Nevertheless, awareness of the incredible amount of stuff we have in our current flat drove me to a very feeble attempt at cleaning out one of our many cupboards. In the process, I came across this utterly amazing fabric, which had temporarily been buried under a pile of other fabrics (all of which I had totally forgotten about). My friend Liz gave it to me a few months ago in what I'm convinced can only have been a moment of temporary insanity. Ha! Well, it's MINE now! I decided right away that this needed to be used before it disappeared again in the mounds of things we own...
Before I got my greasy paws on it, this was a skirtlike thing. I say skirtlike because it was open, like a wrap skirt, but not really long enough to wrap... In addition, it also seemed designed for tall skinny people. Did I take a 'before' picture? Of course not. Which is why I spent the last three hours sifting through Liz's flickr pics to find a picture of her in it.
Anyways, it seems to be hand-printed, and of course I wanted to destroy and lose as little of the amazing artwork (monster fish, people!) as possible, so I cut it hardly at all. I removed the waistband and stitched up the open sides - this became the back seam of the dress. Then I cut two slits in the now-sides, which I shaped into shoulders and arm holes. The rest is done with darts. Finally I halved the waistband lengthways and backed it with some lace (this purely because I couldn't be arsed cutting a long straight strip of fabric, and I had lace of the right width) and stitched it to two of the side folds to tie at the back.
The material is just amazingly lovely. It's really soft, yet sturdy. I think this dress and I are going to go a long long way together. I just hope the printing actually stands up to washing...
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