Is it a skirt or a dress?

A couple of days ago I bought myself this cute piece at a discount. The price was so incredibly low for such a beautiful piece of clothing I thought I must be mad if I leave it. And for that price it was simply not worth the trouble making it.
To clear away all misunderstanding this piece was designed to be a dress. But while trying it and experimenting I saw that it could be worn as a skirt too. So versatile! The dress is constructed of several layers (flounces). The upper, last layer is not ruffled but straight and it ties up front with a thin strap.

But, by adding a sash or a thiny, thin belt it transforms into a lovely, flowy dress!

I know this is going to be my favourite piece this summer!

Killing time

OK. It's been really hectic around for a while.
Summer days are lazy and long and I've been struggling to keep the children in the house during the hottest hours, but having a house near the lake doesn't help at all. So I've been racking my brains to make, do, invent something entertaining and possibly educational to fill the time and keep them in (I hope I don't sound like a gaoler).

One of the current reads is The Ugly Duckling. Is there a person who doesn't love this story?

Jakov loves it. The reading is even more entertaining for him because he gets to do the puzzles.

There are a lot of projects we did but I failed to record them all. Still. August is at its dawn.

I have more brain-racking to do until we end this vacation and finally go home.

Another one flew over

dailyclipart.net

Another year flew over and here I am a year older and still feeling like a brand new coin.

A great 'consolation' is that the parties are getting better and better, as are the presents for that matter.
I loved being pampered and wishes being fulfilled. As for you who are wondering my age I have been 33 for quite a while now (don't rush now to check up my profile info!)
The celebration included a dinner, a bumper car ride, couple of drinks in a popular and hence overcrowded cafe by the lake which offered a live rock band gig (fabulous) and fire(works) performance (fantastic) which was a great closure of the day!

Romantic umbrella

This umbrella is one of the things I bought myself while in Italy.
When I saw it I knew I had to have it! As a matter of fact my husband was the one who noticed it first and knew I'll succumb to its seducing powers. How could I not?

It is intricately, richly and finely embroidered. And soo romantic!

What's more, it proved to be a great sun blocker and I loved walking the streets of Palermo carrying it.

When Eva saw it she fell in love with it! And she bagged me to make some pictures with it.

Fabric carnation tutorial

You may remember my flowery bouquet I made a while ago. Making these carnations is quite simple and rewarding. Well, here's the tutorial.

You need light jersey with a lot of elastic in it for better looks and stretch for that matter.

Cut a long, thin strip. I had a metre of the jersey but in order to make the strip longer I cut all around it without stopping and the above piece has about 3,70 metres. The longer the strip, the thicker the flower. Remember, it should be about 1 or 2 cm wide.

Start wrapping it around your hand. While doing it, pull the strip tightly.

Jersey tends to curl up and that would add up to the looks of the flowers and make them more beautiful.

Here it is all rolled up.

Take it off carefully and holding it firmly tie a knot around it with a previously cut short strip.

When it is secured. Cut the upper part.

Like this.

Here's what it looks like. Cut the strips on the other side too.

Now, some of the "petals" will be bigger than others so here you do a little trimming until you make them all even.

A break in the steps for comparison. Here you can see what you'll get if you use a slightly wider and shorter piece of fabric (the pink one being a sturdier cotton).

When you finish trimming both sides, the flower will be left with the middle exposed, so you have to fix that too. Start by pulling the little strips to the other side but not very strongly because if the tie is not tight enough you might pull the strips off, and you also roll them up in your hands to get a nice round flower.

And ta-dah! Here it is!

Now you can take a bamboo stick (plastic stem, or whatever you come up with) insert it inside and make yourself a lovely flower.

And with a couple more of them you can make a bouquet :)

Or you can take a pin and make a brooch as shown in the intro picture.

Escape to wilderness

Before our trip we promised the children to take them camping on an isolated beach after we return and we kept our promise. Although it was a "2-days only" adventure, we had loads of fun.

Enjoyed swimming in the lake and the water was incredible. Stayed in for hours. And made a lot of pictures to bring back to life the memories we made there when looking at them in winter.

The Siracuse dress

I made this dress just before we left on holiday. The design was not so important as were the details. Having this light-weight, pretty simplistic fabric in texture and appearance I decided to use these lovely velvet ribbons I had, combined with an array of embroidered flowers decorating one side/edge of the dress.

I had an idea of making the bodice with straps that would tie behind the neck and when I tried it I didn't like how it fitted me (my shoulders looked enormous), so I used the remaining ribbons as straps (more as a detail) and I tied the existing dress straps up front. I added ribbons at the waist and at the hem of the dress.

Although I had a draft sketch of the flowers on paper, in the end I made a free-hand drawing of the embroidery and I am immensely satisfied of the ultimate result.

I named it the Syracuse dress because the colours of the flowers reminded me of the beautiful, picturesque, floral scenery of Syracuse, where the pictures are taken. And the other reason is that I finished the embroidery there. The location is our breathtaking hotel Villa Maria Polliti.

Museo de Marionettes

We have been having such great time travelling across Sicilia and visiting places that I have had almost no time updating this blog with our little adventure. Beside that, the Internet at the hotels is as slow as an old lady when it comes to uploading pictures - it throws me in misery!

However, as a person highly interested in puppet making (although I make them out of fabric and paper) I've been wanting to write a post about this gorgeous and one of a kind Puppet Museum we saw in Palermo. It's called Museo Internazionale delle Marionette and it houses about 4.ooo puppets, marionettes, glove-puppets, shadow figures, items of scenery and posters.

The rooms of the museum generously welcomed the characters of puppet theatres of many countries so here we saw traditional marionettes from Northern Italy, other European countries and other continents. There were Greek and Turkish shadow figures, African marionettes from Mali, Congo and Benin, Vietnamese water marionettes, Japanese, Chinese and Indian shadows, marionettes and rod puppets.

My favourite:

The Old Man

The Policeman

The Thief

The Sicilian Pupi Theatre is very popular and active in Italy and we could see ticket stands for it everywhere. We also encountered several workshops and the puppet makers were so generous to let us have a peek inside and shoot some pictures. The only thing I grieve about the most is that I didn't buy myself Pinnochio. I kept postponing doing that so on the final day I couldn't find any shops that sold it. We have a couple of days left here so I'm still hopeful.