On a Postal Outfit

Finally getting this up!!!

When I came across this airmail fabric, I knew I wanted to make a skirt with it (for those who have been following awhile, get ready to see good old Simplicity 3773 again).
 

This very quickly became a "if you give a mouse a cookie..." sort of outfit after I started working on the skirt. First, I decided I needed some sort of mail themed brooch and so I went looking for a postage stamp one, but managed to find this darling envelop instead! 

Having found a brooch, I clearly needed a bag to go with it, which ended up being my favorite part of my outfit. For me the obvious choice was to make a large envelop, since the Tim Holtz fabric set that included the print I used for the skirt also had a striped print that could be made into bias tape and used for an airmail envelop.

That established, I still needed an address to put on the bag and after a bit of thinking I turned to one of my favorite non-fiction books, 84, Charing Cross Road, which is a collection of letters exchanged between a woman named Helene Hanff and the people who run Marks Co. Bookstore in London starting in the 1940's. To take it a step further, I did a quick search to see if I could find what Hanff's writing looked like, found a few letters online, and then freehand embroidered the addresses on my bag to look like her handwriting. 

Here I'll admit to getting overly ambitious and it took forever (the return address alone took a little longer the length of the movie 84, Charing Cross Road), but it was more than well worth it! 

 

I think I bought all but one or two of the fabric designs in this set to make this outfit....

And when it all came together, I had the perfect outfit (and the perfect excuse to sing "Mail Myself to You")!

 ♥️ ✉ ♥️