Tag Archives: Skirt

unicorn

15/01/2019 11:32 pm \ 10 Comments \

So I’m knee deep in wedding-dress biz, which I LOVE, of course! but I took a little time out just to make something fripperous and frivolous and quick and easy, just for me.  Think of this as like a tiny serve of sorbet in the middle of a lengthy degustation…

Cassie bought this adorable rainbow unicorn printed cotton canvas from Spotlight for me for my birthday last year, and there was just just enough to squeak out a cute and totally age-appropriate little skirt, yay!!

I adapted Vogue 8363, an old favourite that comes with great pockets…  I didn’t have enough fabric for the pockets so I cut those pieces from a small piece of white cotton canvas from le stash.  Basically the pockets are this pattern’s saving grace for me since I rarely make use of any other of its features.  In fact, now I’m wondering, have I ever used any of the views in the pattern in the purest sense even once?? and I think maybe NO!  I’ve always tended to make a sort of cobbled together version that incorporates various bits of several views.  I like for mine to have; a) those fab deep pockets, b) a one piece front, and c) to open with an invisible zip along a centre back seam… and this skirt pattern allows for all of these things, with a bit of swift and sneaky pattern piece finagling.

Lining; normally I probably wouldn’t line a summer skirt, but in this case while I was trying it on in the process of making it I discovered the wrong side of the fabric had an almost indiscernible rough texture that somehow caused the skirt to stick to my undies and ride up slightly … yes! very VERY weird!  So I decided to line, and super-luckily I had the perfectly sized piece of mint-green lining in my stash already, inherited from my grandmother’s stash  …  my tips on making a lining for a skirt here

  I agonised over what button to use! this one seemed cheerful and not twee

Oh, and I made a new little T-shirt too.  I’d seen this rather gorgeous apricot-y pink, slubby cotton jersey in Spotlight too, seen it on several occasions actually and staunchly resisted it because… well because I have a rather, shall we say, substantial stash already?!  But it was soooo pretty!  and well one day they happened to have a cheap remnant sitting there, cut for another customer who changed her mind…  so in a weak-willed moment I snaffled it up!  Ooo so naughty.  But it was just such a pretty colour!  I assuaged the guilt by cutting and making it up immediately.

The pattern; my own, if you can give such a grand title as “pattern” to cutting out a few vaguely T-shirt-shaped pieces and bunging them together. I very much like the high boxy collar and the slightly curved hemline.

 

Now it’s back to the wedding dress!!  I’m posting progress shots in my stories on instagram, if anyone would like to follow along… 🙂

Details:

T-shirt; self-drafted, pink cotton jersey
Skirt; adapted from Vogue 8363, cotton drill
Sandals (above); ariel, from an op shop years ago
Thongs (below); fipper, bought in Bali on our holiday

When one wears one’s sparkly rainbow unicorn skirt, then obviously one must go for an elegant and graceful unicornly leap over some puffy cottonball clouds… 😉

So, if I am taking my own picture using my remote control and the timer I can time my jumps to the shutter click perfectly! I’ve got the whole process down to a fine art!  However, when I ask Craig to take the picture, this happens…

faaaaaail!!

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outback wife

01/10/2018 7:23 pm \ 70 Comments \

My dear sister-in-law S gave to me a length of precious “Outback Wife” barkcloth for my birthday… soooo thrilling to finally get a piece of this gorgeousness for myself!  I’ve bought other designs of this once or twice before as gifts for others but never for myself for some strange reason, I know not why … Because, oh my gosh this stuff is just so lovely, sews up like an absolute DREAM!!  I’m in love!  I’m seriously thinking about sneaking out to Calico and Ivy and buying more!  For meeeee!

I turned to my ol’ reliable, tried and true,Vogue 1247 for the skirt… my copy of this is now a little bit tattered, not surprisingly since this latest is version number 23, ahem.  I just counted, and wow, that’s a shock, even to me!  Yes, I really do need to move onto a new pattern…  A lot of my V1247’s have been straight, sans pockets, because to be honest, although the pockets in this design are really cool I actually don’t really use them all that much.  Very occasionally for my phone and keys and it’s very rare I shove my actual hands in them..  I worry about distorting the lines of the skirt and contributing to premature pocket sag.  And if there’s one thing NO ONE needs in their life, it’s premature pocket sag, am I right?   Quelle horreur!

But for old times’ sake, I put the pockets in this version.

I über-carefully cut my pieces so the print matches up practically everywhere, along both horizontal skirt seams, and as well the centre back seam, and even the waistband seams matches as well as it is able.  This took only a little bit of frowning and sighing, and moving my pattern pieces around more times than the most diligent of sleight-of-hand operatives, but it’s always a worthwhile thing to do, I reckon.  Otherwise, the not-matching pattern would probably bother me forever.

At the same time as I was making my skirt, I happened to notice in my stash two lengths of very thin jersey knit that I’d bought at the Fabric Store in Melbourne during one of my trips over there with Mum and Cassie, one a bottle green and the other in deep teal blue; both an absolute perfect match for the skirt!  It was meant to be!!  I quickly whipped up (k-tchaaaaah!) two long sleeved modified Nettie tees.  These are practically identical to each other, narrow neckline bands and wide sleeve and bottom bands.

It’s so funny to me, looking at these pictures.  See, S actually gave this fabric to me back in early June, yes, it was a very early birthday present!  and I made the skirt and two tees up straight away, like within a week.  And took the pictures of the tees on Bessie, though it was too cold to actually wear them at the time… then a few months later, early September to be exact, I took the wearing-with-black tights-and-boots pictures.  And did precisely nothing with those pictures, either.  As it happens, I’ve been in a bit of a funk over the past few months, feeling a little intimidated, like I’m just not capable or good enough, almost on the point of giving it up entirely.  Generally speaking, it’s been taking me a looooong time to write a blog post lately, like almost as long as to make a little dress for myself.   And so I’ve just been feeling… less inclined, and oh so lazy about it, to be honest; even though I want to write.

Anyway; yesterday, it was a perfectly beautiful day and we went out walking at the beach, and I wore the whole lot of them, the skirt and both the tops too.  Meaning, in my funny weird little world, a blog post must transpire.   Eeeek!  Quick sticks!!  so I gave myself a bit of a pep talk.  Just lay it out there.  With minimal fiddling.  Just spill, organically.   I mean apart from spelling.  I am as it happens, the biggest spelling nazi imaginable.  I roll my eyes on the regular, at the newspaper, at advertisements on instagram; at all the offending “your”s instead of “you’re”s and so on.  I’m sooo judgemental, the absolute worst, in fact!  But, I’m getting off track…  where was I?  Ah yes, writing without pause.  Letting the words flow, flying from my fingertips, of their own volition.  That’s what this is.  Stream of consciousness blogging, for better or worse.  Well, that’s what blogging is supposed to be, right?   It’s supposed to be a personal journey?  Just me, being me?  SO!  I hereby free myself of further worrying, right now.  Begone, thy treacherous feelings of inadequacy!!  Vamoose!  Whooooosh!!! And; this house, is clean *… I hope!

* … name that movie 🙂

  

Details:

both tees; loosely based on Closet Case patterns Nettie, thin cotton jersey
Skirt; Vogue 1247, in Outback Wife barkcloth
Tights; made by me, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

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a mustard raincoat, oh and a skirt too

31/07/2018 11:27 pm \ 14 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve made a new raincoat!

So, I’ve been wearing my pale pink Kelly anorak raincoat, made from a shower curtain, for several years now, it was undoubtedly my most worn garment of last year by a fair dinkum mile!  and it’s been such a trooper.  I love it so much, still!  However it is looking a wee bit shabby now… so I’ve been toying with the idea of a new raincoat for little while.  Getting nice waterproof fabric is quite a challenge in Perth, you come across it so rarely and I was wondering if I’d have to brave the scary gamble that is Buying Off the Internet.  Then I happened to be browsing in Homecraft Textiles during their yearly 50% off sale, and unearthed this gorgeously mustard-coloured waterproof fabric.  The colour was particularly exciting.  Something that actually suits me? that’s not black, or navy?!!!   Take my money!!!

Having said that… it’s not the most wonderful raincoat fabric in the world and I had struggles APLENTY  but more on that later.

Patterns!!  I loved the Kelly anorak pattern, and it did work really well for me as a raincoat, however I have this maybe erroneous belief that a raglan sleeve is better suited in a raincoat… I think that a rounded armscye seam could lend itself to a higher chance of leakage.  I could be totally wrong there though, but I just think it anyway.  I’ve been looking out for a good, raglan sleeved jacket pattern that would lend itself to being a good raincoat, but to no avail.  So I made my own pattern.  My previous, blue, raincoat was a pattern I’d worked out for myself; inspired by a cheapie old RTW one that I’d bought for Tim when he was a young ‘un, and which I’d inherited down the track as he grew out of it.  I devised some rather unusual pockets for it, and actually totally loved how they worked out.  I dug out the pattern, made the modifications to bring it into line with the shape I wanted for my new raincoat.  Everyone’s heard of the famous FBA… well I have no use for a full bust adjustment, but in a raincoat I could definitely use a FPA.  What is that? a Full Ponytail Adjustment, of course!!  I have pretty much never had a raincoat, rtw or me-made, with a hood that accommodated a ponytail comfortably.  The hood is always pulling back off your head and exposing your forehead, which is annoying.  I’m happy report that this hood is so far perfect!

I’d originally bought some soft tulle to line the raincoat.  I’d managed to get some soft netting to line my first, blue raincoat and it worked a treat, and I wanted something similar for this one.  But the tulle was horrible; just not soft enough and too scratchy against my sensitive snowflake skin after all, so I’d ended up ripping it out.  The raincoat is actually fine without a lining, because the inside of the mustard shell is a rather nice, soft woven stuff.

the white sports fabric seen in the pic is a ventilation panel, hidden underneath the upper back flap

The outside is laminated, actually the fabric could best be described as a lightweight, thinly laminated, woven cotton.  The plastic laminate was obviously downright hideous to sew.  For one thing, it had quite a sticky waxy coating on the laminate, which gummed up the needles, and the eye of the needle, making re-threading the needle a freakin’ NIGHTMARE.  I wiped the laminated surface with a lightly soapy solution before sewing, which did help a tiny bit, and occasionally wiped down the needle too, but it was still pretty bad.  When it came to top-stitching, well there was absolutely no way the laminated side up was going to move underneath the foot at all.  I cut strips of tissue paper to stitch over, and tore them away afterwards; fiddly, but not a difficult thing to do (above).

seam sealing, also a view of the fabric’s wrong side

Sealing the seams; I used a no-name seam sealer from BCF, a local boating camping and fishing store.  It’s supposed to be used for tents and sails I think, but it works beautifully for raincoats too!  I used a cheapie old paintbrush to work it into the stitch-holes, and seal everything thoroughly.  Since then, it’s been out in three very heavy downpours, and I’m happy to say has stood up to the task beautifully!  All the traumas, and it’s been worth it!  It’s early days, but I think I’ve found my new favourite wardrobe item!

Want to read all my tips for making a raincoat?  They can all be found in my original raincoat making post, here.

Oh, and I made a new little skirt too,  but it’s not nearly so exciting.   Well, I had a small piece of coffee-coloured, wide-wale cotton corduroy, leftover from when I made this dress, and when I was dyeing the fabric for my Sherlock Holmes jacket I’d also tossed in the coffee-coloured corduroy.  And it came out a nice shade of golden-mustard.  So I managed to squeeze out this little skirt.  It’s not made up to any real pattern really, I basically put an invisible zip at centre back, held the front and back up to myself and pinned the side seams and where I wanted darts.  Pretty lazy genius, huh?  It was a very small piece of fabric, and the resulting skirt was too short for a hem.  I edged the bottom edge with a chocolate linen bias-cut strip to finish, and the skirt is lined with pale golden polyacetate lining fabric, itself also leftover from something else, can’t remember what.

And that’s it… until next time!

Later edit: this skirt now has pockets!

Details:

Raincoat; my own pattern, made from thin, plastic-laminated cotton
Skirt; my own design, dyed cotton corduroy
Bobbly top (just above); Burdastyle 04/2014;111, details here
Tights; made by me, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

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a chattering of cockatoos

06/06/2018 4:29 pm \ 29 Comments \

‘Ello, cocky!

First things first, I have some very exciting news! For one month starting now, Spoonflower are offering a 10% discount on purchasers of ANY Spoonflower fabric by using the code “carolyn10” at checkout.  Pretty awesome, huh?!  I’m beyond thrilled to be able to pass on such a cool offer to anyone who reads this blog!

Now, if there’s anyone still left reading who hasn’t raced off already to scroll through the millionty-and-one gorgeous prints on offer over there….  my new outfit; and how gorgeous is this particularly amaaaazing print, huh?

my PS tute for making your photos coloured/B&W like this is here

Fabric: cotton sateen, the gorgeous print designed by su_g on Spoonflower. I was contacted recently by Allie, of Spoonflower who asked me if I would like to be a part of their roundup of “makers of Australia”… would I?! well of course I was totally honoured to be invited! and immediately raced over to Spoonflower to check out the Aussie offerings, and discovered there were SO MANY really lovely designs, it was super hard to choose just one… however I just kept coming back to this one and in the end couldn’t resist its humour, its artistry, and of course its Aussie tongue-in-cheekiness.

 The Andy Warhol-inspired portrait grid of the humble cocky, designed by by su_g on Spoonflower  caught my eye and made me laugh straight away; subtly Aussie, artistic, and witty with a bonus irreverent swipe at the serious art world on the side! So fun and actually it’s rather fabulous too, yes? those lovely bright beautiful colours, I knew whatever I made with it I just couldn’t go wrong! but ultimately decided its amaaaazing eye-catchiness would be the best set off by the most basic of simple shapes, a plain little pencil skirt, and rather featureless top… yes all very plain, all the better to perfectly showcase that chatteringly gorgeous print!

So, did you know that the the collective noun for cockatoos is a chattering?  other acceptables are a clattering, a cluttering, a crackle, and last and least excitingly, a family….  I like chattering, personally  😉 and did you also know the term for a group of seamstresses is a “scolding” haha!  Hilarious!!  NOT how we like to think of ourselves, usually!  Unfortunately there isn’t one for bloggers, as yet; but writers have a “worship of writers”… which is weird, no?!  But I digress…  #yetagain

oh, I also added two new pairs of black tights to my current stable … boring? yes… most worn things in my winter wardrobe? also yes…  I use black polyester stretch from Spotlight, the pattern is self-drafted.  My tute for how to make your own pattern for tights is here

Patterns: the top is pattern 4, the epaulette top, sans the epaulettes; from the Japanese pattern book “she has a Mannish style” by Yuko Takada… I’ve made this top up five times previously so obviously I love it!! here, here, here, this one for Cassie and lastly here. The skirt; so I keep calling this Vogue 1247 but really I’ve adapted and fine-tuned to the point where it barely has any of its original lines so I feel a bit of a fraud describing it thus. It’s basically just a very plain, darted pencil skirt with a straight waistband and central back zip.

Thoughts… so it does look quite a simple project… deceptively so! she declares with a dramatic twirl of her moustache!!   Just kidding, it really was; though I ended up deciding to take the annoying, time-consuming, but ultimately necessary step of tracing full size copies of all my pattern pieces; both sleeves and a full size front skirt piece, both back skirt pieces, and front and back blouse pieces… why? TO FACILITATE THE ALL IMPORTANT PATTERN MATCHING TETRIS, OF COURSE!!!  Given the size of those cockatoo motifs, which are actually quite large, well it took a little bit of doing, that’s all I can say…

My plan, in a nutshell; the back has a white dividing line down the centre back of both top and skirt; I knew it would be basically impossible to pattern match around the zip any other way; and then the front of both skirt and top has the opposite, a panel of cockatoos centrally aligned down the centre front of both top and skirt. Little bit of a difference twixt front and back, not a very obvious one…

I also carefully arranged the pieces so there would be a full cockatoo square at the lower hem of both skirt and top… I didn’t want for a row of cockatoos to be chopped in half! Same with the sleeves, and I also managed to arrange the sleeves so my favourite two cocky-portraits were the placed centrally on each sleeve.  Obviously I also wanted for the colours to be somewhat “random” and not have an obvious double-up between top and skirt, or either side of the skirt back… It was actually pretty fortuitous than I managed to get all this just how I wanted… super lucky actually… there lots of re-arranging of pattern pieces and sighing and brow-furrowing and even a short period of time when I thought I’d have to order more fabric in order to not completely stuff up *wipes sweat from brow * very fortunately I eventually got the layout I wanted!!

Hehe, I realize now that was a rather looooooong nutshell! with probably a lot of introspective agonising that makes no sense at all, but well; it does to me. In a much more succinct nutshell; laying out the pattern pieces took almost as long as to make the outfit!!

Construction; I fully underlined the bodice and the skirt with pure white cotton voile; bought from Spotlight during one of their “buy the whole bolt and get 40% off sales” I find plain white voile to be one of the most useful fabrics to have on tap, so there was that time Spotlight announced this oft-repeated sale when I took the bull by the horns and just went for it! The cotton voile adds some structure and body to the sateen, which probably doesn’t have quite enough on its own to be a fitted skirt, really.  The blouse could have gotten away without underlining, I think; but I opted to treat it the same for the sake of continuity, to give the top and skirt the same visual heft. The sleeves however, are not underlined.  And if deep hems are a sign of quality, then yay! ‘cos my hems are DEEP!!

Lastly, because I love to be reminded of the provenance of things, if I can then I like to attach interesting selvedge info on the inside somewhere, in this case, the left side seam on my top…

And lastly lastly, because this bit of awesomeness is really worth repeating… for one month from now, Spoonflower are offering a 10% discount on purchasers of this, or in fact ANY Spoonflower fabric by using the code “carolyn10” at checkout. If you’ve ever been even a little bit tempted to try Spoonflower out then maybe this small incentive could be that time?!

I hope you enjoy looking through all the amazing and gorgeous designs over on Spoonflower as much as I, and thank you so much to Spoonflower for this very kind, generous opportunity and offer!

     

Details:

Top; pattern 4, the epaulette cut and sewn from the Japanese pattern book “she has a mannish style” by Yuko Takada, organic cotton sateen fromSpoonflower, in a print designed by su_g
Skirt; the vestiges of Vogue 1247, kinda. Actually just a plain pencil skirt… organic cotton sateen from Spoonflower, in a print designed by su_g
Tights; my own design, black stretchy polyester… my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here

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white palm leaf lace

23/05/2018 1:22 pm \ 45 Comments \

So, we were going to Bali to attend our friends L&L’s wedding in early May… and I decided I wanted to make a special new ensemble to take away with me.  Not to wear to the wedding, because, well … is ivory still a no-no for a wedding guest? I’ve always thought so, but then I did notice a few white-ish ensembles at the wedding anyway.  So maybe times are a-changing…  but I digress.

In any case, I took a different dress to wear to the wedding.

So… this outfit.  Craig and I were planning some special dinners while we were in Bali, because this was a meaningful holiday for us for a reason totally unrelated to our friends’  wedding… it’s our 30th wedding anniversary this year! and the last time we were in Bali was for our honeymoon.  When we heard L & L were planning their wedding there, we decided we’d make this trip a kind of second honeymoon for ourselves.  And I wanted something new for the occasion  🙂

I bought the very unusual lace fabric from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, during my girls’ trip over with Mum and Cassie.  It’s quite a dramatic fabric, very stiff and with a “painted” feel to it… I will admit to a small “what was I thinking?” moment afterwards! but some of my favourite ensembles have come out of crazy, challenging fabrics, so I try not to let that impede the hurtling of the creative trainwreck at all…

I underlined throughout with a creamy cotton voile, that I bought from the Morrison fabric and clothing sale… honestly one of my favourite sales to go to here in Perth, though it is very much a lucky dip.  You can get amaaaaaaazing bargains, at the same time there can be a lot of weird and horrible stuff too that you simply can’t believe Morrison would ever use for their beautiful clothing line!  But it’s nearly always super cheap, so well worth a look in!  This creamy-coloured voile was $10 for a whole roll.  Awesome sauce!!

Patterns… the skirt is my regular ol’ standby Vogue 1247, lengthened, with the pieces spliced to eliminate the horizontal seams.  btw, Sanni asked about this pattern and how it’s keeping, and the truth is that it is indeed getting pretty tatty!!  I really should trace it on something tough to preserve it because it really is a winner and no doubt I will be using it, yet again!

The top is the Collins top, by Sydney designer In the Folds.  Emily put out a call on IG for contributors to a kickstarter to help her to get a print run of her previously pdf only patterns, and since she had been kind enough to send me the Acton dress pattern a year ago I wanted to pay it forward … the reward was this pattern! which of course I am super thrilled about.  It’s a pretty popular pattern, and I thought its exaggerated swing shape would sit out nicely in the stiffish lace, and make a cool counterpoint to a little fitted miniskirt underneath.  I underlined both garments throughout, with the exception of the raglan sleeves, which are just the lace.

Neckline bound with self-made bias binding, from the same cream cotton voile as the underlining.

To keep things light, I just trimmed all the raw edges inside with my pinking shears

The lower edges of the lace are just trimmed evenly with my rotary cutter, the voile is hemmed with a narrow, 1cm hem.

Skirt waistband; cut from a different piece of thicker, naturally crinkle-y, cafe-au-lait cotton, also bought from the Morrison fabric and clothing sale.  For closure on both skirt and top I used small mother-of-pearl buttons, found in Le Stash.

Do you wanna hear something funny?  See that trapezoidal piece at the back, lower edge of the top?  I cut that piece out upside down… with the palm leaves pointing UP instead of down like they are everywhere else… not once, but twice!   Once was bad enough, but I couldn’t believe my own stupidity when I found myself doing the same thing, a second time! *facepalm  and it was an absolute miracle I had a large enough piece leftover to cut it out a third time in one piece since I really had bought only just enough of the lace in the first place.  It is very slightly off-grain… but hey! at least it’s the right way up!!

wot is this pose then, eh?

So that’s it! I really reeeeeally love it, but then again I’ve always had a predilection for white lace things.  This one is not too sweet or “young” for me, but just nicely sophisticated enough, I think.  I wore it to two separate dinners in Bali, and the tropical feel of the palm leaf motifs combined with the cool airy breeziness of lace and voile in the humidity of Bali  made it the most perfect of perfect things to wear for our special outings.

Verdict; very happy  🙂

 

Oooh! before I forget! a post script/public service announcement… I recently received an email from the Great British Sewing Bee! *cue excited squeal when I had a split second of thinking they were having an Aussie version..  however sadly, NO…the email was to let me know that the next UK season is open to applications and asking me to spread the word.  I mean, if we had one here I would love it if someone let me know about it! so I’m like, OK!  Also, if we did have one here I would be SO onto that in a hot minute, and if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere where you do have these things, well what are you waiting for?!

THE GREAT BRITISH SEWING BEE is looking for a new collection of brilliant amateur sewers for the fifth series of BBC Two’s The Great British Sewing Bee. For more information or to apply please go to: www.applyforsewingbee.co.uk

Closing Date: Midnight May 28th 2018

  

Details:

Top; In the Folds Collins top, in a stiff lace underlined with cotton voile
Skirt; based on Vogue 1247
Sandals; (white) designed and made by me, details here
(turquoise) la Soffita di Gilde

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saving a little bit of sunshine

18/05/2018 6:29 pm \ 14 Comments \

So, once upon a time I picked up a lovely remnant of fine-grade sunshine-yellow linen from a sale at Potters Textile … and then at some point decided I wanted to make a yellow skirt.  I plucked this, my only piece of yellow fabric, from Le Stash; and selected Burda 2/2015;109, which I’ve been admiring and coveting for some time.  I traced it out, noted very happily that the pieces fitted perfectly on my piece of yellow linen with practically nothing to spare whatsoever, cut it out and made it up without much further thought.

And lo, it was horrible.  I can’t even begin to describe just how frumptastic it looked.  I didn’t even take a picture of myself wearing it, it was that bad, though I did have the presence of mind to force it upon poor Jane to model before taking the scissors to it again.

It actually looks quite nice on Jane here, but trust me, it didn’t look nearly so nice on ME.

I don’t blame the pattern, which I still think will be quite nice with the right fabric, of a stiffness and body that can hold its own with a pleat.  In a lightweight linen?  NUP.

Anyway, obviously I cannot bear to waste a lovely piece of fabric, and particularly one of such a sunny disposition.  And this time I listened to what it was whispering to me in its tiny, squeaky, linen-y little voice (yes, Virginia, fabrics DO have a voice) and realised that this delightfully lightweight loveliness wanted to be a delightfully lightweight, breezy little TOP.  Of course I granted its wish.  Who am I to deny a fabric its destiny?

Fortunately it wasn’t too difficult… the skirt had long long ties to go around the waist, and it was easy to open out the waistband and let out each of the pleats just a little, to allow what was previously the waistband to be an underarm band instead, and re-jig the old side seams.  I harvested what was remaining of the waist ties to be shoulder straps for my new top, unpicked the two big pockets, and re-cut one to be a triangular insert to go in the previous skirt opening to fill in that gap, and re-cut the other to be a big kangaroo pocket to go on the front of the new top.  By the way, the old side seams are now at the centre front and back of the top, and the previous centre front and centre back, which is where the big skirt pleats were before, are now situated at the underarm seams.  Finally I stitched a buttonhole and a button from my stash to the newly extended underarm band so it can close, since the ties are gone.

Et voila!  a bright and sunshine-y little top.  I love it in this guise so much! it’s hard to remember how sad and tragic it was as a skirt.  I took it to Bali, when we went there for L and L’s wedding – ah such a wonderful time we had!  I’ll have to write something about that here soon  🙂

note; Craig does not take pictures of me as a rule! but I basically forced him to each day we were away.  I’m like, but it’s me-made May!!  Reaffirming long held suspicions that the depths of the feminine nature will forever remain a mystery best left unsolved #instagramhusband  

Now we’re back home and  winter is creeping slowly into Perth and I’m reluctantly putting it away with the other little summer lovelies… but am happy to think it’ll be waiting in the wings, an cheerful little thing for when summer rolls around again.  🙂

Details:

Blue trousers; the Sasha trousers ,by Closet Case patterns, blue stretch denim, details here
Red cardigan; the Miette, in Debbie Bliss donegal irish tweed, details here
Clogs; designed and made by me, details here

Bali pics:

  

Skirt; variation on Vogue 1247, in a map print
Hat; Vogue 8844, made from old ivory corduroy jeans, details here
White sandals, designed and made by me, details here

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metallic silk damask skirt

15/04/2018 7:01 pm \ 21 Comments \


With less than 24 hours remaining until Tim and Kelly’s engagement party, I suddenly realised I really wanted to wear my new skirt.  Only problem was, the new skirt was at that moment a flat, albeit lovely, piece of fabric with as yet unrealised dreams and mere aspirations to being a skirt.  A potential skirt!

The fabric is really beautiful…  Cassie and I had seen it in Fabulous Fabrics and mutually admired it… then she secretly took it up to the counter and bought a length of it for me for Christmas.  Aah, my daughter is the most thoughtful sneaky fabric buyer, ever!  I couldn’t have chosen better myself  🙂 It’s a metallic silk damask; in the loveliest sunset-over-the-ocean shades of coral pink, gold, metallic gold, navy blue and charcoal, and I absolutely love the slight wonkiness of the stripes! although it did make stripe matching a tiny bit of a challenge.  I managed it, but!

I used an old favourite Vogue 8363, modified quite a lot as usual   This is a hall-of-fame pattern for me, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure I’ve ever made anything faithfully to the pattern, ever! but I’m totally ok with that.  It’s got great bones and that’s enough.

My nearly-always modification is to cut one of the fronts of the pocketed view on the fold, and the back piece with an added seam allowance to the centre back so as to incorporate a zip, and insert the waistband so as to have corresponding closure at the centre back.  Also, the shape is ever so slightly pegged, which I did not want for this skirt; so I cut the side seams to be straight below the hips.

Some other mods; well, I point them all out in my video below, but it is a non-speaking video, pretty boring maybe, sorry, because I’m just so awful at speaking, every time I started I’m immediately tongue tied… so I just didn’t.  Maybe I’ll get better at this and next time actually speak.  However, for those who like The Deets, they are, in the order shown:

  1. I wanted for the skirt front to be unimpeded by the visual distraction of a dart, but at least one dart and/or pleat is actually necessary in this design for a good fit and so you can shove your hands down deep into those pockets without distorting the shape of the skirt…  I moved the dart right over to adjacent to the pocket opening.  Actually, I fiddled with darts and pleats SO MANY times over, this final arrangement was probably  attempt number six, at least, but fortunately I am satisfied with this arrangement, at last!  Pleats looked absolutely dreadful… “boinging” out over my tummy in a most unflattering way, but the single discreetly placed dart looks nice. It gives a nice flat front to the skirt, visually almost dart-less, while allowing the room for your hands when shoved in the pockets.  Oh, please notice the perfect print placement on the pockets, as well as all the other seams too.
  2. I kept the double darts on the skirt backs, and put my deep forest green invisible zip in the centre back opening.  The skirt closes at the waistband with a bar hook and eye.
  3. I added a navy blue polyacetate lining, cut using another old favourite Vogue 1247, and folding the darts in pleats rather than sewing them down.  Zip and lining were both from my stash.  I attached the lining to the zip tape by hand, and staystitched and cut the lining in a square “box” at the lower end… I’ve written before how I’ve found this has practically eliminated the lining ripping at the lower edge of the zip, something that used to happen a lot with my skirts until I figured out why.
  4. The silk damask frays with all the speed of a raging bushfire, so first thing after cutting I hastily finished all the raw cut edges on my overlocker, using navy blue overlocking thread.  I didn’t have enough of the silk to cut the pockets in one piece and still have the print matching at the waist, where the print shows in the pocket opening, so I pieced the pockets to have a self-fabric facing, and the rest is in the lining fabric.

Oh, the party? did I hear you ask? thank you for asking!  Yes, so Tim and Kelly are engaged and we hosted a party for them last night.  I cannot take any credit for a great evening though, since it turns out that Kelly is a Party Organiser Extraordinaire, and we had the most beautifully styled and decorated party I think this house has ever seen! and Kelly made the most spectacular cake imaginable.  And look at this!

This has 150 balloons in it…!  and is the brainchild of Kelly, and the combined handiwork of Kelly, Cassie, their friend Georgia and myself.  We had great fun, and I feel so lucky that I’m the one who gets to enjoy it in my house!!

I’ve shared the below picture on instagram back in February, but have just realised I haven’t put it here yet, this was The Moment!  it’s been such an exciting time for our family and we are sooooo thrilled for our darling Tim to have such a lovely lady as Kelly in his life.  No doubt I will be sharing lots of wedding attire spam both here as well as on IG pretty soon…. fair warning!

I was pretty confident I’d have time to get a nice picture of my new skirt, and whole outfit at the party last night … BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! oh dear, *wipes tears of mirth from eyes*  obviously when one is hosting a party you’re flat chat … we took precisely zero photos during the party!  Kelly has already contacted me, asking if I took any, so we’re planning a little post-photoshoot of the two of them with the still beautiful balloon arch.  But I’m totally happy, still on a successful party high; we had an absolutely fantastic time, and I’ve spent most of today cleaning the house and it is delightfully spick and span again.  SO I’m even more happy!  Craig wore this shirt, Cassie wore this dress.  And this is what I wore!

    

Outfit details:

Skirt; Vogue 8363, heavily modified, silk damask, Vogue 1247 for the lining
Shirt; Burda 7767, white linen… originally made for Craig, it still lives on his side of the wardrobe but I tend to be the one wearing it nowadays!  details here
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp boutique

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Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: , , , ,

an optimistic splash of colour and sunshine

10/01/2018 1:39 pm \ 51 Comments \

Making this piñata, I mean… outfit was a random, didn’t really care about the outcome, “just because” bit of experimental fun… so of course it turned out perfect.  I love it.

So, we were going down to our beach house for the week between Christmas and New Year … and I have this teeny tiny dinky little sewing machine that I keep there and was thinking it was high time to give it a little workout.  Other than one other time I made a “real” garment, a pair of shorts, it’s been a strictly curtain-hemming and minor mending jobber.  btw, I gave those shorts to Cassie recently, she looks so much better in them!

This cheap little sewing kit that I bought from Coles a few years ago lives in the beach house too; it’s pretty much perfect…

So I packed some stuff to take down with me…. fabric, patterns, thread, zip and a button.  I even remembered white cotton for facings, and interfacing.  Who IS this efficient creature? I don’t even know.  Oh, and pompoms!!  Why pompoms??  WHY NOT POMPOMS, is more like the question!

I’d bought the fabric from the upholstery section in Spotlight last year; at the time I’d picked it up to cut so I could pay for my things at the cutting counter rather than at the all-inclusive checkout counter, which I had noticed on the way in was HUGE.  The things we do sometimes….  #stashenabler  Well played Spotlight, oh very well played…  I’m sure they sell a lot more fabric that way.  I’d also bought the burnt orange pompom trim a few years ago for something else that never got realised… I’d put them both in the “red” cubby hole in my new storage system and thought they looked quite nice together… so fortuitous!  My new system is proving itself already!

Clara says hi…  #soBIGnow

I chose the simplest and most featureless of patterns, because the super-loud colours plus pompoms is already a busy enough story on its own…  The skirt is basically Vogue 1247 stripped back; I lengthened it by about ?10cm? roughly… this pattern always needs lengthening.  Also, eliminated the pockets and horizontal seams, and flared out towards the hem a little more to be more A-line.  I think unlined summer skirts do need a little more flare to them, makes them cooler and breezier.  The top is yet another riff on New Look 6483, a great basic pattern for a simple shell with a whole lot of variations for the sleeve/armhole and neckline.  I’ve had it for years and used it loads of times.  This is view B, cropped a LOT.

Everything came from my stash; #stashbustingwin  and this button!  It’s been in my stash for so long, and there’s never been just the right project for it.  As soon as I spotted it again in my button bag, I knew its time had come!

My little holiday-house machine is so very un-serious, like using a toy sewing machine, you can’t help yourself but feel like you’re playing while you’re using it.  It’s so clunky and little.  It doesn’t even do buttonholes.  I actually tricked it into doing a sort of buttonhole, by careful zig-zagging, and manipulation of the stitch length and width, and careful realigning of the fabric to do each side.

I had so much fun making this crazy carefree little number!  I was on holiday, just having total fun with it, and so making it felt like a holiday too.  I think it even looks like a holiday!

  

Details:

Top; New Look 6483, cropped
Skirt; modified Vogue 1247
Clogs; designed and made by me, details here

my favourite bit… the pompoms!

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