Tag Archives: Top

the travelling yellow skirt freak show

01/09/2014 2:31 pm \ 26 Comments \

Y’ello!  Calling all sunbeamers  ðŸ˜€
I am taking part in the Travelling Yellow Skirt Freak Show!  the brainchild of Melanie aka Miz Bagg at Bag and a Beret; and you can read the story behind the yellow skirt and its journey around the globe here; as well as find out how to sign up to join in the fun.  
Your mission, should you choose to accept it … *dun! dun! dundundun! dun!* 

I’m a tiny bit embarrassed at my unexciting styling of the skirt particularly when you check out how cool everyone else has done it!  But I’m being true to myself: “pared back” is my thing and when it came down to how I would choose to wear it with no influence or comparing myself to others who have gone before me; then a basic white tee, on a beach, the Indian Ocean lapping at my heels, IS pretty much Me in a nutshell.   The skirt is statement enough!
And I’m in my happy place, this particular beach is my very favourite beach of them all  ðŸ™‚
Like everyone else I’ve added my own discreet little “I woz ‘ere” …

So, I am wearing another new thing here, actually there are two! other new things here made by me recently; the ivory Tshirt is view A of Vogue 8879 made in a soft cotton jersey from Spotlight.  Pattern notes: the sleeves are cut on, making it a bit of a fabric hog.  I might not make it again, or if I do I’ll probably modify it to have set-in sleeves, just like any old plain boring tee…  o dear, another example of my boring-ness.
Oh, the second new thing: well, underneath the skirt I am wearing some new jeans, because it was only about 16C on the beach when I took these photos.  Brrr! too cold for just a skirt!  I’ll blog about those soon.
Later dudes!

Details:
Tshirt; Vogue 8879, ivory cotton jersey
Skirt; THE TRAVELLING YELLOW SKIRT

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olive faux suede top

30/08/2014 1:46 pm \ 25 Comments \

I’ve made a new top  ðŸ™‚
Yoshimi and I saw this very realistic faux suede while out shopping together in Tokyo last January and we both bought some to make tops.  Yoshimi made her lovely pale pink top quite quickly.  And now I’ve finally made mine too; at last!  I’m embarrassed to be so slow!
I used Burda magazine 10/2009, pattern 121, a rather plain and unassuming little pattern that caught my eye from the first; a nothing-to-it kind of a pattern really but with an understated, relaxed, almost sporty chic that is quietly modern and urban.  And sometimes very plain and basic is the best choice, especially when you just want the fabric to speak for itself.  

And obviously, the fabric is everything in this bare-bones design!  I trialled this same pattern recently to make my flannelette PJ top, which is comfy but about as un-chic as you can get!  but hey, flannelette.  This suede is only about a thousand times classier.  When your fabric is really beautiful it’s hard to go wrong I reckon, so I was pretty sure it would turn out ok.  
And fortunately, I think it did  ðŸ™‚

The pattern is designed for real suede or leather, so it’s quite roomy and easy-fitting to suit a heavier and inflexible fabric like that.  Thus why it works so beautifully as a PJ top, natch.  It has a long centre front split, so you can just slip it over your head, and splits at the bottom edge of each side seam. I sewed it up like I would fabric, not suede except; I left the cut edges of the sleeve and lower hem edges and the neckline edges clean-cut and unfinished, like suede; since my fabric is quite stable and doesn’t fray.
I’m very happy with it and think it looks quite nice with my bootleg jeans!  And I still have a little bit leftover, maybe enough for a skirt.  But what should it be like, hmmm.  I’m thinking something asymmetric and off-kilter, with a random feel to it.  Possibly with some hardware.  But too crazy, maybe?  Something to ponder for a while  ðŸ™‚

Details:
Top; Burdastyle magazine 10/2009-121, olive/grey suedette
Jeans, Burda 7863, burnt brown bengaline, details here
Socks, knitted by me, details here
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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a split-backed top

06/08/2014 6:23 am \ 34 Comments \

Once upon a time there was a shirt, a man’s shirt.  This shirt was superficially unremarkable, but was made out of a wonderful microfibre that had extraordinarily silk-like properties.  Soft, ripply, with a quietly glossy sheen, it felt wonderfully cool and smooth against the skin just like silk; but unlike silk it was as tough as guts.    It barely ever needed ironing, thus earning the everlasting approval of the laundry maid of the house. 
 After a few years of regular wear it was designated “old”, signalling the end of any special care in its laundering, from then on it just got tossed in the machine with jeans, whatever, no special cycle.  It soldiered on, looking just exactly as lusciously silky as it always had.  
The Indestructible Shirt.  Winning further admiration from the laundry maid, who alone in the household truly appreciated such a magical fabric … all the benefits of silk but without the maintenance… ! o-kaaaay!
After twenty years of use, its owner carelessly tossed it in the Salvoes bag, whereupon the laundry maid astutely retrieved it and planned a feminine new life for it, hehehehehe.

The End.
Well maybe more like a brand new beginning!

Technical bizzo…
The pattern is Vogue 8879, view B.  Funny thing; Spotlight had a $5 pattern sale last week, I bought um, 6 patterns *blush* call Patternaholics Anonymous; I need help!! anyway, I bought some of the more glamorous interesting and unusual designer Vogues that caught my eye, and then this funny unassuming little one too.  Guess which one was the one I was most excited to try out first.  Ha!
I love the split back; it’s quite elegant in my opinion, and just quietly sexy without being the least bit tarty.
The old shirt was completely cut it apart to make the new one,  and I modified the existing button band and sewn-on buttons to accommodate the split back.  The old front is now the back of the new shirt, and the old back is the new front.  The sleeves! it often astounds me how difficult it can be to cut a new thing from an old thing even if you think the old thing has masses of fabric; the sleeve pattern pieces barely fitted on the old sleeves, taking up the full length of the sleeve from the cuff to the armscye!  Amaaazing!
One new buttonhole was required at the very top, and the left breast pocket was picked off and repositioned it at a funky angle on the lower front of the top.  All the seams are flat felled to honour the original beautifully flat felled seams in the original shirt: although obviously none of the original seams remain after it was hacked apart I still felt compelled to try and reproduce those immaculate finishes in its new incarnation too.

Rather than the quirky but fabric-hungry twisted sleeve bands of the pattern, I made hidden, shaped facings for the lower edge of the sleeves instead and I finished the neck edge with a narrow bias cut strip; these were cut from a scrap of deep blue real silk, the leftovers from this top, and stitched, under-stitched then top-stitched.

One thing: the pattern stipulates two way stretch fabrics only; but I found that this view B is so loose and easy fitting that my decidedly non-stretchy microfibre version is absolutely fine to slip on over my head.  Don’t need to un-do even a single button.
So it’s got that going for it too!

Details:
Top; Vogue 8879 view B, blue microfibre, a refashioned mens’ shirt
Skirt; my own design based on Vogue 7303, white stretch lace, details here
Thongs; Havaianas

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white linen Olive blouse

14/05/2014 10:55 am \ 36 Comments \

Hi peeps; new blouse!
Amity of Lolita patterns emailed me a few months ago asking if I would like to test their new blouse pattern, the Olive. Thank you so much Amity!  I lurve trying out new patterns!  I finished it a little while ago and have been sitting on it; awaiting the go ahead to Reveal.  And ta da!  Apparently I’m part of a “blog tour”.  This is a new thing for me.  No, I hadn’t heard of a blog tour before either.  It’s kinda exciting  ðŸ™‚
The Olive blouse is a fitted blouse with a waistband, pleated peplum and elbow length sleeves.  It has two variations; view A has a draped chiffon overlay, vertically aligned flounce and a rolled chiffon flower on the front, also with or without a little gathered frill on the sleeves too.  View B is, literally, the no frills version.  Closure for both versions is by invisible zip in the side seam.

So, I did make view A, with the overlay and flounce.  Although I left off the flower and the sleeve frills. The sleeve cap is pleated into the arm scye with six teensy little pleats.  Tres cute, non?!

My measurements put me at a size 6, however a quick recce of the pattern pieces decided me to size up to an 8, and I am glad I did.  It is quite close-fitting.  Linen is a fairly unforgiving fabric with zero give to it however, so I reckon if I was using something like a stretch sateen then the given size would probably be fine.

OK, so that’s what my blouse used to look like!  It can be seen from the very top picture that it looks a little bit different now.  It’s been de-flounced.  Sadly I’ve realised I’m not a flounce kinduvva person.  I de-overlayed it too.  To replace the flounce I made shaped button- and buttonhole-bands for the left bodice seam.  This is fully functional and fully button-and-unbuttonable but since I still use the invisible zip to get it on and off the button band is effectively decorative.

I really like mine with the button band, sort of casual and therefore more suited to my fabric choice; a fine-grade white linen from Fabulous Fabrics, the same fabric I used for my patchwork Zsalya dress, with white buttons also from Fabulous Fabrics.  I think it’s still quite feminine looking with the sleeve length and the pleated peplum. but has a certain something else to it now, I don’t know what.  Dentist?  A rumpled one, after a long hard day at the drill.  Yes.  OK, I’m totally on board with that.  A little known fact is that I do actually have dentist blood running through my veins.
Anyway, whatever it is, I do think it turned out very “me”!
But I jest.  Seriously now the blouse is a classic style and so therefore quite versatile  and would work with lots of fabrics.  The jazzy style A in satin or silk would be a very pretty evening blouse and the plainer style B in sateen or crepe would make a very smart option for work.
Since I acknowledge that I do have about a zillion white shirts I am toying with the idea of dyeing it.  Or maybe not.  I’m dithering.

Details:
Blouse; modified Olive blouse by Lolita patterns, white linen
Skirt;skirt “m” from shape shape by Natsuno Hiraiwa, dusky pink linen/cotton, details here
Thongs; Havaianas

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Nettie; by seven

30/04/2014 9:27 am \ 46 Comments \

The very clever Heather of Closet Case Files has released another pattern, this one is a must-have basic, the bodysuit, available here.  Named Nettie, after the totally gorgeous Nettie of Sown Brooklyn.
Of course, I say “must-have” and I didn’t actually have any.  But I’m rectifying that now since everyone knows that bodysuits are super useful and way superior to a tucked in tee when it comes to winter warmth.  So good to have that thermal layer underneath everything else.  I used to have a few bodysuits years ago which did hard duty all winter long but I don’t know if they’ve gone out of fashion favour? or what; because they are pretty darn hard to come by nowadays.  Even patterns for bodysuits are pretty few and far in-between.
Thank you so much Heather, for asking me to test the pattern, and for filling this gap in the sewing pattern world!  ðŸ™‚

Hmmm, seven Netties… seems excessive for one person? well they’re not all for me.  Occasionally I make things for other people.  Occasionally  ðŸ˜‰
The instructions stipulate to size up if you are tall or if you think your fabric is a little firm; and yes indeedy; this.  My first version was in a mystery black knit with just a medium stretch, bought in the Morrison remnant sale, and it turned out a little er, bottie-baring for me!   Fortunately I have a petite daughter who can absorb into her wardrobe everything that is too small for me.  ðŸ™‚  And then I went up a size for me. 

The red, orange, green, pale taupe and white coloured Netties are all in a super stretchy viscose/rayon knit from Fabulous Fabrics; and for this stretchier fabric I didn’t need to lengthen although I did cut the sleeves at the size up.  The fit is snug and fabulously comfy.   

The white long sleeved tee is for my niece; her measurements matched the smallest size on the size chart and so I just ran it up quickly to test the fit.  It was on the tight side for her too; so when starting out I do recommend erring on the side of too big, just to start with.  You can always shave a bit off!
For the crotch closure I used strips of black snap tape; leftover from my Issey Miyake tucked dress.  Obviously it would be every bit as quick to hammer in a coupla snaps though.  Really, the Nettie is a wonderfully quick and easy project, the kind of thing you can run up to wear an hour later.  The hardest part of making the body suits is finding scraps of woven for the crotch bit to match your fabric!  I had nothing matching my green so used self fabric stiffened and stabilised with fusible interfacing.

I did something a bit different with the sleeves on my green one; I made them super long and put in a little thumb hole, finished with a band just like the neckline.  Built-in hand warmers!

The pattern comes with multiple variations; a high, mid and low back neckline, and a high and low scoop front neckline, and with long, elbow-length and short sleeves, and a body-con dress.  And obviously you can slice it off at hip level too and just have a tee.  So much choice!  If I’d had the dress option earlier I totally would have made one of these too…   
I made some with elbow length sleeves and some with long sleeves, and some high neck and some scoop.   I made them all with a high back neckline just because winter is around the next corner here, but I think a high front neck/low scooped-back neck Nettie would be an absolutely stunning summer evening option; worn with a huge oversized flouncy skirt, hair up in a bun.  Imagine!
Also, I reckon if you made it with a closed crotch and a scoop neckline wide enough to allow you to step into it then the Nettie would work beautifully as a dance or workout leotard too.  The sides are quite low-cut  allowing for full bottom coverage and minimal chance of a wedgie wardrobe malfunction.

OK, I’m now baulking at posting a picture of myself in the pale taupe one sans outer layers; with my skin tone the overall effect is just a bit too er, nude?!  but I have worn here it in a daily outfit already  ðŸ™‚
Thank you for a fantastic pattern Heather!
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“Baseball” skirt and tee

12/04/2014 2:53 am \ 67 Comments \

This is just a bit of silliness really; remember I said I had some idiotic plans for my leftover off-white leatherette? well I just hopped straight into it.  This is a new skirt, leatherette with red stitching to delineate the seam lines, baseball-like.  Yeah I know, kinda weird; and I’m still wondering if I ruined the skirt with that stitching! but it’s just a bit of fun really.  I figure if I absolutely hate it down the track I can always pull out the baseball stitching  ðŸ™‚

I used this picture to help me

source

The pattern is Vogue 1170; my fourth iteration of this pattern.  I chose it because it had lots of seam lines! and I lengthened it as much as I possibly could given my small piece of leatherette.  Actually, this is a good skirt for a smallish odds and ends of fabric; surprisingly good considering its flippiness.  It’s only the two large front-and-back pieces that take up the most fabric; the smaller pieces can be cut out of edges and corners and other off-cuts.  I left off the pockets and fully lined the skirt with cream polyacetate lining fabric; and I cut the waistband a lot narrower and on a curve to follow the curve of the skirt top.  This resulted in a much better fitting waistband than the original straight one, imo.  Also, I’ve learnt my lesson from my previous leatherette skirt where I found the leatherette waist facing kinda icky worn against the skin; and cut the waistband facing in white linen.  Much nicer!

The stitching is in red silk thread, which I’ve had for years… er, 21 *blush* but who’s counting!  ðŸ˜€ a leftover from knotting Tim’s quilt; and a small portion in matching red topstitching thread, which I ended up having to buy new (grrr!) when I didn’t have just quite enough of the silk.  Don’t you hate that!!
I did the stitching in two passes, first time you do alternate halves of the “wings”, and the second pass you finish off the other side of each one.

And because a baseball skirt needs a baseball tee, I made one; just because  ðŸ™‚   I used two old Tshirts from my refashioning bag.

OK, I thought that this is what a baseball tee looks like; but imagine my disappointment when I googled images of baseball players to see that they actually don’t wear this sort of two-coloured raglan-sleeved tee at all! but instead have a big baggy short-sleeved top, sometimes with a close-fitting long-sleeve top underneath.  NO raglans to be seen.  Confused!   So; why is a tee like this known as a baseball Tshirt, when actually it is not?!  I would love to be enlightened.  Anyhoo; I made it from from my own custom pattern, using an old raglan sleeve tee to help get me started and then fiddling and fine-tuning to fit me.  The embroidered motif on the front of the blue Tshirt, I positioned on the back of the new Tshirt.  It was either that or cut it in half, and even though my new tee is a cobble-together job, doesn’t mean it has to look like one!

With the neckline binding; I cut strips from the sleeves of the cream tee and joined them to get one long enough to do the neckline.  And this time I cut the strips with a bias joining edge: you can just barely make out the join in this picture.  This gave such a vastly superior finish to my usual method of joining on a straight seam!  and I can’t believe it has taken me sooooo long to work out this might be a better thing to do.  Up until now I’ve used a straight joining seam, and the bulkiness of all the layers in that bit make for a slightly bubbly and bumpy bit at that spot on the neckline.  So I hide this by positioning it at the back of the neck somewhere; but if the seam is on the diagonal, like here, then there is less bulk and very little bump issues.  Don’t know why it’s taken this long for the lightbulb to go off, but better late than never  ðŸ™‚

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1170 with minor modifications, off-white leatherette with red decorative top-stitching; my review of this pattern here and my tips for working with leatherette here
Tshirt; self-drafted, made from two old Tshirts
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

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Pink Alabama Chanin T-shirt

18/03/2014 6:20 am \ 47 Comments \

I’m very happy and pleased that my Mum agreed to let me photograph her wearing her very recently completed hand-dyed-embroidered-and-stitched creation, and to show the pictures here on my blog …
thank you so much Mum!
This is Mum’s third Alabama Chanin project, and the first completed one… she has very nearly finished a more wintery skirt and top but has put those aside for a little bit in order to make something with the flavour of summer.  She wanted to have something to wear now!

Mum hand-dyed white cotton jersey in three different shades of pink for her top; pale apricot pink for the under layer, a deeper apricot-rose pink for the upper layer, and a true pink- pink for the neckline binding.  The floral design is her own, and she made a stencil using dressmaking paper from Jackson’s but does NOT recommend this; it buckled and was apparently a nightmare.  The design was rollered on to the upper layer in slightly watered down, regular household paint applied with a small roller.  Mum used double thickness Gutermann’s upholstery thread to hand-stitch the floral motifs, all seams and the flat felling of all seams; and pink stranded embroidery cotton for the cretonne stitch to secure the neckline binding.  We had some debate on whether the armscye seams should be stitched down to the sleeves or the body?? a quick recce of the Tshirts in the general vicinity seemed to indicate that there is no convention here but men’s buttoned shirts are to the body so this seemed like a good example to follow.

The pattern is the Tshirt pattern from the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, by Natalie Chanin, with the neckline from the tank/dress pattern, and short sleeves.  Before launching into all that time-consuming embroidery Mum wisely tested the pattern and found it necessary to make small adjustments for fit… both of us loathe muslins and generally avoid them like the plague and yeah, it does seem ludicrous for a basic Tshirt in a forgiving stretch knit, but an Alabama Chanin project is kinda exceptional.   It doesn’t take long to run up a test Tshirt on the machine using a long basting stitch, and is well worth the effort.  And could save lives!!  Well; at the very least, a tantrum  ðŸ˜€
Thank you so much Mum!

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Green pleats, please!

17/03/2014 1:57 pm \ 19 Comments \
Hello!  🙂
So
what’s new here?  Just a colour,
really.  My Issey Miyake pleated top (vogue 1142) used
to be a cheerful daffodil yellow, and now it is a murky-lurky, swampy, toxic-waste shade of
green.  Definitely far more me  😉  Hoorah for dye!
Cassie was doing a wardrobe reno: an apricot cardi
plus some black dye equals a new chocolate cardigan! and asked if I wanted the
used black dye-bath for anything before she chucked it out.  I barely gave it ten seconds of thought, just
grabbed this top.  It’s not that I can’t
bear to waste a teeny bit of dye that might still have some oomph in it.. oh well,
yes, maybe there’s that too.  But I
really liked the top and wanted to get it into circulation more.  Yellow is one of “my colours”, but the
brightness was just not working with many bottoms… and furthermore since
I’ve planned a very subdued autumn/winter wardrobe for myself then the bright yellow
top would just continue to not work.  And
on a psychological note, not that I’m overthinking this or anything!  but I think maybe brights are just too daring
for my personality?  I’m a bit of a mouse and perhaps bright yellow should just
be limited to infrequent miniscule doses in my life.
Ha! I reckon I’ve officially just overthought the
whole thing, which is hilarious considering that I didn’t think at all before
plunging the top into that dye-bath!  Lol!

 

Anyway, now the main thing is that now it’s going to
go quite well with the ivories, browns and greens of my swap.
Details:
Top; Vogue 1142, yellow silk over-dyed in a weak, already-used bath of iDye in Black, original details and my review of this pattern here
Skirt; my own design modifications to Vogue8363, cream curtaining fabric, details here and my review of this pattern here

below; before…
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