Impromptu Meetups

In a little summer dress.

This post has been sitting around in draft mode for weeks– this week is O-week at Uni and I will be teaching practs every day of the week this semester (yay for not being an unemployed loser, boo for not having found a real job yet). I met up (in real life) with two sewing bloggers recently: Jenny (I decided it would be more fun to pass her the Simplicity Sewing Book she’d won than mailing it-luckily she agreed) and Emily (we talked about meeting up ages ago but never actually got around to doing it).

Tiny side-seam pockets of lazy drafting (I don’t use these because I wear the dress belted at the low waist. See below).

As usual, I don’t have any pictures of the actual meetups (despite carrying a camera with me on at least one occasion) so the reminiscing will be mostly textual: Emily and I spent Saturday morning t*tting around The Fabric Store (I bought fabric for other people sewing and lining from the remnant bin, because I line everything) and then headed to the Little Creatures Dining Hall for lunch. We then trammed across the city to the NGV International for the Ballet in Fashion exhibit (it’s free-go check it out!) which we somehow managed to miss half of (we missed the half with the Ralph Rucci and Victor and Rolf costumes goshdurnitt!) before crashing in their Tea Room (they do high teas avec petit-fours et al.) for some much needed refreshment. I wore my Japonism dress which, by the way I have gotten a lot of use out of, this summer.

Jenny and I met up the following Thursday (Happy VD! harhar. To everyone that celebrates it: yaay best day eva! How romantic etc. To everyone that doesn’t: Verily, Love should be demonstrated every day not just one day a year, yadayada) at the Royal Arcade on Bourke Street Mall and hung out at the Koko Black cafe there free entertainment provided by various dramatastic V-day couples surrounding us (and having unreal interactions with the cafe staff). Jenny is a pâtissière and brought (crustless, yay) marbled cheese cake. Much fun was had by all (Jenny’s version here).

I off-set the panel print at the back so the bouquet wasn’t erupting out of my nether regions..

I then met Carl for dinner at The Toff followed by the Sarah Blasko concert (with Orchestra Victoria) at the Melbourne Arts Centre (canned version of her Sydney Opera House concert from the week after, here).

Pattern: Patrones Plena Temporada Primavera, No 313, Dress 7.

Fabric: Viscose blend panel print (from 3 years ago, back when I still bought the occasional item at Spotlight) fully lined with cotton voile.

Modifications: Shortened 2 cm at waist, omitted the elastic at back, narrow hemmed outer fabric and lining together.

Comments: Beaded belt bought years ago in the Chatuchak night market Bangkok. Hat, Gregory Ladner Australia (from David Jones 5 years ago).

Patrones 313 is a pretty cool issue with a couple of things in it that I’d like to make at some point: the beige belted shirt dress, the short black shirt dress and probably one or more of the evening wear dresses too (marked with asterisks).

Click to enlarge

Reviewed here by curiouskiwi.

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