Addressing the issue...

I've been a little absent lately. Since the start of November, we've had a family run-in with cancer, dog dying, puppy arriving, dad in hospital with a knee reconstruction, and my workload doubled for a month... I did make Christmas presents which have not all yet been delivered so I can't yet show them. But now I have 9 DAYS OFF WORK and I'm going to do VERY LITTLE!!!! Or rather, I'm not going to allow myself to feel pressured to do a lot. There's a difference.


It's summer here and Christmas day was 39C or about 101F so a summer frock was in order. Today is a stinky hot 41 and we're looking at a weeklong heatwave. (We define heatwave as 3 or more days over 38C/100F).

Christmas was unusual for us as Dad is still in hospital so Mum came down to mine, we visited Dad and then had seafood lunch at my house in the air-conditioning, drank most of a bottle of white, watched some tv and took a dip in the neighbour's pool. There was no stressing over roasts being done properly or cleaning the house for visitors so it was all nice and relaxed.

Getting back to having time to be creative really settles me. A little while ago, Fabricshack had a sale on which included Tula Pink fabric. Being a new convert and a fan of halfprice shipping, I couldn't resist this NightShade fabric. (I really should have sucked my gut in and tucked my bottom in for this photo - new year's resolution - lose enough weight to be required to take this dress in!)

It was going to be just a skirt, using an old Butterick pleated skirt pattern I had (so easy!! Just two rectangles of fabric, fold sections to the inside and sew half way down - voila! Pleats!). However, I had enough fabric left to do  a bodice and having been encouraged by Sara's Rebecca Dress Sew-a-long, I took the Rebecca pattern bodice and kind of mushed them together. And it WORKED! Really really well!

I learnt a few things from the first one, so I went all brave and improv in a few more ways:
1) Sizing - I mixed together sizes 8, 10 and 12 to fit my peculiar shape. I'm not telling you which bit is which size but you can probably guess ;)
2) the neckline. The Rebecca Dress neckline is great but you know, everyone would be thinking "OMG, did you see she's made another dress with the same neckline?". Because obviously, no one has anything better to think about than my wardrobe. <cough>. Anyway, this one has a straight neckline and I like it. I think I might try a plunging V at the back next time.
3) I found some corded black satin already put together really cheap at my local textile shop and thought I'd give it a go. I was quite prepared to rip it out, but it looks JUST that little bit different, so I do like it!

All in all, a very successful improv dress!