Tag Archives: Daily Outfit

dusky pink linen shirt

18/05/2024 10:25 am \ 4 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve been sewing again lately …

I just finished a button-up shirt using this beautiful dusky pink linen that I received from the Linen Shack.  The linen is very fine and light, and was absolutely beautiful to work with.  Aah, I just love sewing with linen.  Also, I’m so into pink right now it’s not even funny!  This dusky pink colour is lovely, a gentle and subtle pink with just a hint of lilac about it.  Making me nostalgic for the cherry blossoms from a few weeks ago, sigh… ahh, take me back, please…

I didn’t have pink thread in my stash and instead of going for something like ivory or white as per my habit, I chose a pale green.  Actually the contrast is very subtle and you really have to get up close to notice!  The white buttons are also from stash… they are originally from Spotlight.  I bought these in both white and black originally, and I always use them upside down because the back side is so much prettier; a lovely shiny smooth slightly rounded profile.  The front side is matte, and has a raised serrated lip; and it’ not so visually appealing to me.  I think I kind of bought them in shirt-button desperation once upon a time, back in the day, and then the discovery that the back side was actually really pretty was totally serendipitous!

I partially used a really old Burda pattern, from the 8/2009 magazine.  This might sound a little confusing but bear with me; the pattern/s are numbered from 129-132, with each one being variations on the same basic block, and my version here is kind of a fourth variation!

Actually, I also cut out some breast pockets but haven’t added them yet… I even saved enough green thread so everything matches!  I’m thinking of doing some embroidery on a pocket, but wanted to post these pictures how it looks now…

I’m wearing it in these pictures here with a self-designed skirt made from my parents’ curtain leftovers, and a hat made using Vogue 8844 and corduroy from old jeans…

Did you notice anything about the hatless picture above??

OK, now don’t be shocked… but I whimsically decided to put a purple wash through my hair this morning.  I don’t know what I was thinking, maybe that I’d get a light lilac tinge to my hair or something like that since my own hair colour is still quite strong. .. I was quite surprised that the purple turned out a lot stronger than I imagined!  Eeek!  I’m kinda into it, but also a little … taken aback!  At least it’s only going to last for a few weeks!

The Linen Shack dusky pink linen can be found here 

(not an affiliated link)

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an ivory blouse and a pink neck warmer

30/04/2024 8:10 pm \ Leave a Comment \

Hello!  I’ve finished a few new things over the past few days…

First up, a new ivory blouse for myself.  This is the new Fibremood Georgie blouse, and it’s quite an interesting design and construction technique that I haven’t really come across before, namely a series of very deep pleats in the neckline and sleeves.  These are bound down with a narrow bias strip.  The raglan sleeves also have deep pleats going into those cuffs.

If I was going to be picky I think I would have chosen to cut the cuffed sleeves a little longer, and it’s also quite a short blouse overall.  However I do really like the finished blouse.

I found a short length of ivory muslin in my stash, which was lucky! because it was perfect for the floaty style of this blouse; and for the buttons I went with some fun bee buttons, also from the stash.  Aren’t they cute?!

I’m wearing them here with my Closet Core patterns Sasha trousers and my clogs made using a kit from Leather Needle Thread.  I really should make some new trousers; I don’t really have that many, and those that I do have are mostly quite old by now.

I also finished up my April knitting project, again in the knick of time!  I literally cast this off about half an hour ago and took these extremely quick and slightly dodgy pictures, but at least I got it done within the month!   I’ll take some better pictures when the weather is suitably colder and post them in here later.

It’s a very simple neck warmer, made using a very bobbly pink/apricot yarn from the very large stash I inherited from Mum when she did her cleanup.  I had plans for something a bit more interesting; however when I was in Japan I didn’t have the time to knit on the trains that I thought I would.  I came home having achieved basically no knitting at all, and had to whip up something in the small amount of time I’ve had since we returned.  I’m going to try to be more organised in May and produce something a bit more exciting.

Speaking of; tomorrow me-made May begins again!  I will be joining in once again, but only on instagram this year and maybe on my TikTok account, if I feel like it.  Haha, gone are the days we used to document it all on our blogs, or over on Flickr!  Feels like forever ago now.  I will likely do a roundup here at the end of the month.

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Christmas dress! hot choccy treats and some cute little kiddie things

28/12/2023 3:39 pm \ 2 Comments \

I’ve made some new things…

… including a new Christmas Day dress for myself… the latest subtraction from ye good old stash.  So this new dress was made with a piece of lovely border print stuff bought in the closing days of 2019,  New York when I went there with Yoshimi… I’m pretty sure it was from Metro Textiles?

I thought I’d make a simple, very plain shift dress and turned to a rather lovely little shift dress pattern I’ve made previously, Burda 07/2018; 118, which is exactly that, but with pockets!  Win!

As usual I hadn’t really bought enough fabric and cutting out the pieces was a tight squeeze!  I had to cut out those awkwardly shaped facing pieces from a different fabric.  I used a pale latte coloured, stiff cotton for this.

Fortunately I also had a zip of the appropriate length in my stash too, although it’s a less than ideal bright white instead of ivory; it’s a little more noticeable that in appears in this picture.

This picture is really just to show the selvedge being used for the centre back seam; I often do this if the selvedge is lying nice and flat, and it does save that little bit extra if fabric is short.

If I’m totally honest with myself I’m not 100% happy with how the print matched up along this back seam but again, I didn’t have enough fabric to do anything about this so c’est la vie.

wearing it here with my crocheted hat…

This really is such a lovely print! and I’m absolutely thrilled it has now become a cute little summer dress that I felt comfortable and very happy in, all day long.  I didn’t get any photos from Christmas Day because I was just rushed off my feet all day, but I wore it again today and took these pics. 🙂

Next up! for Christmas gifts, something I always like to do is to make some little edible treat for the whole family.  This year I thought I’d make hot chocolate bombs…  however, a lot of the recipes I found online were in the form of perfectly spherical, beautifully shiny chocolate shells that you fill with cocoa powder and maybe sugar and/or marshmallows… well such chocolatey artistry was completely beyond my skills!  I decided instead to just make hot chocolate “bricks” 😉

These little morsels might not be things of beauty but they do comprise everything that one needs for a mug of yummy hot chocolate.  My recipe:

Hot Chocolate Bricks

each brick contains:

  • 45g dark cooking chocolate
  • 1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp sugar
  • 4 mini marshmallows

I used double the above mixture, which was an easy quantity to handle, to make two at a time.  Simply melt the chocolate in the microwave then quickly and thoroughly stir through the cocoa powder and sugar.  The mixture should be sticking together into a self-contained blob, picking up all the mixture off the sides of the bowl as you mix and leaving almost no residue.  If it wasn’t, I would add a little more cocoa powder until it did stick together.  Divide between two mini patty pans and gently push the marshmallows on top… this means people can remove them before melting the brick and pop them on top of their hot chocolate just before serving.

Each brick is designed to go in 100-150mL milk, depending on how strong you like it.  If you like it super rich then you can substitute a little cream for a portion of milk!  because they’re quite rock solid little things they actually need a LOT of stirring and occasional re-heating to mix in thoroughly enough.  But they are delicious!  I used one of the earlier, not-so-pretty ones to check out that they worked ok…

btw I also made a little instruction slip to put in with each pack, explaining the how-to stuff.  Actually, I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the final packages, obviously I got a bit stressed for time towards the end there!(Later edit: Mum took a picture of hers for me…  :). )

However, to describe; throughout the year I’d saved up those little plastic punnets mini tomatoes are sold in… I peeled off the labels and managed to squeeze 7 chocolate bricks in each punnet.  I popped the instructions in as well and finished off with tying up the punnets with coloured ribbons.

Finally, and possibly my very last makes for the year? there are just three days to go, so maybe!  I made three little garments, for my three little grandsons.  Two raglan sleeve T-shirts in different sizes and a little onesie for the newest and littlest, all self-drafted.  Each using a mix of white and vaguely Christmassy red plaid cotton jersey, although I didn’t actually make them for Christmas!  I bought the red plaid cotton jersey from (I think?) the Fabric Store in Melbourne during a past trip over there… it’s quite thin and was actually not much fun to sew with.   Doing the twin needle hems on the T-shirt sleeves was a hideous experience, each one unpicked and re-done multiple times each.  I don’t really know what the issue was but it only occurred on this particular fabric, not the white cotton body hems.

The white jersey was from old stash.  I think they turned out pretty cute, and if I get a picture of the little guys wearing their new things I will upload it here!

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check it out…

20/12/2023 3:10 pm \ 6 Comments \

I bought this beautiful, slightly crinkly linen gingham from Japan a few years ago, during our last visit there and it was always intended to be a Vogue 2900… I frequently jump and haa about a particular fabric and which one of the one million different designs it could better be suited to, so it’s pretty nice when a piece of fabric can actually get matched with a pattern and actually go through with it, and no agonising along the way!

There’s probably not much more to say… this Donna Karan design has been a favourite for years, I’ve made a few – this is my fourth! – and still wear and love all of them.  I initially thought about putting in a contrasting bias-cut strip like I did with my first one but it actually looked way too busy.  Painstakingly, I unpicked each one and saved the strips for a future project.

I cut out the front pieces twice, because the first time I was dissatisfied with how the centre front seam turned out.  The second attempt, I carefully cut them so the pattern of the gingham meets up perfectly in the centre, as if there was no seam there at all.  It looks so much better than my first attempt, which, although the checks matched, the overall colour pattern was not matched across the seam so it looked weird.  My second attempt looks way better.

I also cut some pieces on the bias, for visual interest, and think this looks quite nice.  I’m glad I did it!  The armhole and back neckline are finished with bias cut strips.  After understitching, I turned these under and hand stitched them back to the dress as invisibly as possible.

I’m going to enjoy wearing this dress over summer.  I like wearing short dresses and skirts, but I also like this longer length too.  It’s such a comfortable style, and quite chic too, imo.

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pretty blouse, handbag, wallet, underthings, baby things and pink books

19/11/2023 2:31 pm \ 8 Comments \

I’ve been checking out all my as-yet unblogged things, and there are so many!  I guess I’ve been in a real blogging slump this year.  Anyway, apologies for the overloaded, as well as overdue! blog post, and here we go…!

Item 1: a pretty lingerie set.  This is of course the Watson pattern by cloth habit, one I’ll be making for the rest of my life, I’m sure… just such a goodie.  Same modifications I’ve always made. (see here)…

I had all the elastics and bits and pieces already, and a quite short length of bright neon yellow elastic, leftover from this set… it was fun incorporating a length of it in each piece!

Item 2; a pretty blouse.  This is actually my most recently made thing… well, apart from a few samples for our new pattern, to be announced very soon, I hope!

This design is the new Nova pattern by Fibremood. It has a very interesting fluted neckline, that attracted me to it in the first place.  I dunno, but I can’t resist a unique twist to a thing! and simply must try it out.

I used a length of pretty slightly brushed cotton, given to me by Mum when she cleaned out her stash.  It’s lovely, isn’t it?!  I added one pocket, just for fun, and threaded a length of elastic through each sleeve hem, a look that I really like lately.

The back has a centre-back seam with an invisible zip.  Quite unnecessary, since I found you can pull it over your head quite easily.  Something I like to do with the end of an invisible zip is to wrap the end with a little piece of fabric, since a lot of invisible zips seem to have almost imperceptible sharp bits at the end, that will torment you without pity if you don’t do something about it first.

The back has a centre-back seam with an invisible zip.  Quite unnecessary, since I found you can pull it over your head quite easily.  Something I like to do with the end of an invisible zip is to wrap the end with a little piece of fabric, since a lot of invisible zips seem to have almost imperceptible sharp bits at the end, that will torment you without pity if you don’t do something about it first.

Item 3; this cute little bag… I made this earlier this winter, using a kit from JT Tanner bought during lockdown actually!

It was an exceptionally beautiful kit and I really enjoyed putting it together, in spite of breaking all three of the provided needles!  however I finally figured how to stitch through that tough tough leather without putting too much strain on the needles… :D. and am super happy with the quite profesh look of the final product!

I wore it a few times, but it had one small problem which ultimate led me to my next project…

Item 4; a little wallet.  My new bag is awesome, but my current purse doesn’t fit into it at all, and since the bag is such that a loose credit card or cash would easily fall out of the gaps,  I decided that I needed a customised purse! Yes, I’m admittedly weird about not immediately shopping for things at the moment and I also I do like to challenge myself, ergo; I decided to have a go at making one.

There was one failed version before this final one, failed only because I cut the zip too short and it couldn’t flip out open completely; but this one is nearly perfect, I’m happy to report.

 

I didn’t want to use any of my precious leather just yet! although I might be ready to go there soon; instead I used charcoal felt, that I bought to make a stuffed toy at some point (still unblogged, whoops!). Fortunately I still have a huge number of oddly coloured zips that Mum gave me at some point, and found two matching ones.  The wallet took a bit of very careful measuring and lining up, and I am pretty proud of the final precision.

It has a whole lot of card slots, a zipped coin compartment, one separate car slot that I was initially intending to have a clear plastic window in it, but couldn’t found the right plastic on hand and didn’t want to go out and source any either.  C’est la vie!  Oh, and also a bellowed pocket for bills/notes.  This time I carefully made sure the wallet could flip open fully and lie flat.

 I agonised on how to put in the zip, finish the raw edges, and eventually bound the edges with matching charcoal linen – the same stuff I used to line the card slots and coin pocket. I hand stitched the linen binding down inside, and then finally glued the outer layer over the top.  I wasn’t sure how the glueing would work out, but it has nicely stiffened up the final product in a very satisfactory way.

And it fits into the bag perfectly!

Item 5; I’m not sure if I’ve posted this before? if not here tis… a baby onesie for our friend’s baby.  Design is my own, and yes, I used the leftovers for my Watson set, above!

Item 6, 7, 8, 9

some new little books.  I always save and cut up the leftover paper from paper patterns and make little books from them.  It’s fun to do this and makes me feel virtuously zero waste.  All materials are waste scraps and leftovers from other projects.  I have one in my handbag all the time and use it all the time, and they make nice gifts too, I think!

I think that’s enough for now?  Anyway, I’ll be back with more soon!

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a patchwork dress

13/11/2023 6:18 pm \ 12 Comments \

Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I haven’t blogged this dress yet… this post (sans any text at all, ahem) has been in my drafts for over a year now!  I feel so neglectful of this thing… it spite of the fact that it’s something I’m very proud of!

Quite a few years ago now, I bought a whole lot of lovely linens from Tessuti Fabrics in Melbourne, while over there on a visit with Mum and Cassie.  Aren’t the colours gorgeous?!

I always planned a patchwork thing pretty much exactly like it finally turned out… !  So lucky!

 

I cut a whole bunch of squares; the ones closest to the top of the dress are quarter the size of the squares in the middle, which themselves are a quarter the size of the biggest squares around the hemline.  Piecing them so as to have the colours arranged randomly was a minor but very enjoyable challenge.

Early on I posted the above picture to instagram, to which someone (kindly and without ill-intent) commented that the shaping could all be done in the seams keeping up the appearance of perfect squares everywhere.  And I knew straight away that that was a borderline impossible task.  I’m perfectly aware that this commenter meant really well but the comment still somehow left me totally paralysed with the weight of expectation.  I know, it’s silly; but I guess it’s my fault for sharing progress shots of things I’m making.  Somehow doing so seems to frequently lead to a similar outcome.

Anyway, as a result; the project spent the next few months in limbo.  I did finally pick it up, left it again, picked it up again, and finally managed to limp through to the finish line, all the time painfully aware that I had failed to achieve aforementioned shaping while keeping the squares perfectly square.  I shouldn’t have felt like a failure, but you know.  Such a feeling can’t be helped sometimes…

 

But I am very happy in the end, and even I wore it to Frocktails one year too.  It was actually a freezing cold night and it had to be covered up with a warm woolly cardigan most of the night, more’s the pity!

The halter neck design with rather complex, uber swishy skirt is my own, of course; custom fit to my dummy Bessie.  It even has pockets, which were actually kind of a nightmare in the patchworked side seams.  It also has a side zip, so as to disturb the patchwork as little as possible.  The above picture is the initial, unhemmed version, which looks kind of cool but was unfortunately impossible to walk in from being too too long.   The final look is a good compromise between a good length, and being able to walk without tripping.  A nice balance!

Final take; I am so so proud of this dress, so am kinda bewildered at my complete failure to blog it before now.  Well, at least I finally got this, final step finished too.  It’s been a fun dress to wear , so beautifully swishy and comfy, and it never fails to garner lots of attention and compliments.  So in conclusion; I cannot be happier with it!

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pumpkin spice… plus some lovely sea-foamy green things

28/10/2023 5:19 pm \ 5 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve finished making a few new things, both from deep deep stash.  I can’t stress enough how happy it makes me feel to be methodically using up ye olde stash!  I feel so virtuous.  Particularly since such a lot of it was not even bought by me in the first place, but foisted upon me – and I must say here that I truly do appreciate everything that has been given to me, many many pieces have proved to be very lovely and beautiful quality, and very useful too when it comes to testing patterns and new designs!  It is also true though that I am at a stage in my life when I want to whittle it down, for good.  I have dreams of a more minimalist future, and I’m determined to see it through.

Firstly; a new dress for me, using a pattern that has become a favourite; the Deer and Doe Myosotis dress pattern.  Such a pretty and feminine design; I think I might have to always have one hanging in my wardrobe.  My blue and white gingham Myosotis is currently being worn by Cassie as a maternity dress, and quite successfully too!  quite telling as to how comfortable it is.

The fabric is a quite nice, soft-pumpkin silk crepe, very lightweight and floaty, almost translucent.  I’m definitely going to be wearing this with a slip, I think.

I honestly cannot remember where I bought this fabric, or even if I did buy it; and if not, who gave it to me?  Honestly a complete mystery!   Which makes me think it was most likely part of a stash that I inherited at some point.  No matter!  I do really like it and I think the colour suits me very well.

Item 2!  a little knitted jacket and beanie set for Cassie’s new baby… the last time I went down to stay with my parents I bought this little pattern pamphlet from a yarn and quilting shop in Bridgetown; Naturally Yarns K679. I wanted to get something for the baby, and also to support a local business, but honestly felt very conflicted about buying a finished something when I SHOULD be using up my own supplies….   anyway I did achieve kind of both.

This set is the 6-9 month size.  All yarns are from the very large yarn stash that I’ve inherited over time – and no; I am NOT accepting new submissions!  I really think I could have a lifetime of knitting ahead of me, no purchase necessary…  It was pretty fun though, to try to make the scraps that I had into some sort of design idea, and I’m very pleased with the outcome!  I literally used up the entirety of ALL these yarns, with the exception of a small amount of the lime green yarn used for the beanie and collar.  It’s the most thrilling thing to successfully use up yarn, and use it up even semi-aesthetically.  I know, right?!!  SO proud!!

Finally, item 3; and this is sadly not from my own stash, but from Cassie’s.  I volunteered to make up one of the fabrics she had bought for her summer/autumn breast-feeding friendly wardrobe.  What else to make but one of our own Yallingup designs?!  We both believe in this design so thoroughly and it’s a little sad that it has not been as popular as we were hoping.  I wonder if it’s not clear that the regular, and the breast-feeding friendly version are actually separate designs, even though they look the same from the outside?

 

Anyway, we both love it! and Cassie has made up quite a few more of the breast-feeding friendly versions herself for her time with this new baby.  And this is one that I made for her.

The fabric is a Nano Iro Air Time design in colour way B.. it’s so beautiful it would make literally anything look absolutely amazing.  Hey, I still believe that our Yallingup is independently beautiful too though!  I could not fit the pattern pieces onto the small piece of fabric in the traditional way, so the front and back are top to toe, and the wrap piece is cut on the cross, with the tail ends of the tie cut and pieced from the scraps.

 

I had to cut the facing from a separate piece of plain white cotton, through lack of fabric.  She’s modelling it here, 8+ months pregnant, sure it’s a little short but it’s not too bad for a non-maternity design!  It’s going to be even better once she’s out of the pregnant stage, and into the breast-feeding stage which is what it’s designed for.

That’s it for now!  I still have a few, unphotographed and yet to be blogged things up my sleeve!  Until then…  🙂

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some blue things because why not

21/07/2023 9:09 pm \ 1 Comment \

First up; some navy blue suedette shorts!

I actually like wearing shorts in winter; it’s kinda the same as wearing a mini, in my opinion, and personally I think minis are absolutely great in winter.  So why not shorts in winter too?

Suedette is quite a wintery-feeling fabric too I think; this piece is actually leftover from when I made my Megan Nielsen Dove blouse, way back here.  I KNOW!  I surprise myself sometimes with my stashing capabilities.  Too silly for words.

I had just enough fabric to squeeze out the pieces for these shorts, which is awesome sauce.  The pattern is the FibreMood Dahlia shorts pattern, which is a beautifully feminine, roomy design, with a deep deep pleat at the top resulting in chic wide legs, also very deep and lovely cuffs.  These are my favourite part of the shorts actually.  It has pockets too, of course!  Oh, and lastly the waist was a little baggy on me, so I also added belt loops and made a short tie belt.  I really like how this looks on the shorts too!  You can probably see that I used a silver press stud for the shorts closure, it stands out ike a sore thumb in these pictures unfortunately; after I noticed this I went back and added another belt look over the press stud, hiding it.  Thus fixing the problem, yay.

I’m wearing them here with my ivory tee top, my handknitted hand warmers, and my black tights…

What else have I made… hmmm?  Well another maternity skirt for Cassie.  This is another Burda 7023, using navy blue cotton jersey.  I was asked in the comments where this can be bought, I’m afraid if it’s not in your local pattern store then I don’t know, sorry.  It’s kinda hard to get hold of older paper patterns nowadays, very sadly.  I think this particular pattern was from about three or four years ago.  I just gave it to her without taking a photo sorry; maybe I’ll get a photo and update here then  🙂   (later edit: Here ’tis!!)

And I finished another project, this beanie has been a veeeery long term one!  In 2018 we went to Canada and Alaska, blogged about here; and here; and I bought some yarn while there; including this ball of locally handspun and hand-dyed wool in Talkeetna, Alaska.  The label has Wild n’ Woolly on it, but they don’t seem to have an internet presence so I can’t link to them.  The colour is Berry Picking, and the design is my own, but pretty plain.  I started and unravelled it a few times, trying to get the perfect amount of head-hugging, which I think I got in the end.  It’s beautifully cosy!

I’m wearing  it here with my raspberry tee top, my raspberry Paprika Patterns Jade mini skirt, hand knit navy cardigan, navy corduroy jacket (originally made for Sam but he’s given it back to me) my yellow raincoat, black tights…

And that’s all for now!  Our new pattern is going to be ready very very soon, we’ve been working so hard on it, so please look forward to that coming soon!

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