Tag Archives: Karijini Dress

Christmas prep

Hello, Christmas makes!!  To be honest though my output is quite modest this year, I haven’t gone overboard with the making of Christmas gifts unlike previous years.   Just a few little things…

I’d mostly made this black felt bunny a few years ago, using the Luna Lapin pattern book.  He was kinda my first test of the pattern before making a camel brown bunny for Arthur, blogged here, but I didn’t do too bad a job if I say so myself.  So this year I decided to complete him as a present for Gilbert.

I made his outfit using various bits and pieces as usual; the shirt and buttons were an old shirt of Tim’s… and I used the same buttons for his eyes, the chinos are a nice piece of cotton twill that I plan to use for a pair for myself sometime… hopefully I didn’t cut too large a chunk for that to happen! and his little waistcoat was from a small scrap of fabric that I discovered in a bag of leftovers given to me by my mother-in-law.

I also made Arthur’s bunny a new outfit.  I didn’t have his here to model it so Gilbert’s bunny has been roped in for the job.  It’s a summer outfit; comprising a Hawaiian shirt and board shorts.

I had to include this picture of the shirt-making burrito!  the instructions don’t have this but I figured why not make it as neat as possible.  I used sew-in press studs for the shirt in lieu of buttons; they’re just easier and you don’t have to worry about ruining your tiny little shirt with a bad buttonhole.  The fabric is leftover from my first Myosotis dress.  The board shorts are white linen and blue linen that I dyed myself using a natural indigo  dye bath.  Actually, the leftovers from my recently made Mestre shirt.

 

Every year my family always exchanges some sort of homemade food treat too… my effort this year is gingerbread star biscuits to be dunked into tea or coffee.  I made a little more that 160ish gingerbread stars and pondered how to decorate them, finally deciding upon an easy option of polka dots.  Yes, I’m super into polka dots at the moment for some reason.  Oh, and did I say “easy”? haha. For some reason this very simple concept took an entire afternoon and I’ve still got a numb spot on my finger from the pressure of operating the icing contraption thingie.  I’m low key disappointed that so much work resulted in actually quite ordinary results,  hmff.  They are sadly not at all spectacular, but are definitely very yummy and I hope everyone likes them!

In other making news, not related to Christmas pressies; remember this dress?  I made it using our own Karijini pattern and a doona cover.  yes I still love it in principal, but had tired a little of its soft inoffensive colourway and last month subjected it to the unforgiving depths of the dye pot.  It now looks a bit more eye-catching, ahem.  I actually love it, and it feels like a new dress in my wardrobe, which is nice.

 

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the Karijini dress

Hello! I’m back, and with a BIG project that has been on my mind for quite some time now… a new pattern!  Please welcome the newest pattern to gallop out from the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co stable, the Karijini dress!

This is possibly our most ambitious design to date; being a complex arrangement of diagonal and asymmetric  lines, pin tucks, folds and overlays, and hemline that dips low at the back and shows off your legs at the front… We absolutely love it; its unique style, structural lines, its comfortable fit combined with a (we think) quite elegant silhouette … and we hope that you do too!  It is quite an advanced sew, but one that we think is well worth the effort.

Quick description; the Karijini is a comfortable summer dress with very interesting style lines…  Technical description; the Karijini is a loose-fitting sleeveless asymmetric dress; with partial overlays both front and back.  Features include generous inseam side pockets and asymmetric pin tucked hemlines across front and back.  Skirt hits above knee at the front and tapers off to calf length at the back  The dress has no closure but is designed to be slipped on over the head.

Some more important technical info;

I know, I know; the descriptions always sound so flat, but I promise this is not a flat design at all!  I first made and profiled this design this design back in 2018 and, in the process of fine-tuning the construction procedure and writing the instructions I have made many for myself and more than a few for others too!  The final pattern – well, my size anyway, of course not counting the grading – is practically identical to the first iteration, because I really was completely happy with that one straight off the bat.  The only changes were to improve the construction and finishing techniques a little bit.

The name?  well the Karijini National Park is in upper/middle Western Australia; and has always been one of our favourite places in WA.  The gorges are absolutely beautiful, with waterfalls, rocky stratifications and layers at all angles .. all of which went towards inspiring the style lines of our new design.

following photo from the website;

the Travel Guide to Karijini National Park, WA – Tourism Australia

To showcase the design on a group of different ages and sizes, we have once again roped family members into modelng for us … I’m not kidding when I say this is one of our favourite aspects of doing the patterns!  For our previous pattern, the Meelup skirt, we asked our niece/cousin Tiffany to model for us, this time it was her sister Jacinta who honoured us with her modelling skills.

My lovely mother/Cassie’s grandmother; was our other model, and both our photo sessions were such fun family events!

Jacinta’s dress was made in a softly “antique-y” blue floral from Spotlight, and Mum’s was made in a dark chocolate linen/cotton from the Morrison clothing fabric sale from a few years back.  I love how the structural lines of the design are showcased in the solid, dark coloured fabric; as well as how soft and pretty it appears in the floral.

Cassie also made one for herself in two contrasting fabrics; a large scale blue check and plain white cottons…  doesn’t this look so cool?!

As a reminder, here are some of my previously made versions of the Karijini;

the original, ochre linen version…

this green sparkle version…

this striped version… I have received many compliments for this one over the years!

this large scale check version…  I have since dyed this version dark blue, and it looks quite different!  At some stage I will take a photo and upload it here to show…

To celebrate the release of our newest pattern, we are currently offering 20% off the price for one week only, until Sunday 24th March… this apples to all our patterns in our Etsy shop here.  Discount applies automatically at checkout, no code is needed.  We hope you enjoy the sale, and our new Karijini pattern!

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