Turkish Thrown Together.

I’m doing a no-buy November. If I were better at planning I would have thought ahead on what projects I’d like to work on and stock up on what I might need…but that’s not who I am right now.

The dark months of winter are coming. Despite being on a higher dosage of medication for anxiety and depression to get through the bonus S.A.D. months I do feel it.

But there’s not much I need to work on, just projects that need finishing.

However, the dance studio has a student-teacher recital tomorrow. Two of my classes have single students who’d like to perform what they’ve learned from me but are nervous about performing alone…so I’m performing with them. One is dancing a bollywood inspired choreography of mine and bought herself an adorable bright pink costume. I have a skirt that will go well with it but I hadn’t figured out a top.

So, last night I started and it’s 100% from the stash. The main fabric comes from a BOX of dance wear and fabrics I was given 8+ years ago by a retiring dancer who had enjoyed my costuming and thought I could find a use for things.

This wasn’t from a bolt or single piece of fabric. It was a pair of oo-small-for-me old harem pants I’d seam-ripped. No single piece was the right shape for the Turkish Vest pattern I have and attempts to dart the fabric caused the smaller darts to simply eat themselves and shred apart.

I had planned to line it and that lining served as a stable base as I pinned and patched fabric onto the surface layer.

This is where my new love of basting made sense. I’d be working in tiny stitches with pins on the fabric form and then realize “baste it!” and quickly basted everything in place so I could sit and more carefully stitch and trouble shoot.

I added trim that was in my stash, some elastic inside it, and made a removable adornment by adding a pin back to a hair-accessory that was in the box’o thriftstore bling my step-mother and father sent me (along with The Thimble People Book.)