Tag Archives: Dress

Need a deluge; now

21/05/2010 5:39 am \ 9 Comments \


Please take my word for it that my hair looked quite nice before I got to take this photo; an sudden evil wind struck up out of nowhere and I went from looking unusually chic, smooth and polished to my usual messy-haired self…  and I even used a hairdryer this morning.  I don’t know why I bother.
After a quick attendance at a Biggest Morning Tea (for cancer research) this morning and a few errands I have Dynamic Liftered my whole garden and now have my fingers crossed for rain!  (for those unacquainted with Dynamic Lifter, it is pulverised chook poo)  You can imagine the rich heady aroma now wafting through our open windows…  I thought rain was forecast for today, but about five minutes of light drizzle and that’s been it…  desperately need a downpour to water in that smell!
As I’m typing this, brilliant sunshine is bursting through the few patchy clouds remaining in the sky to taunt and tease me.  Oh, I love the sunshine, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the divine weather we are having, but… we need some rain!  
Does anyone know a good rain-dance?

Details:
Dress; Burda 8511, purple/blue silk hessian
Cardigan; Morrison
Shoes; Timberland
Bag; Gucci

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,

Pattern Magic; project 4

14/05/2010 11:43 am \ 14 Comments \
It might seem as though I’ve forgotten about my pledge to work my way through the very excellent book Pattern Magic by Nakamichi Tomoko but I haven’t.  It’s just that other sewing projects (such as ballgowns) have intervened and new wardrobe requirements have surfaced as the weather has got colder.  Lately a few naughty new additions to the fabric stash has meant the door to my laundry cupboard no longer closes without Bessie standing outside, her firm butt and her steel foot preventing an absolute avalanche of fabric…  so it was time for me to self-discipline and get back to the to-do list!  And I had purchased this fabric ages ago from the cheapie table at my favourite fabric store and it was just sitting there, waiting to be made up into something… anything…
Anyhoo, here is my latest effort.  I hadn’t got very far into drafting this particular pattern before I realised I was totally going to wear it.  Not only was the colour of this fabric close enough to the air force blue I am currently craving for my winter wardrobe, but I think the dress design is so delightfully different from your run-of-the-mill shift dress without being so odd as to attract sideways glances in the supermarket.  I think an avant-garde pattern made up with a very plain utilitarian fabric such as this sober blue crepe is a happy partnership that works pretty well, if I say so myself!
I started with the bodice drafted at the first stage of the book.  Next step to take a few body measurements enabling you to extend the bodice to get a simple undarted front and back of a shift dress, you then cut out a circle on the side seam and slash the pattern in a sunburst from this circle and fan out the resulting triangular pieces; this is how you achieve the gathered hole at the side seam… hard to explain, but the excellent diagrams in “Pattern Magic” illustrate how to draft the pattern very clearly. 
And here is the dress…  Different, no?  I think my husband was anticipating a bit of flesh exposure happening with this dress, but nooo! … 😉  Plus it’s now definitely too chilly in Perth even for teens to be in their midriff tops!… (Chilly being a relative term here in Perth!)
I just love Japanese sewing books for this reason, their illustrations are so excellent as to make understanding the language not so necessary that you can’t follow the instructions.  I’ve recently acquired through a loan from a friend another superb Japanese pattern book that I plan to work through straight after this one.  Being totally and completely in Japanese though, including the title and cover page, I am unable to supply the name of my borrowed book until further internet research has been carried out…
Details:
Dress; from Pattern Magic, by Nakamichi Tomoko
Top underneath; Metalicus
Boots; Mina Martini, from Marie Claire
pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,

Toasty warm layers

13/05/2010 4:21 am \ 9 Comments \

So you can probably tell by my windswept hair in this photo that the weather today is a blustery foretaste of winter to come here in Perth!
On a whim this morning while trying to decide what to wear, I put this op shop skirt on under the purple heather dress and it felt so warm and cosy I kept it on.  And I really like how the three striped layers of colour looks from top to bottom of this outfit.  Previously I wouldn’t have thought of wearing a skirt under a dress but I think it works in this case when both are straight and plain and in lovely toning colours.  They look a little off-parallel here, but trust me, that is the wind effect and the hems actually line up quite well indoors!
And remember when I announced I would be replacing the lining of this skirt because of its annoying tendency to cling to my legs?  Well today being so brisk and all, the lining-clinging-to-the-legs feature of this skirt turned out to be a plus.  Toasty warm legs!  The lining’s going to stay after all!

Details:
Dress; Burda 8511 with minor adjustments, purple hessian silk
Skirt; Salvation Army op shop ($2!)
Cardigan; Country Road
Boots; Enrico Antinori
Bag; Gucci

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,

Mauve and apricot

23/04/2010 8:02 am \ 6 Comments \

It’s wonderful when you go to the wardrobe and discover a dress that you had almost forgotten you had.  And this is a new dress, it’s not that long since I made it, shame on me.  Must be getting forgetful, first sign of old age…?
I love this colour combination of the purple-y mauve with soft apricot orange, whispers “autumn” to me so well.  Later in the supermarket when I donated to the ANZAC’s and got this sticker, it happened to go so nicely with my outfit, fortuitous, no?
I met up with some friends for morning tea this morning, had a few errands afterwards and rounded up the day out with a revisit to Ricarda with my daughter so I could get a closer look at the clothes I saw in the parade the other night; up close I marvelled even more over the cut and construction of those lovely garments.  Of course the prices made us gasp, but if they weren’t expensive then they wouldn’t be so exciting, right?

Details:
Dress; Burda 8511, shot silk hessian
Cardigan; Nine, from Labels boutique
Boots; Enrico Antinori from Zomp shoes

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,

Mossy Feather dress

26/03/2010 5:38 am \ 7 Comments \

I read a very funny post by Erin recently in which she pointed out how Anthropologie gave their garments cutesie little names in which to entice customers into buying…  I’ve decided to give my creations names from now on.  Actually in my head some of my clothes have little nicknames already, you may remember the Bouchee dress, I also have the Straightjacket dress, you may be able to picture it although I’ve not formally given it this name in this blog yet… and the Maternity dress…  er it’s dawning on me these are not enticing names and I need to lift my game up somewhat.  Need to tap into my inner poet (haha!)
So today’s dress.  The newly named Mossy Feather dress.  Yesterday I posted about garments I make that are put away and almost forgotten about, well this one was a pleasant surprise when I unearthed it a few days ago.  I made it back in November, and promptly forgot about it over summer.  Doh!  It’s from Vogue 2820, an Anna Sui design, and made from the most mouthwatering silk printed with an abstract tracery of feathers and leaves, and in earthy woodland colours, a mix of brown-pinks, chocolate and moss green reminiscent of a Renaissance master landscape…  The trim is a deep chocolate nylon net.  Looking back I was having a love affair with my new Ducky shoes (thankyou Lily for inspiring that nickname!) and was planning for a wardrobe to match…  Still adore these shoes…

Details:
Dress; Vogue 2820 view B, printed silk
Shoes; Ducky, bought online from KronKron

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,

Chocolate, gold and turquoise

02/03/2010 5:10 am \ 2 Comments \

Above, the sky is a rich intense shade of turquoise with not a single wisp of cloud to mar its relentless plane of colour; it’s not surprising I was drawn to this vivid and gorgeous shade of nail varnish… (if only I’d had it in time for Saturday’s photo, no?!)   The name of this shade is Fool’s Paradise, a message, perhaps?  Need to shake this lethargy and get onto the officework, I think…
The air is still and heavy and this heat is seriously sapping my will to live, but I’m doggedly pursuing my plan to branch into autumnal fashion and leave the hues of summer behind.
Luckily the Bouchee dress is of a shade to pass any autumn colour test even though autumn here isn’t of nearly the richness of colours that it brings to colder climates, our version is more of a season of relief and recovery from the harsh ravages of the summer months.  And today being another 36C scorcher this dress is tolerably cool and a joy to wear.  I’m glad I rescued it from my Salvo’s pile….
Today I’m wearing it with a necklace I bought as a souvenir from Santorini, the island my imagination wanders to on so many occasions, and my golden jewelled sandals, which were bought, er here, sadly no romance or memories associated with their purchase, driven just by a prosaic need for summer footwear.  Nonetheless I have my necklace and my turquoise toe-nails to transport me mentally back to the happy casual handholding days of Greece….

Details:
Dress; my own design based on McCalls 4454, brown self-embroidered cotton
Necklace; souvenir from Santorini
Sandals; Anna, bought from MarieClaire shoes
Nail varnish; Fool’s Paradise, BYS

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , ,

Carpet of flowers

20/02/2010 1:59 am \ 6 Comments \

Felt like going a bit flowery and feminine today.  We have this beautiful long row of pink hibiscus near our house so for my photo I rushed over to advantage of the local colour, so to speak…  I love hibiscus for their showy and yet elegant flowers, and their soft very feminine colours.  I only wish one could cut their flowers; imagine a huge armful in an old-fashioned cut crystal vase on the sideboard.  It would be so nice, but hibiscus are notorious for their bad behaviour once cut, they close up immediately and refuse to come out to play, one imagines they are sulking from being cut off from their bush…
I made this dress at the beginning of last spring, using Vogue 7748 as a basic wrap dress pattern but adding my own design details, for more technical information see here…  
The flower pin in my hair I made myself; it is just one of those silk flowers on a stalk from Spotlight, with the stalk cut off and the flower superglued onto a bobby pin.
My husband is working all today so I’m off to morning tea with a friend, doing girly type stuff like window shopping and looking at nurseries, thus my frilly floral ensemble….  Its nice to feel like a real girl every once in a while.

Details:
Dress; my own variations on Vogue 7748, floral polyester chiffon
Shoes; Micam by Joanne Mercer, Hobbs
Hair pin; made from a silk flower
Nail varnish; own mix of BYS Mint Condition and French White

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , ,

Valentine’s Day picnic

15/02/2010 3:41 am \ 4 Comments \

A hot hot hot Valentine’s Day yesterday, but by sunset a light breeze rippled through to freshen the air and the river foreshore was romantically dotted here and there with picnicking couples quietly toasting the day.  As the sun set the sky put on a blazing show of colour, signalling another day of sunshine to come….
As my grandmother used to say: Red at night, shepherd’s delight, red in the morning, shepherd’s warning.  It goes without saying that we have had no red mornings for quite some time now….
I wore my white dotted swiss voile dress from Simplicity 3745 that has been such a useful cool little dress in spite of my initial misgivings that its vaguely maternity-like shape would not suit me; and my hot pink Metalicus cardigan, by sunset the temperature had dropped to the extent I was glad I had the cardi with me.
We sipped champagne and beer respectively, and feasted on feta-and-salmon salad and mangoes;  and it was gorgeous.  A nice contrast to last year, when I booked us into a usually nice restaurant where we were “assembly-lined” through a fairly unimaginative set-course menu at a grossly inflated price… 
(Oh, and in case anyone was wondering whether my “chocolate-y” hints of the day before were noticed and acted upon, well ahem, they were not.  I think my husband needs hints of a far more direct variety in future!!!)

Details:
Dress; Simplicity 3745 with minor variations; white dotted swiss voile and lace
Cardigan; Metalicus, gift from my girlfriends
Scarf; from Italy, gift from my parents

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,
Switch to mobile version
↓