Saturday night was Windy Lindy 2011, the big event of Wellington’s annual swing calender. The theme this year was ‘Anything Goes’, as in the Cole Porter musical, where anything (and everything) goes on on the SS American.

It’s the fourth year I’ve attended Windy Lindy, and every year I’ve shown you my costume, from my saucy Dorothy Gale costume for ‘Pin Ups and Poster Boys’, to my human chicken costume for ‘Freaks’, to last year’s glamourous satin number for ‘Puttin on the Ritz‘.

Unfortunately, every year my costume planning seems to happen more and more last minute.  Eek!

This year I didn’t really thing about it at all until the night before.  Double eek!

But with some help from the Army Surplus store, my long time obsession with collecting images of nautically inspired fashions, a mad pattern draping and sewing spree, a jacket I made almost a decade ago, and a few random accessories in my dress up box, I pulled together a rather cute outfit (if I do say so myself).

I made a new skirt based of 1930s patterns, wore it with a striped army surplus shirt, tied a bit of red fabric around my waist for a belt, added a red, white & blue scarf for my hair, and started out with a blue jacket that I made from one of my grandmothers ’50s patterns, which I took off once dancing warmed me up.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get many good pictures of it, so I’m thinking that a nautical photo shoot is definitely a must-do.  And I want to tell you all about making the skirt.

In my old jacket and my new 1930s skirt

With the fabulous Clarissa in her natty nauticals

Not everyone really figured out what ‘Anything Goes’ was about, but the nautical theme was a great one.  White is such an effective colour on the dance floor, and nothing beats a bunch of guys in sailor outfits!

There were some drawbacks though: All the striped shirts combined with a mirror ball (note to venues – mirror balls and vintage dancing don’t go well together) combined to make me very dizzy!  And the dance was held in the hull of a ship, so the curved walls just added to the surreal-factor, as did the fact that the walls started dripping and sweating once the difference between the cold water surrounding them and the warm air inside got to be too much.

Stripes and sailors and engine boys

Clarissa and a sailor dance

Best engine boy outfit ever! He even had a mallet!