Elephant Dress no#3 & 4 & 5?

When I spotted this elephant fabric I knew I needed some.

Elephant Plans

You see, when I was about 19 or so I made a favourite elephant dress out of some lovely soft rayon. Which I wore until it was well past its best. It was white elephants on black background – the sketch is a rough approximation of the design. At Spotlight’s 40%-off sale I saw the white on navy first, then the blue on cream cotton. Also there was a cream on pink on the mountain of stuff waiting to be put away near the counter. I was feeling restrained so only the navy was carted about the store while I made some other selections. While standing in the queue (for about 7 years, I think) my enabler dear friend J agreed that the pink was a good idea (building on a past New Year’s Resolution to “wear more pink”), so I went off to get that. Her visit to the “waiting to be put away mountain of bolts” netted a polar fleece with rabbits printed on it to make a throw rug for her sister. After finally making it to a counter and paying for my treasures, I realised that it would be sensible to also get some blue, just in case. After all, how often have I seen elephant fabric in the intervening years?

Over dinner with my parents I mentioned the excitement of finding fabric to replicate the elephant dress of my late teens and early twenties and Mum looked a bit bemused at my description of colour and fabric. Because, it turns out she was remembering the elephant dress as I had one when I was a lot, lot shorter, probably on a teal background she thinks. Obviously I need an elephant dress in my standard wardrobe!

Now I am well equipped for the next few years. In good company too – Karen of DidYouMakeThat made a Burda elephant top, Winnie of ScruffyBadgerTime has a pink elephant Violet and Roobedoo  made a Lisette elephant  tunic = They’ve all already been wearing their elephant adorned garments!

Lately, my aforementioned friend and fabric purchasing pusher and I have been getting together for Crafternoons to work on sewing projects. J has been working on a present for her sister, a shoulder bag with applique rabbits – a different rabbit and fabric on each side. I learnt that I pin my fabric way less thoroughly than she was taught, and she learnt that pattern tissue won’t burn if you iron it. It’s fun doing stuff together.

Rabbit Bags

 

3 thoughts on “Elephant Dress no#3 & 4 & 5?

  1. Nice fabric, kudos on the appropriate description of shopping at Spotties XP. So cool that you’ve found someone to sew (and fabric shop) with. BTW Javie’s blogged about receiving your parcel here

  2. Oh, I so need elephant fabric! I love that you are restoring an old fav- I can only lok back in horror at most of my long ago sewn dresses- I was weirdly secretarial in my choices then!

    • There’s many other garments I’ll happily leave as a fading memory! The elephant dress hailed from Uni times and before I *had* to look sensible during the work day.