Tag Archives: Clara

me-made May 2019

31/05/2019 11:30 pm \ 6 Comments \

1st – 8th May

so can we even believe this year is the 10th anniversary of me-made May?!! so amazing!  Of course I took part again, because I’m completely unable to resist any sort of wardrobe challenge, and also because I absolutely love it!  Also; I apologise for the following distracted and sort disjointed post because today is the day before our family’s Big Day, and I’m just a little… um, time-poor?!! and just kind banged this one out.  It’s unsatisfactory, I know.  I’m sorry!

I wore 100% self-made clothing each day! including my shoes, underwear and hosiery, and only made one exception of the evening of the 30th when we met Kelly’s parents – our new in-laws! – for an introductory dinner; when I decided to wear my rtw black booties, but I’m going to give myself a pass for that particular special occasion!  Social-media-wise, I joined in on instagram, posting a picture of my outfit each day to my stories with pattern details.  The daily outfits have all been put together in a saved story; Me-Made May 2019 which you can view all in one go, if you should so desire, but no one reading this will probably so desire since all the pics are here too.  Ha!

9th – 16th May

I do feel really bad that I wasn’t able to be as social as I have in the past, not much chatting or commenting because I have just been so unnaturally distracted and super-busy with getting ready for our big day tomorrow, don’t you hate people who brag about being super busy?? I sure do, but for me this month it’s just the plain and simple truth.  But I’m looking forward now to getting full-on back into the happy busy chit-chat in the online sewing community that I LOVE.

17th -24th May

My outfits: a lot of times I just resorted to previously tried and true outfit combinations that I’d worn before and knew that I loved, so just slipped them on without much thought, but I did try to think of a few new combinations.  Some combinations are more successful than others!

I’d consciously tried to wear different garments everyday to mix it up and really get through my wardrobe; and was nearly completely successful!  Only two things got doubled up during the month: my cream cotton cardigan, and my navy blue Miette cardigan both got worn twice during the month.  Oh, apart from my black tights, and all my self-made shoes, all of which got multiple wears.

25th – 31st May,

including the evening of the 30th May in which I glammed up a little

Also: everyday I wore my Me-Made May 2019 pin, that Zoe kindly sent to me and a few of the other OG girls.  So cute! Thank you so much, Zoe!

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a celestial dress, and some other things

26/01/2019 4:42 pm \ 7 Comments \

So, I made a dress… or something?!  I’m not 100% sure about this one.  Is it a dress? or a nightie? or maybe a choirboy/celestial angel robe?  The jury is out!

One thing I am sure of is that it’s delightfully floaty and breezy to wear.  And very comfortable.  Another thing I’m sure of is that on its own it’s scandalously see-through… ! so if I’m going to wear it out of the house it requires at least a petticoat or something.  Fortunately, I made a beautiful Ruby slip once upon a time, a few years ago, from ivory crepe.  I actually wear this slip TONNES, and once again it’s come to my rescue.  Thank you Ruby slip!  maybe I should make some sisters for you!  Take the pressure off!

The pattern I used for the new dress is dress R from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, and the fabric is a lovely ivory/cream coloured micro-pleated silky stuff from Fabulous Fabrics.  For the yoke, which needs to be more stable and “solid”, I used a small scrap of old jeans, leftovers from the small stack that have previously been harvested to produce this dress and these jeans too.  To keep up with the recycled jeans vibe, I added double rows of topstitching to all the joins etc, using the same coppery-brown Guttermann’s upholstery thread that I’ve used on previous jeans like my beloved Morgan boyfriends.  The yoke lining is the striped shirting cotton that I used for Sandi’s Perth blouse and for Ms Summer’s summer frock.

I’m also wearing with it my matching denim shoes, also made from old jeans #oldjeansfanfromwayback

oh hey gorgeous girl!

I actually had quite a bit of leftover of the pleated silky stuff, so at the same time I traced out the size 8 of the same pattern and whipped up a quick top for Cassie too.

looks a bit small here but it’s far more oversized on my petite little daughter

Actually, this top started out as a dress too, but surprisingly she wasn’t into it as a dress.  I’d gone to great lengths to find a piece of matching cream-coloured fabric for the yoke for hers, and was very pleased to unearth an old cushion cover of a really nice cream coloured cotton damask from my stash.  Normally, Cassie prefers, nay demands! cream- or ivory-coloured tops, so I was a little nonplussed when she suggested the yoke be dyed!  Who is this person and what have you done with my daughter?!  However I could appreciate that the all cream number as a dress was a little, um choirboy, thus the snap decision to lop off the bottom to make it a top.  Fortunately she was satisfied!

 

Soooo, what else have I been up to?  Well, my friend L had requested that I whip up a simple little dress for her, a replica and replacement for a favourite that had worn out.  She bought the green floral from Fabulous fabric, and I found some black silk for the tie.  I really enjoyed making this for her, though the silk I used for the tie was, no joke, the worst stuff I’ve dealt with for a looooong time.  It was so hideously fray-tastic, and just that little bit too grippy to slide right side out very easily.  It took me almost as much time to turn out the tie as it did to draft the dress pattern and make it up!  Exaggerating?  not by much!

I don’t have a picture of her wearing it, but she did have it on for one of our recent morning teas and she looked gorgeous!

again, looks way better on L…

What else have I been up to??

Well, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while…. my pale grey Acton dress has been worn a lot, but I’d been starting to eye it lately with a jaded, “meh” eye.  SO I took the plunge.  Or, I should say, my dress did.  In to the dye-pot it goes!  Et voila!!  Now I’m newly enamoured with it all over again!  It’s just like having a new dress!!  It’s interesting to me how the different components either took or didn’t take, the dye… For instance, the linen shell of course took up the dye superbly, but the grosgrain ribbon shoulder straps did not.   The zip pull even took on a shade of pink, but the zip itself; well, zip.  The body part of the lining dyed up very intensely, but the bodice part did not!

who is that short-haired doggie?!!   she loves her new summer ‘do!!

Is that all?  Finally, I believe it is!

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a knitting advent-ure

29/12/2018 1:07 pm \ 24 Comments \

I’ve knitted a magical, rainbow, unicorn of a jumper/sweater!

But, what is this, Carolyn??  I didn’t know you were into magical rainbow unicorns?!  Well, of course there is indeed a story behind this…

my little “troll” progress keeper was my constant companion and cheerleader… 😉

So, in the past few months, idly hanging around on youtube I randomly got into the world of knitting youtubers, and watched a few videos… I think it was Katie of Inside Number 23 who introduced me to these wonderful things called knitting advent calendars …  I thought they sounded like such a fun idea! at roughly the same time I’d been to Calico and Ivy checking out all the wool and other yummy eye candy they always have in there and seen and admired some gorgeous wool hand-dyed by a local lady going by the name of Dingo Dyeworks, and I mentally tucked the name away.  Later on, in search of an advent calendar, I found that the same Dingo Dyeworks had produced one for this year.  SO naturally… I bought one!

day 1; and I’m ready to party!!!

The advent calendar came in the form of 24 cute little boxes, each with a mini skein of wool inside; the colours of which were a complete mystery.  There is also a 25th box, which is much larger and contains a full-sized skein of the same sock yarn, but I decided to base my “advent”-ure project on the 24 mini-skeins.  The only thing you knew about them was that they were all on the Dingo Dyeworks “ridgey-didge” base; a fingering-weight 85% fine merino 15% nylon superwash, which I’d checked out in Calico and Ivy and liked.  SO I laid my plans… to make a jumper, or sweater.  I bought from C + I a skein of similar gauge yarn in an undyed cream colour and did a few swatching experiments, made a few calculations and a plan, decided I could indeed make a whole jumper from sock yarn.   I knew knitting just a little bit every day would be perfectly manageable, and fairly painless.  In fact, I always find the lead up to Christmas so full of stress and madness that I welcomed the thought of carving out a little bit of time in each day, to just devote myself to a quiet, happy and mindless project just for me.

If you follow me on instagram, you might have seen my daily “unboxing”, a single example of which is above… I had so much fun just opening the yarns and seeing that day’s colour!  Honestly, even without the daily calming and meditative knitting session, and notwithstanding that I now am the proud owner of a divine new jumper – the texture of which is so baby-soft and so squishy, and basically too too heavenly to even describe…  just opening the days’ little box each morning was also such an enormous joy for me.  I also posted a picture in my stories each day of the day’s progress.  If you want to see them all, I’ve saved the whole process in my permanent stories, called “advent”-ure, at the top of my page  🙂

day 3… 🙂

I started from the bottom, and knitted the same number of rows on each sleeve and the body section each day, and then when I got to the appropriate place to start the yoke, joined them all together and continued in the same way, decreasing raglan style up to the neckline.

day 14…

Before opening the first skein I wasn’t 100% sure there would be enough yarn in each little skein to do the width of stripe I wanted, in this case my plan was to “fill in” between the stripes with a few rows of the undyed yarn I’d bought for the cast-on… but after day one I’d happily determined there was plenty! in fact I estimate I only used roughly a half of each skein, even for the widest sections.

day 17…

I’d decided to just knit each colour as it appeared and not second guess anything at all! so the delicious Unknown of it all was exciting and fun; but I have to admit there were one or two days I was like “whaaa??”   However I’d checked out the Dingo Dyeworks advent calendar from 2017, which was so so beautiful, and I just had to put my trust in this years’ being beautiful too.

day 20…

It is a little different, to be sure! and while not all the colours were what I might have chosen and there was even a coupla days where I truly wondered where this was all going!  Would this advent-ure be irredeemably unicorn-ly?!  However I’m very happy to admit that my fears were unfounded and I feel like my finished sweater is now one of my loveliest and, dare I say, the prettiest that I have?! and the colour-story worked out quite beautifully in the end.  I’m still about 99% convinced days 16 and 17 were mixed up! but that’s neither here not there really, since you can’t really tell that in the end result.

aaaaand, day 24!

Knitting on this every day was, as I’d hoped, a calming and peaceful, meditative and fun! interlude in the lead-up to Christmas for me, so I am so glad I decided to do this … yes, it resulted in a smaller pile of me-made things I could give my loved ones; I bought a few presents for my family this year and I refuse to feel guilty about that! and I still did manage to make a few things.  And I have a beautiful and unique new jumper!

back, indistinguishable from the front actually, but you know…

Details:

Jumper; my own design, made from the Dingo Dyeworks 2018 advent calendar
Skirt; Vogue 1247, made from curtaining fabric, details here
Thongs; fipper, bought on our holiday in Bali

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poppy dress

26/11/2018 10:44 pm \ 11 Comments \

I’ve made this new dress   #surprise!  This beautiful poppy printed silk chiffon was a birthday present from my lovely thoughtful Mum… we were browsing together in Fabulous Fabrics and oohing and aahing over it, and she suddenly announced “I’d like to get that for you for your birthday!”  And she even chose the pattern I was to use, which is of course Vogue 1351, anyone who has read this blog for even a short amount of time will know how much I LOVE this Donna Karan pattern since I’ve used it a few times.  Actually four times before, to be exact; here, here, here and here.  To my mind its silhouette has a perfect simplicity, or should that be that it is simply perfect?  Either or!

The poppy chiffon is very delicate and sheer.  The background is actually pure white, however I chose to line my dress with a off-white polyacetate lining fabric.  I chose the off-white over pure white, because it was noticeable softer, the overall effect of the pure white was surprisingly harsh.  I’m not really at my best in pure, pure white, even though I love it; a softer ivory-white is a lot better for me.

invisible zip in left side seam; this is always my preferred zip placement!

I’ve worn it several times already, the first time on Remembrance Day, when Mum, Dad, Craig and I went to visit the RSL poppy tribute at Kings Park.  I chose to wear it a) because of Remembrance Day, of course! and b) because Mum and Dad were staying with us and I wanted to show them the lovely birthday present they had given to me!

Wait, the poppy tribute?  Well, this year, 61,513 hand-knitted and crocheted poppies were made and “planted” by RSL volunteers, one poppy for each Australian lost at WW1.  Seeing them and walking through the exhibit; the sheer number of them, was such a very sobering, very humbling and very moving experience.  Speaking, um “craft-ily”, as it were; so much care and love and thought had obviously gone in to each and every poppy too, some had buttons, that we read were often included for their significance to the family in some way, like from a uniform or something.  The exhibit was only on for four days, so we felt very fortunate we thought about it and went, and I was also very pleased to hear that the exhibit will be returning again in future years.

I did think about getting a picture of my dress at the exhibit, but once we got there I felt that would be disrespectful.  I mean, while the poppies themselves were beautiful and spectacular and a visual treat to behold, of course I realised how very wrong it would be to treat them like a photo backdrop to my dress.  Though a few ladies passing by did comment that my dress was “perfect for the day” which was very nice.

I did take a picture of Mum and Dad though…

I next wore the dress just recently, we had a gorgeously warm, but windy! weekend and we went for a lovely long afternoon walk at the beach, and I grabbed the opportunity to take some pictures… does Clara look incredibly wet and sandy in this picture?  Well, that’s because she is!!  I was wondering if she was going to jump up on me, or shake sopping sand all over me with one of those doggy full-body shakes.

Actually caught her partway through one said full-body shake below… and thank goodness she’s waaaaaaaay way over there!  Normally she’ll come right up to you before letting loose, and I’m telling you, this is one ultra-fluffy hairy doggy, and she can carry a heckuvva lot of water and sand in that there gorgeous coat of hers!

plus bonus random bird! hey birdie!

Aaaaand there’s my husband, being very polite and keeping well out of the way while I take my pictures, ahem. Well, that’s what he’s supposed to be doing!!  Man!

Fun fact; in this picture he’s wearing this blue jumper, that I made for him last Christmas.  You have to scroll riiiiiiiiiight to the end of the post to find it though, I just checked and it’s a MONSTER post with about a million items in it.  Well, that’s what it felt like, when I was making them I mean.  Ha!

Details:

Dress; Vogue 1351, poppy print silk hiffon
Red cardi, in beach pics; my own design variation on the Nettie bodysuit, but Closet Case patterns, details here
Sandals; Zomp, from Zomp boutique

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ivory lace; most definitely label-worthy *

26/10/2018 3:21 pm \ 34 Comments \

OK.   Sooo, it’s early days, since this little sheath o’ my dreams is basically brand new, but I’m so in love with it already I’m just tentatively putting it out there…  I think I’ve just managed to make a forever dress for myself.   I just love love love ivory, as a colour, and lace as a texture, and ivory and lace combined together in one swathe of gloriously snow-dusted curlicues is just always a fabric that’s going to make me sigh with happiness.

Silk World Australia had contacted me to ask me if I would showcase one of their fabrics, and I chose one metre of this guipire lace, one metre being the minimum order; thinking I could make a little skirt.   Silk World have up until recently been wholesalers, and now their beautiful laces and specialty fabrics are available for everyone! which of course is the best news for fabric lovers everywhere.  I was blown away when my lace arrived.. it’s heavily and beautifully detailed, and luxuriously thick with that matte texture that whispers “quality” in hushed genteel notes.    And when I shook out said one metre, well it was so so W I D E! I realised I could get not just a little skirt, but probably a whole dress out of it.  And I did!  Et voila!

One metre dictated a super pared-back, no frills, straight sheath silhouette, which is of course the best thing to show off the intricacies of the lace anyway.  With something this exquisite, you only need a very little of it to make a big impact, in my opinion.  I used an old favourite pattern, Burda 8511, and lined the dress with natural Irish linen, bought years ago at Calico & Ivy, when I had a voucher to burn and nothing in mind to particular spend it on… it’s really gorgeous stuff also and I’ve never really known exactly what to use it for.  I love how the slightly rough ‘n rustic feel and muted stoney colour of the linen is a nice foil to the luxurious decadence of snow-dusted lace sitting on top…  and now I feel like this is exactly the project what it was waiting for all along; a match made in heaven!

Cocktail dress for the season… sorted!

Aaaand, my new labels!! and oh my goodness can we just take a moment to appreciate how absolutely adorable ???

I got these from the Dutch Label Shop, and seriously, I struggled to choose a design, there were just so many cute options, and colours.  I’m super super happy with these; I absolutely LOVE the sweetly funky design! and I’m also pretty impressed with the excellent quality.  The labels are fabric, and the design is stitched, which is very nice; and you know how with a lot of fabric labels, you need to turn under the raw edges as you’re stitching them down, because of fraying? well these ones have all four edges nicely sealed so you don’t need to do that.  They’re all ready to sew on!  Also they are pleasantly substantial and sturdy, with no hint that they will buckle over time or in the wash, and the design is finely detailed and stitched tight and flat; so seems very unlikely it might snag or catch on anything, nor unravel.  I am SO happy with them!  🙂

Also, I have amazing news!  The Dutch Label Shop has very kindly and generously reached out and offered a discount to all my readers … enter handmadebycarolyn15 at the checkout and you will receive a 15% discount on any order.

FLOWERHEAD!!!

random tangent; do you know I’m looking at here? rhetorical question, I know, aren’t they the worst?  actually there was a golden whistler sitting in the tree right by my head, whistling his little head off.  I just had to rush over and grab my camera for a quick shot before he flew off…  If you want to hear his lovely call, you can check it out here…

 

this next picture looks very loving doesn’t it? a tender mistress and puppy moment? actually Clara was having a “puppy mood” and was just really really keen to rip right into those flowers and zoom off through the garden with them.

LATER EDIT: Mary asked in the comments about the finishing and interior details, and thank you for reminding me, Mary! because I actually meant to post pictures of how I did this in my dress but forgot…

lace side seams; inside

the side seams of the lace shell I stitched along with a bias cut strip of thin, cream cotton, then trimmed the seam allowances of the lace and wrapped the cotton around to bind the edges in a Hong Kong-like seam, except I tucked the raw edge of the cotton under and hand-stitched it in place.  This makes a nicely neat and tidy, cream-coloured roll; which might look like it could be seen on the right side but actually is kinda invisible when the dress is right side out.

lace side seams, outside

The linen lining; I finished the raw edges on my overlocker, and simply left them like that.  The bottom edges of the zip tape I stitched down to the seam allowances like I usually do, in a short row of machine stitching.

The lace around the invisible zip on the outside; here I trimmed the lace while carefully hand stitching the raw edge securely right up to abut against the opening edge, while not obscuring it so I can still pull the zip up and down!  You have to stitch every single little bit of lace down here so there are no loose bits to stick out, which would look very messy and also risk getting lace caught in the zip, so a stitch for like every 3mm or so.

At the top edge of the dress; I stitched the neckline and armscyes of the dress together, right side of linen lining to wrong side of lace shell, and added a linen facing, to hide the lace edges on the inside.  This is under stitched so all edges roll to the inside of the dress.  I handtacked the facing to the lining in a few key places along its edge too.

You can see in the above picture those bust darts shaping the front lining, and also (not seen) on the back lining I stitched long fish-eye darts to shape the small of the back.  I lightly hand-tacked the lace shell to these back darts in a few places so the unshaped lace shell sits shaped to the curve of my back a little  more than it would otherwise.  I mean, without this tacking, the lace just hangs down dead straight, and I like it to curve into the small of my back just a little.  The hand-tacking helps it to do this  🙂

Details:

Dress; Burda 8511, in this guipure lace and natural linen
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp boutique
Flowers; were from the garden, I love these and they’re looking so beautiful at the moment!  I actually picked them to decorate the kitchen.  I was just aiming for “spring-y”, though now I think my pictures are veering just a little into bridal territory?  though I do quite like the idea of this look for a modern and maybe, mature, bride!   Anyway, Note to self; perhaps avoid carrying big bunches of flowers in my pictures from now on

Christmas party season? I am SO ready! though honestly, not just for Christmas, I am going to wear this dress for ever and EVER…

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outback wife

01/10/2018 7:23 pm \ 70 Comments \

My dear sister-in-law S gave to me a length of precious “Outback Wife” barkcloth for my birthday… soooo thrilling to finally get a piece of this gorgeousness for myself!  I’ve bought other designs of this once or twice before as gifts for others but never for myself for some strange reason, I know not why … Because, oh my gosh this stuff is just so lovely, sews up like an absolute DREAM!!  I’m in love!  I’m seriously thinking about sneaking out to Calico and Ivy and buying more!  For meeeee!

I turned to my ol’ reliable, tried and true,Vogue 1247 for the skirt… my copy of this is now a little bit tattered, not surprisingly since this latest is version number 23, ahem.  I just counted, and wow, that’s a shock, even to me!  Yes, I really do need to move onto a new pattern…  A lot of my V1247’s have been straight, sans pockets, because to be honest, although the pockets in this design are really cool I actually don’t really use them all that much.  Very occasionally for my phone and keys and it’s very rare I shove my actual hands in them..  I worry about distorting the lines of the skirt and contributing to premature pocket sag.  And if there’s one thing NO ONE needs in their life, it’s premature pocket sag, am I right?   Quelle horreur!

But for old times’ sake, I put the pockets in this version.

I über-carefully cut my pieces so the print matches up practically everywhere, along both horizontal skirt seams, and as well the centre back seam, and even the waistband seams matches as well as it is able.  This took only a little bit of frowning and sighing, and moving my pattern pieces around more times than the most diligent of sleight-of-hand operatives, but it’s always a worthwhile thing to do, I reckon.  Otherwise, the not-matching pattern would probably bother me forever.

At the same time as I was making my skirt, I happened to notice in my stash two lengths of very thin jersey knit that I’d bought at the Fabric Store in Melbourne during one of my trips over there with Mum and Cassie, one a bottle green and the other in deep teal blue; both an absolute perfect match for the skirt!  It was meant to be!!  I quickly whipped up (k-tchaaaaah!) two long sleeved modified Nettie tees.  These are practically identical to each other, narrow neckline bands and wide sleeve and bottom bands.

It’s so funny to me, looking at these pictures.  See, S actually gave this fabric to me back in early June, yes, it was a very early birthday present!  and I made the skirt and two tees up straight away, like within a week.  And took the pictures of the tees on Bessie, though it was too cold to actually wear them at the time… then a few months later, early September to be exact, I took the wearing-with-black tights-and-boots pictures.  And did precisely nothing with those pictures, either.  As it happens, I’ve been in a bit of a funk over the past few months, feeling a little intimidated, like I’m just not capable or good enough, almost on the point of giving it up entirely.  Generally speaking, it’s been taking me a looooong time to write a blog post lately, like almost as long as to make a little dress for myself.   And so I’ve just been feeling… less inclined, and oh so lazy about it, to be honest; even though I want to write.

Anyway; yesterday, it was a perfectly beautiful day and we went out walking at the beach, and I wore the whole lot of them, the skirt and both the tops too.  Meaning, in my funny weird little world, a blog post must transpire.   Eeeek!  Quick sticks!!  so I gave myself a bit of a pep talk.  Just lay it out there.  With minimal fiddling.  Just spill, organically.   I mean apart from spelling.  I am as it happens, the biggest spelling nazi imaginable.  I roll my eyes on the regular, at the newspaper, at advertisements on instagram; at all the offending “your”s instead of “you’re”s and so on.  I’m sooo judgemental, the absolute worst, in fact!  But, I’m getting off track…  where was I?  Ah yes, writing without pause.  Letting the words flow, flying from my fingertips, of their own volition.  That’s what this is.  Stream of consciousness blogging, for better or worse.  Well, that’s what blogging is supposed to be, right?   It’s supposed to be a personal journey?  Just me, being me?  SO!  I hereby free myself of further worrying, right now.  Begone, thy treacherous feelings of inadequacy!!  Vamoose!  Whooooosh!!! And; this house, is clean *… I hope!

* … name that movie 🙂

  

Details:

both tees; loosely based on Closet Case patterns Nettie, thin cotton jersey
Skirt; Vogue 1247, in Outback Wife barkcloth
Tights; made by me, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

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jump to it!

18/09/2018 11:33 pm \ 26 Comments \

Ohmygawd, wot is this then??  I’m wearing a jumpsuit!

I know!  So… fashionable!!

Disclaimer; so, any and all claims to being abreast with current trends and wearing something that’s oh-so-hot-right-now! that’s only just barely appearing in RTW shops here is absolutely nothing at all to do with me and everything to do with Heather of Closet Case Patterns for kindly sending me this pattern and thus propelling my wardrobe ever closer to what the cool girls are all wearing…  thank you, Heather!!

Up until now I had precisely zero jumpsuits in my repertoire and to be honest I had early, prior-to-making-it worries that I would be wanting to transform this one into a midi-dress fairly soon … my fear of  jumpsuits is mostly because of the toilet issue.  I remember Cassie telling me a story about herself and a friend: said friend was wearing a jumpsuit and no bra one time, and Cassie was waiting for her in the ladies’.  Friend sings out from her stall;  “Cassie? I’m basically sitting here naked right now… ” This struck both of them as particularly hilarious and they laughed until they cried… well I’ve gotta say I think of that every time I even contemplate a jumpsuit.  Once I’d made this one though and tried it on, I did immediately love the rather glamorous breeziness of those super wide wide legs, immediately! and I also really like how the extravagance of width at the bottom edge is nicely balanced out at top by the tapered in lines of the camisole-style top half.   The curved V-neckline is cut quite low both front and back, it’s flattering in a quietly sexy sort of a way; and while it’s a leeetle bit skimpy it’s not too skimpy that you can’t wear a bra, which is comforting.  In fact the straps are designed thoughtfully wide enough to be bra-strap friendly.  Wearing it feels quite delightfully breezy and relaxed and comfy and easy, like you really are wearing nothing, even though you’re actually swathed in looooads of swishy fabric, and I found myself not minding the bifurcated-ness after all.  In fact, colour me pleasantly surprised!  Could I even be *gasp* converted to jumpsuits?!

Pattern: so, of course this is the Amy jumpsuit, designed by Heather Lou of Closet Case patterns…  and I used a slightly crinkly deep blue rayon from my stash, I think this was originally from the Morrison sale; and I cut the shoulder straps from white cotton because…. well just because.  The white was a remnant from deep deep Stash.

I lined the bodice with the last remains of this goooooorgeous yellow and white check rayon… love this divine fabric, originally from the Tessuti’s in Melbourne, and I used it to make this top for Cassie, and this little dress for Ms Spring.

  

It’s now been used up totally, each and every skerick, likewise the blue rayon, and likewise the piece of white cotton now too.   I’m using up so much of my stash!  I’m a bit behind on my blogging, but trust me; I’ve been making tonnes recently and have used up LOTS of my stash while at the same time adding almost nothing to it…  THIS.  IS.  AWESOME!!!

Details:

Jumpsuit; the Amy jumpsuit, pattern by Closet Case patterns, in a royal blue rayon? I think? with white cotton straps
Sandals; made by me! at the shoe camaraderie workshop; details here

jumping in my jumpsuit!  I’m sure Clara’s wishing she had one too…

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a mustard raincoat, oh and a skirt too

31/07/2018 11:27 pm \ 14 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve made a new raincoat!

So, I’ve been wearing my pale pink Kelly anorak raincoat, made from a shower curtain, for several years now, it was undoubtedly my most worn garment of last year by a fair dinkum mile!  and it’s been such a trooper.  I love it so much, still!  However it is looking a wee bit shabby now… so I’ve been toying with the idea of a new raincoat for little while.  Getting nice waterproof fabric is quite a challenge in Perth, you come across it so rarely and I was wondering if I’d have to brave the scary gamble that is Buying Off the Internet.  Then I happened to be browsing in Homecraft Textiles during their yearly 50% off sale, and unearthed this gorgeously mustard-coloured waterproof fabric.  The colour was particularly exciting.  Something that actually suits me? that’s not black, or navy?!!!   Take my money!!!

Having said that… it’s not the most wonderful raincoat fabric in the world and I had struggles APLENTY  but more on that later.

Patterns!!  I loved the Kelly anorak pattern, and it did work really well for me as a raincoat, however I have this maybe erroneous belief that a raglan sleeve is better suited in a raincoat… I think that a rounded armscye seam could lend itself to a higher chance of leakage.  I could be totally wrong there though, but I just think it anyway.  I’ve been looking out for a good, raglan sleeved jacket pattern that would lend itself to being a good raincoat, but to no avail.  So I made my own pattern.  My previous, blue, raincoat was a pattern I’d worked out for myself; inspired by a cheapie old RTW one that I’d bought for Tim when he was a young ‘un, and which I’d inherited down the track as he grew out of it.  I devised some rather unusual pockets for it, and actually totally loved how they worked out.  I dug out the pattern, made the modifications to bring it into line with the shape I wanted for my new raincoat.  Everyone’s heard of the famous FBA… well I have no use for a full bust adjustment, but in a raincoat I could definitely use a FPA.  What is that? a Full Ponytail Adjustment, of course!!  I have pretty much never had a raincoat, rtw or me-made, with a hood that accommodated a ponytail comfortably.  The hood is always pulling back off your head and exposing your forehead, which is annoying.  I’m happy report that this hood is so far perfect!

I’d originally bought some soft tulle to line the raincoat.  I’d managed to get some soft netting to line my first, blue raincoat and it worked a treat, and I wanted something similar for this one.  But the tulle was horrible; just not soft enough and too scratchy against my sensitive snowflake skin after all, so I’d ended up ripping it out.  The raincoat is actually fine without a lining, because the inside of the mustard shell is a rather nice, soft woven stuff.

the white sports fabric seen in the pic is a ventilation panel, hidden underneath the upper back flap

The outside is laminated, actually the fabric could best be described as a lightweight, thinly laminated, woven cotton.  The plastic laminate was obviously downright hideous to sew.  For one thing, it had quite a sticky waxy coating on the laminate, which gummed up the needles, and the eye of the needle, making re-threading the needle a freakin’ NIGHTMARE.  I wiped the laminated surface with a lightly soapy solution before sewing, which did help a tiny bit, and occasionally wiped down the needle too, but it was still pretty bad.  When it came to top-stitching, well there was absolutely no way the laminated side up was going to move underneath the foot at all.  I cut strips of tissue paper to stitch over, and tore them away afterwards; fiddly, but not a difficult thing to do (above).

seam sealing, also a view of the fabric’s wrong side

Sealing the seams; I used a no-name seam sealer from BCF, a local boating camping and fishing store.  It’s supposed to be used for tents and sails I think, but it works beautifully for raincoats too!  I used a cheapie old paintbrush to work it into the stitch-holes, and seal everything thoroughly.  Since then, it’s been out in three very heavy downpours, and I’m happy to say has stood up to the task beautifully!  All the traumas, and it’s been worth it!  It’s early days, but I think I’ve found my new favourite wardrobe item!

Want to read all my tips for making a raincoat?  They can all be found in my original raincoat making post, here.

Oh, and I made a new little skirt too,  but it’s not nearly so exciting.   Well, I had a small piece of coffee-coloured, wide-wale cotton corduroy, leftover from when I made this dress, and when I was dyeing the fabric for my Sherlock Holmes jacket I’d also tossed in the coffee-coloured corduroy.  And it came out a nice shade of golden-mustard.  So I managed to squeeze out this little skirt.  It’s not made up to any real pattern really, I basically put an invisible zip at centre back, held the front and back up to myself and pinned the side seams and where I wanted darts.  Pretty lazy genius, huh?  It was a very small piece of fabric, and the resulting skirt was too short for a hem.  I edged the bottom edge with a chocolate linen bias-cut strip to finish, and the skirt is lined with pale golden polyacetate lining fabric, itself also leftover from something else, can’t remember what.

And that’s it… until next time!

Later edit: this skirt now has pockets!

Details:

Raincoat; my own pattern, made from thin, plastic-laminated cotton
Skirt; my own design, dyed cotton corduroy
Bobbly top (just above); Burdastyle 04/2014;111, details here
Tights; made by me, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

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