Tag Archives: Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co

Yallingup, with sleeves!

19/12/2021 6:06 pm \ Leave a Comment \

Hello!   Just a quick post today… for those of you who wished our Yallingup pattern had sleeves, well Cassie has designed one!  We’ve made it available as a free add-on to the pattern currently in the shop… if you’ve already bought the pattern and are unable to access the add-on through your Etsy download then please feel free to get it here from my blog as well.

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SuperMum mode; activated!!  I love these pictures of her!

Cassie used superhero cotton fabric from Spotlight; it’s pretty cute, eh?!

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yellow Yallingup dress

09/10/2021 10:15 am \ 4 Comments \

So my niece is having a yellow themed birthday party! and since I currently have zero yellow garments in  my possession therefore I needed a new dress… obviously.

I needed to test something out for our Yallingup dress pattern… an add-on that Cassie really wants to introduce for it; but didn’t have any suitable fabric so I had to go out and actually BUY new fabric… imagine!  It’s been quite a while!  I found some suitable yellow linen in Spotlight.

Even though it’s our own pattern and maybe I shouldn’t play favourites like this, but I REALLY love this style… it’s really so comfy and fun to wear.

I made another youtube video on the process… it’s slower paced than my previous few.  Honestly not sure what is my motivation to keep making videos since they get very few views and even less “thumbs up”! so I guess they’re pretty bad but I’m going to keep going and try new things to hopefully improve.  I might try doing a voiceover next time because maybe that’s the problem and maybe the music is a little irritating?… but this is a scary thought.  What on earth am I going to say?

it’s here should you be be so curious…

https://youtu.be/IEkyycm_em8

btw, very pleasantly surprised that I managed to get Thing 1 and Thing 2 on the neckline binding like this.. total serendipitous!

 

also.. yallingup in action!

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the Fridgetown hand warmers

23/07/2021 8:34 pm \ 9 Comments \

I’ve made a new pattern! along with the help of my beautiful partner in crime of course, Cassie… it’s for a pair of handwarmers, yes it is quite a simple pattern, which is why we’re debuting it for free, however the “twist”, if you like, or maybe the beauty of it is all in the construction, because you end up with a nice pair of double layered hand warmers with all the seam allowances and raw edges hidden neatly inside.  It was a little bit of puzzle working out how to do this, but I think it works out really well and I’m quite pleased with the process!

The pattern is available for free here.

CAROLYN_CASSIE_Fridgetown_Handwarmers_A4_letter

For this one, I did not do illustrations to accompany the instructions, instead I did a youtube video tutorial which I think illustrates the process much better.  It can be viewed below or on my youtube channel.  Jacqui commented asking about how to find my channel, the direct link is up above in the top right hand side bar of this here blog, if you’re interested..x 🙂

To make the hand warmers, you need a piece of stretch fabric, at least 80cm (32″) in length by 50cm (20″) in width, with the stretch going in the widthwise or 50cm direction.  For all three pairs that I have made, I used merino knit, that I bought from the Fabric Store, one pair in colour Vanilla, two pairs in colour Ochre.  This is all leftover from various Nettie winter tees that I have made recently.  It’s actually the ideal fabric for this design in my opinion, thin and lightweight, deliciously warm and cosy, and of course, beautiful quality.

The name? haha, well the name is our little joke… my parents live in Bridgetown, which regularly gets the lowest temperatures in Western Australia.  So a few winters ago this installation gave me a laugh… and it was the first thing that popped into my head when i was thinking of a name!

The pattern is free here, however it’s also available for a very small fee in our Etsy shop… unfortunately you cannot put up free things in Etsy which is why a small charge had to be added on to it.  We wanted to put it in our shop too, just for the sake of consistency and to have all our patterns represented in one place…

Anyway.  We hope you enjoy the pattern!

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the Yallingup dress/blouse

23/05/2021 4:34 pm \ 12 Comments \

I can finally reveal the main thing I’ve been working on for the past few months… our new pattern!

Please allow me to introduce the Yallingup dress/blouse!
This is a loose summery piece that can be made as either a regular item or alternatively as a nursing friendly version for nursing mothers… both versions appear superficially the same at a glance but of course are constructed quite differently on the inside!

The design features a scoop neckline, single breast pocket, and an overlaying wrap top that can be worn either loose or tied at the back… for the nursing version the wrap can also function as a modesty cloth for when you are feeding your baby… the dress version also has deep inseam side pockets, of course!

Cassie conceived the design after the delivery of her baby and then I converted the idea into a regular one for “not nursing” people too😁

So technically, the pattern has four views:

A, the regular blouse; B, the nursing friendly blouse; C, the regular dress and D, the nursing friendly dress…  and because the construction method for the regular version and the nursing friendly version are quite different I ended up deciding to write two different instruction booklets, for the two different methods.  I know, that sounds complicated but honestly it was nowhere near as complicated as when I had them combined in one single instruction booklet!  Separating the two methods completely has simplified things considerably so I hope you’ll forgive the extra file that comes with it.

I’ve been making tonnes of these lately, for basically everyone in our family, including the new Mums … it’s super comfy and easy to wear and we hope you like it too!

The Yallingup pattern is available right now in our Etsy shop, here, or you can click the Yallingup illustration in my right hand side-bar over there ->

Pictured here are just a small sample of the Yallingup’s I have made:

btw; I opted to not go the call-out for tester route this time.. this is because there has been a bit of negativity around the “doing testing work for free” in the sewing community lately and I even ran into this a little bit during the testing for my last pattern, the Mundaring raincoat.

It’s funny because I personally love testing patterns and I’ve been doing it for many years for other pattern companies, happily, and with no expectation or even thought of getting paid.  Nowadays a lot of sewing peeps feel like they should be paid.  This is not necessarily a criticism by the way, just an observation into how attitudes are a-changing.

This time we did all the testing in-house and through personal contacts.  I mean, I’ve always personally tested each and every size in all our patterns anyway, so I know they work as they should; and this time we did the same thing.  I think maybe part of the pattern-testing negativity I mentioned earlier is because pattern testers feeling like they’re doing work for free and then being treated like free publicity for the pattern company; and so I decided I did not want to be associated with that perception of exploitation.

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Mundaring raincoat

30/01/2021 11:56 pm \ 5 Comments \

Hurrah!  Cassie and I have finally finished making our newest pattern!  please give a warm welcome to the Mundaring raincoat pattern, currently for sale in our shop, the linky dink to which is over to the right in my sidebar there… or you can just click on the this pattern picture just to the right here.

So, the Mundaring is a pattern for a loose-fitting, below hip length raincoat with raglan sleeves, large front zippered pockets with inbuilt weather flaps, a back weather flap covering a hidden vent panel, roomy hood that can be tightened with a hood cord.  Closure is by an open ended zip, hidden underneath a front band.  The pattern includes separate pattern pieces for an optional lining with additional inner breast pocket, and an appendix with tips for weatherproofing the seams of your raincoat.

I know it’s taken me a long time to finally finish getting this together, I first made this design for myself back in 2012 when I made my blue raincoat…

this is actually a great little raincoat and I love it and still wear it!  Then I made a pink and blue colour blocked version for Cassie, improving on the design a little more.

Then I fine-tuned the design to be just about exactly what I wanted, albeit in unlined form, when I made my mustard one…

this is when I got actually got serious about turning it into a proper pattern and studying the grading criteria.  btw the mustard one has been a really great raincoat too, and I still wear this one when the colour of it is what an outfit requires  😉

In testing the design I’ve made multiple Mundarings since that time, several in each of the five sizes each… plus another “proper” one for Cassie in this chic, pale grey pleather.  And finally, the cheerful yellow one for myself, and then a lovely blue one for my sister-in-law S.

Doesn’t she look gorgeous?  I’m so grateful she agreed to be my model again!

Both my latest are made using a fabric called Oxford Waterproof that I bought from Remnant Warehouse.  btw, NO, I am not getting free fabric or recognition or anything for promoting it, and these are not affiliate links even, I bought this fabric and am recommending it because I am genuinely a fan and think it is the perfect fabric for my design!

My raincoat is this colour, the Gold colour-way, and S’s is the Royal colour-way.   I fully lined both these raincoats using matching polyactate lining fabric from Fabulous Fabrics, and both of them have white zips and white cords and cord stops, which I think looks really nice  🙂

I sealed the seams on both raincoats using this stuff…

I selected it because it is an adhesive sealant with high flexibility, and bonus that while comes out of the canister kind of cloudy it then dries to be quite translucent.  In my  opinion it’s absolutely perfect for this purpose!  I’ll update this post with the exact product as soon as I can, and am truthfully kicking myself right now I did not take a picture of the canister before (doh!)

The pattern is for sale in pdf form here… we are working on getting a paper pattern up and running, and will update the shop with a paper pattern once we’ve got all our ducks in a row vis a vis that.  But in the meantime… here is is!!  I’m so happy to finally have it out in the world!

Here are some of the specs!

Pockets?  Why, of course!

Details:

All raincoats; Carolyn & Cassie Mundaring raincoat pattern, in Oxford Waterproof from remnant warehouse
White tank top; my hand stitched Alabama Chanin tank top.. it was the first one I laid hands on in the drawer!
Jeans: Closet Core patterns Morgan boyfriend jeans, blogged here
White shoes; handmade by me, blogged here

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claremont shopping tote

24/09/2019 2:59 pm \ 4 Comments \

There’s a new pattern in Le Shop!!

So, last Christmas I made a few shopping totes, one for Kelly and one for Sam’s lady L, and they were quite nice if I say so myself!  Kelly in particular carried hers around a tonne, bringing it around practically every week, packed full of her stuff.  She reckoned it was an incredibly useful size… 🙂  Shortly afterwards I received several requests from lovely readers who were interested in the pattern which made me feel, yeah we can do this, and; well, wedding sewing did put pattern-making on the back burner for quite a while but ta da! finally we made it happen… and it’s now live in our shop!

I asked Cassie to name this one, and she decided upon Claremont, after our favourite shopping centre.  Well, I should qualify; our actual favourite places to shop are like; Fabulous Fabrics, and Potters, and Spotlight, but well, you know  😉

Specifics; the Claremont is an unlined, shopping tote with box-base and cut-on handles, with two options for internal pockets . The base measures 30cm x 20cm (12” x 8”); the height of bag not including handles is 33cm (13”). The length of the shoulder straps enables a person to sling the tote easily on the shoulder and to still be able comfortably access inside the tote while you’re wearing it.  The cut-on handles makes for a very strong bag that can withstand a quite heavy load of shopping.

The totes I made for Kelly and L were quite simple with no pockets, however for the pattern itself we added pattern pieces and instructions for two internal pockets; an open pocket for your phone, and a zipped pocket for your keys.  I ran up a pocketed version for a birthday gift for a friend, using a really lovely Spindle and Ink canvas; this is called Flowering Gum in Bluestone and Stream.  Isn’t that a gorgeous name?!  It’s designed by Lara Cameron.

The pattern is available to purchase in digital pdf format; and also; in consideration of the fact that I understand that lots of people prefer paper sewing patterns, and/or do not easily have access to printing it out at home, or just don’t want to; we are also making available an actual paper pattern too.  

This is unavoidably a more expensive option, sorry! so sweeten the paper pattern deal; with the first five paper patterns sold I’m throwing in one of our pattern company labels.  These are produced by the Dutch Label company, and I currently only have the five.  Anyone who has  bought from them knows and no doubt loves the very high quality of their work!  I’m thinking of ordering more!

 

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the A-line Perth dress; a short tutorial

08/01/2019 2:04 pm \ 4 Comments \

Perth dress/blouse

So, I popped on my original Perth dress today and I realised this post is way overdue and I’ve been owing it for some time… I’m sorry for being so slack!

I have to admit that a reasonable number of the requests/comments I have received vis-a-vis our Perth dress pattern is that people like my “bouffy” brown prototype, above; and wish to know exactly how this one was made as opposed to the more streamlined final pattern version … I’ve generally taken to just describing it on a request-by-request basis since it’s really quite a simple modification ; but obviously a visual is preferable.

  1. basically; you take the lowest point of the side seam of both front and back, and pivot it out from the armhole point, adding 8.5cm (3 1/4″) to width at the lowest point.  Keep the pocket markings in the same place.

not to scale

2. the other thing about the prototype is that the collar is a little smaller, which I think visually is a good balance against the much more flared-out “skirt” part of the design.  In the final version of the pattern, I thought a more dramatically pointed collar was a better look with the more streamlined silhouette.  Collar stand stays the same.

again, zero scale considerations, sorry.  About 1.2cm (1/2″) is taken off the collar point itself and the difference tapered off to meet up with the seams on each side…

3. finally, I decided to tame some of the bouffe in back by extending the box pleat down from the yoke and top-stitching it down at about my waist level.

All of these modifications are, of course, optional and open to even further alteration if desired.  I love it when I see people adapting the design and making it their own! For example, just recently I saw @thesewingsociety had adapted the collar to be a club collar, which is super cute, oui?!

Anyway, I’d like to thank everyone who asked! I hope this helps a little, and maybe also gives everyone a few ideas for making a different version of the Perth for themselves!

It’s funny; because I personally didn’t like the brown version so much at first, thinking it just WAY too voluminous, to a fault; its only saving grace to me was the top half/neckline which of course I preserved exactly in my pattern.  However over time my brown version has very much wormed its way into my heart after all.  Yes, it is voluminous, but lots of volume in a summer dress has a certain charm of its own which I really really appreciate in very hot weather.  I like being able to “flap” my dress about to create a bit of a cooling airflow as I’m walking.  And of course the covered-up-edness of the top half is great for our full-on sun, meaning less of a need to slather on the suncream and less chance of getting sunburnt too.  In short, I’m really appreciating all my Perth dresses all over again!

the full bouffe!

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the Kimberley doll pattern

13/11/2018 9:32 pm \ 9 Comments \

For anyone who liked my dolls and maybe wished to make one for themselves…Cassie and I have made a pattern!

The Kimberley doll pattern is available to buy in our shop right now, just in time for Christmas making!  You can get it as an instantly downloadable pdf and there are also a limited number of paper patterns.  This is the same pattern I developed to make my recent seasonal set of four; the Mses Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn … I enjoyed making them all so much! and am so happy they’ve been liked so much too  🙂

Included is the rag doll pattern, naturally; and her full wardrobe…  I know when I was a kiddy the most enjoyable thing about playing with my dolls was dressing them in a variety of clothes; the more the better! and my favourite dolls all had lots and lots of clothes which I delighted in changing out regularly.  This is why I strived to give the Kimberley doll plenty of outfit options!  All pieces included in the seasonal girls’ sets are here; the “winter” turtleneck tunic dress and a pair of jersey leggings, and the knitting pattern for her chevron-patterned beanie with pompom; a twirly summer wrap dress, lace knickers, and raglan sleeved mini dress, which so far I have chosen to make in stretch sequinned fabric as a cocktail dress for “my” girls.  Additional patterns included are for her zippered duffle bag, and also for the dust bag that is designed to hold her and all her belongings when she is not being played with.

I also include instructions for giving the doll a full head of yarn hair and an embroidered face.  The example I used for the pattern is basically the same face that I have given all my dolls, but I would like to point out that how you do the face for your own doll is a very personal decision and you can, and should! use your own artistic license and go with whatever takes your fancy!   Something  interesting I’ve found is that the smallest, tiniest variations; a slant to a mouth, wider-set eyes, offset or asymmetrical eyebrows, can affect a facial expression quite a lot.  And hair! that’s a whole other story too…  🙂

Some of the technical deets:

The Kimberley doll stands 43cm (17″) high.  Most of her clothes can actually be made from scraps and small bits and pieces of fabric, but following is a complete list of requirements should you buying new:

The Kimberley doll is named for the Kimberley region of Western Australia, following our theme of naming our patterns after places in Western Australia.  Well, we already had “Perth” and so decided this would be a nice theme to keep up and we have so many beautiful places here in Western Australia that are obviously very dear to our hearts.  Though we were partly influenced by the thought it would be nice to have a girl’s name for a doll pattern too, so very fortunately we do have one girl’s name in the state!  The colours of the Kimberley rocks are what I was going for in the background colour of the pattern cover.  I was pretty thrilled when Cassie recognised this straight away without my having to explain it, hehe…

It’s so weird; for many years I never suspected I would have become interested in making dolls, it’s not “serious” like making clothing for yourself or anyone else for that matter, and for a long time I’ve been quite serious about my sewing and devoting myself to making a full and proper wardrobe.  But well, doll-making has been such a nice diversion, just something purely whimsical, you know?  I hope it gives a little bit of frivolous enjoyment to others too!

By the way; selling of completed handmade dolls made using this pattern is permitted provided design credit is given to Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co.

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