hat Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

Sunset Ocean check and Cornflower mini-check

21/10/2023 12:22 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I made all four of these summery new things featured here during the depths of winter actually, and took a whole lot of photos whilst also wearing thick tights and boots… but obviously the vibe was strange! so here I am, the weather a little more appropriate. I was maybe a little too optimistic for warm weather at the time. Silly me.

These fabrics are both linens from Maai Design; in Sunset Ocean check and the co-ordinating blue is Cornflower mini check. With careful cutting I managed to get four items from my lengths of fabric and use up every single scrap! two tops, a hat and a skirt. I absolutely love it when I can have no leftovers.

Item 1; a Yallingup top in the Sunset Ocean check. This pattern is one of our own Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co designs… I’m a big believer in this top, it’s truly a lovely design to wear in summer. So comfy and breezy.

Item 2; a matching skirt. This is a Burdastyle pattern, 03/2016; 101 (A-line skirt pattern). I thought this pattern would be perfect for the fabric but truthfully it really requires a slightly thicker and beefier fabric to hold up this welt pockets. It’s fine though, really; I’m very happy with this skirt and am excited to wear it! I really love how the checks look cut on the bias for the lower panels. I was lucky to find a perfect, pale blue invisible zip already in the stash.

Item 3; a blouse in the Cornflower mini-check. This is another of our own Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co designs, with shortened sleeves due to not quite enough fabric, and a big patch pocket just for fun. Throughout I topstitched with a pink thread, also just for fun, although it barely shows up! Button also from stash.

Item 4; a hat. This is the Elbe Textiles Sorrento bucket hat, that I’ve made many many times before. I made it reversible, with the ocean sunset one side and the cornflower mini check on the other side. Now I just need bathers to match! This photo makes me smile, this is one of about 100 identical trips to and from the ocean with Theo to fill up that little watering can. He absolutely LOVES the beach and we spent hours there happily playing in the sand and wading in the shallows, Theo chortling like mad. Such a joyful day, I hope this photo helps me to remember this time.

I’m also wearing these bathers, made using my favourite vintage McCalls pattern, and my beach cover up, made using the Closet Core patterns Charlie caftan pattern.

I’ve still got more unblogged things to share soon! until then. 🙂

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: burdastyle 03/2016-101, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, elbe sewing patterns, hat, Perth, skirt, sorrento bucket hat, Theo, top, yallingup

some new sewn things….

24/06/2023 10:08 am \ 9 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve been busy; making lots of things, but not so busy posting them!

Firstly; Cassie is expecting again, so I’ve whipped up a few new maternity outfits…

Items 1 and 2;

this is the Closet Core Ebony tee combined with the Burda 7023 maternity skirt pattern. This is such a great maternity combination; I’ve made it as a set for both Cassie and Kelly in the past and it’s worked so well. This set is made with navy blue merino and a navy blue/red striped cotton jersey; both have been in the stash for at least a year. I’d bought 2m of the merino from The Fabric Store and made one single tee; I’d been planning a cardi from the remainder but never got around to it… I’d bought the striped jersey to make baby things but again not got around to it yet… Right now I’m totally over saving things for that imagined planned project but am just of the mindset to use what I’ve got, when the mood for a project strikes … it’s a much healthier mindset in my opinion! After all, I can always buy more fabric if I don’t have something appropriate, right?

Items 3 and 4;

the same pattern combo as above, in a mossy green/grey stretch stuff. I have no memory of buying this, and I’m pretty sure it’s another from Mum’s stash. I didn’t have quite enough to cut the tee full length so it’s about 10cm or so shorter than the pattern. Still looks pretty nice imo! I think the sombre colour makes it look a bit more sophisticated and smart.

Item 5;

this is a Burda pattern; 2/2015;107… I’ve made it for her once previously and she absolutely loves that dress. Thus why she requested that I make this one, using fabric from her stash. I think she bought it from Tessuti? when we were in Melbourne, and yes I know I know; I’m trying to use my own stash, why on earth am I accepting commissions from other people’s stashes, hmmm?? Madness! But she’s my daughter so of course I acquiesced. She’s pretty busy, after all!

The fabric is a very lightweight silk? I think… so lightweight I deemed it necessary to underline totally with a creamy coloured, very drapey drill, also used for that visible tie. This was from the stash, yay! It was all finished and I was pretty happy; however when she tried it on it looked way too heavy. When I’d made the first one I’d simply lined it, not underlined; and I realised this was the problem… the simple fix was to cut away the underlining from the side seams and resew the underlining side seams separately to make it a lining. Sounds kinda slapdash but it worked pretty well. The silk hangs quite nicely now! This is not really a maternity pattern but Cassie has found it works just fine in early pregnancy.

Item 6; another self-drafted tee for Arthur. This was cut from one of the last of Tim’s old tees from my T-shirt bag! Feels good to have those all gone now!

bragging about careful stripe matching ahem, particularly on those very small sleeve bands!

Item 7; a kinda silly hat for Cassie. I cut this from the scraps from hers and Theo’s matching pj pants; blogged here. The fabric is of course her own design, from her Spoonflower shop. The hat is a little funny but you know, the fabric was too nice to throw out.

The pattern is the Elbe Textiles Sorrento bucket hat; this used to be a free pattern but now has a small price on it. Which is fine, imo. Designers should be paid for the work they do! Did I ever tell you the story about the sewist who sent us multiple emails trying to not only get our patterns for themselves for free, but also to donate them as prizes for her followers? All to “support us and help promote us”? No? One for another time, maybe!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: arthur, burda 02/2015;107, burda 7023, Closet Core patterns, dress, Ebony, hat, maternity, skirt, sorrento bucket hat, tee, Wardrobe Refashion

I crocheted a hat!

11/11/2022 11:26 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

… and it’s been a long time in the making too!

I originally bought this raffia in Okadaya in Shinjuku, and subsequently this pattern book in a newsagent in the Kanazawa train station, back in 2019, pictured in this post here, and the anticipated hat been on the to-do list ever since…

I took all the bits and pieces off to the Maldives with me, in full confidence that I would comfortably produce a hat during my long idle hours lounging around by our pool … ha ha ha. Oh, the naivety of the beginner crocheter! I made a pretty good start during our holiday, for sure… several pretty good starts, in fact.

You see, the first few times I started I realised something was going irretrievably wrong and I would unravel the whole thing and start over. It was frustrating, to say the least. I reckon I’ve done enough crocheting for at least four hats, in the making of this one. Finally I came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with my Japanese translation, or my tension, as I’d first thought, but that there WAS something wrong with the pattern, sadly. My hat was going to be enormous. Once I realised those things, I decided to ignore the stitch count of the pattern and instead calculated my own based on the hat dimensions helpfully laid out in one of the diagrams. There was less unravelling once I adopted this approach; still a bit of unravelling but I was finally onto a successful formula. Finally, my hat turned out ok, I think.

As I approached the end of the third and last ball, I pre-crocheted the hat band and keepers, and then proceeded to use up every last scrap of the raffia, right up until the very last centimetre. To be honest, I would have actually liked to have a fourth ball so as to get a much wider brim, but well… it can’t be helped. This was impossible to predict at the time of purchase.

When I was taking these pictures, in our own back yard instead of the much hoped for Maldives photo-op; it was quite windy so I added a length of shirring elastic, to go under my hair and help keep the hat on during walks on our very windy beach. After the hours and unnecessary hours that went into making it four times over, I wouldn’t want it to fly away in a whimsical gust of wind!

Posted in: knitting, Uncategorized \ Tagged: crochet, hat

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

Tjilkamala Rockhole

21/10/2020 12:04 pm \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made up the first of my indigenous fabrics that I bought back in … June? I think, and I posted about it here…

this stunning print is Tjilkamala Rockhole, designed by Alice Nampitjinpa; it was produced by Ikuntji Artists and I bought it through FlyingFox Fabrics

I decided upon a simple little dress with matching hat ensemble, inspired by this Marimekko outfit I’d seen many years ago… btw I had to search and search and search to find this image!! Note to self; always “pin” your favourite pictures!

I picked one of my favourite “simple” little shift dress patterns, the Named Inari tee dress, and Vogue 8844 for my matching hat. These are both patterns I’ve used many times before, and I love them both. I did my usual modification for the Inari dress by putting inseam pockets into those elegantly swooping side seams. Oh, and I also widened the sleeve at the hem edge with a big big wedge insertion, as described here. This adjustment enables you to lift your arms over your head without the dress riding up so much as to expose your knickers underneath. Truth! It does make quite a difference to the wearability of this dress, particularly in a non-stretch fabric.

For the neckline facings, I used a deep chocolate brown cotton voile, bought originally from Fabulous Fabrics. I also cut the artist’s name and that of the print from the selvedge, and stitched them to the back facing. I like doing this for special fabrics, and this is surely a very special fabric!

I did a search to find out which way up the print was supposed to go. To the best of my knowledge, this is correct 🙂

I’ve made the Inari so many times before I don’t have much else to add … oh, except I did do something a bit different with the hem!

wait; what’s this? WHERE’S THE HEM?!!

So the hemline for the Inari has side splits and a high/low hemline, so you can see the underside of the fabric quite clearly when you’re wearing the dress, especially when sitting down… and the wrong side of this fabric is the solid, deep chocolate brown that is the background of the print. I decided I didn’t like the idea of seeing the print of the hem visible inside the dress and only wanted to see plain chocolate brown fabric.

So; to “camouflage” those hems I cut wide bias cut strips of same chocolate brown voile that I used for the neckline facings and attached these along the fold line for the hem. I then folded the top edge over and inside the raw edge of the hem, to hide the print and machine stitched close to the edge. Finally, I hand stitched the hem to the dress as normal. So yes, the full 3cm hem of the dress is there, and essentially the chocolate brown voile is acting like a “mask” over the top of it, hiding the print. The side splits were also “masked” under bias cut strips in the same way.

All side splits and hems were hand-stitched, so as to avoid any visible stitching on the outside of the garment that would besmirch the purity of that beautiful print.

The hat: I LOVE the hat! even though if I’m realistic I know I’m probably going to get more wear out of the dress, but I still love it! Serendipitous thing; when I dug out the pattern, I found to my great joy that past me had cut an extra brim interfacing, once upon a time. It was neatly folded up in with the pattern pieces. I’d completely forgotten about it, but I guess the last time I’d made the pattern I must have thought I needed two. Yay, past me! Making the hat is simple enough… you can read my review of this terrific pattern here… I used the same chocolate brown cotton to line it as for the inner bits of the dress. I did put my own label in the hat! I also put in a hanging ribbon in under the grosgrain ribbon just a small scrap from my sewing basket. A hanging loop is not part of the pattern, and not an essential thing either, but it’s also something I think comes in very handy when you do have one in the hat. I’m really glad of the one in my khaki hat and many times I’ve thought about putting one in my white hat. I think I’m just going to get on and do that right now…

I bought the chocolate brown grosgrain ribbon from Spotlight. You can see here a patched bit in the brim lining… I didn’t do this because I didn’t have enough fabric, I have plenty! I actually have enough leftover for a little skirt sometime down the track too, but only if I was a bit devious with my cutting out here. I decided a small patch in the brim lining was a small sacrifice to pay to leave myself enough fabric for that future skirt!

my labels are from the Dutch Label Shop…

So, obviously I’m pretty happy with my new ensemble!! It feels super special. I love how it’s such a visually exciting and eye-catching print, but most of all I love how it’s also so completely Australian. It’s just beautiful. I am particularly happy and thrilled to have found places to buy indigenous fabrics, to be able to support indigenous artists, and of course I am most certainly going to purchase more in the future, once I’ve finished making up the other print I bought in June. I already have my eye on a few more!

Details:

Dress; the Inari tee dress, pattern by Named, in Tjilkamala Rockhole print cotton, designed by Alice Nampitjinpa
Hat; Vogue 8844, in Tjilkamala Rockhole print cotton, designed by Alice Nampitjinpa
Sandshoes; Trenery

location; Winjee Sam, Yallingup

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, hat, inari, named patterns, Vogue 8844

garden tea party hat

09/03/2020 1:22 am \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

Short and sweet; I made a hat!! Well, by “made”; more accurately; I compiled a hat. I bunged a whole lot of pretty things onto a hat. Oh I did make that little tea cup, so I guess I can lay claim to a little bit of it….

The green felt hat is a “St Patrick’s Day” hat from Spotlight and all the fake roses and ivy are also from Spotlight. I made the little tea cup from modelling clay, also originally from Spotlight, and painted it using craft paints from… guess where?!! I used green Gutermann’s upholstery thread to stitch everything securely to the hat.

So my 3 nieces/Cassie’s bridesmaids had planned her kitchen tea/bridal shower to be a Mad Hatter’s Tea party, and we all had to wear some sort of over-the-top headgear. I wasn’t quite sure how crazy to go, and genuinely thought my hat was going to be TOO much, but it ended up being quite subdued by comparison to many of the other fabulously lovely creations at the party!

The theme of the part was a surprise for Cassie, and the girls had made her hat for her, to both match hers and to be bridal at the same time. Aren’t they the most gorgeous bunch of girls?!!

We had a low-key hat competition at the end, and Cassie won of course. The funniest thing of all was the prize; a roll of toilet paper! We all roared with laughter!

Let me explain… with the new corona virus scare currently going on; Australians have reacted predictably, by cleaning out the shops of any and all supplies of toilet paper. I know, right? So Australian… Seriously, the toilet roll shelves are empty, all of the time. You have to get in fast to pick up one of the occasional restocks when they happen! and there are even rumours of people selling vastly inflated toilet paper on eBay. I haven’t seen any ads myself, but that’s just an indication of the general level of panic. And so normally, one of the games you’d have at a bridal shower is a toilet roll wedding dress competition. And such a thing was obviously out of the question with the current toilet roll situation. So my sister-in-law spared one toilet roll – ONE! which was awarded as first prize for the hat comp. SO FUNNY!

Here are some of the other gorgeous hats at the party:

Mum made her stunning colourful hat of felt lined with old X-ray film…

Cassie’s friend E cleverly made a very chic and sculptural, royal hat/ruffled collar ensemble, using paper:

L looked super pretty in her floral/gumnut hat…

Arthur very briefly wore his yoda beanie; but he’s not a fan, poor little lad! A man of discerning fashion taste!

Lots of gorgeous hats!!!

In closing; a few in-progress shots of making my hat… just because well, that’s what I do here.

I made four button-like holes in the bottom of the tea cup to make it easy to stitch onto the hat. In fact, you could just think of it as a glorified button, to be honest!

Coming up soon… the wedding itself!!!!! #eeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!!!!!!

Posted in: crafty stuff \ Tagged: accessories, Cassie, daily outfit, hat, Mum, own design

the bumper Christmas edition

26/12/2018 3:19 pm \ 10 Comments \ Carolyn

So, every Christmas I like to make a small mountain of stuff for my loved ones; this year was a smaller mountain than previously, mostly because I embarked upon a sorta epic making-adventure of a more selfish variety, ahem … but more about that particular project in a future post! But I did still manage to make some bits and pieces for others! btw, I was too busy to take any photos on the day, woops! but I’m hoping to get some modelled shots here sometime soon 🙂

Items 1-5; it’s always difficult to think of something for the boys, something “useful”, because boys are never just about the pretty things like girls are. Also, because I actually prefer practical and useful myself too, always. I recently discovered elbe sewing patterns through instagram, and noticed that she had very kindly made a free pattern available; the Sorrento bucket hat. Freeeee! So generous! and I thought it would be fabulous for my guys who do wear hats all the time. Craig, for one, who has been wearing the same sad shabby hat for about a decade now, ahem. Yes, since I make stuff it has indeed been a point of embarrassment, hehe ;D A hat also seemed like the perfect gift for Cassie’s man D, notoriously difficult to buy/make for. He loves fishing with a passion and was apparently in need of a new fishing hat, according to Cassie. Great timing!

Tim’s hat

I had to measure everyone’s heads… awkward! but well, I guess everyone’s used to my strange stealth-measuring attacks by now! Cassie helped me out by stealth-measuring D’s head… she said she did it while he was sleeping which made me laugh to imagine that! Fortunately he says it fits him perfectly!

D’s hat…

The boys’ hats are all made from Spotlight’s cotton drill, it’s hard to find fabrics that are both masculine and interesting, but luckily Spotlight currently has these camouflage prints in a wide range of colours. SO AMAZINGLY LUCKY!!!

Craig’s hat…

I opted to interface the brims with medium weight fusible interfacing, and they are all fully lined; Cassie’s with a stiff white cotton, the drills I used for Craig’s and Tim’s both have an olive-ish cast to them so I used an olive poplin from my stash for them, and Sam’s and D’s are both more blue-ish so for them I cut up the trouser legs off an old pair of Sam’s navy blue work trousers. It was exactly the right shade of navy blue, and also a really nice weight for lining a hat.

Sam’s hat…

And I found this old label in my notions basket! the very last one! leftover from when I used to sew their names in their school uniforms! I had a little giggle putting this in, and Sam too when he saw it in there on Christmas morning.

Cassie’s hat…

I also made one for Cassie using some of the leftover fabric from her Christmas dress for this year… more on that later! Cassie’s floral linen is very lightweight compared to the cotton drill that I used for the boys’ hats, so I fully interfaced all the pieces in this one, including the lining, with medium weight fusible interfacing.

This is a free pattern so obviously you can’t complain, and I’m not! because this is a fantastic little pattern! However one thing I want to note for if I ever use this the future… the pattern specifies 30cm for fabric and 30cm for lining. Yes, this is technically correct; but personally I prefer for the brim lining of a hat to be of the same fabric as the shell, because you can see it while you’re wearing it. So if you’re cutting out all 4 brim pieces from the outer fabric, 30cm is enough, but just barely! and only if you throw all grainline specs out the window and are super vigilant about miserly pattern placement! I did make sure to cut the band pieces on grain though, I think you have to for the hat to look nice. If you want to cut the brim plus brim lining pieces all on grain then you’d need at least 40cm, or 50cm to be safe

I made all my paper pattern pieces full size, which I HIGHLY recommend; because when you are cutting out fiddly little pieces like these on the fold, and in multiples; then they rarely come out identical to each other.

Best thing; everyone seemed to love their hats! I might even get around to making one for myself one day 🙂

Items; 6-7; I was going to make hats for Tim’s fiance Kelly and for Sam’s lady L too, but when it came time for choosing prints for them, well I chickened out! There were loads of gorgeous prints in Spotlight, pretty, feminine and cute and probably lots that they’d love, but well, you know, choosing a print for another girl is quite a personal thing, and I was nervous they wouldn’t like my choice. Eventually I hit on the idea of making a reusable shopping bag for them. Yes, these are in a print too, that I chose, but a bag is definitely “safer”!

During the last year, it became illegal for supermarkets here to give out single-use shopping bags, and now everyone has to remember to take their own shopping bags for their groceries… of course there are lots of branded reusable shopping bags you can get but everyone likes a cute one to hang up in their kitchen, yes? Kelly and Tim have recently done up their kitchen and btw, it looks AMAZING!!! it’s all dramatically jarrah, black/white, stainless steel, and grey blue; and they also have a lot of indoor plants there. So I chose the above fabric for Kelly’s.

For L; well she loves baking, and she loves cute stuff, so when I saw this bright and fun doughnut print I knew instantly it was perfect for her!

I made my own pattern, based upon the measurements of the little bag holders in Coles checkout stations. My own experience is that the stitched-on-strap style of handle is a weak point in shopping bags, the first thing to go; so I designed the bags to have cut on handles, and to be reinforced with a facing. It is a bit of a fabric hog to cut it out like this, but I’m thinking it will prove to be a much stronger and robust design than separately cut and stitched on straps.

I found some pieces of stiff plastic film to line the bottoms of the bags, and for the groceries to sit on.

Item 8; Cassie specifically requested that I make a dress for her this year, and we went to Fabulous Fabrics together to look at fabrics. They had this divine pink hydrangea print in a cotton sateen, and Cassie wistfully fingered it and mentioned she would love this if it was in linen. We looked at a few other prints and she pointed out a few others, which I tucked away in my head for the future, mwahaha. But just imagine my joy when I went back in to actually buy something for her, and saw they had actually JUST got the hydrangea print in, IN LINEN! PERFECTO!

For the patten, I cut up an old favourite little tunic dress, that she had discarded a long time ago; it is a simple but very pretty little T-shirt style, with a high rounded neckline finished with bias binding, raglan sleeves folded up at the hem, and a centre back zip, and I always thought she looked gorgeous in it. The new dress did seem a tad short when I’d finished it, but otherwise I was very pleased with it. Then she tried it on on Christmas morning, and it was Super Short! Turns out 26yr old Cassie likes to wear her dresses a little longer than 18 yr old Cassie did, haha. who knew?! 😉 Anyway, fortunately I had extra fabric, even after making her matching bucket hat, so I extended it with an extra piece attached underneath the hemline. This is a technique I’ve used on several of my own dresses in the past, I do think it makes for an interesting hemline detail, even if you don’t need to add length. To make it look more like “intentional design detail” rather than “whoops, need to add length because it’s scandalously SHORT” I folded and stitched a series of tucks, and love how this looks! A hidden bonus is that this adds some weight to the hemline… and I think linen dresses can often benefit from a little extra weightiness at the bottom.

Items 9-2000, might be overshooting the mark but just roughly guess-timating there; so I also like to make something both useful and fun for my extended family members, and this usually ends up being an edible something … this year it was gingerbread pussycats! So of course we have our own three darling little fluffykins, and I hit on the bright idea of icing the gingerbread puddycats to symbolise The Girls.

I’d made huge batches so this took quite a long time, but turned out pretty cute I think! The kids were tickled pink!

My recipe is adapted from a free recipe from Taste.com, and my own lemon icing is a sort of hybrid royal icing/ regular icing. Sophie has green eyes, so I painstakingly picked out the green cachous from a multicoloured jar. I couldn’t get black food colouring! so settled for dark purple-y/blue for Sophie, and sky blue for Zoe, who is a greyish blue point with blue eyes. Zoe was by far the fiddliest pussy cat to recreate!

Mischka is a mischievous fuzzy wuzzy ginger striped pussy with amber eyes, so I tried to capture her cute and perky nature with a riotous striped icing.

It’s funny; everyone immediately said, “but what about Clara?” and there were lots of jokes as to why she was excluded from the fun but of course the real answer is perfectly simple… I don’t have a dog-shaped cookie cutter! Maybe next time, haha.

I buy these airtight thingies to give them away in, see, practical and useful are my middle names! Each one perfectly fitted 16 gingerpussies.

So, I blog very very rarely about the meals I make; but this year Craig and I decided to cater for the entire extended family lunch, which is a BIG undertaking. We ambitiously planned for a rather (for us) long and involved menu and I’m so proud of us for pulling it off that I thought I’d share … we made all the various dressings and everything!

the makings of maple carrots…

pumpkin and couscous salad…

German-style potato salad…

BBQ asparagus, zucchini and snow pea salad…

veggie rosti with smoked trout; we doubled this recipe and made one with the smoked trout and the second one with smoked salmon

peach and raspberry trifle…

and cherry and nougat semifreddo

the recipes are all from the free Coles cooking magazine that they put out every month. Fair dinkum, this is hands down my favourite source of recipes at the moment… I love it! We also had a ham that I forgot to take a picture of, and Vintage Cellars had high-end champagne going for half price so I bought a dozen of these… honesty, it all felt very special and went so well, we had such fun, and we were so chuffed everybody at our party had such a gorgeously happy day too!

So that was Christmas this year!! it felt rather epic and stressful all month leading up to it, but now it’s the morning after, and I’m feeling peaceful and relaxed with a happy post-party glow, the house is clean and back to normal; and most of all I am SO GLAD that I did go to the effort of making as lovely a day as I could for all my amazing family. It’s always SO worth it 🙂 Until next time!

Posted in: crafty stuff, sewing \ Tagged: accessories, bag, Christmas, dress, elbe sewing patterns, food, hat, own design, sorrento bucket hat

boatin’, campin’, bikin’ and hikin’ stoof

09/08/2017 10:57 pm \ 54 Comments \ Carolyn

We’ve just come back from a holiday in Alaska, USA and British Columbia, Canada; had the most AWESOME-est time of course! but more about that later… I made a few bits and pieces to fill in some gaps in the “mucking about in the great, but wet n’dirty, outdoors” areas of my wardrobe. Specifically, I needed some things that were both quick-drying and warm… which means, and I apologise right now to any strict natural-fibrarians reading this … polyester. #ohtheshame

Hehe, just kidding, of course polyester has appeared here on my blog before and no doubt will again. When you are roughing it out camping, and particularly in extreme climates, then unnatural fibres are definitely the go.

I made five new things prior to going on our holiday; a zip up fleece hoodie, a fleece sweater, some shorts for kayaking, a fleece neck warmer and a new sunhat. I made some other new things too, while we were actually ON our holiday, but I’ll save those for another post!

In the order that I made them…

White fleece sweater

wearing beanie, sweater, hiking pants
location: Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska, USA

Pattern is Burda 09/2010; 121, fabric is 100% polyester fleece from Spotlight.

I’d bought my polyester fleece back in the height of hot hot February during their 40% off all fabrics sale, made it straight away and actually posted it to instagram way back then too, although it didn’t get truly worn until our holiday…

wearing sweater, skirt

Mods; made the sleeves a little longer, and I pinned the side seams out to fit it directly on me so it’s shaped and fitted to my taste. After the first few days of wearing it I found the turtleneck to be extremely strangliferous. This is not necessarily a criticism of the pattern, since I’ve always felt strangled by turtlenecks, ever since I was a child; I really should have known this one would be the same too, doh! Fortunately it’s an easy fix. I simply borrowed a pair of scissors from the owner of the lodge and snip snip!! just chopped the turtleneck-y bit right off! No hems or seams, well, I was desperate! but hey, fleece doesn’t really need edging anyway and now it’s a funnel neck, and only about a thousand times more comfortable.

I really really LOVE this.

Pink zip-up hoodie

wearing hoodie, white tee, grey tee, black jeans
location: the Khutzeymateen Wilderness Lodge on the Khutzeymateen River, British Columbia, Canada

Pattern is Burda 8042, the same 100% polyester fleece from Spotlight

Mods; in lieu of the patch pockets, I added welt pockets which were absolutely great for shoving my cold hands into… however I thought they gave a rather lumpy and thick look to my stomach region, even when said hands were not shoved into said pockets, and like most women I am not very partial to a lumpy thick look to my stomach region! But it was awesome to have the pockets? I dunno.

wearing hoodie, sweater, skirt

I wore this thing so much, like practically every day even though it’s not in all my pictures… and I pretty much hate it now. It’s not really my colour, I only chose it because I actually had the perfectly coloured open-end zip in my stash already, inherited at some point from one of Mum’s periodic sewing-room clean outs, and I rationalised that the colour would be cheerful and fun. But now I cannot stand the thought of ever wearing it again. Can’t quite put my finger on the problem… as well as not suiting me, the colour feels somehow wrong for my personality, and then there was the lumpy stomach pockets thing. It was a good thing to have though, perfect for camping, beautifully warm and it dried off very quickly. Maybe I’m just sick of it. I’m giving it a bit of time out at the top of the wardrobe, and maybe another wet and freezing cold camping trip will crop up again, some time in the future…

Black poly kayaking shorts

wearing hat, tee, shorts, raincoat

Please excuse the lack of an exotic location here … I didn’t realise until we got home that I neglected to get even one photo during our holiday that showed my new shorts ! thus a re-enactment of a holiday outfit and yes I am absolutely freezing 😉

My new shorts are refashioned from out of an old pair of Tim’s work pants, rescued from the refashioning bag… I knew from many years of washing these things how quickly they dry, so thought they would be perfect for the kayaking camp. And they were absolutely brilliant…!

before, the observant will notice straight away that these have been nibbled at previously; that’s a pocket lining for something or another cut out of the bottom there…

To make them: I kept only the fly front and the button closure intact; unpicked most of the waistband and sliced off basically every single other seam! taking it in at both side seams, the centre back seam, and altering the crotch curve super drastically to fit. Approximately 7″ is taken out of the waistband overall tapering out to almost no width from the legs so they are nicely flared, just the way I like them. This also means that the hip pockets have a pretty tiny opening now! but I figured that’s a small price to pay for free new shorts and funnily enough I don’t really find occasion to put my hands in my pockets while kayaking 😉

I cut down and reattached the waistband, re-positioned the belt loops and created a cuff for the bottom hem of the shorts. I think they turned out quite cute! I’d planned to wear these with black leggings for kayaking, but as it turned out the days we kayaked were warm enough so that the leggings were not necessary.

Love these, they were perfectamondo for paddling, and I expect they will be my go-to paddling uniform from now on…

Cherry red neckwarmer

wearing neck warmer, raincoat, skirt, tights
location; the dock in Haines, Alaska, USA

The most basic thing ever, literally a lined cylinder. The outer is the same 100% fleece from Spotlight, the lining was cut from an old Tshirt from my refashioning bag. Yes, that thing is still like a bottomless pit of fabric! It’s a monster, but a pretty fabulous one for someone like me who is always sewing 😉

For my own future reference, the dimensions are:

fleece; 65cm x 29cm

cotton jersey lining; 64cm x 27cm

I made it by stitching the fleece rectangle and lining rectangle together at top and bottom, pinned the seam edges and the fleece edges together, and stitched the side seam leaving a 10cm or so gap in the side edge of the inner lining. Turned the whole thing right side out through this 10cm gap, then slip-stitched the gap closed to finish.

Like the pink hoodie this simple thing got worn most days, but unlike the pink hoodie I actually still like it! Just goes to show, ignore “your” colours at your peril! And it went with EVERYTHING!

wearing neck warmer, striped tee, green tee, skirt, tights, raincoat
location: Haines, Alaska, USA

Olive sunhat

wearing hat, grey tee, shorts, raincoat
location; Hanson Island, British Columbia, Canada

Pattern is Vogue 8844, fabric is olive cotton rip-stop from an online store whose name I have absolutely no memory of whatsoever. It’s leftover from the fabric I used for my khaki army-style jacket… I bought it in a joint order with my friend and neighbour Megan, and all I can remember is that the postage fee was so horrendously high that maybe I’ve deliberately blocked the store’s name from my memory in post-purchase shock, haha.

I lined the hat with floral rayon, leftovers from my French Navy Forsythe dress, I thought they went quite nicely together! and the crown is stayed with a coffee-coloured cotton braid that is a VERY long term resident in my stash. Since I would be wearing the hat kayaking, I decided it would be a good idea to add a chin strap; this is an old, orphaned bootlace, snipped in half and stitched in each side underneath the crown stay. For some reason, I decided to go with an additional method of tightening the hat to my head, and laced a piece of white cotton cord through the crown stay. Probably not necessary and now it’s a rather over-engineered hat but oh well. Got it now!

Technically, I didn’t really neeeeed a new sunhat, since I do have my perfectly lovely ivory corduroy sunhat, made a few years ago…. but still I decided a new one was in order. Partly because I didn’t want my ivory one to get irrevocably dirty while camping, a khaki one would be more colour suitable for out in the dirt of the wilderness. As it turned out, the weather wasn’t actually warm enough for it until well into our holiday! laugh! the first few weeks or our holiday were mostly wet and very cold and the sunhat languished unworn… squashed sadly and disconsolately in my suitcase *sob* Then finally the weather turned warmer and we even got a bit of sun and I was like, hurrah, I CAN WEAR MY HAT!!! and was pretty glad I’d gone to the effort of making it after all.