Tag Archives: Daily Outfit

Sheen green hand-warmers

24/01/2014 1:49 pm \ 23 Comments \

Obviously I’m not in Australia here….  😀  we’ve been visiting Japan, and have thoroughly enjoyed seeing my friend Yoshimi again.  Thank you Yoshimi, it was so lovely to spend time with you and to meet your gorgeous family too.  It was lots of fun!
Sorry for my silly photos here. Snow is still such a huge novelty to me, you see.  I can’t stop marvelling at it.  It seems like such amazing and magical stuff! and maybe it puts me in a kinda loopy mood  😉  I never even saw snow until I was in my late 20’s, and first put on a pair of skis at the age of 36.  Meaning, I’ll never be anything more than a really slow and cautious skiier, but I still love it!  My quads are killing me, but!!
Now for the point of this post: hand-warmers.  Bright ones!  Highlighter hand-warmers!  These are brand new, fresh off the 2mm bamboo dpn’s.   I lost my ultramarine blue arm-warmers last year, I’ve searched and searched and searched, in vain (massive sad-face).  No time for moping but; I needed some more, pronto!  These were cast off in the nick of time to be pressed into immediate service….  🙂  
They are basic tubes knitted in the round with a gap for my thumbs, using Morris and Sons 4ply merino wool.  The colourway, Sheen (col419)  is kind of a whoa! in-your-face colour, like a hi-vis construction worker vest.  In my present surroundings though, I’m considering that to be a plus.  If I get stuck and incapacitated in a snowdrift I can just stick my arm up, and the arm-warmers will be like a beacon for the rescue crew.  In-built safety feature!

Ahem; and now, a silly little haiku…

Neon hand-warmers
on tatami mat.  Empty,
Momentarily.

Hmmm, okaaaay then….  Poetry has never been my forte 😉

Details:
Hand-warmers; knitted by me
Beanie; knitted by me, details here
Thermal top; Kathmandu, neckwarmer; Kaos (both old items I’ve had for years)
Ski pants and boots; hired

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Cocoa Tao

14/01/2014 11:36 am \ 44 Comments \

Hello!  I’m wearing a new blouse.
It is the Tao, by Tamanegi-Kobo.  I’ve seen lots of lovely Tamanegi-Kobo designs made by Yoshimi, and then during me-made May saw even more worn by Japanese ladies, including the adorable and very talented designer Miho.  And since I loooove Japanese designs I just had to try one out!
On a crazy spontaneous whim I added a funny little swoosh-shaped welt pocket.   I had finished sewing the blouse, tried it on and just thought; hmmm, pocket…  I had some scraps left over, the bobbin still had some of the pale grey thread wound on.  I had recently pinned this dinky little welt pocket.  Snap decision.  I just decided to go for it.  I think it turned out quite cute!

The Tao really is a very lovely style, loose and artistic, comfortable and still very feminine and flattering.  I’m still getting used to pdf patterns, I don’t mind them as long as there aren’t hundreds of pages to tape together.  The Tao is 24 pages, which is do-able.  The collar is a petite little thing,  stylistically matching the boxy cropped feel of the blouse, and I think it looks equally sweet buttoned right up.   Normally I don’t button my blouses right up to the collar stand, ‘cos I’m a laid-back Aussie beach bum, but I like this one both ways.

I made the blouse out of, believe it or not, a stark, optic white linen/silk mix from Fabulous Fabris, the leftover piece from after I had cut out the collars, cuffs and button bands for the boys’ Christmas shirts.  But since I’ve made two white shirts in hot succession recently, this one was always going to get a dye-job.  I stitched it up using a pale grey/brown thread, and once I’d finished sewing it and prior to chickening out, quickly gave it a light wash in a very weak dye solution of Brown iDye.  Giving it this subtle and rather delicate shade of pale pinky/cocoa brown.  I think this is a colour quite flattering to my skin tone.  🙂

Details:
Top; Tamanegi-Kobo Tao, white linen/silk mix dyed with a teeny amount of Brown iDye
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen, details and my review of this pattern here

My review for this blouse pattern is below….

Pattern
Description:

The Tao is a loose-fitting, button-front
blouse; with two collar variations, wrist cuffs and a continuous
sleeve vent, cut-on sleeves and a long wrist-to-wrist yoke.
Pattern
Sizing:
Size 36-42.  I made a straight size 38.
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
I
could not follow the Japanese written instructions, but the illustrations are quite
clear and helpful.  The seam allowances
are clearly marked.
The
notches that you need for piecing and pleating points can be seen clearly and
easily, but I did think the Japanese character markings looked a little
chaotic, repeated for each of the sizes and heaped on top of each other. There
are two collar pieces: one the under- and the other the upper collar; if you’ve
made a collared shirt before and so know that the under-collar is supposed to
be a touch smaller then you should have no trouble working out which piece is
which.
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
It
looks so pretty in the photographs on the website, and I like the loose
artistic shape.  The style is really
pretty and a very nice feminine alternative to the traditional style of
button-front shirt; and easier too, in fact, since you don’t have to insert the
sleeves!  The prim little collar looks
sweet, both unbuttoned and also when buttoned up all the way to the top.
It is
a pdf pattern, which I am slooowly getting used to, old-fashioned thing that I
am  😉
Fabric
Used:
Silk/linen
mix
Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:
I added
a little asymmetrical swoosh-shaped welt pocket 
😉
Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Definitely!
and yes  🙂
Conclusion:
Oh, I
love it!  I’ve used Japanese pattern
books before and this is the first time I’ve made a “regular” Japanese
pattern.  I’ve made it in a summer-weight
linen/silk mix but I think it would be equally appropriate and just as
cute in a soft comfy flannelette for winter.
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Tear drops top

11/01/2014 2:05 am \ 43 Comments \

White tops, and particularly if lace or broderie anglaise or any wildly impractical snowy stitch-festival are part of the equation, have always been a weakness of mine.  Not just during summer but any season.  One of my earliest pins as a freshly minted Pinterest-er was this Isabel Marant top.  It was immediate love at first sight.  The perfect summer top; feminine and chic, cool and blowsy, romantically pretty and casually easy-breezy.  I wanted one, and began plotting…
At first I thought to re-create the style using plain white cotton and finding some sort of broderie border to attach to the lower edges.  Then during my long weekend away in Melbourne with Mum and Cassie I chanced upon this fabric in Tessuti; white cotton voile with beautifully intricate broderie anglaise borders already in situ.  One selvedge had very wide embroidered borders, and the opposite had a narrower border in the same design.  Utter perfection!  I used the deeper edge for the body of the blouse and the narrower edge for the sleeves. 

The pattern I used is top X, from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori.  A big oversized loose T-shirt/peasant blouse thing, slightly gathered into a narrow neckband with a faced front split.  

A plain and simple top with very little shaping, designed to showcase to best effect a gorgeously bordered fabric.   I only very slightly altered the side edges of my pattern pieces so the motifs and the scalloped edge would match up seamlessly.

The shoulder seams are French seams but for all the seams within the embroidered borders; I just overlocked the edges, stitched the seams then pressed them open; that broderie is just too thick with stitches to attempt any fancy seam finishes!

So; a nice easy project but I still had to steel myself to take the scissors to my fabric.  That awful first snip!  Of course, ruining beautiful fabrics is terrible and the fear of that can spiral you into major second-guessing, but maybe it’s worse to hold back forever and never allow yourself take the chance on making something beautiful with it.  Give yourself permission to try… that is why you bought it, remember?  
I have to repeat that to myself, like a mantra, every time I’m faced with special fabric that I totally and utterly adore.  And I’m so relieved that I didn’t ruin this lovely fabric!  

Details:
Top; top X from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, broderie anglaise cotton voile
Skirt; Vogue 7303, lime print cotton
Sandals; Misano

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Alabama Chanin skirt and tank

05/01/2014 5:03 am \ 119 Comments \

Hello!
So! after hours (and hours… and hours…) of aeroplane and in-front-of-the-TV stitching, I have finished my first AC project(s).
This is the mid-length skirt and the fitted tank top, both from the book, Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, by Natalie Chanin.  The two are actually just one pattern, a full length dress pattern, which you cut off at the relevant places to make either a skirt or a top.  Or a tunic or a dress.
Great idea, by the way.    I love the economy of one all-inclusive pattern.  Means you only have one thing to store, but about a zillion “making” opportunities in there.  OK, to be accurate there are eight garment possibilities from the one pattern, but surely at least a zillion wearing and layering combinations to be had.

My skirt!  I’m so pleased with it!  It is totally hand-quilted and stitched in the reverse appliqué technique described in the book;  using a top layer of lightweight deep olive bamboo/cotton knit, bought originally from Potters Textiles years ago, and the base layer is a thicker and more stable dirt-brown cotton jersey from KnitWit, also bought years ago.  These are my colours, yo  🙂  I also used some of that same brown cotton to make part of Tim’s hoodie, here.

The stencil pattern is Anna’s Garden from the AC book, enlarged 306%.  I applied the stencil to the olive fabric using a small foam roller and regular household paint, as described here.  The thread used throughout is a brown/grey Gutermann’s upholstery thread, although Spotlight ran out of my colour (grrr!) so a small portion was done in the same colour of Gutermann’s topstitching thread.  Top-stitching thread is kinda OK stuff but I really prefer the upholstery thread; much smoother and less prone to the strands separating from each other.
All the seams are hand stitched too, and felled by hand.  I had initially toyed with machine stitching the seams; but of course after all that hand embroidery I knew I had to finish off properly….   This took a blink of an eye compared to the embroidery side of things, so I am so pleased I opted to “do it right”, so to speak.  I like the way the felling shows upon the right side as a row of dimples; barely hinted-at stitches along the seams.

I finished the waistband with chocolate brown fold over elastic, bought from Tessuti’s in Melbourne. This stuff is extraordinarily expensive here and pretty hard to find in Perth.  Believe it or not; this colour is the closest match that I’ve found… anywhere. 

My top: I actually do have a matching deep-olive-and-dirt-brown fitted tank top printed, planned and ready to go, but as soon as I finished the skirt I had a Vision; only the plainest of plain white tanks would be the absolutely perfect-est accompaniment to this busy busy skirt.  I had the immediate compulsion to make such a thing.

I bought the white cotton jersey from KnitWit, and made up a very simple fitted tank; no frills but still constructed in the Alabama Chanin way, so stylistically it matches the skirt really well.    The seams are stitched and felled by hand, and the binding applied with herringbone stitch.  Although there a visible knots aplenty on the inside of the skirt… unavoidable!  I went out of my way to hide them on the inside of the tank top, concealing all the knots inside the layers of the felling and binding.
Neckline and armhole binding and seams: below left, right side view; at right, inner view with felled seams

Fitting-wise;  I raised the back neckline of the tank and made the shoulder straps a little wider also.  In my early experiments, I sliced a biggish sway-back wedge from the pattern which affected both the tank and the skirt pieces. 
Time-wise; the tank top took, like, one day at the most? while the skirt has taken weeks!  Although I would like to add more Alabama Chanin pieces to my wardrobe, there is no danger that I am going to get addicted to this technique.  It is basically identical to hand-quilting and I have made enough quilts to know I can only take so much of that.  My left pointer finger needs time to rest and recuperate.  The tip of that finger has skin like a rhino now.  Seriously.
Obviously I am thrilled to bits with my first Alabama Chanin project, and the second!  however there will be one little hurdle; I’m going to have to force myself to wear the skirt and not treat it like a museum piece.  I’m having visions of unwittingly sitting down on a patch of oil, or brushing against a spiky bush or someone carrying a glass of red wine tripping and falling in slow motion  in my direction…. aaagh!  The stuff of nightmares!  😉

Details:
Skirt; the mid-length skirt from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, hand-embroidered and stitched cotton jersey in two solid colours
Top; the fitted tank from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, hand-stitched, white cotton jersey
Sandals: Franco Burrone, from Marie Claire

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Capricorn

17/12/2013 7:40 am \ 38 Comments \
Capricorn; the sign of the goat.
Baaa.  No, not me.  So the “goat” is in the form of my new knitted mohair jumper, or I reckon it’s more like a Tshirt really.  And this is the very last thing in my zodiac series…  Yay!  Finished!  😀  
This is the Mohair Sweater, available for digital download here, knitted in Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Kid Mohair Infusion col 617 (Rosehip)  I bought the yarn a few years ago, when Jo Sharp closed down their shop here… (sad face) oh I still miss that shop, waah!  Pink is a colour I’m not supposed to wear, but I do think I might be able to get away with this warm deep shade.   I LOVE pink… LOVE IT I TELL YOU! and one of the saddest things about getting my colours done was being told that pinks were Not For Me.  But hopefully this almost orange-y pink will be alright   🙂
The design is a really fantastic basic, the sort that seems boring at first but you could easily have one in every colour.  It’s beautifully shaped so it curves nicely into the waist.  Ribbing at the neckline, but not the sleeves nor lower edge so they curl up attractively.  One I will use again; a nice and easy project.  Except… well, for the mohair.  I find mohair a very temperamental beast.   The reason why it has taken me yonks to finish this simple little thing…  it’s hard to see the stitches for fluff, and it sticks to itself, so if you make a booboo then unravelling is pretty much impossible.  Please remind me to never ever buy mohair yarn, ever again?  Next time I’m going to seek out some alternative.
To be honest, it is way too hot to wear things like this right now.  It’s sheer madness that I’m even wearing it here.  But I had to show it, yes?… and at least I know now how very very cosy and warm it will be for next winter  🙂
Details:
Top; knitted by me, Jo Sharp’s mohair sweater in mohair, col 617 (rosehip)
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen,  my review of this pattern here
Socks; knitted by me to a 60’s pattern, Morris and Sons 4ply wool, details here
Boots; hiking boots, hand-me-downs from Mum
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Red

28/11/2013 6:20 am \ 47 Comments \
So; red dress.
I pinned this dress a while ago because I really loved the little shawl collar and the shape of the bodice and wanted to reproduce it for myself.  I used a particularly nice, crisp and slightly slubby cotton from Fabulous Fabrics and the pattern is based on dress M from the Stylish Dress Book, modified as outlined below. I am pretty pleased with how my self-drafted collar turned out  🙂
It’s always nice to have a couple of fresh, new, cool and breezy little dresses ready for summer and so this one needs no other reason for being, really… but I confess a major reason for making it was also to have something to wear to the Wildcats games.  We got season tickets this year and had barely even entered the car park to attend the first game when I couldn’t help but notice that 99.99999% of the spectators were wearing brilliant cherry red. AAAgh!  Wardrobe alert!  When we were first married a gazillion years ago we used to go to all the Wildcats games but back then no one dressed in the team colours.  You just went along wearing whatever and cheered on your team.  Nowadays the crowd is a sea of red, red and more red.  If you’re not in red you stick out like a sore thumb.  Appropriately hued spectator attire was required, toute de suite.
Actually I do already have one bright red dress but basketball fans generally do not turn up wearing slinky cocktail dresses, ahem.  That would have looked even more weird.  This dress fits in nicely while still being a bit “different” from the mob.  My wardrobe ethos in a nutshell, really!
Additionally the dress has Christmas possibilities.  Festive, yet please note the capacity for accommodating a large lunch and the ease with which it can be lightly tossed on over bathers.  If Christmas Day is 40C like it has been for the past few years then yes.
Details:
Dress; modified dress M from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, red cotton
Sandals; c/o Misano
Some technical notes:  I modified the pattern by adding a gradual Mt Fuji shaped curve to the top of the front skirt and cutting away a slightly less sharp curve away from the lower edge of the front bodice.  To make the shawl collar I spliced together the back and front bodice pieces at the shoulder and traced around the neckline, adding a tiny wedge at the centre back for turn of cloth.  The dress has no closure because it is loose enough to just slip over my head.
I added slanted patch pockets for a change, just because inseam side pockets are taking over my wardrobe and I felt the need for some variety.  I like the invisibility of inseam pockets, but it is nice to have pockets as a visual feature on an otherwise plain
dress too.  These are sewn on at a slant for easy hand access and have a purely decorative folded flap at the top.
I also removed width from the sleeves, so they fit into the armscye with very little gathering.
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on the Map

25/11/2013 7:46 am \ 68 Comments \

I saw this awesome world map fabric in Spotlight and just couldn’t resist.  Novelty fabrics just make the best mini-skirts for summer.  Simple and understated but still interesting and quietly eye-catching.  Best worn with a plain white top.
The fabric was sold by the panel, and I used Vogue 1247, splicing the pieces together to make one solid front and one solid back.  I put the invisible zip closure in the left side seam, so as to have as much seamless and uninterrupted flow of map happening as possible, and wrapped the button closure just a bit further along from the side seam and around the corner to the back.  Believe it or not, this looks much better than having it right boom on the side seam, less bulky and gives a more streamlined look. 

 The waistband is faced with plain ice-blue lightweight Rowan cotton, bought from purl soho about two? three? years ago.  Unlined, because it’s practically summer; overlocked raw edges and a bias-bound and hand-stitched hem.  Australia is on the front.
That’s it.

Oh, and also, um, so yes.  It can be seen that my Constant Companion has had a haircut.  A rather drastic one.  The tail.  That was a shock.  Did not expect that.  I’m still not used to it, and am hoping it will actually grow back!  Think I’m going to have be a heap more specific when liaising with the dog-groomer from now on!  In the meantime, she’s answering to Miss Rat-tail O’Skinnypins, thanks very much.
But what do I know; she’s pretty happy.  Puppy-like frolicking ensues  🙂

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 modified, printed cotton drill, my review of this pattern 
Top; the bamboo shoot top from Pattern Magic, white linen, details here
Sienna in summer attire

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Sagittarius

16/11/2013 7:44 am \ 84 Comments \

 … the sign of the centaur/archer.  
My new dress doesn’t have a centaur, but it does have the next best thing… a horse!  Plus; the requisite bow.  And two arrow(head tab)s. 

Ha!  (mutters sotto voce) nailed it…  😀
This is made using pattern number 35, from Patrones 7, a magazine given to me by Merche in a little exchange we did last year; thanks Merche!  Cassie got to the magazine first and made this little top, and now I have something from it too  🙂

Um, so the dress turned out very… retro, I think.  This was not the effect I was going for, btw.  I was going for modern and summery.  I think I got WW2 era and autumnal.  Slip on a handknit woolly cardigan, put flesh-coloured nylons on my pegs, sensible brogues or wellies on my feet and victory curls in my hair; and this is exactly the kind of ensemble my grandmother would have worn as a young Englishwoman in the 40’s.  I didn’t think the pattern “looked” retro when I picked it for my dress, in fact I thought it rather modern and timeless.  Funny thing.  Seriously I have no idea what happened, twixt design and execution, but something sartorially timewarp-y happened.

The fabric is a mustard silk crepe, originally from Tessuti’s in Melbourne? I think?  I spray-printed a negative-space horse on the front skirt, and random spots all over the remainder of the dress pieces.  The dress is fully lined with silvery grey silk habotai from Fabulous Fabrics.  The greyness of the lining filled me with anxiety at first.  I could have got a perfect colour match if I’d chosen polyacetate lining but I had my heart set on silk habotai and grey was the least offensive choice.  I just went for it… and y’know? I’ve worn it a couple of times, and am so glad I did go with allover silk, because it is seriously sooo beautiful to wear!  We had 34C yesterday, and no kidding I felt like I was wearing nothing, the silk habotai is sheer heaven; divinely light-as-air and fluttery and slinkily gorgeous against the skin. 

Also; the colour.  (Sings) love it!  This project was an obvious contender for my swap, but I’m not going to count it since something else is going to be my one allowed thing before Christmas.  But of course the excellent thing is that both the colour and the style of the dress will fit in beautifully with my autumn wardrobe too.  And I can just enjoy wearing it on its own for now.  Yay!

The bodice is cut on grain, but the skirt pieces are cut on the bias.
Bias cut silk; for both dress and lining.  So yeah, ok; bias cut dresses look great and hang gorgeously, but they hog the fabric like nobody’s business and make for a dang masochistic sewing project!  Now I remember why I only make these very occasionally  😉
I sewed all seams as French seams, using strips of tissue paper to prevent those bias side edges from stretching out.  The closure is by invisible zip in the left side seam, and I stabilised the bias edge first by stitching a strip of the silk habotai selvedge to the seam allowance, like so.  Before hemming I left it hanging up for five days, and it was interesting that the bias didn’t drop out very much.  But it did just a bit; just enough to reiterate the old rule of thumb; yes, always hang a bias cut garment for several days before hemming!

I hand-sewed the sleeves and lower hem in a narrow rolled hem, but I got lazy with the lining and just whizzed it up on the machine.  Not a total masochist, then!

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