jacket Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

a buffalo plaid jacket and a little blue skirt

04/09/2026 1:11 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a few more things to wear this winter/early spring….

Firstly, a delightfully warm jacket. I bought this buffalo plaid fabric from the remnants table in KnitWit quite a few years ago and hadn’t really known what to do with it ever since. Anyway I finally decided it was next up, time to make something with it, something… ANYTHING. Often with fabric I don’t feel very passionate about, I end up putting a big effort and time and care into making it as nicely and as well as I can, and this is what happened this time too. I carefully aligned all the plaids, was a teeny bit disappointed that I couldn’t make them match down the front opening edge, but apart from that everything lines up A-ok, yay.

I used the Closet Core Sienna jacket pattern again, cutting the jacket style of my imagination which kind of blended all three views. I gave it inseam side pockets, fully lined it (kind of silky stuff from a Morrison clothing remnant sale) and added two inner patch breast pockets to the lining.

I just cut the fully lined hood, using the joining edge of the collar for the bottom edge, otherwise not using any specific hood pattern. At some point, I decided the obvious choice for closure to be toggles… black ones. Of course Spotlight only had sorta murky-greenish ones. So I bought the requisite, gave them a sand, strung them up like so:

and painted them with three coat of matt black acrylic craft paint, finishing off with a clear matt varnish to protect it.

I happened to have a short length of black braid that I could use for the “anchors”, and bought some black leather lacing to attach the toggles and for the closure.

I’m really happy with how these turned out!

I also made a simple little skirt, the kind of thing I like to wear all winter long. This is from a length of stretchy blue denim, a longterm leftover from a pair of trousers I made once. Because I only had a smallish scrap with oddly shaped pieces I hauled out ye olde favourite V 1247, and added about 10cm.

The waistband is navy blue skinny-wale cord (from stash), lined with a blue cotton (also stash) which I also added on to the front yoke to get enough length for the pockets, as pictured. The stash also provided a dress zip.

And thus the remaining stash is lightened just a little further and I have some nice new winter threads. Very happy!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: buttons, Closet Core patterns, coat, daily outfit, jacket, own design, Sienna, skirt, Vogue 1247

winter white Dyron hoodie

03/10/2025 3:36 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new hoodie for myself, and think it’s rather beautiful if I say so myself. Many years ago, when I started this blog, I would sometimes berate myself for being scared of wearing colourful clothing. I tried to break away from making too many white things. I think I’ve succeeded in training myself to wear more colourful clothing, but actually my love for plain white things, or really, ivory things, hasn’t gone away. I still have quite a lot of cream, white or ivory fabrics in the stash! When the new Fibremood Dyron hoodie pattern landed in my inbox I got out some of my hoodie-weight fabrics and found I had enough of this lovely winter-white corduroy to cut out the hoodie. I’ve been hoarding this corduroy for a looooooooooong time so it feels really good to enjoy it, at last!

I made a size small, haha. Yes, it’s huge.

To be fair, the blurb does state that it’s deliberately styled as oversized, but still… I really love this design actually. I had an ivory zip in my stash already, fortunately, so I didn’t need to buy anything new to make the hoodie. As well as a zip, you needed velcro tape, which is the closure for both pockets, and is also on the sleeve tabs and hip/waist tabs. I only had black velcro, which worried me a little for a while. But it shouldn’t have. In the end I decided the black looked absolutely fine.

Speaking of those hip/waist tabs, to be completely honest they really are completely unnecessary, and are just a nuisance. In the end I unpicked the velcro tape and just stitched them permanently down.

This shows the front pocket with once of its side velcro closures. Inexplicably, this pocket also has a top opening with velcro closure too. This is kind of inaccessibly tucked right up underneath the “flap” so I don’t even really understand why it’s there.

The hood is lined with a matching cream coloured lightweight cotton, when I realised a double layer of corduroy was going to make the hood too heavy and stiff.

This is a rather clever sleeve pocket in the left sleeve. It’s inserted in one of the sleeve seams, and also has a velcro closure. I’m not sure what you’d use it for but it is big enough for a phone. So I guess that could come in handy.

Wearing it here with my really old, but favourite, Closet Core patterns Sasha trousers. I’ve been saying for ages I need to replace these, and the good news is that I have finally taken steps to make this happen. Stay tuned!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, Dyron, fibremood, hoodie, jacket

charcoal Sienna jacket

16/08/2025 3:13 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

hello!

I’ve made another Sienna jacket, yes, hot on the heels of the last one. I realise this is a weird thing to do but I’m well known for doing weird things so it’s just the norm at this point. I had this large and rather bulky piece of thick, woolly, charcoal knit in my stash and decided that to use just this one piece would actually free up a disproportionally large amount of space in there. OK then! I think I originally bought it from the remnant bin in Knit Wit, Nedlands.

This one is a little different from the previous pink one, as well as being different from the pattern… I cut the front so as to have a straight edge and to have the front facing integral with the front. I also left off the collar and made a hood instead. I love hoodies and don’t have enough in my wardrobe! Honestly if I’d had enough fabric I definitely would have made my pink Sienna to have a hood too.

This fabric had two distinct sides; a side that looks like boiled wool and the other side looks like a stocking stitched knitted piece. I chose the boiled wool side to be the right side of my jacket. It’s really very bulky stuff so instead of traditional seams I got creative …

for the hood, I turned under a seam and lined the hood completely with a black, sorta silky but not-silk stuff that is thin but nice and soft. I cut the back neckline facing from the same fabric. The hood edging is turned over the edge of the hood lining and simply topstitched in place. After stitching, I trimmed the hood edging inside close to the stitching.

Similarly, the pocket flaps were made by laying the two flap pieces wrong sides together, and stitching together as normal; then trimming the seam allowances off neatly close to the stitching.

The sleeve bands and sleeve band “holding pieces”? keepers? (forgot the proper name for those) are made the same way.

The front facings, pocket tops, jacket and sleeve hemlines were made by overlocking the raw edges, turning under allowances/facings to the inside, and then hand-stitching in place.

I actually went out to buy new buttons for this jacket when I decided only plain, black, matte buttons would do. I’d initially stitched on some other buttons from my stash but just didn’t like the result. So I made the executive decision to go against my “buy nothing” principles this time. I think it’s ok to do this if you’ve used all the workhorse buttons in your stash and really have trouble finding fabrics that match any of those colourful, wild and wacky buttons that remain in there!

This is an EXTREMELY warm jacket, much warmer than just about all the other ones in my wardrobe at the moment, yes, even my new pink one! I’ve been wearing this charcoal jacket just around the house mostly, and have saved the pink one for wearing out. I think we only have a few weeks left of weather cold enough for this one – hey I’m definitely not complaining about that!

I fully expect by September it will be just too hot for it… really I should have made it at the beginning of winter! In any case, it feels great to have taken the fabric from out of the stash, and into the wardrobe!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Closet Core patterns, daily outfit, jacket, Sienna

pink Sienna jacket

01/08/2025 3:12 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

hello! I’ve made a chic (I hope) new jacket… and in such a pretty colour, I’m completely in love. Guava pink? Strawberry icecream pink? Sherbie pink? Coral? Ham pink? haha. Whichever, I really adore it and feel like it’s one of “my” colours that suits me quite well.

The fabric is a thickish wool felt that I bought from the Fabric Store in Melbourne during our weekend trip over there in March ’22 to see Harry Potter. The name of the colour is actually “red clay”, and I have a merino t-shirt in the same colour way, blogged here. I even bought some matching thread in the same transaction, which I have carefully saved ever since just for these very projects. Quite unlike me!

I used the Closet Core Sienna jacket, a pattern that I have used once before, in a different variation. This new one is variation C, the shortest of the three. I like that it’s cropped, a little boxy, and the notched collar. I also like the abundance of pockets. This little jacket has five tucked away in its smallish self!

I made a BIG change, of course. I wasn’t going to, but after doing only a little bit of sewing I decided it had to be lined. Not lining would have felt a bit sacrilegious to this beautiful wool fabric. For this I used a pale pink lining fabric from my stash. Another change; I abstained from topstitching, which this design has in copious quantities, and instead carefully arranged it to have all hidden/invisible stitching as much as possible.

So, the breast and hip pockets are made as welt pockets, and I agonised quite a lot over getting those slanted welts just right, with the pockets inside hanging “down” and not skewed sideways. This was a lot harder to achieve than I first thought it would be.

Typical of me to make a project a lot more complicated that it should be, honestly, I don’t know why I do this to myself.

The sleeves are the variation with a pocket in them. I think this is such a cute idea!

I happened to have the perfect coloured velvet ribbon to make the hanging loop, so I love this detail!

Do you think I had the right buttons in my stash? No! I did not! and I’m still on a kick to not buy anything new, as much as I can. I still have a small blob of modelling clay left, so made my own. I’ve done this multiple times before and love how hand shaped and painted buttons look. I made ten – the pattern requires eight, so I picked the best eight for the outside of the jacket, and sewed the two spare ones on the inside, on a scrap of felt, just in case I need them in the future.

I can’t actually decide if I prefer it buttoned, or unbuttoned. I’ve been wearing it buttoned, but worry it looks a bit funny. But it’s obviously warmer that way!

I love how this turned out! To be honest, I finished this jacket just before we went away, but didn’t have the time to blog it. Since coming home though, I’ve worn it several times. My new favourite coat!

Here it is worn with my pumpkin silk Mysotis dress, blogged here. Love this mix of warm spicy colours! It’s been very very cold here this winter, and my new coat has proved itself delightfully snuggly; absolute bliss. I’m going to thoroughly enjoy this coat for the remainder of this winter, and the next… and the next…

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Closet Core patterns, daily outfit, jacket, Sienna

black velvet hoodie jacket and matching skirt

12/10/2023 4:21 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! long time no blog… I’ve been having a few technological issues. Specifically, my lovely loyal computer started dying and then… did die *pause for a moment’s silence* Towards the end it was impossible to do anything without everything crashing …. life was becoming terribly frustrating. Traumatic times! Anyway, long story short; I have a lovely new computer now! Yes, that was the short version, thank goodness for that!

Anyway, time for me to blog some of the things I’ve been making… oh I noticed just today that my blog is just about exactly 14? years old now? Happy bloggiversary to me! I can hardly believe it, how time has zoomed by!

So, I made this skirt and hoodie jacket set a little while ago… this is exactly the sort of thing I love to wear during winter and I’m excited to wear it in autumn too. The fabric is quite warm but the sleeves of the jacket are short, so I can see it being pretty good during the seasonal change too.

Patterns: the jacket is Burdastyle 10/2009, 108; a pattern I have used once before, here. This time I fully lined the jacket, and did not put in any piping.

The skirt is the new Fibremood Marah pattern, available here. I cut the mini version, just bit longer. It’s a pretty cute pattern, like a jeans skirt with a front fly and slanted side pockets. Plus the usual back patch pockets, and for good measure two extra big pockets at the side too. These match the big patch pockets on my jacket, which is quite nice I think.

Fabrics; the mustard patterned black velvet is a fairly heavy upholstery fabric that was given to me years ago by a friend, who was cleaning out her mother-in-law’s stash. It’s almost got thrown out multiple times, but I’ve always saved it at the last minute because it’s really not too bad. I cut the pockets and hoodie from a mustard/caramel cotton corduroy, leftovers from a pair of jeans I made years ago. It matches the pattern on the velvet perfectly! like it was meant to be.

I lined both pieces with a deep olive green lining fabric, from old stash. Yes, actually both fabrics are from old old stash and even the zip was recycled. I’m still using my supplies up as much as I can! I haven’t bought any new fabric this year! although I might allow myself one new piece. My friends gave me a Fabulous Fabrics voucher for my birthday and I would like to use it before the year is out. That’s ok, because this year I have managed to get my stash right down to about a third of what it used to be. I’m so happy about that!

Also recently; I made a new pair of Fridgetown hand warmers for my daughter-in-law Kelly. I’d given her a pair a few years ago; when we first created the pattern, and she’s worn them threadbare! So thrilled that she loved them so much! and she requested a new pair for her birthday. Preferably they would go nicely with this navy and white striped hoodie that I made for her even more years ago, and that she still wears very regularly. I happened to have a just-big-enough length of cranberry merino, leftover from this T-shirt I made for myself a few years ago and ran up the handwarmers. It’s so nice to have family who likes to wear the things that I make for them; truly I do not take this for granted! The Fridgetown hand warmer pattern is available here.

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Burdastyle 10/2009-108, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, fibremood, fridgetown, handwarmers, hoodie, jacket, marah skirt, skirt

💜 borahae! *

13/06/2023 9:02 pm \ 7 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! So, in the never-ending saga that is my making journey, blah blah blah; I want to try and make at least one thing per month for no reason other than it satisfies my creative desires. This is kinda important since lately I actually seem to make a lot of things that don’t satisfy me creatively at all … strange, huh? anyway, it’s just something I want to make time for, for my own personal happiness.

It doesn’t have to necessarily be “useful” or practical either… just something that I want to make, just because. While also being entirely from the stash, the other important proviso of course!

Something that’s bothered me for a while is that I have practically zero purple clothing… and nothing purple in the stash either. Also, today is the 10th anniversary of BTS debut, and being a reasonably recent fan (more on that later) I thought I could observe this milestone and fill the gaping purple hole in my wardrobe at the same time.

I had some cherry red cotton corduroy, originally from Mum’s stash… and I also have plenty of old jeans. I think these ones were also Mum’s actually! Thanks, Mum!

Plans were made, patterns were perused, discarded, dyes checked out. I worked out I could cut out the Named Maisa jean jacket from my corduroy, and also get a little matching skirt out if I cut some of the pieces from the old jeans. To make everything purple, I would dye the cherry red corduroy with navy blue dye, and the blue jeans would get a red dye bath, This may or may not have been a disastrous adventure, but you know me, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I was so excited to see how it was going to go!

Stuff cut out. Here are the bits and bobs. The leftovers (middle right) are, I’m proud to boast; practically nothing. I did save some of them for another little project, yet to be realised…

I made up the body part of the Maisa jean jacket first, and overlocked the edges of the other red jacket bits, for dyeing.

I cut out a few extra pockets… I wasn’t sure where these would go exactly but I just cut and dyed them anyway, thinking I’d find the right spot for them eventually.

The second stage was to make the skirt. The design is my own, that I’m planning to make into a pattern for mine and Cassie’s tiny little company this year, if possible! It has deep pockets, and no zip, instead closing over a hip pocket. I made this completely including lining, before dyeing it as a whole in the same dye bath as the jean jacket body, just with a little bit of extra blue added. I used a green lining fabric (why not, ’twas in the stash) and some leftover pink linen from my Lennox dress to line the waistband. This is how they turned out after the dye job. I’m really happy with how (to my mind) gorgeous the colours look together!

Last step was to construct the jacket sleeves and collar, and dye these and the rescued jeans pockets in a red dye bath. I’d added a tiny bit of blue to this bath too, on a hunch; and am quite happy with the level of purple achieved. Then I finished the jacket construction. The two extra corduroy pockets got stitched onto the denim sleeves of the jacket, and the rescued denim jeans pockets got stitched to the body of the jacket. Of course I’m thrilled to have some useful pockets on the jacket!

Some details: I used copper jeans buttons, these were the only things bought new for the project. For the most part, I used black thread or a dark khaki thread for the skirt lining and some other parts; and navy blue overlocking thread throughout. For the skirt; I had two purple buttons already in my stash, which was handy.

Final verdict; well of course all that strong red turned out more raspberry than purple; though the jacket sleeves are decidedly purple. I still love it though! and am very excited to wear it a lot during winter. Although I “wanted” purple; raspberry is of course one of my favourite colours; so how could I not be happy?!

* “borahae” actually kinda translates to “I purple you”, and is a BTS thing… So I’ve been a low-key fan for a few years, but it wasn’t until I started making wedding dresses and spending a lot of time listening to youtube videos and bingeing on BTS Run while I hand stitched tiny lace motifs onto silk and tulle bodices that I really got into them a lot more. Then during the making of Lainey’s wedding dress, I finally finished viewing the entirety of BTS Run and of course anyone who has watched the show knows you cannot help but eventually became hopelessly addicted! Aaah! I’m not going to say any more, because it’s a little bit embarrassing, at my age! but anyway there it is. I’ve said it now! 💜

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dyeing, jacket, maisa jacket, named patterns, own design, skirt

mother of the groom

19/03/2023 6:08 pm \ 11 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello!

Finally, I can share the outfit I made for myself for our son Sam’s wedding to the lovely Lainey…

I was too overwhelmed after making her dress to even think of trying out any new patterns for myself so just went with some tried-and-trues in the end…

the fabric pretty special though! It is a particularly luscious and silk velvet that I bought in Paris during a holiday many years ago; probably like about a decade ago, if I’m honest! It’s beautiful stuff, and I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. and what could be more special, than my child’s wedding?!

Patterns; the dress is V1351, and the little jacket is V2894, an old Oscar de la Renta for Vogue patterns that I’ve made once before. The dress pattern is one I’ve used quite a bit; four times, to be precise! it’s a real goodie! I made the jacket because I often feel cold in the evening, even during summer so thought it a good idea to have one just in case. As it turned out I wore it most of the time so thank goodness I had enough fabric!

Both jacket and dress are fully lined with a super pretty pink silk that I bought recently from Fabulous Fabrics. I did look at green lining fabrics but nothing looked right so went with a contrasting colour. Very happy that I did because I really love it.

I added a single welt pocket into the lining of the jacket, under the right sleeve, just big enough for my phone. The top of the pocket is stitched to the sleeve seam inside, so it’s well supported and stable. Even though I did take an evening bag, it was still really good having a pocket. Makes me feel illogically good when I have a pocket in my outfit 🙂

I have very little else to say about this outfit, other than I felt really good and comfortable in it on the day, and am so happy I finally found a good use for this ultra-beautiful fabric.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: dress, jacket, Vogue 1351, Vogue 2894, wedding

in which I make yet another tartan thingie…

27/11/2022 8:04 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new.. blouse? jacket? the more open-ended “top” would be the least controversial, I suppose!

This is the new Rhonda pattern by Fibremood… I always tend to go for the weirdest pattern in any collection because that’s just my preference in just about anything, and I was not disappointed with my choice this time either! It’s quite unique; sorta boxy giving a tres-flattering square shape to one’s torso #imjoking and an up-and-down hemline all around. The sleeves are wide and a little flared without being annoyingly big. If I’m being critical I’m not super sold on the buttoned back; such a thing has a tiny whiff of “homemade” about it and maybe I would substitute a zip or even an invisible zip in a lighter fabric next time. But, I’m ok with it for them most part.

I didn’t have matching buttons in my stash, so got some blue fabric covered ones that I’d rescued off a cardigan, many years ago, and used a sharpie to colour them in black. Perfect! I really like how they’re a little woolly looking, just like the fabric.

Oh, the fabric? This was a leftover, given to be by Mum. She’d bought it in Melbourne, during one of our girls’ trips over there; and subsequently made a pair of trousers for herself. In true Mum fashion she had bought about 2m too much. The wrong side is a bit fluffy, like a blanket, and this is the side I used as a right side. The actual right side is a lot more defined and sharp looking, which is nice but I just wanted the slightly fluffy, ill-defined felted look of the wrong side.

I managed to get this little jacket out of it, and also a little matching skirt. Oh, you’ve noticed I am not wearing the matching skirt? That’s because while I used my own perfectly fitting skirt block to cut it out, I foolishly failed to add seam allowances. And then steam-rollered through without pausing to try it on at any point, until it was completely finished. So it turned out depressingly tiny *sob* Fortunately it fits Cassie just fine, so she accepted it happily. I’m quite sad because it honestly looked so cute with the matching jacket! but really; I have enough skirts planned top of that one to suit my needs.

I’ll attach a picture of Cassie wearing the skirt here when I can get one… ~~until then!~~

please say hi to my darling little grandson and BooBoo … and yes, I am … just a little bit dying of heat right here. But hey; summer is here at last, and I am NOT complaining!