September 2016 - Handmade by Carolyn

black suede oxfords (shoes)

27/09/2016 8:12 pm \ 47 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello. I’ve made some new shoes… some black suede oxfords. My fourth pair of black oxfords. Fourth?! Ha!

Yes, four pairs seems a tad excessive, mmmmm? but really, my first three pairs were all in the realm of practise runs really. I’ve still been wearing them all, because, well, they all work just fine! and there’s nothing more useful than a pair of black oxfords in winter… they go with everything. But my new ones are possibly the first ones that I feel I needn’t be at all ashamed of! No need to sheepishly hide my feet under my chair at ladies’ gatherings, hehe… Nowadays I finally feel like I’m getting shoe-making right and it’s even… dare I say it? actually quite… easy? Yes, I dare. Well, I’ve made quite a lot now, so it’s about time I got my act together!
I decided I was desperately in need of a new pair when I got out these ones to wear with my new tartan shirtdress… they too have been rain-drenched a few times and are looking pretty tired now. 🙁 Yes, it’s a bit sad when something once wonderful to yourself is no longer so wonderful; but shoes do get worn, so it’s inevitable. Only just a teeny bit sad though, since; well, now I have some new ones!! Which I reckon are much, much better. 🙂

These are made in black REAL suede, which is actually a product of the old Fremantle Tannery, an institution sadly now long long gone. Losing our old, local, heritage industries is a very sad state of affairs, however I’m glad that at least I’ve managed to get my hands on this little bit of local history, right here, and feel like I’ve honoured it by putting it to good use and making something worthy. Up until now I’ve been terrified of ruining this precious piece … I have such a very tiny stash of real leather and do not want to stuff any of it up! but I feel like my cobbling skills have improved a bit and I’ve shaken those fears off now. I bought this suede from Bilby Yarns, a treasure trove of Western Australian raw materials. That’s where I bought all my local merino and corriedale fleece when I did my one year one outfit project. I was sooooo thrilled when June unearthed some locally made leather for me!

They are lined completely with chocolate brown faux suede, from Spotlight, and the toe puffs and heel counters are made with stretch cotton denim and lots of PVA glue, as described in this post here.

The soles are cut from rubber sheeting, from Bunnings. I made my own stacked heels, as usual, glued them all together with contact adhesive, and sanded them all off nice and smooth before giving them a blacking, and finally a coat of satin varnish. On some of my shoes I’ve started to varnish underneath the soles too, like I saw Andrew Wrigley does with his handmade shoes. At the time I watched his video I wondered about the practicality of this; after all, isn’t that varnish going to get all scuffed up almost immediately? Now I like doing it too. Sure, it’s going to get scratched up, but it does look nice when it’s all new and shiny like this. And maybe it does help to protect that sole, for just a little bit longer than otherwise 🙂

Posted in: shoes \ Tagged: own design, shoes

the year of handmade, 7

26/09/2016 8:01 pm \ 25 Comments \ Carolyn

I’m seven months into my Year of 100% Handmade; just five short months to go!! above is a selection of my favourite outfits in the last month, the whole kit and caboodle can be seen in my Year of Handmade flickr album here…

Yeah, so I’m still really enjoying the challenge, and of course I absolutely love wearing all my own clothes and shoes. Although, I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can start wearing some of my newer, spring-y shoes! I picked a really bad year to be doing this thing though… we’re officially having the coldest and wettest winter in like thirty years or something. Obviously I’m excited about wearing my own shoes… but when it’s bucketing down with rain?! which it’s been doing a LOT?! eeeeek! It’s a little heart-wrenching, to be honest! I’m sometimes tempted to whip off my precious handmade ~~babies~~ shoes and just slosh through the puddles and mud in my stockinged feet, shoes clutched protectively to my chest. I don’t, though. I stay normally shod, like a regular person, albeit sobbing on the inside and hoping like mad that my dinkie little handmade shoes-ies are going to come out of it ok.

Fortunately, they do. Surprisingly, everything is holding together just fine. My trusty winter boots are not just warm but completely waterproof, so yay for that! So chuffed about those things. Some of my casual walking shoes… not quite so waterproof, ahem, but shoes do dry out. I’m still wearing them all! My paisley oxfords are my go-to, casual “walking shoes”. They’ve done miles and miles and miles, they’ve been rain-drenched and subsequently dried… they then started to wear quite thin under the balls of my feet. I just glued new soles onto the bottom. If I can say one good thing about being forced to wear my shoes in the worst of worst weather; then it is that it’s proved to me that my shoes can take it, and are tougher and not quite so flimsy-whimsy as I feared. Confidence-boosting stuff 🙂

New soles. ‘Nother month of miles

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, year of handmade

pretty duds, plain duds

20/09/2016 11:38 am \ 40 Comments \ Carolyn

Sooo….. I’ve been making underwear, and recently have produced two new sets; one is sorta Oo-la-la while the other is more of the Serviceable variety.

Madame Serviceable? you’re up first!

“Pretty” is all very well but we all need some plains in our lives too, right? I still think this set is kinda classy 🙂 Of course I’ve been wearing it a lot! because it’s absolutely awesome under all my winter white sweaters and Tshirts, which I wear such heckkuva lot it’s not even funny. Rest assured though, I took these photos when it was all fresh and brand new, hot off the machine and not yet been worn.

Patterns; MakeBra 2610, which is apparently now renamed DL03; so I’m going to start using that tag instead… and all four pairs of knickers in this post are the Watson briefs.
Materials; light caramel stretchy stuff from Fabulous Fabrics, all other materials are from my MakeBra basic kits. The foldover elastic on the waist of the knickers is a different type from that I used for the legs, because in between the two basic kits I’ve bought through them, they seem to have changed their supplier or something. I didn’t have enough of either elastic to do everything on both pairs of briefs, but I had enough for this arrangement. They’re close enough to identical that I can live with it 😉 The waist elastic is a teeny little bit “shinier” than the leg elastic. The little ribbon bows are rescued from off of an old lingerie set, also me-made. Yep, when I toss out an old lingerie set, I usually salvage the little decorative bows off it, because A) it’s not like they get dirty or worn out or ruined or anything through wear, and B) they’re kinda fiddly to make so it’s worth the few seconds it takes to pick them off to keep for a new set. Waste not want not!

Madame Oo-la-la…

I bought this neon yellow bra kit from Measure Twice Cut Once… and was rather thrilled that I managed to get not just the bra but two pair of knickers from it too;yay!!! ~~Stingey~~ economical cutter; yet another of my middle names…

hehe; I finished the set late at night and then just slung it all over Bessie in a hurry. The next morning it gave me such a laugh to see her “wearing” these pretty frilly nothings all deshabille and “twas a wild-night, eh?” like this!! 😀

The bra design is my own; I just wanted something flimsy and a bit of whimsical frippery. In summer I don’t always want or need to wear the foam-lined “Tshirt” bras that I favour in winter, and can just happily live in the more lacey, pretty and fun designs. Just one more reason to love summer!!! Anyway, I just draped the lace directly on Bessie and ad-libbed it, and I couldn’t be happier with the result! I think it turned out really pretty and almost more like a sweet little camisole than a bra. Don’t worry, it’s definitely going to be worn as a bra, though! even though it’s lined with beige power net it’s still quite see-through.

It’s not a super supportive thing, but realistically I have no need for a super supportive bra anyway. I still think it’s pretty stable though; I stitched the clear elastic that came with the kit along each side of the cups; so they won’t stretch out, and stitched a little strip of bias-cut white linen in with the side seams. I trimmed the linen strip right down before encasing it within the side seam, so it doesn’t show…. and this stabilised the side seams and makes them nice and strong, and they won’t stretch out either.

Inner workings: 1) hand flat-felled seams within the cups and clear elastic stabilising; and 2) linen bias-strip to stabilise the side seams(above) is then sewn to be enclosed inside the layers (below)

There was enough of some neon yellow bra elastic to do one pair of knickers around the waist, the other has a strip of the leftover neon yellow lace at the top. After that, I had to resort to things from my stash; obviously I didn’t have any matching lingerie elastic for the legs and had to resort to white. I don’t hate the white, but don’t love it either… I kinda wish I had made some attempt to get hold of matching lingerie elastic but I’m an impatient person and really wanted to just get them made and done!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: lingerie, makeBra, own design, watson

a tart for tartan

17/09/2016 12:53 pm \ 50 Comments \ Carolyn

Och aye! I’ve made this big, swirly tartan dress, and I absolutely LOVE it! I know it‘s kinda crazy and huge-skirted and possibly a bit over the top, but you know what? it’s also extremely comfortable and cosy, and so swirly and swishy. The instant I finished it and put it on I immediately felt simultaneously relaxed, like I had put on a warm comfy dressing gown or something; but also a bit chic as well. The big feminine skirt with a nipped-in waist does that, but I really like how the volume below is balanced out by the mannish style shirt top with cargo pockets and flaps, and a notched collar.

Hehe, actually while I was making it I did worry a little bit that it was going to look exactly like a dressing gown! but once I put it on I was instead happily reminded of 80’s Ralph Lauren, and even Spandau Ballet. Remember To Cut a Long Story Short? big big fan here. HUGE fan. I still know all the words off by heart; and that film clip transports me right back into breathless, happy teenagehood all over again, and wearing this dress totally reminds me of that clip and that joyful time in my life; the over-the-top, big, blowsy, romantic 80’s era. So I”m very happy. And, can I say? there’s something about a big wide dramatic skirt that really brings out the poses in a person. Not to mention twirling… put a big skirt on a girl and just watch; you just can’t help it but break out into a coupla twirls.

#awkward!! Yes, well; obviously most of us don’t actually twirl very often. Twirling is something of a fashion blogger contrivance… although if I do want to get in a bit of highland flinging I am all set. 😉

More realistically, it still looks pretty awesome when you’re striding briskly along the street too, and this? I do a LOT.

When making this I had an image in my head of an actual dress like this from an 80’s or maybe 90’s editorial, I swear it was a Ralph Lauren… so of course I wasted many hours searching and searching and searching to link to it, and do you think I can find a picture anywhere of that maybe-Ralph Lauren dress??? NO. The closest thing I could find is this maxi-dress, which isn’t it.

Anyway: Fabric; soft, cotton flannelette, tartan shirting from Spotlight. The same stuff I used to line my Tosti jacket, in a different colourway. One side is slightly fluffy, the other side is smooth and flat. I put the fluffy side inside. This is the opposite of how I used it for my Tosti jacket, which has the fluffy side out! Or… since it’s the lining, is the fluffy side therefore in? hmmm, that’s a puzzle! Navy blue buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.

Pattern: Mum had given me some of her old patterns, including this great Vogue 1147 shirtdress with multiple variations, from 1993. I thought it perfect for that vision of the big skirted, maybe-Ralph Lauren, maybe-not dress in my head. It’s not in my size, but the three nested sizes made it fairly easy to downsize a bit. I made view B, at far left.

The skirt pieces, bodice pockets and flaps are all cut on the bias; bodice and sleeves on the grain. As much as possible, I matched the tartan. #madpatternmatcher This was easy in the bodice and sleeves, and the pockets which please note, are exact mirror images… however! That skirt.…! I love how the centre seams in the skirt have a nice, fairly even row of white diamonds and am fairly happy with how the lines join up at the side seams… this took some careful pinning and only a wee bit of fudging… 😉 Those side edges did not have the same profiles and combine that with an asymmetric tartan…! *hair-pulling stuff* Anyway, the matching turned out pretty good, spot on where it counts, and so is reasonably satisfying 🙂

I cut the sleeves long, then stitched an ultra-wide wide hem. This is then turned up once in a wide cuff, and secured with invisible hand stitching 1cm inside the fold. I did it this way because the underside of the fabric is different from the right side, quite fluffy! and I wanted the smooth side to be on the outside of the turned-up cuffs.

Because the skirt is on the bias, I let it hang up for a week to let the bias drop a bit, and it did! by quite a lot in some places. The hem is hand stitched.

I also made a sort of belt… this helps to pull the waist in. I only made this actually because of my year of totally handmade, meaning I can’t grab one of my nice leather ready-to-wear belts, and I really think the design NEEDS a belt. But now I’ve made it I LOVE how it blends invisibly into the dress so perfectly! It’s basically just an interfaced waistband, with an inside button and two buttonholes. One buttonhole is for the start of the evening, before dinner. The outer one is for when you decide you do want to have dessert after all. Comfort dressing, at its finest!

Details:

Dress; Vogue 1147 from 1993, tartan flannelette shirting
Tights; my own pattern black stretch, details here and my tutorial for making your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Shoes; made by me, details here

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1147

blue roses *

16/09/2016 11:31 am \ 32 Comments \ Carolyn

* … Tennessee Williams…

Hello! I’ve made a new skirt. Hehe, hot on the heels of writing that I was a wee smidgeon tired of making Vogue 1247 skirts; what should I do? but immediately make another one!! Doh!! Clearly there’s something terribly wrong with me… #madvogue1247addict

But wait, there is a perfectly good reason…. I’m doing One Week One Pattern again, and of course chose to use this pattern, well I’ve got so many of them!! lotsa skirts and I was kinda hoping that we would get at least ONE day warmish enough for me to wear the one top I have from it… but it’s been so freaking cold; officially the coldest and wettest winter and early spring we’ve have in like thirty years or something like that! I’m getting to the end of the week, no motivation whatsoever to wear that thin little summery top, and only have 6 pocketed V1247 skirts. Which are what I consider to be the only true V1247’s, all my ones without the pockets are kinda pretenders to that crown, and even though I love them all too I ruthlessly omitted them all from the line-up. So what can a girl do? but get cracking and make for herself another true V1247, obviously, so I have a nice 7 to round the week off. Yeah, I know; a normal person would have worn one of her existing ones, twice; but see I already had the fabric earmarked for the pattern anyway; and just decided go for it; whip it up, make it happen.

Fabric; pale teal denim, just very slightly stretchy, with a reverse print of smudgy roses. This was a remnant given to me by my friend LW, who was cleaning out her stash. Something funny/miraculous; the remnant was kinda oddly and awkwardly shaped, yet it was absolutely perfect for the pattern pieces! like it was cut just perfectly to fit them all on with the smallest of scraps leftover. I freakingLOVE when this happens! it’s like the planets aligned for a pattern/fabric match made in heaven 🙂 Even if I was feeling a bit meh about V1247 to start with, when I laid out the pattern pieces and saw how perfect it was it totally galvanised me into excited pattern-love all over again. I managed to cut my skirt about 10cm longer than the pattern, and I cut the pocket linings and waistband facing from a small piece of nani Iro quilting cotton, from the little bundle of pieces that Mum gave to me for my birthday, for my rag-doll Sally. I used it for her tote bag.

obligatory “waitress” pocket pic

aaaaaand, my week of exclusively wearing Vogue 1247 skirts, in a nutshell…!

Back very soon, with something that is NOT Vogue 1247… I promise!!

Details:

Skirt; Vogue 1247, lengthened by about 10cm, teal denim
Top; Nettie, by closet case patterns with my own collar variation, ivory knit; details here
Cardigan; knitted by me, Audrey in Unst, wool bought in Paris as a souvenir, details here
Tights, my own pattern, black stretch, details here and my tutorial for making your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Socks (not seen); hand knit by me, details here
Boots; made by me, details here

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, OWOP, skirt, Vogue 1247

bananananananana BATMAN!!

04/09/2016 3:03 pm \ 30 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh hey-a! I’ve been making some more stuff for Le Daughter… recently I went around to her place on an important mission: Wardrobe Assessment and Consultation following the Winter Blahs. She was feeling meh about all her clothes, so we went through EVERYTHING and worked out new combinations, identified tired stuff, rediscovered forgotten stuff, and dreamed up new stuff to fill some holes. It was actually great fun! we did the same thing with my wardrobe too; so useful. I reckon we could stand to do this every six months or so. Keeps things fresh, and you know how you tend to wear the same things over and over and over again and sometimes don’t seen yourself how tired and ratty things are getting? Just grab yourself a trusted friend/daughter/mum that doesn’t mind giving you the hard truth and have at it. It’s SO worth it!

Anyway, so we made a little list. Cassie wanted some more options to wear to work; she works in an office but in a very creative field, so along with the more professional stuff she sometimes likes to wear pieces that are fun, humorous and “arty” yet still city and office appropriate. She had a small piece of Batman print fabric leftover from when she made some pj shorts for her brothers, and I still had some yellow corduroy leftover from my own yellow corduroy skirt… the yellow is a perfect match for the small blotches of yellow in the Batman print, and I just managed to squeeze the pieces out with only one bit of piecing inside the pockets (see composite picture below). The Batman fabric… now it IS fun, but let’s face it; professionally iffy… To twee, to not to twee, that is the question. Then I thought of the black leather sleeves and we both went Oh yeah!! I think they “adult” the print up a bit, make it kinda cool and ok. Also; I like how from a distance the Batman print could just pass as a nice, blue/black/white nondescript print, and it’s only when you get up close you notice that it’s actually a cartoon. The black pleather is leftover from my shoemaking adventures. All fabrics are originally from Spotlight.

Patterns: the skirt is Vogue 1247. I do really love this pattern but to be honest, I’m getting a wee bit tired of making it?! I’ve just made SO MANY, and even though I love all of them to bits I think I just need a little break…!! Anyway, this was requested, and those pockets were the drawcard. I used some deeper gold cotton to bind all the seams; this is a leftover from Cassie’s Lucy Hartfilia costume… so in actual fact, her entire ensemble is a glorious mishmash of completely unrelated leftovers. Amazing how things can come together, no?!

Top is the epaulette cut & sewn top from “she has a mannish style”, by Yuko Takada. I’ve only just made this pattern up for myself, here; and coincidentally also with black pleather sleeves!

I took this picture to send to her when I’d finished the outfit. She was so pleased!