November 2022 - Handmade by Carolyn

in which I make yet another tartan thingie…

27/11/2022 8:04 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new.. blouse? jacket? the more open-ended “top” would be the least controversial, I suppose!

This is the new Rhonda pattern by Fibremood… I always tend to go for the weirdest pattern in any collection because that’s just my preference in just about anything, and I was not disappointed with my choice this time either! It’s quite unique; sorta boxy giving a tres-flattering square shape to one’s torso #imjoking and an up-and-down hemline all around. The sleeves are wide and a little flared without being annoyingly big. If I’m being critical I’m not super sold on the buttoned back; such a thing has a tiny whiff of “homemade” about it and maybe I would substitute a zip or even an invisible zip in a lighter fabric next time. But, I’m ok with it for them most part.

I didn’t have matching buttons in my stash, so got some blue fabric covered ones that I’d rescued off a cardigan, many years ago, and used a sharpie to colour them in black. Perfect! I really like how they’re a little woolly looking, just like the fabric.

Oh, the fabric? This was a leftover, given to be by Mum. She’d bought it in Melbourne, during one of our girls’ trips over there; and subsequently made a pair of trousers for herself. In true Mum fashion she had bought about 2m too much. The wrong side is a bit fluffy, like a blanket, and this is the side I used as a right side. The actual right side is a lot more defined and sharp looking, which is nice but I just wanted the slightly fluffy, ill-defined felted look of the wrong side.

I managed to get this little jacket out of it, and also a little matching skirt. Oh, you’ve noticed I am not wearing the matching skirt? That’s because while I used my own perfectly fitting skirt block to cut it out, I foolishly failed to add seam allowances. And then steam-rollered through without pausing to try it on at any point, until it was completely finished. So it turned out depressingly tiny *sob* Fortunately it fits Cassie just fine, so she accepted it happily. I’m quite sad because it honestly looked so cute with the matching jacket! but really; I have enough skirts planned top of that one to suit my needs.

I’ll attach a picture of Cassie wearing the skirt here when I can get one… ~~until then!~~

please say hi to my darling little grandson and BooBoo … and yes, I am … just a little bit dying of heat right here. But hey; summer is here at last, and I am NOT complaining!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: fibremood, jacket, rhonda, top

bikini washing bag

20/11/2022 3:52 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

… the zip on my old lingerie washing bag finally gave up the ghost, so I whipped up a new one! Perforated sports fabric has been in Le Stash for years, I originally bought a long length of this from the Remnant Warehouse for raincoat vents and I think it’s going to last me a lifetime! purple zip inherited from a large batch of random haberdashery from Mum…

After I’d cut it out I decided to tizzy it up a bit with a spot of embroidery… I was going for the bikini emoji so tried embroidering yellow French knot “polka dots” over the pink but they sadly turned absolutely terrible so OFF they came! It’s ok, I happen to think the pink bikini by itself is super cute and I’m very pleased with it. I was little worried the satin stitch would skew in the wash, but it’s survived several washes already and come out totally unscathed so I think it’s going to be quite stable!

To do the embroidery, I freehand drew the bikini straight onto my bag with lead pencil. The sports fabric is a little stretchy, so on the back (inside) of the bag I pinned a bias cut piece of white linen. This provides a stable “tough” layer to give the embroidery a nice strong backing, so it won’t stretch out.

I outlined the design with simple back stitch, and then just filled in the gap with satin stitch. The bikini straps are double stitches.

On, I should mention something about the zip too… again because of the sports fabric being a little stretchy and we all know what inserting a zip into stretchy fabric looks like ie. absolutely blooming’ awful most of the time…. anyway I interfaced the zip opening with fusible interfacing AND stay-stitched the zip box as well as the stitching lines before putting in the zip. I think it did the trick as my zip is nice and smooth and flat with no bubbly bits or humps or bumps.

Et voila!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: accessories, bag, own design

orange yoga girl

19/11/2022 2:37 pm \ Leave a Comment \ Carolyn

Remember my pink yoga girls dress? well I made an orange one too! I used the Nerida Hanson smock dress pattern.. only this one is made (almost) exactly to the pattern with no variations! shock horror, I know… how often do I ever faithfully follow the pattern #notever

The “almost” up there? well, obviously it’s substantially shorter than the pattern! And it is a bit shorter than the pink one too. Not much shorter in the scheme of things, only about 10cm or so; but this small amount has made quite a big difference, I think! I’ve worn it bare-legged just once, and decided it was too short to be worn without tights from now on. Am I getting … dare I say it… old? I’ve never really worried about dresses being “too short” before and now I seem to worry about it quite a lot.

I’m also a touch worried about the sleeves. I’ve never been a “big sleeve” sort of person, so I’ve passed this trend over, mostly. This time I decided to take the chance. I kind like them, they do balance out the skirt quite nicely.

But at the same time they make me a little nervous. I’ve worn this dress a number of times over winter… always with tights! and because winter is cold I’ve always worn it with a jumper or hoodie or something over the top, for warmth. That means the sleeves are hidden too. With summer coming up, I’ll see how I feel wearing this big sleeves on show, as I shed those warm winter woollies…

really love that little burst of orange with my broderie top and my denim jacket!

Anyway, the fabric is so cheerful and fun, it really puts a smile on my face. I’m going to enjoy wearing it for that reason alone!

have worn it multiple times with my terracotta corduroy hoodie; it just seems to really work well in this outfit combination

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, nerida hansen, NH smock dress

oxen

13/11/2022 9:29 pm \ Leave a Comment \ Carolyn

How cute is this multicoloured “oxen” print? I saw it on Spoonflower and immediately fell in love. I bought a little of the cotton sateen last year. Or maybe even the year before? Yes, it has indeed been in the stash for a while; and my pledge to use up the stash is still a work in progress!

I used it to make up this unusual pattern; the FibreMood Jill dress. I know it looks like a fairly featureless dress pattern from the front but from the back the more unique qualities become apparent… mainly a triangular “window” underneath a long opening. This looks cute but in reality is a bit of a bra-revealer, even though there is a joining bar that is probably intended to be at bra level. I’ve taken to wearing it over a simple little camisole to eliminate the risk.

The skirt “looks” gathered, but is actually not; in fact there is a casing at the top of the skirt, through which you thread a length of elastic. At each end of the elastic you attach a skinny tie, which comes out at centre back.

I enjoyed finishing the raw edges inside with pale pink muslin binding; this has been in my stash for YONKS. An appropriately kindergarten-esque finishing touch is a garish apple-green button. There’s actually not a skerrick of green anywhere in the print, but it has the same saturation level as the other colours so fits in quite well, I think.

Now, I have worn this dress a couple of times, including once in the Maldives even though it’s not in the “floordrobe” shot, whoops! but actually the reason it got forgotten because it was by that time awaiting alterations in the rehabilitation ward already. Yes, it had a few little problems which I knew had to be fixed asap if I wanted to wear it again.

A major problem was a strangling-ly high neckline. I unpicked the white-on-white under stitching around the front part of the neckline and restitched a new scoop… taking out a good 4cm in the process. Re-understitched the facing and bammo! the difference is subtle and no one would notice but the comfort level for me is stratospherically improved!

But most importantly it was a tad too short for summer wear. Not scandalously so, but just a bit. I’d worn it a smattering of times in winter with tights and boots… voila below; for which the length was fine.

Compounding the problem, it was a little shortwaisted on me too. Resulting in an almost babydoll look, which is not good on me at all. So I cut a 20cm extension from the leftovers and stitched this underneath the skirt, at the hem stitching level. This results in a two layered skirt look which fortunately I happen to like. And the proportions of bodice and skirt are hugely improved, imo! Begone, the babydoll look!

I’m gong to enjoy wearing this cute dress in summer! And if I want the shorter length back for next winter it’s a quick and easy unpick to get the lower level back off again too. And then maybe I can add it back on again the following summer? Yes, hmmm maybe that sounds a little odd, but why not? Updating the hemline to suit the season sounds like quite a good way of enhancing the wearability of my wardrobe, so maybe I should embrace this concept more often!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, fibremood, jill

I crocheted a hat!

11/11/2022 11:26 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

… and it’s been a long time in the making too!

I originally bought this raffia in Okadaya in Shinjuku, and subsequently this pattern book in a newsagent in the Kanazawa train station, back in 2019, pictured in this post here, and the anticipated hat been on the to-do list ever since…

I took all the bits and pieces off to the Maldives with me, in full confidence that I would comfortably produce a hat during my long idle hours lounging around by our pool … ha ha ha. Oh, the naivety of the beginner crocheter! I made a pretty good start during our holiday, for sure… several pretty good starts, in fact.

You see, the first few times I started I realised something was going irretrievably wrong and I would unravel the whole thing and start over. It was frustrating, to say the least. I reckon I’ve done enough crocheting for at least four hats, in the making of this one. Finally I came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with my Japanese translation, or my tension, as I’d first thought, but that there WAS something wrong with the pattern, sadly. My hat was going to be enormous. Once I realised those things, I decided to ignore the stitch count of the pattern and instead calculated my own based on the hat dimensions helpfully laid out in one of the diagrams. There was less unravelling once I adopted this approach; still a bit of unravelling but I was finally onto a successful formula. Finally, my hat turned out ok, I think.

As I approached the end of the third and last ball, I pre-crocheted the hat band and keepers, and then proceeded to use up every last scrap of the raffia, right up until the very last centimetre. To be honest, I would have actually liked to have a fourth ball so as to get a much wider brim, but well… it can’t be helped. This was impossible to predict at the time of purchase.

When I was taking these pictures, in our own back yard instead of the much hoped for Maldives photo-op; it was quite windy so I added a length of shirring elastic, to go under my hair and help keep the hat on during walks on our very windy beach. After the hours and unnecessary hours that went into making it four times over, I wouldn’t want it to fly away in a whimsical gust of wind!

Posted in: knitting, Uncategorized \ Tagged: crochet, hat

pink and blue magnolias

02/11/2022 12:44 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello!

Here is another little sundress I made more recently actually… just in late July if I recall correctly. I was so excited and getting ready for spring and it seemed like the perfect little spring-time thing… little did I know that winter was going to continue to grip us in its icy cold claws for a further few months.

Even so, I happily managed to don it for a few random warmish days in there, hurrah! I’m so excited to wear this lots and lots as the weather warms up more, because I absolutely love it!

Firstly, the fabric; is super lovely. It’s a linen cotton, but feels a lot more linen-y than cotton-y; with a crisp hand that crinkles a little. The print, Nerida Hanson “Magnolia” in the blue colour way, is really beautiful too, cool sea-blues and a big splashes of pink.

I based my design on the Nerida Hansen half-sleeve top pattern, but of course added some very wild modifications to make the most of the 2m I had… fortunately it’s a very wide 2m and I was able to cut out quite a voluminous and flouncy dress in the end!

I really love how my mods turned out and am seriously thinking I would love to make this style into a pattern one day! I know, I know; I have so many ideas for patterns but so little time. It’s a little sad for me, because I honestly love designing and making patterns and would love to do it a lot more than I do at the moment. My dream career, if you will :/

It is actually two very wide and deeply “flouncy” flounces both cut on long curved, asymmetric angles across the body.

Hemming was fun of course (sarcastic font) because of the bias… I left it to hang for quite a while before venturing to cut off the hemline evenly. I had no room for error! partly because I had zero leftover fabric to play with, and I had only managed to get a fairly short version of my idea from the 2m. I cut super super carefully, and got a pretty decent hem, I think.

I did start out with the eponymous “half sleeves” but for balance sake eventually cut them off quite short … I think the very voluminous skirt looks much nice with the shorter sleeves.

My dress also has pockets, of course.

The flounces were just not possible with just 2m of fabric of course; so each is comprised of multiple smaller wedges, cut both up and down and joined around to make a multi-sectioned piece. Basically using every single scrap of fabric possible. The result is good, I think; for the randomness of pattern placement; the fact that you don’t get that slightly obnoxious pattern repeat that you do if you cut things out the normal way. A little bit of every-which-way in pattern placement does wonders for the a visually pleasing aesthetic sometimes; if you have an obvious pattern repeat. I often think when I’m checking out designs on Spoonflower actually; that designs could be improved so much if they had a larger scale repeat. I mean; I’m no visual art expert by any means, but this is just an impression I get.

Probably explaining myself really badly here, sorry. At least I know what I mean!

“winterised” … as worn on the plane home from Velassaru