June 2010 - Handmade by Carolyn

Evening outfit, inspired by Christian Lacroix

30/06/2010 2:05 am \ 10 Comments \ Carolyn

This is an outfit I made for evening wear a couple of years ago. It’s been a wonderful one for when we have some winter function and the weather is really cold as I can pop on a thermal underneath if necessary, and my shoulders are covered. I was completely inspired by the outfit at right from the Christian Lacroix Fall 2007 Couture collection.
The top is a bodysuit made out of thick stretch black jersey, and for a tiny dressy touch the shoulders were cut high and gathered tightly at the top for a little puff. The decoration around the neckline is a tube of heavy ivory/cream raw silk that I folded randomly and artistically and hand-stitched down (see detail picture below).
While for the top I was aiming for slimline and body-hugging, I wanted for the skirt to be dramatically flared and with lots of “bits”, like the Lacroix design. I eventually achieved this by making two skirts. For the underskirt I started off with New Look 6509 as a basic 8-gore skirt but altered by tapering the gores to be much wider at the hemline. I also added wide triangular inserts in between some of the gores for added volume. The overskirt is pretty much a circle skirt, plus some extra at the front opening. The inserts and the overskirt I hemmed in straight lines, forming points, for a gothicky, witchy look.
Oh, (afterthought!) I’m not sure what the composition of the skirt fabric actually is, but it is like a heavy and very stiff satin; with a slight sheen on one side and matte on the other. Perfect for the look I wanted.

Details:
Bodysuit; drafted my own design, black stretch jersey knit with ivory silk decoration
Skirt; drafted my own design, starting with New Look 6509, black stiff fabric
Tights; Kolotex
Shoes; Nina, from David Jones

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, New Look 6509, own design, skirt, top

Lounge room curtains, 2

29/06/2010 6:39 am \ Leave a Comment \ Carolyn

This is the second set of curtains in our lounge room, opposite the other pair here. As this window faces the street I made these curtains first, the other set was made a little further down the track, er OK a lot further, maybe a year?! I know, how lazy am I…!
So, observant readers will notice straight away; this set is of chocolate brown chenille, as opposed to the the other curtains which are crimson. This is partly because I don’t like my rooms to be too matchy matchy; I’m partial to a mishmash of household items each with their own inherent story and beauty that doesn’t necessarily relate to the item alongside it, all in one room. Our family has collected furniture and decorations over years, as sentiments, funds, whimsy and holiday souvenirs have dictated, so my decorating style reflects this; there is no perfectly co-ordinated “House & Garden” perfection around here. But that’s how I like it.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: curtains, home wares, Spotlight

Caramel “loopy” scarf

28/06/2010 5:34 am \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

I made this scarf a few years ago, not really sure now how many. Originally I had done a class at Ivy and Maude, and was so inspired I went on to make dozens of these. Well, maybe a few more than a dozen, anyhow! I gave nearly all of them away as gifts.
The stitch is a very clever stitch where you wrap the wool around your thumb as you are knitting and then cast the wool over to “lock” the loop in, creating permanent loops. A friend once told me she had seen the stitch in a very old knitting book, so it’s been around… I thought for about a split second of trying to describe/draw how to do the stitch on this blog but abandoned that thought; its just too complex for my limited descriptive/illustrative skills…!
The beauty in these scarves is always in the wool you choose. All the ones I made were out of Colinette Fandango; just bought one ball of this divine all-cotton yarn and knitted up the whole ball in this fashion; bingo, instant beautiful scarf. The colour ranges available of this stuff are what “make” the scarf, imo.
This one has a mix of caramel, cream, fawn and grey and has long been a favourite (it’s got so thin!!) I have also made ones for myself in red/pink and one in pastel blue/green/pink. The other ones I made for friends were all of other colours, I never doubled up on shades. Didn’t have to! every time I went into the shop there seemed to be so many new fabulous shades to choose from, my enthusiasm would be re-ignited all over again!

Details:

Scarf; made by me, Colinette Fandango yarn

Jeans; Burda 7863, black denim

Top; Ezibuy

Cardigan; Country Road

Handwarmers; Sportsgirl

Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough

Bag; Gucci

(New!!) Sunglasses; Ray Ban

News; I decided to join up to Wardrobe Refashion again, for another 4 months. I may not do heaps of refashioning this time but I’ll be sewing my own (as usual), and staying away from shopping for readymade clothes…
Also I signed up for this:

‘I, Carolyn (Handmade by Carolyn), sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavour to wear handmade and refashioned items of clothing and/or accessories and jewellery every day for the duration of September 2010’.

Should be fun!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7863, Fabulous fabrics, Ivy and Maude, jeans, scarf

Cute patchwork skirt for a little girl

27/06/2010 4:01 am \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

It is my youngest niece’s birthday tomorrow and I wanted to make her a frivolous and girly little skirt because she is luckily still little enough to love pretty dress-up clothes. A dress I had made her for a previous birthday could well be the most appreciated present I’ve ever made anyone, as she wore it lots and lots. It was a hot pink satin princess dress, with a sweetheart neckline, puffy glitter sleeves and a glittery tulle bustle and I was thrilled she was so happy with it.
For this skirt I bought this row of pretty patches joined together. The idea for this skirt came from the very creative Sophie who owns and operates Materialize. She had made some adorable patchwork tutus for very little girls and had joined this strip together like this when I bought it.

Now I’m making a skirt here not a tutu, and obviously the skirt was going to be way too short with just these pieces so what was necessary here? of course a petticoat! So I bought some broderie anglaise and a little bit of broderie edging and cut to the suitable length; gathered the patched strip to fit on top. I did it this way because I wanted the overskirt to be gathered in an apron-like fashion over a straighter petticoat… At this point I had also removed some of the patches, partly because I realised the strip was going to be too long and partly because I didn’t like some of the fabrics so much. Then I attached the broderie anglaise edging strip to the bottom edge…

I also got some of this adorable lime striped bias binding to use for the tie waistband, and attached it to the top edge. The petticoat, being a rectangle, required only a little gathering to fit my niece’s waist measurement. Using some leftover lilac cotton I made some more bias binding to line the waistband.

The lilac bias binding was sewn to the lime stripe bias binding, leaving the skirt top open to enable turning right sides out. Here in this photo the waistband has been sewn together and one tie end has been turned out and pressed.

The waistband opening was slipstitched closed on the inside, and the waist ties topstitched on the right side out. Finally the centre back of the skirt was sewn closed, leaving enough of an opening for my niece to step into the skirt. I finished the open edges of the centre back with narrow hems.

Et voila! This skirt would be a good way to use up scraps of leftover fabric that’s too pretty to throw out, or if you’ve ever been lured into buying a set of gorgeously co-ordinated fat quarters.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Materialize, own design, patchwork, skirt, Spotlight, tutorial

Going to the game

26/06/2010 5:29 am \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Once again, soccer Mum mode… today I lucked out, got myself a nice sheltered spot sitting in the sun and managed to knit continuously throughout the game; bonus!! Yeah, I can finally knit without having to watch what my hands are doing and it’s wunderbar…
Our game was a draw so, m-yeah (shrug) better than a loss, no? Now the weather is absolutely freeeezing I’m well into the knitting swing once again. When I got dressed this morning we had just hit our minimum of 1C so I just threw on this blue-hued mishmash of garments and was out the door with a minimum of hemming and hawing half-dressed in front of the wardrobe… Oh, I did at first have on some little black knitted handwarmers too, but I’ve taken them off here after warming up in the sun.
Can you believe it? 1C!!!!! I can’t remember Perth ever being this cold before! I have clear memories of when I was a teenager and hearing on the radio the minimum one morning was 5C and my friends and I thought we were dying…! I’m kind of over winter already, my least favourite season; it’s too cold to sew much, or at least my way of sewing which involves lots of fitting to myself during construction, which necessarily involves undressing… brrrr! just can’t do it!
I’d much rather be curled up on a couch or in the sun with a pile of wool and a pussycat on my lap and a dog at my feet.
Can you tell I washed my hair today? For many years I’ve washed my hair religiously every second day, and for the past month or so I’ve been experimenting with leaving it until the third day because I felt it was looking a little frizzy. Later last night I took another look at yesterday’s blog photo (it was day 3 hair) and felt mildly revolted at the sight of my hair. If I hadn’t been so rushed yesterday I would have washed my hair and re-taken those damn photos! Too late! So I’ve made a decision; my hair is definitely two-day wash hair.

Details:
Jacket; Simplicity 4698, navy blue raw silk
Top; Metalicus
Jeans; Soon
Scarf; souvenir from Paris
Boots; Mina Martini, from Marie Claire shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, jacket, Simplicity 4698

Pattern Magic; page 50

25/06/2010 1:19 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

I skipped ahead a few patterns to get to this jumper because I totally wanted to wear it this winter!!
This is of course drafted from Pattern Magic. by Nakamichi Tomoko.
This is an amazing top pattern for two reasons; firstly it is cut completely in one piece, and secondly the pattern is drawn all wonky and skewiff, which creates this amazingly interesting twist in the body of the top when you are wearing it. I love it!
I made two versions of this top, the first is pictured on Bessie below, made out of quite thin mauve-y grey jersey. This was made up exactly to the pattern and while I don’t have big arms by any means these sleeves are skin-tight on me. This isn’t going to stop me from wearing it as the weather warms up around here, but just a warning note to others wanting to make up this top…
The second version, that I am wearing today, is out of a lovely thick warm charcoal marle knit. I widened the sleeves by about 1.5cm and they are much more comfortable… Because the fabric is a little thicker the twists don’t show up as dramatically on the body of the top, but with the weather as cold as it is in Perth right now that extra fabric thickness is very welcome! I think it might have been about 3C this morning when I was taking these photos here, brrrr!

Details:
Top; from Pattern Magic, by Nakamichi Tomoko, charcoal knit
Jeans; Soon
Boots; Mina Martini, from Marie Claire shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, Pattern Magic, top

Blue cable socks

24/06/2010 3:05 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

‘Nother pair o’ socks.
These are made entirely of the Patonyle’s wool, but following the shrinkage disasters of the other socks made with this particular wool I’ve been a lot more careful in the laundering of this pair and they still fit me. Just. Looking at this photo I can see my heel isn’t really situated in the heel of the socks.. oh, well, may have to pass these ones on too… I actually originally bought four balls of this wool, in this colour, which looking back was a kind of insane thing to do. What was I thinking? The result is lots of pairs of socks in this colour and in this impractical yarn. I’ve tried to make each pair just a little different in some way. These ones have a row of cable up the sides.
When my kids were little I used to get them multiple pairs of socks all the same; the idea was that I wouldn’t have to pair them up after washing, or hunt about for that elusive missing half of a “favourite” pair. I reasoned that if they were all identical there would be no dramas, no wailing “but I have to wear my pink dotty socks with the bow!!”. And it was a great scheme, those heady days when I was in total control of the sock-choosing-and-buying. Oh how times have changed. Now they’re all grown up, and all of us in the house have our own sock collection, suited to our personalities, chosen as whim, fancy and fashion takes us. Matching up those gazillion unique pairs of socks is one of my daily chores. FUN!

Today’s random picture below; I’m coming across smiley faces a lot in my life lately. Here is another where I didn’t expect it!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Knitted, Patons knitting book C11, socks

Black high-waist straight-leg jeans

23/06/2010 4:10 am \ 15 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made some new jeans!
After being inspired by some of the beautiful examples of other people out there making their own jeans, and the success of my own khaki stretch gabardine jeans I decided to give this a go. These new ones are made from black denim with only a little stretch in them. When I first bought this fabric I thought it had more stretch than it actually did, but now they are finished I’m glad they are not too stretchy, as they are more like real jeans in my opinion. So, even though the pattern envelope says “stretch fabrics only”, I would use this advice as a guide only in fabric selection. Mine turned out alright. I think so, anyway!
I used Burda 7863 again, and the only variation to the pattern I did this time was to add a zip placket, as seen in the photo below, to protect my tender tummy skin from those sharp (and in winter, cold!) zipper teeth. Also, I did originally have pocket flaps over the pockets as per the pattern, but removed these as I thought they looked a little “home-made” and not very trendy. The remaining half of the press stud is still there in the pocket, but I kind of like the look of this. If I get enthusiastic I might even add some sort of embroidered pocket decoration in the future… I also made the belt loops a little wider, to accommodate my black belt, but as the waist is so nice and high and because I went to the effort of fitting the waistband to my waist size, I probably won’t even be wearing a belt with these jeans. The pockets are lined with scraps of leftover patchwork fabric that I had used to line my autumn trench coat, and the topstitching throughout is a single row of long stitch in a deep ruby red; because I had some of this colour leftover from my Rosetta ballgown.
So I’m pretty happy with my new skinny leg jeans! They are a lot warmer than my khaki stretch ones, so will be great for those coooold winter mornings!