January weather was amazing & we spent time most of our days just hanging out & going to the beach to swim which was superb & is really all I ever want to do in summer anyway.

By the time February arrived I was well rested & ready to do some explorations into using NZ native plants for dyeing fabric & fibre.

The harakeke seed pods were at their best for harvesting for making a dye bath too & I was lucky enough to have my friend, Isla, walk me thru the process, which is very easy but it is a process which takes a few days.
Here's a link to a post on Isla's website which outlines the process we used; natural-dyeing-with-harakeke-seed-pods

In the dye bath I made from the pods I had harvested I dyed a few lengths of muka, 3xDMC cotton embroidery threads of various thickness, a 60cm square of calico, a 30cm square of cotton drill & various sized rectangles of cotton drill fabric I had cut out with a view to sewing a purl soho boxy tee.

It seems the harakeke pods are high in tannins so no surprise with the colours the cottons & cotton fabrics came out but it was lovely to see the variation in the colours of the muka fibres.

Rather than dyeing a single large piece of fabric which would have been awkward to fit in my dye pot, I pre-cut the pieces of fabric for my sewing.

What I hadn't considered was the extra shrinkage of the fabric courtesy of simmering for an hour in hot water.
I had already washed & dried the fabric BUT I do cold washes & line dry ! What a bastard trap for rookies !

I sewed up my top anyway & fortunately the pattern makes a generous size garment so the only problem area is the armhole depth which is a little too tight to be comfortable.
But I have a plan !
I think I'll open that seam, on each side, & insert a gusset just to give me a bit more space.

And now, finally, we get to the point of why I wanted to sew this particular top.
It's all about the bottom panel. Which is a separate piece.
A beautifully proportioned rectangle of fabric which lends itself to embellishment.
I was watching Sashiko Stitching taught by Lisa Solomon on Creativebug & in one part of the class she is wearing a top she has made with a sashiko embroidered bottom.

I had the fabric : I had the threads : I had the pattern I wanted to embroider & now I have a top which is the memory piece of my very 1st foray into dyeing with harakeke seed pods.

We used to sew a lot when we were kids, it was one of our school subjects in 'home ec'.
If I remember correctly it was the other half of the year opposite cooking.

​Our mother was a great sewer & our eldest sister really excelled at garment making.
Me, well I enjoyed sewing & was technically very proficient but really couldn't have given a rat's-razoo about what I was wearing so only did what I had to do to pass the assessments.
Yep, I'm one of those kids who submitted the same garment 2 years in a row to 2 different teachers.
It was nice. It was a green wrap-around skirt with a buttonhole in the waist band for the tie & top stitching . . . got A+ for it both times actually.

Anyway, for most of my adult life I have only intermittently sewn & even then not garments.
Probably as a result of being bombarded on social media by loads of beautiful creations people are making for themselves I decide I want to sew again only THIS time I want to sew garments that I know will fit me.
As much as I really want to support indie pattern designers the reality is I can't afford to buy patterns & I know I have the capabilities to learn how to draft pattens myself, for myself.

Enter Cal Patch & creativebug.
​I have been enrolled with creativebug for 2 years & have renewed for a 3rd year.
​Honestly, the classes I've been taking in the last 6 month since I renewed are worth the subscription alone.
​
Of course I've researched it to the nth degree (that's just me) & watched the classes about a gazillion times, as I did with learning the Alabama Chanin way I gathered all my supplies together & dedicated a weekend to learning how to draft a master pattern for a dress, based on MY measurements (now I actually know what being 'short-waisted' means), cut out & sewed a muslin then went on to modify the base pattern, cut out & sew a hoodie.

And I know for a fact, when I first tried the muslin on & later the hoodie, the words I uttered were
'#@*! me this really works'
​. . . then I think I probably danced around wearing them for a ridiculously long time.

Same rules apply as with everything else we learn:
you have nothing to loose
use the resources you have available, they ARE good enough
watch, listen, learn (repeat)
be patient
take your time
& whatever else measure, measure & measure again before you cut that fabric !