George and Ginger Summer Festival Tour

June 22, 2018

George and Ginger Summer Festival Tour

Hi everyone, and welcome to my stop on George and Ginger's Festival Fever Blog Tour. Inspired by summer festivals we've been busy making awesome outfits with George and Ginger patterns*.

Well, I don't have a summer festival to sew for (it's actually been cold here lately), but I did have a fun festival coming up - a Winter Wine Festival. My friends I would be hopping on and off a bus as we visited local wineries, with festival bonuses like live music, lunch options and more.

I knew the look I was after, something funky and a bit boho. Something I could wear without having to worry about tight pants, or wardrobe malfunctions. And something I could wear with my brown felt hat (the headwear of choice for previous years). Looking through all the George and Ginger patterns, I finally settled on the Road Trip Bodysuit, and the Festival Freebies Skirt.

This outfit worked really well for the wine festival - paired with tights, scarf, jacket and my nicest gumboots (those wineries can get muddy). I've also worn it out for dinner and drinks. In summer I'd go for a shorter sleeve, and lose the tights for an option more suited to the warmer weather. I ended up taking a second lot of photos of the clothes for this post - it's actually quite tricky to get decent photos partway through a day of winery visits.

First pick was the fabric for the skirt. I knew I wanted something in rayon. It's so versatile, drapes beautifully, and isn't too hard to sew with. I found this floral print on a maroon background on sale at Spotlight (my only local fabric store). I figured it would work nicely with a solid brown cotton lycra in my stash.

The skirt is pretty fabric hungry. I couldn't see any obvious orientation on the pattern, so saved a bit of fabric rotating my pieces around.

Following the instructions for my skirt I chose a size based on my hip measurement. On reflection, next time round I would cut my waistband piece based on my waist measurement (this would mean a tighter gather, and less 'wrap' at the front). I shortened the length of the skirt, as I'm a little sorter than the pattern is drafted for. This was pretty simple, as the pattern includes finished length measurements, and I could check my waist to ankle measurement against this, and the pattern piece. The pattern also has a lengthen/shorten line, which made the process a breeze. The only tricky bit was remembering to shorten the back piece by the same amount (so not too tricky at all).

I had these beautiful wooden flower buttons that worked nicely with the look I as going for, so added my button holes so that they would be visible.

I originally had the waistband a little looser. I was hoping to have it sit more on my high hip than actual waist. But because the waistband doesn't have any shaping (and thanks to my sway back and ample rear), it wasn't sitting flat, so I shortened the waistband to sit at my waist. I already had the buttonholes in, so ended up pinning out the excess at centre back, then unpicking, chopping out a chunk, and regathering the skirt into the available waist band.

I haven't worn a bodysuit since the mid nineties. I had a couple that I'd wear with jeans, and I'd feel like the coolest girl ever (except for the poppers digging into my crotch). So I was interested to see how a bodysuit works twenty years later.

I'm loving the bodysuit. No tops coming untucked, or cool breezes across your kidneys. The Road Trip Bodysuit is cut low across the tops of the legs (also a bonus if you're nervous wearing a wrap skirt on a windy day), which is a little different from my 90's bodysuits. I think I still have a bit of work adjusting the legs and crotch to fit just right. I used size 16 cam snaps to make a snap crotch. I didn't have any trouble opening or closing them (even by the end of the wine festival), and so far no digging into my flesh either (win!).

I went for 3/4 sleeves on my bodysuit, as I only had a 1m cut of cotton lycra. But the awesome news is, you can make this bodysuit (size 10-12) with a 1m cut of fabric!!

So those are all the details of this great look. I already have plans to take it out for some more fun. There are a number of cool things coming up - food truck festivals, giant art installations, twighlight markets and even some music concerts!