As soon as my friend S and I saw this fabric we both thought “liquorice allsorts”, although Mark was immediately reminded of a Mondrian painting. A lively discussion resulted in him coming around to my way of thinking, so order was restored.

I wanted to make something simple with it as it is quite busy (putting it mildly), so I used this pattern from my mother’s stash – KwikSew 2866, which I think is from the 1990s but I note is still available online.

This is a terrific pattern, simple with different necklines and different hem and bottom treatments. I did view A, but will be doing the others as they are useful for stashbusting small amounts of fabric.

As you can see, we are in Sydney and it is a glorious day. The weather up until now has been pretty grey and wet. A case in point is the view from our hotel window yesterday. Pretty grey here (how about that cruise ship??)

compared with bright sunshine here – no photoshopping involved, I promise.

Anyway, back to my top – it’s made of mesh and is oh so light, but isn’t see through, which was a bit of a surprise (at least Mark assured me it wasn’t see through but I don’t altogether trust him). This means that I don’t have to wear a camisole under it, therefore staying a bit cooler.

As you can see, we got about a bit, so it wasn’t all fabric shopping. We both get to Sydney quite a bit (separately) but usually have no time for sightseeing, so it was terrific to catch up with some of our favourite attractions – the Art Gallery, the State Library, and of course, the Manly Ferry.

However, I will admit to the odd visit to Tessuti’s and the lovely Colette introduced me to a very exciting place called the “Vintage and Value” in Meadowbank (Collette referred to it as the “Fabric Cave” and googling this works as well). This is basically an op shop which only sells craft and sewing items, including patterns ($1), fabric, zips (invisible zips cost 50c irrespective of size), cottons, etc, etc. I had a ball. It’s only open on Mondays, Fridays and one Sunday a month. For anyone visiting Sydney, here is the link – make sure you go, it is wonderful. I shall be posting a bit more about my visits to Tessuti’s at a later date.

The details of this outfit:

Fabric is a mesh remnant from Potter’s

Pattern is KwikSew 2866

Pants are from a vintage Lutterloh pattern.

Setting is Sydney