After fixing up my Little Bit of Red dress in September, of course I had to actually wear it at Art Deco Weekend this year, despite a few moments of wailing “but I’ve already worn it….” To doll it up a little, I added a quick, fun, embellished accessory, which is my ‘easy’ entry for the HSF Embellish challenge: a trimmed 1930s hat (I’m working on a more elaborate Embellish item too). My hat started life as a woven fedora a bit like these.  I damped my hat, reshaped the crown and brim, and pinned up the back of the brim so the hat could fit down snuggly over my hair pinned up in a chignon.  Re-shaped, it looks like this: Even a minimalist like myself thought that was a bit plain, so embellishment time.  I found some midnight blue and red velvet ribbon at an op shop, and had a bag of buttons on me.  A bit of winding, pleating, and sewing later, I had a trimmed hat. Just what the hat and dress …

I had my project for the first Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge ‘Starting Simple’ all planned out, and it was going to be so very simple. I decided to use my 1930s Garden Party frock pattern – so easy and fun, and I’m so familiar with it so it would be so very simple to put together.  I would get the frock cut out in the week before Christmas, assemble the bodice and skirt, put in the bias facings at neck and armhole, and take it with me to Nelson when we left on the 24th. Then, as we sat around with my parent-in-law and Gran and Grandbob in the days after Christmas, drinking tea and watching cricket, I would hand sew down all the bias facings and assemble a belt.  Mr D and I would arrive back in Wellington on the 30th, I’d quickly sew the skirt to the bodice on the night of the 30th, and we’d do a photoshoot on New Years Eve morning, just in time for the challenge.  That was the …