cielo Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

a special lace dress

11/10/2025 5:47 pm \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

hello! Recently my lovely niece J married her long-time man and so of course I had to make a new dress for myself for the occasion… I was vaguely toying with the idea of shopping for fabric before I remembered two things: 1. as everyone in our family knows, J’s favourite colour is famously yellow, and 2. I have a piece of very yellow, and happily wedding worthy fabric in my stash already!

I bought this neon-bright yellow guipure lace from Mood Fabrics in New York City back in 2019, when I was over there with my friend Yoshimi… we met with other sewing ladies and they took us on a fabulous fabric shopping spree! Such fun. I wrote about it on my blog here… Originally I had envisioned making a little mini skirt from the lace but when the fabric was rolled out on the counter it turned out there was a pretty large chunk of the border cut out, so the salesperson basically threw that part of the fabric in for free. Meaning, I ended up with a lot longer length than I had needed. And obviously I couldn’t waste the extra bit by making that little mini, so it sat, awaiting some other project that could make use of it.Et voila!

I used the Closet Core Ceilo pattern with a few small modifications… namely; spicing the back yoke and back pieces together to eliminate that seam, including inseam pockets in the side seams, and I also cut it to be a bit more flared. Oh, and I also traced a size up – or maybe two? can’t remember now – for that fashionable oversized look. The hemline, which is of course the natural border of the lace, was determined by how much length I could get, and I also managed to get the sleeves on a border. It only took a little bit of pattern Tetris but I’m thrilled that I achieved what is one of my primary aims with any sewing project, which is to have minimal leftovers!

My dress is underlined completely with a pinkish/coffee coloured silk chartreuse that I bought from Fabulous Fabrics originally. I basted the lace and silk layers together within the seam allowance all around except for the side seams below the pockets, and then overlocked the edges before continuing to treat the two layers as one. The side seams below the pockets I stitched the layers separately and actually the lace is arranged so there’s not a “seam” in this part, but the lace motifs are arranged and hand stitched carefully so you can’t see a seam here.

I cut the pockets and neckline facings from a natural cotton linen that I’ve had in the stash for years, saved specifically for this same sort of purpose.

I chose this because the silk charmeuse wasn’t going to be stable enough in these areas – actually the lace is very heavy, far heavier than it looks! I cut the lace front and back to have side seam extensions along the pocket area and stitched it down carefully to the pockets inside. So, when you’re wearing the dress the lace appears to go all the way inside the pockets, no flash of offensive beige to be seen, so it looks really nice.

The seams allowances around the neckline, especially the shoulder seam area here are seriously bulky, and I trimmed, clipped and understitched aggressively to get everything to sit nice and flat! I also went back later and stitched the facing to the silk underlining as far around and as close as I could get to the shoulder seams.

I’m including a picture of the happy couple because, although I did not make the dress, I did alter it to fit her and also did some minor repairs. This took three separate fittings and I took precisely zero photos of the process or anything. My only excuse is that I was also working on my own dress and stressing a little bit that I wasn’t going to get it all done on time.

Thanks to its oversized and loose nature, my dress was so comfy to wear and to dance in, and I was so happy about that! and just saying, I only wore these high heeled sandals for the ceremony and photos. For the reception on the same property I went to our car and switched over to my white sandshoes with little socks, brought for this very purpose. Much warmer, and fabulously comfortable for dancing! I also wore my new pink wool Sienna jacket for the cooler temperatures that came as evening fell too, but no pictures of that I’m afraid. Anyway, I hope I can get more use our of this dress, which actually turned out more lovely than I thought. 🙂

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: cielo, Closet Core patterns, daily outfit, dress, evening wear, own design, wedding

it’s curtains for you! otherwise titled; why should windows have all the fun?

03/12/2022 1:21 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

This year, my friend Raina gave to me a couple of bags of fabric that she’d been hoarding for years, finally sensibly throwing them out… or should I say.. throwing them my way? I really should throw out a lot of my fabric too but not only am I not sensible, I’m also such a sucker for a lonely, unwanted piece of fabric that is just screaming out to be made into something wanted and loved… *sigh*

Anyway; amongst the odds and ends and bits and bobs was a length of really beautiful curtain fabric. Samarkand by Sanderson, no less. I thought it was lovely and had lots of potential. Interestingly, I’ve just searched online and can find not even one picture of this print?! Weird!

Raina tells me this was the leftovers from the bedroom curtains in their old house in England, and since they left England more than twenty years ago that should give you an idea of how long this has been kicking around! I’m so happy it’s finally been put to good use!

I made a skirt using my own skirt block pattern, that I’m developing to be a pattern for our pattern company actually, and this time I managed to remember to add seam allowances, hurrah! Yes, I finally got my matching top and skirt set, yay!

For my top I used the Closet Core patterns Cielo pattern. I didn’t have enough of the curtain fabric to cut everything, so the sleeves and sleeve cuffs are a co-ordinating grey linen, which was given to me by Mum when she cleaned out her own stash. I know, I seem to be using everybody else’s stashes at the moment and not much of my own! I really should remedy that for the remainder of the year… if I can!

I lined the skirt with a leaf green lining fabric, also from Mum’s stash. Later on, I also noticed that the lining of the skirt peeped out a bit in a few of my photos so since then I’ve gone back in and shortened the lining by a few centimetres. Always telling myself; it’s really worth me doing this sort of thing properly because otherwise it would bother me forever.

I finished off the raw edges inside the top and skirt with bias tape cut from dark olive poplin. Now, this is actually from my own long term stash! I also finished off the neckline facing with the same poplin; it makes the inside look so nice and neat, as well as being far more comfortable and soft against my skin. I try to do this as much as possible nowadays.

I really love this new ensemble! the beautiful bird print on the fabric is so elegant. I’m so happy I was able to pattern match quite close to seamlessly everywhere. I kept and incorporated the colour legend from the selvedge on the waist band of the skirt, because… well just because I can! I love it, and I believe that a print with such a lot of colours in it like this is the mark of a really quality print.

I wore this to morning tea with Raina this past week because I knew it would give her a laugh, and she was satisfyingly very happy to see it too! Gave me lots of warm fuzzies to see how much she loved it actually. Very satisfying. It’s very comfortable, and a style that makes me feel really good too. I’m going to get lots of wear out of this outfit, for sure! I only have a few more of those “circa 2022” labels left now. Hmm… what label-worthy things should I make to finish up the year? Better put my thinking cap on!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cielo, Closet Core patterns, own design, skirt, top

a pretty outfit (cielo and sixtine)

05/07/2020 12:38 am \ 7 Comments \ Carolyn

So I made an oh-so pretty, fluttery, flower-strewn outfit of the most perfectly spring-worthy persuasion! but wait… am I not currently still on the downwards slope to the dark dank pit of winter? well yes, so we are just barely into July, and I am OVER winter already. *sigh*

Really I expect I’ll be making winter-y things soon but I just don’t feel like it right now, and I just want to think about fun summery things still. Terrible, isn’t it? Anyway, I bought this lovely rose-y rayon-linen in Spotlight, back when Perth was sort of half in isolation. I’d been feeling very down, gone shopping for some essentials and just spontaneously decided buy something pretty and non-essential at the same time, to cheer myself up. As it turned out, we had hardly any cases of the covid-19 virus in Perth, which is of course wonderful; but we were all as terribly worried at the time as if there were and buying something lovely lifted my spirits quite a lot at the time.

I cut out the ruffle-tastic new Sixtine skirt by Coralie Bijasson patterns and then had just enough left for a plain little top, which is the best counterpoint for all that ruffle anyway. I’d recently had success making the Closet Case patterns Cielo top for Cassie so traced out the next size up for me. And I really love how they go together! The Sixtine pattern is a simple, completely symmetric, true wrap skirt, with the most amazing ruffle and a half action going on. Actually when I say ruffle and a half, that is quite literally what it is; there’s a ruffle, and then another half of that same ruffle on top. Ruffle and a half! And my fabric worked out so nice! it is quite fluid and soft, which was just right for the ruffles; they have just exactly the right amount of body and zero limpness.The Cielo top is a great little basic, I can already tell I’m going to make stacks more. Simple, but perfectly so.

I don’t really have much else to add, both these patterns are unambiguously straightforward designs with no tricks to speak of. With the Sixtine skirt, I think you were supposed to place the buttonholes and buttons so the buttons popped out on the outside of the waistband when buttoned up, but I used very plain sheer flat ones from my stash, both ancient and inherited and not very pretty, so I positioned them so they button up on the inside of the skirt.

Oh, I also finished the lower hemline of both ruffles using the triple-stitched narrow hemline, explained in this post here.

I have one more sort of interesting thing I can say about sewing this; normally when you’re cutting things out from a print you carefully make sure all your pattern pieces are aligned with the “up” side in the same direction, yes? Well I would definitely do that for fabric with a nap, but for a fabric with a print I’ve often preferred the look when I do not adhere strictly to this rule, but lay pieces so as to alternate up and down placement. That way you avoid that “double-ing up” up of an identical motif that can look absolutely terrible and obvious when it occurs in a pieced garment. Obviously this really only works if the print doesn’t have an obvious “right way up” design, but while it’s only a little thing it can make a noticeable difference. As soon as I looked at my pictures here I could see a couple of instances where an upside-down motif is not too far away from a right-way-up motif, and if they’d been both oriented the same it would have looked strange. So I’m glad! I hope I explained that OK!

Anyway, I love this new ensemble and honestly can’t wait til the weather is hot again so I can actually wear it. In the meantime perhaps I should start finally turning some attention towards more wintery projects (sigh)

Details:

Top; the Cielo top by Closet Case patterns
Skirt; the Sixtine skirt by Coralie Bijasson patterns
Shoes; both super old now but still much loved

Later edit; so I added some pockets to this skirt! They’re patch pockets, with a slightly gathered top, drawn in by a little olive ribbon, which I happened to have in my stash. They’re simple but of course useful. Who doesn’t like a little bit pf practicality along with their floomph?!

Here’s a brief overview…

the pockets are cut to fit my mobile phone in, and are about 3cm wider at the top…

I snipped a little hole in the outer layer of the upper hem/casing..

the gathering ribbon emerges from this hole

align the raw ends of the ribbon inside with the raw edges of the upper pocket hem/casing

ensure the ribbon ends are stitched down firmly along with the pocket… gently pull up the excess pocket width at the top and tie off the ribbon…

camouflaged but not totally, and I think it looks kind of pretty when you do notice it 🙂

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cielo, Closet Case files, coral bijasson, daily outfit, pocket, pockets, sixtine, skirt, top

I sewed selflessly

21/04/2020 9:07 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

So, I sewed some stuff!

Item A; a dress for Mum to wear to Cassie’s wedding…

I started out with Burda style 09/2019; 109 because I thought the sleeve cuff really lovely; however I ran up a muslin – actually 2 – and we decided the cut-on sleeve just wasn’t that nice and that a set-in sleeve would be much better. So I ended up re-tracing and -fitting the Esme pattern from Lotta Jansdotter’s Everyday Style book again since Mum had really like the one I made for her previously. I just adapted the sleeve to have the Burda cuff on the sleeve end.

The fabric is a really beautiful, green polka-dotted ivory crepe from Fabulous Fabrics; Mum and I went in together and chose it one morning. Fun! I didn’t use the neckline facing pieces, opting in stead to fully line the dress with an ivory lining that I already had in my stash, the lining negated any need for a facing… Mum kindly hemmed the dress herself since I was seriously running out of time by the end of it! The dress shell has french seams throughout, though I used the overlocker for the lining.

At the same time that we bought the fabric, Mum bought a length of emerald green chiffon and finished it with a hand-rolled hem to make herself a lovely matching scarf.

I thought she looked absolutely lovely!

Item B; a shirt for part of Cassie’s birthday pressie…

For her birthday, we went out together and bought a few lengths of fabric which I was to make into some simple work outfits for her. Of course now she’s working from home but that’s ok; at least she’s still working!

This is pattern 02/2015; 113, adapted to be much slimmer in the body due to the fact that I didn’t buy enough fabric, ahem… that’s fine since the style is so super wide I think Cassie would have requested it be slimmed down anyway! This thing is BOXY!! I also had to leave off the sleeve cuffs, but Cassie absolutely loves it just as it is :)..

The gorgeous polka-dot fabric is a linen from Fabulous Fabrics. The buttons are leftovers from Kelly’s wedding dress!

I did manage to snap one photo of her wearing the top! kinda a miracle given how crazy busy we were before the wedding, and then I’ve barely been able to see her after the wedding during these virus social-isolation times… this is her on the eve of her wedding, when she was preparing to practice her father/daughter dance with Craig… yes, she’s wearing her wedding shoes of course 🙂

I actually made a little video on the making of this blouse, which was fun. I’m hoping to make more of these for my YouTube channel 🙂

Item C; some shorts for Cassie’s birthday. For these I started with the Closet Case patterns Pietra shorts and did the same elastic-waist elimination that I did for my own shorts… shown here.

The fabric is a cotton twill from Spotlight, in Cassie’s favourite duck-egg/mint green colour.

Item D; another little top for Cassie… this is the Closet Case patterns Cielo top, lengthened slightly. This is a lovely little pattern and I will definitely be using this one again! No other adjustments.

The pretty rose-print is a linen from Fabulous Fabrics. I should say, that while these pieces are all a gift from me to Cassie, she did choose the fabrics herself. We had a lovely fun morning checking out fabrics and chatting about work-wardrobe possibilities!

Items E & F; I made two different masks for myself. I haven’t used them very much but am really trying to get more used to the idea! When we’ve visited Japan I’ve seen lots of people wearing masks all the time of course, and while I think they’re a great idea, especially in our current virus-centric lives, we’re just completely unaccustomed to wearing them here in Australia and it’s really hard to get used to it. I find them very claustrophobic and a little difficult to breath in them!

The first one, above; I used this pattern/tutorial on the Makers Habitat YouTube channel, it has a lining with an opening so you can insert a filter inside. It’s a nice straightforward pattern, very quick and easy to make. I added a skinny channel to the top, and cut a short length of wrapped florist’s wire to insert in there for a nose support; this can be removed for washing.

This second one I used the Trend patterns free mask pattern, here. This is also a nice pattern, very “designed” and I really like it, but I did find I had to fold a quite wide dart in the under-chin piece to get a good fit. Also it is a more complex and involved thing to make than the previous pattern, For both masks I used a leftover piece of cotton from my stash, the most tightly woven and with the densest thread count I could find! They are both lined with cotton voile. The ties are just thin strips of cotton jersey, cut with my rotary cutter, left unhemmed, threaded through the side channels and simply knotted.