Monthly Archives: September 2015

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blue Issey Miyake trousers

28/09/2015 7:27 am \ 49 Comments \

To complete my Issey Miyake trilogy; the trousers.
Pattern; Vogue 1693, an Issey Miyake design from 1986.
I used a navy blue cotton drill from Spotlight, buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.
Hmmm, navy blue again.  Can’t explain it but I’m a bit mad for it right now.  Navy; so hot right now!
When I finished these and popped them on; I felt quite happy and positive about them, thinking they looked pretty sharp.  A bit reminiscent of sailor’s pants, which pleases me a lot.   And wide legs are IN IN IN.  One of my favourite pieces in the Paris autumn/winter collections was Dries van Noten’s super wide leg pants; slouchy, relaxed, oversized trousers in the plainest of plain khaki cotton chino.  So comfy, so practical, so unfussy, so damn chic.  I saw, and I wanted!
So I strutted out confidently to my husband to show him, anticipating a comment along the lines of, hey super cool pants! or something like that.  Ha! his reaction: hmmm VERY eighties, aren’t they?  His tone was not the tone of a man who thought the eighties had anything worth resurrecting, fashion-wise.
*pop*
Bubble burst.
Hmm, well, yes; no denying that they are, most definitely, eighties.  A full-on ridgydidge piece of authentic eighties, right here.  But I’m an eighties girl.  Owning that.  And anyway I reckon this shape is pretty NOW too!

In eighties speak we used to say gauchos, but the hip n’ happening term now is culottes, whether rightly or wrongly?  They are very wide at the waistline and pulled in with four big pleats, held into place with buttoned arrowhead tabs to nip in and define your waist, so have that little something different and interesting about them.  They also have satisfyingly deep slanted front pockets, like all the 80’s and early 90’s Vogues used to have.

Some technical bizzo:  the instructions left some parts a little bit shonky/half-done; I went back and unpicked a few spots so I could re-do/overlock to neaten it up inside when I realised that was the case…  Also, the construction of the waistband was a little strange, and so I modified it slightly; instead of hand-stitching the short edges of the waistband facing, I wrapped it around over on the outside of the waistband and front, machine-stitched the side seams, then pulling the front back through so the front is all nicely enclosed between the waistband/waistband facing.  This results in it all being far more securely stitched together.  I still fell-stitched the lower edge of the facing though.

Finally though, I couldn’t be happier with the finished product! so I’m deducting just one point for the dodgy waistband construction issues.
Happiness factor; 9/10

Details:
Pants; Vogue 1693, navy blue cotton drill
Top; Nettie Tshirt with breast pocket, Closet Case patterns, details here
Shoes; bensimon, from seed boutique

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Issey Miyake blouse

23/09/2015 3:35 am \ 50 Comments \

Continuing my trip down nostalgia lane, I’ve made the top from my 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693…

Fabric: a lightweight, fully embroidered cotton voile in pure-as-the-driven-snow white, a remnant from Potter’s Textiles.  I had barely enough fabric to squeak out the pattern pieces, and had to lay the belt and front bands across the grain.  Since they are interfaced I don’t think that’s going to affect the efficacy of the blouse too drastically.  Lack of fabric forced me to cut the armhole facings from a different white cotton from my stash, provenance long forgotten.  White buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.

I’d half forgotten how much I love this blouse pattern but it all came flooding back over me in a happy sentimental wave during the construction of this new blouse.  The finishing instructions are wonderful with a truly great attention to detail that you rarely see in a pattern any more; all raw edges are neatly hidden away, either under flat felled seams or neatly turned under and top-stitched down on either side of a seam.

The style is also very much my cuppa tea; loose, asymmetric, interesting.  It closes with just two buttons on a gently diagonal crossover front and two crossed belts at the back pull the blousiness in to the small of the back and help define your shape quite nicely.
Happiness scale; 10/10  Say no more!

Details:
Blouse; Vogue 1693, embroidered cotton voile
Trousers; own design, very old, white linen

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Cassie’s dark moss-green ball gown

19/09/2015 7:20 am \ 39 Comments \

I thought it might be a good idea to take a few pictures of Cassie wearing one of her own self-made ball gowns, since she has pretty much abandoned her own sewing blog years ago… I’m sure she’ll appreciate that I took a few pictures for her one day in the future!  I’m a wee bit sad that I have absolutely zero pictures of my own creations from when I was younger.

Cassie made this ball gown for herself three years ago,  and wore it for the second time last night when she attended the Australian Chinese Youth Association gala with a group of girlfriends.  These pictures are like a re-enactment, taken the morning after the night before! if you like!
Its first outing was to an Amanda Young Foundation ball, and it was at that time teamed with bright blood-red lipstick and fangs.  Yup, fangs… she was a vampire!  She cut the fangs from fake pinkie nails and stuck them to her teeth with nail glue.  Apparently she had to pull the fangs off before she could have dinner though…  aah, the trials and tribulations of being a vampire.

The top and skirt are deep moss green silk dupion with the bodice back in black lace.  In lieu of a zip at centre back, she made a multi-button band, with 21 closely spaced shank buttons.  To make this, she stitched a folded band of black silk satin for the button side, and hand-stitched button loops using black embroidery floss to the lace on the other side.  All materials from Fabulous Fabrics.

She used a favourite top pattern, Burda 8609 and melded it with the skirt pieces from NewLook 6401.  This is a really gorgeous gown pattern, that she has used once before actually for another different ball gown…. probably I should get her to put that one on for a few pictures too!

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mustard Issey Miyake skirt

18/09/2015 3:28 am \ 55 Comments \

I’m scratching a long-standing itch by making something from this 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693 …  see, I’ve used it once before, when it very first came out! to make a skirt and the top for myself.   I wore that outfit to a number of 21st birthday parties with my then brand new fiancé, now my husband  🙂  There’s probably a picture lobbing around somewhere of me wearing it, just don’t know where! perhaps in a few of our old schoolmates’ dusty old photo albums shoved in the back of a cupboard somewhere.   My first skirt and top from this pattern was in a sateen with a rather psychedelic splotchy print of bright yellow, purple, a bit of bright orange and I think, splashes of black thrown in there.    I remember being extremely proud of it, haha! I used to wear it with hydrangea purple court shoes, or pumps.  We used to call them court shoes back then.
So, I think maybe it’s ok for me to claim this as a vintage pattern! and item number three going towards fulfilling my vintage pattern pledge… to make five items from my vintage patterns.
Fabric; a loose woven, slubby wool blend from Tessuti’s, Melbourne bought during a holiday over there with my Mum and Cassie.  A bit rough in feel, but in a beautiful, high quality way, if that makes any sense at all; quite thick, probably too thick for the design in retrospect and it was a little difficult to make it work with the pattern,  Almost cried a few times when I thought I’d ruined it, but managed to wrangle it into submission eventually.  Major relief when it all worked out.  I used the hammer a few times to flatten some of the more bulky layers down thinner, so they would fit under my sewing machine foot.

Perfectly matching buttons from Calico and Ivy.
Technical notes; all seams flat felled as per the pattern.

To avoid bulk in the waistband, the inside edge was cut along the selvedge, and this is not folded inside the waistband but left out inside the skirt and topstitched down from the right side, stitching in-the-ditch.  I also cut the overlay against the selvedge and left the selvedge edge out along the edge of the turned in facing.  Same reason as the waistband treatment; to reduce the bulk of having a raw edge turned under.

Also HongKong bounds edges for an inside side edge and the hem, again to avoid as much unnecessary bulk as possible.  For this, I used a beige/light honey coloured poplin voile to make bias binding.  I bought about 2m of this a few years ago and have almost used all of it in HongKong binding for various things… need to get some more, asap!
Happiness scale; 9/10 at having another of these skirts, since the pattern is a sentimental favourite of all time for me.  It lost a point due to my struggles with the fabric, but if I had to do it all over again I would probably still want the skirt in this same fabric.  Feels great on, and like skirt and pattern were meant for each other, like star crossed lovers or something like that, go figure.  Next time I will choose something with a little less bulk though.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1693, slubby mustard wool blend
Tshirt; self-drafted, white/grey stripe cotton jersey, details here
Shoes; Diavolina, from Zomp shoes

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all Aussie adventures

16/09/2015 12:54 pm \ 68 Comments \

MY OUTFIT IS FINISHED!!!
And I am showing it all together here for the first time.  Can I just say right here; wooooohooooot!
The challenge, as laid out by Nicki of this is moonlight, should you choose to accept it, and I did! was to make for yourself an entire outfit using ONLY locally sourced materials.  Sounds simple, right?  It has been anything but!
I’m very grateful to Nicki for conceiving this brilliant and very thought-provoking challenge, and for inviting me to take part.  This has been one exceedingly amazing ride, has blown my mind more than any other dressmaking challenge I’ve ever done, and really pushed my creativity to the limit.  At the beginning of the year I seriously did not think I would be taking my outfit to the levels I did…. I thought for sure I would be giving myself a pass on some things, for example;  thread, and allowing myself to use regular Gutermann’s thread.  As time went on though I toughened up, embraced the idea of going the whole hog; and I’m very pleased that I did manage to rise to the challenge and make the maximum possible from locally sourced products!
In fact, I’m quite proud and extremely happy! :))
For the challenge, I made:
a knitted alpaca cardigan/jacket
a merino felt dress
merino felt and pine shoes
a merino fleece bag
merino fleece undies and bra
In a nutshell, every single blinking thing I have on here is made by myself, using pretty close to 100% south-west Australian sourced materials

Those of us in Western Australia; Sue, Megan, Nicki and myself, have had to be quite innovative in our approach, I think.  I mean, forget zips, thread, elastic… there is not even any freaking fabric made in WA!  This was our single biggest hurdle, I think!
However, we are extremely fortunate in that we have wool available to us; lots and lots of wool!   Australia has the world’s biggest wool economy… did you know that 80% of the world’s apparel wool is from Australia? and Australian merino is the world’s best quality woollen fibre.  22% of the country’s wool production is here in Western Australia (source)

Hardly surprising then that all four of us have used wool as the majority component in our outfits.
My dress, bag, underwear and shoe tops are made from Western Australian merino fleece.  I made my wool felt fabric from the fleece as outlined in this post.  My dress is made from natural undyed merino fleece felt, and I hand-embroidered the fleece all over with locally handspun, undyed merino yarn.

Anigozanthos manglesii

The embroidery design is my own; a random arrangement of of kangaroo paw motif, for our Western Australian state floral emblem.

My underwear features the only “colour” in my entire outfit; I dyed the decorative yellow edging and ties using sour grass picked from my own garden, as posted here.
All the other fleece, yarn and wood in my outfit I left in its naturally coloured state.

My cardigan is alpaca yarn, from the Fibre of the Gods, a tiny mill operating on a farm in Toodyay.  This establishment produces alpaca yarn on their own property, from the fleece of their very own alpaca herd.  I bought some of their yarn directly from off the farm and knitted my cardigan, as posted here.

My wooden shoe soles are hand carved by me, using Western Australian pine.  The pine is grown by Bunnings on their own pine plantations down south and milled by Bunnings in Manjimup.  I made my shoes and my bag from my merino fleece as outlined here My bag and shoe tops are also merino fleece, with a grid pattern made of naturally black sheep yarn.

And that’s it, in a nutshell!
Well, typing it all out like this has kinda brought it home to me for the first time; I am wearing a pretty-close-to 100% homegrown outfit, top to toe, for maybe the first time in my life!  I’m kinda amazed, even at myself.  It’s a little mind-blowing to me.
Final thoughts: I’ve learnt a tonne doing this challenge.  Firstly, our local industries are precious and need our support.  That goes for everywhere, not just here in WA!  I personally am going to put more effort into supporting our local products regularly.  I mean, I’m definitely not giving up my more “regular” sewing, but I am going to do this challenge again.
Secondly, that if you really put your mind towards doing something, keep yourself focused on getting a project done, to overcoming obstacles, then you probably can do it.  Sometimes you need to sleep on it, think outside the box a bit.  I learnt a lot as I was going along, and several times had to improvise a solution to a problem.  There were moments when I questioned my sanity in doing this, when I wondered if my ideas were even going to work… a felt dress? unlined? felt underwear? sounds like the vision of a lunatic, or at least a recipe for disaster, for sure… well OK even I can admit that felt underwear is not really a practical nor a workable thing!  … do NOT recommend.  😉
Also, I had lots of fun!! I LOVE a challenge and this challenge really stretched my capabilities; which is the very best sort of challenge, in my opinion!   I thought hard and long about each aspect of my outfut and tried very hard to honour the materials, to minimise my waste and to make something truly Western Australian in feel and flavour as well as provenance.
There were also moments when I realised I had to accept a small defeat; in the case of this outfit; the glue holding pieces of wood together in my shoes (from NSW, Australia), the nails holding the felt to the soles of my shoes (China) and the cotton jersey liner for my undies (China).  They are very tiny elements so I’m not going to beat myself up over them too much.
I guess the important thing is that I gave everything careful consideration,  and really thought about provenance and the possibility of substituting local products in as many instances as I was able.  As well, I wanted to produce something stylish and lovely, that I knew I would love wearing and feel proud and happy in.  I genuinely love my outfit, and feel pretty pleased with my efforts!
Lastly; maybe I’m on a bit of a post-challenge high, but I’m quite excited about attempting this again next year… in fact I already have ideas and plans!
Mad? maybe, but quite happy to be so!

Details:
Cardigan; the Caramel cardigan, in Fibre of the Gods natural alpaca, grown, shorn, washed, carded and spun in Toodyay, Western Australia and hand-knitted by me, details here
Dress; my own design based upon Burda 8511, made from merino felt made by me and hand embroidered with locally handspun merino yarn from Bilby Yarns, details here
Shoes; my own design, pine soles from Bunnings hand carved by me, felt tops made by me from merino fleece bought at Bilby Yarns, details here
Bag; my own design, in felt made by me from merino fleece bought at Bilby Yarns, details here
Underwear; my own design, knickers derived from the Tried & True knickers pattern by the Makers Journal, in felt made from merino fleece bought at Bilby Yarns, details here

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a strange lingerie set

14/09/2015 4:30 pm \ 17 Comments \

I fully admit it; this could very well be the weirdest, most bizarre thing I’ve ever made! I had toyed with the idea of making a lingerie set to complete my one year one outfit… er… outfit; but rejected the idea as being impractical and unwearable; then re-embraced the idea, then rejected it again. And found myself pondering it again… and then dismissed it again.  Finally I just decided to have a go, although this part of my project was in danger of never ever getting blogged!
So; lingerie, made using ONLY locally sourced materials; quite a challenge, quite a challenge.  My set is very very simple; a string bikini top and high waisted knickers cinched in at the top with a drawstring.  
As per the criteria of the challenge, I could not use anything not made here in Western Australia … which ruled out elastic, findings, thread and even FABRIC!  Hmmm, yes, quite a challenge…   Like every other part of my outfit for this challenge, I had to make my own fabric.  Fortunately I had some pieces of merino felt leftover from my dress, and I made another small piece to complete the knickers, so my set is mostly made from scraps, yay!  The yellow blanket stitch edging is in locally handspun merino yarn from Bilby Yarns, that I dyed myself using sour grass from our garden; here.  The bikini strings and the drawstring are a single crochet chain. 
In my early planning stages, I had contemplated knitting some knickers and bra from my handspun Western Australian merino yarn, and actually found a free pattern for a knitted bra too! but rejected that idea… why? well to be perfectly honest, this set is probably not going to get a hekkuvva lot of wear! if any! and so I really wanted to minimise the use of my beautiful handspun yarn.  I felt OK about using my leftover felt though, since that was made from my own labour.
The bra is self-drafted, if you can call two, felted-together, darted triangles a self-drafted pattern, ahem.  I gave them a gentle cupped shape by cutting darts from the lower edge and felting them closed with my felting needle, just like I did the darts in my dress, so the darts are seamless; and felted them together at centre front the same way.
The knickers are loosely based on the Tried & True knickers pattern, by the Makers Journal, an undies pattern designed for non-stretch wovens.  This design is a little on the low-rise side which I modified slightly by making it a higher rise design with a drawstring to pull them in at high hip level, also the crotch and leg holes have also been cut away significantly with a deeper curve to the crotch and straighter front leg-line; I did this because the fabric was a tad on the bunchy side around this area otherwise.  When they’re on the knickers look like tap pants, flaring out a little from the waist and away from the hips, and are actually quite cute, believe it or not!

I made a little cotton jersey lining for the knickers, and have loosely tacked it in with running stitch  This small piece of fabric is the only part of the set that does not fit the criteria of my one year one outfit challenge; but I’m sorry, I just consider a liner to be an absolutely essential thing to have in a pair of knickers.  I’ve done my absolute best to eliminate non-local elements in all of the components in my one year one outfit, but you can only go so far for this challenge! and I’m drawing a line at unlined knickers.
While making them I was reminded of Sheldon fashioning historically accurate undergarments from linen just to wear to the Renaissance fair… so funny!… meaning, yes; I’m fully aware that this is just about the silliest set of lingerie ever, but I made them mostly from my leftovers and using my “experimentally” dyed yarn so I don’t consider making them to be too much of a waste of resources.  I think I made them just for fun, really!  Think of it as wearable art!

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Midnight Miette

12/09/2015 7:16 am \ 31 Comments \

What: I’ve finished knitting a new cardigan; another Miette, yes, that fantastically popular cardigan design and it’s super easy to see why, too.  Such a quick and easy thing to make, top-down, seamless, cute with nicely subtle zig-zag lace design at all borders, free to download here.  LOVE THIS SO MUCH!   I’m just stuck on it and maybe I can never move on.   A bad case of “fools never differ” happening here  😉
This is my third Miette, my previous two are dark green and mustard, all of them in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran.  Green, yellow and now blue.  Slightly embarrassing fact; I already have red wool purchased and earmarked for this design!  The same yarn too …  I could happily have the full colour range because they’re all pretty yummy  🙂

Why: Well, I have felt like a navy blue cardigan would be a very handy little colour to have on hand for aaaaaaages, and this is just me finally making it happen.  Navy blue is a great neutral, I reckon it looks fab with everything, and even though it’s not officially one of “my” colours I think it’s rather lovely against the browns, yellows, oranges and reds that I tend to favour.  I have a nice navy blue silk blazer which was/is terrific but I wanted a woolly cardigan.   I think I’m more of a cardigan person than a blazer person.
Problemmos: Actually I anticipated a quick project out of this one since it is super easy and not my first go at it, but I had surprising rough trot this time.  Mostly because this yarn is so dark dark dark navy, and I usually knit in front of the telly in terrible low light; and so half the time I literally could not tell whether a stitch was a knit or a purl.  Seriously!  Several times I had to frustratingly pull out a whole bunch of rows and re-do it because one wrong stitch had gone unnoticed…  I ended up having a torch on standby to illuminate and assess the situ-bar as required.  grrrrrr!  This cardigan has taken me nearly all winter to finish!
Changeroonies: I made a small but vital change to the design this time; I transferred the bust dart shaping to the underarm side seam each side.  I think this is a much better shaping pozzie for a small busted person like myself.

later edit; as requested, the details of moving the bust dart shaping to the underarms goes as follows:

To move the bust dart shaping to the underarm… row 56 is where the bust dart shaping starts; you follow the same shaping (reducing two stitches on each of the “fronts”) EXCEPT you are moving that shaping to the underarm stitch marker, instead of in the middle of the “fronts” of the cardigan.
So, instead of doing the ssk, k1, k2 tog in the middle of each front section of the cardigan, instead do this same shaping at the underarm marker. Do the same for rows 58,60,62,64,66

Details:
Cardigan; the Miette by Andi Satterlund, in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tween Aran, col. 360039 (Midnight) from Calico and Ivy (6 balls)
Jeans; the Ginger jeans by Closet Case patterns, navy blue cotton denim, details here
Tshirt; Vogue 8879, ivory cotton jersey, details here

The following is some technical blahdy-blah notes to myself, ‘cos I always forget this and have to re-knit tension squares, which I do not enjoy:
I’ve knitted the main using three different needle sizes for the three cardigans, because the tension of the design does not match the tension of my chosen yarn exactly.  The Miette recommends 16st x 22rows per 10cm square, while the DBliss Aran tension is 18st x 24rows per 10cm square.  So, my first, green Miette was knitted on size 9 (UK) or 3 3/4mm needles, giving a tension midway between that recommended  for the yarn and the design and is a slightly relaxed fit.  The second, mustard Miette was knitted on size 10 or 3 1/2mm needles, giving the correct tension for the yarn but a tighter tension than the design; and was a closer fit.  This cardigan is knitted on size 8 or 4mm needles, giving me the correct tension for the design and a slightly loose tension for the yarn, and is a more relaxed fit.  I like all of them, the differences do not feel massive.
I definitely prefer moving the bust shaping to the underarm.

Also, each version, I’ve extended the length by 2 pattern repeats, this requires picking up 79 stitches for the front button bands.  Each version I’ve selected size 42, which is technically a size up for me, but I remember from my first go at this pattern that “my” size would be a tad too tight for my tastes… I had to unravel and start over!  It might work to go down a size in the looser tension; would be a risk but maaaaaybe? I might just try it for my red version…  we’ll see.
I need 6 balls of the Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tween Aran, and with the two extra pattern repeats 10 buttons.  These 1.5cm, navy blue ones are from Fabulous Fabrics

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Natural dyeing; sour grass on merino wool

11/09/2015 10:00 am \ 22 Comments \

Inspired by Nicki of this is moonlight, I’ve been having a go at solar dyeing.  What is solar dyeing…?  well, it’s basically just chucking fabric and chopped up organic material into a glass jar and leaving it outside for a while until your fabric has changed colour.
Boom yeah: blog post done!
Hmmm, well maybe just one or two more details would be helpful…
So I was just weeding my garden, I mean; harvesting my carefully nurtured dye-plant crop! of course! and spontaneously decided to experiment.  This plant is Oxalis stricta or common yellow wood sorrel; more commonly known around here as sour grass.  I have fond memories of sitting with my fellow primary school friends on the school oval at lunchtime, munching on this stuff … ah, memories!  It grows like mad around these parts, you can find it everywhere and it’s considered a weed.  But a useful weed!

This was just a little play to see if I like the effect; so I used about a dozen flowering plants, and 20g natural merino wool.  My wool happens to be 100% Western Australian merino, handspun locally and bought in Bilby yarns.
I snipped the whole plant minus the bottom third of the stalks, roots and root ball into small pieces, straight into a large glass pitcher along with 1/2 cup salt, half filled the pitcher with water, and stirred it around pretty vigorously to dissolve the salt.  Then added my yarn, which I’d loosely tied in a skein to guard against knots.

Once the yarn was in, I swooshed it around very gently to immerse it in the plant material, covered the pitcher with glad wrap, then popped it outside in the sun.  I left it for five days; moving the whole kit’n’caboodle around during the day, following the sun, and would always bring it in each night.  Basically, did not stir again.

After five days, the wool seemed to have picked up a nice amount of colour, so I gave it a very thorough rinse in cold water and picked off as much organic material as possible.
And, ta da!

This could not have been any easier! and I’m very happy with that bright yet delicate chartreuse shade of my wool.  Not to mention the non-toxicity of the whole process too.  I will definitely be doing this again;on a bigger scale with more yarn and more plants and leaving it for longer next time  🙂
Notes for next time; picking out the organic material takes ages and is a bit of a pain.  I’m toying with how to keep the plant matter and fibre separate next time, so as to avoid a gazzilion squishy rotting bits of plant muck stuck tight to my wool everywhere.  Maybe with a very loose-weave synthetic gauze “bag” for the plant matter.  I’m not sure if this would reduce the effectiveness of the dye though… but will give it some thought and a shot.
This is not going to be my only experiment with natural dyeing either; I’ve bought some indigo seeds and am raring to see that experiment come to fruition as well…

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