Category Archives: Sewing

some odds and ends

05/06/2024 12:45 pm \ 1 Comment \

Just recently I took part in me-made May again, and had a month of taking my own photos once more.  It feels funny to go back to this, since I’ve completely got out of the habit of taking daily photos, but I do enjoy joining in with me-made May.  It helps me to take stock of the items in my wardrobe that I really like and those that I don’t! and also identify any gaps in my wardrobe…

So these are my daily outfits for the month… there are 32 outfits for 31 days because we had one evening out for my sister-in-law’s birthday party for which I wore a separate outfit from during the day (pic5).  I made every item of clothing I’m wearing in every outfit, except for my black hiking boots and white sandshoes.  I did make the sandals in pic14 though!

Thoughts; (warning; skip this bit if you find wardrobe analysis boring!). I liked all my outfits although there are 1-2 things I pinpointed as being shabby and maybe not really up for public consumption any more (overdyed blue dress and the tomato cardigan from picture 1).  I also resurrected a few things from storage to wear again, and was reminded how much I love them really.  (chambray top from pic26, overdyed dress from pic12, jeans from pic 25, jeans from pic32, the shirt I made for Craig in pic16). Surprisingly (for me) I hated nothing, which is good, and makes me think I might need to retire those things I chose NOT to wear during the month!  I conscientiously tried to wear something different every day and only discovered that I’d doubled up on a few things after the event.  I wore my pink Pinjarra cardigan twice (pics 10 & 23) and also my little raspberry jacket twice (pics 9 & 25), and my brown knitted cardigan three times (pics 7, 13 & 24).  For the last few years I’d got into the habit of not wearing jeans very often since I became convinced that I look terrible in them.  However, lately I’ve found to my surprise that I don’t mind how they look on me.  So, I’m planning to make a new pair of jeans, surprise surprise!  Wardrobe gaps: well, sorry to sound like a broken record, however as old pocket-less items die they are only going to be replaced with pocket-equipped items!  This is absolutely not negotiable.

In the end, me-made May is a bit biased in that I don’t get to wear my truly summery things nor my truly wintery things either.  It’s all the middle ground, trans-seasonal things that suit middle ground temperatures.  I mean, this is fine; because the majority of my wardrobe is obviously middle range things weather-wise… however sometimes I think I should do this sort of analysis privately for a hot month and a cold month too.

I also kept a pictorial record of my purple hair wash too! just for fun. :). The colour was quite intense to start with and had washed out to a shade I REALLY love after 2-3 washes.  I took the 6th picture today, the colour is quite subtle now, but it still noticeable, I think.  In a good way!  However, this is a lesson to me that if I ever use a purple colour wash again to just use maybe a third of the tube, at most!

I made something else last month; a new pair of winter jammies…  I used the Closet Core pattern that is my namesake of course, the Carolyn pyjamas for the bottoms.  The top is vaguely similar to my usual pattern Burda 10/2009; 121 that I’ve used for winter pj tops in the past, but I’ve somehow managed to lose the pattern I’d traced out.  I didn’t feel like re-tracing it, so instead I just laid down last year’s top and traced around the outside, haha.  I added oversized pockets to the front, because I always need pockets.

I had to buy new fabric thus breaking my no-buy rule… but it was a necessary sin since I had no flannelette in my possession!  I bought as little as I dared and managed to use the entire amount, so I’m forgiving myself!  The bunny print cotton flannelette is of course from Spotlight, and I bought a small amount of white to give some contrast because I always like a bit of contrast.  To be honest, I searched and searched for some garishly cotton candy coloured unicorn print flannelette which would have been my absolute ideal… and was extremely disappointed to find nothing like that.  These sweet blush-pink bunnies are reasonably cute enough so they will do.  For now!

In closing; a favourite moment from me-made May was the day when Cassie, Theo, Gilbert and I visited the Subiaco Flower festival together… we had such a lovely afternoon!

(photo taken by a kind lady passing by)

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a weird new top

24/05/2024 12:57 pm \ 7 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve made a new shirt/top; it’s a little weird but it’s an idea I’ve had in my head for a long time and have been quietly working on realising it.  I’ve actually been making this shirt for over a month! it’s still not quite there but this iteration has helped me to firm up the idea even further, so it’s all good!  This will most likely become a new sewing pattern for our Carolyn & Cassie oevre…

I used a white slubby cotton that has been in my stash for ages, awaiting a good project.  I really love this stuff and have made lots of things using it in various colour ways over the years.  It’s originally from Fabulous Fabrics and I’m pretty happy that they still have it available in lots of colours to this day.

I drew up the design myself and it still needs a little work but I’m fairly happy so far.  My idea is to have a shirt with the traditional collar, collar stand and opening button placket to be offset over the shoulder.  I really like how this part of it turned out!  I made the sleeves not quite full length, and there is a short, bias bound slit opening and traditional cuff.  This may or may not change as time goes on, I’m not 100% sold on this.  I added two patch breast pockets to the front because it all looked a little bare without them, but the pocket situation is still a work in progress too.  Reset assured there will be pockets in some form or another though!  Most of my time has been in perfecting the collar and collar stand and I’m very happy with how this bit looks.  Although I forgot to button it all the way up while taking my photos here it’s still very comfortable fully buttoned up.  Hurrah!

I stitched on black buttons for a contrasting look; also from stash and originally from Spotlight probably.  These don’t really match each other but they’re all black and two-holed, and the same size so you wouldn’t really notice the difference without knowing.

I made the hem gently curved and love how this looks.

Watch this space!

I’m wearing today for me-made May here with my beloved Closet Core Morgan jeans and raspberry silk jacket made years ago using V 2894…

You can also see this jacket worn in 6 different ways in this post here… and wow, I’ve just reminded myself how long it’s been since I did something like that!  It was actually fun, maybe I should do one again!

Oh, and my daughter in law Kelly kindly sent me a few pictures of Arthur wearing his new cardigan, that I finished at the end of March.  He looks so cute!  In his words “it’s beautiful, like a rainbow”.  Words to totally warm the cockles of his granny’s heart.  What a sweetie!

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dusky pink linen shirt

18/05/2024 10:25 am \ 4 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve been sewing again lately …

I just finished a button-up shirt using this beautiful dusky pink linen that I received from the Linen Shack.  The linen is very fine and light, and was absolutely beautiful to work with.  Aah, I just love sewing with linen.  Also, I’m so into pink right now it’s not even funny!  This dusky pink colour is lovely, a gentle and subtle pink with just a hint of lilac about it.  Making me nostalgic for the cherry blossoms from a few weeks ago, sigh… ahh, take me back, please…

I didn’t have pink thread in my stash and instead of going for something like ivory or white as per my habit, I chose a pale green.  Actually the contrast is very subtle and you really have to get up close to notice!  The white buttons are also from stash… they are originally from Spotlight.  I bought these in both white and black originally, and I always use them upside down because the back side is so much prettier; a lovely shiny smooth slightly rounded profile.  The front side is matte, and has a raised serrated lip; and it’ not so visually appealing to me.  I think I kind of bought them in shirt-button desperation once upon a time, back in the day, and then the discovery that the back side was actually really pretty was totally serendipitous!

I partially used a really old Burda pattern, from the 8/2009 magazine.  This might sound a little confusing but bear with me; the pattern/s are numbered from 129-132, with each one being variations on the same basic block, and my version here is kind of a fourth variation!

Actually, I also cut out some breast pockets but haven’t added them yet… I even saved enough green thread so everything matches!  I’m thinking of doing some embroidery on a pocket, but wanted to post these pictures how it looks now…

I’m wearing it in these pictures here with a self-designed skirt made from my parents’ curtain leftovers, and a hat made using Vogue 8844 and corduroy from old jeans…

Did you notice anything about the hatless picture above??

OK, now don’t be shocked… but I whimsically decided to put a purple wash through my hair this morning.  I don’t know what I was thinking, maybe that I’d get a light lilac tinge to my hair or something like that since my own hair colour is still quite strong. .. I was quite surprised that the purple turned out a lot stronger than I imagined!  Eeek!  I’m kinda into it, but also a little … taken aback!  At least it’s only going to last for a few weeks!

The Linen Shack dusky pink linen can be found here 

(not an affiliated link)

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an ivory blouse and a pink neck warmer

30/04/2024 8:10 pm \ Leave a Comment \

Hello!  I’ve finished a few new things over the past few days…

First up, a new ivory blouse for myself.  This is the new Fibremood Georgie blouse, and it’s quite an interesting design and construction technique that I haven’t really come across before, namely a series of very deep pleats in the neckline and sleeves.  These are bound down with a narrow bias strip.  The raglan sleeves also have deep pleats going into those cuffs.

If I was going to be picky I think I would have chosen to cut the cuffed sleeves a little longer, and it’s also quite a short blouse overall.  However I do really like the finished blouse.

I found a short length of ivory muslin in my stash, which was lucky! because it was perfect for the floaty style of this blouse; and for the buttons I went with some fun bee buttons, also from the stash.  Aren’t they cute?!

I’m wearing them here with my Closet Core patterns Sasha trousers and my clogs made using a kit from Leather Needle Thread.  I really should make some new trousers; I don’t really have that many, and those that I do have are mostly quite old by now.

I also finished up my April knitting project, again in the knick of time!  I literally cast this off about half an hour ago and took these extremely quick and slightly dodgy pictures, but at least I got it done within the month!   I’ll take some better pictures when the weather is suitably colder and post them in here later.

It’s a very simple neck warmer, made using a very bobbly pink/apricot yarn from the very large stash I inherited from Mum when she did her cleanup.  I had plans for something a bit more interesting; however when I was in Japan I didn’t have the time to knit on the trains that I thought I would.  I came home having achieved basically no knitting at all, and had to whip up something in the small amount of time I’ve had since we returned.  I’m going to try to be more organised in May and produce something a bit more exciting.

Speaking of; tomorrow me-made May begins again!  I will be joining in once again, but only on instagram this year and maybe on my TikTok account, if I feel like it.  Haha, gone are the days we used to document it all on our blogs, or over on Flickr!  Feels like forever ago now.  I will likely do a roundup here at the end of the month.

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the Karijini dress

16/03/2024 7:36 pm \ 8 Comments \

Hello! I’m back, and with a BIG project that has been on my mind for quite some time now… a new pattern!  Please welcome the newest pattern to gallop out from the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co stable, the Karijini dress!

This is possibly our most ambitious design to date; being a complex arrangement of diagonal and asymmetric  lines, pin tucks, folds and overlays, and hemline that dips low at the back and shows off your legs at the front… We absolutely love it; its unique style, structural lines, its comfortable fit combined with a (we think) quite elegant silhouette … and we hope that you do too!  It is quite an advanced sew, but one that we think is well worth the effort.

Quick description; the Karijini is a comfortable summer dress with very interesting style lines…  Technical description; the Karijini is a loose-fitting sleeveless asymmetric dress; with partial overlays both front and back.  Features include generous inseam side pockets and asymmetric pin tucked hemlines across front and back.  Skirt hits above knee at the front and tapers off to calf length at the back  The dress has no closure but is designed to be slipped on over the head.

Some more important technical info;

I know, I know; the descriptions always sound so flat, but I promise this is not a flat design at all!  I first made and profiled this design this design back in 2018 and, in the process of fine-tuning the construction procedure and writing the instructions I have made many for myself and more than a few for others too!  The final pattern – well, my size anyway, of course not counting the grading – is practically identical to the first iteration, because I really was completely happy with that one straight off the bat.  The only changes were to improve the construction and finishing techniques a little bit.

The name?  well the Karijini National Park is in upper/middle Western Australia; and has always been one of our favourite places in WA.  The gorges are absolutely beautiful, with waterfalls, rocky stratifications and layers at all angles .. all of which went towards inspiring the style lines of our new design.

following photo from the website;

the Travel Guide to Karijini National Park, WA – Tourism Australia

To showcase the design on a group of different ages and sizes, we have once again roped family members into modelng for us … I’m not kidding when I say this is one of our favourite aspects of doing the patterns!  For our previous pattern, the Meelup skirt, we asked our niece/cousin Tiffany to model for us, this time it was her sister Jacinta who honoured us with her modelling skills.

My lovely mother/Cassie’s grandmother; was our other model, and both our photo sessions were such fun family events!

Jacinta’s dress was made in a softly “antique-y” blue floral from Spotlight, and Mum’s was made in a dark chocolate linen/cotton from the Morrison clothing fabric sale from a few years back.  I love how the structural lines of the design are showcased in the solid, dark coloured fabric; as well as how soft and pretty it appears in the floral.

Cassie also made one for herself in two contrasting fabrics; a large scale blue check and plain white cottons…  doesn’t this look so cool?!

As a reminder, here are some of my previously made versions of the Karijini;

the original, ochre linen version…

this green sparkle version…

this striped version… I have received many compliments for this one over the years!

this large scale check version…  I have since dyed this version dark blue, and it looks quite different!  At some stage I will take a photo and upload it here to show…

To celebrate the release of our newest pattern, we are currently offering 20% off the price for one week only, until Sunday 24th March… this apples to all our patterns in our Etsy shop here.  Discount applies automatically at checkout, no code is needed.  We hope you enjoy the sale, and our new Karijini pattern!

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trench coat inspired cape jacket

25/02/2024 5:08 pm \ 5 Comments \

I made this cool new little jacket/cape/abbreviated trench coat thing!  I don’t know how else to describe it really!

This is the new Delma pattern by Fibremood; it’s a very wide, yet very cropped little jacket, with trench inspired details like a gun flap at the front and storm cape at the back.  The sides are buttoned closed with arrowhead tabs, which themselves have a trench-inspired air about them too.

I added bellows pockets to the front of mine, for visual interest, and also because pockets too, of course!  These have plain, unbuttoned flaps over them.

The fabric is a bone coloured cotton drill from old old stash.  I can’t even remember buying this, that’s how long it’s been a-languishing.  I know I’ve said this before, but I have to say it again; I’m so happy to be finally liberating all these fabrics into my wardrobe!

The buttons are Billabong, harvested from off a pair of old worn cargo shorts of one of my boys.  Luckily I had enough and they were absolutely perfect in colour and style for this jacket!

I bought some new dating labels too!  These “made in 2024” are from Intensely Distracted.  I was all set to buy the same ones I’ve bought in previous years, the Kylie and the Machine “circa 20xx” ones, which I really like.  Unfortunately though, they were not releasing the colour way I wanted; the black writing on white background.  Last year I bought the white writing on black “circa 2023” and although I used them all, I have to be honest that I didn’t really like this colour way.  Anyway, I do really like these ones!

I’m wearing the jacket here with my old black corduroy jeans, made using the old Burda 7863, that I used to use a LOT back in the day!  and also my yellow clogs, made using a kit from leather needle thread.  I’ve linked to those things made previously…   Fun fact; it was about 40C when I was taking these pictures, and I was practically dying of the heat here, if you can’t tell. Phew!  In a few months though I’m sure the weather will have cooled down enough to wear this outfit for real.  I hope so because I really love it!

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tie dyed lingerie, and bikkies

10/02/2024 1:26 pm \ Leave a Comment \

Hello!  I’m back with a few new things…

I had a length of raspberry cotton jersey that’s lovely quality and I wanted to make a new set of lingerie with it, but I somehow felt it boring just as it was… what do do of course but make it less boring.  I decided to try my hand at some tie-dyeing…

 

I cut the right amount of fabric to cut a Watson set of bra plus two pairs of knickers. btw, ages ago I made the undies pattern pieces full size, and added the crotch piece to the front piece to include it, as shown above.  This had made the pattern far better suited to me, and far easier to cut out and construct.  I hog-tied it securely before boiling it up in a pot of navy blue dye.  Definitely not boring now… in fact I’m so pleased with the pretty shapes that resulted.  I forgot to lay down the back band in the above picture but remembered to check I had enough for this too before cutting!

 

I’m happy to report nothing new at all was bought for this set… I still have enough elastic left in my stash for maybe one or two new sets of lingerie before I’ll need to buy more, and I have lately been recycling even the hook and eye closures; although I’m aware that happy state of affairs cannot last forever!  However for now it’s very satisfying to be able to make something new and pretty and functional using just what I have.

We’ve had a few birthdays in the family recently, and one little activity I did recently was to make chocolate biscuits with 3yr old Theo for his party.  This was of course a delightful way to spend time!  Cassie had pre-made the chocolate biscuit dough, and I helped him to roll it out and cut shapes.  A few days later I whipped up a batch of icing with him, and supervised the icing and decoration.  He pretty much did all this by himself.

He happened to be wearing the T-shirt I made for him late last year, so I took a quick picture of him assiduously cleaning the icing bowl… so cute and funny.  I’ve never seen a bowl/plate cleaned out so thoroughly as that icing bowl!

Also, I made this green Meelup skirt and pink Booragoon top last year for my niece Tiffany, but she was a little unwell at the time when we were taking pictures for our Meelup skirt listing.  We finally managed to get together for our photoshoot just recently, and here she is.  Doesn’t she look lovely?!  It gives both Cassie and I such joy to have family members and friends modelling our creations!

  

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2023; a retrospective

31/12/2023 5:29 pm \ 10 Comments \

Hello!  It’s the last day of 2023, and I’m feeling miraculously motivated to look back upon my year of making, and see what I made, how it worked out and generally do a bit of retrospective musing on the things to come… first of all I’m putting up some favourite photos/outfits, one from each month of the year.  I made everything I’m wearing in each picture, barring some shoes…

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

NovemberDecember

Actually, it was funny for me looking back to find some favourite pictures because to be honest I had a bit of a photo slump this year.  I stopped enjoying taking pictures of myself and struggled to find any motivation in it, particularly during the last four months.

What did I make this year?

So, I made 64 items this year, including 1 knitted jumper, 2 underwear sets comprising a bra plus two pairs of matching undies, 1 leather bag, 1 wallet, 3 hats, 8 dresses, 2 jackets, 12 tops, 10 skirts, 3 cardigans, 15 kiddies’ garments, 4 pj’s, 1 pr hand warmers, and 1 Wedding Dress!  capitals intended…  30 of these items were for other people.  The absolute biggest and most involved project for me this year was of course Lainey’s wedding dress.  Yes, it sounds like a lot, and of course it is!  That stash is not going to reduce itself!

Cassie and I were absolutely over the moon to add two new patterns to our Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co stable this year; the Pinjarra twinset and the Meelup skirt.  It seems like this has been the Year of Basics for our tiny company!  It feels great to have some more tried and true patterns that we truly believe in and wear ourselves very frequently.  And we’re excited about moving onto more adventurous design next year. #bighint

 

Stashbusting vs new fabric

I’m still diligently working through my stash, and not buying or accepting new fabric.  I’m pretty proud of my restraint… in fact the only time I worked with new fabric this year was Lainey’s wedding dress! I’ve worked through quite a lot of my collection and it’s all looking quite manageable nowadays.  Realistically, I estimate I have maybe another year of not buying new to get rid of absolutely EVERYTHING, maybe even less?  Exciting thought! but we’ll see how that goes!  #fingerscrossed. Wish me luck!

Regarding the very large wool stash I’ve inherited from relatives’ …  I’m planning to enquire about donating most of it to my grandson’s daycare/kindergarten actually, because realistically it would take me years to knit my way through that.  I have to be realistic about what is achievable!

Favourite makes?

Hmm, no surprises here, but of course Lainey’s wedding dress is by far my favourite make of the year! as well as being the most involved.  This was a pure labour of love, into which I poured my heart and soul.  Although there were challenges… I still have slight ptsd about that hem! I’m pretty proud of the final product and felt like Lainey chose an absolutely beautiful design that I was genuinely in love with myself too.  I’m so thrilled with how beautifully she shone on this day, which was a truly lovely time in every way.

Some other favourites makes of the year are:

I’m really happy with how both this pretty pink Pinjarra cardigan and this little blue Jade mini skirt turned out, and I’ve worn both of these pieces pretty frequently.  The ivory tee is my most most worn item of the year!  I really need to make another, to take the pressure off!

For creativity, I was really happy with this weird little outfit!

And, so random, but I was thrilled with this little knitted set that I made for baby Gilbert!  Making things like this, and the purple/raspberry set above just reinforce for me the joy I feel with making something useful from scraps and bits and pieces that otherwise suggest nothing.  I need to embrace more projects like these because they are nearly always the most rewarding and satisfying to me. 🙂

any fails?

ooh gosh, that’s tough, because I didn’t really make anything this year that stands out negatively…  strictly speaking there are a few items I’ve only worn once so far, but they are all things I like!

I made a whole bunch of things from this rather terrible paprika-coloured stretch fabric, all of which have a tendency to stretch out, and it was a relief to get this ghastly stuff out of the stash.  However, all of them been worn a bunch so I can’t really call any of these a true fail either…  Theo insists the red T-shirt is his favourite top!

What did I wear? 

My most worn items can be summed up neatly in the following #ootd photos.

Everything made by me, in fact I wore close to 100% me made clothing as usual.  My most worn items are my ivory merino tee (23 wears), my Oxen Fibremood Jill dress (top row, middle, 21 wears), and jointly my navy Miette knitted cardigan and yellow merino Pinjarra cardigan (18 wears each).  Honourable mentions go to my green Karijini dress (top row, left, 16 wears), and as usual my yellow raincoat, the number of wears I did not count…  I’m also not counting my black tights, hand knitted sock, handmade sockettes nor any hats, all of which were very worn more than anything, of course!

other doings in general

I’m still learning Japanese, it’s been nearly four years now! and I am excited to announce we’ll be visiting Japan again next year.  I’m thrilled to be able to try speaking a little, as well as catch up again with my lovely friend Yoshimi.

I’ve kept up my outfit of the day blog over on Tumblr for 10 years now!  Wow! I’m pleased I managed this, however like I mentioned at the beginning of this post the habit of taking a photo of myself everyday has started to become tiring and I’ve decided to gently let it go.  Actually, correction; I’m abruptly letting it go!  10 years is quite a long time!  There have been plenty of times in the last year I’ve almost forgotten about it and have to hurriedly take a picture just before putting my pyjamas on… haha.  Whoops!  I think you’ve got to sometimes take stock of whether an activity is contributing to your happiness, or if it’s become a chore; and take the appropriate action.  I may or may not take the occasional picture if I particularly love my outfit, but definitely not daily, and will most likely post only instagram from now on.

Finally, if you’re still reading, then thank you very much for sticking with me for another year!  I really appreciate everyone who does and who chooses to leave a kind and generous comment every now and then; each and every one really makes my day and I’m so thankful for all of you.

I hope you all had a wonderful year, and wish you all a happy, healthy, rewarding and creative 2024 ahead!

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