Tag Archives: Butterick 4985

On getting maximum mileage from your patterns

04/11/2010 4:10 am \ 9 Comments \


For the third day in a row, shorts; sorry.   BUT has anyone noticed, this is also the third day in a row I have showcased these same two patterns for shorts and top?  Just to show how different a garment will appear with the use of different colours and textured fabrics, one can get a variety of looks using just a few basic patterns and just getting creative with one’s fabric choices…  don’t be afraid to try out unusual or unexpected fabrics using your old patterns.  And making slight alterations to the length, width and/or embellishments …  you will get a lot more bang for your pattern buck, too.  I swap pattern pieces between different patterns all the time, things like sleeves are very interchangeable er, I’ve only once used one of the sleeve options on this pattern!  The addition of a hood to a blouse, like yesterday, (and the next time I do this I will do a tutorial to demonstrate) will add a whole different flavour to a garment.  For example; take this shorts pattern, merely lengthening and flaring the leg, trying out different shaped pockets on the back; will change the look.  This pattern doesn’t come with pockets on the back, but it’s so very very easy to add them, and in any shape or form you choose.  Check out the last three days and you will see how different this same top and shorts patterns look on each day.
And to answer a query, for the last few days I have been down at our beach house in Dunsborough, thus the daily uniform of thongs (flipflops) and shorts, and the dusting of sand and salt as an accessory…  Dunsborough is in a huge bay, thus the calmness (is that even a word? un-wave-iness? now that’s better…!) of the ocean in this spot…  And btw, it is one of the few places in WA where you can watch the sun rise as well as set, over the ocean.  Love it here.
We are expecting (and wishfully hoping with our fingers crossed) some rain and I just love the stormy moodiness of those grim leaden clouds.  Such a nice change from yesterday.  Today is probably going to bring a balmy pleasantly cool day of 24C (75F).  I will be de-cobwebbing and washing a few windows.  Spring-cleaning, you know…

Details:
Top; Butterick 4985 with different sleeves and a lace collar, seen first here, grey printed and pre-shirred chiffon
Shorts; Burda 7723 with minor modifications, charcoal gabardine
Cardigan; Metalicus, secondhand
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Designs

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The weakness for ivory lace continues

03/11/2010 5:18 am \ 14 Comments \

Hehe, in order to avoid falling into a rut and boring you with repeat photos of the beach I’m making an effort to seek out new locations, variety is the spice of life, so they say.  Thus, the toasty tones of my lovely rocky wall backdrop setting off the all-white ensemble here.  Beautiful wall, no?  It is actually the outer wall of the toilet block down here at the beach.  Yeeeeah, I’m so sorry to completely ruin any romantic notions you may be entertaining about my “picturesque” backdrops… ! honesty in blogging, and all that…  the same beach from yesterday is a mere stone’s throw away from this spot.  That’s even for a pathetic stone-thrower like me with a truly “girly” throwing arm…

So… my new ivory lace hoodie; top 3 in the Great White Shirt project (I’m counting the two I made just before signing up, hehe)
This lace top will be perfect for days like today (a hottie of 35C, or 90F… I know, bit worried about what the real summer will bring…!)  The beauty of lace in hot climates is that it has its own inbuilt ventilation to pick up breezes and thus keep the wearer cool.  In a temperature sense as well as a super stylish fashion maven sense, of course…
Details:
Top; Butterick 4985, with modifications, ivory lace
Camisole (under); Country Road
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen, these ones sewn to the pattern with no modifications
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Designs
(The rest of this post below is technical sewing stuff, so feel free to skip it if you want…)
So; new top.
I didn’t use the KwikSew hoodie pattern as planned!  Instead of racing irresponsibly off to the fabric store willy nilly for white stretch fabric I was a good girl and took stock of my stash first, and of course there were a few lengths of white fabric already lurking in there with no purpose: one was this ivory lace.  It’s not super high quality and not stretchy and I only had about 1.2m… so couldn’t use the KwikSew pattern, but just right for the old standby Butterick 4985.  I have used this pattern a multitude of times already.  I made a few adjustments, obviously the biggest is the addition of the hood.  For this I did use the KwikSew hood pattern piece but re-drafted somewhat drastically; cut it down smaller to suit the finer more delicate fabric I was using here, and also adjusted the neck edge length to fit the collar edge of the top, so the hood actually replaces the collar and is sandwiched in between the fronts and facing just like a collar would be.  I really just treated the hood like a giant oddly shaped collar.  I sewed the hood’s own centre seam in a French seam.   The back neck edge is finished in a flat felled seam.  The open edge of the hood is the selvedge of the fabric, which is a nice sealed flat edge already, making any further finishing unnecessary.Sleeves: I drafted a sleeve with a long flat sleeve cap like a man’s, and the rest of the sleeve is basically a wide and untapered tube.  I like the unstructured casual flappiness of this new shape.

Buttons; I lucked out and found these perfect ivory buttons with embossed roses and flowers, perfect, no? to go with the rose motif in the lace.  Rather than my usual habit of sewing all the buttons the same way up I sewed them on alternately up and down, to try to match the random rose pattern in the lace…

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Thankfully fashionable new shorts

02/11/2010 3:42 am \ 9 Comments \

After I had finished my greige corduroy jeans I had a bit of leftover fabric, not much but too much to throw away… and it didn’t take long for me to haul out a shorts pattern…  I totally love this look below from Ralph Lauren Spring/Summer 2011, tres cool no?  Except I think those Ralph Lauren shorts could be suede…  And so halleluia for corduroy, which is like the cheapie easy-care version of suede.  The same soft fluffily-textured luxe look without the high price tag and “watch out where you’re sitting” problems of suede.  Plus, love this colour.  In case you missed it, I just can’t get enough of this shade.
This is my now standby pattern, Burda 7723 and I made a few alterations; to lengthen, to widen the flare of the leg, the addition of a zip placket, and instead of a foldover waistband which would result in a double thickness corduroy waistband I made it halfwidth in corduroy and faced with thinner cotton lining fabric to remove this unecessary bulk from the waist band region.  Hehe, besides the fact I didn’t have enough fabric for the full width waistband…
Hmmm, I should really do a review of this pattern, it has been such a goodie and is super easy, plus uses a tiny amount of fabric.  In lieu of the usual two buttons on the waistband I went with an invisible hook and eye closure, to get a smooth uninterrupted waistband; this is a nice clean look and provides a slightly tailored effect, offsetting the casualness of corduroy.
And how nice is it when one discovers one’s own tastes co-ordinate with a new fashion trend?  According to the gurus in Paris shorts are IN; the super mini-skirts we saw everywhere last year seem to be out at the mo.  Thank goodness.  Although do we have to knuckle down and obey the edicts from Paris? well, of course not, but at my age I feel it does get a lot more important to look fashionably smart and up-to-date and avoid frumpy and old-hat looks.  So I am loving the re-appearance of shorts on the fashion radar, it is a good trend and I’m ready for them too.

Details:
Shorts; Burda 7723, with minor modifications, greige corduroy
Top; Butterick 4985, ivory embroidered cheescloth with lace overlays and lace tie at front
Cardigan; Country Road
Sunnies; RayBan

Later* realised I didn’t do anything Melbourne Cup-y today at all, not even a hat! should have worn my mirrored pony necklace, doh…!

Photo below from Ralph Lauren Spring/Summer 2011

 

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A whiter shade of pale…

27/10/2010 8:02 am \ 7 Comments \

Today being slightly cooler (and on a side note, man has this been a delightfully warm spring…!) I am finally able to wear the scarf that Sam brought me as a gift from his trip to France.  It is a soft-as-clouds woven chenille; ivory, or white, the colour he told me I wear the most and is convinced is my favourite colour.  Hmmm, I’m always fascinated when people tell me what my favourite colour is, since I’m so unaware myself of what it is… he could well be right.  Possibly my favourite colour changes a lot, even daily, depending on my mood.  But there’s no denying white and variations of are a recurring theme for me in my wardrobe…  Even though my skirt is technically green and my top is technically blue, they are really both now just slightly off-white themselves.  A few years of laundering and drying out in the sun has bleached them to a faded shade of nothingness to satisfy even the most die-hard lack-of-colour lover such as myself…  And with a snowy ruffle of petticoat peeping out from my skirt, and pristine new bobby socks, well today I’m just a symphony of paleness, merely lacking a picnic and a hanging rock…
I have mentioned it before on this blog, my personal love for white shirts and how they are not just useful but beautiful.  As if there is an international synchronicity of minds, Barbara has started a white shirt sew-along (button over there in the side-bar), and how could I not but join in?  This is good.  My obsession with white shirts has been legitimised and sanctioned with an official outlet.  I don’t have to invent a reason to make a white shirt. When debating whether yet another white shirt is actually a reasonable addition to the wardrobe, I can now easily self-justify, well, I’m committed to The White Shirt Project.  Yes.  End of story.  Permission granted. Purchase of white, and even lacy, fabric may now proceed, guilt free.
And I can semi-cheat, hehe, having just completed two white shirts quite recently… specimens 1 and 2 below…

Details:
Top; Butterick 4985, blue self-embroidered cotton with lace details
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view B, sage green self-embroidered cotton
Petticoat; Metalicus
Socks; knitted by me, white cotton
Scarf; gift from my son, Paris
Boots; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Domestic diva IX

25/09/2010 4:53 am \ 8 Comments \

Post celebratory let-down; I did have a lovely day yesterday, and thankyou so much for your lovely birthday wishes!  Hmmm, re this morning’s outfit; both old favourites.  Both of these pieces I contemplated throwing out last summer and both got a last minute stay of execution.  Later I was so glad I hung on to both of them.  These are the sorts of clothes that are definitely me.  Maybe looking a little old-fashioned now? but I am feeling the pull of my collection of soft lacy crinkled clothing in dreamy faded colours now the summer days are almost upon us.  The weather is so lovely and warm now! but we are still desperate for rain.
Looked through the wardrobe this morning, and even though there are only six days of self-stitched September to go; not that I’m counting…!  I have probably a dozen more ensembles I could have chosen from.  So I don’t know why I’m feeling a melancholic lack of faith in my sewing abilities at the mo.  I do know I really need to clean out my wardrobe…
And yes, I did skim the pool and do a few hours yardwork in this outfit, but sans heels of course.  Heels and gardening are not an efficient match.  I put the heels on again afterwards.  Domestic divas need to keep up appearances…

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view B, sage green self-embroidered cotton
Top; Butterick 4985, cream broderie anglaise cheesecloth with random lace overlays and crocheted lace ties
Scarf; refashioned old jumper, cut up and felted, see here for tutorial
Hat; Country Road
Sandals; akiel, op shop

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Colour me Carpark

16/09/2010 8:05 am \ 15 Comments \

I’ve made a new top… and the colour is some sort of colour not really grey but not really brown, but something in between.  Brey?  Gr-own? Or just a darker version of my new favourite neutral; greige…  (later edit, duh, taupe!!)  I went into town today and it struck me my new top was the colour of carparks.  The colour of dirty cement and sooty steel piping.  That makes it sound awful, but really I find the colours, shapes and textures found in industrial and manmade environments can be just as artistically inspiring as natural ones…
The pattern I used is Butterick 4985, except with the sleeves from another pattern, as I prefer these “ordinary” sleeves to the rather frilly fancy ones supplied with the pattern.  I’ve used this pattern many times before…  The fabric is pre-gathered or shirred in an unevenly spaced wavy pattern on chiffon, which itself is printed with tiny paper-crane like motifs in ink blue.  It was only when cutting-out time came around that I noticed that the black shirred lines did not meet up nicely in a pattern repeat at all; all up and down unevenly, making pattern matching an absolute impossibility… I just had to give up on the idea of matching up those radiowaves!!  With the shirring it wasn’t terrifically easy to sew either, so I’m happy with how it turned out.  I just barely had enough fabric to cut out the blouse, so for the collar used some of the leftover lace from Cassie’s latest balldress (see here).  After sewing the sleeve hems by hand, I decided the edges looked unfinished, so I top-stitched some black lace braid along the edge.  I chose these little mis-shapen grey swirly buttons to finish it. 
The skirt; actually I’m not feeling this skirt anymore.  Remember when patched and shabby skirts with bits n’ bobs hanging off them were fashionable? well this skirt hails from that time.  It no longer excites me, I’m into a more tailored and simple pared back look in skirts at the mo.  But I decided to just utilise it for Self-Stitched September, and it does go quite nicely with the top, I think!  I used Vogue 7303 to make a lining (which is blue), then just patched together bits of black lace (see here) to make an over-skirt shape and sewed over the joining seams with black lace edging.

Details:
Top; Butterick 4985 with other sleeves, shirred printed chiffon with lace collar
Skirt; partly Vogue 7303, partly my own design, black lace and black lace edging strips
Shoes; Micam by Joanne Mercer, from Hobbs
Necklace; my husband’s very first gift to me! for my 21st birthday (not telling the year, so don’t ask!)
Bag; Gucci
Sunnies; RayBan

showing the lace collar, but check out the reflection in the sunglasses, lol!!

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Khaki and lace

06/02/2010 4:54 am \ 4 Comments \
Today I look a little like I’m on safari.  Hilarious, considering the only wildlife around the beach here is birds, possums, the odd bobtail and Sienna.
I know I showcased this olive skirt only recently, paired with a rainbow of colours; but I just couldn’t resist pulling it out again.  Here it is in a neutral ensemble and complemented by all the soft subtle colouring that distinguishes the coastal palette.  Smudgy khaki and browns have always been my best neutrals I think.  I used to have a whole bunch of khaki clothes I took to Africa with me in the top of our wardrobe which have now inexplicably disappeared.  Surely I couldn’t have thrown them out?  That would be extremely idiotic, even for a forgetful airhead like me.  Not impossibly idiotic, though…
My cream lace top is another old favourite that is more interesting than it appears from a distance; having lace strips sewn randomly all over and lovely old buttons.
My nail varnish is a colour I mixed up myself, after seeing a similar shade in a magazine editorial and immediately thinking “want”.  Aiming for a light jade green I used mostly BYS French White with a little bit of BYS Mint Condition thrown in.  Does anyone else mix their own nail varnish at all?  I found it trickier than I thought.  I recommend mixing only enough for one coat, then mixing the second coat when you need it; as the varnish dries so quickly you’re faced with a gluggy difficult-to-apply sludge by the time your first coat dries… of course I could have just paid ten times as much for the designer colour already mixed and saved myself the hassle, but that’s just no challenge to a DIY-er like me….
Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy
Top; Butterick 4985; cream broderie anglaise cheesecloth with cotton lace overlays and crotchet tie
Overshirt; bought from Tinga Game Lodge, South Africa (stolen from husband’s wardrobe)
Belt; stolen from husband
Shoes; op shop
Bag; made by my Mum
Nail varnish; self mixed, using BYS French White and Mint Condition
(David Attenborough-style whispered voiceover) “Here we have a dangerously cute specimen which may attack without warning, smothering its victim with excessive licking… may mercilessly flay an unprepared observer with its wildly whipping tail…  give this beast a wide berth”
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Lacy “tablecloth” skirt

20/01/2010 1:47 am \ 6 Comments \

For quite some time I’ve wanted to make myself a skirt out of an old crocheted or lace tablecloth, and with this in mind I’ve searched op-shops for some suitable candidate to chop up.  Not only didn’t I find any old tablecloths with any sort of beauty at all (plastic daisy print, anyone?) but it started to occur to me that if I was lucky enough to find a genuine old crocheted cloth I couldn’t cut it up anyway, the sacrilege would be too great.  I would fold it carefully and store it away and just bring out to dress the table for special occasions.  They are pretty precious.
So when I went to the end-of-year sale at my favourite fabric store I found this knit lace that was patterned with vaguely doily-type embroidery and got a metre.
First I made a lining skirt of 70cm length, because that is how much lining fabric I bought.  Then I started arranging and cutting the lace straight onto the lining on Bessie, aiming for a layered effect with an uneven “tablecloth-y” hemline.  It looks and sounds kind of random, but it was thought out and I did a fair bit of measuring, planning and pinning before I took the scissors to the lace.  I wanted to make best use of the lace, part of my ongoing obsession with minimal wastage.  And I’m pleased to say that I used every last square centimetre of fabric with not a single scrap left!
Cost of this skirt: 1m lace, $30 + 70cm lining, $4.90 -15% sale discount + zip, $2.30 = approx $32. And no scraps.  Not bad.  I’m happy.
I love this final look.  Just call me obsessed with lace, if there was a White Lace Anonymous help group I would need to sign up.  In honour of the whole “tablecloth” inspiration I set up our outdoor table with some of my antique china for morning tea.  
Do you like my “fork” bracelet?  It’s my son’s really, and he got the idea from the movie “Elephant”.  It’s just one of those cheapie single forks you can buy, bent into a loop.

Details:
Skirt; own design, white stretch lace
Top; Butterick 4985, sleeves from another pattern, pink nobbly cotton, overdyed using an old red T-shirt
Sandals; Vicenza, from Soletta shoes
Bracelet; bent fork

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