Tag Archives: Fibremood

bucket hats and tights and a big big bag…

27/08/2022 11:20 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh hello! Those blue blue skies are making me so happy right now, as most of the past month has been more like this:

Oh yay, storm clouds, yes you’re making me happy too… not.

I’ve been making lots of stuff lately and the last two pics feature two of them…. two bucket hats! This is the new Bruno pattern by FibreMood. I made the green corduroy one first and it was a tad too tight on me so I’ve given it to Arthur. It fits him quite well actually! with a little room to grow, and of course he looks super adorable in it too!

The pink one was my second go at the pattern, and this one fits ME, fortunately! I used cotton canvas, leftover from this lovely pink top I made for Cassie’s work capsule wardrobe last year, and it is lined with some very pretty green polka-dot silk crepe leftover from the dress I made for Mum to wear to Cassie’s wedding a couple of years ago… the green one is lined with the same green polka-dot. I know, right… fancy linings are a bit …. fancy?! At least my hair is enjoying the proximity to such luxury.

Next up… I made a whole batch of new black tights. Not fancy at all, but these are literally the mainstay of my winter wardrobe and I was absolutely desperate for new ones!

These are made using my own custom fit pattern, and thin black super-stretch poly from Spotlight… and it’s not even new fabric, I bought a large length of this about three or maybe even four? years ago in preparation for making more tights. Then I just kept putting it off. My old tights got pretty ratty but … you know; I sure got a good innings out of those things. And now it’s also feels pretty good to get that 5m or so of black poly out of my stash!

These are so much warmer than most RTW winter tights I’ve ever had and of course they fit me perfectly, never falling down or sagging at the crotch. They have a distinct front and back so I always stitch a contrasting zig zag at the back, for easy identification when I’m rushing to pull them on on a dark winter morning. Yes it’s a bit rough but effective!

Lastly, I also made a giant beach bag!

This thing truly is GIANT, which is great because beach towels are pretty giant too, usually. I used another newish FibreMood pattern, the Nouria; and cut up an old towel to make it, which seems a slightly cannibalistic thing to do? but I think towelling will be very practical and hopefully perfect beach-bag material. The design used up the entire towel, like it was designed on purpose to do so! which is of course awesome. I’m all for making use of every little bit of fabric, as much as I can! The handles are plain cotton canvas; also from my existing stash. Yay, for using up more stash!

My only slight regret now is that I didn’t choose a more colourful or exciting towel! but this one was there and available and no longer being used, so yay for recycling!

It’s lined with plain white poplin (yes, stash) and I added a few extra internal pockets to reduce the risk of things getting completely lost within the cavernous expanse of the bag… a biggish pocket for a book with a sectioned off bit for a pen, and a phone pocket. And it already has a huge pocket on the outside too, for frequently required sundries such as sunblock and a water bottle.

Craig’s phone is standing in for my own, which had more urgent duties to perform such as taking this picture here, hehe…

SOOOO ready for summer now!! oh and btw, I have even more recently made stuff to share here very soon. Even if I haven’t updated my blog in a while, I really have been making quite assiduously and diligently!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: bag, bruno, Clara, daily outfit, fibremood, hat, nouria, own design, tights/leggings

ivory madou

22/04/2022 11:55 am \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

I made a new jacket 🙂

I love making and wearing jackets, and this one was … um, fun? to make? Haha, no really. I used this beautiful ivory/vanilla wide wale corduroy that I bought years ago, from Potters Textiles… it’s one of those quite lovely luxe fabrics in such a perfect “white” for my complexion that I’ve been saving for all this time… just waiting for that perfect pea coat pattern. Although maybe it’s not quite a pea coat in the end, maybe more of a cropped shacket…? Honestly I don’t understand all the in or even relevant terms for clothing a lot of the time but it’s a jacket and very comfy and fun to wear, and I LOVE it! Phew what a crazy sentence! I’m sorry!

So, launching into the pattern deets: this is the FibreMood Madou jacket pattern, from the latest magazine/pattern release. It’s quite boxy and intended to be a bit longer that my version here. I cut mine bit short; partly because I thought this was a better length, and partly because by doing so I have enough leftovers to scrape a little mini skirt for winter too. Ha! It has huge breast pockets, which may well be mostly decorative in the long run because honestly, can you actually put anything bulkier than a credit card in a breast pocket?? but they look pretty cool, I think. However, there are also huge hip pockets, thus satisfying my die-hard little pocket loving heart. *happiness*

I added one of my circa 2022 labels. Still love these!

Now, why was it *inverted commas* fun? to make, as expressed above? well, being wide wale corduroy, and also being really gorgeous fabric that I absolutely could not ruin; any wobbly wales in the corduroy were going to drive me absolutely crazy and I quickly realised I could not tolerate any of that … I ended up hand-basting the central back seam; cursing myself the whole time for not ignoring the pattern and cutting it on a fold instead NO! actually I remember now, I DID cut it on a fold, and thought I’d just cut the edges off and avoid that centre back seam… and then I thought; no, I’ll follow the pattern as it should be and have a centre back seam. So I sliced up up the middle thus condemning myself to handstitching the seam. However! I have to admit I love the look of the centre back seam now; it’s perfect as far as the wales looking lovely and even, and it does make the back look a little more interesting than if there was no seam.

Same goes for the front button band stitching, and putting on the patch pockets; I was super super careful in the pressing, the lining up, and the stitching of each of these components. And am very happy with the results too!

The underneath of the collar, and the front bit of the hip pockets are cut from a perfectly colour-matched pice of heavy natural calico; that I bought from Calico and Ivy years ago. I did have enough fabric to cut these things, but am determined to get that matching mini skirt!

I used some dark copper jeans buttons for the buttons; from stash. My supply of these is very low now and I will need to buy more in the near future. It feels good to be using my stash though! I love finding exactly what I need, already in my possession. Reminds me, I can update my #use 30 stats; I had 2m of the corduroy, and I still plan to make a little skirt from the leftovers, so I think I can claim 1.5m for this latest creation. Bringing up my total to 18.5m for the year so far. 11.5m to go!!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, fibremood, jacket, madou

brown

16/02/2022 8:52 pm \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

Yes, it is still extremely hot here. And I am dying a little bit in these photos. But what can I say? I found all of these coordinating fabrics in my stash -mostly leftovers! – and each one was the perfect size to cut out the individual pieces for the skirt. Win! And I also had the acorn brown merino, that I’d bought last year during a sale from the Fabric Store. So I feel like this is a totally seasonally inappropriate outfit that was nevertheless just crying out to be 🙂

The skirt pattern is the new FibreMood Crystal skirt… with some alterations, of course! Let me explain… the pattern is very simple really; the front and back are the same except mirror images, and the waistband is straight. Very uncomplicated. I’ve made several skirts like this in the past and they’ve usually been fine. However, nowadays I have higher expectations of my skirts, and I really really want for all my skirts to have pockets. I know pockets can sometimes be a bit of a hot-button topic.. I’ve been seeing sewing peeps on instagram lately saying that they usually leave off pockets?! and that they hate them?! amazing! but well to each their own. This is why we make our own clothes, yes? not someone else’s. I personally, love to have pockets, so I set about plotting how I could add them to the skirt.

I cut my waistband at my regular size, but cut the skirt pieces a size bigger than I would normally go for to allow for hands in pockets. I also cut and put in slanted pockets, and added darts to the skirt front and back to bring in that extra width to the waistband. Instead of a zip, I made the skirt closure to be part of the pockets, as per this side-opening-over-a-pocket tutorial that I published previously here. It’s quite a good method for adding pockets to a skirt actually 🙂

Added bonus is that my skirt fits really well now too, thanks to the darts!

I bound the edges of the pockets with some other brown cotton from my stash, which appears mysteriously to be grey in these pictures, but honestly it’s a deep black/brown. I used the same brown cotton to bind the hemline.

My top is, of course, my usual modified Closet Core patterns Nettie. This time I used my twin needle to finish the sleeves and hem, instead of bands. I used thread from stash also rather than go shopping just for new thread, and the close-ups show how it doesn’t really match very perfectly… but honestly, the difference doesn’t show up quite that much! Actually, all the close-ups here make the different browns look shockingly different, far more so than they are in real life!

Of course I added some of my new date-stamp labels. Love these!

the caramel corduroy at the top of the skirt was leftover from these jeans, and the two middle cotton canvases were leftover from my Blanca flight dress and my Issey Miyake trousers… the dark brown, lightweight cotton corduroy that I used for the frill at the bottom was not a leftover, but one that Cassie had bought for me from Tessuti during a trip she took to Melbourne one year. And, as mentioned, I bought this acorn merino last year.

Taking into account that I do have some leftovers still; these two pieces used up about 3m of fabric from my stash… meaning this outfit brings me up to 13m for the year! 17m to go!