Sophie

30/09/2021 1:48 pm \ 17 Comments \

It’s the last day of the month and even though I have several recently made things to write about, it’s all kind of paling into insignificance for me right now since we lost our dear Sophie earlier this week…

We’ve had this lovely girl the longest out of all our pets so far; she lived to be nearly 18… oh it’s so easy to fall into a trap of thinking she’s going to be with us forever.  I know I certainly did.

I can vividly remember my first sight of her; a friend of Tim’s had a litter of kittens they were giving away, Tim happened to go over for a sleepover and convinced us the next day to go over and check them out.  We were NOT in the market for a new kitten, however as soon as we laid eyes on this adorable little grey ball of fluff with huge green eyes she came home with us pretty much straightaway.

Right from the start we were all head over heels for this wonderful sweet lady… she’s always been the sweetest and most good natured and placid of cats imaginable: even tempered, calm, loving, always up for a spot of purring curled up on your lap.  We would often joke about how much she loved her food, and was sometimes called (meanly) the Fat Cushion; but actually she was quite a little cat really, she just had lots of fluff.  And of course as she got older and slowly started losing condition I would have given anything for her to regain some of that lovely soft plumpness.

She would follow me around the house and just “be” with me while I was doing whatever, often sneakily trying to insert herself onto my lap if I happened to sit on the couch for a bit, and especially if I was sitting out in the sun.  Her solid purring presence was always such a joy.  I remember after losing Sienna I would often seek out Sophie and cuddle her, and the warm fluffy weight of her was such a huge comfort.  We always used to say in the family that cuddling Sophie was an instant tonic to feeling sad because just holding her brought peace.

Some favourite pictures of when Sophie decided to “help” me with my blog:

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Betty boop

15/09/2021 3:13 pm \ 6 Comments \

I’ve made a pair of cute little trousers! well at least I think they’re pretty cute anyway…

 

So: here’s the funny thing; I really do love and want to wear a lot of trousers/jeans/pants but I kinda struggle with them.   I genuinely worry that I look terrible in trousers and I’m convinced I look better in dresses and skirts.  If anyone has taken even a passing glance at my ootd blog it’s obvious I rarely wear pants.  And yet, I’m always on the eternal search for pants that look cute AND that I think I might look ok in.

 

And I think these fit the brief!  I’m very happy with how they turned out; they have a sorta fitted feel to them without being in the slightest bit tight, they’re loose enough to be comfortable, but have no hint of bagginess in them.  Yes!

 

I have an extra special reason for loving these; my grandmother was known as Betty, even though it was not technically her name.  SO I have a special soft spot for the name.  I’ve always held this deeply secret wish that my name was Betty, because I loved my grandmother so much.

Anyway!  I’m happily adding these to the small collection of pants that I really love… I have several pairs that I feel really good in; up until now my blue Sashas and my Morgan jeans were the top of that list.  I also still love my Ginger jeans, although I wear these less nowadays.  Yes, all Closet Core patterns, hehe.

Coinkinky-dink; the fabric I used to make these are the leftovers from my old Ginger jeans!  I made those back in  *checks blog archive* wow 2014.  I can’t believe they’ve gone so well, for so long!  I could have sworn I got the fabric in Spotlight, but my blog reliably informs me I bought it in KnitWit,so there you go.  I have zero memory of that.  Ha!  Thank goodness for the blog!

I cut the pocket lining from this cute evil-villain, cotton fabric, that was leftovers from one of Craig’s surgical masks, and I also made a few Covid masks from the leftovers this year too.

I used a red top-stitching thread for all the topstitching, I dunno, just for fun, because I had it.  In fact, 100% of the materials for my Betty’s were from my stash, which always feels amazing; if I can achieve it.  The potential of my stash is quite exciting to me, I’ve discovered so many garments in it this past year!

The top I’m wearing them with here is a Burda pattern; 04/2014;111, made in a bobbly stretch stuff from Fabulous Fabrics.  And in another funny coinkinky-dink, I am wearing this very same top in my blog post of the Ginger jeans too!  Another old favourite that has stood the test of time for me  🙂

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blue and pink clogs (shoes)

06/09/2021 8:52 pm \ 2 Comments \

I’ve made some new shoes! and of course I’m over the moon with how lovely (I think) they look… !  A few months ago, during one of our infrequent and thankfully very short lockdowns – and I’ll just say it again; I am SO GRATEFUL to live in Perth! – anyway, I decided to treat myself and bought a clog making kit from leather needle thread; this is the one that I bought here:

And this is the result!  I was very happy with the quality of all the materials in this kit; the wooden soles are really nice, with a solid and very sturdy looking rubber undersold… the leather is a beautiful quality and of course those beautiful colours!

All the other bits and pieces are really beautiful quality… the little brass tacks are so pretty!  I bought a tool kit too which was terrific and worked really well.  I did think the brass buckles were just a tiny bit tarnished but not too bad and definitely not enough to detract from any other part of the clogs.

The only not-so-good thing was that the tiny little tins of glue supplied with the kit had both dried out, but fortunately I had my own glue that I’d purchased through Lisa of the Shoe Camaraderie from previous shoe-making adventures … I can appreciate that Esther of leather needle thread had gone to the effort though, even though the tins hadn’t worked.

Honestly I can understand it would be a pretty difficult thing to divvy up between kits and expect it NOT to dry up, I can even imagine how you could achieve it actually.

The other thing I did was to separately purchase some clear, water-based varnish, with which I varnished the soles before making my clogs… I’ve made several pairs of clogs already, for which I had carved the soles myself! and I believe they have lasted longer, stayed cleaner and been easier to wear too, thanks to varnishing the wooden soles.

Anyway I made another little “making-of” video, currently up on my YouTube channel… please enjoy!

https://youtu.be/xy2E9qpEkQ8

In other news, I’m now on TikTok too, since apparently it is The Thing to do now… I’m pretty new over there and am still learning, and it takes me forever to make a tiny little video, even on top of making the thing! but hopefully I’ll get better at this too.  My Tik Tok video for this is here.

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bumblebee baby

28/08/2021 9:52 pm \ 4 Comments \

Le Bebe needed some new outfits… so I made one!

The little clownsuit/jumpsuit is totally adorable in my opinion!!  it’s partly based upon two other different rtw ones Cassie already had for him for gauging the size and width, and I drew up my own pattern from those measurements…

For the little T-shirt, I used the cardigan pattern in Butterick 5583, just cutting it as a T-shirt instead of as a cardigan, and also accordingly making the neckline wider by about 1.5cm each side so his head can fit through the hole… the funny thing is that this size is the newborn size!   It’s very big and loose on him and actually he is NOT a small baby.  It just goes to show once again how strange the sizes are in baby patterns.

the fabrics are pretty cute, I think!  both are from my stash, originally bought from Spotlight.  I’m still virtuously using stash fabrics but have recently bought some new fabrics from Spoonflower, so that’s a bit of a setback in my use-stash only plans for the year, whoops! but actually I’m not going to get too down on myself because each of the fabrics I got is really cool and, you know what? Life is too short to be hard on yourself if you don’t have to be!

In random wardrobe news, Cassie came around last weekend and helped me to do a big closet cleanup, and we tossed out a huge garbage bag of my clothes… this felt SO GOOD! because I’d got into a bit of a rut with my winter wardrobe, basically forcing myself to wear shabby and old things that really were not doing me any favours.  Now I have a smaller collection of winter clothes that I really like and that also actually look good on me!  I’m not planning to make much more in the way of winter clothes to replace them though, but am revving up for spring and/or summer now.

So, wanna see a video of the making of this cute bumblebee baby outfit?  Because I made one!  It’s fun making videos and I enjoy it, but it does take quite a long time; so I’m not going to make one every time.  Maybe just for special or interesting things… we’ll see.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

It can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbO0gTSl-WQ

 

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another new nursing dress design

26/08/2021 7:12 pm \ 3 Comments \

… the last time I stayed with Mum and Dad; I helped Mum to clean out her fabric stash; AGAIN.  Mum now has small and beautifully curated collection of perfectly gorgeous fabrics in her possession, and I have… a much bigger pile of the less beautiful rejects, haha.  I know, I definitely did not need this! but *shrug*  I’m going to have to get a LOT better at throwing out fabric too, I think!

Anyway, I haven’t had the chance to go through it properly yet, but I did pluck out this one recently as something that would suit Cassie.  It’s a soft, very stretchy stuff, very pretty with a raspberry pink floral print… and Mum had partially made a sort of dress out of it already.  Thinking about it a bit, I realised I could make a really nice little nursing friendly dress for Cassie.

 Our Yallingup pattern wouldn’t do, because that really only suits a non-stretch woven fabric.  The previous, jersey maternity/nursingdress I had designed and twice made for Cassie was a possibility, but Cassie had mentioned how the boob tube under-top kind of snapped back up while she’s trying to feed the baby, which is annoying and not terribly user-friendly.  Anyway, I’ve dreamt up this design…

this is a sort of cowl-neck tank top, on a simple dress that is basically the same skirt as the one I’d previously designed for her.  The shoulder straps of the tank top aren’t joined to each other; the back one is stitched to the shoulder seam of the over top, and the front one snaps on to it; so all she has to do is reach up under the loose cropped top and unsnap the front strap.

Having a cowl neckline allows each front to come down comfortably without being too tight.  In short, it works really well!  I’m seriously thinking of making this a new pattern for our company!

I asked Cassie to lift up the front to show the cowl neck…  😀

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check out the checks!

23/08/2021 8:05 pm \ 2 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve made a cool new outfit!  At least, I think it’s pretty cool, anyway.  I think it’s got a strong 80’s vibe; it reminds me vaguely of what the dancers were wearing in Spandeau Ballet’s “To Cut a Long Story Short” video.  Oh boy, that takes me back, it was such a favourite of mine.

The fabric is a beautiful wool mix boucle from Minerva…it’s lovely and soft, with a nice, slightly bubbly texture to it, and I love the strong red and green check on a black background.  So cool! It did fray like mad, so my first step was to finish all the raw edges on my overlocker

For the skirt; I used an old pattern from the actual 80’s, Vogue 1834, and partially lined it with black silk, from my stash.  I’ve made this skirt once before … it can be seen here

The top is the In The Folds Collins top pattern, which I’ve made twice before; here and here.  I cut this from the scraps from the skirt, and only just managed to squeak out the pieces! thus the complete lack of pattern matching.  This does annoy me a little bit, but actually I had no choice at the time.

When styling it, I decided I like the ensemble best when the top is tucked into the skirt, because otherwise the wide flared top overwhelmed the skirt, and you can’t see any details of it.  And this is such a beautiful and unique skirt design! it really demands to be seen.  I mean, the top is pretty cool too, but for me this outfit is all about the skirt.

Having said that, though;  the top is still pretty cool too, and I really like it worn out over a mini skirt, like here.  This is a simple little mini that I made a few years ago, using a tartan wool that I bought in Tokyo during our last holiday there… you know, back when we were allowed to travel  *sob*

The beautiful wool fabric is stable and pliable, and was great to sew up but it did fray like mad, so my first step was to finish all the newly cut, raw edges on my overlocker… I also finished some of the raw edges inside the garments such as the bottom edge of the waistband, and the neckline of the top; using bright red, bias cut cotton… this was leftover from my own Yallingup dress that I made for myself here…  Want to see a fun video on the making process of this ensemble?  If so then that’s great! because I made one! and it can be seen here on my YouTube channel.  🙂  It also includes footage of me leaping about like a loon, so there’s that too…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOImcA5LnKQ&t=29s

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Cassie’s gum leaves

19/08/2021 9:29 pm \ 4 Comments \

I’m so happy with this new dress!  The fabric is actually very special… Cassie gave it to me last year, the print is one of a suite of designs she created for her wedding stationery and other wedding paraphernalia…  she has the designs up in her Spoonflower shop, and she gave some fabric of a different design to Mum (her Granny, obviously)

My piece is cotton denim; Cassie thought I could make a skirt from it, and yes I could have done that, but the piece was big enough that there would have been lots of leftovers.  So I wondered if I might be able to get a little dress out of it.  And I did!  Just!

It always feels like such a hugely satisfying achievement when I lay the pattern pieces down on a piece of fabric and they only just barely fit, so you have basically no leftovers at all.  Honestly, one of THE MOST satisfying things about making a thing, when you can manage it!

of course I had to keep this little piece of the selvedge and stitch it inside!!

This pattern is Burda style, 07/2018; 118; one I’ve made before here.  This is another great little pattern from Burda, they have long dry spells with boring patterns, but you get such a lot of good ones in there too so I always find it worth perusing the magazine when I see it.  Both of my versions of the dress do not have a lining.

I even made a little video of the making of it, just for fun; for myYouTube channel… the link is here if you’d like to watch it  🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10PmRka94GU

 

 

We even had a beautiful day of 25C last week, so I got to wear it for …   this picture is seated for “fashion-on-the-sofa Friday”

This is the 8th thing in my “use 12” challenge…  I’m really so please with how it’s all coming together  🙂

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sherbie pink top

08/08/2021 9:16 am \ 12 Comments \

Hello!  This is the latest thing in my little “use 12” challenge… a little top using this very small remnant given to me by my friend N when she cleaned out her stash.  I really loved the colour of this scrap and was determined to save it… the colour reminds me of Sherbies which was one of my favourite lollies when I was growing up.

Sherbies are more pink and not quite as orange as their wrapping… I couldn’t find any pictures of an unwrapped Sherbie to show it so I’ll go out and buy some, take a pic and replace this picture when I do!    this is my own picture… check out that gorgeous coral pink colour… mmmm

But the piece was tiny; quite narrow and only about 70cm long….  Honestly, this seems to be the story of my life lately; squeezing things out of the tiniest pieces of fabric… there’s a challenge going on at the moment where you’re supposed to use up 30m of your stash.  I think I could do this because it sounds like fun! however if I’m only going to be using up 70cm of fabric with each thing that I make it’s going to take me forever!!

cat for scale

So, as usual I really didn’t have enough fabric to cut out even a small top… because the pokey out bits on the sides of all the pieces that enable your armpits to be covered actually use up such a lot of the width of your fabric, and if you cut out the pieces as is you end up with a lot of long skinny pieces of wastage.  Eventually however, I discovered that you could fold back the said pokey out bits of your pattern pieces, and cut a gusset out of that bit at the top between the armscyes on each piece.  Here’s a very rough drawing to illustrate:

You put the gusset in the underarm area to make up the shortfall from where you folded back the pokey-out bits, like so:

Yes.. it’s not very elegant and looks bit funny maybe, but it works and I’m happy.  It’s pretty close to a zero waste design, which is such a buzz-word at the moment but is one I’ve always aspired to really, so that’s a good thing!

Not enough fabric for bindings… I finished all the edges using bias binding cut from leftover poplin from masks/mask lining I made for the family…

Seven down, five to go!  I’m so please with my little capsule wardrobe and how it’s coming along… I can’t wait to see all the pieces together in one lovely collection once I’ve finished them all!

 

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