Weekend Smorgasboard

Today's post is a weekend smogasboard of colour and activity.

Brightly coloured allotment fayre for us to tuck into over the next week.

A little light crafting:friendship bracelets and beading.

  
We went to a local folk/arts festival at the Edge in Much Wenlock.

I was dancing there with the Severn Sisters Tribal belly dance group with my friends...I did smile for some bits of it, a skill I need to work on. My concentrating face always takes over.

We danced alongside the raucous Ironmen Morris team. Can you spot my neighbour there wearing his jacket I repaired for him? He made me my yarn bowl.

and the Severn gilders women's team. We all dance in the same spot as their musicians play live music for us at outdoor events.

There were also great activities for the children too: circus skills, storytelling, crafts, a clog dancing workshop and general running around in the sunshine.

Oh how we laughed as we watched bloke having a go on a unicycle. Thank heavens our baby making years are over, that's all I'm going to say!

So the children are yet to find out that tomorrow the mundaneness of Monday will soon be upon them when we all have to go food shopping and do an entire week of washing together. It can't all be fun!

I hope you had a colourful weekend in the sunshine.

Jo xxxxxxx

Dance in Winter

 You may already know that I am in a tribal belly dance group, The Severn Sisters. Severn, as in the River Severn in Shropshire. Sometimes there are seven of us, but not always! Our usual kit normally consists of lace tops and lots of hip layers, basically, more is more.

Picture by Ian Woodward from the hooded lens

Sometimes we dance at festivals and local events. Can you possibly imagine having your belly out in this weather? We danced once in Ironbridge on a pouring wet day and we were all freezing. So there was a request from the Sisters to make a dance dress to keep us cosy but still feeling beautiful. We saw some on our favourite tribal group Black Veil.



The pattern comes from an unlikely source. It is the pattern I used for my pyjama top. I tried to take it in at the waist side seams and sleeves. I lengthened it, then spilt up the sides so we can tuck our skirt frills over our hip belts. This is a prototype that took two hours last week to whizz up on the overlocker in stretch, crush velvet. 

I needed to do a bit more work to get some of the wrinkles out. I need to make it tighter or eat more cake but I am nearly there.

...one week later....better?
  

I think this photo perfectly illustrates my dressmaking fitting issues. My backside is never in the same size as my waist fitting and I am short in the back with a sway too.

In the end, I used two front darts and two back darts to make the body smooth. This is it without skirt frill tucked in and it certainly is warm.

Tomorrow night we are dancing so I hope it works out OK.

"Always dance like nobody's watching..."
(Mark Twain)

Jo xxxxx

Crafting the kit

POW!

Source: Photos by Ian Woodward at the Hooded Lens

Today's story starts on August Bank Holiday weekend. On the Sunday the Severn Sisters Tribal Belly Dance group, of which I belong, took part in the Big Busk in Shrewsbury as part of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival. It was a mammoth day of dancing every hour from 11am to 5pm. OOOh my arms!

People love our dancing, tenacity and of course the outfits. See more outfits here. I made my own but I am not alone, many others in the group craft their way to an amazing outfit adding trinkets, bits and bobs, swingy things and coins. My skirt is two charity shop finds, one cut in half and inserted into the other one to get a really swishy gypsy skirt.

However, a full day of jiggling about shook some of my kit to pieces.

My headdress band broke, my crochet scarf at the back got snagged too many times on the coins and the crochet halter neck top pulled at my neck by the end of the day. 

  Time to rehash I think....

It started with salvaging bits and pieces from my old kit and collecting stuff from round the house. A headband, yarn, an unbelievably uncomfortable pair of ankle bracelets, a table runner and a beady belt from a skirt.

I got out my weaving sticks - never used them but I know they make belts. I started with some Stylecraft yarn.

too thin, so I ripped some strips of sari fabric I was given about five years ago. Nice long pieces.

While I showed Big Sis how to do this (clever girl) I started on crocheting a new bum shawl hip scarf. I bought the five balls of Patons zig zag wool at the folk festival from a craft stall for £2.00 the lot. 

With my triangle made, I added it to the belt. It fitted my hips so I then thought about how to 'tribal' it up a bit. I used the tie belt off an old skirt, some ribbon and some curtain tassels. Perfect.

Next the head dress. I deconstructed the old one, collected the pieces and saved the nice bits. I wrapped matching yarn around the headband.

Look away now if you are of a nervous disposition because then it got a bit wild and carefree... I started really 'getting into it'

I spritzed these white roses with watered down acrylic paint and dryed them with a hairdryer, messed up the bathroom sink, got spotty hands, got paint all over my desk, up the wall and on my work paperwork.... I am loving this...

Time to get out the glue gun and start building. This is so much fun, I can't tell you....

I bent the anklet out and made a coin fringe which sits nicely on my own heavy fringe. It needed feathers, Big Sis has some some purple ones somewhere...rummage, root, frenzy....ah ah!

I don't really have the face for modelling right now.

So onto the top. I liked it but the strain of tying it tightly to contain the jiggling in that area had stretched it somewhat and it hurt the back of my neck. Two straps were needed. I rooted out my oldest bra and sewed it inside the crochet top with the zig zag stretch stitch on my machine, taking the straps over both shoulders.

The pom pom ribbon had split around the neck and the little velvety beads were coming off so I replaced it with a double crochet edge in the chosen yarn. I kept the belly chain which was a necklace I broke down and added only the morning of the busk.

I want wrist cuffs, I don't have them yet but it is always good to have a 'watch' cover up.

Size 2mm hook a tin of old beads and some crochet cotton later...

I added loops and buttons to the table runner and hung it from the belt. Hooray! new outfit.

I will get a photo of me in it next time we are dancing out.

Thanks for sticking with my long, but ultimately fun 

creative story which I loved doing every spare second of this whole week. 

Happy Weekend Jo xxx

The tribe

Been out dancing with the 'Severn Sisters' tribe tonight at a conservation open day. Legs ache, arms ache but I feel dance happy! Alistair is not an impostor at the back, he plays the clarinet live so that we can dance outdoors anywhere.

I am in my pyjamas now ready to remove a tonne of eyeliner. Jo xx

Cabin Candles

My neighbour gave me a bag of OLD candle ends and candles that would not burn or had lost the wick - you know because that is what people do to me. "You could do something with these Jo," they say.

The girls and I set to work making cabin candles in OLD jam jars. They measured the wicks and threaded on a little base to weigh it down, we secured the wick with a felt pen to keep it central.

We melted the candles in an OLD metal bowl on the gas ring. Then sifted out any debris - OLD wick ends, labels, matches etc. with an OLD soup spoon.

Next we poured the wax into an OLD plastic jug, topped up the jars and talked a lot about science type things - hot/cold/melt/solid/liquid/energy/fuel/recycling/light/dark....

They stood in cold water for two hours and there you are, four NEW cabin candles and a science lesson for inquiring minds. What to do next? make four more with purple wax ends of course.

Thanks for stopping by. Jo xxx

Tribal Triangle Tutorial

This is a slightly niche post in that for it to be of any interest to you, you need to be a tribal belly dancer and be able to crochet! It is really for the 'Severn Sisters' ladies who asked me to put together a pattern for a Tribal belly dance belt.

Chain 4, join with a slip stitch in the first chain to form a circle.
Chain 3, 4tr into the ring, chain 3, 5tr into the ring, chain 3, 5tr into the ring, ch3, join with a slip stitch in the top of the first ch3.

You should have a triangle with 3 chains in each corner and 5 trebles along each side (including the ch3)

Join a new colour in a corner, Chain 3, 1 treble in the same corner, do 1 treble in each of the side stitches below 7 times. Make a corner 2tr, 3ch, 2tr all in the corner space. (this combo will be referred to as 'corner' in the rest of the pattern, there is no cue!) Treble 7 stitches along the side, corner, treble 7 stitches along the side, 2tr, 3ch join to first ch3.

Join the next colour, in a corner, Chain 3, 1 treble in the same corner, do 1 treble in the side stitches below 10 times. Make a corner 2tr, 3ch, 2tr all in the corner. Treble in 10 stitches along the side, corner, treble in 10 stitches along the side, 2tr, 3ch join to first ch3.

For the final round join on black in a corner. Chain 3, 2 treble in the same corner, do 1 treble in the side stitches below 12 times. Make a corner 3tr, 3ch, 3tr all in the corner. Treble in 12 stitches along the side, corner, treble in 12 stitches along the side, 3tr, 3ch join to first ch3.

Note: On the final round, the corners have clusters of 3 trebles in them instead of 2 to make it sit nice and flat.

Got that? Now make five triangles.

Chain 50 in black to make the tie, double crochet on the first triangle, chain 5, dc on the next triangle etc... chain 50 for the other end of the tie. I crocheted 5 rows for the belt doing 1dc in each stitch and 2 chains at each end to turn my work.

Add tassels, bells, cowri shells, coins or anything tribal-esque to fit your tribe.

Don't panic Annie, this one is yours! Good Luck to the rest of you. Any problems let me know. 

Yip Jo xxx

Weekend getaway

Last Saturday night I drove an hour to Wrexham to belly dance with the Severn Sisters, the tribal belly dance group I dance with. Here we are all dressed up trying not to be nervous by distracting ourselves with a quiz.

It is just dressing up for grown ups really!

Yip! Jo xxx