Mum Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

the Karijini dress

16/03/2024 7:36 pm \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

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!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Cassie, dress, Karijini dress, Mum, own design, pattern

the Pinjarra twinset

31/07/2023 8:00 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

At last! Cassie and I are thrilled to release our latest pattern in the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co oeuvre… please welcome the Pinjarra twinset!

A twinset? What on earth…?! you may be thinking/asking! Well, the Pinjarra twinset is specifically, a cardigan with a long necktie/collarline, and a long sleeved T-shirt/tee/skivvy with two collar options, one a higher loose turtleneck and the other a more scooped neckline with a skinny band to finish. A little wardrobe concept that once upon a time was called a twinset! This particular set of designs is a pattern I’ve used for myself over and over and over again and wear it very frequently; so I can confidently attest to its usefulness and versatility as a really good basic.

And as a special introductory offer we are offering the new pdf pattern with a 20% discount for the first week of its debut; that is until Monday 7th August! It is currently available in our Carolyn and Cassie Pattern Co Etsy store, here.

Although I have quite a few already I made a new Pinjarra cardigan to celebrate the pattern being finished and ready to release… I bought this very beautiful pink double merino jersey from the Fabric Store in Melbourne when we went there for Harry Potter. It’s so beautiful! Incidentally I’m wearing a new skirt with it too; this is once of my favourite patterns the Paprika Patterns Jade mini skirt. I’ve made this stacks of times too. This is a cotton jersey from Le Stash, of course… 🙂 The ivory tee underneath is another early Pinjarra, made a couple of years ago.

This turtleneck neckline is one I have been making the longest and I absolutely love it for winter.

I made a set for Mum too! using a black cotton jersey and some of the blue/grey cotton jersey for the neck tie… I think the contrasting necktie is very chic! A variation that gives it a slightly different look, even a little more formal looking, perhaps?

Cassie made a striped Pinjarra cardigan, with shorter sleeves, thanks to not quite enough fabric! This looks so cool, in my opinion! She is wearing it with the grey maternity skirt I made for her recently, using Burda 7023…

And here she is wearing my yellow Pinjarra cardigan, the pink Pinjarra tee I made for her last year, and the navy blue Burda 7023 maternity skirt that I made recently too. How lovely is this combination for work? I think she looks elegant and professional 🙂

The following is a little history of the Pinjarra evolution, which may or may not be interesting at all. But this is my blog which I think has all this documented over the years anyway, so why not summarise?

As I’ve long documented here; my original go-to T-shirt pattern was a Burda pattern that didn’t fit so I fine-tuned it to better fit me (blogged about here). Then I switched to the Closet Core Nettie pattern, that was pretty good but I eventually started improving the fit of that one too, until it ended up completely different from the pattern, with absolutely zero of the original seamlines left. At some point I rediscovered my modified Burda pattern and overlaid it with my modified Nettie and it was pretty interesting to me that my modifications were nearly identical! Anyway, long and short was that I now started to think of and use this as my personal custom fit T-shirt block and it became my basis for all stretch fit bodices.

the earliest iteration of the cardigan design, 2015

My first cardigan prototype appeared back here in 2015, although that one is of course quite different from this final, far more polished design. Every time I’ve made it I’ve twiddled with the design and I now feel like it’s a really nice robust cardigan with a good construction procedure.

I got the idea to make the two of them a twinset pattern back when I made the above marigold yellow, matching two piece set, blogged here. The tee’s final neckline is a little lower that this one as I thought this one a little high. Yes; I have thought long and hard about these little things! At this point I started working on the two necklines, grading the pattern, and writing instructions. And Cassie of course did her essential digital part. Et voila! the Pinjarra twinset is now here!

The name? Well, “twinset” has always sort of suggested to me, rightly or wrongly, the kind of thing a grandmother would have worn regularly once upon a time; since actually both of my own grandmothers did. And Cassie’s grandmother lives in Pinjarra. So it felt like a good fit. And having a pattern named Pinjarra seems fair since my mother, Cassie’s other grandmother, lives in Bridgetown and we’ve already used the name Bridgetown in our Fridgetown handwarmers pattern.

But I honestly think the Pinjarra is a pretty cool design and not particularly grandmother-ly one way or the other either. More like a really a good basic that absolutely anyone could wear!

another early iteration of the cardigan….

The pattern is currently available in our etsy shop, here. Remember that 20% discount for the next week! We hope you enjoy making and wearing either or all parts of the Pinjarra twinset as much as we have!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cardigan, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Cassie, Jade, Mum, own design, Paprika Patterns, pinjarra twinset, skirt, top

I sewed selflessly

21/04/2020 9:07 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

So, I sewed some stuff!

Item A; a dress for Mum to wear to Cassie’s wedding…

I started out with Burda style 09/2019; 109 because I thought the sleeve cuff really lovely; however I ran up a muslin – actually 2 – and we decided the cut-on sleeve just wasn’t that nice and that a set-in sleeve would be much better. So I ended up re-tracing and -fitting the Esme pattern from Lotta Jansdotter’s Everyday Style book again since Mum had really like the one I made for her previously. I just adapted the sleeve to have the Burda cuff on the sleeve end.

The fabric is a really beautiful, green polka-dotted ivory crepe from Fabulous Fabrics; Mum and I went in together and chose it one morning. Fun! I didn’t use the neckline facing pieces, opting in stead to fully line the dress with an ivory lining that I already had in my stash, the lining negated any need for a facing… Mum kindly hemmed the dress herself since I was seriously running out of time by the end of it! The dress shell has french seams throughout, though I used the overlocker for the lining.

At the same time that we bought the fabric, Mum bought a length of emerald green chiffon and finished it with a hand-rolled hem to make herself a lovely matching scarf.

I thought she looked absolutely lovely!

Item B; a shirt for part of Cassie’s birthday pressie…

For her birthday, we went out together and bought a few lengths of fabric which I was to make into some simple work outfits for her. Of course now she’s working from home but that’s ok; at least she’s still working!

This is pattern 02/2015; 113, adapted to be much slimmer in the body due to the fact that I didn’t buy enough fabric, ahem… that’s fine since the style is so super wide I think Cassie would have requested it be slimmed down anyway! This thing is BOXY!! I also had to leave off the sleeve cuffs, but Cassie absolutely loves it just as it is :)..

The gorgeous polka-dot fabric is a linen from Fabulous Fabrics. The buttons are leftovers from Kelly’s wedding dress!

I did manage to snap one photo of her wearing the top! kinda a miracle given how crazy busy we were before the wedding, and then I’ve barely been able to see her after the wedding during these virus social-isolation times… this is her on the eve of her wedding, when she was preparing to practice her father/daughter dance with Craig… yes, she’s wearing her wedding shoes of course 🙂

I actually made a little video on the making of this blouse, which was fun. I’m hoping to make more of these for my YouTube channel 🙂

Item C; some shorts for Cassie’s birthday. For these I started with the Closet Case patterns Pietra shorts and did the same elastic-waist elimination that I did for my own shorts… shown here.

The fabric is a cotton twill from Spotlight, in Cassie’s favourite duck-egg/mint green colour.

Item D; another little top for Cassie… this is the Closet Case patterns Cielo top, lengthened slightly. This is a lovely little pattern and I will definitely be using this one again! No other adjustments.

The pretty rose-print is a linen from Fabulous Fabrics. I should say, that while these pieces are all a gift from me to Cassie, she did choose the fabrics herself. We had a lovely fun morning checking out fabrics and chatting about work-wardrobe possibilities!

Items E & F; I made two different masks for myself. I haven’t used them very much but am really trying to get more used to the idea! When we’ve visited Japan I’ve seen lots of people wearing masks all the time of course, and while I think they’re a great idea, especially in our current virus-centric lives, we’re just completely unaccustomed to wearing them here in Australia and it’s really hard to get used to it. I find them very claustrophobic and a little difficult to breath in them!

The first one, above; I used this pattern/tutorial on the Makers Habitat YouTube channel, it has a lining with an opening so you can insert a filter inside. It’s a nice straightforward pattern, very quick and easy to make. I added a skinny channel to the top, and cut a short length of wrapped florist’s wire to insert in there for a nose support; this can be removed for washing.

This second one I used the Trend patterns free mask pattern, here. This is also a nice pattern, very “designed” and I really like it, but I did find I had to fold a quite wide dart in the under-chin piece to get a good fit. Also it is a more complex and involved thing to make than the previous pattern, For both masks I used a leftover piece of cotton from my stash, the most tightly woven and with the densest thread count I could find! They are both lined with cotton voile. The ties are just thin strips of cotton jersey, cut with my rotary cutter, left unhemmed, threaded through the side channels and simply knotted.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: blouse, Burda 02/2015;113, Burda 09/2019;109, Cassie, cielo, Closet Case files, dress, esme, lotta jansdotter, mask, Mum, pietra, shorts, top

garden tea party hat

09/03/2020 1:22 am \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

Short and sweet; I made a hat!! Well, by “made”; more accurately; I compiled a hat. I bunged a whole lot of pretty things onto a hat. Oh I did make that little tea cup, so I guess I can lay claim to a little bit of it….

The green felt hat is a “St Patrick’s Day” hat from Spotlight and all the fake roses and ivy are also from Spotlight. I made the little tea cup from modelling clay, also originally from Spotlight, and painted it using craft paints from… guess where?!! I used green Gutermann’s upholstery thread to stitch everything securely to the hat.

So my 3 nieces/Cassie’s bridesmaids had planned her kitchen tea/bridal shower to be a Mad Hatter’s Tea party, and we all had to wear some sort of over-the-top headgear. I wasn’t quite sure how crazy to go, and genuinely thought my hat was going to be TOO much, but it ended up being quite subdued by comparison to many of the other fabulously lovely creations at the party!

The theme of the part was a surprise for Cassie, and the girls had made her hat for her, to both match hers and to be bridal at the same time. Aren’t they the most gorgeous bunch of girls?!!

We had a low-key hat competition at the end, and Cassie won of course. The funniest thing of all was the prize; a roll of toilet paper! We all roared with laughter!

Let me explain… with the new corona virus scare currently going on; Australians have reacted predictably, by cleaning out the shops of any and all supplies of toilet paper. I know, right? So Australian… Seriously, the toilet roll shelves are empty, all of the time. You have to get in fast to pick up one of the occasional restocks when they happen! and there are even rumours of people selling vastly inflated toilet paper on eBay. I haven’t seen any ads myself, but that’s just an indication of the general level of panic. And so normally, one of the games you’d have at a bridal shower is a toilet roll wedding dress competition. And such a thing was obviously out of the question with the current toilet roll situation. So my sister-in-law spared one toilet roll – ONE! which was awarded as first prize for the hat comp. SO FUNNY!

Here are some of the other gorgeous hats at the party:

Mum made her stunning colourful hat of felt lined with old X-ray film…

Cassie’s friend E cleverly made a very chic and sculptural, royal hat/ruffled collar ensemble, using paper:

L looked super pretty in her floral/gumnut hat…

Arthur very briefly wore his yoda beanie; but he’s not a fan, poor little lad! A man of discerning fashion taste!

Lots of gorgeous hats!!!

In closing; a few in-progress shots of making my hat… just because well, that’s what I do here.

I made four button-like holes in the bottom of the tea cup to make it easy to stitch onto the hat. In fact, you could just think of it as a glorified button, to be honest!

Coming up soon… the wedding itself!!!!! #eeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!!!!!!

Posted in: crafty stuff \ Tagged: accessories, Cassie, daily outfit, hat, Mum, own design

poppy dress

26/11/2018 10:44 pm \ 11 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made this new dress #surprise! This beautiful poppy printed silk chiffon was a birthday present from my lovely thoughtful Mum… we were browsing together in Fabulous Fabrics and oohing and aahing over it, and she suddenly announced “I’d like to get that for you for your birthday!” And she even chose the pattern I was to use, which is of course Vogue 1351, anyone who has read this blog for even a short amount of time will know how much I LOVE this Donna Karan pattern since I’ve used it a few times. Actually four times before, to be exact; here, here, here and here. To my mind its silhouette has a perfect simplicity, or should that be that it is simply perfect? Either or!

The poppy chiffon is very delicate and sheer. The background is actually pure white, however I chose to line my dress with a off-white polyacetate lining fabric. I chose the off-white over pure white, because it was noticeable softer, the overall effect of the pure white was surprisingly harsh. I’m not really at my best in pure, pure white, even though I love it; a softer ivory-white is a lot better for me.

invisible zip in left side seam; this is always my preferred zip placement!

I’ve worn it several times already, the first time on Remembrance Day, when Mum, Dad, Craig and I went to visit the RSL poppy tribute at Kings Park. I chose to wear it a) because of Remembrance Day, of course! and b) because Mum and Dad were staying with us and I wanted to show them the lovely birthday present they had given to me!

Wait, the poppy tribute? Well, this year, 61,513 hand-knitted and crocheted poppies were made and “planted” by RSL volunteers, one poppy for each Australian lost at WW1. Seeing them and walking through the exhibit; the sheer number of them, was such a very sobering, very humbling and very moving experience. Speaking, um “craft-ily”, as it were; so much care and love and thought had obviously gone in to each and every poppy too, some had buttons, that we read were often included for their significance to the family in some way, like from a uniform or something. The exhibit was only on for four days, so we felt very fortunate we thought about it and went, and I was also very pleased to hear that the exhibit will be returning again in future years.

I did think about getting a picture of my dress at the exhibit, but once we got there I felt that would be disrespectful. I mean, while the poppies themselves were beautiful and spectacular and a visual treat to behold, of course I realised how very wrong it would be to treat them like a photo backdrop to my dress. Though a few ladies passing by did comment that my dress was “perfect for the day” which was very nice.

I did take a picture of Mum and Dad though…

I next wore the dress just recently, we had a gorgeously warm, but windy! weekend and we went for a lovely long afternoon walk at the beach, and I grabbed the opportunity to take some pictures… does Clara look incredibly wet and sandy in this picture? Well, that’s because she is!! I was wondering if she was going to jump up on me, or shake sopping sand all over me with one of those doggy full-body shakes.

Actually caught her partway through one said full-body shake below… and thank goodness she’s waaaaaaaay way over there! Normally she’ll come right up to you before letting loose, and I’m telling you, this is one ultra-fluffy hairy doggy, and she can carry a heckuvva lot of water and sand in that there gorgeous coat of hers!

plus bonus random bird! hey birdie!

Aaaaand there’s my husband, being very polite and keeping well out of the way while I take my pictures, ahem. Well, that’s what he’s supposed to be doing!! Man!

Fun fact; in this picture he’s wearing this blue jumper, that I made for him last Christmas. You have to scroll riiiiiiiiiight to the end of the post to find it though, I just checked and it’s a MONSTER post with about a million items in it. Well, that’s what it felt like, when I was making them I mean. Ha!

Details:

Dress; Vogue 1351, poppy print silk hiffon
Red cardi, in beach pics; my own design variation on the Nettie bodysuit, but Closet Case patterns, details here
Sandals; Zomp, from Zomp boutique

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Clara, Craig, Dad, daily outfit, dress, Mum, Vogue 1351

a family collaboration

26/11/2016 12:29 pm \ 46 Comments \ Carolyn

So Mum is up to stay with me, and she popped out the other day wearing this gorgeous, completely handmade ensemble… and it occurred to us that it was a tri-generational effort! Mum made her skirt, Cassie made the scarf for Mum a few years ago, and I recently made the top for her. I asked her if she minded if I took a picture to share on ye olde blog and she graciously said yes.

SO! What have we here?!

Pride of place of course goes to Mum’s skirt… a fully hand-embroidered and hand stitched Alabama Chanin skirt; with embroidery in the reverse appliqué method, and using the four panelled, mid length skirt pattern from the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design by Natalie Chanin. The cotton jersey fabrics were originally white and Mum dyed them herself in two different shades of grey and blue. Mum traced and cut the stencil design June’s Spring from p116 in the book herself, enlarging by 300% as recommended, (also available as a pre cut stencil on the Alabama Chanin website here) She printed the design in creamy-coloured textile paint, and hand-embroidered with a running stitch in double strand of cream Gutermann’s upholstery thread.

When snipping out the motifs she carefully left a very narrow border of the cream stencil round each one.

Exquisite, oui?? I adore everything about this skirt; the colours, the design, the workmanship; and it’s just slightly tempting me to get out the materials and get a-hand-stitching again. Slightly 😉

The scarf… Cassie made the this gorgeous seaside/beach-inspired silk scarf for an art project at school. She hand-dyed and -painted white silk habotai in blue and yellow blocks and blobs, tying parts of it in the shibori style, then stitched a wiggly row of blue stitching for the tide, and embellished with clusters of mini yellow glass and gold beads. The hems are hand-rolled and -stitched.

I can’t believe I’d almost forgotten about this beautiful piece of Cassie’s and feel so lucky and proud that I have two such talented and creative ladies in my life.

Mum’s top is made by me, and yes it is very plain… ! A month or so ago Mum mentioned how she specifically wanted an unobtrusive, very plain white top to wear with this skirt so I offered to run one up for her… I chose the Esme top pattern from Lotta Jansdotter’s book Everyday Style and a slubby plain white cotton from Fabulous Fabrics. I measured Mum all over, secretly storing the measurements away for future use, mwahahaha… no one gets away from the handmade in my family!! and drew the pattern so as to custom fit it or Mum’s measurements. Instead of the neckline facings I finished the neckline with a bias cut strip, because I think it’s a much nicer and neater finish for a neckline edge. Mum wants to know how to do this herself so I’ve promised to write a tutorial sometime.

Anyway. She looks so chic and beautiful here, and it was so fantastic when we realised she was spontaneously wearing a collection of handmade family pieces… Such a fabulous and sentimental thing for the three of us. Thank you so much for letting me share, Mum!

Posted in: fashion, sewing \ Tagged: alabama studio sewing + design, dyeing, embroidery, everyday style, handcrafts, lotta jansdotter, Mum, scarf, skirt, top

Mum. A blog hop. And a thank you.

15/10/2014 3:58 pm \ 38 Comments \ Carolyn

First things first; I thought I’d open on a note both lovely and interesting, my mother wearing a creation made by her. Mum knitted her top, the Jo Sharp sideways ribbed top using Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton in col. Pennant. The whole top is knitted, or actually I should say ribbed? in one piece. You cast on one sleeve end, rib the whole thing sideways all the way along to the end of the opposite sleeve. An interesting and effective design idea! Thank you so much Mum, for letting me share your gorgeous creation here.

Next; I have been invited by Yoshimi and Sara to join in the blog-writing blog hop. Thank you very much to Yoshimi and Sara!

1. Why do you write?
I have no idea! since I’m not very good at it. I got middling marks for writing at school. In spite of that I still enjoy writing, just quietly and for myself. I even wrote a novel once. Don’t worry, the world will never ever be subjected to that particular load of nonsense! It was a detective/murder mystery. A pretty bad one.
I started keeping a blog to document all my handmade things, when I realised at one point that I had sewn/knitted/whatever, tonnes of things that had been made, loved, worn with pride until they wore out and then got tossed, things that lived in my memory alone, never photographed. I felt a bit sad about that. I must have talked about it with my sister-in-law because she mentioned that she planned to give me a photo album for a birthday present, in which I could keep a visual record of my handmade things with a short description. She was searching for a suitable one, and in the meantime I commenced taking photos of the handmade things I still had. I can’t remember what happened next, I think she couldn’t find a good album, then I discovered a few daily outfit fashion blogs which I really enjoyed and decided to start something similar about my sewing and how it related to my personal style. It was just a quiet and playful thing for me, like a diary, and for ages I barely knew any other sewing blogs existed! I wrote about many silly trivial things that amused me at the time. Discovering and joining Wardrobe Refashion was a huge turning point. I signed up for three months, then six months, then For Life. That big BIG pledge to never buy ready to wear clothes, ever again. Hehe, I made that pledge so carefree-ly and lightly and it’s taken me a few years to realise how huge it was! Obviously I then became a lot more serious and intentional in my sewing.
Lately my writing mojo has dropped off a bit. My sewing mojo and knitting mojo is going as strong as ever but I am struggling to write posts. It’s silly, because I can write quite freely and easily if I know no one is going to read it. Sometimes I ask my husband and he says to just not write anything if I don’t want, and just have the pictures. I’ve got to admit, it’s tempting.
2. How is your blog different to others of the same genre
I think my blog is quite plain and ordinary, and I am perfectly comfortable with its plainness. It has nothing that makes it stand out at all. However maybe it is also unique, in the same sense that everyone’s blog is a unique expression of their own particular self? Stating the obvious, there.
I don’t know. I do my own thing and don’t really follow the pack.
Ok, I thought of something! Parentheses are almost non-existent in my blog. Because excessive and unnecessary use of parentheses is a secret pet hate.
O I know. Lame.
3. What are you working on right now
Usually I am pretty disciplined about only working on one thing at a time, in an organised manner, finishing and dutifully cleaning up before allowing myself to start on the next thing. Currently I happen to be working on two things, but one is knitting, one is sewing so that’s kind of OK in my mind. I pick up the knitting and churn out a couple rows in spare moments, whereas the sewing project is a bit more intensive and requires Proper Undivided Attention, ahem.
OK, so. The knitting project, that is very different and interesting, in my opinion, a patchwork design that I happened upon while knitting the boys’ Icelandic jumpers, fell in love, and I just had to get some wool and start on it. Even though summer is just around the corner. Hehe. Totally illogical!
In sewing, well I have recently finished a sundress to be photographed and blogged about very very soon, and am now partway through drafting and muslining a rather challenging and very interesting dress. When/if I finish it, then I Shall Reveal. *said with maximum drama* Of course it may well be so disastrous that I decide to not waste real fabric on it… in which case I will move onto any one of the next few things on my mental list, a pretty summer blouse, this year’s bathers, a big pfouffy skirt, or an Issey Miyake ensemble.
4. What is your writing process
Oh dear. Writing process? I just sit down and start, usually very awkwardly in some clumsy clunky opening sentence that later gets deleted in self-disgust. I write a bit more, then a bit more, then loosen up and manage to be slightly less clunky, freely associate, get on a bit of a writing roll. Writing a tonne of silly nonsense that all gets deleted later. Actually, upon reflection, I will usually delete and/or re-write maybe 80% of what I have written before hitting “publish”.
I proofread for spelling and grammar like a maniac and often will obsessively go back to correct things like a typo, an errant comma or an extra space; after publishing.
Primarily, I really try to be factual, informative and fair, and for my blog to be something that I would like to read.

Now I am passing the blog hop baton onto Sue, of fadanista, and to Megan of create with wild abandon, two other sewing bloggers also from Perth. I’m looking forward to reading their answers to the same questions!

Oh, one more thing! I just want to say, a big Thank You So Much to whoever nominated me for Burda’s 50 best blogs list, and also to everyone who voted for me.
Thank you thank you so very much! I was totally thrilled to be notified that my blog is on the list. I’m so happy that people like it, and am so very honoured to have received your votes of confidence! 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Blogger award, Jo Sharp, Knitted, Mum, random life stuff

Mum’s Alabama Chanin skirt

02/08/2014 1:38 pm \ 61 Comments \ Carolyn

I am so glad that Mum brought around her finished Alabama Chanin skirt for me to ooh and ah over; and has allowed me to photograph her wearing it and to show it here on my blog too… thank you so much, Mum!

This is the mid-length skirt from the book, Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, by Natalie Chanin. Mum used a deep blue upper layer over a black lower layer, both cotton jerseys bought in Tessuti’s in Melbourne during our truly fah-bulous Mum/daughter/grand-daughter trip over there together last November.

The upper layer is stencilled with the Anna’s Garden design from the same book, enlarged by 306%, then the two layers are embroidered together using Gutermann’s upholstery thread in a pale grey. The stencilled areas are then cut away in the “reverse appliqué” method to reveal the black under-layer. Mum used a doubled strand of upholstery thread as per the book’s instructions, but found the two strands a pain in the neck to work with; they constantly got twisted up awkwardly together and were subsequently difficult to pull through. Just for comparison sake, I used only a single strand in embroidering my own two pieces.
The surface embroidery is all done by hand of course, and Mum decided to sew the finished pieces together by machine. The waistband is pale grey fold over elastic, also from Tessuti’s.
The stencil was applied to the upper layer in watered-down acrylic house paint using a small foam roller as described here. Since I did the stencilling for Mum I know there is one more piece in the works! and now I’m roolly excited to see that one too! 🙂