indian kenya top?

so, i'm a sucker.  georgia, one of my students who went to kenya with me, had a birthday while there.  she asked, i.e. BEGGED, me to make her a garment for her bday.  sweet kid, built similarly to me but much taller, hmmm, she could be a guinea pig for a tops pattern for me!  so, i made simplicity 1614 "view b", a tank top with a top yoke and a cross strap in the back.  i was intrigued by the cross strap, and knowing that mom would never wear something with that cross strap, this was the perfect pattern to test out on georgia.

i used the rest of the burgundy cotton gauze from the pair of kenya pants.  georgia chose it because she loved my kenya pants and i had JUST enough.  she really liked the navy sleeveless parent-teacher conference dress i made earlier this year, particularly the collar, and asked that i include a collar on whatever i ended up making her.  so, i drafted my own pattern for a peter pan collar, since the pattern didn't have one.  here's the top, bare, without any decoration yet.  unfortunately, i didn't account for seam allowances on the collars' edges, and thus the tips are a bit far apart... oops.

the color is duller than reality because of the camera flash.  the remaining pictures more accurately depict the burgundy.  here's the back:

to be honest, i'm not a fan of the back at all.  also, my shoulders are so narrow that the cross-strap didn't lay flat.  ugh.  not for me.  glad i made a guinea pig version of this pattern so that i didn't waste any fabric on a version for myself!  because the cotton gauze was so plain, i decided to trim the collar and the cross-strap.  this vintage gold indian trim (gifted from a former student many years ago) was perfect.

guess what i used to use it for... as a tie to hold open the shutters that close off my bedroom from my living room in my current apartment.  hahahahhahahah!!!  i'm so innovative, i know!

i was able to hand stitch it on so easily!  i'm surprised by how much i love the look!  when i first got the trim, i was certain i'd never use it on a garment.  ha!

cute, right?  here's the top, done!

and around back:

i'm going to mail it to her, as the kid is traipsing thailand and cambodia right now (oh, to be a kid again!!), and i don't want it to get lost in all my boxes as i have to pack up my apartment.  that's right, i'm moving!  ugh.  not thrilled, yet, slightly excited at the same time.  landlord is forcing everyone out of the building, so here's my chance to move somewhere quieter, but in the same neighborhood!

this was my attempt at packing this weekend, while working on a final project for my doctoral class.  that's right, i packed and sewed instead of working on the project... tsk tsk tsk.  when i came here, i packed my life into 41 boxes.  here are 7 so far.  the new apartment has space for a dining table!  hurray!  no more eating on the ground!  now i get to have a table for cutting fabric, i mean eating, again!

kenya pants!!

worried that i didn't make it back from kenya?  fear not!  i returned safely!  currently drowning in doctoral work.  class started 3 days after i returned from kenya!  (ask me how i was the only one who showed to class that monday...)  i had a presentation yesterday (meh) and i have a paper due tuesday.  what better time than to update the blog?

i thought of giving away the 3 pairs of pants that i made to the dear masai girlies who attended the school where we built the library foundation.  how cool would it be to go back to the village, say even in a couple years, and see people donning my handmade clothing??  however, then i got practical and realized i actually lack lounge pants in ny, seeing as i took apart my favorite pair of pj pants to serve as a pattern for these pants, so selfish me, i kept all 3.  this red pair became my primary pair of work pants at the site.  cotton gauze is amazing in scorching hot kenyan weather!  here i am, using a pickax to break up rocks that were impeding our laying down of the library walls.  pickaxes are heavy!

i made 2 pairs of grey-green pants as well.  here was the first pair, also filthy from much manual labor.  i'm wearing mom's floppy orange beach hat that i bought her in honolulu to protect me from the sun.  the kids all wore safari hats.  i, of course, had to be unique (and goofier-looking!).  hahhahahaha

there are the library walls and foundation.  those rocks that form the wall were HEAVY!  think 50 pounds or more!  that's half my weight!  the experience was amazing though.  i loved working with the masai kids on their math and playing soccer with our boys and their boys after construction every day.  this last picture is from our safari drive.  it's part of a group picture, so i cut everyone else out (hehe, gotta maintain the spotlight, yo!).  conveniently, i'm in the front (i mean, where else would i be? the back?), so you have a good shot of my pants.  all 3 pairs actually have functioning drawstrings (look carefully below), which as you may know, are not often features of my handmade pj pants!

that's right, i traipsed through nairobi and the masai mara in glorified pj pants!  holla!