Cassie Archives - Page 7 of 10 - Handmade by Carolyn

Kitchen witch

10/11/2012 11:00 pm \ 29 Comments \ Carolyn

Some kitchen couture!!
With all the gorgeous aprons popping up in the sewing blogging world at the mo’ I thought I should show why I did not take part in the big sew-along this time… you see; I have a very nice little selection of perfectly lovely handmade goodnesses to choose from when it comes to cooking-related apparel; already!
All of which are of quite high sentimental value to me since they were hand-crafted by my two favourite ladies in my life; my Mum and my daughter Cassie.
I own two aprons and one pair of oven mitts. Actually I have one other pair of oven mitts too, cruddy old ones which I actually use. The ones Cassie made are too good to muck up 🙂 But I do wear the aprons.
They are both quite simple in line and style BUT the divinity is in the details.
Firstly; the striped apron above was handwoven and made by my mother, and I have been using it all my adult married life.
It is all cotton; the fabric handwoven by Mum on a big floor loom in a plain weave; and has twill tape attached for the neck bizzo and the waist ties.

I just love the colours Mum chose 🙂

Secondly; I have an apron and oven mitts set; made by Cassie when she was in year 11 for an Art assignment.

This was term project, culminating in this apron and oven mitt set, a framed painting, and a whole portfolio of sketches. The name of the project is Eve’s Temptation… thus the sprinkling of cherries (innocence) and apples (temptation) over the textiles. The fruit is all embroidered in three different reds, plus yellow and black, and is richly textured.

The embroidered bits were all created by Cassie devoting hours to madly feverish back-and-forth sewing on my daggy little sewing machine, that ahem, does not do embroidery. It overheated and broke down during the saga, which was pretty devastating to both of us, for entirely different reasons!… but we won’t dwell on that melancholy time; my machine was repaired, Cassie finished the project with a fresh perspective on respecting other people’s property, and we remained friends …. happily ever after etc etc!
The black designs are screen-printed and with some random areas of machine embroidery for a bit of added texture, and Eve’s red lips are embroidered too. Also all done on my very ordinary non-embroidery machine.

So you can see I’m pretty right in the apron department. I am so lucky to have such clever creative women in my family!

(I am also wearing here my Bamboo shoot top from Pattern Magic; and my curtaining skirt from Vogue 1247)

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: apron, Cassie, daily outfit, embroidery, handwoven, Mum, printing, weaving

Stripe-ly

12/09/2012 12:43 am \ 19 Comments \ Carolyn

After I had finished Craig’s hoodie, I had quite a lot of leftover fabric. I had originally bought 2.5m of this lovely grey-and-black striped cotton jersey from Spotlight. Turns out that this was stacks. Loads. Well ahem, I didn’t want to fall short 🙂 When I am making something self-drafted, for the first time; I worry so much about stuffing up somewhere along the line, and so I think I need way more fabric than I usually do. And buy accordingly.
So I reckon the hoodie only took something like 1.5m in the end.
Unfortunately the remainder was not quite enough to make a second man’s Tshirt. Just a man’s shirt sleeves alone take up acres of fabric… don’t they! I mean, who knew? It never fails to amaze me how a man’s shirt sleeves are each about as big as the front or back!
Anyhoo a second man’s shirt was out; and I already have a grey-and-black striped Tshirt, so I made one for Cassie. It is just a plain little Tshirt, but we all need plain Tshirts too. The plainer the better when it comes to basics!

I used my own self-drafted Tshirt pattern, sewn slightly slimmer in the body. I cut a wide scoop-neck, and sewed the neckband using this method, and the sleeve and lower hems are sewn in a shallow zig-zag.

Since the back neckband of a Tshirt is a straight-ish line with not very much curve to it; I’ve noticed that it often does not lie up as nice and flat as I would like and sometimes has a tendency to flip out and down. This does not occur in the neckband front, the sharper curve of the front edge keeps it sitting up properly. So I have taken to sewing the seam allowance down to the shirt just a few millimetres in from the back/neckband seam, from shoulder seam to shoulder seam. This seems to do the trick when it comes to helping the neckband sit up and the seam allowance stay down; and the line of stitching is pretty much invisible when the shirt is worn.

Cassie is wearing the new shirt with a skirt she made herself using Burda 7370. I have made this same pattern up for her previously too, posted along with my review of this pattern here.

Details:
Top; self-drafted, grey and black striped cotton jersey
Skirt (made by Cassie); Burda 7370, beige crinkly cotton

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7370, Cassie, own design, skirt, top

Pretty in Pink

07/09/2012 4:38 pm \ 43 Comments \ Carolyn

It’s been gorgeous here lately. Fresh and exhilarating; cool and sunny and clear. Everyone including moi is in high spirits, the days are sparkling and I’m even feeling the urge to clean out kitchen cupboards and wash curtains and eiderdowns, for heaven’s sake. Wooee, spring casts some powerful magic, yeah?!

And I am in the mood to create like mad… I’ve made a lightweight pinkie-wink thing for my light pinkie-wink daughter 🙂 More specifically, a loose over-sized jacket in a boyfriend style that we both reckon is tres chic, oui.

I used a new-to-me pattern Burda 7401, and the jacket is made of a lovely shell-pink hessian silk that I spotted on the $4 table at Fabulous Fabrics about a year ago, put there because it had some faded patches. I looove the faded patches! and I think this soft and pretty colour is just glorious on her 🙂

The jacket fronts are supposed to meet in the centre front and tie closed, but because I made it oversized as opposed to fitting, I made it so she can fold the fronts over each other and wrap herself up in it; tie the long ties together at the back, to look like a more fitted style if she wants that. I did this by leaving a small gap in the right back/side seam, for the tie to pass through to wrap around. At first she preferred it wrapped up like this, but she now informs me she likes it open. So she can shove her hands in those pockets… aah, a daughter after my own heart 😀

The silk hessian frays like billy-o, so I finished all the raw edges inside with HongKong seaming, in a lightweight cotton voile.

She is wearing it with a little denim skirt she made herself. She is a pretty accomplished little seamster herself, and I reckon she should update her own blog one of these days and add in all the cool stuff she has been making for herself.

Details:

Jacket; Burda 7401, pink silk

Top; supre

Skirt (made by Cassie); Butterick 5488, lightweight denim

Pattern
Description:

Semi-fitted unlined jacket with unusual seaming; long underarm gussets, a short rounded stand-up collar, front pockets that are separate pieces patched together with remainder of the jacket front. View B has longer sleeves, a tie front and peplum.

Pattern
Sizing:

Sizes 36-50 (US 10-24). I made view B in a size 12 for my daughter, aiming for an oversized boyfriend jacket look.

Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?

Yes. Except that I adapted it so the ties can, if my daughter desires, become a self-belt that wraps it around around the body to cinch in the waist in a blouse-y way; an aesthetic that suits her style.

Were
the instructions easy to follow?

Yes: except that steps 4 and 5, inserting the side pieces, is not as simple to do as it makes out in the instructions. You have to clip the heck out of those tight front and back underarm curves in order to sew those seams!

What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

For a casual jacket I think it is really chic; with slightly unusual seaming and an edgy style. I love the shape of that softly flared peplum, it looks lovely either with the jacket wrapped or unwrapped. There were no instructions to interface the front facing, which I thought about defying and rebelliously applying interfacing. But I went with no interfacing on the front; which does make the jacket beautifully soft and unstructured, very casual and easy to wear. I did apply interfacing to the back neck facing and to the collar to the foldline.

The jacket is designed to be unlined, but if you wanted to line it it would be pretty easy to do so.

Fabric
Used:

Hessian silk, and lightweight cotton voile for theHongKong seaming

Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:

I bound all the raw edges inside with HongKong seaming.

I left a small opening in the right back/side seam to allow the left front tie to pass through, wrap around the back and tie to the right front tie like a skinny self-belt.

Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

I made this one for my daughter; and yes, I would very much like to make one for myself sometime… if I’m allowed to 🙂

Conclusion:

I love it and my daughter loves it, so it is a great success! I’m glad I made it oversized, with the long body and the loose unstructured sleeves rolled up it looks like a boyfriend jacket and very “now”. The unusual seaming and pocket construction is a nice exercise for a seamster who is looking for something out of the ordinary.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7401, Cassie, jacket, pattern review

Raincoat the Second

09/07/2012 12:13 pm \ 46 Comments \ Carolyn

Ta da! please allow me to present the raincoat that I have made for Cassie.
It is made using the same self-drafted pattern I used for my own raincoat, with just a few minor fitting adjustments. All the details are identical to my own coat; the seams in the shell are French seams, waterproofed with Seam Grip, and the coat is fully lined with soft and lightweight white polyester net.
Cassie chose the colour herself and I am happy with the knowledge that she is unlikely to get run over crossing the road whilst wearing this 😉

I ran into a snag buying the pink fabric, that fortuitously turned into a stroke of brilliant good fortune: previously when buying the royal blue fabric for my own raincoat I had bought 3m to ensure I had plenty to play with, since there is nothing worse than running out of fabric halfway through a project, no? It turned out 3m was plenty, in fact it was way more than plenty and I ended up with an annoyingly large leftover piece. This is a pain, because I am really trying to rid my life of leftovers. Especially icky nylon leftovers which have a very small desirability in my wardrobe. So when I went in to buy the nylon for Cassie’s raincoat I asked for 2m of pink, and was mildly horrified when the roll only had 1.4m left on it. But the cunning stash-busting part of my brain instantly saw a beautiful possibility…. a quick consultation with Cassie, who cheerfully agreed that yes, a wide blue stripe did indeed sound very nice (phew!) and I went home with the 1.4m of pink, joyful that I was going to be gainfully using up the rest of that blue nylon after all… and so quickly after it had joined the stash too! (air fist punch) Yeeah!

Of course it was not all beer and skittles from then on; I did have to conjure up a bit of pattern placement magic, and do various mental calculations for various stripe scenarios, and there is one short extra piecing seam in the blue under one sleeve, but I did manage to squeak the raincoat out of my pieces of royal blue and pink successfully. I’m pleased to report that the final scrap count is almost non-existent too (‘nother air fist punch).

There was a hiccup; the making of this second raincoat did not go as smoothly as the first. You know how the second time you do a thing everything is supposed to go much much quicker and easier?

Well, no.

Halfway through, my ironing cloth slipped a bit and I managed to iron a hole in one almost-completed front. It was a very small hole, but it was. An. Unmistakeable. HOLE! When I saw this; steam started to emit from the ol’ ears and I had to walk away to calm down for a few hours.
Once I had regained some composure, I returned to the coat and thought about possibilities. Y’know when life gives you lemons there is always a silver lining, or something or another, yeah? And I surprised myself with my own ingenuity by coming up with the idea of a little pocket for her iPod. Where the offending hole was, there is now a welt, covering a little internal pocket. It closes with a little mini-strip of velcro, with enough room at the top for the headphone cord to come out. And fortuitously, the welt is in the perfect position where its vertical opening is covered by the zip placket when the zip is closed, improving waterproof-ability. Yowza! It’s like I planned it all along!!

Below left; I made the welt as small as I could that could still fit the iPod sliding in sideways, the pocket bag hangs below and to the side… Below right; I stitched the top of the pocket bag to the lining to help reduce the drag effect of having the pocket bag off to the side of its opening. Fortunately, iPods are very lightweight!

I am happy now.
And y’know what? I am even more ecstatically happy that none of my boys wants or needs a raincoat, and that this is the end of raincoats. At least for now. I’m raincoat-ed out. I want to make something fun and easy and selfishly frivolous now!
Later, fellow self-fashionistas!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, coat, hoodie, jacket, own design, parka

The DNA Tower

16/05/2012 6:03 am \ 24 Comments \ Carolyn

Please allow me to introduce to you, the DNA Tower.
Hehe, I am being sorta touristy on the blog lately! but not completely since obviously Perth has always been the backdrop to my life…
The DNA Tower was built in the early 60’s, and I have lots of fond memories of my brothers and me having the time of our lives pelting up and down the tower as fast as we could, while Mum and Dad boringly sat with the picnic on the grass nearby. And since we would come home so tired all we could do was to fall into bed early, then I’m sure the DNA tower was equally beloved by Mum and Dad as well…!
When my own children were little they loved running up and down the tower too, so each whole new generation repeats the same routine.
Nowadays, the tower is much beloved by fitness fanatics too.
So I am enjoying my me-made May photos at the mo’… employing a few Perth landmarks certainly makes the photo-taking, always the most challenging part of the, er, challenge for me, a heck of a lot more exciting and interesting. And happily this is another spot that is basically on the way home from dropping my son Sam off at uni, which is part of my current daily routine. He is learning to drive, and guess who gets to be the driving instructor?!

Picture taken around 11am; Temperature at the time 19C.
Overnight low: 11C; Today’s high: 21C
Fine and sunny

Details:
Top; top “a” from the Japanese pattern book Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa, white cotton, details here
Jeans; Au Bonheur des Petites Mains PLH08002, strawberry pink non-stretch cotton denim, details and my review of this pattern here
Cardigan; knitted by me, the Fitted Cardigan 04, version 1 with the lace edging and three-quarter sleeves, in Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton; colour Calico (shade 216), details here
Thongs; KMart

In an almost complete hat-trick of me-made sightings in my household…

Last night Cassie wore a cocktail dress made by me, to a party

Cassie’s dress; Vogue 1105, silk charmeuse

Today Craig again wore again the blue linen shirt I made for him, and Tim wore the shirt I made for him for Christmas

Craig’s shirt; Burda 7767 modified, blue linen, details here

Tim’s shirt; Burda 7767 modified, blue check crinkly stuff (a blinkin’ nightmare) details here

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, Craig, daily outfit, MMM12, random life stuff, Tim

hiya

10/05/2012 5:49 am \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

…

Still nothing. Consider this a comfortable and companionable silence between friends 🙂

Picture taken around 12pm; Temperature at the time 21C.
Overnight low: 12C; Today’s high: 22C
Fine and sunny, some clouds

Details:
Top; Vogue 1248, light coffee cotton with silver polka dots, details and my review of this pattern here
Skirt; Vogue 1248 lengthened and lined, curtaining fabric with satin lining, details here and my review of this pattern here
Cardigan; my own design, green jersey knit, details here, later dyed with iDye in Brown here
Shoes; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp shoes

Cassie’s top; drafted from Pattern Magic 3 by Tomoko Nakamichi, two different shades of blue cotton jersey knit, details here
This top looks so much better on Cassie than on me. I’m so lucky that my daughter loves to raid my wardrobe, and even better, spirit stuff away so that I can make new stuff for myself. 😀

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, daily outfit, MMM12

Tiny thoughts…

09/05/2012 9:14 am \ 11 Comments \ Carolyn

Me-made May, Day 9:
Isn’t it dreadful when someone with nothing worthwhile to say insists on saying something? So I will refrain from sharing the tedium of my mundane little non-thoughts today.
You’re welcome. 🙂
Except to say: my best wishes to everyone for a wonderful day!!
And also; No, my new ombre-dyed skirt from yesterday is not the wacky thing I’ve been working on. The wacky thing will be obvious when it appears. I’m waiting for a warmer day to show it off. 🙂

Picture taken around 10.30am; Temperature at the time 19C.
Overnight low: 12C; Today’s high: 22C
Some breezes, some sun, some rain. Y’know.

Details:
Cardigan; my own design, leopard print wool jersey, part of a twinset, details here, and see the twinset styled in 6 different ways here
Top; drafted from Pattern Magic 3 by Tomoko Nakamichi, blue knit jersey, details here, and see this top styled in 6 different ways here
Skirt; Vogue 1170 lengthened and lined, blue corduroy, details here and my review of this pattern here
Shoes; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp shoes

In other handmade sightings today, my husband is wearing again the same blue linen shirt from yesterday (it’s OK, he works in an operating theatre where they wear scrubs during the entire working day, so it wasn’t really dirty from yesterday. Really 🙂 )

And Cassie is wearing the combined beanie/scarf that I knitted for her a few years ago.

Craig’s shirt; Burda 7767 modified, blue linen, details here
Cassie’s combined beanie scarf; my own design, various wools, details here

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, Craig, daily outfit, MMM12, Sienna

Comfort…

05/05/2012 7:18 am \ 18 Comments \ Carolyn

On a sartorial note; today was one of those disastrously uninspired days when I contemplated and rejected just about everything in my wardrobe. Everything felt hideous to me! Finally just settled on this blah blah ensemble… not very put together or super-wow or anything, but just some favourite comfy and easy-to-wear pieces.
And obviously, neither could I be bothered with an exciting photo 🙂
It is silly, because I had good intentions this morning and wanted to look nice since I had a very important function lined up: my children were taking me out today for an early Mother’s Day treat. We had to have it today, since for the real Mother’s Day next Sunday, all of my children are working for some part of the day or another and there will be no overlapping free time in which I can spend time with all of them together. So, today we had a firm date. We went to Koko Black, and ate toasted sandwiches and drank hot chocolate and chatted about everyone’s lives and what we were all doing at the mo’ and it was so so so nice to hang out with them and laugh together and really listen to each other… I had the most wonderful-lest time.
I’m on cloud 9 even now.
Oh, what was I saying? Oh yeah, I wanted to look nice for our outing, but in the end I just could not get inspired. But who cares? They didn’t mind. Of course it didn’t matter a jot what I was wearing.

Picture taken around 2pm; Temperature at the time 22C.
Overnight low: 13C; Today’s high: 23C

Forecast was for thunderstorms and rain, but has actually been fine all day with both cloudy and sunny patches. Maybe a dozen raindrops? (sigh) At least we got some rain yesterday.

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, blue chambray cotton, details here
Skirt; originally Burda 7863 jeans, beige corduroy, details here, later converted into a skirt, details here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

And in a super synchronised synergy, wait for it; two of my children came downstairs rocking me-made items today! Cassie wearing the little layered skirt I made for her using the leftovers of my Japanese wool/silk, and Sam the corduroy coat I made for him last winter.

Sigh.

I am so lucky to have them.

Cassie’s skirt; Vogue 8363 modified, rust-red wool/silk mix bought in Tokyo, details here and my review of this pattern here
Sam’s jacket; Burda 7767 modified, navy corduroy, details here