On the mannequin

The other little project from the weekend.

Some of you may be horrified that I pulled this poor dress apart and re-cut it, but honestly, it was in a sorry state when I picked up from The Costume Cave about 4 years ago when they had a massive sale of their collection. The lining and some sort of over skirt had been hacked off (bits of it remained), it had been dyed black (originally lemony yellow, judging by the stitching) and frankly, it was shapeless and ugly.

Doesn’t it look so much happier? And I received many compliments when I wore it.

I was going to make my own frogs closures, then saw the ones I’ve used in Wellington Sewing Services so decided to save myself the trouble.

Weekend project

Here it is. Imitation bone buttons from Wellington Sewing Services in Kilbirnie. In my opinion they have the best range of haberdashery in Wellington, and the ladies are lovely and helpful.

Now all I need is for it to rain. Apart from the odd minute of drizzle here and there, it hasn’t rained in Wellington for more than 3 months. My yard is straw-coloured, with patches of bare earth, but I've had a bumper crop of tomatoes!

Shopping during a power outage

I received an invitation to a clothing sale at Dress for Success - the wonderful charity that gifts work-appropriate clothing to women on low incomes re-entering the workforce. They occasionally have an invite-only sale of the donated garments that aren’t really corporate enough - which usually means there’s some terrific vintage bargains to be found amongst the racks.

Because of the power cut, I only had enough cash on me to buy one garment - this gorgeous green 70’s raincoat. I’m going to shorten it about 20cm to just below the knee, and use the off-cuts to make fake cuffs for the sleeves (they’re ridiculously short - about 5cm above my wrist). And find 4 matching buttons. Hopefully, a weekend project.

Oh, the top underneath is another project that should be finished this weekend - patience, my darlings. More about this to come...

Biography of my skin

When we bought our house, several luxuries got the chop, going to the theatre being one of them. Fortunately, I have friends working in the industry who occasionally flick me a free ticket.

So last week I was given tickets to “Biography of my skin”.

Not being a fan of Miranda Harcourt (directly related to the “arch-manipulator” - Gemma - she play on the 80’s show “Gloss”) I was preparing not to like the show, but I loved it. Very touching, simply told, a fantastic performance (there were tears in my eyes at the end).

A terrific New Zealand tale, well worth seeing.