almost vanished in a world of tie-dye

This weekend, along with the ridiculous number of other festivals trying to squeeze into one month in our fair city, Womad has come to town. This stands for World of Music, Art and Dance and I seem to remember it having something to do with Peter Gabriel in its inception. It's a delightful, massive, family-friendly event in our grassy, tree-filled Botanic Park.

Mobile phone pic of people I don't know, waiting for a band to start. Clem thought the curvy bit above the stage must be a train track. This is just one of multiple stages through the park.

Not too long after you wander in the gate, a henna tattoo might seem like fun. Then you go for an organic juice. The kids make stick sculptures in the dirt. You admire some Papua New Guinean singer/dancers. See a man riding a giant chicken. Then browse the stalls. Ooh, look at that yak-wool hoodie! That basket made of recycled... something! That hand-knitted string headband!

At Womad, regular people let their inner hemp-lovin, Combi-drivin', hula-hoopin', dreadlock-wearin' hippie hang out.

I did, at least, wear my Birkenstocks.

It's a lot of fun with the kids. But if they weren't there, we might actually get to see some music, like back in the good old days. Oh well.

Meanwhile, progress has been made on my next Negroni. Snail's progress, but progress nonetheless.

This Denyse Schmidt fabric is a gorgeous cotton voile from the 'Greenfield Hill' range. I think I will still get around to the Liberty fabric, oh yes. Let's call this wearable muslin #2. I have used Peter's instructions to turn the Negroni pattern into a shirt with collar stand and button placket.

I'm proud of my pattern-matching across the front.

I so loved this fabric online and I still think it's a fabulously cool print. But can you see how the pattern goes in perfectly vertical lines, and mildly sloping horizontal lines? Agh... a nightmare for cutting and pattern matching.

The back yoke is cut on the true bias, which looks a bit like a cutting mistake.

If you cut on the 'true bias', it looks wonky. But then, the whole shirt looks slightly off-kilter.

I simply won't bore you with how many times I've had to fiddle, unpick, re-sew, re-cut etc to get this far. I sort of get cocky when I've done something before, and then it ends up taking twice as long. But here I am.

Agh, my eyes, my eyes!

Pockets? This was my loose attempt to see what bias-cut pockets would look like. I think, unfortunately, I will need to pattern match, to avoid the whole thing becoming one complete optical nightmare. One pocket, perhaps? I think pattern-matching two pockets, plus flaps, would be out of the question. Any thoughts?
- Jane x