Dearest Hive Friends and Needleworkers!

I’ve really missed this community, and have been keen to get back to sewing these last weeks, BUT the mess in the house, our moving things and taking care of our first cat that we brought here, and generally just figuring out how to work this set-up with our non-house in the countryside… My sewing machine took a backseat!

However, the last few days I started on a couple of new projects, and one of them completed: a major reconfiguration of a pair of glorious patchwork dungaree-shorts, which I’ve had for years, but which never sat right on me - nor on a few friends who tried them….

finished new dungarees!

They were simply a very flappy fit; the buttons were not right for the clips, the bib at the top-front was the wrong size for the back straps (so it didn’t sit flat), the length of them was very unflattering to anyone, and the hips were so open that one would have to wear conservative undergarments, if one did not wish to expose too much!

So I’d had these dungaree-shorts WIP (work in progress) sitting in a basket with another pair of ill-fitting-but-funky baggy trousers for months, and was excited to make some kind of really yummy work clothing, to solve yet another problem for our new homesteading lifestyle.

I wanted to lengthen them, change the strap attachment, shorten the back of the straps, and bring the waist in somewhat.

Off I set, cutting the bottoms (the aspect that I most liked) off the funky baggy trousers: these actions always seem extremely straightforward conceptually, but the doing of them often takes a lot longer than anticipated – and this part is bound to hold us back occasionally. But this time I was super-motivated, especially to finish some new work clothing, so I can feel more comfortable AND stylish, as I rake soil or pick nettles!!

Even if we live at the end of a track which most cars would shudder at the thought of (and so do not have any through traffic, nor walkers passing by), there is great satisfaction for me, in dressing beautifully. And these trews were more than a work garment – they can also be dressed up for evening wear ;-)

We went out for pizza one evening, and it felt really lovely to be happily and colourfully dressed in the piazza. :-D

It took me a couple of days to complete the whole new dungaree: a third pair of extremely-large-pants were also enlisted, to help lengthen the short legs of these patchwork dungarees: this involved a bit of measuring and fiddling with the large, blue pants – then a machine run over the edges to double-sew them – I think it is called a French seam: I wanted everything to be extra solid, for the hard work that we are involved in here in Molise. It is deeply satisfying to be able to make clothing that it right for a particular job.

The new length of the dungaree-shorts is perfect; I didn’t over-measure it, just laying it in front of my legs – because I thought that the puff of the legs would allow a bit of give or take for that. The seam where the shorter-shorts finished previously, I unpicked and lengthened – I still have to return to wherethat resulted in a couple of tiny wee holes! - then the width of that leg was really nice for the overall width of the new baggy legs that I wanted.

I love it when things come together well like this!

The straps equally were very simple, if they took a lot of fiddling; I removed the silly previous hardwear from the dungarees, and added in its place a kind of belt loop, but on the vertical – where the buttons were before, which had got a bit frayed by the pull (of the ill-fitting straps). The left-over scrap from where I cut the back strap shorter, was used to make these nice wee loops. Nice and simple.

And the final adjustment was the waist. It is not the most elegant tuck sequence, however needs-must and the clunkiness I thought could just be gotten away with, as it synchronises quite nicely with the rest of the style. The final result is a VERY well-fitting, longer-legged, nicely-seated-bib kind of a work/ play dungaree!! A completely unique original garment, which is also functional, comfortable and fun. Hive account@vincentnijman is particularly impressed, as he likes very much to watch me dance about in them. Heheheh!

Being so enthused with my new dungarees, and this being our ‘anniversary’ week – one full year since we first came into presence with each other!!!! - I also decided to make a pair for Vincent – but got not very far before I was missing my massive material collection back in Guardia Sanframondi.

Oopah – scusami Vincenzo! I’m looking forward to the next time we can get there, so I can pick out some epic patterned material to complete these; exciting project, two completely not matching, but symbiotic kecks!

The final dress I was working on, is one that I brought a kind of kit for, from the last house: some silk vests, an old strip of an old silk skirt, a big pink cotton shirt, and this purple part-of-a-bodice of a bigger shirt, which I’ve been looking forward to working on for some time. I often create a new garment in this way: piling together a group of older garments that somehow resonate – similar weight of fabrics, or colours and patterns that sit together so interestingly, or the forms: this time it was the purple bodice that I was excited to work on.

I used this long strip of orange silk (from a giant puffy skirt, which I’ve cut up into at least two or three other dresses!), folded into a length, to add this high ‘waistband’, then attached it with the machine – then I manipulated the big pink shirt into a kind of skirt and machined the other edge of the waistband to it – then the machine packed in on me just as I was finishing this – or rather, the powerbank took a break… But I began in the failing light last night, to handsew outside, and at least finished one of the pockets of this dress.

The pockets are actually the sleeves of the previous pink shirt, turned inside out and kind of fiddled with again, to get them to sit right for pockets (rather than sleeves!) - they were sewn with the machine into the waistband, then I was handsewing the edges when the sun set last night.

The final dress may end up have a bottom border and a contrasting strip down the middle of the front, to hide the backseam of the previous incarnation of this pink skirt (when it was a shirt). But I will not rush it, as one idea I was working on with it seems too contrived – trying to take apart an old silk vest, which I’d need to cut into several, bordered, strips to add to the lower boundary of the skirt. Either way, the dress might work nicely for popping out to the piazza for coffee/ to use the internet.