I made it all by myself!

The dress is Burda #7949 A and I used wine coloured fabric with a gold pattern that I got on Etsy. It took me ages to do, mostly because it was an exercise in patience. I made a test version out of old sheets first to make sure the sizing and length were right. Then I had to keep reminding myself no shortcuts were allowed because I had to actually wear the thing to An Event so it had to look as polished as possible. Which meant a lot of ironing and pinning and ironing and redoing and ironing. And more ironing. Does anyone actually LIKE ironing?

I also had to do a fair bit of handsewing, which I’m dreadful at, but luckily it was all on the inside of the dress, so no one will ever have to see how crap it is as long as it holds. And it seems to be doing fine. I also decided not to topstitch around the neckline and armholes, because I thought it wouldn’t look quite as classy. Especially if I didn’t do it evenly, which would be pretty likely.

If I make the pattern again, and I might if I need a simple black dress or something, I would probably modify the back to be a bit lower cut. It gapes a bit if you’re not holding yourself in a certain way. It needs to, because if it didn’t and you stretched your back out, the thing would probably rip, but I think lowering it a bit would solve the problem and it wouldn’t be too hard of a modification to make. I lengthened the pattern in three different places to accommodate my height, and it worked out really well, so now I know I can work similarly with other Burda patterns in the future. That makes me happy.

This pattern was extremely easy, aside from sewing the skirt to the top, which I had to do over about 4 times. I feel like I must have been missing a trick with that, but I did manage in the end. It’s a really flattering shape as well, so I’d recommend it in general.

My new BarelyMeasured clutch.

Everything important fits, including the camera (which I obviously had to take out to take the picture).

To accompany the dress, I had a custom BarelyMeasured clutch made by the amazing Heather. It was the perfect size for all the essentials and of course, no one else had anything like it. I got loads of compliments! I also wore my Mohops with purple and gold ribbons to match the dress, and everyone always likes those, because they’re freaking awesome (and SO comfortable).

So my first fully handmade outfit was a success. I might make a skirt next because I’ve got a bunch of corduroy. I’m building up to sewing an autumn-weight jacket, but I know it will be hard, so I need a lot more practice.

My first knitting project.

Nice and wooly.

In the meantime, I’ve also started knitting my first thing ever. It’s just a ribbed scarf, but it’s in nice, thick wool (Rowan Drift 100% Merino), and it’s going to be long and wrap-y and warm. The wool is fairly expensive, but I don’t really see the point in making something for myself if I’m not making it out of nice stuff that’s going to last ages. I’m about halfway through it, and I’m getting better at knitting while I’m doing other things, so it should be ready soon.

Tasty, tasty kiwi with a spife.

When we were in Australia and New Zealand, we renewed our love for kiwifruit (green AND gold, yum). Before we left Christchurch, we picked up a few kiwi spoons, or as I’ve discovered they’re called, spifes. Yes, spifes! Spoon+knife, obviously.

They’re nifty little tools for kiwi lovers, and we now use them all the time. Until Scott broke his (while eating a kiwi, no less). This was a sad, sad day, as we’re the sort of people to get very excited over something such as a spife. (When we discovered what I like to call the spforkn… well, we still haven’t shut up about it.)

As the spife is kind of a promotional thing for kiwis, you can’t easily buy them unless you want something unnecessarily fancy from some crazy kitchen gadget store. But we just wanted the green plastic happiness that helps us eat a kiwi. So I emailed Zespri (the kiwi people) and asked them how I could go about acquiring more of these tools.

It turns out the people at Zespri are awesome. They emailed me back almost immediately, asked me for my address, and said they’d send a few our way. I LOVE when companies have kickass customer service like that. I didn’t even buy anything from them and they were all over it (I mean, we buy kiwis all the time, but I didn’t buy anything directly from them). Plus it pretty much guarantees that I’ll talk them up for a lifetime.

So, bravo, Zespri! And thank you for the spifes. Ask and ye shall recieve indeed. They will be put to good use. Go eat some kiwifruit, everyone!