sewing Archives - Page 34 of 41 - Handmade by Carolyn

a whole swag of bags (portside by grainline)

26/12/2016 11:25 pm \ 32 Comments \ Carolyn

I haven’t felt like blogging very much, but absolutely must otherwise I’m going to get SO far behind… it’s time to get back on the wagon. I’ve been super busy busy BUSY, sewing up Christmas and birthday presents; including this bunch o’ stuff.

Luggage, or “travel sets’. This was my choice for a lot of my pressies for this year. I made three complete sets, plus four extra toiletries bags. Everyone (said they) loved them!
Pattern; the Portside travel set by Grainline Studio. I bought it during their Thanksgiving sale and got going on it immediately… It’s a nice little pattern for three pieces of luggage, a duffle bag, which is quite large, a “dopp kit” which is what we would call here a dilly bag or a toiletries bag, and a “pouch” which is a nice and handy, flat little purse-thing that you could store phone/device chargers, keys, cards, or just any small things that you don’t want getting lost as they knock about in the duffle bag.

Fabrics; all fabrics and bits and bobs are from Spotlight, except for the lining of Craig’s set, which is from Homecraft Textiles. The shells are constructed in thick, strong nylon drill from the upholstery section, intended for use in outdoor cushions and furniture, and all pieces are interfaced with the thickest, iron-on interfacing I could find. It stands up by itself rather nicely, and it should be nice and tough too! I lined everything with thin, waterproof, plastic-coated fabric, so the bags can be wiped clean inside. The interior of a dilly bag should be wipe-cleanable and waterproof in any case so your fabric doesn’t get stained and dirty from makeup/shampoo/toothpaste leakages, and I decided to use the same stuff for everything because I was thinking they all might want to sometimes use the duffle bags as gym bags, or alternately as beach bags. I just wanted all pieces to be both practical and tough.

Tim’s; made first. All grey/black/white, very masculine which at first I thought perfect for a professional young man. I actually made a matching grey/white dilly bag for him to start with, then suddenly felt all that extremely tasteful grey-and-white was all a bit plain-y plain blah blah blah, and decided it desperately needed an injection of FUN somewhere… we’ve been in sore need of fun around here lately… and Tim is naturally a pretty fun-loving kinda of a guy. When I saw this black/white Darth Vader/stormtrooper fabric in Spotlight, well it all just fell into place. I had bought some Star Wars Lego key rings for gifts when we were in Copenhagen last year; and had some leftover, and thought C3PO made a good zip pull for Tim’s bag.

Kelly’s set is all tropical palm print. Also fully lined with the same thin, white plastic waterproof fabric. And may I say… if only Spotlight had had this fabric in when I was planning my raincoat! I would not have resorted to using a shower curtain. But they didn’t. Oh Spotlight. you crazy hit-n-miss, lucky dip of a fabric store, you.

I also made a full three-piece set for Craig, for his birthday… the grey is the same as in Tim’s, and I bought a dirty camel-brown for the contrast, and a dull, air force blue webbing for the trim. I love these sludgy colours together, this one is actually my favourite colour combination out of all the sets… I didn’t like the thought of a white lining for this set, too stark; so went hunting for a “browner” alternative; and found this great, beige plastic at Homecraft Textiles. Actually, Homecraft Textiles had a really great range of waterproof fabrics… I’m seriously contemplating going there to get some raincoat fabric, hmmm.

In addition; I made two more of the Star Wars dilly bags; pretty much identical to Tim’s, except for the zip pulls. One was for Sam, and theother for Cassie’s boyfriend D. Unfortunately I only had one more of the Star Wars key chains, R2D2, which I put on Sam’s dilly bag; I had to promise D that if we ever got to Copenhagen again I would definitely get another key chain to finish his off to perfection!

I also made a pink flamingo dilly bag for my friend P, who LOVES hot pink and wears it a lot, thus the choice of this fabric. It’s funny, I wouldn’t have chosen this otherwise but I kinda fell in love with it while making it, and ended up utterly adoring it. Actually, it’s been pretty hard to part with any and all of these, for real 🙂

Finally, I made a second palm frond dilly bag, for another friend, M. She’s been so kind and sweet and generous to me all year, and I just wanted to make something for her. The only thing I’m super ashamed of is that I ran out of time and only just finished this one on Boxing Day, so it was a little late. Eeeeeeek!

I enjoyed making all of these.. the only difficulties I had was in getting the hardware, I cleaned my local Spotlight out of their entire supply of 25 and 35cm white and beige dress zips, 51cm white “chunky” zips, and also all their swivel clips and D-rings; completely! and had to visit Homecraft Textiles for more. I like the plastic swivel clips a lot; I know metal ones would be more “classy” and sure I could have found some online, but I just wanted everything lightweight and easy care, and I think these plastic ones are far more practical.

Some thoughts about the pattern and its construction… it is a good pattern, it works, fills a niche, all that; but I made a few minor little upgrades/mods/changes to the way I constructed mine, which I thought were an improvement to the outcome too.

As follows…

When sewing the side edges of the duffle bag and the dilly bag; start and stop the seams 1.2cm (1/2″) from the bottom edge… doing this makes it far easier to stitch the bag bottom piece on to each. Trust me, it really really does.

pictured here is the lower corner of a lining bag, but the same tip applies to the shell also

Also; before the stitching the lining bag to the inside of the zip tape: secure the linings to the duffle and dilly bags, between the shell and the lining bags, up the side seams and the four upper corners, as well as the bottom of each duffle bag. This helps further to keep the lining tamed firmly in place inside the bag, and not billow inside of the bag whenever you take things out.

Zips… the bane of our existence, no? Never the right length… for the duffle bag the pattern calls for 53cm zips, the closest I could find here in Perth was 51cm. To cover up the shortfall, I made a little inset bit to slip into the end of the seam covering the bottom of the zip. I think this looks really nice.

Likewise, the pattern calls for 33cm and 23cm zips; here they only come in 30cm and 35cm; and 20cm and 25cm. So for the 33cm; I bought 35cm zips and just cut the bottom ends off; and for the 23cm zips, well Spotlight ran out of the colours I needed and for several of the dilly bag pocketes I had to resort to a 20cm zip instead and made similar inserts to cover the bottom edge in the same way.

I added a little tab to the bottom end of each dilly bag zip, giving you something to grab at that end when you’re zipping it up. It’s just a short piece of the same webbing that I’d used for the duffle shoulder strap, folded in half and stitched in with the bottom of the zip. This helps a lot when you’re closing the bag.

I also lined inside the side pockets of the duffle bag, and also the side pocket of the dilly bag. It’s just neater and nicer, and more complete that way, I think.

To line the dilly bag pocket neatly… after stitching the upper side piece to the upper zip tape, lay the lining piece right side to the wrong side of the lower zip tape as pictured below, and stitch.

Proceed as per the pattern instructions, by topstitching the lower side piece over the lower zip tape

Not a mod, just a self-evident necessity; for the dilly bag I found I had to clip the freakin’ heck out of the top pieces, to get the top to fit in to the curve of the front/sides.

stretched out to the utmost…

Now, it has to be said; the complete absence of metric measurements in the Portside pattern is pretty annoying. When I saw this I was like, really?! I mean, I can forgive that in a pre-70’s vintage pattern… but not in a modern day pdf, sold internationally. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but still, this is just not good enough. Sure, it’s not hard for us pattern purchasers to convert all the measurements ourselves and jot them directly onto our pattern, that don’t forget, we had to print out ourselves too; but when you’re paying $14 for it… well, I just don’t think you should have to do that.

Now it looks messy…. should NOT have to do this….

… I’ve only just noticed this; that under “gather your supplies” the list includes “sewing machine” ;D

… but I don’t want to end on a down note. Overall I’m pretty happy with my decision to buy and make it, well obviously, since I’ve made so many! Maybe I should … er, make one for me?!

SaveSave

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, bag, grainline studio, pattern review, portside travel set

Japanese Liberty shirt for Craig

04/12/2016 12:08 am \ 45 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve been sewing a new shirt for Craig… and feel quite bad actually because we bought this fabric for him during our visit to Japan last January… nearly a whole year ago! Yes, I feel terrible.

Anyway, now it has been made, finally, all done and dusted, better late than never!

Pattern: I even treated myself to a new mens’ shirt pattern! this is Burda 6874. My old favourite Burda 7767 is very very used now and a lot of the cutting lines have almost fretted away and a few are barely visible anymore. I’ve still got it and will use it for the collar variations, which have always been its best feature. This new pattern is very nice too; it is a basic yoked mens’ shirt pattern, quite slimline, more slimline that my old pattern! with two back variations, curved hemline, regular or hidden button band variations, long cuffed sleeves, a collar stand and collar which can be made as a regular collar or a button-down… and when it comes to that please don’t get me started on the widespread but incorrect use of the term “button-down” as it applies to shirts… my pet hate grrrrrr. Hint; it’s not about the shirt at all, but the COLLAR. If the collar buttons down onto the shirt, it is called a button-down shirt. If the collar does not button down onto the shirt, it is NOT a button-down shirt. Simples.

(deep breath) ok so this is clearly NOT a button-down shirt… as per Craig’s request I also made it with short sleeves and gave it a hidden button band. It’s interesting that the hidden buttons do not have even spacing under that band… the space between the second, exposed button and the next one down is shorter than the others… this made me a little nervous when I was stitching those buttonholes, I checked the pattern, and double-checked! and yep, it IS supposed to be like that!

Also above; I decided upon welt pockets rather than patch pockets. No, they can hardly be seen in amongst that busy print. I’ve made my peace with that, at last, though that was the motivating factor behind my decision to topstitch throughout with black thread, to make all the details of the shirt stand out a little more.

I made up the pattern almost as is, with just a slight custom-fitting alteration for Craig, namely extending the underarm by 2.5cm, and that same width to each side of the sleeves at the underarm too. This extra width is tapered away to nothing by the bottom of the sleeve. It’s a similar alteration I always did to Craig’s Burda 7767’s too, but slightly different/less exaggerated since the fit of the new pattern is slightly different. Or maybe Craig has slightly changed? always possible I suppose!

All seams are flat-felled, including the armscye seams, and see here for my tutorial on how to flat fell a curved armsye seam (as below). I also did the yoke using that burrito method, so there was no need for hand stitching. Still had to hand stitch the inner collar facing down though… I don’t think the method has been invented yet that can eliminate that!

Fabric; Japanese Liberty tana lawn, bought from Check & Stripe in Tokyo, during our holiday last January. Craig chose it himself; the little village and woodland scenes are so lovely. Do I wish I had bought more, and even a little bit for myself YES!! but oh well. I did buy plenty of other fabrics for myself, don’t worry. But oh! Liberty such a true delight to work with… its so pliable, smooth, even; it passes through the machine beautifully, folds and presses so crisply and perfectly. I just wish I could sew with it more often!! The little unobtrusive black buttons are from Spotlight. I know, not very worthy, huh. Bit of a letdown. Well, it’s not like the buttons are going to steal any shows here. That beautiful print does all the talking!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 6874, Craig, mens shirt

a family collaboration

26/11/2016 12:29 pm \ 46 Comments \ Carolyn

So Mum is up to stay with me, and she popped out the other day wearing this gorgeous, completely handmade ensemble… and it occurred to us that it was a tri-generational effort! Mum made her skirt, Cassie made the scarf for Mum a few years ago, and I recently made the top for her. I asked her if she minded if I took a picture to share on ye olde blog and she graciously said yes.

SO! What have we here?!

Pride of place of course goes to Mum’s skirt… a fully hand-embroidered and hand stitched Alabama Chanin skirt; with embroidery in the reverse appliqué method, and using the four panelled, mid length skirt pattern from the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design by Natalie Chanin. The cotton jersey fabrics were originally white and Mum dyed them herself in two different shades of grey and blue. Mum traced and cut the stencil design June’s Spring from p116 in the book herself, enlarging by 300% as recommended, (also available as a pre cut stencil on the Alabama Chanin website here) She printed the design in creamy-coloured textile paint, and hand-embroidered with a running stitch in double strand of cream Gutermann’s upholstery thread.

When snipping out the motifs she carefully left a very narrow border of the cream stencil round each one.

Exquisite, oui?? I adore everything about this skirt; the colours, the design, the workmanship; and it’s just slightly tempting me to get out the materials and get a-hand-stitching again. Slightly 😉

The scarf… Cassie made the this gorgeous seaside/beach-inspired silk scarf for an art project at school. She hand-dyed and -painted white silk habotai in blue and yellow blocks and blobs, tying parts of it in the shibori style, then stitched a wiggly row of blue stitching for the tide, and embellished with clusters of mini yellow glass and gold beads. The hems are hand-rolled and -stitched.

I can’t believe I’d almost forgotten about this beautiful piece of Cassie’s and feel so lucky and proud that I have two such talented and creative ladies in my life.

Mum’s top is made by me, and yes it is very plain… ! A month or so ago Mum mentioned how she specifically wanted an unobtrusive, very plain white top to wear with this skirt so I offered to run one up for her… I chose the Esme top pattern from Lotta Jansdotter’s book Everyday Style and a slubby plain white cotton from Fabulous Fabrics. I measured Mum all over, secretly storing the measurements away for future use, mwahahaha… no one gets away from the handmade in my family!! and drew the pattern so as to custom fit it or Mum’s measurements. Instead of the neckline facings I finished the neckline with a bias cut strip, because I think it’s a much nicer and neater finish for a neckline edge. Mum wants to know how to do this herself so I’ve promised to write a tutorial sometime.

Anyway. She looks so chic and beautiful here, and it was so fantastic when we realised she was spontaneously wearing a collection of handmade family pieces… Such a fabulous and sentimental thing for the three of us. Thank you so much for letting me share, Mum!

Posted in: fashion, sewing \ Tagged: alabama studio sewing + design, dyeing, embroidery, everyday style, handcrafts, lotta jansdotter, Mum, scarf, skirt, top

acton dress, in the folds

10/11/2016 7:54 pm \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello, I’ve made a new sundress. Hmmmm, how do I love thee… let me count the ways. It’s easy. It’s breezy. It’s the palest of soft cloud-grey with teeny ivory stripes. It’s crinkly-linen-tastic on the outside, and lusciously silk-lined on the inside. It’s a midi length #currentcrave The skirt can be styled in multiple different ways.

That’s a lot of different ways.

Pattern; a few weeks ago Emily, the designer behind In the Folds contacted me, asking if I would like to review her new pattern, the Acton dress. Obviously I said yes! I love trying out new patterns! and this one looked like so lovely and elegant for summer, long clean lines, an interesting skirt, tres chic

Fabric; a crinkly linen bought at Tessuti’s in Melbourne a few years ago during a trip over there with Mum and Cassie. I remember I was going to make a shirt for one of my boys from it, but it wasn’t really the best fabric for that and I ended up buying pinstriped linens for them all instead, which was far more suitable. And by doing so, I then had the fabric all for my own selfish little self, while maintaining the virtuous position of having actually bought it unselfishly for someone else, mwahaha. My dress is fully lined with an ivory, silk crepe from Fabulous Fabrics. Actually leftover from my Ruby slip; and I just needed to buy a little more to get out the pieces.

For the straps and the ties; I used 1.5mm wide, white grosgrain ribbon. The pattern provides pieces and instructions to cut these out as bias-cut strips, but I chose to make them the ~~cheat’s~~ easy way. I overlocked all raw edges inside the dress, and hand-stitched the hemline in both skirt and lining

Thoughts and alterations: the pattern has two variations, or four if you count the fact that the bodice has two variations, and the skirt another two. Along with the fact that the skirt on variation B can be tied differently in several different ways itself, that adds up to …um, let’s just say “lots” of slightly different looks, to suit lots of different tastes, pick your favourite. I love having options like this in a pattern!

I made my dress with skirt B and bodice A that has a lower back. As recommended in the pattern, I used the skirt A pieces for my lining. There is an invisible zip in the CB seam, but with the lowered back of bodice A, I have found I can actually just slip the dress on and off over my head without having to zip it up or down. BONUS!! and darn that perfectly aligned invisible zip!

skirt wrapped and tied at front

The pattern is only available as a pdf; which I reckon is absolutely brilliant for those of us who want something NOW, however has the unavoidable downside that you have to tape all those pages together *sad trombone* If you’re printing out both skirt options as I did, because I was using skirt A pieces to line skirt B this is a whopping 64 pages in total. Yes, that’s a lot! Though, this is the entire pattern, and if you’re making the skirt unlined you wouldn’t have anywhere near that many 🙂 Also, of course you can always go the A0 route; take the file to a copy shop like Officeworks and pay a small amount to have it printed on three A0 size pages. This reduces the amount of taping to almost nothing. Me being the impatient bod that I am, yes: I printed at home and taped… and I save time and tape by cutting out and only taping together the bits that I absolutely have to.

I used to find pdf’s a bit of a pain but the instant gratification is undeniably a big plus and I consider myself an expert at this taping biz now.

skirt wrapped and tied at back

My measurements put me at a size C, and as mentioned, I can just slip the dress on over my head. I do have narrow shoulders it’s true, and my crinkly fabric does have a tiny amount of give, but the bodice does have that easy-wearing, loose-ish fit, which I reckon is a good thing for summer, or if you want to wear it over a Tshirt as I am pictured below. I found it necessary to do just a slight small bust adjustment; I did this by the simple expedited method of flattening the bust curve by shaving about 1cm off of the bust curve. Not very scientific, but it works fine for me…

skirt wrapped and tied at back

I also lengthened my outer skirt pieces about 7cm at the lower hem, to give a nice long midi skirt, just because I’m currently in a midi sort of a mood. A mood for midis 😉 Speaking of the skirt, let’s get into these skirt variations… what are these different ways in which it can be styled?

skirt loose and untied

Firstly, there’s just with the side pieces hanging down completely loose and with the ties tied up in themselves to keep them up off the floor. This is easy and comfortable, excellent for large Christmas dinners! and gives that sort of loose, flowy, “Lagenlook” to the dress.

Secondly and thirdly, wrap and overlap the side bits around to either the front or the back of the dress… (in photos higher up) I’m undecided as to which of these I like the best. They both look equally cool, I reckon. Craig likes them wrapped to the front (below).

skirt wrapped and tied at front

Finally; I’ve been seeing all the cool, fashion-conscious kids of the world wearing their long-line spaghetti strap midi dresses with a little cap-sleeved Tshirt on underneath, so thusly decided to give it a whirl (below)… and I really love it like this! It was too hot to wear it in Broome with the additional layer underneath, but right now in Perth our sorta-warmish-but-not-hot springy weather means it’s simply perfect to wear a sundress with Tshirt, for that little bit of extra coverage. And the ties, for this “look”, I just tied them very loosely at the back without “wrapping” the side bits over each other. This does look nice too, I think, more casual and allows the long sleek lines of the dress to hang more gracefully. I actually think this could be my favourite way though it’s a close one. I do really like the way the skirt can be worn such a lot of different ways and plan to mix it up every time I wear it!

skirt not wrapped but loosely tied at back

Now, for some business-y notes. Emily kindly offered me an affiliate link for the Acton; and while up until now I have earned not one single cent from my blog and I have often said I wouldn’t do affiliate links, I have decided it’s time to give it a go. So my links to the Acton pattern will pay me a very small commission if someone chooses to buy it through that link. Please bear in mind that the commission paid to me is NOT an additional cost to the pattern; if you buy the pattern the price is exactly the same whether you buy through my link or otherwise. I just wanted to explain that just in case anyone was unsure and was wondering how it works. If you have enjoyed reading about and looking at my sewing projects over the years and also wish to buy this pattern, then please do not rule out this option 🙂

The Acton dress pattern is available from Emily’s site here; and you can also read more about Emily, an honours graduate in fashion and textiles from the University of Technology Sydney, and her other designs here

loosely tied at back

Details:

Dress; the Acton dress by In the Folds, in grey striped crinkly linen, lined with silk crepe
Tshirt; the Nettie, white jersey, details here
Hat; Vogue 8844, ivory corduroy, details and my review of this pattern here
Sandals, in the beach pics; designed and made by me, details here
Clogs; in the garage pics; designed and made by me, details here

I took these beachy photographs on Cable Beach in Broome; a place which captured my heart during our holiday a few weeks ago and from which I did NOT want to come home. I’m not even joking. I’m getting that happy, eternally-summer vibe all over again, just looking at these pictures *sigh* Minimums 25C, maximums 32C every day; huge beach, squeaky white sand, almost completely deserted. Heaven!! I want to go back!!

Bonus picture; husband was intending to stay well out of the way but still managed to inadvertently photobomb, haha

LATER EDIT: the dress has had a minor update! I sliced off the wings, angling from the waist seam in a straight line out to the unaltered hemline… so the dress still has those lovely handkerchief points in the hemline, but is a little more streamlined about the waist and hips.

LATER EDIT:

the dress has had another update!

fairly major this time… it’s been worn quite a lot and I was getting a little bit tired of it… so it got rather summarily dunked into the dyepot… from which it somehow managed to emerge totally transformed into something newly amazing and magnificent to my eyes… I’M SO IN LOVE WITH THIS DRESS ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: acton dress, dress, dyeing, in the folds, pattern review, photobomb

white inari

02/11/2016 11:36 am \ 41 Comments \ Carolyn

Mum and I went shopping together on my birthday; her for my birthday present, and me for her birthday present! yes, our birthdays are just a few days apart so this is a bit of a tradition. We went to Fabulous Fabrics. Haha… well how unexpected! *wink*

After much lengthy and highly enjoyable hunting, comparisons and consultations with each other, Mum chose this really beautiful fabric for me. it is thick but very light and airy, has a nubbly, ultra slubby texture and is as pure white as the driven snow. I absolutely adore it, in fact I’d been salivating over it whenever I saw it, ever since it came in. Getting a little bit to give me is extra thoughtful of Mum when you take into account that she doesn’t think white really suits me at all. I kind of agree with her up to a point… however! I still totally adore it, because ~~I’m a dreadfully contrary soul~~… no not really, I just have this thing for white clothing, particularly for summer, I love it with a fierce and burning passion…even a white-hot passion! Mum knows I do, so I thought it pretty sweet that she overrode her feelings to give me something I really love.

Pattern is the Named patterns Inari tee dress. This is my “real” Inari, for which I ran up my previously blogged red striped “muslin”! though of course they are both wearable since I found I needed to make only minor changes to the pattern for it to be perfect.

Something I mentioned in my red-striped inari post, the dress made as per the pattern rides up a bit when you lift your arms, so for this version I made the following simple modification to the sleeves to help reduce the problem:

What I’m doing here is adding width to and reducing the height of the sleeve cap slightly, and doing so without altering the armscye. Diddling about with both the sleeve and the armscye is possible if you really know what you’re doing #idonot; however can be quite complicated and so I tend to not go there… I would prefer to substitute an entirely different, tried-and-true sleeve cap and armscye from another pattern if it came to that!!

from L to R, top to bottom:

1) Trace the sleeve, and draw a line from the shoulder seam junction mark near the apex of the sleeve cap down to the lower edge, parallel to the grain line.
2) Cut from the lower edge up, leaving a scant few mm at the upper edge still attached. Pivot the two halves open; I allowed a gap of 4cm (2″) in width, although you could stand to go a little wider, if desired.
3) Tape a piece of paper to fill and fix the gap
4) redraw that lower hem to curve smoothly in a similar line to how the sleeve was previously, and trim
5) Original sleeve and new sleeve, juxtaposed. You can see how the sleeve is wider; and not seen, but the height of the sleeve cap has been reduced by 2.5cm (1″).
6) Very important!!! remember to measure the length of the new lower edge and cut the sleeve cuffs accordingly! They’ll be a bit longer than the sum of the original width and the width of the gap created in step 2.

Demonstration of results (below); The dress does still ride up a little bit however not nearly as much as previously, at right. To lessen the ride-up even more, you could go even further with widening the sleeve and “flattening” the curve of the sleeve cap even more. Or alternatively of course, you could always substitute an armscye and sleeve cap from another pattern, at a pinch!

I’m pretty happy with this though 🙂

Finishing details:

I still didn’t use the neckline facing, but turned in the seam allowance and finished with a piece of bias-cut white linen. Similarly at the lower hemline, the raw edge inside is bound with bias-cut white linen and then handstitched, this looks nice if anyone happens to catch a glimpse of that back hem inside.. which lets face it, is quite possible because of that low-hanging back edge, and also eliminates the bulk that you’d get if you turned the fabric under twice.

Bonus picture, photobombing daughter…

Fun fact, she made the dress she is wearing here; it is a cute and interesting tank dress with tucking up one side and side split detail on the other, made in blue marl jersey that she bought in Japan. She’s wearing it over the skirt that I made for her, here. Honestly, she makes the most lovely things, but doesn’t really share them on any social media. Occasionally I persuade her to pose in something she’s made, like the time she made this really divinely beautiful ivory cut-out lace top…

Gorgeous, isn’t it?

Details:

Dress; Inari tee dress by Named patterns, white slubby cotton mix
Shoes; designed and made by me, details here
Sandals in top picture;designed and made by me here. this picture taken on Cable Beach during our recent holiday

and hmmmm, I’m sorry that I’m closing with my dress here… bit of an anticlimax after Cassie’s top!!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, daily outfit, dress, inari, named patterns, photo-bomb, tutorial

red striped Inari tee dress

29/10/2016 10:22 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

Heya’all. I’ve made this new dress. Actually, I made it ages ago. And took most of these photos ages ago too. Bad lazy blogger!

I wore it recently as my “travelling dress” when we holidayed in Broome, and it was the most AWESOME travelling dress… why? well it’s a loose-fitting, baggy, dress made in a comfy fluffy fleece, so just about the most amazingly comfortable thing EVER! pretty much like wearing a blankie. At the same time, there’s something about the curved, slightly cocoon-y lines of the dress that I think makes it quite smart, chic and pulled-together. This is actually my wearable trial of the pattern and I absolutely love it. I might almost love it more than my “real” version. Almost. I actually love that one a bunch too. To appear here very soon.

Pattern: So, yeah; the Inari tee dress by Named patterns. SUCH a popular pattern, and as I now appreciate, for an excellent reason. It’s terrific. Simple, yes; and basic, and bordering on a boiled-down-to-the-bare-bones kind of a pattern with just a few very subtle features like that slight cocoon shape, the side seams drifting gently frontwards, the split hem and an up-down front and back hem. And I love it. I’m normally attracted to a more complex design for a dress, but this one just hits all the right buttons for me right now.

Fabric; a red and white stripe mid-weight fluffy fleece from Spotlight. This is the same fabric I used for Tim’s Christmas hoodie and for Kelly’s hoodie too. Yep, I bought quite a lot! there was a sale… um, yeah *awkward self-justifying of excessive fabric acquisition* Well, at least I’ve used it all now. This has been kicking around in the stash since pre-Christmas, since I’d decided it didn’t really suit anyone else in the family. I think it suits me though!

My stripes are matched up as perfectly as my obsessive little soul could manage. I’m smugly and complacently satisfied with how well they turned out… the only way I know how to achieve this level of stripe matching is to pin each and every junction and go nice and slow. Tedious but failsafe, and all my stripes here match any which way and everywhere. *primly pats self on back*

sewuthinkucan asked me on instagram whether I found the high slim sleeves on the design to cause the dress to ride up when you lift your arms up as above: not that I pull this pose all that often and probably will be careful now I’ve seen these pictures! but it does a little. Not enough to stop me from wearing it! I think the effect is not too bad because of my fabric being a little stretchy. However, in my next, “real” version of the pattern, I altered the sleeve so as to successfully fix the problem… and will post details on that in my next Inari post.

Alterations; the most obvious one is inseam side pockets! Well, of course. It’s baggy enough and the side hems curve forward slightly to the front, an even more comfortable position for your hands than the true sideline of your body; making inseam pockets an almost foregone conclusion.

My neckline has neither facings nor bindings; partly because my fabric has too much fluff and loft for bulky extras with incorporated double seam allowances etc, and also because this is basically my wearable muslin for the pattern and I just didn’t want to fuss around with it. I overlocked the raw edge and simply turned it in once, topstitching in a single line of stitching from the right side. My fabric is all of thick enough, stretchy enough and stable enough for this to be totally fine. I did do the sleeve cuffs though.

Details:

Dress; Inari tee dress by Named Clothing, red striped fleece
Shoes; designed and made by me, details here

taken after a plane trip, a week rolled up in a suitcase, another plane trip, and precisely zero ironing. LOVE.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, inari, named patterns

a Kelly for Kelly, and one for Cassie too…

16/10/2016 1:14 pm \ 25 Comments \ Carolyn

O hey-a! After finishing my own Kelly anorak and having it admired to the nth degree by family members, I made a few more! a pale grey one for Cassie, and I also made a deep cobalt blue one for Tim’s girlfriend Kelly. Well, it seemed only right that she should have a “Kelly” too!

I quickly snapped that top picture of an unsuspecting Cassie waiting to meet up with me in town before she noticed me heading towards her… I know it’s a bit blurry and not very posed to show off the anorak to modelly perfection, but I just really like it nonetheless… to me it attests that she’s been wearing it a tonne, in fact every single occasion that I’ve seen her in the past three weeks since I finished it and gave it to her she has been wearing it. There’s no greater compliment to a seamster than that! as well as a testament to the pattern being an absolute style winner. Kelly’s worn hers each time I’ve seen her since I gave it to her too, but I’ve not taken any pictures of her in it.. will update if she sends me one 🙂

This, taken when I presented it to her three weeks ago, and probably the only time it’s been worn with the sleeves unrolled like this. It does look a little more wintery like this. I have to admit, it does look a lot trendier and suits the casual, “heading into summer but still need a layer” look to have the sleeves rolled up.

Both the anoraks are in a nice weight cotton drill from Spotlight, in fact, all the other bits and pieces are from Spotlight too. In both anoraks, I added a few inches to the length of the body and modified the pockets to have separate pocket flaps so as to close the pockets; otherwise these are both made up exactly to the pattern.

This picture below of Kelly’s anorak has been my most “liked” picture on instagram ever! far more than anything I have ever made for myself! Interesting, no? Well, I think it is, anyway 😉 I don’t know what that “says”, if anything at all, but maybe something. Social media is such a funny phenomenon. Something else also interesting to me is how a person, any person, can have a certain number of followers and the number of “likes” never ever reaches anywhere close to that number. Honestly, I have no idea about how or why this is so, but it’s just a curious thing.

I’d got enough of the same white cord for Kelly’s anorak , but since I’d found a nice, perfectly colour-matched blue zip for hers’, and used blue thread for all topstitching and there was no other white anywhere in the jacket; the white cord looked all wrong. And naturally there’s no such thing as blue cord in the whole of Perth! so I just had to dye it. And, when your regular dye-pot is HUGE and there’s just one little length of cord what’s a mad maker to do? but of course, improvise.

Yeah, I know this looks uber-weird, but determination breeds resourcefulness… and it gave me such a laugh to watch this crazy little dye-pot bubbling on the stove! I’d tossed a pair of the same white plastic stops as I used for Cassie’s anorak in with the dye bath and it was very satisfying that they dyed up a nice deep blue too. I’d bought some silver stops just in case but fortunately the blue dye did the job beautifully 🙂

Different day, still wearing it. Yep, like I said, she’s worn it literally every single time I’ve seen her in the past three weeks. I’m calling that a ginormous WIN!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, Closet Case files, coat, dyeing, jacket, Kelly, kelly anorak, parka

Kelly anorak as a raincoat

06/10/2016 3:10 pm \ 51 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new raincoat! This is the Kelly anorak by Closet Case patterns, and I knew straight away I wanted to make it as a raincoat… why? well we’ve had officially the wettest winter and early spring on record, since they started keeping records, so like ever. EVER! It’s been hideous, I tell you! I’ve been wearing my old me-made raincoat all winter, but I’ve noticed that it’s not quite as effective as it used to be. I would classify it as shower-proof now, rather than waterproof *sob*. Well, it is a few years old now so possibly the fabric is becoming a little brittle with age, because I’m pretty sure it used to be lovely and watertight! Now, not so much! #sadface

So a new raincoat was needed… I really wanted a white-ish, cream or ivory one. I just love off-white and think ivory looks so chic and really smart in outerwear. Actually, I think it looks chic in anything!! #welldocumentedivoryfan I bought a plain white shower curtain from Spotlight, and gave it a little water test, posted here on my instagram account. I love how the water droplet looks like a wee little living thing, zipping about on the surface. Obviously the fabric passed with flying colours. Pretty cool, huh?

The fabric was quite see-through, and while I don’t mind a little bit of sheerness in a raincoat it really was TOO sheer, so I decided to underline fully with polyacetate lining fabric. I didn’t want white lining fabric, pure white is quite harsh for my colouring, so I chose this pale golden beige colour. I had this idea that it would tone down the pure white to a warm, off-white, oyster white, which I think my colouring needs. SO. Funny thing! To my mind, this lining fabric is a definite gold, or even brown, wouldn’t you agree? I would not call this colour “pink”… so I’m pretty surprised that the overall look of my raincoat reads pink! Don’t get me wrong, I love it! just that I did not expect this! In retrospect, I can see the colour does have a sorta peach-y look to it…but still! Golden brown under white; gives… pink?!?? Well alrighty then!!

In a raincoat, you need to seal the seams, and for my previous raincoat I used some stuff called Seam Grip, which has done a stellar job in that raincoat for years. So I was pretty sad that I couldn’t find it any more! BCF sold me some of this stuff… it’s a little different, far more liquid-y than the gel-like Seam Grip. It dries on the surface of the fabric forming a slightly hard, just slightly stiff, matte finish; similar to what you would expect if you painted clear matte nail polish on the seams. It does seem to do the trick, though only time will tell. The good thing about it is that it “disappears” on the fabric and you can hardly tell it’s there… unlike the Seam Grip which was a definite visible, shiny “smear” on the seams inside my old coat. Not that anyone ever looks on the inside of my raincoat, but you know what I mean! this new stuff is quite invisible which does look really neat and tidy. So that’s good.

Materials: my shower curtain, zip, eyelets, nylon cord, press studs and the “stops” for the cord; I bought everything at Spotlight. Seam sealer from BCF (boating camping and fishing) store. It’s intended for use on tents and sails! My shower curtain was just enough fabric for my pieces!! Just a few scant patches left enough for me to cut a few extra pocket flap pieces and after that? almost nothing leftover.

Pattern; the Kelly anorak, by Closet Case patterns, available here. Heather asked me to be a tester and I gleefully jumped right in. I really like Heather’s patterns, she has a modern young woman’s aesthetic, with clean lines and unfussy shapes. Basically, I’ve loved everything she’s designed! I made up the pattern just as is, grading out from a size 8 at the top to a size 10 at the hips, according to my measurements, and I reckon the fit is spot on, with just the right amount of ease. I believe Heather has shortened the sleeves, lengthened the body and widened the biceps a touch in the final version in response to tester feedback, however I’m happy with the fit I’ve got here!

Alterations: I just made some very minor alterations simply because it’s a raincoat:

The bellows pockets are designed to have a faux flap, so you can just shove your hands satisfyingly right in those pockets with absolute no impediment… however because mine is a raincoat and I thought functional pocket flaps would be a good idea, you know, to protect whatever is in the pockets from the rain! so I made and added extra pocket flaps on the outside. I LOVE the little double flap effect this gives! ok, maybe it looks a bit weird but I really like it!

I added press studs to the wrist cuffs but left them off the opening front zip placket; reason being that I think a raincoat doesn’t really need them and might actually be more of a nuisance than useful. You know; it starts raining, you want to just throw on your coat and just zip it up quick! bob’s your uncle. The drawstring is good enough for pulling it all in, for me.

In most cases, I overlocked all raw edges to prevent fraying then flat-felled all seams UP, which you always do in raincoats for waterproofing reasons. I remember I went into some detail on this in my previous raincoat post… it’s a little thing but I believe it does make a difference! The shadow of up-flatfelling can just be made out above on my sleeve seams and this front/front yoke seam, which is slightly curved to give some subtle bust shaping.

I hammered in two eyelets tucked up high under each arm to allow body heat to escape; this is an essential in a non-breathable, waterproof garment…

I also added eyelets and pull-cord to the hood opening because, well obviously. A raincoat hood is never merely decorative!

You know what? I’ve worn the raincoat several times, and it’s brilliant. I love it! And so far so good; it’s stood up to a a pretty heavy downpour and I’ve remained happily dry inside It is actually very warm too, which I guess is what you’d expect from a completely waterproof fabric. I’m happy!

Details: