October 2016 - Handmade by Carolyn

red striped Inari tee dress

29/10/2016 10:22 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

Heya’all. I’ve made this new dress. Actually, I made it ages ago. And took most of these photos ages ago too. Bad lazy blogger!

I wore it recently as my “travelling dress” when we holidayed in Broome, and it was the most AWESOME travelling dress… why? well it’s a loose-fitting, baggy, dress made in a comfy fluffy fleece, so just about the most amazingly comfortable thing EVER! pretty much like wearing a blankie. At the same time, there’s something about the curved, slightly cocoon-y lines of the dress that I think makes it quite smart, chic and pulled-together. This is actually my wearable trial of the pattern and I absolutely love it. I might almost love it more than my “real” version. Almost. I actually love that one a bunch too. To appear here very soon.

Pattern: So, yeah; the Inari tee dress by Named patterns. SUCH a popular pattern, and as I now appreciate, for an excellent reason. It’s terrific. Simple, yes; and basic, and bordering on a boiled-down-to-the-bare-bones kind of a pattern with just a few very subtle features like that slight cocoon shape, the side seams drifting gently frontwards, the split hem and an up-down front and back hem. And I love it. I’m normally attracted to a more complex design for a dress, but this one just hits all the right buttons for me right now.

Fabric; a red and white stripe mid-weight fluffy fleece from Spotlight. This is the same fabric I used for Tim’s Christmas hoodie and for Kelly’s hoodie too. Yep, I bought quite a lot! there was a sale… um, yeah *awkward self-justifying of excessive fabric acquisition* Well, at least I’ve used it all now. This has been kicking around in the stash since pre-Christmas, since I’d decided it didn’t really suit anyone else in the family. I think it suits me though!

My stripes are matched up as perfectly as my obsessive little soul could manage. I’m smugly and complacently satisfied with how well they turned out… the only way I know how to achieve this level of stripe matching is to pin each and every junction and go nice and slow. Tedious but failsafe, and all my stripes here match any which way and everywhere. *primly pats self on back*

sewuthinkucan asked me on instagram whether I found the high slim sleeves on the design to cause the dress to ride up when you lift your arms up as above: not that I pull this pose all that often and probably will be careful now I’ve seen these pictures! but it does a little. Not enough to stop me from wearing it! I think the effect is not too bad because of my fabric being a little stretchy. However, in my next, “real” version of the pattern, I altered the sleeve so as to successfully fix the problem… and will post details on that in my next Inari post.

Alterations; the most obvious one is inseam side pockets! Well, of course. It’s baggy enough and the side hems curve forward slightly to the front, an even more comfortable position for your hands than the true sideline of your body; making inseam pockets an almost foregone conclusion.

My neckline has neither facings nor bindings; partly because my fabric has too much fluff and loft for bulky extras with incorporated double seam allowances etc, and also because this is basically my wearable muslin for the pattern and I just didn’t want to fuss around with it. I overlocked the raw edge and simply turned it in once, topstitching in a single line of stitching from the right side. My fabric is all of thick enough, stretchy enough and stable enough for this to be totally fine. I did do the sleeve cuffs though.

Details:

Dress; Inari tee dress by Named Clothing, red striped fleece
Shoes; designed and made by me, details here

taken after a plane trip, a week rolled up in a suitcase, another plane trip, and precisely zero ironing. LOVE.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, inari, named patterns

the year of handmade, 8

22/10/2016 9:21 pm \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

I’m now 8 months into my year of handmade! two thirds of the way through… Above is a small selection of some of my favourite outfits from over the past month, the entire collection so far can be viewed in my Year of Handmade Flickr album for the challenge, here

What to say, what to say… well, I’m still chooffing along, one foot in front of the other, which is an excruciatingly apt analogy since my one big Challenge out of the thing continues to be my shoes! Clothes have presented no problems whatsoever, I’ve been wearing all my own me-made clothes for many years now so zero dramas there. I guess doing this challenge while I was still learning how to make shoes as opposed to feeling comfortably accomplished at it; well that has been the kicker. I still consider myself an advanced beginner, or maybe a low/intermediate shoemaker and am under no illusions as to my abilities. Or lack, thereof, ahem. There have been times I’ve positively longed, longed, I tell you! to just slip on a pair of old sneakers, or a pair of chic high-heeled pumps or pretty stilettos, none of which I am capable of making myself.

So, I guess as a natural follow on from that, I now have a HUGE appreciation for well-made rtw shoes. So far, I’ve mostly avoided going into shoe stores; it’s just been better for my own self esteem not to! because my own shoes do not compare. Anyway, just recently I did; Cassie and I went into Zomp because she wanted a new pair of shoes for herself. Well, I don’t know what I looked like… I think I managed to keep my cool on the outside, but on the inside I was positively drooling. Seriously! Picking up, handling all those lovely shoes, inspecting them all over with hushed and awed reverence, like I was holding my newborn baby for the first time or something… ok I’m exaggerating but honestly, not by much. Possibly it was inevitable that RTW shoes would get set upon a mental pedestal for me right about now. It’s like, in my current new state of awareness, a pair of well made shoes is like the most amazingly beautiful little work of art. Seriously. It’s not easy to make a shoe, let alone a matching pair; and with my newfound appreciation from having struggled to make my own, I’m blown away by how amazingly, perfectly constructed most rtw shoes are.

I know that sounds rather dramatic, yes? well I expect only those of us who have ever gone this far will ever understand what I mean here. I’m wondering what it’s going to even feel like, going back to rtw shoes… will it be amazing? a relief? nothing special? a letdown? Hmm, I can hardy wait for that day to find out 😉

Posted in: fashion \ Tagged: year of handmade

strappy white summer sandals (shoes)

21/10/2016 4:57 pm \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

The weather is warming up, and I looked out Le Footwear from last summer and recoiled in horror at the hideously decrepit state of Le Thongs. I wear my thongs a tonne, and for everything; walking the dog, housework, to the beach where there happens to be quite a lot of that stuff that I now know is like the WORST thing that could ever happen to all handmade footwear… wet sand!

So I decided to make some new ones. Behold, Le Result. Yes, I initially planned for ordinary, regular, garden variety thongs like last years’ but made these instead. They’re a bit spiffier looking than your average thongs, technically they could fit into the sandal category. Really though; flat sole, no heel, not much shaping, no closure. They’re basically glorified thongs.

Cassie had brought home a sample of echo-panel; a decorative acoustic panel made from recycled PET bottles. It is a soft, highly compressed fibrous product, very strong and slightly pliable but not “snappable”, with a texture and feel to it very similar to thick wool felt. I have some of this white, and some grey too. Anyway I decided to give it a whirl. For the upper bits I used some white vinyl leftover from my grassy sandals, because white is so useful for summer. Goes with everything! Also, being my first trial with the echo panel I didn’t want to risk any of my precious leather, just in case there was some disaster.

And there was, a little bit!

Well, not really, actually they turned out just fine in the end. It was just that gluing anything to the echo-panel was a pain and a half. I was using all-purpose PVA glue, and found that the echo-panel just soaked it all up like a sponge. Like, literally, PVA just disappeared into the “woolly-ness” of it almost without a trace of stickiness to be felt. Bizarre.

Really, though; any difficulties were entirely my own fault, because it turns out that Cassie had thoughtfully sent me an email with a pdf of info about the product, which clearly states that the adhesive to use is liquid nails. If I hadn’t so busy making and spent just a little more time keeping up with my correspondence, there wouldn’t have been any problems! Anyway, I learnt. I had that aha! moment. Eventually!

There’s a single layer of the echo-panel inside; I cut the sole shapes with a hacksaw, and neatened up any rough bits and errant “corners” with a Stanley knife. The echo-panel is beautiful to cut, no doubt about that.

Uppers: this particular vinyl has that very rubbery texture which sticks to the presser foot, leading to horribly uneven stitches. I usually use a strip of tissue paper to facilitate the vinyl going evenly through the machine; but these strips are really really skinny, wonky stitching would stand out a mile and I wanted to get the topstitching perfectly even in appearance, and you can’t see through tissue paper so it just wasn’t going to cut it this time. I found though, that by turning the vinyl upside down it all worked out quite smooth and fairly easy to sew.

A bit of faffing about with strips and I finally settled upon a nice simple, multi-strapped design, cut a denim “inner sole” piece and zigzagged all the strips to this underneath the echo-panel layer, to anchor them securely into position inside the sandal. This denim inner sole is sandwiched between, and securely glued to the echo-panel above and the cork sole below. So it’s not visible in the final sandal, also, none of those strips is in danger of pulling out!

I toyed with the idea of leaving the echo-panel showing on the edge, but its woolliness actually picks up every stray hair and twig, and the white shows like every smudge, and I decided a smooth, dark edge would be less of a headache. More sensible, hides the dirt, you know. I cut and glued on a nice evenly cut strip of dark denim to the outside edge, pinning in a few strategic places where the denim didn’t instantly stick to the inner curves of the sole. Those pins can just be seen in the picture below; I sort of thought they would be a temporary measure until the glue dried, however they got pretty firmly glued in themselves and proved impossible to get out! so I’ve left them in there. After this picture was taken I went back and touched them all up with a dob of black paint so now they’re invisible. And, then they were further sealed in with several coats of varnish over the denim, so they’re pretty secure. I don’t think I have to worry that they’ll ever come out 🙂

Everything was firmly glued into position, and I glued a layer of cork to the bottom. Three coats of satin varnish on the cork sole and those denim side strips later, and done!!

So yes, they’re quite simple and plain and not far removed from the humble thong, but I think they’re just a wee bit smarter and should go very nicely with all my casual summer stuff.

Posted in: shoes, Uncategorized \ Tagged: own design, shoes

a Kelly for Kelly, and one for Cassie too…

16/10/2016 1:14 pm \ 25 Comments \ Carolyn

O hey-a! After finishing my own Kelly anorak and having it admired to the nth degree by family members, I made a few more! a pale grey one for Cassie, and I also made a deep cobalt blue one for Tim’s girlfriend Kelly. Well, it seemed only right that she should have a “Kelly” too!

I quickly snapped that top picture of an unsuspecting Cassie waiting to meet up with me in town before she noticed me heading towards her… I know it’s a bit blurry and not very posed to show off the anorak to modelly perfection, but I just really like it nonetheless… to me it attests that she’s been wearing it a tonne, in fact every single occasion that I’ve seen her in the past three weeks since I finished it and gave it to her she has been wearing it. There’s no greater compliment to a seamster than that! as well as a testament to the pattern being an absolute style winner. Kelly’s worn hers each time I’ve seen her since I gave it to her too, but I’ve not taken any pictures of her in it.. will update if she sends me one 🙂

This, taken when I presented it to her three weeks ago, and probably the only time it’s been worn with the sleeves unrolled like this. It does look a little more wintery like this. I have to admit, it does look a lot trendier and suits the casual, “heading into summer but still need a layer” look to have the sleeves rolled up.

Both the anoraks are in a nice weight cotton drill from Spotlight, in fact, all the other bits and pieces are from Spotlight too. In both anoraks, I added a few inches to the length of the body and modified the pockets to have separate pocket flaps so as to close the pockets; otherwise these are both made up exactly to the pattern.

This picture below of Kelly’s anorak has been my most “liked” picture on instagram ever! far more than anything I have ever made for myself! Interesting, no? Well, I think it is, anyway 😉 I don’t know what that “says”, if anything at all, but maybe something. Social media is such a funny phenomenon. Something else also interesting to me is how a person, any person, can have a certain number of followers and the number of “likes” never ever reaches anywhere close to that number. Honestly, I have no idea about how or why this is so, but it’s just a curious thing.

I’d got enough of the same white cord for Kelly’s anorak , but since I’d found a nice, perfectly colour-matched blue zip for hers’, and used blue thread for all topstitching and there was no other white anywhere in the jacket; the white cord looked all wrong. And naturally there’s no such thing as blue cord in the whole of Perth! so I just had to dye it. And, when your regular dye-pot is HUGE and there’s just one little length of cord what’s a mad maker to do? but of course, improvise.

Yeah, I know this looks uber-weird, but determination breeds resourcefulness… and it gave me such a laugh to watch this crazy little dye-pot bubbling on the stove! I’d tossed a pair of the same white plastic stops as I used for Cassie’s anorak in with the dye bath and it was very satisfying that they dyed up a nice deep blue too. I’d bought some silver stops just in case but fortunately the blue dye did the job beautifully 🙂

Different day, still wearing it. Yep, like I said, she’s worn it literally every single time I’ve seen her in the past three weeks. I’m calling that a ginormous WIN!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, Closet Case files, coat, dyeing, jacket, Kelly, kelly anorak, parka

Kelly anorak as a raincoat

06/10/2016 3:10 pm \ 51 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new raincoat! This is the Kelly anorak by Closet Case patterns, and I knew straight away I wanted to make it as a raincoat… why? well we’ve had officially the wettest winter and early spring on record, since they started keeping records, so like ever. EVER! It’s been hideous, I tell you! I’ve been wearing my old me-made raincoat all winter, but I’ve noticed that it’s not quite as effective as it used to be. I would classify it as shower-proof now, rather than waterproof *sob*. Well, it is a few years old now so possibly the fabric is becoming a little brittle with age, because I’m pretty sure it used to be lovely and watertight! Now, not so much! #sadface

So a new raincoat was needed… I really wanted a white-ish, cream or ivory one. I just love off-white and think ivory looks so chic and really smart in outerwear. Actually, I think it looks chic in anything!! #welldocumentedivoryfan I bought a plain white shower curtain from Spotlight, and gave it a little water test, posted here on my instagram account. I love how the water droplet looks like a wee little living thing, zipping about on the surface. Obviously the fabric passed with flying colours. Pretty cool, huh?

The fabric was quite see-through, and while I don’t mind a little bit of sheerness in a raincoat it really was TOO sheer, so I decided to underline fully with polyacetate lining fabric. I didn’t want white lining fabric, pure white is quite harsh for my colouring, so I chose this pale golden beige colour. I had this idea that it would tone down the pure white to a warm, off-white, oyster white, which I think my colouring needs. SO. Funny thing! To my mind, this lining fabric is a definite gold, or even brown, wouldn’t you agree? I would not call this colour “pink”… so I’m pretty surprised that the overall look of my raincoat reads pink! Don’t get me wrong, I love it! just that I did not expect this! In retrospect, I can see the colour does have a sorta peach-y look to it…but still! Golden brown under white; gives… pink?!?? Well alrighty then!!

In a raincoat, you need to seal the seams, and for my previous raincoat I used some stuff called Seam Grip, which has done a stellar job in that raincoat for years. So I was pretty sad that I couldn’t find it any more! BCF sold me some of this stuff… it’s a little different, far more liquid-y than the gel-like Seam Grip. It dries on the surface of the fabric forming a slightly hard, just slightly stiff, matte finish; similar to what you would expect if you painted clear matte nail polish on the seams. It does seem to do the trick, though only time will tell. The good thing about it is that it “disappears” on the fabric and you can hardly tell it’s there… unlike the Seam Grip which was a definite visible, shiny “smear” on the seams inside my old coat. Not that anyone ever looks on the inside of my raincoat, but you know what I mean! this new stuff is quite invisible which does look really neat and tidy. So that’s good.

Materials: my shower curtain, zip, eyelets, nylon cord, press studs and the “stops” for the cord; I bought everything at Spotlight. Seam sealer from BCF (boating camping and fishing) store. It’s intended for use on tents and sails! My shower curtain was just enough fabric for my pieces!! Just a few scant patches left enough for me to cut a few extra pocket flap pieces and after that? almost nothing leftover.

Pattern; the Kelly anorak, by Closet Case patterns, available here. Heather asked me to be a tester and I gleefully jumped right in. I really like Heather’s patterns, she has a modern young woman’s aesthetic, with clean lines and unfussy shapes. Basically, I’ve loved everything she’s designed! I made up the pattern just as is, grading out from a size 8 at the top to a size 10 at the hips, according to my measurements, and I reckon the fit is spot on, with just the right amount of ease. I believe Heather has shortened the sleeves, lengthened the body and widened the biceps a touch in the final version in response to tester feedback, however I’m happy with the fit I’ve got here!

Alterations: I just made some very minor alterations simply because it’s a raincoat:

The bellows pockets are designed to have a faux flap, so you can just shove your hands satisfyingly right in those pockets with absolute no impediment… however because mine is a raincoat and I thought functional pocket flaps would be a good idea, you know, to protect whatever is in the pockets from the rain! so I made and added extra pocket flaps on the outside. I LOVE the little double flap effect this gives! ok, maybe it looks a bit weird but I really like it!

I added press studs to the wrist cuffs but left them off the opening front zip placket; reason being that I think a raincoat doesn’t really need them and might actually be more of a nuisance than useful. You know; it starts raining, you want to just throw on your coat and just zip it up quick! bob’s your uncle. The drawstring is good enough for pulling it all in, for me.

In most cases, I overlocked all raw edges to prevent fraying then flat-felled all seams UP, which you always do in raincoats for waterproofing reasons. I remember I went into some detail on this in my previous raincoat post… it’s a little thing but I believe it does make a difference! The shadow of up-flatfelling can just be made out above on my sleeve seams and this front/front yoke seam, which is slightly curved to give some subtle bust shaping.

I hammered in two eyelets tucked up high under each arm to allow body heat to escape; this is an essential in a non-breathable, waterproof garment…

I also added eyelets and pull-cord to the hood opening because, well obviously. A raincoat hood is never merely decorative!

You know what? I’ve worn the raincoat several times, and it’s brilliant. I love it! And so far so good; it’s stood up to a a pretty heavy downpour and I’ve remained happily dry inside It is actually very warm too, which I guess is what you’d expect from a completely waterproof fabric. I’m happy!

Details: