Urban Safari

I can't believe that three years has rolled around since the deadly February earthquake!  I know, to some, this topic is tiresome but this day is not about feeling sorry for ourselves but to celebrate how far we have come.  There are frustrations because things are not moving as fast as some of us would like and I am certainly guilty of that.  I am still waiting after 3 years and 5 months since the 7.1 earthquake, to get my house fixed.  The longer the process takes, the more I want to add to my renovation list.  I am sure my husband is rolling his eyes about now!  Anyway, today is the 3 year anniversary.  It is hot, 26 degrees celcius at 9am, after a hot week (34 degrees on Tuesday), so not much sewing has been done.  I did though managed a new dress last weekend using a piece of fabric picked up last week at Cotura Fashions end of summer sale for $6 per metre.  With anniversary day looming we decided to take a walk around the city centre and get some photos amongst the changing street scape.

My new dress is Urban Safari from Burda Style 2/2013 view 114 and made with a piece of rayon lycra in what I call snake print. This is the only snake you will find in these parts because New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that don't actually have snakes.

I cut the dress to size 38, grading to 40 in the hips.  I used some cotton interlock which I interfaced for the facings.  The pattern didn't call for interfacing but I felt the dress fabric was super stretchy and I didn't want the neckline to pull any lower than the photograph showed.  I shorted the dress and this proved to be my biggest challenge.  Upon wearing it I quickly discovered that it dipped really low at the front.  So once I got home from our site seeing expedition, I got my husband to measure and pin it for me. I was struggling to find volunteers on a hot day and my husband must have felt sorry for me at this point. 

I really love this style and I think it may well be a replacement for my much used and loved NewLook 6071. I am very much looking forward to making an autumn version with long sleeves.

Back to the earthquake....the city is recovering.  The trams have just started running again but on a much smaller route.  Large parts of the city have been reduced to gravel parking lots but new buildings are starting to spring up.  Cathedral square is still dominated by the ruins of the cathedral and it's pigeon residents but the container (Restart) mall still strikes me as a thing of beauty and a testimony to the resilience of the residents of the city.

There is still a way to go as can be seen by the half demolished multi storey building seen on my right in the picture above.

And there are other buildings that are exactly as the urban rescue crews left them in February 2011.