It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a....

...feedsack!  Blouse, that is.  I worked on this blouse in fits and starts over about two weeks' time, and finished it before the Labor Day weekend, but wanted to wait for cooler weather to wear it.  As the heat and humidity seems never-ending, and I am thoroughly sick of all my summer clothes, I decided to wear it today.  It is actually pretty light-weight, but I was hoping to wear it with my navy blue twill skirt but it is still too hot for that. 

So I put it with my navy summer-weight poplin skirt from eshakti (mine isn't available anymore, but the linked skirt is similar).  This skirt has been a wonderful summer addition to my wardrobe, but I've bloated out around my middle a bit this summer, and it doesn't fit as well as it could.  Plus the waistband isn't interfaced (a standard thing with eshakti skirts, I've found), so it wants to fold down in the middle.  It is hard to see on the photos, but it has a button tab feature on the waist band that is a neat looking feature, but it means I can't put a belt over it.  

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to get the whole blouse out of the feedsack length I had, and that I would have to do a contrast back or facing, but in the end, with a little creative fabric piecing, I got the whole blouse out of it!

I had to piece a 1" strip of fabric to the bottom of the back bodice piece, which doesn't show when tucked in, and in any case, the print is so busy that it doesn't show much anyway, and I had to piece a small section of the bottom of the front facing.  I pieced the back facing, but that was because of a lame cutting error on my part.  Still, it all worked out in the end!  

And right now my mother is reading this and thinking that my hands look like my dad's side of the family.  It's a strong genetic inheritance, what can I say?  (Also: I happen to like the shape of my hands very much)

Let's talk buttons for a minute.  I bought these vintage buttons (I'd guess 1940s by the card they were on) from an etsy seller sometime in the spring without a specific project in mind.  I wasn't sure they would go with this fabric, but when I started holding up buttons against it, they were the ones that coordinated the best!  I'm really quite pleased with how it looks.  They aren't quite navy, but somehow the shade works.

The detail on them in lovely, and they have a nice solid plastic feel to them.

Changing up my backdrop.  I think I've said before that this is my sartorial ideal for separates: print kimono sleeve blouse with solid a-line skirt and interesting shoes.  

And I know I rarely wear my glasses on the blog, but I've worn glasses most of my life!  Bifocals since age 7--old-age eyes.  I got my frames from Zenni Optical last summer and with the progressive lenses and a sunglasses clip, the total was still under $50--a real deal.  I had a lot of retained water on my eyes from the pregnancy last year, so the prescription seemed funny to me until recently and I've not worn them much, but I'm noticing that I'm squinting a lot and have a lot of eye fatigue, so I'm going to make more of an effort to wear them.

My friend Claire found this book at a yard sale and bought it for me.  It is dated 1943 and it has great illustrations, tons of tips, and lots of ideas.  She's the best.