I’m really enjoying shorts sets at the moment, and, having dyed a ready to wear set that was given to me more than five years ago, I thought I would make one.

Here is the before and after. I used to try this on and take it off straight away without really thinking about the colour, and now love it. Dye solves lots of problems!

I was given some gorgeous rayon by my friend Jenny who was having a fairly major destash and I rather hoped to be able to get a top and shorts from it.

I had a good look through my patterns and came up with two possibilities for the top: McCalls 5512 from the 1970s and Woman’s Realm WR2 from the 1940s which had belonged to my mother, or possibly her grandmother.

I decided to make the Woman’s Realm top as I couldn’t resist the front pattern piece – see the bottom of the third photo – and the shorts from McCalls 5512.

The shorts were a pretty straightforward make, but I might see if I can add a piece to make them longer. I made size 12, which is the biggest size, for 92cm hips, which is what I seem to be at the moment. The top was a tad more complex!

This is a closeup of the fabric, and the buttons I chose, which are vintage ones, bought years ago from Buttonmania in Melbourne.

The sleeves have French cuffs and cufflinks made from the buttons, which was a nice tv watching activity.

The pattern came together really well and the collar origamied itself into place. However, if you look at the photo on the right you’ll see that my cuffs open in the wrong spot.

I have no idea how this happened. I checked that my notches all lined up and can only think that I marked the slit in the bottom incorrectly somehow. The sleeves had to come out and they are now inserted backwards, but at least the cuffs sit properly.

By the way that’s not a snake at my feet, but the ubiquitous hose – I always seem to have one in my photos, no matter where I take them – sigh!

I wore the outfit to an exhibition at the Contemporary Art Spaces in Mandurah, which was a delight. Martien van Zuilen, the convener of Fibres West and curator of this exhibition, had this lovely piece in the exhibition and visitors were encouraged to handle it. I needed no second bidding!

I immediately stuck my hands in it as I had an urge to wear it.

I had quite a visceral reaction to this piece: at first I was reminded of historical chains that bind, then I thought about the links; love, family, friends, work, pleasure, too many to enumerate, but afterwards I thought about the works on display and the links between the left and right hemispheres of the brain which lead to the wonderful creativity and insights by the artists. It was so nice to be able to handle the artwork; normally I fight to keep my hands to myself, gazing longingly from a distance.

I think that these two pieces work quite well as a set, although the fabric may have been meant to be a dress, but I prefer this. I decided to try the top with my cream linen Pattern Union Hannah Culottes and suspect that this outfit will be in fairly constant rotation.

I’m sure that I’ll be pairing the top with lots of bottoms and must think about teaming the shorts with a couple of tops too.

Ginny https://www.instagram.com/forsewablefuture/, suggested I give posing like the pattern model a go. This proved quite tricky as I had nothing the correct height. However, I did try! The waistline has gone missing in action!

Miss G decided she wanted to make her Liz Haywood Zero Waste cloth doll a jacket to go with the shorts reported on in my last post, especially when she saw me wearing this outfit in the same fabric. We used the dress coat zero waste pattern that came with the doll pattern. Please note the placement of her hands – she was being diligent but it doesn’t last, she wants to play with aaalll the buttons and levers!

I must get out all the clothes patterns that go with this doll as I can see that more will be required and there are some really cool ones!

Buzzy is giving Esme the doll the side eye here! You can see how simple the jacket is. We didn’t bother with hems but I’ll sneak them in when I have some time.