Dearest Sewing Friends!

before: the basic vest and the fabulously-fabricked skirt

I decided to pick up an easier-than-usual sewing job today - something I would definitely finish in one day - so as to try and get my speed up in my needlework mastery!

So this I began after lunch, and finished just now, at 8pm: with breaks in between to do various other things like sit on the balcony in the sunshine for a while... then to chop wood and light a fire to take off the evening chill from the kitchen (as I finished off the buttons and tab on the front).

working on the balcony in the lovely strong light...

It began as a beautiful-but-basic cotton top: the top is nice, but too simple for my liking - and I love combining a nice quality of top with another aspect of fabric, for this particular effect. I took an extremely slim skirt with a marvellous fabric, and started the new mini-dress kind of long blouse-top, by cutting the end off of the skirt and adding to the waist of the top.

I did double-stitching for this, which I think adds a nice effect, bringing the two kinds of fabric together.

Then I added two ruffles for sleeves, which you can see in the photos that I cut them from the remaining skirt fabric - a middle section, above where I'd cut the lower ruffle off. I hemmed and then tacked and gathered them (pulled the tacking thread tighter, to make them frill a little) - before adding them by machine to the shoulders. I double-sewed this edge too, to keep the edges neat inside the sleeves.

The final details were on the middle-front of the white cotton part of the blouse: I replaced the white plastic buttons with red shell ones, which I love, using a bright eggy yellow thread, to bring them in-tune with the rest of the blouse. Then a random tab which was sitting below the buttons, I covered with the left-over bright fabric...

Et voilà!

It's a relatively slim fit - it wouldn't go over the bust of my mannequin! - but will fit someone slightly smaller than myself. How do you like this as a funky summer dress/ blouse, on top of leggings or shorts?

Loving looking at the community work this week, friends; it is always so good to scroll through the amazing efforts and see what is being invented by our collective imaginations! Much love and good vibes with your needlework this week!

LoVe!

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