skirt Archives - Page 11 of 34 - Handmade by Carolyn

zebra crossing

12/01/2016 6:24 pm \ 48 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a little black-and-white striped skirt… another Vogue 1247. How many is this by now? Okaaaay, just counted and this is version number seven, and that’s not even counting the ones that I made leaving the pockets off. Counting those ones too, this is version number fourteen. Wowza! what a great pattern this has been!

yes to the pockets this time

I bought the striped fabric from Fabulous Fabrics during their end of year sale. It was brand new in the store when I first spotted it and bought this bit, and it must have been popular because on my next visit a couple of weeks later, it had all gone! Don’t remember its composition… often when I buy something spontaneously like this I don’t pay much attention to “what” it actually is… whoops! bad me 🙂 However, the fabric is almost like a light upholstery; loosely woven, with slightly coarse, silk-like cords of fibre-dyed threads. Quite stiff and unpliable, and doesn’t hold a crease well.
I’ve been ironing it on the silk setting, and that seems to be about as much heat as it can take.

As usual I added length about 10cm or so to the bottom edge. I didn’t measure exactly, just made it so as finish off with a black stripe at the bottom of the front hem. Since I’d measured so as to have black at the top merging in to the black waistband, it felt balanced to have the black at the bottom too. And this turned out to be a nice length for me too. There’s a little bit of the next white stripe graduating out the bottom of the back but I’m ok with this, it felt a little short when I trialled taking it up so as to eliminate that.

The black waistband is just cut so as to have exactly one full black stripe showing… the seam allowances are both in the white stripe on either side.

The camouflaged waitress pockets on the front of the skirt was the result of some very obsessive measuring during the cutting stage… followed by obsessive pinning, basting, slow sewing, and then some obsessive unpicking and re-sewing. #muchobsessiveness

I used a pale yellow poplin to line the waistband and to bind the seam allowances inside with HongKong seaming…. and I absolutely LOVE how this looks! I don’t always bind my seam allowances, but it always feels so good when I do! aaaaaah, there’s nothing quite so nice and deeply deeply satisfying for the home seamster than to gaze contentedly upon some HongKong bound seaming, yes?

Hmmm, that came out sounding a bit more navel-gazing and pathetic than intended. Clearly I need a life. Or at least to get out a bit more…

Whatever; new skirt, in too-cool-for-school black and white stripe, love it, ultra happy. I think this is going to be a very useful little thing to have in the wardrobe. I’ve already tried it on with a few of my current rotation of tops and it just goes with almost everything… yay! I LOVE it with my warm floral shirtdress, worn underneath here, so much so that I’m seriously considering re-hemming the dress a little shorter, so I can wear this combo more often.

Detail:

Skirt, Vogue 1247; striped silk-like woven, my original review of this pattern here
Shirt; Burdastyle 05/2010;111, silk georgette, details here and my review of this pattern here
Slip (under); the Ruby slip, a free pattern by pattern scissors cloth available here; mine made in ivory crepe, details here
Shoes; bensimon, from seed boutique

horizontal seam? what horizontal seam? *self back pat*

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: skirt, Vogue 1247

Perry Ellis skirt, sort of

16/10/2015 9:36 am \ 42 Comments \ Carolyn

New skirt.
The above picture is showing what I actually wore out and about today… please note the far less glamorous shoes than featured in the remainder of this post!
Pattern; Vogue 1521, a Perry Ellis design from 1985.
Fabric; taupe and white silk/linen mix from Fabulous Fabrics, with a crisp and rather dry and paper-y texture to it. The taupe was purchased as a remnant, and I added the panel of ivory onto the bottom edge. I added it underneath the hem, leaving a little overhang of the brown, so it looks more like an underskirt than a pieced addition. Pockets are cut from some nondescript cream-coloured cottony stuff, from a bundle of scraps Mum gave to me.

So; this is another thing to fit in with my vintage pattern pledge; only my version is terribly unfaithful to the original design. It is supposed to have an absolute truckload of pleats up the top there. I got halfway through making it, pinned the pleats and all and I and suddenly just hated it, and veered whimsically off and away for a random new look.
But, I’m still counting this as part of my vintage pattern pledge 🙂 … not because it’s almost the end of the year and I’m running out of time to fulfil it … 😉 well, okaaaay, there is totally that! 😉 Anyway technically these are all the pattern pieces cut out right and they’re all joined up in the ordinary way and all; just that instead of multiple pleats there is just one giant pleat both front and back. I wrapped the extra width back upon itself, folding the same way on both the front and the back. And bought it into my waist more with some discreet darts along the top, both front and back, and overlapped the R side pocket with the front pleat a little bit too. This worked out quite well, I think.
Moral of the story; if you’re hating where something is going but you really do want it to work, because you really love the fabric and don’t want to waste it, or can see some potential in there somewhere … DON’T GIVE UP! There will ALWAYS be a way to make it work out!
Being that it is so unfaithful to the original look, is this a cheat on my vintage pattern pledge? Meh, I’m not angsting over whether I’m sticking to the letter of the law all that much. Generally speaking I prefer an avant garde skirt over a safe one.

I maintained the L side pocket closure, which I’ve always though was a brilliant closure/pocket combination deal. I should do these more often! And instead of button/buttonhole I sewed on some long tweed straps, made from sewing up a scrap of bias cut piping tweed that was wrapped around a bundle of fabric I bought at the Morrison remnants sale a few years ago. It’s very nice tobacco-brown tweed and I always knew I’d like to use it featured somewhere in a thing. I really like how it its rough matte texture looks against the smooth dull sheen of the silk.

Wanna see something funny? here is my 20 year old self wearing the top I made for myself using this same pattern, thirty years ago. I know I made both the top and skirt when the pattern was first released, but strangely I can’t remember any of the details of that first skirt! A bit sad too; I know there are loads of things from my younger years that I’ve forgotten, simply because I have no photos of them.. Here, I’m visiting a rose garden in Pinjarra with my mother and grandmother. I totally would not remember that outing without the photo. It’s sad how much of our memories are only cemented in later years by the existence of a picture, to jog them.

Project happiness factor; given my rising hate for it halfway through (bad) followed by serendipitous ad-libbing and eventual satisfaction (good) I’m awarding this one 8/10.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1521, a Perry Ellis design from 1985, taupe and ivory silk/linen
Top; my own design; blue jersey dyed black, details here
Shoes; low sandals are 2 baia vista from Zomp shoes… high black are Diavolina from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ancient history, daily outfit, skirt, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1521

do you Art?

02/10/2015 12:47 pm \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

Imagine that said in an vehhy posh accent along the lines of “are you being served modom?”…
Little anecdote; many years ago I took part in a group craft project, and another lady in the group had clear and firm ideas about what we were to produce, and how. At our first meeting she approached one lady and as a first spoken utterance to her, enquired “do you appliqué?”

Hehe, that’s neither here nor there obviously, but it’s stuck with me for years and years and still gives me a laugh.
Man I need to get out more…
Anyway…
skirt!

We bought this novelty print cotton drill from Spotlight a few years ago, and Cassie was supposed to make the skirt herself, but you know.. time goes on, you get busy, life takes over, whatevs, and it eventually falls to your mother who is sick to blinking death of looking at this blasted fabric hanging around, gathering dust and generally taking up precious stash space that could be given over to her own fabrics … gathering dust ahem…
Anyway! time for some interventive action.
I used no pattern but just made it up to fit what she wanted. She wanted high-waisted, close-fitting at the waist and this length, and for the paintbrushes to be situated exactly so high and for not a single skerrick of print to be hidden or broken up in any darts or shaping. I cut two rectangles with no shaping, to maintain the print, put in an invisible zip at centre back, and pinned tapered box pleats to fit her waist, each one going straight at first then tapering narrower for the last third to accommodate her hips. There are four such pleats both front and back.

Pretty easy, once I got going on it! I added a shaped, interfaced facing, and hand-hemmed.
Done!
The one difficulty; inserting the zip centre back was a teeny bit angsty, because I discovered that the paintbrushes are printed just slightly slanty and off-grain… OF COURSE THEY ARE.

I chose that shortest pencil on the fold to be the “sacrificial” pencil through which to cut the centre back seam, and sewed the seam with as narrow seam allowances as practically possible and as close to the pencil/brush on either side as I could get. It passes right on each one, touching the very tippy top of the one at left and scraping the very bottom of the one at right. Phew!

Answer? Yaaas dahhling, we do most certainly Art.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, own design, skirt

mustard Issey Miyake skirt

18/09/2015 3:28 am \ 55 Comments \ Carolyn

I’m scratching a long-standing itch by making something from this 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693 … see, I’ve used it once before, when it very first came out! to make a skirt and the top for myself. I wore that outfit to a number of 21st birthday parties with my then brand new fiancé, now my husband 🙂 There’s probably a picture lobbing around somewhere of me wearing it, just don’t know where! perhaps in a few of our old schoolmates’ dusty old photo albums shoved in the back of a cupboard somewhere. My first skirt and top from this pattern was in a sateen with a rather psychedelic splotchy print of bright yellow, purple, a bit of bright orange and I think, splashes of black thrown in there. I remember being extremely proud of it, haha! I used to wear it with hydrangea purple court shoes, or pumps. We used to call them court shoes back then.
So, I think maybe it’s ok for me to claim this as a vintage pattern! and item number three going towards fulfilling my vintage pattern pledge… to make five items from my vintage patterns.
Fabric; a loose woven, slubby wool blend from Tessuti’s, Melbourne bought during a holiday over there with my Mum and Cassie. A bit rough in feel, but in a beautiful, high quality way, if that makes any sense at all; quite thick, probably too thick for the design in retrospect and it was a little difficult to make it work with the pattern, Almost cried a few times when I thought I’d ruined it, but managed to wrangle it into submission eventually. Major relief when it all worked out. I used the hammer a few times to flatten some of the more bulky layers down thinner, so they would fit under my sewing machine foot.

Perfectly matching buttons from Calico and Ivy.
Technical notes; all seams flat felled as per the pattern.

To avoid bulk in the waistband, the inside edge was cut along the selvedge, and this is not folded inside the waistband but left out inside the skirt and topstitched down from the right side, stitching in-the-ditch. I also cut the overlay against the selvedge and left the selvedge edge out along the edge of the turned in facing. Same reason as the waistband treatment; to reduce the bulk of having a raw edge turned under.

Also HongKong bounds edges for an inside side edge and the hem, again to avoid as much unnecessary bulk as possible. For this, I used a beige/light honey coloured poplin voile to make bias binding. I bought about 2m of this a few years ago and have almost used all of it in HongKong binding for various things… need to get some more, asap!
Happiness scale; 9/10 at having another of these skirts, since the pattern is a sentimental favourite of all time for me. It lost a point due to my struggles with the fabric, but if I had to do it all over again I would probably still want the skirt in this same fabric. Feels great on, and like skirt and pattern were meant for each other, like star crossed lovers or something like that, go figure. Next time I will choose something with a little less bulk though.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1693, slubby mustard wool blend
Tshirt; self-drafted, white/grey stripe cotton jersey, details here
Shoes; Diavolina, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, issey miyake, Sienna, skirt, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1693

a bit of re-colouration

11/08/2015 7:20 am \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve just been updating a few bits and bobs in my wardrobe…
when I get bored or dissatisfied with a particular item but it’s still in perfectly good nick or I still kinda like it because of a good shape/style or I put a dangload of effort into finishing it off particularly well or whatever; I will not toss it out. Instead I ‘avvago at re-vamping it somehow.
And this often includes dragging out ye olde dyepot and potions, aka dyes, eeeeeeeEEE heheheheheheheeeeee!! That was an evil witch’s cackle there, just in case my written word did not adequately translate to the spoken word, ahem.

So, revamp-eroonie; DONE.

Exhibit A; my little yellow cotton corduroy skirt. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, but I was just getting meh about it. Plus the clear yellow colour was a bit sharp and not one of “mine”. Since my khaki dress I have been thinking more about “my” colours and having more of them in my wardrobe. Sorta de-wintering my wardrobe and autumn-ifying it some more, if you will.
I used iDye in Brown and a tiny touch of the True Red, and got this rather wonderful deep caramel colour, in the top picture. Hehe, it’s funny; because actually I was aiming for mustard! important moral of the story; you should never ever never dye something that you are so much in love with that you couldn’t bear an unexpected outcome. Potential dyers, engrave that on your dye pots as it is one of the Commandments of Dyeing.
Anyway, I could not be happier with this super yummy, albeit unexpected, colour.
Unsurprisingly, the poly satin I used for the lining and bias binding did not take up the dye one tiny little bit.

woa, crack out the sunnies!

Exhibit B; while in the mood for dyeing, I also got out my pale blue, supposedly silk shirt (all original construction details here) and gave it a facelift. Supposedly? well it was sold as silk, but its mild lack of enthusiasm for taking up the dye speaks to some synthetic content, ahem. Not that I mind! it’s been a wonderful blouse and I love the shape unconditionally. Just that it has faded drastically and its colour was now palling on me; or should that more accurately read, appalling on me? Yeah, probably.
Anyway, it got treated to iDye in True Red.

Much better!
Now; compare the new colour of the previously same coloured cotton bias binding … that strong red was what I was aiming for, although I like this warm tangerine colour just fine. I’m just going to enjoy it as this colour for a while; and if I still want the deep true red colour I’ll pick up some red dye suitable for synthetics and give another whirl. See how we go.

Exhibit C; not a biggie, but I switched the yellow buttons on my forest green Miette cardigan for new deep green ones.

I think it’s going to be a tonne more mix ‘n’ matchable like this, since previously it pretty much went ONLY with my mustard dress below, or with all-white ensembles. The yellow buttons were a distraction, I can see that now. My mistake. Also, I think the lacework shines a little more than it did before.

So, that’s it!
In my current sewing news; I’m still struggling away with embroidering my felted wool, for my 1 year 1 outfit ensemble. Every now and again I have to lay it aside and do something else. It’s wearing me down a bit but I am certain I am going to love the finished piece and am quite excited to see it all come together. Ever onward and upwards!

my tutorial on basic dyeing here

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 8218, Burdastyle magazine 10-2010-102, cardigan, daily outfit, dyeing, Miette, shirt, Sienna, skirt, Vogue 1247

the difficulty of black lace…

27/07/2015 8:51 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

… is in getting it to show up in a picture. My new skirt looks completely boringly plain in these pictures, which just proves it; the camera does lie! Actually it has a rather beautiful lace appliquéd tulle overlay. I guess I just fail at photography.

The appliquéd tulle came from the remnants table at Fabulous Fabrics and is so lovely that I was helpless to resist it when I saw it there. Then again, I rarely do. My relationship with the remnants table is somewhat akin to that of a vulture to a carcass, ahem.
Anyway, there’s not much else to say about the skirt except that it is fulfilling a desire for a black lace skirt that I have had for a loooooong time! so it’s kind of funny to me that it’s taken me this long to realise that desire. I think I’m generally more of a whimsical seamster than a methodical or practical one, although I try very hard to be the latter.
It’s actually a very comfortable skirt. The appliqued tulle is underlined with a black rayon crepe, a quite heavy and substantial fabric; both fabrics are quite crease-resistant too which also makes it almost… practical? dare I claim that for a lace thing! 🙂 and I lined the skirt with black polyacetate lining fabric. All fabrics are from Fabulous Fabrics.

I used Vogue 8363, one of my favourite skirt patterns. I say; “one of the favourites” meaning like top five material, easily. I’ve just counted and I’ve made eight skirts from it! not too shabby if I say so myself, not too shabby. This pattern is a terrific one; with lots of variations and different views. This skirt is a version that isn’t any one particular view, but I used the pattern pieces that gave me those lovely and very deep, front slanted pockets, an un-pleated one piece front and a back with CB zip.

I aligned the lace motifs to match each other up around the skirt and at the CB seam as best as I could, and used up all of my remnant bar a couple of scraps. Yay!
I cut the lining using spliced together Vogue 1247, cut longer so it sits just 2.5cm shorter than the skirt.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 8363 lined, black lace and black rayon crepe, my review of this pattern here
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, of dk olive linen, details here and my review of this pattern here

Also I have been doing a tiny amount of unselfish sewing… I made a caramel-coloured merino wool top for Cassie, using fabric we bought in Melbourne’s the Fabric Store during our last girly trip away. I used a pattern that I have custom-fit to Cassie; based upon my own custom-fit Tshirt pattern; itself originally based upon a Burdastyle Tshirt top, the details of my “custom-fitting saga” here. I thought I had lost my own pattern, which was a pretty heartbreaking state of affairs, but I recently found it again. I had just stuffed it into the wrong pattern envelope, seems so obvious now but still I could have wept for joy when I discovered it. I’d been thinking hmmm, really should get onto properly fitting that Tshirt pattern again, but it just seemed insurmountably difficult so I’d kept putting it off. Plus it’s winter, and too cold for all that, too.
Anyway, I found it!

The Tshirt does look a whole tonne better on an actual person with arms, however its intended person had to suddenly hurry away for an important social engagement and I was too impatient to wait for her to return to perform modelling duties. It has long sleeves, a scooped neckline finished with a folded band as described in my tutorial here, and with sleeve and hems finished with my twin needle. There was an awkwardly small piece of merino left over which was too small for anything on its own but too big and too nice a fabric to throw away. So I cut the ends square and straight and now it is a scarf.
I might borrow the scarf occasionally 😉

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, daily outfit, scarf, skirt, top, Vogue 8363

that 70’s show

19/07/2015 5:09 am \ 48 Comments \ Carolyn

I dragged this dusty, cobwebby ol’ 70’s skirt from outta some trunk in the attic… hehe, just kidding.
It’s new 🙂
A chocolate pleather, A-line, midi skirt was high on my mental list of things to make for myself this winter and I’d bought all the fabric etc… then I somehow got chooffing along happily, oh yeah went away a coupla times too, then got bogged down in several other, quite involved, longer term projects, and just suddenly realised we are halfway through winter and I still hadn’t made it, ha! So yesterday I got cracking and whipped it up quick sticks. Done!
Technically speaking; this is the second thing to go towards fulfilling my vintage pattern pledge to sew up five of my vintage patterns this year. The pattern is Simplicity 7308, hailing from 1976. I say “technically”, because this is like the very plainest of plain, classical of classic patterns you could possibly imagine; so… Am I cheating on my vintage pattern pledge by using this? I feel like maybe the purpose of the pledge is to get you acknowledging some the more obvious and recognisably vintage styles, in which case this one is a cop-out! eeeep sorry! I promise that some of my other vintage pattern plans are definitely of the more dated variety! Maybe I’ll make up an extra vintage pattern, to make up for it 🙂

Back in its day, this could likely have been made up in beige, or tan suede, maybe pale blue denim or possibly a large scale plaid on the bias. In my memories my Mum had a blue denim skirt just like those… Can you just imagine? Instead I’ve used a very NOW fabric; a deep chocolate fake leather. At the first stirrings of winter this year, the fashion column in our local paper advised all who cared that leather and leather details were the absolute dernier cri for Perth fashionistas. My brain seems to have latched on the idea, since several of my newer wardrobe additions have gone this route; my moto jacket, my cow skirt, and another skirt I’ve ig’ed but is still in the works.
Clearly I’m a lemming.

failed twirl. gawd knows why I even attempt this nonsense. at least it shows the skirt in motion…

Nuts and Bolts: a plain A-line, midi-length skirt, side seams and a CB zip, pretty timeless and possibly very boring. I eliminated the CF seam since I have an irrational grudge against them in a skirt, placing the CF on a fold. The width of my fabric also allowed me to widen the flare by just a touch, both front and back.
Fake leather is from Spotlight, all other materials from Fabulous Fabrics. Lined with chocolate polyacetate lining fabric and with a waistband of black silk dupion leftover from my cow skirt.

Details:
Skirt; Simplicity 7308 from 1976, chocolate pleather
Bodysuit; the Nettie by Closet Case patterns, black stretch, details here
Tights (not seen); own pattern, orange stretch, details here
Scarf; own pattern ivory wool, details here
Boots; Sempre di, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, Simplicity 7308, skirt, vintage pattern pledge

adding lining to a skirt; some tips

07/07/2015 4:52 am \ 18 Comments \ Carolyn

Plenty of skirt patterns do not come with separate pieces nor instructions for adding a lining to the skirt. And often you want a lining; particularly in a winter skirt that you wish to wear with tights.
In a nutshell: my own method for adding this is now to generally to cut a skirt lining using the same pattern pieces as the skirt, and — critical difference — sew them together using narrower seams. So your lining has a wider girth than the skirt itself, i.e. a nice dose of extra wearing ease… this is a small thing but makes a big difference for slimline or pencil skirts particularly! Why? well, a few ripped linings later…! haha! I jest! but seriously; in my experience sometimes I would find that linings would habitually start to pull away from the zip tape right at hip level. I re-stitch them back on, only for them to pull away yet again.

old skirt

When I did start making my linings just a touch roomier than the skirt itself, this pesky little problem has not recurred!

I just sew the side seams using the narrowest possible seam allowance, around 6mm(1/4″). For a plain skirt pattern with a standard 1.5cm (5/8″) seam allowance, this alone gives around 3.5cm (1 1/4″) extra wearing ease in there.
Another, equally viable option would be to cut the lining just one size bigger instead.

The CB seam of the lining; stitch with the regular 1.5cm (5/8″) seam allowance up to the bottom edge of the zip opening, then re-enforce the stitching line at the lower edge of the zip opening with stay stitching; stitching each side separately and keeping the seam allowance free of the stitching. Snip into the corners, fold the seam allowances under and press.

With wrong sides together, pin the lining to the skirt at the side seams. Pin the zip opening of the lining skirt to the zip tape of the skirt.

Also; do not stitch waist darts but merely fold the excess width of the lining at the waist dart point into a pleat and pin. As expected, thanks to those narrower seams, these will be slightly deeper pleats than the skirt darts. Pleating the wait darts rather than stitching them down also builds just a touch more ease into the lining.