fashion Archives - Page 4 of 8 - Handmade by Carolyn

purple-y Jade mini skirt, 6 different ways

26/05/2017 10:08 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

During another of my sometimes brutal wardrobe clean outs, I parted ways with this little purple skirt… I have to admit it was a little gut-wrenching to get rid of this one because it had only been in existence for one sad little winter, albeit a glorious one, since I wore it at least once every week! Aah! little purple mini skirt, the light that burns twice as bright burns but half as long… and your light has burned so very very bright… *

I made it in a purple wool/silk knit from KnitWit, using the Paprika patterns Jade skirt… and it was such a devastatingly useful, mix-and-match-tastic item of clothing! actually as all sludgy coloured little mini skirts are. Sadly, the knit, while a gorgeous colour, of a lovely weighty thickness and with a magnificent “quality” feel and texture to it, didn’t have a huge amount of recovery… and I’d used a VERY stretchy black poly for lining it, some leftovers from my tights! if I recall correctly! Definitely not sturdy enough to give the purple knit the backbone it needed, so the whole thing got floppy quite quickly. Toward the end of winter I actually worried a bit that it would at some point slide slowly and gracefully south down my smooth, black-tights clad legs to my ankles and become a rather gorgeous purple hobble…. haha wouldn’t that be glamorous/fabulous/amusing… NOT.

Anyway, because it’s been that good I thought I’d give it a little farewell party… the fact that I only wore it for one winter and still found six outfits where it is paired with almost totally different items of clothing in each one is testament to its versatility! Also, since these were all taken during my Year of Handmade; you know, that year in which I wore ONLY clothing and shoes made by myself, ahem…I made every single blinking thing I am wearing in each of these photos, which is why the black boots appear in so many outfits, sorry…

Links to all construction posts provided 🙂

Below: at left; with its matching top, charcoal gloves, black tights, black boots
At right; with ivory top, blue cardigan, navy cardigan, purple scarf, charcoal gloves, navy tights, black boots

Below, at left: with charcoal twist top, raspberry tights, black boots;
At right; with pink jumper, green scarf, lime green hand warmers, black tights, black boots

Below at left: with ivory top, grey coat, raspberry scarf, black tights, black boots
at right: with coffee Tshirt, striped jumper, black tights, black oxford shoes

Ok, so it’s awff to the sewing room… because clearly I need a new one …

* Blade Runner, after Lao Tzu

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: 6 different ways, Jade, Paprika Patterns, Sienna, skirt

burnt brown jeans; 6 different ways

24/03/2017 4:24 pm \ 42 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve been planning my upcoming autumnal/winter wardrobe, doing a seasonal clean out, or in today-speak; konmari-ing the heck outta it… and decided to bid adieu to these jeans. The last few times I’ve tried to wear them I’ve just felt vaguely frumpy in them and peeled them off straight away. I’m just not feeling this style any more, feel like it’s becoming a little bit dated. Is it just me, or are skinny jeans appearing decidedly passé right now? Anyway; OUT THEY GO!!! Well… maybe just to the time-out box for a while. I have this box you see, that I chuck doubtful clothes into, and in a few months or a year or so I’ll check them out to see if it’s easier to make a decision then. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I even have that box since it’s a kind of hoarder-ish thing to have and really nine times out of ten the items within get the flick! but for the one item that gets a reprieve I’ve always been glad I kept it after all. Sometimes, you and your clothing just need a bit of a break from each other. A trial separation. A conscious uncoupling, with the door open to re-coupling. Yeah. *madly justifying hoarding tendencies to oneself*

Anyway, here are six of my favourite outfits with these hardworking jeans…

I first made them about two years ago, one of my many Burda 7863’s and they have been absolutely fantastic in their day, I have to admit it. Very stretchy, therefore super comfortable, and a terrific colour that seems to go with everything I’ve got. Having said that; a heckuvva lot of the time, I wore them either with this big loose ivory shirt as in the first picture… OR like at right, with one of my Pattern Magic twist tops. Here, with the forest green one. In fact, it would be pretty accurate to say these two outfits were both very reliable fallback “uniforms” for me for quite a long time…

At left; another frequently-worn ensemble, worn with my white drape drape t shirt, and my leather jacket. At right; I do still like them rolled up to three quarter length like this. Hmmm, actually I really like this outfit too, maybe I should keep them after all…. (worn with self-drafted Tshirt, cardigan, self-made shoes)

At left; they’ve frequently done service in casual, dog-washing, beach walking, gardening, house packing-and-moving mode too… worn with my over-dyed blouse, black thongs… At right; another winter-y ensemble… worn with my Pattern Magic twist tops, my shearling jacket, hand knitted gloves and my self-made desert boots.

Okaaay! I’ve just done an excellent job of talking myself out of getting rid of them! 😀 So maybe I’ll see how they go this autumn/winter before giving them the big heave-ho…

Anyway, on a slightly related note: I’ve read a few good strategies about helping to clean out unwanted stuff from your house, the one I like the most and have adopted a few times in the past coupla years is to just walk into your closet/open a cupboard and immediately throw out five things without spending more than ten seconds thinking about each thing. If you give yourself permission to do this once in a while; and I use that phrase because I have terrible hoarding tendencies and really DO need to give myself a stern talking to, mentally giving myself permission to throw things out seems to work for me… anyway, it can be an excellent and stress-free way to de-hoard. The trick is to first say sternly to yourself “OK, I’m doing this NOW” and then to march in and NOT think too much about it. Five things, just like that. *snaps fingers* It can be surprising how quick and easily you then immediately identify those things that are just not working anymore.

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: 6 different ways, Burda 7863, jeans

the year of handmade, 12

22/02/2017 12:05 am \ 75 Comments \ Carolyn

above are just a small selection of some of my favourite outfits for this month, the entire collection for the year in total can be viewed in my Year of Handmade flickr album, here

It’s over! I’ve worn ONLY my own handmade shoes and clothing for an entire year, and not allowed a single, ready-to-wear item to adorn my body in that whole time. If that sounds a bit melodramatic, well to be honest it feels pretty darn dramatic to me right now! Whoooooo! Chucking a party in my head, right about now!!!! This challenge has been HUGE to me. I think it’s been the biggest wardrobe-ing challenge I have ever set for myself. And, I almost can’t believe it, but I managed to do it. A long term life-goal; achieved. #tick

I’m SOOO pleased, and SOOO very relieved, although, at the same time I feel a bit anti-climactically exhausted too. I can’t even imagine what shoes I am going to wear tomorrow!!

SO. I’ve already discussed the difficulties I encountered along the way previously here on my blog, but just to recap…

Basically all my challenges involved my self-made SHOES!! My clothing? well, I’ve been wearing exclusively self-made clothing for years already so that was pretty easy.

Specifically, shoes to wear in heavy rain and for “dirty” activities like bushwalking were by far the most challenging hurdles to overcome in my year, and the kind of footwear I missed the most. I made shoes for these scenarios and got through it fine; but I always felt quite nervous and insecure about them, like my efforts were a bit precious and not 100% up to the really heavy-duty stuff. Though, maybe I was the one being a bit precious, since most of them did.

I also really missed being able to wear “glamorous” shoes like stiletto heels and dainty little high-heeled sandals for formal events. Again, the shoes I had were actually fine… but you know; a girl likes to feel shiny and glamorous every now and again! and I dunno, there’s something about clickety-clacking along in ridiculously impractical shoes that fills that need PERFECTLY. I never did crack the the glamour glass-ceiling in my shoe-making…. I still think I could do it, but it would be a new shoe-making challenge, for sure.

How has this challenge changed me: well, you know they say if you do something for a year, you will have successfully adopted a new lifestyle. I think that’s true, although I am looking forward to embracing the above mentioned kinds of shoes back into my life again…. Hiking boots!! Exquisite little heels!! Time will tell if I truly revert to rtw shoes… I will continue to make shoes for myself, simply because I have so many plans still!! Also, I’ve really really enjoyed wearing my own shoes so much! I can’t even begin to describe how utterly rewarding and satisfying it is to sashay out feeling nicely put together, and to KNOW that you made every, single component of your outfit. Like, it’s ALL YOURS. Nothing can take the euphoria of that feeling away. However, I’m not going to paint a false picture that making shoes is easy; some types of shoes are but most are not, and it takes time and maybe even a few failures to come to grips, get your shoe-making groove on.

I’ll definitely keep up with the clothing side of things; I’ve been making my own clothes for many many years now and have always found it to be both easy and fun. Now after a year in my own shoes, I do feel like that mental block has been cracked too… however, I will from now on ALLOW myself to wear ready-to-wear shoes, if I want to. As an example: we have a heavy-duty camping/hiking holiday coming up later this year, and I will be taking my big tough ol’ RTW hiking boots with me. Common sense prevails? *shocked gasp*

Likewise, if I want to don a pair of silly vertiginous heels to go out to dinner or parties, I will do so. And will thoroughly enjoy it too… 😉

Just for funsies; here is a collage of my whole year of outfits in two pictures because they wouldn’t fit in one! To better see my outfits properly, they are all in my Year of Handmade Flickr album… along with the links to every component of my outfits for each day. Phew! This feels like a bit of a magnum opus!!

SaveSave

Posted in: fashion \ Tagged: random life stuff, year of handmade

totally local, totally natural, from head to toe

19/02/2017 5:04 pm \ 55 Comments \ Carolyn

A person could be forgiven for thinking that I had abandoned my totally local, 1 year 1 outfit project, since there has been no mention of it here for months!… *blush* however, it has been plodding along, slowly but surely, and is now FINISHED!!!! Hurrah! At last!

The concept: last year Nicki from this is moonlight conceived the very interesting 1 year 1 outfit project and invited me to take part with her… the idea was that you make an outfit using ONLY local materials and primary supplies grown and/or sourced in your own area. Well you know how weak at the knees I go for a dressmaking challenge! and the more difficult the better! Several of us here in Perth took part last year; Nicki, Sue, Megan and me. Sue, Megan and I met up for a hilarious photoshoot in our outfits one day last February; it was so much fun! and we all had plans for this year too.

from left: Megan, Sue, and me… the links in this post go to everyone’s individual posts about their outfits

So yes, I was all enthusiastic… however! It really is a difficult challenge, far more difficult than you might think! and though I made a good start with dyeing some yarn early, my other challenge, my Year of Handmade, has consequently swept me away with its even higher degree of difficulty … I’m not whinging, ’cause I really do like challenges honestly! however I’ve struggled with everything this year a bit and it’s taken a while for me to get my groove on. Fortunately Nicki announced a March deadline recently, which lit a fire under me. I got cracking, and got finished!!!!

Thoughts going in: I loved my first 1 year 1 outfit project from last year; although I confess I’ve barely worn it at all! Reason being that while I think my embroidered felt is ethereally beautiful, at the same time it is fairly fragile and can only stand up to light wearing on special occasions. So my major priority for this year’s outfit was casual wearability; something that I could toss on and wear on a daily basis without fear of ruining it. I also wanted it to try out some natural dyeing techniques.

What did I make: a simple knitted dress and a matching beanie, showcasing my dyeing experiments in stripes. I just wanted my hard-won colours to shine on their own merits equally without competing with each other, and individual stripes separated by the blankness of the natural undyed ivory just seemed a good way to accomplish this.

My shoes, bag and underwear were all made for l ast year, and also comply with the rules of the challenge.

Sources; I obtained all my handspun merino yarn from Bilby Yarns, which is an absolute treasure trove for West Australians interested in local wool products and supplies. My yarn is from Western Australian Merino sheep; born, grown and shorn right here in the south-west of WA. The raw fleece is transported to Bilby Yarns in Willagee, where local spinning enthusiasts can purchase it, spin it in their own homes, and sell it to people like me back through Bilby Yarns. It’s such a great scheme!! All my yarn was spun by the talented Beverley L. whose yarn I also used last year! Some of my yarn this year was leftover from last year, and I managed to buy some more of her’s this year…. I’m so pleased I was able to purchase so much of her gloriously lovely handspun! I bought mostly undyed natural white, and some natural grey. The grey is quite rare, and I was lucky to get hold of this! I used the grey to highlight each colour; I like how the grey stripe adds a bit of trompe l’oeil 3D-ness to the coloured stripes, like a shadow underneath each one.

So! I had my natural ivory and grey yarn, now for the colours! All my dyeing experiments are outlined in this post here. I didn’t end up using all the colours I produced… leaving something for the next 1year1outfit maybe?? The colours I chose from my experiments are, from the hemline going up, are:

Orange, from Coreopsis flowers;

Acid yellow; from sour grass stems and flowers,

Blue, from Japanese indigo, and I’m so grateful to Nicki for the use of her dye vat,

Pink, from avocado pits,

and that lime-y green colour at the neckline, and seen in closeup a few pictures down, was the result of over-dyeing, soaking some of my spare indigo yarn in a sour grass (oxalis) dye bath and then with just a single coreopsis flower (orange) tossed in to give it a bit more oomph when I realised the yellow was a bit weak.

The design: is my own!! I did about a million calculations first but even then there was plenty of unravelling and re-doing bits until I was satisfied with it! I wrote down my final pattern below, just in case I ever want to revisit this pattern, or if anyone is interested in knitting an entire dress for themselves! It’s ok, I wouldn’t blame anyone who didn’t but still… The only thing is that it’s only got the one size. That lower hemline with slightly forward slits? yes, it’s pretty obvious that my hemline is totally inspired by the Named patterns Inari tee dress, a pattern I have made five times now and unequivocally LOVE. I just really like the way the Inari dress slits do the job of a walking vent, but is visually more interesting and obvious than your regular, garden variety, centre-back walking vent … and I really like the terraced high-low look of that longer back and shorter front.

The dress is mostly stocking stitch, with the lower edges, the sleeve edges, and pocket opening welts highlighted with various width rows of garter stitch. Those sleeves! OK, I’ll confess these almost did me in … initially I had other ideas, resulting four false starts on the sleeves before the final design decision. Four!! It was a bit gut-wrenching, each time I would be chooffing merrily along with a sleeve, before the dawning realisation that my previously thought-to-be cool idea was actually going to look really really stupid. Gut-wrenching! SO MUCH UNRAVELLING!! But I refused to give up, I kept reminding myself that this HAD to work, I’d put so much into it already and I just could not abandon it in its hour of need. Finally I hit upon this sleeve, a very simple, and plain, , unadorned long-sleeved style , which worked out just right, I think.

Pockets; of course it has pockets!! the dress is knitted in the round, so there are no side seams, but I left openings at the front hip to knit in the pockets later. There are little extension “flaps” at the pocket openings, for a continuous look when you’ve got your hands in the pockets and may catch glimpses of the pocket insides; and the pockets are just little “bags” made by picking up stitches along this edge, knitting a simple rectangular strip and folding it in on itself. The garter stitch “welt” was knitted on before stitching the pocket piece closed.

The neckline; just wanted something really simple and streamlined, so I did one single row of chain stitch embroidery around the neckline edge.

The beanie: is a slightly loose and slouchy beanie, as I love this look and have decided this style of beanie suits me quite well, I think… hope! The arrangement of the stripes is the same as the dress, just on a smaller scale. This got unravelled and re-knitted only once before I worked out just exactly how I wanted it to look.

Le Whole Shebang, with accessories and all:

Shoes and bag; I’m wearing the same shoes and bag I made for last year’s project. At first I worried that they wouldn’t “go” but well; I reckon they go just fine. I carved my shoe bases from Manjimup pine and made the felted tops in natural white and black merino fleece and handspun, as described here. The matching bag is of the same felt.

Underwear: yep, same as last year. Well, I’m not going to make a new pair when I never wear this set at all! However, it is totally 100% local so I’m counting it as part of my totally local outfit again for this year, hehe.

So that’s it!! Am I going to take part in the “1 year 1 outfit” project again next year? well I do have ideas, but confess I’m a little exhausted, by, well… everything, at this point. Maybe, maybe not. The truth is that I actually do have enough totally local materials still, to produce something… so maybe… yes?! We’ll see!

fun fact; the small tree with bright green leaves behind and to the right of me in the picture, is called a Snottygobble. Yes, really!! #weirdAussienames

Following is my free pattern for this knitted, slightly A-line dress with inset, welted pockets, split hem, long sleeves. Includes pattern for optional beanie also. Please link back to me and credit me if you use this pattern, thank you so much 🙂

Knitted dress + beanie

Location; Leeuwin National Park, in the south-west of Western Australia… although the picture immediately below is actually taken in our own garden, since I forgot to take my bag with me when I went to the park, doh!!

Now, you may be wondering… Carolyn, isn’t it the height of summer? Aren’t you absolutely roasting alive like a broiled lobster in that warm and ultra-cosy-looking woollen ensemble?? The short answer to those questions is; yes, and again, yes. Ahem. The maestro of Seasonally Inappropriate Sewing strikes yet again.

Posted in: fashion, knitting \ Tagged: dress, dyeing, hat, Knitted, knitting, one year one outfit, own design, pattern

the year of handmade, 11

24/01/2017 11:01 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

above are just a small selection of some of my favourite outfits for the last month, the entire collection for the year so far can be viewed in my Year of Handmade flickr album, here

So, a mere 30 days to go… Wooooooweeeee!

Honestly, I’m now just like, yeah, whatever no biggie. Coasting. Yep, counting down the days; One. At. A. Time… but y’know, otherwise pretty chill ;P

All my clothes are of course holding up perfectly fine, clothes are a piece of cake. Obviously I’m going to keep on wearing my self-made wardrobe, forever probably. Can’t see that changing, in the foreseeable future anyway. Shoes-wise, gawd… definitely counting down the days there… my white thongs; well I have to admit I’m quite looking forward to ~~hurling them off a 1000ft cliff with great force~~ I mean, gracefully retire them as soon as I possibly can. These have been my summertime walking shoes all last summer and this one too, they’ve done haaaaard duty and are looking pretty rough. Those snowy-white straps are not so snowy now, I can tell you! But unfortunately they are essential to my wardrobe, mostly because they are kinda rough now. In my lifestyle where I do a lot of walking/gardening/spending time in the country; I really need rough-and-tumble, grunge-y footwear. I was fairly devastated when we were at our beach house recently doing a weekend of heavy duty gardening (as seen here), and some of the cork underneath finally wore through and one wing of one thong pulled through.. aaaagh! I still need those tacky things!! So, a few blobs of liquid nails and new heels made of furniture felt later – it’s all I had! – and they’re mcgyver-ed together enough to see out the last month. They look awful but I just don’t care… I’m sure my walking friend E thinks I’m completely bonkers, persisting in wearing them whenever we get together for a walk.

Not going to complain now; it’s summer, I LOVE summer… dressing for summer is easy, and making summer sandals is very easy. I have actually been toying with the idea of making a new pair. It’s funny, the end is in sight, and I’m actually dreaming of making new shoes!! I must be crazy, boom! proof right there…

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: random life stuff, year of handmade

2016; a retrospective

31/12/2016 11:55 pm \ 34 Comments \ Carolyn

Soooo. It’s the last day of 2016. Cheers! and here’s to the year that was… *chinks champers flutes* Mwah, mwah, darlings!

Kicking off with my favourite ootd/blog pictures, just one for each month… Apart from January, well obviously I did not make January’s outfit.. I am wearing a full traditional kimono in Tokyo! but it was definitely a highlight for my year! spending the day with my dear friend Yoshimi and with Cassie and Kelly, getting dressed in kimonos and having a Japanese lunch together. So very interesting and so much fun!

Apart from this one picture, I made 100% of what I am wearing in every other picture…

December

Oh dear, oh dear; looking through all my old pictures to compile this post has been a little sad, Sienna features in so many of them. yes I miss her so much, in fact everyday. We’ve still been quite down here. But I will not get all maudlin now…

Ever onwards. So, my year in making:

I made a total of 101 things this year. I don’t think this is too bad, considering it included a fully embroidered Alabama Chanin skirt, and 19 pairs of shoes. Yep! NINETEEN pairs of shoes… ahem, some of them are just a tad better than others, and several of the earlier, shonkier pairs have already winged their way to that big eternal shoe box in the sky…

Da breakdown… 13 dresses, 1 doll with a full wardrobe, 12 skirts, 5 lingerie sets, 5 prs of bathers (1 binned without blogging because it was an abject fail), 1 knitted cardigan, 5 jackets/anoraks, 2 prs thongs (flip-flops), 10 prs oxford/lace-up shoes, 1 pr winter boots, 2 prs desert boots, 2 prs slippers, 20 tops/shirts/blouses, 2 prs sandals, 5 prs tights, 1 pr jeans, 1 pr hand warmers, 13 bags/pieces of luggage. Phew!

Selfishness vs. virtuous brownie-point earning: 63 plays 38. Maybe a little tipped towards selfishness, but since that figure includes all the shoes, and practise shoes! that I needed just so I could lead a self-shod, but functional life, well I don’t think it’s too terrible. I think I make just enough things for others that I’m not a pest about it, you know?

Costs… dunno. Haven’t been keeping track. Probably a small fortune?! 😉 No really, I did 3 refashions, and also 24 items were made from free “old” fabric being tossed out by others, or using leftovers, or scraps. Really could improve upon this though…

Most worn items: ah, this is my favourite bit… For four years now I’ve kept track of what I’m wearing, three of those years via my ootd blog.. I keep a spread sheet that I update every month, so I know just how often each and every thing has been worn. I know I know, super nerdy stuff. But, real talk; it’s been an eye-opener I tell you… someone who tells you they’ve worn something hundreds of times…? well, if you actually add it up, for real; you may not have worn it as often as you think! Truth! Anyway, my most worn clothing items for this year can be summed up in the following outfits:

The obvious basics were my black winter boots (70 wears), black tights (109 wears over 4 prs), white LS woollen winter tees (30 wears over 2 tops), other white beige/ivory Tshirts(41 wears over 5 tops); my staples are all 4 of my coloured Miette cardigans, my little mini skirts for winter, and all my loose linen, cotton and silk dresses for summer. For the most part I stick reasonably well to my autumnal palette but I’m not strict about it

Favourite creations:

I would have to say, topping of the list are my winter boots!! so unbelievably proud of these things!!! and which as mentioned have been worn a TONNE. I can still hardly believe I managed those things!

Followed closely by my Magdalena Dusk Alabama Chanin 3-piece ensemble. I’ve worn it twice this year, not very much! I think I suffer from might-ruin-it-itis. Gottta snap outta that. This thing deserves to be paraded about more, not just for the several months worth of hand-embroidery it represents, but of course for its connection to my lovely friend Lisa of Lisa’s Carolina 🙂

I’m also pretty pleased and proud of my Tosti jacket... 🙂

Goals for 2017; Mainly, I want to see out the end of my 100% handmade challenge of course! I have just 53 days to goooooo! But in making goals, well I don’t need anything, so my creating is going to be aimed at maintaining a useful wardrobe, and concentrating on higher quality, and more interesting things. I would like to occasionally make some more fun and frivolous things too. And to continue making shoes, and improving my cobbling skills.

Finally and most importantly of all, I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who reads my blog and who takes the time to leave a comment, I am grateful for each and every kind thought. Thank you so very much, and I’d like to wish all the best to everyone for a safe, happy, peaceful and creative 2017! xxx

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, random life stuff

the year of handmade, 10

28/12/2016 1:37 pm \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

above are just a small selection of some of my favourite outfits for the last month, the entire collection for the year so far can be viewed in my Year of Handmade flickr album, here

Oh, running behind my blogging schedule… oh well, it’s a self-imposed folly anyway, right?! 57 days to go!

This last month has been pretty intense, not so much in the wearing handmade clothes and shoes side of things, which to be honest has been just about the easiest thing going on my life! but just in the ordinary life side of things.

Obviously losing our dear Sienna has been a huge blow to the family.

In other “things”, we finally sold our old beach house, which is a good thing because it has been on the market for a LONG time… not such a good thing was the three day window in the week before Christmas; in which we had to go down, pack the house, move it, clean and clear out. Man. It was pretty crazy, but did come at just the right time when we needed some hard physical work to distract us from our sadness. We just worked our butts off for three days straight and flopped into bed late each night, exhausted, sleeping like babies.

All plonk in the middle of the pre-Christmas work/social scene, my “real” work, and of course my own Christmas present making period too… and I’l be the first to admit that I sometimes set making-goals for myself that can sometimes be quite ambitious. Basically, every spare minute has been very full and a bit stressful.

I’m not writing any of this to whinge or whine, but just stating the facts for the month. I think it’s good sometimes to acknowledge stuff, you know, not make like everything is easy-peasy, no sweat. You know how sometimes Christmas Day can be more of a relief than anything else? it was actually rather nice just to merely have practically nothing left to do, just chill with our lovely family.

Anyway, the last few days since Christmas has brought some peace and quiet and the feeling of more optimism. The last few months of my handmade challenge are going to be pretty breezy, I’m sure.

I’m actually even a little enthusiastic about making something for myself, soon… Can’t even believe I’m saying that! but … yeah!

Posted in: fashion \ Tagged: year of handmade

a family collaboration

26/11/2016 12:29 pm \ 46 Comments \ Carolyn

So Mum is up to stay with me, and she popped out the other day wearing this gorgeous, completely handmade ensemble… and it occurred to us that it was a tri-generational effort! Mum made her skirt, Cassie made the scarf for Mum a few years ago, and I recently made the top for her. I asked her if she minded if I took a picture to share on ye olde blog and she graciously said yes.

SO! What have we here?!

Pride of place of course goes to Mum’s skirt… a fully hand-embroidered and hand stitched Alabama Chanin skirt; with embroidery in the reverse appliqué method, and using the four panelled, mid length skirt pattern from the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design by Natalie Chanin. The cotton jersey fabrics were originally white and Mum dyed them herself in two different shades of grey and blue. Mum traced and cut the stencil design June’s Spring from p116 in the book herself, enlarging by 300% as recommended, (also available as a pre cut stencil on the Alabama Chanin website here) She printed the design in creamy-coloured textile paint, and hand-embroidered with a running stitch in double strand of cream Gutermann’s upholstery thread.

When snipping out the motifs she carefully left a very narrow border of the cream stencil round each one.

Exquisite, oui?? I adore everything about this skirt; the colours, the design, the workmanship; and it’s just slightly tempting me to get out the materials and get a-hand-stitching again. Slightly 😉

The scarf… Cassie made the this gorgeous seaside/beach-inspired silk scarf for an art project at school. She hand-dyed and -painted white silk habotai in blue and yellow blocks and blobs, tying parts of it in the shibori style, then stitched a wiggly row of blue stitching for the tide, and embellished with clusters of mini yellow glass and gold beads. The hems are hand-rolled and -stitched.

I can’t believe I’d almost forgotten about this beautiful piece of Cassie’s and feel so lucky and proud that I have two such talented and creative ladies in my life.

Mum’s top is made by me, and yes it is very plain… ! A month or so ago Mum mentioned how she specifically wanted an unobtrusive, very plain white top to wear with this skirt so I offered to run one up for her… I chose the Esme top pattern from Lotta Jansdotter’s book Everyday Style and a slubby plain white cotton from Fabulous Fabrics. I measured Mum all over, secretly storing the measurements away for future use, mwahahaha… no one gets away from the handmade in my family!! and drew the pattern so as to custom fit it or Mum’s measurements. Instead of the neckline facings I finished the neckline with a bias cut strip, because I think it’s a much nicer and neater finish for a neckline edge. Mum wants to know how to do this herself so I’ve promised to write a tutorial sometime.

Anyway. She looks so chic and beautiful here, and it was so fantastic when we realised she was spontaneously wearing a collection of handmade family pieces… Such a fabulous and sentimental thing for the three of us. Thank you so much for letting me share, Mum!