about me

Hello, I’m Carolyn.

I live in Perth, Western Australia, and I like to make things. Lots of things… starting with all my own clothes. Sometimes I make things for unsuspecting family members too, but not so often 😉

A little history: I’ve been making clothes for myself since I was about 12, on and off, then made all my children’s clothes when they were little, which is fun, because they’re all cute and little, you know. Then my kiddies grew up some and I got back to getting more serious about making my own clothes again. I started writing this blog as a way of documenting the things that I made… I was having a conversation with my sister-in-law Sandi, about my sewing, and she was mentioning this that and the other thing that I’d made, and I realised there were so many things, some of them that I LOVED and was hugely proud of; and that had got worn to death and tossed out, lots of them with absolutely no photographic evidence that they’d ever existed. This made me a little sad, so I resolved to start gathering all the pictures I could find of everything I’d made, and start taking pictures of any new things. Sandi proposed a photo album… my birthday was coming up and she said she’d get me one for a birthday present. So she started hunting for an album, I started collating pictures. And I started this blog, as a kind of stop-gap, until I got the album. I’d also found a few fashion blogs by this time, which I enjoyed reading and looking at people’s outfit of the day pictures, and thought I would do something similar with my sewing… a kind of fashion blog but with my sewing projects. Sandi never found a good album, gave me something else instead, and I kept going with the blog… I had lots of fun, going out for walks in my new sewing creations, with my camera and my four-legged best friend Sienna in tow, taking pictures and writing short diary-style articles about my ootd. For a long time I thought no one read, or would ever read, my blog, apart from a few family members… I still remember the delight and amazement when I received an actual comment, from a person who I didn’t even know! and who read my blog and was enjoying it… how incredible!!!

6 different ways: from the early days of the blog, one thing I liked doing was to “style” my clothes in a variety of different outfits, I settled on 6 as a good number, and so started a little series of “6 different ways”. I take an item of my clothing and style it in six separate and different outfits, and take pictures of them. Partly for fun, partly in an attempt to breathe new life into a thing if I felt it was getting stale and also because you know when you’re getting dressed in the morning and might be struggling for inspiration, it’s handy to have in mind a few good combinations you can grab and put on and it’s nice to feel confident that they are going to look good and not too weird. I still do it every now and again 🙂

Tutorials: in the early days I was also teaching my daughter Cassie how to sew and I started writing a few sewing tutorials, partly for her to reference if she ever needed to, and partly for myself; so I could remember how to do something again in the future. I’m always experimenting in my sewing, and trying to work out new and interesting details and things to incorporate into my clothing, something to lift it up and make it a little out of the ordinary. I’ve often written tutorials upon request; for people who might admire a technique I’ve devised for a project and write to ask me how it’s done. I’m always happy to oblige! you only have to ask 🙂

Late 2009 I discovered Wardrobe Refashion, and was like; “my people!” it was amazing; here were other ladies who loved to sew just like me, and further more; like to take cruddy old unloved garments, hack them apart and put them back together again in new and exciting ways. I’d done this sort of thing once or twice, and it was fun! The premise behind the group was that you pledged to not buy any new clothes.. it was a very eco-friendly concept… you were supposed to either make everything yourself or only buy second hand or used clothing. You could take the Wardrobe Refashion Pledge, a 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 1 year, or the Biggie; a Life Time Pledge! I thought this was all totally fantastic; so threw myself right into it; taking the 3 month pledge. When this was up; I took a 6 month pledge, and then when that was over, I took a deep breathe and made the Life Time Pledge. The Wardrobe Refashion site is no longer updated, but I’ve still kept up with that pledge! and haven’t bought a single rtw item ever since. I guess it just goes to show what a stubborn and single minded person I can be…

As time went on, new sewing sites and forums were popping up that you could join and showcase your work and “meet” other sewing peeps; I duly joined Burda style, Pattern Review, Kollabora, Artisan’s Square, the Foldline, me-made May, which I’ve done twelve times now! one week one pattern, (three times), instagram challenges… there are so many! I’ve joined in pretty much everything there is to join, but have always kept up Ye Olde Blog here all along though. I guess because it’s just for me, it’s like my diary.

And theeeeen, I started making shoes… which led to my Year of Handmade; The Biggest, HUGEST thing I ever attempted in my quest to make things. I pledged to wear only my own handmade clothing for a period of one year. By that; I mean everything including my clothes, underwear, shoes, tights, socks, coats, jackets, bathers… EVERYTHING. I started on 22nd February 2016 and finished on the 22nd February 2017. Although I was so conditioned by the experience I actually went on for a further three or four days before I could bring myself to put on a pair of shoes I had not made myself! It was like Stockholm syndrome, or something… I took a photo of my outfit every day, with links to the posts in which I had made each component thereof, sort of for proof and documentation purposes. Since that finished, I still wear my handmade clothes of course, since 99% of my wardrobe is made by me and I only have a few, very old, rtw items left from pre- my Wardrobe Refashion Lifetime pledge. I have allowed myself to buy a few pairs of shoes since, but am still happily making them for myself too. I just can’t help myself, I guess 🙂

Instagram: in my early instagram days I just kept my account very non-sewing and quiet for a long time. Then IG blew up with sewing peeps! everyone moved over there, which is fabulous… so I’ve moved a lot of my sewing progress over to there in my stories recently. Every time I do something sewing wise, I post it in my stories…

During 2013 I had my Paper Doll project, where I drew a pencil sketch of my outfits every day in my Fashionary…

… and since beginning of 2014 I’ve kept an OOTD blog. This is mostly just for me to keep track of my clothing: a quick visual to see nothing’s getting too shabby, or whether an outfit that looks ok in the mirror doesn’t look horrible in real life, and also to count how often I wear stuff. Yes, I’m the kind of weirdo who does that… I update the blog daily, and once a month go back over it and do a quick tally. I keep a separate excel spreadsheet and update it with the number of “wears” a thing has had

I have so much enjoyed “meeting” people though; for was such a long time that I was the only person I knew that enjoyed sewing, apart from my Mum, my daughter, and my good friend Denise. One of the best things about having my blog is all the very lovely people I’ve met, both online and for real, who also love sewing, in different countries, all over the world. Who I might never have even known otherwise! This is the best and most miraculous magic of the internet… and something I am truly thankful for, every single day. What would we do without it?!!!

So, that’s my activities and my blog in a nutshell…

I can be contacted on:

csmith.australia@gmail.com

I’ve changed my profile picture almost every year… the picture at top is my current profile pic, 2020

2009-10