Tag Archives: Skirt

Navy blue jacket

24/05/2010 6:13 am \ 7 Comments \

Digging through my winter wardrobe is producing some old creations…  This jacket I made about two years ago and wore quite a lot for the last two winters.  This year I looked at it a bit sideways, wondering if it would “do” for this year, but I think so…  Sometimes I feel as though this jacket is a bit “classic” for my taste.  I wouldn’t describe myself as a “classic” dresser.  I don’t know how I would describe my oeuvre, but it’s not classic…
This jacket is made of intense navy blue Indian silk hessian, I mentioned I used it here, for dying.  When I wash this thing the water is like ink.  Seriously, I kid you not…  I dyed a white shirt pale blue from the washings of this jacket once… yes, on purpose!  Amazingly the jacket is still as intensely dark dark blue as ever.
I had read somewhere that in couture jackets iron-on-interfacing is a huge No-No, capitals intentional, and they use a very light strong fabric instead.  So when I made this I decided to bypass the iron-on interfacing, as an experiment.  But what to use in its place?  I don’t know what they actually use, and short of pulling apart a couture jacket to see for myself I don’t know how to find out.  And is that going to happen?  No…!
In view of the clues “light” and “strong” I decided to try bemsilk, as both the sew-in interfacing and as the lining.  And do you know what?  It worked a treat!  It made the sewing process a bit more challenging as bemsilk is so darned slippery-dippery, but the jacket is, yes, it is light and strong, with no stiffness.  The beauty of the silk hessian is how it looks as smart and tailored as linen but without the very high crease factor.
The pattern I used allows for a lining in the shoulder/back area of the jacket but is otherwise unlined; I decided to line the jacket fully, sleeves and all.  And I’m very glad I did, not just for the warmth during winter, but also the aforementioned un-colourfastness of the fabric… all my shirts would have ended up with blue underarms if this jacket was not lined!!  Wisdom in hindsight!

Details:
Jacket; Simplicity4698, navy blue silk hessian
Skirt; Vogue 7303, bottle green cotton velveteen
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Metalicus
Stockings; Metalicus
Boots; Fornarina, from David Jones

 

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Cloudy with a chance of brights

22/05/2010 5:04 am \ 2 Comments \

Yes, (air fist punch) we got rain!  And lots of it.  And my favourite kind, overnight rain.  The garden doesn’t smell at all now … well, OK just a tiny bit, but not like yesterday.  When the timing of these household maintenance chores turns out so right, you can feel so undeservedly pleased with yourself at your own wisdom in hindsight…
Today I was a soccer Mum.  And popped into Spotlight to pick up a few bits and bobs to complete some top secret projects I’ve been working on…  got some family birthdays coming thick and fast in the next month.  Not to mention my own selfish winter sewing plans, well, since I started on the Wardrobe Refashion pledge to buy no new clothes, ipso facto I now have to make them.  This is no hardship since I love sewing, but I feel like I have about a million plans in my head, and am realistically only capable of producing a limited number of items each week…
All I can say is it’s a good thing my family is happy with simply cooked food with no fancy trimmings…
Speaking of good plain fare, the grey cardigan I’m wearing today is so old but so comfy, it’s like an old warm cuddly friend now.  Comfort dressing, the sartorial version of scrambled eggs on toast for dinner.  And whenever I wear this little mirrored pony necklace it takes me right back to when I got it, on my girls’ weekend away with my friends A and D.

Details:
Skirt: Vogue 7303, burnt orange silk hessian
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Country Road
Necklace; from some little shop in Melbourne
Boots; Enrico Antinori

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Ruthlessly cutting off 4 inches of python…

19/05/2010 4:04 am \ 10 Comments \

Something had been bothering me about this python skirt (first posted here) and I finally realised what it was.  The length.  It just wasn’t me.  I think skirts suit me best when they are either quite long, like mid-calf to ankle length, or above knee.  Just below the knee or sitting just at the knee is not a good look for me.
It’s a peculiar thing how a skirt length can suit some women so well, and just look frumpy and awful on others.  One’s OK hem length is a personal thing.  It’s taken me a while to work this out, and I’m realising it’s no good fighting this innate truth.  Once you have determined your OK Hem Length (let’s call this your OKHL), then it’s a good idea to stick to it.  Yes, hem lengths are dictated to us by current fashion trends, but every once in a while you just can’t wear it, no matter how fashionable it is.  It may be the OKHL for some fashion mavens but not for you.  Luckily the hem lengths of today’s fashion change faster than anyone can keep up with so any one of them will still be in keeping with a current trend from some design quarter…
Determining her own OKHL is every woman’s quest in her sartorial life.  It takes time and persistence and, yes, mistakes to get this right.  We’ve all had this experience.  You come across it in a boutique, the most fabulous skirt you’ve ever seen, has you racing into the changeroom with inner whoops of joy, already mentally buying it and the trying on a mere formality to see for yourself in the mirror how utterly gorgeous you are going to be in your new skirt… then it’s on, you look in the mirror, whoomp.  All your excitement evaporates at the hideous reflection of yourself in that skirt in the mirror.  It’s all …wrong.  You feel like it’s you.  The skirt is perfect, but its you who are not.
Well, my friend, at least half the time it won’t be you that is the problem, but the hemline of your fabulous skirt.  It’s just not your OKHL.
It’s no coincidence that a lot of the “re-fashions” I see on Wardrobe Re-fashion are simply either the shortening of a too-long dress/skirt or adding-on of strips of fabric to lengthen a too-short number.  OKHL’s are being realised here.
I feel a lot better about this skirt now.  What do you think?
Have you determined your OKHL?  What were your experiences in working it out?

Details:
Skirt; my own design variations on Vogue 7303, python print satin
Top; Metalicus
Shirt; from Tinga Safari Lodge, borrowed from my husbands wardrobe
Belt; from my cargos
Boots; Mina Martini, from Marie Claire

 

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Feeding the soul

17/05/2010 9:00 am \ 4 Comments \

Stopped in this morning at Samudra, one of my favourite-ist cafes, ever.  The ambience in this place is breath-taking.  They grow most of their own produce to make up the menu, enabling a guaranteed fresh and seasonal selection to chose from.  Although the attraction to me isn’t necessarily the food (I could never be accused of being a foodie) but the atmosphere; the abundance and health of the kitchen garden, the majesty of the surrounding trees, the gorgeous chairs and tables made of wood sourced from everywhere, so some furniture is of huge slabs slapped together any-old-how, others of recycled parts of jetty and fencing, and some of hand-adzed old logs, the randomness of it all is what is so charming to me.  The table decorations are always comprised of some sort of seasonal or natural offerings, today it was bright lime-green gourds heaped up about in casually artistic disarray.  It is such balm to the soul to just be there.  In an ideal world I would just go there with my laptop and sit there every day; order a “Jubilant Juice of Joy” (a divine concoction of fresh OJ, lime juice and mint leaves blended) and make this my office away from home.  If only….
This skirt I’m wearing is an oldie from a  few years ago, made using Vogue 7856, view B, and free fabric that a local designer was throwing out.  There was so much of this fabric I made another skirt and a jacket out of it also; I think it was free because the black floral screen-print was a bit scrappy in places, but I just went over the scrappy bits with a black felt-tipped pen (or Sharpie) where it was visible and that seems to have done the trick.  After I had finished the skirt I realised it went up quite high at the sides, way too high for a winter skirt… so I ad-libbed some wide triangles of black cotton to the side edge seams underneath for contrast, interest and modesty.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7856 view B, grey printed cotton, with black cotton add-ons
Cardigan; Country Road
Scarf; Luxe, from Uggys in Dunsborough
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggys in Dunsborough
Bag; Gucci

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Long n’ skinny scarf

10/05/2010 6:10 am \ 7 Comments \

Today is the first time I have showcased this scarf on the bloggeroonie.
I made this about two years ago when big woollen loopy scarves made a small splash on the fashion scene.  I bought three balls of lovely soft black wool, cast on 23 stitches and simply K1 P1 rib stitch until all three balls had been finished.  Sorry, can’t remember the brand of wool.  I think it could have been Debbie Bliss.  The result is a marvellously long affair that wraps easily three times around my neck, with plenty to spare for artistic looping and draping and for the ends to be left hanging loose (as here) or to make a loose knot if desired.
I’m also wearing in my new winter shoes.  They actually only “sort of” new; I bought them last October in the post-winter sales, always the best time to buy good quality winter shoes.  Since I’ve got very big feet I’m often lucky enough to find my size in the after season sales… well there’s got to be one advantage to having gigantic feet…   This morning is the second time I’ve worn them this season, and my poor feet are now a little tender; ouch!  Hate wearing-in new shoes; well I did fall in love with the witchy vibe of these little booties and plan to wear them a lot so this painful early stage has to be borne…
Has anyone got any tips for a non-painful wearing-in of new shoes?

Details:
Skirt; my own variations on Vogue 7303, lined, python print satin
Top; Morrison
Cardi; own design, snakeskin printed rubber coated jersey
Scarf; knitted by me, no pattern
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

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Bottle green Basic

08/05/2010 2:36 am \ 10 Comments \

I made a new skirt!
This latest is the result of wanting a little quick and easy skirt that I could just throw on for any occasion, something like my olive green corduroy skirt that is such a staple in my wardrobe.  Plus my desire to incorporate a little more green in my wardrobe.  I used to have a lot of this colour once upon a time, but my green options have dwindled somewhat over recent years, suffering from my obsession with neutrals.  Plus I had seen this skirt at right in the Celine parade and thought how great the bottle green looked with all the other creams, whites, beiges, caramels and other light neutrals in the collection, and as I have such an overabundance of aforementioned neutrals in my wardrobe I thought it was high time for a return to an old favourite.  Thus, green.
Having said all that here I am wearing my new skirt with no such light neutrals as displayed so gorgeously by Celine but with the wintery shades of teal and my new air force blue scarf…. ah, paradoxical, no?  But I like the look of the green so much with these “dirty” blues just as well, so this is how I am wearing it for today… no doubt when spring starts to sprung (spring?) then I’ll be pairing this little skirt with my beloved neutrals as planned…
Sorry for the old chestnut Vogue 7303 rearing its head once more on this blog.  I only bought 70cm of fabric and needed a pattern that could cope with such a small amount.  This trusty old pattern is getting kinda fragile and is patched together with sticky tape in places, and its envelope is dog-eared and tattered, but still I keep turning to it.  Besides its economy with fabric, another plus is its sheer simplicity; it took less than an hour to run this number up.
I am constantly vacillating between wanting to source new and exciting patterns for my wardrobe, and then when the time comes reaching for the same old basic tried and true patterns…  I like to do both and don’t have a set formula when it comes to choosing my next project but just work on whim and fancy…  What do you do?  Do you use a pattern once and then move on to the next exciting challenge, or do you keep returning to the favourites in your pattern collection, or is it a bit-of-both?

Photo above from Celine Spring/Summer 2010

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, bottle green cotton velveteen
Top; Metalicus
Scarf; refashioned from an old tank-top, here
Boots; Fornarina, from David Jones

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Knotty blue scarf

06/05/2010 6:56 am \ 8 Comments \

It’s been an embarrassingly long while since I did a re-fashion.  My big bag of toss-out garments is still sitting there, taunting me.  And this re-fashion is so … trite, it’s barely worth the label “re-fashion”.  Still, in my defence, there was not a lot of fabric to play with in this one, meaning, not a lot of re-fashion options.  But I like scarves.  And, bonus, I’m making a start on incorporating some air force blue into my wardrobe for winter.  Win!
So, starting with an old tank-top of my husband’s.  This is actually the top half of a pair of summer jammies, from a men’s sleepwear range brought out by Ian Thorpe the Aussie Olympic swimmer, that I’m chopping up here.  Sorry, Thorpie…

I simply cut off the top part of the tank-top at underarm level, and the bottom seam, for a raw edge.  The side seams were cut out also to get the raw edge, and the front and back remaining rectangles cut into three roughly equal width pieces.  (OK, very roughly…)

  
These were overlocked together, right sides facing.  When overlocking I also cut out the remains of that logo….  I didn’t use matching overlocker thread, but it doesn’t matter as these seams are to be hidden by knots.  

Where I’m knotting the sides are folded in slightly, just to hide the seam stitching, and simple knots positioned to hide the seams.

Et voila, a new air force blue scarf…

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303 lined, winter white wool crepe
Top; Metalicus
Cardi; Metalicus
Boots; Enrico Antinori
Scarf; refashioned from old tank-top
Bag; Gucci

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Denim, lace and burnt orange

04/05/2010 7:10 am \ 7 Comments \

Being a casual-ish, friendly sort of a day today I’m dressing to suit.  I had to do some work in the office (groan) but managed to squeeze in a quick morning tea with some friends and also a lunch with some other friends.  And the weather has been bliss.  So a perfectly looooovely sort of a day!
Today I’m wearing a necklace cobbled together by my daughter from bits and pieces, which I’ve borrowed in the past.  It includes a voodoo doll, given to her for Christmas present, a ballerina charm which I think we found somewhere, and her dog tags, from when we lived in the US.  She was awarded these dog tags for participating (they weren’t given a choice, btw) in the DARE programme running at the school.  DARE stands for Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education.  I should mention she was ten years old at the time.  Yeeah…  I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions from that one…
We are into that slightly awkward time of the year when the mornings are briskly cold, meaning boots and a jacket or cardi of some sort are necessary, but so warm in the middle of the day one is roasting in the aforementioned boots and jacket.  And this little orange skirt has been such a winner.  It’s amazing how such a bright in-your-face sort of a colour can turn out to be such a good mix-n-match item.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, burnt orange silk hessian
Top; Morrison
Jacket; Ezibuy
Gold necklace; had since teenage years
other necklace; put together by my daughter
Boots; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp
Bag; Gucci

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