Style 4890, butterflies, poincianas and a beautiful house

Just look at that poinciana. How beautiful? I love love love flowering trees, and from mid year till christmas, Darwin gets one flowering tree after another after another. The poincianas flower during the worst weather of the year (Oct/Nov), so you get a very typically Darwin-like dichotomy of horrible weather and glorious colour.

Oh yeah, sorry, forgot to mention: I made a tunic-dress from Style 4890. See the little butterflies on the fabric? So sweet. (That’s my mum on the right, wearing a dress from Burda 8379)

If you’re not into the orange-reds of the poinciana, perhaps the cooler reds of this frangipani are more to your delight?

Oh yeah, sewing. I wanted something to test the pattern before I used it on this gloriously vibrant blue and white butterfly fabric:

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This sweet green butterfly fabric jumped (flew?) out of my stash and volunteered for the job. I had enough for a tunic. Nice and cool to wear round the house, but works well with my bloomers for streetwear.

I love all the reds in this picture.

I love how easy it is to fit my back with the help of some shoulder darts so common in vintage patterns. Modern patterns should routinely have them too I reckon.

I sized the pattern up from the vintage size 12 to fit my modern size 12(ish), including an FBA, and am pleased with the result.  I didn’t have enough fabric for the pattern’s sleeves so I used my ubiquitous cap sleeve from the Amy Butler Lotus tunic pattern.

(I’ve never actually gotten round to making this pattern up, but I’ve used the cap sleeve on it more times than I can remember, so hey, it was a great buy, right?)

I’ve subsequently sewn the blue and white butterfly dress, just need photos of it. Another post for another time.

The photos were taken at Burnett House, a National Trust property built in1938, during their sunday afternoon tea. Burnett house sits on the cliffs of Myilly Point overlooking Darwin Harbour. The architect, Burnett, designed houses especially suited to the tropics. Rows of louvres rather than windows and walls, roof cavities that let the hot air escape, and building at treetop level to catch the breezes that are cooled as they go through the trees are just some of his innovations. Apparently he was involved in designing the Raffles Bar in Singapore too.

My experience is that the more of his features a dwelling has, the cooler and more liveable it is, and (these days) the less aircon you er, ‘need’. (When I was a kid only really rich people had aircon and even then not usually throughout the entire house, nowadays everyone ‘needs’ it ;-P).

Imagine sleeping in this room. What this picture doesn’t show are the views of the cliffs overlooking the harbour, and the cool breeze stirring through the room even though it was a still hot day outside, in the hottest, yukkiest time of year. Definitely no aircon needed here!

I’ve never done a mirror-selfie in such a pretty setting before.

Well-loved sewing gear. (Remember those patterns, they’ll appear in another post.)

How special is this? The reverse is almost the same as the front. Certainly wasn’t done by an embroidery ham-fist like yours truly…

Another try at capturing the floral beauty of October/November in Darwin