Tag Archives: Skirt

Neutral, but nice

11/02/2011 6:48 am \ 16 Comments \

I don’t know why I feel the need to apologise for a neutral look, but I do.  Yah, I know how silly that sounds…. The simple fact is that I’ve tried wearing this skirt with colours both vibrant and muted and it just look all kinds of wrong.  This skirt simply looks so much better when paired with neutral earthy toned colours… so there it is, and luckily I do have a pretty big collection of both pale and dark, drab putty-coloured stuff to mix it up with.
So to answer some comments from yesterday, did I buy myself any shoes when in Tokyo, well the truth is that sadly I did not (cue chin wobble with brave choked little sob.) and why not? So it may not be obvious from my photos, but I am fairly tall, and with very big feet, and the women of Japan are obviously all petite and with dainty little feet.  And after asking to try on about three or four pairs of shoes that interested me and being told in each case that sorry, but these do not come in “showboat”, (not in those words obviously, the sales assistants were all unfailingly courteous and polite, but that was the general message being conveyed here…) I just gave up and lived vicariously through Cassie as she happily tried on and rejected and narrowed down the fabulous array of footwear available to her ladylike little feet.  The good news?  Craig’s shoes actually do fit me, so I just possibly might dare to sneak off with them once in a while…  
So yeah, perhaps I should have just swallowed my pride and asked to try on some of the menswear selection?  What would you have done? 

Details:
Skirt; skirt “d” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, but Natsuno Hiraiwa, silver grey crepe: to see this skirt styled in 6 different ways go here
Top; Country Road
Scarf; a souvenir from Venice
Sandals; Vincenzo, from Soletta shoes
Bag; Gucci
Sunnies; RayBan
Nail Varnish; Fools Paradise, BYS

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Plain and simple

04/02/2011 8:12 am \ 16 Comments \

I was thinking of calling myself Plain Jane today; but didn’t want to offend any Janes out there.  I’m sure Janes have suffered enough, having a phrase like that readymade and just waiting to be lobbied at them whenever they care to step out looking minimalist and unadorned.  In fact, the existence of the plain-Jane tag, whilst handy for the English teacher to demonstrate assonance, has probably caused a lot of Janes to go to great lengths to ensure they look fabulous and decidedly un-plain on a daily basis.  An example I look to is my own friend Jane who is one of the most glamourous women I know.  Sorry, Janes, I shouldn’t have even mentioned it…
When I put on this top this morning I was determined to wear it the other way around, with the buttons at the front.  After all, it is designed to be worn both ways, and I wanted this versatility when I made it.  But I decided I don’t really like it that way, and switched it around yet again.  I really should force myself to wear it the other way around more…   
Once upon a time, I would not have made nor worn something like this top, because I had a thing that a loose-fitting garment would not flatter my figure.  But really, what does that matter?  And what does it mean?  Looking through the pictures in this pattern book I could see that the girls modelling looked lovely in the loose comfortable clothes, and so I went ahead and made them up.  And the important thing here should be about how you feel in your clothes, as much as about whether you look nice or not.  If not, we may as go back to the days of the corset…
So, maybe today is a bit plain and minimally coloured and embellished, but essentially I am cool and comfortable.  In this kind of scorching heat; these are my priorities!

Details:
Top; top “b” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, white cotton
Skirt; my own design, charcoal jersey knit
Sandals; Vincenza from Soletta shoes
Necklace; from the surf shop on Rottnest Island (another souvenir of a great holiday!)
Bag; Gucci
Nail varnish; Revlon Crimson Sparkle
Sunnies: RayBan

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Some new stuff

02/02/2011 10:12 am \ 17 Comments \

Since I picked out some photos from Oregon yesterday, I thought it the appropriate day to wear and show the souvenirs I bought whilst there… and then I also remembered and pulled out this new top that I finished only just before we left on our holiday but didn’t get a chance to photograph for posterity.
The top is made from some of my Christmas fabric; a crushed shot silk from Fabulous Fabrics.  It is woven with a brilliant orange weft onto a bright turquoise warp.  It never fails to amaze me how such bright bright colours when interwoven in this way can result in such a dullish coloured surface.  As well, the fabric doesn’t look as glossy as I have come to expect with silk.  Because I am suspicious by nature I did a quick burn test to check if it really was silk or a synthetic masquerading as such, and it passed.  So I presume the reason for the lack of silky sheen is that the crushed nature of the fabric breaks up the surface plane resulting in smaller areas to catch and reflect the light at any point of view. 

The pattern is Burda 7834, a little top pattern Cassie bought and made for herself and which I snuck out of her collection to use for myself… because I liked hers so much, hehe.  She had cut out an 8 for her own top, but it was a pretty simple matter to grade the necessary areas up to a 10 to fit me.
So I really should do a review here of this great little pattern… buuut I’m not.  Sorry.  Maybe later.  Been feeling a little flat and exhausted since we got back actually… not sure whether to blame the heat or post-holiday let-down.  Or just me…
And you probably can’t tell from this photo above, but it is blowing a bonafide gale here.  Even standing within the sheltering boughs of this tree we are being buffeted about by insanely strong eddies… and I was really timing the photography here to coincide as much as possible with a lull between gusts to avoid looking too hilariously windswept.  Man, I’d forgotten how blustery it can get on the foreshore in the afternoon…
Oh and please note Sienna’s lovely new professional do.  She has had a visit from the mobile doggie beauty salon and especially wanted to show the results off here today…  Doesn’t she look absolutely gorgeous?? a bit better than the hack job from before, hehe.

The pendant on my necklace is a tiny real pine cone that is encased in gold.  Isn’t it beautiful?  I really don’t go for accessories in a huge way, but when I do they tend to be small in scale and delicate.  Large scale chunky jewellery annoys me big-time, and I have to force myself to wear the bigger pieces I do have.  I once read something in a Trinny and Susannah book about accessorising, where they decreed (as they do) that women with large bones should gravitate to large scale jewellery and small-boned women will feel more comfortable with small scale jewellery.  So maybe this means I have small bones; although I have to confess I’ve always thought of myself as tall and big-boned; with “child-bearing hips” as they used to say… so I don’t know really!
The earrings have stones in them that are called Mount St Helens emeralds, although of course they are not actually emeralds at all, but really made from fused ash from the volcanic eruption.  So, yeah, just regular green glass …  But still pretty, and uniquely from that part of the world.

Details:
Top; Burda 7834, crushed shot silk
Skirt; Skirt “m” from Unique Clothes Any WayYou Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, pink/grey linen mix
Shoes; Perrini, had forever
Sunnies; RayBan
Necklace and earrings; bought in central Oregon USA

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The two things together

06/01/2011 8:45 am \ 14 Comments \

I’m not sure if this outfit is too severe.  Perhaps.  But this is the thing; I wanted to see these two pieces both together as they were designed to go with each other.  Both being from the same designer.  Japanese designed clothing can often be very architectural and pared back.  And I love this sharp, slightly futuristic minimalism that Japanese designers offer.  And it’s a look that I think is very indefinably now.
So, yeah, here’s me trying to be all super fashionable…
Yet other times I’m romantically lacy and floral, and other times a bit sporty; thus the schizophrenic nature of my sartorial tastes… these very different styles are constantly clashing together in my wardrobe, sometimes meeting in a mishmash of an outfit for a day, sometimes donned in a pure distillation of a recognised style.  
Perhaps it’s just that I like to experiment in both my sewing and with my “look”.
Today I am purely Japanese.
Oh, except for the raggedy old hat (romantic)… and the tennis shoes (sporty)…
So I guess, not so purely Japanese after all! 

About the other pictures; I snapped these samples of the local wildlife floating past the jetty this morning.  Black swans, natch, our state fauna and emblem, and after which this river is named.
And the jellyfish… relax, these ones are harmless.  I learnt to swim in this river, as did my kids, and one soon learnt to gently swoosh them aside during swimming lessons!

Details:
Top; top “b” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, white cotton, first posted here
Skirt; skirt “d” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, silver crepe first posted here, I styled this skirt styled in 6 different ways here
Hat and shoes; Country Road

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A boxy little jacket; a refashion

30/12/2010 5:56 am \ 37 Comments \

I’m so pleased with this latest refashion that I finished just yesterday, that I just had wear it even though it’s really too hot for this time of year…
I took an old pair of too big, light cotton twill pants that my mother didn’t want anymore, and made for myself this loose unstructured jacket that I am now totally in love with…
I realise it may not be everyone’s cup of tea and I’m not sure Craig is very keen on it, but meh…  I really like it!
I first got the idea after seeing some of the Desigual designs, using old jeans upside down as the bodice of dresses, see below from Desigual.  I know, I know, mine doesn’t look much like this, but I’m just trying to illustrate where my original inspiration for this idea came from…

This is the pair of pants as they were originally…
I cut along the inside leg seams, not the whole way down the legs but just in the crotch area, and put it upside down to be used as the bodice of my new jacket; with the cut-open old leg/crotch seam as the new neckline.  The excess leg tubes were cut off to be used later as sleeves.   I sewed the jeans legs together for my shoulder seam…
Cut away some of the side seam for an armhole edge.  This was my first armhole cut, which is why the armhole looks a bit too small; it took some trial and measuring to get that armhole length perfectly fitted to the sleeve circumference (“sleeves” being the old lower legs above I just cut off)…  In trialling something experimental like this I’m a big believer in cutting away not-enough and then having to take away a little more, rather than cutting too much to start with and then regretting it…  (Horrible sentence, but I’m sure you seamstresses know what I’m talking about there)
I used one of these armhole cutouts to cut a triangle to fit in the V of the back, and sewed it in, mimicking the double topstitching featured elsewhere on the jeans…  Oh, I did have to unpick the curve of that back centre seam some and re-sew it to be straighter before this step…. again mimicking the double topstitching for continuity.  The top of this back neck edge was finished on the inside with a short strip of bias binding for stability.  As for the back; the curved part of the front crotch seam was unpicked a little bit and resewn to be a straighter seam, and then the V of the front neckline was folded in and finished also with double topstitching.
Set in the sleeves.  The sleeve hems are just the old jeans hems and were left intact for ease of finishing.
I topstitched closed the edges of those slanted front pockets, and removed the back pockets (now upside down) from the back of the jeans and repositioned them right way up onto the front of the new jacket.  See, the waistband of the jeans is still the waistband of the new jacket, and that fly can still be unbuttoned and unzipped for ease of taking on and off; just that it’s upside down now…
Et voila!
Details:
Jacket; my own design, refashioned from an old pair of light cotton twill pants
Skirt; my own design, based on the shape of Vogue 7303, black lace and black lace strips
Tshirt; Tbox
Thongs; Mountain Designs
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Summer armour II

22/12/2010 6:21 am \ 10 Comments \

Who said I’m a colourless dresser?  Sometimes I do don brights.  And when one has made the decision to go cheerful, well one may as well go overboard, no?  Well, to fully compensate for all the neutral days in between, that is.   As in, when I cast my eye back over the days here in which I have made the effort to take a photo they roll past neutral, colourless, quietly tasteful, a bit dull, then all of a sudden, whammy!  A bright day.  So today is one of those days.  A makeup day.
Did some more final Christmas shopping today.  You know, you think you’ve finished, a full range of prezzies for all in our fambly’s lives has been purchased and/or made and tucked away in secret hiding places about the house… then all of a sudden you remember some more people.  You know, peripheral people, that are not a huge part, but still there, and you would feel bad if you didn’t get them a little something.  So off I toddled, back to the shoppies yet again, and braved the crowds.  Although the crowds were still orderly and manageable.   I didn’t come home exhausted and barely able to cope with taking my shoes off before collapsing on the sofa, a usual symptom of Christmas shopping…  so I guess dressing to boost my self-confidence must be working some!  Right?
Now today is my husband’s birthday.  So we are having a quiet family celebration this evening and I am baking a decadently rich and stodgy chocolate cake for afters… just because we, er, haven’t been having enough chocolate in our lives lately?
Haha.

Details:
Skirt; modified Vogue 7303, raw silk
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Metalicus, birthday gift from my friends
Necklace; made by me, tutorial here
Sandals; Pedro Miralles, from Soletta shoes
Sunnies; RayBan
Bag; Gucci

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Summer armour

21/12/2010 8:10 am \ 11 Comments \

The summer solstice is today, isn’t it?  I think so.  Astrologically the day in which the sun reaches it’s southernmost point, and so the longest day of the year…
And am feeling the lethargy that starts to set in with the heat..  Some days I have a desire to step out looking all smart ‘n smooth ‘n super stylin’, but the need to be cool, that is, cool as in temperature-wise and not as in “hey, maaaaaan”, kind of a cool; wins out.   And just getting my daily chores done.  
Not sure which category this outfit fits into.  I do feel kind of coooool, in my kind-of-newish trench skirt and super-minimalist-chic cami.  But also feel pretty comfy and capable of facing some more Christmas shopping…
Today visited a few BIG chain stores to do a bit more shopping.  Was dreading it.  But, pleasant surprise; wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Maybe the crowds are more organised than me, and have finished their preparations already, or maybe everyone is holding back for a terrific onslaught over the next few days.  Maybe I was just lucky.  Or just maybe the hip dark toughness of my outfit gave me the confidence to deal…
Anyhoo, got in, found what I wanted quick and got out, with pretty much no attendant queuing.  
Win!

Details:
Skirt; Burda magazine 08-2009-107, khaki cotton
Camisole; Country Road
Belt; had since teenage years
Shoes; akiel, from an op shop
Sunnies; RayBan
Bag; Gucci

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Flat out

18/12/2010 2:07 pm \ 9 Comments \

Ahhh, delightful albeit exhausting day…
Up early for a long walk with my good friend S; but on a low note, I was saying goodbye to her as she is heading back home to NZ.  I’m very sad to see her go.  She’s a delightful lady; great company, sweet, intelligent and funny, and been a really good friend to me.  She’s a rare lady; a Kiwi who actually likes Australia, and says so.  That’s refreshing.

I can’t wait to plan my next visit to see her.
Later a mammoth shopping excursion for a Christmas do we’re hosting tomorrow…
And even later; well, my favourite shop, Fabulous Fabrics has been having a huge sale, and, yes I had to pay them a visit.  But it’s OK.  Really.  You see, I’ve been buying my family’s Christmas presents, from them to me.  It makes sense.  You see, nobody ever knows what I would like, although I don’t get what is the mystery as I can think of, like, a zillion things, hehe…   but, long and short, my family will be wrapping up lengths of fabric,  zips, lining and interfacing to put under the Christmas tree… it sounds a loopy thing but really it makes it all so much easier for everyone, and with the 20% off prices, it is sensible to be buying it now, rather than next year…  So thankyou, my loved ones., for lavishing me with an oh so generous stash injection; all in my favourite colours, perfectly co-ordinating with my current wardrobe, filling in some gaps…  Oh my, so thoughtful…
One needs to express a least a smidgeon of delighted reaction upon opening one’s own presents to oneself… otherwise it just doesn’t work right.  This is an important component of self-gift-giving.

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767 with minor design modifications here, cotton/linen chambray
Skirt; modified Vogue 7303, olive corduroy
Scarf; refashioned from old Tshirt, here
Sandals; Vincenzo, from Soletta shoes
Sunnies; RayBan
Bag; Gucci

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