dress Archives - Page 2 of 34 - Handmade by Carolyn

Christmas prep

24/12/2024 12:08 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello, Christmas makes!! To be honest though my output is quite modest this year, I haven’t gone overboard with the making of Christmas gifts unlike previous years. Just a few little things…

I’d mostly made this black felt bunny a few years ago, using the Luna Lapin pattern book. He was kinda my first test of the pattern before making a camel brown bunny for Arthur, blogged here, but I didn’t do too bad a job if I say so myself. So this year I decided to complete him as a present for Gilbert.

I made his outfit using various bits and pieces as usual; the shirt and buttons were an old shirt of Tim’s… and I used the same buttons for his eyes, the chinos are a nice piece of cotton twill that I plan to use for a pair for myself sometime… hopefully I didn’t cut too large a chunk for that to happen! and his little waistcoat was from a small scrap of fabric that I discovered in a bag of leftovers given to me by my mother-in-law.

I also made Arthur’s bunny a new outfit. I didn’t have his here to model it so Gilbert’s bunny has been roped in for the job. It’s a summer outfit; comprising a Hawaiian shirt and board shorts.

I had to include this picture of the shirt-making burrito! the instructions don’t have this but I figured why not make it as neat as possible. I used sew-in press studs for the shirt in lieu of buttons; they’re just easier and you don’t have to worry about ruining your tiny little shirt with a bad buttonhole. The fabric is leftover from my first Myosotis dress. The board shorts are white linen and blue linen that I dyed myself using a natural indigo dye bath. Actually, the leftovers from my recently made Mestre shirt.

Every year my family always exchanges some sort of homemade food treat too… my effort this year is gingerbread star biscuits to be dunked into tea or coffee. I made a little more that 160ish gingerbread stars and pondered how to decorate them, finally deciding upon an easy option of polka dots. Yes, I’m super into polka dots at the moment for some reason. Oh, and did I say “easy”? haha. For some reason this very simple concept took an entire afternoon and I’ve still got a numb spot on my finger from the pressure of operating the icing contraption thingie. I’m low key disappointed that so much work resulted in actually quite ordinary results, hmff. They are sadly not at all spectacular, but are definitely very yummy and I hope everyone likes them!

In other making news, not related to Christmas pressies; remember this dress? I made it using our own Karijini pattern and a doona cover. yes I still love it in principal, but had tired a little of its soft inoffensive colourway and last month subjected it to the unforgiving depths of the dye pot. It now looks a bit more eye-catching, ahem. I actually love it, and it feels like a new dress in my wardrobe, which is nice.

Posted in: crafty stuff, sewing \ Tagged: baking, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Christmas, dress, dyeing, Karijini dress, making luna lapin, toys

Innes nice?

09/12/2024 1:10 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

… so I made another thing recently… well two actually, but only one really, in the end. The first was Not Good…

Hello Innes dress, and welcome to my wardrobe… a pattern by Homer & Howells.

That was 2020 me blogging, now handing over to 2024 me, today… I’m shocked, really, that I have so far failed to blog about this dress, that I made about four years ago now… why did blogging slip my mind? I have no idea. Anyway here it is, finally. I decided to take it away with me on our recent beach holiday away and of course it was divine to wear over there… The only fault that I think I am going to rectify straight away is that it doesn’t have pockets. Which is silly since its roominess could so easily accomodate some.

I really love the subtle sweetheart neckline , and of course the chic length. I didn’t have enough of the white so added a panel of other fabric to the bottom, to get the proscribed length. Fabrics are a white cotton/linen mix, and a remnant of navy blue, slightly metallic stuff, both fabrics are I think originally from Fabulous Fabrics. I’m pretty sure Mum gave me the blue fabric.

Below is the first, tester version of the dress that I made… I used a sorta nasty pink and purple satin that was also inherited from Mum. I think she also inherited it from someone else at some point and never used it for obvious reasons. I used it to test the pattern and wore this version as a nightdress for a season.

I just want to say here, how much do I miss that white wall space in our old house?! SO MUCH!

… and here is my better version again, out in the wilds (haha) of the Maldives! worn with my raspberry crocheted hat. I actually crocheted that very hat during our previous holiday to the Maldives!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, homer and howells, Innes

Balinese sarong-style “alberthe” dress

07/07/2024 2:27 pm \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a new dress, possibly the last summer sundress before our cold winter sets in for real… I was very fortunate to have a warmish enough day recently in which I could wear it to the beach and take photos of it! although it was cold enough that I couldn’t bring myself to take off my little white Tshirt from underneath. I used a new pattern; the Fibremood Alberthe, and a sarong/piece of fabric that I bought in Indonesia back in 2018, when we went there to attend a friend’s wedding. I posted about my travel wardrobe back … whoops, and wow, I’ve just realised I never posted about that travel wardrobe at all. I wonder if I should gather together some pictures and write about it?!

The pattern can be made as either a little top or a dress… I wanted to use the border at the bottom of the dress, so the pattern pieces were laid down on the cross, and made the dress version as long as I was able to cut it. Actually, it’s supposed to be a much longer dress, like ankle length; however I was pretty happy that my pieces fitted perfectly on my fabric, albeit shorter; with almost no leftovers at all. My aim with sewing nowadays is for a few key outcomes, namely:

to use fabric already in the stash
cutting the pattern out with as few leftovers as possible
to also use all haberdashery, like buttons, zips, elastic etc etc from stash as much as possible too.

So far this year I’ve succeeded in just about all of these endeavours, which has certainly made me really happy… at least enough to assuage my occasional desires to violate outcome number 1, and indulge in buying new fabric. Yes, I still have such desires! I’m only human!

Anyway, that’s neither here not there right now… although I just wanted to mention it again to reaffirm that it’s still an ongoing thing.

The Alberthe is quite an interesting pattern, with an asymmetric long front fold providing width to the dress. It’s supposed to have a zip in the side seam, but I tested how it went over my head first and was happy to realise I could slip it on easily without the need for a zip. The back is a plainish, regular sundress style, with wide straps stitched in between the dress and a facing.

It has lovely deep pockets which is nice, although I certainly would have added them myself even if it didn’t! I didn’t hem it, which sounds lazy, but I wanted to retain the border as much as possible. After photographing it, I have second thoughts about this decision. It does look a little unfinished, to be honest. I may or may not go back before next summer and give it a narrow hem, we’ll see.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: alberthe, dress, fibremood

the Karijini dress

16/03/2024 7:36 pm \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’m back, and with a BIG project that has been on my mind for quite some time now… a new pattern! Please welcome the newest pattern to gallop out from the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co stable, the Karijini dress!

This is possibly our most ambitious design to date; being a complex arrangement of diagonal and asymmetric lines, pin tucks, folds and overlays, and hemline that dips low at the back and shows off your legs at the front… We absolutely love it; its unique style, structural lines, its comfortable fit combined with a (we think) quite elegant silhouette … and we hope that you do too! It is quite an advanced sew, but one that we think is well worth the effort.

Quick description; the Karijini is a comfortable summer dress with very interesting style lines… Technical description; the Karijini is a loose-fitting sleeveless asymmetric dress; with partial overlays both front and back. Features include generous inseam side pockets and asymmetric pin tucked hemlines across front and back. Skirt hits above knee at the front and tapers off to calf length at the back The dress has no closure but is designed to be slipped on over the head.

Some more important technical info;

I know, I know; the descriptions always sound so flat, but I promise this is not a flat design at all! I first made and profiled this design this design back in 2018 and, in the process of fine-tuning the construction procedure and writing the instructions I have made many for myself and more than a few for others too! The final pattern – well, my size anyway, of course not counting the grading – is practically identical to the first iteration, because I really was completely happy with that one straight off the bat. The only changes were to improve the construction and finishing techniques a little bit.

The name? well the Karijini National Park is in upper/middle Western Australia; and has always been one of our favourite places in WA. The gorges are absolutely beautiful, with waterfalls, rocky stratifications and layers at all angles .. all of which went towards inspiring the style lines of our new design.

following photo from the website;

the Travel Guide to Karijini National Park, WA – Tourism Australia

To showcase the design on a group of different ages and sizes, we have once again roped family members into modelng for us … I’m not kidding when I say this is one of our favourite aspects of doing the patterns! For our previous pattern, the Meelup skirt, we asked our niece/cousin Tiffany to model for us, this time it was her sister Jacinta who honoured us with her modelling skills.

My lovely mother/Cassie’s grandmother; was our other model, and both our photo sessions were such fun family events!

Jacinta’s dress was made in a softly “antique-y” blue floral from Spotlight, and Mum’s was made in a dark chocolate linen/cotton from the Morrison clothing fabric sale from a few years back. I love how the structural lines of the design are showcased in the solid, dark coloured fabric; as well as how soft and pretty it appears in the floral.

Cassie also made one for herself in two contrasting fabrics; a large scale blue check and plain white cottons… doesn’t this look so cool?!

As a reminder, here are some of my previously made versions of the Karijini;

the original, ochre linen version…

this green sparkle version…

this striped version… I have received many compliments for this one over the years!

this large scale check version… I have since dyed this version dark blue, and it looks quite different! At some stage I will take a photo and upload it here to show…

To celebrate the release of our newest pattern, we are currently offering 20% off the price for one week only, until Sunday 24th March… this apples to all our patterns in our Etsy shop here. Discount applies automatically at checkout, no code is needed. We hope you enjoy the sale, and our new Karijini pattern!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Cassie, dress, Karijini dress, Mum, own design, pattern

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

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

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!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: baby clothes, babywear, burda 07/2018 118, daily outfit, dress, own design, recipes

check it out…

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

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.

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, Vogue 2900

a patchwork dress

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

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!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, own design, patchwork

pumpkin spice… plus some lovely sea-foamy green things

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

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.