Poetry and Clothing Project: April

In my post last week I introduced my new project, the 'Poetry & Clothing' project, in which I plan to make my lovely friend Harriet at least one garment each month for a year. Thanks to those of you who left a nice comment about it. When I explained to Harriet about the project, I asked her to have a think about any gaps she may have in her wardrobe that I could hopefully help to fill.

Off the top of her head she came up with (in her words):

- plain but cute things!
- narrow plain high waisted skirt (PLEAAAAASE!) any colour
- feminine vintage blouse 40's 50's style or anything you like (ruffles, puffs, whatevs!) totes trust your styling
- round neck t-shirts (striped or plain, long or short sleeved)
- nicely fitted sexy dress (always thinking of that beautiful coral one you made for your cousin's wedding)
- anything and everything high waisted
- absolutely anything with a peter pan collar

So there's my brief. I'll try and tick as many of those criteria as possible before the year is out. It's no secret that I'm pretty committed to trying to live as sustainably as I can (without living in a tepee ;-)). Harriet's definately on the same page as me when it comes to such issues, so even though sending her packages via the post clearly isn't devoid of environmental impact, I will be making all the garments for this project from second hand/unwanted fabric and existing garments. These days, my main source for second hand fabric and garments is the donated stuff we get at work that my boss feels isn't appropriate for our range. The bummer is that very rarely do we receive solid coloured fabric, or at least a colour that doesn't make your feel sick in a quality of fabric that you'd actually like to wear. I'm going to have to dig deep in my stash, think creatively and pray to the gods of donated fabric so I can create Harriet some much needed plain garments.

Anyways, time to 'play catchup' and document what was sent in the first package of this project which was April's. Denim high-waisted shorts! I know for a fact that Harriet has a serious weakness for such things, so I thought that would be a solid place to start.

I used some lovely, soft broken twill denim that I'd had lurking in my stash for years (the other half of which I used for this skirt) and wanted to get busted. The pattern is the high-waisted shorts pattern I developed for work, first shown here. I've since made myself a plain denim pair a while ago also, but haven't got round to blogging them yet (slack!). I had to squeeze the pieces out from the fabric for Harriet's pair, so they didn't end up quite as high-waisted as the original pattern, but I think the end result are more wearable that way.

I was also tempted to add buttons or some sort of tab detail but decided to keep them plain for maximum outfit adaptability! Inside I added one of my little 'Electric Pussycat' labels, which I usually reserve for my bag making escapades, but I had them to hand and I love how much more special garments tend to look with a little label attached.

The second garment that squirrelled itself into April's package is a jersey top that was the result of some lunchtime experimentation. A vague garment idea that had been floating about in my head and I wanted to see how this teal stretchy stuff from my stash behaved when made into a garment. I love the look of the final outcome, but the fit was a bit wierd on my figure, so I thought maybe it would work better for Harriet. If not, no loss, as a recent email has confirmed the denim shorts are a winner and have been worn with braces by both Harriet and Lola (Harriet's 1920's tapdancing alter ego!)!