Tag Archives: Dad

poppy dress

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

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

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Clara, Craig, Dad, daily outfit, dress, Mum, Vogue 1351

Cement worker

21/11/2012 11:00 pm \ 41 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a shirt for Dad’s birthday 🙂

I used Burda 7767 custom-fit to his size that I fine-tuned with last year’s shirt, and a fine-grade linen from Spotlight in a shade called “cement”. Very appropriate for a man like my Dad who is the handiest handyman you could ever hope to find! Srsly. He is. Cementing would be an absolute doddle to Dad, I’m sure 🙂
Last year’s birthday shirt was a sort of “nice” short-sleeved shirt to wear out to smartish events, and this new one is more casual, more suitable to Dad’s usual daytime activities; like working in the shed building stuff like The Chicken-Plucker (don’t ask) and his own lathe, tinkering with the ute and trekking out through the bush to tend to his hives and chop wood. And fire-fighting, although I kinda hope not!
Being linen it will be a good cool shirt to wear all summer, and this one has long sleeves to protect Dad’s arms from the sun. He can roll them up if he desires without fear of embarrassment caused by tatty interior finishes: since the side and sleeve seams are French seams, and the armscye seams are flat felled seams. I used my own tutorial for flat-felling a curved seam to achieve this neatly.

The pockets are bellowed and pointed at the nadir, and button closed with arrowhead flaps. The buttons are from Fabulous Fabrics. The lower hemline is curved, and as always I sewed a spare button inside to the side seam.

After I had finished sewing it; it was all nicely pressed, with the creases ironed into non-existence and all perfectly smooth and neat, like a newly sewn garment always is. I looked at it askance. It looked so … pristine. A bit immaculate. It didn’t look like a “Dad” sort of a shirt at all. My Dad is very much a low-maintenance sort of a man. So I gave it a second wash, a good shake-out and hung it out on the line to dry in the sun. It came up with a very satisfyingly lived-in look; comfy, rumpled and crumpled. I did not allow the iron anywhere near it. Now it looks very “Dad”.

A little tip; when you trim off the seam allowances and points off of the interfaced pieces of collars and cuff and the like before turning out, it can be handy to keep the larger trimmings. They can be cut down into small squares, which since they are already pre-interfaced are useful for stabilising buttons sewn in areas which have no facing, such as the cuff split button…

and yes, this was the secret thing I have made recently…. I used a small strip of the leftover linen for the waistband on my lace skirt.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, Dad, mens shirt, tip

Ginger shot cotton shirt

20/11/2011 4:20 am \ 25 Comments \ Carolyn

Dad had a special birthday recently, and I made a shirt for him! Photographed here in his natural habitat…
I used shot cotton in Ginger, which has a bright-ish ruby-red warp and an intensely curry-yellow weft; two colours which combine to make this wonderfully intense bronze-orange colour; perfect for my Dad’s olive skin and dark brown hair. I think he looks great in this colour!
And the fabric… well, can I just diverge into a rave for a tick? Ohmigosh! but this shot cotton is such a dream to work with…truly, every seamster needs at least one shot cotton shirt in their sewing career, just for the sheer pleasure of cutting, pinning together and sewing this stuff! I’ve made a couple of shirts of this fabric for Craig, here and here, and myself things from the leftovers, and I cannot get over how absolutely fab is this fabric. Seriously, sewing induced bliss or what, wow… (calms oneself)
Now, back to business…
There were some slightly nerve-racking fitting issues; since this was to be a surprise birthday prezzie I couldn’t actually measure up the birthday boy himself without giving it away, so Mum had given me some measurements over the phone. But I was still pretty nervous when it came time to take the scissors to this luscious fabric… and then Mum and Dad came up for a very fortuitously timed stay, and one time they were out I slyly tip-toed into the bedroom and feeling like a rather sneaky and devious sewing-sleuth, measured up all the dimensions of one of Dad’s shirts and jotted them down (maniacal laugh as I zoom out and back to the sewing room, tape measure a-flying…). And luckily the fit is spot-on and Dad reckons it’s pretty comfy and stylish!
I used Burda 7767 again, (might have to start compiling yet another Rogue’s gallery for this pattern soon…) with a few adjustments; namely, added two breast pockets with curved lower edges and curve-edged pocket flaps, shaped the lower hemline in a shirtwaist curve, shortened the sleeves, and added a nice V-detail at the centre of the sleeve hems with a decorative button at the apex of the V, for which I wrote a tutorial here.

I flat-felled the armhole seam allowances, but I don’t know if I would do this again. Y’know, how sometimes you are so busy making the insides look perfect you start to forget that it is the appearance on the outside that is actually of paramount importance, yeah? My flat-felled seams do look pretty good (if I say so myself) but it was a fiddly process and topstitching from the inside impacted on the neatness on the outside. I wasn’t as happy as if I had just overlocked the armhole seam allowance, pinned them down and topstitched them down from the outside, like I usually do…
I debated about using either of the ruby-red or the curry-yellow colours for topstitching; I usually like some sort of contrasting colour, or at least something that stands out somehow, but I ended up going with a burnt orange that sorta matches the overall hue of the fabric. And with little matte chocolate brown buttons. And btw, those buttonholes on the collar are intentionally left uncut, since they are purely decorative and you are not supposed to do up those buttons on a casual shirt; I think they look neater that way.
Isn’t he a handsome bloke?

Details:
Shirt; Burda7767 with modifications, shot cotton

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, Dad, mens shirt

Fabulous stuff made by Mum and Dad…

26/07/2011 3:22 pm \ 17 Comments \ Carolyn

My Mum and Dad are enormously creative and talented. They have made heaps and heaps of beautiful things…a visit to their house reveals one lovely work after another. I took some pictures of just a few during our last visit…
a sofa table made by Dad, using wood he milled himself from a fallen tree on their property