Category Archives: Sewing

the Perth dress/blouse

04/03/2018 8:02 pm \ 57 Comments \

I’m beyond thrilled to announce the publication of our very first pattern!  The Perth dress/blouse is an unlined, loose-fitting little summer frock with a bit of a buttoned-up menswear vibe to it.  It’s kinda like a shirtdress, but kinda not.  A faux shirtdress.  The shirtdress to make when you’re not making a shirtdress.  Hehe, I joked in my own head while making it that it’s the shirtdress to make if you loathe buttonholes, since there are barely any at all in this one!  Also, I say “our”pattern, not because I’m using the royal “we”; but because I’ve gone into partnership with my daughter!  #whatdotheysayaboutfamilyandbusiness  but it’s OK, Cassie and I get along very well.  Plus she has mad magic Illustrator skills, which perfectly complements my complete lack thereof.   So we are the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co – this warms the cockles of my heart SO much I can’t even tell you!  I never dreamed we’d have some kind of venture together like this but now we do I think I can tick it off some sort of subconscious bucket list that I never knew I had.

So we have a brand new Etsy shop, CarolynandCassie; situated here…  Right now there’s only one thing in it, well TWO, since the pdf pattern and paper patterns are listed separately, but we harbour big dreams of having lots and LOTS of designs there in the future.  Or maybe that’s just the happy glow that comes with having it finally finished…  I’ve been basically living and breathing this thing for such a while, well ….  it’s out there now!

So this is what I’ve been working on for the past few months, not just pattern making but lots and lots of sewing too.  Apart from well over a dozen muslins, I’ve made four Perths in my quest for the perfect Perth.  I shall now proceed to bombard you with Perths, ahem…

1. My chocolate/tobacco version above;  this is not strictly a Perth but a “sort of” Perth dress, really.  This is my prototype Perth, a Perth in spirit since the final pattern is actually quite different everywhere in small ways …  you can see in my little movie below that it’s super bouffy, for one thing, and I tamed the boufff in that back with a big ol’ stern box pleat.  Down, boufff, down!

*LATER EDIT: instructions on how to alter the pattern to make this version are here…

I made this one back in April of last year! and because I’d already had the idea of making it into a pattern somehow it never got blogged here, even though I wore it a few times.

2.  My white one… a true Perth and currently my favourite mostly because of the perfect fabric.  It’s a white shirting cotton from Fabulous Fabrics, almost like a sateen, but a super fine one, crisp, lightweight and with the perfect amount of drape.  LOVE IT SO MUCH and actually I’m slightly regretting that I didn’t buy the whole roll  #addicted  In fact, this might be a good time to state what I think is the ideal fabric for this design… lightweight, thin fabrics that have some drape, yet still have just enough body for the tailored collar to work.  Basically, if you can imagine a mens’ business shirt made in it, then it’s probably just about perfect.  Sad sad times… I went back to the fabric store yesterday on another quest (long story and a pretty “big” one too in lifetime terms, I’ll relate it another time…)  and had a quick but hopeful look out for this perfect white fabric.. they’d sold it all!!  *sob*  #gottagrabitwhileitsthere

This one has slightly longer sleeves, that I eventually decided to shorten for the final version of the pattern. I shortened them back to the length of my original brown design because I thought the shorter sleeves looked a little more feminine and “perkier”; a nice offset to the overt masculinity of the buttoned-up, very formal looking collar.

3.  Further playing upon the menswear influence, I ran up a third version with a smart white collar, a lot like the shirts that I’ve made for my menfolk over the years.. these ones here are prime examples.  I used a lovely lemon-y yellow, lightweight pinstriped linen that I bought in Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti in Rome when we visited six years ago.  It was my Roman souvenir, and I’m fiiiiinally making something with it.  Well, it’s nothing if not well marinated!  I used a single black button at the throat as a small but definitive focal point on the dress.

Going back to my point about the perfect fabric, this linen has a little bit of body, maybe if I’m being super picky then I would say it has slightly too much body for the design to drape perfectly?  But it’s still pretty nice to wear, and cool!

4.  And finally; along the way I realised the design would make quite a nice blouse too, so we went about making this happen.  I like this length for a blouse slightly cropped and a little boxy.  For the blouse, I used a dark indigo chambray, leftovers from this dress actually! and a wooden button.

The chambray is a touch on the spongy side with some body to it so Im a teeny bit meh about it for this design really, but well… I’m completely ok with it for testing out, and I think it turned out a pretty cute wearable muslin.

Some of the technical deets…

So, want to hear the story behind the pattern?…. it’s ok if you don’t just stop reading now.  If you want to know to whole boring saga, carry on!  SO: nearly a year ago I made my brown dress, my prototype as it turned out.  I’d bought this lovely, slightly blotchy chocolate/tobacco linen from Tessuti’s in Melbourne during my trip there with Mum, Cassie and Tiffany, and drafted my own pattern, using my own block that I made years ago from my own measurements using the diagrams from Pattern Magic  (originally blogged about here), though I tacked on the collar and collar stand from my favourite Burda mens’ shirt pattern… but before you cry “plagiarist!”  I did NOT use that Burda collar and stand for my own Perth pattern!  I drafted the Perth ones myself from scratch, as I did all parts of the pattern.  I promise you, I’m very ethical and would never try to claim something as mine that is not…but more about the drafting process-ario later, I’m getting ahead of myself.

So, I made my brown dress.  I put quite a bit of thought into the closure, and worked out a solution  to get the look I wanted.  I liked it, but overall thought the silhouette was a little “booffy” and was definitely planning to streamline it a bit down the track.  In the meantime though I’d posted a progress picture on instagram, and there was a small number of polite comments suggesting an interest should I make a pattern for it.  The seed was planted…

I thought more and more about it.. I wasn’t daunted by drafting a pattern to fit “me”, but I was wondering how I could grade it.  At first I thought I’d get a qualified person to grade it for me.  I approached several people I know who have completed fashion design school at tech, none of whom had time.  But my friend J, fashion school graduate, and all-round awesomely inspiring lady, was extremely encouraging and assured me I could “easily do it” and it was “super easy”.  I secretly had doubts about this… but she piled my arms high with her pattern drafting books and sent me off.  I definitely felt challenged, and like I couldn’t possibly not do it now!  I was honour bound!  J would think I was an idiot!  Well… I am obviously, but no need for the world to know that, hehehe…. I spent the next few months studying the books J had given me, taking notes… the best by far was Winifred Aldrich’s Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear, I pretty much got everything from that.  There was also a vintage Burda book, I can’t remember its title at the moment but that one gave some very helpful grading tips too.

So I eventually graded my pattern!  I’d drawn it out by hand on large sheets of paper from a flip chart pad, with no seam allowances, graded it all by hand, and proceeded to trace and test each individual size myself before getting it scanned as a full sized pdf.  Yes, this is definitely NOT the most efficient way to go about it… I had early, highly romantic ideas about a hand-drawn pattern… aaah, so naive!  I quickly abandoned that fantasy!!  though hand-grading was an essential step in the process in the end, and I happily had complete confidence that my pattern “worked” in all the sizes… Then I started thinking about learning Illustrator.  I made a few low-grade investigations… and then Cassie got wind of what I was doing and reminded me that she basically spent her whole degree using Illustrator.  I was like, wow, would you teach me?  and she replied, oh Mum, I could make that pattern into a pdf for you in half a day…  I was, like OH My GOD!  My saviour!!!  At first, I was just going to pay her for her time… but as time went on, and we were working side by side on our computers, her on the pattern (it took a lot longer than half a day, btw!) me on the illustrations and instructions (also way longer than half a day!) and the idea of a partnership came up and it felt totally natural.  She was keen.  And I’m so very happy about it!  This means that if either of us come up with an idea then we have this outlet for it, and we have complementary skills.

Of course, it’s our first pattern, and the learning curve has been steep.  I reckon I did some things three or four times over, simply because the right way wasn’t immediately obvious.   Almost like, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you get a prince.  Or maybe you can’t see the trees for the forest?  Making a pattern turned out to be something like that!

The next step was the all-important “real” testing phase, and it’s SUPER important!  I’m completely indebted to my delightful and awesomely helpful testers… who went through my amateurish instructions with a fine-tooth comb, thank goodness since I could barely see anything anymore for having re-written them a hundred times over.  Those that sent me pictures have made the most beautiful dresses which has been SUPER exciting.  I will do a separate post highlighting my lovely testers, soon, once everyone has got “final” pictures in to me.

Making the pattern a tangible thing: well at first I was just like, A4 is enough, yeah? Then one of my lovely testers SaSa of paisley pirouette mentioned a firm preference for A0, and I had a lightbulb moment that I should offer that too. Sounds so obvious in retrospect but truthfully I was kinda overwhelmed with it all at this point, so I really appreciated the reminder!  SaSa also kindly recommended to me a massive comment thread about people’s pattern preferences, over on sewbusylizzy, which I sat down and read in a night.  I got from this that sewing peeps were pretty evenly divided three-ways in their allegiance to and/or total avoidance of A4, A0 and/or paper patterns.  Meaning in fact, a pattern designer pretty much has to offer everything if she/he wants to a. please everyone, and b. be taken even half-way seriously!  So Cassie got to work on the A0 file and I went about making paper patterns happen.  I got my patterns printed at Officeworks, folded ’em all myself, and printed out and compiled my own instruction booklets, put together the pattern envelopes myself.  Goodness, that took an entire day all by itself, phew!  And then I set up our etsy shop…  aaaand sat on the edge of my seat waiting for my first sale!  The excitement when the first one popped in, wheeee!  What a rush!

So that’s it!  Want to try out my pattern?! We are the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co. our shop is CarolynandCassie on Etsy, and we have the Perth dress/blouse pdf pattern and the Perth dress/blouse paper pattern on offer.   I’ve also put a link to the shop up in my sidebar.  And I would love to see your Perths!  If you make one, then please either let me know in the comments, or tag us  @handmadebycarolyn and @shyshycassie on instagram, and use the hashtag #perthdress

Perth, and Perth! hehe

Am I thinking about my next pattern…?  well, of course!!

now for the embarrassing bit…

   

Details:

Dress/top: ours! the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co Perth pattern!!!  (duh)  white is a shirting cotton, yellow is lightweight linen, with a linen collar, brown is lightweight linen, blue top is a cotton chambray
White skirt: Vogue 1247, made from an old curtain, details here
Shoes: all made by me, actually! ha!  black clogs blogged here, caramel brown/ivory clogs here, white oxfords here

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Valentine’s Day… sorted

14/02/2018 2:35 pm \ 28 Comments \

So, a few months ago, I was contacted by Nadja, of Schnittchen Patterns, who asked if I would like to be the Aussie in Sewing around the World 2018.  Such an honour to be asked! and of course I was delighted!  I’m the designated Miss February, hehe.

I was kinda like, hmmm February … and of course, Valentine’s Day.   Pink, clearly…  I mean, I love pink anyway, so really I don’t even need an excuse to make something pink.  But it’s nice having one!

Usually on Valentine’s Day, we’re in the habit of going for a picnic together; it’s such a lovely time of year here for a picnic! warm balmy nights with pink and apricot and orange and navy blue sunsets.  I make up a nice basket with the finest goodies Coles has to offer; I’m thinking smoked salmon salad, strawberries and chockies, with a bottle of pink bubbly- clearly got pink on the brain here, but naturellement! – and a rug… we carry it down to the foreshore, set ourselves up, plastic flutes in hand to watch the sun go down, with a thousand city lights across the water, twinkling into being like fairy lights.   Yep, pretty nice.  Should make the effort more than once a year!

Anyway, I pictured myself clad appropriately in something super romantic, ladylike and feminine… I chose the Schnittchen Sally dress pattern, because it’s nothing if not romantic, ladylike and feminine…  a true wrap dress with ultra-oversized pockets and a tulip skirt; a sweet and slightly old-fashioned in a good way, beautifully drape-y design…  my favourite part is the bodice, with those lovely gentle gathers falling gracefully from the shoulders.

For the fabric, I picked out this crepe from my stash, originally bought from Spotlight last year sometime.  I bought it with no plan in mind, just because I loved the delicate, Chinoiserie vibe of the print… and the colours; deep mossy green boughs against a beautiful warm, peachy-pink sky… this is basically my perfect pink.

Actually, I’ve been very inspired by a more ladylike vibe and silhouette lately, pinning tea length and floaty floral dresses like they’re going out of fashion… oh wait, well you know what I mean!    Honestly, I think floral is having a real moment.   Although, you know fashion; dichotomous is pretty much the thing.  I myself am into romantic one day, quirky the next, sculptural and monochromatic the day after that.  I often wonder how the defining look of our times is going to be depicted; 10, 20, 30 years in the future.  Maybe the skinny jean/loose tee/moto jacket look, and yet, my Vogue magazines for the past year have zig-zagged wildly over several different extremes; the sharp yet comfortable, post-modern, luxe ath-leisure look, the oversized, minimal look, the floaty, floral, feminine look.  I personally am very much more excited by these looks than the skinny jean one.

Making this dress was pretty easy, once I’d nutted out the waistband design.  I didn’t have quite enough fabric to self-line the pockets, so used a portion of coffee-coloured polyacetate lining fabric for that bit; otherwise I used up every last scrap of the crepe, which is an enormously satisfying thing to do in the sewing world.    The instructions are translated from the German and are … interesting, and took me a little while to wrap my head around them.  I don’t mean that in a negative way.  I actually like to be stretched mentally in my sewing, get my brain buzzing about with different ways of thinking about it, and it’s not so often that pattern instructions make me stop and THINK.  These ones did!  It’s funny, I’ve been sewing for aaaaages and have always experimented with lots of different pattern companies, but pretty much everyone employs the same lingo and you can’t help but fall into a bit of a rut.  I mean, for example, you come to expect particular words to be used to describe particular procedures in sewing, and when those particular words are not used, when another, unexpected word is used instead, it can throw you for a bit of a loop.   Speaking kinda generally there, but specifically, the construction of this dress is a straightforward affair, it’s just that you have to read, and comprehend, and not just expect everything to be written using the exact same set of prescribed terms.  It’s actually one of the things I enjoy about using other-language patterns.

I don’t know why I always include a rear shot… it’s rarely an interesting sight and I always think I look awful.  But anyway, I guess about half the people around you will catch sight of it whether they want to or not, so I guess it’s a good idea to see it for yourself too.  It’s since taking pictures of my rear view for the blog that I’ve learnt pattern placement on the back of your clothing is JUST AS IMPORTANT a consideration as the front.  Happily, this is a pretty lovely print, with little possibility of an unfortunate, accidental bullseye.

I am in two minds about the hem length on this one though.  Part of me is wondering if I need to lop off a few inches…

HUGE plus, the pockets are actually HUGE  (satisfied sigh) You could stash a kitten in there, easily… #don’tevenknowwhyIthoughtofthatone  #leavingit

I consider myself Valentine-ready!   Pass the champers! (hic!)

Details:

Dress; schnittchen patterns Sally dress, in a printed crepe, quite crisp, thin, drapes beautifully
Sandals; Zomp, from Zomp shoes

 

 

Later edit;

I’m trying out a new “thing” for the stuff I showcase here on my blog; a little action!!  a little less conversation!  the flat picture is kinda nice, not 100% informative, and I know I like to see things more “for real” as in how they move, how they look in 3D… this may or may not become an every-time feature… apart from the ineptitude of the model – it’s her first time! please forgive!! – what do you think?

https://youtu.be/w_3S7AkE1yg

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call out for testers

12/02/2018 4:29 pm \ 13 Comments \

Are you interested in making a little summer frock with a strong menswear influence?  If so then I would value your help and feedback!  I am currently accepting a limited number of applications for testing my new pattern, if you would like to give it a go and are able to provide feedback on both pattern and instructions within two weeks then please do fill out a form… I will get back to you very soon.

*Applications now closed… thank you so much for the overwhelming response!!!*

Perth dress tester form:

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I made some stuff…

31/01/2018 1:27 pm \ 25 Comments \

So, what are the latest whatevers to wing their way out of the atelier, hmmm?  Well, I’ve been making LOADS of things, just nothing much to show for it, as yet.  Remember I mentioned I was making a pattern?  Well, making a pattern comes with making a truckload of muslins, of course.  I’ve actually made 13 dresses in the last month alone, albeit they’re made from old sheets and are a bit rough, but still.  Am I going to count these in my “one refashion a month” resolution? no, that wouldn’t be fair.  How’s the pattern coming along? swimmingly! which is fab… I’m almost at the testing phase, I will be incredibly happy to get there after 8 months of preparation.  8 MONTHS!

In more tangible making results, I made a little romper for Sarah’s new little boy…  Sarah LOVES stripes, so the descent into stripe-matching madness struck once again.  I used Butterick 6372, which I’ve made twice previously, and just altered it slightly to be a romper, and added that cute little pocket.  Would you believe I re-did that little pocket THREE flipping times??  First I made a curved bottom pocket, which was pretty awful, followed by a flat bottomed pocket.  Equally awful.  I do really like the pointed bottom pocket though, I think it’s super cute.  It’s my favourite part about the whole romper actually!

The striped cotton terry is from Spotlight, hopefully the last piece of fabric I will buy this year, given Project Stash Reduction is a goal this year.  The red cuffs and pockets were culled from a Wildcats Tshirt from my refashioning pile.  Thus partially fulfilling my once-a-month refashioning resolution #virtouslyRubbingFingernailsOnChest.

There was a little bit of leftover striped fabric, so I also made an adult sized beanie, using a pattern made by Andrea of fabric epiphanies.  I’m afraid though that I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to print it up so the sizing square was the correct scale… three attempts later, and eventually I settled for “pretty close”.  I estimated my beanie is actually about 7-8% bigger than the pattern, and then Sarah informed me it is too small! aaaagh!  It is a pretty cute pattern though, I will still probably give it another go one day  🙂

The stripes do match up all around though, both inside and out, a matter of personal pride for me.  I bound the beanie using a strip of blue merino, given to me by Mum.

So, after cutting the romper cuffs and pocket from the Tshirt, I still had quite a chunk of Tshirt leftover, well this wouldn’t do!  I immediately realised, as you do; that I could get two pairs of knickers and a bra from the leftovers.  Well, I’m sure that is the first thought anyone would think, hmmm?

I used the cloth habit Watson pattern, and cut out a bra plus two sets of matching knickers… yes, it was an XL Tshirt. I avoided as much of the advertising as possible and tried to stick to just the Wildcats logos as much as I could.

As I was making it, it occurred to me… is jungle January still a thing?  See, in the past few years I’ve been in the habit of making a set of underwear for jungle January, and one of the things about the basketball is that the Perth Arena is known as “the Jungle” during the Wildcats games.  Like, they’re always screaming  “WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!!!!” and going on about “…. HERE IN THE JUNGLE…!!!!”   “Jungle” I guess because, wildcats.  Anyway, it occurred to me that I was serendipitously making a jungle-themed set of underwear again.  Without even meaning to!  Win!!!

Do you wanna hear something funny?

I’ve been in the throes of making this set for several weeks now, fitting it in as light relief in between working on my pattern, you know; and I took it along to the sewing guild meeting yesterday in the hopes of finishing it up.  And there I had the joy of seeing Emma also making a Watson bra.  Except her’s was really beautiful; super pretty, with chartreuse lace, pink and blue elastics, generally all round gorgeous and very feminine.  Just absolutely lovely in every way.  Such a contrast to my sorta … lowbrow one made from an old basketball Tshirt,  With logos, and everything.  Like something a teenager might wear.  Or more like, refuse to.  Omigawd, so embarrassing. I swear I don’t try to be like this.  It just happens.  Every now and again, I think back to an anonymous commenter who used to frequent my blog, and who couldn’t resist from pointing out my 1) immaturity and 2) unnecessary penny-pinching-ness, among other things.  Ahem, guilty as charged!

Fully lined with a lightweight stretchy stuff that I discovered during my stash clean out…  My tutorial for fully lining this pattern to enclose the seams, is here

 

I thought about not posting this next one… but wellll, here goes… I’ve also made another thing, squeezed out from the Wildcats Tshirt, I mentioned it was an XL yeah?! I also got a little cropped top, much nothing to write home about at all… I made it specifically for my new workout aspirations.  I hadn’t made any working out or losing weight resolutions on New Year’s Eve … but just lately I’ve been feeling a bit stodgy and decidedly… “matronly”, is the only word I can think of.  So I decided to do something about it, and purchased the Kayla Itsines Bikini BodyGuide.  One thing you’re supposed to do before even getting started is take a picture of yourself, preferably in a sports crop top and little shorts, and then take a new picture in the same ensemble every week as you work through the guide.  So obviously I had to make myself a little crop top, asap!  I used my customised version of the Closet Case Nettie bodysuit pattern and whipped up this super basic thing, just edged with a line of white overlocking thread around all the edges, which I think looks nice with my little white shorts.  I made those too.. they’re are the eponymous Carolyn pyjama shorts.  I rolled them up a bit, to show as much abdomen as I dared.  Hopefully, it’s going to become a more shapely one in a few weeks!  Don’t worry, I will not be posting a new picture here every week, but I’ll probably do an summary when I finished the course!

I started out with the beginner’s schedule, and practically killed myself just doing day 1!!

before… 

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an optimistic splash of colour and sunshine

10/01/2018 1:39 pm \ 51 Comments \

Making this piñata, I mean… outfit was a random, didn’t really care about the outcome, “just because” bit of experimental fun… so of course it turned out perfect.  I love it.

So, we were going down to our beach house for the week between Christmas and New Year … and I have this teeny tiny dinky little sewing machine that I keep there and was thinking it was high time to give it a little workout.  Other than one other time I made a “real” garment, a pair of shorts, it’s been a strictly curtain-hemming and minor mending jobber.  btw, I gave those shorts to Cassie recently, she looks so much better in them!

This cheap little sewing kit that I bought from Coles a few years ago lives in the beach house too; it’s pretty much perfect…

So I packed some stuff to take down with me…. fabric, patterns, thread, zip and a button.  I even remembered white cotton for facings, and interfacing.  Who IS this efficient creature? I don’t even know.  Oh, and pompoms!!  Why pompoms??  WHY NOT POMPOMS, is more like the question!

I’d bought the fabric from the upholstery section in Spotlight last year; at the time I’d picked it up to cut so I could pay for my things at the cutting counter rather than at the all-inclusive checkout counter, which I had noticed on the way in was HUGE.  The things we do sometimes….  #stashenabler  Well played Spotlight, oh very well played…  I’m sure they sell a lot more fabric that way.  I’d also bought the burnt orange pompom trim a few years ago for something else that never got realised… I’d put them both in the “red” cubby hole in my new storage system and thought they looked quite nice together… so fortuitous!  My new system is proving itself already!

Clara says hi…  #soBIGnow

I chose the simplest and most featureless of patterns, because the super-loud colours plus pompoms is already a busy enough story on its own…  The skirt is basically Vogue 1247 stripped back; I lengthened it by about ?10cm? roughly… this pattern always needs lengthening.  Also, eliminated the pockets and horizontal seams, and flared out towards the hem a little more to be more A-line.  I think unlined summer skirts do need a little more flare to them, makes them cooler and breezier.  The top is yet another riff on New Look 6483, a great basic pattern for a simple shell with a whole lot of variations for the sleeve/armhole and neckline.  I’ve had it for years and used it loads of times.  This is view B, cropped a LOT.

Everything came from my stash; #stashbustingwin  and this button!  It’s been in my stash for so long, and there’s never been just the right project for it.  As soon as I spotted it again in my button bag, I knew its time had come!

My little holiday-house machine is so very un-serious, like using a toy sewing machine, you can’t help yourself but feel like you’re playing while you’re using it.  It’s so clunky and little.  It doesn’t even do buttonholes.  I actually tricked it into doing a sort of buttonhole, by careful zig-zagging, and manipulation of the stitch length and width, and careful realigning of the fabric to do each side.

I had so much fun making this crazy carefree little number!  I was on holiday, just having total fun with it, and so making it felt like a holiday too.  I think it even looks like a holiday!

  

Details:

Top; New Look 6483, cropped
Skirt; modified Vogue 1247
Clogs; designed and made by me, details here

my favourite bit… the pompoms!

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Christmas pressies; a sewing marathon

29/12/2017 3:33 pm \ 31 Comments \

Tim and Kelly…

As usual, I made Christmas presents for my family… I started late October, so I was giving myself plenty of time, or so you’d think!  I’m a fairly efficient seamster, and I still only just finished a few days before Christmas!  it’s been a little intense and stressful, actually; every year I underestimate how busy the lead-up to Christmas is and how I just don’t get as much time to devote to sewing presents as I thought.  Plus, I’m a lot more finicky and particular – maybe excessively so?! about my sewing now too.  I think this is a good thing, but I have to accept that I’m taking longer to make things, and should start sooner!  Or maybe make less?

Anyway, it got done!  *phew

Listing everyting in the order I made it…

First thing to get made was a shirt for Tim… He has a job now where he has to look smart, so I decided to make a business shirt… I bought the really lovely deep maroon, mini-scale gingham cotton shirting from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, and used Burda 6874, my kinda go-to shirt pattern since I semi-retired Burda 7767.  d’you know I made that pattern 37 times… can you believe it?!  that tissue paper was wearing pretty thin in some places and in some other places I’d trimmed off the cutting lines altogether, woopsies!!

what sleeve placket…? of course I busted a gut matching those teeny little checks everywhere, took me two days before I could see straight again…

I made the buttondown version… see how the collar up there buttons down onto the shirt?  This is what qualifies it as a buttondown, folks!  I don’t wanna get all grumpy and pedantic here, being Christmas and all, but the number of times I’m reading about someone’s very lovely, but NOT A BUTTONDOWN shirt erroneously labeled as such and have to hold myself back, because we all hate a little lecture, right? I’m gonna stop right now otherwise I’m going to become that painful lecture-r.

this is the inside of the shirt… I’m pretty proud of my flat-felled seams… and I use the burrito method for the yoke so that’s all nicely enclosed too

All seams are flat-felled, using my own tutorials here and also this one here… yes you can flat-fell every single seam in a shirt! and it’s so much better and nicer… although I’m starting to realise that this is probably why what used to take me maybe two days to make a shirt…  now takes me double that time at the least! but anyway.  My guys appreciate the tailoring, so I’m happy that they’re happy.

Sam’s shirt…

I’m just SUPER happy with how my buttondown collars are looking nowadays!  It’s pretty hard to get that sitting just right and perfectly symmetrical; and I think after all the shirts I’ve made I’ve finally got it down…

Next up; I made a matching top for Kelly.  I’ve previously made matching tops for the two of them and noticed that they wear them together a lot! yes, it’s super cute…  I did a little bit of subtle inquiring as to whether matching clothes were still something they liked before I went there and got a positive response.  Alright then!

I had to be far less subtle about fitting it though!  I’d previously taken Kelly’s measurements for when I made a Kelly anorak for her… it’s impossible to do this without it being obvious! and made a block for her, using my Pattern Magic book to help me.  Yes, this is a pretty involved thing to do, requiring protractors and algebra and such-like! but honestly I’ve always found it to be a hugely worthwhile exercise when drafting new patterns.  Then I mocked up a quick plain bodice, and got her to try it on, and made the necessary changes.  In Kelly’s case, the block fitted but the armhole/bust dart had to modified considerably… the famous full-bust adjustment.  I regret now that I didn’t take any pictures of the mock-up bodice and the changes I made because it was a new learning curve for me that I wish I’d documented!

For Kelly’s top, I’d chosen the asymmetrical cowl top from Pattern Magic 2; the shape of the cowl is dictated by the shape of the facing.  It’s always a bit of a challenge to draft your own patterns, but well I love a challenge! and I knew the shape of this top would be super flattering for Kelly and suit her beautifully…  I cut the pieces on the bias and inserted a maroon invisible zip in the left side seam, so it zips down undone… however Kelly says she can squeeze into it without having to undo the zip which is cool.  I think the bias-cut is what gives it that little bit of stretch.

Next up! a business shirt for Sam! He has also started a new job which requires business dress everyday… I’d noticed a lot of young men wearing gingham shirts while we were in Melbourne… a good sign that gingham is super on-trend! so hot right now! which is basically why I bought gingham for both my boys in the first place.  It’s a bugger to pattern match though, even worse than stripes! gnnnnnnn  but oh well…

Again I used Burda 6874, flat felled seams throughout, same links as for Tim’s above… aaaaand so not much else to add.  Both Sam and Tim have been working out some lately, so I think I’m going to have to make some small adjustments to their shirts in the future.

Next up!  I made some little things for Cassie, she needs more work clothes so this was another practical gift really.  I made three things for her…. I just want to say here; it might seem unfair that I made one top plus TWO skirts for her, when compared to just one shirt for each of the boys, but it really does even out because the TIME I spent making these three little separates is actually the same as the time I spent on EACH of the boys’  shirts.  I know, crazy right?!  it’s all that tailoring bizzo that takes so much time…

Likewise, Kelly’s top needing a block made, plus the fitting muslin, plus drafting a pattern, also took about the same amount of time as making three tried and true things for Cassie!

Anyway; Cassie had already chosen this lovely crackle-y hand-painted cotton from the Fabric store in Melbourne while we were there, and I secretly bought the mustard gingham printed silk from Tessuti’s while she was looking elsewhere.  So the little top was a surprise!  The crackle print really is gorgeous, it is hand painted in Zambia and has that handmade naturalness to it…  LOVE this but pattern matching those hand-painted stripes was never going to happen!  of course they are all different widths and thicknesses which just adds to the charm of course.  I just shut down my inner-obsessive for a little while and did my best… at least I got the centre back seam to match!

The other little skirt is a cityscape print, maybe New York City by the looks of that Lady Liberty in there!  We’d seen the fabric in the upholstery section of Spotlight, so she’d known this one was coming too…

for both skirts I bound the lower hem seams using some leftover purple pin-striped linen, the leftovers from when I made this shirt for Craig a few Christmas’s ago.

I have also taken to binding the bottom edge of the zip and stitching it down to the seam allowances… often the bottom edge of a zip has a slightly scratchy bit which can be extreeeeeemely irritating when you’re wearing it… so I’ve taken to doing this whenever I made an unlined skirt with an invisible zip.  Such a small thing that greatly increases the comfort factor when wearing the skirt!!!

  

Oh! patterns!  I used the Inari tee pattern for the little top and Vogue 8363 for both of the skirts, and since I’ve made both of these patterns for her several times already they were super quick and easy to run up. For both skirts I added belt loops so she can cinch in the waistline a bit; in self-fabric for the Zambia striped one, and in black denim for the cityscape one.

Next up! a short-sleeved white shirt for Craig! also using Burda 6874 and a white cotton broadcloth from Spotlight, this was intended originally to be the same as this little shirt that I made for him a few years ago and which happens to be his most worn shirt … then just before making this I’d whipped up my little yellow/black&white lingerie set and had the gingham ribbon sitting out, and suddenly had this brainwave as to how I could use a bit more of it! I stitched the gingham ribbon carefully down the button line of the button placket, and used a little bit to trim the pocket.

To match this gingham detail, I lined both the collar and collar stand with some cotton gingham that I’ve had for aaaaages, and used black buttons to finish the shirt.  Note; IT’S A BUTTONDOWN SHIRT!  Also, of course it’s nowhere near a clone of the other white shirt any more but I still think he’ll wear it a lot…

Next up! a pullover/sweatshirt for Craig!  truth now… I was running out of time, and steam! and this fair near killed me!

Craig with a much much smaller Sam and Tim…

So, once upon a time, nearly twenty years ago, we went on a summertime camping trip down south and it was blooming’ freezing, our tent nearly blew away, we got rained on, hailed on and fair near froze to death!  In pure survival mode, Craig drove to the nearest town bought a red sweatshirt that he has since LOVED and worn about a million times, almost to bits since it’s getting reeeeeeally worn and threadbare now.  At some point he asked me to make a clone of the famous sweatshirt…

Of course it’s easy to clone a sweatshirt, but the challenge is in finding suitable fabric! I found this blue marled French terry in Spotlight, and while the colour is a teeny bit blah and the texture is not as nice as his original sweatshirt, it’s going to make a reasonable stop-gap until winter rolls around, the winter fabrics come into the shops, and hopefully I can find something nicer.  I busted a gut finishing off all the seam allowances off beautifully inside though… imitating the exceptionally beautiful finishes that were in the original.  For the pockets and bias binding I used some of the leftover navy/white gingham that I used for Sam’s shirt, above.  The pockets are French-seamed and the rest of the seams have an interesting amalgamation of HongKong bound AND flat-felled seams… not sure if my method is the same as in the original but I worked out a way to do it and took a few pictures along the way.

First, stitch the seams, then figure out which way you want the seams to be stitched down and apply bias binding to the topside of the seam allowance… ie. to stitch along the same stitching as previously you will be pinning/stitching along the UNDERNEATH,

OR alternatively you can save yourself a step here and stitch the bias binding on at the same time as you’re stitching the seam; your choice.

Press the garment seam allowances open, then press them to the side where they will be felled, with the bias binding on top.  From the other, right side, of the garment, pin through all layers.

With the right side facing up, topstitch the garment to the seam allowances plus binding, through all layers, just to the side of the garment seam…

view on the inside…

Keeping the bias binding free and clean, trim and grade the garment seam allowances…

Turn under and press the raw edge of the bias binding down so as to encase the seam allowances of the garment, pin in place.

With the bias binding facing up, and following the previous stitching as a stitching guide, topstitch the pressed edge of the bias binding down.  Since you’re using the previous stitching as a guide, the width of your double-topstitching will be nice and even from the outside.

Voila!  Such a nice neat finish!  at first I thought it might be overkill, but it is rather classy, if I say so myself; looks pretty good both inside and outside.  I will definitely be using this one again!

As seen above, I also applied bias binding all around the zip tape and stitched it down with double top-stitching the same way to match… this really does make a nice, neatly finished look when the zip is down.  Which it will be, most of the time.

And, last but not least!  I also made a few more little hardback notebooks… just fun little things, however I do know that the recipients do actually use notebooks regularly so I know they will be useful too!  I used mostly a mixture of leftover and old papers; from old scrapbooks, some with the children’s scribbles still on them!  I’m sentimental that way  😉 , various papers, musical paper, some pale coloured wrapping paper, writing stationery; just lots of different stuff.

The notebooks are covered variously with linen, velvet, printed cotton.  The one I made for Mum is covered with raw silk hessian.

So! Yes, it was quite a lot of stuff to make and I was working on it all like billy-o from touching down after Melbourne right up until I finished right on the wire only two days before Christmas…  I’ve been thinking about this… why am I taking longer to achieve less nowadays?  and I think it’s because I used to be happy and content with a slightly more unfinished approach… slapdash is maybe too strong a word? whereas now I am far more, possibly excessively? finicky and particular about perfect finishes on the insides.  I think I’m ok with this…  I feel like well-finished clothing is what I’m into right now.

However, to avoid the Christmas stress maybe I need to start making Christmas presents a LOT sooner!  Each year I start way ahead of time and think by doing so will relieve the stress, each year I get super stressed out and have at least one “I CANNOT DO THIIIIIIS!!” moment.  But I did.  And now for a break from deadlines!!

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Liberty bathers

28/12/2017 12:29 pm \ 14 Comments \

I made these bathers and took these photos over a month ago… hehe I just checked; 19th November!  What with the pre-Christmas social whirl and pressie-making craziness, I completely forgot about putting them up here, although I’ve been wearing them almost every day and actually happen to adore them too.  Oops!

I bought this gorgeous Liberty swimwear fabric from the Fabric Store, it’s the Liberty of London Argyll Swim in Mistral B… fell in love with this pretty print just about immediately; and those lovely bubblegum colours!  I’m having such a pink moment!  I planned at first to sew up my regular tankini adaption of McCalls 2772, and even cut out the pieces for the tankini.  But then hesitated, had a sudden attack of the oh here we go agains… see; I always make the tankini version of this pattern and never the bikini.  Plodding about mindlessly in the ol’ comfort zone as usual… and I really enjoyed wearing my black Sophie bikini last year.  Why not be daring and make the bikini?!!  Old-me would have worried about such nonsense as age-appropriateness, but now-me is getting over that now.  I  also asked my resident swimwear experts (Cassie and Craig) who both voted for bikini.  Alrighty then!  So I just dived right in … dove?

Not much else to say! only that I really really love this style of slightly blowsy halter neck top; I think it’s quite flattering to my figure, and I like the nice full-bottom coverage of the bottoms too.  One of the reasons I started making my own swimwear in the first place, even before I swore off buying rtw, was because of the at-the-time fashion for extremely skimpy bottoms.  Oh, and also because you weren’t allowed to buy a different sized bikini top and bottom, in spite of the fact that they’re priced as separate items.  Ha!  I still have vague memories of the actual day I called a halt to the sheer awfulness of swimwear-shopping… three very small children in tow, one in the pram… back and forth, in and out of the changing room… and those lights!! the refusal of the sales girls to comprehend that one wanted a size 12 bottom and a size 10 top… “No, I’m afraid you’ll have to buy two pairs of bathers if you want that!”  It was so frustrating!  I just went straight to the fabric store for a pattern.  Never again!!

Details:

Bathers; McCalls 2772 bought probably about 22yrs ago now, in Liberty swimsuit fabric
Hat; Country Road, also bought probably 22 yrs ago now!  it’s been a goodie.  I like it because I can hide my face like a movie star and thus be kinda anonymous while wearing my bathers on the internet, hehe  🙂

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neon yellow and black gingham

15/12/2017 1:54 pm \ 28 Comments \

So, Mum was coming up to stay recently and we were going to be doing some sewing together… for a variety of reasons I didn’t want to be doing my Christmas sewing, the biggie being that I needed a little break from all that #exhausted  #needsomeselfishnessSTAT

Anyway, I decided I wanted to just whip up something quick, fun and easy.  A simple lingerie set.  So quick!  Such fun!  So easy!  And, I reasoned; I have a billionty-one lingerie bits and pieces on hand already, so I could easily shop my stash and avoid any last-minute dashes to the fabric store.

Obviously when anyone sets out to do such a thing, a last minute dash to the fabric store will be an absolute certainty.  Ha!

So I had this small piece of neon yellow bamboo knit (Fabulous Fabrics I think), always intended for lingerie but never-got-around-to-it; and some bits of both white and black elastics, enough of the both together to cobble together a bra and two sets of sorta matching undies.  For the set to look cohesive, I used both white AND black elastics on all pieces…  so it’s kind of a case of nothing matches so everything does.  I do really like black ,white and yellow together though, so I think it turned out very nice.

The difference between the two pairs of matching knickers is subtle, oh so subtle! but it’s there.  One pair has black elastic on the waist, and white on the legs, the other has white elastic on the waist and black on the legs.  Subtle!!  To further emphasise the black/white dichotomy, I used black zig-zag topstitching everywhere there was white elastic, and white zig-zag topstitching everywhere there was black elastic.  This was not a totally successful ploy, since the white zig-zag stitching basically disappears into the yellow and you can’t even see it, but hey.

On another note; high contrast black zig-zag top-stitching on yellow is a deeply unforgiving exercise.  Much quality time was spent with my seam-ripper.

I’d planned to use a few little plain black and plain white ribbon bows in my stash, saved from old lingerie sets… but inevitably I became more and more convinced that black and white ribbons were just not right, and more and more convinced that the only option was something black AND white.  Like, gingham.  In fact I decided that gingham was the only possible choice, eventually.  At first I first made some ultra skinny rouleau loops with a scrap of gingham fabric from my stash – must avoid any last minute dashes to the fabric store!!! – and made some little bows, but they were just too bulky for the set.

Thus, the inevitable last-minute dash to Spotlight, for gingham ribbon.

It’s OK, I bought other stuff while I was there!  Alway, but always; there’s a little list building up.  (sigh)

Mum agrees that the gingham bows were exactly what the set needed.  The only thing is, that since the gingham ribbon is sold by the spool only, I now have about 3m left out of a 3.5m spool to do something with.  Lol!  MORE RANDOM STUFF ADDED TO THE STASH WILL IT NEVER END

Oh! pattern… I used the cloth habit Watson pattern for all pieces, except I used my own method for ensuring that all seams in the bra are enclosed in the lining, and as usual cut the knickers front and crotch lining as one piece so as to eliminate that horizontal front seam.  I love the Watson bra more and more nowadays; it’s funny; I’ve always preferred a slightly padded bra with a foam-lined cup, basically my whole life, but just lately I’m really into this soft, unwired, unstructured type of bra.  Especially for summer, when I’m not wearing tight Tshirts.  Sure, they result in the flat-chested look, but you know what? I’m at peace with that aspect of my body now.  I mean, it’s what I’ve got, it’s me, my body is just my body; and I’m ok with it.

Thank you, Jane for being such a fab lingerie model… and now, back to sewing the Christmas pressies!!

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