Day 42:  This just might be the strangest dress I ever made.  It's a weird mix of things; kinda elegant, kinda beachy, kinda disco, and all held together with bicycle tire tubes.  I think I like it though.  It is extremely comfortable, and perfect for a hot day.  I started with a skirt that I fished out of the back of my closet (there are a lot of things hidden away back in there).  A friend of mine gave me this skirt about four years ago, and I never wore it because it was too long and the waist was too big.  I was saving it for the day when I would put a new elastic in the waist and shorten it.  After I made my pop tab belt, I was looking for things to wear it with.  I pulled out this skirt and realized it just might be fun as a dress.  The bicycle tire tubes are very functional for a dress like this, because they help to shape the dress and also can stretch to make it easy to take it on and off.
In the past few weeks since my friend passed away, I've been thinking a lot about love.  Perhaps this is because she was married to her husband for 19 years, and they were always so sweet to each other and enjoyed each other's company.  For some reason, I can't picture myself ever having such luck.  I don't know if it is luck so much though, or if it's just that my heart always lets me down.  I fall into love then I fall out of love so easily.  I don't know exactly what this has to do with this dress, but somehow when I wear it I feel these things.  It's the "girl sitting alone at a cafe" dress.  Suddenly this is what I'm wanting in my life.  It is comforting to be alone, drinking in the sunshine and the air.  I'm not exactly single, but I am taking some time to reflect and listen to the whisperings of my heart.  What is it that it needs, this heart of mine?  Who knew that a dress could help accentuate an inner process, help it dare to exist?

Day 43: Another skirt, and even more blue.  All the clothes I've used for this project so far have been blue.  I've never realized until now that blue is one of my favorite colors.  The top photo shows scraps of bicycle tire tube that were left over from previous projects.  I used the scraps to cut out pokka dots to sew onto this skirt.  I sewed a sequin in the center of each one.  This is what makes the skirt humorous to me, that it has sequins made out of a beer can sewn to it, and that the beer happened to be a budlight, a kind of beer I never drink (I have a friend who does).  I cut this flower patch from a shirt several years ago and it was perfect for covering up the little black stain.  The whole pattern has an outer space feel to it.  Again, it is probably another strange item of clothing, but "strange" helps keep the world interesting, n'est-ce pas?