Tag Archives: Burdastyle 09/2010;121

bunny tails and lots of pink fluff

So in a bit of a tangent from wedding sewing; the weather has turned super cold, unseasonably so actually, for this early 🙁 and my old winter pj’s had got drastically thin to the point where I’ve accidentally poked a finger nail through the fabric in several spots lately, ahem.  I was desperate!  Oh, and since I mentioned it? the wedding dress is basically finished!! but obviously I will not be sharing full shots until after the Big Day, though I am sharing a few details here and there over on my instagram account.  And I’ve sort of gone as far as I can on the other wedding sewing duties, for a short while, anyway!

I’d found this adorable bunny print cotton flannelette at Spotlight…  I love their little round bums complete with fluffy cottontails!  And the ones with little pink paw pads are even cuter!  btw I am fully aware that as an Australian I am honour bound to despise rabbits, and on an intellectual level I do, honestly.  But also, look how adorable!

For patterns; I used the eponymous Carolyn Pyjama pattern by Closet Case patterns for the bottoms of course! and for the top I used a plain Burdastyle T-top pattern I’ve used a few times before, Burda 10/2009;121, with minor modifications – story of my sewing life, hehe.

To enhance and pick up the pink of the bunny paws, I found a small scrap of pink jersey in my stash, leftover from this T-shirt I made for Cassie, and cut strips to inset in the joining seam of the top, and then I cut the bottoms off the pj bottoms and inserted a strip in each of the pj legs too.

My old brown bathrobe was also long overdue to be replaced; the kids gave it to me for Mother’s Day about 20 years ago?!!  I’d seen a pink bathrobe advertised in the Spotlight catalogue which looked promising, however when I checked it out it actually wasn’t pink at all, but more of a greyish-mushroom pink.  Quaite hideous and tres disappointing!  As luck would have it though, right beside the offending, not-pink bathrobe was a bin of fluffy throw rugs – oh excuse me, cuddle blankets, and one was the most perfect shade of cherry-blossom pink a girl could hope for.  I was instantly rendered powerless to resist and bought it with rose-covered spectacles and in a loveheart-pink daze.

And so I whipped up my own bathrobe!  I’m so much in love with this, it’s not even funny.  In fact I’m wearing it right this second.  It’s so flooffffy!! and soft, and as light as a pretty pink cloud.  And warm!  I’m super happy with how it turned out.  I made it to have a shawl collar, deep deep patch pockets, and belt loops for the self belt…

… and a hanging loop tucked under the collar facing…

The blanket was already hemmed on all sides when I bought it, obviously; so I resourcefully utilised these hems in the lower edge, the sleeve lower edges, and the tops of the pockets.  The belt is also cut from one long side edge, and I simply folded over the raw edge and zig-zagged it over the ready-finished hem.  Funny thing; the huge loft of this fluffy fabric meant I could hardly see what on earth I was doing while sewing this, seam allowance accuracy?  HA!!!

Also, there was FLUFFF EVERYWHERE; all over the table, the floor and flying up from the sewing machine too… could hardly believe it was producing so much and with still plenty of massive fluffiness remaining, thank goodness!  Of course I was wearing something dark coloured while sewing it.  Murphy’s Law.  I looked like I’d been through the wash with a tissue in my pocket…!

I’m gonna pop some caaaash, only got twenty dollars in ma pocket…

All raw edges for both pj’s and robe are finished inside on the overlocker, and the pink-inset seams are further topstitched down in a sort of faux-flat-felling effect.

Details:

Robe; my own design
Top; Burdastyle 09/2010;121
Bottoms; Closet Case patterns Carolyn pyjamas

Winter?  I am ready!

Oh! almost forgot…. I had a big enough portion of the fluffy blanket leftover to make a new cushion cover too.  Now I just have to keep it safe from The Marauding Doggie; whose favourite evening activity is to select a fluffy cushion and sit sucking and gently kneading it for ages.  This might be a losing battle!

pinterestmail

boatin’, campin’, bikin’ and hikin’ stoof

We’ve just come back from a holiday in Alaska, USA and British Columbia, Canada; had the most AWESOME-est time of course! but more about that later…  I made a few bits and pieces to fill in some gaps in the “mucking about in the great, but wet n’dirty, outdoors” areas of my wardrobe.  Specifically, I needed some things that were both quick-drying and warm… which means, and I apologise right now to any strict natural-fibrarians reading this  … polyester.   #ohtheshame

Hehe, just kidding, of course polyester has appeared here on my blog before and no doubt will again.  When you are roughing it out camping, and particularly in extreme climates, then unnatural fibres are definitely the go.

I made five new things prior to going on our holiday; a zip up fleece hoodie, a fleece sweater, some shorts for kayaking, a fleece neck warmer and a new sunhat.  I made some other new things too, while we were actually ON our holiday, but I’ll save those for another post!

In the order that I made them…

White fleece sweater

wearing beanie, sweater, hiking pants
location: Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska, USA

Pattern is Burda 09/2010; 121, fabric is 100% polyester fleece from Spotlight.

I’d bought my polyester fleece back in the height of hot hot February during their 40% off all fabrics sale, made it straight away and actually posted it to instagram way back then too, although it didn’t get truly worn until our holiday…

wearing sweater, skirt

Mods; made the sleeves a little longer, and I pinned the side seams out to fit it directly on me so it’s shaped and fitted to my taste.  After the first few days of wearing it I found the turtleneck to be extremely strangliferous.  This is not necessarily a criticism of the pattern, since I’ve always felt strangled by turtlenecks, ever since I was a child; I really should have known this one would be the same too, doh! Fortunately it’s an easy fix.  I simply borrowed a pair of scissors from the owner of the lodge and snip snip!! just chopped the turtleneck-y bit right off!  No hems or seams, well, I was desperate! but hey, fleece doesn’t really need edging anyway and now it’s a funnel neck, and only about a thousand times more comfortable.

I really really LOVE this.

Pink zip-up hoodie

wearing hoodie, white tee, grey tee, black jeans
location: the Khutzeymateen Wilderness Lodge on the Khutzeymateen River, British Columbia, Canada

Pattern is Burda 8042, the same 100% polyester fleece from Spotlight

Mods; in lieu of the patch pockets, I added welt pockets which were absolutely great for shoving my cold hands into… however I thought they gave a rather lumpy and thick look to my stomach region, even when said hands were not shoved into said pockets, and like most women I am not very partial to a lumpy thick look to my stomach region!  But it was awesome to have the pockets?  I dunno.

wearing hoodie, sweater, skirt

I wore this thing so much, like practically every day even though it’s not in all my pictures… and I pretty much hate it now.  It’s not really my colour, I only chose it because I actually had the perfectly coloured open-end zip in my stash already, inherited at some point from one of Mum’s periodic sewing-room clean outs, and I rationalised that the colour would be cheerful and fun.  But now I cannot stand the thought of ever wearing it again.  Can’t quite put my finger on the problem… as well as not suiting me, the colour feels somehow wrong for my personality, and then there was the lumpy stomach pockets thing.  It was a good thing to have though, perfect for camping, beautifully warm and it dried off very quickly.  Maybe I’m just sick of it.  I’m giving it a bit of time out at the top of the wardrobe, and maybe another wet and freezing cold camping trip will crop up again, some time in the future…

Black poly kayaking shorts

wearing hat, tee, shorts, raincoat

Please excuse the lack of an exotic location here … I didn’t realise until we got home that I neglected to get even one photo during our holiday that showed my new shorts !  thus a re-enactment of a holiday outfit and yes I am absolutely freezing  😉

My new shorts are refashioned from out of an old pair of Tim’s work pants, rescued from the refashioning bag… I knew from many years of washing these things how quickly they dry, so thought they would be perfect for the kayaking camp.  And they were absolutely brilliant…!

before, the observant will notice straight away that these have been nibbled at previously; that’s a pocket lining for something or another cut out of the bottom there…

To make them: I kept only the fly front and the button closure intact; unpicked most of the waistband and sliced off basically every single other seam! taking it in at both side seams, the centre back seam, and altering the crotch curve super drastically to fit.  Approximately 7″ is taken out of the waistband overall tapering out to almost no width from the legs so they are nicely flared, just the way I like them.  This also means that the hip pockets have a pretty tiny opening now! but I figured that’s a small price to pay for free new shorts and funnily enough I don’t really find occasion to put  my hands in my pockets while kayaking  😉

I cut down and reattached the waistband, re-positioned the belt loops and created a cuff for the bottom hem of the shorts.  I think they turned out quite cute!  I’d planned to wear these with black leggings for kayaking, but as it turned out the days we kayaked were warm enough so that the leggings were not necessary.

Love these, they were perfectamondo for paddling, and I expect they will be my go-to paddling uniform from now on…

Cherry red neckwarmer

wearing neck warmer, raincoat, skirt, tights
location; the dock in Haines, Alaska, USA

The most basic thing ever, literally a lined cylinder.  The outer is the same 100% fleece from Spotlight, the lining was cut from an old Tshirt from my refashioning bag.  Yes, that thing is still like a bottomless pit of fabric!  It’s a monster, but a pretty fabulous one for someone like me who is always sewing  😉

For my own future reference, the dimensions are:

fleece; 65cm x 29cm

cotton jersey lining; 64cm x 27cm

I made it by stitching the fleece rectangle and lining rectangle together at top and bottom, pinned the seam edges and the fleece edges together, and stitched the side seam leaving a 10cm or so gap in the side edge of the inner lining.  Turned the whole thing right side out through this 10cm gap, then slip-stitched the gap closed to finish.

Like the pink hoodie this simple thing got worn most days, but unlike the pink hoodie I actually still like it!  Just goes to show, ignore “your” colours at your peril!  And it went with EVERYTHING!

wearing neck warmer, striped tee, green tee, skirt, tights, raincoat
location: Haines, Alaska, USA

Olive sunhat

wearing hat, grey tee, shorts, raincoat
location; Hanson Island, British Columbia, Canada

Pattern is Vogue 8844, fabric is olive cotton rip-stop from an online store whose name I have absolutely no memory of whatsoever.  It’s leftover from the fabric I used for my khaki army-style jacket… I bought it in a joint order with my friend and neighbour Megan, and all I can remember is that the postage fee was so horrendously high that maybe I’ve deliberately blocked the store’s name from my memory in post-purchase shock, haha.

I lined the hat with floral rayon, leftovers from my French Navy Forsythe dress, I thought they went quite nicely together! and the crown is stayed with a coffee-coloured cotton braid that is a VERY long term resident in my stash.  Since I would be wearing the hat kayaking, I decided it would be a good idea to add a chin strap; this is an old, orphaned bootlace, snipped in half and stitched in each side underneath the crown stay.  For some reason, I decided to go with an additional method of tightening the hat to my head, and laced a piece of white cotton cord through the crown stay.  Probably not necessary and now it’s a rather over-engineered hat but oh well.  Got it now!

Technically, I didn’t really neeeeed a new sunhat, since I do have my perfectly lovely ivory corduroy sunhat, made a few years ago…. but still I decided a new one was in order.  Partly because I didn’t want my ivory one to get irrevocably dirty while camping, a khaki one would be more colour suitable for out in the dirt of the wilderness.  As it turned out, the weather wasn’t actually warm enough for it until well into our holiday! laugh! the first few weeks or our holiday were mostly wet and very cold and the sunhat languished unworn… squashed sadly and disconsolately in my suitcase *sob*  Then finally the weather turned warmer and we even got a bit of sun and I was like, hurrah, I CAN WEAR MY HAT!!!  and was pretty glad I’d gone to the effort of making it after all.

wearing hat, raincoat
location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

pinterestmail
Switch to mobile version
↓