Tag Archives: Daily Outfit

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

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Elementary, my dear Sherlock

15/07/2018 3:21 pm \ 14 Comments \

Yes, I know; a complete mis-quote of an already mis-quote… *braces oneself for outraged Holmes enthusiasts*

But wot is this new thing I’m wearing ‘ere then?!  Is it a jacket…?  no, a cape…?  some tweedy, distinctly Holmes-esque thing, somehow exuding English-ness, an air of briskly strolling in the country, of hounds-at-dawn, roaming in-swathes of fog and mystically swirling mist, stalking the streets of London or out on the Baskerville moors?  Fittingly, I’m accompanied here by my very own hound, who while certainly a fearsome and diabolical creature at times, is however sadly lacking a Baskerville lineage.

So, I was mindlessly browsing Le Internet, checking out new-to-me pattern companies, something I am wont to do, randomly, late at night and way past my bedtime,… and clicked Add to Cart on the Cape-Sleeved Jacket by Trend Patterns.  Followed by… Purchase.  So daring!!

It’s a rather interesting and lovely style, not something I’ve seen anywhere else: a longline open jacket with notched collar and interesting “sleeves” that are more like an intriguing hybrid of sleeves and cape.  I searched my stash for a suitable victim, and unearthed a grey/black houndstooth-y check suiting; given to me yonks ago by ?I think? Mum, though I’m not totally sure.  It had exactly the right weight and style for this design, but the colour was pretty dead and cold and flat and looked absolutely terrible on me… so I squandered more time than I care to admit to, attempting to dye it.  It was a rather large piece, so I’d started out leaving it to soak cold in a large tub of yellow dye.  This had almost no effect, so I added orange for synthetic fabrics.  This had a tiny teeny little effect.  So then I dried the fabric, and cut out the jacket pieces, which made for a smaller bulk of fabric for the dye pot, and boiled it all up with the same dye mix.  Finally; SUCCESS!!!!

helping…

from left; original colour… after soaking… after boiling

The new shade of tobacco was rather warm and pleasing, and deemed acceptable.  Of course the big problem about dying pieces, already cut up; as opposed to one single piece of fabric, is that the pieces frayed a bit, and also got stretched out and distorted somewhat in the boiling/dyeing process, and so I’m not 100% confident that my final jacket is all that perfect or beautiful… but I did my best!  carefully steaming everything back into the shape of the intended pattern piece.

 

Lining;  fully lined with chocolate polyacetate lining fabric, from my stash, probably originally from Fabulous Fabrics since it’s a really nice quality.

below; see how the front armhole is open right up to practically shoulder level? I think it’s worth pointing this out since I actually had no idea it was like this from the line drawing and remained ignorant right up until it came time to add the cape facing…

That’s not a criticism btw, just an observation.  I really love my new Sherlock Holmes jacket, and I really loved making it too; but I’ve admit; it was not a particularly easy project.  Even given the fact that I complicated things for myself a. dyeing and b. deciding I absolute HAD to have in-seam pockets – which were a big success in the end if I say so myself.  I’m so glad I put them in.  Actually I can’t imagine a jacket without pockets of some kind.

How did I put in my pockets?  so I remembered to take a few pictures but not many, so hopefully my written explanation will suffice…  I cut the front armhole piece (below, at left) and the front panel (below, at right) as pictured; and in addition, a pocket opening facing piece (below, middle) with the same upper edge as the slanted edge of the front panel (at right)  I also cut a pocket lining (not pictured) from the same chocolate polyacetate lining fabric used throughout the jacket…  it’s the same size and shape as the pocket bag extension (at left) and with a slanted top edge equivalent to that of the pocket opening (at right)…

the pocket opening edge is that slanted edge showing out from under the square inner edge of the paper pattern piece, and that little extra piece is the pocket opening facing.  The facing is interfaced (see below), stitched along that slanted edge leaving a 1cm free at either edge of seam, and under stitched.  I cut a pocket lining using the same chocolate lining fabric that lines the whole jacket and stitched this on to the lower edge of the pocket facing.  Then stitched the pocket and pocket linings together around the long curved pocket edge.  The remainder of the jacket construction proceeds as normal, and the pocket is nicely hidden away between the jacket outer and lining

So; what was tricky about making this jacket…?  well, the steps are illustrated with photographs, not drawings; so if you’re the kind of person who often goes on the illustrations then it’s not always clear which pattern pieces or which seam you might be looking at in this photograph or that one….  and there are 27 un-numbered pattern pieces…  Maybe I’m just dumb, or losing it or something, but I’ve been sewing clothes for myself for over forty years and there were bits where I was scratching my head and had to read and re-read over a couple of times to “get” it.

It’s also pretty important to mark the marks, notches and dart lines carefully and securely.  As far as this project goes, this is where my brilliant plan to dye my fabric pieces fell apart a bit since a lot of these little marks were dislodged and lost while dyeing, and notches disappeared in fraying edges, and it was pretty hard to re-instate everything accurately.  To be honest, there were several times I felt like heaving the whole lot in the bin and starting over anew, with fresh new fabric, particular since I hadn’t even liked my fabric all that much in the first place!!

I think numbering the pattern pieces would have been a HUGE help, and then to use those numbers in the instructions.  Another thing, the instructions are…. kinda sparse.  The term “bag out” is used several times …  I’ve always been a little thrown by the term”bag out”.  I mean, I know what it is… basically just another way of saying stitch the outer and lining layers together.  See, I grew up under the tutelage of the long-term pattern companies like Vogue, McCalls and Burda; and “bag out” is not a phrase that ANY of them EVER use, as a rule.   Also, “bag out” is incidentally Australian slang for picking on someone, like rudely giving them a really hard time, so seeing it pop up in sewing instructions is always a moment for pause 😉

After all this; I actually quite happy with how my jacket turned out, and am even little keen to make it up again.  I think my attempts to dye the fabric just made the project a whole bunch harder than it needed to be, and I’d like to give the pattern a second chance, and to do it properly, make a really good and proper tailoring job of it next time.  I would also like to add a few more pockets, to the inside and the lining, like a mens’ suit jacket has.

    

Details:

Jacket; TPC13, the Cape-sleeve Jacket by Trend Patterns, grey tweed overdyed with orange dye
Shirt; the Closet Case patterns Carolyn pj shirt, white cotton, details here
Skirt; Burdastyle 10-2010; 136 (the Karl Lagerfeld skirt), in black suiting, details here
Tights; my own custom fit pattern, details here
Shoes, designed and made by me, details here

My cape-sleeve jacket feels so very very Sherlock Holmes to me that I couldn’t resist just popping over to London for a more appropriate photoshoot location….

jk, of course.  Hurrah for the wonders of photoshop!

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

scraps cardigan

24/06/2018 3:54 pm \ 50 Comments \

A couple of years ago, I went down to help Mum clean out her “doing room”, the obvious outcome of such an exercise being that I then took home an embarrassingly huge amount of fabric and yarn supplies to add to my own stash…. we did manage to throw some stuff out!  Not much though!!

This is just the wool.  All scraps and leftovers  …. scary, huh?

There’s no rhyme nor reason to the colours or thicknesses of wool there, it’s just a completely random hodge-lodge of odds and sods and bits and bobs.   Hmmm, well you know me…. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!

See, I reasoned there had to be at least ONE cardi in there.. somewhere…! it just had too be found!  So I selected a bobbly, chocolate yarn and just cast on…

And I found it! a cardigan, I mean  🙂

I picked out a mostly autumnal colour-palette of warm golden mustards, greens and browns though there is a pretty solid presence of randomly thrown in purples, greys, orange, chartreuse, raspberry and pink too.  Some of the yarns are tapestry wool, some are real knitting wool.  Around all edges is a border of the same, bobbly chocolate yarn; which I’m pretty sure that Granny used to knit a set of three matching jumpers for my brothers and me when were all quite little…

Apart from the crazy mix of wool, it’s a pretty basic stocking stitch cardigan with a rib border along all the edges.  I made-up my own pattern, loosely inspired by the free Miette pattern in that it is cast on at the neckline then I increased stitches at four places to create raglan sleeves; all knit in one piece, and with a single wooden button closure at the neckline.  With a bit of careful measuring and halving and rationing out of yarn I made sure the two sleeves are reasonably identical to each other, a small modicum of order and method! but otherwise the colours in the body are pretty random.

knitting under the strict eye of my supervisor…

So, yay! for what is basically a freebie!!  It’s kinda crazy but I’m very happy with how it turned out.

I did sort of write down a pattern, but it’s in such extreme shorthand that even I can barely work out what I did now!  Sometime, when I’m feeling super enthusiastic, I might even have a good look at my notes and transcribe them into something resembling a pattern.  Until then…!

Details:

Cardigan; my own design
Trousers; the Closet Case patterns Sasha trousers, grey stretchy stuff, details here
Tee; Closet Case patterns Nettie, details here
Scarf (on the rocks); knitted by me, details here
Socks; knitted by me, details here
Boots; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

    

I’m wearing it today too! with the same Sasha trousers, my grey Vogue 1152 dress and my new kicks from Trenery 🙂

So, nothing to do with knitting or what I’m wearing, but I was cleaning out my phone, and found this picture of some apples I bought a couple of weeks ago… how cute are these?? they called them Mothers Day apples at the grocer.  I bought some for myself since my own mother is away at present 😉

pinterestmail
Posted in: knitting, Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , ,

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!!

SaveSave

SaveSave

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: , , , ,

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!

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

a chattering of cockatoos

06/06/2018 4:29 pm \ 29 Comments \

‘Ello, cocky!

First things first, I have some very exciting news! For one month starting now, Spoonflower are offering a 10% discount on purchasers of ANY Spoonflower fabric by using the code “carolyn10” at checkout.  Pretty awesome, huh?!  I’m beyond thrilled to be able to pass on such a cool offer to anyone who reads this blog!

Now, if there’s anyone still left reading who hasn’t raced off already to scroll through the millionty-and-one gorgeous prints on offer over there….  my new outfit; and how gorgeous is this particularly amaaaazing print, huh?

my PS tute for making your photos coloured/B&W like this is here

Fabric: cotton sateen, the gorgeous print designed by su_g on Spoonflower. I was contacted recently by Allie, of Spoonflower who asked me if I would like to be a part of their roundup of “makers of Australia”… would I?! well of course I was totally honoured to be invited! and immediately raced over to Spoonflower to check out the Aussie offerings, and discovered there were SO MANY really lovely designs, it was super hard to choose just one… however I just kept coming back to this one and in the end couldn’t resist its humour, its artistry, and of course its Aussie tongue-in-cheekiness.

 The Andy Warhol-inspired portrait grid of the humble cocky, designed by by su_g on Spoonflower  caught my eye and made me laugh straight away; subtly Aussie, artistic, and witty with a bonus irreverent swipe at the serious art world on the side! So fun and actually it’s rather fabulous too, yes? those lovely bright beautiful colours, I knew whatever I made with it I just couldn’t go wrong! but ultimately decided its amaaaazing eye-catchiness would be the best set off by the most basic of simple shapes, a plain little pencil skirt, and rather featureless top… yes all very plain, all the better to perfectly showcase that chatteringly gorgeous print!

So, did you know that the the collective noun for cockatoos is a chattering?  other acceptables are a clattering, a cluttering, a crackle, and last and least excitingly, a family….  I like chattering, personally  😉 and did you also know the term for a group of seamstresses is a “scolding” haha!  Hilarious!!  NOT how we like to think of ourselves, usually!  Unfortunately there isn’t one for bloggers, as yet; but writers have a “worship of writers”… which is weird, no?!  But I digress…  #yetagain

oh, I also added two new pairs of black tights to my current stable … boring? yes… most worn things in my winter wardrobe? also yes…  I use black polyester stretch from Spotlight, the pattern is self-drafted.  My tute for how to make your own pattern for tights is here

Patterns: the top is pattern 4, the epaulette top, sans the epaulettes; from the Japanese pattern book “she has a Mannish style” by Yuko Takada… I’ve made this top up five times previously so obviously I love it!! here, here, here, this one for Cassie and lastly here. The skirt; so I keep calling this Vogue 1247 but really I’ve adapted and fine-tuned to the point where it barely has any of its original lines so I feel a bit of a fraud describing it thus. It’s basically just a very plain, darted pencil skirt with a straight waistband and central back zip.

Thoughts… so it does look quite a simple project… deceptively so! she declares with a dramatic twirl of her moustache!!   Just kidding, it really was; though I ended up deciding to take the annoying, time-consuming, but ultimately necessary step of tracing full size copies of all my pattern pieces; both sleeves and a full size front skirt piece, both back skirt pieces, and front and back blouse pieces… why? TO FACILITATE THE ALL IMPORTANT PATTERN MATCHING TETRIS, OF COURSE!!!  Given the size of those cockatoo motifs, which are actually quite large, well it took a little bit of doing, that’s all I can say…

My plan, in a nutshell; the back has a white dividing line down the centre back of both top and skirt; I knew it would be basically impossible to pattern match around the zip any other way; and then the front of both skirt and top has the opposite, a panel of cockatoos centrally aligned down the centre front of both top and skirt. Little bit of a difference twixt front and back, not a very obvious one…

I also carefully arranged the pieces so there would be a full cockatoo square at the lower hem of both skirt and top… I didn’t want for a row of cockatoos to be chopped in half! Same with the sleeves, and I also managed to arrange the sleeves so my favourite two cocky-portraits were the placed centrally on each sleeve.  Obviously I also wanted for the colours to be somewhat “random” and not have an obvious double-up between top and skirt, or either side of the skirt back… It was actually pretty fortuitous than I managed to get all this just how I wanted… super lucky actually… there lots of re-arranging of pattern pieces and sighing and brow-furrowing and even a short period of time when I thought I’d have to order more fabric in order to not completely stuff up *wipes sweat from brow * very fortunately I eventually got the layout I wanted!!

Hehe, I realize now that was a rather looooooong nutshell! with probably a lot of introspective agonising that makes no sense at all, but well; it does to me. In a much more succinct nutshell; laying out the pattern pieces took almost as long as to make the outfit!!

Construction; I fully underlined the bodice and the skirt with pure white cotton voile; bought from Spotlight during one of their “buy the whole bolt and get 40% off sales” I find plain white voile to be one of the most useful fabrics to have on tap, so there was that time Spotlight announced this oft-repeated sale when I took the bull by the horns and just went for it! The cotton voile adds some structure and body to the sateen, which probably doesn’t have quite enough on its own to be a fitted skirt, really.  The blouse could have gotten away without underlining, I think; but I opted to treat it the same for the sake of continuity, to give the top and skirt the same visual heft. The sleeves however, are not underlined.  And if deep hems are a sign of quality, then yay! ‘cos my hems are DEEP!!

Lastly, because I love to be reminded of the provenance of things, if I can then I like to attach interesting selvedge info on the inside somewhere, in this case, the left side seam on my top…

And lastly lastly, because this bit of awesomeness is really worth repeating… for one month from now, Spoonflower are offering a 10% discount on purchasers of this, or in fact ANY Spoonflower fabric by using the code “carolyn10” at checkout. If you’ve ever been even a little bit tempted to try Spoonflower out then maybe this small incentive could be that time?!

I hope you enjoy looking through all the amazing and gorgeous designs over on Spoonflower as much as I, and thank you so much to Spoonflower for this very kind, generous opportunity and offer!

     

Details:

Top; pattern 4, the epaulette cut and sewn from the Japanese pattern book “she has a mannish style” by Yuko Takada, organic cotton sateen fromSpoonflower, in a print designed by su_g
Skirt; the vestiges of Vogue 1247, kinda. Actually just a plain pencil skirt… organic cotton sateen from Spoonflower, in a print designed by su_g
Tights; my own design, black stretchy polyester… my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

high heeled black oxfords (shoes), plus some other stuff

28/05/2018 6:54 pm \ 37 Comments \

I’ve made some new shoes!

These have had a bit of a journey in the making, with a gap of about five months in the middle of it when I did absolutely nothing to them!  Several things; feeling torn as to the colour I’d chosen, as well as a little overwhelmed with the thought of actually finishing them, when it was actually all pretty quick and simple and painless once I got over that…

So obviously, they’re black.  However! my original plan back in December of last year was to make some two-tone saddle shoes.  I cut out my pieces using the same beige upholstery suede that these shoes are made in, and dyed the pieces respectively caramel brown and “black”, though the latter turned out to be more of a deep charcoal really.

I thought the combo would be pretty cool… but once I’d formed them on the lasts and it came time to sole and add heels, I was starting to go off the saddle idea already.

I already suspected that what I really wanted was for some plain black heeled oxfords in my shoe collection… but it was summer at the time, too hot for winter shoes to be a tempting project anyway, and truthfully?   Christmas had exhausted me a bit and it just all seemed too hard, so I just chucked the half-made shoes into a drawer and basically didn’t touch them again for the next five months…

Fastforward to last week; winter has started to creep in with cold, probing tentacles, and with it the need for warm shoes.  I got the half-made saddles out of the drawer where they’d lain, idle and ignored, and re-assessed.  Carving the heels was the next step, that had been such a stumbling block to me, and really? it’s not that hard of a one.  I bought some wood from Bunnings, got Craig to help me set up the sander on the triton, and sanded myself some heels… hilariously to me, after all that procrastination it took about an hour, tops!  Soled my shoes, glued and nailed on the heels.

oh hey Clara!! and NO, lovely girl…. these are NOT for eating!

I painted the heels with a coat of black satin enamel paint.  I probably should have just painted the whole shoes themselves at this point too, but I still had that tiny shred of uncertainty that I might still want saddles …?  but nope.  Seeing the heels painted a beautiful pure black made the dyed suede look quite muddily unattractive, banishing all doubt.   I went right ahead and did a few more coats taking in the whole shoe, using the same black enamel paint.  Bunged in a foam insert, covered with the same chocolate brown suedette that I’d used to line the uppers, and FINALLY FINITO.

I’ve worn them four days straight already!  A coupla times they’ve got drenched in the pouring rain… in the past this would have filled me with horror but nowadays I have more confidence in the strength and durability, and importantly the waterproof-ness of my shoes! and of course they’ve held up beautifully.   Seriously, I’m totally chuffed! could not be any happier with them!!

Having said that, well of course theoretically I could actually be happier… they’re not perfect and I can certainly see little bits that I could have done better.  But with each and every pair of shoes I really do feel like I’m improving – to see my shoe-making journey, it’s all here under the tag “shoes” – and these ones are very satisfying to me.  They are exactly what I want to wear right now!

This is how I wore them for their maiden voyage… out to lunch on Friday with my friend J, and then later on to book club with a larger group of my friends… I felt pretty cool and chic!  No one asked me if I’d made my shoes! which means any one of three things; they look OK enough to pass for rtw (yay!) or SO bad that people are just too embarrassed to say anything (not-so yay).  The third and most likely option is that no one actually noticed them.  I’m ok with that option, to be honest  😉

Details:

Dress; V1351, floral chiffon, details here
Cardigan; the Miette, a free pattern by Andi Satterlund, all details here
Tights; my own pattern, details here, and my tutorial for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Shoes… MADE BY ME!!!!!

SO, while I’m here and writing stuff… I’ve been making some other things lately too, that I haven’t got around to mentioning so far.

I discovered this pattern for little sockettes that you wear with ballerina flats; the Sytt & Prytt Florens Ballerina Socks, designed by Lena Lundvall.  I found this through a mention from someone doing me-made May on instagram, though for the life of me I cannot remember who it was.. so if that person is reading this then I’m sorry not to give credit!  Anyway, I looked up the Sytt & Prytt Etsy shop and bought the pattern.

 

 

This blue pair is made up exactly to the pattern; my toes are covered… JUST

It’s a super quick and extremely easy thing to make, though I altered the pattern somewhat to make them exactly what I wanted…  specifically, the socks as they are quite “skimpy”.  To be fair, I think this coverage is perfectly adequate if you’re wearing them with ballet flats, which is totally what they are designed for.  However, for me personally, I’m really so not a ballet flat person, and I wanted to wear them with my oxford shoes, that have higher sides and cover the top of my foot too, and so I wanted my sockettes to have more foot coverage too.

I wanted EXTRAAAA!!!

Adding on a good inch nearly all the way around and reducing the elastic length gave me this!  much better suited to the kind of shoes I wear.

my white oxford shoes, blogged here

I made nine pairs overall, including my trials runs, which I’m still going to wear, ‘cos it’s not like anyone can see the less-than wonderful ones in situ.  With the exception of the white ones, which is fresh fabric, the others are all made from old Tshirts.

Thanks for helping me with my pictures, Clara!! xxx

And finally… !

I made a toiletries bag for a friend for her birthday, using the dopp kit pattern from the Grainline Portside Travel set… I’ve made quite  a few of these, see my previous versions here.  The cool crackle print is cotton canvas hand painted in Zambia, I bought it at the Fabric Store in Melbourne during my holiday there with Mum and Cassie, and made a skirt for Cassie for Christmas.  This is the very last of it!

I lined it fully with plastic waterproof stuff from Spotlight, and made little zip pulls for fun, using beads and earring wires leftover from my jewellery making days.  I think it turned out pretty cute, and my friend professed herself very happy with it too  🙂

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing, shoes \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

white palm leaf lace

23/05/2018 1:22 pm \ 45 Comments \

So, we were going to Bali to attend our friends L&L’s wedding in early May… and I decided I wanted to make a special new ensemble to take away with me.  Not to wear to the wedding, because, well … is ivory still a no-no for a wedding guest? I’ve always thought so, but then I did notice a few white-ish ensembles at the wedding anyway.  So maybe times are a-changing…  but I digress.

In any case, I took a different dress to wear to the wedding.

So… this outfit.  Craig and I were planning some special dinners while we were in Bali, because this was a meaningful holiday for us for a reason totally unrelated to our friends’  wedding… it’s our 30th wedding anniversary this year! and the last time we were in Bali was for our honeymoon.  When we heard L & L were planning their wedding there, we decided we’d make this trip a kind of second honeymoon for ourselves.  And I wanted something new for the occasion  🙂

I bought the very unusual lace fabric from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, during my girls’ trip over with Mum and Cassie.  It’s quite a dramatic fabric, very stiff and with a “painted” feel to it… I will admit to a small “what was I thinking?” moment afterwards! but some of my favourite ensembles have come out of crazy, challenging fabrics, so I try not to let that impede the hurtling of the creative trainwreck at all…

I underlined throughout with a creamy cotton voile, that I bought from the Morrison fabric and clothing sale… honestly one of my favourite sales to go to here in Perth, though it is very much a lucky dip.  You can get amaaaaaaazing bargains, at the same time there can be a lot of weird and horrible stuff too that you simply can’t believe Morrison would ever use for their beautiful clothing line!  But it’s nearly always super cheap, so well worth a look in!  This creamy-coloured voile was $10 for a whole roll.  Awesome sauce!!

Patterns… the skirt is my regular ol’ standby Vogue 1247, lengthened, with the pieces spliced to eliminate the horizontal seams.  btw, Sanni asked about this pattern and how it’s keeping, and the truth is that it is indeed getting pretty tatty!!  I really should trace it on something tough to preserve it because it really is a winner and no doubt I will be using it, yet again!

The top is the Collins top, by Sydney designer In the Folds.  Emily put out a call on IG for contributors to a kickstarter to help her to get a print run of her previously pdf only patterns, and since she had been kind enough to send me the Acton dress pattern a year ago I wanted to pay it forward … the reward was this pattern! which of course I am super thrilled about.  It’s a pretty popular pattern, and I thought its exaggerated swing shape would sit out nicely in the stiffish lace, and make a cool counterpoint to a little fitted miniskirt underneath.  I underlined both garments throughout, with the exception of the raglan sleeves, which are just the lace.

Neckline bound with self-made bias binding, from the same cream cotton voile as the underlining.

To keep things light, I just trimmed all the raw edges inside with my pinking shears

The lower edges of the lace are just trimmed evenly with my rotary cutter, the voile is hemmed with a narrow, 1cm hem.

Skirt waistband; cut from a different piece of thicker, naturally crinkle-y, cafe-au-lait cotton, also bought from the Morrison fabric and clothing sale.  For closure on both skirt and top I used small mother-of-pearl buttons, found in Le Stash.

Do you wanna hear something funny?  See that trapezoidal piece at the back, lower edge of the top?  I cut that piece out upside down… with the palm leaves pointing UP instead of down like they are everywhere else… not once, but twice!   Once was bad enough, but I couldn’t believe my own stupidity when I found myself doing the same thing, a second time! *facepalm  and it was an absolute miracle I had a large enough piece leftover to cut it out a third time in one piece since I really had bought only just enough of the lace in the first place.  It is very slightly off-grain… but hey! at least it’s the right way up!!

wot is this pose then, eh?

So that’s it! I really reeeeeally love it, but then again I’ve always had a predilection for white lace things.  This one is not too sweet or “young” for me, but just nicely sophisticated enough, I think.  I wore it to two separate dinners in Bali, and the tropical feel of the palm leaf motifs combined with the cool airy breeziness of lace and voile in the humidity of Bali  made it the most perfect of perfect things to wear for our special outings.

Verdict; very happy  🙂

 

Oooh! before I forget! a post script/public service announcement… I recently received an email from the Great British Sewing Bee! *cue excited squeal when I had a split second of thinking they were having an Aussie version..  however sadly, NO…the email was to let me know that the next UK season is open to applications and asking me to spread the word.  I mean, if we had one here I would love it if someone let me know about it! so I’m like, OK!  Also, if we did have one here I would be SO onto that in a hot minute, and if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere where you do have these things, well what are you waiting for?!

THE GREAT BRITISH SEWING BEE is looking for a new collection of brilliant amateur sewers for the fifth series of BBC Two’s The Great British Sewing Bee. For more information or to apply please go to: www.applyforsewingbee.co.uk

Closing Date: Midnight May 28th 2018

  

Details:

Top; In the Folds Collins top, in a stiff lace underlined with cotton voile
Skirt; based on Vogue 1247
Sandals; (white) designed and made by me, details here
(turquoise) la Soffita di Gilde

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

pinterestmail
Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , ,
Switch to mobile version
↓