Ok, so this post is somewhat different and not totally related to primates. Ever since I came back from doing my research in Uganda I have been fascinated by African wax block print fabrics/textiles. My dear friend Jassy a.k.a African Princess Barbie b/c she is extremely fashionable and beautiful, whom I would visit on the weekends or whenever I travelled into town, Fort Portal, to obtain supplies, food, and use the internet cafes, provided me with the dearly missed female stereotypical familiarity of shopping, African style. She thought it was unusual that I did not bring with me any skirts or dresses which I had to explain to her that it was not practical to wear while trekking through the forest especially with all the ants, itchy nettles and million and other things. So as my farewell present (yes it is unusual to say and allow but she was from a "well to do family" and is a city girl) she had a dress and a skirt and top outfit custom made for me. She picked out the f abric from the market and had a more traditional African dress made for me that had a fish tail skirt with ruffles and slightly off the shoulder sleeves in a red, yellow, green and blue design. The second outfit was a black and white pattern, hence I was studying the black and white monkeys! It was a simple A line skirt and a separate strapless top with some embellishment stitching at the top!!! Absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately, I need to get the zipper fixed as once I tried to wear it properly with a strapless bra the zipper busted. Hmm, I guess I should have known better. In return, I got Jassy the same thing for her good bye present, a skirt and dress and a necklace to go with them which were made esp ecially for her which she was delighted about!
Towards the end of my stay another lady within the field site as we referred to as "Baby Momma" (her real name was Immaculate) offered to make me an outfit (cause clearly I needed a skirt or dress and was to manly in my trousers and capri pants lol). So I agreed, selected with the help of the locals, and paid her a reasonable price for the outfit I thought she was going to make. And to my surprise, she outsourced the project and was actually the middle "man" and had it made by a seamstress in Fort Portal (cheeky but I must say smart). The top was a gorgeous tunic and even had piping on the edges and a long fish tail deep blue skirt. I was extremely impressed by all of the outfits.
So I guess that is why I am now a bit obsessed with trying to make my own African print dress using a 1950's simple dress pattern and African wax print block fabric. It makes me wish I had my grandmother's sewing machine that she gave me or could use her newer one and had her old dress patterns. But with technology today and the trusty internet here is what I found so far for inspiration!
http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/1950s-dress-with-african-fabric
http://www.coutureallure.com/products/vintage-40s-african-print-cotton-sun-dress-medium-bust-38
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