A new top for foxy.....

A wonderful chain of events led to piece number four in my ethical clothing challenge.

Firstly, the fabulously talented Mel a co-op member at work (Olive Grove) has decided to leave.

In making the decision to leave she also decided to have a big cleanup and get rid of......fabric. Something I could never do. But bless her cotton socks, cause there were some great pieces she was giving away.
These two fabrics, a brown and yellow floral and a brown check were in amongst the stash and surprising looked good side by side, so I took them home hoping there was enough to make a top.

I would never usually put two prints together... a check and a floral....another sign that I am turning into my mother!
But they seemed perfect together, and it was creating another addition to my non-black wardrobe so it was all good....

I used the pattern I have been working on for my last few attempts...again. I'm not sick of it yet, so it's all good. This time I extended the border contrast on the sleeve to go all the way around the neck too. Finishes it off nicer I think.

But....that's not all there is to the story.
After picking up the fabric and adding it to my stash, I spied a brand new foxy creation over at the Lino forest blog. It was in the exact same colors as the fabric I had newly attained and had so much character in his little face, that I had to have him.

So out came the fabric that was stored away for another day and I whipped up the top in time for Thursdays Northern craft bonanza catch up where I would rendezvous with the lovely Liz to pick up foxy, the Pièce de résistance to my newest ethical clothing pledge top.

Joy!

Yet another.......

Another non black contribution to the ethical clothing pledge.

This time I reconstructed a beautiful purple cotton dress I had bought from Supre' and still never worn.
Again it had spaghetti straps.....I don't know why I do that to myself!.....so it was only ever going to be worn over a wider strapped singlet. But then you get weather like we have had lately and you just can't stand the thought of having to wear two tops to get the desired look.

So off came the straps, and on went a coordinating purple cotton print (from the stash) for a thicker strap.
I placed the pattern on the original dresses neckline so I could maintain the gathered detail, and altered the upper back piece of my pattern, to have more of a scooped almost racer back effect.

I've used this pattern 3 times now and still.....it's not quite right. Just needs 1.5 cm added to the shoulder strap and it'll be perfect. So one more top from this pattern I think. Gotta get it right!

* Please excuse blurry photo's taken by holding camera up high and hoping i got myself in it.
web cam is on the blink.

Ethical piece no.2...............

Yay I'm so excited to have completed my second piece of clothing following my ethical clothing pledge.

It was a booby tubey type halter dress, which was lovely and all, but I felt a bit like mutton dressed up as lamb. There was no way I'd wear it with out a bra and it sure looked naff with my bulky nanna bra straps hanging out.

So on the chopping board it went and got transformed into a new top.


Complete with pin tuck detail.



I'm enjoying this new challenge so far!

Back later tonight, with January's design theme after we do our first round of selections for the next Northside Makers market...Yay!