Oh yeah. The Tuesday after a long weekend always leaves me a little befuddled. True, I’m easily befuddled.
Details:
Hoodie; adapted from Butterick 4985, added a hood and with different sleeves, white lace, more details here
Petticoat (not seen) Burda 8071, beige silk satin, more details here
Skirt; skirt “m” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa, pinky-grey linen mix, more details here
Shoes; Country Road
I’ve been awarded an Awesome Blog award, by Stacy! Thank you so much, Stacy!
Now I’ve got to think of 7 things about myself. Oh dear. This bit is really hard, because I can never think of a thing… but this blog is about sewing, knitting and fashion, so I guess I’ll try to aim in that direction.
1. I can’t get enough of fashion. I subscribe to Australian Vogue, and I get so excited when I see my new Vogue magazine sitting in the letterbox. Part of me just wants to dive in immediately and devour it cover to cover, but I’m strict with myself. I only allow myself to thoroughly soak up little portions at a time, in quiet moments. So I can stretch it out over the month.
2. I hardly ever sew up a muslin. That is how slack I am. Once in a blue moon I will bother with this tiresome task. 99.99999% of the time I’ve felt no need to go down this path, and have just fitted with the garment along the way. This has always worked just fine. I just find muslins to be almost completely unnecessary. Especially for simple daywear. I admire people who go that extra (superfluous) mile, and admit the necessity when dealing with wedding dresses say, or very expensive or rare fabrics, but when it’s a simple little cotton or linen dress well really… Of course I am completely contradicting myself because I recently published here exhaustive pictures of my glove muslins. Yah, I’m a hypocrite, so? And also having said that, I am planning a tailored jacket for this winter, for which I probably will do a muslin. yawn. I promise there will be no photos.
3. Commenting… I guess I might say something here about commenting in blogland. Commenting is kind of tricky, is it not? Everyone seems to employ a different MO. I personally hop over to somebody’s blog to reply to their comment, or if someone has asked a direct question which I think others might wish to know I write the answer in my own comments section as well. I also apologise in both our comments sections if someone has seemed offended by my blog post. I try to visit everybody’s blog who has commented. Sometimes in my travels I’ve noticed that other people reply to comments in their own comments section all the time. This tickles me, that someone might be having a conversation with me in their own comments section. If you have replied to my comment in your own comment section then there is a pretty good chance I haven’t read it because I never return to the same comment section again.
4. I just asked my son for suggestions, and he said “favourite colour”. Thanks darling. But even that helpful suggestion has me writhing in indecision, because my favourite colour changes seasonally. Or monthly. Or even weekly..? I used to have a stock standard answer “white” to that question, to make it easy. But really I love all colours and it would be impossible to pick a favourite!
Perhaps I could talk about least favourite colour combinations. I definitely avoid certain combinations and especially in my apparel. Black and red together is a big one. I look truly awful in that combo. Ill.
5.I’ve been sewing for about thirty years. Wait I might have used that one previously, for some other award. Meh. It takes up another “thing”.
6. Knitting; I’ve probably been knitting for just as long, but less consistently. My mother taught me to knit, as she did sewing too, and my first project was a dark green scarf for our cat Fluffy. I struggled through a few rows, about 10cm worth. It was extremely holey and weird; “arty” is the nicest way of putting it. Like contemporary modern art. My mother finished it off with her beautiful even stitches, and I forced Fluffy to wear it once or twice. She was a patient cat.
7. A final thought, about fabric in sewing; I think the fabric you choose is the deciding factor in how well your garment is going to turn out. Truly, locating a really good fabric supply is the seamstress’ best asset. I once formulated a theory, that you should be able to make something really fabulous out of any fabric and that a person is only limited by their imagination. I do still harbour that belief; but I temper it with this truth, that with really beautiful fabric you are much more likely to have a fabulous result. I might add, that’s been theory hard tested around here and a truth hard won…
So now I’ve got to pick 5 wonderful bloggers to pass this award on to.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it….
Veronica, from Veronica Darling
Sherry, from pattern ~ scissors ~ cloth
Sharon, from Communing with Fabric
Terri, from Rags in the Machine
Jacinta, from ModelMumma
Well, today is International Women's Day!! Hooray for women everywhere and for all their achievements, especially you Carolyn. Gorgeous photo of you and Siena. As for the cat I think maybe red is not her colour, she looks a bit startled.
Omigosh, what a GORGEOUS outfit. That lace hoodie is amazing. That linen skirt… wow, I want more pictures of the outfit to see more details. 😀
I have noticed your MO for comments. I do come back to a blog to see if there are followup comments, when I am interested to see if there is a reply to a comment I've posted.
Now, ahem. I want to point out something. The closer one's body shape is to the "ideal" or to a pattern line, the less they require a muslin. I know several sewists who don't usually make a muslin and they really don't need to as much. The more your body veers from the norm, the more required it is. I do try to avoid a muslin, but sometimes I feel it really is more prudent, given my "unusual" proportions. I am not at all surprised that you fall into the category of "rarely needing a muslin", but it might be different if you, say, gained 50 pounds. Also, after sewing for 30 years, you KNOW if your arms are a bit short, or you have a long waist, or whatever. My mother was the same way and she pretty much never needed to muslin, but she was a size A cup with long arms and a tiny waist and not my size G with short arms and… well, let's not go there. 🙂
Anyway, it's always a delight to see what you've cooked up, whether I comment or not. I absolutely love your style. 🙂
By the way, I was so busy staring longingly at your outfit, I just now noticed how and and your dog are both peering around the tree. Hysterical!
Shams, you are right about the so-called "ideal" figure. But as you also mentioned, after sewing for oneself for a long time you get to know about the automatic adjustments required for your figure type, and at that point a muslin becomes unnecessary in most ordinary garments. And also, I kind of treat the fashion fabric as a muslin, and am constantly trying on and tweaking while I am trying out a new pattern, to check for necessary adjustments. So again, making a muslin an unnecessary extra step (imo) for me.
Once, I read a really good idea where somebody made their muslin out of lining fabric. All the fitting was done on this, and markings transferred to the paper pattern, and once it was finished the lining was all finished and ready to be popped into the dress once it was done!
Also I did have more close-up detail shots of those individual garments on their "first appearance" posts, but I haven't linked to those, perhaps I should…
Another nice outfit. That skirt looks lovely on you. Definitely suits your shape.
I love your lace top with this skirt!
Lookin' good Carolyn!
And that pic of the cat with the scarf is hilarious!!!
Thanks for the award. So chuffed actually. I'd like to thank my parents…. *cue music to get me off the stage* 😉
now off to bed I go… too late here or i'll be a grumpy, awesome mumma! xo
Congratulations! It was so funny reading this post, because you could have been talking about me!Have a great day, and enjoy your fame!
It's interesting to hear how you deal with replying to comments, I'm new to blogging and could not figure out the best way to do that yet. Thanks for sharing!
I admire people who can both knit and sew, I have been sewing since I was around 7, but knitting eludes me.
And maybe for the best – one less activity to add to my stash. Great outfit.
Regarding your followup comment on my blog… 🙂
I'll have to pull my thoughts together about this more. Even though I am quite familiar with my bust, it's so much bigger and lower and basically not in the "right spot" (compared to what a pattern company designs for) that I often need a quick muslin to make sure that the pattern and my alterations will work – especially if there is tricky seaming involved or some other unusual feature. It would be SO much easier to sew for myself if I didn't have this one fitting issue, even with my other issues. 🙂
And, like you, even when I do muslin, they tend to be so quick and dirty that I do tons of tweaking and fitting when I get to the fashion fabric – it can take so many iterations, as I'm sure you know. When I make pants, I don't muslin unless there's some very specific reason, but I often make them up first in a less precious fabric (like black ponte) to make sure that the crotch length/leg length/hip fullness is ok. Since my waist is 10" larger than what the pattern company thinks it should be for my hips, I'd muslin pants more if I made fitted waists, but that almost never happens. 🙂
Did you see the dress Kate Blanchett worse to the Oscars? I've been waffling on my opinion of it. (Most of the post-Oscar reviewers hated it.) While I like that it's high fashion, it's too much of a mono-boob look to me, and I have a knee-jerk reaction against the mono-boob look. 😉
Carolyn, thanks so much for the honor of being nominated for the awesome blogger award. 😀 I usually run screaming from blogger awards, but I really appreciate the thought. I'll have to think on it. (And if you want to delete my lengthy comments on muslins, I won't mind a bit! 🙂 )
oooh, love the lacy airy-ness of your jacket. One of these warm seasons, I have to copy your ideas so I can still do layers in the summer … so nice to have that visual interest I think.
And more interesting blogs to check out! yippee!!
I don't ever do muslins either. Seems like a waste. If I ever have some super fabulous expeeensive fabric, I might.
Fun post and I love your outfit for today!
Thanks so much for the blog award!
And I'm glad you're doing the sewalong too! It won't matter if you construct your jacket differently – your fabric sounds special and deserving of a couture touch!