Alter It August

*I normally do a big crafty post all together with my Yarn Along, but I ended up with so much sewing stuff that I thought I better split the posts in two.  You can find my Yarn Along post (with current knitting/reading here).

~sewing~

I rescued a Washi maxi I made in the late spring that I thought I hated (and never blogged--it went right back into my sewing bin for future cutting down).  I don't love it, but it is proving a useful late summer wardrobe addition.  The fabric is a mystery cotton I got on an instagram sale.  I made Birdie a little blouse out of the leftovers and could probably make her a skirt as well.

Another rescue from the bin was my Gzhel skirt from last year.  I didn't alter it at all (although I considered shortening it several times, left it in the end).

 But! I have worn it a few times in the last two weeks, so I think that's another good late summer addition!

 In the spirit of Alter It August, I also altered two dresses from last year that have been languishing.  (I found Mia's Instagram last August through this challenge--I highly recommend following her.  She is a total delight, and a Minnesotan to boot!)

Anyway, my Magic Tulips dress just didn't fit great in the arms, and it has never been the right weather to wear it--it is too thin for cool weather and the long sleeves and longer length made it too hot to wear in the summer. 

I cut off the sleeves using my Washi bodice as a guide and cut little caps out of the cut off bits with the Washi sleeve pattern.  The original sleeves were pieced, and I didn't have enough to cut them on the fold, so I used the seam line instead.  I think the print hides the piecing and the seam line is hidden on the underside of the sleeve, so I think it isn't noticeable.  

I also shortened the dress by 2.5" and Bob's your uncle.  Well, not quite.  I did a sort of slapdash job on my first pass (this is why I can't do this kind of work around my kids) and then went back the next day to fix it, adding in some small darts just above the bust to control some excess fabric that was flopping around there (remember that the original bodice on this dress was the M7353, which is designed for knits, but I modified it for wovens, but it was very unfitted as a result).  

I'm much happier with it and will wear it during these dog days of August.  It also feels like a dress a woman my age would wear (I turned 40 last month).  I struggle a lot with feeling like my clothes are either too "young" or too "old."  This one kind of hits the right spot in the middle.  I hope.

Likewise, my blue check linen dress was in my sewing bin to be cut down into something else.

In an effort to make the dress work for me for this summer, I had tried shortening it 3" sometime in the late spring, but it still just didn't suit my aesthetic, and I didn't feel good wearing the dress.  So into the bin it went for further mulling.  Sometime in June, I cut the top off to make the bottom into a skirt, but couldn't work out how I wanted to do it, and left it sit. 

After the Magic Tulips dress worked out so well, I went ahead and unpicked everything and put the dress back together and lopped off the sleeves and made caps from the scraps.

It was a bit of a squeeze to get the sleeves out!  But I think it is mostly wearable.  There is a bit of extra fabric at the high bust on the sides (where I put the little darts in on the Magic Tulips dress) but I think darts would look strange in the linen, so I'm just going to leave it.  The nature of linen is to be a bit unfitted and rumpled anyway.  It is thin and cool, though, which is just the thing right now.

~watching~

I caught Mary Poppins Returns on Netflix just before our trip to Greece in July, and while I thought it was cute, I didn't think it matched the original, particularly the song and dance numbers.  Emily Blunt was brilliant as Mary Poppins, but I didn't love the Bert replacement character.  I also thought at least one of the song and dance numbers was a bit questionable in terms of content.  But still.  A decent family movie.

(I will not bore you with a lot of vacation photos, but I will share three, just to give some flavor)

On Aegina, one of the Saronic Islands

On the flight to Athens, I saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and it completely blew me away.  The performances were amazing, and the story was compelling.  I put Queen on my regular playlist for the next bit.

Parthenon, obviously.  There was a lot of history here I didn't know and was pleased to learn this time.

On the return flight, I also watched Can You Ever Forgive Me, which I liked a lot more than I expected to.  Weirdly, it felt like it was of a piece with Bohemian Rhapsody.

At the Acropolis, overlooking Athens.  It was super hot.

When I got home from our trip, I caught up on Grantchester (I am enjoying Tom Brittany as the new vicar!  I loved him in season one of Outlander). 

From a Marvel costume exhibit at a local museum that the kids and I went to in April.  It was a super cool exhibition.

 I also finally caught up on all the Marvel films that comprise Phases 1-3, except Captain Marvel, thanks to a Prime Day promotion on the ones I hadn't seen yet (I confess I rewatched Thor and Avengers as well because I love them and they were in the promotion).  I enjoyed Ant-Man and Ant-Man and Wasp way more than I thought I would.  Super fun and mostly family friendly.

Also saw an indie German film that did well at one of the festivals this year called Toni Erdmann, which is a strange trip of a film (and super long!), but the last half hour or so is hilarious.

So that's it!  I am editing the manuscript like mad (I've been given a hard word count target of 80K words.  I've edited down from 113K to about 87K on the first pass or so, but still have to keep whittling.  It's picky work). 

I am going to try making a Misty Cami this week with some Rifle and Co. rayon I have in my bin (it is going to be a squeak to get it out, yardage wise) so we'll see how that works.