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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Half a house

16/11/2010 3:51 am \ 11 Comments \

A house in our neighbourhood is being renovated, providing me with a wonderfully devastated landscape to borrow for my backdrop today.  From this door I should be stepping into to the laundry and bathroom… both of these now residing in a huge skip out front.
Paradoxically, given this scene of dust and destruction, I am cleaning my own house today.  Plus it is a waaaaarm day, so dressed for comfort and coolness whilst wielding a vacuum cleaner and mop.  Hopefully I will have a little quality time with my sewing machine later… 
Of the garb, this dress is soooo comfortable and will be great for summer.  I like this pattern, but I’m so happy I followed my instincts and modified it to suit this fabric better.  But now I’m dreaming of making it up again, this time to the pattern, maybe in a floral floaty, or possibly in a sheer gelato chiffon to wear over a petticoat.  Hmmm, since I don’t have either of these fabrics in my stash this would mean a trip to the fabric store, which I have sworn off until I have reduced the volume in my fabric cupboard by at least a few more lengths… sigh.
The shoeless photo is purely a gratuitous shot to show off of my handknit socks, and to show how meticulously I have co-ordinated my whole blue and grey ensemble today; thankyou for noticing.  Actually, come to think of it not so gratuitous, as the boots do not participate when I am doing housework.  Like most people (I think?!) I kick off my footwear at home and swan around either barefoot or in socks.
So, do you wear shoes when at home or, like me, do your feet go nekked?

Details:
Dress; Vogue 1152 with modifications listed here, cotton chambray
Socks; handknit by me
Boots; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Navy blue blazer; 6 different ways

15/11/2010 7:00 am \ 18 Comments \

Oh this was so easy it felt like cheating; after all, it’s not so much a matter of hunting about to find what will go with a classic navy blue blazer, because of course everything goes with this thing!  So rather than just put together random seasonal outfits I went with the idea of showcasing how a navy blue blazer fits in beautifully with so many of the “looks” that are re-introduced and re-cycled into fashion season after season.
I made my blazer using Simplicity 4698, a classic silhouette that is (I think) still in the catalogue today, using deep navy blue raw silk, and lined with matching deep blue lining.  Closure is by a single large silver button.  Being blue, rather than the usual black, I think has enhanced its usefulness.  The fashion gurus advise a black blazer as an essential wardrobe basic but in my wardrobe the blue version has substituted quite happily for and therefore been just as versatile; and furthermore a more interesting option than the expected black.  Although I am still considering making a black one too … one of these days…sigh
So below left; for casual winter days, the (almost) all-black biker or rock chick look.  It works, and I reckon is chic-er than a black jacket would have been.  Below right; going nautical for summer?  Well then, navy blazer mandatory.  Will the nautical look ever go out of date….?!

Below left; Grunge, anyone?  Probably not a look rocked by the over 25’s very often, but I think the classic tailored lines of the blazer lift the whole tone of this look up a tad and make it a very viable weekend bushwalking and picnic option for a well-dressed woman.  At right; Naturally the obvious finishing touch to a business appropriate outfit (please just pretend I am wearing flesh-toned tights, which I do not have on in this photo and which would probably be mandatory in the office with an above-knee skirt, right?)

Below left; worn with romantic lacy layers one is prissily transformed into something resembling a turn of the century school schoolgirl.  That is the last century just gone, obviously…  I really like this old-fashioned look, my favourite here… well, I am just an old-fashioned girl at heart…  Below right; with a floaty full-length skirt and flat strappy sandals, channelling the bohemian/hippy look straight from the seventies.

Today I’m sporting the prim and feminine schoolmarm look just above…  But which of these looks here is your look?

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Dress with, er, lace

13/11/2010 4:52 am \ 19 Comments \

OK, so my lace addiction is so well documented by now, no need to make any lame excuses… I saw a dress kind of similar to this in a boutique window and I wanted to make something like… as well, the Dolce and Gabbana Spring 2011 is a big inspiration and I’ve bookmarked a few looks for my inspiration folder.  Didn’t want to go crazy over the top with lace however as this is more than well represented in my wardrobe already, hehe…
I had bought the fabric a few months back and thought about it for a while, as you do… when I got the urge to embark on it one Sunday lunchtime I set myself a little challenge.  I decided to see if I could get a whole dress finished by the end of the day.  And I’m happy to say that, apart from the hem, I did.  Including the Hong Kong finishing to the seams, and hand-stitching the bodice facing on the inside and to the zip tape; and hand-stitching the lace on the midriff.  I had only bought about 70-75cm of this Italian lace (rough measure, because they do not cut motifs in half, obviously) which was just perfectly the exact right length to go around the midriff with the tiniest of leftovers, and very fortunately the lace motifs matched up perfectly so that two were perfectly and evenly spaced on the front, and three were perfectly and evenly spaced on the back.  This serendipity of perfect spacing is a matter of pure luck, not clever planning; the patron saint of dressmakers was truly smiling upon me that afternoon! (and, who is the patron saint of dressmakers, btw?)

(at left, the front; at right, the back)

As usual the hem took a few weeks of further contemplation…  I finished it this morning, so I’ll be able to wear it out to a dinner with friends tonight.  Because I decided I wanted the dress longish, like the Dolce and Gabbana collection, I made a wide bias hemming strip.  Hemming in this way gives you the high quality of a deep hem without any loss of length; for this I used for this the same black cotton as the Hong Kong binding. 

The fabric; the bodice is slippery-dippery ivory silk crepe and faced in the same fabric; the skirt is a divine-to-work-with nubbly linen/cotton mix, with woven pinstripes in charcoal and ivory.  The skirt is unlined as I want it to be cool in summer, and anyhow I felt it unnecessary to line this one.  Just a dressmaker’s instinct.
The pattern; I’ve used this New Look 6699 pattern quite a lot, and made just a few adjustments to get the look and silhouette I wanted for this dress; demonstrated in the pictures below.  Firstly, the zip has been inserted in the left side seam rather than the centre back.  This allowed me to eliminate the whole centre back seam and the back pieces are cut as one piece each (see below left, these pieces are all cut on the fold).  Not having a centre back seam enables the details of the beautifully worked lace to stand out and shine, uninterrupted by a distracting cut-and-join right in the middle.

I wanted for the skirt to be slightly long and A-line rather than a pencil style, so tapered the sides out just a little (pictured above left).  The bodice in this pattern has a sun-dress style of shoulder strap at the back, which incidentally I’ve never used and did NOT want for this dress either; way too casual a look.  So the back bodice piece and shoulder strap piece were pinned together and the back bodice cut as one piece, (pictured above right). 

Details:
Dress; based on New Look 6699, ivory silk and charcoal pinstriped linen
Shoes; Sandler (I’ve had these for years)

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Blue/green stripe man’s jumper with round neck

12/11/2010 10:55 am \ 7 Comments \

Thankyou all for your comments yesterday!  It does make me feel so much better that other people feel the same way I do and I’m not the only one!
A trip down memory lane for today; this picture is of my husband holding our then brand new baby son; our eldest.  If you would like to see what this tiny baby looks like nowadays, go here.  Lol!
I knitted the jumper my husband is wearing here quite early in our marriage.  It is out of the Patons Handknits pamphlet number 893.  This is a pattern booklet for Patons Alpaca Classique 8 ply (don’t you love how in the 80’s/90’s using spellings such as “classique” automatically conferred classiness where none before existed? a certain je ne sais quoi, no? a leetle bit Francaise eez good for ze chic factor, oui?
I might have used this yarn, or if not probably the Patons 8 ply, the ordinary Merino sort.  The wool certainly feels soft enough to be Merino and not Alpaca, so I think it probably is…
I can remember that rather than my usual habit of buying the yarn through a wool store, I ordered it through a mail order service, in a joint order with my friend V from work; we did it because of a special offer she had received.  I was so thrilled when my wool actually arrived as I had never ordered anything in this way before and had only ever purchased things from a shop, over the counter, that I could carry away immediately… the latter still my preferred way of buying goods, (shrug) I guess I’m old-fashioned.
The jumper has held up quite well, imo, below is how it looks now, and at bottom, the inside view.  The rib on the sleeves has stretched out a bit, and is the worst area of wear.  He has worn it such a lot, well at least it’s been appreciated, no?  The design is fair isle, three colours overall, front and back of the jumper pretty much identical with the same design, and with two colours in every row, and I didn’t weave the colours in and out at the back but just carried them over the back of the knitting as instructed in the pattern.  This is quite acceptable in fair isle as the yarn is being carried no further than five stitches at any point, but looking at it now I kind of wish I had gone to the effort of weaving the unused yarn in with each stitch, as my conscience was screaming at me to do.
Meh.

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A burdensome expectation…

11/11/2010 7:03 am \ 16 Comments \

Since I stopped buying any new readymade clothes I am finding it easier and easier to dress completely self-stitched on a regular basis, as some of my older store-bought clothes are starting to bite the dust.  I’ve always found it difficult to throw out store-bought clothes.  Ironically, a garment I’ve made myself is far easier for me to toss out, because I can see all its faults and my inner perfectionist will judge it harshly for not exactly fitting my vision at the time of making it.  I look at some old thing I made years ago and see how tacky and “homemade” it looks (all seamstresses know the vast vast difference between the “handmade” and “homemade” look, I don’t need to go into that now, do I?) whereas a garment I’ve bought readymade I just accept happily for what it is.
Now on a similar train-of-thought, and I’d like to know if any other self-seamstresses ever get this too… since I’m known for making my own clothes I’m often queried by people as to whether or not I’ve made what I am wearing that day… and if on occasion I have to respond, “oh, not this, I actually bought this”; I’m not kidding, people will go, “oh”, all disappointed, and change the subject, moving right along, and seriously, I feel like I’m letting people down.  I feel like a failure, because I’m wearing something I didn’t make… oh dear, just not up to scratch today, hmmm? …  Is this ridiculous or what?!
Now tell me whether I’m alone here, or am I being too sensitive?  Does anyone else get this reaction from others when they wear store-bought clothes?

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767, first seen here (borrowed from my son, he’s OK with it) turquoise striped cotton
Skirt; Vogue 7303, ivory wool blend
Coat; my own adaption of Burda 7786, beige cotton
Belt; had since teenager years
Booties; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

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Bobby socks

10/11/2010 4:29 am \ 6 Comments \

G’day, and here’s wishing everyone a totally maaaarvellous Wednesday!
Hey, new pair of bobby socks (yay).  These look identical to the previous white cotton socks I put up here, but they are very slightly different.  I appreciate not different to the casual observer, probably not even the astute observer, so I will explain.  The rib section is about 50% longer and there is no stocking stitch spacer before starting to shape the heel.  Yah, teensy variation, I did give warning.  I think I like the other one better, only because I find rib a bit of a drag.  In fact all-round with regard to these socks, my verdict is that knitting with cotton is a drag, full stop.  I prefer wool a hundred times over.  Knitting up cotton is tiring, one’s hand muscles soon ache due to the lack of stretch in the yarn.  Hmmm.  Committed as I am to producing as much of my wardrobe as possible including sockies, knitting these white cotton numbers feels…  dutiful, as opposed to vaguely luxurious, which is how I feel when I’m working through a particularly yummy coloured ball of wool.  Yowzer, do I even have time for this craziness?  Sadly it seems I do…
In summary: quick to produce, bread-and-butter basics, no fun factor.

Details:
Ankle socks; adapted from the Ladies sockettes in Paton’s knitting book C11 (a circa 1960’s publication), knitted in Rowan cotton glace 100% cotton, shade 726

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