Monthly Archives: September 2015

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Lace-y bralette + undies

10/09/2015 1:59 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new lingerie set and I think it turned out quite noice.
This little soft bralette design has been bouncing around in my mental wish-to-make-list for yonks. It’s more of a pull over the head, lacy camisole than a bra really; and is a near-copy of a Lovable bralette I used to wear donkey’s years ago. I’ve even kept the original one tucked away in a drawer, just to try to reproduce it one day. That day has come, weeeee! I’m very happy with my copy, even though the lace I used is a bit too wide. It’s such extraordinarily pretty lace though, so that’s an ok compromise in my book.
The reason I wanted to make another one for myself is that the original one really was such a nice thing to wear under big loose tops or something a little sheer. The lace shoulder straps look really pretty if they happen to peep out and don’t really look too much like a “bra”.
Also I wear a lot of white/ivory in summer, so white/beige underthings are always very handy.

It’s super comfortable, and although it doesn’t look particularly supportive, it actually is. Pictured above on poor long-suffering Bessie, that joining seam appears to cut right across her bust in a most uncomfortable way; however Bessie is actually bigger than me. On me the shoulder strap lace comes down and around and sits perfectly moulded underneath my bust and so it’s actually does give a surprisingly good amount of support. I’m fairly fortunate I guess in that I don’t need much, hehehe… well, hey; there’s got to be some advantages!!

I made the usual two pairs of matching undies to wear with it; at bottom is my old favourite McCalls 2772; above it is the cloth habit Watson knickers, which I also like a lot. They’re very similar designs, I like wearing both. The Watson sits lower on the hip and is thus a touch broader in the beam; the McCalls sits at high hip and is is actually cut a bit slimmer. I added some lace scraps to the fronts for decoration and bravely snipped away the poly-knit from behind; something I haven’t done before.

Fabric notes: Clotted cream poly-knit and gold satin ribbon from Spotlight; my hand hovered over the ivory ribbon but on the spur of the moment I honed in on gold! I love how it gleams quietly and luxuriously against cream and ivory.
Ivory stretch lace and lingerie elastic from Fabulous Fabrics. This lace is 8cm wide, and yes; it works fine and is super pretty. I mean, no way was I going to walk away and leave that in the store!!! However my original bralette had considerably narrower lace, 5cm. I still need to keep my eye out for some 5cm lace so I can someday have another go at that perfect reproduction. I think the ideal combination would be 5cm wide lace for the straps and 8cm lace for the cups. But it’s hard enough finding lovely stretch lace even in plain black and/or white/ivory here, let alone specific widths, and in matching colours! The search continues… 🙂

bralette; copied from an old Lovable design

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: cloth habit, lingerie, McCalls 2772, own design, watson

I made matching shoes and bag

06/09/2015 8:51 am \ 55 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve finished the next coupla components in my 1 year 1 outfit project!
First up; shoes!
Following the same formula that I used for my previous two pairs of shoes; these have a carved wooden base and a fabric top. For the soles I used Western Australian pine from Bunnings.
I actually had several pieces of wood from which to choose for this project; my Dad had given me some marri from their block; and I also, albeit briefly, considered jarrah as another truly Western Australian product. Also, my brother had given me some jacaranda logs from when he had to lop a branch from the tree in their back yard. But I eventually decided to go with pine … why? Well it’s the softest, lightest and easiest to work with! and our ancient old bandsaw has finally given out, meaning it was going to be a ginormous struggle to cut the marri or jacaranda or jarrah either on any of our other equipment. These are all pretty rock hard woods, also both marri and jarrah weigh a tonne and you’d only want very thin soles of it for a shoe. Pine was the path of least resistance. I have definitely not ruled out using the other wood that I have for future pairs of shoes though. I just need to get better at woodworking first 🙂

personalised soles 🙂

Craig helped me with the big cutting and I did the finer shaping using the belt sander, and hand-sanding out the heel groove and some grooves for the ball of my feet. I also carved my initials, just for fun 🙂
The upper is 100% Western Australian Merino wool felt; made from natural, undyed, white fleece and natural, undyed, handspun black sheep’s wool as outlined in this post. By the way; I incorrectly stated in my previous post on my dress that the wool I used for the felt was Corriedale, and I have since discovered that it was pure Merino wool, sorry! I’ve corrected the error in that post now. And am actually rather thrilled to be wrong, to be honest!
Anyway my black and white “plaid” was the thickest and strongest of the felts that I made, so I kept it for these more demanding of my outfit components. Sadly, I realised that it’s still not particularly sturdy and is probably going to stretch out pretty quickly :(( But I’ve devised a devious plan to cope with the inevitability of The Stretch, mwahahahaha… see that central seam running right down the top/middle? well as it stretches out I can just unpick it, cinch in the top seam a bit, trim and re-stitch. Simple! And when it has stretched out past the point of saving, which it will; then I can easily unscrew the screws from the sides, remove the whole felt top and substitute something sturdier like leather. Hopefully I can somehow find a nice piece of thick WA leather, so that my shoes will still be eligible as a 1 year 1 outfit piece!

OK: confession time… I did have to cheat on a few minor parts of this project; the glue holding the pine layers together is made in NSW, and the screws holding the felt upper to the wooden soles are made in *embarrassed whisper* China. I did investigate making these; and concluded that to make my own local glue and “nails” is both possible and achievable. You can make your own glue using boiled animal bones, sap, or milk and vinegar; and I could have made wooden “nails” using jarrah or pine dowel. And originally I was seriously gung-ho about doing just that; until my Dad and my husband advised me to get real.

You see, the wooden soles are honestly such a hugely time-consuming and difficult component for me to make that I really really wanted them to hold together firm and fast and be perfectly secure; and NOT EVER fall apart. A rank woodworking beginner like me could all-too-easily destroy my carefully hand carved soles trying to ram wooden dowel “nails”, with hot homemade glue dripping everywhere; and even then if I was miraculously successful; they could later on just fall out or snap at a moment’s notice. Which, according to my experienced father and my husband; is pretty darn likely.
And I would, um, yeah; be sad. Understatement of the year, right there.
Anyway, I went the route of properly manufactured wood glue and steel screws… but I just want to say, for the record, that I did investigate the 100% hardcore approach, and gave it serious and careful thought.
And I do not regret not going there either, not one little bit, sorry! You can only do so much!
What is more! I will also be gluing some thick rubber to the soles to protect them from damage. I haven’t done that yet, I plan to “show” them first in this virginal state. But I will.

Exhibit two; a bag!

And it perfectly matches my shoes, hehe. Isn’t that the old fashion must-do advice for a lady from the 50’s or something? I seem to remember reading somewhere that a lady would never dream of sashaying out with non-matching shoes and bag. Ancient stuff, I know; we definitely do not adhere to such a strict dress code anymore! But I had enough felt for it so here I am, totally regressing to the standards of a previous era.
ooo yea.
It’s just a simple, um, something-bag? A sort of rustic briefcase? I don’t know the correct term to describe this kind of bag. A fold-over, almost-envelope, with rectangular side gusset thingies to make it box-like. It’s all held together and decorated with blanket stitch. For the handhold; I cut and blanket-stitch edged three slits that line up with each other through all layers. Ta da! Simple, but it does the trick.

I like the way the felt is thick enough that it can stand up by itself… just.
I am toying with a few extra components for my 1year1outfit project, but minor things that may or may not come to anything. However, they may; fingers crossed. If all else fails, at least I do have a complete outfit now!

Posted in: fashion, sewing, shoes, Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, bag, felting, one year one outfit, own design, shoes, wool

snuggly chocolate-y ensemble

03/09/2015 7:25 am \ 32 Comments \ Carolyn

True to form, right at the beginning of spring I’ve made a rather wintery ensemble for myself. Typical! 😀
No, actually Mari from Seamster Patterns contacted me again asking me to take part in the second and last part of the SewIndependent month and as luck would have it Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater dress was one of the patterns available. I’ve had my eye on this pattern thanks to Megan’s and Sue’s versions. We’re all Perth girls so how fun would it be if we all met up wearing our matching Jaspers, hehe. For my Jasper, I decided get some of this lovely chocolate-brown marled knit from KnitWit, which I have also had my eye on for some time but been unable to justify the purchase. It’s gorgeous stuff. Soft and springy and slightly fluffy and ever so snuggly. With yet another little bout of luck, I discovered it was on sale for half price. The advantages to shopping at the end of the season! Booyeah!! *does an almighty air fist pump, although only mentally because the lady in the store would have thought I was bonkers*
I made up the dress version with collar, and left off that buttoned placket thingie. I was a little doubtful about how the curved-in nature of the skirt would look on my pear-shaped self, and so I cut the pegged portion edge of the pieces from hip level down to flare out straight and slightly A-line, rather than curving inwards. I think this silhouette is far far better on me.

I also left off the lower band and simply hand-hemmed the lower edge instead… this gave me a little fabric leftover, and so I decided to use this to make a kind of mini-slip to wear underneath the dress, so it’s like a set. My “slip” is the simplest affair; comprising a “skirt” cut from the chocolate brown knit attached to a “singlet” cut from cream-coloured poly stretch knit. I vaguely used the Nettie bodysuit pattern for this bit; cutting it wider and looser, the armholes quite a bit deeper and wider, and gave a random mid-point scoop to the neckline, to get more of a singlet shape at the top. I finished the armhole and neckline edges using a self-fabric band and hand-hemmed the lower edge of the skirt.

I originally had high-flown ideas of adding a few faux leather details to my ensemble, thanks to a quiet ongoing little love affair with pleather detailing; and so I did the tunic welt pockets in pleather. Also partly for the extra stability it lends to the welt. I think they turned out rather well, and aesthetically I LOVE how the shiny smooth pleather contrasts against the fluffy softness of the knit.

To visually tie the two pieces together, I then proceeded to finish the lower edge of the slip skirt with pleather binding. I cannot stress enough how hideous this turned out; the pleather was so stiff and structural compared to my soft and super-flowy chocolate knit that it made the hem of the skirt flare stiffly and super-duper-unattractively. No sooner had I finished it, put it on and laid eyes on it in the mirror than I seized the scissors and cut that bit off; ahem, taking absolutely no pictures to assault the eyes. Trust me, it was just too awful for words. So now, the welts are the only lonely bit of pleather appearing anywhere on the ensemble; nowhere else to balance it out. I’m a little disappointed, but think it doesn’t look too ridick. Maybe a bit. Anyway, it’s done, so yeah. There’s no point in getting too upset after the fact.

LOVE this collar. This colour, too.

Fortunately, I adore it and can see myself wearing it a tonne. Besides being warm and comfortable and cuddly like wearing a blanket, it’s absolutely my winter style. I love minis for winter, and I love loose drapey tunic tops, and double-decker love the combination of the two together. It’s also “my” colour. Sorry to yammer on about “my” colours, but I’m lately on a bit of a thing about autumnifying my wardrobe, colour-wise.
Adhering dutifully but very happily to my resolution to be more mindful in my sewing 🙂

Details:
Tunic dress; the Jasper by Paprika Patterns, chocolate brown knit
Slip; Nettie bodysuit modified; chocolate brown knit and cream poly stretch knit
Tights; my own pattern, black poly stretch knit, details here It can possibly be seen from my pictures; these have HAD IT. I’ve worn these to sags-and-bagsville and back; and desperately need new ones! but with spring here I’m trying to hold off until next year 🙂
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

Funny coindidink; I’ve only just now realised that I mindlessly plucked the Nettie pattern out to eyeball for my slip because I already have this pattern; however it’s actually another one of the patterns on offer in sew indie month!

As mentioned, the pattern is part of the Sewing Indie month. I received the pattern free in order to help spread the word, but chose it myself, paid for my materials, made it myself and am very happy with the pattern. Please note that as always, there are no affiliate links on my blog and never will be.
The Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater dress, along with the Nettie bodysuit and eight other patterns, is part of the Indie pattern bundle on sale from Monday 1st September until Thursday 10th September.
As with the first pattern bundle there is a charitable component to the sale, with 20% of pattern sale proceeds to be donated to Women for Women, which helps women dealing with violence, marginalization, and poverty due to war and conflict.

My fellow seamsters participating and making their own version of the patterns are: