Brunchlady

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Tee: Joanie Clothing

Skirt: Eshakti

Shoes: Seychelles

I like brunch.

The Mister and I managed to find our dream apartment in the heartland of Melbourne’s brunch mecca, and we’ve been taking full advantage of all of the local cafes since we arrived.

I’ve been seeing Joanie Clothing on my Instagram feed for a couple of years ago. They do the kinds of fabulous retro-style dresses and colourful novelty prints that would have been  irresistible to me a couple of years ago, but it’s this Every Day Brunch Club tee that finally had me giving the label a whirl.

According to Joanie Clothing‘s About Us page, they imagine their customer to be “quietly confident, witty and full of wonder – with an infectious fervour for life’s little pleasures. She wears her heart on her sleeve, is loyal to the end and prides herself on being a great friend.” She’s also anything from a size 8 to a size 26, and the brand’s social media actually backs this up – they use models of all sizes in their campaigns, and on most of their product pages.

I ordered both this and a fabulous sweater that you’ll see as soon as the weather starts to cool. (Their slogan jumpers? Looooovve.) and they both fit perfectly, were good quality, arrived quickly, and were nicely packaged. Shipping was a not-too-prohibitive £9.

This past weekend (for brunch, naturally) I teamed the tee with a denim skirt that was part of my last eShakti order.

I’m not sure if I can express quite how much I’m loving being able to order from eShakti. The store’s new-and-improved order period (my last order took ten days to arrive! For three custom-sized items!)  and their regular discount and special offers has meant that my wardrobe is growing in leaps and bounds. This denim skirt fits like a dream, and the fabric’s better quality than I’d expected. It’s very stretchy, but doesn’t pull across my hips and tummy as I usually find pencil skirts do.

I recently took the plunge on a jumpsuit and a fancy new party dress that you might have caught in my Instagram stories (along with some majorly goofy facial expressions), and I’m keen to try their trousers next.

DIY: Seamwork Veronica Dress

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Dress: DIY from Seamwork “Veronica” Pattern

Shoes: Seychelles

 

I’ve had my eye on the Seamwork “Veronica” pattern for months and months now, but without a dining table to put my sewing machine on, all of my sewing projects have been sitting on the back burner.

The very first free weekend I’ve had in our new place (with our new dining table) I took the opportunity to finally put the sewing pedal to the metal. I bought the digital Veronica pattern, had it printed it a local print shop, marveled at how much easier it was than sticky-taping together 40+ sheets of A4 paper, and took a trip to Sydney Road – Melbourne’s cheap fabric mecca – which is now conveniently located just near me, and bought some fantastically 80’s viscose to give the pattern a dry run.

The Veronica’s a very simple frock with dolman sleeves, a solid banded waistband that’s elasticised at the back. The dress fastens with a zipper at the back and features the slightly blouson style that I’m kind of loving right now.

The pattern seemed straightforward enough; the only tricky part was the waistband, but I took it slow and steady and didn’t have to unpick once.

BUT (and it’s a big but) it was much too big in the waist.

Because it was just a wearable muslin, and I couldn’t figure out how to correct the size issues without taking the entire thing to pieces and starting again from scratch, I just frankensteined my own lazy fix, by pinching a couple of pleats into the waistband and sewing it up.

It’s… OK. The pleats makes the top a bit more blousy than I needed it to be, and the dress is not as flattering as I’d hoped – the neckline’s way too high and the shape’s a bit boxy, plus to be honest the zipper at the back seemed to be totally unecessary – with the elasticised back waistband it would be easy to pull on and off.

The pattern’s a solid 6 out of 10, but I’m not sure I’d make it again. I thought I might actually try the Olivia dress from Style Arc next time, which seems to have everything that I like about the Veronica, and none of the stuff I didn’t.