20 posts tagged “shwe shwe”
I read this morning on the Joburg website that the Fashion Kapitol is almost complete.
This has been a long term project as part of the rejuvenation of the inner city, and I am very excited that it is near completion. I think I was last there two or three years ago when then the project was still getting the momentum it needed.
I was happy to read that Bongiwe Walaza has taken space there, as she has done some wonderful things with Shwe shwe, and will soon be making a trip down town to visit this new fashion hub.
In South Africa at the moment there is quite a bit of doom and gloom, but projects like this , that are so clearly invested in the future really brighten my day.
You can read up more about this exciting precinct here - Fashion Kapitol Almost Complete
The Wren - whose gorgeous shwe shwe bags I have mentioned before has made the lovliest little bird pouches made from remnant shwe shwe and other fabrics.
They are so lovely thought, that the moment she puts them up on her esty shop they fly away as fast as their wings can carry them to other peoples homes.
I have heard that there are more on the way, so I will keep my beady birds eye on The Wrens blog and the etsy page and see if I can make one of them mine.
(hopefully before then I can remember the number for my Internet Banking log in - a silly sequence of numbers I can type without thinking, but stopped to think while typeing it yesterday and now like the Wrens lovely birds, that number has flown away from my grasp. Even my sub conscious mind tried to capture it, as I dreamt about it several times last night. When I remember it I can transfer some funds to my credit card for happily well deserved shwe shwe bird purchases )
I have been chatting to Miss P who wants to make a bubble dress out of shwe shwe, an exciting idea.
She was telling me about Makoti, a great store in downtown Johannesburg that makes great shwe shwe outfits, and I went to have a look at their site. There are some of the most beautiful creations and traditional outfits well worth perusing on makotis.co.za . They have many different styles and traditional dresses. I loved this one with its one sleeve wrap around top.
If you have made a bubble skirt ever, or have any advice for Miss P on making one please let me know and we can make her dream dress come true.
I bought some great new shwe shwe at my favourite store Arthur Bales in Linden last week.
I love the spirals because they remind me of the spirograph I used to love playing with as a child. My nephew and niece recently got one too, and I got to relive some of the fun while showing them how to use it.
The stripes are quite unusual for a shwe shwe pattern, so I had to get them too.
I think I might cover the cushions of the morris chair on my front veranda with these two fabrics . I had originally thought I would use the fabric to make reusable gift bags, but when they started measuring it out I succumbed and asked for two more meters of each for possible cushion covers.
Two of my neighbours kids had their birthdays recently. Birthdays for some of these kids are very different from the birthdays of my nephew and niece (In scenario one my niece got to choose to a nother real live pony as a present as well as a smothering of gifts and a very inappropriate amount of money in each card at her birthday party that all the screaming girls counted up at the end. In scenario two, Clinton who who is of the same age got a school jersey for winter as his gift, which was a bit of a luxury as he goes to high school next year, and so needs whole new school uniform next year anyway)
When I asked one set of neighbours what I could contribute to a birthday they asked if it was possible to get a cake ( One, small cake - as his only treat)
I normally bake with these children from time to time anyway so I invited both of them and their siblings to come and bake and decorate their own cakes on Saturday.
Here in this picture are Nandio, Fiona and Lebsie wearing some of my collection of Shwe shwe Madiba aprons. They were for sale at most Pick and Pay stores a while ago and I bought one in every colour and pattern. Even though you can only wear one apron at a time, I often have several bodies in my kitchen helping out, and they made lovely gifts, so I could justify buying one of each.
Ever since I started taking a deeper look at shwe shwe and the way the reverse of the material was used I was determined to use it in a dress with reverse bodice details. I had an idea in my mind of what type of dress I would like it to be, but not until reading on Erin's Blog Dress a day about her love of the Duro dress did I have a name and some history to put to the image of the dress I had in my head.
Last year when I went shopping for Vauneen for some shwe shwe to make into her lovely family made cot quilt for baby Tau, she also chose a pattern for a dress as I had offered to make her one, and while she paged through the pattern books I choose a pattern for a dress for myself. It turns out we both chose almost identical patterns, just from different books.
The red dress is one I made for the lovely Elke for her birthday. She is my gardening inspiration and so the flower pattern was quite applicable. Sometimes the reverse of the shwe shwe is quite dark and not much of the pattern shows through, but in this the faint white flowers shone through nicely. I had bought some broad red floral ribbon for something else that seemed perfect for this dress so I added it as a trim instead of the traditional reverse.
The brown one is the dress I made for myself. I could get it work the first few times I wore it, but I realise now that the cotton was still a bit stiff. After a few washes it no longer stands straight but flows comfortably and has become one of my favourite summer dresses. I think it will work well for me in Autumn , early winter too, as I am not fond of long sleeves, even in winter and think tights and boots with this dress will work well.
you can see some more gorgeous Duro Dresses here
Sarah from The Needle and Damage done
Modified Duro from Stacy Sews
Princess of Bob made this gorgeous brown and turquoise one
I am so lucky that my awesome friend Marlise only lives two blocks away from me, and we can pop into to see each other for tea and see each other with such ease. It makes it really easy to share things like books, and get things like pieces of cake and vegetables to each other with no fuss.
We are also now starting to share more things namely the children in our street. The children who live around us in my street are here often - for a safe green garden to play in, food, help with homework or to come and play with pester my pets.
Marlise has a similar thing happening in her street and recently the children of her street and my street have figured out we are friends and are combining their efforts, which is sometimes a real handful.
Waiting for Marlise to come home last week, her bunch saw that I was home and wanted to play in my garden until Marlise came home.
So this is Lesego from Putney Road, in a lovely red shwe shwe summer top that her mom made for her. It has a white bias binding edge that ties the shirt up behind her neck.
The Fulham road children (in my street) are used to my fascination with shwe shwe even though they think its a bit traditional but Lesego was very tickled that her shirt was worth photographing.
One of the fun things about being at home and sewing is that my fluffy cat who has made appearances elsewhere in this blog loves to "assist" me. I think I over locked some of her tail into a garment last week, and have developed a new technique of sewing so that she always has something to sit on.
Unfortunately she finds pattern paper great fun and whenever I try pin a pattern to some fabric she appears from out of nowhere and tears through it. Great fun (for her, less so for me) .
When I brought home my latest shwe shwe she came over to investigate what I was doing and my 3 Cats branded fabric became 4 cats.
I spent a year as an exchange student with AFS in Switzerland and still have a close connection with my host parents.
It is my swiss moms birthday a few days before mine and this year I wanted to send her something that was South African, but not ordinary, so obviously I sent her a skirt like my favourite brown shwe shwe one. ( The one the the delightful E gave me, she also organised the one I sent to my mom)
I got a SMS yesterday from Switzerland saying how beautiful she thought the skirt was and how delighted she was with the present. Hooray!
I hope that they have some good summer days left, because the style of these wrap around skirts is so comfortable.
I also posted one to my 'sister' who spent a year with us as an exchange Student in Germany.
My friend Carina alerted me to the fact that a local Bridal expo held in Johannesburg recently had some Shwe shwe dresses being modelled. She sent me some pics of them, and I went to their website, Bridal Africa to see if I could find any more information.
From the look of most of the dresses it was not a very traditional wedding/bridal show. The dress Carina orignnally alerted me to was the blue one, but I am quite tickled by the very red and yellow layered one.
I know that my sister-in-law, Ann is looking for a something along these designs for her wedding dress, so i will send the links on to her too.
Thanks Carina.
