Mr D and I are taking a long overdue and much deserved holiday someplace warm and exotic (Mr D is of the firm belief that it doesn’t count as a holiday unless it’s warm) where the beach is wonderful and the hammocks are inviting, but where internet is erratic and expensive.  So I apologise for the lack of postings. I didn’t even have time to get any posts together to auto-publish beforehand, as I’ve been so frantically busy for the last few months. Getting ready for the trip involved carefully arranging all my teaching, and planning class schedules for as soon as I come back, taking all my university marking with me to do on planes and in airports, and getting a ton of sewing done, or prepped to do by hand on the trip. One of the funner bits of sewing I did was for the trip (nothing like sewing for the tropics to make you love your sewing): a version of the Henrietta Maria dress to wear over swimsuits as a beach cover …

One of the questions that people ask me a lot is how much of my own clothes I make. The answer is, in summertime, around 90%.  In winter…it gets trickier. For winter, I make almost all of my own merino tops (and I wear a merino top almost daily), and I make the singlets that go under them, and now I make my own cardigans, and obviously I’ve made capes and jackets and coats, and I make mitts by the dozen.  But as far as bottoms go…I make pants, but I don’t enjoy  making jeans (done it: it’s boring and tedious, takes hours and hours, and none of it is fun sewing), and I hate, hate, hate leggings and tights, so I don’t wear dresses. Really, I can’t tell you how much I loathe leggings and tights.  They pinch at the waist and roll down and sag between your legs or ride up, but most of all, they itch.  Even the most expensive, softest feeling tights and leggings irritate the heck out of my skin …