issey miyake Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

some wide-legged chocolate trousers

03/11/2021 3:19 pm \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

I guess the title says it all really!

Well, a little more detail wouldn’t hurt I suppose 😉 This is the latest and 10th thing in my #use12 mini capsule wardrobe that I proposed for myself at the beginning of the year.

I used Vogue 1693, an old Issey Miyake pattern that I’ve had for many many years, and am very sorry it’s not available any more since it’s completely unique and I think a real beauty too. I’ve made the trousers once before too, a navy blue pair. Although a few commenters, particularly my husband, ahem, did not think they were as wonderful as I did (!) I really liked them and ended up wearing them a lot! I personally thought they were all of chic, “interesting”, comfortable and flattering, a combination that doesn’t pop up all that often. Maybe they’re a little “80’s” but I am an 80’s child at heart still, no point in denying that. Also, all things fashionable do come around again at some point and I’m a believer that if you like something then it’s perfectly ok for you to wear it. ps, he did come around to them in the end!

For these ones I bought the same fabric from Spotlight that I’d used for my first pair since it worked out so well… a medium weight cotton twill, this time in a rich tobacco-chocolate colour. I actually bought the fabric about two years ago but did nothing further, probably since I was still wearing the navy blue pair quite a lot at the time and didn’t feel that desperate need for a new pair yet. And now the Time has Come!

The chocolate dress zip was already in my stash, it was a trifle too long but that’s not really a bother if you’re truly committed to using up the stash like I am right now! and the buttons are recycled off of an old pair of jeans that I made about ten years ago, these ones here actually. Yes, I finally bid those adieu just recently too… it takes me a long time to say goodbye to things sometimes! Also, thank you so much to lockdown me who devoted an entire afternoon to sorting through and neatly stringing together all of my unholy button stash into batches. T’was worth it!

Oh, I also made the little white T-shirt I’m wearing too… it’s a modified Closet Core patterns Nettie, as usual. I have often joked to myself that the last thing I need is another white top… but I was recently forced to throw out my previous small, short-sleeved white T-shirt because it really was disgracefully shabby from over-wearing… and I’ve really missed it! White cotton jersey was thrown my way by Mum just recently; actually quite a massive length of it, like enough to keep me and the whole family in white T-shirts for the rest of our lives, I think. Thank you Mum!

Video? why yes! … currently up on my youtube channel here:

I’ve probably said this before? but anyway, I am truly grateful to everyone who does watch my videos and leave a like and maybe even a comment or something.

I’m so excited that my little #use12 capsule wardrobe is nearly finished, and EXTREMELY excited to really get into it and style them all together for a little photoshoot when it is completely finished! I can’t wait to see how/if they go together as a complete set as well as I’ve been hoping!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Closet Core patterns, daily outfit, issey miyake, Nettie, top, trousers, use 12, Vogue 1693

white Issey Miyake shirt

28/01/2017 11:54 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

Self-explanatory, really. #endblogpost 😉
Pattern; Vogue 1384. It’s a vintage pattern, hailing from 1984, sorry. Yeah, it’s annoying when people make things in vintage patterns that you can’t get a hold of anymore. But I’m sure this is not particularly aspirational actually, it’s a little weird in that 80’s way. That high, slightly floppy collar combined with a billowing pirate-y blousiness is giving me serious Duran Duran vibes. That’s sort of a good thing btw HUGE Duran Duran fan, once upon a time… only you know, dating myself here #woops On a side note; watching that clip again, wow I think I’ve suddenly identified the genesis of my lifelong white shirt obsession… Also, haha, I totally dance just exactly like that, to this day still, lol.

I’d actually vaguely planned to make this shirt for quite a while, then Anna of blogless Anna proposed an IG #sewjapaneseinjanuary sewing challenge; prompting a jump to the top of my queue… sewing challenges are such fun!

I’ve previously made the skirt from this pattern too; here. That now resides in Cassie’s wardrobe. Thing is; the pretty floaty pink-ness, while lovely, I’ve decided is just not really ME. Not to mention that she put it on one day and obviously it looked only like about 999999 times better on her than it ever did me (sob) I’ve got to stop giving her my clothes to try on!! Just kidding; I wore it a few times but tired of it quite quickly and I don’t miss it, not one little bit. Though I do still really like that design and am thinking of making it up again, just in a more me-friendly fabric and colour.

Fabric; a thin, sparsely-dotted swiss cotton voile with ever so faint and equally sparse paisley embroidery on it in bits. Very very subtle. I bought it in Potters Textiles a few years ago, when it was in its other location.

The top looks at its best when it’s either tucked in or belted-n-blousy, and while I have a small collection of self-made belts… like, four maybe? none of them looked very right with this sheer-ish white top, so I quickly whipped up a thin white one in the same fabric to wear with it. Kt-chaaaaaaa!! *whip-crack sound effect* Sorry, I simply cannot read “whipped something up” with regards to sewing without hearing a crack o’ the whip sound in my head. Craaa-aack that whip! * (Devo, and a warning, do not click that link unless you WANT to be subjected to some really random and classic 80’s, madness. Yep, I was a fan of that too, *blush*)

The belt is basically just a waistband really. A poor, bereft and lonely little waistband, with no skirt to call home… *sad violins* It’s exactly the same deal as the one I made for my tartan dress. Just two buttonholes, and one button, and you wear it so the button is on the inside.

Also, interesting pocket tab/flap detail. You can’t really see it on the outside, which defeats the purpose a bit really, but oh well. It’s kinda cute when you notice it!

I flat-felled all seams throughout, as usual. Btw, you CAN flat-fell all sleeve and armscye seams too… my tutorial for flat felling the armscye seam is here… and the sleeve seam itself can be flat felled by starting from the middle of the seam and stitching OUT. Be sure to have the sleeve RIGHT SIDE OUT, so that you are sewing inside the sleeve… this will ensure that you are in no danger of stitching down the other side of the sleeve underneath…

In the case of this shirt; I stitched the sleeves to the shirt, and flat-felled that armscye seam before stitching up the sleeve and side seams…
First, stitch the sleeve and side seams in one fell swoop. Press seam open and trim one side. If you are flat-felling the seam towards the back of the garment, trim the back edge of the seam.

Press the front edge back over the back edge, turn under the raw edge, and press in a neat even width.

Turn sleeve RIGHT SIDE OUT (v. important) and from the wrist end of the sleeve; bundle the tube of the sleeve up to locate a point roughly midway up the sleeve. Position the bundled up sleeve tube behind your machine and pull the wrist end of the tube through until this midway point is under the needle. Take it nice and slow, and stitch the flat-felled seam from here out to the wrist.

To complete the seam; just repeat the same process as above only bundling up the sleeve from the armscye side… locate that same midway point of the sleeve, and stitch the seam from there, to the underarm, and keep going in one long continuous seam down the side seams to the bottom hem of the shirt.

Done!

Details:

Blouse; Vogue 1384, white swiss voile
Skirt; Vogue 1247, striped stuff, details here and my original review of this pattern here
Sandals (above): my own design, made by me, all details here

Denim shoes (below); my own design, made by me, all details here
location at top: Preston St overpass, Como, Western Australia

Replicating the 80’s pattern envelope pose, just because…. the 80’s.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: blouse, daily outfit, issey miyake, seams, shirt, top, tutorial, Vogue 1384

blue Issey Miyake trousers

28/09/2015 7:27 am \ 49 Comments \ Carolyn

To complete my Issey Miyake trilogy; the trousers.
Pattern; Vogue 1693, an Issey Miyake design from 1986.
I used a navy blue cotton drill from Spotlight, buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.
Hmmm, navy blue again. Can’t explain it but I’m a bit mad for it right now. Navy; so hot right now!
When I finished these and popped them on; I felt quite happy and positive about them, thinking they looked pretty sharp. A bit reminiscent of sailor’s pants, which pleases me a lot. And wide legs are IN IN IN. One of my favourite pieces in the Paris autumn/winter collections was Dries van Noten’s super wide leg pants; slouchy, relaxed, oversized trousers in the plainest of plain khaki cotton chino. So comfy, so practical, so unfussy, so damn chic. I saw, and I wanted!
So I strutted out confidently to my husband to show him, anticipating a comment along the lines of, hey super cool pants! or something like that. Ha! his reaction: hmmm VERY eighties, aren’t they? His tone was not the tone of a man who thought the eighties had anything worth resurrecting, fashion-wise.
*pop*
Bubble burst.
Hmm, well, yes; no denying that they are, most definitely, eighties. A full-on ridgydidge piece of authentic eighties, right here. But I’m an eighties girl. Owning that. And anyway I reckon this shape is pretty NOW too!

In eighties speak we used to say gauchos, but the hip n’ happening term now is culottes, whether rightly or wrongly? They are very wide at the waistline and pulled in with four big pleats, held into place with buttoned arrowhead tabs to nip in and define your waist, so have that little something different and interesting about them. They also have satisfyingly deep slanted front pockets, like all the 80’s and early 90’s Vogues used to have.

Some technical bizzo: the instructions left some parts a little bit shonky/half-done; I went back and unpicked a few spots so I could re-do/overlock to neaten it up inside when I realised that was the case… Also, the construction of the waistband was a little strange, and so I modified it slightly; instead of hand-stitching the short edges of the waistband facing, I wrapped it around over on the outside of the waistband and front, machine-stitched the side seams, then pulling the front back through so the front is all nicely enclosed between the waistband/waistband facing. This results in it all being far more securely stitched together. I still fell-stitched the lower edge of the facing though.

Finally though, I couldn’t be happier with the finished product! so I’m deducting just one point for the dodgy waistband construction issues.
Happiness factor; 9/10

Details:
Pants; Vogue 1693, navy blue cotton drill
Top; Nettie Tshirt with breast pocket, Closet Case patterns, details here
Shoes; bensimon, from seed boutique

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, issey miyake, trousers, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1693

Issey Miyake blouse

23/09/2015 3:35 am \ 50 Comments \ Carolyn

Continuing my trip down nostalgia lane, I’ve made the top from my 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693…

Fabric: a lightweight, fully embroidered cotton voile in pure-as-the-driven-snow white, a remnant from Potter’s Textiles. I had barely enough fabric to squeak out the pattern pieces, and had to lay the belt and front bands across the grain. Since they are interfaced I don’t think that’s going to affect the efficacy of the blouse too drastically. Lack of fabric forced me to cut the armhole facings from a different white cotton from my stash, provenance long forgotten. White buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.

I’d half forgotten how much I love this blouse pattern but it all came flooding back over me in a happy sentimental wave during the construction of this new blouse. The finishing instructions are wonderful with a truly great attention to detail that you rarely see in a pattern any more; all raw edges are neatly hidden away, either under flat felled seams or neatly turned under and top-stitched down on either side of a seam.

The style is also very much my cuppa tea; loose, asymmetric, interesting. It closes with just two buttons on a gently diagonal crossover front and two crossed belts at the back pull the blousiness in to the small of the back and help define your shape quite nicely.
Happiness scale; 10/10 Say no more!

Details:
Blouse; Vogue 1693, embroidered cotton voile
Trousers; own design, very old, white linen

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: issey miyake, top, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1693

mustard Issey Miyake skirt

18/09/2015 3:28 am \ 55 Comments \ Carolyn

I’m scratching a long-standing itch by making something from this 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693 … see, I’ve used it once before, when it very first came out! to make a skirt and the top for myself. I wore that outfit to a number of 21st birthday parties with my then brand new fiancé, now my husband 🙂 There’s probably a picture lobbing around somewhere of me wearing it, just don’t know where! perhaps in a few of our old schoolmates’ dusty old photo albums shoved in the back of a cupboard somewhere. My first skirt and top from this pattern was in a sateen with a rather psychedelic splotchy print of bright yellow, purple, a bit of bright orange and I think, splashes of black thrown in there. I remember being extremely proud of it, haha! I used to wear it with hydrangea purple court shoes, or pumps. We used to call them court shoes back then.
So, I think maybe it’s ok for me to claim this as a vintage pattern! and item number three going towards fulfilling my vintage pattern pledge… to make five items from my vintage patterns.
Fabric; a loose woven, slubby wool blend from Tessuti’s, Melbourne bought during a holiday over there with my Mum and Cassie. A bit rough in feel, but in a beautiful, high quality way, if that makes any sense at all; quite thick, probably too thick for the design in retrospect and it was a little difficult to make it work with the pattern, Almost cried a few times when I thought I’d ruined it, but managed to wrangle it into submission eventually. Major relief when it all worked out. I used the hammer a few times to flatten some of the more bulky layers down thinner, so they would fit under my sewing machine foot.

Perfectly matching buttons from Calico and Ivy.
Technical notes; all seams flat felled as per the pattern.

To avoid bulk in the waistband, the inside edge was cut along the selvedge, and this is not folded inside the waistband but left out inside the skirt and topstitched down from the right side, stitching in-the-ditch. I also cut the overlay against the selvedge and left the selvedge edge out along the edge of the turned in facing. Same reason as the waistband treatment; to reduce the bulk of having a raw edge turned under.

Also HongKong bounds edges for an inside side edge and the hem, again to avoid as much unnecessary bulk as possible. For this, I used a beige/light honey coloured poplin voile to make bias binding. I bought about 2m of this a few years ago and have almost used all of it in HongKong binding for various things… need to get some more, asap!
Happiness scale; 9/10 at having another of these skirts, since the pattern is a sentimental favourite of all time for me. It lost a point due to my struggles with the fabric, but if I had to do it all over again I would probably still want the skirt in this same fabric. Feels great on, and like skirt and pattern were meant for each other, like star crossed lovers or something like that, go figure. Next time I will choose something with a little less bulk though.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1693, slubby mustard wool blend
Tshirt; self-drafted, white/grey stripe cotton jersey, details here
Shoes; Diavolina, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, issey miyake, Sienna, skirt, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1693

pale pink Issey Miyake skirt

23/05/2015 4:22 am \ 58 Comments \ Carolyn

Why a pale pink skirt,
I hear you cry?
why not a pale pink skirt,
is my reply.

Poetry. Nailed it.
Sorry. I’m in a silly mood and obviously having trouble thinking of intelligent-sounding stuff to write…
Ok. So, at the beginning of the year I pledged to sew five items from my vintage patterns… this latest effort is my first; woot!
The pattern is Vogue 1384, a 1984 Issey Miyake design. 30 years old is pretty “vintage” yeah? yup I reckon so.
I’m slightly amused at myself that I signed up actually since a few years ago I was so allergic to the very word “vintage” and could not hear it without an involuntary eye roll. I was like, o gawd, so done-to-death!! I should say I wasn’t against any thing vintage, in itself, in fact I love antiques, and old things. It was just the word “vintage”. Hehehe. I must be mellowing somewhat.

Anyhoo, back to The Thing: my cool new skirt. Or should I say, my skirt of a very very cool design. As we can usually expect from Issey Miyake, it a quite unique, intriguing and interesting approach to a skirt; being a few oddly shaped rectangles cut, spliced and resewn together at seemingly random places, and boom; you end up with an asymmetric skirt. Fabulousity!

I know, and I agree; creations made from “vintage” patterns can be a little annoying to read about on blogs, thanks to the patterns being so rare and hard to come by. Not very helpful; and sorta inspirational rather than aspirational. I’m sorry!
I used a heavenly soft pink poly crepe from Fabulous Fabrics, the same fabric I used for my other Sea Change top. So the two make another matching skirt/top set, should I desire to wear them together. But I think it will go with lots of other tops in my wardrobe too.
The pink poly crepe is on the sheer side, so I lined my skirt with ivory polyacetate fabric. I managed to cut the lining as just one piece: I worked out how to do this after sewing the skirt pieces together and could see how the skirt “worked”, so to speak. I spliced the skirt pieces together at the relevent joining points and marked and sewed in the waist shaping darts at the top. It ended up looking kinda like a big quarter-doughnut shape. Then I just included it in with the skirt when sewing on the waistband at the top. Simple dimple.

The waistband is of matching, pale pink silk dupion, also from Fabulous Fabrics. I chose this because it is nicely stiff, inflexible and very stable, which is really good in a waistband for a skirt like this. While the floaty, ripply, slithery poly crepe is really lovely for the skirt part of the skirt, it is not the slightest bit stable. And this is very much a waist-defining skirt design, for which a structurally sound waistband is imperative.
Some skirts are loose and flowy all over and are ok sitting low on the hips in a casual bohemian way; others need support, and the waistband is it. This design is firmly in the latter category.
Summary:
What do I love: the asymmetric shape, and the random waterfall-y ruffle-y thing falling down into a handkerchief like hem at the front. Divinely floaty fabric in the heavenliest soft pale pink.
What don’t I love; it’s nearly winter here and I’m going to have to put it away for a few months. Boooo!
OK, I have nothing else remotely intelligent to add; so, until next time, amigos!

Details:
Top; the loose drape top, modified, from drape drape by Hisako Sato, linen cotton jersey. I discovered a little hole while I was putting this on this morning, aaagh! Immediate emergency darning ensued! I love this top!
Skirt; Vogue 1384, pale pink poly-crepe
Cardigan; I also wore my calico cotton cardigan today…
Sandals; Zomp, from Zomp shoe boutique

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, issey miyake, skirt, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1384

Green pleats, please!

17/03/2014 1:57 pm \ 19 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! 🙂

So
what’s new here? Just a colour,
really. My Issey Miyake pleated top (vogue 1142) used
to be a cheerful daffodil yellow, and now it is a murky-lurky, swampy, toxic-waste shade of
green. Definitely far more me 😉 Hoorah for dye!

Cassie was doing a wardrobe reno: an apricot cardi
plus some black dye equals a new chocolate cardigan! and asked if I wanted the
used black dye-bath for anything before she chucked it out. I barely gave it ten seconds of thought, just
grabbed this top. It’s not that I can’t
bear to waste a teeny bit of dye that might still have some oomph in it.. oh well,
yes, maybe there’s that too. But I
really liked the top and wanted to get it into circulation more. Yellow is one of “my colours”, but the
brightness was just not working with many bottoms… and furthermore since
I’ve planned a very subdued autumn/winter wardrobe for myself then the bright yellow
top would just continue to not work. And
on a psychological note, not that I’m overthinking this or anything! but I think maybe brights are just too daring
for my personality? I’m a bit of a mouse and perhaps bright yellow should just
be limited to infrequent miniscule doses in my life.

Ha! I reckon I’ve officially just overthought the
whole thing, which is hilarious considering that I didn’t think at all before
plunging the top into that dye-bath! Lol!

Anyway, now the main thing is that now it’s going to
go quite well with the ivories, browns and greens of my s wap.

Details:

Top; Vogue 1142, yellow silk over-dyed in a weak, already-used bath of iDye in Black, original details and my review of this pattern here

Skirt; my own design modifications to Vogue8363, cream curtaining fabric, details here and my review of this pattern here

below; before…

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dyeing, issey miyake, Sienna, top, Vogue 1142

Issey Miyake tucked dress

15/02/2014 5:03 pm \ 48 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new dress. Part of that swap-eroonie…. which does seem like a vague dream from the distant past now; but actually upon which progress has happily been made. *gasp* *self back-pat*.
My new dress is from an old Vogue Issey Miyake pattern, Vogue 2438, hailing from maybe the late 90’s? I think? I don’t know for sure. If someone does then please feel free to enlighten me! (Later edit; 2001) I bought it through ebay. The dress is basically a giant, almost shapeless sack of a dress that achieves shaping with a few darts and two big strategically placed folds held in place with snap tape. You are supposed to arrange the snaps to make the folds more or less pronounced, as desired. Pretty cool concept, huh? This is in the same vein to another Issey Miyake dress I have, of black jersey, and is perfectly representational of my desire to make things that look kinda ordinary on first sight but on closer inspection turn out to be just a touch weird and slightly “off”. Those of us into clothes often see the link between our fashion choices to our personalities; and I think that description pretty much sums up me in a nutshell too 😉

it’s asymmetrical so the side views are a bit different

there are also darts down each side from the underarm to the hip

This dress is supposed to be made in stretchy fabric too, but scandalously, it is not. It is a thickish woven cotton, deep chocolate brown with a cream pin-stripe, bought from the Fabric Store in Melbourne about three years ago. I was so in love with my vision of this particular dress, in this particular fabric that I was just like; oh, recommended fabrics, pfft. I know I know, such a rebel, tut tut. The recommended fabric is generally like a primary tenet of dress-making; that thou shalt ignore at thy peril and risk of permanent exclusion from the hallowed halls of sewing Utopia.
O woopsie. *blush*
Well ok, I didn’t just gratuitously leap in and go for it helter skelter; I did measure to check feasibility. I sized up, and also altered the snap tape placement to accommodate my shape; in a little bit in at the waist and out a little bit at the hips. And it all worked out. In fact it is pretty much exackertackerly just how I wanted it to be, so I’m happy!
the back tuck is on quite a slanted curve