Relax

I'm back!

 

I had a wonderful holiday week and lots of awesome meetings with so many nice people in Australia. I'm so glad that I decided that I'd go. Nice weather, beautiful places, interesting exhibitions, fantastic foods, and of course, awesome people! Now being home and sitting in front of my MacBook to write something on my latest creations, I just don't know how to start, I feel as if I'm still in the dream. It was that great. I am greatly thankful to everyone I met on my trip, for their kind friendship and help, and I wish that they know that I believe they made my little adventure an unforgettable experience!!

with Carolyn, and a very cute furry boy

 As for self made garments, I had brought three new handmade clothes (and wee plus) with me for this holiday and managed to take proper photos of only one of them, which is this white pullover with contrasting sleeves. The pattern for the pullover is Relax, so is the title of this post. I casually loved the name "Relax" and thought it would be fun to bring it to my holiday to get more relaxation. However, it took me nearly a month to finish this pullover and I have to say, it was tough. It seemed forever (for me, because I'm tortoise) but it could end just in time. That muttered, I think that the result turned out pretty lovely. I think it's clever pattern too! If you are interested in the pattern, please find my Ravelry project page for more info and photos.

When I was staying with Carolyn in Perth, I asked her for some photographs and she was super kind to give me these beautiful shots on the beach. I even had my handmade bathing suit photo session after the pullover session, because the place was seriously beautiful and I felt I had to try harder. Thank you so much, Carolyn, for being a great photographer, an encouraging friend, and above all else, a very good friend.

I totally made up this retro kind of bathing suit by tracing my old suit ;)

Other than the pullover, I had a new tunic blouse and a new dress in my baggage too. I didn't have any chance to use the tunic during this holiday, so I'd leave it for the next summer as a new garment without any words here. That seems totally OK. On the other hand, I had a mini-disaster with the dress, I regret to say!

I sewed a Nicola dress from Victory Patterns using a light blue cotton/silk fabric with flowery print for this holiday. Because I had been interested in their patterns for some time and also because I knew that Kristiann was going to join one of the meet-ups that were organized by Tj in Melbourne (a big thank-you to Tj and Maria, I cannot survive this world without you!), I thought it was the time for me to try one from their range. And I did. I purchased Nicola, chose size6, used 1.5m of wide fabric, made narrow shoulder adjustment, closed the front wrap and installed a long zipper on the left side, really loved the result, and could wear it when Kristiann was there. However, I couldn't ask anybody to take its proper photographs for my blogging. The reason I was not ready for taking pictures of it was I had an ironing crisis the night before. I was going to iron the dress, which was vacuum packed in a travel pack and much wrinkled, the day before in our hotel room, but I just found out the iron they had was the most despiteful thing I had ever seen in this world. And, oh, the ironing board. That was similarly evil. The iron and ironing board couple tried very hard to mess my pretty dress even worse, and I totally had to give up everything about nice presentation of the dress. How sad. I'll press it neatly and present it here soon, as I think it is a pretty dress and some of you might be interested in other's make, so I promise. Until then, please help me to pretend that the dress is still in the pipeline and hasn't been finished quite yet! Well, I know you're really kind!!

Please visit Tj's photo essay on "The Perfect Nose" if you'd like to have a look at some photographs from the meet-ups! You might find my dress in the pipeline in the blog post...

Take care everyone!

Love,
yoshimi