Dearest Needleworkers!

So much to write about this week, and so much socialising to fit it in between! I was sewing a lot, and out and about a lot with friends and acquaintances. Energy is beginning to rise - in fits and starts - towards the summer festivities, so there is a general air of anticipation and celebration already. We have the huge 7-yearly rights happening, the Riti Settennali as well as the usual big wine festival Vinalia - all in August. Tons of folks are back prepping for the processions, making costumes and ritual tools, choirs practising all around the medieval quarter, and many folks growing beards and hair to be authentically representing historical and biblical figures during the Riti.

first stages of the skirt: taking the old top of a pair of trousers in red linen, and attaching a yellow shirt back and a blue shirt back to the waistband, using overstitching in white like with the original trousers

So there are many more folks than usual out and about, filling the bars, chiacchierando, reconnecting, reweaving roots and branches of families, clusters of friends and relatives, peers and citizens... And the expat community doing a load of events this week for a special 'expats and locals' celebration. It is quite a time! Between aperitivi and impromptu late night snacks and whisky, I've been inspired to adventure a little outside of my comfort zone (of working super-slowly and not pushing myself much!) and trying out a bit more eccentric stuff.

taking off the old buttons and belt loops from the red linen trouser section

I made a big stripey dress - I may blog about this, but it might want to be a bit further developed still - and this skirt which I really love. I was excited about working with lots of contrasting-colours of stripes, and playing with forms and colour blocking too>: I took the left-overs from the red linen trousers that I'd made the top of the beautiful linen dress with - and started constructing a skirt around it.

I'm not certain if this is something similar to a French Seam, but I love using this technique (which I figured out myself, rather than from a book), to strengthen delicate fabric seams; really love the look of it, with the two visible lines of stitching either side of the seam.

I really like this kind of beginning of a new garment; a waistband with some zip and pocket action at the front, which I could see becoming a longer garment, but wasn't sure how to progress it... I pushed myself to adventure into a long-ish skirt, and allowed the fabrics to kind of design themselves. I played with two other colours, kind of including the three primary colours, but not being too precise about the particular hues...

new buttons, and another seam that I love, this time hand-stitching parallel to machine stitching

It began as a lengthening of the skirt by adding the back of a big yellow shirt. And the back of a big blue shirt. This gave enough substance to see a full skirt coming into being - though it was with SUPER light fabrics (cottons) next to the fairly sturdy red linen. The two shirt backs were different lengths also, so this made me think of how to finish the length of it all.

the lining, being pinned in place organically - taken from an old petticoat, and to which I added the strip of red linen for a border

I added more of the yellow shirt to the bottom of the front, and then thought about making a bias binding kind of finishing in red linen to the bottom of the skirt. But first I lined it, with most of a very thin cotton underdress. It was the perfect measurement to fit inside the skirt. Once it was added, it felt like I could add a thicker red strip to the bottom of that part, the underskirt, rather than adding a thin trim to the outer skirt. This was fiddly! But super-satisfying, as I often find projects like this, improvised out of old garments!

As usual, I didn't really measure anything: I just pulled things into place and pinned them and then sewed. Some of the seams I sewed with the machine, but 'by hand', as I liked trying out the machine without electricity, just for fun. It is nice to see how the machine works without current; it is obviously slower, and more accurate - less chance of things getting out of control with the general intense speed of my machine. It was so lovely to just bumble gently, pulling the wheel towards me and watching the needle inch along the cloth. Quite fulfilling indeed.

This was one of the projects where I let myself be more spontaneous and organic in my construction: letting go of the conditioning around everything being symmetrical and even all the way around! It feels liberating, and I look forward to developing the more funky, natural-looking style!!

I haven't tried my iron out with the power bank as yet, but may do this before posting - if you see a neatly-ironed skirt, you'll know that it works! But it was pretty wrinkled as I was working, which probably is not the most accurate sewing method - things can easily get distorted if the material isn't nice and flat and uniform - oopah.

As you may have already surmised, I didn't coordinate ironing with photography this week!

Either way, ironed or wrinkled, I'm pretty darn pleased with the finished skirt. It is sufficiently funky and neat, organic and fun, a nice mix of smart and informal. I like that it doesn't look much like anything I've seen before. It is still quite transparent, but I think JUST opaque enough to remain decent! I look forward to getting some feedback around it....

The red linen border on the bottom of the underskirt is something I really like, and will use in other garments.

I also made the aforementioned big dress too, and will see if I can't make it a bit more funky before posting about it; it might not be the coolest or most successful finished project, but I like how different it is, and how it made me feel to embark on a more outside-of-the-norm kind of structure of a dress...

I promise to add a photo of the skirt - IF IT FITS - on me later in the comments: I couldn't get it over the shoulders of my mannequin, but am hoping it'll work on me! I have to acknowledge too, that my new phone camera is really shite, and so the photos taken with it do not grasp the colours nicely - I also pledge to take photos ONLY with my proper camera in the future!

Until the next time, friends, and I hope you're having a splendid creative time this week!

LovE!

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