Handmade by Carolyn

Aquarama

02/12/2011 1:23 am \ 29 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a skirt for my daughter…

I used another piece from the bundle of fabric given to me by my friend C, from her late mother’s stash. Going by certain clues (only 90cm in width, a stapled-on tag from a long-gone local store with imperial measurements penciled on it) this piece must be at least 35 years old, and probably the loveliest piece of the lot; densely woven, light/medium weight and slightly crisp with a matte crepe-y texture. It cut like butter and sewed together beautifully. I don’t know if it was expensive, but it feels like it could have been quite expensive… and I even started to wonder if it could be silk so I did a burn test on a scrap. Well, it shriveled up faster than you can say “omg, where has my skirt gone?!”

SO, a fairly important modesty as well as a safety tip there for Cassie….

The print, of random wave-y rows of organic turquoise blobs on a snowy white ground is pretty cool… don’t you think? Lava lamp-ish, sorta. Optimistic and space-age-y both, just like the 60’s and 70’s were. So a bubbly kinda print for a bubbly kinda skirt, y’know. I think it works well, stylistically. And she likes it!

I used Burda 7370, the 2-layered skirt in view B but without the extra insert bits. I knew she liked this shape, since it is a pattern we bought together for her recently and she has made one up for herself already in a denim-blue burnt-out jersey. Having Cassie’s perfectly custom-fitted version for comparison made this second version an easier job for me…. Incidentally, I think it is interesting that Cassie has exactly the same fitting issues as me; taking in several centimetres off the waist is a given in any skirt pattern.

The skirt lining is of pale blue shot cotton in Ice, hemmed by folding in twice and machine stitching. All the raw edges inside the skirt are overlocked to finish, and the hems on both layers finished with the rolled hem on my overlocker.

Details:

Skirt; Burda 7370 view B, turquoise and white print synthetic crepe, at least 35 years old

Camisole; Country Road

In twirl mode…

Pattern Description:

Flared skirt, either two or three layers, two yoke variations and side zip

Pattern Sizing:

European 32 (US 6) to European 42 (US 16). I made the size 8.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Yes, except that I left off the extra inserts.

Were the instructions easy to follow?

very easy

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

Love the cute flippiness of this skirt, a perfect dancing skirt for a girl who loves to dance like my daughter. It looks adorable when on, swishes about gloriously and accentuates her waist beautifully.

I’m not thrilled that it requires such a lot of fabric, but that is just stinginess talking… The first time she made up this pattern and we were buying the (not particularly cheap) fabric that she had chosen, I really had to bite my tongue at how much it was costing! However she did a superb job of making it up. And she’s worn them a lot. This version pictured here is the second skirt using this same pattern.

Fabric Used:

Light/medium-weight synthetic crepe

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

The pattern is gorgeous just the way it is. The only alteration to the instructions I would suggest is my usual one; when inserting an invisible zip I get a much better and smoother result by sewing in the zip BEFORE sewing up the rest of the seam allowance below the zip. This requires some careful measurement to get the lining and skirt seams lined up and sewn up perfectly, but is worth it for the superior finish.

I finished the lower hem using the rolled hem stitch on my overlocker.

Other than that, the only adjustments I made were just custom-fitting issues, taking in a few centimeters off the waist.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

Probably will sew this again for my daughter.

If you love to dance and twirl about then do I highly recommend this one!! My daughter cannot resist sashaying about, just by putting this skirt on!

Conclusion:

Uses a lot of fabric, but is so cute and feminine and so darn flippy that it is well worth going there. My daughter went out dancing with her friends, was the only one in her crowd not wearing a miniature mini dress, and the only one who didn’t have to worry about constantly pulling down said miniature mini dress whilst on the dance floor. She enjoyed that freedom, and said that she got lots of compliments… win! Apparently she got offered lots of free drinks too… hmmm

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7370, Cassie, pattern review, skirt

Situation (ab)normal…

01/12/2011 7:20 am \ 35 Comments \ Carolyn

I wasn’t sure whether to address this here, but I did get some comments about my disappearance from blogland (and thank you for noticing, and commenting! It was nice to be missed!)

So, here is the story in case it happens to anyone else…

If you didn’t notice, then for one awful day my blog was temporarily removed from online, and my account temporarily disabled. Although the word “temporary” was scarily not used… I was completely horrified when it happened. Losing my blog, and my profile; I felt like I had lost a part of myself. It was a very glum day!

I was given an option to send a message to google, which I did. Then sat tight and waited. Then my husband, who is a bit of a computer whiz, turned up and started working at it, which I implored him not to do (thinking he might only make things worse) We applied to change my password, which involves getting a link sent to your nominated email address, and here it was important to have that back-up email address there since I no longer had access to my google one, remember, my account had been disabled! A password reminder link was sent to my backup email, which could only be activated by a code sent to my mobile phone number, also entered into my original google profile (thank goodness I had filled all these options out) We managed to change my password, and at that moment the problem was fixed; I had access to my profile again and my blog was restored. Such a relief!

Even so, Craig and I are unsure whether google had received my message and acted on it really fast, at that very moment; or whether it was our changing the password that did the trick. Apparently, there was “unusual activity” on my account, possibly a hacker, which caused the automated shutdown, designed to protect my blog.

And, if that is the case I have a personal message for that hacker… if you are reading this, then CURL UP AND WITHER, SCUM! You need a life, mate, or at least a hobby, so go out and get your own and don’t try to poach on mine!!! (hairy eyeball, pointing the bone)

During my downtime I did some serious self-searching. Would I be happy without my blog? Should I just let it go? Should I start again? I have backed up my posts as web archives along the way, so I have all my old posts for my own reading should I ever lose it online for good. I started doing that about a year ago, and am glad I did so since this little scare… My blog has become more than just documentation of my self-made wardrobe, my sewing, knitting and handcrafting. It is an artistic journey too. It has sometimes taken on the mantle of a pseudo diary, particularly during those self-stitched months. Those months are interesting to me now, and will be more interesting to me to look back on in the future too, since those months of my life stand out from the months around them, with a clear jog-the-memory of what I was doing and thinking and my moods and so on. I want to keep that…

But, more than that, my blog has become something else that I hadn’t fully appreciated when I started it… I have become part of a real community of like-minded people! Would I ever want to give up those friendships? Well, naturally I would not! I’ve met such a lot of people by this medium that I could never have met nor got to know otherwise. I know most of us haven’t met up for real, but that doesn’t mean I feel any less of a kinship with many of you. Just like when I met Yoshimi and Novita and Darci, we had an immediate understanding and friendship, even though we were actually meeting for the first time. And I feel it would be the same with many many others with whom I exchange words of encouragement via our blogs and websites… sounds strange; but in an increasingly virtual world and a global community blessed with instant easy communication, we are making friends. A new modern form of friendship, but friends just the same. It would be awful to lose all that!

So, in short, I am very glad to be back, and I also take this opportunity to thank all of you who do read my blog, who comment, and who take an interest.

THANK YOU!

(A bouquet of flowers picked from my parent’s garden. It doesn’t get any more beautiful than this, imo)

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: flower arrangement, random life stuff

Dreaming, of chocolate

29/11/2011 9:08 am \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

Y’know how you see some patterns, and you’re like, oh so easy!! but you go ahead and buy or trace-out or copy-as-exactly-as-possible anyway?
That’s how I felt with this Tshirt pattern; top 106 from Burdastyle magazine 06/2011. I just liked the shape of it, exactly as it appeared in the magazine; the subtle kimono sleeve, the boxy looseness of it. So I hauled out the ol’ tracing stuff and spread out the sheets and traced out this very very basic Tshirt/dress (you can make it a bit longer, and surprise! it is a dress! in true Burda magazine style, they elongate top patterns and give it a different number, making out it is a whole new pattern) even though all the while wondering that there was really nothing to it and maybe I was wasting my time and my tracing plastic. And my final thought; there really is nothing to it! Too easy!
However; made up, I am still enamoured of the cute shape and the very easy-to-wear and flattering kimono-sleeve. I will make this top up again, and properly next time. Because I admit it, this particular example is far from… well, gorgeous. To be honest, I think it is soon to become my bed-time attire, … woooh, such a glamour puss, no?!
But, here is my reasoning … remember this sundress? (below right) It has been a hot weather staple for quite a few years and I have finally bid it adieu. The zip pull was finally paintless, the straps had come adrift and been reattached with zig-zagging (discreet, but still unacceptably visible upon close inspection) a couple of times each, and the fabric is … old. I eventually realised it was not doing me any favours at all… But I still loooovee this colour, and there was plenty of fabric in the dress.
The thing with using old fabric for making new clothes is that; well obviously you are using old, and worn, and many times washed fabric, and usually that all shows and not to advantage either! Old fabric gets thin, stretched and mis-shapen in some parts of a garment and not others, and so has limited application for smart new items. But I still like to use old textiles as much as possible, saving the planet and so on and so on. Assuages the guilt of my eco-conscience, if you like.
The neckline of this Tshirt here is slightly higher and not-as-sharply-V as the pattern, and instead of facings for which surprisingly there was not enough fabric, I made bias strips to finish the neckline and sleeve edges. Since the original dress was cut on the bias, so the Tshirt is too. And it is a little shorter than the pattern stipulates, again due to fabric shortage. And even though this is just going to be a jammie top, the shoulder seams are flat-felled and the side seams are French seams. Well, one may as well practise where one can, right?
Y’like?

Details:
Top; Burdastyle magazine 06/2011, 106 modified slightly, chocolate brown bobbled and embroidered cotton, a refashion of a sundress also originally made by me
Trousers; (hmmm, these are getting pretty old too…) self-drafted, based on a pair of old jeans, of white linen, details here

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burdastyle magazine 06-2011-106, daily outfit, top, Wardrobe Refashion

Funny…

27/11/2011 7:44 am \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

In the midst of catastrophe; a funny story, this snippet from Saturday’s West Australian. Please enjoy. It certainly gave me a laugh. That poor moggy!

In regards to the bushfire; the firefighters saved about 370 homes in the path of the fire. I was utterly amazed to see on the news the helicopter view of some of these houses; looking like perfect little oases stuck in the midst of acres and acres of grey-white ash with leafless black tree-trunks poking out of the ground all round; absolutely incredible!! Such a fantastic effort…

In the past nearly-a-week, I’ve been doing my yearly duty of staying at our beach house, guarding it against the expected hoards of drunken marauding teenage school-leavers. Well, that is how the media like to portray leavers, anyway… I can only guess whether the extras diverted from the bushfire areas are here, since as usual it is pretty quiet and I’ve only seen small groups of teenagers sitting about together on the beach, enjoying themselves in a cheerful yet still civilised way. Honestly, I don’t know what all the hysteria about leavers is. Most of them seem pretty nice kids to me. Sienna is an absolute magnet on the beach for pats.
On the other hand I am getting rather lonely now. Sienna is sorta good company, but…
I’m reeeeally looking forward to when the family turns up tomorrow for our “family” part of the holiday.

Details:
Dress, modified Burda 8511, with wave-y pocket welts which (oops!) you can’t even see here… linen with raw silk pocket welts, details here
Cardigan and hat; Country Road

I’m sorry I’ve been so bad at replying to comments lately. The internet is so cut-in-cut-out at the mo, I’ve thought I was going to grow old and die!! I keep getting kicked off the internet which is soooo frustrating. So if my commenting has seemed a little distracted in the last week, then now you know why…

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

The day of the bushfires

25/11/2011 9:29 pm \ 21 Comments \ Carolyn

(Wrote all this yesterday, but our internet here is being veeery dodgy at the mo)

Thank you Robyn, for your thoughtful well-wishes; our family and house are safe. I was a little bit concerned about my parents who are both active in the volunteer rural firefighting community, since I couldn’t contact them by phone for over a day. I found out tonight they are both fine.
The news about the bushfires has been terrible though. Overnight, 39 houses in Margaret River and Prevelly have been lost and thousands of acres burnt to the ground. In small towns like these, that is pretty devastating. The weather conditions over the past two days were high winds and extremely high temperatures, adding up to ideal bushfire conditions. This weekend is schoolies weekend, and 350 schoolkids bound for Margaret River and Prevelly have been diverted to Dunsborough, our town; and where we have been for the past few days. There are other people who temporarily evacuated to Dunsborough, who will have found out today whether or not their properties have been lost.
I took this photo while walking on the beach yesterday and obviously at this moment didn’t know what was happening. The good news is that cooler temperatures and a little bit of rain today have helped the firefighters enormously.
And I think everyone is just grateful that there has been no loss of life…

Details:
Top; my own design based on top “a” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa, made of scraps of “Smoky” shot cotton, details here
Shorts; Burda 7723, charcoal gabardine, a wardrobe refashion of an old skirt of Cassie’s, details here

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

Hot (pink) pants

23/11/2011 11:12 am \ 37 Comments \ Carolyn

G’day, peops!

Remember when I mentioned a piece of hot pink linen that had befriended me in the fabric store and then beseeched me to give it a new home and some purpose in its life? (ahem) Well I’ve done the right thing by this piece of lolly-bright fabric fabulousness and transformed it into something that I am already excited about wearing a tonne of times this summer! A bomb of times! A colour bomb! A Barbie bomb! Wait, I doubt if Barbie is considered very cool, or even PC anymore…? so mebbe scratch that one…

I used Burda 7723, again; my go-to shorts pattern now. Such a nicely tailored shorts pattern; with a slight flare enough to make them “cute”, a wide high waistband that sits securely and firmly at one’s true waist, and good sized pockets. The last feature making it a definite win all by itself… I also think this shape just really suits my style and my figure too, I think. In the past I’ve altered this pattern slightly each time I’ve made it up; to make them more flared, flat-fronted and longer respectively, but this time I made it up just as is. Oh, except for my usual modification; the addition of a zip placket. Well, naturally why wouldn’t you put in a zip placket? uses hardly any fabric and you see them in even the cheapest and most badly made RTW shorts so it is completely beyond me why patterns continue to leave this minor, but telling little detail out. I once did a sort of tutorial on how to add a zip placket to any fly-front pattern, here.

Now just to diverge for a sec into photography territory again, I know lots of other fashionable seamsters aren’t interested in the slightest in photography; but I am. So …

I first thought of photographing this ensemble against a bright white wall, in the strong midday sunlight; thinking that the intense shades of cobalt blue and hot pink would stand up well to the lighting challenge. But I was still a bit amazed at the incredibly deep shadows created… also I realised that you couldn’t see the shorts properly with the tie thing-y in the front hanging over the front of the shorts. So I tucked in the top, and moved over to a shady spot. But the photos I took, even though they don’t show the shorts very well, still intrigued me in an artistic sense so I decided to put one in here as well. And btw; I do not photoshop or alter my photos apart from cropping. This is how it is! (although oftentimes I wish my face could always be in shadow like this…)

When you look at pictures of clothes, do you prefer realism; as in showing the dressmaking details as accurately as possible; or do you like to see a bit of artistry in the photography as well? Me, I know I like a bit of both… but I’ve said enough about that in the past so I won’t repeat myself.

What aspect of fashion photography do you appreciate the most?

Details:

Top; blue “bunches”, from Pattern Magic 3, of thin cobalt blue cotton jersey, details here

Shorts; Burda 7723, hot pink linen

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7723, daily outfit, photography, shorts

Crescent moon

22/11/2011 3:51 am \ 26 Comments \ Carolyn

Now my new little top here is a very quick and easy, yet still interesting design. And like all the designs from the Pattern Magic series; very very clever too, and another example of a “why hasn’t anyone thought of this before” sort of a garment. This one from Pattern Magic 3, by Tomoko Nakamichi.
The names of the designs are so interesting, are they not? Some of them are so full of imagery and poetry. Like this one for instance. When the garment is laid flat you can see at once the inspiration for its moniker. Crescent moon. How clever and beautiful. Just typical of Japanese design and their artistic sensibility towards shapes and images in nature; a concept I really relate to.
For this I used some more of the leftover jersey scraps from the bundle given to me by my friend C, from her late mother’s stash. I had to cut and join the darker blue fabric to get a piece large enough, but that is OK since it is the bottom layer and the seam just looks like an underarm side seam whilst you are wearing it. To finish; the raw edges were overlocked, turned under once, and topstitched down from the outside.
I love the way that when you are wearing it, from the front it just looks like you are wearing a rather ordinary cropped little Tshirt, with maybe just the stripe as its lone interesting feature. However as one turns around, it transpires one is wearing an elegant little draped cape, with a flattering, widely scooped back neckline.
And since capes are “in”, albeit for the northern autumn/winter scene right now, I’m serendipitously fashionable too. In a summery southern hemisphere sort of a way…
Rather chic, yes?

Details:
Top; from Pattern Magic 3 by Tomoko Nakamichi, two different colours of cotton jersey scraps
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen, details here
Camisole (underneath); Country Road
Thongs; Mountain Designs

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, Pattern Magic 3, Sienna, top

Ginger shot cotton shirt

20/11/2011 4:20 am \ 25 Comments \ Carolyn

Dad had a special birthday recently, and I made a shirt for him! Photographed here in his natural habitat…
I used shot cotton in Ginger, which has a bright-ish ruby-red warp and an intensely curry-yellow weft; two colours which combine to make this wonderfully intense bronze-orange colour; perfect for my Dad’s olive skin and dark brown hair. I think he looks great in this colour!
And the fabric… well, can I just diverge into a rave for a tick? Ohmigosh! but this shot cotton is such a dream to work with…truly, every seamster needs at least one shot cotton shirt in their sewing career, just for the sheer pleasure of cutting, pinning together and sewing this stuff! I’ve made a couple of shirts of this fabric for Craig, here and here, and myself things from the leftovers, and I cannot get over how absolutely fab is this fabric. Seriously, sewing induced bliss or what, wow… (calms oneself)
Now, back to business…
There were some slightly nerve-racking fitting issues; since this was to be a surprise birthday prezzie I couldn’t actually measure up the birthday boy himself without giving it away, so Mum had given me some measurements over the phone. But I was still pretty nervous when it came time to take the scissors to this luscious fabric… and then Mum and Dad came up for a very fortuitously timed stay, and one time they were out I slyly tip-toed into the bedroom and feeling like a rather sneaky and devious sewing-sleuth, measured up all the dimensions of one of Dad’s shirts and jotted them down (maniacal laugh as I zoom out and back to the sewing room, tape measure a-flying…). And luckily the fit is spot-on and Dad reckons it’s pretty comfy and stylish!
I used Burda 7767 again, (might have to start compiling yet another Rogue’s gallery for this pattern soon…) with a few adjustments; namely, added two breast pockets with curved lower edges and curve-edged pocket flaps, shaped the lower hemline in a shirtwaist curve, shortened the sleeves, and added a nice V-detail at the centre of the sleeve hems with a decorative button at the apex of the V, for which I wrote a tutorial here.

I flat-felled the armhole seam allowances, but I don’t know if I would do this again. Y’know, how sometimes you are so busy making the insides look perfect you start to forget that it is the appearance on the outside that is actually of paramount importance, yeah? My flat-felled seams do look pretty good (if I say so myself) but it was a fiddly process and topstitching from the inside impacted on the neatness on the outside. I wasn’t as happy as if I had just overlocked the armhole seam allowance, pinned them down and topstitched them down from the outside, like I usually do…
I debated about using either of the ruby-red or the curry-yellow colours for topstitching; I usually like some sort of contrasting colour, or at least something that stands out somehow, but I ended up going with a burnt orange that sorta matches the overall hue of the fabric. And with little matte chocolate brown buttons. And btw, those buttonholes on the collar are intentionally left uncut, since they are purely decorative and you are not supposed to do up those buttons on a casual shirt; I think they look neater that way.
Isn’t he a handsome bloke?

Details:
Shirt; Burda7767 with modifications, shot cotton