No, not me.  As if!  The eponymous Babe was admired from afar, she will never know of my existence or how she inspired me.  Let me set the scene.  We have travelled to The Other Side of the World.  We are jet-lagged, we are hungry, we have embarked upon a possibly over-ambitious hike along the coast:  To Bondi or bust!

From the South, you pass though Bronte to get to Bondi.  This is Bronte:

This is Bondi:

Two very different bays in close proximity.  If Bondi and Bronte were siblings Bondi would be a buff man mountain, Bronte would be an intelligent, hip, Bohemian beauty.  It was at Bronte that I spotted my muse, an athletic 20 something clad in a jersey maxi.  Empire line.  Horizontal stripes over the bust, vertical stripes over the hips.  I stored that dress in the sewing vault of my mind in the way that most people would have committed to memory the vintage sports car that she leapt into or the besotted boyfriend who drove them off into the distance.

A year later my homage to the Bronte Beach Babe is finished.

It’s a self-drafted, empire-line maxi made from an unidentified charity shop fabric.  Probably donated by a Punch and Judy tent maker.  Or a barber shop pole painter.  Or a strobe-control operative.  It’s lined to the knee and has a side zip.  I suspect that I will end up reinforcing that waist seam as I’ve had to repair it once already and I’m not sure that I would recommend the bias binding hem finish.  A sophisticated rolled hem would look much more slick.  Apart from that, she’s great for hiding an unshaven leg or two.

What’s in the sewing vault of your mind?