Bored…

25/11/2010 12:37 am \ 13 Comments \

Yah, so I must be bored with the same old same old blogger poses… though I’m probably not going to be attempting this one too frequently…  could be the collective subconscious of all those teenage souls inhabiting the general environs hereabouts affecting me…   I swear I have not been imbibing!!  
I really needed a helping hand to re-arrange those shorts once I’m up there; but my sole housemate Sienna just sat helpfully on the sidelines looking on in quietly loyal doggie support.  Probably wondering, what on earth is she up to now??  and can’t we just go for a walk along the beach??
Yes, my sweet.  We will go for a looooong walkies now, and brekkie when we get back…
Speaking of which; Mum brought me some new apples to try out, a new variety called Golden Lady, a cross between Golden Delicious and Pink Lady, I presume; and they are YUM!  I’ve been having them with plain yoghurt for breakfast, and am hoping they turn up in the markets at home … soon!  Thankyou so much Mum!

Details:
Shorts; Burda 7723 with minor modifications, refashioned from an old skirt here
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; bought secondhand and dyed yellow by me here, Country Road
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Design

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A difficult dress

24/11/2010 7:23 am \ 9 Comments \

Oh, so much for horrific leavers rowdy stories… so far I’ve only come across small bunches of delightfully friendly, polite and sweet teenagers who immediately want to pat Sienna and make friends with her.  Having a dog takes down a lot of barriers…  and seeing happy teenagers having fun on the beach has just made me miss my own kiddywinks and I really wish they were here with me…  sigh…
My dress; first time here although it does not qualify as new.  I’ve really struggled with this dress.  This is its third incarnation, nearly two years in the making and I’m still not desperately in love with it… I bought this embroidered silk from Tessuti’s in Melbourne a few years ago, with the intention of making a full-skirted number inspired by a Burberry dress.  Full-skirted, fitted bodice, boatneck and with elbow length fitted sleeves.  I finished my version and it was a perfectly OK dress.  But it didn’t actually look very “me”.  I felt like I was dressing up in someone else’s clothes…
So I decided the full-skirt was the problem; I unpicked this and recut a more fitted skirt.  This was a little better, but by this time the allover embroidery and sameness of the fabric was just screaming at me “TOO MUCH” and I had to put it aside for a few months.  Or a year.  You remember how the von Trapp children in the Sound of Music were all dressed in the curtain fabric so all their outfits were over-the-top matchy matchy??  The dress was like that.  Eventually I removed the bodice and sleeves, recut the skirt again and bought some goldy green silk for a plain bodice.  Sleeveless.
Better.
But still not…. quite…
I look at all my sewing and judge it by this criteria; would I buy this if I saw it in a shop?  And this dress; well I’m not so sure.
The fabric is so gorgeous; soft gold, apricot and muted mossy sagey green, nothing not to love there.  I’m forcing myself to wear it, hoping I will love it more with use.  But I’m not ready to reveal it without a cardigan yet.  I still look at it and can see all the angst in its inception…

Details:
Dress; partly my own design with components of Burda 8071, green silk, embroidered gold silk
Cardigan; Nine, from Labels boutique
Hat; Country Road
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Design

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The lull before the storm

23/11/2010 1:54 am \ 10 Comments \

My title is not referring to the weather, but the fact that I am down here in Dunsborough again, “minding” the beach-house during leavers week.  Yah, the town is expecting thousands of teenagers to rock up any minute now and start being extremely loud, boisterous and drunken.  In fact I have reliable intelligence that some had already started the partay-ing last weekend…  But this morning Sienna and I were up and on the beach bright and early (thanks, Mum for the wake-up phone call…) and all was quiet and beautiful and peaceful… hardly a soul in sight;  the only sound being the swoosh of the tide and the squawking of sea-birds.  So I’m wondering where all the teenagers are, so far.  Too early, maybe?  Sensibly sleeping?  Anyhoo, Mum will be coming to keep me company for today, we may catch a little morning tea and another stroll along the sand… discussing weighty worldly issues such as our sewing and wardrobe plans.

Details:
Shorts; Burda 7723 slightly modified here, greige corduroy
Camisole; Cotton On, tossed out by my daughter and rescued by me
Cardigan; Metalicus
Scarf; silk chiffon, made by me
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Design
Sunnies; RayBan

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Eating humble pie…

22/11/2010 4:17 am \ 10 Comments \

Yah, OK, so I went to the vintage fair.  And it was pretty cool.
What can I say, the last post I wrote I was still feeling grumpy and unsociable, heat waves have that effect on me.  Sunday brought a breeze and a divinely cool change; refreshing and invigorating to mind, body and spirit, so we felt inclined to get off our butts and DO SOMETHING!!  yeah!  As our Canadian friends here say, get yerselves oot and aboot!
So I enjoyed it. 
One thing I found interesting on browsing and checking out the inside of garments is how a lot of “real” vintage evening wear  from the late 40’s and early 50’s was made of nylon, rayon, polyester etc, as at the time these were often considered superior to natural fibres.  An interestingly different view to the one we hold now… And how horrible the zips often are in these garments, big and clunky and obvious.  Ahhh, the blessings of the modern invisible zip.  We’ve come a long way in some areas, that’s for sure.
I got a Glomesh bag!  I do have one already that my parents gave me for a birthday present, sometime in my teen years when you could actually buy them new, hmmm, showing my age there!  My original one is beige, and in perfect condition, of course!  The one I picked up yesterday is a teensy bit tarnished, but in pretty good nick overall, and anyhow, I really wanted a gold one.  I also bought a set of cake forks, which we needed, for only a dollar more than an almost identical set I bought a few months ago in a real op shop; and this great Charles and Di Wedding commemorative mug.  My husband didn’t “get” this last purchase, cries of omg, Carolyn, how tacky can you get?!!, but hey, I think enough time has passed that this sort of memorabilia is no longer tacky tacky but an interesting relic and symbolic to all of us of… something indefinably 80’s…  anyway I can see the irony.  And I’m looking forward to people’s reaction when I serve them a cuppa in this…

Details:
Skirt; skirt “d”, from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, silver/grey crepe
Top; Aura
Belt; made by me, see here
Sandals; Anna, from MarieClaire shoes
Bag; Glomesh

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Thoughts on the “vintage” trend

20/11/2010 4:35 am \ 11 Comments \

A friend passed on to me tickets to a Vintage Market on this weekend, promising “Vintage and Retro Men’s and Women’s Clothing and Accessories”, and sorry, but I can’t help but feel a bit yawn-y about the whole thing.  And hate to sound cynical, but the current fad for “vintage” is just becoming a tad too commercial for my liking.  I’ve even heard stories of ladies who have been op-shopping like mad for this event, scooping up masses of clothing and up-marking it to put in their own “vintage” stalls in the market… well count me out.  
I’ve got nothing against op-shopping, per se.  Well, I have done it myself once in a while…  Op-shopping (if done when you can afford not to, I mean) is of course partly a political statement of one’s non-dependence on commercial and new products, and how better to make that first-impression “I rebel against the system” message than in your clothing?  As well as satisfying one’s artistic desire to dress uniquely, not to mention saving a few dollars at the same time; so it’s not surprising this is a long-term favourite occupation of real bohemian souls… 
But is one being truly thrifty or merely conformist when following the “vintage” trend?  Or worse, opportunist, as in the case of the Market sharks vendors.
So I think I’ll just be occupying myself with sewing and gardening this weekend.  Plus I’ve already got my own “vintage” (hahaha) treasures; this dress is very Jackie O, don’t you think?  I picked it up when she had her White House garage sale… of course I’m joking, I made this myself about five years ago, and no pseudo-retro or “vintage” pattern was used either, just an ordinary one.  Sorry to disappoint.  I’m merely wearing it to stay cool.
Funny thing when I was putting this on this morning; I put it over my head just as usual then struggled a little to pull it down, and I couldn’t understand why it felt tighter than usual.  Then went to pull up the zip.  The zip was already up.  Lol!

Details:
Dress; Burda 8511 slightly modified to fit, printed synthetic stuff (thus the “indestructible” dress)
Sandals; Franco Burrone, from MarieClaire shoes

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Russet socks

19/11/2010 8:54 am \ 7 Comments \

So, new sockies.
How warm and cosy they look here in this photo. This wool colour is called Russet, an evocative name, prompting an immediate image association thing in my head involving apples and open fires and toast and autumn leaves and blankets and mulled wine…  I’m sure as autumn and winter roll around I will be grateful for the suggestive connotations of this wonderful word, but today being 37C (99F) my feet complained petulantly about being stuffed into warm woolly socks for their photo shoot and threatened a walk-out strike.  They could only be co-erced into a short modelling session on promise of a good long soak in the pool afterwards.
Ha.  So I’m not feeling hugely eloquent today.  Brain a bit sapped and zapped by this heat.  It’s too early for this sort of heat.  I’m not ready for summer.  Not yet.  I need a bit more spring.  We need more spring.  More fresh breezes and more rain, please.  Especially lots of rain.  Not this stupefying heat and fierce hot winds.  Perfect bushfire weather, of course.
I hung out a few loads of washing this morning, early, and an hour later all was bone dry and crackly warm.  So I brought in the washing again at about 9am.  Folded all and put it away.  The latter normally an afternoon activity.

Details:
Socks; Adaption of the Ladies’ Sockettes from Patons Knitting Book C11, Morris 4ply Merino in Russet (col 411) and Beluga (col 430)

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In which Sienna has a bad hair day…

18/11/2010 9:01 am \ 14 Comments \

We are having a mini heat-wave.  35C yesterday, 36C today and forecast 37C tomorrow…  (roughly 95F, 97F and 99F respectively)  I’m nervous about summer.  Yup, not even summer yet, and already we’re cookin’.  Not to mention the dog… all that fur… poor poppet.  So a few days ago, when the hot hot hot days starting appearing up ahead on the weather report I rang our neighbourhood dog groomer.
Oh, yes Sienna, one of my favourites!” she chirped.  “now let me see, when can I fit Sienna in… hmmm (sounds of multiple pages flicking… flicking…flicking) the earliest I have is the thirteenth of January.”
Stunned pause. 
“Oh.” Gulp.  “Oh, yes, please book us in”
Since when has it been harder to have one’s dog clipped than one’s own hair, for heaven’s sake?  Though I’m obviously a bit dense, because I now recall it was the same story last year and still I haven’t learnt about the importance of getting in way early…  I’m telling you, looking for extra summertime income? get some clippers and put yourself out there grooming dogs.  Around here at least, HUGE demand…  
But in the meantime, Sienna is already panting and falling back on our morning constitutionals so immediate action is required.  I’ve never clipped a dog before but am always up for a challenge and my overly-confident, can-do brain assured me seriously, how hard could this be?  Armed myself with a medium sized pair of scissors (a mistake… now have blisters) and set to work.  Like, hours later, simply smothered in dog fur (a daily outfit pic from yesterday would have been hilariously un-glamourous) and with a whole cushion sized bag of new blonde clippings in the bin, and below is pictured the newly coiffured Sienna.  (here is the before-Sienna) You know the old saying from schooldays when someone had a haircut “Lost a fight with the lawnmower?” well in all honesty the poor pet looks a bit this way.  Today my daughter’s boyfriend stopped in his tracks, staring incredulously before inquiring “what happened to the dog?”
But hey, I did the best I could do.  She was a very very good dog, lying so patiently while her inept mistress snipped snipped snipped away laboriously…  There are no nicks.  And there’s no doubt she is a heaps livelier and happier dog with a renewed spring in her step.

Details:
Top; my own design, refashioned old pair of 3/4 linen pants seen first here
Skirt; Vogue 7303, lime printed cotton
Sandals; Anna, from MarieClaire shoes
Hat; Country Road
Sunnies; RayBan

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Inspirational Rowan

17/11/2010 6:08 am \ 11 Comments \
Now this is kinda exciting.  A friend was “having a bit of a cleanout” (don’t you just love it when friends get ruthless with their cupboards) and found these Rowan knitting magazines that she actually didn’t want any more (gasp, I knoooow, right?) and has super sweetly tossed them my way.  From a purely artistic perspective, the outfit styling and photography in these publications is just dreamy and utterly gorgeous.  So inspiring…
But I have a guilty confession.  The thought of knitting cardigans and jumpers… well to be honest it’s just not rocking my boat.  Just at present.  I’m sort of admiring some of these knits, but my knitting mojo is stuck on socks right now.  I know some people think I’m mad.  Maybe I am.  Knitting socks is slightly mad, I do see that…
But if I want a coat/jacket/cardigan I would find some fabric and sew something …  Is this too awful?  Perhaps I should resign my Ravelry membership in shame?  
Although the knits are not getting me all covet-y here, the dresses… ! (sigh) technically not on show here, and no credits, dammit, but I am seriously excited about these small-scale feminine prints, these colours and these romantic maidenly ensembles here.  Some copying is going to happen, I’m telling you now.
The busy floral coat at top, worn over a rough linen skirt; the floaty dress, top right; the long petticoat just above; the adorable triple row of frills at the hem of the snowy white skirt, below left…  Look at the last; the small-scale red gingham dress, worn over the floral skirt… really I think this last one is my favourite.
And I have an happy albeit embarrassing admission.  Yesterday I was moping about my desire for Vogue 1152 made up in a floaty floral, and my sad lack of said floaty floral, then the memory came a-stirring and I raced over to my fabric stash, and yes!! (air fist punch) during the Melbourne fabric buying frenzy I had actually bought some perfectly lovely floaty floral stuff from the Alannah Hill outlet.  In the post-holiday return to the busy-ness of normal life I had zoned this out, as you do.  Others can relate, I’m sure… guilty conscience?  spending spree remorse?  Me, I’m blaming impending old-age.  Happens to the best of us, so I’m told.
So moping is officially now over, and floaty floral fabulousness will be coming right up!
Top 5 photos above from Rowan knitting and crochet magazines
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