Who wears X to an X?!?

I am the first to admit I am not a fashion plate. I have no desire to BE a fashion plate. If you are remembering me for my clothes, I am not worth remembering. Having said that, if you are remembered for the WRONG reasons by virtue of what you wear, that just makes ya SHALLOW. But…maybe that’s what you are. 

Went to a wedding over the weekend. The small civil ceremony and meal afterwards were held at an elegant country hotel. Quite a few people were properly dressed: men in kilts or summer suits, women in dresses ranging from simple sheaths to flowery summer frocks. The sister of the groom, who I remember as a mousey little thing at my own wedding, looked stunning in a seriously classy, understated way. The groom beamed so much during the day I’d have allowed him jeans and a T-shirt. (Grooms seldom look so happy throughout to whole day and this one did). Shame about the bride’s too-long dress which hampered her walk down the hall to the room where the short service took place.

I changed my mind and wore a solid plum dress, the sleeves of which I removed to make it more summery, with one of my Jim Thompson silk scarves from Bangkok. Naturally I still wore my HK biggies (see my previous post) with the big pearl studs that J gave me. Luckily it was a brighter purple than the deep aubergine that the bridesmaids found themselves stuffed into. (There are plenty of flattering dresses out there for women of a more ample size. These were not them).

Here’s how I figure it. The men who didn’t wear kilts didn’t have them or didn’t care to hire them so wore suits. The ones who simply wore shirts and trousers didn’t care enough about the event to dress respectfully. (One did wear a tie, which simply looks foolish without a suit). The woman who wore a skin-tight hooker dress…in WHITE…I can’t even get to where I might think about why she wore that.

WHO. WEARS. WHITE. TO. A. WEDDING?

Help me out. ‘But I only have one nice dress and it is white’. Two words: machine dye. Or wear a jacket over it. Or a big pashmina. Sew on some appliqués. Get someone to do it for you. Take ‘em off later. Borrow a dress. It ain’t your day. You are detracting from the bride. I don’t care if it is her third or fourth time out or she’s been shacking up with the groom for a decade or her children with said groom are in the wedding party. There are some things that you do not do.

A few of the older women there were just spitting. I suggested that one of them could go up to this tart (and that’s what you look like when you go to a wedding in a skin tight, leave nothing to the imagination, better darn well not drop anything in case you have to bend over to pick it up WHITE dress) and ask if she always wears white to a wedding or was it just this particular bride she wanted to insult. I made several new friends with that comment I tell you.

Oi. When Himself gets back from his latest travels (I want to say Denmark) I’ll take a picture of the plum dress refashion, which was really just a sleeve removal and facing making. It was a good call: the flower dress shown in the previous post is nice and all, but just a touch too casual.

In the meantime I have some paid work. I decided the way to get round my dilemma of doing paid work would be by swapping for my skills (a practice that also applies to my pearl jewellery ‘business’) based on the hours taken for a particular project. Rebuilding a skirt waistline was done for a bottle of a very good Barossa shiraz. The two trousers hems today were negotiated for a bottle of a Marlborough sauvignon blanc of which Himself is quite fond.

I can think about what to do with this as well:

In a reverse link, I talk about this over on Refashion Co-op in order to enlist the help of my fellow refashioners by picking thier brains. The usual way of a joint blog such as RC is to post a few details and pix there then leave the main story to your own blog so you do not hog up space. I’m just feeling a bit wicked today.

Like a GUEST who WEARS WHITE TO A WEDDING.

Look at me, look at me, look at MEEEEE. That’s got to be what it is.

No putting it off

You think I am talking about the fish bag, aren’t you? Not done yet. I have made the back though:

The zip is topstitched on. I’ve had to do too much ‘perfect’ sewing these days between commissions and alterations (yes, I know I said I don’t do that anymore but I have found a way to  get round it in my head: a post on that is to come) so something in the other direction seemed called for on this long-running project.

It isn’t that I don’t WANT to finish the bag, I’ve just have other things to do first. There’s the garden of course, which is feeding us lettuce, zucchini, strawberries and (in another day or two) blueberries, then I had to build up some pearl stock due to so many people asking about what I had for sale these days , then I got a few commissions (one of which I swapped for house work), which then led to more sales of the stock, which is why I need to get back to pearling once I sort out what to wear for this wedding. Let’s hear it for another weekend of golf competitions both days. They do help me get caught up.

There are few truths in this world. Of one I am certain: just as the majority of men look good (or at least better) in a dinner suit (and like thugs and low-lifes in tammies), most men look FABULOUS in a kilt.

Himself wears his but once or twice a year now. I joke that it takes him longer to get dressed for formal things than it does me (then again, I build foundations into my gowns and don’t wear make up so I’ve got plenty of time to help him with all the many bits he needs to get into). The wedding is at 3PM so technically too early for this jacket and vest but it is what he has at present. When we go to Hong Kong next summer we can go to his tailor and get a more appropriate jacket made for day wear. I’ll go shopping at the pearl wholesalers while he does that.

There was no question that I was going to buy anything new for this thing. Frankly, we are spending far more on this event than we should. As the only child of two only children, Himself has a tiny family.  A cousin of his mother married a cousin of his father and they had two kids, who are therefore his only cousins, and it is the older who is tying the knot. We have not seen the groom in perhaps ten years and never met the bride. The couple asked for money (which is beyoooond tacky), we have to spend the night at the hotel where the wedding is taking place and you’ve heard me before on the price (85% tax) of petrol in this country. Did I also mention that we are driving up and back and staying in the same hotel as Himself’s parents? This whole event falls under the better or worse clause. If I were a petty, modern feminist sort of wife I would say that Himself owes me. Good thing for him I’m not, eh?

After checking the weather for this coming Saturday three hours to the north of us, I decided to go with this dress

which is a restyle of a dress I made about 20 years ago. See here for the story. 

It is, however, backless and I do not show my ink in such settings so I chose this old cardigan to go with it.

On a recent Refashion Co-op post, you’ll find a very easy and fast way to spiff up a T or tank or sweater. I need to go grab that link for you but it isn’t that long posted so will be easy enough to find!

For my fabric circles I used one of the old muslin curtains I’d made for the conservatory windows when we headed off on the assignment. My little makeshift curtains were replaced with custom built-in venetian blinds with part of the ‘settling back in payment’ — which should not be in any way considered a bonus ’cause we don’t use that word anymore — and have been sitting around looking for a purpose.

 

I like these flowers better when the folds are offset.

But…I was not liking the look as much as I thought I would.

Spread thin these flowers are too flat and bitty. Bunched up they were going toward a clown collar look. They were also making the buttons pop more than I liked, so I took a break and change the buttons to pale blue.

While I was fussing with the flowers, I though ‘I’ll wear my big, fabulous Hong Kong pearls’. You could wear a sack with those and nobody would notice anything but the pearls. Just as Himself only gets to wear his kilt every so often, I am no longer in many situations that require BIG pearls. J (she who taught me to string, knot and chose pearls, for which she has my eternal gratitude) always says there is NO outfit that you can wear that does not benefit from some sort of pearls.

Those little fabric circle flowers are going to detract big time from the pearls, so this refashion (after an hour or so that COULD have been allotted to the fish bag!) amounts to a change in buttons. I’ll save the wee circle flowers for something else.

Take one

linen blend tablecloth dyed lavender grey (I know it was pre-HK so four and a half years ago at least) to handle some age spots

 (you’ll have to imagine this as I did not take a picture of it before starting to cut)

and a pattern picked up on sale last trip across the pond;

add a little improvised neck embellishment (sewn onto a pin to make it easily removable)

and there you go. I am in harvesting mode vs. refashioning mode these days so have a few thoughts about how to use Himself’s lovely Thomas Pink shirts with this pattern.

I do like that lower edge.