I didn't do much to the original structure of this bodice, but changed the overall form from a long nightdress into a day blouse, by adding different sleeve cuffs and bottom edging...

Dearest Needlework Friends!

How is your week going? We have had chaos upon chaos, and dysfunction spreading rapidly, in our off-grid rental – to the point that we are sending out feelers for another house-sit or temporary living space (*more comfortable than this one!), until we can the sale of my Italian Arthouse, towards our own land and/ or home in Portugal.

In the meantime...

This white blouse was made from a deconstructed nightie, plus some sheet edges that I had laying about… It is a very basic transformation; cutting the skirt off of the nightdress, and replacing it with a border all around. Cutting also the cuffs off and sewing in new wider cuffs, also from the border of the sheet.

I wore the shirt for the first time, out and about to the market in Coja on Saturday, and it felt wonderful! These are some snaps that @vincentnijman took, before we went out. Thanks, Lover!

Wearing a night-garment during the day has a particular energy of calm and comfort; if you’ve been following me a while, you’ll know that in the past I’ve made various dresses out of old sheets and night dresses. I love the smooth deliciousness of vintage cotton, or high quality bed linen.

I adore how even the knowledge that this was once worn in bed affects how I move in a dress, how I sit and how I align my energies and emotions. I feel more protected than when wearing a conventional ‘outside’ kind of clothing.

This reminds me yet again of how important meaning is in clothes: how the backstory of a fabric can affect the feel of it, and how the significance of what we project outwards, into our clothes, can activate certain qualities in them.

Makes me feel like my mission to Make Clothing Magical Again is possible!

This blouse is one of several garments I was working on these past weeks, and I very much look forward to sharing the next ones with you! I am just (mostly!) finishing the dress of stripey pieces, patchworked together; it suddenly became really funky and beautiful, and I cannot wait to show you it – just deciding whether or not to put pockets on it...

With Love to you!

www.claregaiasophia.com