The stark beauty of the rugged landscape of a lava field in Hawaii Volcano National Park.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

My friend's birthday is the 14th

As you read in my previous post, my birthday was on August 12th.  Well, my friend who I've known the longest, her birthday is August 14th.  We're born on the same year (that remains private info) and I'm always 2 days older than she.
For her present this year I decided to sew a dress for her using a vintage hawaiian fabric popular in the late 50's and early 60's.  A drawstring top type sundress.  I chose to use a commercial pattern instead of drafting - how difficult is that.  Well, as it turned out, this commercial pattern wasn't completely trued and I was frustrated at different points of my sewing.  However, I managed to finish the dress in 3 hours, not quite the 1 hour that it claimed.  Funny thing is, a friend of mine said recently that she used a commercial pattern and some of the seams and buttonholes/button placements didn't match up.  Now, I experienced almost the same thing.  Also, the fabrics from that time period seems to have a larger weave and not as tightly woven.  Lot's of fraying and shifting.  But I got it done.  Here's a few photographs to share with you.
A really old roll of rayon bias that I used for the drawstring


An up-close shot

A blurry full shot of the dress (it was windy)

I don't know why I started doing sideways labeling, but now it's my trademark

strewn on the picnic table


I saw this laua'e fern growing along the moss in the cement tile wall

crooked red ginger flower

pink and red impatients

I hope my friend reads this post after I give her birthday present to her.  We're meeting up Sunday the 21st.
Think she will enjoy wearing this dress and will look cute with a denim jacket or vest.  What do you think?
I'll let you know!

Love and Aloha,
Lei

2 comments:

Emma said...

I think she will love it! I just started making my own dresses from patterns and I love the way mine turned out! I would love to see a post with tips for making your own dresses!
Love the blog!
Love
Emma
www.fashandfrost.blogspot.com

Kariyah said...

Lovely dress! What fabulous fabric!! Great gift!

http://kariyah.blogspot.com/