Hello! I’ve made a cool new outfit! At least, I think it’s pretty cool, anyway. I think it’s got a strong 80’s vibe; it reminds me vaguely of what the dancers were wearing in Spandeau Ballet’s “To Cut a Long Story Short” video. Oh boy, that takes me back, it was such a favourite of mine.
The fabric is a beautiful wool mix boucle from Minerva…it’s lovely and soft, with a nice, slightly bubbly texture to it, and I love the strong red and green check on a black background. So cool! It did fray like mad, so my first step was to finish all the raw edges on my overlocker
For the skirt; I used an old pattern from the actual 80’s, Vogue 1834, and partially lined it with black silk, from my stash. I’ve made this skirt once before … it can be seen here
The top is the In The Folds Collins top pattern, which I’ve made twice before; here and here. I cut this from the scraps from the skirt, and only just managed to squeak out the pieces! thus the complete lack of pattern matching. This does annoy me a little bit, but actually I had no choice at the time.
When styling it, I decided I like the ensemble best when the top is tucked into the skirt, because otherwise the wide flared top overwhelmed the skirt, and you can’t see any details of it. And this is such a beautiful and unique skirt design! it really demands to be seen. I mean, the top is pretty cool too, but for me this outfit is all about the skirt.
Having said that, though; the top is still pretty cool too, and I really like it worn out over a mini skirt, like here. This is a simple little mini that I made a few years ago, using a tartan wool that I bought in Tokyo during our last holiday there… you know, back when we were allowed to travel *sob*
The beautiful wool fabric is stable and pliable, and was great to sew up but it did fray like mad, so my first step was to finish all the newly cut, raw edges on my overlocker… I also finished some of the raw edges inside the garments such as the bottom edge of the waistband, and the neckline of the top; using bright red, bias cut cotton… this was leftover from my own Yallingup dress that I made for myself here… Want to see a fun video on the making process of this ensemble? If so then that’s great! because I made one! and it can be seen here on my YouTube channel. 🙂 It also includes footage of me leaping about like a loon, so there’s that too…
So, as usual I really didn’t have enough fabric to cut out even a small top… because the pokey out bits on the sides of all the pieces that enable your armpits to be covered actually use up such a lot of the width of your fabric, and if you cut out the pieces as is you end up with a lot of long skinny pieces of wastage. Eventually however, I discovered that you could fold back the said pokey out bits of your pattern pieces, and cut a gusset out of that bit at the top between the armscyes on each piece. Here’s a very rough drawing to illustrate:
I made this dress months ago! like in April! … however because I made it to test the pattern I had to keep it a secret until its release, and it wasn’t released until the end of May. And at that time, not only was it getting too cold for me to really wear it regularly, but I was getting overwhelmed with preparation and planning for the release of our own Yallingup pattern, and so although I did post about it on Instagram I didn’t get around to blogging my own version here.
I really enjoyed making mine, and I remember the instructions for gathering the skirt panels were really awesome and taught me something new about gathering things neatly and well.
I’m so behind on blogging! so this is part one in what I hope is a serious attempt to catch up… so I made this little black dress a little while ago… it’s light and floaty and breezy so really it’s a summer dress. And I’m wearing it here on basically the coldest day of the year… ha! But I do like it styled like this for winter! so I guess… good?
ok sure, I’ve made a few blue skirts before, and I’ve made a few corduroy skirts before, and I’ve even made a few blue corduroy skirts before too… And now I’m welcoming a new one to my wardrobe! The best thing about this one? a totally awesome new pocket!! It’s almost more like a little bag than a pocket, and I could not love that idea more!
I’ve made lots of Closet Core patterns’ Ebony tees and dresses for others and this is the first one for me! I finally used this absolutely beautiful, delicate grey/green wool knit that I bought in Tokyo, one of of our trips over there. It’s beautiful stuff, with an almost lace-like texture to it, but unfortunately it had developed a few little moth holes over the years since I bought it.
I stitched the outer and lining together around the neckline, and under stitched using a wide, shallow zigzag stitch. I also handstitched them together at the underarm points, just to anchor the lining inside secretly.
These are made using the piece from Butterick 5583, and the fabrics are all scraps and leftovers from other projects. One of them is from one of Cassie’s old skirts, another two are from Craig’s old shirts, and one of the boys’. The other cute prints are all from the leftovers from Craig’s surgical caps, fabric originally from Spotlight. The backing is thin cotton towelling, that I already had in my stash too.
