Khaki and lace

06/02/2010 4:54 am \ 4 Comments \
Today I look a little like I’m on safari.  Hilarious, considering the only wildlife around the beach here is birds, possums, the odd bobtail and Sienna.
I know I showcased this olive skirt only recently, paired with a rainbow of colours; but I just couldn’t resist pulling it out again.  Here it is in a neutral ensemble and complemented by all the soft subtle colouring that distinguishes the coastal palette.  Smudgy khaki and browns have always been my best neutrals I think.  I used to have a whole bunch of khaki clothes I took to Africa with me in the top of our wardrobe which have now inexplicably disappeared.  Surely I couldn’t have thrown them out?  That would be extremely idiotic, even for a forgetful airhead like me.  Not impossibly idiotic, though…
My cream lace top is another old favourite that is more interesting than it appears from a distance; having lace strips sewn randomly all over and lovely old buttons.
My nail varnish is a colour I mixed up myself, after seeing a similar shade in a magazine editorial and immediately thinking “want”.  Aiming for a light jade green I used mostly BYS French White with a little bit of BYS Mint Condition thrown in.  Does anyone else mix their own nail varnish at all?  I found it trickier than I thought.  I recommend mixing only enough for one coat, then mixing the second coat when you need it; as the varnish dries so quickly you’re faced with a gluggy difficult-to-apply sludge by the time your first coat dries… of course I could have just paid ten times as much for the designer colour already mixed and saved myself the hassle, but that’s just no challenge to a DIY-er like me….
Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy
Top; Butterick 4985; cream broderie anglaise cheesecloth with cotton lace overlays and crotchet tie
Overshirt; bought from Tinga Game Lodge, South Africa (stolen from husband’s wardrobe)
Belt; stolen from husband
Shoes; op shop
Bag; made by my Mum
Nail varnish; self mixed, using BYS French White and Mint Condition
(David Attenborough-style whispered voiceover) “Here we have a dangerously cute specimen which may attack without warning, smothering its victim with excessive licking… may mercilessly flay an unprepared observer with its wildly whipping tail…  give this beast a wide berth”
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Wardrobe Refashion, project 5

05/02/2010 7:00 am \ 12 Comments \
Has anyone seen the Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2010 collection, a parade which included what looks like Frankenstein-ed business shirts jammed together in magnificent artistic disarray, at left; sigh, pure gorgeousness incarnate, no?  I think Vivienne Westwood is a design genius, and this is not the first time I have sighed lustfully over her collection.  In a further enticement I also spotted and was mesmerised by this sculptural and beautiful shirt-monster, at right, which I found on outsapop.
Obviously for my own wardrobe I need to tone down the overall excessiveness of these extreme looks, as I live and operate in a fairly conservative little community where artistic fabulousness is likely to provoke tears of hilarity rather than admiration; but I felt so inspired by these examples I wanted to attempt my own version.
Enter; three old business shirts belonging to my husband, which had been put in my “fabric” trunk many years ago.  Don’t remember now exactly why I decided to hang onto these, but I must have had an inkling that they would come in handy one day…
I didn’t take any photos during the construction process this time.  However, the sleeves used for the top have been shortened to be ¾ length, which I think is a more feminine look and I used the collar of one shirt to make a partial attached belt to bring in the back of the top and give it a bit more shape and definition as well as to bring in this fabric colour to the top.  The skirt is comprised of two layers formed by the bodies of the two remaining shirts.  I made a bias binding of some of the leftover fabric to bind the waistband of the skirt which has a single button closure at the left waist, and saved the sleeves of the short-sleeved shirt to make the inserted pockets (see details below)  I really love the final outcome, satisfies my “waste-not-want-not” instincts whilst also looking kind of shabby/trendy and still undeniably unique all together…  I confess it did turn a few heads when I went grocery shopping in town this morning but I’m hoping it was in a good way.  Nobody was pointing and laughing and I take this as a good sign.
Details:
Skirt and top; re-fashioned from three old business shirts
Shoes; Country Road
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Teal dress and, er, white lacy thing

04/02/2010 1:10 am \ 4 Comments \
I apologise in advance for the appearance of a yet another white lacy number.  I actually made this about a year ago and don’t wear it very much, especially not since I became aware of and then started feeling embarrassed about the glut of white lacy clothes in my wardrobe….
I wish I could say I made this teal dress, but it was a birthday gift from my darling husband who wanted to buy me some clothes so I wouldn’t suffer from the creative burden of having to sew my own, without perhaps considering how much I love said burden….  like an addict loves the drug that enslaves them.  My friend D first coined this metaphor as it applies to creative types and I relate, really I do.  No sooner am I putting the finishing touches onto one project than already my brain is feverishly planning the next sartorial experiment… and I’m really making an effort to slow down and plan more carefully for economy, practicality and versatility!
I do adore this dress, like I do nearly all Metalicus for its spectacular ease of wear combined with intense beautiful colours.  With varying degrees of success I’ve tried at times to reproduce some of my favourite items but the difficulty is, as always, getting hold of fabric…. The usual seamstress’ complaint.  This dress is from the wool range, and amazingly it’s incredibly cool to wear in summer.
The bag I made about two years ago and first posted about here.
Details:
Dress; Metalicus
Top; my own design, white cut-out embroidered linen
Bag; my own design, cream wool
Shoes; Sandler, op shop
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Kreativ Blogger Award

03/02/2010 2:25 am \ 5 Comments \

Thankyou so much Yoshimi for giving me this Kreativ Blogger Award!  So today instead of my usual sewing and fashion post ( I did have something planned , but I’ll do it tomorrow) I’ll try to dredge up 7 things about myself…hmm this will be tricky as I’m not particularly interesting…
1. I have a degree in chemistry.  I started out studying veterinary science, but my brain is mathematically wired (plus being an animal lover, this made some of the assignments we were given in veterinary science traumatic for me) and I switched over.  I’m ideally suited to being tucked away alone in a laboratory, not talking to anyone, working on a problem, which is not unlike when I’m sewing actually!
2. I’m painfully shy, and when people first meet me I come across as aloof and stuck-up.  I’m not really.  If I have a drink I turn into a garrulous party animal, embarrassingly.
3. I have a crazy obsession about not using my car as much as possible.  I think my friends think I’m insane when I rock up at a swish cafe, on my bike, with my fancy shoes stashed in the basket.
4. Our household has four pets.  And three teenagers.  Yes, we live in a menagerie.

5.  I’m very sentimental about trees and get very upset when old ones are cut down.  Yeah, bit of a hippy aesthetic there.  Probably why so many of my photos have a tree, or at least some sort of greenery, in there somewhere…!

6. Unlike just about everybody else in the world, I can’t bear the smell and taste of coffee.  Actually the smell I can cope with, just.  Once I tried to force myself to get over this and drink the stuff, be an adult, for heaven’s sake.  Then my friend A pointed out, why take on an unhealthy habit unnecessarily?  Yeah, she had a point.  So I abstain.

I consider this to be a useful dye, rather than a consumable…

7. Hmm, struggling to think of anything else about myself not too personal or weird here…. 
I saw snow for the first time in my life when I was 27.  Well, I do live in one of the hottest and driest states of one of the hottest and driest countries on Earth, and Perth is possibly the most isolated capital city in the world.  When I was growing up we didn’t travel much.  As children, my friends and I considered we were going overseas when we went to Rottnest Island (small island about 10km away from Perth).  Maybe this is why Aussies have that wanderlust to the nth degree and as adults we all aim to travel.  A lot.  My husband and I love travelling.  Since reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” I really want to go to Scandinavia.

Now, the rules are that I should nominate 7 people, but I’m going to take a leaf out of Yoshimi’s book and just name 3. 

So, the very creative people who get my award are;

Lauriana; whose tailoring skills are faultless, I would love to see her outfits every day!

Stephanie, who is a very talented lady who can make her own leather bags!  as well as lovely clothes; I’m so impressed by this I can’t begin to express my admiration……

Ruta, another gorgeous creative lady who along with stunning clothes also makes her own bags, and leather skirts, again, very impressed…

I would add the very creative Lily, but she just did something similar recently; and I also went to Trudy and Ann, but they both had this award already…

The Rules
1. Copy/paste the Kreativ Blogger Award picture onto your blog
2. Thank the person who awarded it to you and post a link to her/his blog
3. Write 7 things about yourself we might not know
4. Choose 7 other bloggers to award
5. Link to them
6. Notify your 7 bloggers of their award

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The grey light of day

02/02/2010 12:09 am \ 6 Comments \

The crispness that is in the air these last few mornings has been a very welcome respite, my senses seem fresher and sharper and I feel more awake and ready to face the expectations of the new day.  The light in our rear lane-way is almost lemon-yellow at this time of the day, and even the patches of moss and rust on the old fences seem to glow.  I love the shadow of my shoe, it looks like a sort of grotesque, deformed parody of a foot….
This little cardigan was made recently as part of my autumn sewing plan, but I feel its high time I starting wearing some new items to inject a little freshness into my wardrobe; I’m getting tired of some of my summer clothes, and no less the heat!  It feels like a long time to go still before autumn….

Details:
Pants; Burda 7944, gunmetal blue linen
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Mauve and white net, cream crotchet lace and grey velvet ribbon, own design
Necklace; Jorgen Jensen of Denmark, gift from my parents (in the 70’s)
Shoes; Sandler, op shop

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Sunday picnic in the shade of the gum trees

01/02/2010 4:39 am \ 4 Comments \

Yesterday was such a nice cool change from this awful heat wave, we packed up a light picnic lunch and headed out to Kings Park.  In the shade of the gum trees, we munched on smoked salmon and salad on corn thins, nibbled on nectarines, and sipped homemade lemon cordial, whilst laughing at the undiluted delight of small boys whooping at the pioneer women’s fountain, which used to fill me with equal excitement when I was a toddler.  We wandered through the bush and made the resolution for the umpteenth time to remove all the exotics from our garden and replace them with natives… we looked out over the river from Mt Eliza at the tiny specks that were small boats and canoes out for a Sunday afternoon splash … we gazed on the boab trees and marvelled at their strangeness as a tree form… and vowed we should get out and do this sort of thing more often.
For our picnic rug we took an old patchwork thing I had made when expecting our eldest son, and it served as a bunny rug for all of our three in their infancy.  Purist patchworkers would recoil in horror at its 100% machine construction and cheap cotton fabric (we didn’t have much money at the time), but obviously it now holds great sentimental value for me.  I remember very little about where I bought the fabrics, or its construction, but it’s held up well, for sure.
Looking at my outfit, I’m reminded again how much of my “bought” wardrobe is purchased as souvenirs to commemorate some sort of holiday or event in my life; my skirt I bought when we holidayed in South Africa, my cardigan when in Sydney with my Monday morning gals for a weekender, and my horsey necklace when in Melbourne with two of my close friends.  It was just prior to Melbourne Cup, and window displays everywhere were horse-themed, or hat-themed, or both; I got this little mirrored necklace as a memento of our trip.

Details;
Shirt; Butterick 4985, white cotton, overdyed with coffee and blue dye
Skirt; Old Khaki, Capetown, South Africa
Cardigan; Country Road
Necklace; some little shop in Melbourne
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Designs
Picnic rug; made by me

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Tea Cosy, specimen 10

31/01/2010 1:35 am \ 3 Comments \

Here is the tea cosy I made for my sister-in-law A for her birthday last year, photographed in her kitchen amongst some of her adorable knick-knacks.  She has their house full of beautiful things, so wherever you look is yet another beautiful vignette of lovely objects arranged just so.  I think if she chose she could have been an interior designer, or a photographic stylist as she really has the “eye”.  I chose these warm earthy colours for her cosy as they are very indicative of her warm, earthy personality; she has a big heart and a caring, friendly demeanour that impels people to warm to her immediately.  The pattern is a Roly Poly, from the book “Wild Tea Cosies” by Loani Prior.
The little blue milk jug at the back is also made by a family member, but I’m not sure now which one.  My father, my aunt and my brother have all made beautiful pottery pieces, which are treasured by all of us, so it is the work of one of them, must make it my mission to find out.

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Inspired by nature; gold and aqua

30/01/2010 1:52 am \ 3 Comments \

At this time of year the sky is this intense ultramarine blue and the grasses are dryly yellowing until they are crackling underfoot, as always the landscape is everlastingly fascinating.  Nature has a perfection in her colour palette that is daily an inspiration, those of us drawn to colour and its myriad changing faces in the shifting path of the sun are compelled to express themselves somehow, for some it is in the medium of paint on canvas, for me in my insatiable love of clothes, I choose to do this through my apparel.
These garments I’ve worn before in other combinations, but when I put on this intense lime top with my golden silk skirt and my newly made silk chiffon scarf; this bright yet somehow relaxed palette made me wonder why on earth I hadn’t thought of it before…
When I first made this top, on a whim, I felt a little intimidated by its brightness, and only wore it sparingly and with safe neutrals such as white, lately I’m feeling more adventurous and wanting to pull it out more and more.
This magnificent gum tree must have seen a fire in its day, with its old battle scars of charred bark still visible; my daughter and I ventured into the bush to take these photos and when I minded her to look out for snakes she took two photos then turned and marched straight out….  Perhaps she’s the sensible one and I’ve got too much my head in the clouds contemplating the beauty of nature….  but I didn’t see any snakes!

Details:
Top; NewLook 6252, green linen
Skirt Davida, second hand shop
Scarf, turquoise silk chiffon, made by me
Sandals; la soffitadi Gilda
Bag; Gucci

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