2022 - Page 3 of 6 - Handmade by Carolyn

pink trousers

05/10/2022 12:09 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made some new trousers…

this is the new Mitchell trousers pattern by Closet Core patterns. It has two views, view A is a pegged, cropped version and view B is an ankle length, more swishy wide-leg version. Obviously I was always going to make the wide leg swishy leg version! I love that 40s Hollywood, menswear inspired vibe… although this design was actually inspired by Joni Mitchell from the 70’s, and yes while the menswear look was definitely a thing in the 70s I think it definitely had its actual roots from trend setters like Katharine Hepburn in the 40s.

I unearthed from Le Stash a long length of beige linen with blue pin stripes; originally bought from the Fabric store during one of our very earliest trips to Melbourne! I’m pretty sure I’ve had this for approximately ten years! SOOOOO happy to have this finally gainfully employed into a (I think) rather gorgeous new addition to my wardrobe!

Soon after buying it I suddenly felt the tastefully bland colour totally uninspiring, and just could not for the life of me work out why I’d bought it in the first place. But of course, an unexciting colour is never a problem when you can dye it… and it’s quite a thick, substantial kind of linen, really beautiful quality; so I hung onto it, confident it would find its purpose one day. And it finally has!

I washed the beige fabric with a length of very very intensely red cotton corduroy. This worked a charm straight off the bat and I got a length of beautiful blush pink linen which I absolutely love… hurrah! I’m aware this colour could fade over time, but fortunately it’ll be easy to keep it up with a light wash of pink dye every now and then 🙂 The buttons were from Spotlight, once upon a time… and the zip I used is a bit bright but it’s not like you can really see it. Both from stash.

The Mitchell design has two buttoned welt pockets at the back and deep, slanted front hip pockets peeping out from under deep front pleats, side ties to nip in the waist, and a waist facing as opposed to a waistband. This does give a lovely sleek and smooth silhouette at the back of the waist, which is very nice, I think! I couldn’t find the correct size of D-rings at Spotlight, so had to settle for a smaller set. I folded in the ties to fit as neatly as I could and I don’t mind the slightly squeezed in resulting look here, but am thinking if I ever do spot the right size I’ll probably by them and switch these out. Or not. As I said, I do kinda like this look!

Very happy with my back welt pockets! My stripes even match up perfectly, which is a pretty happy thing! And yes, I admit I pinned each and every stripe to get that perfect match 😉

this colour closest to the true colour…

The Mitchell design has you cutting the pockets from lining fabric, and you add facings and patches so that you can only see self-fabric peeping out from when the pockets open up; but I opted instead to cut all pocket pieces from the self fabric in the first place. It might make things a little bulkier but it’s a lot simpler and I don’t mind having the small amount of extra thickness; though this does depend a lot on the kind of fabric you’ve chosen… I guess if you have chosen a wool crepe of something then you’d definitely want to go the extra effort of doing the pockets as outlined in the instructions.

Of course they are exceptionally comfortable to wear. In fact I really enjoyed wearing them all day; and the fact is that I’m not usually very comfortable in trousers or jeans. I mean, I wear them, but mostly think I look terrible in them so tend to go for a skirt or dress by default. At this time of year though, I’m heartily sick of all my winter skirts, and yet it’s too cold for summer dresses yet, and so I find myself reaching for trousers/jeans instead. You know, just for a bit of variety. I’m a person who craves variety, particularly in my wardrobe.. oh really Carolyn? whatever gives you that idea?! *laughing at myself*…

Anyway, love of trousers amounts to a seasonal thing, for me. The exceptional quality of this beautiful linen, combined with a truly chic design means I’m sure I’m going to enjoy wearing this a lot over this season, as well as well into summer!

In all my pictures, I’m wearing them with my white Booragoon top, available as a pattern here, and first blogged here… I am wearing this all the time at the moment. It’s the perfect basic!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Closet Core patterns, daily outfit, Mitchell trousers, trousers

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…

the “flap pocket”

the “zip pocket”

and lastly but most importantly of all, my darling little grandson wanting to join in posing with me…

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!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: bag, bruno, Clara, daily outfit, fibremood, hat, nouria, own design, tights/leggings

a bit green about the gills

24/07/2022 6:25 pm \ 11 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a green dress… this is a dress that I’ve been meaning to make for ages! and have been quietly gathering suitable green fabrics as I see or unearth them. It’s actually been a very long term work in progress! since I identified what I thought could be the first suitable fabric about four years ago. I know, right?!

You can actually see it right here; it’s the leftovers from this little bag that I made for Mum, for her birthday back in 2018… this is what I think of as the “jade” green colour centre front of the skirt part… it was harvested from a pair of silk trousers that Mum had let go years ago. The “yellow” green raw silk was from the remnant bin at Fabulous Fabrics; as was also the “grey” green silk suiting remnant… although they were trophies from separate hunting trips… and the darkest forest green cotton corduroy was leftover from these paper-bag waist trousers, and originally from Minerva.

So obviously I love this pattern a lot, it’s the sixth time I’ve made it up! Here’s a little collage of all the V1316’s I’ve made… from left to right, top to bottom they are:

1; made from four pairs of old corduroy trousers; black, brown, grey and cream…I describe how I add pockets to the design in this post too.

2; made from blue corduroy, that I pre-overdyed with different dyes to be four different shades of blue… this one is probably my own personal favourite…

3; made from four different colours of cotton corduroy. I later overdyed the whole dress crimson for a more cohesive look

4; made using old denim jeans. This was the first one I did not line, and it is perfectly fine of course! This one is probably an equal favourite for me too! 🙂

5; made using yellow cotton canvas, leftover from the covers I made for Clara’s dog beds. The seams are defined with blue bias cut cotton. This seems to be everyone else’s favourite over on instagram!

6; my new one!

I’m extremely happy with my newest one! and I made a few slight mods, has well as the usual addition of pockets! Of course! I simply CANNOT live without pockets nowadays, sorry. I know this is a very well-worn lament that perhaps should go without mentioning yet again, and yet this is a sewing blog and so I guess it really needs to be mentioned. Sorry.

I lined the dress fully with light jade green lining fabric, and instead of using the same lining fabric to cut the shoulder pieces, like the pattern suggests and which I have obeyed for versions 1,2 and 3 in the past; I cut them from the dark green cotton corduroy, I also cut an extra centre front bodice piece and stitched it to the neckline of the dress lining… these help to keep the lining “invisible” because I’ve always found in the past that the lining has a tendency to peep out on this dress, no matter how carefully you understitch the armhole and neckline edges. This is such a simple fix and I’m glad it finally occurred to me!

Still pretty chuffed with these circa 2022 labels! The challenge with each garment is to find a good spot to put it!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: dress, vogue 1316, Wardrobe Refashion

the Booragoon skirt and Booragoon top

02/07/2022 9:24 pm \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

phew… I’m beyond exhausted, but also absolutely thrilled to announce the release of our latest two patterns… the Booragoon skirt and the Booragoon top!

So; here’s the story -yes, there’s always a story. That’s what a blog is for, right?!

For our niece’s 21st last year, for which I made this bumblebee cake; Cassie made a self-designed skirt for herself. It was a seriously cool skirt and brought forth many oohs and aahs and the inability to keep oneself from checking it out. Fortunately, not only did Cassie welcome the checking out part, but also excitedly declared on the spot that we should most definitely make it a pattern. So the horses were out of the gate and we were off! Of course, it did not proceed as swiftly as hoped; not only did work get in the way like a great big ol’ nuisance (not like it pays the bills or anything) but Cassie also returned to work after maternity leave was over, which slowed things down a little too.

And while Cassie’s skirt was beautifully made; she had done a massive amount of hand stitching to make the zip insertion and design lines work; which I knew would have be worked on before we could even think of releasing it.

See; the top tier of the skirt has a sharp edged, right-angle panel encircling the waist; very architectural in its genesis; that incorporates the waistband and a front panel. The front panel folds down to hide a zip closure; and the waistband has an attached, very long and skinny tie to further pull it all together. Sounds interesting? It is!

It took a bit of experimentation and fiddling, but I eventually worked out the zip insertion; so you could do it all by machine.

The top is one I’ve made for Cassie many times before; and we both decided the top really complemented the skirt very well; so we decided to release the patterns as a set. But of course you can always buy them separately as well. Actually; while I would rate the little jersey top as an Advanced Beginner level of pattern, the skirt really veers into Intermediate-Advanced level, thanks to the difficulty in mastering those nice sharp angles.. I would never tell anyone not to give it a go, however, Honestly; if I’d been scared off by Advanced ratings in my early sewing days I reckon I never would have got anywhere! I’m a big believer that’s it’s a good thing to push yourself. At the same time, the skill level thing is there for a reason!

We are offering a special, release day sale on the new patterns; the Booragoon Top, the Booragoon Skirt, and the Booragoon Top & Skirt are all 20 % off for the first 5 days, starting today. You even get a little special, and permanent discount for buying the set of patterns, as opposed to separately.

All three options re listed for sale in our Etsy store; here.

Is this a good time to mention that the skirt has a pocket? It’s just big enough for a phone and some small things, and it’s surprisingly unobtrusive. I’ve got my phonon my pocket for all my photos and it can’t be seen at all!

My lovely daughter-in-law Lainey agreed to model for us again; and the set I made for her is an all-in-one colour set; so it gives more of a dress vibe: for this one; I bought cotton from Spotlight for the skirt, and the cotton jersey for the top was a lucky match from Mum’s stash.

This next set is one of my earlier attempts; it was not particularly well made because I was still working out the zip at this point; but I really liked the skirt-over-a-dress look of it so saved the idea for my “real” one, above! Cream cotton jersey inherited from Mum’s stash, brown gabardine leftover from a long-gone pair of jeans/trousers I made for myself years ago.

And this set is playing with a dress-over-a-skirt look, just for fun. Both fabrics inherited from Mum’s stash.

All these different looks are achieved simply by different combinations of self and contrasting fabrics, and I really love this kind of versatility in a pattern!

Working on this pattern also contributed substantially to my #use30 challenge, for which I am quite grateful too, hehe. Thanks for that, Booragoon skirt and top!

Oh, the name? Booragoon is a local suburb here in Perth, and the location for a very popular shopping mall, which was actually both mine and Cassie’s introduction to department store shopping, for me dating back to my childhood years. Well, for Cassie too; but I mention for me in particular just to illustrate how long the mall has been there. It is also where my Dad had his practise for many many years; so when we went shopping we were always popping in to visit him while he was there. So “Booragoon” just has sentimental memories for us both; being a place “to shop” if you like. And we thought the Booragoon skirt and top was that kind of outfit that you might put on in order to sally forth for a day of genteel shopping and maybe a cup of tea and piece of cake to fortify yourself during the ordeal. Aaah, memories!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Booragoon skirt, Booragoon top, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Cassie, Lainey, own design, skirt, Theo, top

a vanilla skirt, a periwinkle robe and an adorable little onesie

11/06/2022 8:35 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve been making things! btw I have to apologise profusely for my terrible blogging lately, I feel like I’m neglecting my poor little blog so badly.. the thing is that Cassie and I are working like mad on our newest pattern and we are so so close now that I can taste it!! well, ok I did nibble experimentally at a corner and it tasted just like paper… but you know what I mean. It is going to taste a billion times sweeter when it is finally out in the world!

I’ll discuss that a bit more in a minute, but in the meantime I’ve made a few things other than samples….

item 1:

a little skirt, to match this jacket I made fairly recently… I had a scant 50cm or so of leftovers, just enough for a little mini. The fabric is the wide wale cotton corduroy in colour vanilla, bought in Potters Textiles a few years ago. I utilised my skirt block, and a closure method that I wrote a tute for once before on my blog; a button closure over a pocket so you don’t need to do a zip.

And this time I got creative and added a full lining too. Bias binding to hem because of the severe shortness of the skirt otherwise! You may or may not recognise the bias binding as being cut from the last leftovers to this robe I made recently…

It’s not perfect on the inside but I’m pretty confident I can polish up the method to be very neat and tidy for the next time. I’m also quietly working on this one as a pattern for our company too.. shhhh!

item 2:

a sweet little onesie for a new baby; our friends L & L welcomed their darling new little baby, and of course I had to make something sweet… I used my own pattern, developed for my own grandchildren, and a short length of cotton jersey from Spotlight. It’s beautiful stuff, isn’t it?

item 3:

a robe, for my dear sister in law for her recent birthday. This lovely periwinkle raw silk was in my stash, I’m about 80% sure it was from Mum when she cleaned out her stash; but honestly when and where I got some of my older fabrics is sometimes a bit of a blur. Anyway, I washed it up, measured it and had just enough for another Closet Core patterns Veronik robe.. I just had to run into Officeworks to print up a new pattern in her size. I gave it to her just before the long weekend, and she seemed very pleased!

So where am I with the whole #use30 challenge….? Well, the little vanilla skirt used 50cm of corduroy, plus another 50cm of lining; the onesie was about 50cm, and the length of periwinkle silk was 3m, and I used every single scrap. That’s 4.5m of fabric.

And guess what?! That’s my 30m of stash fabric… DONE and DUSTED!!! Actually 32m! As per my own rules for the challenge, I am now “allowed” to buy new fabric if I want to… but now I’ve started down that path I really want to sew up as much of my older stash as I possibly can. And actually; I did fail a bit, since I bought a small amount of souvenir fabric when we were in Melbourne recently. Whoops!!! But I HAD TO! It’s Melbourne. Yes, ok I am a little upset with myself for “failing”, but not too much. At least I did use up that 30m eventually, even if I jumped the gun on my “reward” a bit early.

One thing I’m relieved is that I can (legally) buy new fabrics to sew up the samples for our new pattern though! I thought I’d mention a little more about our newest pattern, since we’re this close! It’s a skirt and top… the skirt is one Cassie designed, and wore; to her cousin’s 21st birthday last year. The one I made a cake for here, and I made a dress for myself for the occasion too… well Cassie’s skirt was so lovely we both decided it had to be a pattern. And it has a matching top, one that I’ve already made several for Cassie, that have all appeared here on my blog before; plus a few for myself that have not yet appeared here on my blog yet! The skirt and top look really nice together, so we’re releasing them at the same time as each other, but they can be bought separately, to add a bit of flexibility and choice to our customers. I’m so excited that they are about to get out into the world, and cannot wait to share more very soon!