Repurposed!

I always thought the linen I salvaged from a sofa slip cover would make some nice garments one day. ‘One day’ took a decade or two, but fortunately linen only gets better with age. So here is what I made out of one of the cushion covers, after a little judicious block printing (sofa cushions tend to pick up stains).

The pattern was another version of the Tessuti Mandy, shortened to high hip level and minus the sleeves. For this I needed two pieces 75x55cm for front and back, and a couple of small pieces for the cuffs I added where the sleeves would have joined. I made them 15cm wide and folded them double. This makes a terrific summer top, even if I say so myself, it was absolutely free and repurposing makes me feel virtuous. What’s not to like? 🙂

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Wedding Guest

My niece was married a couple of weeks ago and it was such a happy occasion! You could tell that the brides had been planning this event for years and had put a lot of thought into the service. Not a dry eye in the house! Each wore the wedding dress of their dreams (not the same, that would have been weird), but both traditional long and white, one featuring lace and the other beading.

It was a daytime mid week summer wedding, so quite informal, and a hot day. I have quite a lot of dresses I could have worn, but at the last minute I decided to use a beautiful cotton/silk print I have been sitting on for years waiting for the right occasion. It had arrived!

It is the sort of fabric that wants to do all the talking, so a very simple style without too many seams to interrupt the design was in order. I used my trusty TNT, the Tessuti Lily Linen dress, hybridised with the armscyes and short sleeves from the Tessuti Eva, another trusty TNT.. The sewing took next to no time, including the cutting out and some frog stitching after a brain blip when I attempted to attach the bias binding for the neck to the hem. 🙂

I thought seriously about ballooning the hem by attaching it to a cotton slip, and possibly twisting it a bit, but work has been very busy lately, and time and energy are at a premium right now. So I folded back the hem at the sides by about 15cm to add some interest to the hem. Flat sandals with bling, a straw hat and a baroque pearl necklace completed the outfit. I felt very comfortable and stylish.