Tag Archives: Cardigan

Pattern Magic 2; wearing a square

05/09/2011 5:51 am \ 29 Comments \

This was one of the earliest garments in this excellent book to catch my eye, and as it turns out probably the easiest.
Only one or two basic measurements and very few seams…
While the design is called “wearing a square”, well yes, the pattern piece is a square.  That is if you can be bothered drafting a pattern piece, which I did not…  I just measured straight onto my fabric, marked with pins, and cut out using my big old quilting ruler and rotary cutter to get the straight lines, yes, it is that easy.  However the fabric piece is actually a rectangle; a double square, on the fold. 
My only advice?  Check your forearm circumference measurement, I “drafted with my own measurements” as recommended, but allowed for a few extra centimetres on my sleeves and I am glad I did!  I do not have big arms, but I am guessing there are very few who would be comfortable with a 20cm sleeve on their forearm…  
I find little cardigans very useful, so am very pleased with this one.  The draping on the back and the very subtle drape on the back neckline caused by the straight lines of the garment  are both flattering and unusual.  I decided to go for an open-ended zip for closure at the front, so it can be unzipped all the way if I wanted it hanging open.  But I tried this out and probably won’t, as it has a tendency to slide off my shoulders if it is left open…
It’s a cute little thing, no?  I just love it!  The fabric was given to me by my friend C, part of her late mother’s stash so I’m not sure of the composition.  It is quite thick-ish, and looks stretchy, but is only very slightly stretchy, and has a tendency to fray.  So I finished the lower edge and sleeve hems by overlocking the raw edges, turning under once by 1cm and stitching down, and the neckline edge has a 4cm hem. The fabric has this blue, grey and white marle on one side whilst the other side  is a grey and white marle.  I have plenty left, so might make something with the grey marle on the outside next time…

Details:
Cardigan; the “wearing a square” design from Pattern Magic 2 by Tomoko Nakamichi, made of blue/grey mystery fabric
Dress; Burda 8511 modified to be fully lined, made of tobacco coloured wool mix
Tights; Kolotex
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough

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Blue and pink hand-knitted cardigan

22/06/2011 4:10 am \ 19 Comments \

This is another thing unearthed in my winter woolies sort-out, that hasn’t been photographed or written about here…
I do feel a bit silly for having forgotten about all these things… but here we go.
I started knitting this cardigan while I was expecting Sam, and then managed to finish it shortly after he was born, thus making it now exactly seventeen years old.  It’s been worn a tonne, as you can imagine, like any casual garment is… I think I’ve even taken it camping.  Which now I think of all the work I put into making it immaculately and perfectly finished seems kind of sacrilegious… woops  Since this sort of big patterned knitted cardigan became very unfashionable some years ago I kinda stopped wearing it so much.  Although I think as I am wearing it today with a mini-dress and textured tights moderns it up a touch, brings it acceptably into this decade, yes?
It is knitted in the intarsia method, so each of those strips and little triangles of colour is knitted with its own separate little ball of wool.  I can remember knitting it; with masses of little balls of wool on their individual cardboard winders dangling off the back, occasionally getting caught and twisted up with each other, and painstakingly sorting them out, looping the old ball over each new one as each new colour block came up.  I was such a DIY-er (er, still am, I suppose!) I even made my own winders, cutting them out of old cereal boxes, refusing to buy the little plastic ones you see in knitting shops… they had little slits cut in them for the wool to sit through so the balls stayed neatly wound up and wouldn’t unravel while I was knitting…
In the best hand-knitter’s tradition the cardigan has no knots in it.  All the loose ends are either spliced or woven in, or stitched in an interwoven method in the closest joining seam.  I learnt these finishing methods from my friend J, also a keen knitter, who had taken on work knitting for some big Australian hand-knit range… not sure which now, it might have been Jenny Kee, maybe not.  She had been sent instructions on how to properly finish off a hand-knit garment, and obviously knots were one of the biggest no-no’s.  I’m ashamed to say we had both been knotting up until then… but we learnt from these fantastic instructions.  Since then I’ve always scrupulously stayed away from knots in any hand-knitted garment.

Details:
Cardigan; handknit by me, from various shades of Patons 8 ply pure merino wool.  The pattern was from a Patons pamphlet, no. 1105
Dress; Burda 8511 with modifications, purple raw silk, details here
Tights; Metalicus
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

below: the “wrong” side showing the intarsia knitting method with each block of colour a distinct and separate block with no loops of yarn across the back.  All the ends are interwoven into the joining seams, and there are absolutely NO knots!
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The makeshift project

27/11/2010 4:04 am \ 7 Comments \

Oh, I am in a much better mood today since my family turned up here last night… I swear I was getting a minor case of …something mental… here all by my lonesome and carrying on one-sided conversations with the dog; her contribution was just supportive tail-wagging and loyal loving looks… kinda like one of those weird psychological films.
So I apologise sincerely for any escalating grumpiness over the past few days.
Last evening while internetting by myself, I discovered an awesome blog, makeshift, where a clothing designer went for a year wearing only items of clothing made by herself, including shoes and underwear, oh and sunglasses too!!  I only wish I had discovered her at the beginning of her journey as her year is now over and she doesn’t seem to be making many entries in her blog since she finished a few months ago.  Such an impressive feat; and not only has her determination inspired me but I adore all her clothes and designs, she looks modern, comfortable and edgy in all her outfits.  I want to be edgier too now, my current clothes are boring me at the mo.  Practicality is winning out over style here…
The concept of going all self-made is something I’ve toyed with in my own head before, although not to the extreme of making my own shoes; this is beyond my capabilities.  Not to mention I love my current shoe collection too much…  Though, is there a shoe-making course to be found in Perth…?
I am going to give this some thought.  I do think I could go a year all self-made.  Bar shoes, oh and underwear … as I don’t see the point of making a new set of underwear when I have perfectly servicable set already.  Plus I’m not convinced making underwear is an interesting or worthwhile fashion statement.  I’ll only go to this extreme the day I can’t find underwear made in Australia anymore…
In my initial excitement I pondered doing this beginning the 1st January 2011, but realistically this will not work as we have an overseas skiing trip planned for January and I couldn’t possibly make my own snow-worthy gear… well, not in time.  I’m sure it is possible and some clever seamstresses out there have probably done it but for the climate where I live it just wouldn’t be worth my effort, honestly.  It has never snowed here in the history of time and probably isn’t going to any time soon.
Keep you posted.

Details:
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen
Top; Country Road
Cardigan; my own design, jersey knit

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Dove grey skirt, Japanese

09/11/2010 10:08 am \ 12 Comments \

So I’ve made a new skirt, this one is skirt “d” from the Japanese pattern book, “Unique Clothes Any Way You Like” by Natsuno Hirawai.  I’m already in love with its tendency to flutter and float about my legs as I walk in little ripply silver waves, promising to be delightfully cool to wear during summer!
The skirt is cut in one piece, which is a strange almost tear-drop shape, with only three other pieces for the waistband, and two separate button plackets.  I chose these three large nacre buttons for closure to complement the soft silver grey of the fabric.  Actually I made this using the wrong side of the fabric out.  The right side has a much more shimmery shiny metallic silver finish to it, but I chose the dull dove grey wrong side with a slightly felt-y texture over this as I’m not really a disco ball kind of a girl.  Although come to think of it I do have some silver sequinned fabric in my stash… calling to my inner disco queen, a flashy persona buried deep within the prosaic Australian exterior…  I must have bought it knowing she was down in there somewhere, hehe.
The shape of the skirt piece means that the one seam in the skirt joins a with-the-grainline edge on to a cross-grain edge, requiring absolutely straight-as-a-die cutting and sewing to avoid horrible wrinkles and bagginess around the seam.  If it wasn’t for this need for accuracy here I would rate this skirt as a laughably easy project… of course if you are working with a very stable strong fabric then this wouldn’t be a problem… but I chose this slippery crepe; wonderful draping qualities but with a tendency to shift and stretch.  I think I did an OK job with the seam, and I like how it cuts across the body diagonally providing a subtle random off-kilter focal point to what is otherwise a featureless A-line skirt.

Details:
Skirt; skirt “d”, “Unique Clothes Any Way You Like” by Natsuno Hirawai, pale mauve-grey crepe
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; my own design seen first here, black jersey printed with rubbery plastic snakeskin scales
Shoes; Perrini, had for so many years I’ve forgotten where they came from
Sunnies; RayBan

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Fair Isle knitted jumper

15/10/2010 8:16 am \ 9 Comments \

Today’s photo is good for a bit of a chuckle, no?
The above is a photo taken of my husband and me at our engagement party.  I know, we look like babies… this was over twenty years ago.  On a fashion note; please take note of my husband’s skinny leather tie and the random chaotic nature of the print on my dress, lol… tres chic and fashionable for the late eighties, honest!!
I’m putting it up here because he is wearing a cardigan I had knitted for him at the time.  It is my own design, based on a Kaffe Fasset motif.  We chose the colours together (there are at least twenty different colours and yarns in it) and the cardigan shape and style are also of my design, custom fit to his size and the shape that men were wearing at the time (don’t laugh, the boxy bomber-jacket shape was the very IN thing in menswear, truly!)
If I’m truthful I’ll admit he hasn’t worn it in a while.   In fact I dug it up out of a suitcase in our storage room for the detail photos below…
The design is knitted in Fair Isle style, and there are two colours in each row, although at a casual glance it looks a lot more.  The design was quite clever that way…  The whole cardigan is knitted in one piece, from wrist band to wrist band.  After completing the body, I sewed up the two seams (which are the underarm/side seams) and picked up stitches to knit on the waistband, the front opening bands and finally the neckband.  These are all in rows of striped rib.
I was (and still am) pretty pleased with the neat and tidy appearance of the inside of the jumper, so I’ve taken an inside picture to show you how carefully I wove the two colours of each row together in each and every stitch as I was knitting…

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Me and the best friend

06/10/2010 4:21 am \ 7 Comments \

Nice to be back here with my big furry best friend again …
On our last lovely balmy evening in Melbourne we met friends for dinner down by the Yarra River and chinwagged into the late late hours.  Our friends had been reading the latest Stephen Hawking book The Grand Design, explaining further the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, and posing discussions such as “why is there something rather than nothing?” and “why do we exist?” and other esoteric fare…
I decided to keep quiet about the fact that my current reading material is the Sookie Stackhouse Chronicles, a decidedly more lowbrow offering…  This is a sometimes camp series about a Louisiana waitress who is a psychic and is also dating a vampire; lol!  Yeah, I do read worthy books (really!), but also I like to escape now and then into black humour and small-town soapie-style fun too…  life is too short to stick exclusively with serious.
Y’all agreed?  Darn tootin’…

Details:
Skirt; partly my own design, based upon Vogue 7303, layered white stretch lace, see full length here
Tshirt; Country Road
Cardigan; my husband’s old jumper, refashioned, see here
Necklace; made by me, tutorial here
Sandals; Vicenza, from Soletta shoes
Nail varnish; Santorini Sunset, NP

 

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Ladylike in brown

13/09/2010 5:25 am \ 11 Comments \

This morning attended a ladylike morning tea to celebrate a friend’s birthday, so have thoroughly enjoyed the last hour sitting in the dappled shade of the jacarandas sipping tea from a charmingly cracked and mis-matched pretty china set, ahh, just bliss… but now the fun is over and it’s back to the office…
Now, kind people leave me lots of lovely sweet compliments (and thankyou!) on the picturesque backdrops in my photos; so I’ll let you in on my little photography secret… well I take nearly all my photos in either one of about three or four locations, and it’s amazing how different the effect in a shot can be just by pointing the lens in a slightly different direction.  For example the sunlight is quite bright today so I decided to set up my camera in the shade of a tree for this photo.  I think the muted light shows off the fabric textures and colours of my outfit better than in direct sunlight, which here in Australia can be quite harsh and create either too dramatic shadows on one’s clothes or alternatively bright bright areas completely devoid of any discernible detail… but from where I am standing in the above photo the view I am looking at is this…

So I couldn’t resist kicking off my shoes, rotating the camera 180degrees and stepping out on the beach for one more shot, and decided to show here it to demonstrate the contrast even though you can’t see my dress very well from this angle…!  Which background do you like better? 

Details:
Dress; Burda 8511 from tobacco wool mix, modified to be more fitted and fully lined
Cardigan; knitted by me to my own design, using Jo Sharp Aran Tweed in Brindle
Shoes; Sandler, from David Jones
Bag; Gucci

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Green Day

11/09/2010 5:06 am \ 8 Comments \

Aaah, social whirling over and life is back to normal around here for a while…  I do like to go out and get dressed up once in a while and the social season is certainly upon us now spring is here…  but I do hope nobody came here expecting a glamour-puss today because she’s nowhere to be seen!
A normal-ish Saturday so far, spent much of the morning waiting in a ginormous queue to organise foreign money for my son’s upcoming trip overseas; in a week’s time my youngest is going away on a trip alone for the first time (insert brave deep breath and lower lip wobble here…)
So today being a bit overcast and cool, I’m dressed for moderately presentable comfort and warmth; this is perhaps one of the more dubious of my Self-stitched September ensembles so please be kind!  The dress is a favourite seen here heaps of times  (but first and only time for this month! as per my self-imposed rule of no repeats, hehe), Burda 8071 made out of ivory broderie anglaise cheesecloth (to see this styled in six different ways see here)  This dress is really a summer-weight dress, and if I do wear it on a cooler day I usually prefer to wear my Metalicus petticoat underneath, but as I am strictly eliminating store-bought from this month’s clothing I had to think of something else…  The skirt worn underneath is possibly the only version I have of my old standby Vogue 7303 that is made to the pattern as it is in the envelope, and the hooded cardigan is knitted by me to my own design, and is perfectly snuggly for a moody cloudy day.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, slightly stretchy white cotton/lycra
Dress; Burda 8071, ivory broderie anglaise cheescloth
Hoodie; my own design, Jo Sharp Silk Road DK in Ambrosia
Boots; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp shoes

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