Yearly Archives: 2011

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Not the same dress at all…

26/09/2011 9:59 am \ 20 Comments \

Looking back at last year’s self-stitched September, I can definitely see how this spring has been colder, and we have had a lot more rain.  I was wearing a lot less during last year’s challenge, and complaining petulantly about the lack of rain.  And unfortunately we will be having an unseasonal cold snap for the rest of the week; meaning I cannot actually wear just yet several of my new creations for the last few days of self-stitched September.  I have just finished two new dresses and am starting on a new skirt, but they are all just a tad too summery for right now and will have to wait a bit. 
But I still have some suitable nice things that haven’t been worn here for a while.  This may at first glance appear identical to the dress I wore two days ago, but it is not.  Trust me…  True, these two dresses were made up using the same pattern.. but wait; that dress was silver and beige lace; this dress is black and beige lace.  And this one is sleeveless (better view here) See, huh?  Totally not identical at all  right??  :))  I’m sure anyone could appreciate the vast difference between the two dresses…   any true lace-lover will completely concur with the wisdom in buying these fabrics and sewing up two NewLook 6699’s, without apparently fully realising that I would end up with two pretty similar dresses.  Totally understandable, I’m sure anyone could make the same mistake  fabulous wardrobe decision.
Well, they were made a year apart from each other, so I can be forgiven.  Sort of.  But perhaps I should hold off from buying any more lace just yet, hehe.
And worn with my little snakeskin cardi for wind protection.

Details:
Dress; NewLook 6699, black and beige lace, with ivory silk lining
Cardigan; my own design, rubber coated knit embossed with a snakeskin print, details here
Tights; Kolotex
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

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Red, white and blue

25/09/2011 6:03 am \ 15 Comments \

Self-stitched September, Day 25
Thank you all for your beautiful birthday wishes yesterday!  I was very very touched that so many lovely ladies took the time to wish me well, and I did have a delightful day and evening too, thank you.
Today we met up with extended family for a breakfast in Kings Park, because as well as my birthday yesterday it is my mother’s birthday in a few days.  So we had a BIG meet-up.  And I bullied requested nicely for Craig to take my photo today for the challenge… and since I usually take all my own photos of my creations it is kind of funny to me to see how weirdly self-conscious I look when someone else takes my photo.  Eek!  Who is that woman and what on earth is she smirking at?!
Now; for the self-stitched stuff…
This skirt, one of the first really ad-hoc and creative things I attempted, donkey’s years ago, will be a lifelong keeper I think.  Years later I still really love it, and am proud of it.  I feel sorta shabbily feminine when I wear it, which I think are adjectives I could happily include when describing my own style.  Along with alternative and slightly weird too, hehe.  Up until now I have only ever worn it with either white or blue tops.  Ever ever…  A red jacket is really branching out.  Now I’ve got them on together I can’t think why it didn’t occur to me to try different colours with this skirt sooner!  Proving to myself yet again that see, doing this self-stitched challenge can be quite educational, in really forcing me to stretch my sartorial wings and really use my own wardrobe…  
And the “crisp white shirt” which is not particularly super crisp any more and I really should get onto making myself another, pronto, because this is now a firm staple in my wardrobe which I can’t imagine a self-stitched life without…
And my little red bracelet sleeved jacket which I love more and more with each wear and am looking forward to wearing even more now the spring weather is approaching.  Yay! for spring!

Details:
Skirt; my own design, various cottons, front and back views here
Top; Burda 8497, white cotton, details here
Jacket; Vogue 2894, red silk hessian, details and my review of this pattern here
Sandals; Pedro Miralles, from Soletta shoes

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I’m gonna party…

24/09/2011 6:50 am \ 32 Comments \

…like it’s ma birthday…
‘Cos it is!  Hehe, and I’m going to take full advantage, by doing exactly as I please… which means very little office work.  Sadly Craig is working all today  :((  but we are all going out to dinner together as a family tonight, so I am looking forward to that.  This morning I stayed in bed for a bit, super self-indulgently flipping through Vogue, then Cassie brought me a cup of tea as well as one for herself and we sat chatting for a good half hour.  It was so nice!  She is a very sweet and spontaneous daughter like this sometimes …  Then I wheedled Tim and Sam out of bed (who are also sweet, if not so spontaneous) and we went out for brekkie together.  Again, so nice!  I’m glad my children are great fun company…
I plan to walk the dog and sew too.  (so nice!  oh, OK I’ll stop that now…)
So today being a please-myself kind of a day, I picked out my favourite (self-stitched) spring-time dress to wear.  Thankfully the weather gods are smiling with a delightful 23C and only light-ish breezes, so I can. 
I can, so I do.
I dress, therefore I am.
(Descartes, you know… sort of)
Being lace it can look quite dressy but I happily downgraded this dress to casual status a while ago, and so it gets worn anywhere anytime now.  Weather permitting, obviously…!  It used to be one of my formal choices and I have worn it to weddings, cocktail thingy-s and dressy afternoon gatherings but I think it looks perfectly elegant with thongs or low casual sandals for ordinary days.  I think favourite dresses should be worn whenever, don’t you?
First thing this morning was a little fresh so I also had on my own brown cardi, which I am carrying here.  Even with that old textured cardi it looked quite good together.  Or should I say; the dress made the cardi look good…?  When we go out tonight I will fling on my grey wool spring coat, step into some heels, put up my hair, and be perfectly elegant for a swisho restaurant too.
Hope you all avagoodone!

Details:
Dress; based loosely on NewLook 6699, beige and silver lace, purple/brown shot silk chiffon, beige border lace, beige cotton lining
Cardigan, my own design, Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed in Brindle, details here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

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Heya…

23/09/2011 11:36 am \ 6 Comments \

… and thank you so much for your kind well-wishes yesterday.   Sorry, I’m still a bit flat.  Today our schizophrenic weather who doesn’t know if it’s Arthur or Martha, turned so so beautiful.  This was such a contrast to the last few dismal days I couldn’t bear the thought of wasting it, so I forced myself to get out and involved in my normal daily activities.  That could have been a mistake.
Today I am wearing a skirt (with side seam pockets) and shirt, all re-fashioned from three of Craig’s old business shirts here.  It is still one of my favourite re-fashions, and just pulling it out of the wardrobe and putting it on kinda inspired me to think about a few more of the men’s shirts that I still have in my re-fashion pile…. oh dear, so many plans and so little time to actually implement them!
Hehe, in case you didn’t know by now, I do often like a little “weird” or at least a little twisted, with my clothes.  I think I was so pleased with this outfit because it looks like a sort of freaky monster version of the mundane boring business shirt.  So the fabric is business shirt fabric, quiet tasteful stripes and all (even the orange fabric has a very tiny pinstripe although it is hard to tell from this picture) and the general shape of the shirt and skirt has that business shirt aura.  But first impressions can be deceiving, the eye, on first registering “business shirt” then takes a second look and goes, “hang on a minute… this is NOT a business shirt.  This is like the business shirt after that twisted little next door neighbour kid in Toy Story who frankensteined his toys got a hold of it… !”
(cue twilight zone music) this is the psyched-out, butchered, business-shirt-on-elm-street!

source

Hmmm,I’ve just read back that whole load of nonsense above, apparently written by me.  Perhaps I’d better go and lie down…

Details:
Shirt and skirt; my own design, a refashion of three old business shirts, details here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

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Back again

22/09/2011 11:08 am \ 11 Comments \
Hello.
I’m feeling a bit woolly-headed so I’m warmly rugged up and back to standing in a familiar place for self-stitched September today.  So I’m not feeling very imaginative.  But fortuitously so; I think the thickly clouded whiteness of sky, the smooth beige stretch of pale river sand and the glassy grey stillness of the river set off the rough tweedy textures and dull blue and rusty red colours in my (self-stitched) outfit quite well, no?
I’m going to squeeze a few lemons and consume some vitamin C now… later dudes.
Details:
Top; based on top “a” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa with a collar of my own design; blue shot cotton, details here
Jacket; the “wearing a square” design from Pattern Magic 2 by Tomoko Nakamichi; blue grey mystery fabric, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363, rusty red wool and silk tweed, details here
Tights; my own design, denim look jersey, details and my tutorial on drafting your own custom fit tights here
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes
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Having a cuppa…

21/09/2011 11:25 am \ 12 Comments \

Self-stitched September, Day 21
Today’s mini photo challenge, to be eating/drinking.
I whipped up a new Tshirt yesterday.
Hehe, “whipped-up”, a phrase that is music to the seamster’s ears, no?  Don’t you just love the very thought of it; whipping something up.  Especially since I am normally not much of a whipper-upper, but more of an agoniser-over-the-smallest-detail-er… well whipping something up is nice thing to do once in a while.
As whipping-up implies, my Tshirt is devoid of exciting or innovative dressmaking features.  It’s just an ordinary white Tshirt and is not exciting at all.  But I decided to be kinda official about it this time… usually I lay down one of my existing Tshirts and trace around it but I’ve decided that I should do something about getting a proper pattern that is reproducable over and over.  In the 06/2011 Burdastyle magazine I noticed this Tshirt pattern 120 immediately and thought I would give it a whirl.  So traced out my size based on my measurements, cut it out, machine basted and tried it on (normal modus operandi for trying out a new pattern)  Was a bit surprised to find out I swam in it!  Look at the photograph; the model is hardly swimmming in her Tshirt now, is she?  In fact it looks like a remarkably well-fitting garment, so what is going on here?  Here below are my pattern pieces; the black lines are the stipulated stitching lines and the red lines are my adjusted stitching lines in order for me to get a garment that looks like the one in the picture.  Only the shoulder seams remain unaltered…  ridiculous, no?  

I also noticed that the pattern calls for an invisible zip closure in a centre back seam and for front and back neck facings. Personally I think that is overkill for a Tshirt.  Invisible zips?  Facings?  I think not.  Instead I opted to cut the back in one piece on a centre fold and cut bands to finish the sleeve and neck-hole edges.  This is a very nice finish I learnt it by studying some of my Metalicus tops to see how they finish some of their knit edges, so I think of it in my head as “the Metalicus finish”.  I think it is a beautifully clean and easy finish.  It uses the self-fabric so blends in nicely with the garment and doesn’t require you to find matching ribbing or to own an expensive coverstitch machine.  You just cut a band to fit (or a little bit smaller), sew it into a ring and fold in half along its length, then serge the raw edges together with the raw sleeve and neckline edges in one seam, like so.  I like this finish for a Tshirt.  For the lower hem I just overlocked the raw edge, pressed under by about 4cm and hand slipstitched into place.  This is a flatter and smoother finish than the Metalicus band method, so works well for the lower hem where I wanted less bulk.
I also altered the neckline of the pattern, cutting a deeper and wider curve, and lengthened the sleeves to elbow length.  Hehe, I guess it is not even the same top now, is it?  
So, since I haven’t really used the pattern as intended I won’t write a pattern review, but will save that for a time when I actually check out the pattern properly!

Details:
Tshirt; kinda my own design, using Burdastyle 06/2011, 120 as a starting point, white knit stuff
Dress; the gathered hole dress drafted from Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi, grey wool mix, details here
Leggings; my own design, beige knit stuff, details here, and my tutorial for making your own custom fit leggings pattern here
Hand warmers; knitted by me using Morris 4 ply wool in Imperial Blue, details and my pattern here
Boots; Andrea and Joen from Uggies in Dunsborough (now Eco boutique)

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Shades of grey…

20/09/2011 5:04 am \ 14 Comments \

Self-stitched September; day 20:
Awkward time of the year.  Donned tights again this morning because of a pessimistic weather forecast, only to later find myself too hot.  Lol!
And not sewing or handmaking related at all, but still exciting… the first batch of cygnets has arrived!  Here they are below with their mother and father; and did you know that swans mate for life?  They are always in pairs; very romantic, I think…  and I’ve also noticed that swans are extremely good parents.  Once their cygnets have appeared, both parents stick close together with their little family until they have fully grown into adults, and then the group still hangs around together for even a bit longer, presumably until the second generation find their own mate and leave.  There is still another nesting swan nearby here, and I’m looking forward to seeing how many are in her brood too…
Some reading this may not be aware that black swans are native to Western Australia, or possibly that they even exist; I only mention this because when we had our delightful foreign exchange student staying with us she was quite amazed to see black swans hanging around.  She had seen them in the movie Black Swan, but had assumed the ones in the movie were fake.  Well, of course, black swans are not fake at all, and occur naturally and plentifully here.  It is the white swans which are exotic around these parts!

Details:
Jacket; my own design, a re-fashioned pair of old pants, ivory cotton drill, details and tutorial here
Tshirt; self-drafted, leopard print knit stuff, part of a twin-set, details here; and to see this styled in 6 different ways go here
Skirt; self-drafted, charcoal knit stuff, details here
Tights; Spencer & Lacy
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Unique Clothes, top “p”

19/09/2011 5:58 am \ 25 Comments \

A new top; this one is top “p” from the Japanese pattern book Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa.  I was intrigued by and loved the look of this little thing from the first, and always knew I would get around to making one up.  I love how when you see it from the front you are just like… oh, an ordinary little top, it’s OK but not breaking any ground here; but from the back, wooo, what is happening with that top?  Is it a wrap, is it a shawl or is it a top?  As is usual with the delightfully unpredictable nature of Japanese designs, one isn’t quite sure.
I finally got brave enough to use some of the fabric I bought from Tessuti’s in Melbourne nearly a year ago (!), a piece of milk-chocolate coloured heavy-ish silk that has a quietly textured matte surface, and blessedly no right side, making it ideal for this project.  It is completely divine against the skin; soft, slippery and drape-y, so naturally a real *&%# to work with.    Out of the three pieces I bought in Tessuti’s this is the first to be made up.  So if you hadn’t worked it out, I have to confess right here to being pretty overwhelmed by those fabrics; I know that is pretty silly and illogical, but you know when you’ve bought something really special the likelihood making a big ugly expensive mistake looms a heck of a lot more menacingly…   Well, it’s not like I can just pop back to the store to get a bit more now, is it?  Hmmm, whole different kettle of fish when you’re two thousand miles away, right?  And fabric from Tessuti’s is not cheap even to start with… I think you can grasp at the foundations behind my trepidation here now.  But I think my new top is a success.
The design is a simple concept once you’ve seen it laid out flat like below; the back when worn has one twist in it, and the two fronts are attached one positioned up the other the down, and the back piece has the armholes; one up and one down.  So clever, no?
The top is not difficult to make, the only proviso is that care must be taken with the finishing.  Since the hemlines are sometimes inside sometimes outside the finishes are visible and so have to be done well.  Hence, the side and shoulder seams are flat felled, and the lower/upper hems are finished with a self bias strip and hand-stitched down to the other side.  So the bias strip ends up half on the inside and half on the outside and switches from one to the other halfway along the hemline.  Hmmm, if you’re not understanding well it’s kinda hard to explain.  But nowhere near as hard as it was getting those silk bias strips stitched down neatly in an even width hemline… whew.  This fabric is soft and drapey, but it has quite a springy robust nature and was not the slightest bit obedient.
I need get out some nice easy cotton or linen next I think…

Details:
Top; top “p” from the Japanese pattern book Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa, made of brown silk
Shirt; my own design, a mix of patterns, black cotton, details here
Jeans; Burda 7863, khaki stretch gabardine, details and my review of this pattern here
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough (now renamed Boutique Eco)

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