All posts filed under: What I wear

The Playcation dress

I’ve been working on the Truly Victorian 1900s S bend corset all this week , and by Saturday it became obvious that it was not.going.well. Along the lines of – “I’ve let out ever seam 1/4” of an inch, and the thing is still 2″ too small for me!” not going well ( a couple of other bloggers have mentioned their corsets were far too small in passing, so I suspect an overall issue with the pattern’s smaller sizes and the fact that our body type is going to have a much higher immovable bone to moveable squish ratio, especially with the ribcage, that isn’t accounted for in the patterns sizing and shaping). So I threw the corset in the corner in disgust and had a sad. Then lifted my chin, threw back my shoulders, and fished out a piece of striped black and ivory viscose knit I’d found in the Fabric Warehouse $5 bin during their 40% off sale, and whipped up a simple two piece summer dress on my overlocker. No pattern, no …

The ‘Joy Gives Us Wings’ 1940s dress

Published by The Dreamstress

The Baha’i Faith puts great emphasis on the importance of joy. ‘Abdu’l-BahÃ¡ (the son of Baha’u’llah, the Baha’i prophet) said: Joy gives us wings! In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded. We seem better able to cope with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness. The focus on joy doesn’t preclude the existence of times of sorrow, pain, sadness, and depression but reminds us that there can be moments of happiness even in those times, and that by finding those bits of happiness, we can make the hard times easier. ‘Abdu’l-BahÃ¡ knew about suffering: he spent most of his life, from the time he was a small child, in prison due to the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran and the Ottoman Empire. And yet people who met him vividly recalled the joy he exuded, and his sense of humor and laughter. One of my favourite stories of ‘Abdu’l-BahÃ¡ recounts how, when he and fellow Baha’is were imprisoned and subject to particularly harsh …

The Hepburn in Hakatere trousers

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m developing an awful habit of finishing Historical Sew Fortnightly challenges on time, and then running around like a mad chicken for two weeks before I have the opportunity to photograph them. Case in point: my 1940s inspired ‘Hepburn in Hakatere’ trousers, for #23, the Modern History challenge. I put the last stitch in these trousers the evening of Saturday the 14th of December, after starting them in April and abandoning them for 8 months in my PHd pile when the weather got too chilly for light cotton trousers, and I ran out of steam. I wore them on Sunday (to great admiration and aplomb) for an end-of-year Baha’i children’s class barbecue, followed by the Wellington Sewing Bloggers it-was-supposed-to-be-a-picnic-but-the-weather-packed-in-at-the-critical-moment (and then of course fined up when it was too late to change) afternoon tea at my house. I had intended to get photos at either or both events, but I did the running-around-like-a-chicken thing instead. Farmyard avian insanity is also what happened to the rest of the week while I wrapped up my classes for …