Tjilkamala Rockhole

I’ve made up the first of my indigenous fabrics that I bought back in … June? I think, and I posted about it here…

this stunning print is Tjilkamala Rockhole, designed by Alice Nampitjinpa; it was produced by Ikuntji Artists and I bought it through FlyingFox Fabrics

I decided upon a simple little dress with matching hat ensemble, inspired by this Marimekko outfit I’d seen many years ago… btw I had to search and search and search to find this image!! Note to self; always “pin” your favourite pictures!

I picked one of my favourite “simple” little shift dress patterns, the Named Inari tee dress, and Vogue 8844 for my matching hat. These are both patterns I’ve used many times before, and I love them both. I did my usual modification for the Inari dress by putting inseam pockets into those elegantly swooping side seams. Oh, and I also widened the sleeve at the hem edge with a big big wedge insertion, as described here. This adjustment enables you to lift your arms over your head without the dress riding up so much as to expose your knickers underneath. Truth! It does make quite a difference to the wearability of this dress, particularly in a non-stretch fabric.

For the neckline facings, I used a deep chocolate brown cotton voile, bought originally from Fabulous Fabrics. I also cut the artist’s name and that of the print from the selvedge, and stitched them to the back facing. I like doing this for special fabrics, and this is surely a very special fabric!

I did a search to find out which way up the print was supposed to go. To the best of my knowledge, this is correct

I’ve made the Inari so many times before I don’t have much else to add … oh, except I did do something a bit different with the hem!

wait; what’s this? WHERE’S THE HEM?!!

So the hemline for the Inari has side splits and a high/low hemline, so you can see the underside of the fabric quite clearly when you’re wearing the dress, especially when sitting down… and the wrong side of this fabric is the solid, deep chocolate brown that is the background of the print. I decided I didn’t like the idea of seeing the print of the hem visible inside the dress and only wanted to see plain chocolate brown fabric.

So; to “camouflage” those hems I cut wide bias cut strips of same chocolate brown voile that I used for the neckline facings and attached these along the fold line for the hem. I then folded the top edge over and inside the raw edge of the hem, to hide the print and machine stitched close to the edge. Finally, I hand stitched the hem to the dress as normal. So yes, the full 3cm hem of the dress is there, and essentially the chocolate brown voile is acting like a “mask” over the top of it, hiding the print. The side splits were also “masked” under bias cut strips in the same way.

All side splits and hems were hand-stitched, so as to avoid any visible stitching on the outside of the garment that would besmirch the purity of that beautiful print.

The hat: I LOVE the hat! even though if I’m realistic I know I’m probably going to get more wear out of the dress, but I still love it! Serendipitous thing; when I dug out the pattern, I found to my great joy that past me had cut an extra brim interfacing, once upon a time. It was neatly folded up in with the pattern pieces. I’d completely forgotten about it, but I guess the last time I’d made the pattern I must have thought I needed two. Yay, past me! Making the hat is simple enough… you can read my review of this terrific pattern here… I used the same chocolate brown cotton to line it as for the inner bits of the dress. I did put my own label in the hat! I also put in a hanging ribbon in under the grosgrain ribbon just a small scrap from my sewing basket. A hanging loop is not part of the pattern, and not an essential thing either, but it’s also something I think comes in very handy when you do have one in the hat. I’m really glad of the one in my khaki hat and many times I’ve thought about putting one in my white hat. I think I’m just going to get on and do that right now…

I bought the chocolate brown grosgrain ribbon from Spotlight. You can see here a patched bit in the brim lining… I didn’t do this because I didn’t have enough fabric, I have plenty! I actually have enough leftover for a little skirt sometime down the track too, but only if I was a bit devious with my cutting out here. I decided a small patch in the brim lining was a small sacrifice to pay to leave myself enough fabric for that future skirt!

my labels are from the Dutch Label Shop…

So, obviously I’m pretty happy with my new ensemble!! It feels super special. I love how it’s such a visually exciting and eye-catching print, but most of all I love how it’s also so completely Australian. It’s just beautiful. I am particularly happy and thrilled to have found places to buy indigenous fabrics, to be able to support indigenous artists, and of course I am most certainly going to purchase more in the future, once I’ve finished making up the other print I bought in June. I already have my eye on a few more!