homer and howells Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

Innes nice?

09/12/2024 1:10 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

… so I made another thing recently… well two actually, but only one really, in the end. The first was Not Good…

Hello Innes dress, and welcome to my wardrobe… a pattern by Homer & Howells.

That was 2020 me blogging, now handing over to 2024 me, today… I’m shocked, really, that I have so far failed to blog about this dress, that I made about four years ago now… why did blogging slip my mind? I have no idea. Anyway here it is, finally. I decided to take it away with me on our recent beach holiday away and of course it was divine to wear over there… The only fault that I think I am going to rectify straight away is that it doesn’t have pockets. Which is silly since its roominess could so easily accomodate some.

I really love the subtle sweetheart neckline , and of course the chic length. I didn’t have enough of the white so added a panel of other fabric to the bottom, to get the proscribed length. Fabrics are a white cotton/linen mix, and a remnant of navy blue, slightly metallic stuff, both fabrics are I think originally from Fabulous Fabrics. I’m pretty sure Mum gave me the blue fabric.

Below is the first, tester version of the dress that I made… I used a sorta nasty pink and purple satin that was also inherited from Mum. I think she also inherited it from someone else at some point and never used it for obvious reasons. I used it to test the pattern and wore this version as a nightdress for a season.

I just want to say here, how much do I miss that white wall space in our old house?! SO MUCH!

… and here is my better version again, out in the wilds (haha) of the Maldives! worn with my raspberry crocheted hat. I actually crocheted that very hat during our previous holiday to the Maldives!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, homer and howells, Innes

sea-blue Ingrid dress

05/08/2021 11:25 am \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

I made this dress months ago! like in April! … however because I made it to test the pattern I had to keep it a secret until its release, and it wasn’t released until the end of May. And at that time, not only was it getting too cold for me to really wear it regularly, but I was getting overwhelmed with preparation and planning for the release of our own Yallingup pattern, and so although I did post about it on Instagram I didn’t get around to blogging my own version here.

This is the Ingrid dress/blouse pattern by Homer and Howell, and it’s a really interesting design. Something to get you thinking a bit, which is always nice in a pattern. It has several different views; a top and dress in two different lengths, and two sleeve versions. I made view B; the mini dress with plain sleeves.

All views have an interesting central pleat on the bodice and the dress version has different skirt panels, some cut on a slant at the top, so you kind have to be on your toes to get them all cut out and dealt with in the right way.

I really enjoyed making mine, and I remember the instructions for gathering the skirt panels were really awesome and taught me something new about gathering things neatly and well.

One thing I noticed in other tester versions was that the split at the back of the neck tended to gape a bit, which looked like it was due to the split being a bit long, so I reduced the length of my own by about 1 ½”, or about 4ish cm, and accordingly shortened the facing piece too; and I think this turned out better.

For fabric, I used a piece of greyish/orange cotton voile that Mum had thrown out from her own stash … yes the colour sounds kind of hideous and I really didn’t like it, but was optimistic about being able to dye it a nice colour. In preparation for this moment; I had used navy blue thread and also navy blue overlocking thread to finish the raw edges inside… and then boiled it up in a pot of half-strength iDye in deep blue, and I really love the resulting colour. Much much nicer!

I’d also used a blue, love-heart shaped button … .btw, cute?! A nice side effect to committing to using up my stash this year is that I get to be creative with fabrics and notions I’ve long ignored because “I don’t like it”. And now I do really like this dress! Every single thing for this was from Le Never-Ending Stash… which of course IS going to come to an end some day…

Because it was cold the day I finally got to show it; this is how I actually wore it for its debut during me-made May. Apologies for the grainy iPhone photo, I’d accidentally deleted the original from my phone and had to screenshot this from my Instagram account which is why it looks so bad… I’m wearing it here with my suede leather “coatigan”/coat/jacket thing… and selfdrafted leggings. btw these leggings used to be tights, but this year I took out the tights I’d made that had developed holes in the heels and/or toes from being worn hundreds of times, and cut off the toes, hemming the new edge with my twin needle. So now they have a new lease on life as leggings. I can wear them like this, with bare feet and my clogs, or I can still wear them with my boots on the coldest days of winter with a pair of my cosy hand-knit socks. Win, win!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, homer and howells, ingrid

separated Cissy… and it’s green

27/11/2020 11:14 am \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

Seems like a bit of a non-sequitur, but kinda sums up the whole process actually. Let me explain…

So I set out to make another Homer and Howells Cissy dress for myself because I was so pleased with the rust lace one that I’d made first off the block. This is back in April by the way, back when we were in a lockdown of sorts here in Perth, when we were all terrified of the virus and didn’t know as yet that there was no community transmission here. Yes, I do indeed know how very lucky we are! and it’s fantastic that everyone here is working hard to keep things that way too… but I digress!

I needed a sewing project!

I had some khaki-olive-blue-grey, slightly crinkly cotton in my stash that Mum had chucked my way, when she cleaned out her own stash, and it was just enough to cut out the Cissy pieces. Awesome! It was meant to be! However when I put it together I was just like…. blah. I think when you’re feeling anxious and depressed then your soul cries out for cheer and vibrancy, or even just strength, even in colour form; and drab colours just kinda drag you down … however at the time I determined a waist was what was needed. So I proceeded to cut a straight waistband from the scant remains of fabric, miraculously I had a strip just long enough! I took off the bodice and skinny-hemmed it, making a cute little loose crop top. I the sliced up the centre back of the skirt and inserted an invisible zip, re-folded the skirt pleats into my new waistband, and stitched on a button. Ok! I thought. This is going to be great!

ORIGINAL COLOUR… yeah it’s not awful, I guess

It lay in my wardrobe during winter and I was anticipating a lot of wear once the warm weather hit… and when I did my rainbow week mini-challenge I thought it would be my “green” ensemble… I frocked up and took a few photos, a sample of which is below, and man, at that moment the not-greenness of the whole thing just killed me, so it did not feature in that week after all. I still thought the ensemble had promise and I was on a mission to save it now! I wanted GREEN! I had to wait until Spotlight had restocked its dye supplies but finally they came in. And into the ~~spa~~ dye-pot it went!

looked terrible in this light!…

I used a whole pack of Rit Kelly green, and I very happy with it now, I think the strong colour is just what it, or maybe I – needed! The crop top is very cropped, and I have to be careful about lifting my arms up too high, and I’m planning next to make some pretty little lace camisoles to wear underneath.
Watch this space!

Details:

Top and skirt; from the Homer & Howells Cissy pattern, old cotton, overdyed by me
Caramel sandals; super old, originally from an op shop. I need to replace these, desperately!

Green turtleneck: modified Closet Core pattern Nettie in green merino
Black tights; my own design, black stretch poly
Black booties, from Zomp boutique

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: cissy dress, dress, dyeing, homer and howells, own design, skirt, top

blue Blair jacket

22/04/2020 6:25 pm \ 10 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I made a new thing. It’s sort of a jacket, sort of a coat. What’s the difference between those two things anyway, I wonder? I always thought a jacket was short, like maybe no longer than hip length max, and a coat is longer, like anything past the hip. This pattern is marketed as a jacket, but also as potentially a shirt-dress, and the two variations are called duster and blazer respectively; so I guess you can take your pick! A multi-faceted design, to be sure!Whichever, it’s unlined so a very simple and quick thing to make as far as jackets go, and the boxy unfitted shape makes for an undemanding fitting process too. Oh, maybe I should mention the name of the pattern; this is the new Blair jacket pattern by Homer and Howell, and I made the duster length.

I really enjoyed making this! you normally think of jackets/coats/dusters as being quite involved but this was really easy. Even considering that I chose to bind all the raw edges inside with HongKong binding, which is a process that when you’re about to embark on it you think; oh this is going to take FOREVER… But since I figured the seam allowances were going to show every single time the coat blew open I wanted everything to look neat and tidy inside. And whenever I do get going with HongKong seaming I invariably love it, end up thinking, oh this is FAB!! and why don’t I do this for ALL the things I make, hmmm??

My fabric is a wool-blend suiting that I’ve had in my stash for years and years; so long I cannot even remember who gave it to me. Because, yes; it was donated to me from someone else’s stash once upon a time. I think maybe my grandmother’s? It’s beautiful quality, but I’d always shied away from using it because I thought the colour was absolutely terrible for me.

However right now I’m trying to be more resourceful and use le stash, stay in my house and avoid shopping as much as possible. You know, isolation and all that … so decided what the heck. That’s why dyes were invented, right? I knew the fabric wasn’t 100%wool, but it was worth a try. Sploonch! it went, straight into a navy blue dye-bath.

This actually worked out pretty well… it’s now a lovely shade of … bruise?? ok maybe I’d describe it as smokey blue, or even light teal.. anyway it’s a richly smudge-y sort of a colour that I really like and a big improvement on the original light sky-blue. For the HongKong seaming I used an olive green poplin from my stash too.

Buttons! well obviously I had nothing that matched in size or colour AT ALL and normally I’d pop off to the shops to search for something. But see I’d made up my mind to work from my stash, and giving in on the buttons would be such a fail… so fresh on the heels of making my tea-cup for the bridal shower hat, I thought I’d try to make some from modelling clay. I think they worked out really well!

I don’t think I’ll be tossing the coat in the washing machine any time soon, just in case, although I’m sure they would probably survive fine. Maybe just a gentle hand-wash. But look at them! I LOVE them! I especially love how slightly wonky they are. Of course any and all wonkiness was completely intentional 😉

I’m just going to briefly mention the changes I made to the pattern:

I switched the orientation of the box pleat in the back to be an “innie” rather than an “outie”

I added a hanging loop inside the collar/yoke seam

I put in BIG inseam pockets into the side seams. Yes, there are now pockets in the Blair pattern, but I was a tester for this pattern and they weren’t in the original design. I NEED pockets in a coat! so I actually went in with the seam ripper and added some in after I’d finished the coat completely.

Here’s a little video on the making of this coat, now up on my YouTube channel… I’d like to say that the quality of my videos is improving, but I still haven’t worked out how to even add music. I feel like such a youtube failure! but it’s such a lot to even get this out. I’m trying to improve!

Anyway, blogging/vlogging fails aside; the final verdict is that I’m going to love wearing this… coats are not an awfully common sight here in Perth, we’re so ridiculously casual here, to a fault! But I really love coats, both the making and the wearing of them; and I really love looking at pictures of Northern hemisphere bloggers wearing coats regularly that I’m going to just do it anyway. This is one of those things that is kinda un-Perth, even though I’m deeply Perth in just about every way. This is weird, but it’s just the way it is 🙂

Details:

Coat; the blair jacket pattern byHomer and Howells, in a wool mix suiting
Dress; the Cissy dress pattern by Homer and Howells in a rust coloured lace, underlined with pink/rust dyed cotton, details here
Tights; my own design, black stretch stuff, details here
Black shoes; my own design and made by me, details here
Floral dress; based upon Simplicity 8658, floral cotton gauze, details here
White shoes; designed and made by me, details here

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: blair, coat, daily outfit, dyeing, handcrafts, handicrafts, homer and howells, jacket, pattern review

rusty lace Cissy dress (Homer and Howells)

03/02/2020 9:11 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made this rather awesome new dress, if I say so myself!! Paprika!! Rust!! Kinda… burnt orange/dark red/burgundy/wine!!! It has a strongly autumnal-flavour in colour and feel, but actually it’s beautifully cool and breezy enough for summer too. I wore it today and it was super comfortable in spite of the 38C heat. Phew!

The pattern is the Cissy dress pattern by new company Homer and Howells; I discovered and started following them on instagram a few months ago and was thrilled when they asked if I would like to try out this particular design… because I knew it would make a lovely summer frock 🙂

I had this glorious richly-coloured lace that’s been languishing in my stash for hmmm goodness knows how long … I can barely remember its purchase! I’m pretty sure I bought it at Tessuti’s in Melbourne on one of my holidays over there with Mum and Cassie. Like about 95% sure. #youknowthingsarebadwhen… It’s one of those fabrics I’ve taken out and petted every now and then, even laid out pattern pieces on it before having second thoughts, but finally I felt this particular project was just the right thing.

The pattern is an exceptionally easy thing to make. It does have pockets, beautiful great big pockets too, absolutely perfect; but in the spur of the moment I just couldn’t think of a way of inserting them nicely or invisibly enough into my underlined lace dress, so left them out this time. Who even am III????!! but really. I’m a little ashamed I didn’t think a bit harder, because right now I can think of two separate ways I could have made it work, hmmm. But I’m feeling too stressed out to unpick all that overlocking to put some in right now. Maybe later. After the wedding… 🙂

Of course I needed to underline, because it’s lace, and therefore completely see-through. I had a length of white cotton in my stash too, inherited from Mum’s stash; that was just the right sized piece, and I thought the white underneath would be really cool.

But you know what? it wasn’t … when the dress was finished, I decided the white cotton was actually really awful; just too harsh of a contrast. So I dunked the completed dress into a dyepot of mixed orange/red/brown/hot pink dyes. And now I think it’s lovely! the underlining is almost the same colour now, just a shade lighter than the lace, and I think absolutely perfect. I’m really going to enjoy wearing this chic thing!!

Notes; I shortened the sleeves by about 9cm, and the dress by about 17cm from the top edge. At full length, the dress was just a little too “granny-ish”, and yes I know I AM now an actual granny! but there’s granny-chic which is cool; and then there’s just “granny” but not in a chic way. The lace that I chose, combined with the long skirt tipped the original look into the latter but I do really love it at this slightly shorter length! I actually do have fabric in mind for this pattern at the designed-for longer length, but that will probably not happen until after Cassie and D’s wedding… ha! I have so much to do!!! #notevenlaughing #cryingjustabit #ineedaholiday

I managed to incorporate the natural scalloped lace edge into the hemline, which I think is super pretty! but sadly didn’t have enough lace do the same for the sleeves. They’re just hemmed.

Details:

Dress; Homer & Howells Cissy dress pattern, lace with dyed cotton underlining
Shoes; caramel/ivory clogs are made by me, and my own design, all details here. White shoes are also made by me, at a shoe camaraderie workshop, all details here