O hey-a! After finishing my own Kelly anorak and having it admired to the nth degree by family members, I made a few more! a pale grey one for Cassie, and I also made a deep cobalt blue one for Tim’s girlfriend Kelly. Well, it seemed only right that she should have a “Kelly” too!
I quickly snapped that top picture of an unsuspecting Cassie waiting to meet up with me in town before she noticed me heading towards her… I know it’s a bit blurry and not very posed to show off the anorak to modelly perfection, but I just really like it nonetheless… to me it attests that she’s been wearing it a tonne, in fact every single occasion that I’ve seen her in the past three weeks since I finished it and gave it to her she has been wearing it. There’s no greater compliment to a seamster than that! as well as a testament to the pattern being an absolute style winner. Kelly’s worn hers each time I’ve seen her since I gave it to her too, but I’ve not taken any pictures of her in it.. will update if she sends me one 🙂
This, taken when I presented it to her three weeks ago, and probably the only time it’s been worn with the sleeves unrolled like this. It does look a little more wintery like this. I have to admit, it does look a lot trendier and suits the casual, “heading into summer but still need a layer” look to have the sleeves rolled up.
Both the anoraks are in a nice weight cotton drill from Spotlight, in fact, all the other bits and pieces are from Spotlight too. In both anoraks, I added a few inches to the length of the body and modified the pockets to have separate pocket flaps so as to close the pockets; otherwise these are both made up exactly to the pattern.
This picture below of Kelly’s anorak has been my most “liked” picture on instagram ever! far more than anything I have ever made for myself! Interesting, no? Well, I think it is, anyway 😉 I don’t know what that “says”, if anything at all, but maybe something. Social media is such a funny phenomenon. Something else also interesting to me is how a person, any person, can have a certain number of followers and the number of “likes” never ever reaches anywhere close to that number. Honestly, I have no idea about how or why this is so, but it’s just a curious thing.
I’d got enough of the same white cord for Kelly’s anorak , but since I’d found a nice, perfectly colour-matched blue zip for hers’, and used blue thread for all topstitching and there was no other white anywhere in the jacket; the white cord looked all wrong. And naturally there’s no such thing as blue cord in the whole of Perth! so I just had to dye it. And, when your regular dye-pot is HUGE and there’s just one little length of cord what’s a mad maker to do? but of course, improvise.
Yeah, I know this looks uber-weird, but determination breeds resourcefulness… and it gave me such a laugh to watch this crazy little dye-pot bubbling on the stove! I’d tossed a pair of the same white plastic stops as I used for Cassie’s anorak in with the dye bath and it was very satisfying that they dyed up a nice deep blue too. I’d bought some silver stops just in case but fortunately the blue dye did the job beautifully 🙂
Different day, still wearing it. Yep, like I said, she’s worn it literally every single time I’ve seen her in the past three weeks. I’m calling that a ginormous WIN!
Firstly, two sage green/pale coffee, checked tweed skirts. I inherited this beautiful quality piece of wool tweed from my grandmother’s stash after she passed away. Although I earmarked it straight away as two skirts for Cassie and myself I just hadn’t got around to it and have sat on it all this time. It was one of those fabrics I couldn’t bring myself to cut into… you know, inherited from Granny, plus exceptionally good quality, equals inevitable thoughts of sewing tragedy followed by eternal self-damnation…. but I’m making myself get over that nonsense nowadays. Make it! Enjoy it! Live dangerously! So, finally… it helps too that I think Cassie has now grown into fabric of this calibre 😉 not that she didn’t deserve high quality fabrics before, but you know what I mean! it’s very much a grown-up fabric and makes a very smart little work skirt for her now that she has a serious and professional career. The fabric really is beautiful stuff… fine and evenly woven, and there are flecks of all sorts of colours in with the sage green/coffee check… blue, red and gold, caramel brown, forest green, and a hint of purple and black. It has no identifier on it but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a fully English tweed. My grandmother was very much into that sort of thing 🙂
sie moved out of home she left this fabric behind and I almost started to factor it into my own plans mwahahahahaha… but of course she hadn’t forgotten it, o no! The reason she had deviously left it behind was so that I could make something for her with it! HA! She chose 
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Hello! just a few quick items for today… I’ve actually been sewing a few things for other people! Scary stuff, huh. I mean, it’s one thing that I can see all my own flaws in things I make for myself, and on a daily basis! but that’s kinda the rough with the smooth, you accept that because it’s all your own doing, all your own fault and you can tell yourself you’re “learning” and going to do better next time haha…. but to subject another person to those flaws … well that’s really exposing yourself. ok, you know what I mean…
Sure, they’re all near identical, but still. What’s not to love about that.
This is the first time I’ve put an exposed zip in a skirt with lining, and wasn’t totally sure how to do it; I put the zip in similarly to how you’d do a welt pocket, and then hand-stitched the lining to the zip tape on the inside. I cut the bottom edge of the pleather clean and straight with my rotary cutter and left it unhemmed; and hemmed the paisley portions in a deep 4cm hem by hand. The skirt is fully lined with raspberry polyacetate, itself a leftover from 
Item number two; a hoodie for my son’s girlfriend. I had made 
I’ve made a new dress for Cassie! does’t she look swish and smart and ultra-glam? Well, I reckon so 🙂
The dark navy blue, pleated skirt has an invisible zip closure and an interfaced facing. I suggested she make it a little longer, so she could at least wear it as a normal skirt too; but no; the costume had to be as faithfully executed as possible!
She used a blouse pattern for the vest, mainly because the collar was right for the costume; it had no collar stand and was the right shape and lay in the right spot. The front and back pieces were easily modified to be a vest shape, and she individually drew out the gold edging pieces to fit, and with self-fabric facing throughout.
This is a character driven pose; it means “I’m watching and I’ve got your back”… and that symbol on her hand is also a key component to her character too. I freehand drew it on for her this morning, because you know; right handed, and it had to be on her right hand! It’s in pink ballpoint pen. I can’t wait to hear how her day was…. I’m sure she will be one of the best dressed at the convention!! As we drove in to drop her off, we saw stormtroopers and a Joker strolling down the esplanade on their way to the convention, laugh! It’s fantastic how everyone who goes makes a real effort to dress up in amazing costumes and really look the part… oooo I so wish I could be there to see all the costumes!!
Hello!
That’s it, really!
And also, don’t you just hate it when people boast smugly about their perfect pattern matching?
