Yearly Archives: 2019

You are browsing the site archives by year.

“Moroccan tile” skirt and a little white top

24/10/2019 2:46 pm \ 8 Comments \

Something I really wanted to do before my trip to the United States was to make a new outfit for meeting with other seamsters… with two days to go; I did!  I made a skirt and a little white top ensemble… each piece was actually pretty simple and the whole process from go to whoa took about half a day each.  Bam! I really  love sewing projects that just whizz together super quick like that.

I used Vogue 1486; a Nicola Finetti design.  Nicola Finetti is an Australian designer, and when have I ever seen an Australian designer collaborate with Vogue??  I’m pretty sure, never.  I decided this was a collab I absolute needed to support by buying the pattern…

For the skirt; I’d ordered 3m of cotton from Minerva.  I thought the print looked quite divine on the website, when it turned up it was actually a bit of a surprise, to be honest!  The print was divine; however it was also far far smaller, I mean, on a smaller scale, than I had imagined.  I’d sort of pictured the squares being each about 10cm, sorta like real Moroccan tiles, actually they’re more like 1cm.  Hey ho though; I still had hopes it would work out ok…  The colours are quite luscious, and very very me!  Mustard, terracotta, burnt orange, turquoise, green, a tiny dash of coral pink… honestly could this possibly get any more my sort of palette!

The fabric is beautiful quality, as good as I could have hoped for; soft, and still crisp enough, densely woven and yet still with a very nice drape.  It was also very generous width, however I still didn’t manage to cut the skirt pattern pieces out from my 3m length!! I know, right?!  You’d hardly believe it to look at it, but it’s a HUGE fabric hog!!  I had to piece a smaller section onto the end in order to cutout the back lower skirt piece.  The join is not perfect, but pretty good; plus it’s positioned so it’s hidden inside a side pleat, so it’s really quite invisible.

For the little crop top I used some slubby white cotton I bought years ago, from Fabulous Fabrics, and a navy blue chunky metal zip from Spotlight.  The top was super easy and fun to make.  You had to shorten the zip; and the instructions showed how to do this with a pair of pliers.. however I just could not pry the metal teeth off of the zip tape.  I struggled and struggled with this, but eventually gave up, and in the end simply cut the zip off at the right point and stitched a good solid bar tack in the gap between teeth to keep the zip pull firmly trapped where it needed to stay.  And I lOVE how the zip looks at the back of the little top!

innards…for some reason this sight is enormously pleasing to me….

You were supposed to put an exposed zip into the skirt too; however I decided this might all be a bit too much; overpowering the delicate print.  I just used a dark green invisible zip here instead.

And just saying; the skirt has fabulous pockets.  Fab -U -Lous…!

So I’d mentioned I whacked this outfit together in a matter of days… of course I haven’t made this pattern previously and didn’t really bother to do a careful fitting on myself either.  I’d picked a size 12; my correct size according to the size chart.  Usually I pick a 10 for Vogue patterns.  And I don’t know why I decided upon a 12 because, of course, turns out I should have picked a 10 for this one too… I knew I usually go a 10 for a reason!  the waistband is a little bit baggy on me, and – is it my imagination? – but I feel the top looks quite big on me too.  Not that this is going to stop me from wearing it, but just; you know.  For next time.

The day we’d planned to meet with sewing girls in San Francisco was a lovely warm day of 28C… so I felt so lucky I could wear my new outfit!!  however we only had the one warm day during out entire visit and that was it!  I was happy that I could wear it for one sewing meet-up, but just a wee bit disappointed it didn’t get another outing.  Like, the days we met other sewing peeps in New York city it was just too cold for it (sob)  so I had to make do with other things I’d packed…

from left: Yoshimi is wearing Vogue 2900, Beth is wearing one of her favourite dresses, a Butterick pattern, and Shams is wearing her Style Arc Stevie jean jacket

Later on we headed over to a cafe where Shams had organised an afternoon tea..

from left: and I apologise I did not catch what everyone was wearing this time … I think Rose is wearing a Cashmerette top and Jilly is wearing a tessuti patterns Lily dress?? 🙁

Wendy, Shams, Yoshimi, me, Rose, Jilly, and Catherine is taking the picture… I knew I should have taken over the camera so she could be in the photo!

And that brown paper bag, clutched in my  pawsies??  Yup, you guessed it… it has a nice little stash of fabric tucked away…;)

Yoshimi took this picture on the train platform, after fabric shopping in the Bay Area with Shams and Beth.  I thought it was such a nice picture!  In fact the whole day was such a fun day!!  I wish I could hang out and gossip and chat and go fabric shopping with all these ladies more often!

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: , , ,

Sienna maker jacket

19/10/2019 12:15 pm \ 8 Comments \

Ok, hopping straight to the crux of things; I absolutely J’FREAKINADORE this jacket!!  This is the new Sienna maker jacket pattern from Closet Case patterns, and I was lucky enough to be chosen to test the pattern.  This is view B, made using a deep bottle green cotton twill bought at Potters Textiles.  I actually found this in the remnant bin, believe it or not… yeah, Potters often does really BIG remnants.

 

We’re not supposed to reveal our tester versions of a pattern until it has been released, but I simply just could not resist sneakily wearing it! and have been (im)patiently waiting until I could chat openly about it… in fact, I took it on holiday with me recently when I visited the USA with Yoshimi on our sort of sewing-tour, because I really really wanted to include it in my travel wardrobe.  Also, I knew that Heather, with a bit of luck, was actually going to release it right about the timing of our trip.  And she did! yay!  so I was able to indulge my love of it in full.

photo taken in San Francisco by Yoshimi

And I wore it, literally Every Single Day.  This thing could most probably walk itself around San Francisco and New York by now!

The design is fabulously comfy; loose and stylishly slouchy, just slightly oversized in a good way, with two piece sleeves, notched collar, and a veritable tonne of pocket real estate.  A small but nice detail is a handy hanging loop included in the pattern pieces and instructions.

The belt from views A and B is pretty cool, snaking through a neatly faced slit opening, before wrapping around your waist and attaching itself to a little tab on the side.

Above can be seen the paler olive green poplin I used to finish the raw edges inside in a bias bound finish.  I kinda wish I’d hunted out  deeper bottle green that would match more closely the colour of the jacket, but both Yoshimi and Cassie reckoned the paler colour looked really good, so I guess it’s ok then.  I bow down to better, more stylish opinions than my own.

I flat-felled the side seams, centre back seams and both sleeve seams; I chose to do both sleeve seams because I knew I’d be wearing the sleeves rolled up most of the time, and wanted it all to look nice on the outside.

In fact, the only spot where I used the overlocker was the armscye; I figured these would remain pretty much totally hidden, most of the time, so meh…

I love how neat and almost … ?military? the jacket appears when firmly belted…

… and I enjoy wearing it open too, with the belt tucked into a side pocket.

 

OR, you can wrap the belt around your back only, just to pull in the back pouffiness a little, and tie it to the tab.  I often find with a jacket that I develop a strong preference for either open or closed, however with this one I tried wearing it all different ways on different days, and really liked it equally worn any which way.

As mentioned, the pocket situation is pretty fabulous.  There are enough pockets in this thing to satisfy the most fanatical and ardent of pocket-lovers, honestly.  View B has two ginormous patch pockets on the hips, a small breast pocket pictured above, and a large inner breast pocket picture below too, nicely big enough for your passport, phone, bus/train pass; well just lots and lots of stuff really.

But wait! there’s more!!  The jacket also has two quirky little pockets on your sleeves!!   ok, so you’re probably not going to use these ones super frequently, but they are there!  I guess you could store an electronic pass in there, for one thing, so you only have to brush your arm up against the detector without getting it out.  And they look pretty cute!

For my buttons, well, I was on a use-up-the-stash mission in the lead-up to my holiday, since I knew I was going to blow that one right out of the water during our holiday! anyway, I had some old wool-covered buttons in my stash, long ago cut off an old cardigan, and I coloured them in with a felt-tip pen to blend in nicely with my green drill.

To be honest, I had actually wanted to make the long version of the jacket, however my piece only allowed me to cut this shorter version.  I was initially a little sad about that, however I’m so in love with the finished version I couldn’t possibly remain sad for long.  And I am still keen to make the longer version!  I don’t very often want make the two views of things straight away like that, so if that’s not true love, I don’t know what is!

Interesting factoid, well to me anyway; my Stylebook app tells me I’ve worn it 17 times already and I’ve only just blogged about it.  Unbelievable!!!

    Details:

in holiday photos, I am wearing my cockatoo top and skirt, details here
White sandshoes by Trenery,
Black booties by nylon, bought at Zomp boutique
Prada gold hand bag

other photos:

Mustard tee; the Nettie pattern by Closet Case patterns, mustard merino, details here
Skirt; Vogue 1247, in outback wife barkcloth, details here
Tights; self drafted from my custom-fit pattern details on how to make your own here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, bought at Zomp boutique

photo taken in New York by Yoshimi

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: , , , ,

box of socks; the September edition

27/09/2019 10:19 pm \ 18 Comments \

So I’m really trying to keep on top of the box of socks situbar, because I’m worried that I’m just not going to get made the twelve I promised myself I’d make.  I’ve just been so… oh dear, I find it very tiresome when people whine about how busy they’ve been lately, but well, I have! during the last month Cassie announced her engagement to her long-term boyf Daniel, and then fulfilled my dream ever since basically the day I gave birth to her by asking me to make her wedding dress.  I’m so very thrilled for this!  Of course the whole family is over the moon and excited for another family wedding so soon!  Our days are becoming very very full.  And this will be my second wedding dress within a year!

I’ve even got started on the dress already… Cassie and I went shopping together at Fabulous Fabrics for a pattern and fabric, and bought a gorgeous pile of laces and the most beautiful heavy silk taffeta.  I’m so excited to cut into it!  And this is muslin number one.  It’s ok, however the fit is not quite right and there will definitely be a second before cutting into the precious taffeta.

Vogue 8470…

Aaaad anyway, just quickly getting back to just about the biggest anticlimax possible, my new pair of socks.  Pretty, huh?  I bought the ball of yarn in Japan.  Of course.  Everything in Japan is cool.

This is Opal yarn, colour KFS 128 “Ice cream”.  I absolutely love the soft pretty pinks and the frozen iceberg blues, however there was a short section in there of a sort of dirty white, with purple and green splotches; which I did not like.  So I removed these parts of the yarn while knitting, and I think the colour way is just so much the better for it.

The box of socks is looking pretty stuffed but mahty fahn all the same!

pinterestmail
Posted in: knitting \ Tagged: , , ,

claremont shopping tote

24/09/2019 2:59 pm \ 4 Comments \

There’s a new pattern in Le Shop!!

So, last Christmas I made a few shopping totes, one for Kelly and one for Sam’s lady L, and they were quite nice if I say so myself!  Kelly in particular carried hers around a tonne, bringing it around practically every week, packed full of her stuff.  She reckoned it was an incredibly useful size… 🙂  Shortly afterwards I received several requests from lovely readers who were interested in the pattern which made me feel, yeah we can do this, and; well, wedding sewing did put pattern-making on the back burner for quite a while but ta da! finally we made it happen… and it’s now live in our shop!

I asked Cassie to name this one, and she decided upon Claremont, after our favourite shopping centre.  Well, I should qualify; our actual favourite places to shop are like; Fabulous Fabrics, and Potters, and Spotlight, but well, you know  😉

Specifics; the Claremont is an unlined, shopping tote with box-base and cut-on handles, with two options for internal pockets . The base measures 30cm x 20cm (12” x 8”); the height of bag not including handles is 33cm (13”). The length of the shoulder straps enables a person to sling the tote easily on the shoulder and to still be able comfortably access inside the tote while you’re wearing it.  The cut-on handles makes for a very strong bag that can withstand a quite heavy load of shopping.

The totes I made for Kelly and L were quite simple with no pockets, however for the pattern itself we added pattern pieces and instructions for two internal pockets; an open pocket for your phone, and a zipped pocket for your keys.  I ran up a pocketed version for a birthday gift for a friend, using a really lovely Spindle and Ink canvas; this is called Flowering Gum in Bluestone and Stream.  Isn’t that a gorgeous name?!  It’s designed by Lara Cameron.

The pattern is available to purchase in digital pdf format; and also; in consideration of the fact that I understand that lots of people prefer paper sewing patterns, and/or do not easily have access to printing it out at home, or just don’t want to; we are also making available an actual paper pattern too.  

This is unavoidably a more expensive option, sorry! so sweeten the paper pattern deal; with the first five paper patterns sold I’m throwing in one of our pattern company labels.  These are produced by the Dutch Label company, and I currently only have the five.  Anyone who has  bought from them knows and no doubt loves the very high quality of their work!  I’m thinking of ordering more!

 

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

khaki suede top; 6 different ways

20/09/2019 5:22 pm \ 4 Comments \

Last week, on a whim; I randomly decided to mini-wardrobe-challenge myself to wear this khaki/olive suede tee  for one whole week, styling it differently each day … I’d made it five years ago! back in 2014 and it’s been such a great versatile piece!  It’s mostly a winter-y sort of a thing to wear, though it’s quite nice to pop on for a half-warm but not hot day.  A transitional piece, is what the cool kids of fashion would say, yeah.  Although, what am I talking about??  I’m the cool kid, well I can dub myself so here in the realm of my own funny little blog at least, anyway!   #imtheONLYkid

So yeah, I made this 5 yrs ago, using Burda 10/2009;121 and a very realistic dark olive green suedette that I bought in Tokyo during a holiday there; original post is here.  I remember Yoshimi bought the same stuff in pale pink at the same time, and made herself a top too.  I’ve worn my own top lots over the past five years, ‘cos it pretty much went with everything I own, though I still did develop favourite ensembles with it.  One of those I included in my previous 6-different ways post, with my terracotta skirt! but I decided it would be sorta cheating to include that outfit in with this six too.  Although it totally should be here too really, because it still ranks amongst my favourites for this year.

Anyway! without further chitchat!  I made every item of clothing I’m wearing in the following pictures, with the exception of my shoes.  All items are linked to their original construction post.

Below left: worn with my over-dyed Nettie tee, sage green wool tweed skirt, and my self-designed chenille scarf and black tights; and my old black booties.  I love love LOVE the olive green and raspberry colour combination together…  Need to establish more opportunities for such in Ye Olde Wardrobe….

Below right; worn with an ivory wool Nettie tee, my purple Jade miniskirt, ivory hand knit möbius scarf, black tights, and my beloved motorcycle boots.  I guess purple is basically a variation on raspberry, because the olive/purple colour combo similarly speaks to my soul too!  Sadly this little skirt bit the dust last year too…

Below left; proving that chambray goes with everything.  I wore this outfit on a warmish day during my recent Week of the Olive Suede Top.  My blue chambray shirt is an oldie but a goodie, and the little blue denim skirt is another staple.  Also wearing unseen sockettes made by moi.

Below right; with my over-dyed Nettie tee, my once yellow, over-dyed corduroy skirt, a scarf knitted by Mum – oh, ok, there is one item of clothing not made by me! –  my over-dyed khaki leggings, and hand knit socks.  And my favourite desert boots.

Below left; This is my outfit from just yesterday, an unexpectedly very wintery day.  Worn with my mustard merino Nettie, my outback wife barkcloth skirt, hand knit mustard cowl, black tights, and my mustard raincoat. Did I mention that olive green and mustard is another favourite colour combination?!  Maybe I should amend that to say, olive green and anything?

Below right; I paired the olive green top pretty frequently with white, black to black-and-white combinations; all of which it looked pretty good with, I thought, lending warmth and life to the general colourless-ness, however chic said colourless-ness may be!  I picked this outfit for this post though, because it was one of the few times I tried belting the tunic.  I actually like it a lot belted; slightly 80s-inspired in a look that makes me nostalgic, in a good way.  I think I should have done this more often I think!

Worn with my Eve dress, black tights. and the lovely suede booties Craig bought for my last birthday…

So!  Sadly, the tunic has pretty much done its dash now… while the fabric seemed reasonably sturdy it actually was not; and over years of use it eventually developed a few holes from rubbing and little tears, particular around the side splits and the underarm area.  I haven’t actually tossed it out, but I may think about repurposing the fabric for something else sometime.  Because I still really really love the fabric!

pinterestmail
Posted in: fashion \ Tagged: , , ,

mustard pietra shorts

10/09/2019 7:35 pm \ 9 Comments \

Hack attack!

Despite initial appearances, my new shorts are actually based upon the Pietra shorts/pants pattern by Closet Case patterns… I loved this pattern immediately, loved the high waisted flat front with no waistband, and those cool side panels with pockets.  However, I was not quite so much in love with the elasticated back … or perhaps I should specify I was not quite so much in love with my own rear view in the aforementioned elastic waist version of the pattern?!

Yes, I did make up a test version with the elastic waist first … for version number one, I cut up an old linen dress given to me by Mum.  Unfortunately I decided I’m tragically allergic to elastic waistbands, with the one and only exception of pyjama bottoms.  Although looking at these pictures now my rear view is not as offensive to me as it was when I first looked at them!  at the same time, I am still much happier with the rear view of my second, non-elasticated and more streamlined version.

side view…

I was pretty sure I would be able to alter, modify, wrangle a de-elasticised waist with a bit of finagling… putting an invisible zip in the centre back seam and removing a whole lot of real estate from the back waist area, retaining that lovely flat front and pockets completely.

the front view looks exactly the same as the original, unsurprisingly since this is basically unaltered…

I shall now proceed to explain my butchery… and please note that these measurements laid out here are tailored to my own personal waist measurements and will obviously be different for other people.  Specific measurements for each of these modifications can best be determined from your own waist and hip measurements.

I removed 6cm from the waist of the back piece; and actually swung the side edge out towards the hem edge at the same time, adding a bit of flare to the back view of the shorts…

I also removed 2cm from the top/back edge of the side pieces, tapering off to nothing at the top edge of the pocket.  This wedge was also removed “mirror-image” from the front facing, shown already stitched on at the left…

I put a dart in the back piece… while my picture illustrates it to be 10.5cm, I actually stitched it a bit longer, closer to 11.5cm at its end point

… the dart is situated 10cm in from the centre back raw edge and is 3cm in width at its top edge

… I used the existing back waistband piece to cut my two new back waistbands to fit the new size…

… inserted an invisible zip into the centre back seam.  Note, the centre back seam is essentially unaltered, except that the back waistband now has a vertical centre back seam too.

Because I whimsically fancied something a bit different for the back of my waistband, specifically a V-shaped cut-out effect at the centre back … I put in the zip a bit lower and stitched the top edge in an angle like so…  Yes, I’m very much oversimplifying here, because making my two sides exactly identical actually took aaaaages and some super precise measuring.  I even unpicked one side completely and re-did it because it’s amazing how even 1 or 2mm difference will show up as a glaring inconsistency.  Hint; making a little paper template made it a lot easier to get everything perfectly mirror image; which yes, seems super obvious in retrospect!

corners trimmed and turned out…

I hand stitched the waistband self-facing down with tiny fell-stitches…

To finish; the side seams were pinned, and the already-understitched front facing was wrapped around over the top and over the back waistband piece.

Side seams were then stitched, corners trimmed and seam allowances finished etc. before pulling the whole thing right sides out.  And that’s it!

 

 

Oh! of course, the ever important fabric notes… this is actually just a super cheap cotton drill from Spotlight… I LOVE the orange-y mustard colour of course, SO MEEEEE! and the random vertical dashes.  The pattern sorta reminds me a lot of this felted wall hanging I made, many moons ago; my vision was of a sort of poem carved by an artistic cave man, in a language or alphabet wrought in colours and strokes of differing lengths and groupings.  This is still hanging up in our front room! and you can read more about it here

Details:

Shorts; both the Pietra shorts/pants pattern by Closet Case patterns
Drapey white top; based on the loose drape top no.1 in the Japanese pattern book “drape drape”, by Hisako Sato
Hat; Vogue 8844, in khaki drill
Plain white tee; Nettie tee by Closet Case patterns, white jersey

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

box of socks; the August edition

01/09/2019 4:43 pm \ 8 Comments \

Wait, it’s now September.  It’s not August any more…. dammmmmm!!!!  I’m a day late!

In my own defence I did actually finish these yesterday, which was still August; but it was like nigh on midnight and the lighting at midnight is kinda not conducive to Un Fashion Shoot of Le Feet.  And I was tired.  I had to wait until morning.  But I got there eventually!

I chose this warm, colourful and cheerful colourway specifically because August has always legit been my least favourite month; the last month of winter, my least favourite season, and it’s so cold and miserable and depressing and always seems to drag on fooooreeeeveeeeer.  So I wanted, nay needed! a project that I thought would cheer me up.  Even so; I don’t want to even go into the details of now these socks were started and unravelled and restarted and re-unravelled over and over.  I think they had four, if not five; false starts.  I had grand fair isle plans, shall we say, that came to naught and got abandoned…  it’s a bit depressing to think about though, so that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.  Instead; look how upliftingly joyful and lovely!  They’re like a warm, comforting, crackling fire for the feet!

I bought the yarn in Japan; it’s the Opal Regenwald 14 or “rainforest” range of sock yarn, in col. 9627 “Sascha – der Sommelier”, and added some blue in the heels and toes; this is a yarn I bought in Haynes, Alaska during our holiday from two years ago; Online Supersocke 100, Vintage Colour; col. 1412.  The heels are alternate stitches of the two colours, with the two yarns carried and crossed over each and every stitch at the back; making them double thickness for a bit of extra strength in an area which always wears through the fastest.  I’m not sure now why I selected this particular blue which doesn’t even match for the purpose but it’s neither here nor there any more since there it is.  The toes are in the straight blue.  I was quite doubtful about the blue after the first heel was finished, but at that point was NOT going to unravel yet again and redo; and actually I like the contrast with all that orangey/crimson-y/turquoise in the end.  Yay!!

I went to great lengths to make the stripes identical.  This is not as straightforward as it sounds; some of the orange sections had four orange stripes, some had five.  There are more than a few joins in there; all neatly woven in on the inside.  Final verdict?  I really love them, the colour is so happy and heart-warming; but phew boy! I am SO GLAD to have finished them!

the box of socks… looking quaite naice I reckon!

and PS; thanks so much every one for your kind and thoughtful responses to my previous post.  I wasn’t trying to complain! honestly! but I really REALLY appreciate all those lovely thoughts.  🙂 xxx

pinterestmail
Posted in: knitting \ Tagged: ,

a pink pinny

30/08/2019 2:51 pm \ 19 Comments \

So, I loved my red velveteen pinafore so much… it’s such a lot of fun to wear.  I can’t believe I worried a little that I was too, er mature, for such a garment and I thought I might become the butt of mutton-dressed-as-lamb commentary but you know what? I wasn’t, and I’ve throughly enjoyed having a “pinny”.  So I made another! though I believe this is an improvement even upon its predecessor’s near-perfection because the pockets are a tonne better, in my opinion.

Again, I used the pauline alice Turia dungarees pattern for the bodice section, and modified so the bottom part is a skirt.  I put the pinafore on and pinned carefully so as to achieve the ideal proportion to suit my figure, but it actually turned out identical to the shape of my red one!  I’m really really happy with the shape and length of this, it’s absolutely perfect for me,I think…

I really love the front bib pocket of the Turia pattern, I think it’s super cute.

For the pockets, I got out the pattern pieces for Vogue 1115; the shape construction and placement of these pockets is also close to perfection, in my opinion!  I like my pockets to be a bit bigger, but instead of cutting the pockets bigger, I simply stitch the with a 6mm (1/4″) seam allowance instead of the regular 15mm, and boom! I have bigger pockets!

Fabric; cotton corduroy in the most totally divine shade of dusky pink!!  I saw it on Potters’ Textiles instagram and raced in immediately to snap some up!  Then, for some bizarre reason that I have absolutely no explanation for, I bought only 1.5m.  Sure; it’s quite wide; but still I was struggling to cut my pinafore out of such a small piece, especially since you do have to be strict about following the corduroy’s nap when laying out your pieces.  To be honest; I totally would have cut my pockets bigger, but was dealing with mere scraps after getting out my big, important pieces first.  Anyway, I did get everything I wanted successfully, thank goodness…  Normally you’d think, oh I can always get more fabric! but while I was buying it the lady in the store specifically mentioned that they were nearly out!

Like with my red pinny; I chose to line this one fully.  I cut the lining using three of Craig’s discarded old business shirts.  I’m kind of a stash-busting mission lately; really making an effort to reduce pieces in there that have been kept “just in case”; and particularly; fabrics/garments from my refashioning bag.  I carefully harvested all the buttons off the shirts first, of course…

these matching sets of buttons are quite valuable if you make shirts for the menfolk in your life; particularly the shirts that have those mini-buttons often found on the sleeve plackets and button-down collars.  It’s almost impossible to find the two sizes in complete matching sets like this in haberdashery stores.

 

So you’d think there’s loooooooads of fabric in 3 shirts; and surely more than enough to line a little pinafore??  but of course unless I want my lining to be a heavily patched/seamed, and therefore rather bulky thing, I could really only use the largest swathes of fabric from the backs of the shirts, and still had to join!  But that’s ok; I still feel good about using up at least a little bit more of the refashioning bag!  The lining for my straps was harvested from one sleeve.

THIS! is a cautionary tale…. so, when you’re making welt pockets, and you come to the all-important, ever-so-precise task of cutting the welt opening in your dress fabric?  It’s a good idea to check that your lining fabric has been flipped up out of the way first.  Yeah.  *kicking myself BAD over this disaster…. I used my rotary cutter, and cut the most beautiful clean neat welt pocket opening through the front of my pinny…. AND THE LINING UNDERNEATH AT THE SAME TIME TOO.  Fortunately this only happened once, on just one pocket I mean, and I realised straight away.  If I’d done it for both pockets, I would have seriously considered replacing the lining, for real.  Anyway; I bandaid-ed the problem by ironing on a strip of iron-on interfacing and indulging in some furious and thorough zig-zagging.  Not the most beautiful of repairs, but experience has taught me that this is both a durable and efficient method of fixing a cut like this.

Miraculously, I unearthed a very small length of pink, bias cotton cotton voile from my stash, that I made so long ago I barely remember it.  But it was just enough to finish the hem!!  STOKED!!!

So happy with my pinny!!!!!  I’ve worn it a couple of times already, and am over the moon with it!

I am wearing it here with one of my wool-mix Nettie tees, probably one of my most worn winter tees! my self-designed and -made black tights, and my favourite motorcycle boots.

Now… for something completely different!

Recently I had a conversation with my good friend E.  Now, E is one of my closest friends, we’ve been so for decades and I hold her opinion in high regard.  At the same time! she doesn’t even know I have a sewing blog really, and though she knows I have an instagram account I’m totally sure she has never looked at it… why? because the topic of our conversation on this day was about her recent holiday with her husband, and as an extension of that; how she feels super strongly that “instagrammers” are ruining the world and are just beyond despicable, in her eyes.  In her own words; she despises instagram, because people are obsessed with taking their pictures in the most beautiful places and are thus destroying these places for everyone else, in both the taking of the photos, and the damage they do while doing so.  And not to mention they look ridiculous in their ballgowns and long tresses blowing in the wind, out on the moors, or in front of a particularly picturesque cottage, that’s not even their cottage, or whatever…..  Now… on the one hand I can certainly see her point, especially when it comes to people monopolising key beautiful tourist spots, setting up tripods and preventing other people from enjoying the view because they are prancing around right in the middle of it.  Our conversation didn’t even touch on people leaving rubbish behind, or treading on and damaging delicate flora or anything physically destructive like that! though of course that is a problem too.  My friend blames instagram completely for all this.

Now of course, I have thoughts!  I personally love instagram! though I can see too that all of her points have validity.  I know exactly the type of instagrammer to which she is referring… I have seen them myself too.  And secretly thought how silly it all looks.  And I know I might well be accused of being one of “those prancers” sometimes…!!   HOWEVER; I would argue not! since I take great care to take my own photos in complete private.  I think this is something not many readers of my blog or viewers of my instagram understand about me; I am actually a very shy and quiet person; and would be terrified to take photos of myself in front of other people.  I need complete isolation!  If there were other people there enjoying the view and taking their own pictures or whatever, you can bet your bottom dollar I am NOT going to be getting in their way, or taking my own pictures.  So while the evidence is there on my blog that I do indeed take pictures of myself in beautiful locations, I’m not really making a spectacle of myself in the action of doing it; if that makes sense.

It’s always felt logical to take photos of my new creations in my favourite spots.  It just gives me lots of pleasure to make this happen.  Should I stop? because I’m being ridiculous? or continue because it gives me joy?  rhetorical question btw, no need to answer… I don’t even know why I’m going got all this effort to explain myself really, except maybe to lay out my own thoughts coherently.  Did she strike a nerve?  maybe.  I have a sense of the ridiculousness of it all, even while I’m doing it.  But at the same time, I want to take pictures of my clothes, and I like the idea of nice photos, though my commitment to this waxes and wanes. I did actually go for a fairly long period of time where I only took pictures in my own garage, or in our own house and garden.  I don’t know if it even went noticed on my blog here because I am fortunate to have some quite picturesque corners in my garden, but yes; I went off the idea of ” real” photos “out and about” for nearly a year…

And obviously; I am super opposed to damaging the environment in any way.  If I love a beautiful spot, I definitely want it to stay beautiful for the future!  Leave only footprints and take only pictures.  Am a big proponent of that.

I’m not sure what the right answer is, but I guess I should just continue to be super vigilant and careful about taking my photos only when alone.  It’s easy to “say”, like many people do in this time of (over?)-sharing; that I don’t care what other people think of me, but obviously that would not be true!

What a weird, double life I’m living!  Maybe I should just delete all this?!

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,
Switch to mobile version
↓