daily outfit Archives - Page 57 of 70

Pattern Magic 2; wearing a square

05/09/2011 5:51 am \ 29 Comments \ Carolyn

This was one of the earliest garments in this excellent book to catch my eye, and as it turns out probably the easiest.
Only one or two basic measurements and very few seams…
While the design is called “wearing a square”, well yes, the pattern piece is a square. That is if you can be bothered drafting a pattern piece, which I did not… I just measured straight onto my fabric, marked with pins, and cut out using my big old quilting ruler and rotary cutter to get the straight lines, yes, it is that easy. However the fabric piece is actually a rectangle; a double square, on the fold.
My only advice? Check your forearm circumference measurement, I “drafted with my own measurements” as recommended, but allowed for a few extra centimetres on my sleeves and I am glad I did! I do not have big arms, but I am guessing there are very few who would be comfortable with a 20cm sleeve on their forearm…
I find little cardigans very useful, so am very pleased with this one. The draping on the back and the very subtle drape on the back neckline caused by the straight lines of the garment are both flattering and unusual. I decided to go for an open-ended zip for closure at the front, so it can be unzipped all the way if I wanted it hanging open. But I tried this out and probably won’t, as it has a tendency to slide off my shoulders if it is left open…
It’s a cute little thing, no? I just love it! The fabric was given to me by my friend C, part of her late mother’s stash so I’m not sure of the composition. It is quite thick-ish, and looks stretchy, but is only very slightly stretchy, and has a tendency to fray. So I finished the lower edge and sleeve hems by overlocking the raw edges, turning under once by 1cm and stitching down, and the neckline edge has a 4cm hem. The fabric has this blue, grey and white marle on one side whilst the other side is a grey and white marle. I have plenty left, so might make something with the grey marle on the outside next time…

Details:
Cardigan; the “wearing a square” design from Pattern Magic 2 by Tomoko Nakamichi, made of blue/grey mystery fabric
Dress; Burda 8511 modified to be fully lined, made of tobacco coloured wool mix
Tights; Kolotex
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: cardigan, daily outfit, Pattern Magic 2, SSS11

Taking advantage of one’s surroundings…

04/09/2011 5:31 am \ 11 Comments \ Carolyn

I received a comment on my photo yesterday in the Self-Stitched September flickr group that read in part that my ensemble looked perfect “mostly due to the beach background” LOL! *
Well I’m afraid the beach is going to steal the show again today because when I am fortunate enough to be staying by the beach then I see no reason not to make full use of nature’s beautiful offerings, particularly when one is simply logging a mere outfit. I’m not vain enough to believe my sewing creations are going to elicit any Wow! factor all by themselves!
So, today; I am using another little ploy for when one’s jeans have shrunk a tad, just roll them up a little bit and voila, the ankle-freezer factor has been happily disguised! Now they look as if they were meant to be like this… Another plus is that one can wade, which is as far as I will go in at this time of year. Shams asked if we swim at this beach, and yup we sure do! but it is still a tad chilly for full immersion. But the feel of cool salty water lapping about your ankles, and soft and squishy but still slight abrasive sand underfoot is always such a deliciously blissfully healthy feeling for your feet, don’t you think? I think it beats any foot pampering offered at any beauty spa, any day!
My half-zip-front parka is one I made about five years ago, and so it might be outdated but I still love it. It is self-drafted, but a completely slavish imitation of a Marni design from their Spring/Summer 2007 collection, so I feel I’m borrowing a bit of designer-style austere chic when I don this… . I really like how the high bunched up collar turned out. It’s basically a double layer rectangle cut to fit the neckline, sewn in, then with a lace inserted between the two layers and exiting through some tiny buttonholes to tie it loosely. It does have some piecing on the front, and all the seams are double topstitched, but it is probably hard to see it in this photo.

Details:
Parka; self drafted, a copy of this one at right, from Marni Spring/Summer 2007, black cotton
Jeans; Burda 7863 with modification, rust coloured stretch corduroy, details here
Sandshoes; Country Road

*Actually I’m sure the comment was intended to be a nice comment but I just couldn’t help but laugh when I read that bit…!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, inspiration, Sienna, SSS11

Lace, as beachwear

03/09/2011 9:15 am \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

I’m not much of an outfit planner. I’m more of a grab-something-clean and put it all together there and then as the fancy takes me. A bit random but I’m OK with that. So, packing on an already busy day for a weekend away I sorta just grabbed a few various separates with the thought I would work it all out when the time came… which is undoubtedly not very sensible and one ends up with some strange choices at times. But I have far from classic tastes and like to play with weird ensembles… why? well because it is fun!

Take this ensemble… The chambray shirt, made using a man’s shirt pattern, and little white sandshoes; well they are just super casual full-stop. The juxtaposition of the housewifeliness of these items against the completely opposite, rather sexy, boudoir-y vibe of black lace is an odd one that satisfies my taste for the occasionally absurd in my apparel.

The black lace skirt with blue lining used to be dressy in the first flush of its youth, a few years ago, but now? Well the poor old thing has been put out to the sartorial equivalent of the pasture, often stepping in for very casual duties, like gardening or vacuuming out the car, or washing the dog. It might not scream “beachwear!” but it’s really very comfortable and easy to wear. And when it comes to the beach, as long as the footwear is appropriate then anything goes! Right? Right!

Details:

Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, cotton chambray details here

Skirt; my own design based on the basic shape of Vogue 7303, layers of black lace with randomly stitched on black border lace strips and gunmetal blue lining

Sandshoes; Country Road

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, Sienna, SSS11

Ten second photo op…

02/09/2011 1:16 pm \ 16 Comments \ Carolyn

Omygosh, busy or what?!
It’s been one of those ridiculous days; zipping about from one thing to the next and managing to achieve… well tonnes! Have you ever had one of those super busy days which by its own very crazy jam-packed busy-ness somehow bestows upon you temporary powers of superhuman efficiency and capability? Well, today was one of those rare and happy days. Today I fitted in a dental appointment, a few hours of office work, a horrid but necessary visit to Ikea, a baking session… during the baking time I even nipped briefly into the laundry and re-commenced searching for a dress pattern that had mysteriously disappeared and I’ve been searching for it on and off for a few days.. and found it! Yup, it was that serendipitous kind of a day… a bout of grocery shopping, packing for a weekend visit to the beach house, followed by the drive down to aforementioned beach house… Well, we are here now so hopefully a nicer photo should be the outcome for tomorrow. Sorry about today’s awful photo, I noticed on the drive down that that the sun was setting and I hadn’t taken a photo for self-stitched September yet, so literally pulled over to the side of the road and begged Sam to take a quick snap…. this is it!

Details:
Top; the twist top drafted from Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi, charcoal jersey, details here
Jeans; Burda 7863 modified, black corduroy, details here
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, random life stuff, SSS11

Navy, with ivory shirt

01/09/2011 8:40 am \ 17 Comments \ Carolyn

So, here we go, the first day of Spring, and the first day of a month of all self-stitched fun, to be seen in entirety here. As usual, when the pressure is on to dress for a challenge like this my perverse nature means that I could think of absolutely nothing to wear this morning. Yes really! Sounds ridiculous, I know…
And just saying now; I will understand entirely if this is not everyone’s idea of what a blog should be and if people choose to switch off for the month, BUT I have enjoyed these challenges before and I find them very helpful in assessing my self-made wardrobe and its wearability. I want to try to mix up old and new and be “interesting”. There will be some new creations popping up this month. So I hope it doesn’t get boring.
So what of today? My ivory shirt and the skirt are new-ish, both made in the last month or so… and it may appear black in the photo, but my outfit is navy blue. I made the jacket a few years ago but haven’t worn it for one of these challenges yet. I was pretty proud of this jacket when I made it, because it is completely lined and also underlined, my first attempt at a properly tailored jacket. Also with no iron-on interfacing, as an experiment. As a result, the jacket is very soft and very comfortable, and the tailoring has stood the test of time. And when I dyed this previously charcoal skirt blue it hadn’t occurred to me that I now had something passing as a suit. Hehe, me, in a suit?! Mon dieu! The funny thing is that I didn’t think I was going to look quite so suit-y when I selected these items… and it was only when I was dressed and looking in the mirror I was like, woa, I’m in a suit! Actually I do have another suit, also made by me, that gets worn, like, never. Never ever. And now I have another one…. you’d think I’d have learned, right?

Details:
Jacket; Simplicity 4698, navy blue silk hessian, to see this jacket styled in 6 different ways go here
Shirt; Burdastyle magazine 10/2010,102, made of white brushed cotton, details and my review of this pattern here
Skirt; Vogue 7303 lined, made of charcoal wool mix then dyed blue, details here
Tights; Metalicus
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, SSS11

Army shirt (not really…)

25/08/2011 11:30 am \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

… but my interpretation of a sorta military look.
I love khaki and all muddy colours, and felt a khaki/muddy/sludgy coloured shirt would be just the thing; and once the military mindset had taken a hold on me it wasn’t long before vaguely uniform-y style details starting sneaking onto my new shirt too…
I used Burda 7767 again (and yes, this is version fifteen of this pattern that I was referring to in the rogue’s gallery of Burda 7767 here).
I added a few little touches; some shoulder tabs, held down with a decorative strip, sleeve tabs to keep those sleeves in place when pushed up halfway up my forearm just how I like it… The bottom hem is curved. The pockets have a folded bizzo down the centre front which is top-stitched in place, and I squared off the lower pocket corners. This shape is echoed in the pocket flaps. I also folded back the button band to the outside so I could get that look of a separate band, rather than that smooth look you get when it is turned to the inside, although this played havoc with my usual method of neatly finishing the button-band hem edge I worked it out OK in the end.

These buttons are fabulous, aren’t they? I used 16 to finish this shirt, and if I could have invented ways of sneaking a few extra in here somehow then I probably would have! They are brass, and are stamped to look somewhat like an ancient Chinese or ancient Roman coin. Or something like that… am even vaguely toying with the idea of going back to Fabulous Fabrics and buying up every single one of them. But mustn’t be greedy, must play nice and leave some for others now… 🙂
And take a sqizz at my new label! (thank you so much to my good friend Yoshimi who helped me to get these adorable things! You have my unending gratitude!) I LOVE them! And I feel about them a bit like Elaine from Seinfeld when she found out her favourite contraceptive sponge had been discontinued, and she only had a limited supply left, and she then had to judge each new man she met on whether he was “sponge-worthy”. Now I have to judge each new garment I make as to whether it is label-worthy or not. I think my new shirt is label-worthy… What do you think?

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767 with modifications, dark khaki linen
Skirt; my own design; charcoal knit stuff
Tights; Spencer & Lacy
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes
Sunnies; RayBan

(and for those wondering if I had traced off this much used-pattern, lest it get all tattered and torn, I am using the original tissue every time and it is in pretty good nick still, see? I take very good care of my patterns!)

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, daily outfit, Fabulous fabrics, mens shirt

Scrumpled leggings

19/08/2011 6:13 am \ 16 Comments \ Carolyn

Ta da! Scrumpled leggings! You like? I do!
And I think they fit in very nicely with my current seasonal aim of dressing to suit the natural colours and textures of my environment…
I know this is not a new look. In fact I had a vague sense of deja vu when I first popped on my new scrumpled leggings… and went off to check, sure enough, here are some Comme des Garcons leggings from 2005 that I can remember being quite interested in when I first spied them in a Vogue magazine. Yup six years ago… back then I wasn’t into making my own leggings, thinking they would be way too hard. Little did I realise then how easy leggings are to make! Also this kind of raaather avant garde stuff never ever ever appeared in a store here so I never bought some for myself. Perth is kinda sleepy, you see. Fashion-wise we are slowly waking up, but Harajuku we are not…
Speaking of, when Cassie and I had our fun day out with Yoshimi and Novita in Tokyo, as we parted ways Yoshimi pointed us in the direction of the Mitsukoshi department store, where we had a fabulous eye-opening hour or so oohing and aahing over fashion the likes of which are almost unknown around here. Unknown that is apart from some very expensive European clothing in certain boutiques… Anyhoo Cassie found a pair of scrumpled leggings like these, and we thought they were so fun and different we bought some. You’re wondering why I didn’t buy any for myself? well the leggings situation in Tokyo is the same as the shoes situation, if you are taller than 5’6 or have larger than a size 38 shoe, then forget about it…
But scrumpled leggings had entered my radar once more…
And recently shams posted about a pair of leggings than she described as “pooled” because they ended up so long, and she liked them that way so left them long. I liked them that way too.. and thus fully re-awakened my latent desire for a pair of scrumpled leggings…
Super easy.
I used my own pattern that I drafted to fit me, but cut the legs pieces to have about an extra 20cm length from the ankle down, and in a less tapered shape than I had drafted for a tight legging, probably by about 1-2cm wider at the ankle point. Sorry, inexact measurements I know,the truth is I was kinda winging it…
After sewing up the inner leg seams (simply whizzed on the serger in a matter of seconds!) I cut two roughly 27cm lengths of 6mm elastic. These were zig-zagged to the inside of the inner leg seam from just below my knee level down to 2cm from the bottom. Then I just hemmed the lower edge as normal by folding up the lower leg edge by 1cm twice to sit over the elastic and zig-zagged the hem.

(Comme des Garcons leggings at right, image from Vogue Australia Sept 2005, photo by Willy Vanderperre)

Details:
Leggings; my own design, beige knit stuff, from my own tutorial of making your own custom fit leggings here
Top; Ezibuy
Dress; drafted from “Pattern Magic” by Tomoko Nakamichi, of charcoal wool mix, details here
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, inspiration, own design, tights/leggings

Spring has sprung!

18/08/2011 5:21 am \ 10 Comments \ Carolyn

Ok, OK, so I know we aren’t supposed to even mention the S word until the 1st September but look at this floral fabulousness popping up all around! I took all these photos here on my walkies this morning…
and obviously when those first tender buds of spring start to burst forth into colourful pretty profusion a woman’s thoughts turn inexorably to… her wardrobe. Well, naturally! To be honest it doesn’t take much of a push for my thoughts to turn to my wardrobe.
The weather is still a tad cold for flinging off those drab winter-y layers, but I’m getting pretty excited about what to incorporate into my wardrobe for the warmer weather that is creeping in. I’m thinking my new spring and summer wardrobe will inspired by the colours of an Aussie spring environment, like pictured here. Thus, a dose of sage greens, ivories and beiges (surprise!), some light dresses in muddy neutrals (surprise!) and I have a few sharp bright colours to throw into the mix as well. A lot of my plans have been virtuously conceived from doing a thorough recce* of my stash, but I’m not going to completely close my mind to the possibilities of new fabrics and patterns and let’s face it, when have I ever?! However I will attempt to use just some of the lovely fabrics in my collection that have been too intimidating to cut into.
What about you? Are you making sartorial plans for the changing season; whether it be spring, or autumn for the northern hemispheries? And where do you take inspiration for your wardrobe plans?
*recce; Aussie slang for reconnaisance, pronounced “reckie”

Details:
Top; Metalicus
Jeans; Burda 7863 modified, purple denim, details here
Scarf; jersey offcut joined with french seam, details here
Sandshoes; Country Road