A New Coat - Simplicity 8554

 

The pattern is Simplicity 8554, which is an unlined coat in varying lengths. 

 I had hoped to make view A, the long duster style version, but unfortunately, I didn't have enough fabric. I settled for View B,  mid length , with the front flaps.  Size 14, based on my measurements.

 Because it was unlined, and the fabric frayed easily, I bound all the seams with bias binding .  The underside of the collar and flaps is a scrap of printed voile from the stash. In a rather risqué move,  I omitted the pockets , I felt they would just flop and not sit nicely, and I'm pretty much just going to wear it with jeans anyway. I also sewed up the side slit . Belt instructions in the pattern are wrong, but it's easy enough to work out what you need to do. I'm probably not going to wear it done up too often, I'm worried it'll give off dressing gown vibes😂 looking forward to wearing this as a transeasonal layering piece. Not looking forward to the ironing it seems to require.

Fabric is a deep raspberry linen eucalyptus blend(impossible to photograph accurately)gifted to me by  a friend.

Hawkes Bay Holiday

 

View from Te Mata Peak

Sunrise Hut

Heading up to Armstrongs Saddle

Looking through the Beech forest

Earlier this month The Scout and I had a weeks holiday in the Hawkes Bay.  Famous for it's art deco architecture, vineyards, and known as the fruit bowl of New Zealand, it was sad to see some of the devastation caused by the 2023 floods from Cyclone Gabriel.

We spent a couple of days wandering around Napier and Hastings, taking in the beautiful art deco buildings that were built after the terrible Napier earthquake of 1931.  We went up Te Mata Peak, but unfortunately fog hindered the stunning views we should have seen.

It was to good an opportunity not to hike somewhere new while visiting the Hawkes Bay, so we decided to go to the Ruahine Ranges and walk the Sunrise Hut track.

It's described as an easy track, and in some ways it is. It's wide, beautifully graded, had hardly any mud or gnarly root areas, but it's uphill all the way. Not gonna lie, it was hard work.

We didn't have a lot of visibility of the surrounding valleys due to low clouds. However about an hour after our arrival at the hut, the cloud lifted and we were able to venture along the ridge to Armstrong Saddle, sight of a plane crash back in 1935.

As usual lots of mosses, lichens and fungi captured my attention.

After a rather rough nights sleep, we were up early to see the sunrise. Not quite as impressive, as we'd hoped, and rather cold but with everyone from the hut up and watching and chatting, it was quite a cheerful start to the day.

A quick wander up to the ridge behind the hut, revealed the valleys we couldn't see yesterday.

It was downhill all the way back (though that's hard work too) and we had a lot more visibility compared to the previous day.

Weekending - Hiking to the Motutapere Hut

 

Back in June, The Scout and I embarked on a wee hiking adventure to Motutapere Hut in the Kaimai Ranges.  

We started at the Hot Springs Road end of the Tuahu track, then went left at the junction on the North/South track to the hut.  The track itself is an 11km return trip, with the Tuahu being relatively flat and not too hard.  This all changes dramatically, once you start on the north/South track.  There were short steep uphill sections, and short steep downhills, always mud,  rough steps, rock cliff faces to clamber up, and ladders/staircases attached to rocks.  There were times when I thought the strong winds were going to blow me over.   It was definitely a challenge and a little outside my comfort zone. When we got to the little unbookable three bunk hut, we found there were 6 people there already.  Thankfully we had our small tent, so while we spent a cold rather sleepless night in it, we were dry.

The return track was just as hard, and I have to admit, sometimes I did it easier to sit down and slide down certain areas, rather than risk falling. .  Definitely worth doing for the great views out to the Bay of Plenty coast.

Simplicity 8014 - A Shirtdress

 

A little while ago I feel in love with this ready to wear shirtdress.  I loved seeing how they styled it, options I had never thought of doing with such a dress.  Unfortunately the price of the dress put it way out of my range,  So imagine my delight when I saw the exact same fabric available at a local fabric shop. I duly purchased a decent amount of the fabric, and put it aside until I found a pattern similar enough to make my version of the dress.

Simplicity 8014 (s8014) was the pattern I chose. It has 4 different options.  I chose version A.

 I did make a toile for the bodice to ensure it would fit, and then started cutting out the pieces.  I struggled with collar and collar stand, I could not for the life of me get them to fit the bodice neckline.  In the end I cut a size smaller for these two pieces.  I have since read that a lot of other makers have experienced similar problems with this aspect of the pattern .  The rest of the dress was relatively easy from this point on.  I decided to French seam all the seams, for a tidier finish as I wished to wear the dress open as a duster coat sometimes. I omitted the bodice pockets and altered the cuffs of the sleeves to more resemble the ready to wear version.

Overall I'm happy with how it has turned out.  I feel should I ever make this pattern again, I would narrow the actual collar, its quite large or make the collarless version.  I have worn it to work as a coat, styled with my jeans and a tee, and received many positive compliments, so I'm taking it a success.

Blooming Bouquets

 

Over the past couple of months I have really been enjoying picking fresh flowers from my garden and turning them into bouquets.  Having fresh flowers in the house is one of my little luxuries, and I love, that in summer  they are plentiful in my garden to do this. 

The majority of my bouquets are bright and jam packed with mainly zinnias and dahlias, and foliage. However lately I have been inspired by the works of Katherine English, and her slightly looser bouquets featuring, foraged grasses, seed heads and twiggy branches, as well as beautiful flowers giving them a more ethereal natural look.  I haven't quite mastered this type of arrangement yet, I think I may also have to visit a few opshops/thrift stores for some different types of vases, which may help them look a little more organic and less arranged.

I'm trying to think what I can plant in my garden that will bloom over winter so I can still have flowers inside, I suspect there will be the odd little bunch of gerbera or lillies purchased from the supermarket and added to some foraged finds.

Some other  inspiring flower farmers and florists are:  

Gabriela Salazar

Field of Roses

Lucy Hunter

Sean A. Pritchard

Christin Geall

Floret Flower Farm