All posts filed under: What I wear

Finished project: The Summertime Southerly 1931 dress

I’ve finished another dress this week: a wool crepe dress from a 1931 pattern. I killed two birds with one stone with this dress: this week’s theme on the Sew Weekly was ‘Down Under’ (sew something from the opposite season to the one you are experiencing), and next week’s theme is ‘UFO’. This dress does both. Well, sort of. It’s definitely a UFO: I started it at the beginning of spring, with the idea that if I sewed a wool dress Murphy’s law would the weather would definitely be too warm to wear it! The weather may have cooperated, but the dress got set aside when other stuff became more pressing. The ‘Down Under’ challenge was a bit murkier. The whole idea of ‘seasonal’ weather in Wellington is just ridiculous though. We are the land of four seasons in one day (yes, I know you have that stuck in your head now. You’re welcome). On various days this week I’ve been in jeans, wool tops and wool socks, and shorts and a singlet. What on …

Finished projects: the Lonely Heart wedding dress

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve finished the late ’40s wedding dress for Lonely Heart, and the show is on, and the dress is on the actress, and I’m done! The dress however, I’m sorry to tell you, is just a trifle frumpy onstage. It’s partly because the bodice is so long – it really shortens and widens the body. I’d like to try the dress on a different body type: I think that would help a lot. I also really, really want to try the dress in better fabric. Extremely polyester tablecloth damask was a brilliant choice for the demands of stage, but it isn’t a flattering fabric, it’s a PAIN to gather, and it was very tricky to work with along the waist shaping and sweetheart neckline. Being a seamstress is a lot easier when you work with really high quality fabric! 😉 Oh, and Lonely Heart was fantastic – really brilliant music, great costumes by Mrs C, excellent reviews, even Mr D was entertained and impressed. Hopefully it will have a bigger staging soon!

Sweet & sour ‘Summer Berries’ shorts

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I told you about the Sew Weekly and showed off my first offering: the Little Black Dress-Clip Dress. The Sew Weekly theme for this week was ‘buttons’. I thought about doing something fancy with bound buttonholes, but I end up doing that sort of thing all the time, so there was no reason, and I don’t particularly need anything fancy and tailored and fussy in my wardrobe right now. What I do need is simple summery things, and stuff I can do swing dancing in when it’s hot. Solution: make a pair of vintage-inspired button front shorts. I’m calling these the ‘Summer Berries’ shorts. I’d originally meant for them to be quite nautical with white buttons, but when I went through my fabric stash I didn’t have anything that really worked, and the only thing that stood out to me as exciting at the fabric store were some raspberry pink buttons. So now I have bright blueberry blue shorts with raspberry pink buttons. And I’m eating a blackberry real-fruit ice cream as I …