Kinky Orange

This is my beautiful friend who lives in the States and is right in the thick of the storms at the moment, but a two weeks ago she was here and for a big birthday (hers) we went to see Kinky Boots.
It is a terrific show... plus shoes!! This was outside in the walkway from the Lyric Theatre. Maree's favourite colour (well one of them) is orange.  She got her great boots at a sale in the States .. fantastic leather suede over knee boots... so envious!! And very fitting.

More orange. This is my new rashie outfit for aqua aerobic. Even though I hate the bands that come from wearing a rashie, I'd hate skin cancer just so much more, so rashie it is. Just for some perspective, this winter the average daily temperature was 26 degrees, with no rain and the clearest, most beautiful blue skies ever. Perfect for cultivating opportunity for skin trouble.

Back to the suit. It's made up from scraps left over from other togs I made about 18 months ago. I would have liked to have the little pictures/printed lycra on the outside on the bottoms as well, but I really didn't have enough. If you do go on the link about the other togs I made with this lycra, it tells the story of the lycra ... quite interesting, designed by a Brisbane designer (with whose husband I was in high school with). The fit is great. The pants fit really great. The legs are a great shape. I'm short waisted and the length of them is a big high for me, but I didn't shorten them because I didn't want the rashie to ride up and expose white flesh to the sun (let alone the people). I also lined the pants with plain orange lycra, but cut it in one piece by sewing up each front and back and just cutting around that.

The top is also a pretty good fit. As the depth between my shoulder and underarm (is that making sense?) is short, I will shorten the rashie there for next time. It is also quite short. I half made this up at a Brisbane Spoolette's sewing day and Amy made a suggestion to put elastic around the waist if it rides up. I thought it was a great idea, but because it was short (and check out the photo in the pattern below) I put a band around it. I tested this rashie out one session and it was really good. It folds out in that tricky spot mentioned above but doesn't really ride up so I'm happy with that.  The short sleeves were long.. I hate long short sleeves and instead of cutting the excess off, I folded it up like you do with a blind hem and overlocked around it, turing it into a band without the fuss of cutting out the bands, the excess length, pinning it up etc etc. It's such a bright set but works so I'm happy. I wear it with a sports bra and I'm going to try the Simplicity sports bra pattern soon too. So I would recommend this pattern, but it is short (for the crop top) but the pants are a great fit.

 Both these patterns ( and the others in the photo above) are patterns that Maree chased around at Joanne's around  the States like a personal challenge and left saying not to forget to send her a list of patterns I want... she found a great challenge to look for the patterns for $1 or $2 ... works for me!

I'm so looking forward to making that Rachel Comey top.. actually making all these. Goodness knows it's going to be warm enough. I also need to make my son some more shorts. His cloud shorts are his favourite. Plus there's holidays coming :)