Tag Archives: Dress

Ladylike in brown

13/09/2010 5:25 am \ 11 Comments \

This morning attended a ladylike morning tea to celebrate a friend’s birthday, so have thoroughly enjoyed the last hour sitting in the dappled shade of the jacarandas sipping tea from a charmingly cracked and mis-matched pretty china set, ahh, just bliss… but now the fun is over and it’s back to the office…
Now, kind people leave me lots of lovely sweet compliments (and thankyou!) on the picturesque backdrops in my photos; so I’ll let you in on my little photography secret… well I take nearly all my photos in either one of about three or four locations, and it’s amazing how different the effect in a shot can be just by pointing the lens in a slightly different direction.  For example the sunlight is quite bright today so I decided to set up my camera in the shade of a tree for this photo.  I think the muted light shows off the fabric textures and colours of my outfit better than in direct sunlight, which here in Australia can be quite harsh and create either too dramatic shadows on one’s clothes or alternatively bright bright areas completely devoid of any discernible detail… but from where I am standing in the above photo the view I am looking at is this…

So I couldn’t resist kicking off my shoes, rotating the camera 180degrees and stepping out on the beach for one more shot, and decided to show here it to demonstrate the contrast even though you can’t see my dress very well from this angle…!  Which background do you like better? 

Details:
Dress; Burda 8511 from tobacco wool mix, modified to be more fitted and fully lined
Cardigan; knitted by me to my own design, using Jo Sharp Aran Tweed in Brindle
Shoes; Sandler, from David Jones
Bag; Gucci

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Green Day

11/09/2010 5:06 am \ 8 Comments \

Aaah, social whirling over and life is back to normal around here for a while…  I do like to go out and get dressed up once in a while and the social season is certainly upon us now spring is here…  but I do hope nobody came here expecting a glamour-puss today because she’s nowhere to be seen!
A normal-ish Saturday so far, spent much of the morning waiting in a ginormous queue to organise foreign money for my son’s upcoming trip overseas; in a week’s time my youngest is going away on a trip alone for the first time (insert brave deep breath and lower lip wobble here…)
So today being a bit overcast and cool, I’m dressed for moderately presentable comfort and warmth; this is perhaps one of the more dubious of my Self-stitched September ensembles so please be kind!  The dress is a favourite seen here heaps of times  (but first and only time for this month! as per my self-imposed rule of no repeats, hehe), Burda 8071 made out of ivory broderie anglaise cheesecloth (to see this styled in six different ways see here)  This dress is really a summer-weight dress, and if I do wear it on a cooler day I usually prefer to wear my Metalicus petticoat underneath, but as I am strictly eliminating store-bought from this month’s clothing I had to think of something else…  The skirt worn underneath is possibly the only version I have of my old standby Vogue 7303 that is made to the pattern as it is in the envelope, and the hooded cardigan is knitted by me to my own design, and is perfectly snuggly for a moody cloudy day.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, slightly stretchy white cotton/lycra
Dress; Burda 8071, ivory broderie anglaise cheescloth
Hoodie; my own design, Jo Sharp Silk Road DK in Ambrosia
Boots; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp shoes

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A glitzy lunch-date

10/09/2010 8:17 am \ 7 Comments \

Ahhh, another day, another fashion parade and champagne lunch…. and no, I’m actually not joking.  Just quietly I’m getting a little fashion-paraded out, and I never thought those words would ever come from me! ….hehe.  No, really, I have seen some truly lovely and inspiring clothes over the past couple of days, and today I was lunching together with my husband, so an extra specially nice treat for both of us.
I knew the venue for today was going to be more glitzy and glamourous than yesterday (yesterday’s was more of a quietly dressy affair) so luckily I had all ready my glam, edgy cocktail dress that I finished recently … I’m so glad I have this dress now, I’m so happy with how it turned out and there’s nothing like being completely prepared for the social whirl of spring that can descend upon you with the suddenness of a tidal wave, causing unwary social butterflies who’ve failed to plan ahead to race out desperately shopping for a springtime dress, any dress, because they’ve suddenly realised they have absolutely nothing to wear and the events are starting to happen now now now.

Details:
Dress; Vogue 1155, bronze silk taffeta, see more details and my review of this pattern here
Bag and necklace; gifts from my husband
Shoes; Misano, from Labels
Sunnies; RayBan

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The colours of Spring

09/09/2010 9:23 am \ 19 Comments \

Today I attended a very glamourous luncheon and fashion parade with friends, and am now exhausted…   so please excuse any crazy bad spelling or random ungrammatical remarks in this post…
For this occasion I wore my new pink lace dress, and because it is still just barely into spring I took along my trench coat for the anticipated chill factor.  And ended up not wearing it… but here it is draped over my arm just in case (how many times do you take a coat “just in case” and it spends the entire function draped over the back of your chair?!)… 
Also for this special occasion gave myself the first pedicure of the season, released my poor neglected feet from the comfort of their winter wooly socks and given them the once over, including a coat of varnish in a gorgeous golden springtime glow.
He he, this morning I walked the dog in this dress and with thongs (flipflops) on my feet and got a few sideways glances; when I mentioned it to a friend later she suggested that people might have thought I was wearing my nightie?!  What do you think?  Does this look like a nightie?

Details:
Dress; modified Simplicity 3745, pale pink and caramel lace, see here
Petticoat; Burda 8071, pale pink satin
Trench coat; modified Burda 7786, beige cotton, see here
Sandals; Sachi, some little boutique in Melbourne
Necklace; gift from my husband
Nail varnish; Max Factor, Gold Peach

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Tennis, anyone?

03/09/2010 7:07 am \ 2 Comments \

Day 3 of Self Stitched September! and OK, so with honesty I’m not actually playing tennis in this ensemble…
This dress was made for last summer; my own design variations based upon New Look 6699, for more details and a full view of the dress, see here.  This dress goes by the dubious moniker of the Straitjacket dress, for the reason that I installed a much too short zip in the side seam, and so it requires some degree of crazy struggling to get it on and off.  I know, I know, get with the programme, just buy a new zip and put it in already, but really the few minutes of undignified struggling in the dressing room is a minor inconvenience compared to to the prospect of the alternative; fiddling about with the unpicking and putting in of a new invisible zip, and this one is actually perfect (if I say so myself), with all seams on the bodice, midriff and skirt lining up so perfectly I just don’t have the heart to re-do it.  Ho hum, too many other more exciting projects await to be bothered with that, so…  the Straitjacket dress is here to stay as it is… !
And because the air is still a little brisk today I slipped on my seersucker trench coat, which I made for summer two years ago using Burda 7786, first seen here.
And roll on summer!

Details:
Dress; my own design variations based on New Look 6699, two different printed and embroidered cottons
Trench coat; Burda 7786, white seersucker

Shoes; Country Road
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Daffodil Day

27/08/2010 5:39 am \ 6 Comments \

Today is Daffodil Day in Australia.
Like just about everyone, cancer has touched my life too.  I have lost family members and friends.  One close friend is a survivor.  It’s nice to have a reason to buy flowers.  I would feel outrageously self-indulgent if I were to buy myself flowers on any other day, but today it feels right.  These will sit in the kitchen and brighten up the day of everyone who sees them.  And most of the proceeds are going to a very good cause.
On a fashion note; this dress may well get the heave-ho after Self-Stitched September.  I still kind of like it, kind of don’t… love the colour but the weird bodice has always been a problem.  See how the model on the pattern envelope has her arm folded across her chest? ding ding ding ding! …   Something to bear in mind when checking out pattern photos in the future…  I’m sitting on the fence about this one… but for today it goes beautifully with my yellow scarf!

Details:
Dress; Burda 7897, dark olive green bamboo/cotton mix
Cardigan; Country Road
Belt; emu leather, don’t know brand
Scarf; d’lux, from Uggies
Tights; Metalicus
Booties; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

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Pink lace dress

21/08/2010 4:50 am \ 16 Comments \

I’ve made a new dress for spring, but I’ve persuaded Bessie to model it for today… because I’ve started to think about Self-Stitched September coming up where I’ll be documenting my handmade daily outfits everyday (hope that’s not going to be too boring) and no doubt I’ll be wearing it one of those days and will take a snap of myself then.  I’ve decided to challenge myself to wear totally handmade, save for tights and shoes… and to never double-up.  It will be a challenge, so I’ll see how I go.  May have to pop on a store-bought top or T-shirt getting to the end of it, but I’ll try not to…
I bought this pink lace back in the Fabulous Fabrics sale last December and finally got around to sewing the dress I first envisioned back then… the first hurdle was of course that the fabric is completely see through, so a slip was an obvious mandatory requirement.  For some strange mental reason, I determined to finish this slip to moderately high standards, yes, even though it’s a slip.  I get these funny urges sometimes, maybe it’s because of reading other peoples’ blogs about applying immaculate finishes that is spurring me on…  I’m not always this patient because sometimes you just want to get the thing done, no?
Anyhoo, the slip has French seams on the side seams, and Hong Kong binding on the centre back seam, where the invisible zip is inserted.  The lower hem and the bodice facing is all invisibly stitched by hand (OK I do do this to all my dresses), although I’m not 100% happy with how the hem looks and may do a different finish on this (any ideas?)… the silk satin won’t be pressed into a traditional double fold hem as flat as I would like.  The ribbon straps have lingerie findings incorporated to enable the straps to be adjustable.  The pattern I used for the slip is Burda 8071, and for the dress itself I drafted a heavily modified version of Simplicity 3745.  Heavily modified in that all the gathering and pleating and the zip has been removed from the dress in order to streamline the silhouette and to use less fabric.  The lace is a stretch so can just be pulled over my head.

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Domestic diva

12/08/2010 2:25 am \ 12 Comments \

Should one make the effort to look stylish when one’s daily schedule involves simply popping into the supermarket, the post office and the bank?  Or if one’s place of work is in the home?  After all, if the peeps around you are in their tracky dacks and ugg boots the pressure is on to follow suit, and if you’ve gone to the effort to dress up kinda nice then you run the risk of feeling overdressed and flashy when all about are very casz…
Well, I reckon all power to the thoughtful dresser.  I feel better within myself if I look like I cared… so I do make an effort.
Having said that I’m not super dressed up here, but just a bit.  This is a very simple dress (sometimes the simplest will be the most worn item in one’s wardrobe!) that is not gorgeous, but handy.  I’ve found it to be a very versatile garment; to see how I styled it in six different way, see here.  Oh, and I know I wore this cardigan only the other day, but I’m loving its drab blue sooooo much, could be grabbing it everyday if I wasn’t trying to mix it up more… and it went so well with the socks I had on I just had to put it back on again for today.  I’m really making an effort to rotate through my wardrobe, but some things are proving handy and comfortable and fit in so well with my style thoughts for that day… so here it is again.  And the new shoes.  Wearing them in.  Love them so much…

Details:
Dress; Burda 8071, ivory eyelet cheesecloth
Petticoat; Metalicus
Cardigan (under); Country Road
Cardigan (over); refashioned by me from old jumper
Socks; knitted by me, Patonyles sock wool
Shoes; Francesco Morrichetti from Zomp shoes
Bag; Gucci

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