When I made the orange pinafore dress using Simplicity 4789, I was testing the pattern to see what changes, if any, I needed. For the orange one I dropped everything from the shoulders down by 2cm. I decided to change that for this version and just drop the bottom of the armholes and the bust darts by 2cm. I went back to the pattern and reversed my previous changes, and then added in the length further down the pattern.

I now have a neckline more like the pattern but slightly lower armholes. I find that the armholes are often too high if they are designed for sleeves.

I wanted to use old jeans for this new pinafore so got out the enormous box of jeans bits, plus a few whole pairs. I pretty much completely deconstruct my jeans so that I get as much fabric as possible and as much of that delicious faded fabric as I can. I had hoped to get the pinafore from one pair of jeans but it proved impossible due to the width of the fabric pieces. Instead I cut it out of two pairs, using mostly the legs.

I finished up with two princess seams on the front and used the back pockets as front pockets. I teamed it here with my Closet Core tee made from fabric I got free from REMida.

I love using this bag with it. It is marbled washable paper (vegan leather), created with my friend Claire, who is a printmaker, and the bag straps are clip on ones I got from my mother. I love the shape of this pinafore, it reminds me of the ones I wore as a teenager. The back was cut out of wider jeans legs and just needed a centre back seam. I worked hard to line up all the hem fading, but it wasn’t always possible.

I’ve worn the pinafore a couple of times now and it’s interesting watching the weather get colder as I examine the photos.

We visited Manjimup, which is where I began my career, and I wore it with a merino tee, tights made by me, and a Carbeth cardigan which I knitted on a trip round Tasmania.

I love it with my crochet neckpiece thingy, made completely from yarn I dyed myself.

And for a slightly warmer option, my crocheted scarf teams well with it. I used this scarf to learn lots of different crochet stitches and I look at it now and realise I’ve forgotten a lot of them. Still have my notes though.

These two photos below were taken at opposite ends of the day. I wore it with fingerless gloves, hat, scarf and cardigan all knitted/crocheted by me. Underneath I’m wearing an orange linen knit fibremood Blaze. I was freezing in one photo (it was dark, I’ve had to up the exposure so you can see me) and warm as toast in the other one.

A quick shot showing some of the details: The pockets are different as I couldn’t find the mates, so I used a belt loop as a distraction technique. The shoulders have got a piece of the pocket shading on them. This bit of symmetry made me very happy. I chose to use a red invisible zip, because I could.

I quite like that the front seams look a bit like slot seams, although getting them even was a challenge. My only question about this dress is whether I should topstitch all the seams. I had intended to but quite like the crispness of it left plain. I can always do it later.

As is often the way with upcycling, I needed to do a couple of mends. I had a seam I wasn’t happy with so fixed it when I was in the car. Another mending whilst wearing example. You can see that I used homemade bias binding to face the hem.

Much better!

Then I found a hole along what had been a hem, it’s tricky to see here but the white threads are a bit of a giveaway.

I have been doing the Making Zen workshops and one, by Betz White, uses needle felting to make patches or darns. I’d been playing with these and had made a little cat face, needle felted on to denim, which I thought would be cute. It’s tucked away a little bit but I know it’s there and it’s stopping the hole from getting bigger.

I really like the different colours where I had to patch the dress to make it wide enough. I’ve got these on both sides.

On the subject of denim and Making Zen, Liz Haywood has designed a zero waste toy pattern – Humpty Dumpty. I could not decide what fabric to use for it and in the end used a little bit of the leftover denim from this dress.

It was tricky getting the face right as I couldn’t trace it, but otherwise I love my Humpty! I had also needle felted the flower in Betz White’s class so thought it would look cute on Humpty’s bottom.

It’s been toddler tested and met with approval, although she was very keen to see if it had a squeaker. In the end I unpicked it and put one in but she couldn’t press hard enough to get sound.

We seem to have been adopted by a Magpie. This is a male and he’s quite splendid, except when he’s fighting me to get into the house! He sits on the verandah railings waiting for me to leave the front door open and edges ever nearer if I don’t keep my wits about me. And yes, our woodpile is a bit of a monster!