Tag Archives: Closet Case Files

a new baby in the family!!! plus something for Mummy too :)

12/07/2019 7:07 pm \ 24 Comments \

So, I have some extremely exciting news… !!  I am going to be a granny!!!!

Last week, Tim and Kelly announced they had a “souvenir” from their honeymoon to give to all of us and gave each of us a package… I unwrapped mine and what should I find, but a length of this adorable fabric and a pattern for a weeny little onesie and beanie…! everyone else had suitably themed pressies too; Sam had a T-shirt with “world’s best uncle”, Craig had a book “Grandad jokes”, and Cassie had a “World’s best auntie” Tshirt… oooh, such an incredibly lovely surprise! We were all stunned and then excited; and of course completely over the moon!  We all cannot WAIT to welcome the newest and littlest member of the family next year…!! the first one in our next generation!!  In the meantime of course I’ve made up the baby fabric immediately! Such fun to be making baby clothes again!   #itsbeenawhile

So this is the pattern they chose; Burda 9434, and the cotton jersey is from Spotlight.  I’m like, haha, first time parents; they bought a full 1.5m of fabric!  Enough for two babies, lol!   Wait, what?!!  but no no, before we all get too excited Kelly has had a scan and there is just a singleton in there  🙂

I immediately traced off the one month size and ran up a onesie.  And a beanie.  Eeeee so cute! and it was such an absolute joy to be making these!!  By the way; I had to trace the pattern in full, and will need to do so again and again, and probably even again! because obviously all sizes must stay intact since we’ll be needing those down the track too, that’s life…   babies GROW 🙂  The pieces are all so tiny though it’s not exactly an unduly cumbersome chore.

I forgot to mention, the beanie is made from navy blue merino from the Fabric Store; I bought in in Melbourne during one of our girly jaunts over there and previously made this T-shirt/sweater using it too.

Kelly also mentioned that she needed to buy maternity clothes, and daa da da daaaa!  (bugle call to arms) mum-in-law to the rescue and all that.  Well, I do love sewing and have SO MUCH time on my hands now I no longer have a wedding dress to make, haha.  I thought this a perfectly good excuse to buy the Closet Case Ebony tee pattern.  This is one of the few Closet Case patterns I hadn’t got my hands on already … I had eyed it up a number of times but not pulled the trigger.  Anyway, I finally did!  And immediately printed out two copies; one for Kelly and one for me.

I know this isn’t a maternity pattern but I also knew it could easily work as one!  I sized up from Kelly’s normal size, just in case; and you know what? it fits her perfectly!  Pregnancy boobs, you know.

now this is a nice touch!  personal.  I like.  I wonder if I can do this for our patterns?!

This is me here, modelling it for ye olde blog, before I hand it over to Kelly.  Maybe I’ll get a shot of her wearing it, one of these days, maybe not.    I’m not feeling very strict about blog photos for this one, because it’s essentially just a wearable muslin to check for size.  It’s all leftovers; the body was from the leftovers from this top (Fabulous Fabrics) and the sleeves leftover from this, old favourite dress (Spotlight).  To be honest, even though they’re both stretch fabrics, I don’t think they had enough stretch actually, but it still worked out, um; reasonable? I think?!  And it’s just a muslin, but I still had to obsessively pin each and every stripe, grrr.    This is a pretty silly thing to do, but it does result in great stripe-matching so *shrug* it’s worth it? I guess?

One thing I can guarantee; I am going to make lots more of both these patterns, and SOON!!!

Details:

Baby clothes; Burda 9434, cotton jersey and merino for the beanie
Tunic; the Ebony tee by Closet Case patterns, striped stuff, probably not enough stretch
Skirt; Vogue 1247, striped drill, details here
Tights; my own custom fit pattern, details on how to make your own here
Booties;  Officine Creative, birthday  present from Craig last year  🙂

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sasha-jenny trousers, and a honey-coloured turtleneck

21/06/2019 3:35 pm \ 9 Comments \

I made a new outfit for myself! well actually I thought I was, although as it turns out I had only made half a new outfit for myself.  But as halves go, I’m pretty happy!  Also,  I know it seems like I’ve only just finished wedding sewing, but how does one choose to wind down after a bout of incredibly, stressfully intense, VIS???    btw, that’s Very Important Sewing in case it wasn’t obvious.   Well, one dives head-first into a fresh new sewing project, of course!!  Ha!  and it felt awesome too… because by comparison this is VUS, or Very Unimportant Sewing, and man it sure felt good! I loved every minute of making these new things  #youknowyoureobsessedwhen

First things first; I made some new trousers…  I’ve been wanting to make this particular love-child of these two different Closet-Case patterns for aaaages now!  I’ve always really liked the mid-riding style of the Sashas; how it sits feels very comfortable, and how it fits is quite flattering for me.  I also love the magnificently flared wide-legs of the Jennys, and thought how cool it would be if they could be jammed together into one, gloriously slouchy, flare-y package.  Well, ta da!!!

please excuse horrible but apparently obligatory butt-picture…

I just needed some nice fabric, which popped up suddenly in Spotlight of all places… Spotlight has fabric highs, where they’re stuffed with a tonne of really very nice and affordable options and you’re completely spoilt for choice; and also sad and lengthy lows, where there’s nothing but absolute crap…   You just have get in there and stock up during the good times and then endure the bad times until the good times roll around again.  Anyway, currently they’re having a rather awesome high, which is pretty nice for us sewing-obsessed peeps.  I mean, I’m not supposed to be buying any fabric right now… but you know.  When you see something good, it’s not going to be there forever!  I pounced upon this stretchy, narrow-whale cotton corduroy in this gorgeously yummy shade of caramel pretty much instantly… not only is the colour so very me, but the stretchiness is just exactly right for that required for the Sasha’s too.  Right nearby was some really lovely, very soft honey-coloured knit; very cashmere-like in its feel though it’s actually just acrylic, but that’s fine.  Fabric snob, I am not, well, most of the time anyway.  I planned a honey/caramelly sort of an outfit for myself.  A Mars Bar, sort of an outfit.  #nowiwantamarsbar  #damn

What is the other half of the wannabe outfit?? well, I’d downloaded the free, tessuti patterns Monroe turtleneck pattern ages ago, printed it out and had it lying around; and I decided it would be a good one for the honey-coloured knit.  In my head my snuggly new sweater was going to look absolute perfect with my new, wide-legged slouchy trousers.    I could hardly wait to wear them together!  So did things work out just exactly as planned?  don’t be silly!

I absolute adore my caramel trousers, they turned out to be everything I could have hoped for; however… the turtleneck…    Well right from the word go it did not want to be my turtleneck.  It really really just wanted to be Cassie’s.   I was barely halfway through when I realised it had her name written all over it.  The sleeves and collar of the Monroe turtleneck are tight-fitting, with a dropped shoulder and a very boxy, oversized body; a combination which looks pretty terrible on me,  I’m coming to terms with that sad fact (sob) but I know is quite gorgeous on Cassie.  It’s a style she has worn before, and worn well too.  When she came over in the evening I gave it to her, and her reception was most satisfyingly enthusiastic!  I might even whip some more for her… it’s a very quick and easy pattern to make and you only need about 1.2m or so.  And I do have several other tops already that I can wear with my trousers.  I’m ok with passing things on that don’t want to look good on me, especially when they look so good on another, and are so warmly received!  🙂

Some technical sewing deets:

The turtleneck; nothing much to say, just made straight up; sleeve hems done using a twin needle, hemline done by hand because the fabric was stretching out some.  Super easy.

R2D2 says hi….

The trousers; I cut out the tops as Sashas, and from the hip down they are almost Jenny’s.  Not exactly Jenny’s because the patterns are actually completely different from each other and can’t really be “melded” that easily.  For one thing, the Sasha’s are drafted for a stretch while the Jenny’s are not.  Another thing I pondered quite a bit, was the alignment of the back leg piece; because the grainlines of the back legs in the two patterns are very different to each other.  I’ve made up two pairs of Sasha trousers previously, exactly to the pattern, and for this new pair I decided to alter the alignment of the back leg piece, pivoting the ankle a little outward, so it’s got a similar grain line to the Jenny’s.

The waistband lining and pockets are cut from some ikat cotton, that Mum gave to me a few years ago, from when she cleaned out her stash.  You can see I attempted to finish the pocket edges with French seams as indicated in the pattern, but it was just too bulky around the heavily-interfaced pocket opening area, so I overlocked the edges for that little bit.  Probably would have looked better to overlock the whole thing, but the pockets were all basically finished, done and dusted by this point so I was just, ehhh  *shrug*  I used the little Closet Case label Heather sent out along with the pattern.  Cute, huh?

  

I’ve found that around the waistband hook and eye closure at the front, no matter how heavily you interface the waistband and facing, the hook and eye will pull the facing out a little, just because the two layers aren’t joined together at this point…. for these ones I kind of stab-stitched the two layers together all around the hook, keeping the stitches tiny and almost invisible on the right side of the waistband.  You can see the stitches if you know they’re there, but I think you can barely tell, and it does help to keep the waistband nice and flat-looking, and no hint of pulling out of shape while you’re wearing them.

I am SO PROUD of my welt pockets!!  You know how sometimes one welt pocket might look a little better than the other and so you just take picture of that one for your sewing blog and quietly leave out the other??  oh wait, what? no I never!!  oooo I would never something so devious, oh no….  Well anyway, both my pockets turned out to be things of perfectly-matching beauty, if I say so myself…

.

    

Details:

Trousers; Sasha trousers by Closet Case patterns, with wide legs from the Jenny trouser pattern
Honey coloured turtleneck; the free Monroe turtleneck by Tessuti Patterns
my pink top; the twist top from the Japanese pattern book “Pattern Magic” by Tomoko Nakamachi 

 this picture adds nothing to the story apart from Zoe looking kinda funny … oo I’m so mean.  Would I ever post a picture of myself looking kinda funny??  NO

me and my big fluffy girl on our  holiday down south together, just the two of us… was so nice  🙂

…wearing them here with my mustard Nettie tee and my self-designed mustard cowl also self-knitted socks

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bunny tails and lots of pink fluff

18/05/2019 8:43 pm \ 11 Comments \

So in a bit of a tangent from wedding sewing; the weather has turned super cold, unseasonably so actually, for this early 🙁 and my old winter pj’s had got drastically thin to the point where I’ve accidentally poked a finger nail through the fabric in several spots lately, ahem.  I was desperate!  Oh, and since I mentioned it? the wedding dress is basically finished!! but obviously I will not be sharing full shots until after the Big Day, though I am sharing a few details here and there over on my instagram account.  And I’ve sort of gone as far as I can on the other wedding sewing duties, for a short while, anyway!

I’d found this adorable bunny print cotton flannelette at Spotlight…  I love their little round bums complete with fluffy cottontails!  And the ones with little pink paw pads are even cuter!  btw I am fully aware that as an Australian I am honour bound to despise rabbits, and on an intellectual level I do, honestly.  But also, look how adorable!

For patterns; I used the eponymous Carolyn Pyjama pattern by Closet Case patterns for the bottoms of course! and for the top I used a plain Burdastyle T-top pattern I’ve used a few times before, Burda 10/2009;121, with minor modifications – story of my sewing life, hehe.

To enhance and pick up the pink of the bunny paws, I found a small scrap of pink jersey in my stash, leftover from this T-shirt I made for Cassie, and cut strips to inset in the joining seam of the top, and then I cut the bottoms off the pj bottoms and inserted a strip in each of the pj legs too.

My old brown bathrobe was also long overdue to be replaced; the kids gave it to me for Mother’s Day about 20 years ago?!!  I’d seen a pink bathrobe advertised in the Spotlight catalogue which looked promising, however when I checked it out it actually wasn’t pink at all, but more of a greyish-mushroom pink.  Quaite hideous and tres disappointing!  As luck would have it though, right beside the offending, not-pink bathrobe was a bin of fluffy throw rugs – oh excuse me, cuddle blankets, and one was the most perfect shade of cherry-blossom pink a girl could hope for.  I was instantly rendered powerless to resist and bought it with rose-covered spectacles and in a loveheart-pink daze.

And so I whipped up my own bathrobe!  I’m so much in love with this, it’s not even funny.  In fact I’m wearing it right this second.  It’s so flooffffy!! and soft, and as light as a pretty pink cloud.  And warm!  I’m super happy with how it turned out.  I made it to have a shawl collar, deep deep patch pockets, and belt loops for the self belt…

… and a hanging loop tucked under the collar facing…

The blanket was already hemmed on all sides when I bought it, obviously; so I resourcefully utilised these hems in the lower edge, the sleeve lower edges, and the tops of the pockets.  The belt is also cut from one long side edge, and I simply folded over the raw edge and zig-zagged it over the ready-finished hem.  Funny thing; the huge loft of this fluffy fabric meant I could hardly see what on earth I was doing while sewing this, seam allowance accuracy?  HA!!!

Also, there was FLUFFF EVERYWHERE; all over the table, the floor and flying up from the sewing machine too… could hardly believe it was producing so much and with still plenty of massive fluffiness remaining, thank goodness!  Of course I was wearing something dark coloured while sewing it.  Murphy’s Law.  I looked like I’d been through the wash with a tissue in my pocket…!

I’m gonna pop some caaaash, only got twenty dollars in ma pocket…

All raw edges for both pj’s and robe are finished inside on the overlocker, and the pink-inset seams are further topstitched down in a sort of faux-flat-felling effect.

Details:

Robe; my own design
Top; Burdastyle 09/2010;121
Bottoms; Closet Case patterns Carolyn pyjamas

Winter?  I am ready!

Oh! almost forgot…. I had a big enough portion of the fluffy blanket leftover to make a new cushion cover too.  Now I just have to keep it safe from The Marauding Doggie; whose favourite evening activity is to select a fluffy cushion and sit sucking and gently kneading it for ages.  This might be a losing battle!

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jasika blazer

02/03/2019 3:44 pm \ 22 Comments \

Remember in my 2018 end of year round-up I mentioned briefly I had made a Big Thing?  Well this is it! A tailored blazer… this is the Jasika blazer, the newest design by Heather of Closet Case patterns.

Well, what a project!  I really really enjoyed making this; sinking my teeth into my most involved and meaty project in ages! since I’d pretty much fallen into the lackadaisical habit of quick and easy “ordinary” things for quite a long time prior.  I was very ready to take on something a bit more contemplative, careful and slow-fashion-y, and this was a really nice thing to ease back into that…  I’m so glad Heather asked me to test for her again!

The Jasika blazer is described as a classic tailored jacket, made utilising modern speed tailoring techniques, with fusible interfacing and minimal hand-stitching, but rest assured, purists!  there is still hand-stitching where it counts!   And I do really appreciate that the process for making this blazer is nicely catering to the modern-day maker that still wants to sew timeless classics for themselves but might be time poor, and so might prefer to do as much by machine as possible.

Materials: I used a length of lovely raspberry-rusty silk/wool tweed given to me by my friend L when she cleaned out her garage, and it was perfect for the job!  I love the luscious colour; I think it’s a good one for my colouring, and of course the texture is totally divine…   I lined with black polyacetate lining fabric, another longterm resident from my stash; and mostly used the tailor-made (ha!) interfacing/notions package that Heather is stocking specifically for this project.  This kit contains fusible woven and knit interfacing, horsehair canvas, padded sleeve heads and shoulder pads and cotton stay tape.  Boy, but this is a really fab little kit too and I SO appreciated this!  It’s not always that easy to get quality tailoring bits and pieces like this in Perth so it was just brilliant to have them at hand, to help me get a really nice finish to my blazer.  Because you really want this to turn out as good as you can get it; a tailored blazer is quite the time-consuming project and it would be nice for the materials to be worthy of your time!

I dithered on whether to use my own label, or the Me-Made from Closet Case patterns.  Cassie said why not use both, why not indeed…

I honestly can’t remember now whether I bought the perfectly matching button from Fabulous Fabrics or from Spotlight now.  I scouted through both shops, and bought candidates from both shops too! so much agonising!… and now its provenance is lost in the hazy mists of time…  I did really take my time with the buttonhole though, and made a mini double welt one, so as to match those pockets.

Oh! Pockets… I LOVE all the pockets in this blazer!  I jammed every single one of them into my blazer, in order to test all the pocket options for the pattern of course!  Not that I’m a complete pocket-whore or anything, o no!   There are three; a single welt breast pocket, a double welt hip pocket, and a double welt with flap hip pocket.  I’m actually toying with the idea of opening out the lining and adding an extra, internal welt pocket to the inside of the jacket too… but that will have to wait until I get a few more, ahem VIP’s; and by that I mean Very Important Projects, out of the way! #drowninginweddingsewing

We’re not supposed to reveal a project before the pattern’s been released, which is sometimes so hard to do…  I did however sneakily wear the blazer out for real, once, one coolish day (below).  Fortunately for me, it’s been quite summer-y and not conducive to blazer wearing, and I felt sorry for all the northern hemisphere testers  who have no doubt been dying to wear their splendid new blazers!  The pattern has been released just at the right time for us in the southern hemisphere, yay…  how often does that happen? not very often!  Though, it was 35C when I was taking all these photos… my husband thought I was bonkers putting on tights, boots, woolly top and blazer in this heat.  I was like, but it’s a winter thing, I have to look the part, even if I’m legit dying! Aah, the things we do…

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy making my new blazer, I’m really quite proud of how it turned out, and am very much going to enjoy wearing it too.  I might even be… dare I say it?  looking forward to winter??  Going too far??  maybe!!

    

Details:

Blazer; the Jasika blazer, Closet Case patterns, raspberry/rust will/wool tweed
Skirt; Vogue 1247, purple denim dyed brown, details here
Top; modified Nettie, Closet Case patterns, ivory wool/mix, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

White dress; the Inari by Named patterns, in white ultra-bobbly stuff, details here
Caramel leather sandals, from an op shop years ago

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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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coupla delicious merino tees…

13/06/2018 3:41 pm \ 26 Comments \

So, every now and then I tell myself that I’m not going to make any more winter tees since I have quite a nice little collection, really.  And I think I really should be making do with less; wearing what I have, more.  I tell this to myself quite firmly.  But then also every now and then the fashion-loving side of me is dreaming up some outfit and identifies a few colour gaps, and thinks, if only I had a mustard tee? or a nice navy blue…?  And that fashion-loving side can be a terribly convincing wench, especially when I’m standing in the Fabric Store in Melbourne, with Mum and Cassie, fingering the diviiiiiiine merino collection for which the Fabric Store is justifiably famous.  On our last trip over, suitably enabled, I bought a few pieces.  There may be a few other colours that came home with me and are still lurking in Le stash, too…

If I’m allowed to toot my own horn for a bit, I really feel like I’m nailing the tee-construction front at last, which is nice.  I have my tried and true pattern, and my technique is pretty solid now.  My tried and true pattern? well, my paper pattern was originally the Nettie, but I’ve sliced off here and added on there; and generally butchered it so much that literally nothing of the original remains.  Interestingly, I originally used to use a Burda pattern for my tried and true Tshirt pattern, and heavily modified that too.  Then I mislaid the Burda, and started using the Nettie instead.  Then, at one point I found my old Burda pattern again, yay!!  So, of course I had to overlay them, just to see.  And hilariously found I’d modified these two, completely different patterns to be basically the same, final pattern, in the end.  Hahaha.

 blue tee has a wider neckline and lower scoop than the gold one

I’m just laying my construction out here in the interests of documenting my “sewing journey” – ha! – just because this, my current go-to method for making a plain tee nowadays, is one which has been working pretty well for me.

Seams: first I stitch a seam using a medium-long straight stitch, and stretching the fabric slightly as I go.  This is partly a basting step, really.  Then I go over it with my overlocker, which is both the “finishing bit” and also a reinforcement of the first stitching.

Order of construction; shoulder seams first, and once they’re overlocked I go over and top-stitch the seam allowances down to the back, about 5mm from the join.  Then I put in the sleeve caps (no topstitching) and press the seam allowances towards the sleeve.  Then stitch the side seams in total, from the bottom hemline right along to the wrist edge of the sleeves.  Next step is to measure the neckline… sometimes I cut a low scoop neck, sometimes I leave it a bit higher, depends on my mood at the moment … and cut a strip for the neckline, 95% of the length of the neckline, plus 2cm for the joining seam; width; I generally like about 4cm, resulting in about a 1cm finished width.  Stitch it in a loop and insert it, as per this tute.  I then go and back edge only! top-stitch the seam allowance of the strip down to back edge of the tee about 2mm, or quite close to the join, to stabilise and strengthen this area and help prevent it from stretching out.

The sleeve edges and hemline edges; variously, I like to either add a strip, of whatever width takes my fancy at the time, or to fold the edge under in a traditional hem and stitch it using a twin needle.    I’ll either overlock the edge and simply top-stitch it with the twin-needle, leaving the overlocking showing inside; or do the double fold and baste first before twin-needling if I can be bothered, which is not so often.  In the case of my mustard tee, this time I actually could be bothered.  If doing the strip method; it can be cut EITHER to 95% the length of the edge for a “pulled-in”, sorta sporty look, or the same length as the edge for a smoother, more sophisticated look (I think)  For my gold-y mustard tee, I did a strip edging (same length) for the sleeves, and the twin needle finish for the hemline; while the navy blue tee has a strip edging (again, same length) for both the sleeves and the hemline.

It’s probably hard to tell, but I used the navy blue fabric inside out, because it was a little more intense in colour and duller on the wrong side, which I preferred.  The right side of this merino knit is a touch lighter and shinier.  For this reason I kinda wish I’d used the wrong side out for the mustard tee, too.  Oh well, next time!

I’m wearing the mustard tee/charcoal outfit today, in fact, right now, because basically I finished it and HAD to wear it straight away!  THIS COLOUR IS TOO TOO BEAUTIFUL, OUI????  The navy blue tee/red skirt/tartan scarf outfit above was put together just for experimental styling purposes, and to model it for this post; but I adore that one too so I think I’ll be wearing that tomorrow  🙂

     

Details:

Tees; kinda Closet Case pattern Nettie, kinda my own design; fine merino knit
Skirts; both the Paprika patterns Jade skirt, details of red one above here, charcoal one below here
Tartan scarf, above; made by me, details here
Coat, below; McCalls 5525, charcoal wool, details here
Tights; my own design, black polyester stretch, details here and my tute for making your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

also, on a completely different, not-even-sewing related, random note; I was outside by the clothesline with Bessie, taking pictures of her wearing my new tees, and noticed these teeny. tiny, weeny little mushrooms growing in the seat of the jarrah chair I keep by the clothesline, to put my laundry basket on.  How cute is that??  I guess we have been getting a lot of rain lately!!

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jenny overalls/jeans/trousers

08/06/2018 5:36 pm \ 31 Comments \

I’ve made some rather cra-a-a-a-zy, and yet rather out-there groovy-baby jeans!

And they double up as overalls too! should I ever feel the urge to wear a pair of overalls… 🙂  Sneaky conversion between the two by way of a few flat buttons inside the waistband coupled with buttonholes on the bib and straps…  #havingmycakeandeatingittoo

So, these are the Jenny overalls/trousers pattern by the ever clever and uber-cool Heather of Closet Case patterns.  Actually I made TWO pairs of Jennys!… but first things first; this blue denim pair are my first.  To be honest I don’t know if I’m ever going to blog my second pair because I’m suffering from a retroactive hate for the fabric I used… but we’ll see! Heather asked for us to make them with the bib if at all possible, since she wanted to check out how the bib bit looked on chests.  So I bravely went there.  Initially I was pretty sure I would prefer to wear them as jeans, but now I’m actually a bit torn since the bib bit is rather cute?!  I’m just not sure if I’m “cute” enough to get away with it, you know?  I think I have a good grasp on what my style is, and “cute” is likely a stretch for me.  I’m keeping my options open, but so far I’ve only worn them out in the wild sans bib #notbrave

The upper part of the legs I cut from a piece of blue cotton denim that was given to me by my friend L when she cleaned out her garage, but it was a smallish piece, not big enough for the whole jeans.  So obviously, I had to make up the difference somehow.  Remember my maisa jean jacket?  well I actually kept all those leftover bits, most of them were the original pockets and waistbands; and I had great fun cutting and arranging and cobbling them together to make up the diff…  all that patchwork does make the legs a little heavy, because of the double layers of fabric in the pocket buts, plus embroidery and rivets and belt loops, but overall (haha, see what I did there) it’s not too bad!  My love of how they look outweighs the weight… if that actually makes sense!

I’ve worn them a couple of times already, whoops!  It’s not that long ago I would not allow myself to wear things until I’d blogged them; must be mellowing out in my old age, hmmm.  They’ve actually attracted several individual, real-life compliments from random passers-by on both occasions… this is extremely rare for me, and it’s pretty nice to hear!

In the below picture you can see the closure; a lapped zip in the side seam and disappearing inside the pocket.  I really love this discreet and clever feature, although being right-handed I find it a little awkward to do up that waistband button situated where it is slightly to the back of the right side of my body.  On subsequent pairs I think I’ll probably switch this closure to the left side of the trousers.  Having said that though, the instructions for inserting the lapped zip are outstanding!  I’ve inserted about a million lapped zips in my time, to the point where I barely follow instructions anymore, however I followed these ones to the letter, without “thinking about it” (you know what I mean) and my lapped zip is immaculately and perfectly aligned.  I should follow directions more often!

  

Details:

Jeans/overalls; the Jenny overalls by Closet Case patterns, cotton denim and recycled old denim jeans
Tee; the Nettie by Closet Case patterns, white jersey, details here
Cardigans; both the Miette, a free pattern by Andi Satterlund, details of the red one here, the mustard one here
Shoes; made by me, details here

Soooo; I usually like to get at least one ” out in the wild and actually wearing it” photo of the things I make… well, the little monster, I mean; Clara, and I were waiting for Craig to finish scoping out Bunnings (baby door for the patio at the beach house)  and on the spur of the moment I just propped my iPhone up in the grass outside.  Bam, photoshoot, DONE!!!  Who needs a fancy camera and a tripod, anyway?!  Oh, OK, if I’m going to even pretend to be a blogger then I guess I gotta keep up appearances, at least some of the time…  😉   Anyway it’s not a particularly good shot of my jeans, more like flipping’ terrible; but on the other hand Clara happens to be looking rather beautiful in a wolf-prowl-y sort of a way…  Please admire that her coat is looking momentarily spiffy and fluffy and washed and brushed!   #didntlast

btw, people often accuse her of giving side eye in my pictures.. it’s only because her eyes are actually half blue, half brown! which makes for a particularly side-eye-y sort of optical illusion!

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