Back to blogging

Sorry for the long summer break, unfortunately not due to any fabulous, or even unfabulous vacations, but an unplanned trip back home to the UK for my grandmother's funeral. She was 93 so although it was of course a sad occasion there is no doubt that she had a full life and it was nice to catch up with my family again.

So I have finally got over my jetlag and finished washing and ironing some things to show you.

Just before I left I met up with the lovely Trena from Slapdash Sewist, who unlike me, seems to be immune to jetlag! We spent an evening at dinner and then pretty much an entire day shopping and sightseeing, I had such a good time. Since I foolishly didn't take any photos you can read about the trip on Trena's blog here.

You can see that my bag of fabric from the textile market in Sham Shui Po is about twice the size of Trena's, I don't know how that happened - I'm sure she must have sneaked some of her stuff in there. Here's what I got;

Mega size jersey print, bit crazy but I loved the colours.

Cobalt blue knit, dusky pink embellished sheer.

Close up of the sheer, this will be a very simple unstructured top I think.

I also bought a black wool blend to make a dress for the funeral and made yet another version of my Burda 02/09-124 dress but with a more modest neckline. I plan to embellish the neckline with some crystals to turn it from a funeral dress to an LBD. I think my nan would approve.

On the sewing front, I made 2 more separates. Another black shirt from the leftovers of the cutaway shoulder shirt in my last post. This one is Patrones issue 269, #1, although I left off the collar and belt. I'm a bit of a novice at Patrones and I'm only brave enough to attempt patterns I think I can figure out without instructions, but this turned out well so I am encouraged to try more.

The skirt is a very loud print and as such I wanted a simple pattern.

I used Burda 09/08 - 120, a basic pencil skirt. I liked that the cut was such that it is quite narrow, but has no back slit or any other details other than waist darts. There is still enough walking ease, but I must remember not to wear this skirt if I want to climb onto the bus! 

The fabric is a lightweight cotton so I lined it with china silk. I found it to be a little shorter than I wanted so I added a hem facing from a strip of fabric so I could take a minimum depth of hem but still get the benefit of a little bit of extra fabric weight there, it definitely helps it to hang better.