A Grande day at the zoo

My birthday is this weekend. Hooray, I'm older. I couldn't think of anything I wanted so I asked Jay to take me to the zoo.

After a small amount of dressing up and larking about, of course.

 

 

I wore as much animal jewellery as possible. My necklace is actually a little climbing cat. My brooches are a fox, butterfly and dragonfly.

Before we left I was presented with a cholesterol-laden breakfast...

 ...which, in case you're wondering, was muffins grilled with ham, tomato and 

SLICES OF CAMEMBERT CHEESE...

 ....and some 'real' gifts

Then off we went. I can't remember the names of all the animals apart from the obvious ones.

Like Mr Tiger. He was having his lunch in the shade.

I always call animals Mr Somebody. I don't know why. I am aware that girl animals exist.

Like this pretty fellow with his two lady loves.

This poor little guy looked so sad. All the others were jumping around playing and he just sat there staring mournfully at all the idiots behind the glass taking photos of him, or looking at the ground.

This pygmy hippo had an itch on its head or something. It was flapping its little ears furiously and opening and closing its mouth quite angrily. Then it would stand still as it waiting for something before beginning all over again.

The seals were so quick it was impossible to take a decent photograph of them.

Aren't these alien-looking? 

The penguins knew it was dinner time and refused to move from this spot. 

They. Were. Waiting.

Coati! What funny little creatures these are. They were continually running around here, there and everywhere, on some sort of industrious mission.

Sadly there was only one red panda in sight. I'm sure it must have had a mate somewhere. They are one of my favourite animals ever. Since it had its head in a bunch of leaves it was difficult to grab a decent shot of it.

I am pretty sure Mr Lion was eyeing off the children and wondering which would be the tastiest.

This peacock followed the elephants everywhere, from their pen to the feeding barn and back again.

 

The baby elephant was so cute.

We finished up at my favourite part of the zoo - the butterfly house. It's so magical and makes me feel like I'm in a fairy land. Some of the butterflies are massive and fly so slowly, especially these lovely green ones.

I did overhear one little girl say she found it scary. I suppose when you're small, some of the larger butterflies can be a little creepy. 

We didn't see everything because it would simply have taken too long. As it was, we walked around for about 3 hours which was enough for me. I'm older now, I needed a lie down, you know.

Happy weekend to all.

x

The winter sewing project | Part one

 

  

My winter sewing project is the re-creation of two coats worn by Miss Fisher in the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries series. This coat was worn in the episode Raisins & Almonds.

I had no hope of 

A) actually replicating the coat, or

B) making anything in a 1920's style that would be flattering to wear. I'm not suited to the era, body-shape-wise.

My version of this coat has a faux-fox fur collar, is fitted about the waist with no belt, and does not come with a matching skirt. The length is about the same as the original but with a flared skirt.  The fabric is wool and it's very warm.

Pattern is Vogue 8346.

 

It's lined in steel grey-blue silk, used from a silk sari.

 

 

 

After being absent for a few weeks I'll be catching up on blogs, responding to comments and repaying the compliment to new followers over the next few days.

Parts two and three of the winter sewing project coming soon!

xx

Turning leopard print trousers into pedal pushers

 

I didn't think leopard print could be ugly until I laid eyes on these trousers in an op-shop.

Yuck. They're kind of 90's-does-vintage-and-murders-it.

However, I could see potential and this time I remembered to document the process. Every time I alter something I buy in an opshop, I forget to take 'before' photos because whatever it is I'm altering is so hideous. So here we go.

I like pedal pushers to end just below the knee. If they're much longer they feel like short (as in shrunken) trousers.  So first, I took 15 inches off the length, leaving an inch for a seam allowance. In these photos, I've pinned the left leg into a dart at the back to make it more fitted. The bootcut of these trousers means they need to be taken in a lot.

To make the legs narrower, I added a dart all the way up the centre back of the leg. I've realised that the backs of trouser legs are always cut wider than the front, so simply taking in the side seams doesn't work. It makes the front of the legs too narrow, usually resulting in a weird fit around the crotch.

I drew a line up the center of the back... 

(click on any of these to see them larger)

...and used it as a guide to pin the dart. I also used the lower edges of the back pockets as a guide.

This is with the dart still pinned. They're way more fitted now, but still a bit wide at the opening because of the original bootcut.

I took the darts in further in the lower half of the leg to eradicate that awful bootcut flare around the knee

A quick hem, and here is the finished product.

(just ignore my awesomely hardcore weekend tshirt...)

Now I just need to wait 6 months for summer to come around so I can wear the silly things...

Winter sewing project

It's coming!