Monthly Archives: December 2020

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creamy broderie anglaise…

30/12/2020 5:31 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh, hey, I made a dress! and not just any old dress but this the final thing in my little mini make-nine challenge which of course was actually make-twelve! So happy I managed to squeak it in for the end of the year! Phew!

This is sorta based on the Named Inari tee dress pattern, and the fabric is a heavy clotted cream coloured, broderie anglaise cotton that I bought in Mood when I visited New York with Yoshimi on our holiday there last year. GORGEOUS fabric. I feel like I’m wearing a wedding cake, in a good way!

I’m so thrilled with how my dress turned out… in the end! It has a few features that I shall now proceed to explain…

a. the shoulders have a sort of raglan effect, but still with the set in sleeves. There is a reason for this that I shall delve into further, later… ahem…

b. I utilised the broderie edging as much as possible, in the sleeve edges, the hem edge at the bottom, and to form the upper edge of the patch pockets. Love how this turned out!

c. To get the best effect of the broderie “stripes” I did not make the inari with its traditional stepped hem . ie. longer at the back and shorter at the front; because I wanted the broderie edge to finish the entire hem, and also wanted the broderie pattern to match along those side(-ish) seams.

Btw, to digress for a bit… when it comes to pattern/stripe matching, I admit to being a fiend for this in the past, however lately I’ve felt a little ambivalent towards the rabid mania for extreme pattern matching that seems de rigeur for the sewing world. Sure, there are definitely times when strict pattern matching is necessary, but I’m starting to crave the artistic possibilities that come with a less rigid approach. For example, when a patch pocket is so excellently pattern matched that you can’t even see it’s there. WHY?! Sometimes I just find myself wishing for something a bit more exciting.

That’s not relevant to this, my latest thing though, because I decided a good pattern match was indeed essential to the dress looking good, so I went there. There is no pocket matching whatsoever with the pockets and I like this look a lot.

Now to be real here; my initial “make 12” plan actually included a different pattern Vogue 8968, and I really did make this fabric up in that pattern too. And it looked … absolutely terrible. Behold the awfulness.

Yeah, it looks kind of ok on my dummy but on me it looked pretty bad, like a big broderie anglaise circus tent. No modelled pictures because twas only “finished” for a minute or so before I starting cutting it up anew to make this. To be honest, when I first did my make 12 plan I did not plan very thoroughly, and just chose 12 patterns and 12 fabrics with the thought I was just going to jam them together and make it work somehow, and unfortunately the last pattern and fabric were not a good match for each other after all. I absolutely love this beautiful fabric though, so I’m very happy to have “saved” it!

see that little patch of bias-cut cream muslin sitting behind my label? I had to put it there because without it you could see the red back of the label through this very lightweight fabric!

As it is, it’s absolutely essential to wear a slip with the dress. I’m wearing it here with my ivory slip dress, the pattern is the free Ruby pattern by the very generous Sheryll of pattern scissors cloth, available here…

Oh, so the change of pattern is kinda the explanation for the funny, half raglan, half set in sleeve look. True, Vogue 8968 doesn’t have raglan sleeve, haha; but bear with me. I decided a raglan sleeve would look better than the big cut on, non-sleeve of the pattern. Does it sound like I took a bit of a dislike to V8968? hmmm I think so, yes. Anyway, I changed it to a raglan sleeve. Then when cutting out the Inari, I ended up keeping the perfectly finished bias-bound neckline of the original dress along with the raglan seams, and still cut out the armholes for the Inari too. The Vogue dress was so big I was able to cut out my amended inari sleeves from the original sleeves too. I got the patch pockets from the extra hem length cut off the sides. So that was a bonus!

Of course, in peak 2020 style I made a little matching mask. We’re not yet wearing them over here in Western Australia because of zero community spread, but who knows what the future holds? I’m slowly building up a small collection of masks to have ready, just in case.

So that’s it for my little mini “make nine” challenge for this year! Yay, I did it!

The thing is that I say “mini” challenge but it turned out to actually be a bit of a bigger challenge for me than I thought, for some reason. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think it’s something to do with the fact that spontaneity and the whim of the moment are important motivators for me when it comes to making things. And when the spontaneity and whimsy are not there then I actually find it … well, not quite a “chore” but something quite close to that anyway. Terrible, huh. Truthfully though, in spite of making it sound like (back-hand to brow) oh how I struggled! … I did not, because I love sewing and I really love all the things I made during the challenge. However I don’t know if I will do a make nine again next year or not. Maybe I’ll think of a new challenge… hmmm….I’ll have to give it some serious thought, because I only have one day to decide!

Details:

Dress, sorta Inari tee dress pattern by Named patterns, cream cotton broderie anglaise from Mood fabrics in New York
Mask, from this tutorial
Shoes; ancient, from an op shop

is this thing even working?! *camera click*

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: dress, inari, named patterns, own design, pockets, sleeves, Vogue 8968

baby swing and coconut ice

27/12/2020 4:33 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

Tim and I made this adorable little swing for Arthur!

peekaboo!!

Kelly found the design and Tim suggested it be a joint project between us, with me making the swing and Tim taking care of the woodwork etc… Kelly and Arthur and I went to Spotlight together and bought the stuff… apart from the fact that it was like 41C that day it was fun!

Arthur’s first trip to Spotlight!

We bought this cute orange-based kangaroo? wallaby? print which Kelly thought would go really nicely with their deep blue/grey walls and jarrah floors, bamboo wadding, which I used doubled up for extra padding, and white webbing and a white clip-in catch to make a safety belt too… also Tim got pine dowelling and nylon rope from Bunnings. We based our swing on this one on a blog the Thud… I think that Kelly had found it through Pinterest? I think? anyway I recommend checking it out because she is hilarious!!

I did have to make adjustments to practically every dimension though for several reasons:

a. the dowel Tim had was 2.54mm (1″) instead of the 19mm dowel used in the tutorial so extra height was needed at every top edge.

b. we wanted the back rest to be above the arm rests because it makes good sense to have the back highest, I think and also makes a nice visual to the layers.

c. I wanted all the kangaroos/wallabies to face UP, so I split the bottom/side piece into two, and cut and joined so the animals stood up each side. Furthermore, I arranged it so the seam in the back/side piece was on the opposite side for each piece, the inside and outside of the swing, if that makes sense.

d. I added a little seat belt for safety. The part that goes around his waist is stitched in each side of the back piece of the swing, and the front is stitched in with the seam between the front and the bottom/side piece,

e. I also made a little flat, square, seat cushion, partially for comfort and also so the kangaroos face up when you look inside the swing too. In addition, I made an extra, super-fat cushion to sit in the back of the swing, which looks cute, and also narrows the opening a little so he’s less inclined to pull his knees up and try to stand up in it. Although, Tim and Kelly tell me that when he’s in it he just loves chilling out in his swing, mostly just sitting quietly resting against the cushion in it, and happily swinging.

Here is my (amended) pattern…

and Arthur, chilllaxing in his swing … CUTE!!

Oh, and of course everything is going to be an anticlimax after that cutie patootie! but anyway… so, every Christmas I usually make some sweet treat as a gift for extended family and friends. This year I made coconut ice, but partly due to small supplies of red food colouring I decided upon a slightly different colour scheme from the usual.

I think it all turned out super pretty! Also, delicious, obviously! btw, this quantity pictured looks a bit mean but is really just for “pretty” photographic purposes, because everyone got at least four times this amount in little reusable lunchboxes. I used this recipe from Taste.com…

Posted in: crafty stuff, sewing \ Tagged: babywear, own design, recipe

I’ve been making a whole bunch of stuff…

22/12/2020 8:01 pm \ 13 Comments \ Carolyn

Ok… stuff! I just have to write this quick blog post or … I dunno, explode or something! because right now I am the Red Queen, running as fast as I can just to stay in the same place… and if I don’t just get on with a thing right this very minute then will it ever ever get gone on with, at all?! That is the question? So, on with the stuff!

So, a while ago I’d written about how the Burda baby onesie pattern I’d been using for Arthur had proved itself to be too wide for the height of it? Like way too wide, fall off the shoulders wide, while the poppers at the crotch were straining to stay shut? Well, I made a new pattern, and it’s super cute. Of course it is! When are tiny weeny baby clothes NOT cute, hmmm? Exactly!

So above is the first one… yellow striped cotton jersey from Spotlight stores… At the same time that we got this fabric, we also bought some lengths for bunny rugs for the baby. When I say “we” by the way, that is NOT the royal we, although I am indeed in the thick of watching the Crown at present and as such am become quite proficient in such conversational niceties… no, actually Cassie and I went to Spotlight together and selected fabrics for the new baby’s, new nursery.

I had also previously bought some white cotton jersey, to make a maternity frock for Cassie.

She’d sort of semi-designed what she wanted in the dress, a tank dress, with the tank front able to be lifted up for breast-feeding, layered over a sort of boob tube with an elasticated top edge underneath. The skirt is a quarter circle skirt. It’s a pretty simple design and style, and she loves it!

Side note: I’ve had to look at the messy lower half of this dresser for years. It took putting the house on the market for me to finally do something about making this a wee bit prettier to the casual observer. Voila!! A sweet lace curtain! Side note to the side note; we sold the house… very quickly as it turned out. The beach house also sold very quickly, like before it even went officially on the market. My head is spinning!! I’ll talk more about this later, right now it’s all still a bit overwhelming.

Next! I bought this shark print cotton jersey from Spotlight… actually, ALL these fabrics are from Spotlight, to be honest! I bought this fabric months ago, pre covid, always with the intention of making a little Watson bra and briefs set… ta da! Simple, pretty – well as pretty as a shark can get I guess! – and comfy. And finally done!

Lastly, I had a small bit of sharky leftovers. So, obviously… 🙂

This one is a little bit bigger than the yellow one.

So, I think that’s it for now! I have a few other things in the works, and will definitely/hopefully?! be posting everything before the end of the year. I’d better pull my socks up, eh?