Tag Archives: Own Design

Red Emperor, or Catch of the Day

15/05/2011 7:31 am \ 43 Comments \

The theme for this year’s Amanda Young Foundation Ball was “Nautical, but Nice”  
(If you have time, click on the link and view the information video on meningococcal disease.  Having this knowledge could save a life…)
As usual I had about a zillion ideas for a dress.  Was so so sorely tempted to make a completely brand new gown.  In fact originally I had every intention of making a whole new ballgown for this event.  This was a very enticing thought, there’s nothing I like more than delving into the glamour of the eveningwear section of the fabric store…  but I confess not an very eco friendly option really (sigh)  After much enjoyable fantasising about such nautical fabulousness as mermaid-like dresses or dresses looking like a breaking ocean wave (I had visions of a turquoise sheath, with a frothy white lower skirt section to represent the surf), eventually I directed my thoughts to my collection of evening gowns already sitting in my wardrobe, and working with something I already had.  Last year’s gown had possibilities; this is what it looked like last year…
I decided to re-work this gown and be a Red Emperor, as in, the fish…hehe.  In the end, of course, the gown was almost completely re-constructed and is pretty much a new dress.  
I removed the red velvet bodice and silk midriff section, and made a new red silk skirt to go over the old lining/petticoat with its attached grand silk flounce around the bottom.  Then re-attached the midriff and bodice.  I thought this would be OK, but unfortunately the red velvet just looked wrong on top of the dress, otherwise composed entirely of red silk. So I unpicked that off of the midriff section and away from the zip, un-picked and kept the red velvet ribbon shoulder straps to re-use, and made a new bodice, out of the pieces of red silk left over from cutting out the new skirt.  
All the un-picking and re-sewing together of seams took ages, about five days.  All the skirt sections are hand-hemmed, and I estimated there is between five and six metres of hem altogether in this dress.  (Later edit; I just measured, 8.5m!)  Luckily, I already done the lower skirt and petticoat last year….!
The new parts are: the wrap-over upper skirt and the bodice.  The old, re-used parts of the dress are: the lining/petticoat with the lower silk flounce, the midriff section, the velvet ribbon shoulder straps, and the invisible zip.  Yes, I re-used the ZIP!  I think I’m most proud of that part of the whole she-bang, silly as it sounds. 
If you look really closely enough, under a strong light, you can see that the lower flounce and the midriff section are a different shade of red than the upper skirt and the bodice…  from floor up the fabrics sections are old, new, old, new but meh.  I think they are close enough to be good enough.  Also the different shades are divided up over the dress, so it still looks OK.
So when I had finally finished, I had a kinda new red dress that I am completely thrilled with, even more than last year’s version I think!
But even though it was “red” and sort of “royal”, fitting in with my plan to be a Red Emperor, it didn’t scream “nautical” by any stretch of the imagination.  So I gathered a few fishy accessories; the fishing net to be my stole, and I also bought a few lures and a bit of fishing cord from the fishing store to make some jewellery.
So sufficiently nautical, yes?
And when I came out to show the children my costume and asked them what they thought I was, Sam immediately said, “the catch of the day?”  
And I wondered if that was a better title than my Red Emperor idea…

Details:
Dress; based on Butterick 4657, petticoat and lower skirt of my own design.  Originally looked like this, and my other dress using this same pattern here
Gloves; Vogue 7949, red jersey knit, my review of this pattern here
Stole; fishing net
Jewellery; made by me from fishing lures…
Shoes; Raymond Castle.  These are my oldest shoes, I’ve had them since I was about 19…! 😀

a side view…

a back view…
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Introducing Mum…

14/05/2011 8:43 am \ 35 Comments \

I will say straight out this amazingly beautiful ensemble is not made by me but by my Mum here.  I had to put a picture of it here, because I couldn’t resist; Mum will never ever get herself a blog and this outfit is too creative, clever, immaculately made and finished, and lovely in itself not to share.
My parents have been staying with us recently, and when Mum came downstairs one morning in this ensemble on her way to attend Grandparent’s Day with my Dad and Sam, I literally stopped in my tracks.  Then raced to get my camera, simultaneously begging Mum to let me post her outfit on the blog.  She graciously agreed.
(Of course I would not be human if a little bit of me thought it might not be a good idea, posting Mum’s creations here on the blog.  After all, they will just serve to highlight how my skills are but 1% of Mum’s.  But let’s not be petty now…)
The jacket:  Mum bought these tweed fabrics, sold as small patches or “salesman’s samples” from a shop called Peppertree in NSW which she visited as part of the Australian Sewing Guild convention last year.  She pieced the different sized pieces together in an attractive random patchwork pattern… and anyone who has attempted patchworking will know that randomly shaped rectangular and square patches are not easily put together.  There are also one or two patches harvested from my Dad’s old tweed sports coat that has finally bitten the dust after many years of good service (a Re-fashion!).  The pattern for the jacket is a Vogue pattern by Donna Karan, (pattern number to be provided when Mum looks it up and tells me)  Please note the perfectly constructed welt buttonhole, made from tweed too.  And I have to especially point out, see the piece of mustard/dark green houndstooth-y looking fabric, on the right, or buttonhole opening side of the front, just under and by the lapel?  Mum knitted that bit in fair isle, to tone in with the other tweeds.  On a seamstress’ note, she wanted it mentioned that the knitted section required extra underlining and stabilising, as of course knitted fabric is not as sturdy as woven tweed.  
The jacket is fully lined in dark grey acetate lining.
Mum made the skirt too, from charcoal jersey knit.  I think she might have made the pattern for that herself.
Thank you Mum, for this bar-setting self-sewn moment!
Later edit: Jacket: Vogue 8605, shortened; Skirt: Vogue 2911

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Red leggings

04/05/2011 4:46 am \ 14 Comments \

Something new, a quick fix project and nothing very exciting, but practical…. the evenings are getting that little bit cooler and when the sun dips below the yard-arm (whatever that means, really) my legs need some coverage.  Hehe, since two days ago I posted our current temperatures no doubt hardier Canadian and New Zealand people are going to get a laugh out of that one, but I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to the cold.  I really feel the cold.  Even our mild Perth winters are often too cold for me.  Yah, I know, pathetic, right?
So I made some leggings, using the pattern I made custom fit to myself, here.  It’s pretty easy to make your own leggings, the only challenge being to get decent fabric.  The usual challenge.  The fabric I used is the last bit of red jersey I had left, after I made my gloves, here.  It isn’t very good for leggings, having not very much stretch … but they will do for as long as they last.  Hopefully the colour will go some way to cheering me up on a cold grey winter’s day, although one of those seems ridiculously unlikely right now I expect we will get some. 
The backpack is not my daily handbag … I have let this backpack appear in a few other photos before; I use it to carry my camera, tripod and shoes along in if I want to take a photo when I take my dog walkies in the morning.  It really belongs to Sam, but I borrow it sort-of temporarily on a permanently on-going basis for a few mornings a week, if that makes any sense.  It’s the perfect size to fit in the aforementioned goodies.  Compare this compact light little thing to the backpacks we carried on our hike last week, below!

Details:
Top and cardigan; Metalicus
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy, styled in 6 different ways here
Leggings; own design, red cotton jersey, tutorial on how to make your own here
Backpack; souvenir from Santa Fe
Shoes; Perrini, had forever

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Cargo pockets, and a lovely surprise

14/04/2011 8:16 am \ 8 Comments \

When I went to my letterbox yesterday inside was a most delightful surprise, this wonderful pattern from Gail of My Fabrication.  Pure class and elegance, no?  Thank you so much Gail!!  I already know exactly what I am going to make out of this one, and am pretty excited to give it a try.  But first…
Thank you so much everybody who commented yesterday, with such kind words expressing touching faith in my ability to not make a complete and utter hash of my Japanese fabric; I will endeavour to sew up to those expectations.  Not that there is any more or less pressure or anything, hehe.  The lighter caramel side has a landslide of admirers, and it is therefore fortuitous that my own preferences have been swaying more and more in that direction too.  But before hacking merrily away into that wool and silk gorgeousness that I carted for thousands of kilometres over land, rail and sea all the way home from the land of the rising sun (see, no pressure…) I am going to take a short sartorial breather…
A few quick and satisfying projects are now just what the doctor ordered, after a week of couture stuff.  I have an immediate need for a pair of hiking pants.  The cargoes I was wearing last year have gone into my refashioning-possibly-charity-bin pile. The few photos I have of myself in those things were pretty eye-openingly awful, and incidentally I am now horrified that I actually put some photos on the blog here, yikes!  Now I look back on some of those earlier photos and shudder, toy with vague ideas of deleting some of the more unflattering shots.  But the blog is a journey, and the progression has been an honest one.  Keeping a sometime personal style diary has done wonders for my natural tendency towards dag-dom.  I am a lot more careful how I look now before I sally forth on my daily adventures.  We all heartily agree that appearances aren’t everything, right?, only because we don’t want to appear shallow, but secretly we all want to put our best foot forward nonetheless… because we are human after all.
Anyhoo, I am making my new, hopefully cute, hiking pants using a pattern that doesn’t have enough pockets, so I am adding some cargo pockets and took a few progress shots to illustrate…
Cargo pockets are not just squares/rectangles, but must form a little “bag”, so start with a piece that has box sides to three of its edges like so (don’t worry that those sides of those sticky-outy box edges are wider than the bottom box edge… minor detail)

Hem the top edge of the pocket like normal…

Sew up the two short edges of the boxy sides at the bottom of the pocket piece (yes, my side pieces are still longer and do stick out a bit, don’t worry about this for now)

Right sides together, and upside down on the finished outside leg seam of your pants, sew the bottom edge of the pocket in place.  Because I want these pockets to be extra sturdy, strong enough to hold things like guide books, cameras, hats and sunnies, etc, anything that will be needed regularly, I sewed this seam in triplicate, for triple the strength.  Strength is more important than beauty here, remember these are hiking pants…

Now flip the pocket piece up and turn in those side edge seam allowances.   Now I folded in that extra width of the side edges at the bottom to be part of the seam allowance and tapered this down at the top so the box sides of the bag are wider at the top than they are at the bottom…  If this doesn’t make a lot of sense don’t worry too much about this bit.  Dimensions are not really drastically important.  These are hiking pants, remember…   Topstitch down close to the fold.  Again with the triple lot of stitching. The width at the top edge of the pocket between the two side seams you’ve just sewn should be the same width as the bottom seam.

Now, flatten the pocket down at the top and sew the top down vertically through all layers directly over the side seams you have just sewn, but just for a few cm.  Do this at least in triplicate again.  I just did a mad burst of forward and reverse stitching and lost count of the number of seams here, this just needs to be real sturdy.  This will just hold the top edge down securely and stop it from flapping about and letting your treasures spill out while you are walking…

Flaps; just sewn as normal, two pieces, right sides together, sewn around three edges, turned out and topstitched, finished width about 1.5cm wider than the top edge of your pocket…  Note the violation of couture tailoring here, no tamed seam allowances but the corners have been trimmed, (horrified gasp!)  Meh… hiking pants…!

And sewn to the pants just above the top of the pocket…. right sides together, again as normal…

Aaaand folded down and topstitched in place… I don’t know why I took so many photos actually.  This is hardly rocket science.  Probably would have been more exciting if I had tamed those seam allowances, hmmm?

And there it is, a useful and cute little bag stuck on the side of the hiking pants.  If you want you could put a snap or a button on for extra safe-keeping, but in my experience these don’t ever get closed up anyway and the flap is enough to keep things safely inside.  I’m sure I will be really grateful for these extra pockets out on the trail.

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Billowy black shirt, with skulls

06/04/2011 5:04 am \ 32 Comments \

I’ve made a new shirt.
But I can’t do any reviews, because this shirt is based on not one pattern, not even two patterns, but three patterns.  A conglomeration of patterns.  The united states of patterns.  You’ve heard of a meeting of the minds?  This is a meeting of the patterns.  A little bit, hopefully the best, taken out of each and the production of a mongrel, but better, (stronger, faster) shirt…
 I knew in my head exactly what I wanted; I wanted a billowy pirate-y type shirt, inspired by the cute little skull buttons I bought in Japan.  The buttons are miniature silver skulls, but each is wearing a tiny little silver crown, so the shirt had to be not just piratical, but kind of majestic at the same time to make it worthy of these completely wonderful buttons.  Don’t you just love these buttons?  You cannot get buttons like this here… I need to go to Japan more often.
The fabric is a thin self-patterned black cotton/synthetic mix that was one of my Christmas presents, bought by me, for my son to give to me for Christmas (hey, we’re practical when it comes to gift giving around here…)
I’m wearing it hanging out over my skirt here, to show it in its full length with the gently curved hemline on show, but most probably I will wear it tucked in a lot of the time too…
I put the technical details of making the shirt below, if anyone is interested.
Oh, the shoes.  These are my highest heels, at 4 1/2″.  They put me at over 6′.  I adore these shoes, and decided I am going to wear them more often, just because.  Of course I didn’t wear them to walk the dog.  But I wore them to do my other daily and office activities.  They are a lot more comfortable than they appear.

Details:
Shirt; Burdastyle 10-2010-102, collar from Burda 8218, sleeves from Burdastyle 05-2010-101, made of black self-patterned cotton mix with skull buttons bought in Japan
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive corduroy, to see this skirt styled in 6 different way go here
Shoes; Kron by Kron Kron, bought online

The shirt; so it’s probably pretty complicated so you can skip this technical stuff unless you really want to reproduce this for yourself…  like a lot of seamstresses I like to take a little bit from here and a little bit from there, and manipulate the patterns I have to get the look I want..
I saw this lovely graceful classic shirt pattern 102 in Burdastyle magazine 10/2010 (right, top) and liked its loosely elegant body with no body darts or shaping. But I wanted a shawl collar rather than the classic one in the pattern, thus the hunting down and finally locating Burda 8218, the only shawl collared shirt pattern available here in Perth, or so it seemed… and for the sleeves, I wanted something gathered and billowy, but three quarter length, so used the lower part of the bell-shaped gathered sleeve from the dress pattern 101 from Burdastyle 05/2010 (right, lower).  To cut the sleeve cap to fit into the armscye of the shirt pattern, I laid down the sleeve pieces from the shirt pattern 102, to get the sleeve cap part of the sleeve right.  It is a two piece sleeve, but I just laid them together with the stitching lines abutting.  The other sleeve from the dress pattern 101 I laid down on top with the underarm points matching those of the shirt sleeve pattern, and just used this to cut out the arm part of the sleeve with the bellshaped hemline (see below), and I also used the sleeve cuff from the same dress pattern 101.  Except when I had finished the shirt, the sleeves didn’t sit exactly how I envisioned, they sagged a bit low and I really wanted for them to look really billowy and like they were pushed up to the elbow permanently.  So I added an in-sleeve tab on the sleeve seam which pulls the sleeves up to gather just that little more fully and gracefully at just below elbow length and sit up right where I want them.  I only had five of the skull buttons so I had to use different buttons here, these are purply-grey natural shell buttons.
The shawl collar, well, obviously I used the collar pattern pieces from Burda 8218, and cut the shirt front facings, front neckline edge and back neckline edge to match those of this pattern, otherwise the collar wouldn’t have fitted… This only took a little bit of adjustment and it was not difficult at all to match the collar from one shirt pattern to the different body of the other shirt pattern.
Et voila.

(the sleeve at left; the two shirt sleeve pieces underneath were laid together along the stitching line to get the sleeve cap, at left, and the lower edge of the sleeve piece was cut off at the curved hemline of the piece on top)
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Colourblock, eh?

23/03/2011 4:26 am \ 18 Comments \

This is one of the new things I’ve made in my stash’n’scrap busting efforts; a new top.  Getting rid of two more smallish pieces of fabric…!  
The rust coloured corduroy used for the body is the leftover from these jeans.  I really love both making and wearing corduroy jeans, but the fabric width is just than little bit too narrow so that you have to buy twice your leg length to make a pair of jeans, because of the fabric nap.  And this means a couple of large chunks of leftovers.  Not to worry, I’m nothing if not diligent about using up those scraps as usefully as I can.
The purple sleeves are the very last leftovers from this dress.  (And I assure you the sleeves are exactly the same length, in spite of the funny way I am obviously posing…)
I know I’m going to love this top.  About three years ago I made another corduroy Tshirt that I wore a heap during winter, and was pretty darn sad when I spilled something down the front and it finally had to go.  Don’t know why it’s taken me this long to replace it, actually…  It is a laughably simple design, just rectangles of fabric with armholes cut into the body of the Tshirt, and bit of a boatneck-line scooped out, and long flat sleeve caps on the top of the tubular sleeves, measured and cut to fit the armhole lengths of the body.  Faced the neckline from other scraps.  Hemmed.  Done.  Simple and very easy to wear.

And happily fashionable.  My eye was caught by this outfit from Bally… quite similar, no? although this is a dress, and my outfit is a skirt and top.  I really this look of solid blocks of strong colour stacked up on top of each other; a look reminiscent of children’s building blocks, simple, colourful, a bit fun and interesting.  The extra plus for the self seamstress is that these simple unstructured shapes are so easy to sew, and the different blocks of colour are tailor-made (haha, a little joke there…) for using up scraps…

Details:
Top; my own design, rust corduroy and purple raw silk sleeves
Skirt; Vogue 7303, orange raw silk, details here
Shoes; Perrini, had for ages
Sunnies; RayBan
Nail varnish; Pouty Purple, BYS

At right, from Bally Spring/Summer 2011, here

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What a difference a day makes…

31/01/2011 6:01 am \ 7 Comments \

The day before yesterday

Today

I do have some more thoughts on fashion in Japan to talk about here, plus I enjoyed meeting another sewing and blogging friend in Oregon; just let me sort through about a thousand photos first… not to mention excavating through and washing about two thousand items of clothing and restocking the fridge etc…
Sigh.  
Back to reality.

Details…
above: 
Cold weather gear; Mountain Designs
Beanie; my own design, charcoal wool
Snow boots; Big KMart from the US
Gloves; ?
Sunnies; RayBan
below:
Dress; Burda 8511 with fitting variations, white synthetic stuff with printed border
Sandals; Vincenzo from Soletta shoes
Bag; Gucci
Sunnies; RayBan

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Australia Day

26/01/2011 1:30 am \ 11 Comments \

It’s been pretty difficult to post, what with available computer time being taken up with the superior demands of teenage Facebook time, not to mention some essential out-of-office business maintenance.  My blog has taken very much a back seat.
However today is special, being Australia Day and all.  I was mean and muscled everyone out to get on here…!
No doubt Aussies at home will be wearing a much more summery ensemble today, so I wish you a wonderful day as you sit around the pool with your refreshing cocktail, and/or frolic in the surf at the beach.  Enjoy!  We will be celebrating later with a much more wintery concoction of mulled plum wine.
Looking very Aussie here on the streets of Hirafu, on Mount Niseko-Annupuri in Hokkaido, Japan.

Details:
Jeans; Burda 7863, greige corduroy
Shirt; Burda 7767, check flannelette
Beanie; my own design, charcoal wool
Gloves; ??
Snow boots; from Big KMart, in the US.  I’ve had these for about 10 years.  Big KMart is similar to our KMart in Australia, except about three times as big.  No, I’m not exaggerating…!

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