She Wears Shwe shwe

Strapless Shwe shwe dresses

You have to go and check out  the amazing strapless shwe shwe dresses at Dagmar's etsy Shop .  You can buy the ready made dresses  - such  beautiful things they are, or you can buy panels from her store and  follow the instructions on her blog to sew up your own.

Diggity Dugs  for more dresses like this in a variety of designs.   The preprinted panels are really becoming more popular and there are so many lovely patterns that I need to restrain myself.  I love this leaf circle pattern on the dress Dagmar made  

Nice dresses for nieces

In December I offered to make some shwe shwe dresses for my bothers nieces. Things didn't plan out quite as I had expected in December and I was late in making the dresses, but I knew my brother was going to my mom first before heading off for the family festivities and I phoned her and asked her to help me finish them off.

My mom said she could see I hadn't been feeling on top of things when I made the dresses as she had to undo several bits of them and redo them because I had made some mistakes.  (My mom was also once my sewing teacher at school, so being scholded by your mom and old sewing teacher for sloppy work is bad, but I am most grateful for her helping me)

So these are the joint effort dresses that my mom and I made for my brother to give as Christmas presents hanging on the door of my mother's sewing room

Asa

My gorgeous new friend Asa came skipping into my house last week to see some of the  Fusion Festival  people that had just arrived from various points of the globe.

She as wearing a shwe shwe head scarf made of blue shwe shwe, and looking so great in it.

We had a bit of a chat about it and we had a look at the different blues of shwe shwe that are lying on my desk waiting to be turned into yoga bags, as well as some brown shwe shwe panel pieces with Peacocks on them that I wanted to embellish and sew in December.   ( I saw the same peacock panels as skirts in Stoned Cherry, that had been re-dyed and beautified  and was reminded to tackle mine once again) Such great news that Stoned Cherry who have always made shwe shwe very cool were at the  NY fashion week recently)

Josephina's bags

Jospehina did not sew, her mom is a great sewer, but the bug had yet to bite Josephina. I had even offered to sign her up for a sewing class on the weekends last year when she was new to the suburb, because I thought it would be a good place for her to meet some people.

Until a few weeks ago Jospehina didnot sew, her mom is a great sewer, but the bug had yet to bite Josephina. I had even offered to sign her up for a sewing class on the weekends last year when she was new to the suburb, because I thought it would be a good place for her to meet some people.

;All that has changed in the last few weeks and Josephina  has become an overnight sewing sensation. My great MIL went on a course with some friends of hers to learn how to sew a patchwork bag, and Jospehina learnt from watching the ladies put theirs together over tea a few mornings a week.  She came home and asked me for some odd pieces of material  - but wouldnt tell me what for.  A few days later she produced an awesome bag made with the oddest off cuts from my sewing box. She had sewn the bag ALL BY HAND and was raring to do her next one. I offered her some shwe shwe bits - as my sewing box overflows with shwe shwe, and she was thrilled.

This is the result of the second bag - her first shwe shwe one. I think its absolutely marvelous, and so to did friends of my MIL, and they have placed orders for their own shwe shwe ones.  The bag has pockets inside and batting between the layers to make it sturdier.

I am now going to looking round for a simple second hand sewing machine for her and perhaps introduce her to Etsy. I know he will find it all excitingly marvelous .

For more South African bag loveliness have a look at the Babazeka blog this week that has a great round up post of some fabulous bags.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth has featured quite a bit on this blog, and even though she now lives in the mountains of the Eastern Cape far away she still manages to feature.  Her daughter has just been to visit her and came back with some pictures on her new camera of the dress Elizabeth made from the material I sent home for her last year some time.

I love the angles that Elizabeth  has worked into this dress to give the skirt a zig zag appearance.  I also love the orange ric rac that she has sewn into the neck and the sleeves. but most of all I love the expression on Elizabeth's face. She has such a great sense of humour and the combination of pride and amusement at the purpose of the photo in her smile are just awesome.

In the close up you can see the pattern on the material as well the ric rac