Tag Archives: Sienna

Navy blue tights

20/05/2014 4:17 am \ 20 Comments \

I really really wanted some navy blue tights.  Basically I have two, yes, two! navy blue corduroy skirts for winter, and a coupla hand-knit cardigans including this one which are mainly midnight blue and which I want to dig out and wear more, quite a lot of other navy blue stuff too, ahem *blush* and so matching tights seems like a Plan.  Man, I’m getting so sensible lately.
Anyway…  *ten minutes of sewing later*   DONE!
Well, apart from the fact I had to go back to the fabric store twice, but I’m not counting that.  No, I’m not.  I had a small disaster wrt the fact that you really should check twice before laying the pattern piece down to really make sure as in beyond reasonable doubt that the degree of most stretch is going to be horizontally; or around your legs.  More importantly, around your hips.  Because if you get it wrong you might not be able to get your brand new freakin tights up over your freakin hips.  But let’s not dwell on that now.  The past is in the past and I’m moving on.
I have tights.
Fabric is a rayon/viscose from Fabulous Fabrics.  It’s fabulous, warm and with terrific recovery, and my second attempt is perfect.
Actually I do have several other new things to show here, but my photo-taking and documentation is dawdling.  I’m taking part in me-made May, which has become kind of like the unofficial Annual Seamsters’ Convention, albeit a virtual one.  I’m in the Flickr group, and I’m trying to spend a sensible amount of time on it all so blogging-wise I’m pacing myself.  New things to appear here very soon.
Later dudes!

Tights; my own custom fit pattern, details and my tutorial on how to make your own custom fit tights here
Skirt; Vogue 1247, navy blue corduroy (made from old jeans) details here
Top; loose draped top from drape drape by Hisako Sato, white crinkly jersey knit, details here
Cardigan; hand-knit by me using Patons 8ply wool, to a Patons pattern, details here
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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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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White linen Zsalya dress with patchwork

07/05/2014 1:12 am \ 58 Comments \

Hello!  I’m wearing a new dress. The cool fingers of winter are tickling at the edges of our days so obviously I had to make a light and fluttery, floaty white linen thing for myself.  It was only logical  * 😀
Actually, the truth is that I made it a while ago now!  when we were still getting very hot weather and I have worn it several times already.  The pattern is the Zsalya from Kate & Rose patterns.  Kati emailed me to ask if I would like to test one of their lovely new range; thank you so much for the opportunity Kati!  It was so hard to choose just one!  The Zsalya is a dress or top pattern with two sleeve variations, and I made the dress with short sleeves.
I knew straight away I would love this design.  It has no closure, you just slip it on over your head and it is easy breezy, and as cool as.  In all senses of the word.  🙂
The sleeves are quite cute.  I like how they are tightly gathered in at the top which lends them a sweetly pert and boxy shape, and they have a pretty petal-shaped hemline.

The neckline is so clever.  I think it’s my favourite feature of the dress.  When I first looked at how open it was I considered putting in a little rouleau loop and button closure, but you know what? there is absolutely no need.  Gape-age just doesn’t happen, thanks to the clever design.  The crossover yoke is open so you can get your head through quite easily, but once the dress is on it all sits nicely flat and closed with a safe and demurely high neckline.  Clever!
I edged the neckline with a patchworked strip of bias cut cotton scraps; this was simply sandwiched between the yoke and yoke facing before stitching them together.

I made my dress in a handkerchief grade linen from Fabulous Fabrics, and the patchwork border is comprised of various scraps from previous projects.  I was inspired by this image. About once in a blue moon I actually find a need for those bitsy odds and sods of leftover cottons that are pretty much good for nothing, that I hoard like a crazy old fabric-obsessed miser.  This was one of those rare occasions.  Vindication!
The patchwork panel is backed with a white linen facing to stabilise it.

I added in-seam side pockets  🙂

Really, even though it looks blustery as all get-out in these pictures and it was, it was also quite insanely hot and muggy on the day I took them.  So a loose little linen number was actually just what the Fremantle doctor ordered!  I was getting bored with all my summer dresses so it was nice to have an excuse to make a new one.  Summer dresses are such fun, both to make and to wear.  And even this late in the season it’s always nice to have a fresh and new-ish summer dress waiting in the wings of the wardrobe over winter  🙂

* Mr Spock, of course

Details:
Dress; the Kate & Rose Zsalya dress, white linen with patchwork details
Thongs, Havaianas

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Patched pockets

20/03/2014 8:20 am \ 42 Comments \

Just to provide further proof of my predilection for unusual clothing … please allow me to present my new skirt.
This skirt is the love-child of four old pairs of jeans.   They were a bit battered but in favourite colours, and had fabric in some areas still in pretty good knick.  Charcoal denim (Cassie’s), olive green corduroy, olive green moleskin and chocolate moleskin (Craig’s).  The chocolate moleskins had previously been nibbled away at to produce the Brown parliament.

The skirt pattern is another offspring of Vogue 8363; yes, the very same as my previous big baggy pockets skirt.  Quite different, yes?!  That’s the beauty of a well-drafted good basic pattern like this one, you aren’t limited to the plain unadorned versions, which obviously have their place in any well-rounded wardrobe too! but my point is that you are only limited by your imagination  🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed making this.  For a start it’s re-using old unwanted textiles, always an activity dear to my heart.  I am in the fortunate position that when my family is tossing out cruddy old clothes they tend to lob them my way first.
And I love puzzles, and making this skirt was a fun puzzle.  This was a joyful and totally engrossing project where I happily zoomed along, cutting out on the laundry floor, up and down, rushing to the sewing machine, the iron; slicing and piecing away without any thought to time passing.  Bliss…

I used the pattern variation that allowed for front slanted pockets, and made whole skirt front and whole skirt back pattern pieces from newspaper, re-drawing the side seams on both front and back to be just slightly more flared and A-line than the pencil lines of the pattern although not quite as pronounced as for my big baggy pockets skirt.  

I unpicked and re-used the waistband from the charcoal jeans and made use of its resident buttonhole although I sewed on a new flat button that won’t dig into the small of my back when I’m sitting back in a chair.  I also re-used the waistband of the chocolate jeans to finish the lower hem, putting its button and buttonhole at the front.  It wasn’t long enough to do the full hemline of the skirt, so I made a filler piece and a few extra belt loops and repositioned all the belt loops to distribute them evenly and hide the joining seams.   I also saved the fly front off the olive green moleskins and re-used it for the skirt closure at the centre back, although retrospectively I’m not in love with this.  It’s quite a bulky fly with a heavy duty jeans zip, but I guess the look of it is in keeping with the whole cobbled together, rough-and-ready look of the skirt.

I cut the patches so as to keep lots of pockets from the various jeans.  The skirt actually has eight pockets in total!… in addition to the two regular slanted front hip pockets that I sewed as part of the pattern; there are two patch pockets, three welt pockets and one curved side pocket in it.  I only did this for fun, for the aesthetics of them, but they are all still functional.

It’s just a bit of silliness really, but I like off-beat random patchwork-y stuff like this  🙂
Inspiration?  Well, I’ve pinned like a tonne of this sort of thing…  this Isabel Marant dress, this mystery jacket, and also Yoshimi’s jeans from a few years ago.  Also, while I was busy laying down patches and switching around different shapes and sizes, this cottage kept popping into my head.   Now a cottage probably seems like an off-the-wall (ha!) inspiration for a skirt, but let me explain; superficially, the re-cycled nature of the materials is an obvious commonality between the cottage and my skirt, as well as artistically, in the random and irregular grid of their design.  And in purpose, pockets in clothing have a correlation to windows in architecture.   Pockets and windows are a visual feature of a thing, but also a functional component of that thing; specifically as an opening to/in their respective objects but not the entry point to that object.  
So in that vein; can one consider a pocketless garment to be like a window-less building; and are zips and button-bands akin to the doors/gates of a building?  
Discuss in one thousand words or less and submit by the end of class.  
(only joking)
Sometimes I think it would be lots of fun to have a group to discuss and dissect clothing and fashion theory; like a book club, only far more frivolous.
(sigh) A pipe dream…
This skirt is another swap item.

Details:
Top; top “a” from shape shape by Natsuno Hiraiwa, white cotton, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363 modified, made from 4 old pairs of jeans, my review of this pattern here

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Green pleats, please!

17/03/2014 1:57 pm \ 19 Comments \
Hello!  🙂
So
what’s new here?  Just a colour,
really.  My Issey Miyake pleated top (vogue 1142) used
to be a cheerful daffodil yellow, and now it is a murky-lurky, swampy, toxic-waste shade of
green.  Definitely far more me  😉  Hoorah for dye!
Cassie was doing a wardrobe reno: an apricot cardi
plus some black dye equals a new chocolate cardigan! and asked if I wanted the
used black dye-bath for anything before she chucked it out.  I barely gave it ten seconds of thought, just
grabbed this top.  It’s not that I can’t
bear to waste a teeny bit of dye that might still have some oomph in it.. oh well,
yes, maybe there’s that too.  But I
really liked the top and wanted to get it into circulation more.  Yellow is one of “my colours”, but the
brightness was just not working with many bottoms… and furthermore since
I’ve planned a very subdued autumn/winter wardrobe for myself then the bright yellow
top would just continue to not work.  And
on a psychological note, not that I’m overthinking this or anything!  but I think maybe brights are just too daring
for my personality?  I’m a bit of a mouse and perhaps bright yellow should just
be limited to infrequent miniscule doses in my life.
Ha! I reckon I’ve officially just overthought the
whole thing, which is hilarious considering that I didn’t think at all before
plunging the top into that dye-bath!  Lol!

 

Anyway, now the main thing is that now it’s going to
go quite well with the ivories, browns and greens of my swap.
Details:
Top; Vogue 1142, yellow silk over-dyed in a weak, already-used bath of iDye in Black, original details and my review of this pattern here
Skirt; my own design modifications to Vogue8363, cream curtaining fabric, details here and my review of this pattern here

below; before…
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some tops

16/03/2014 5:03 am \ 27 Comments \

I’ve made a couple of new tops lately  🙂

I’ve made this design once before  so I knew I’d like this new one too. It is a modified version of the
loose draped top from drape drape, by Hisako Sato.  Modified in that A; I removing a
wedge of the width in the neckline drape both front and back, so I could fit both pattern pieces
onto my small-ish piece of fabric, and B; this time I made it as a double layered top, since my fabric is so thin it’s thisclose to sheer.  This was a rayon/linen remnant bought from the
Morrison’s fabric sale, a grey-ish ivory/bone colour with a very subtle, paler, knitted-in stripe which barely shows up at all in the pictures!
It’s a basic; but I think it will be quite good with all three of the busy, feature-laden skirts I have made for my autumn/winter swap.  The thing I’m most pleased with is that I got all the seams of the top enclosed inside the two layers; and only had to hand-stitch one short bit of the hemline closed after turning it all through, right
side out.
I’d made Cassie’s Christmas dress the same way only a few months ago, but I still had to stop and
think step by step, how to do the double-layering! so I took pictures and am writing a little how-to on my method so I don’t forget for next time.  Appearing here soon  🙂

 lingerie straps; essential in this design

The next top above: I’m very meh about this one.   It’s amazingly boring and unprepossessing  given that making it has been a freakin’ saga and a half.  This is version two; I first made it as a very big and very loose tunic-y style top.  Valuable time and energy and a piece of fabric was dedicated to making a rather hideous top.  So I fixed it.  And re-made it into a marginally less hideous top.  Yay!
this is the least revolting “before” picture … 

I think it’s that the fabric, a knit remnant from Potter’s Textiles was just not suited to an oversized silhouette, being both heavy and weirdly clingy at the same time.  The combination as a whole was instantly frumpifying, like a hospital gown; or looking like you had to borrow your man’s ratty Tshirt from his gym bag in the car because you’ve ruined your dress, or something.  The exact opposite of chic.   

In anticipation that some kind people might express approval of the “before” version, please know that these are the very least offensive pictures, and let me point out that any vestiges of appeal are probably due to the fact that my hand is in a pocket/on my waist, giving it an appearance of shape that it did not have.  Other photos where it’s hanging straight and loose had the hospital gown/grotty man’s gym Tshirt vibe.  
So I cut out of it my much more fitted, regular tried-and-true custom fit Tshirt.  It’s still pretty blah but least I don’t unequivocally hate it now.
I’m thinking it will be ok for warmth or whatever during winter.  Heck, another layer’s another layer.  We’ll see how it goes!



Details:
Ivory top; the loose drape top, from the Japanese pattern book drape drape by Hisako Sato, ivory rayon/linen
Chocolate top; ultimately, my custom fit Tshirt pattern, chocolate jersey knit
Shorts; Burda 7723, charcoal stretch gabardine, details here and my review of this pattern here

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Big baggy pockets…

24/02/2014 3:11 pm \ 40 Comments \

… with bonus skirt.
It is an unusual skirt, admittedly.  That’s OK.  One description could focus on the fact that it is softly creamy in shade, ever-so-slightly crinkly in texture, interestingly layered in construction, and easily breezily comfortably summery as a whole.  Another could point out that it is made of flippin’ curtaining off-cuts for crying out loud, and features ginormous flappy saddlebag things.  Well let’s not over-romanticise, hmmm?  But I like it, nonetheless.  And I don’t mind curtaining fabric; in fact, one of my most useful and reliable favourites is another curtaining skirt..
I started out with Vogue 8363, a plain, waist-banded pencil skirt with simple variations; and altered it to make it a bit more A-line, cutting the side edges like so; both front and back.  And then added my little added designer-y flight of fancy in the form of those big wrap-around bags.

They are basically sacks; like envelopes or pillowslips, that are sewn within long long extensions of the narrow waistband.  These cross over at the centre back, wrap around my hips and tie loosely at the front.  The skirt closure is the regular kind, by invisible zip in the centre back seam.  
I was inspired by this skirt.  Does anyone else have a go at actually doing something with their pins?  I have pinned LOTS of things, but have only followed through on nutting out making a few.  I have big BIG plans for making tonnes of things from my random unbridled pinnings; but the same ol’ story; so much inspiration, so little time.  And there’s only so many clothes that one can in all good conscience add to one’s wardrobe.  Striking a balance is key, my friends, striking a balance.  However I do feel pretty good about this particular skirt since it’s pretty much a freebie; made from the off-cuts of Cassie’s curtains.  I’d found the absolutely perfect thick calico curtains on super special in Spotlight.  Correction; the fabric was perfect but the top had been made as pencil pleat curtains, which I loathe and detest with a fiery passion.  So I bought them too long and cut off the tops, keeping the hemline intact, and re-sewed the top edge with my preferred triple pleat curtain tape, so they match nearly all the other curtains I’ve made for our house.  And was rewarded with a few pieces of leftover fabric… which I have now put to good use  😉  Double, no… triple win!

Details:
Skirt; a modification of Vogue 8363, thick calico curtaining fabric, my review of this pattern here
Top; the loose drape top slightly modified, from drape drape by Hisako Sato, white crinkly cotton jersey, all details here
Sandals; Franco Burrone, from Marie Claire boutique

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Cocoa Tao

14/01/2014 11:36 am \ 44 Comments \

Hello!  I’m wearing a new blouse.
It is the Tao, by Tamanegi-Kobo.  I’ve seen lots of lovely Tamanegi-Kobo designs made by Yoshimi, and then during me-made May saw even more worn by Japanese ladies, including the adorable and very talented designer Miho.  And since I loooove Japanese designs I just had to try one out!
On a crazy spontaneous whim I added a funny little swoosh-shaped welt pocket.   I had finished sewing the blouse, tried it on and just thought; hmmm, pocket…  I had some scraps left over, the bobbin still had some of the pale grey thread wound on.  I had recently pinned this dinky little welt pocket.  Snap decision.  I just decided to go for it.  I think it turned out quite cute!

The Tao really is a very lovely style, loose and artistic, comfortable and still very feminine and flattering.  I’m still getting used to pdf patterns, I don’t mind them as long as there aren’t hundreds of pages to tape together.  The Tao is 24 pages, which is do-able.  The collar is a petite little thing,  stylistically matching the boxy cropped feel of the blouse, and I think it looks equally sweet buttoned right up.   Normally I don’t button my blouses right up to the collar stand, ‘cos I’m a laid-back Aussie beach bum, but I like this one both ways.

I made the blouse out of, believe it or not, a stark, optic white linen/silk mix from Fabulous Fabris, the leftover piece from after I had cut out the collars, cuffs and button bands for the boys’ Christmas shirts.  But since I’ve made two white shirts in hot succession recently, this one was always going to get a dye-job.  I stitched it up using a pale grey/brown thread, and once I’d finished sewing it and prior to chickening out, quickly gave it a light wash in a very weak dye solution of Brown iDye.  Giving it this subtle and rather delicate shade of pale pinky/cocoa brown.  I think this is a colour quite flattering to my skin tone.  🙂

Details:
Top; Tamanegi-Kobo Tao, white linen/silk mix dyed with a teeny amount of Brown iDye
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen, details and my review of this pattern here

My review for this blouse pattern is below….

Pattern
Description:

The Tao is a loose-fitting, button-front
blouse; with two collar variations, wrist cuffs and a continuous
sleeve vent, cut-on sleeves and a long wrist-to-wrist yoke.
Pattern
Sizing:
Size 36-42.  I made a straight size 38.
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
I
could not follow the Japanese written instructions, but the illustrations are quite
clear and helpful.  The seam allowances
are clearly marked.
The
notches that you need for piecing and pleating points can be seen clearly and
easily, but I did think the Japanese character markings looked a little
chaotic, repeated for each of the sizes and heaped on top of each other. There
are two collar pieces: one the under- and the other the upper collar; if you’ve
made a collared shirt before and so know that the under-collar is supposed to
be a touch smaller then you should have no trouble working out which piece is
which.
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
It
looks so pretty in the photographs on the website, and I like the loose
artistic shape.  The style is really
pretty and a very nice feminine alternative to the traditional style of
button-front shirt; and easier too, in fact, since you don’t have to insert the
sleeves!  The prim little collar looks
sweet, both unbuttoned and also when buttoned up all the way to the top.
It is
a pdf pattern, which I am slooowly getting used to, old-fashioned thing that I
am  😉
Fabric
Used:
Silk/linen
mix
Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:
I added
a little asymmetrical swoosh-shaped welt pocket 
😉
Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Definitely!
and yes  🙂
Conclusion:
Oh, I
love it!  I’ve used Japanese pattern
books before and this is the first time I’ve made a “regular” Japanese
pattern.  I’ve made it in a summer-weight
linen/silk mix but I think it would be equally appropriate and just as
cute in a soft comfy flannelette for winter.
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