January 2019 - Handmade by Carolyn

box of socks, January edition

31/01/2019 6:17 pm \ 15 Comments \ Carolyn

It’s completely bizarre to be donning a pair of socks on a stifling hot day of 35C, which indeedy yes it is today, but I absolutely must! since I promised myself I’d knit a pair of socks for each month of this year, it’s the last day of January and I don’t want to be late!

And so. I ordered a mystery ball of wool from A Homespun House; from the monthly lucky dip club for November. I very much liked the idea of this; because the mystery ball of hand-dyed wool also came with a handmade, and most probably, extremely cute, mystery progress-keeper from sucre sucre miniatures, aaaand… well I just felt like treating myself to a mysterious little package. So I did! I placed my order, and impatiently and excitedly awaited the arrival of my wool.

The skein was marked “Edeberry”. Was it was meant to read Elderberry? *shrug* I mean, not that a name makes any difference to the rose really; because the colours are delicious; a subtle and sophisticated moody range of smoky purples, pinks and coffee colours, with a bit of ocean blue and grass green thrown in for good measure. And that little troll-progress-keeper? Soooo cute, oui?… He’s my new knitting buddy, and he’s called Ramon.

I used my fave, same little old pattern, from a 60’s Patons pamphlet; a nice simple, plain and eminently serviceable pattern. I like that all the interest is all in the lovely dusky coffee-pink colours.. and this same dusky coffee-pink loveliness will be surely appreciated come the sharply cold grey days of winter…

My box of socks for the year so far!

Posted in: knitting, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Knitted, knitting, Patons knitting book C11, socks

a celestial dress, and some other things

26/01/2019 4:42 pm \ 7 Comments \ Carolyn

So, I made a dress… or something?! I’m not 100% sure about this one. Is it a dress? or a nightie? or maybe a choirboy/celestial angel robe? The jury is out!

One thing I am sure of is that it’s delightfully floaty and breezy to wear. And very comfortable. Another thing I’m sure of is that on its own it’s scandalously see-through… ! so if I’m going to wear it out of the house it requires at least a petticoat or something. Fortunately, I made a beautiful Ruby slip once upon a time, a few years ago, from ivory crepe. I actually wear this slip TONNES, and once again it’s come to my rescue. Thank you Ruby slip! maybe I should make some sisters for you! Take the pressure off!

The pattern I used for the new dress is dress R from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, and the fabric is a lovely ivory/cream coloured micro-pleated silky stuff from Fabulous Fabrics. For the yoke, which needs to be more stable and “solid”, I used a small scrap of old jeans, leftovers from the small stack that have previously been harvested to produce this dress and these jeans too. To keep up with the recycled jeans vibe, I added double rows of topstitching to all the joins etc, using the same coppery-brown Guttermann’s upholstery thread that I’ve used on previous jeans like my beloved Morgan boyfriends. The yoke lining is the striped shirting cotton that I used for Sandi’s Perth blouse and for Ms Summer’s summer frock.

I’m also wearing with it my matching denim shoes, also made from old jeans #oldjeansfanfromwayback

oh hey gorgeous girl!

I actually had quite a bit of leftover of the pleated silky stuff, so at the same time I traced out the size 8 of the same pattern and whipped up a quick top for Cassie too.

looks a bit small here but it’s far more oversized on my petite little daughter

Actually, this top started out as a dress too, but surprisingly she wasn’t into it as a dress. I’d gone to great lengths to find a piece of matching cream-coloured fabric for the yoke for hers, and was very pleased to unearth an old cushion cover of a really nice cream coloured cotton damask from my stash. Normally, Cassie prefers, nay demands! cream- or ivory-coloured tops, so I was a little nonplussed when she suggested the yoke be dyed! Who is this person and what have you done with my daughter?! However I could appreciate that the all cream number as a dress was a little, um choirboy, thus the snap decision to lop off the bottom to make it a top. Fortunately she was satisfied!

Soooo, what else have I been up to? Well, my friend L had requested that I whip up a simple little dress for her, a replica and replacement for a favourite that had worn out. She bought the green floral from Fabulous fabric, and I found some black silk for the tie. I really enjoyed making this for her, though the silk I used for the tie was, no joke, the worst stuff I’ve dealt with for a looooong time. It was so hideously fray-tastic, and just that little bit too grippy to slide right side out very easily. It took me almost as much time to turn out the tie as it did to draft the dress pattern and make it up! Exaggerating? not by much!

I don’t have a picture of her wearing it, but she did have it on for one of our recent morning teas and she looked gorgeous!

again, looks way better on L…

What else have I been up to??

Well, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while…. my pale grey Acton dress has been worn a lot, but I’d been starting to eye it lately with a jaded, “meh” eye. SO I took the plunge. Or, I should say, my dress did. In to the dye-pot it goes! Et voila!! Now I’m newly enamoured with it all over again! It’s just like having a new dress!! It’s interesting to me how the different components either took or didn’t take, the dye… For instance, the linen shell of course took up the dye superbly, but the grosgrain ribbon shoulder straps did not. The zip pull even took on a shade of pink, but the zip itself; well, zip. The body part of the lining dyed up very intensely, but the bodice part did not!

who is that short-haired doggie?!! she loves her new summer ‘do!!

Is that all? Finally, I believe it is!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Clara, dress, dyeing, own design, Stylish Dress Book, top, tunic, Wardrobe Refashion

unicorn

15/01/2019 11:32 pm \ 10 Comments \ Carolyn

So I’m knee deep in wedding-dress biz, which I LOVE, of course! but I took a little time out just to make something fripperous and frivolous and quick and easy, just for me. Think of this as like a tiny serve of sorbet in the middle of a lengthy degustation…

Cassie bought this adorable rainbow unicorn printed cotton canvas from Spotlight for me for my birthday last year, and there was just just enough to squeak out a cute and totally age-appropriate little skirt, yay!!

I adapted Vogue 8363, an old favourite that comes with great pockets… I didn’t have enough fabric for the pockets so I cut those pieces from a small piece of white cotton canvas from le stash. Basically the pockets are this pattern’s saving grace for me since I rarely make use of any other of its features. In fact, now I’m wondering, have I ever used any of the views in the pattern in the purest sense even once?? and I think maybe NO! I’ve always tended to make a sort of cobbled together version that incorporates various bits of several views. I like for mine to have; a) those fab deep pockets, b) a one piece front, and c) to open with an invisible zip along a centre back seam… and this skirt pattern allows for all of these things, with a bit of swift and sneaky pattern piece finagling.

Lining; normally I probably wouldn’t line a summer skirt, but in this case while I was trying it on in the process of making it I discovered the wrong side of the fabric had an almost indiscernible rough texture that somehow caused the skirt to stick to my undies and ride up slightly … yes! very VERY weird! So I decided to line, and super-luckily I had the perfectly sized piece of mint-green lining in my stash already, inherited from my grandmother’s stash … my tips on making a lining for a skirt here

I agonised over what button to use! this one seemed cheerful and not twee

Oh, and I made a new little T-shirt too. I’d seen this rather gorgeous apricot-y pink, slubby cotton jersey in Spotlight too, seen it on several occasions actually and staunchly resisted it because… well because I have a rather, shall we say, substantial stash already?! But it was soooo pretty! and well one day they happened to have a cheap remnant sitting there, cut for another customer who changed her mind… so in a weak-willed moment I snaffled it up! Ooo so naughty. But it was just such a pretty colour! I assuaged the guilt by cutting and making it up immediately.

The pattern; my own, if you can give such a grand title as “pattern” to cutting out a few vaguely T-shirt-shaped pieces and bunging them together. I very much like the high boxy collar and the slightly curved hemline.

Now it’s back to the wedding dress!! I’m posting progress shots in my stories on instagram, if anyone would like to follow along… 🙂

Details:

T-shirt; self-drafted, pink cotton jersey
Skirt; adapted from Vogue 8363, cotton drill
Sandals (above); ariel, from an op shop years ago
Thongs (below); fipper, bought in Bali on our holiday

When one wears one’s sparkly rainbow unicorn skirt, then obviously one must go for an elegant and graceful unicornly leap over some puffy cottonball clouds… 😉

So, if I am taking my own picture using my remote control and the timer I can time my jumps to the shutter click perfectly! I’ve got the whole process down to a fine art! However, when I ask Craig to take the picture, this happens…

faaaaaail!!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, own design, skirt, top, Vogue 8363

the A-line Perth dress; a short tutorial

08/01/2019 2:04 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Perth dress/blouse

So, I popped on my original Perth dress today and I realised this post is way overdue and I’ve been owing it for some time… I’m sorry for being so slack!

I have to admit that a reasonable number of the requests/comments I have received vis-a-vis our Perth dress pattern is that people like my “bouffy” brown prototype, above; and wish to know exactly how this one was made as opposed to the more streamlined final pattern version … I’ve generally taken to just describing it on a request-by-request basis since it’s really quite a simple modification ; but obviously a visual is preferable.

basically; you take the lowest point of the side seam of both front and back, and pivot it out from the armhole point, adding 8.5cm (3 1/4″) to width at the lowest point. Keep the pocket markings in the same place.

not to scale

2. the other thing about the prototype is that the collar is a little smaller, which I think visually is a good balance against the much more flared-out “skirt” part of the design. In the final version of the pattern, I thought a more dramatically pointed collar was a better look with the more streamlined silhouette. Collar stand stays the same.

again, zero scale considerations, sorry. About 1.2cm (1/2″) is taken off the collar point itself and the difference tapered off to meet up with the seams on each side…

3. finally, I decided to tame some of the bouffe in back by extending the box pleat down from the yoke and top-stitching it down at about my waist level.

All of these modifications are, of course, optional and open to even further alteration if desired. I love it when I see people adapting the design and making it their own! For example, just recently I saw @thesewingsociety had adapted the collar to be a club collar, which is super cute, oui?!

Anyway, I’d like to thank everyone who asked! I hope this helps a little, and maybe also gives everyone a few ideas for making a different version of the Perth for themselves!

It’s funny; because I personally didn’t like the brown version so much at first, thinking it just WAY too voluminous, to a fault; its only saving grace to me was the top half/neckline which of course I preserved exactly in my pattern. However over time my brown version has very much wormed its way into my heart after all. Yes, it is voluminous, but lots of volume in a summer dress has a certain charm of its own which I really really appreciate in very hot weather. I like being able to “flap” my dress about to create a bit of a cooling airflow as I’m walking. And of course the covered-up-edness of the top half is great for our full-on sun, meaning less of a need to slather on the suncream and less chance of getting sunburnt too. In short, I’m really appreciating all my Perth dresses all over again!

the full bouffe!