March 2010 - Page 4 of 4 - Handmade by Carolyn

“What a curious feeling…”

08/03/2010 5:01 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

When I sat under this tree today I felt a bit like a gypsy-ish Alice in Wonderland. I had this big solid tree comfortably at my back with its branches swaying and drooping, its canopy of foliage like a whispering crowd of woodland onlookers, I’m looking over a lake sprinkled with silent and watchful ducks and a couple of black swans drifting and foraging in the mud at bottom… all I needed was a cake and a bottle marked “Drink me” though the pool was not of my tears and I could see no dodo… my dog lay peacefully and companionably in the dry grass nearby watching me and waiting patiently for me to finish this strange early morning photography ritual… she’s a faithful soul.
I’m getting braver in my choice of colour combinations; a month ago I would never have worn this top with this skirt. These golden jewelled sandals always feel so light, sparkly and frivolous on my feet, but the solid brown beads anchor me back down. I need anchoring, to be reminded me I have a job to do and it’s time to check back into the office and leave my daydreaming for another day…

Details:
Top; Country Road, dyed with turmeric
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view B, multicoloured polyester chiffon
Necklace; made by me
Sandals; Anna, from MarieClaire
Nail varnish; Fools Paradise, BYS

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, dyeing, Fabulous fabrics, own design, skirt, Spotlight, Vogue 7880

Tea Cosy, specimen 14

07/03/2010 5:20 am \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

This is the fourteenth and final tea cosy I have to show you. This one was for J, and she keeps chooks, thus the three on top. The colouring is also slightly different from the previous chook one I made for our mutual friend C. J has the most divine garden and house filled with antique bits and pieces and every corner is a picture to gladden the heart of a photography freak. She has things like old farming boots, filled with plants and sitting on an old rusty iron table in a leafy corner of the garden; a discarded bike leans casually under a tree; an ornate gate leans against another tree, forming the backrest to a bench; the verandah is hung with quaint birdcages, paint a-peeling, some with bird ornaments perched inside. There is even a rusty jalopy parked in one corner, getting overgrown… She has pet alpacas! I regret deeply I didn’t have my camera when I visited…
She took this picture for me of the cosy with one of her antique finds, a tea caddy. She sent me about six pictures of the cosy, each with cuter and cuter accessories alongside and it was tough for me to narrow the picture choice down to just one! but here it is.
The base is again the base for RolyPoly, from Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior, but the chooks are my own design.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Knitted, own design, Spotlight, tea cosy, wild tea cosies

Orange skirt

06/03/2010 3:03 am \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve finished a new skirt, as part of my autumn wardrobe plans! It was a little delayed in getting finished as I debated whether to go and buy matching cotton to finish the seams ; yeah, HongKong seaming is my new passion!…. but I eventually settled for a bit of leftover print in my scraps bag (you may recognise it as the remains of the floral skirt I’ve been wearing a lot past summer).
It’s using Vogue 7303 again, cut short and lined. This is a plain pattern but one I turn to over and over as it fits me so well, and I really wanted this skirt to be a plain unadorned little number to add a splash of bright cheery colour to my wardrobe, I think I got it, no? Most of my encounters today resulted in a complimentary comment, so I’m very happy with it!

Skirt; Vogue 7303, lined, orange hessian silk
Top and ballet wrap; Metalicus
Sandals; op shop
Backpack; my son’s, souvenir from Santa Fe

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, Sienna, skirt, Vogue 7303

Riverside situation

04/03/2010 4:27 am \ 7 Comments \ Carolyn

Little adventure this morning. Lately I’m in the habit of combining my two early morning tasks of dog-walking with taking my photo, if I’m planning to take one that day, that is. I have my camera, tripod and the shoes I’m planning to wear the remainder of that day in a backpack, I take Sienna with me and stop somewhere picturesque and set up for a few minutes. Well today, I’m out on this tiny jetty and it’s quite windy, I’ve got the tripod shored up between a pillar and the backpack to prevent it from blowing over (yeah, it was windy enough that that was a real risk!) and next thing I know, whoosh! my tripod bag is now floating in the river about five metres away. Bob bob bob, it goes, taunting me, out of reach. I look at it with despair. Should I abandon modesty and wade out to it? No, the river is over thigh deep at that point… Sienna is no bloomin’ good at all, she may look pretty but that’s as far as her usefulness goes. Fetch, she does not do… I look about for a handy young man jogging in his shorts who may gallantly help me out, but I’ve chosen my time well and there is absolutely no-bloomin’-one in sight AT ALL. No canoe-ers. I’ve got the foreshore to myself. Usually this is a plus as I’m shy about taking my own photo if anyone’s about, but this time I could really do with a helpful man… (couldn’t we all…?!, joking, I’ve got my own man, but he’s gone to work early, dammit)
So I hightail it home, dragging Sienna, not allowing her to sniff or socialise, and luckily my eldest two are still around, and my daughter, never shy of an adventurous stunt, immediately dons bathers and we drive back down, she swims out, it’s about twenty metres out by now, and rescues the tripod bag…
As the song goes, thank goodness for little girls…
As a anticlimactic afterthought, my hat. It’s newish, well on its maiden voyage anyhow (like my tripod bag). I bought a single ball of this yummy wool at anny blat at their shop in Paris when we were there six years ago. I finally made this beanie last year from my own design, just cast onto four double-ended needles and made it up as I went along. I’m going to make myself wear hats more often. I wish they were more in fashion.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, fabric handwoven by my Mum
Top; refashioned from husband’s old workshirt, my own design
Scarf; Country Road
Shoes; Timberland, bought in Rome
Cloche; annyblat yarn, my own design

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, handwoven, Knitted, own design, Sienna, skirt, top, Vogue 7303, Wardrobe Refashion

Pattern Magic, toile 1

03/03/2010 6:19 am \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

Would you wear one of your toiles?
I only ask because of this: I had some unwashed calico to use for making toiles and experimenting on, and one day I was desperate to try out a pattern even though I hadn’t pre-washed the fabric yet. So I used some in its unwashed state to trial a coat pattern. The resulting toile was then stuffed in the fabric stash, why? because I’m a fabric hoarder and hardly ever throw fabric out. When I was doing this latest toile I thought I might be able to re-use the calico from the coat-toile, so tossed it into the washing machine to pre-shrink… and then just slung it on Bessie awaiting further action.
My daughter sees it. She wants it. She thinks it’s cool and looks expensive, like something one would find at more! (very expensive local boutique). I look at it again and admit she’s right. It does remind me of some extremely expensive garments I’ve seen on occasion in very exclusive boutiques, the sort that you wonder are a designer’s idea of a joke on the customer. However the ?jacket? (if it’s worthy of that title!) does have a sort of post-grunge charm about it. I’m not sure I could get away with it, but I think my daughter could because she’s young and gorgeous. Would you wear this garment?

Anyhow, on to the real point of this post, my first foray into Pattern Magic, the very exciting book by Nakamichi Tomoko. Not having even the most basic understanding of Japanese (I know, I’m terribly ignorant) I think our first project is to make up a custom fit bodice pattern from a few basic torso measurements. The accompanying diagram and two tables look terribly complicated, especially for a non-Japanese person, but I thoroughly enjoyed this process nonetheless. I studied the pages for quite a while to work out the angles and precise meanings of the measurements marked, then finally taped together a few sheets of copy paper, got an accurate ruler and a protractor and got drawing and measuring. This took me right back to my school days doing geometry and trigonometry (was called Maths III back then, but that’s ancient history…) This was lots of fun. I’m serious. I’m a real geek at heart.
Finally ended up with this.

Cut it out, taped it up and made a few adjustments to get this bodice pattern, tailored to me:

And made up my bodice:
I enclosed the edges with scraps of bias binding because I wanted some bias-binding practice, then added some buttons and buttonholes at the back when I started to vaguely consider adding it to my wardrobe…. However its just a bodice, not a blouse, so I decided I would need a very high-waisted skirt to get away with this, so will probably not be wearing it and the buttons will go back into my button bag…

Funny story: when I was working on this, I had this conversation with my husband…
Me (studying my Pattern Magic book): “Do you think the library would have a Japanese dictionary?”
Him: “What?”
Me (still studying): “A Japanese dictionary. If I could just work out what a few of these characters mean it would make this so much easier.”
Him: “What?”
Me (louder and a little impatient): “A JAPANESE DICTIONARY!”
Him: “Are you serious?”
I finally look up and see him smirking at me. Realisation dawns. We both start laughing, a lot.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Pattern Magic

Chocolate, gold and turquoise

02/03/2010 5:10 am \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Above, the sky is a rich intense shade of turquoise with not a single wisp of cloud to mar its relentless plane of colour; it’s not surprising I was drawn to this vivid and gorgeous shade of nail varnish… (if only I’d had it in time for Saturday’s photo, no?!) The name of this shade is Fool’s Paradise, a message, perhaps? Need to shake this lethargy and get onto the officework, I think…
The air is still and heavy and this heat is seriously sapping my will to live, but I’m doggedly pursuing my plan to branch into autumnal fashion and leave the hues of summer behind.
Luckily the Bouchee dress is of a shade to pass any autumn colour test even though autumn here isn’t of nearly the richness of colours that it brings to colder climates, our version is more of a season of relief and recovery from the harsh ravages of the summer months. And today being another 36C scorcher this dress is tolerably cool and a joy to wear. I’m glad I rescued it from my Salvo’s pile….
Today I’m wearing it with a necklace I bought as a souvenir from Santorini, the island my imagination wanders to on so many occasions, and my golden jewelled sandals, which were bought, er here, sadly no romance or memories associated with their purchase, driven just by a prosaic need for summer footwear. Nonetheless I have my necklace and my turquoise toe-nails to transport me mentally back to the happy casual handholding days of Greece….

Details:
Dress; my own design based on McCalls 4454, brown self-embroidered cotton
Necklace; souvenir from Santorini
Sandals; Anna, bought from MarieClaire shoes
Nail varnish; Fool’s Paradise, BYS

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: dress, Fabulous fabrics, McCalls 4454, own design

The summer in review

01/03/2010 4:38 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Today is officially the first day of autumn. Seems kind of hilarious given that it’s going to be 37C again, and will continue to be in the high thirties for another week or so… anyhoo, I thought I’d review my most worn items of clothing over the past summer. Now I don’t take my photo every day, and I am making an effort to rotate through the wardrobe and wear everything once in a while, but that being said there are still the favourites that I turn to time and time again on my days “off” from posing for a photo because a. they are comfortable and b. I feel good in them. So I guess these clothes sum up “my style” for the summer (inverted commas because I’m still a bit hazy on what the heck my style even is!)…
It’s been an extremely hot summer with comfortable days few and far in between so it’s hardly surprising that the coolest items in my wardrobe have been the most popular, which means lots of white… even so I was surprised at how consistent my colour palette has been, and strong and bright. I seem to have gone for greens and raspberry pink quite a lot this season. For the five or six semi-formal functions I’ve attended I’ve gone for the beige lace dress I made at the beginning of last spring (for which I’ve received many compliments from very kind friends); I made it under the influence of the “nude” colour trend that was about at the time. Not all of these clothes were made by me, but I tried to be honest about the clothes I’ve turned to most frequently and this included a few store-bought items and one op shop item; in the evenings, or when I’ve required a light cool cardigan, my turquoise and hot pink cardigans from Metalicus have been my go-to’s, and without a doubt my most worn accessory has been my cheap little necklace I bought from the surf shop at Rottnest about four years ago… even so looking over these I’m pretty pleased that most of my daily wear falls in to the handmade category… how about your wardrobe? Have you worn mostly your own clothes lately?

Details:
Dresses;(nude) my own design variations based on New Look 6699, two types of beige lace and purple shot silk
   (white) Simplicity3745, spotted swiss voile with lace trim
Necklace; from the surf shop on Rottnest Island
Skirts; (lime print) Vogue 7303, cotton
     (white cotton) bought from Old Navy, Capetown South Africa
   (olive green) Vogue 7303, corduroy
   (red floral)Vogue 2894, cotton
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen
Tops; New Look 6252, lime green linen
   New Look 6252, white seersucker
   (pink) Aztec Rose, op shop
   (apricot) Country Road
Cardigans; both from Metalicus