Monthly Archives: September 2022

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the fascinating sleeves of farrah

22/09/2022 2:35 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

…hyperbole? I don’t think so!

The sleeves of my newest thing are extremely cool imo… I’m really enamoured with their very unique design. I’m always on the lookout for cool design ideas anyway, and was so excited to try this one out!

Oh yes, what pattern is this?… the new Fibremood Farrah dress. It calls itself a “dress” but my honest opinion is that it is far more coat-like… I’m wearing mine over a merino tee and a corduroy skirt in my pictures here. It is a very easy pattern to make, despite the sleeves appearing sorta avant garde. They look interesting but end up being a pretty simple construction, which is an interesting thing in itself, I suppose!

I used a length of deep midnight blue slubby cotton that Mum had given me when she cleaned out her stash – and yes, there’s even more where that came from! – I’m pretty sure it was originally from Fabulous Fabrics because I’ve seen it in the store. It’s quite sturdy but soft and pliable and sews up beautifully; I’ve bought lots of this stuff in the past in different colour ways and made up loads of things. Really really love it; in any colour way. I’ve had to restrain myself to not buy any more during my pledge to use up my stash! Btw, remember I made a little pledge to not buy any new fabric until I’d used up 30m of my stash? Well, I finished that and now I’ve decided to unofficially extend my pledge to not buy any new fabric until I’ve used up the WHOLE LOT; within reason. By that I mean; if I have to buy more, to make some desperately needed thing and have absolutely nothing that will do then I will; but as much as possible I am determined to keep going until it is ALL GONE. I know, right?! I wonder how long it is going to take me! I’m excited to find out!

Anyway, fortunately I had almost the exact right amount to make up this design… almost! I was short by about 5cm to cut out the sleeves as intended, but I just shortened the sleeves by folding a tuck in the pattern piece and ploughed ahead. I’m very happy with the resulting bracelet sleeves so it was a very serendipitous “oh damn” moment in the end after all.

I didn’t have any buttons that suited, but did have some bright white plastic ones with a nice surface design; so with a view to (again, recurring theme) using the stash as much as possible, I dug out some royal blue spray paint from the shed (used previously for when I made these shoes) and gave them a little face-lift. It’s not a perfect colour match by any means but I really love how they turned out!

I’m very happy with how smart and stylish this dress/coat turned out! and am really going to enjoy wearing it during our warmer months coming up. When they do… it’s still quite cold here *sad face* I’m desperate for summery weather!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: coat, dress, farrah, fibremood

some snuggly corduroy goodness…

16/09/2022 3:09 pm \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a few new things!

I was sent a length of lovely snuggly corduroy from Minerva; it is soft, quite lightweight, fluid and drapey and a little fluffy, and of course the most gorgeous and delicious shade of burnt orange/terracotta imaginable! this very stuff, in fact…

Soooo happy with my pocket-elicious new ensemble! hmmm, why the new (non)word, you might ask? Well, because there are SO many pockets on my newest outfit that it’s borderline ridiculous… AND I LOVE IT!!!!!

Patterns; I really love the practicality, utilitarian urban vibe of Waffle Patterns and have bought quite a few… now I can shift a few more off my list of “want to makes” and into the list of “yay finally made!” namely the Arare hoodie and the Anzu skirt.

Both these patterns come with a lot of variations; the Arare hoodie can be a hoodie or just have a high collar, and you can do either front welt pockets or a big kangaroo pocket with flap. I opted for the hoodie and the welt pockets, and there’s also a little sleeve pocket. That’s where I stuck my circa 2022 label 🙂

I didn’t really have enough fabric to line the hood, well not if I wanted to make the skirt too, which I most definitely did! so I used some nice, autumnal floral viscose from Mum’s stash … given to me when she cleared it out a few months ago. I really love how this looks peeping out inside the hoodie 🙂 I also used this same fabric to line the pockets. I didn’t add a cord to the hood mostly because I didn’t have the perfect coloured cord; I did put in the eyelets though, just in case that perfectly matching cord ever does show up!

I’ve had a tendency in the past to do welt pockets my own way… or a way that is a conglomeration of various big 4 patterns I’ve used over the years… the welt pockets on the Arare were a little different and took a little getting my head around. And they turned out absolutely perfect! I’m thrilled with how well they turned out.

For the skirt… I opted for the knee length, zip-fronted option, with inner slanted hip pockets. The other pocket options I went for were; the zip pocket, the “flap” pocket which comprises a bellows pocket with a partitioned off “non-flapped” section, three layered patch back pockets, and a double tool pocket. So, I just had to pause to add this up… this make for a 13 pocketed ensemble. I know right?! It’s crazy! And amazing!

Now, while I really wanted to make the skirt in this corduroy it was actually a little on the lightweight side to make a good cargo skirt. I applied lightweight fusible interfacing to every piece and this gave the perfect amount of stability to make this structured design work well. This had the slightly unfortunate side effect of make the wrong side of the fabric a jarring shade of white, obviously… now I know you don’t really see inside a skirt to notice something like this but it still bothered me. So I lined it with a dark brown lining fabric…. kinda overkill but it’s nicer like this.

One thing I should mention; I had to substantially alter the top of the back skirt piece. I’m not sure if I did something wrong at some earlier point, or whether it’s something to do with my slight sway back; but the back bulged in a very weird way before I scooped out a considerable crescent from the skirt back, before adding the yoke. And here’s a handy tip; when making any skirt at all I’ve always found it a good idea to try on for fit BEFORE you’re about to embark on any substantial seam finish and/or topstitching/flat-felling and/or overlocking raw seam allowances together. It’s SO much easier to make adjustments without having to unpick any of this! Ask me how I know! spoiler alert, I learnt the hard way…

Although it hasn’t shown up too well in any of my photos because it’s in a toning caramel colour; there is masses of topstitching in this outfit. I used up almost an entire roll of upholstery thread!

I’m rather thrilled at how very 70’s this outfit turned out! really that’s my only excuse for some of these poses…. honestly I don’t really go out of my way to make stuff that’s very obviously costume-y but am always quite chuffed when something does have an unexpectedly unusual and possibly even unfashionable flavour to it!

I shall sign off with a few pocket details…