sewing Archives - Page 6 of 41 - Handmade by Carolyn

Christmas dress! hot choccy treats and some cute little kiddie things

28/12/2023 3:39 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made some new things…

… including a new Christmas Day dress for myself… the latest subtraction from ye good old stash. So this new dress was made with a piece of lovely border print stuff bought in the closing days of 2019, New York when I went there with Yoshimi… I’m pretty sure it was from Metro Textiles?

I thought I’d make a simple, very plain shift dress and turned to a rather lovely little shift dress pattern I’ve made previously, Burda 07/2018; 118, which is exactly that, but with pockets! Win!

As usual I hadn’t really bought enough fabric and cutting out the pieces was a tight squeeze! I had to cut out those awkwardly shaped facing pieces from a different fabric. I used a pale latte coloured, stiff cotton for this.

Fortunately I also had a zip of the appropriate length in my stash too, although it’s a less than ideal bright white instead of ivory; it’s a little more noticeable that in appears in this picture.

This picture is really just to show the selvedge being used for the centre back seam; I often do this if the selvedge is lying nice and flat, and it does save that little bit extra if fabric is short.

If I’m totally honest with myself I’m not 100% happy with how the print matched up along this back seam but again, I didn’t have enough fabric to do anything about this so c’est la vie.

wearing it here with my crocheted hat…

This really is such a lovely print! and I’m absolutely thrilled it has now become a cute little summer dress that I felt comfortable and very happy in, all day long. I didn’t get any photos from Christmas Day because I was just rushed off my feet all day, but I wore it again today and took these pics. 🙂

Next up! for Christmas gifts, something I always like to do is to make some little edible treat for the whole family. This year I thought I’d make hot chocolate bombs… however, a lot of the recipes I found online were in the form of perfectly spherical, beautifully shiny chocolate shells that you fill with cocoa powder and maybe sugar and/or marshmallows… well such chocolatey artistry was completely beyond my skills! I decided instead to just make hot chocolate “bricks” 😉

These little morsels might not be things of beauty but they do comprise everything that one needs for a mug of yummy hot chocolate. My recipe:

Hot Chocolate Bricks

each brick contains:

45g dark cooking chocolate
1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
¼ tsp sugar
4 mini marshmallows

I used double the above mixture, which was an easy quantity to handle, to make two at a time. Simply melt the chocolate in the microwave then quickly and thoroughly stir through the cocoa powder and sugar. The mixture should be sticking together into a self-contained blob, picking up all the mixture off the sides of the bowl as you mix and leaving almost no residue. If it wasn’t, I would add a little more cocoa powder until it did stick together. Divide between two mini patty pans and gently push the marshmallows on top… this means people can remove them before melting the brick and pop them on top of their hot chocolate just before serving.

Each brick is designed to go in 100-150mL milk, depending on how strong you like it. If you like it super rich then you can substitute a little cream for a portion of milk! because they’re quite rock solid little things they actually need a LOT of stirring and occasional re-heating to mix in thoroughly enough. But they are delicious! I used one of the earlier, not-so-pretty ones to check out that they worked ok…

btw I also made a little instruction slip to put in with each pack, explaining the how-to stuff. Actually, I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the final packages, obviously I got a bit stressed for time towards the end there!(Later edit: Mum took a picture of hers for me… :). )

However, to describe; throughout the year I’d saved up those little plastic punnets mini tomatoes are sold in… I peeled off the labels and managed to squeeze 7 chocolate bricks in each punnet. I popped the instructions in as well and finished off with tying up the punnets with coloured ribbons.

Finally, and possibly my very last makes for the year? there are just three days to go, so maybe! I made three little garments, for my three little grandsons. Two raglan sleeve T-shirts in different sizes and a little onesie for the newest and littlest, all self-drafted. Each using a mix of white and vaguely Christmassy red plaid cotton jersey, although I didn’t actually make them for Christmas! I bought the red plaid cotton jersey from (I think?) the Fabric Store in Melbourne during a past trip over there… it’s quite thin and was actually not much fun to sew with. Doing the twin needle hems on the T-shirt sleeves was a hideous experience, each one unpicked and re-done multiple times each. I don’t really know what the issue was but it only occurred on this particular fabric, not the white cotton body hems.

The white jersey was from old stash. I think they turned out pretty cute, and if I get a picture of the little guys wearing their new things I will upload it here!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: baby clothes, babywear, burda 07/2018 118, daily outfit, dress, own design, recipes

check it out…

20/12/2023 3:10 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

I bought this beautiful, slightly crinkly linen gingham from Japan a few years ago, during our last visit there and it was always intended to be a Vogue 2900… I frequently jump and haa about a particular fabric and which one of the one million different designs it could better be suited to, so it’s pretty nice when a piece of fabric can actually get matched with a pattern and actually go through with it, and no agonising along the way!

There’s probably not much more to say… this Donna Karan design has been a favourite for years, I’ve made a few – this is my fourth! – and still wear and love all of them. I initially thought about putting in a contrasting bias-cut strip like I did with my first one but it actually looked way too busy. Painstakingly, I unpicked each one and saved the strips for a future project.

I cut out the front pieces twice, because the first time I was dissatisfied with how the centre front seam turned out. The second attempt, I carefully cut them so the pattern of the gingham meets up perfectly in the centre, as if there was no seam there at all. It looks so much better than my first attempt, which, although the checks matched, the overall colour pattern was not matched across the seam so it looked weird. My second attempt looks way better.

I also cut some pieces on the bias, for visual interest, and think this looks quite nice. I’m glad I did it! The armhole and back neckline are finished with bias cut strips. After understitching, I turned these under and hand stitched them back to the dress as invisibly as possible.

I’m going to enjoy wearing this dress over summer. I like wearing short dresses and skirts, but I also like this longer length too. It’s such a comfortable style, and quite chic too, imo.

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, Vogue 2900

an assortment of sewn things

11/12/2023 4:50 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

hello! Once again I am presenting an odd assortment of disparate things made recently…

Items 1 and 2; two completely identical new Booragoon tops. Both from a pink cotton jersey from stash, originally Spotlight from ages ago. I’m wearing one above with my newly dyed Closet Clore patterns Mitchell trousers… the trousers used to be a paler pink and I felt like a colour change though I fear I overdid it a bit! never mind… the other pink Booragoon has gone to my niece T. It really suits her!

Love this cute and yet chic little pattern! I know it’s mine and I shouldn’t be too self-congratulatory, but I really really love it so I just have to gush occasionally. I’ll stop now.

Items 3, 4 and 5, or should I just call this item 3? I’m never quite sure…

anyway, I made a new set of one Watson bra plus two pairs of matching undies. I used some of the leftover pink cotton jersey, from those aforementioned pink tops, and some striped jersey, that I’ve had for a long long time (actually made this striped shirt from it). And whipped up a mixed fabrics set… actually I want to make more things like this at the moment, mixing up different fabrics.

Fronts and back of the knickers are contrasting, the strap elastic, rings and sliders, and hook and eye closure are all recycled from an old bra. The other elastics are all from the stash, by which I mean they’ve not been used before even if they’re not actually new. A free set! Yay!

Items 6 and 7 (or 4 and 5?). some matching clothes for Cassie’s two; T and G… Oh, I’ve just realised I haven’t introduced my newest grandson here yet… I did over on instagram but this is his first appearance here…Cassie had baby Gilbert a few weeks ago, and here he is!

Isn’t he sweet! This is the first thing I’ve made for him and I made a matching T-shirt for his older brother too.

I’m quite sad that this next one has zero hanger appeal, or should I say floor appeal, and even on the body it doesn’t look particularly chic; which is pity because the fabric is absolutely beautiful.

Mum wove this length of beautiful lilac/blue fabric with her own two hands many years ago, and had partially made a dress or tunic or something out of it.

I cut off the bottom, hemmed, and reattached the cut off portion as sleeves. I’m wearing it as a summer dressing gown. So that was item 8, for those keeping count, and now for number 9….

my new summer nightie! So I really really love this and it feels so lovely to wear! I used a short length of silk from Le Stash, originally from (I think) Tessuti fabrics of Melbourne, from years ago. With some clever pattern placement I managed to cut a Closet Core Simone slip. I French seamed the side seams, and was very careful to match stripes all around. It feels incredibly luxe! Why have I never made silk sleepwear before?!

Ok, I think that’s all for now! See you later!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: baby clothes, babywear, Booragoon top, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Closet Core patterns, cloth habit, Gilbert, lingerie, own design, Simone slip, Theo, watson

Lainey’s wedding dress

02/12/2023 5:27 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! It’s been such a long time since I mentioned it no doubt everyone has forgotten; but at the beginning of this year I made a wedding dress for my daughter-in-law Lainey!

It was quite a journey! first we went for the customary wedding-dress try-on together with Lainey’s parents; and after taking time and consideration to really narrow down the style that Lainey wanted, we all headed for the fabric store… Interestingly we ended up with basically the same style of dress that Lainey had very first sketched down, right at the very beginning before any shopping!

We started out with V9328 as a starting point but of course there was a loooot of adjustments to the pattern. I ended up making four or maybe five muslins of the bodice; I’ve lost count now… Lainey wanted for the bodice to be quite closely body-hugging as well as a low-cut V both front and back, and no to a corset; I really wanted to get that as right as I possibly could. However any dressmaker will tell you that that sort of style is quite the challenge. I think I managed to get the front as low cut as we could within those guidelines!

The body of the dress itself is a medium-weight, slightly matte white satin. Lainey wanted white-on-white, a lacy bodice, translucent sleeves with lace, and for a bit of sparkle on the bodice as well… I got this effect by overlaying the bodice with a layer of sparkly tulle, and then hand-stitching the lace motifs free-form over the top of this. The sleeves are just the sparkly tulle, with lace motifs artfully hand-sewn over. Those sleeves just about drove me mad… but I’ll get to that later….

The lace that Lainey chose was absolutely exquisite… leaves sewn on quite lightweight tulle in a free-form very naturalistic style… some of them were only partially sewn on so lifted off the tulle in a sort of 3D way; and Lainey wanted this look on her dress as well.

So, multiple calico muslins later and I finally got started on the dress itself. I carefully constructed the bodice with the sparkly tulle overlaid, and added the skirt. Then came the long long part, hand-cutting, arranging and hand-stitching all those lace-y leaves…. I do enjoy this part, it’s artistically very satisfying while being quite technical challenging, and absolutely a hugely time-consuming activity. I know it took well over 100 hours because I got through literally every one of the 152 BTS Run episodes on YouTube, plus a lot of other content too…

I aimed to get the leaves artistically arranged, curling around each other with just the right amount of spacing to be sorta evenly arranged while also looking organic. I left a few curling up and away from the bodice, as Lainey wanted, but not on the front part of the bodice where I decided it looked a little funny.

yes it has pockets!

I also had the lace motifs coming down over the waistline to disguise that seam between sparkly tulle and no sparkly tulle. I carefully arranged the leaves to cover the seam as much as possible while trying to keep it organic.

I’m extremely happy with how the lace turned out. I do have to say that the artistic side of me sorta pined for a not-white background colour that would enable the lace to stand out a bit more visually because you have to get up really close to even see it. However, technically I do think it turned out really beautiful and I’m exceptionally proud of this.

I don’t think I took a picture of this? here’s a slightly blurry one from the professional wedding photographer… I constructed a grosgrain ribbon belt, stitched to the skirt seam allowance and hidden between the dress and lining just like I did with both Kelly and Cassie’s dress – you can just see it peeking out at the bottom right of the picture; and also a blue hand-embroidered plaque for their wedding date.

I absolutely love this picture…

Oh! I haven’t even mentioned those sleeves yet! Yes, they were a tiny nightmare. btw if you don’t want to read any sewing-related whinging; stop now and just enjoy the pretty pictures! Rest assured it all turned out alright in the end!

look at my handsome boys…! #heartisbursting. btw, Tim (at right) made the wedding arch for his own wedding to Kelly…

OK, sleeves… For a start, we had already made drastic adjustments to the original, extremely fluttery sleeves of the pattern, to get them down to an acceptable level of flutter. Then I made them in the sparkle-y tulle, and stitched on the leaves. I was pretty happy with how it was all looking. At almost the finish line Lainey tried the dress on again, and thought the sleeves still too fluttery. I had already added the lining by this point, and so you can just imagine… I could have happily run away from home at that point. (jk). But she was absolutely right, of course, and the sleeves did look better sans adjustments… I carefully took leaves off from the top of the sleeves and then, heart in mouth, cut out a wedge of tulle. Then hand-stitched an almost invisible seam along the top of the sleeves to close the gap, and rearranged the leaf motifs to cover it.

The other big adventure was the hem. You know when you’re at the finish line and you’re like; oh, only the hem to go! It’s basically finished! WELL! Fate had other ideas…. I had allowed a fabulously deep 10cm for the hem. I had done the same for Cassie’s dress and it turned out absolute perfect… however this fabric was completely different. Firstly, I bound the edge with lightweight bias cut muslin; which looked really nice of course. Then I stitched up the hem. And it looked absolutely terrible. The hem just wouldn’t ease into place nicely at all and it looked bumpy and fluted on the outside. At first I thought the muslin binding might be a little heavy or even overstretched? though I had been careful, so I painstakingly removed all the binding and just stitched an overlocked edge in place… same problem. I realised then that it was a feature of the fabric itself… it just had too much body and would never ever ease in… fortunately I had enough leftover fabric that I thought I could make a facing. I held my breath and again, heart in mouth, cut off the lovely deep hem allowance. A deeply scary moment! I made a pattern for, and cut out a hem facing from the leftover fabric, stitched it on, understitched. Then turned up and stitched the facing up. It looked way way better; however even though I had taken tiny stitches you could still see every single one very clearly all the way around. There was just something about that fabric; each stitch was like a distinct dimple on the surface. I (for like the third? fourth? time) unpicked, and finally achieved success by just hand-picking up the scantest of scant, barely even a full thread with each stitch of the hem. Honestly, any more than a single thread and you could see it standing out like a sore thumb on the outside. Absolutely amazing! I am fairly happy with the final look of the hem; but it was Quite a Business.

I’ve just remembered another thing that was quite difficult… I had cut the dress lining at the same time that I cut the bodice, meaning after (as I thought) perfecting the fit from multiple muslins. But of course there were subsequently still multiple tiny changes to the bodice itself, and by the time I got to attaching the lining I had long lost track of all such tiny little changes. In the end much of the lining was actually hand stitched in place.

Anyway; the final result was very very satisfying, as you can imagine all such very intensive and emotional projects always are. I think Lainey looked absolutely glorious in her dress and it gave me immense joy to see both Lainey and Sam glowing with happiness and love on the day.

wedding photographs: Amelia Claire photography

hair; Ree Meraki on Beaufort

make-up: Melody @ Luxury Makeup House

flowers: Kisschasey Weddings

Dress; made by ME!

venue: Brookleigh Estate

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Lainey, wedding, wedding dress

our newest pattern, the Meelup skirt!

25/11/2023 3:43 pm \ 7 Comments \ Carolyn

above; I’m wearing Meelup view A, made in a lightweight cotton canvas originally from Spotlight stores.

Hello! Cassie and I are very happy to announce the release of the latest addition to our Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co family; please give a warm welcome to the Meelup skirt!

above; a Meelup view B that I made last year; in a truly stunning cotton drill bought from Ikuntji Artists… this is a skirt that never fails to attract admiring comments, which is very nice!

The Meelup is a design I refined from my own skirt block quite a while ago now, and one I’ve subsequently made over and over again; twiddling the details… yes like our Pinjarra twinset from earlier in the year, this is definitely a tried and true style that both of us wear all year long, for any and all occasions. I suppose you could say that this year has been the Carolyn & Cassie Year of Reliable Basics 🙂

below; Cassie wears Meelup view B; made in a mint green raw silk inherited from my Mum’s stash…

The Meelup pattern is for a straight fitted skirt in two lengths, with a waistband and satisfactorily deep, slanted hip pockets.

The skirt requires no zip! instead ingeniously buttons closed over the left hip pocket. This is fair dinkum my absolutely favourite feature of the pattern. Well, maybe a close second to the pockets, maybe, which are seriously decent pockets if I say so myself. The silhouette is slim, but you will find you still have plenty of room to shove your hands comfortably in the pockets, no problem.

below; Lainey wears Meelup view A, in a very denim-like cotton duck in a lovely lush floral print. She is also wearing our Booragoon top in blue cotton jersey, and my Pinjarra cardigan in pink merino knit…

styled a bit more summer like

You can line the skirt if you like; we have provided separate pattern pieces for the lining, and instructions cover both making the lined skirt and the unlined skirt as well. I’ve made both lined and unlined versions for myself, but mostly lined for the versatility of them.

below; one of my own Meelups, view A, made in deep raspberry red cotton corduroy…

below; a recently made Meelup in quite heavy white linen. The length of this was was dictated by my length of fabric and falls about midway between views A and B

The new Meelup is now listed in our Etsy store here. To celebrate the release of our new pattern we ore offering a special, celebratory offer of 20% off for one week only. In fact, we are currently running a 20% off sale on ALL of our patterns, because why not… I guess we’re just feeling it this weekend! Please do enjoy and take advantage of this special price!

And we hope the Meelup becomes as much a loved and very well-used item in your sewing repertoire, just it has become one for us!

below; the Meelup view B features splits in the side seams to facilitate striding

below: another recently made Meelup, this one is a sort of mid length between size A and size B… made in a lightweight cotton canvas in a fun Batman print

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Meelup skirt, own design, skirt

pretty blouse, handbag, wallet, underthings, baby things and pink books

19/11/2023 2:31 pm \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve been checking out all my as-yet unblogged things, and there are so many! I guess I’ve been in a real blogging slump this year. Anyway, apologies for the overloaded, as well as overdue! blog post, and here we go…!

Item 1: a pretty lingerie set. This is of course the Watson pattern by cloth habit, one I’ll be making for the rest of my life, I’m sure… just such a goodie. Same modifications I’ve always made. (see here)…

I had all the elastics and bits and pieces already, and a quite short length of bright neon yellow elastic, leftover from this set… it was fun incorporating a length of it in each piece!

Item 2; a pretty blouse. This is actually my most recently made thing… well, apart from a few samples for our new pattern, to be announced very soon, I hope!

This design is the new Nova pattern by Fibremood. It has a very interesting fluted neckline, that attracted me to it in the first place. I dunno, but I can’t resist a unique twist to a thing! and simply must try it out.

I used a length of pretty slightly brushed cotton, given to me by Mum when she cleaned out her stash. It’s lovely, isn’t it?! I added one pocket, just for fun, and threaded a length of elastic through each sleeve hem, a look that I really like lately.

The back has a centre-back seam with an invisible zip. Quite unnecessary, since I found you can pull it over your head quite easily. Something I like to do with the end of an invisible zip is to wrap the end with a little piece of fabric, since a lot of invisible zips seem to have almost imperceptible sharp bits at the end, that will torment you without pity if you don’t do something about it first.

Item 3; this cute little bag… I made this earlier this winter, using a kit from JT Tanner bought during lockdown actually!

It was an exceptionally beautiful kit and I really enjoyed putting it together, in spite of breaking all three of the provided needles! however I finally figured how to stitch through that tough tough leather without putting too much strain on the needles… :D. and am super happy with the quite profesh look of the final product!

I wore it a few times, but it had one small problem which ultimate led me to my next project…

Item 4; a little wallet. My new bag is awesome, but my current purse doesn’t fit into it at all, and since the bag is such that a loose credit card or cash would easily fall out of the gaps, I decided that I needed a customised purse! Yes, I’m admittedly weird about not immediately shopping for things at the moment and I also I do like to challenge myself, ergo; I decided to have a go at making one.

There was one failed version before this final one, failed only because I cut the zip too short and it couldn’t flip out open completely; but this one is nearly perfect, I’m happy to report.

I didn’t want to use any of my precious leather just yet! although I might be ready to go there soon; instead I used charcoal felt, that I bought to make a stuffed toy at some point (still unblogged, whoops!). Fortunately I still have a huge number of oddly coloured zips that Mum gave me at some point, and found two matching ones. The wallet took a bit of very careful measuring and lining up, and I am pretty proud of the final precision.

It has a whole lot of card slots, a zipped coin compartment, one separate car slot that I was initially intending to have a clear plastic window in it, but couldn’t found the right plastic on hand and didn’t want to go out and source any either. C’est la vie! Oh, and also a bellowed pocket for bills/notes. This time I carefully made sure the wallet could flip open fully and lie flat.

I agonised on how to put in the zip, finish the raw edges, and eventually bound the edges with matching charcoal linen – the same stuff I used to line the card slots and coin pocket. I hand stitched the linen binding down inside, and then finally glued the outer layer over the top. I wasn’t sure how the glueing would work out, but it has nicely stiffened up the final product in a very satisfactory way.

And it fits into the bag perfectly!

Item 5; I’m not sure if I’ve posted this before? if not here tis… a baby onesie for our friend’s baby. Design is my own, and yes, I used the leftovers for my Watson set, above!

Item 6, 7, 8, 9

some new little books. I always save and cut up the leftover paper from paper patterns and make little books from them. It’s fun to do this and makes me feel virtuously zero waste. All materials are waste scraps and leftovers from other projects. I have one in my handbag all the time and use it all the time, and they make nice gifts too, I think!

I think that’s enough for now? Anyway, I’ll be back with more soon!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, bag, bookbinding, cloth habit, daily outfit, fibre mood, handmade book, jt tanner, leatherwork, lingerie, nova, own design, purse, top, watson

a patchwork dress

13/11/2023 6:18 pm \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I haven’t blogged this dress yet… this post (sans any text at all, ahem) has been in my drafts for over a year now! I feel so neglectful of this thing… it spite of the fact that it’s something I’m very proud of!

Quite a few years ago now, I bought a whole lot of lovely linens from Tessuti Fabrics in Melbourne, while over there on a visit with Mum and Cassie. Aren’t the colours gorgeous?!

I always planned a patchwork thing pretty much exactly like it finally turned out… ! So lucky!

I cut a whole bunch of squares; the ones closest to the top of the dress are quarter the size of the squares in the middle, which themselves are a quarter the size of the biggest squares around the hemline. Piecing them so as to have the colours arranged randomly was a minor but very enjoyable challenge.

Early on I posted the above picture to instagram, to which someone (kindly and without ill-intent) commented that the shaping could all be done in the seams keeping up the appearance of perfect squares everywhere. And I knew straight away that that was a borderline impossible task. I’m perfectly aware that this commenter meant really well but the comment still somehow left me totally paralysed with the weight of expectation. I know, it’s silly; but I guess it’s my fault for sharing progress shots of things I’m making. Somehow doing so seems to frequently lead to a similar outcome.

Anyway, as a result; the project spent the next few months in limbo. I did finally pick it up, left it again, picked it up again, and finally managed to limp through to the finish line, all the time painfully aware that I had failed to achieve aforementioned shaping while keeping the squares perfectly square. I shouldn’t have felt like a failure, but you know. Such a feeling can’t be helped sometimes…

But I am very happy in the end, and even I wore it to Frocktails one year too. It was actually a freezing cold night and it had to be covered up with a warm woolly cardigan most of the night, more’s the pity!

The halter neck design with rather complex, uber swishy skirt is my own, of course; custom fit to my dummy Bessie. It even has pockets, which were actually kind of a nightmare in the patchworked side seams. It also has a side zip, so as to disturb the patchwork as little as possible. The above picture is the initial, unhemmed version, which looks kind of cool but was unfortunately impossible to walk in from being too too long. The final look is a good compromise between a good length, and being able to walk without tripping. A nice balance!

Final take; I am so so proud of this dress, so am kinda bewildered at my complete failure to blog it before now. Well, at least I finally got this, final step finished too. It’s been a fun dress to wear , so beautifully swishy and comfy, and it never fails to garner lots of attention and compliments. So in conclusion; I cannot be happier with it!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, own design, patchwork

Original Digby Julie tunic dress/ tops

05/11/2023 6:11 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

Hello!

Finally posting some other new things I’ve made this year…

Item 1; a love floaty top for summer. Actually to be specific, I think this is the dress version of the pattern! however it’s kinda short on me thus I am wearing it with a skirt here. And I will probably choose to wear it with shorts or a skirt over summer.

The pattern is the new pattern by Original Digby patterns, the Julie blouse and dress… it’s so pretty isn’t it? I absolutely love it! I kinda want to rush out and buy prettier fabric in like a softer colour, or even something printed, like a floral or something; but you know. Stash busting is still going on over here. Anyway.

So, this is the longest version of the pattern. I added inseam side pockets, just because I like to have them in everything nowadays and am not readily prepared to go without. My fabric is a very lightweight cotton, I think originally from a Morrison seconds sale. It’s quite good for the design, but maybe not strictly “flowy” enough for those lovely softly gathered panels. I think in a very lightweight chiffon or crepe the gathers would fall and flutter beautifully. However I am still very happy!

I hand-stitched the button loop as instructed, and think this looks really nice; however to be honest I’m able to just slip the dress straight over my head, with no need to unbutton. It’s ok thought, because I can appreciate the long slit and button makes the back yoke look more interesting. The instructions for constructing this bit was really good and I enjoyed the lovely clean finish both inside and out that you get at the end of it.

The sleeve pieces are absolutely massive and the result is lovely in my opinion! a very pretty, half pirate-y, half mediaeval sort of effect!

Just secretly, although I am putting this out on the internet, hehe, for the whole world to read should they so choose! but still; just secretly…. I have started doing some embroidery on the yoke. I saw this embroidery design on Etsy and got inspired enough to purchase, ahem. I’ve made a small start. Hmmm. This might take me a while.

Item 2; hehe, I just realised the skirt I’m wearing is as yet unblogged too! It’s just one of the test runs for our new skirt pattern, due to be released very soon, we hope! The Batman cotton drill is from Spotlight, and was leftover for a cushion I made for Theo when he was a tiny bub.

The skirt is fully lined and is a joy to wear. More on our new pattern in a very short space of time, I hope! I think it’s a terrific basic and one I’ve made and wear a lot.

I’m wearing it with a very old T-shirt made absolute yonks ago…

Finally, I made a second version of the Original Digby Julie blouse… hoo yes I managed to find some prettier and silkier and flowy-er fabric…. IN LE STASH what’s more! Whatup?! I knew I could dig up some more appropriate fabric if I really tried. One was just not trying hard enough, that’s all.

This is a silky stuff inherited from Mum’s stash. It’s absolutely gorgeous and feels beautiful against the skin but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s not precisely “pure” silk. Most likely spun from the sloughed off cocoons of the Plasticus Bottleus variety of silkworm, ahem. Anyway, how pretty is it? that’s all that counts really. I’m wearing it with yet another new skirt, white linen, fully lined; also our new pattern, hehe. To be revealed soon!