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dark chocolate suedette

04/03/2016 6:28 pm \ 38 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new little top. And I’m so happy with it in my outfit! far more than I thought I would be 🙂 Making the little top was almost a spur of the moment thing… see, I’m going out tonight and a few days ago suddenly started to think seriously; what smart/casual outfit with shoes would fit my Year of Handmade? I’ve got tonnes of lovely dresses but didn’t think any of my current handmade shoes would cut the smart/casual mustard with any of them… aaah first world problems! anyway long story short; bit of brainstorming later and dreamt up this outfit. Had the skirt and the shoes already and just needed the top to pull it all together and be the icing on the cake… or should that be the chocolate topping on the cream? Probably.

The neutral colours with a variety of textures in my outfit are very pleasing to me: the suede-y deep chocolate brown vs. smooth glossy creamy-ivory satin skirt, vs softy fluffy chocolate and ivory felt in my shoes. And smooth pine for the base of my shoes. I feel rather modern and new-age cool. Almost trendy. LOL! Yeah, funny thing; it’s been a long while since I’ve felt this sharp in my handmade clothing!!.

The fabric in my top is faux suede, from the Fabric Store in Melbourne, bought during a trip there with Mum and Cassie. I have loads left too… not a bad thing since it’s kinda gorgeous!

Pattern; Crop Top 127, from Burda magazine 2/2015. It’s quite a cute little design, boxy with lots of straight choppy lines long and dramatic diagonal darts at the front and boxy angular sleeve seams. And then the smooth curve of a high-low hemline to break it up. The bias-finished armholes and neckline are clean and neat. I do like a bias finished edge! I used black cotton for this since I didn’t have any chocolate brown. The top as per the magazine is completely open at the back! instead I chose to seam mine, leaving a slit with a little button and loop closure at the top. I covered my embroidery cotton loop with tightly spaced blanket stitching along its length, so it’s strong and neatly finished.

Adjustments; the pattern is in petite sizes, and in the past I’ve found that the Burda petite bustline sits just a little high on me … I lowered mine very slightly just by making the dart shorter. I also added 6cm in length to the bottom hem all round, because it looked like it was going to be a tad on the too short side. And I’m so glad I did!!! It would have been waaaaaaaaaay too short on me! Even at this lengthened version, I feel in constant danger of exposing the underthings. Have to be careful not to lift my arm up too high! I’m wearing my mocha Sierra bra though, which I think is a good fit for this expose-errific top… why? because it’s brown, and quite a longline bra and also since I made it very very plain it actually reads more like a cropped camisole than a bra, if anyone happened to glimpse it. So I’m glad I’ve got that already too. Honestly, everything in the outfit matches just like they were all made intentionally to go together. I feel very harmonious 🙂

Smart casual outfit? that pleases me? fully handmade? Tick, tick, and tick!

Details:

Top; Burda magazine 2/2015; 127, chocolate brown suedette
Skirt; Burda magazine 02/2014; 106; cream satin, details here
Shoes; handmade by me in wool felt and pinewood, details here

Posted in: fashion, sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda magazine 02/2015/127, daily outfit, pattern review, top

set de la tree frog

15/01/2016 1:24 pm \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

My new lingerie set is inspired by the red-eyed tree frog. Yes, really! and this is my “thing” for Jungle January, the fun yearly challenge set by Anne of Pretty Greivances.

Deja vu!! because last year I also made underdaks, also froggy-inspired.

photograph credit, Carey James Balboa; source

So, hello there, Agalychnis callidryas. This little cutie is native to the rain forests that extend from Mexico down through Central America to Columbia… and thank YOU, Wikipedia. Also according to Wikipedia, its name callidryas is derived from the Greek for beautiful wood nymph. So while I am wearing it I shall imagine myself as a … bwahaha, I’m joking of course, I cannot even type that with a straight face. Lol.

It’s an exquisite little creature, is it not? the colours are quite magnificent. So bright and vivid and with those eyes; big, round and true scarlet, with a vertically aligned pupil. I positioned my two-hole buttons accordingly, and used black thread on purpose to mimic that.

Well I reckon it’s the attention to the whimsical detail that becomes the most fun thing about making your own clothes!

Actually this was all a bit fortuitous… I kinda forgot about Jungle January, then Sue posted her dress and I was like doh! Jungle January! aaaaaagh! but as it turned out, I’d only just cut all the lingerie pieces of green jersey, like the night before. I’d managed to squeak these pieces out from the leftovers of a Tshirt… anyway, I looked at the colour and immediately thought “frog!”

So, with the perfect colour fabric (Fabulous Fabrics), plus it was already cut out and ready to go, I already had the blue fold-over elastic, navy blue underband elastic and the red buttons in Le Stash… so I just needed to dash out to Homecraft Textiles for some orange fold-over elastic; bob’s your uncle.

squeezing all details into one picture…

Patterns; both knickers are the Watson briefs and the bra is my favourite pattern, MakeBra 2610. This is hands down the most wearable of the bra patterns in my collection.

Oh, I mentioned the lingerie set was leftovers from a Tshirt? well, now seems a good enough time as any to blog about that too. Lime green jersey from Fabulous Fabrics, pattern is the Nettie byCloset Case patterns, my go-to Tshirt pattern. It’s actually way too hot for me to really wear it right now, it’s 37C phew! so this is like a 20 second photo shoot happening here. I bought this fabric at the same time as the black-and-white striped fabric for this recent skirt, because I reckoned they’d be kind cool together, Tim Burton-ish, in a good way.

Actually, this project is pretty funny to me; see, the Tshirt was really my primary objective, because I wanted more colour options in my Tshirt department… the lingerie was cut out just as a “oh, what the hey” afterthought because the fabric was already out. In all likelihood the pieces would have got shoved away like the three other unmade lingerie sets I’ve already cut out under the same circumstances…. oops! must make those too… *blush*

Then Jungle January breathed inspiration into those scrappy bits, and I got all excited and super focused and enthused about making the lingerie and it became a much bigger deal in my head… I almost forgot about that Tshirt!

Later edit; I eventually got tired of the Tshirt’s lime-green colour and dyed it brown, now it’s a delightfully sludgy shade of olive!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Closet Case files, cloth habit, jungle january, lingerie, makeBra 2610, Nettie, top, watson

Issey Miyake blouse

23/09/2015 3:35 am \ 50 Comments \ Carolyn

Continuing my trip down nostalgia lane, I’ve made the top from my 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693…

Fabric: a lightweight, fully embroidered cotton voile in pure-as-the-driven-snow white, a remnant from Potter’s Textiles. I had barely enough fabric to squeak out the pattern pieces, and had to lay the belt and front bands across the grain. Since they are interfaced I don’t think that’s going to affect the efficacy of the blouse too drastically. Lack of fabric forced me to cut the armhole facings from a different white cotton from my stash, provenance long forgotten. White buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.

I’d half forgotten how much I love this blouse pattern but it all came flooding back over me in a happy sentimental wave during the construction of this new blouse. The finishing instructions are wonderful with a truly great attention to detail that you rarely see in a pattern any more; all raw edges are neatly hidden away, either under flat felled seams or neatly turned under and top-stitched down on either side of a seam.

The style is also very much my cuppa tea; loose, asymmetric, interesting. It closes with just two buttons on a gently diagonal crossover front and two crossed belts at the back pull the blousiness in to the small of the back and help define your shape quite nicely.
Happiness scale; 10/10 Say no more!

Details:
Blouse; Vogue 1693, embroidered cotton voile
Trousers; own design, very old, white linen

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: issey miyake, top, vintage pattern pledge, Vogue 1693

snuggly chocolate-y ensemble

03/09/2015 7:25 am \ 32 Comments \ Carolyn

True to form, right at the beginning of spring I’ve made a rather wintery ensemble for myself. Typical! 😀
No, actually Mari from Seamster Patterns contacted me again asking me to take part in the second and last part of the SewIndependent month and as luck would have it Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater dress was one of the patterns available. I’ve had my eye on this pattern thanks to Megan’s and Sue’s versions. We’re all Perth girls so how fun would it be if we all met up wearing our matching Jaspers, hehe. For my Jasper, I decided get some of this lovely chocolate-brown marled knit from KnitWit, which I have also had my eye on for some time but been unable to justify the purchase. It’s gorgeous stuff. Soft and springy and slightly fluffy and ever so snuggly. With yet another little bout of luck, I discovered it was on sale for half price. The advantages to shopping at the end of the season! Booyeah!! *does an almighty air fist pump, although only mentally because the lady in the store would have thought I was bonkers*
I made up the dress version with collar, and left off that buttoned placket thingie. I was a little doubtful about how the curved-in nature of the skirt would look on my pear-shaped self, and so I cut the pegged portion edge of the pieces from hip level down to flare out straight and slightly A-line, rather than curving inwards. I think this silhouette is far far better on me.

I also left off the lower band and simply hand-hemmed the lower edge instead… this gave me a little fabric leftover, and so I decided to use this to make a kind of mini-slip to wear underneath the dress, so it’s like a set. My “slip” is the simplest affair; comprising a “skirt” cut from the chocolate brown knit attached to a “singlet” cut from cream-coloured poly stretch knit. I vaguely used the Nettie bodysuit pattern for this bit; cutting it wider and looser, the armholes quite a bit deeper and wider, and gave a random mid-point scoop to the neckline, to get more of a singlet shape at the top. I finished the armhole and neckline edges using a self-fabric band and hand-hemmed the lower edge of the skirt.

I originally had high-flown ideas of adding a few faux leather details to my ensemble, thanks to a quiet ongoing little love affair with pleather detailing; and so I did the tunic welt pockets in pleather. Also partly for the extra stability it lends to the welt. I think they turned out rather well, and aesthetically I LOVE how the shiny smooth pleather contrasts against the fluffy softness of the knit.

To visually tie the two pieces together, I then proceeded to finish the lower edge of the slip skirt with pleather binding. I cannot stress enough how hideous this turned out; the pleather was so stiff and structural compared to my soft and super-flowy chocolate knit that it made the hem of the skirt flare stiffly and super-duper-unattractively. No sooner had I finished it, put it on and laid eyes on it in the mirror than I seized the scissors and cut that bit off; ahem, taking absolutely no pictures to assault the eyes. Trust me, it was just too awful for words. So now, the welts are the only lonely bit of pleather appearing anywhere on the ensemble; nowhere else to balance it out. I’m a little disappointed, but think it doesn’t look too ridick. Maybe a bit. Anyway, it’s done, so yeah. There’s no point in getting too upset after the fact.

LOVE this collar. This colour, too.

Fortunately, I adore it and can see myself wearing it a tonne. Besides being warm and comfortable and cuddly like wearing a blanket, it’s absolutely my winter style. I love minis for winter, and I love loose drapey tunic tops, and double-decker love the combination of the two together. It’s also “my” colour. Sorry to yammer on about “my” colours, but I’m lately on a bit of a thing about autumnifying my wardrobe, colour-wise.
Adhering dutifully but very happily to my resolution to be more mindful in my sewing 🙂

Details:
Tunic dress; the Jasper by Paprika Patterns, chocolate brown knit
Slip; Nettie bodysuit modified; chocolate brown knit and cream poly stretch knit
Tights; my own pattern, black poly stretch knit, details here It can possibly be seen from my pictures; these have HAD IT. I’ve worn these to sags-and-bagsville and back; and desperately need new ones! but with spring here I’m trying to hold off until next year 🙂
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

Funny coindidink; I’ve only just now realised that I mindlessly plucked the Nettie pattern out to eyeball for my slip because I already have this pattern; however it’s actually another one of the patterns on offer in sew indie month!

As mentioned, the pattern is part of the Sewing Indie month. I received the pattern free in order to help spread the word, but chose it myself, paid for my materials, made it myself and am very happy with the pattern. Please note that as always, there are no affiliate links on my blog and never will be.
The Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater dress, along with the Nettie bodysuit and eight other patterns, is part of the Indie pattern bundle on sale from Monday 1st September until Thursday 10th September.
As with the first pattern bundle there is a charitable component to the sale, with 20% of pattern sale proceeds to be donated to Women for Women, which helps women dealing with violence, marginalization, and poverty due to war and conflict.

My fellow seamsters participating and making their own version of the patterns are:

Please do check them out 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, jasper, Nettie, own design, Paprika Patterns, top, tunic

forest green twist top

29/08/2015 12:34 pm \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new top.

This is, as my title oh-so subtly suggests, the twist top from Pattern
Magic; and is my fourth iteration of this top. First three are here, here and here.

Clearly I love this design. And I’ve often pondered upon how much I would
like to have one in every colour. Except
that would be excessive and wasteful. Bad me, for even thinking it. Bad, extravagant, greedy, covetous me. I guess one good thing about making everything
yourself is that you are constrained from having an overly huge
wardrobe by your own free time, or lack of it; by having to physically make each and every darn
thing yourself. I like to pretend to
myself that this factor introduces some carefully considered introspection into
the matter.

Ha! We can but hope!

I bought this length of stable, slightly stretchy, thin-but-warm, forest
green ponte from Potters Textiles, from the $2 remnant bin. Hmmm, don’t you just HATE when someone brags about how cheap their fabric/pattern/clothing/whatever was? Yeah, me too.
Loathe it.

Anyway, it’s the kind of project that you can start and have ready to wear in
about half an hour, flat; even including weaving those bitsy overlocker ends back
in. Fabric out, pattern down, cut, vroom
through the machines by turn, a few minutes of weaving and neckline-hemming. Done!

Believe me, I needed something fast and brainlessly easy, as a little bit
of light relief from my 1year1outfit project.
Honestly, that’s been a far bigger endeavor that I originally
anticipated. But the good news is that the
second component of my outfit is actually and finally finished!!! WOOOOOT!
To be appearing here very soon. Very
very soon.

In the meantime, this.

So, in a nutshell…

One of my favourite designs; check.

One of “my” colours; check.

Is it seasonally appropriate… oh bum.
No.

Winter’s practically over and it’s actually getting comfortably warm
around about these here parts. Oh well!
There’s always next year! As if I have
any reason at all to complain about the return of warmer weather, no sirree,
not I most definitely do not. Summer, oo
yeah baby, bring it. I am so ready!!!

OK I got nothing else! Tootles!

Details:

Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic, forest green ponte
Jeans; Burda 7863, brown stretch bengaline, details here and my review ofthis pattern here

Socks; handknit by me, details here

Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, Pattern Magic, Sienna, top

the difficulty of black lace…

27/07/2015 8:51 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

… is in getting it to show up in a picture. My new skirt looks completely boringly plain in these pictures, which just proves it; the camera does lie! Actually it has a rather beautiful lace appliquéd tulle overlay. I guess I just fail at photography.

The appliquéd tulle came from the remnants table at Fabulous Fabrics and is so lovely that I was helpless to resist it when I saw it there. Then again, I rarely do. My relationship with the remnants table is somewhat akin to that of a vulture to a carcass, ahem.
Anyway, there’s not much else to say about the skirt except that it is fulfilling a desire for a black lace skirt that I have had for a loooooong time! so it’s kind of funny to me that it’s taken me this long to realise that desire. I think I’m generally more of a whimsical seamster than a methodical or practical one, although I try very hard to be the latter.
It’s actually a very comfortable skirt. The appliqued tulle is underlined with a black rayon crepe, a quite heavy and substantial fabric; both fabrics are quite crease-resistant too which also makes it almost… practical? dare I claim that for a lace thing! 🙂 and I lined the skirt with black polyacetate lining fabric. All fabrics are from Fabulous Fabrics.

I used Vogue 8363, one of my favourite skirt patterns. I say; “one of the favourites” meaning like top five material, easily. I’ve just counted and I’ve made eight skirts from it! not too shabby if I say so myself, not too shabby. This pattern is a terrific one; with lots of variations and different views. This skirt is a version that isn’t any one particular view, but I used the pattern pieces that gave me those lovely and very deep, front slanted pockets, an un-pleated one piece front and a back with CB zip.

I aligned the lace motifs to match each other up around the skirt and at the CB seam as best as I could, and used up all of my remnant bar a couple of scraps. Yay!
I cut the lining using spliced together Vogue 1247, cut longer so it sits just 2.5cm shorter than the skirt.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 8363 lined, black lace and black rayon crepe, my review of this pattern here
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, of dk olive linen, details here and my review of this pattern here

Also I have been doing a tiny amount of unselfish sewing… I made a caramel-coloured merino wool top for Cassie, using fabric we bought in Melbourne’s the Fabric Store during our last girly trip away. I used a pattern that I have custom-fit to Cassie; based upon my own custom-fit Tshirt pattern; itself originally based upon a Burdastyle Tshirt top, the details of my “custom-fitting saga” here. I thought I had lost my own pattern, which was a pretty heartbreaking state of affairs, but I recently found it again. I had just stuffed it into the wrong pattern envelope, seems so obvious now but still I could have wept for joy when I discovered it. I’d been thinking hmmm, really should get onto properly fitting that Tshirt pattern again, but it just seemed insurmountably difficult so I’d kept putting it off. Plus it’s winter, and too cold for all that, too.
Anyway, I found it!

The Tshirt does look a whole tonne better on an actual person with arms, however its intended person had to suddenly hurry away for an important social engagement and I was too impatient to wait for her to return to perform modelling duties. It has long sleeves, a scooped neckline finished with a folded band as described in my tutorial here, and with sleeve and hems finished with my twin needle. There was an awkwardly small piece of merino left over which was too small for anything on its own but too big and too nice a fabric to throw away. So I cut the ends square and straight and now it is a scarf.
I might borrow the scarf occasionally 😉

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, daily outfit, scarf, skirt, top, Vogue 8363

origami blouse

21/06/2015 11:20 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new blouse 🙂
Yes, it is currently winter here in Perth. I am braving the freezing depths of winter to take these photos.
Haha, not really! Actually I am wearing my new blouse responsibly and weather-appropriately here, in warm and sunny Italy! I made the blouse before we left on our recent hiking holiday and took it away with us so I could enjoy it in the warm weather 🙂
This is the Origami Blouse from the book Twinkle Sews, by Wenlan Chia. My lovely sewing neighbour Megan kindly lent her book to me. Thank you so much, Megan!

The fabric is a lovely creamy coloured silk/linen; bought as a remnant from Fabulous Fabrics. I only had about 80cm and with some experimenting to find the most economical pattern arrangement just managed to squeak out the pieces with barely any scraps left at all. And added 2cm in length to the blouse … I cut it that little bit longer just because I had enough length and thought I would get a nice deep hem. However when trying it on I detected a certain, um shall we say, lamb-ness? to the style, at odds with the general muttonness of my person… Anyway, I decided any and all extra length that could be got definitely should be got at all costs; and stitched the skinniest of skinny hems that I could!
For that same reason I did not gather up the lower edge of the sleeves with elastic, but just left them straight and ungathered. The resulting lack of sleeve puffiness raises the maturity level just a touch, I reckon 🙂
The origami thingies on the front are rather interesting, and although they look complex are simpler than they look. Having said that, I still found them quite fiddly to make and mine are not particularly neat, although I tried! Fabric is not like paper at all, it’s springy and thick, especially when seams come into the equation, and true origami perfection is a pretty tall order. I ended up abandoning all aspirations to razor sharp points and perfectly angled edges and just tried to accept the imperfection. I think I wrangled them to look passable. I can almost imagine they are like a flutter of little creamy butterflies, alighting onto my shirt for a little butterfly gathering.

I’m not too terribly distressed at their imperfection, as when I’m wearing the top they are sneakily tucked away behind that black velvet tie anyway, mwahaha…

Verdict: I think it turned out, not too cutesy cute, but nice and just mildly cute, and rather fresh and romantic and just slightly poetic.

My thoughts on Twinkle Sews, the book…
This is a nice book; it contains patterns for 25 garments; 7 skirts, 13 tops and 5 dresses. The designs include some that are easy and plain, others that are both interesting and unique, with some very innovative ideas in many of the pieces. If you’re interested in something a bit different, basics with a twist, then this book contains some promising projects.
The fabrics chosen for the sample garments and the styling of them is sometimes a little questionable and I didn’t always find them visually appealing. But disregarding fabrics and prints and just paying careful attention to the lines and shapes of the pieces, I reckon there are some real gems in there. Check out Megan’s lovely shibori dress from the book.
The patterns come in sizes 0-16 (US) and are all on a CD included with the book. The pattern pieces are all whole pieces, meaning, no half pieces to be placed on the fold. This has advantages; it’s easier to lay the full-size pieces on a flat unfolded piece of fabric to obtain the most economical layout: also disadvantages; the most obvious being that you have to do a heckuvva lot more taping!
The early chapters are aimed at a beginner seamster, with some nice and encouraging chat about the joys of fabric and making clothes for yourself; and extensive, clear and helpful explanations of basic sewing terms as well as for all the techniques used in the projects.

Details:
Blouse; the origami blouse from Twinkle Sews, by Wenlan Chia, creamy linen-silk with black velvet ribbon
Shorts; Burda 7723, green cotton gingham, details here and my review of this pattern here
Thongs (above); Havaiana
Hat (Craig’s); Billabong
Socks (below); hand-knitted by me, details here
Hiking boots (below); Mountain Designs

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, origami, pattern review, top, twinkle sews

two sea change tops and a little blue skirt

16/04/2015 9:44 am \ 38 Comments \ Carolyn

I absolutely adored the new Lily Sage & Co Sea Change top when Debbie debuted it on instagram and rushed with unseemly haste to sign up when she called for testers. My love has not diminished upon making up a few either.

The top can be made in either a stretch or a woven, and I elected to make up one in each.
Exhibit A is in a deep blue stretch panne velvet, from the leftovers from Sam’s Magicka robe here. Basically, it’s a big, roomy, cropped, oversized velvet Tshirt. Ha! I know that sounds weird and like the kind of thing that has potential to be hideous, but I think it turned out absolutely not. I love it, unequivocally.

The Sea Change is a gorgeous design; modern and stylish, comfortably roomy, chicly oversized and tres elegant. It is also a super easy, quick and simple project; a “can be started the night before to wear the next day”, kind of a project. My measurements fell on the upper side of Small, lower side of Medium, so I elected to go Medium. This feels fine, but the top is quite unfitted and intentionally roomy so I would have been equally comfortable in the Small too, I think.

So, that’s top numero uno.
And theeeeeeeen…
Having done a little cleanout recently I realised that I had very few skirts that matched my lovely new top… the horror! I raced to rectify this terrible situation.
I unearthed from le stash a few smallish pieces of bright blue cotton corduroy, the leftovers from my dyed blue ray dress here. I had just exactly enough to eke out the pieces of Vogue 1247… o joy! It’s bordering on embarrassing how many of these skirts I have made by now. It’s such a fantabulous little pattern; a. on its own merits, nothing else considered; and also b. for using up a pile of awkwardly too-big-to-throw-away leftover scraps, and also c. it’s hard to have too many of these classic little A-line skirts in winter.

The brightness of the blue is borderline OK/not-OK for me. I’m humming and haa-ing about it a bit. I’ve been entertaining very tempting thoughts of dyeing it a deeper darker dirtier blue; a colour which I think will blend in a lot better with my current colours hanging in the wardrobe. But for now I’m just going to live with it for a while and see how it goes…
I bound the inner seam allowances of the skirt with some pretty pink and white polycotton gingham, itself the leftovers from a lemon-butter bottling project, and also used for this nightie. I have now used up every. Single. Last. Weeny. Scrap, of this stuff. Hurrah!
The only thing I had to buy new for this entire outfit was the invisible zip for the skirt… and then this is a whole new outfit ALL from leftovers! So it feels kinda free, in a way. Double hurrah!

But wait, there’s more…
Exhibit B.

My second Sea Change top is made from a very lightweight and drapey crepe from Fabulous Fabrics. All new fabric for this baby! It is a rather divine and heavenly pale pink in colour, and sheer enough that I decided to underline totally in a slightly deeper pink, poly chiffon. By “underline” I actually sewed all shoulder and side seams, the sewed the two different tops together around the neckline, right sides together, turned the chiffon top to the inside and under stitched and top stitched around the neckline… then, from then on, treated the two layers as one. So, that’s not really the same as underlining, but I have no other, more accurate word for that process. All seams are concealed away within the layers of the top and bands.

I embroidered a tiny “x” to mark the back…

The armbands are the same stuff, in a garish lime-y greeny yellow that I was drawn to immediately. While I was petting it another lady in the store remarked, “that is your colour!”
*cue immediate purchase*
I bought enough for a matching skirt too. I’m rather excited about the skirt; which I have to confess is already made, finished and hanging in the wardrobe but not yet worn or documented, whoops!! anyway I’m excited about wearing it because I think it will go very nicely with both of these tops, and a whole lot of my current existing tops too. In fact, I’m quite looking forward to mixing and matching all these things in with my new and existing winter wardrobe.

Details:
Tops; the Sea Change top by Lily Sage & Co, (1) dark blue stretch velvet, and (2) pink and green poly crepe lined with pink chiffon
Skirts; Vogue 1247 lengthened, (1) blue cotton corduroy, and (2) yellow cotton corduroy, details here and my review of this pattern here

Update: it’s been great, but nearly two years of use later and I got a bit bored with the vivid bright blue-ness of that little blue skirt, so I’ve over dyed it with some brown dye. Now it’s a lovely deep navy/teal colour. Like having a new skirt!

Wearing it with my paprika Nettie bodysuit and my suedette MN Dove blouse that’s a pretty good colour match, yay!