Dresses and Changing up My Style

 I class my clothing style as eclectic.  I like to wear jeans or leggings with tee shirts as well as wrap around skirts in sari silks or fitted 50's style dresses or straight knee length skirts.  If you were to go through my wardrobe you would find all styles if clothing in all sorts of colours.  About the only thing I don't have is button up shirts.  For months now I have been scouring the rabbit hole that is Pinterest and have been enamoured of clothing by Ivey Abitz as well as regency style dresses. 

I like the layered look of Ivey. It is loose and flowy yet fitted at the same time.  As a post menopausal woman with a thickening waist (ugh!) I feel it is a style that would suit me.  The OBI style belts give a bit of waist definition; the skirts and dresses seem to have room to move and be comfortable; the jackets and coats offer that extra layer of style and should be able to be quickly removed when the need arises.

Regency style is, to me at least, similar to Ivey Abitz style just with a higher point from which the skirt falls from.

I have recently purchased some fabric and a commercial pattern online (waiting waiting waiting) to make myself 2 regency dresses and a short jacket (called a spencer).  One of the fabrics is a plain purple poplin and the other is small floral print that should also be in purple tones.  The jacket fabric is a fleece in purple.  I am going to line the skirts of both dresses with a fine satin as well as the whole jacket. One of the dresses I will do as long sleeves - it's still winter here and I would like to wear it soon.

I already have some fabric to doctor up some Ivey styled clothing - I can't afford her stuff and she is on the other side of the world to me. I have numerous pdf patterns that I think will work for this - I think I just need to stop procrastinating and pick one and go for it.

Being Green

Warning ***** Possible Ick Factor Post *****


When I got dressed this morning I noticed that I was down to 2 panty liners. Drat, I knew there was something else I wanted to put on my shopping note!

For some time now I have been thinking of making re-usable panty liners. They make sense to me on an environmental point as well as a money point. The ones I have been buying have changed over recent years (or maybe my body has changed) and don't seem to hold together as well as they used to.

I had also thought of adding a couple of layers to all of my underwear instead.  That seems like a lot of work. Note that I am talking about liners - not menstrual pads as I don't need those anymore.

A quick search of the internet and I found a lot of people have tutorials on how to make these things. I had a look at some of them and decided to follow instructions from It's Not Easy To Be Green.
Hers seem to be most nice looking, professionally made item. Some of the others just cut out the shapes required and zigzagged or overlocked the pieces together. I found 1 where there was a pocket so you could add extra absorbent layers, great idea, but the open part was against your body and I wonder how that would feel. but as I said, I don't need that much absorbed.

So I went and bought some polar fleece and some soft cotton flannelette and started cutting.  I decided I would only need one layer of each of the fabrics.  I made 2 to start with, cut to the pattern size, and just zigzagged the edges of the 2 layers together.  The cutting was the hardest part - going around the curves.  I had purchased some plastic snaps and used those to hold these things to my knickers.  They work for their intended purpose but I felt they were a bit narrow.

A couple of days later I widened the pattern a bit and made more.  These I feel are much better.  I stuffed up 3 when putting the snaps on - 1 part of the snap was caught in the application tool and now the snap doesn't really hold on one liner. The other 2 I put the snap on the wrong flap.  I still wear these ones though. They wash up well and even go through the dryer.

On Refection:  After using these for a few months now I think they are ok. They do slide back during the day so I will either add an extension to one end or make more. I am surprised how I don't really notice them like I thought I would. That may be because I wear pants a lot and maybe I will notice them when I wear a dress.  Only time will tell.

If you are on the fence about this sort of product, don't be. Jump in and get yourself some.