dress Archives - Page 4 of 34 - Handmade by Carolyn

green

27/10/2022 7:00 am \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

I made this little green sundress back in February, and have worn it quite a lot! It’s very comfortable and easy to wear…

the design is my very own. I’ve made this before in ochre linen, pictured and blogged here; and Cassie and I have been planning to make it into a pattern. This is the reason I haven’t blogged it yet, to be honest; as I was hoping to “unveil” it as a new pattern by now.

Believe it or not; I have already drawn up the pattern, AND graded it, and I’ve made a solid start on the instructions too… however Cassie as a part-time working Mum of a small toddler doesn’t have as much free time as she would like to work on the pdf side of things! Sadly! But it should get done, hopefully by early next year. Look out for it then!

The fabric is from Minerva; and is quilting cotton, of all things! but it is quite soft and even nicely drape-y too, and not too stiff. The green is kinda splotchy, in a good way! and has a subtle sparkle to it too. I’ve loved wearing it! and hope the pattern does well when it’s finally released. People seem interested in it, which is encouraging 🙂

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

pink Yoga Girl

09/10/2022 2:50 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

Hello!

So I don’t often wear hot pink but I am really feeling this one! I’ve been traditionally told I should NOT wear this colour, like EVER; and what’s more I’ve always agreed, and yet… somehow… here I am. I find myself just really enjoying everything about this dress. It just feels so fun and cheerful youthful and unashamedly kitsch; all awesome things that we could do with more of in our lives, in my opinion 🙂

I made this dress a few months ago, and while it’s been a very cold winter for us here in Perth this year I have actually managed to wear it a handful of times already!

It is a Nerida Hansen print; Yoga Girl, the lilac colour way, and the pattern I adapted is also a Nerida Hansen one, the Smock Dress pattern…

Yes, it doesn’t look much like the pattern, so please allow me to explain:

the bodice is actually the same, just cut longer…
the skirt is cut correspondingly shorter; ie voila, it’s now a drop-waisted dress … these both due to a paucity of fabric
I left off the sleeve cuffs and just hemmed the sleeves as is
I cut a V-neckline and finished it with a bias cut strip; I did start out with the higher, rounded neckline of the pattern but it didn’t look so nice; thus the re-shape…
I added slanted welt pockets into the front

Simples!!

So yes, this is a very short and sweet blog post, but sometimes that is all that is necessary. If you’re reading this then I hope you’re having a great weekend!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, nerida hansen, NH smock dress

the fascinating sleeves of farrah

22/09/2022 2:35 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

…hyperbole? I don’t think so!

The sleeves of my newest thing are extremely cool imo… I’m really enamoured with their very unique design. I’m always on the lookout for cool design ideas anyway, and was so excited to try this one out!

Oh yes, what pattern is this?… the new Fibremood Farrah dress. It calls itself a “dress” but my honest opinion is that it is far more coat-like… I’m wearing mine over a merino tee and a corduroy skirt in my pictures here. It is a very easy pattern to make, despite the sleeves appearing sorta avant garde. They look interesting but end up being a pretty simple construction, which is an interesting thing in itself, I suppose!

I used a length of deep midnight blue slubby cotton that Mum had given me when she cleaned out her stash – and yes, there’s even more where that came from! – I’m pretty sure it was originally from Fabulous Fabrics because I’ve seen it in the store. It’s quite sturdy but soft and pliable and sews up beautifully; I’ve bought lots of this stuff in the past in different colour ways and made up loads of things. Really really love it; in any colour way. I’ve had to restrain myself to not buy any more during my pledge to use up my stash! Btw, remember I made a little pledge to not buy any new fabric until I’d used up 30m of my stash? Well, I finished that and now I’ve decided to unofficially extend my pledge to not buy any new fabric until I’ve used up the WHOLE LOT; within reason. By that I mean; if I have to buy more, to make some desperately needed thing and have absolutely nothing that will do then I will; but as much as possible I am determined to keep going until it is ALL GONE. I know, right?! I wonder how long it is going to take me! I’m excited to find out!

Anyway, fortunately I had almost the exact right amount to make up this design… almost! I was short by about 5cm to cut out the sleeves as intended, but I just shortened the sleeves by folding a tuck in the pattern piece and ploughed ahead. I’m very happy with the resulting bracelet sleeves so it was a very serendipitous “oh damn” moment in the end after all.

I didn’t have any buttons that suited, but did have some bright white plastic ones with a nice surface design; so with a view to (again, recurring theme) using the stash as much as possible, I dug out some royal blue spray paint from the shed (used previously for when I made these shoes) and gave them a little face-lift. It’s not a perfect colour match by any means but I really love how they turned out!

I’m very happy with how smart and stylish this dress/coat turned out! and am really going to enjoy wearing it during our warmer months coming up. When they do… it’s still quite cold here *sad face* I’m desperate for summery weather!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: coat, dress, farrah, fibremood

a bit green about the gills

24/07/2022 6:25 pm \ 11 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a green dress… this is a dress that I’ve been meaning to make for ages! and have been quietly gathering suitable green fabrics as I see or unearth them. It’s actually been a very long term work in progress! since I identified what I thought could be the first suitable fabric about four years ago. I know, right?!

You can actually see it right here; it’s the leftovers from this little bag that I made for Mum, for her birthday back in 2018… this is what I think of as the “jade” green colour centre front of the skirt part… it was harvested from a pair of silk trousers that Mum had let go years ago. The “yellow” green raw silk was from the remnant bin at Fabulous Fabrics; as was also the “grey” green silk suiting remnant… although they were trophies from separate hunting trips… and the darkest forest green cotton corduroy was leftover from these paper-bag waist trousers, and originally from Minerva.

So obviously I love this pattern a lot, it’s the sixth time I’ve made it up! Here’s a little collage of all the V1316’s I’ve made… from left to right, top to bottom they are:

1; made from four pairs of old corduroy trousers; black, brown, grey and cream…I describe how I add pockets to the design in this post too.

2; made from blue corduroy, that I pre-overdyed with different dyes to be four different shades of blue… this one is probably my own personal favourite…

3; made from four different colours of cotton corduroy. I later overdyed the whole dress crimson for a more cohesive look

4; made using old denim jeans. This was the first one I did not line, and it is perfectly fine of course! This one is probably an equal favourite for me too! 🙂

5; made using yellow cotton canvas, leftover from the covers I made for Clara’s dog beds. The seams are defined with blue bias cut cotton. This seems to be everyone else’s favourite over on instagram!

6; my new one!

I’m extremely happy with my newest one! and I made a few slight mods, has well as the usual addition of pockets! Of course! I simply CANNOT live without pockets nowadays, sorry. I know this is a very well-worn lament that perhaps should go without mentioning yet again, and yet this is a sewing blog and so I guess it really needs to be mentioned. Sorry.

I lined the dress fully with light jade green lining fabric, and instead of using the same lining fabric to cut the shoulder pieces, like the pattern suggests and which I have obeyed for versions 1,2 and 3 in the past; I cut them from the dark green cotton corduroy, I also cut an extra centre front bodice piece and stitched it to the neckline of the dress lining… these help to keep the lining “invisible” because I’ve always found in the past that the lining has a tendency to peep out on this dress, no matter how carefully you understitch the armhole and neckline edges. This is such a simple fix and I’m glad it finally occurred to me!

Still pretty chuffed with these circa 2022 labels! The challenge with each garment is to find a good spot to put it!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: dress, vogue 1316, Wardrobe Refashion

dp studio dress with sporty details

05/05/2022 2:17 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

O hello! I made a new dress… this is a pattern that I’ve had for years, and have only just got around to finally giving it a whirl. It’s the dp studio Le 905, or “dress with sporty details” and it’s pretty fun I think! Quite unique in all its details, and you really don’t see many of them in the sewing community. Since a major reason I sew is to have a unique wardrobe then I further reasoned that it was a good choice.

The gorgeous main fabric is this cotton plaid in the colour jade/red from Minerva. I really enjoyed sewing with this crisp, strong and sturdy and yet lightweight fabric… t was really easy to work with, which is always a joy! The design has curved panels in the front bodice and also panels in the armscye seam; I did not have enough plaid to cut the panels as well, so cut these from plain white cotton. At some point I thought the white panels were going to look a little stark against the plaid, so I edged them with strips of bias-cut red cotton, leftovers from this dress… this is the method I used for this.

I really love how this looks in the end! reminds me a little of the sort of racing stripes you get with sportswear like tracksuits, stripes going up the sides of the legs etc; and I’m very happy this plays into the “sporty details” that the dress is named for.

Some other details of the dress: the skirt is cut in two huge, identical pieces, unusually with a centre front and centre back seam. Of course I obsessively plaid matched along these seams… 😀 Actually, I also had to cut the back bodice in two pieces and join them, because of not enough fabric. I stitched my circa 2022 label to the back this time.

The design allows for no pockets, so I added some slanted single welt pockets in the appropriate location. Due again to lack of plaid fabric I cut the pocket bags are cut from the same red cotton as the decorative strips, I had just enough plaid to cut the welts and a strip to edge the pocket bags… so you don’t get blasted with red if you happen to peek inside the pockets!

The above picture also shows the neckline facing edged with red bias; I prefer necklines finished thus nowadays, since it’s softer and less irritating against the skin. Honestly, overlocking itches and irritates and drives me mad sometimes.

The above pictures also shows the sleeves and hemline finished with a facing, I cut these from an irridiscent teal blue/pink taffeta that I had already in my stash. So perfectly matched! it’s like it was meant to be. The casing was a heavy-ish white cotton chosen for its strength.

The sleeves are supposed to be gathered into the armscye… I initially did this, but decided the puffy sleeves were just too fussy for my tastes. Quite honestly, can puffy sleeves ever be considered “sporty” anyway? Anyway I unpicked my sleeves and took 13cm from each sleeve at the sleeve seams; so the sleeves could be inserted into the armscye without gathering. Much nicer in my opinion!

As pictured above, the waistline has a casing attached inside the dress with twin casings for twin drawstrings, both feeding out of two eyelets. This took me quite a bit of time threading them through, and also arranging them each time I put on the dress takes a little bit of time too; and so I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with the outcome. If I was going to make this design again I would do a single casing for just a single drawstring, I think. The two of them together don’t always draw up as equally/evenly as I would like, so arranging them neatly just seems a bit fussy.

Oh, one last thing; someone on instagram asked me about the dp studio instructions, and I would have to honestly say they are minimal, at the best! If you have been sewing for a while and do not need exact and unambiguous direction then you’ll be fine. Otherwise, maybe not!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: dp studio, dress, le 905

hand drawn check

03/03/2022 1:08 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Isn’t this fabric totally gorgeous?!! I love it so much! I still have a huge affinity to pink, despite that I’m not “supposed” to wear it, whatever that means.. well, if it makes you happy! And this little group of colours really does.

This is the Hand Drawn check by Nerida Hansen fabrics, colourway Navy Pink – yes of course they had me at “navy” plus “pink”; one of my all time favourite colour combinations! and I used one of their patterns, the Summer dress to make this too! btw way, yes those are direct links to the things, but rest assured they are not affiliate links 🙂

goes so nicely with my teal clogs!! #bonus

and yes I made those too… details here

I’m totally over the moon with the gorgeously pretty and floaty result… it’s a really lovely combination, if I say so myself 🙂 The design is very simple; it just slips over your head with no closure needed, my favourite sort of thing to wear, especially in summer 😉 and the beautiful cool slipperiness of the tencel linen sliding over your body as it goes is an absolute delight.

The Summer dress design has massive pockets, ahem; not that that is in any way important, of course! 😉 and a slight oversized-ness that feels happily up-to-the-minute in the fashion stakes. I wasn’t sure if I should go down a size, but in the end decided to trust the size chart. And actually I’m in love with the loose fit. I really like the midi length. It’s not a length that I’ve been wearing a lot over the last few years but I feel it sneaking back into my list of “wants”; as in things that my mind feels lately are all of flattering, comfortable, and a little bit of a refreshing change. They say that hemline lengths are the barometer of the fashion world? well who knows, I often just think that anything goes in fashion right now, but it is nice to have a variety of things to choose from in the wardrobe.

I was careful to match up the checks at the side as best I could; even though I sometimes rail against the rigidity of this mindset, and I feel like it can sometimes lead to more fabric wastage too… I still do it myself most of the time! It does look a lot nicer when you go to the effort of making sure the print is nice and consistent all around. As it turned out; the skirt length was just about perfect that there was almost no wastage through pattern matching; which was a nice outcome. And I managed to cut the huge deep pockets from the sides, so I actually have a small amount of leftovers for … something.

Of course I fell in love with that print first and foremost, but actually the quality is superb as well. It sewed up beautifully; very soft and supple, but has a very nice amount of body too.

I cut some of the leftovers into bias strips and made bias binding; which I used to bind the front and back facing. I love the look of this! and of course it’s a much more comfortable finish to wear than if you just whizz it around on the overlocker; which can be scratchy. Of course I also added a circa 2022 label. These are so cute! and the novelty has not worn off at all for me 🙂 Probably going to put one of these on each and every thing I make for myself this year!

And I made a mask. As you do. However, just something about the print – which I love! – well in a mask I felt like it turned out a little bit … Hannibel Lector-ish? Yeah, I know; once you see it… The dress itself doesn’t trigger that for me at all… but in a mask? hmmm!

Why yes, I did indeed made my hat too. One of my all-time most worn garments! Details here

Now I have to confess this fabric was new to me this year, so I can’t really count it in my #use30 metres fr0m stash. In the process of testing our new pattern lately I have used another 4m of fabric from my stash, but I really should ADD the 2m I used for this gorgeous dress in there to be fair! So; I think I can subtract the balance of 2m off my tally; bringing me up to 15m used, and 15m to go? sounds kinda about right? I know; it’s getting a bit dodgy in the accounting department but honestly I have zero regrets. I absolutely love this fabric and it makes me very happy, so I’m definitely not beating myself up over the whole thing. I will use 30m from the standing stash in the end, however long it takes, and I’m content with that.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Clara, daily outfit, dress, mask, nerida hansen, NH summer dress

nani Iro Encounter dress

11/02/2022 11:04 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new rather beachy little dress!

I bought this beautiful fabric over two years ago, the last time we were in Japan and Yoshimi took us to her favourite craft store; Yuzawaya in Kichijoji, it’s quite close to the Studio Ghibli museum and we popped in on our way. It is a nani Iro double cotton gauze”Encounter”; and it’s so pretty! but in a sparse, painterly way that I think it’s not too pretty for me.

I used a pattern from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori; dress F which I have made several times before. It’s my favourite from the book, because it is so subtly stylish in a very quiet and cute way without tipping into too cute (for me). My favourite thing about it is the shaped, open sleeve design, with little ties. I squeezed in seam side pockets, of course; and actually used up practically every scrap of my 2m of fabric. I have enough left for a face mask but didn’t get around to making that yet.

I’ve been dreaming about finally wearing this beautiful fabric for so long, finally cutting into it and making something that I know I am going to love was a joy; I almost feel like I’m cheating on my “use30” pledge?! But of course it’s not really cheating. Adding this 2m to my current tally of 8; and I’m up to 10m for the year… 20m to go!!

For the facing, in the past I’ve just tended to overlock the edges of a facing like this… however I’ve often found an overlocked, interfaced edge to be quite irritating when it’s rubbing against soft skin all day long. So this time I went to the effort of finishing off the facing with a strip of self bias-binding. I can already attest that this tiny little innovation is a huge improvement!

I also added a fun new label, that I bought to treat myself at the beginning of this year… the idea of a time stamp on my clothes just took my fancy! Yes, I am indeedy a bit of a nerd about things being orderly and documented/tallied in a well organised fashion – obviously! What is this blog if not just a further manifestation of my obsession?! These cute labels are from Kylie and the Machine; the coolest of cool label makers out there. I don’t mind being cool occasionally, if it fits my current fancy.

This is the first outfit in my “make 12”. It’s a bit quick and casual, but I’m so happy I finally cut into this precious, very loved fabric; plus it could not be more perfectly suited to my current lifestyle, so all is good. I hope to be making more exciting and involved things for future contenders.

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, make12, Stylish Dress Book, use30

gingham!! carrot cake!!

29/11/2021 6:35 am \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I made a fun new frock…

I received 2m of this gorgeous blue gingham from Minerva; it’s very light and floaty and so I decided to make a little sun frock. I spent several hours laying different patterns down on the fabric to see which one would result in minimal leftovers; something that has become really common for me now when I’m deciding on a project for a piece of fabric . The Deer and Doe Myosotis pattern “just” squeezed on with absolutely no leftovers at all! and even then I had to cut the sleeve cuffs out on the cross instead of with grain. Which is no hardship at all, of course… Can you even tell? The gingham squares are so regular and even … it’s hard to see if you don’t really check it out very carefully!

I’ve used the Myosotis pattern once before, for this favourite little sun frock, and this time I did a substantial small bust adjustment to the pattern. Basically I rotated out the front waist darts completely and reduced the bust dart by about half, and the result is a really good fit for me! I left the back waist darts unchanged, because I do have a small sway back and so this shaping suited me well.

it appears that the shoulder is altered in the right hand photo, but it hasn’t; it’s just that the paper is floating up a bit at that point

I used three small white buttons for my stash for closure, and all the raw edges inside the dress are overlocked with ivory thread to finish.

I submitted a long blog post to Minerva on the dress, here, which you can read if you like..

In baking news, and yes! I do seem to be doing a bit of baking lately! I made a carrot cake for Dad’s birthday… to be clear, this was not THE birthday cake, which Mum made, but more of a consumable treat for Dad as a birthday present, since he’d stipulated absolutely NO birthday presents, please.

I did a bit of sleuthing to find out his favourite eatable treat, and lo! it is carrot cake (surprise!) So I made one! I figured at least this is a present that will be consumed and then it’s gone, and doesn’t need storing or dusting or anything.

I used this recipe from the cooking tree, yes she is my favourite thing to watch at the moment! and it was absolutely delicious. We all liked that there was a much higher proportion of icing to cake than usual.