Tag Archives: Mccalls 4454

a natty little nightie

16/11/2014 2:47 am \ 28 Comments \

This was a need.  
A very desperate need.
My lovely, fluffy, cosy, snuggly warm winter PJ’s are rapidly becoming unbearably so, meaning…
IT’S SUMMER NIGHTIE TIME!!!!  
I wanted the “IT’S CLOBBERING TIME!!” font for that bit there, but Blogger’s font selection is lacking in such niceties so all caps will have to do.  We’ll just have to imagine it, ok?
Pattern; McCalls 4454, lengthened from a pretty little camisole to nightie length.  With in seam side pockets added, just because.
Fabric; I managed to eke the pieces to the very last scrap from the leftovers of my sew bossy dress, a pretty cotton floral sent to me by reana louise.  Thanks, Reana!  It’s such a nice quality fabric.  I didn’t have quite enough blue floral for straps, but I found a little piece of pink and white poly gingham that I cut into bias strips to make the straps and to finish the top edge, and also made a short, super skinny spaghetti tube for the little decorative bow on the front.  I originally bought this gingham to make little pinked-edge caps for jars of lemon butter, the year I enthusiastically made jars and jars and jars recurring of the stuff to give away to friends.  Note to self: I MUST do that again next year.  Was hopelessly overrun with lemons this year. Lazy me.

Anyway, now that scrappy little leftover bit of pink gingham has proven itself useful I can smugly pat myself on the back for keeping it all this time.  Ha! that’s all I need, more justification for hoarding those awful little bitty scraps!  Merely aiding and abetting the beast, that’s what.

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Chocolate, gold and turquoise

02/03/2010 5:10 am \ 2 Comments \

Above, the sky is a rich intense shade of turquoise with not a single wisp of cloud to mar its relentless plane of colour; it’s not surprising I was drawn to this vivid and gorgeous shade of nail varnish… (if only I’d had it in time for Saturday’s photo, no?!)   The name of this shade is Fool’s Paradise, a message, perhaps?  Need to shake this lethargy and get onto the officework, I think…
The air is still and heavy and this heat is seriously sapping my will to live, but I’m doggedly pursuing my plan to branch into autumnal fashion and leave the hues of summer behind.
Luckily the Bouchee dress is of a shade to pass any autumn colour test even though autumn here isn’t of nearly the richness of colours that it brings to colder climates, our version is more of a season of relief and recovery from the harsh ravages of the summer months.  And today being another 36C scorcher this dress is tolerably cool and a joy to wear.  I’m glad I rescued it from my Salvo’s pile….
Today I’m wearing it with a necklace I bought as a souvenir from Santorini, the island my imagination wanders to on so many occasions, and my golden jewelled sandals, which were bought, er here, sadly no romance or memories associated with their purchase, driven just by a prosaic need for summer footwear.  Nonetheless I have my necklace and my turquoise toe-nails to transport me mentally back to the happy casual handholding days of Greece….

Details:
Dress; my own design based on McCalls 4454, brown self-embroidered cotton
Necklace; souvenir from Santorini
Sandals; Anna, bought from MarieClaire shoes
Nail varnish; Fool’s Paradise, BYS

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Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate…

13/02/2010 2:25 am \ 4 Comments \

 Dug out the Bouchee dress again and am wearing it with my big wooden-beaded necklace.  Today the necklace is bringing to my mind a display cabinet in a chocolate shop; an array of glossy Lindt truffles, strung together with Maltesers and chocolate coated macadamias; with the silver charms like the crumpled silver foil unwrapped from their bonbons and tossed carelessly aside…
In fact I’m feeling today I look like a long tall glass of Milo, laced with rich chocolate-y goodness all the way up!  
Must be having a chocolate addiction “moment” and there’s only one cure for that one…

Details:
Dress; my own design based on McCalls 4454, chocolate cotton
Necklace; self-made
Shoes; la soffitadi Gilde
Nail varnish; own mix of BYS French White and Mint Condition

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Brown dress saved

06/01/2010 1:39 am \ 3 Comments \

OK.  I have to confess that I took this dress out of my reject pile yesterday with every intention of cutting it up for refashioning.  Firstly I put it on for the before photo.  I paused.  Looked at it again.  Thought it looked OK, actually.  Felt pretty damn comfy, too.  Also, in the searing heat of yesterday afternoon I felt cool; big plus!  So the dress was saved at the eleventh hour from a brutal slashing…
Previously I dubbed this dress as the Bouchee dress, (you know, Bouchee are those elephant shaped chocolates?…)  I think the last time I posted about it I was wearing a little cardi which possibly didn’t suit this style of silhouette… anyhoo, it’s back in my wardrobe for a while.  When my husband saw me in it this morning he said I looked nice in brown, and he liked this dress, what more encouragement do I need to keep wearing it?!
It’s based on McCalls 4454, a camisole pattern that I really like, which has just been elongated, some godets inserted into the skirt, a handkerchief hem created, and some huge decorative pockets added to cover up some discoloured patches (the fabric was originally discounted and in the remnant bin because of these faded patches)
So yesterday afternoon I hunted about and found a different garment to refashion for this week, I’ll post about it on Friday when I do my Wardrobe Refashion post…
Still haven’t quite finished my trench coat.  Have to locate a belt buckle today… and a zip for my refashion project…  I guess its off to Spotlight, sigh…

Details:
Dress; own design, based on McCalls 4454, brown embroidered cotton
Shoes; Micam by Joanne Mercer, Hobbs shoes
Necklace; gift from my friend K
Nail varnish; Litl Boy Blue, by Artmatix

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Another walk on the foreshore

03/12/2009 3:52 am \ 1 Comment \

After dropping my youngest son off at work experience I swung by my old childhood neighbourhood to take my photos this morning.  This is a stretch of beach I’ve always loved walking along; it soothes my soul and recharges my batteries and all that jazz.  Not sure if its just the childhood memories, but being around water and the beach is somehow necessary to my well-being.  Where we live now is (not coincidentally) also on the water, just twenty minutes up the road.  
When we lived in rural Pennsylvania, USA a few years back, the lack of a coastline brought home to me how important having one was to my state of mind.  I wonder if people brought up in other environments feel the same way about their surroundings…
I posted about this outfit here recently, but Mum rightly commented that wearing a cardigan over the top (as I did because it was a bit nippy that day) means that the outfit cannot be seen clearly, so here it is on its own. Its actually getting a bit washed and worn; the fabric is so thin in some places I accidentally ripped it by treading on it’s hem taking these photos, a quick repair job and then maybe off to the Samaritans’?

Other details:
Top; McCalls 4454 view C
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view B,
both in sage green self embroidered cotton and edged in black rolled hem
Thongs(flipflops); some little shop in South Africa
Bag; Gucci

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Ghost Paw

22/11/2009 3:17 am \ 2 Comments \

Yesterday at the nursery we bought three of these new kangaroo paws, the colours of which I think are absolutely stunning.  The stems are dark purple and the paws at the top are sage green.  So unusual.  We are pulling out a bed of roses that have never performed all that well and replacing them with these and a few other native plants.  But while they are still in their pots I decided to use them in today’s photo shoot.
I made this outfit for last summer and wore it a lot then; the top is McCalls 4454 view C and the skirt is Vogue 7880 view B.  The straps and edging on the top are a lovely thin natural coloured crochet border with black velvet ribbon woven through, some of the latter I used to make a little bow on the bodice also.  The bottom edge of the top and all the edges on the skirt are finished with a black rolled hem done on the overlocker.  The fabric is a self embroidered soft sage green.  The days are warming up but this purple Metalicus cardigan is thin enough to wear on a mild day like today.
After a bit of gardening we plan to visit my brother for his birthday ( and photograph my sister-in-law’s tea cosy!)

Other details:
Cardigan; Metalicus
Thongs (flipflops); bought in some little shop in South Africa

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Secretarial duties

20/10/2009 4:24 am \ 2 Comments \

Tuesday, 20th October 2009

Today did my duty as secretary of the Ladies’ Auxiliary at school, so dressed secretary-like. Kind of.
This top is McCalls 4454 view C, but made using pieces of leftover silks I had from previous projects and some velvet ribbon I had bought for something else, but not used. The ripped strips of silk were sewn to a bemsilk facing version of the camisole after draping, pinning and fitting on Bessie, (my faithful dummy) and another lining attached inside to hide the bits and ends.
I really like the combination of grey, purplish grey, and bronzy browns; giving it subtle smoky style, and the soft, shimmery layers of translucent silk are sort of ethereal. The ripped edges form a rebellious and untailored contrast to the pants.
The necklace pendant is also self-made.
Other details;
Pants, Morrison
Shoes; Vicenza, from Soletta shoes

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Patchwork

19/10/2009 9:16 am \ 1 Comment \

Found this one and only picture of the other version of the dress I posted about earlier today here, from McCalls 4454, elongated to dress length; the one made out of patchwork fabric bought in Calico and Ivy. It was bought as a collection of “fat quarters”, from which I cut large, medium and small squares. The squares were pieced and the pattern cut out so that the smallest squares were at the bodice of the dress, and getting larger in size down to the hem of the dress, at which all the largest squares were. All were on the diagonal.

I loved the seaside-y colours; it may not look like much from the back but it really was a lovely dress and got a lot of compliments. Sigh. I think it got a rip in it eventually.
I think it looked better than its follow-up, partly because of the pretty fabric, and partly because the skirt was a lot more billowy, a better look for me.
(On a pictorial note, I’m at the top of Mount Lycabettus looking out over Athens …. we walked up to the top and back and really earned our drinks! It was fab!)
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