All Buttoned Up

Bonus Outfit ...

After all your helpful comments and messages about my dyeing experiments, I ended up playing it safe and dyed my skirt in a great big pot of darjeeling tea. 

A few of you mentioned that the beautiful blue of the red cabbage would fade to grey and that the onions would also wash out quickly, and apparently, the beetroot would have turned out red if I'd added some vinegar to my pot. Anyway, tea it is, and other than a couple of splotches where some marks on the fabric took the dye more strongly (and I'm hoping they fade with time and washing), it looks okay.

At first I thought I'd use some wooden buttons down the front, but these green buttons leapt out at me when I opened my button box. I can't remember where I picked them up, but they look old and worn and rather fabulous. Unfortunately it meant some fiddling about with the button holes to make them larger ... and I didn't do the neatest of jobs with that, but I think my shoddy work is mostly hidden behind the buttons, so we'll pretend it never happened and move on.

Bonus Outfit ...

The change of buttons also meant that my plans for a blue top were scarpered. Really, that is no bad thing, because knitting the blue top is dependant on me finishing writing up my new pattern ... and that is taking far too long for my liking. I'm feeling a little cross that I haven't had a new outfit to show you for absolutely ages and sewing a top is much, much quicker. Plus, I found this rather funky Liberty print in my fabric stash and it's just perfect.

So far, I've managed to cut out the pieces for a tank top based on a pattern that I bought nearly 20 years ago ... I'm going to do my very best to sew it together over the next few days and show it to you next week.

I'm also going to do my very best to make another skirt so that I can finish poor old outfit 5. To be honest, I'm dithering about which pattern to use and there is a real possibility it might turn out a little different to my initial plan. We'll see.

Imagine if I had TWO Outfits to show you next week?! Fingers crossed X