it was too hot to go outside to photoshoot!

Beautiful and supportive Needlework Community...

I have been sewing all week, and am very excited to be able to share another project with you here; I'm getting more efficient in my skills and my ability to manifest the feeling or sense of what I want to make, by following my intuition. This is such a huge thing for me, as it also means that I am better able to make magical clothing which appropriately protects and celebrates my mindbodyspiritcosmos in physical bodily form!

the old nightie, before the bottom was cut off of it, to make another underskirt

the lovely bodice from the vintage nightie: I often cut out and keep elements from garments, like this, to create something which can make better use of it, later...

the bordered sleeves; the first detail I worked on... using the edge of an old sheet to create this border

the dress first sewn together roughly; the top from a vintage nightdress, and the skirt from an vintage cushion cover

before the elastic was set in, the dress was quite potato-sack-y!

When I finished this dress a couple of days ago, I was initially underwhelmed, as I had confused it with another feeling-about-a-dress in my senses - and this one was shorter and more lumpy, in my mind. But once I tried it on and got used to it, the beauty of how well it fits, the coolness of the vintage cotton, and the general feeling of the brightness and neatness of it: this all brought me into harmony with it. I love it!

the duvet cover which I cut the plain side from

the plain side, cut out - a square of lovely, tight weave vintage cotton: so cool for summer!

Again, this is so very very different a garment than a bought one - or even than one made from a prescribed pattern. The pieces that it was made out of are meaningful, and the quality of the fabrics, plus the activity of long hours spent creating it, solving problems, bringing it together; these make it exceptionally special.

the finished bodice: the details of this dress made it a bit challenging to photograpH: here's a detail in black and white to show you up close!

I reserve my right to not have to explain my process in a linear fashion!

This is important for me, in the context of culture that dumbs things down for folks, and gives them everything in bite-sized pieces - which means that they become conditioned into not learning through doing. Learning through doing is the deepest way to learn: it forces us to use aspects of our mindbodyspiritcosmos that are inalienable Whole, and thus is a vital aspect of our existing fully in our Nature. Having everything overly explained to us is a bit like processed food, pharmaceuticals and TV: these represent passive or rote learning - which is not inherently negative, but most certainly is an inferior way of learning anything.

So here there are photos of many of the aspects of what I made, and of the general approach and atmosphere of my work, but I cannot cut it up into steps, because it wasn't created in steps. It was made through immersion.

I'd already shared a photo of the original nightie/ nightdress, because I cut the bottom off of it when I made my last underskirt - I wrote about that here, when I shared around my white dress from an old duvet cover, and I had the underskirt underneath it. The top of this nightie was left, which I'd also cut the sleeves off: I think I had hoped to use them for something, can't remember what! - but anyways, it had these very short sleeves, which I liked and which I decided to keep as they were, and accentuate by putting a nice neat border around them.

I also made a border at the top of this big square of duvet cover which I cut out of another great find at the market; I cut it carefully around the edges of one side, so as to make full use of the neatness of the square, and have the most fabric, as I wanted a double-layered skirt so as to be more practical.

Note: sorry the photos don't correspond precisely to the text below each one! I can't always get the photos and text to line up correctly!

Once I had a nice wide 'hem' at the top of the folded-over square, I did a double seam and then ran a waist-sized length of medium-sized elastic through it.

This made a rough skirt, which I then sewed into the top. From there on, the finishing was relatively straightforward: I cut another edging off of a big cushion, which worked perfectly on the bottom of the dress skirt - at which point I registered that the lace edging had a piece of ribbon woven along it - and I decided to change that, as it was an old tatty ribbon. I tried about 5 different ribbons from my collection, and eventually found an old, favourite ribbon that I'd bought on a trip back to Scozia at John Lewis in Edinburgh... It is my favourite ribbon ever: bright rich red with two lines of black dashes up either side of it. I love how a simple but divine ribbon like this can change an outfit significantly!

I also had to join the lace edging onto the skirt in three strips: it had been taken from a square cushion, and so was formed with corners, and had to be cut and resewn to form a straight line in its reincarnation as a skirt edging.

Once that was in place, I thought about the details of buttons and of belt. Because I had the red detail in the hem, and because I didn't want the dress to look too much like a night-dress still, I opted out of replacing the wee white buttons with beautiful mother-of-pearl ones: as usual, I tried all kinds of button colours and sizes, until I found these three fabulous shiny black ones, which feel like glass.

With them in place, it seemed like the dress needed a belt at the centre of it, and I went to some lengths to create a new belt out of old strips that were super-frayed silk from an old apron (the one I'd deconstructed to make my black and white apron-dress a month ago). This worked well enough! I had an old buckle which I think was from a bag or some shoes, and did a lot of sewing with the machine, layering up silk and overlapping where there were holes in it (i.e. in quite a few places): in the end, the belt is quite cute and sturdy - it's the first structured belt I've made.

I love the details on the top-back of the bodice - the lovely tight pleating...

And this was it! A lovely, cool, comfortable, practical dress - apart from being white: I ADORE white clothes, but I do worry a little when I wear them for anything other than sitting still, that I'll get marks on them. In fact, even sitting still having a drink; I'd probably choose a spumante rather than a red wine, hehehehe! I do love wearing beautiful clothes all day long, and rarely change out of my best clothes when I'm painting, even: that is what aprons are for.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my dress come into being! I am wearing it right now as I type, in the cool back-room of my medieval Italian Arthouse: it is very nice...

Join me next time for a post about the HAT I just made!! My first ever hat! Out of a beautiful very-dark-blue denim that I was gifted, with a big floppy rim, edged nicely by hand with contrasting inside and outside of the denim... Great for the scorchio heat which has been beaming down on us recently!

LOVE!

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