And Then My Friend Got Attacked By A Seagull

Last year the boyfriend and I went to London for Elcaf, a yearly comics and arts festival. There's always great stuff to be found and a lot of our drawing friends in the UK are there as well, which means lots of opportunities for catching up and hanging around (mostly in parks). This year my friend Charlotte Dumortier designed the poster (and just about everything else) so we went over with an entire Belgian delegation, handed out beer and chocolates and convinced people to come visit us. Charlotte decided to stick around with us a little longer, and to get a rest after the craziness that was Elcaf (Jayde won a prize!) we decided to go to Brighton for a day. I wore some clothes I made:

Both the top and skirt are my own patterns in a way, which doesn't mean much when we're talking about the skirt (it's all rectangles). I've been trying to create my perfect tank top pattern by rubbing off an old one I like and tweaking it every time I make it. This version is made from a viscose jersey with a very fine black and white stripe, and instead of using bands for the armholes and neckline I finished them with storebought viscose jersey bias binding. This worked really well, and saved me the hassle of cutting narrow bindings in viscose jersey. I might use this stuff on lighter weight knits more often!

The skirt is a gathered skirt with a front button closure. I simply started from my waist measurement, added a bit of ease and some extra for the overlap and cut three rectangles for the front and sides, using twice the width of the (narrow) fabric. The front edges were interfaced, folded over and topstitched down to form a placket. I also added pockets because there was no reason not to and apparently that's what I do now.

The fabric for this skirt is a poly-viscose crepe, which makes it perfect for travelling since it doesn't wrinkle as much, but the viscose content made it easier to press. I did give myself a bit too much ease in the waist (or the crepe relaxes too much) so this sits a bit lower than I'd like, even after all the food we had on this trip! I think I might open the waistband up (it's hand stitched closed on the inside) and add some elastic in the back to snug things up a little.

I found this at Snooper's paradise and loved it too much to leave it.

All in all, none of these garments are perfect in any way, but they are perfectly fine for days like this:

This little holiday was very needed and I came back with a lot of inspiration, so expect some stuff soon!

(And yes, Charlotte did get attacked by a seagull. Some ice cream was lost but no one got hurt)