Another bi(ke)furcated slip

If I cark it tomorrow, I’ll be happy knowing that my greatest contribution to the world of sewing was the Bifurcated Slip. Especially this one, which is louder, longer and more scandalous when it shows than any of my others.

If you wear a frock and you cycle, you NEED a bifurcated slip. They also help keep you toasty warm in winter. The hot pink silk twill this one’s made from was a bargain from a Sydney Rd fabric shop a while back, and the length is just past my knees! But my poor machine did not enjoy sewing the twill. Two layers: not happy, but bearable. Three layers: pushing it, lady. Four: tell her she’s dreaming. So to get the deluxe French seams to sit flat, I had to do topstitching by hand. And while I was at it, I hemmed and bound the waist by hand. Boooooring. But a bit lovely now that it’s all done.

Melbourne is grey and dreary these days and a flash of fuschia as I pedal past bolsters spirits, methinks.

Red dress, grey top

A foul cold is doing the rounds and I am among the fallen. A day at home wallowing in my ill-health permitted construction of a wee blouse from a 1970s pattern and some strange and wonderful silk I got at The Fabric Store sale some time ago.

I bound the sleeve edges in bias tape (sleeves, schmeeves) and made it a little shorter with a curve in the lower hem.

I keep thinking that I should make fewer stunt frocks and make more practical separates but I struggle to find tops that suit me. They’re often very shapeless. This one is OK: darts and a back zipper give it some shape. I made an amateurish mistake and used too-heavy interfacing on the collar (doh! This is what happens when you deplete the stash!) so it pulls a bit on the otherwise lightweight fabric.

Several weeks back I made up a frock in a bright red seersucker from Savers… about 7 metres for $9. It’s so vivid a red that my camera lost its shit and couldn’t photograph it accurately. This shall have to do:

I took a bit out of the back shoulders to reduce the gape, added pockets and ric-racked the bejebus out of all the hems Check out the giant ric-rac action! Like a dinosaur spine!

I like this one but unfortunately the bright red and white trim takes it into Little Orphan Annie territory. Maybe I should go the perm and dye-job to really embrace the look.

Static. Or is that stagnant?

Not much doing around here for a couple of reasons. The first is because it’s flipping cold and my sewing room is unheated. Brrrr. The second is because it looks like this at present:

Right. So I need to do me some cleaning up before I can even get near the machine. And I should do so, pronto, because we’re off to the Fifties Fair later this month and I need to construct some kind of anachronistic confection. I’ve wanted to go for years but never got myself organised in time. Hard to imagine from the state of my room, eh?

In other news, I scored some lovely murky-coloured 60s silk at Camberwell Market on the weekend:

The pattern is big but the yardage is not (3m). I’m thinking skirt; any other ideas?