Tag Archives: Photo-bomb

white inari

02/11/2016 11:36 am \ 41 Comments \

white-inari

named-inariMum and I went shopping together on my birthday; her for my birthday present, and me for her birthday present!  yes, our birthdays are just a few days apart so this is a bit of a tradition.  We went to Fabulous Fabrics.  Haha… well how unexpected!  *wink*

After much lengthy and highly enjoyable hunting, comparisons and consultations with each other, Mum chose this really beautiful fabric for me.  it is thick but very light and airy, has a nubbly, ultra slubby texture and is as pure white as the driven snow.  I absolutely adore it, in fact I’d been salivating over it whenever I saw it, ever since it came in.  Getting a little bit to give me is extra thoughtful of Mum when you take into account that she doesn’t think white really suits me at all.  I kind of agree with her up to a point… however!  I still totally adore it, because I’m a dreadfully contrary soul… no not really, I just have this thing for white clothing, particularly for summer, I love it with a fierce and burning passion…even a white-hot passion!  Mum knows I do, so I thought it pretty sweet that she overrode her feelings to give me something I really love.

white-inari-back

Pattern is the Named patterns Inari tee dress.  This is my “real” Inari, for which I ran up my previously blogged red striped “muslin”! though of course they are both wearable since I found I needed to make only minor changes to the pattern for it to be perfect.

sleeve-cuff

Something I mentioned in my red-striped inari post, the dress made as per the pattern rides up a bit when you lift your arms, so for this version I made the following simple modification to the sleeves to help reduce the problem:

What I’m doing here is adding width to and reducing the height of the sleeve cap slightly, and doing so without altering the armscye.  Diddling about with both the sleeve and the armscye is possible if you really know what you’re doing #idonot; however can be quite complicated and so I tend to not go there…  I would prefer to substitute an entirely different, tried-and-true sleeve cap and armscye from another pattern if it came to that!!

inari-sleeve-altfrom L to R, top to bottom:

1) Trace the sleeve, and draw a line from the shoulder seam junction mark near the apex of the sleeve cap down to the lower edge, parallel to the grain line.
2) Cut from the lower edge up, leaving a scant few mm at the upper edge still attached.  Pivot the two halves open; I allowed a gap of 4cm (2″) in width, although you could stand to go a little wider, if desired.
3) Tape a piece of paper to fill and fix the gap
4) redraw that lower hem to curve smoothly in a similar line to how the sleeve was previously, and trim
5) Original sleeve and new sleeve, juxtaposed.  You can see how the sleeve is wider; and not seen, but the height of the sleeve cap has been reduced by 2.5cm (1″).
6) Very important!!!  remember to measure the length of the new lower edge and cut the sleeve cuffs accordingly!  They’ll be a bit longer than the sum of the original width and the width of the gap created in step 2.

Demonstration of results (below); The dress does still ride up a little bit however not nearly as much as previously, at right.  To lessen the ride-up even more, you could go even further with widening the sleeve and “flattening” the curve of the sleeve cap even more.  Or alternatively of course, you could always substitute an armscye and sleeve cap from another pattern, at a pinch!

I’m pretty happy with this though  🙂

whiteinari-arms-up

Finishing details:

I still didn’t use the neckline facing, but turned in the seam allowance and finished with a piece of bias-cut white linen.  Similarly at the lower hemline, the raw edge inside is bound with bias-cut white linen and then handstitched, this looks nice if anyone happens to catch a glimpse of that back hem inside.. which lets face it, is quite possible because of that low-hanging back edge,  and also eliminates the bulk that you’d get if you turned the fabric under twice.

binding binding2

Bonus picture, photobombing daughter…

dsc_0021

Fun fact, she made the dress she is wearing here; it is a cute and interesting tank dress with tucking up one side and side split detail on the other, made in blue marl jersey that she bought in Japan.   She’s wearing it over the skirt that I made for her, here.  Honestly, she makes the most lovely things, but doesn’t really share them on any social media.  Occasionally I persuade her to pose in something she’s made, like the time she made this really divinely beautiful ivory cut-out lace top…

cassies-lace-top

Gorgeous, isn’t it?

Details:

Dress; Inari tee dress by Named patterns, white slubby cotton mix
Shoes; designed and made by me, details here
Sandals in top picture;designed and made by me here.    this picture taken on Cable Beach during our recent holiday

and hmmmm, I’m sorry that I’m closing with my dress here… bit of an anticlimax after Cassie’s top!!

dsc_0035

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a blocky sundress

16/10/2014 9:21 am \ 49 Comments \

I screen-printed this random murky-coloured block fabric last year, and have finally got around to making it into something.  At last!  The 5-colour print is my own  design; and in fact the dress is my own design too  🙂   

Originally I had cut the ivory cotton into vaguely sheath-dress-shaped pieces to help me size and place the print.  

Inevitable then, that I would go off the idea of a sheath dress … and eventually I dreamed up, well; this!  It’s a blocky sort of a print, and a blocky sort of a dress in design too, with all straight lines and edges throughout and not a single curve to be found!  The style lines have been marinating in my head for a few months now and so I’m happy it now has corporeal form.
Maybe I should make a pattern for this.  Be a designer.

Bwahaha, kidding! 
The side panels are two piece, with the lower one overlapping the upper one so as to create a simple pocket that extends into the side seams.  The design is fairly unstructured and unfitted, boxy enough that I can just pull it over my head without the need for closure.  Then to give it some shape I made two little arrowhead tabs that can button at the sides to pull in the boxiness and create a bit of shape at the waist.   The domed textured buttons were inherited from my grandmother’s stash.

I think it will make quite a good casual knockabout dress.  The fabric is not soft, but quite stiff and thick and crisp and densely woven, so I think it suits this loose but structured boxy style quite well.  In retrospect I think I was quite ambitious with my print.  But y’know? I’m glad I did have a good go at something a bit tricky, and I like it despite the problems and imperfections.  Now I’m thinking I really should get out my screen printing stuff again.  Give it another go!

o hai there, watcha doing?

Details:
Dress; my own design, screen-printed by me as described here, on ivory cotton, stiff, thick, crisp

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A hasty pruning before an imminent downpour

16/05/2014 6:43 am \ 22 Comments \

It’s too early for pruning, technically speaking.  Purists would tut.
But I figured the rain was just about to decimate them anyway.  It was a rescue mission.

So; y’know that moment when you’re poised in the act of clicking the shutter on your perfectly lovely and Hallmark-worthy still-life of Blooms with Pretty Tea-cup  … ?
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Olive Frankenstein skirt

12/05/2014 5:49 am \ 36 Comments \

I am notoriously bad at tossing out old scraps of fabric. Particularly if I really really like the colour.  
And I really really like olive.
So; after finishing my patched pockets skirt I still had some promisingly largish pieces of grey-green corduroy and olive-green moleskin leftover, and I unearthed from my “useful scraps” bag the remains of a different pair of grey-green corduroy pants that both my boys had worn at the age of eight to ten or thereabouts.  Yeah, I keep stuff a long time.  The knee areas were a bit thin in them all but there was still some nice sturdy fabric to be had there.  And the colour!

oh ok I agree, doesn’t look very promising…

So I’ve made a little skirt; just a casual knock around kinda of a thing.  It is patched together from three different fabrics but it still looks quite plain I think since the colours are so similar to each other.  I’m pretty chuffed with it!  Of the pluses of working with old unwanted textiles; it’s green, it’s economical, you can sew to your heart’s content unfettered by fear of failure.  If you’re reworking with the constraints of an old garment it exercises the ol’ brain cells a bit.  And so a successful outcome feels like a mega bonus!

The boys’ old cords had kinda cool, oversized patch pockets on them that I’ve always liked and kept because I thought they might come in handy one day.  I used these pieces with the pockets still in situ.  Some of the leg fabric of these pants had previously gone into making the Green parliament, here.  I also added some oddly shaped patch pockets to the back of my new skirt too, just because the back was a bit boring-looking without them.

Technically speaking; I used the upper skirt pattern pieces of Vogue 1247 to cut the waist to hips part with the waist-shaping darts but the overall shape of my skirt is more A-line than the pattern.  This is pretty much my favourite “little skirt” silhouette at the moment.
I used an invisible zip in the back, an old button harvested from something else long forgotten, long ago, and plain white cotton to face the waistband,  I made a bias strip of the same plain white cotton to finish the lower raw edge, turned up the lower edge once and stitched in the ditch by machine to hem.  I reckon this is the best hemming method for thick fabric since bulk is minimised by only turning up once and a bias strip looks a lot neater and prettier than overlocking. Also if you are short on fabric you can still get a nice deep hem without losing length off the skirt. . 

Details:
Skirt; my own design based upon Vogue 1247, made from three old pairs of jeans
Shirt; my own design variations upon Burda 7767, deep olive linen, details here
Thongs; Mountain Designs

this picture just because it made me laugh… o well hello there!
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Gunmetal linen trousers to jacket-y thing

10/10/2013 3:02 am \ 36 Comments \

So new top…  well, new? not really, this funky little jacket was until recently a pair of menswear-inspired, wide-legged, linen trousers, that have been sitting in my re-fashioning bag for a coupla years now.  True!  I took them out to wear as fancy dress last year, but they went straight back into the bag afterwards!
I originally made these trousers back in 2009 using Burda 7944, and they have been good trousers.  I wore them a lot and even featured them in a 6 different ways post forever ago. 

 But eventually they got to the stage where they looked like a dishrag practically as soon as they went on and got “knees” in them instantly.  That’s linen for ya; I love it to bits but if it’s not a quality weave it does tend to lose its integrity quickly.  This linen was not particularly fine-grade in the first place.  Some linen trousers can get away with the dish-raggy look but not a tailored design like this one. 
I’ve re-made them into a loose-sleeved jacket thingy.  I’ve done this very same re-fashion once before, making a boxy little jacket out of a pair of Mum’s old cast-off three-quarter pants, but these trousers started out with quite a different shape to those pants so have ended up as quite a different shaped jacket.  The waistband is close-fitted, not loose, and those long wide legs with a satisfyingly deep cuff have resulted in long wide sleeves, still with that satisfyingly deep cuff on the ends.  You put it on with unzipped fly, and then zip it up down! and do up the buttons, just like when it was trousers but upside down.  Cool huh?  I really like it in it’s new identity.  Making something like this is deeply satisfying to me.  Taking something old, unwanted and un-chic and making it into something different; and I use the term different as in the kind of thing you rarely see a pattern for.  It’s hardly mainstream, is it?  This is why I sew; to make things for myself that are individual and unusual.

A quick run-down on the procedure…
Firstly, you cut off the legs to give a “body” section, and cut open the inner leg seam from one inner leg to the other.

as my son says; ironing is for the weak!!!

Re-stitch both the front and back crotch seams to be straight lines from the waistband(back)/bottom of zip(front) to the old-crotch/new-neckline opening,  Cut off excess fabric (the old-crotch curves).

My trousers had pockets; stitch the opening closed and trim off the pocket bags inside.  I know I know, it’s slightly painful to remove pockets, even useless ones, but they just do not work in this design.  I also switched the old plastic, colour-matched buttons I had used previously for nacre buttons sewn on upside down with the mottley-brown underneath showing, just because.

Stitch up the shoulder seams and cut armhole curve on the body section, and a sleevecap curve at the top of the cut-off legs, now sleeves.  If you have a great fitting shirt pattern then use this as a guide.  I just tried it on a few times, pinned it and winged it, being sure to keep both sides symmetrical.
Set the sleeves into the body section.

Fold in a hem around the neckline and stitch it down however you choose, I used a short bias cut strip of silk, leftovers from this top, invisibly fell-stitched.

Don’t know if it’s obvious or not, but it was crazy windy while I was taking these photos.  My tripod actually blew over once!  Goodness knows why I pick the absolute blasting-est days to get out and photograph my makes.  I must be some kind of freaking masochist.  Hair; styled by gale-force winds.  Lovely, not.  But, seize the moment, and all that.  After all, this is what I actually look like here.  Keeping it real.  Man, I’m a loon.
This one gave me a laugh when I saw it!

Details:
Jacket; refashioned from a pair of Burda 7944 trousers, gunmetal linen
Shorts; Burda 7723, themselves refashioned from an old skirt, details here, and see my review of this shorts pattern here
Tshirt (underneath); self-drafted, white cotton jersey, details here
Sandals; c/o Misano

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Wedgwood blue damask, reworked

19/08/2013 1:30 am \ 33 Comments \

With the fingers of spring tickling at the edges of our days, I’ve been renovating my wardrobe.  And came across this dress…

Although the dress had a sorta sporty feel to it and I think my style is vaguely sorta sporty? maybe? whatever the heck is my style anyway…. seriously I have no idea!  anyhow, somehow the dress felt wrong on me.  I wore it a few times, gave it a shot, but no.
But you know I’m not one to let lovely fabric go to waste and this fabric had been a gift from Sam.  So I unpicked the panels, saving all those zips.  And managed to patch together enough fabric for a new little skirt.  Which is great because a few skirts were jettisoned in the clean-out so it is only fitting that some new skirts could come in, yes?  Just keeping the balance!  🙂
I used Vogue 1247 and lengthened it… surprise!  I know I have a few of these in my wardrobe already but what can I say? it’s just an absolute winner.  It’s so quick and easy to make, is exactly to my style tastes and you cn put it together with small bitsy pieces of fabric.  How many times have I made this pattern already?  I’m not sure, but lots.

Ok I’ve just counted.  Eight times I have made this pattern.  Eight.  That’s not even counting the two times I’ve spliced the pieces and made it up plain, without those distinctive waitress-y pockets.
Some of the beige double topstitched seaming of the original dress is still intact in the skirt, which is fine by me.  I like weird little quirks in my clothes, didn’t you know?

The pockets are lined with blue sprigged cotton, leftovers from my sew bossy dress in its pre-dyed colour, and the lining is the original pale latte coloured acetate lining of the dress, simply cut to the right length from the bottom and keeping the hemline intact.  Instead of sewing the darts in the lining I folded them in pleats instead, as is my wont.  This is not laziness, honest! the idea is that there is some wearing ease in pleats whereas as there is no wearing ease in sewn down darts.

Does this happen to you when snapping a picture of your sewing details?

I know you can’t see them in the photo… but I am totally wearing matching socks too.  Ha!  I love matching details, even those you can’t see!

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 lined, blue damask, my review of this pattern here
Blouse; a mixture of different patterns, powder blue silk, details here
Socks; hand-knit by me to a 60’s pattern, details here
Boots; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp shoes

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the Panellist

10/07/2013 7:09 am \ 113 Comments \

I’ve made a new dress! a dress comprised of panels and bands.  This is Vogue 1316  and I made it using three pairs of old corduroy jeans, ivory, chocolate and a faded black; plus a piece of new black corduroy, itself a leftover from my black corduroy flares-now-bootlegs.  Ha! hanging on to those old jeans and leftover scraps payed off… eventually.  It can be seen by the mangled leg of the jeans on the left that these have been partially harvested previously, when I made the Black parliament…

I managed to get the pieces for the dress, following the grain AND the nap (no small feat) from these jeans, with only a few piecings necessary.  The original hem has been retained and incorporated into the lower hem of the skirt in each of the ivory and chocolate brown lower skirt panels.  The widest panels I cut from the leftover piece of black corduroy, because that piece was the widest… the bonus is that this is the hip area and the darkest fabric situated here gives a slimming effect.
The lower band of the dress is a very wiiide piece, and since jeans legs are not wide, this required joining three pieces together.  But hey, I don’t think the joins scream “hey lookee here, seam!” very much, so I think I get away with it.

Also the lower front is cut over the side seam from a jeans leg, with the old side seam in the new centre front.

So, it can be seen above that my dress has luvverly deep pockets.  The pattern does not provide for pockets.  When I first saw the picture on the pattern envelope I thought that it did.  That side band curving down from the waist and around to the back was situated in perfect hip pocket position, so it was a reasonable assumption to make.  Perusal of the fine print revealed that I was sadly mistaken.    Early elation (and it has pockets!) turned to disappointment (oh it doesn’t have pockets), turned to a dawning realisation (hey, it could so easily have pockets) turned to a firm resolve put those missing pockets back into the design where they were so inexplicably lacking (dammit, that dress really should have pockets!)

Adding them was not very difficult.  I cut the skirt pieces to be bigger, grading from my usual waist size out to between one and two sizes bigger than my usual choice at the hips to accommodate having hands in the pockets.  Then drew a rough, my-hand shaped piece onto paper, added this to the inner edge of pattern piece 13, the middle side front, and cut this composite new piece from the fashion fabric for the pocket.  I cut the hand-piece from woven cotton for the pocket lining.  I interfaced the corresponding section of the full-sized fashion fabric side band piece with iron-on interfacing, as this was to be the pocket opening and so needed stabilising, and joined all the pieces in the normal pocket way, the pocket lining to side band with a narrow seam allowance so the fashion fabric continues over and into the pocket within the fold.  Additionally the pocket opening is under-stitched, to prevent the lining from rolling out.  

I am unreservedly thrilled with how the pockets turned out, they really are in the perfect position, and I cannot understand why they were not there in the first place.  Vogue would do well to include pockets, or at least the possibility of pockets, in all their casual designs imo , since they are clearly high on the list of Most Desirable Features in a Design, wouldn’t you agree?  It’s certainly something I always look for in a casual pattern, or at the very least, the potential for finagling pockets if at all possible.  I reckon this dress is only, like, a hundred times better for having pockets?  Rough guesstimate, there.

The dress is fully lined; and even in a casual, toss-it-on-for-whatever, day dress like this I prefer the clean and streamlined minimalism of an invisible zip, so used one.
The fit… there were minor issues.  For a “fitted” pattern I reckon it runs quite big and boxy throughout.  But this was easily fixed, mostly through that handy back/side section seam, pictured below.
I am super happy with the dress, it was an enjoyable puzzle to put together and is very comfy and easy to wear.  I love washed and worn corduroy, such a beautifully soft and warm texture in a winter dress.  And it always makes me feel good to re-use old textiles constructively like this.  🙂

More inane drivel thoughts about this pattern can be found in my pattern review below if anyone is interested.

Details:
Dress; Vogue 1316, fashioned from 3 old pairs of cotton corduroy jeans plus another piece of cotton corduroy in another colour.
Tights; self-drafted, black merino, details here and my tutorial for drafting your own custom-fit tights pattern here
Boots; Andrea and Joen, bought from the now re-branded Uggies in Dunsborough

and merely because I find these pretty amusing… the Vogue pose

Pattern
Description:
Fitted
lined dress has several shaping bands and multiple panels, a central back zip
and walking vent
Pattern
Sizing:
Size
4-12. I cut my usual size 10 in the bodice tapering out to between a 12-14 at
the hips.  This hip is larger than
my usual size, but I wanted to incorporate pockets into the design, which
requires a bit more room in the skirt. 
In my opinion the pattern runs a little big, since I had to take in the
bodice quite a bit, and might go down to a size 8 in the bodice next
time.
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
Yes
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I was
attracted to the complex banding and panels design, lending themselves to
pattern through the use of tonal solid colours.
I was
disappointed that it did not have pockets, considering that the side
band is perfectly positioned to have a pocket tucked under it. But I knew the
design would be very easy to adapt so that I could have my beloved
pockets.  And it was, and so I have them  🙂
The
lining is not done in the best way, in my opinion.  I don’t really love lining being sewed straight to the shell
of the dress like this.  It is
under-stitched to help keep it all inside; but if I was going to make this
again I would instead make self-fabric facings for the neckline and underarm
and attach these to accordingly modified lining pieces.
For the lining, the pattern stipulates 1.8m. In my size, I found 1m is sufficient.
Fabric
Used:
Cotton corduroy in four different colours 
Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:
Pockets!  I was
determined to incorporate pockets into the dress, so modified pattern piece 13
to be a pocket piece, and also drafted another piece to be a partial facing for
piece 12 with an integrated pocket lining.  To accommodate hands-in-pockets wearing
ease, I drafted the skirt pieces to taper from my usual size 10 at the waist, out
to between 12-14 at the hips.
I
raised the height of the centre front by about 1cm, and am glad I did.  Next time I might raise it even higher!
Step
19-23: I prefer an invisible zip in my dresses, and I always install an
invisible zip before stitching the remainder of the seam below.  I reckon this gives you a much better
and smoother finish.
Sizing;  I find the bust of Vogue fitted patterns to be drafted too big for
me generally, so I pre-emptively shaved about 1cm width off the bust curve of both pattern pieces 3.  Even so, at Step 24: sewing the back to side section seam; I found the fit still quite boxy and not
close-fitting enough for my tastes around the waist, so took out several inches in
width from the underbust and waist, graduating out again to the bust and hips.
Ultimately these alterations left me with a distinctly more A-line skirt than the pattern intended, and I am happy with that.
Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Oh my
gosh, I always say yes I will sew it again, and then I’m immediately distracted
by new patterns like a toddler with a shiny new toy!  But I certainly would not rule out sewing this one again.  This one is just going to be casual, everyday, winter’s dress.  I’ve been thinking about the idea of using several bright clear colours demarcated by black bands, like a licorice
allsort.  Wouldn’t that look cool? 
And
yes  🙂
Conclusion:
I
really love how it turned out! The interesting and unusual seaming pits the chosen colours against each other to dramatic effect.  I can picture a multitude of
possibilities for colour-blocking here. 
I am especially pleased with how my pocket alteration turned out, to be honest I
probably would not enjoy wearing a dress without pockets so much as one with,
so to be able to incorporate them so easily into the design was a very happy
bonus.
Without
any fitting modifications I would not describe this as a fitted dress.  I had to take
my usual size in quite a bit. 
However it is quite easy to do a lot of final fitting through the back
to side section seams.

….photo-bomb!…

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grey, grey and grey

22/05/2013 8:06 am \ 21 Comments \

Wednesday: and I’m getting pretty tired of taking a photo of myself every day for me-made May, but it’s not long to go now.  She says through gritted teeth.  Oh look I know, self-inflicted and all that.  I know from past experience that photo burn-out is par for the course around about now and at the end I will be glad I saw it through, and it is only one month out of the year, so….  hangin’ in there.
I’ve mentioned before about the back view of a garment or outfit being neglected and barely ever seen, in spite of the fact that they are sometimes more interesting.  This Pattern Magic top looks kinda bland from the front, but I think the back is kinda cool…

btw, while my photogenic companion often does sit nicely beside me most of the time; she sometimes manages a photobomb just as the timer is ticking down.

min 10C, max 24C, fine and sunny

Details:
Top; from Pattern Magic 3, grey marled jersey, details here
Skirt; self-drafted, grey non-stretchy knit stuff, details here
Leggings; from Pattern Magic 3, charcoal knit, details here
Sandals; c/o Misano

da man is today wearing this shirt…

Craig’s shirt; Burda 7767, mint green linen, details here and my review of this pattern here

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