random life stuff Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

2022; a retrospective

31/12/2022 11:09 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

It’s the last day of the year! which seems like a pretty good time for reflection and introspection. I mean, why not? a blog is as good a place as any for such nonsense 🙂 I’m going to start out with my own personal favourite outfits from each month of the year…

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Everything made by me! I really love how I can make my own style and thus feel perfectly comfortable in my own skin most of the time. I think my “makes” don’t always hit the mark for me in the long run but I do feel like I’m getting a grip on what works for me overall while still trying to be a little adventurous too.

What did I make this year?

I made 82 things this year; not too shabby, I think! The breakdown: in total I made 12 dresses, 17 tops, 14 skirts, 1 scarf, 5 prs sockettes, 6 prs tights, 5 bags, 3 hats (inc. 1 crocheted), 1 pr trousers, 2 coats, 1 hoodie, 2 cardigans, 1 pr bathers, 1 slip, 1 baby onesie, 2 robes, 4 sets of underwear (1 bra + 2 prs matching undies per set), 1 jacket, 1 pr knitted socks, 1 pr knitted hand warmers, 1 stuffed felt fox + clothes. Phew!

Out of these; 4 tops, 3 skirts, 1 hat, the 2 robes, 1 coat, 1 bag, and the stuffed fox were all for others.

Cassie and I were thrilled to release two new patterns for our tiny pattern company this year too; the Booragoon skirt and its partner, the Booragoon top. We love how these patterns go together!

Stashbusting vs new fabric…

I made a substantial effort to not buy any new fabric this year! and imo only failed in an acceptably small way! We went to Melbourne in March, and I allowed myself to buy a few new pieces. Well, souvenir fabric always gets a pass from me and I was very careful to not go overboard! I also received two new pieces of fabric from Minerva, and used my prize voucher from Ikuntji Artists for my winning entry into FrockOn last year. Apart from that I bought nothing! and I’ve really roared through a large amount of stash this year. I managed to go through the 30m I promised at the beginning of the year by May, and from then made my pledge to keep going with buying no new. I think I’ve made pretty good headway, especially considering that latest year Mum basically offloaded her stash onto me! I’ve had to have a stern talking to myself though about no longer accepting any one else’s stashes.

favourite makes?

This is really really hard for me to choose just one thing! so I’m allowing myself a few…

For pride in the sewing process I really love how this green dress turned out:

for pure joy, I choose this little raincoat I made for Theo

also I’m quite pleasantly surprised how much I love this extremely soft, comfortable and wearable dress made from an old sheet!

any fails?

It makes me so sad to nominate this dress since I was so proud of it when I’d finished it! but unfortunately the top feels weirdly bulky and I’ve decided I just don’t really vibe with the double corded, gathered waistline. I’ve developed a dislike for those very carefully constructed white-and-red inserts too… eeep!! I can’t just give up on the lovely plaid fabric just yet though and am determined to rework it somehow early next year. I have plans!

what did I wear this year?

my most worn things this year can be summed up quite succinctly in the following outfits…

top ticket items were; my yellow raincoat (27 wears), my above-knee raspberry skirt pictured just above left (23 wears), the yellow cardigan just above right (22 wears) and my blue/white gingham Myosotis dress (top centre, 22 wears). This isn’t counting any of my shoes, underwear or my black tights.

in general life stuff; I’m still learning Japanese, it’s coming up to three years now! Pretty pleased with my progress and I’m hoping to keep on it with the same intensity next year too. The first bit of 2023 is going to be a quite challenging though, because I’m currently working on a HUGE project, Lainey’s wedding dress! Yes, I’m deeply embroiled in that, and it’s only going to get more involved from now on. I’m going to try to make at least a small effort to keep on with eliminating the stash but to be honest that has to go on the back burner for a short while.

I will however most definitely be making something new for myself in my mother-of-the-groom role, of course! So excited for Sam and Lainey’s big day! and for Lainey’s dress, which I am super DUPER excited to be making for her!

If you’re still reading, then thank you! I really enjoy reading and appreciate every comment. I wish you all the absolute best for a safe, happy and healthy 2023!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: random life stuff

2019; a retrospective

31/12/2019 11:11 pm \ 26 Comments \ Carolyn

It’s the last day of the year; the day in which tradition demands a bit of looking back on the year gone by and pondering on what I would like to do for next year. First of all, I’m picking my fave outfits/photos for 2019, one for each month. Some pictures are of new creations or outfits, others I’m just remembering a really nice day…

January

just a really nice day. I’d just dyed this dress, previously a pale grey and I was newly in love with it all over again

February

wearing my new jasika blazer to head out to lunch…

March

playing on the turtle stepping stones in the Kami River, Kyoto

April

visiting the studio Ghibli museum with Yoshimi!!

hiking up in the Kizo valley

May

just dyed this top too

June

Kelly in the wedding dress I made for her

in my mother of the groom ensemble

July

wearing my new Clementine dress

August

my new pink pinny

September

new pietra shorts

October

at stone mountain fabrics in San Francisco with Yoshimi… such a wonderful holiday here and in New York with a dear dear friend, and meeting so many other dear friends for the first time too! 🙂

at the famous garment district statue in New York City

November

a new dress

December

old bathers, but a really beautiful and blissfully lovely day at the beach

What did I make?

phew, here we go. This is usually where I found out how intensely I’ve been indulging my making obsession during the year… so adding it up it turns out I’ve made 73 items this year… that number includes 18 dresses, 2 prs shorts, 1 pr jeans, 8 tops, 7 skirts, 1 pr pj’s, 1 bathrobe, 1 tie, 3 bags, 4 lingerie sets, 3 petticoats, 1 pr shoes, 5 jackets/coats, 12 prs hand-knitted socks and 7 baby things – onesies, beanies and the jungle mobile. Out of those things, 29 were for others, so I don’t think I’ve been too selfish actually. The major-est of major makes for the year, Kelly’s wedding dress was an entirely self-less affair, so I feel pretty good about that!

What did I wear?

so, the most worn items for this year can be summed up in the following pictures… number one spot goes equally to my mustard raincoat, and my baggy blue cords with 22 wears each, and my olive suede tunic and my dark green Sienna jacket had 16 wears each. All the other items pictured here got at least 13 wears, most more.

When I started counting and reporting on the number of wears my clothing got, well it was all a bit of an eye opener… inevitably someone will comment “that doesn’t sound like many wears to me! I’ve got things I’ve worn a hundred times this year, at least!” to which I usually think – did you actually count? The only things I would wear a hundred times in a year are my black tights, of which I have six pairs, so even those are not getting one hundred individual wears. I do tally my black tights up too but don’t ever include them in my summary here, to be honest… if you’re interested, my black tights got 108 wears in the past year. Oh, I expect a few of my sets of underwear might be getting about a hundred wears each too, but I’m definitely not profiling those!

Favourite creations?

Hmmm, well let me think… haha, kidding! the amazing and beautiful fabrics, the importance of it, the care, the love and the sheer number of HOURS spent in making Kelly’s wedding dress catapulted it straight up into number one position of anything I’ve made for a looooong time!

I loved every bit of making this exceptionally special garment, though to be sure there were some very stressful moments and at the end of it I was completely and utterly exhausted. It’s back living in our spare room wardrobe while they’re renovating their house and I’m looking forward to dropping it off to her permanently!

Personal favourites for myself include: my colourful Ariane dress, my unicorn skirt which got itself into my most worn items of the year too! and my own mother-of-the-groom outfit 🙂

Special mention to my box of socks too! which is so pretty I don’t know if I can even bring myself to start wearing them

What are my plans for 2020?

Oooh! the fun bit! SO as I’ve mentioned, I have just one or two things (haha) in the work, because Cassie is getting married to her man D this year. And I will be making her dress. I am also making my own outfit, obviously. And my three nieces are going to be her bridesmaids, and I am making their dresses too. So yes, I have my work cut out for me, just a leeeeeetle bit already!

But as far as future, “for me” plans go… so there’s a thing “make nine” where people choose nine things to make for the year… and the pretty thing about it for instagram purposes is that you can make up a nice, 3×3 cube of plans to post on instagram. Obviously I love the idea of this! and have decided to give it a go, although I’m making mine more of a sort of “make 12” actually, giving myself one thing to do per month. I think it’s been well established here on my blog that I like a one thing per month project for a year! I’ve kinda gone for a range of ideas, but nothing’s particularly set in stone, I’m allowing myself some flexibility as to specific deets. I’ve thrown in a pair of shoes and underwear, because these are definitely things I want to making more of this year too…

Also! I’ve nominated fabrics that are already in my stash… to make it a good stash-busting exercise for myself too. I’ve actually already got one cut out and halfway finished… so maybe I’ll make them all up in the first few months?! on the other hand there is wedding sewing to be achieved and traditionally this always turns out to be way more stressful and time consuming than I originally anticipated, hmmmmmmmm…. So we’ll see…

Anything else?

Of course the most important thing; a big thank you thank you thank you! to all who still read my blog and take the time to leave a kind word every now and then… I appreciate it so much. I’m taking this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and successful 2020 ahead, filled with time to do the things you love to do too.

Cheers!

Posted in: fashion \ Tagged: random life stuff

2018; a retrospective

31/12/2018 8:38 pm \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

Ah, it’s the 31st December, when I look back over of my year of making and wearing and do a little analysis… to kick off, some of my favourite pictures/outfits, one for each month. Several of these pictures are not even “blog pictures”; by that I mean have never appeared on my blog, but may just be an outfit or picture that I particularly liked, or may be because of a particularly lovely memory of that day or something…

January

just a particularly gorgeous day and in my happy place…

February

… because I love this outfit so much

March

…the prototype of my first sewing pattern!

April

… the day of Tim and Kelly’s engagement party which is pretty special I think; so I made a special skirt just for the occasion

May

… in Bali for our friends L + L’s wedding; so much fun!

June

… just because of this gorgeous cockatoo fabric! unfortunately also the day my trusty old camera nosedived into the sand and died, and the beginning of several months of annoying “photo improv”

July

… made a raincoat to commemorate the wettest year we’ve had for like 50 years, or thereabouts…

August

… just had a really nice hike, that’s all….

September

… love first “bare leg” day of the season…

October

… luscious lace, and cheers to a lush, rain-engorged garden…

November

… our daily constitutional…

December

… my most recent creation! Thoroughly enjoyed this, and the whole fun experience has sewn some fertile seeds for a new project I’m dreaming of for next year 🙂

What did I make?

So, it’s funny; this year I didn’t feel so productive and could have sworn I didn’t make as much as previous years, and yet when I added it up I made 77 things, including 22 items for others, 2 prs of shoes, and our 2 sewing patterns. Surprised! and even a little embarrassed? This is on a par with last years’ production levels, though to be sure some items this year were definitely on the quick and easy side. Breaking it down: 13 tops/shirts/blouses, 6 skirts, 4 prs jeans/trousers, 9 prs sockettes, 2 prs tights, 2 prs shoes, 6 hats, 1 baby romper, 12 dresses + 2 wedding dress muslins, 3 coats, 1 jumpsuit, 3 sets of lingerie, 2 knitted cardigans/jumpers, 5 bags, and 4 dolls complete with wardrobes. I know, right?! In fact, now I think about it, I actually made 3 further items over and above than this, but those things have not yet been blogged since they are all patterns still in the testing phase and I’ve been sworn to secrecy until their release. One of them is a Pretty BIG Thing, though.

This year I also started making our soap, and think I’ve made enough for several years’ supply already, lol. Luckily, we really like using it, and I also gave several bars away during the year, as little gifts for friends and family too.

What did I wear?

I still keep my OOTD blog up to date and tally up the things I wore and frequency thereof. Documenting one’s outfits is a pretty obsessive thing to do, I realise that, but I still really like doing it. The clothes I wore the most frequently this year can be summed up in the following:

This collage comprises more outfits than I’ve posted in previous years for this category, but I have an explanation: keeping an outfit tally has opened my eyes to the fact that I tend to favour certain wardrobe items and ignore others… and I’ve been making an effort to “spread the love” around my wardrobe more. This might seem like an artificial thing to do, like why force yourself to wear something you don’t love as much as another thing? Why not just wear the things you love the most? But I’ve found that wearing something breeds a love for it, so pulling out not-quite-so-loved things, experimenting with them and finding outfits in which they can shine; is a means to the end of loving them more, thus loving ALL your self-made clothes, MORE; and so getting more wear out of everything. I loathe waste, and particularly waste in clothing, so I don’t want for things I’ve spent care and energy making to be unworn and tossed out before their time. So, I wear them. Make sense? Well, I know what I mean, anyway.

Apart from various shoes/boots and my self-made black tights, all of which are always worn the absolute MOST in my wardrobe; the most frequently worn item this year was my new mustard raincoat with a total of 31 wears, closely followed by my grey Sasha trousers at 30 wears, my trusty little paprika cardigan at 22 wears, and my pink Kelly raincoat and scarlet Miette cardigan both at 19 wears each…

Favourite creations?

Oooh, this one is always so tough… I mean, how does one choose one’s favourite child?? of course it is impossible. Having said that though, I think my favourite creation(s) for the year are something a little bit different; our sewing patterns! Because, yes; of course, during the year Cassie and I released two sewing patterns; our Perth dress/blouse, and our Kimberley rag doll. The response has been fantastic, for which I am so SO grateful. We’re fully immersed in plans for TWO more patterns too! It’s a LOT of work producing a pattern, and I’m eternally thankful to everyone who did support us in this new endeavour this year. MWAH! to all of you. Thank you xxx

As far as favourite made clothes; well, if I really did have to pick… it’s nothing special, far from it! but I really enjoyed making, and I really love wearing my “piñata” outfit! A little bit weird, all very spontaneous, the fabric was such an impulse buy, and I ran it up on my dinky, clunky, plastic-ky little holiday sewing machine, in our holiday house with the bare minimum of sewing supplies. Maybe all that “wrongness” is what combined to give it a paradoxical rightness … and I have a soft spot for those orange pompoms too!

I also really really love my cockatoo outfit and also my floral trench coat… I must be having a colourful moment?!

What are my plans for 2019?

So, BIG THING…. the first part of this year I will be making Kelly’s wedding dress! yes that’s pretty huge. I’ve made two muslins so far… the second one is nearly perfect so with only one tiny adjustment and one further fitting, I hope to actually cut into the real fabric early in the New Year. Scary!!

muslin number 1

muslin number 2

I am also beholden to make two bridesmaids’ dresses; one for Cassie, and one for her’s and Kelly’s mutual friend G. I’m going to tackle those after I’ve got the bare bones of the wedding dress all done and dusted though.

For myself, well of course I want to make a mother of the groom outfit for myself! Yup, pretty excited for that too!! I know exactly what I want, I have my pattern all ready and lined up, and I just need to find the perfect fabric.

In other, more ordinary, sewing plans; the smalls drawer! I did not make much this year and now find myself in need, so there will be more lingerie this year. I am also in a very sad sock situation at the moment, my old socks are all darned and darned and even then darned some more. So my plan is to knit 1 new pair of socks per month. A dozen pairs of socks!

And, yes, I have plans for two new patterns this year. The groundwork has been laid, and I just need to get in and on it; and tidy a few things up. Well, there’s a LOT to be done, to be honest, I only hope I can get enough time together to do all this… obviously the wedding dress is my number one priority. 🙂

Anything else?

Well, finally and of course most importantly of all, I just want to say THANK YOU! to everyone who reads my blog and who takes the time to leave a comment, I am so grateful for each and every kind thought. Thank you all so very much, and I’d like to wish all the best to everyone for a safe, happy, peaceful and wildly creative 2019! Mwah! xxx

Posted in: fashion, sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: random life stuff

… organising Le Stash

05/01/2018 12:50 pm \ 52 Comments \ Carolyn

So, Le Stash has for a long time been a quiet and secretive thing, its perceived size diminished by distribution into far-flung corners of the house. It lurked furtively and unobtrusively in my laundry cupboard, the cupboard under the stairs, hidden away in various innocent spots like a guilty thing, a sort of fabric-y portrait of Dorian Grey, or something…

Then Tim and Cassie moved out. I blame them actually. Really, it’s entirely their fault and they know it. Having empty rooms suddenly attracts STUUUFFF, everybody knows that. First, it was simply Cassie; her tiny little unit just wasn’t going to fit a lot of her stash and things so of course I offered to keep it for her. Then it was Mum, wanting to clean out fabrics and yarn from her own craft room to make guest sleeping space, and of course some dumb bunny again offered to keep it safely. Then, when we cleaned out Grandpa’s unit, I ended up with my grandmother’s stash and old sewing supplies and all the sheets for muslins, since I’m the only one in the family who sews AND has the space for all that stuff. An obviously, my stash stretched its own wings too and ventured out of the dark a little bit …

Brace yourself…

Haha! yes it looks pretty bad, but actually there is a lot more than just fabric in there, although one could argue that it is still “fabric”, just not fabric fabric, if you know what I mean.

Basically, the room had become a sort of useful junk room, if that makes sense. There’s my fabric stash in there, as well as the aforementioned inherited bits and bobs, and then there’s the family’s ski and snow gear, winter hand knits, blankets, spare mattresses and bedding, our fancy dress box and the children’s old school uniforms, and a few boxes of paperwork. I’m also guardian to a lot of the family’s precious stuff that can never be thrown out, like all of Mum’s handwoven fabrics and hand-knits, the family kilts, and all the embroidered and hand-crocheted tablecloths, doilies, tea towels and various household bits and bobs that my very crafty family has produced over the last hundred years or so. I’m also looking after Mum’s weaving loom and spinning wheel. See?? empty rooms!! They attract stuff! It’s like cat hair to your best woollen coat! I’m telling you!

.Just before Christmas, we happened to be in IKEA on the hunt for a playpen for the Chrismas tree, since darling Clara would devour that precious thing in about five seconds flat…. and as we were browsing I came across these square pigeonhole, units thingies. And had a vision. I was quietly excited. I picked up a brochure, took it home, and made a few measurements. A few calculations. And just decided then and there to treat myself. A Christmas present to myself!

So, a few days later, I popped back to IKEA on my own, and bought two 4×4 and one 2×4 Kallax units. They cost $265 in total. $265! For all that storage space!! I can’t believe I waited this long! The 2×4 came in one box, the other two units were 2 boxes each, two of which were super heavy. I got the guys at IKEA to help me load the two heavy ones into my car, but all the others I got in myself. In fact; I was determined to make this project my baby, and mine alone.

so pumped!!!

I managed to walk the boxes from the car and into the hallway on my own, but there had to admit defeat. The boxes were pretty heavy after all…

…that little face watching me!

Fortunately I have a strong son…

After that I couldn’t do another thing with them until Boxing Day. But once I got stuck into it, it was great fun! Craig wanted to help, but I stubbornly rejected any and all offers of help. I just wanted it to be all mine… and I got those lovely things together, pretty much all by myself! I did need a bit of help pulling the 4×4’s up to standing position, those units are heavy! so the husband came in handy after all 😉 but apart from that I managed it all on my own.

using a fabric scrap for hammer protection .. see they do come in handy! for so many things! Thank goodness I kept it!!

ONE unit finished….

my helpful little assistant…

TWO units finished….!

stopping for a healthy snack…

AND FINISHED…!

When it came to organising everything… I wanted the cubby holes to look nicely full, no empty cubbies, so ended up putting everything in there! I’d put a lot of thought about how I wanted to sort it, but mainly I want it to look pretty and to give me lots of visual satisfaction when I walk into the room, so the contents are organised mostly by colour, with a few special category cubbies.

I love this colour section…

For example; the middle cubby below has just some of the fabrics handwoven by Mum on her loom… she has given them to me but I may never make anything with any of this, the thought of cutting into this super precious stuff is pretty daunting. Maybe one day…

The cubby at bottom right has all the family’s old jeans and some denim cushion covers, which I’ve kept for refashioning one day, the cubby above that has some of Craig’s old shirts, and the bottom middle cubby has other old clothes, kept for the same reason. Middle left is the fabric inherited from my grandmother. Bottom left is the little stash of beautiful linens that I bought at Tessuti’s in Melbourne during our last visit in late October…

There is also a cubby hole for plaid men’s old shirts, and about four more cubbies have old Tshirts, dresses, and a few have old sheets, curtains and tablecloths; all of which I’ve been keeping for muslining and/or refashioning purposes, or just because the fabric is awesomely good quality.

Three cubbies are stuffed with interfacing and white/cream/ivory lining fabrics! both cotton voile and polyacetate… another whole cubby is devoted to black lining fabric… I found so much of those basics! in fact I’ve decided we NEVER need to buy either of those things for the rest of our lives! and that goes for beige lining fabric as well.

The rest of it is all “real” stash! including all my scraps too – yes, I do keep most of my good-quality scraps for mending purposes as well as if the pieces big enough to make bindings and pocket linings for example. And also old clothes of a really nice quality, like mens’ shirting cotton or something. Not many are big enough pieces for a garment on their own, but I keep them in case they can be worked into a garment with other fabrics in some way; I know it seems crazy and hoarder-y, but I’ve been thankful for my scraps of good-quality fabric on so many occasions, I know it’s always well worth having them.

So, now you can see why I’m planning to buy minimal fabric this year! I’m on a mission… to shop my stash, but not too much. I mean, yes it could definitely go down by a bit, but I just love how it looks right now!!! I love how pretty it is, how it’s all on view, how I can see everything at a glance. I love how I’m going to be able to lay a hand on things a lot more efficiently. I refolded each and every bit, so I’m pretty up on exactly what I have. No more rushing out to buy a little bit or bob of something that I think I might have but can’t find.

Thank you, me! for my great Christmas present! I absolutely love it!!

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Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: organising, random life stuff

introducing Clara

27/08/2017 10:43 pm \ 74 Comments \ Carolyn

Please say hello to Clara! the newest, and arguably the bounciest and bonniest member of our family… 😉 She is a blue merle border collie, just 8 weeks of age at the present, and a hilariously rambunctious little bundle of fluffy fun.We’ve been waiting for this little poppet for sooooo long! she’s actually been “ours” since birth, in fact, even before she was a twinkle in her daddy’s eye! 😉 and when the timing worked out so that we knew we would be receiving her just a few short weeks after our long-planned Alaska/Canada holiday, well, the timing could not have been more perfect.

… so adorable I can hardly stand it…

… that fat fluffy bottom with little stumpy legs… #squeeeeee

… we’re all wondering if her eyes are going to stay blue…!

brand new!!! at top right, with her siblings…

… wot a roly-poly, eh?!

We’ve only had her for a couple of days but are all head over heels in love with this irrepressible little fluff-bucket. This girl knows how to live… she plays hard, and sleeps hard! She’s a bundle of energy and pretty exhausting, but of course it’s a the very best sort of exhaustion to have.

Anyway I am hoping that Clara and I are going to be excellent buddies and have hours and hours of fun and joy together. She’s already so much fun as a puppy, and I can hardly wait for when she’s old enough to venture forth for walkies!

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Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Clara, random life stuff

the year of handmade, 12

22/02/2017 12:05 am \ 75 Comments \ Carolyn

above are just a small selection of some of my favourite outfits for this month, the entire collection for the year in total can be viewed in my Year of Handmade flickr album, here

It’s over! I’ve worn ONLY my own handmade shoes and clothing for an entire year, and not allowed a single, ready-to-wear item to adorn my body in that whole time. If that sounds a bit melodramatic, well to be honest it feels pretty darn dramatic to me right now! Whoooooo! Chucking a party in my head, right about now!!!! This challenge has been HUGE to me. I think it’s been the biggest wardrobe-ing challenge I have ever set for myself. And, I almost can’t believe it, but I managed to do it. A long term life-goal; achieved. #tick

I’m SOOO pleased, and SOOO very relieved, although, at the same time I feel a bit anti-climactically exhausted too. I can’t even imagine what shoes I am going to wear tomorrow!!

SO. I’ve already discussed the difficulties I encountered along the way previously here on my blog, but just to recap…

Basically all my challenges involved my self-made SHOES!! My clothing? well, I’ve been wearing exclusively self-made clothing for years already so that was pretty easy.

Specifically, shoes to wear in heavy rain and for “dirty” activities like bushwalking were by far the most challenging hurdles to overcome in my year, and the kind of footwear I missed the most. I made shoes for these scenarios and got through it fine; but I always felt quite nervous and insecure about them, like my efforts were a bit precious and not 100% up to the really heavy-duty stuff. Though, maybe I was the one being a bit precious, since most of them did.

I also really missed being able to wear “glamorous” shoes like stiletto heels and dainty little high-heeled sandals for formal events. Again, the shoes I had were actually fine… but you know; a girl likes to feel shiny and glamorous every now and again! and I dunno, there’s something about clickety-clacking along in ridiculously impractical shoes that fills that need PERFECTLY. I never did crack the the glamour glass-ceiling in my shoe-making…. I still think I could do it, but it would be a new shoe-making challenge, for sure.

How has this challenge changed me: well, you know they say if you do something for a year, you will have successfully adopted a new lifestyle. I think that’s true, although I am looking forward to embracing the above mentioned kinds of shoes back into my life again…. Hiking boots!! Exquisite little heels!! Time will tell if I truly revert to rtw shoes… I will continue to make shoes for myself, simply because I have so many plans still!! Also, I’ve really really enjoyed wearing my own shoes so much! I can’t even begin to describe how utterly rewarding and satisfying it is to sashay out feeling nicely put together, and to KNOW that you made every, single component of your outfit. Like, it’s ALL YOURS. Nothing can take the euphoria of that feeling away. However, I’m not going to paint a false picture that making shoes is easy; some types of shoes are but most are not, and it takes time and maybe even a few failures to come to grips, get your shoe-making groove on.

I’ll definitely keep up with the clothing side of things; I’ve been making my own clothes for many many years now and have always found it to be both easy and fun. Now after a year in my own shoes, I do feel like that mental block has been cracked too… however, I will from now on ALLOW myself to wear ready-to-wear shoes, if I want to. As an example: we have a heavy-duty camping/hiking holiday coming up later this year, and I will be taking my big tough ol’ RTW hiking boots with me. Common sense prevails? *shocked gasp*

Likewise, if I want to don a pair of silly vertiginous heels to go out to dinner or parties, I will do so. And will thoroughly enjoy it too… 😉

Just for funsies; here is a collage of my whole year of outfits in two pictures because they wouldn’t fit in one! To better see my outfits properly, they are all in my Year of Handmade Flickr album… along with the links to every component of my outfits for each day. Phew! This feels like a bit of a magnum opus!!

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Posted in: fashion \ Tagged: random life stuff, year of handmade

the year of handmade, 11

24/01/2017 11:01 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

above are just a small selection of some of my favourite outfits for the last month, the entire collection for the year so far can be viewed in my Year of Handmade flickr album, here

So, a mere 30 days to go… Wooooooweeeee!

Honestly, I’m now just like, yeah, whatever no biggie. Coasting. Yep, counting down the days; One. At. A. Time… but y’know, otherwise pretty chill ;P

All my clothes are of course holding up perfectly fine, clothes are a piece of cake. Obviously I’m going to keep on wearing my self-made wardrobe, forever probably. Can’t see that changing, in the foreseeable future anyway. Shoes-wise, gawd… definitely counting down the days there… my white thongs; well I have to admit I’m quite looking forward to ~~hurling them off a 1000ft cliff with great force~~ I mean, gracefully retire them as soon as I possibly can. These have been my summertime walking shoes all last summer and this one too, they’ve done haaaaard duty and are looking pretty rough. Those snowy-white straps are not so snowy now, I can tell you! But unfortunately they are essential to my wardrobe, mostly because they are kinda rough now. In my lifestyle where I do a lot of walking/gardening/spending time in the country; I really need rough-and-tumble, grunge-y footwear. I was fairly devastated when we were at our beach house recently doing a weekend of heavy duty gardening (as seen here), and some of the cork underneath finally wore through and one wing of one thong pulled through.. aaaagh! I still need those tacky things!! So, a few blobs of liquid nails and new heels made of furniture felt later – it’s all I had! – and they’re mcgyver-ed together enough to see out the last month. They look awful but I just don’t care… I’m sure my walking friend E thinks I’m completely bonkers, persisting in wearing them whenever we get together for a walk.

Not going to complain now; it’s summer, I LOVE summer… dressing for summer is easy, and making summer sandals is very easy. I have actually been toying with the idea of making a new pair. It’s funny, the end is in sight, and I’m actually dreaming of making new shoes!! I must be crazy, boom! proof right there…

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: random life stuff, year of handmade

2016; a retrospective

31/12/2016 11:55 pm \ 34 Comments \ Carolyn

Soooo. It’s the last day of 2016. Cheers! and here’s to the year that was… *chinks champers flutes* Mwah, mwah, darlings!

Kicking off with my favourite ootd/blog pictures, just one for each month… Apart from January, well obviously I did not make January’s outfit.. I am wearing a full traditional kimono in Tokyo! but it was definitely a highlight for my year! spending the day with my dear friend Yoshimi and with Cassie and Kelly, getting dressed in kimonos and having a Japanese lunch together. So very interesting and so much fun!

Apart from this one picture, I made 100% of what I am wearing in every other picture…

December

Oh dear, oh dear; looking through all my old pictures to compile this post has been a little sad, Sienna features in so many of them. yes I miss her so much, in fact everyday. We’ve still been quite down here. But I will not get all maudlin now…

Ever onwards. So, my year in making:

I made a total of 101 things this year. I don’t think this is too bad, considering it included a fully embroidered Alabama Chanin skirt, and 19 pairs of shoes. Yep! NINETEEN pairs of shoes… ahem, some of them are just a tad better than others, and several of the earlier, shonkier pairs have already winged their way to that big eternal shoe box in the sky…

Da breakdown… 13 dresses, 1 doll with a full wardrobe, 12 skirts, 5 lingerie sets, 5 prs of bathers (1 binned without blogging because it was an abject fail), 1 knitted cardigan, 5 jackets/anoraks, 2 prs thongs (flip-flops), 10 prs oxford/lace-up shoes, 1 pr winter boots, 2 prs desert boots, 2 prs slippers, 20 tops/shirts/blouses, 2 prs sandals, 5 prs tights, 1 pr jeans, 1 pr hand warmers, 13 bags/pieces of luggage. Phew!

Selfishness vs. virtuous brownie-point earning: 63 plays 38. Maybe a little tipped towards selfishness, but since that figure includes all the shoes, and practise shoes! that I needed just so I could lead a self-shod, but functional life, well I don’t think it’s too terrible. I think I make just enough things for others that I’m not a pest about it, you know?

Costs… dunno. Haven’t been keeping track. Probably a small fortune?! 😉 No really, I did 3 refashions, and also 24 items were made from free “old” fabric being tossed out by others, or using leftovers, or scraps. Really could improve upon this though…

Most worn items: ah, this is my favourite bit… For four years now I’ve kept track of what I’m wearing, three of those years via my ootd blog.. I keep a spread sheet that I update every month, so I know just how often each and every thing has been worn. I know I know, super nerdy stuff. But, real talk; it’s been an eye-opener I tell you… someone who tells you they’ve worn something hundreds of times…? well, if you actually add it up, for real; you may not have worn it as often as you think! Truth! Anyway, my most worn clothing items for this year can be summed up in the following outfits:

The obvious basics were my black winter boots (70 wears), black tights (109 wears over 4 prs), white LS woollen winter tees (30 wears over 2 tops), other white beige/ivory Tshirts(41 wears over 5 tops); my staples are all 4 of my coloured Miette cardigans, my little mini skirts for winter, and all my loose linen, cotton and silk dresses for summer. For the most part I stick reasonably well to my autumnal palette but I’m not strict about it

Favourite creations:

I would have to say, topping of the list are my winter boots!! so unbelievably proud of these things!!! and which as mentioned have been worn a TONNE. I can still hardly believe I managed those things!

Followed closely by my Magdalena Dusk Alabama Chanin 3-piece ensemble. I’ve worn it twice this year, not very much! I think I suffer from might-ruin-it-itis. Gottta snap outta that. This thing deserves to be paraded about more, not just for the several months worth of hand-embroidery it represents, but of course for its connection to my lovely friend Lisa of Lisa’s Carolina 🙂

I’m also pretty pleased and proud of my Tosti jacket... 🙂

Goals for 2017; Mainly, I want to see out the end of my 100% handmade challenge of course! I have just 53 days to goooooo! But in making goals, well I don’t need anything, so my creating is going to be aimed at maintaining a useful wardrobe, and concentrating on higher quality, and more interesting things. I would like to occasionally make some more fun and frivolous things too. And to continue making shoes, and improving my cobbling skills.

Finally and most importantly of all, I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who reads my blog and who takes the time to leave a comment, I am grateful for each and every kind thought. Thank you so very much, and I’d like to wish all the best to everyone for a safe, happy, peaceful and creative 2017! xxx

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, random life stuff

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