own design Archives - Page 5 of 55

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!

Other me-made items I am wearing in these pictures:

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: cardigan, daily outfit, own design, tee

bucket hats and tights and a big big bag…

27/08/2022 11:20 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh hello! Those blue blue skies are making me so happy right now, as most of the past month has been more like this:

Oh yay, storm clouds, yes you’re making me happy too… not.

I’ve been making lots of stuff lately and the last two pics feature two of them…. two bucket hats! This is the new Bruno pattern by FibreMood. I made the green corduroy one first and it was a tad too tight on me so I’ve given it to Arthur. It fits him quite well actually! with a little room to grow, and of course he looks super adorable in it too!

The pink one was my second go at the pattern, and this one fits ME, fortunately! I used cotton canvas, leftover from this lovely pink top I made for Cassie’s work capsule wardrobe last year, and it is lined with some very pretty green polka-dot silk crepe leftover from the dress I made for Mum to wear to Cassie’s wedding a couple of years ago… the green one is lined with the same green polka-dot. I know, right… fancy linings are a bit …. fancy?! At least my hair is enjoying the proximity to such luxury.

Next up… I made a whole batch of new black tights. Not fancy at all, but these are literally the mainstay of my winter wardrobe and I was absolutely desperate for new ones!

These are made using my own custom fit pattern, and thin black super-stretch poly from Spotlight… and it’s not even new fabric, I bought a large length of this about three or maybe even four? years ago in preparation for making more tights. Then I just kept putting it off. My old tights got pretty ratty but … you know; I sure got a good innings out of those things. And now it’s also feels pretty good to get that 5m or so of black poly out of my stash!

These are so much warmer than most RTW winter tights I’ve ever had and of course they fit me perfectly, never falling down or sagging at the crotch. They have a distinct front and back so I always stitch a contrasting zig zag at the back, for easy identification when I’m rushing to pull them on on a dark winter morning. Yes it’s a bit rough but effective!

Lastly, I also made a giant beach bag!

This thing truly is GIANT, which is great because beach towels are pretty giant too, usually. I used another newish FibreMood pattern, the Nouria; and cut up an old towel to make it, which seems a slightly cannibalistic thing to do? but I think towelling will be very practical and hopefully perfect beach-bag material. The design used up the entire towel, like it was designed on purpose to do so! which is of course awesome. I’m all for making use of every little bit of fabric, as much as I can! The handles are plain cotton canvas; also from my existing stash. Yay, for using up more stash!

My only slight regret now is that I didn’t choose a more colourful or exciting towel! but this one was there and available and no longer being used, so yay for recycling!

It’s lined with plain white poplin (yes, stash) and I added a few extra internal pockets to reduce the risk of things getting completely lost within the cavernous expanse of the bag… a biggish pocket for a book with a sectioned off bit for a pen, and a phone pocket. And it already has a huge pocket on the outside too, for frequently required sundries such as sunblock and a water bottle.

Craig’s phone is standing in for my own, which had more urgent duties to perform such as taking this picture here, hehe…

SOOOO ready for summer now!! oh and btw, I have even more recently made stuff to share here very soon. Even if I haven’t updated my blog in a while, I really have been making quite assiduously and diligently!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: bag, bruno, Clara, daily outfit, fibremood, hat, nouria, own design, tights/leggings

the Booragoon skirt and Booragoon top

02/07/2022 9:24 pm \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

phew… I’m beyond exhausted, but also absolutely thrilled to announce the release of our latest two patterns… the Booragoon skirt and the Booragoon top!

So; here’s the story -yes, there’s always a story. That’s what a blog is for, right?!

For our niece’s 21st last year, for which I made this bumblebee cake; Cassie made a self-designed skirt for herself. It was a seriously cool skirt and brought forth many oohs and aahs and the inability to keep oneself from checking it out. Fortunately, not only did Cassie welcome the checking out part, but also excitedly declared on the spot that we should most definitely make it a pattern. So the horses were out of the gate and we were off! Of course, it did not proceed as swiftly as hoped; not only did work get in the way like a great big ol’ nuisance (not like it pays the bills or anything) but Cassie also returned to work after maternity leave was over, which slowed things down a little too.

And while Cassie’s skirt was beautifully made; she had done a massive amount of hand stitching to make the zip insertion and design lines work; which I knew would have be worked on before we could even think of releasing it.

See; the top tier of the skirt has a sharp edged, right-angle panel encircling the waist; very architectural in its genesis; that incorporates the waistband and a front panel. The front panel folds down to hide a zip closure; and the waistband has an attached, very long and skinny tie to further pull it all together. Sounds interesting? It is!

It took a bit of experimentation and fiddling, but I eventually worked out the zip insertion; so you could do it all by machine.

The top is one I’ve made for Cassie many times before; and we both decided the top really complemented the skirt very well; so we decided to release the patterns as a set. But of course you can always buy them separately as well. Actually; while I would rate the little jersey top as an Advanced Beginner level of pattern, the skirt really veers into Intermediate-Advanced level, thanks to the difficulty in mastering those nice sharp angles.. I would never tell anyone not to give it a go, however, Honestly; if I’d been scared off by Advanced ratings in my early sewing days I reckon I never would have got anywhere! I’m a big believer that’s it’s a good thing to push yourself. At the same time, the skill level thing is there for a reason!

We are offering a special, release day sale on the new patterns; the Booragoon Top, the Booragoon Skirt, and the Booragoon Top & Skirt are all 20 % off for the first 5 days, starting today. You even get a little special, and permanent discount for buying the set of patterns, as opposed to separately.

All three options re listed for sale in our Etsy store; here.

Is this a good time to mention that the skirt has a pocket? It’s just big enough for a phone and some small things, and it’s surprisingly unobtrusive. I’ve got my phonon my pocket for all my photos and it can’t be seen at all!

My lovely daughter-in-law Lainey agreed to model for us again; and the set I made for her is an all-in-one colour set; so it gives more of a dress vibe: for this one; I bought cotton from Spotlight for the skirt, and the cotton jersey for the top was a lucky match from Mum’s stash.

This next set is one of my earlier attempts; it was not particularly well made because I was still working out the zip at this point; but I really liked the skirt-over-a-dress look of it so saved the idea for my “real” one, above! Cream cotton jersey inherited from Mum’s stash, brown gabardine leftover from a long-gone pair of jeans/trousers I made for myself years ago.

And this set is playing with a dress-over-a-skirt look, just for fun. Both fabrics inherited from Mum’s stash.

All these different looks are achieved simply by different combinations of self and contrasting fabrics, and I really love this kind of versatility in a pattern!

Working on this pattern also contributed substantially to my #use30 challenge, for which I am quite grateful too, hehe. Thanks for that, Booragoon skirt and top!

Oh, the name? Booragoon is a local suburb here in Perth, and the location for a very popular shopping mall, which was actually both mine and Cassie’s introduction to department store shopping, for me dating back to my childhood years. Well, for Cassie too; but I mention for me in particular just to illustrate how long the mall has been there. It is also where my Dad had his practise for many many years; so when we went shopping we were always popping in to visit him while he was there. So “Booragoon” just has sentimental memories for us both; being a place “to shop” if you like. And we thought the Booragoon skirt and top was that kind of outfit that you might put on in order to sally forth for a day of genteel shopping and maybe a cup of tea and piece of cake to fortify yourself during the ordeal. Aaah, memories!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Booragoon skirt, Booragoon top, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, Cassie, Lainey, own design, skirt, Theo, top

a vanilla skirt, a periwinkle robe and an adorable little onesie

11/06/2022 8:35 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve been making things! btw I have to apologise profusely for my terrible blogging lately, I feel like I’m neglecting my poor little blog so badly.. the thing is that Cassie and I are working like mad on our newest pattern and we are so so close now that I can taste it!! well, ok I did nibble experimentally at a corner and it tasted just like paper… but you know what I mean. It is going to taste a billion times sweeter when it is finally out in the world!

I’ll discuss that a bit more in a minute, but in the meantime I’ve made a few things other than samples….

item 1:

a little skirt, to match this jacket I made fairly recently… I had a scant 50cm or so of leftovers, just enough for a little mini. The fabric is the wide wale cotton corduroy in colour vanilla, bought in Potters Textiles a few years ago. I utilised my skirt block, and a closure method that I wrote a tute for once before on my blog; a button closure over a pocket so you don’t need to do a zip.

And this time I got creative and added a full lining too. Bias binding to hem because of the severe shortness of the skirt otherwise! You may or may not recognise the bias binding as being cut from the last leftovers to this robe I made recently…

It’s not perfect on the inside but I’m pretty confident I can polish up the method to be very neat and tidy for the next time. I’m also quietly working on this one as a pattern for our company too.. shhhh!

item 2:

a sweet little onesie for a new baby; our friends L & L welcomed their darling new little baby, and of course I had to make something sweet… I used my own pattern, developed for my own grandchildren, and a short length of cotton jersey from Spotlight. It’s beautiful stuff, isn’t it?

item 3:

a robe, for my dear sister in law for her recent birthday. This lovely periwinkle raw silk was in my stash, I’m about 80% sure it was from Mum when she cleaned out her stash; but honestly when and where I got some of my older fabrics is sometimes a bit of a blur. Anyway, I washed it up, measured it and had just enough for another Closet Core patterns Veronik robe.. I just had to run into Officeworks to print up a new pattern in her size. I gave it to her just before the long weekend, and she seemed very pleased!

So where am I with the whole #use30 challenge….? Well, the little vanilla skirt used 50cm of corduroy, plus another 50cm of lining; the onesie was about 50cm, and the length of periwinkle silk was 3m, and I used every single scrap. That’s 4.5m of fabric.

And guess what?! That’s my 30m of stash fabric… DONE and DUSTED!!! Actually 32m! As per my own rules for the challenge, I am now “allowed” to buy new fabric if I want to… but now I’ve started down that path I really want to sew up as much of my older stash as I possibly can. And actually; I did fail a bit, since I bought a small amount of souvenir fabric when we were in Melbourne recently. Whoops!!! But I HAD TO! It’s Melbourne. Yes, ok I am a little upset with myself for “failing”, but not too much. At least I did use up that 30m eventually, even if I jumped the gun on my “reward” a bit early.

One thing I’m relieved is that I can (legally) buy new fabrics to sew up the samples for our new pattern though! I thought I’d mention a little more about our newest pattern, since we’re this close! It’s a skirt and top… the skirt is one Cassie designed, and wore; to her cousin’s 21st birthday last year. The one I made a cake for here, and I made a dress for myself for the occasion too… well Cassie’s skirt was so lovely we both decided it had to be a pattern. And it has a matching top, one that I’ve already made several for Cassie, that have all appeared here on my blog before; plus a few for myself that have not yet appeared here on my blog yet! The skirt and top look really nice together, so we’re releasing them at the same time as each other, but they can be bought separately, to add a bit of flexibility and choice to our customers. I’m so excited that they are about to get out into the world, and cannot wait to share more very soon!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Closet Core patterns, onesie, own design, robe, skirt, use30, Veronik

a punnet of raspberries

29/05/2022 3:16 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

I recently made a whole bunch of raspberry things … three, to be precise. One of the large pieces of fabric that Mum tossed my way when she cleared out her stash was a length of raspberry stretchy stuff. three and a half metres!! I have vague memories of the particular pattern she had planned to make with this and I’m almost certain that she bought way too much, but anyway that’s a moot point. I was even with her when she bought it in Fabulous Fabrics, and remember it quite well. Mum has always been in the habit of buying too much “just in case”. Not something I’ve ever been guilty myself, of course, ahem!!

Anyway, I set to and used it all up; and usefully, I think!

Item one, a pair of leggings. I was planning to make tights, but realised the fabric didn’t really have enough stretch to be successful as tights. Even leggings is pushing it a bit, to be honest! but I love the colour and was determined to make it work. Pretty simple, and just using my self-drafted pattern, just with the feet lopped off. This picture is pretty bad, sorry, the light was not good at the time. If I get enthusiastic, I’ll take another photo in better lighting conditions. We’ll see!

Item two; a little cardigan with a built-in scarf that is an extension of the collar. I’ve made a few of these in my time; three actually and none the same. Al utilised slightly different construction techniques, and this latest, version four was yet another. I made a slight boo-boo when I attached the bottom band to the inside of the cardigan, and then slip-stitched it closed on the outside, but it’s only something you’d notice if you looked really closely. I think my hand-stitching is pretty neat nowadays, if I say so myself!

still love these labels… I’m going to need to buy more!

I really love this cardigan and already know I’m going to wear it a tonne.

Item three; a little mini skirt for winter. This is an old favourite pattern; the Paprika pattern Jade skirt. I think I make one of these every year?! This one has no zip at the back, and this time I fitted it quite carefully to myself first, removing a good two inches of width at the waistband from each side. This means I have to squeeze into it head first, but that’s ok!

I have decided a pocket is absolutely necessary for my life nowadays too… really it doesn’t have to be fancy. It just has to be there! and only big enough for my phone and a credit card. Because I had the Claremont pattern out already to make my yellow shopping tote, I just used the phone pocket piece from that, and attached it to the waistband inside. I know this sounds like a weird way to put a pocket in but actually it is surprisingly unobtrusive and I wore it with my phone it in all day, quite comfortably.

Very very happy with how this turned out! and I am sure this too will get worn to death this winter!

I’m also very happy with how much this has taken off my #use30 challenge! three and a half metres brings up my total to 27.5m! I only have 2.5m to go, and I already have enough things halfway done already that is going to be knocked off in no time!

HURRAYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cardigan, daily outfit, Jade, own design, Paprika Patterns, skirt, tights/leggings, use30

regarding lingerie and shopping totes

24/05/2022 12:13 pm \ Leave a Comment \ Carolyn

I made some pretty new underwear… I bought this super cute Snugglepot and Cuddlepie cotton jersey from Spotlight at the very end of last year. Such a beautiful print, yes? Slice of my childhood, right there, I just could not resist!

I am in need of padded underwired bras during winter, because I tend to favour merino T-shirts at this time… thus I made another one. This brings my bra numbers back up to a respectable number so that I don’t have to hunt around looking for enough things to go into a wash every few days! Honestly, when the kids leave home, that’s something you don’t take into account!

I used my old favourite, MakeBra DL 03 again. Although I lately bought the Emerald Erin Black Beauty pattern and am aiming to run up a trial run of it sometime soon, when I get the time for that sort of thing again. Right now, I only have the time for a tried and true.

The two set of matching knickers are once again the cloth habit Watson briefs. Sorry to be so predictable!

The neon yellow picot elastic was also surprisingly from Spotlight; i say surprising because it’s pretty unusual for them to stock something so…. not-basic. Ribbon, also from Spotlight. The pale green strap elastic was from Homecraft Textiles, of course. I would have LOVED to find neon yellow strap elastic too, but beggars cannot be choosers around these parts!

While I had the yellow raincoat leftovers from Theo’s raincoat (previous post) I also cut out a Claremont shopping tote for myself, thus using up the very last scraps, which felt awesome. I’ve been needing a new shopping tote for quite a while, since my older one is pretty shabby now. I did have to piece the bottom bit due to lack of fabric but that’s ok, I double flat-felled all seams for extra strength so I’m confident it will all hold up well. I also didn’t have enough fabric for the facing, so just finished the edge with some mustard poplin from my stash, and the yellow zip is an inherited oldie from stash.

in situ in Coles, awaiting the grocery haul

mission accomplished…

Hurray! I’m really ripping through the stash lately! Feels so good!

obligatory pocket photos…

In my #use30 challenge update, the lingerie used 0.5m, and the bag also used about 0.5m… bringing my total up to 24m used, and just 6m to go. I’m so stoked at that number, it feels truly reachable at last!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: accessories, bag, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, claremont bag, cloth habit, lingerie, makeBra DL03, own design, watson

a sweet little raincoat

20/05/2022 10:54 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a cute little raincoat for my grandson Theo; and I think he looks so adorable in it!

I used the leftover remnants of Waterproof Oxford from my own Mundaring raincoat, originally bought from the Remnant Warehouse; and borrowed one of his hoodies to gauge the size he would need…

I actually based the design on our Mundaring raincoat pattern too! just a much simplified version with a zip up front, sans plackets; the hood has a self facing rather than a separate one, and I just put simple patch pockets on the front rather than the more complicated, weatherproof zipped ones on our Mundaring pattern. Also, his has no weather flap on the back, just a straight back. The length was determined by the length of the zip!

I sealed the seams using a wet-weather gear sealing wax stick, sourced at BCF.

It is fully lined with a soft white cotton jersey, for comfort and warmth, and added a white linen hanging loop. All the raw edges and seams are hidden neatly away between the shell and lining layers.

It was so cute when he put it on! he toddled off to his toy box and retrieved a little wooden elephant puzzle piece, and we spent the next fifteen minutes putting it into a pocket and taking it out again. As it turns out, pockets are utterly fascinating!

I estimate it used around 0.5m of the leftover raincoat fabric plus about the same of the white cotton jersey too. Or 1m in total … So in my dumb little #use30 challenge; I’ve used 23m of my stash. Just 7m to go!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: own design, raincoat, Theo

FEED ME! … a peg bag

06/05/2022 1:59 pm \ Leave a Comment \ Carolyn

So I’ve just whipped up this crazy little peg bag … it makes me smile every time I hang up the laundry!

I used an approximately 50cm length of charcoal denim from the stash, too small for a skirt but not so small to toss out of course! I know, no scrap pieces is too small to throw out really, but you know what I mean.

I drew up a pattern with a boxed bottom, and edged the opening with some red cotton bias leftover from my previous dp studio sporty dress. The teeth are from the same sturdy cotton I used for the dress’s white “sporty” panels, interfaced.

I inserted the hanger through the open, unstitched bottom of the peg bag, and then pulled the bottom edge through its “mouth” to stitch it closed. Then stuffed the bottom edge back down through the mouth to the inside. So it’s all nice and neatly finished with the hanger firmly ensconced in position, only the wire hook poking out through a tiny hole in the top.

It’s pretty cute, I think! Gives me a giggle every time I catch sight of it!

AAAAAAAGH NOOOOO!!!