January 2022 - Handmade by Carolyn

Cassie’s work wardrobe; finished!

30/01/2022 4:41 pm \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

Phew! I’ve finished the capsule work wardrobe that I’ve been making for Cassie over the past few months…! Most of these things have been previously blogged, and I’m just rounding up here with the last three pieces…

item 1; limoncello top; based upon NewLook 6483, with widened shoulder line, and slimmed down body. I did have a small amount of leftovers that I hoped would be enough to get a skirt out of, but actually it wasn’t… *sad face* but hey, the plan was just for a top and it is a pretty one after all! Fabric from Spotlight, button from stash.

I finished the armholes and neckline with pink cotton voile cut on the bias, simply because I had no yellow or even yellow-ish fabric that would do… The same pink voile was used to make the little skinny button loop in each of these two tops.

item 2; pale pink top; same NewLook 6483 pattern, but a narrower shoulder line, same body as pattern. Fabric from Spotlight and the same pink cotton voile used to finish the armhole and neckline edges. btw, I did a tutorial on how to do a bias binding finish like these, here

item 3; pink “banksia” skirt; based upon my heavily modified Vogue 8363. I know I always cite this pattern, but I think I really shouldn’t because I really have modified it so extensively that you couldn’t make this skirt using the pattern, actually. Fabric is a beautiful Jocelyn Proust print from Spotlight, and it’s lined using a pink lining fabric from my stash.

We bought these fabrics together last year, back when we first started planning her back-to-work wardrobe as a new Mum, and I estimate that with the lining, and not including a small amount of leftovers that I *think* I can squeeze a little skirt out of, or maybe “something”: I used 2.5m to make these items; bringing my yearly total up to 4m at this point;

but in addition to that….!

Cassie and I are working on a new pattern right now, and I have used another extra 4m of some of my “junky” fabrics recently in sewing samples and testing garments. I may or may not actually wear some of these at some point, but I hope to wear them a few times, at least! Anyway; even though I haven’t blogged those things, my real “fabric used” total is actually up up to 8m and in my #use30from stash challenge: I have 22m to go!

Thoughts! I have some… this is more like a diary entry, more than anything else… so I know this is besides the point really; but I popped into Spotlight the other day to pick up a zip and was sorely tempted to buy some fabric! It was really hard to just walk out with my zip! but I’m determined to use 30m first. Ideally; I would love to get my stash down to a very small amount of beautiful fabrics that I’m really excited to use, rather than being full of donated fabrics that I didn’t choose for myself, or buy, and really don’t “want” to use at all, to be perfectly honest. I don’t want to just toss things out willy nilly though, and am really keen to use the 30m from my stash gainfully.

That’s it! See you soon!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: capsule wardrobe, Cassie, New Look 6483, skirt, top, use30, Vogue 8363

“autumn tree swirl”: lingerie set

22/01/2022 6:10 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

Hello!

I’ve made a new lingerie set for myself, using the very last remains of this gorgeous autumn tree swirl cotton jersey. It’s pretty special, since it was designed by Cassie; and is actually available in her Spoonflower shop, should you be interested… I’d made a romper for Theo out of the original 1m piece late last year, and this is squeaked out of the leftovers… there is zero left now!

I used my MakeBra pattern, which has been renamed I think since I bought mine… it is now DL 03. At the time I saved myself money by buying a single size, and since then I’ve gradually tweaked the sizing a smidgen here and a smidge there, and finally have the absolutely perfect fit at last. Namely, about 1 cm has been shaved off the “rise” of the cups, each side of the centre seam of each cup, and also the position of the cup cut-outs has been moved about 0.5cm further away from centre front of the band.

The undies are Ye Olde Faithful; the Cloth Habit Watson brief pattern, with my usual mods, outlined here.

I was cutting these from scraps so couldn’t do much creative in the form of pattern-matching, but I did cut out and hand-applique on a couple of extra trees onto a bra cup to continue the visual look of the little trees in the print. It just looked a bit chopped off without them and I couldn’t stand it!

I bought all elastics from Homecraft Textiles as well as the rings and sliders… and the underwires, underwire channelling, hook and eye tape, and the foam I used to construct the cups were all from the original “ivory” colourway MakeBra basic kit that I bought a few years ago.

I have a sorta funny story regarding zig-zagging the foldover elastic… it was extraordinarily difficult and messy this time and I had so much trouble. It wouldn’t feed through the machine, and when I did manage to drag it through as gently as I possibly could it became horribly stretched out. As well the stitches looked all jagged and uneven, and the tension was all over the shop. I painstakingly unpicked way more hideous zig-zagging than is good for anyone’s mental health, and tried so many different settings on my machine… none of which seemed to work. I was near despair and at one point seriously considered actually hand stitching ALL the foldover elastic. You REALLY know you’re desperate when… !!! I actually DID hand stitch it along the top edge of the bra, and it looks really pretty too so I didn’t even re-do that bit when I finally worked out the problem. Oh, what was the problem? I hear you ask? Well, I finally noticed that I was using a denim needle to do the job. I substituted a stretch needle, and whammo; perfect zig-zagging immediately ensued. Who knew, eh? *facepalm*

The fabric I had already of course… and since I originally had 1m from which I’d cut out Theo’s romper, I’m counting this lingerie set took maybe 50cm. Meaning, so far for the year I’ve used 1.5m from stash, and I have 28.5m to go in my little #use30 challenge for this year, yay!
Oh, btw, I’ve given some thought to my “thing” for this year… other than the aforementioned #use30frommystash; which I optimistically to have achieved fairly early on?! I hope! Anyway; I’ve decided to just go with something that extremely open-ended and that’s to simply make 12 things. No other criteria necessary other than to put it plain and simple; I am hoping to make 12 pretty and/or interesting outfits of some sort for myself this year! Pretty achievable, I think!

I’ll be filling up these little dummies as each new outfit transpires… 🙂

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cloth habit, lingerie, make12, makeBra, makeBra DL03, use30, watson

pomegranate

07/01/2022 2:08 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

hello! first thing made for 2022, hot off the machine!

I desperately needed new bathers; I’d been keeping all my old bathers for years … “just in case” … and at the beginning of summer finally chucked all of them out, bar the least terrible pair. Just recently I had to admit I hated those too, so out they went! So I had to quickly run up some new ones! This is the first new pair I’ve had in about three years, and MAN, it feels so good to slip into a sleek new pair with no loose elastic or baggy stretched out bits.

I used an old favourite pattern I’ve had for many years, McCalls 2772, and made my usual bikini with the bikini top modified to be a tankini. I’ve made this particular design quite a lot because I really love this silhouette and style; I love the vintage-y vibe and think it’s a nice style for my particular figure.

I bought this pomegranate fabric in New York City, during my holiday there with Yoshimi at the end of 2019… and yes, oh boy was the timing of that trip extremely lucky or what! I often pinch myself with how very fortunate we were to have got it in at the time we did! I’m not 100% sure it’s strictly swimwear fabric, from memory it might have been dance lycra or something … but it feels good, quite thick and firm, and I think it will work really well as bathers, for a while at least. It’s not like I swim in chlorinated pools very often so I think it should be ok 🙂

I had the elastic and black thread already too, so I bought absolutely nothing new for this project… also I made a making-of video for my YouTube channel.. One of the things I might try to do this year is a video for every project I do? Question mark because it may prove too much but I’m going to give it a go! My youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/HandmadebyCarolyn

I’ve also been thinking I’m going to do this stash-busting challenge/pledge that’s been circulating around on IG for a while, which is to commit to using 30m of stash fabric before allowing yourself to buy anything new. I think I could be able to do this! since maybe I have 30m of fabric still? Just maybe! And I could definitely do with a push to not buy any new fabric for a little while! What I would really like to do is to get my stash right right down to a very small pile with only a few pieces, and then only buy when I need to, if I have a project for which none of the aforementioned stash is going to work, say.

Anyway, this project used 1m of fabric, haha. 1 down, 29 to go!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: bathers, McCalls 2772

2021; a retrospective

01/01/2022 9:55 pm \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

I’m so behind but running as fast as I can… ! soon I think I will make it back to where I’m supposed to be. I know I’m a day late for a 2021 retrospective, woops but better late than not at all, I think?

brace yourselves for some random stats and facts!

IG: Above is my “best nine” for Instagram for the year, since instagram is the social media place where I tend to hang out the most. These are the nine pics that got the most likes from people who follow me over there. It does makes me really happy that some of the important people in my life are the most liked! I still don’t really “get” what makes people like one picture, and don’t even look at another. Still a complete mystery to me, to be honest. Anyway!

what did I make this year?

I made 66 items this year… as follows: (for me) 5 coats/jackets, 6 dresses, 10 tops/tees, 6 skirts, 2 jeans/trousers, 1pr pyjamas, 1 pr handwarmers, 1 set of lingerie (bra + 2 undies) and 3 prs shoes. One skirt and one top were for the FrockOn collaboration, so have not been added to my own personal wardrobe. I’ve also been making things for Cassie as she struggles to cope with new motherhood and, just lately, a new back-to-work wardrobe: 2 dresses, 6 tops, 2 skirts, 1 pr hand warmers. For Arthur I’ve made: 1 tee, 1pr trousers, bunny soft toy + clothes, backpack: for baby Theo: 8 onesies/rompers, 2 tees, 1 sleep suit, 1 cushion, 1 swing. For Kelly; 1 top and 1pr handwarmers, and for Lainey, 1 top also. Oh, on top of that I made 10 masks, and 10 baby bibs, but I didn’t even count these, woops!

Cassie and I were very proud to release three new sewing patterns this year too! Our Mundaring raincoat pattern, our Yallingup dress/blouse pattern, that one that has both regular and breast-feeding friendly versions, and our free Fridgetown hand warmer pattern. Yay! We are so excited for what the next year will bring for our fledgling company too!

“Stash” vs “new” fabrics:

I’m really really trying hard to sew as much from my stash as possible, and I did in fact managed to use quite a lot of it this year! however I did have to either buy or incorporate some new fabrics this year… I wanted to make Theo’s baby swing from Cassie’s own fabric from her Spoonflower store, and had to buy that, for example… and some other pieces were given to me, like when Mum and my friend N both cleaned out their stashes, and also when I received fabric for the FrockOn collaboration, as well as 5 pieces from Minerva. By this criteria, 18 items were from “new” fabric. Ultimately I’m pretty happy with how much stash I managed to go through though. Feel very very good about this. I’m already formulating plans for next year too…! 😉 🙂

favourite make?

oh dear! I found this so hard to judge this year! I can only cope with the decision making trauma buy choosing several things, for several reasons! For purely selfish, pride-in-the-sewing-process, reasons; my favourite thing for myself was my black Stewart tartan coat, made at the beginning of the year. I’ve worn this several times and always feel so smart and pulled together. It makes every outfit look good! but the above was my favourite 🙂

I was also very happy with some of the things I’ve made for others; particularly this striped dress I made for Cassie, Theo’s little panda romper, and Arthur’s bunny …

most worn?

My most worn clothing items for the year can be summed up in the above… top spot goes to my yellow raincoat (51 wears this year), other very heavily worn items were my white sandals (50), lilac sandals (28), yellow mini skirt (26), turquoise denim skirt (23), sherbie tee, red floral myosotis dress, red turtleneck, rust wool skirt, blue hand knit cardigan, new navy jeans, pink hoodie was originally white and I overdyed it during this year, and my cheerful orange/yellow/purple dress; all made by me and all took honours as very frequently worn clothing items in my wardrobe this year. My black tights also get very heavily worn but I’m not counting those because they’re boring.

any fails? or *horrified gasp* things NOT worn

I have to admit the very first time I wore my yellow polka-dot maxi skirt, above, I realised beautiful long ripple-y skirts were just never going to work for my dog-walking lifestyle. I gave it to my niece T and she seemed quite excited to wear it, so I’m just glad it’s gone to a good home! I did love it in theory though!

general life things

So; a big part of my life nowadays is spending time with my two darling grandsons… I’m very happy to be responsible for babysitting them (separately) each week… very occasionally I sneak in my ootd photo while I’m hanging out with them, and of course these are some of my favourites!

with Arthur

with Theo

Also, my Japanese lessons are still going really well… although travel still feels like a far off very distant thing, I’m enjoying it so much I will probably take up Celtic again if I have more time this year, fingers crossed!

Did I mention this before? We moved house at the beginning of the year, we’re now very close to the beach and I now walk along it every single day. I feel so lucky and do not take it for granted, I’m literally living my dream life now. I’ve always loved the beach, and to live here is like sheer heaven for us. I’m also still maintaining my 7 year, unbroken streak of at least 10,000 steps every day. I’ve kept this up ever since I got my first Fitbit, which is a relentless tyrant for keeping you accountable!

So, I guess that’s 2021 … I wish all who read this a wonderful year ahead, with health and happiness, clean air, refreshing rain and warm sunshine for all, and of course precious time spent with the most important people in our lives. Here’s to 2022 being a good one!