own design Archives - Page 4 of 55

dressing like a tomato

25/05/2023 2:23 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello!

So, I’ve alluded to this ongoing project previously; the mission to “use up a rather large length of tomato-red jersey” I am pleased and just a ~~little~~ lot relieved to report a successful completion of the mission, ahem…

I originally bought this “remnant” from a Morrison seconds sale… it was very cheap… when I had the chance to check it out properly I realised it was at least 6m in length, possibly more if I’m honest. Phew! Just a few weeks ago I dedicated myself to remove this from Le Stash.

Item 1; a dress for Cassie… this is the Ebony pattern by Closet Core patterns. I don’t have any pictures of her wearing it, but it skims her knees and the sleeves are elbow length. This will be a great little dress for winter for her; worn with tights and boots, over a turtleneck, and with her denim jacket, it looks super cute!

Item 2; a little T-shirt for Theo (previously posted)

yes, he looks cute

Items 3,4 and 5; a little T-shirt for Arthur, plus the sleeves for two more (previously posted)

here he is on Mothers Day. Cassie is wearing this dress I made last year, and Tim is wearing a hoodie I made for him yeeeeears ago. I’m thrilled he still loves it so much! Also, yes, the dress is still mine but I’ve lent it to Cassie for a little while because she wanted some more work-appropriate dresses and I don’t have the time to make new ones for her just yet!

Item 6;

a cardigan for myself… I’m in the midst of planning to make a pattern for this design this year. I’ve made multiples for myself and it’s such a useful little thing to have!

wearing it during me-made May

Item 7:

a little top for myself. This is our most recent pattern the Booragoon top, available in our etsy store here #shamelessplug

Item 8;

a little winter skirt for myself. This is the Paprika patterns Jade pattern; one I make up usually once a year. Well, I really like it! Again, pictured during me-made May…

there’s even a failed Item 9! I cut out a skirt for Cassie too, but as I was pinning it together for its first seam I noticed a fault, a few holes right across a line of the grain. By this time I was well and truly over the tomato fabric so it was with some joy that it got tossed into the bin. No regrets!

So wow, yes that’s still a lot of tomato!!

I may or may not wear all three of my own tomato items together like this; on the one hand I really love this colour. On the other hand…. well actually there is no other hand really. I love the colour, so I most like will! btw, not pictured; but the three items I made for myself each has a “circa 2023” label on it.

Now; to be honest, there is a problem with all of these new makes, well more accurately there is a problem with the fabric… I realised that it was cheap and plentiful for a reason. The fabric is super stretchy, as in it’s stretching out quite fast and it’s clearly not going to last very long. Like, probably not longer than this year. Beware a bargain! You can see in my miniskirt how the folds do not look super stable and a little stretched out already. Oh well, just gong to enjoy it while I can 🙂

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: arthur, Booragoon top, cardigan, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Closet Core patterns, dress, Ebony, Jade, own design, Paprika Patterns, skirt, Theo, top

green Quilla and some small T-shirts

17/05/2023 1:07 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made some new things… actually I’m always making new things but am seriously behind on blogging them. Bad me!

First up; a new little top for myself… this is the new Fibremood Quilla pattern, I and I love it! It’s super cute in my opinion, very easy to make and uses a very small amount of fabric. Is that a good thing? well pretty wonderful when you have lots of small leftover cuts that you wish to “gainfully” use up, like I am.

something I should mention: several times I have had to go back and lowered the necklines on a few of my fibremood makes, retroactively; because I’ve found them to sit quite high in general. So this time I proactively lowered the neckline by 5cm on this and I’m glad I did! it doesn’t feel too low at all and is in fact very comfortable. Something to bear in mind!

I used a raw silk hessian from Le Stash… this is leftover from when I made this green dress.

I stitched with green thread of course, but didn’t have any matching cotton for the bias binding nor green overlocking thread, so used white for both of these so there’s kind of a match-matchy situation going on with the inner seam finishes. This is quite a pleasurable sight to my eyes.

This top has a reverse pleat going on with the front/back panels and side panels; so I thought I’d share how I do the hem in this circumstance; the pattern just has you hemming as usual, but I’ve always found you get a sharper pleat if you doit like above. You need to snip the seam allowances at the hemline point so the hem seam allowances can wrap out the other way around the side seam allowances. Yes, sounds like it makes no sense but it does if you’re doing this sort of hem, trust me. Because I didn’t have matching overlocking thread, I just did a zigzag stitch to finish the raw edges in the hem allowance.

This gives you a nice, permanent fold at that point and enables the pleats to sit the way you want them too.

oh, see that cute little T-shirt Theo is wearing in the above pic? that’s the one I blogged about in my previous post. I’m happy to say he loves wearing it as a regular T-shirt and not just for pj’s!

Also, since Arthur’s T-shirts were a tad on the small side I made him a few more… These are made from out of two of Tim’s old T-shirts and also some more of that tomato red cotton jersey that Theo’s top is made from; that I’ve been using up lately. There will be some more things from this stuff appearing very soon, once I get around to modelling and photographing it. It’s actually finally all gone now, hurrah! and I have moved onto other fabrics!

Extras: yes, I made those jeans, using old jeans and the Closet Core Jenny pattern, previously blogged here

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: arthur, fibremood, own design, quilla, Theo, top, Wardrobe Refashion

pj’s

02/05/2023 8:13 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh man! I have been unable to post here for quite a while and was starting to wonder; could this be the end of Handmade by Carolyn…? Fortunately my clever husband worked the problem out. Then I wrote a whole post and posted it, and it just disappeared, poof! into the ether. So upsetting! I’m going to try for a second time, so hopefully this time it will not!

Pj’s. I’ve made a few.

Firstly, for me, I used my namesake pattern, the Closet Core Carolyn PJ’s for my pants and a Burda pattern, 10/2009, 121 for the top. Sometimes I think I should make the Carolyn top as a pj top too, but I really prefer my pj tops to be buttonless. As well as saving buttonholes for a shirt that I will wear awake, and out of the house. Well, buttonholes are an effort!

I know I pledged to not buy any new fabric until I’d used up my stash, and I had to buy some flannelette for these, which is a little bad but not really because I really needed new winter jammies. I managed to use up every last scrap by slapping some patch pockets on the front of the top; which makes me feel very thrifty and virtuous, so it’s all good in the end. The white flannelette was already in my stash, leftover from a previous jammie-making venture. Both from Spotlight.

Next up; I made pj pants for Cassie, and mini matching ones for Theo. So cute that they can match each other! Cassie’s are the Closet Core Carolyn pattern, and I left the front open at her request, just in case she decides to go though another pregnancy in the next few years.

I added a press stud at the waistline and a drawstring so they can still be closed easily. The drawstring is attached to a bit of elastic threaded through the back of the waistband. I cut out and stitched in her Spoonflower label… oh I forgot to mention! The print on the fabric is her own design in her Spoonflower shop, printed on fleece from their range. We were using this small length as a cot blanket for when the kiddies slept over, but it’s outgrown that function and needed up cycling. So now it’s pj’s!

Theo’s matching pants are Burda 9436 modified slightly to be pj bottoms by eliminating pockets and adding elasticated cuffs, and his little red raglan T-shirt is self drafted. It’s cut from a massive “remnant” that I bought from a Morrison seconds sale, once upon a time. When I say, remnant, I mean about 6m although I’ve been too depressed to ever actually measure this. I don’t know what I was thinking, buying it; honestly. I must have been mad. It’s my current intention to use up this remnant as soon as possible… I’m making good headway too, results to appear here soon. I hope!

Next up, for Arthur. For the pants, I used the same Burda 9436 as for Theo, lengthened because he is much taller; and grey sweat shirting fabric from the stash. The two little T-shirts (same self drafted pattern again) are made using his Dad, Tim’s old T-shirts. Yes, I still have some of these left! and actually it’s getting quite hard to cut Arthur sized T-shirts from adult-sized T-shirts, believe it or not; so I’m planning to power through all the T-shirts pretty quickly now.

Lastly, and completely random I know; I made some lemon macarons because I had lemons, and because I kinda wanted to prove to myself I was still capable. Very very pleased with how they turned out!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: arthur, burda 10/2009;121, Carolyn, Closet Core patterns, macarons, own design, pyjamas, Theo

it’s curtains for you! otherwise titled; why should windows have all the fun?

03/12/2022 1:21 pm \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

This year, my friend Raina gave to me a couple of bags of fabric that she’d been hoarding for years, finally sensibly throwing them out… or should I say.. throwing them my way? I really should throw out a lot of my fabric too but not only am I not sensible, I’m also such a sucker for a lonely, unwanted piece of fabric that is just screaming out to be made into something wanted and loved… *sigh*

Anyway; amongst the odds and ends and bits and bobs was a length of really beautiful curtain fabric. Samarkand by Sanderson, no less. I thought it was lovely and had lots of potential. Interestingly, I’ve just searched online and can find not even one picture of this print?! Weird!

Raina tells me this was the leftovers from the bedroom curtains in their old house in England, and since they left England more than twenty years ago that should give you an idea of how long this has been kicking around! I’m so happy it’s finally been put to good use!

I made a skirt using my own skirt block pattern, that I’m developing to be a pattern for our pattern company actually, and this time I managed to remember to add seam allowances, hurrah! Yes, I finally got my matching top and skirt set, yay!

For my top I used the Closet Core patterns Cielo pattern. I didn’t have enough of the curtain fabric to cut everything, so the sleeves and sleeve cuffs are a co-ordinating grey linen, which was given to me by Mum when she cleaned out her own stash. I know, I seem to be using everybody else’s stashes at the moment and not much of my own! I really should remedy that for the remainder of the year… if I can!

I lined the skirt with a leaf green lining fabric, also from Mum’s stash. Later on, I also noticed that the lining of the skirt peeped out a bit in a few of my photos so since then I’ve gone back in and shortened the lining by a few centimetres. Always telling myself; it’s really worth me doing this sort of thing properly because otherwise it would bother me forever.

I finished off the raw edges inside the top and skirt with bias tape cut from dark olive poplin. Now, this is actually from my own long term stash! I also finished off the neckline facing with the same poplin; it makes the inside look so nice and neat, as well as being far more comfortable and soft against my skin. I try to do this as much as possible nowadays.

I really love this new ensemble! the beautiful bird print on the fabric is so elegant. I’m so happy I was able to pattern match quite close to seamlessly everywhere. I kept and incorporated the colour legend from the selvedge on the waist band of the skirt, because… well just because I can! I love it, and I believe that a print with such a lot of colours in it like this is the mark of a really quality print.

I wore this to morning tea with Raina this past week because I knew it would give her a laugh, and she was satisfyingly very happy to see it too! Gave me lots of warm fuzzies to see how much she loved it actually. Very satisfying. It’s very comfortable, and a style that makes me feel really good too. I’m going to get lots of wear out of this outfit, for sure! I only have a few more of those “circa 2022” labels left now. Hmm… what label-worthy things should I make to finish up the year? Better put my thinking cap on!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cielo, Closet Core patterns, own design, skirt, top

bikini washing bag

20/11/2022 3:52 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

… the zip on my old lingerie washing bag finally gave up the ghost, so I whipped up a new one! Perforated sports fabric has been in Le Stash for years, I originally bought a long length of this from the Remnant Warehouse for raincoat vents and I think it’s going to last me a lifetime! purple zip inherited from a large batch of random haberdashery from Mum…

After I’d cut it out I decided to tizzy it up a bit with a spot of embroidery… I was going for the bikini emoji so tried embroidering yellow French knot “polka dots” over the pink but they sadly turned absolutely terrible so OFF they came! It’s ok, I happen to think the pink bikini by itself is super cute and I’m very pleased with it. I was little worried the satin stitch would skew in the wash, but it’s survived several washes already and come out totally unscathed so I think it’s going to be quite stable!

To do the embroidery, I freehand drew the bikini straight onto my bag with lead pencil. The sports fabric is a little stretchy, so on the back (inside) of the bag I pinned a bias cut piece of white linen. This provides a stable “tough” layer to give the embroidery a nice strong backing, so it won’t stretch out.

I outlined the design with simple back stitch, and then just filled in the gap with satin stitch. The bikini straps are double stitches.

On, I should mention something about the zip too… again because of the sports fabric being a little stretchy and we all know what inserting a zip into stretchy fabric looks like ie. absolutely blooming’ awful most of the time…. anyway I interfaced the zip opening with fusible interfacing AND stay-stitched the zip box as well as the stitching lines before putting in the zip. I think it did the trick as my zip is nice and smooth and flat with no bubbly bits or humps or bumps.

Et voila!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: accessories, bag, own design

pink and blue magnolias

02/11/2022 12:44 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello!

Here is another little sundress I made more recently actually… just in late July if I recall correctly. I was so excited and getting ready for spring and it seemed like the perfect little spring-time thing… little did I know that winter was going to continue to grip us in its icy cold claws for a further few months.

Even so, I happily managed to don it for a few random warmish days in there, hurrah! I’m so excited to wear this lots and lots as the weather warms up more, because I absolutely love it!

Firstly, the fabric; is super lovely. It’s a linen cotton, but feels a lot more linen-y than cotton-y; with a crisp hand that crinkles a little. The print, Nerida Hanson “Magnolia” in the blue colour way, is really beautiful too, cool sea-blues and a big splashes of pink.

I based my design on the Nerida Hansen half-sleeve top pattern, but of course added some very wild modifications to make the most of the 2m I had… fortunately it’s a very wide 2m and I was able to cut out quite a voluminous and flouncy dress in the end!

I really love how my mods turned out and am seriously thinking I would love to make this style into a pattern one day! I know, I know; I have so many ideas for patterns but so little time. It’s a little sad for me, because I honestly love designing and making patterns and would love to do it a lot more than I do at the moment. My dream career, if you will :/

It is actually two very wide and deeply “flouncy” flounces both cut on long curved, asymmetric angles across the body.

Hemming was fun of course (sarcastic font) because of the bias… I left it to hang for quite a while before venturing to cut off the hemline evenly. I had no room for error! partly because I had zero leftover fabric to play with, and I had only managed to get a fairly short version of my idea from the 2m. I cut super super carefully, and got a pretty decent hem, I think.

I did start out with the eponymous “half sleeves” but for balance sake eventually cut them off quite short … I think the very voluminous skirt looks much nice with the shorter sleeves.

My dress also has pockets, of course.

The flounces were just not possible with just 2m of fabric of course; so each is comprised of multiple smaller wedges, cut both up and down and joined around to make a multi-sectioned piece. Basically using every single scrap of fabric possible. The result is good, I think; for the randomness of pattern placement; the fact that you don’t get that slightly obnoxious pattern repeat that you do if you cut things out the normal way. A little bit of every-which-way in pattern placement does wonders for the a visually pleasing aesthetic sometimes; if you have an obvious pattern repeat. I often think when I’m checking out designs on Spoonflower actually; that designs could be improved so much if they had a larger scale repeat. I mean; I’m no visual art expert by any means, but this is just an impression I get.

Probably explaining myself really badly here, sorry. At least I know what I mean!

“winterised” … as worn on the plane home from Velassaru

Anyway, I guess the long and short is that I am really happy with my new dress.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, half sleeve dress, nerida hansen, own design

green

27/10/2022 7:00 am \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

I made this little green sundress back in February, and have worn it quite a lot! It’s very comfortable and easy to wear…

the design is my very own. I’ve made this before in ochre linen, pictured and blogged here; and Cassie and I have been planning to make it into a pattern. This is the reason I haven’t blogged it yet, to be honest; as I was hoping to “unveil” it as a new pattern by now.

Believe it or not; I have already drawn up the pattern, AND graded it, and I’ve made a solid start on the instructions too… however Cassie as a part-time working Mum of a small toddler doesn’t have as much free time as she would like to work on the pdf side of things! Sadly! But it should get done, hopefully by early next year. Look out for it then!

The fabric is from Minerva; and is quilting cotton, of all things! but it is quite soft and even nicely drape-y too, and not too stiff. The green is kinda splotchy, in a good way! and has a subtle sparkle to it too. I’ve loved wearing it! and hope the pattern does well when it’s finally released. People seem interested in it, which is encouraging 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, own design

some snuggly spring-y merino

31/08/2022 10:46 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

Last day of the month and I’m squeezing in a blog post about some other stuff that’s strolled out of the stash and onto my body during August… wait, that sounded weird. Leaving it though. I’m in that sort of mood!

I had bought some gorgeous “turmeric” merino from The Fabric Store in Melbourne during our trip over there earlier this year… when we saw Harry Potter… btw did I ever relate that story? Putting it here now for posterity:

So back in 2019 we’d bought tickets to the Melbourne production of the Harry Potter play for May 2020. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which at the time was only showing in three venues in the entire world; London, New York and Melbourne. During my trip to New York with Yoshimi I’d seen it happening there and was so excited for when Craig and I were going to see it too! We’d booked very good seats and a very nice hotel in Melbourne and it was going to be awesome… Well, we all know what happened in early 2020! (note to future me, who might have forgotten; covid) Our tickets were first rescheduled from May 2020 to November 2020. Then rescheduled again for May 2021. Then November 2021. In case future me has forgotten, Melbourne endured multiple, extremely stringent lockdowns during the pandemic; some of the strictest in the world, and also our own WA border was closed for a couple of years too.

Our tickets were finally forwarded to March 2022 and we eventually hopped on a plane and went on what turned out to be the last weekend of the production. The play was absolutely amazing!! and we loved every minute. The play was so long that it was divided into a two parter; a matinee from 2 until 5-ish, after which you went out and got some dinner, and then an evening performance that went until quite late. SOOOO good! easily one of the most enjoyable plays we’ve ever seen, although I admit you do have to be a Harry Potter aficionado to have “got” it. Fortunately we are most definitely in that category! since Tim was the same age as Harry and back in the day we’d got the books and eagerly devoured them all.

Anyway, apologies for the digression; sewing wise I bought a little fabric during that trip! Well, I can’t go to Melbourne and NOT buy souvenir fabric! It would just feel wrong!

Item 1; I made a self-drafted cardigan… this is a design I’ve made a few times before, at the start I was using my favourite Closet Core Nettie pattern. Over the years I’ve custom fit my Nettie pattern until it is now completely unrecognisable from the original. For me, it is now an only slightly form-fitting and streamlined T-shirt and I’ve adapted it further to be a slightly looser-fitting (so you can comfortably wear it over a tee) cardigan.

I really love this style and enjoy wearing it a lot.

Item 2; a matching turmeric T-shirt… from memory, I’d requested 1.5m, and when it was rolled out there was already a cut piece a bit longer than 1.5m. I’m sorry I can’t remember exactly how much more it was now, but I said I’d buy it! And it was just enough that I managed to get a T-shirt for myself too. I love how I now have a twinset! since I am a granny now and it’s about time I started dressing the part somewhat. I love how a twinset is kinda linked with “dressing like a granny” in my head, but my particular twinset feels not too granny as to fall into “undesirably granny” territory to me. It’s OK, I know that sounds nonsensical but it makes sense to me!

In fact, I love it so much I’m thinking of making my twinset idea into a pattern… I would love to do this if I can eke out the time!

Items 3 and 4; last year I had purchased 1.5m of lovely “red clay” merino from the Fabric Store during one of their online sales. It took a bit of super careful placement but I was pretty pleased to squeeze two T-shirts from this! I kept one for myself and gave one to Cassie, because I think this colour suits her really well too.

I’m so happy with all these items and they’ve all got worn quite a lot this past month already. If you check out my ootd day blog you can see just how much. For example; this is what I am wearing today!