Happy Sewing Bunny

After a couple of rubbish attempts to make a black top, I have finished it. And worn it. Twice. Without washing in between, either. Nice, huh?

The Smug Cake I am holding on this occasion is one that has a carefully
crafted portrait of my husband on it (in case that wasn't immediately obvious!)

So, after the total disaster with the Sorbetto, I opted for another Lisette 2211, but with my new favourite addition of a Peter Pan collar edged with ric rac. Love the stuff. This time I went for pink, and I must say I am happy with the look of it against the black top. I think it gives just about the right amount of definition and interest - even if it did take me a bit longer than I'd have liked to get an even amount of pink peeping out from the collar. Ric rac is most definitely one of my new favourite things!

I'd been waiting for a black top to go with this skirt, which I finished AGES ago and still hadn't worn. And then, having finished a top, the skirt just didn't look right. It needed something to make it a bit more black, and tie into the top. So I used the leftover scraps from the top to add a band to the bottom of the skirt. And now, I really like it - hooray!

The black lawn cotton was only £7.99 for a metre from Singers, and so, including trims and thread, I got myself a top for under a tenner. It feels nice and airy - just right for the current heat wave we're experiencing. And the skirt only used the remains of half a metre I'd bought for a purse - admittedly of expensive Japanese linen (at £16 a metre), but still not bad, and buttons and zip taken into account, still came in for under a tenner (just).

These two items of clothing are evidence if ever it was needed of why I could never make money out of making clothes. Don't get me wrong - I have LOVED the process of creating them, and will enjoy wearing them lots now they are finished. But it took me ages to reach a point where I was happy with it and felt like it was finished. Much tinkering had to be done before I liked the finished result.

Retro Bobble Purse

And happily, now I've finished the top and skirt, I was able to fish out the matching purse that had been waiting to be used (this was the reason I bought the lovely Kokka fabric in the first place - the skirt was never part of the plan, but rather, just something I randomly decided to make because I had just about enough scraps left over to make it).

All in all, I am a happy sewing bunny this week. But here are a couple of shots of the wrong side to right side stitching disasters of last week - lest I get too ahead of myself...