Orchids In May

Back in Shanghai

Posted by Stephanie on October 21, 2012 · 4 Comments 

Well, I’m back in Shanghai again. This time it’s for a couple of weeks, (the last trip was for less than a week), so I actually get to spend some time on the weekend looking around. The weather here is great, it’s the middle of autumn – my favourite part of my favourite season.

Today I decided to go to Sunday brunch at the Westin. It was amazing. For about 90AUD, I got all I could eat seafood (lobster, crabs, prawns, oysters, mussels – you name it), caviar, roast meats, roast duck/goose/chicken/pigeon, sweets, cakes, pastries, chocolates, salads, you name it. Then to wash it all down I got all-you-can-drink Veuve Cliquot. THEN they had a small orchestra, opera singers, dancers, Chinese drummers &  acrobats providing entertainment. Even though I was by myself, I met some other people there & had a great time. The whole event runs from about 11:30am until about 2:30pm. After 2:30 the champagne stops but they’ll keep bringing you tea & coffee. If you’re ever in Shanghai on a Sunday – check it out, it was a great way to to spend an afternoon.

I wasn’t quite sure what to wear (sometimes the dress code in China ends up being quite informal), so I decided to wear this skirt which I made back in July, but I just haven’t had a chance to post about it. I wore it heaps while I was in Spain & Greece & I know I’m going to wear it a lot this summer in Australia. It’s circle skirt made of a semi-sheer polyester with a shorter linen pencil skirt as lining. The linen-polyester combo I used here is the same as this top. It’s a really nice combo for summer, the linen breathes nicely & the polyester doesn’t crease.

The pattern was self-drafted & the whole thing only took me a couple of hours to make. I also added some horsehair braid to the hem to give the skirt a little more flounce.

There’s not to much more to say about this skirt. It was super easy to make & I love it!

Finally, I’m sure you’re all wondering how much fabric I bought on this trip.

Well, I wasn’t really planning to buy any fabric this trip, but I did, (are you surprised?). I was wandering through the copy markets & tailor stalls under the  Science & Technology Centre & saw a tailor shop with some really nice looking suits & suiting fabrics. So I went in and asked the lady about them & if I could buy just the fabric. She thought it was quite a novelty that I wanted to sew something myself but had no issues with selling me the fabric, so I went home with 4m of wool cashmere suiting for the princely sum of 300RMB (about 50USD). I do have a special project in mind for this fabric, but more on that later.

Anyway one last shot of the skirt;