Tag Archives: Spotlight

Leda and the Swan

24/02/2010 3:09 am \ 6 Comments \

What to wear when the forecast is for 38C, and your daughter requests that you both ride your bikes into the city to take photos of buildings for an architectural assignment?
Precisely.  After a hot exhausting bike ride you’re probably not going to look glamorous for your photo opportunity.  See below exhibit A, and please excuse the crumpled and bedraggled state of the model.
I know, I know, white lace again, but I needed something cool, loose and comfortable and this fitted the bill perfectly.
I’ll keep this shirt until it falls apart, I think.  Even then I’ll be inventing ways of patching it up so I can still wear it…  It was just made out of quilting cotton, about 3 years ago, as a kind of experiment, and it has been such a winner.  It’s so comfy, and I like to think it looks kinda nice, too…  I used New Look 6483 as a basic T-shirt, but added plenty of my own design variations.  I experimented with pintucking, puffy sleeves, and inserting panels of crotcheted lace for a Victorian-inspired look.
And my little white shorts, from Burda 7723, a great easy pattern.  I’ve made up this pattern once more and flared and lengthened the legs a little and I preferred that look.  These have been indispensable in my summer wardrobe.

Details:
Top; my own design, based on NewLook 6483, cream cotton and crotched lace inserts
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen
Bag; made by my Mum

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Reptilia; a trend

23/02/2010 2:23 am \ 4 Comments \

The last time I went into Spotlight my eye was caught by this:

Python print satin, well I got so excited and just had to buy some.  This sort of fabric is pretty much not my usual cup of tea at all.  Even my husband, on spotting it (ha ha) said, “That’s not like you”.  (Amazing that he should even notice the fabric I’m buying, for one;  impressive, no?)  
I think I’m getting caught up in the zeitgeist of fashion.
Does anyone remember these beauties?  Last year Prada sent these divine dresses down the catwalk, and if python print was available that season I would have definitely been buying some, for sure.  Prada has always been ahead of her time, a barometer for a future trend.  She’s a master at sending out looks that seem to catch up with the rest of us a few years later on, and it seems this collection was no exception.
Photos from Prada Spring/Summer 09
In my latest Vogue magazine imagine my excitement to see this, and this…
(from Bally)
Even Alexander McQueen, in what was sadly to be his last collection went all scaly-armoured.  Get a load of this, written by Sarah Mower for www.style.com
“Then the models came out, dressed in short, reptile-patterned, digitally printed dresses, their gangly legs sunk in grotesque shoes that looked like the armored heads of a fantastical breed of antediluvian sea monster. McQueen, according to an internal logic detailed in a press release, was casting an apocalyptic forecast of the future ecological meltdown of the world: Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves.”
Wow.  I wish I had that gift with words.  Instead I just have to let the picture do the talking…
Photo at left from Alexander McQueen, Spring/Summer 10
So, is my wardrobe going to become futuristic, fantastical and reptilian?  Well not completely, but I may be injecting into it just a little taste of this trend for autumn/winter…
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Carpet of flowers

20/02/2010 1:59 am \ 6 Comments \

Felt like going a bit flowery and feminine today.  We have this beautiful long row of pink hibiscus near our house so for my photo I rushed over to advantage of the local colour, so to speak…  I love hibiscus for their showy and yet elegant flowers, and their soft very feminine colours.  I only wish one could cut their flowers; imagine a huge armful in an old-fashioned cut crystal vase on the sideboard.  It would be so nice, but hibiscus are notorious for their bad behaviour once cut, they close up immediately and refuse to come out to play, one imagines they are sulking from being cut off from their bush…
I made this dress at the beginning of last spring, using Vogue 7748 as a basic wrap dress pattern but adding my own design details, for more technical information see here…  
The flower pin in my hair I made myself; it is just one of those silk flowers on a stalk from Spotlight, with the stalk cut off and the flower superglued onto a bobby pin.
My husband is working all today so I’m off to morning tea with a friend, doing girly type stuff like window shopping and looking at nurseries, thus my frilly floral ensemble….  Its nice to feel like a real girl every once in a while.

Details:
Dress; my own variations on Vogue 7748, floral polyester chiffon
Shoes; Micam by Joanne Mercer, Hobbs
Hair pin; made from a silk flower
Nail varnish; own mix of BYS Mint Condition and French White

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Fabric stores now off limits…

18/02/2010 4:13 am \ 5 Comments \

OK.  Yesterday I mentioned buying new fabric online and promised pictures today.  Well.  I took a picture of the linen I got from Fabrics-store (my husband’s shirt from yesterday is on the top):

I also got some Kaffe Fassett shot cotton from purlsoho, because I’ve seen this cotton in the flesh (cloth?) at Calico and Ivy so know for a fact how gorgeous it is, and it was so cheap compared to Calico and Ivy…!

Pretty excited about that fabric.
Then I remembered my fabrics bought at the post-Christmas sales at Fabulous fabrics.  I’ve made up most of it in preparation for my autumn wardrobe, but I also made a few whimsical purchases with no definite projects in mind, this is what’s left…

Even since my post-Christmas shopping spree I’ve also made a few random fabric purchases from both Fabulous Fabrics and the Spotlight sale for winter…

I also have this monstrous looking bag of possible re-fashions.  It’s presently coming in handy for propping open my laundry door and stopping it from slamming shut when the sea breeze makes its welcome appearance.  So it’s er, useful, of sorts? oh I’m just kidding myself, just looking at it fills me with guilt…

All of this fabric is starting to weigh heavily on my mind.  I think perhaps I should just admit defeat with some of the refashions bag and just donate it to the op-shop.  And, new rule, I simply CANNOT buy any more fabric until I’ve used all of this up.  Sure, I’m working through slowly but surely, but still…   from now on I’m not to even enter a fabric store, except to buy zips, buttons and other essential haberdashery, but ONLY to finish off stuff, and must not get distracted by any gorgeous new fabrics that will catch my eye and send me into a planning, designing frenzy…
Oh, and to tempt and torture me, fabrics-store sent me this swatch card of their available linen colours:

How yummy is that?  All but a few of these colours I think would look great in my wardrobe and would suit me…. sigh.
Oh, and something I’m very excited about getting in the mail a few days ago:

I ordered this a few weeks ago after reading about it on several of my favourite blogs.  I’m planning to work my way systematically through the patterns.  It’s mostly in Japanese, so will be quite a challenge, but the illustrations are quite clear so I think I’ll cope.  Stay tuned…

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Tea Cosy, specimen 12

14/02/2010 2:45 am \ 1 Comment \

Here is the tea cosy I made for my friend K for her birthday last year.  It is the last of the Roly Poly’s I made from the excellent book, “Wild Tea Cosies” by Loani Prior.
My friend K is the most highly organised lady I know.  She is also thoughtful, caring and considerate, and a really good true friend, in fact she’s one of those people that others are naturally drawn to and want to be her friend.
Photographed in her beautiful sleek stainless steel kitchen in it’s usual spot… 

Geez.  I may be going crazy here, but every, like every time I proofread my blog post before, and, er, frequently after posting too, I have written “form’ for “from”.  It’s like a conspiracy.  I swear.  A sly, devious, computer keyboard conspiracy designed to do my head in.  It’s getting to be kind of hilarious, in a slightly insane way….
oh, happy Valentine’s Day, all!  I hope everyone enjoys time with a special someone….  
We’re going on a romantic candlelit picnic down by the foreshore this evening, so I’ll post pics of my outfit tomorrow…

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Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate…

13/02/2010 2:25 am \ 4 Comments \

 Dug out the Bouchee dress again and am wearing it with my big wooden-beaded necklace.  Today the necklace is bringing to my mind a display cabinet in a chocolate shop; an array of glossy Lindt truffles, strung together with Maltesers and chocolate coated macadamias; with the silver charms like the crumpled silver foil unwrapped from their bonbons and tossed carelessly aside…
In fact I’m feeling today I look like a long tall glass of Milo, laced with rich chocolate-y goodness all the way up!  
Must be having a chocolate addiction “moment” and there’s only one cure for that one…

Details:
Dress; my own design based on McCalls 4454, chocolate cotton
Necklace; self-made
Shoes; la soffitadi Gilde
Nail varnish; own mix of BYS French White and Mint Condition

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Paint spattered ball gown

12/02/2010 5:17 am \ 19 Comments \

Since I mentioned my paint spattered ball gown yesterday, I thought I’d post pictures of it today, plus a picture of the dress that inspired me, to allay suspicions of “copying”.  (And just to clear up any misunderstandings, I am not a professional designer by any stretch of the imagination; I’m strictly an amateur who only sews for myself, and definitely not for money but for the love of it!)  And, new confession, I could have sworn my inspiration was a Dior gown, but I dug out my old Vogue magazine to check and it was actually a Dolce and Gabbana, so I’ll have to go back and correct yesterdays’ post…
So here is my gown….
There is a story behind the gown… the theme for the ball was “Happily Ever After”, so peoples’ costumes ran to fairy tales and nursery rhymes etc.  I wanted to do something a bit different as usual… In our marriage we have renovated several houses, and I have myself to date painted the interiors of a total of three houses now, top to bottom, so am pretty sick of house painting…  So for my “happily ever after” I’m dreaming of a world with the house finally painted and finished!!  What looks like a cigarette holder in my hand is actually a paint-brush, continuing the theme…
I used Butterick 4657, but altered the length to be a full length gown, and eliminated the sleeves and substituted the thinnest black satin ribbon straps I could find.  I laid out five metres of off-white satin on our lawn and literally spattered slightly thinned fabric paint (from Spotlight) directly onto the fabric and let it dry in the sun…then made the dress.  The separate petticoat is multi-layered black bridal tulle with triangular inserts sewn in around the bottom to get the puffiness required.
I hope I get another opportunity to wear this gown, it was a hit on the night and we laughed at my “happily ever after” as it was so relevant in our lives at the time…!

Details:
Gown; Butterick 4657 with minor variations, paint spattered satin
Petticoat; black bridal tulle, own design
Gloves; Dents, from David Jones
Shoes; Nina, from David Jones

Photos at left from Dolce and Gabbana, SpringRTW, 2008
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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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