We went to the 2008 Malanka held by the local Ukrainian Association last night. We'd never gone before but will definitely go again. I didn't have my camera last night so this is a picture of the hair band that was decorating our table.Elise (the lovely lady whoinvited us) said I could wear it (and gave us a wonderful doggie bag of sausage and perogies when we went home). There was so much food; we ate perogies and sausages and cabbage rolls until we were stuffed. After dinner there were Ukrainian dances performed by adults and children (the four year olds were so cute) in traditional outfits and then general dances for everyone else (we polka'd to the best of our ability - loads of fun).

Voila ... It’s finally ready to wear. Here is my new tasseled hip scarf.

This is another one of those projects that didn’t take very long to actually make up but a very long time to get around to.

The fabric is intended for dressing up chairs but I kind of liked it when I saw it last summer so I got half a metre. I got the gold tassel fringe at the same time with the idea of making something kind of tribal for dancing. I don’t know how I picked how much fringe to get but it was just enough to go around the bottom of my scarf with two left over tassels (which Zeke stole off the sewing table and chased down the hall) and a bit to turn under at each end.

The final prompting to actually make my scarf came when I discover a skein of acrylic yarn fallen out of my give away pile. It looked like just the right colour for my fabric so I made up a bunch of big tassels (70 turns crosswise around a DVD case if anyone is curious). I think it turned out beautifully. The colours go together well (and work with my usual practice skirt) and the tassels really fly when I move around).

I have quite a bit of the brocade left and I think I will have to make up a vest to match (this will mean having to get some more of the tassel fringe so don’t expect any quick results). I will need to make a choli to wear with it too. The top I’m wearing in the pictures is just a blouse rolled up to tie under my bust - it was the only thing I could find in the right colour. I’ll have to check through my fabric cupboard but I think might have enough of something to make a matching skirt or harem pants as well.