own design Archives - Page 50 of 55

Glossy wooden beads

27/01/2010 3:16 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Got heaps of office work to do today, so may not enter the laundry (where my sewing machine is situated, taunting me) until it’s all done… I also had a few errands to run, so took time out to sneak down to the foreshore for today’s pictures.
This necklace that I made last winter was, unlike my Chanel style chain belt, one of those serendipitous projects that just flew out of my imagination and took all of about 20 minutes to make. Just a few packets of glossy brown beads and a packet of silver charms, strung along some shoestring, knotted periodically, added a catch at the ends, et voila!
Tres chic, non?
Today is my parents’ wedding anniversary, so congrats, Mum and Dad!
I’m currently working on my next next Wardrobe Re-fashion, I’ve already got this week’s in-the-bag and ready for Friday but my next one is a little more complex and is occupying my mind, I’m itching to get in the laundry and work on it some more, but I’ve procrastinated long enough and sadly have to go and do some real work now…

Details:
Skirt; Rodney Clark?, Louis?, op shop
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Vertice, mid 70’s
Necklace; self-made
Sandals; Neo, from Nine West (I think)
Bag; made by my mother

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, beading, own design, Spotlight

Tea Cosy, specimen 9

24/01/2010 12:07 am \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

Here is the tea cosy I made for my mother-in-law for her birthday last year. She loves the beach and spends a lot of time walking and swimming on the beach, so I took the soft blues and browns of the seaside for inspiration. This tea cosy is my own design, just cast on what seemed like a good number of stitches and started knitting, winging the design. I love the bobbly yarn I found for the top-knot, it reminds me of that coastal grass that we call “pussy-tails” in WA because the flowers look tiny miniature fluffy cat-tails.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Knitted, own design, Spotlight, tea cosy

My husband gave me flowers…

23/01/2010 3:43 am \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

Actually he gave these to me a few days ago and they’ve been sitting on our kitchen bench looking fresh, optimistic and cheerful and brightening up my days with that particularly intense clarity of simple colour, that gerberas are so treasured for and for which we forgive them their very short lifespan.
Today they’re starting to look a little droopy, but have still inspired me to go for a sharp shot of mad colour. Normally I wouldn’t wear these two colours together for fear of looking a bit…. well, fast-food…… there, I’ve said it now, and the impression is out there and probably lasting, more fool me for having put it there. I’ll bet kindergarteners would love my ensemble. I’m sticking with it.
This dress, my own variation based on a halter neck top pattern, is light and floaty enough for hot days, but is perhaps a tad revealing up top if one is heading off shopping in a department store for a wedding gift, which is what we are doing today… Don’t want to be eyed at in a pitying way by any salesladies so my cardigan covers up demurely.
Please note my lovely hair-do, sadly not of my doing. My hairdresser is a genius and I wish I had him around to do my hair every morning, I think my husband might have objections to that, er…
Off we go to look at crystal-wear….

Details:
Dress; my own variation on McCalls 4453, red sparkly polyester chiffon
Cardigan; Country Road, secondhand and over-dyed
Belt; Country Road, had since I was a teenager
Sandals; akiel, from an op shop

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: dress, dyeing, Fabulous fabrics, McCalls 4453, own design

Wardrobe Refashion, project 3

22/01/2010 12:17 am \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

Not a terribly exciting re-fashion this week, but I’m still pretty happy with the result. Before; an old work shirt of my husband’s that he was tossing out. Pro’s; it’s made of sturdy thick cotton knit with a lovely blue-marle denim-y colour that has a lived-in comfortable feel about it, and it has a nice button up front with attractive metallic-look buttons. Problem areas, it was HUGE, it had a kind of daggy “sporty” collar and two too many logos. I hate logos. I don’t really want to walk around looking like a billboard for somebody else’s business, thankyou very much.
It may not look like a dramatic difference, but this shirt has been re-constructed completely, apart from the button up front which I kept untouched and the bottom hemline is also the original. The collar was removed. As the logos were embroidered onto the fabric they couldn’t be unpicked without leaving an unholy mess behind (or should I say, a very hole-y mess!), so the sleeves were shortened, removing one logo, and I added a small self fabric pocket, covering up the other logo. The shirt pieces were rejoined to become a much slimmer, more feminine shape.
I think the new streamlined look of the T-shirt is now quite attractive and will be a useful new resident in my wardrobe.
I made my skirt also, about four or five years ago and I posted about it previously here.

Details:
Shirt; refashioned from my husband’s old work shirt
Skirt; my own design, various cottons and cheesecloths
Sandals; Vicenza, from Soletta shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: own design, skirt, Spotlight, top, Wardrobe Refashion

Lacy “tablecloth” skirt

20/01/2010 1:47 am \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

For quite some time I’ve wanted to make myself a skirt out of an old crocheted or lace tablecloth, and with this in mind I’ve searched op-shops for some suitable candidate to chop up. Not only didn’t I find any old tablecloths with any sort of beauty at all (plastic daisy print, anyone?) but it started to occur to me that if I was lucky enough to find a genuine old crocheted cloth I couldn’t cut it up anyway, the sacrilege would be too great. I would fold it carefully and store it away and just bring out to dress the table for special occasions. They are pretty precious.
So when I went to the end-of-year sale at my favourite fabric store I found this knit lace that was patterned with vaguely doily-type embroidery and got a metre.
First I made a lining skirt of 70cm length, because that is how much lining fabric I bought. Then I started arranging and cutting the lace straight onto the lining on Bessie, aiming for a layered effect with an uneven “tablecloth-y” hemline. It looks and sounds kind of random, but it was thought out and I did a fair bit of measuring, planning and pinning before I took the scissors to the lace. I wanted to make best use of the lace, part of my ongoing obsession with minimal wastage. And I’m pleased to say that I used every last square centimetre of fabric with not a single scrap left!
Cost of this skirt: 1m lace, $30 + 70cm lining, $4.90 -15% sale discount + zip, $2.30 = approx $32. And no scraps. Not bad. I’m happy.
I love this final look. Just call me obsessed with lace, if there was a White Lace Anonymous help group I would need to sign up. In honour of the whole “tablecloth” inspiration I set up our outdoor table with some of my antique china for morning tea.
Do you like my “fork” bracelet? It’s my son’s really, and he got the idea from the movie “Elephant”. It’s just one of those cheapie single forks you can buy, bent into a loop.

Details:
Skirt; own design, white stretch lace
Top; Butterick 4985, sleeves from another pattern, pink nobbly cotton, overdyed using an old red T-shirt
Sandals; Vicenza, from Soletta shoes
Bracelet; bent fork

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, Butterick 4985, Fabulous fabrics, own design, skirt, top

Bleached crinkly cotton

19/01/2010 12:54 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

I was on the verge of throwing this skirt out, or re-fashioning it (I am getting so into this re-fashioning it’s not funny, I think it’s becoming an obsession with me) because I ripped it the last time I wore it. But something about its soft sage green loveliness just kept me back from doing something extreme that I may later regret… a common whimsy of mine that can be a problem. And with the current hot spell I’m finding myself drawn more and more to my fall-back creams and whites, particularly my collection of crumpled off-white embroidered cotton garments that look a little bit slept in (they’re not), bleached and faded and a little bit shabby, the embroidered flowers are subtle but add a puckered texture to the clothes that I love. I feel the rumply look is as though one had just arisen from a hammock stretched out under a tree leaving a childhood favourite book open on its spine… Dreamy summer days of languid heat…
I mended the tear in the hem of this skirt (see below, I don’t think it really shows), and gave it a second chance. I’m wearing it today with my new scarf; “new”, but it’s actually re-fashioned from the lining of my daughter’s old puff skirt which is why it looks old, thin and washed. The scarf picks up the black rolled hem edging on the skirt. I like a tiny hint of black in an summer outfit, I think it adds a bit of an edge and some definition, particularly when all else is pale. My jade and mother-of-pearl bracelet with its alienesque matte silver prongs was a birthday gift from my parents.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7880, sage green embroidered cotton
Top; Morrison
Scarf; own design, refashioned from net skirt lining
Sandals; Micam by Joanne Mercer, from Hobbs shoes
Bracelet; gift from my parents

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, own design, scarf, skirt, Vogue 7880

Tea Cosy, specimen 8

17/01/2010 12:16 am \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

I think this is my favourite of the tea cosies I’ve made for my friends; it’s got a “Roly Poly” base, (pattern from Wild Tea Cosies, by Loani Prior), but the three chickens in a nest on the top are my own variation. I did this one for my friend C because she keeps chooks.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Knitted, own design, Spotlight, tea cosy, wild tea cosies

Wardrobe Refashion, project 2

15/01/2010 3:30 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

For my second Wardrobe Refashion project I took the scissors to some three quarter pants that I’ve had for about two or three years. They’ve been good pants and I loved them when I first bought them, but over time the fabric had pilled a bit, “knees” developed pretty soon after putting them on, and the folded waistband, which has no zip, used to pop open in a very unattractive way without warning. However the fabric is a nice textured charcoal linen/cotton blend which I still liked.
I envisaged a simple Japanese style top, something like the beautiful designs I saw in the Yohji Yamamoto exhibition at the Perth Art Gallery a year ago. That was such a gorgeous exhibition, sigh, the awesomeness as a whole left me quite spellbound and deeply inspired. I have not even close to 1% of his talent, but I thought I might be capable of a simple top, something symmetrical, but with just a few elements of asymmetry thrown in, as practiced in traditional Japanese architecture.
I’m very happy with this result although putting it together ended up a bit more complicated than I first thought – again, just like the deceptive simplicity of Yohji Yamamoto (I have one Yohji Yamamoto top that I was lucky enough to come across in a second hand shop, and it’s quite unlike any other top I’ve seen) The difficult bit on which I spent the most time was in the inserts I put in under the arm which are to avoid inadvertent “flashing” when arm-lifting; and you can’t even really see this part of the shirt! Even though you can’t see them, let me describe them; they are scooped and edged with scraps of self binding…
I kept the waistband of the original pants to use as a belt and my whole family agrees the top looks better with it.
I really like the up-and-down effect of the hem; longest in front, shorter at the sides and shortest at the back. The hems here are the original hems of the pants.
I slashed the neckline of the top off-centre to insert a button closure and used a small amount of lightweight black fabric from my stash to face the neckline. This button closure is functional but not really needed as it can be just slipped over my head anyway… I love this old button I inherited in my grandmother’s haberdashery; it’s texture is a bit like rough stone.
Pretty much all of the fabric of the original pants was used in making this top; I had only the tiniest of scraps left!