Monthly Archives: October 2025

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bathers

17/10/2025 8:03 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I made a new pair of bathers for myself… and I’m chuckling to myself that I’ve gone kinda Bay Watch this year. Is Bay Watch even a part of the collective consciousness any more? hmmm I could be aging myself a bit with that reference?!

it’s only a year since I made my last pair of bathers but the fabric didn’t last as long as I was hoping. Oh well. I swim every day nowadays so maybe it’s not so surprising that they’ve worn out. And I have to admit that I don’t think this fabric is going to last l0nger than a year either. It already has that very stretchy quality that doesn’t bode well for future stability.

I used my old favourite “vintage” pattern – oh and it hurts to use that word since I bought it when it was new! of course McCalls 2772, that I’ve been using practically every time I make bathers. I just really like the style of this pattern, and when you’re happy with a thing then it’s ok to stick with it. The stretchy red polyester is from Fabulous Fabrics.

As usual, I made a skirt that I’ve stitched to the underneath of the bikini top to make a tankini version of the pattern. The whole back “skirt” is cut in one piece just using the upper curve of the bikini back as a guide and with the regular length of elastic attached to the top of it.

The first beach swim in the new bathers! and here’s to many more. When I was browsing fabrics I really wanted to find a cool print like palm leaves, or beach balls, or something with a mix of beautiful colours, or pretty florals, or wide stripes or something nautical. I found nothing at all that I liked in the print selection, this plain red was the only thing I even vaguely liked in the end. It’s ok, because I do love red, and it feels both cheerful and timelessly fashionable.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: bathers, Clara, McCalls 2772

a special lace dress

11/10/2025 5:47 pm \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

hello! Recently my lovely niece J married her long-time man and so of course I had to make a new dress for myself for the occasion… I was vaguely toying with the idea of shopping for fabric before I remembered two things: 1. as everyone in our family knows, J’s favourite colour is famously yellow, and 2. I have a piece of very yellow, and happily wedding worthy fabric in my stash already!

I bought this neon-bright yellow guipure lace from Mood Fabrics in New York City back in 2019, when I was over there with my friend Yoshimi… we met with other sewing ladies and they took us on a fabulous fabric shopping spree! Such fun. I wrote about it on my blog here… Originally I had envisioned making a little mini skirt from the lace but when the fabric was rolled out on the counter it turned out there was a pretty large chunk of the border cut out, so the salesperson basically threw that part of the fabric in for free. Meaning, I ended up with a lot longer length than I had needed. And obviously I couldn’t waste the extra bit by making that little mini, so it sat, awaiting some other project that could make use of it.Et voila!

I used the Closet Core Ceilo pattern with a few small modifications… namely; spicing the back yoke and back pieces together to eliminate that seam, including inseam pockets in the side seams, and I also cut it to be a bit more flared. Oh, and I also traced a size up – or maybe two? can’t remember now – for that fashionable oversized look. The hemline, which is of course the natural border of the lace, was determined by how much length I could get, and I also managed to get the sleeves on a border. It only took a little bit of pattern Tetris but I’m thrilled that I achieved what is one of my primary aims with any sewing project, which is to have minimal leftovers!

My dress is underlined completely with a pinkish/coffee coloured silk chartreuse that I bought from Fabulous Fabrics originally. I basted the lace and silk layers together within the seam allowance all around except for the side seams below the pockets, and then overlocked the edges before continuing to treat the two layers as one. The side seams below the pockets I stitched the layers separately and actually the lace is arranged so there’s not a “seam” in this part, but the lace motifs are arranged and hand stitched carefully so you can’t see a seam here.

I cut the pockets and neckline facings from a natural cotton linen that I’ve had in the stash for years, saved specifically for this same sort of purpose.

I chose this because the silk charmeuse wasn’t going to be stable enough in these areas – actually the lace is very heavy, far heavier than it looks! I cut the lace front and back to have side seam extensions along the pocket area and stitched it down carefully to the pockets inside. So, when you’re wearing the dress the lace appears to go all the way inside the pockets, no flash of offensive beige to be seen, so it looks really nice.

The seams allowances around the neckline, especially the shoulder seam area here are seriously bulky, and I trimmed, clipped and understitched aggressively to get everything to sit nice and flat! I also went back later and stitched the facing to the silk underlining as far around and as close as I could get to the shoulder seams.

I’m including a picture of the happy couple because, although I did not make the dress, I did alter it to fit her and also did some minor repairs. This took three separate fittings and I took precisely zero photos of the process or anything. My only excuse is that I was also working on my own dress and stressing a little bit that I wasn’t going to get it all done on time.

Thanks to its oversized and loose nature, my dress was so comfy to wear and to dance in, and I was so happy about that! and just saying, I only wore these high heeled sandals for the ceremony and photos. For the reception on the same property I went to our car and switched over to my white sandshoes with little socks, brought for this very purpose. Much warmer, and fabulously comfortable for dancing! I also wore my new pink wool Sienna jacket for the cooler temperatures that came as evening fell too, but no pictures of that I’m afraid. Anyway, I hope I can get more use our of this dress, which actually turned out more lovely than I thought. 🙂

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: cielo, Closet Core patterns, daily outfit, dress, evening wear, own design, wedding

winter white Dyron hoodie

03/10/2025 3:36 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new hoodie for myself, and think it’s rather beautiful if I say so myself. Many years ago, when I started this blog, I would sometimes berate myself for being scared of wearing colourful clothing. I tried to break away from making too many white things. I think I’ve succeeded in training myself to wear more colourful clothing, but actually my love for plain white things, or really, ivory things, hasn’t gone away. I still have quite a lot of cream, white or ivory fabrics in the stash! When the new Fibremood Dyron hoodie pattern landed in my inbox I got out some of my hoodie-weight fabrics and found I had enough of this lovely winter-white corduroy to cut out the hoodie. I’ve been hoarding this corduroy for a looooooooooong time so it feels really good to enjoy it, at last!

I made a size small, haha. Yes, it’s huge.

To be fair, the blurb does state that it’s deliberately styled as oversized, but still… I really love this design actually. I had an ivory zip in my stash already, fortunately, so I didn’t need to buy anything new to make the hoodie. As well as a zip, you needed velcro tape, which is the closure for both pockets, and is also on the sleeve tabs and hip/waist tabs. I only had black velcro, which worried me a little for a while. But it shouldn’t have. In the end I decided the black looked absolutely fine.

Speaking of those hip/waist tabs, to be completely honest they really are completely unnecessary, and are just a nuisance. In the end I unpicked the velcro tape and just stitched them permanently down.

This shows the front pocket with once of its side velcro closures. Inexplicably, this pocket also has a top opening with velcro closure too. This is kind of inaccessibly tucked right up underneath the “flap” so I don’t even really understand why it’s there.

The hood is lined with a matching cream coloured lightweight cotton, when I realised a double layer of corduroy was going to make the hood too heavy and stiff.

This is a rather clever sleeve pocket in the left sleeve. It’s inserted in one of the sleeve seams, and also has a velcro closure. I’m not sure what you’d use it for but it is big enough for a phone. So I guess that could come in handy.

Wearing it here with my really old, but favourite, Closet Core patterns Sasha trousers. I’ve been saying for ages I need to replace these, and the good news is that I have finally taken steps to make this happen. Stay tuned!