What do you think is the right length for summer dresses? (Ok, so that's a tough question on a Monday morning!) Personally, I'm not too fussy, and my decision depends mainly on the occasion and the temperature. When I garden in the summer, for example, I like to wear a short, above-the-knee dress, because I don't like a lot of fabric on me in the heat - I have a bunch of old dresses, short and loose, that I use almost exclusively for gardening. Besides, gardening in a short dress makes me feel I'm doing a good job of blending in with the rest of the female population in the fields in our village: women who wear practical dresses in summer and winter alike (I confess that I only wear a dress in the summer), and with sickle or hoe in hand (yes, yes I've got those!) and a handkerchief on their hair, tied with a knot at the nape (I'm not much of a head cover lover), all working by hand in the fields.
But I have two linen dresses, formerly pregnancy clothes, that are just a touch too long to be comfortable when I garden.
Way below the knee, and just below the knee! Not comfortable for gardening.
I still wear them, but usually I have to make a knot on one side, and with my dress gathered up this way, and sickle and hoe in hand off I go to my garden. Last week, though, I decided to fix the length of those gardening dresses, and do a spot of refashioning, too.
To do this, I got some lace at the street market. The choice was limited, but here's what I came up with:
Taking the dresses in a couple of inches and adding the trimmings took no time at all. Not a glamorous kind of sewing, just simple hemming on old dresses, but refashioning and turning those old dresses into something that I actually can comfortably wear again was very satisfying. Besides, they make me feel I'm doing a pretty good job of blending in with the rest of my fellow lady farmers in the village:
Well, sort of.
