CLOSURE

The final thing to be decided is how to close the front edges.  I purchased a kit to make covered buttons and made five from the organza, using four layers to get good coverage and colour  match.  I had been thinking they would look good but instead they seemed to get lost on the garment.  Next thing to try was a plaited muka tie idea that caught the bodice together at the top and left the bottom ends open sort of like a waistcoat idea but I did not really like the finished look of that either.  Then there was the shell idea.

These are the shells we collected from Lonely Bay. Throughout this project I have had them in the back of my mind and often pulled them out and threaded them through the muka or tried to find a place for them.  I had actually been using them throughout the making of the bodice to hold the fronts together when it was on the mannequin.  Just because they are beautifully smooth and are easy to thread in between the whenu without damaging it.  After much deliberation, my Labour Weekend visitors helped me decide.  I would use the shells.  In some ways it seemed like cheating - not having to create buttonholes or even sew them on. Just poke them through and it was done.  Keeping it simple.