Sew like a sailor, Run like a sailor!

I did indeed finish my peplum top in time to wear it to Karen’s V&A Ballgowns meetup on Friday, even though it meant sewing the hem over breakfast on Friday morning! You can see a sneak peek of it in the top photo on her site, though the peplum itself is hidden by my knees! Fingers crossed I can get a photoshoot done one evening this week, because my weekend was full of other activities…

As I shared with you last week, part of my preparation/reward for my marathon training was to run the Bacchus half marathon this weekend. It’s a half-trail, half-road, fancy dress (costumed) race through a vineyard in Surrey with wine tasting every 2 miles, plus a free glass of wine and hog roast at the end. See why I signed up??


Isn’t it funny that the sailor outfit is the first photoshoot in ages not to occur on a boat??

You’ve probably spotted it already, but the skirt is another Jalie running skirt – this is my third, and this is definitely my go-to for warm weather running bottoms (for cooler weather, you can’t beat the Ooh La Leggings!)

The top/vest/singlet is self drafted from my tweaked knit sloper, plus an added kerchief that I drafted from the sloper’s neckline. The kerchief is double layered, and attached to the neckline by overlocker, with the seam showing on the “right” side, which in this case is hidden under the kerchief. I tacked it down at the shoulders and that was enough to keep the seam hidden. Rather than physically tie a knot on the front ties, I instead made a loop to make it look a bit neater, and the “grabbiness” of the supplex was enough that it didn’t slip at all.

I did indeed finish my peplum top in time to wear it to Karen’s V&A Ballgowns meetup on Friday, even though it meant sewing the hem over breakfast on Friday morning! You can see a sneak peek of it in the top photo on her site, though the peplum itself is hidden by my knees! Fingers crossed I can get a photoshoot done one evening this week, because my weekend was full of other activities…

As I shared with you last week, part of my preparation/reward for my marathon training was to run the Bacchus half marathon this weekend. It’s a half-trail, half-road, fancy dress (costumed) race through a vineyard in Surrey with wine tasting every 2 miles, plus a free glass of wine and hog roast at the end. See why I signed up??


Isn’t it funny that the sailor outfit is the first photoshoot in ages not to occur on a boat??

You’ve probably spotted it already, but the skirt is another Jalie running skirt – this is my third, and this is definitely my go-to for warm weather running bottoms (for cooler weather, you can’t beat the Ooh La Leggings!)

The top/vest/singlet is self drafted from my tweaked knit sloper, plus an added kerchief that I drafted from the sloper’s neckline. The kerchief is double layered, and attached to the neckline by overlocker, with the seam showing on the “right” side, which in this case is hidden under the kerchief. I tacked it down at the shoulders and that was enough to keep the seam hidden. Rather than physically tie a knot on the front ties, I instead made a loop to make it look a bit neater, and the “grabbiness” of the supplex was enough that it didn’t slip at all.

I bought a metre each of white and navy supplex from Tia Knight on eBay (aka Tissu Fabrics) and that was just the right amount for this. I’m also pleased to report that the white supplex is nowhere near as see-through as it appears in the store photo!

I also bought 2 packs of 4 iron-on silver embroidered stars off eBay, placing two on the back of the kerchief, and three along each side of the skirt. I also added a few lines of silver fabric paint to the kerchief to really set the stars off nicely and act as a bit of a border.

The salior’s cap is just a cheapie I bought off Amazon and bobby pinned to my hair for the race – I did have to ask the sponge man to avoid it as he doused me at Mile 8, so I wasn’t running around with a pool of water on my head!

I know these are mostly action-shots of the costume, so have a look at the detail shots I posted last week if you’d like to see more!

All in, the costume cost me: £7 (white supplex) + £7 (navy supplex) + £4.50 (stars) + £2.30 (hat) = £20.80. You could barely buy a cheap costume for that, let alone one you’d want to run in for two hours! (And indeed, throw in the wash and wear again for another race!)

Don’t believe me? Here’s a few shots that James took of me along the course! Apparently I came around to the second spot way faster than he was expecting and he nearly missed me!

You can see that the front ties of my kerchief bounced a bit as I ran, but nothing on the costume annoyed me in the slightest (and I’m easily annoyed as I run!). In fact, I’m super, super pleased with the fit of my top in particular, and I’m going to trace off this evolution of my sloper as my go-to running top (albeit with a round neck instead of a V)!

As for the race itself, it was HOT and HILLY in equal measure, especially for someone used to flat urban running! The biggest climb went on for several miles up the North Downs, and we were only spitting distance from Box Hill (which you may have just seen on tv as part of the Olympic cycling course!), so you know the kind of hills I’m talking about!

My official chip time was 1:58:58 and I was the 5th(!!) female finisher in a race of several hundred, which just blows my mind. It’s by no means a PB, but considering the first across the line were only in the 1:40s, I did really, really well. I was nervous over the “No headphones” rule, but it meant I had some great chatter with other runners and the super friendly marshals, and I ended up running the last mile (and exciting sprint finish for the spectators!) with a nice guy I met around Mile 11.

It was a fabulous day, and I wasn’t even concerned with my time – just having a good time. To my surprise, I also learned that I’m actually awesome at hills, too – I passed loads of people on the uphill stretches, I want to focus more on them post-Amsterdam. Afterwards, we enjoyed the friendly, village fete atmosphere of the hog roast, wine, and ice cream in the sunshine before heading back to London hours later. You can’t ask for much more in a race, and there’s a reason why this one gets such glowing reviews on Runners World!

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