Frida Birds…

…or rather geishas, snakes and skulls.

My response to Kate’s ‘Dress Like Frida’ project is this little beauty of a skirt.  Here’s Kate and cronies, honouring Frida- I think they had a great day!

The fabric of course was utterly irrestistible, and not cheap, so a no-waste [no waist more like] skirt was the way to go.

Inspired by Kate’s book [more of that in a moment] I simply tore off a piece for a wide waistband and tore the rest in two.  Two side seams and a hem later, I considered the fastening [why think things through first?]  I’d opted to pleat the fabric onto the waistband, but was craving  a very fast sew, and couldn’t be bothered with a zip, so I simply left a gap between the two ends of the waistband, neatened said gap with a bit of scrap ribbon, and rough pleated the rest on.

A quick hook and bar, and I was wearing it within an hour.  When fastened the gap becomes another pleat.  It’s so busy, and I’m so unlikely ever to tuck anything in, that there’s no need to faff about.

Of course, I sewed it SO fast that the waistband when folded to the inside and stitched down, was a bit messy, so I unpicked it and re-applied the next day.

Cool, comfortable, and rather mad.  Very me!

It’s styled here of course to honour Frida Kahlo, who I’m sure would have been a tattooed DEMON if she was around now.

No monkey, so why not  a penguin?

Nailed it!

Crazy room, crazy print!

Now for my review of Kate’s book.  She asked me to do this a while ago, and of course, exam marking is a great excuse to delay…and delay.  Still, better late then never.  I have the electronic version of this little delight, but I’m sure it’s even better in the flesh, as it were.

Kate came up with this project, to make and publish her own book celebrating creativity and beauty,  in December last year.  In August this year, she had her launch party [which I couldn’t get too, dammit!]  You can read all about the process on her blog, go take a look]

The book is called ‘Making Life More Beautiful’ and guess what?  That’s what it does.  Kate discusses personal style, and has wonderful pictures of a huge variety of models, all friends family and colleagues, to illustrate her points.  She takes you through analysing your body, your colouring and so on, and offers lots of suggestions.  [I so want to add some images, but I can’t work out how to get images form the PDF file onto here.  Bum.]

Anyhew, after that, she has a section on making things- sewing four skirts, a cap and fishermen’s trousers.  All of it is nice and simple as the idea is to encourage beginners to have a go, and to have fun.  It was one of these skirts that I pinched for my Frida look.

Then knitting, crochet, printing, painting fabric…it’s all there!  None of the projects are very complex, and all of it is beautifully illustrated, and, well, makes life more beautiful.

The book ends with more on the creative environment, sewing/craft space, the creative community…oh just go and buy it won’t you?

Sorry Kate that   this took so long, I hadn’t forgotten, honest!