December 2014 - Handmade by Carolyn

2014; a retrospective

31/12/2014 4:57 am \ 52 Comments \ Carolyn

So, on the last day of the year I like to look back upon some of my favourite sewing creations/outfits/pictures for the year, one for each month…
January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Some stats:
Number of garments made; 73 items, counting each set of 1 bra + 2 undies as one item. This includes 15 items that I made for family.
Knitted garments; 5
Garments re-fashioned from old clothes; 8
The same number of items that entered my wardrobe also exited my wardrobe, so I’m holding steady on numbers there. I ruthlessly got rid of a few things that didn’t get worn at all this year, and I’m getting better at letting go of really old things that are past their best, yay! There’s still room for improvement there, though 🙂

Also, this year I took a picture of my ootd every day and totted up the totals. Why? because stats are very dear to my analytical little heart 🙂 This year 95.6% of the clothing I wore was made by me. This includes all my underwear, socks and hosiery. Woot!
The remainder comprises scarves given to me by family, and my old MetalicusTshirts and Country Road cardigans that I still love and cannot bear to part with.
I have eschewed buying RTW for 5 years now. Yay!

Favourites: top place just has to go to my Alabama Chanin ensemble. I’m HUGELY proud of this outfit, and feel very sort of high-end and couture-y when I’m wearing it. Funny I know, since the fabrics are quite humble and ordinary in themselves and it is not extraordinarily eye-catching upon a casual glance. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it 🙂 I also really adore both my Swedish dress and my blue ray dress.
Probably the biggest thing for me this year has been that I made for myself shoes! two pairs of rudimentary shoes, or maybe three counting my slippers? OK then, just two 😉 They’re certainly not the most wonderful shoes in the world but I feel pretty proud of them and want to make a few more pairs sometime.

Just for the record though, I’m definitely not giving up buying RTW shoes. Gotta leave myself something!

Fails… haha, well there were a few less than fantabulous moments in there, ahem. Some honourable mentions:
My pale coffee jeans, which sadly turned out to be beige slacks after all. The fabric felt weirdly stiff and crackly and plasticky against my skin, and there was a slight camel toe issue that I worked on a couple of times but which remained stubbornly unfixable. Binned.
My leatherette baseball skirt; it’s the second leatherette skirt I’ve made that never felt right. I think maybe leatherette skirts are not very me. Fortunately, Cassie took a shine to it and it now lives in her wardrobe. She’s worn it several times too, so yay! Handballed.
My raspberry Alabama Chanin tank dress. I already covered the problems in the blog post. It’s in the process of being hopefully improved upon and fabulous-ifed as we speak. Working on it.

I enjoyed keeping my daily outfit blog and I think I may still continue doing it again next year. The photos are not super high quality, definitely of the no frills variety; but I’m OK with that since it’s just like a quick visual thing for me to see how my outfit actually looks from an outside eye. That’s a very helpful thing sometimes. Some days I find an ensemble especially pleasing to me, which is good. Other times I’ve realised that the outfit I’ve been wearing all day is actually pretty meh, if not downright awful. *sigh*

So that’s it for another year! I’d like to send out a huge mushy thank you to everyone who reads my blog and who takes the time to comment, thank you! It’s not so long ago when sewing my own clothes felt like a very lonely hobby. So I’m hugely grateful to have “met’ so many lovely and inspiring like-minded creatives… and yay! for the internets for enabling us to connect and support and cheer each other on.
See you all in 2015!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: random life stuff

Cassie’s Christmas ensemble

29/12/2014 6:04 am \ 44 Comments \ Carolyn

So, this year I asked Cassie what she would like for Christmas and she replied without hesitation, a long, white skirt.
Alrighty then!
I bought both fabrics at my local Spotlight; I considered buying Melbourne fabric like I did for the boys but reasoned that I could probably find nice enough white fabric at home. So fortunate then that I did! I was particularly thrilled with these finds. The overlayer is a sheer cotton muslin and the lining/underlayer is a cotton voile; both light and airy and quite beautifully soft. I really like how the layers of sheers and seams give a kind of “striped” effect to the outfit.
Honestly, Spotlight really can be such a hit or miss affair, so thank goodness for a hit. A very palpable hit! Random pop quiz; Can you name that quote…?
I used Butterick 3134; a very useful basic multi-gored skirt pattern and selected the six-gore option. I cut it longer and flared out the lower edge a little more, for a nice swish. I cut the lining/underlayer skirt using the spliced together pieces of Vogue 1247, lengthened, and put an invisible zip in the left side seam. All French seams throughout, including that zip seam.
Incidentally, I took a few pictures of doing the zip French seam in a sheer fabric, and can write a tut for anyone who is interested?
I had enough fabric leftover to cut out a little blouse/top for her also, so she has a complete ensemble. The little cropped blouse is a cut down version of NewLook 6483 with the sleeves lengthened.
Only the bodice of the top is lined and also French seams everywhere with only the armscye seams of the little top finished on the overlocker. I’ve found that I’m really enjoying finishing my seams using more traditional methods lately and resorting to using the overlocker less and less.
Phew! I have to confess I started making this outfit at the crack of dawn on Christmas Eve and finished it at about 6.30pm that evening. It was a frantic race to the finish! But it was worth it to see Cassie looking so lovely and summery and fresh and pretty in her outfit on Christmas Day.

Details:
Top; NewLook 6483 modified by cropping bodice and lengthening sleeves, white muslin and voile
Skirt; Butterick 3134, lengthened and lined with spliced-together Vogue 1247 lining, white muslin and voile
Sandals; 2 baia vista, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Butterick 3134, Cassie, New Look 6483, skirt, top, Vogue 1247

a bevy of beauties

28/12/2014 3:49 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

I can now share the fruits of my Christmas shirt-making bendah!! Old news? oh well…
I made four shirts recently. Yes, four! *phew* all since I returned home from Melbourne. I know. Sheer insanity. I has it.
Actually I did have different Christmas pressie plans, firm intentions to do something else for them all this year. And then couldn’t find the specific fabric I needed. And then the Fabric Store in Melbourne had such a gorgeous quality linens in stock…
resistance was futile. Shirts it was. My other plans will keep for next year 😉
All are made using Burda 7767, all with short sleeves, all felled seams, with those tricky curved armscye seams felled using this tip. The linen had no right or wrong side, enabling me to fold the buttonhole bands out, rather than under. This makes a rather nice distinct buttonhole band, which can be further emphasised with piping like I did here, or a coupla double rows of top-stitching, or both. This is my favourite way of doing the buttonhole band.
Burda 7767 has three collar variations; the button-down, the Kent and the shark. I’ve used all of them at one time or another in my 30-odd versions of this pattern, but haven’t ever pointed out the differences specifically when blogging about them. So this time, I shall do so 🙂

Shirts 1 and 2, above and below: Tim’s and Sam’s pale blue shirts both feature the “shark” collar, more traditionally known as the cutaway collar. It was a collar designed to accommodate a large or widely knotted tie, but I think it makes a nice collar for a casual shirt, worn open with the top few buttons undone. Which, lets face it, is how my boys wear their shirts, like 99.99% of the time.

Tim’s shirt

They are both of sky blue linen, with piping inserted in under the buttonhole band, the pocket and sleeve hems. Tim’s piping is pale blue and Sam’s is creamy pale yellow; these fabrics harvested from two of Craig’s old business shirts. I cut both the boys’ shirts a little slimmer in the body and a little shorter of sleeve than I’ve done in the past, because I’ve noticed the fashion in young mens’ shirts is for a slightly shrunken look at the moment.
btw, Cassie made Sam’s shorts in the top picture; I think she did a brilliant job and they look gorgeous! The fabric is Batman cotton from Spotlight, and she drew up the pattern herself using some of Sam’s shorts to guide her. They have two welt pockets on the back as well as two inseam side pockets, and an elastic waistband.

Shirt 3; Craig’s blue linen shirt has a Kent collar, considered the classic collar. I originally made the sleeves on this shirt a little shorter like the boys… However! upon first try-on my conservative husband immediately requested a lengthening, ahem. *sigh* I complied and added a long cuff, with a decorative metal button sewn on the top edge.

This shirt has a longer back than front, and split side seams felled with a long bar tack at the top. The other three shirts all have a regular, shaped hemline.

Shirt number 4; Craig’s emerald green shirt has the rather difficult to execute button-down collar.

To my mind the button-down collar has the most formal appearance of the bunch, but actually this is considered the “sporty”option in collars.
So there you go! a short compilation of collars.
Haha, bevy of beauties, compilation of collars, I’m so alliterative this morning. Sheer poetry, wot.

All buttons were harvested from off of some of Craig’s old business shirts. RTW mens’ shirts nearly always have great buttons, good colours, good quality and in a difficult to find small size. Only the Craig’s blue linen shirt has new metal buttons, from Spotlight.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, Craig, mens shirt, Sam, Tim

fun with gingerbread

25/12/2014 12:46 pm \ 19 Comments \ Carolyn

*sings* Have yourself a very gingerbread-y Christmas…

Gingerbread! Gingerbread madness 🙂
I love the stuff but I pretty much never make it. Until I do and then it seems like I become temporarily obsessed and will make a lot, maybe to compensate for not having made it in, like, ten years or so. Madness.
See, I decided I would make gingerbread men to give for Christmas gifts this year, and so made a big batch. See above.
Then I thought it would also be nice to make a gingerbread house for Christmas Day too. So drew plans and made a few more batches of gingerbread. Can I just say; designing gingerbread houses is a lot of fun! A lot more fun than actually putting them together, haha.
Mine is a pretty wonky little house but hey! shrug. My family politely admired it! And I’ve learnt a few tricks, from my mistakes.

For example; if, like me, you’re a gingerbread house newbie, don’t try to make it symmetrical and perfect. There lies inevitable failure and grief at your own ineptitude. Just aim for charming wonkiness and asymmetry right from the get-go! and then you may happily bask in the success of your ploy, mwahaha.

Also, roll and cut out the house pieces straight on the baking sheet. Picking up and tranferring the pieces can skew them a tiny bit. Ergo, wonkiness.

Make the walls thicker than the roof pieces, to stably hold that thing up.

Also, pipe any fiddly decorative curlicues on the flat, before construction. Seriously, that bizz is freaking difficult enough already, no need to make it more so.

Then at some point I looked my first set of gingerbread men and judged them to be a bit big and not very cute at all; really a totally unacceptable gift! I decided that only cute, mini gingerbread men would do. Went out and bought a new, mini gingerbread man cutter, and made stacks of baby ones. Was satisfied with these.

I’ve kept the rejected big ones with green buttons for my family, and the silver- and pink-buttoned ones are the good ones, that I gave away. Yes, my poor family have no choice but to eat big, non-cute gingerbread men, awwww! I’m such a bad mum 🙂

I used a recipe from my mother’s Scandinavian cookbook, that she has had since the 70’s. I doubt it is in print anymore so I’ve reproduced the ingredients here:

Gingerbread

100g butter

225g dark brown soft sugar

1tblsp each of ground ginger and cinnamon

265g treacle

900g flour

1tblsp bicarb of soda

approx 235mL milk

Melt and mix the butter, sugar and treacle, then add the dry ingredients all at once and mix in thoroughly. Stir in the milk, then knead to a consistent dough-y texture.

Roll out to desired shapes. These quantities make quite a lot of dough, enough for a small house.

Bake at 175C, for approx 12-15 minutes, depending upon the size and thickness of the pieces.

Join the house pieces with toffee, made by dissolving and gently boiling plain white sugar until it reaches the hard crack stage.

Icing: beat 1 egg white until stiff, mix in 500g icing sugar. Note; not “icing mix” which will not set properly. Add in a coupla squeezes of lemon juice to get a good piping consistency.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Christmas, food, recipe

travel wardrobe; Melbourne

14/12/2014 4:02 am \ 24 Comments \ Carolyn

Aah, I’ve been away! on a short but most delightfully fun girlie jaunt to Melbourne with my mother and my daughter.
I have about a zillion photos of mind-blowingly beautiful clothing, some of which I will share here very soon 🙂 And a bunch of Grease songs recycling on auto repeat in my head. And um, an extra 5kg of weight to my suitcase on the way home. Obviously, we had to visit the Fabric Store and Tessuti. Don’t worry, some of it is actually for other people! *gasp* So unselfish of me! Note use of heavy sarcasm font, there.
Anyhow, now my inner analyst is bossily commanding me to reflect upon, dissect and assess my travel wardrobe. My selection was boring and – warning, buzzword approaching; minimal. Primary motive; to create as empty a suitcase as possible, with a view to the aforementioned Christmas fabric shopping spree, ahem.

Time away:
5 days
Where to:
Melbourne
Season:
Early summer; cool and pleasant. Daytime temps were pretty consistent, from 14C lows to 22-24C highs, with a sprinkling of rain on one day.
Expected activities:
All girly stuff. Days involved chatting, walking, exhibition-viewing, browsing and ultimately spending! Evenings included still more chatting, tapas-ing, bubbly-sipping, spa-ing, and going to the theatre.
Colour scheme:
rather colourless! mostly black and creamy-white/ivories, with only some caramel brown and gold in my accessories to relieve the unrelenting nothingness.
What I packed:

from left to right, top to bottom; each garment is linked to its original construction post

forest green cardigan
loose black blouse
lightweight draped white top
loose, very pale pink blouse
black velvet dress with black satin petticoat
pale yellow scarf (never worn), black belt, pale yellow handbag
wide cream skirt
burnt brown bootleg jeans
straight ivory skirt

bathers and white thongs, travel umbrella, caramel leather sandals, black suede shoes (for evening)
not pictured, my nightie, toiletries bag and a selection of underthingies

My daily outfits:
I did use my phone to take daily selfies in our hotel mirror for my daily outfit blog but they were totally awful! So, some re-enactments…

Thoughts:
Well, just one cardigan, one pair of jeans, one evening dress and heels, one pair of day sandals. Three tops, of varying weights and silhouettes, and two skirts, again with different silhouettes. Only one pair of flat leather sandals for day wear plus the ever useful thongs. I always toss in the thongs and my bathers too, just in case. They don’t take up much room so why not! And as it turned out the hotel had a spa/hot tub which we used on three occasions *blissful sigh* so we were super glad we all had our bathers.

And I had tonnes of fabulous space in my suitcase leftover! Win.

Did the clothing selection work? well yes, up to a point. I could have kept going on those pieces for two or three days more and still not doubled up on outfits, the boredom factor notwithstanding. I think two ivory skirts was a tad much even for me, the dedicated pale/ivory lover. Wished I had a grey or black summer weight skirt. Need to rectify that, sometime.

Note to self: grey or black summer-weight skirt.

The dress, well I LOVE my velvet dress! so much! It’s doubly great, because the velvet is luxurious enough to look tres chic at evening events; but also being black and not eye-catchingly flashy it can work equally well as a day dress in a pinch. Not that a pinch ever cropped up during this short trip, but well, so the possibility is there.

We went to the theatre twice, and I took my distinctly homely and casual cardigan stuffed in my bag each time, and surreptitiously slipped it on in the dark once the lights went down and the need to look elegant subsided. I find theatres are damn cold, nearly always air-conditioned to the MAX! Like, practically arctic! What’s with that?? I did have one lightweight scarf, but it didn’t go with my evening dress. Actually, I didn’t need it during the pleasant days either so I didn’t even wear it at all. So; taking a light, evening-y type of cardigan or stole would have been a much better idea.

Note to self; if you know you’ll be going to the theatre, take an evening stole!!

I’m always shocked at how cold aeroplanes are too. Brrr! But that could be just me: I noticed plenty of people on the plane are in shorts and short sleeves, little skirts and dresses and appear to be perfectly comfortable, while I’m rugged up in my jeans and thick woolly cardigan, teeth chattering, asking for a blanket.

I took the drapey top in case of an unexpectedly warm day, which didn’t come. It was ok with the cardigan on over it though and I wore it twice. Actually everything I did take was perfectly fine and nit-picking aside, I felt nicely dressed enough each day 🙂

So, now we’re all back home, everything is washed and put away and all is back to normal and back into the nitty gritty of real life. Sad face, but only for a second; since the party season is upon us in an intensely full swing and we have tonnes of fun party-ing and socialising ahead of us for the next few weeks! Aaaugh! love this crazy time of year but how am I going to get all my Christmas sewing and cooking done? goodness only knows. I’m going to have to get cracking on that Christmas fabric pile … and fast!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: travel wardrobe

Watson lingerie set in sand cotton jersey

07/12/2014 6:07 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

I just could not resist buying Watson, the new lingerie pattern designed by Amy of Cloth Habit. Yes, I have a few lingerie patterns now, but a few points of difference with this one allowed me to talk myself into buying a new one. Quite easily, as a matter of fact! I’ve always admired Amy’s beautiful creations and so adding her new pattern to my collection was always going to happen 🙂
I used a sand-coloured cotton jersey, (the Morrison remnant sale), lining the bra cups and cradle with soft, sand-coloured rayon stretch (Fabulous Fabrics), pretty scalloped-edge lingerie elastic (Fabulous Fabrics) and plush elastic for the bra straps (Homecraft Textiles).
The pattern is for a simple, soft cup bra, in either longline or regular length, with no provision for underwires, and a bikini brief. Obviously I had to make both! and made my usual two pairs of matching knickers to go with my bra.
So, I have several thoughts about the Watson pattern…
Firstly and most importantly, I really love my new bra! I very much like the clean and modern line, the simplicity of the cut. It looks really cute on and for my size the fitting and drafting is spot on. I chose to make the longer line option, and am very pleased with it. Usually I go for a padded, underwire bra, but it’s nice to have different options in the undies drawer.
I chose to line both my bra band and cups for two reasons; firstly because I prefer the cups to be a slightly thick and padded anyway; and secondly; because the way the bra is constructed inevitably means all the seam allowances on the inside are exposed. That’s unavoidable in having a pieced cup in a single layer of fabric. However I usually like for my insides to be just as pretty as the outsides, and so I cut cup linings and worked out a way to construct it so that all the seam allowances are tucked neatly out of sight between the outer and lining layers.

1. Do not baste the lining to cradle as the first step; instead sew the side seam so that the back band is sandwiched between the cradle and its lining.
2. Sew all pairs of outer and upper cup pieces together, also for cup linings. Baste the cups to their corresponding lining cups all around, wrong sides together.
3. Turn the cradle inside out, so you can sew the cups to the cradle, sandwiching the cups, right sides together, between the cradle and its lining piece. This means that all seam allowances will be inside the cradle.
4. Sew the lingerie elastic to the top and lower edges as normal.
5. hey presto! all the seam allowances are nicely tucked away!

The white scalloped lingerie elastic from Fabulous Fabrics is very pretty and makes a really lovely edging; however, I thought it a little flimsy to use along the lower edge of the bra, which is a more “demanding” edge and requires a slightly thicker, heavier duty elastic. So I used my regular Birch’s lingerie elastic just for the lower edge of the bra.

A small complaint about the pattern: I had to do a bit of detective work to determine the lengths of elastic required because unfortunately they do not seem to be included in the pattern. I searched and searched and could find absolutely no clue in the instructions as to how long I was to cut my elastic pieces! Nor the straps! Strange. So I dug out my KwikSew 3300 bra pattern to measure the strap piece, and also checked out the tables in it for a guide as to how long I should cut the lingerie elastic for the Watson bra edges. Luckily, the KwikSew pattern has terrifically helpful tables outlining exactly how long you should cut your elastic, for each size. Thank goodness for that!
Same story for the undies; I had to get out my McCalls 2772 bikini pattern and measured the waist and leg elastic guide pieces and used these same lengths for these knickers too.
I’ve now jotted down on my Watson instructions all these elastic lengths I need so I don’t have to go looking for them again. Because I’m sure there will be more Watsons in my life. 🙂
Ok I only have one more complaint, and that is that metric measurements are missing from the instructions. Yes, I can convert them myself, and I have, for future reference, and noted them down directly onto my copy. But it would have been helpful to have them included in the pattern. Along with those elastic lengths.

The bikini brief undies are plain and simple little things, definitely my style. I only realised upon viewing the pattern pieces that there is a horizontal joining seam right across the front of the crotch, with open seam allowances on the inside. I wanted mine without a seam, so I spliced my front and crotch pattern pieces together and cut the front as one piece, and then cut one separate crotch lining piece from white cotton jersey. This is sandwiched between the back and front pieces when joining together, so that all seams allowances are nicely tucked away inside. This is the same method I learnt from my regular McCalls 2772 bikini pattern, and so I know it gives a nice comfortable result. And no unsightly seam!

I’m very happy with the new set! It is so comfortable, also the colour alone means I’m guaranteed to wear these a tonne. I was actually pretty desperate for this set… yes, sounds needlessly dramatic, but I have tonnes of white dresses and shirts. Which I favour. Meaning my white/colourless lingerie gets more wear and tear than the colourful stuff and as the lingerie drawer gets weeded out it’s looking a bit too colourful in there lately. Clearly I have been extremely bad at planning and keeping up with lingerie requirements.
But now, I’m on it! Stay tuned for another exciting episode of Watson, coming soon to this station. Featuring some luvverly lace, mmmmm 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: cloth habit, lingerie, pattern review, watson

Oriental Bird

04/12/2014 11:32 pm \ 52 Comments \ Carolyn

I was tempted to call this my other Swedish dress, since I bought this fabric in Stockholm as one of my wearable souvenirs from our Scandinavian holiday, but actually the fabric is English! I bought it in Svenkst Tenn but “Oriental Bird” is a linen upholstery fabric by GP&J Baker, printed in England.
Yes, upholstery. I am wearing a couch. *womp womp*
😉
Y’know those upholstery adverts in magazines that showcase upholstery fabrics and even carpets by making “garments” from them and photographing them on a model, like a fashion spread? Well, I love that kind of thing. Fabric is fabric and honestly, I cannot see any reason why upholstery fabric cannot be worn just like any other fabric. I reckon if you like it then just go for it.
And the print is just beautiful. Just look at these colours! There are twenty three colours. Twenty flipping three… Meaning, twenty three separate screens were required to make the design. Having done some printing myself, I find that number of colours to be, quite simply, staggering. Think of the placement! Honestly, I cannot even comprehend. Consider my mind officially blown.

I used Burda 8511. I wanted a dress with minimum joins, seams and darts or any other fussy shaping details that would visually interfere with the large-scale print; and this fulfils all criteria. It’s a terrific little basic shift dress pattern. I’ve had mine for years and it is still in print and available today.
Speaking of the pattern… I’m gunning for Burda’s envelope pose here.

powning it

I shortened it slightly and, because I wanted a nice fit, went to the effort of a minor sway back adjustment. I also did my semi-regular FHA. Haven’t heard of the Full Hip Adjustment? well that’s probably because I just made it up, hehe. The FHA is enormously complicated, requiring one to grade out from the waist to a larger size at the hips.

Inner workings: my fabric has three main characteristics; A. it is quite thick and stiff, B. it frays and C. it was very expensive. Taking these into consideration, I decided to HongKong finish all the raw edges inside. This can be a time consuming finish, only visible to and appreciated by one person; you, the wearer. However imo it is a really beautiful inner finish, and I’m always secretly thrilled with the sight of it, even thought it’s only for my own private benefit. I used pale yellow cotton voile for the HongKong bias strips and raw silk for the neckline/armhole facings.

Details:
Dress; Burda 8511, upholstery linen
Sandals; Zomp, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 8511, daily outfit, dress

floral bathers

01/12/2014 10:37 pm \ 52 Comments \ Carolyn

Bathers!
Pattern; old fave McCalls 2772, with the halter neck bikini top modified to be a tankini.
Fabric; one-way stretch from Fabulous Fabrics. I just randomly fancied floral this year.
I was immediately attracted to the clarity of the print, the realistically drawn, intricately detailed flowers and foliage. However, despite its obvious gorgeousness and I was pretty sure it would look great as a pair of bathers, I agonised somewhat over the fabric in the store for ages. Why? well, there is actually something extremely annoying about it.
See how I have oriented the floral bit so that the flowers stand upright? which to my mind is the only logical orientation for the print… well, the stretch in the fabric is actually going up and down, parallel with that print; and not across, or perpendicular to it, like you would rightly expect it to.
I know, right? Annoying!

You want the direction of most stretch to be going around your body, obviously! and well, who would want the flowers positioned that way?? There is a leeetle bit of stretch the other way, but not very much, so to my mind the way the print was done is just all kinds of wrong.
So I umm-ed and aah-ed for like forever over whether or not to take a chance on it.
Well, clearly I did in the end. And put the flowers in going up and down, exactly the way I wanted them. Sheer ~~pig-headed stubbornness~~ determination told me I could make it work.
And I did, by putting an invisible zip in the left side seam. Problem solved! Swimsuit purists will no doubt be horrified at the zip but look at me, not caring like a boss. At least it can be put on and taken off with the greatest of ease, which it would absolutely NOT do without that zip. Don’t ask me how I know that. I may or may not have sewn up that seam first, just to see, and may or may not have then spent a good five minutes struggling to get it on and then another five struggling to get it off again. Picture Houdini furiously battling with a straitjacket. Not exactly the epitome of effortless chic, haha.
Some quality time with my seam ripper, whack in a zip, done! Effortless chic is once again within my grasp, mwahaha.

The bikini bottoms; well, I obeyed the rules here and meekly cut them with the stretch going around my body, like you are supposed to. Choosing my battles wisely, here. Since the pieces are all cut from the plainer, all-green outer edges of the print then you can’t tell that the print goes the other way.

And I’m now totally ready for summer! Bring it!

Details:
Bathers; McCalls 2772 bikini modified to be a tankini
Hat; Country Road
Location; Bunkers Bay