Tag Archives: Skirt

“What a curious feeling…”

08/03/2010 5:01 am \ 4 Comments \

When I sat under this tree today I felt a bit like a gypsy-ish Alice in Wonderland.  I had this big solid tree comfortably at my back with its branches swaying and drooping, its canopy of foliage like a whispering crowd of woodland onlookers, I’m looking over a lake sprinkled with silent and watchful ducks and a couple of black swans drifting and foraging in the mud at bottom… all I needed was a cake and a bottle marked “Drink me” though the pool was not of my tears and I could see no dodo… my dog lay peacefully and companionably in the dry grass nearby watching me and waiting patiently for me to finish this strange early morning photography ritual… she’s a faithful soul.
I’m getting braver in my choice of colour combinations; a month ago I would never have worn this top with this skirt.  These golden jewelled sandals always feel so light, sparkly and frivolous on my feet, but the solid brown beads anchor me back down.  I need anchoring, to be reminded me I have a job to do and it’s time to check back into the office and leave my daydreaming for another day…

Details:
Top; Country Road, dyed with turmeric
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view B, multicoloured polyester chiffon
Necklace; made by me
Sandals; Anna, from MarieClaire
Nail varnish; Fools Paradise, BYS

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Orange skirt

06/03/2010 3:03 am \ 8 Comments \

I’ve finished a new skirt, as part of my autumn wardrobe plans!  It was a little delayed in getting finished as I debated whether to go and buy matching cotton to finish the seams ; yeah, HongKong seaming is my new passion!…. but I eventually settled for a bit of leftover print in my scraps bag (you may recognise it as the remains of the floral skirt I’ve been wearing a lot past summer).
It’s using Vogue 7303 again, cut short and lined.  This is a plain pattern but one I turn to over and over as it fits me so well, and I really wanted this skirt to be a plain unadorned little number to add a splash of bright cheery colour to my wardrobe, I think I got it, no?  Most of my encounters today resulted in a complimentary comment, so I’m very happy with it!

Skirt; Vogue 7303, lined, orange hessian silk
Top and ballet wrap; Metalicus
Sandals; op shop
Backpack; my son’s, souvenir from Santa Fe

 

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Riverside situation

04/03/2010 4:27 am \ 7 Comments \

Little adventure this morning.  Lately I’m in the habit of combining my two early morning tasks of dog-walking with taking my photo, if I’m planning to take one that day, that is.  I have my camera, tripod and the shoes I’m planning to wear the remainder of that day in a backpack, I take Sienna with me and stop somewhere picturesque and set up for a few minutes.  Well today, I’m out on this tiny jetty and it’s quite windy, I’ve got the tripod shored up between a pillar and the backpack to prevent it from blowing over (yeah, it was windy enough that that was a real risk!) and next thing I know, whoosh! my tripod bag is now floating in the river about five metres away.  Bob bob bob, it goes, taunting me,  out of reach.  I look at it with despair.  Should I abandon modesty and wade out to it?  No, the river is over thigh deep at that point…  Sienna is no bloomin’ good at all, she may look pretty but that’s as far as her usefulness goes.  Fetch, she does not do…  I look about for a handy young man jogging in his shorts who may gallantly help me out, but I’ve chosen my time well and there is absolutely no-bloomin’-one in sight AT ALL.  No canoe-ers.  I’ve got the foreshore to myself.  Usually this is a plus as I’m shy about taking my own photo if anyone’s about, but this time I could really do with a helpful man… (couldn’t we all…?!, joking, I’ve got my own man, but he’s gone to work early, dammit)
So I hightail it home, dragging Sienna, not allowing her to sniff or socialise, and luckily my eldest two are still around, and my daughter, never shy of an adventurous stunt, immediately dons bathers and we drive back down, she swims out, it’s about twenty metres out by now, and rescues the tripod bag…
As the song goes, thank goodness for little girls…
As a anticlimactic afterthought, my hat.  It’s newish, well on its maiden voyage anyhow (like my tripod bag).  I bought a single ball of this yummy wool at anny blat at their shop in Paris when we were there six years ago.  I finally made this beanie last year from my own design, just cast onto four double-ended needles and made it up as I went along.  I’m going to make myself wear hats more often.  I wish they were more in fashion.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, fabric handwoven by my Mum
Top; refashioned from husband’s old workshirt, my own design
Scarf; Country Road
Shoes; Timberland, bought in Rome
Cloche; annyblat yarn, my own design

 

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Head to toe, turquoise

27/02/2010 1:57 am \ 7 Comments \

Turquoise.  Lashings of it.  This outfit brings back to me cerulean memories of Santorini and all its abundance of charm.  The vivid sea, the stark and yet rustic houses.  Most beautiful holiday, ever.
(The extremely strong wind that we had this morning also was a reminder of that holiday, I am completely wind-blasted in this photo….)
I can remember a saying from when I was growing up; “Blue and green should never be seen”  Be seen together, that is.  I guess it was a fashion faux pas back in the day.  Seems needlessly restrictive nowadays as colour combinations wax and wane in popularity faster than a monthly Vogue can keep up and it seems anything goes in the fashion world.  And what about lovely turquoise?  Somewhere in between blue and green, vacillating back and forth, a tonally peaceful companion to both.  Today I’m wearing my latest turquoise skirt with blue, and a bit of green, just to be daring (ha ha)…  I think it looks OK.
Sewing notes about the hem; when I made this skirt I didn’t initially purchase enough fabric to make the length called for in the pattern.  Didn’t really matter, as I wanted a shorter skirt than that anyway, but when it came time to hem I realised I didn’t even have the length for a decent hem, or at least one that was going to leave me with a decent skirt!!.  
So I did this: using some matching turquoise cotton I cut a 7cm strip of bias, after pressing 1cm over on each side I had a 5cm hemming band.  This I attached to the lower overlocked edge of my skirt with a 1cm seam allowance.  I pressed this up directly on the skirt/bias tape seam and invisibly handstitched the hem down at the top of the bias tape.  Voila.  Hem is now acceptably deep.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1023 view C, shortened, turquoise polycotton
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Metalicus
Sandals; lasoffitadi Gilde
Bracelet; jade and silver, gift from my parents

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Turquoise pencil skirt

19/02/2010 6:07 am \ 8 Comments \

I’ve made this skirt for my autumn wardrobe, but thought dang it! I’m wearing it today.  Well, with a temp of 30C it’s finally cool enough to wear something like this, and I thought, what the hey, I’m going to the beach!  I was hoping the sand was cooler so there won’t be so much danger of burning one’s toes.  And I was right.  It was gorgeous at the beach, and I had a swim after taking my photos.
Instead of turning to my tried and true Vogue 7303 I plucked out a different pattern from my collection, a real oldie, this one dating back from my teenage years, I think.  It’s Vogue 1023, no doubt out of print by now.  I’m vaguely certain my mother made the long version of this for me to wear for my school concert band formal dress…  Anyhoo, decided from the cover illustrations to make version C, took out all the pattern pieces and was quite disappointed to find the pocket piece and the waistband piece were missing… not devastating enough that I couldn’t work these out for myself, but a little sad to see it wasn’t intact any more…
I selected this fabric for its colour, I really wanted some punch for autumn.  (Please note I’m trying to inject a little colour in my wardrobe!)  
I love it.  Not feeling quite brave enough to pair with other bright colours yet and playing it safe today with a white shirt, but I’m sure I’ll get over that…

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1023 view C, shortened, turquoise polycotton
Top; New Look 6252, white seersucker
Necklace; from the surf shop on Rottnest Island
Nail varnish; own mix of BYS Mint Condition and French White

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Gelato colours

09/02/2010 3:05 am \ 5 Comments \

When wearing pastels, especially head-to-toe, one is in danger of looking sticky sickly sweet.  Additionally if the silhouette is too “safe” you may come across as grandmotherly or queen-motherish.  An outfit of this type needs some elements of hard-edge or rawness to save it; my ensemble here(worn yesterday) has a tweed skirt, a pink camisole and a little cardigan, all in safe pastel colours, so has all the sweet little old lady boxes ticked off right there.  Not my ideal look, obviously.  I think my normal style is aim for a little deconstruction, not too polished.  But I’m still liking this look here.
I think it’s the unfinished fringe on the edge of my skirt and the raw edges of my cardigan that save it from being too pretty and ordinary and give the outfit that little zing of deconstruction that is needed.  Although raw edges are seen everywhere now and hardly put you in the punk category anymore.  Perhaps it’s also my jade green pedicure that also adds that necessary unexpected note.  And my necklace, while composed of shades of pretty pink, has a kind of random twisty-ness quality to it.
So, “pretty in pink”?  Not what I’m aiming for, but chic enough to pass muster, hopefully.

Details;
Skirt; Vogue 7303, fabric handwoven by my Mum
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; own design, coffee and white net
Necklace; own design
Sunnies; RayBan
Shoes; op shop
Nail polish; own mix of BYS French White and Mint Condition

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Khaki and lace

06/02/2010 4:54 am \ 4 Comments \
Today I look a little like I’m on safari.  Hilarious, considering the only wildlife around the beach here is birds, possums, the odd bobtail and Sienna.
I know I showcased this olive skirt only recently, paired with a rainbow of colours; but I just couldn’t resist pulling it out again.  Here it is in a neutral ensemble and complemented by all the soft subtle colouring that distinguishes the coastal palette.  Smudgy khaki and browns have always been my best neutrals I think.  I used to have a whole bunch of khaki clothes I took to Africa with me in the top of our wardrobe which have now inexplicably disappeared.  Surely I couldn’t have thrown them out?  That would be extremely idiotic, even for a forgetful airhead like me.  Not impossibly idiotic, though…
My cream lace top is another old favourite that is more interesting than it appears from a distance; having lace strips sewn randomly all over and lovely old buttons.
My nail varnish is a colour I mixed up myself, after seeing a similar shade in a magazine editorial and immediately thinking “want”.  Aiming for a light jade green I used mostly BYS French White with a little bit of BYS Mint Condition thrown in.  Does anyone else mix their own nail varnish at all?  I found it trickier than I thought.  I recommend mixing only enough for one coat, then mixing the second coat when you need it; as the varnish dries so quickly you’re faced with a gluggy difficult-to-apply sludge by the time your first coat dries… of course I could have just paid ten times as much for the designer colour already mixed and saved myself the hassle, but that’s just no challenge to a DIY-er like me….
Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy
Top; Butterick 4985; cream broderie anglaise cheesecloth with cotton lace overlays and crotchet tie
Overshirt; bought from Tinga Game Lodge, South Africa (stolen from husband’s wardrobe)
Belt; stolen from husband
Shoes; op shop
Bag; made by my Mum
Nail varnish; self mixed, using BYS French White and Mint Condition
(David Attenborough-style whispered voiceover) “Here we have a dangerously cute specimen which may attack without warning, smothering its victim with excessive licking… may mercilessly flay an unprepared observer with its wildly whipping tail…  give this beast a wide berth”
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Wardrobe Refashion, project 5

05/02/2010 7:00 am \ 12 Comments \
Has anyone seen the Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2010 collection, a parade which included what looks like Frankenstein-ed business shirts jammed together in magnificent artistic disarray, at left; sigh, pure gorgeousness incarnate, no?  I think Vivienne Westwood is a design genius, and this is not the first time I have sighed lustfully over her collection.  In a further enticement I also spotted and was mesmerised by this sculptural and beautiful shirt-monster, at right, which I found on outsapop.
Obviously for my own wardrobe I need to tone down the overall excessiveness of these extreme looks, as I live and operate in a fairly conservative little community where artistic fabulousness is likely to provoke tears of hilarity rather than admiration; but I felt so inspired by these examples I wanted to attempt my own version.
Enter; three old business shirts belonging to my husband, which had been put in my “fabric” trunk many years ago.  Don’t remember now exactly why I decided to hang onto these, but I must have had an inkling that they would come in handy one day…
I didn’t take any photos during the construction process this time.  However, the sleeves used for the top have been shortened to be ¾ length, which I think is a more feminine look and I used the collar of one shirt to make a partial attached belt to bring in the back of the top and give it a bit more shape and definition as well as to bring in this fabric colour to the top.  The skirt is comprised of two layers formed by the bodies of the two remaining shirts.  I made a bias binding of some of the leftover fabric to bind the waistband of the skirt which has a single button closure at the left waist, and saved the sleeves of the short-sleeved shirt to make the inserted pockets (see details below)  I really love the final outcome, satisfies my “waste-not-want-not” instincts whilst also looking kind of shabby/trendy and still undeniably unique all together…  I confess it did turn a few heads when I went grocery shopping in town this morning but I’m hoping it was in a good way.  Nobody was pointing and laughing and I take this as a good sign.
Details:
Skirt and top; re-fashioned from three old business shirts
Shoes; Country Road
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