Monthly Archives: August 2022

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some snuggly spring-y merino

31/08/2022 10:46 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

Last day of the month and I’m squeezing in a blog post about some other stuff that’s strolled out of the stash and onto my body during August… wait, that sounded weird. Leaving it though. I’m in that sort of mood!

I had bought some gorgeous “turmeric” merino from The Fabric Store in Melbourne during our trip over there earlier this year… when we saw Harry Potter… btw did I ever relate that story? Putting it here now for posterity:

So back in 2019 we’d bought tickets to the Melbourne production of the Harry Potter play for May 2020. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which at the time was only showing in three venues in the entire world; London, New York and Melbourne. During my trip to New York with Yoshimi I’d seen it happening there and was so excited for when Craig and I were going to see it too! We’d booked very good seats and a very nice hotel in Melbourne and it was going to be awesome… Well, we all know what happened in early 2020! (note to future me, who might have forgotten; covid) Our tickets were first rescheduled from May 2020 to November 2020. Then rescheduled again for May 2021. Then November 2021. In case future me has forgotten, Melbourne endured multiple, extremely stringent lockdowns during the pandemic; some of the strictest in the world, and also our own WA border was closed for a couple of years too.

Our tickets were finally forwarded to March 2022 and we eventually hopped on a plane and went on what turned out to be the last weekend of the production. The play was absolutely amazing!! and we loved every minute. The play was so long that it was divided into a two parter; a matinee from 2 until 5-ish, after which you went out and got some dinner, and then an evening performance that went until quite late. SOOOO good! easily one of the most enjoyable plays we’ve ever seen, although I admit you do have to be a Harry Potter aficionado to have “got” it. Fortunately we are most definitely in that category! since Tim was the same age as Harry and back in the day we’d got the books and eagerly devoured them all.

Anyway, apologies for the digression; sewing wise I bought a little fabric during that trip! Well, I can’t go to Melbourne and NOT buy souvenir fabric! It would just feel wrong!

Item 1; I made a self-drafted cardigan… this is a design I’ve made a few times before, at the start I was using my favourite Closet Core Nettie pattern. Over the years I’ve custom fit my Nettie pattern until it is now completely unrecognisable from the original. For me, it is now an only slightly form-fitting and streamlined T-shirt and I’ve adapted it further to be a slightly looser-fitting (so you can comfortably wear it over a tee) cardigan.

I really love this style and enjoy wearing it a lot.

Item 2; a matching turmeric T-shirt… from memory, I’d requested 1.5m, and when it was rolled out there was already a cut piece a bit longer than 1.5m. I’m sorry I can’t remember exactly how much more it was now, but I said I’d buy it! And it was just enough that I managed to get a T-shirt for myself too. I love how I now have a twinset! since I am a granny now and it’s about time I started dressing the part somewhat. I love how a twinset is kinda linked with “dressing like a granny” in my head, but my particular twinset feels not too granny as to fall into “undesirably granny” territory to me. It’s OK, I know that sounds nonsensical but it makes sense to me!

In fact, I love it so much I’m thinking of making my twinset idea into a pattern… I would love to do this if I can eke out the time!

Items 3 and 4; last year I had purchased 1.5m of lovely “red clay” merino from the Fabric Store during one of their online sales. It took a bit of super careful placement but I was pretty pleased to squeeze two T-shirts from this! I kept one for myself and gave one to Cassie, because I think this colour suits her really well too.

I’m so happy with all these items and they’ve all got worn quite a lot this past month already. If you check out my ootd day blog you can see just how much. For example; this is what I am wearing today!

Other me-made items I am wearing in these pictures:

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: cardigan, daily outfit, own design, tee

bucket hats and tights and a big big bag…

27/08/2022 11:20 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh hello! Those blue blue skies are making me so happy right now, as most of the past month has been more like this:

Oh yay, storm clouds, yes you’re making me happy too… not.

I’ve been making lots of stuff lately and the last two pics feature two of them…. two bucket hats! This is the new Bruno pattern by FibreMood. I made the green corduroy one first and it was a tad too tight on me so I’ve given it to Arthur. It fits him quite well actually! with a little room to grow, and of course he looks super adorable in it too!

The pink one was my second go at the pattern, and this one fits ME, fortunately! I used cotton canvas, leftover from this lovely pink top I made for Cassie’s work capsule wardrobe last year, and it is lined with some very pretty green polka-dot silk crepe leftover from the dress I made for Mum to wear to Cassie’s wedding a couple of years ago… the green one is lined with the same green polka-dot. I know, right… fancy linings are a bit …. fancy?! At least my hair is enjoying the proximity to such luxury.

Next up… I made a whole batch of new black tights. Not fancy at all, but these are literally the mainstay of my winter wardrobe and I was absolutely desperate for new ones!

These are made using my own custom fit pattern, and thin black super-stretch poly from Spotlight… and it’s not even new fabric, I bought a large length of this about three or maybe even four? years ago in preparation for making more tights. Then I just kept putting it off. My old tights got pretty ratty but … you know; I sure got a good innings out of those things. And now it’s also feels pretty good to get that 5m or so of black poly out of my stash!

These are so much warmer than most RTW winter tights I’ve ever had and of course they fit me perfectly, never falling down or sagging at the crotch. They have a distinct front and back so I always stitch a contrasting zig zag at the back, for easy identification when I’m rushing to pull them on on a dark winter morning. Yes it’s a bit rough but effective!

Lastly, I also made a giant beach bag!

This thing truly is GIANT, which is great because beach towels are pretty giant too, usually. I used another newish FibreMood pattern, the Nouria; and cut up an old towel to make it, which seems a slightly cannibalistic thing to do? but I think towelling will be very practical and hopefully perfect beach-bag material. The design used up the entire towel, like it was designed on purpose to do so! which is of course awesome. I’m all for making use of every little bit of fabric, as much as I can! The handles are plain cotton canvas; also from my existing stash. Yay, for using up more stash!

My only slight regret now is that I didn’t choose a more colourful or exciting towel! but this one was there and available and no longer being used, so yay for recycling!

It’s lined with plain white poplin (yes, stash) and I added a few extra internal pockets to reduce the risk of things getting completely lost within the cavernous expanse of the bag… a biggish pocket for a book with a sectioned off bit for a pen, and a phone pocket. And it already has a huge pocket on the outside too, for frequently required sundries such as sunblock and a water bottle.

Craig’s phone is standing in for my own, which had more urgent duties to perform such as taking this picture here, hehe…

SOOOO ready for summer now!! oh and btw, I have even more recently made stuff to share here very soon. Even if I haven’t updated my blog in a while, I really have been making quite assiduously and diligently!