tiny happy

Hello lovely readers! I hope you've had a good week. 

Tom and I attended a beautiful wedding on the weekend and I managed to snap a quick picture of the inside of the marquee where the reception was held. The ceiling was draped in fabric bunting, which was made from strips of fabric torn and tied to lengths of rope. The fabrics were a mix of prints and textures, in pale green, blue, pink and cream and the overall effect was really beautiful.

The other photos in this post are not from the wedding, but just things found on my travels, including an amazing succulent garden growing vertically in downtown Wellington. I love this idea and wonder if it might work at our place? Succulents seem to do well in our wild weather.

I've also had some op-shop luck, including finding a copy of The Goldfinch, which is one of those books I've been meaning to read for ages, and some cotton men's shirts that I bought and offered to Tom for his collection, but they didn't fit so I'm happily re-purposing for my hexagon quilt! I really like using old things and I think the slightly-worn fabrics look great together.

Using a piece of silk bought from The Fabric Store I sewed a new top (a bit like this one) for these end-of-summer days. I found the silk a bit tricky to work with, because the threads pull easily, so French seams and a hand-stitched neckline was in order. But it's lovely and light to wear and I can see lots more of these tops in my future. I ended up drafting the pattern myself, but it's similar to the vintage one I used a while back (Style #3896 from 1983) and the Lou Box Top pattern that is available for purchase online (I made one of those here.

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In other, non-crafting news, I've been enjoying the Netflix series Babylon Berlin which is beautifully produced and interesting historically (if rather dark at times) and just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides which I recommend, especially if you like reading about love triangles and liberal arts graduates.

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