of the suitcase – no ironing!- … today I’ve walked the dog, done the office work, had lunch with a friend, and am now curled up on the couch… when I wash it tomorrow it will get tossed in the machine on a normal wash cycle…  You can do whatever you want with a zipless wrap dress in an easy-care fabric, you see, and it will loyally forgive you all your neglect and continue to look as fabudabulous as ever…  
Digressing for a minute; the phrase “easy-care”.  Music to the ears, no?  Think about it, easy care.  Says it all.  Now, if I wasn’t such a snob about linen, silk, wool and cotton and didn’t keep on stubbornly giving preference to all these delicious and decidedly LESS easy-care fabrics, my life would be oh-so-much easier, methinks… sigh.
I made a pink stretch-y petticoat to go underneath, for a bit of extra warmth, that you can’t see in the above picture but is at right.  Thank you Bessie, for agreeing to model a petticoat for the internet; something I am waaay too shy for!

Details:
Dress; Vogue 7748, but modified quite a lot, floral polyester chiffon, more details here
Petticoat (underneath, and modelled at right by Bessie); pink stretchy stuff, my own design
Tights; Kolotex
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

So, I went there.  I might be a tad cosy in my crochet skirt (and probably look kinda like a cosy too, haha, er a tea-cosy that is!), but I decided that if I was going to wear it at all again this year, then sooner rather than later was the go.  I wanted to get at least a few more days wear out of it while the weather is even half cool enough, and well dang! I’m kinda proud of it so wanted to give it an airing over in the self-stitched September flickr group.  Hehe, such a show-off, hmmm?
You’re wondering what I am doing standing here in the kitchen of all places?  The flickr group is having another fun weekly photo challenge, and this week is to be in your workplace, or doing something that feels like work to you.  Well, to pose in front of my computer in the office felt kind of blah blah predictable… plus I did it during self-stitched September last year.  Oh wait, I posed in my kitchen during that challenge too… oh rats.  
Is nothing ever original any more?

Details:
Jumper; self-drafted, made of an acrylic knit (that was originally grey but I dyed it yellow when I realised how awful the colour looked), details here
Skirt; crocheted using Jo Sharp yarns, details and my pattern here
Tights; Voodoo
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough (now renamed)

So, here we go, the first day of Spring, and the first day of a month of all self-stitched fun, to be seen in entirety here.  As usual, when the pressure is on to dress for a challenge like this my perverse nature means that I could think of absolutely nothing to wear this morning.  Yes really!   Sounds ridiculous, I know…
And just saying now; I will understand entirely if this is not everyone’s idea of what a blog should be and if people choose to switch off for the month, BUT I have enjoyed these challenges before and I find them very helpful in assessing my self-made wardrobe and its wearability.  I want to try to mix up old and new and be “interesting”.  There will be some new creations popping up this month.  So I hope it doesn’t get boring.
So what of today?   My ivory shirt and the skirt are new-ish, both made in the last month or so… and it may appear black in the photo, but my outfit is navy blue.  I made the jacket a few years ago but haven’t worn it for one of these challenges yet.  I was pretty proud of this jacket when I made it, because it is completely lined and also underlined, my first attempt at a properly tailored jacket.  Also with no iron-on interfacing, as an experiment.  As a result, the jacket is very soft and very comfortable, and the tailoring has stood the test of time.  And when I dyed this previously charcoal skirt blue it hadn’t occurred to me that I now had something passing as a suit.  Hehe, me, in a suit?!    Mon dieu!  The funny thing is that I didn’t think I was going to look quite so suit-y when I selected these items…  and it was only when I was dressed and looking in the mirror I was like, woa, I’m in a suit!  Actually I do have another suit, also made by me, that gets worn, like, never.  Never ever.  And now I have another one….  you’d think I’d have learned, right? 

Details:
Jacket; Simplicity 4698, navy blue silk hessian, to see this jacket styled in 6 different ways go here
Shirt; Burdastyle magazine 10/2010,102, made of white brushed cotton, details and my review of this pattern here
Skirt; Vogue 7303 lined, made of charcoal wool mix then dyed blue, details here
Tights; Metalicus
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes