Long-Awaited Project (By Me, At Least)
Ages ago, I won a copy of Weekend Sewing off a blog contest. I gleefully set about preparing my first book review for this blog, noting down thoughts in a Word file, photographing pages, and setting to make a project (because, after all, how can you properly evaluate a craft book without putting its instructional capabilities to the test?). One pair of PJ pants later, I was about a fourth of the way through editing the photos when boom! My computer not only crashed, but died its final death.
Oops.
Ages ago, I walked across Tanzania. It was wonderful and hard and painful and somewhere along the line, I picked up some fabric. Upon returning (and shortly after my long-dreamed-of CB & Potts hamburger; first things first after all), I unpacked and stashed my fabric away and for the most part didn't touch it again.
Two issues stood in my way: one, after spending so much time working on a review for Weekend Sewing only to have my computer melt, I continued to harbor some totally undeserved collateral bitterness at the thought of writing about the book (this tells you how attached I am to my computer). Two, there's something about a cut of fabric being one of my few souvenirs of a giant adventure that makes me very, very hesitant to cut into (and possibly ruin) it. You'll be happy to know that I have a policy against letting issues stand in my way, and both Weekend Sewing and my Tanzanian fabric stash have collided!
Ta dah! My Stanley Livingstone Expedition This-Would-Have-Been-Handy-In-Dar Yard Sale Wrap Skirt:
And the back, that too:
It's much higher waisted that what I usually wear, but it works beautifully, giving an almost swing-dress silhouette. Frankly, I love it, and I can't wait to pack it back to Tanzania some day.
If there's one thing I kick myself about re: Tanzania, it's not buying more fabric. Granted, fabric is mostly what I bought: I have this, a wool blend shuka in classic Masai red-purple plaid, and even a third bit which I haven't quite worked into my wardrobe yet. But there was so much beautiful fabric I passed over.
...this time.