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.
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
Your photos are just gorgeous! All of it is wonderful. I'm so impressed by this, and also by how hard it is to stay local, whether you're talking food, textiles or building materials. Much to think about…….
Amazing work, and indeed… I have no idea what I could accomplish using only things made in my area.
This is amazing! Everything is worked out so neat and well proportionated. I love the embroidery of your dress, the fabric pattern of your bag and the shoes, you have made your felt and knitted the cardigan! Handmade woolen undies 🙂 And it doesn't look rough but subtle. So well done!
You are doing it again next year!!!! Fantastic outfit, its been great watching your progress over the year. Really well done.
Love it. Inspiring!
It's great to see all the pieces together, they work great with each other! It was fun following you along this challenge, you gave me a lot of inspirations! Thanks!
so interesting, a great accomplishment and thanks for highlighting the idea of supporting local makers.
Congratulations on a challenge well-met!
It turned out wonderfully! What a great, thought provoking challenge. You really pulled it off!
Just wow! The colors/non-colors are subtle and beautiful, and it's fascinating to see how the materials shape the aesthetic. If the challenge happens again next year, I might have to join in!
You are so freaking cool! You look great!
While you have been posting about this challenge I have been thinking what I could do with things made in western Kansas. As we have meat packing plants here, I have the advantage of using leather for some shoes. We also have some locally produced sheep wool. I don't think I would use it for my knickers!!
I look forward to seeing what you make next year. Thanks for sharing.
thank you so much Lisa! I hope you think about joining in next year then; you have some great options there. I would have LOVED to have found some leather, if I had I would definitely have gone with a leather skirt and shoes!
Wow! It is as always a terrific outfit. I am so envious of your local sourcing; it's amazing. I love merino wool jersey but the thought of felted merino wool is drool inducing. The only thing I can local source here on Long Island are vegetables and fish. Delicious, but not quite usable for clothing but I do like to support local too.
thank you very much Nancy! I think I've read that Alabama Chanin uses cotton jersey that is a 100% US product? and you can buy the fabric through them too, so at least you have fabric! We thought about fish here too, since there are some very small scale fish leather producers… but it was quite an expensive option for us.
You rock, Carolyn! I keep thinking about your felted underwear, I can't believe you made those. And I looove that you included colour, yellow, just on them. You don't want to get caught in a downpour in this outfit. No. But this look is so delightful the flowers won't need rain – they'll just sprout out of the ground by themselves as you walk by. Hahaha. Locally-sourced. Again, absolutely well done. Don't use grass for your undies next time. Just saying. Oh, in Japan, traditional Japanese rain capes were made from grass(?). Very cool. I'm excited to find out your new ideas as your next project unfolds.
Stunning as usual.
Gorgeous outfit and what an accomplishment. I ordered some white shirting the other day – two choices and one was made in the USA, decided it was worth the extra price for that. Like you, I wanted to support industry in my country.
Lori, thank you 🙂 and that's fantastic news that you can still purchase fabric made in your own country. Here in Australia, we do have lots of wool, which would until fairly recently be processed here too. It's quite sad how much is now sent off to China for spinning and in some cases weaving or knitting into fabric. Then it comes back here again for us to buy! Crazy 🙂
Awesome! It turned out beautifully and really stylish. Thanks for taking us along on this creative journey.
I was in awe when I first saw the outfit, then to read on and see that almost everything is locally made including the shoes – wow! Great job! Can't wait to see what you dream up for next year!
Your outfit is mind-blowing, Carolyn. Beautiful in every aspect! What a fabulous way to show what your country has to offer and also your own creativity.
I hope you feel more than proud of yourself for achieving your goal.
Very impressive, and your dog obviously agrees! Your anticipation of next year reminded me of how I felt when I first held my newborn…"that wasn't so bad…I could definitely do that again". And then I slept for a very long time. 🙂 Beautiful beautiful beautiful.
You are quite simply amazing. What an incredible journey!
Totally inspiring! And, so very beautiful! Finding your blog and IG feed made me remember one of the best holidays I've ever had in the SW of WA. Sigh! Thank you.
thank you very much Nada! 🙂
So beautiful – exquisite! I love that last photo too.
The undies and the shoes are the most impressive pieces! The whole outfit is totally gorgeous. Bravo!
thank you very much Helene! 🙂
So incredibly impressive!
This is just phenomenal! What an amazing achievement to know you have made every single thing in your outfit. I can't believe you even made the shoes. That is just incredible!
So impressed! I was hoping we'd get to see the whole outfit together. What an inspiring undertaking!
Words won't come close to expressing how I feel about this ensemble!!! Utterly amazed….just amazed!!! That fact that it all came from right there is unbelievable. You typing and finally realizing the gravity of it all reminds me of how I felt when I was sitting back in the pew watching my son say "I Do"….that is the point it hit me that I had mad his brides dress. Tears came out.
I am in awe…at your work. Question….How do you wash all this? I imagine very carefully, and lay flat to dry, right?
thank you Andrea! and yes, I will be carefully hand washing all these things, I think 🙂
Hi Carolyn….you are deserving of every accolade!! Truly amazing!
Amazing and absolutely stunning. This challenge has seen so much creativity flow. I would love to try something similar. Can I ask is it hand sewn as well?
thank you! and yes, you cannot thread a sewing machine with handspun merino!
I've been vicariously enthralled by your unfolding of the making of this wonderful outfit. It's stunning, and required a lot of dedication and attention to detail to the nth – really wonderful work.
This really is so amazing!!!!! I was already ridiculously impressed with everything you'd already done and then I got to the part where you said "My wooden shoe soles are hand carved by me, using Western Australian pine" and my jaw dropped. Really well done!!
See, she's done this kind of thing before; the shoe-making thing, I mean. The thing that really knocked my socks off is that she found locally milled timber to carve her heels from. And THEN she made the fabric to make the top of the shoes. This is why this is basically my favourite blog on the planet 🙂
Impressive! 🙂
For once I won't blather on and simply say – you. rock.
An amazing and incredibly chic outfit. You are absolutely right that local industries need our support, without it they die. Way back in history this would have been normal life rather than a challenge – but it never looked as good as yours.
Sienna looks great in her local outfit too.
This has been such a fantastic journey to follow, and you've done such an inspiring job (as in I've been inspired to spend a fair chunk of the past week googling solar fabric dying). It also highlights the sad decline of a full range of local industries. I must confess that I would probably stretch to Australia-wide products, just to get cotton in there…maybe another year. But I'd probably finish it with just a pair of socks knitted from local wool too, rather than THE WHOLE LOT!
Again, very nice work.
Aw, thank you so very much Liz 🙂 You're right it's heartbreaking how many of our local industries send their production off shore now; which reduced so many of our options. But I have to confess I enjoyed the grass roots approach, wouldn't have felt like so much of a challenge if I had just been able to buy fabric! Please do join us next year, it'll be fun!
My mind is blown, too, Carolyn! This is truly a masterwork! You are a very impressive and inspirational person. All the best.
–Lori B
This is simply fantastic. I have to admit I'm a little sad that this is the sort of challenge I'd probably never be able to do, unless I figured out how to grow my own flax and weave linen or something. Though I'm honestly not sure flax would grow here. And I have a brown thumb. (My only other option would be to make a dress out of chicken feathers. Um, no.)
I know I've said it before, but I really admire how thoughtful you are in your consumption habits, and how innovative you are in your making. I'm already looking forward to seeing how you expand on this challenge!
thank you Becky! wrt to doing the challenge yourself, it's amazing what you can find if you do a little digging. I think you are in the US? I'm pretty sure that Alabama Chanin uses cotton fabric that is a 100% US product and they sell the fabric too, so there's that! Also, Lori mentioned above that there is a cotton shirting fabric that is US grown and made too.
Wonderful work, Carolyn 🙂 Nothing more I can say about the outfit, beautiful 🙂
This is just wow! The greatest projects can come out the the toughest parameters. I think this is also an excellent example of exactly what the consequences are of not supporting small businesses, and especially local crafts. Making your own clothing as a statement against mass production is a big generalization. But this shows the core of the issue- if there are no supplies you only have mass produced options.
thank you very much SBCC! yes, we would have had a few more options if we'd done this years ago, like a decade, but a lot of local industries have either closed down or now send a lot of their production off shore. Nearly all our West Australian wool-for-knitting for example, is now sent off to China as fleece for processing and spinning, sometimes knitted into cloth, then comes back here to sell back to us! It's kinda heart-breaking really.
Such an incredible achievement. Congratulations on completing it, I'm amazed by just how much you've accomplised here and can't wait to see the next installment.
This is amazing and gorgeous. You are an artist!
Gorgeous! That is very amazing.
Wow Carolyn.This outfit is just so polished and well thought out. It's a great ensemble, and you deserve every one of the many compliments that I'm sure you'll get every time you wear this. What a great outfit!
Absolutely mind blowing amazing. Your outfit is amazing and enjoy the compliments.
That is quite an impressive effort. Your creativity knows no bounds!
Incredible. It is sad to think there are so few local industries left. Thank you mining boom for destroying the last of the local manufacturing. But as you show, a bit of ingenuity can reap amazing results.
Wow! You certainly made some beautiful pieces. I adore the soft natural colours (cardigan in particular), and appreciate your dedication and commitment to see a project through to finish. A massive undertaking – done!
This is just so, so amazing. Really. Truly! I am inspired to look in to locally made fabrics near me. I live in the south eastern US. Actually, I live in a part of my state that was THE place for fabric mills. Until everything went overseas. I drive by many abandoned mills often. My husband's family were all mill workers, growing up on the 'mill hill.' I have heard from time to time that some manufacturing has come back. A few companies are moving back in to these old mills. I'd love to really look in to it!
I was already impressed that you even took on this challenge but you've really made the most of it. AND yet produced a lovely outfit!
Wow, what an epic make! It was certainly a challenge and you did it justice with this complete outfit. I'm standing in awe of your great work here. The colours are perfect for you and work so well together. Well done!
Amazingly fabulous! Perfect. xx
I am so thoroughly impressed! Here in Pennsylvania we have so many materials to pick from, if you can afford it. But your entire ensemble is just lovely. I love the the felted fabric you made for the dress it is absolutely stunning. And shoes and a bag and even undies. Just wonderful.
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