Vogue 1247 Archives - Page 2 of 5

blue roses *

16/09/2016 11:31 am \ 32 Comments \ Carolyn

* … Tennessee Williams…

Hello! I’ve made a new skirt. Hehe, hot on the heels of writing that I was a wee smidgeon tired of making Vogue 1247 skirts; what should I do? but immediately make another one!! Doh!! Clearly there’s something terribly wrong with me… #madvogue1247addict

But wait, there is a perfectly good reason…. I’m doing One Week One Pattern again, and of course chose to use this pattern, well I’ve got so many of them!! lotsa skirts and I was kinda hoping that we would get at least ONE day warmish enough for me to wear the one top I have from it… but it’s been so freaking cold; officially the coldest and wettest winter and early spring we’ve have in like thirty years or something like that! I’m getting to the end of the week, no motivation whatsoever to wear that thin little summery top, and only have 6 pocketed V1247 skirts. Which are what I consider to be the only true V1247’s, all my ones without the pockets are kinda pretenders to that crown, and even though I love them all too I ruthlessly omitted them all from the line-up. So what can a girl do? but get cracking and make for herself another true V1247, obviously, so I have a nice 7 to round the week off. Yeah, I know; a normal person would have worn one of her existing ones, twice; but see I already had the fabric earmarked for the pattern anyway; and just decided go for it; whip it up, make it happen.

Fabric; pale teal denim, just very slightly stretchy, with a reverse print of smudgy roses. This was a remnant given to me by my friend LW, who was cleaning out her stash. Something funny/miraculous; the remnant was kinda oddly and awkwardly shaped, yet it was absolutely perfect for the pattern pieces! like it was cut just perfectly to fit them all on with the smallest of scraps leftover. I freakingLOVE when this happens! it’s like the planets aligned for a pattern/fabric match made in heaven 🙂 Even if I was feeling a bit meh about V1247 to start with, when I laid out the pattern pieces and saw how perfect it was it totally galvanised me into excited pattern-love all over again. I managed to cut my skirt about 10cm longer than the pattern, and I cut the pocket linings and waistband facing from a small piece of nani Iro quilting cotton, from the little bundle of pieces that Mum gave to me for my birthday, for my rag-doll Sally. I used it for her tote bag.

obligatory “waitress” pocket pic

aaaaaand, my week of exclusively wearing Vogue 1247 skirts, in a nutshell…!

Back very soon, with something that is NOT Vogue 1247… I promise!!

Details:

Skirt; Vogue 1247, lengthened by about 10cm, teal denim
Top; Nettie, by closet case patterns with my own collar variation, ivory knit; details here
Cardigan; knitted by me, Audrey in Unst, wool bought in Paris as a souvenir, details here
Tights, my own pattern, black stretch, details here and my tutorial for making your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Socks (not seen); hand knit by me, details here
Boots; made by me, details here

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, OWOP, skirt, Vogue 1247

bananananananana BATMAN!!

04/09/2016 3:03 pm \ 30 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh hey-a! I’ve been making some more stuff for Le Daughter… recently I went around to her place on an important mission: Wardrobe Assessment and Consultation following the Winter Blahs. She was feeling meh about all her clothes, so we went through EVERYTHING and worked out new combinations, identified tired stuff, rediscovered forgotten stuff, and dreamed up new stuff to fill some holes. It was actually great fun! we did the same thing with my wardrobe too; so useful. I reckon we could stand to do this every six months or so. Keeps things fresh, and you know how you tend to wear the same things over and over and over again and sometimes don’t seen yourself how tired and ratty things are getting? Just grab yourself a trusted friend/daughter/mum that doesn’t mind giving you the hard truth and have at it. It’s SO worth it!

Anyway, so we made a little list. Cassie wanted some more options to wear to work; she works in an office but in a very creative field, so along with the more professional stuff she sometimes likes to wear pieces that are fun, humorous and “arty” yet still city and office appropriate. She had a small piece of Batman print fabric leftover from when she made some pj shorts for her brothers, and I still had some yellow corduroy leftover from my own yellow corduroy skirt… the yellow is a perfect match for the small blotches of yellow in the Batman print, and I just managed to squeeze the pieces out with only one bit of piecing inside the pockets (see composite picture below). The Batman fabric… now it IS fun, but let’s face it; professionally iffy… To twee, to not to twee, that is the question. Then I thought of the black leather sleeves and we both went Oh yeah!! I think they “adult” the print up a bit, make it kinda cool and ok. Also; I like how from a distance the Batman print could just pass as a nice, blue/black/white nondescript print, and it’s only when you get up close you notice that it’s actually a cartoon. The black pleather is leftover from my shoemaking adventures. All fabrics are originally from Spotlight.

Patterns: the skirt is Vogue 1247. I do really love this pattern but to be honest, I’m getting a wee bit tired of making it?! I’ve just made SO MANY, and even though I love all of them to bits I think I just need a little break…!! Anyway, this was requested, and those pockets were the drawcard. I used some deeper gold cotton to bind all the seams; this is a leftover from Cassie’s Lucy Hartfilia costume… so in actual fact, her entire ensemble is a glorious mishmash of completely unrelated leftovers. Amazing how things can come together, no?!

Top is the epaulette cut & sewn top from “she has a mannish style”, by Yuko Takada. I’ve only just made this pattern up for myself, here; and coincidentally also with black pleather sleeves!

I took this picture to send to her when I’d finished the outfit. She was so pleased!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, She Has a Mannish Style, She Wears the Pants, skirt, top, Vogue 1247

little yellow skirt; 6 different ways

08/06/2016 1:11 pm \ 30 Comments \ Carolyn

I found this post in my drafts, and came thisclose to deleting it but then hesitated… see, I stopped writing these 6 different ways posts because I started to worry they were boring to anyone reading my blog. But then I just thought that was silly. Because you know what? I just kinda like them. I like looking back on my old daily outfits, seeing my old favourites, what worked and what didn’t… and this little yellow skirt was a goodie that I got a lot of wear out of before I dyed it a different colour. And I think I might even compile a second 6-different ways post in the future for its new caramel incarnation because it’s been equally fab as a caramel skirt too!
I made this skirt in yellow corduroy using Vogue 1247 and posted it here; and then proceeded to wear it A LOT, it seemed to work really well with a lot of stuff. These outfits are ranged from summeriest for the first picture through to winteriest for the last. It was better as a winter skirt, being corduroy, but was ok on cooler spring/autumn days too, when it made a nice sunshiny splash on a nice sunshiny day. I’m almost wondering why I dyed it!! but I just remember being a bit sick of it and since it turns out that I love it even more as a caramel skirt then I don’t regret dyeing it at all, of course! Although maybe, just maybe I need another yellow skirt in my life… *wink*

Most of these pictures are from a time before I was making my own shoes, however one outfit, the top right one with the orange top and blue denim shoes is an entirely 100% self-made outfit; since I did make those shoes! All items of clothing are made by me… I haven’t put in any links but any questions as to individual items seen in these pictures please ask in the comments and I will supply pattern information as required 🙂

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: 6 different ways, skirt, Vogue 1247

zebra crossing

12/01/2016 6:24 pm \ 48 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a little black-and-white striped skirt… another Vogue 1247. How many is this by now? Okaaaay, just counted and this is version number seven, and that’s not even counting the ones that I made leaving the pockets off. Counting those ones too, this is version number fourteen. Wowza! what a great pattern this has been!

yes to the pockets this time

I bought the striped fabric from Fabulous Fabrics during their end of year sale. It was brand new in the store when I first spotted it and bought this bit, and it must have been popular because on my next visit a couple of weeks later, it had all gone! Don’t remember its composition… often when I buy something spontaneously like this I don’t pay much attention to “what” it actually is… whoops! bad me 🙂 However, the fabric is almost like a light upholstery; loosely woven, with slightly coarse, silk-like cords of fibre-dyed threads. Quite stiff and unpliable, and doesn’t hold a crease well.
I’ve been ironing it on the silk setting, and that seems to be about as much heat as it can take.

As usual I added length about 10cm or so to the bottom edge. I didn’t measure exactly, just made it so as finish off with a black stripe at the bottom of the front hem. Since I’d measured so as to have black at the top merging in to the black waistband, it felt balanced to have the black at the bottom too. And this turned out to be a nice length for me too. There’s a little bit of the next white stripe graduating out the bottom of the back but I’m ok with this, it felt a little short when I trialled taking it up so as to eliminate that.

The black waistband is just cut so as to have exactly one full black stripe showing… the seam allowances are both in the white stripe on either side.

The camouflaged waitress pockets on the front of the skirt was the result of some very obsessive measuring during the cutting stage… followed by obsessive pinning, basting, slow sewing, and then some obsessive unpicking and re-sewing. #muchobsessiveness

I used a pale yellow poplin to line the waistband and to bind the seam allowances inside with HongKong seaming…. and I absolutely LOVE how this looks! I don’t always bind my seam allowances, but it always feels so good when I do! aaaaaah, there’s nothing quite so nice and deeply deeply satisfying for the home seamster than to gaze contentedly upon some HongKong bound seaming, yes?

Hmmm, that came out sounding a bit more navel-gazing and pathetic than intended. Clearly I need a life. Or at least to get out a bit more…

Whatever; new skirt, in too-cool-for-school black and white stripe, love it, ultra happy. I think this is going to be a very useful little thing to have in the wardrobe. I’ve already tried it on with a few of my current rotation of tops and it just goes with almost everything… yay! I LOVE it with my warm floral shirtdress, worn underneath here, so much so that I’m seriously considering re-hemming the dress a little shorter, so I can wear this combo more often.

Detail:

Skirt, Vogue 1247; striped silk-like woven, my original review of this pattern here
Shirt; Burdastyle 05/2010;111, silk georgette, details here and my review of this pattern here
Slip (under); the Ruby slip, a free pattern by pattern scissors cloth available here; mine made in ivory crepe, details here
Shoes; bensimon, from seed boutique

horizontal seam? what horizontal seam? *self back pat*

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: skirt, Vogue 1247

a bit of re-colouration

11/08/2015 7:20 am \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve just been updating a few bits and bobs in my wardrobe…
when I get bored or dissatisfied with a particular item but it’s still in perfectly good nick or I still kinda like it because of a good shape/style or I put a dangload of effort into finishing it off particularly well or whatever; I will not toss it out. Instead I ‘avvago at re-vamping it somehow.
And this often includes dragging out ye olde dyepot and potions, aka dyes, eeeeeeeEEE heheheheheheheeeeee!! That was an evil witch’s cackle there, just in case my written word did not adequately translate to the spoken word, ahem.

So, revamp-eroonie; DONE.

Exhibit A; my little yellow cotton corduroy skirt. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, but I was just getting meh about it. Plus the clear yellow colour was a bit sharp and not one of “mine”. Since my khaki dress I have been thinking more about “my” colours and having more of them in my wardrobe. Sorta de-wintering my wardrobe and autumn-ifying it some more, if you will.
I used iDye in Brown and a tiny touch of the True Red, and got this rather wonderful deep caramel colour, in the top picture. Hehe, it’s funny; because actually I was aiming for mustard! important moral of the story; you should never ever never dye something that you are so much in love with that you couldn’t bear an unexpected outcome. Potential dyers, engrave that on your dye pots as it is one of the Commandments of Dyeing.
Anyway, I could not be happier with this super yummy, albeit unexpected, colour.
Unsurprisingly, the poly satin I used for the lining and bias binding did not take up the dye one tiny little bit.

woa, crack out the sunnies!

Exhibit B; while in the mood for dyeing, I also got out my pale blue, supposedly silk shirt (all original construction details here) and gave it a facelift. Supposedly? well it was sold as silk, but its mild lack of enthusiasm for taking up the dye speaks to some synthetic content, ahem. Not that I mind! it’s been a wonderful blouse and I love the shape unconditionally. Just that it has faded drastically and its colour was now palling on me; or should that more accurately read, appalling on me? Yeah, probably.
Anyway, it got treated to iDye in True Red.

Much better!
Now; compare the new colour of the previously same coloured cotton bias binding … that strong red was what I was aiming for, although I like this warm tangerine colour just fine. I’m just going to enjoy it as this colour for a while; and if I still want the deep true red colour I’ll pick up some red dye suitable for synthetics and give another whirl. See how we go.

Exhibit C; not a biggie, but I switched the yellow buttons on my forest green Miette cardigan for new deep green ones.

I think it’s going to be a tonne more mix ‘n’ matchable like this, since previously it pretty much went ONLY with my mustard dress below, or with all-white ensembles. The yellow buttons were a distraction, I can see that now. My mistake. Also, I think the lacework shines a little more than it did before.

So, that’s it!
In my current sewing news; I’m still struggling away with embroidering my felted wool, for my 1 year 1 outfit ensemble. Every now and again I have to lay it aside and do something else. It’s wearing me down a bit but I am certain I am going to love the finished piece and am quite excited to see it all come together. Ever onward and upwards!

my tutorial on basic dyeing here

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 8218, Burdastyle magazine 10-2010-102, cardigan, daily outfit, dyeing, Miette, shirt, Sienna, skirt, Vogue 1247

I’m a cow

02/07/2015 5:23 am \ 46 Comments \ Carolyn

… a Friesian cow!
And here I am, out standing in the field.
Ha! whenever I hear about someone, some highly accomplished person gaining recognition for being outstanding in the field of whatever, I cannot help it but that old joke just pops into my head; you know the one…
How did the cow win a Nobel prize? Because it was out standing in its field.
And I will have a little inner laugh. With cavalier lack of regard for the importance or gravity of the accomplishment. I know, it’s not even that funny. Clearly, I am very easily amused.
So, yes, I am wearing a new skirt, while I’m out standing in my field, here.
*muffled giggle*.

The fabric is a ivory/black fake fur from Spotlight, plush but with a low pile and not very thick. I used black silk dupion for the waistband, as the plush was too thick to make a nice clean flat waistband, and I lined my skirt with ivory polyacetate lining fabric.

I used Vogue 1247 with the pieces spliced together so as to make a plain little skirt with no pockets. I know, Vogue 1247 again! sorry to be boring! it’s just that the silhouette of Vogue 1247 suits my current winter wardrobe right down to the ground so it’s very much the golden child of my pattern family. It may or may not fall out of my favour at some point but y’know, when you’re enamoured of a pattern and it seems perfect for every occasion so you keep reaching for it over and over and over again. To the exclusion of all the other, perfectly good, skirt patterns.
Probably all my other patterns hate it, and when the cupboard door is shut and the light goes out and I leave the room, they studiously ignore it and exclude it from their whispered conversations with a disdainful curl to their lips.
She’s so full of herself.
Oh, like totally.
(I’m telling you, it’s like high school in there…)
Hey guys! I just got made up; again! In cow fabric!!
Did she just say what I thought she did?
Mmmm. Just pretend you didn’t hear…
Guys, look!
Omigod, seriously.
And she lined me! I’m not even supposed to be lined!
Oh please. Like half of us don’t have lining already. You don’t hear us bragging.
I know right? Just keep walking.

Vogue 1247 sadly walks away, to eat her lunch. Alone.
Trying to bravely rise above it.
Their turn will come. Oh, their turn will come.

Hmmm, goodness knows how that happened, but somehow I seem to have segued right into the screenplay for a new high school soapie, starring a cast of dressmaking patterns.
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode! Will Vogue 1247 be forgiven her teacher’s pet status? Or will a new pattern topple her from her pedestal? Will there be hair-pulling? Or will someone steal someone else’s boyfriend?!

Hehe, thought about deleting all that nonsense, but nah; left it.

Adios! or should I say; MOOOOOO!

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 modified and lined; plush faux fur, my review of this pattern here
Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic, ivory stretch, details here
Tights; black poly stretch, from my own custom-fit pattern, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, Sienna, skirt, Vogue 1247

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!

SaveSave

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, Lily Sage & Co, Sea Change, Sienna, skirt, top, Vogue 1247

purple skirt, with “tulip” pockets

09/03/2015 9:13 am \ 44 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new skirt. This new skirt is un-noteworthy except that I gave it some rather unusual little side pockets. They sit down at the hem, inserted in off-set side seams. They’re not very big pockets, just a nice size to hold my fitbit and maybe my phone at a stretch. Really, I was playing; got the idea to put them in a skirt and went for it.

The pockets are based on those in this picture, which ?I think? is from a vintage design. To accommodate them in this otherwise very plain little skirt I drafted for myself a 4-panelled skirt pattern using an old favourite Vogue 1247, a straight skirt with waistband, as a starting point. I treated the pattern like a “block”, and spliced, cut and spread and sliced and rotated to eliminate darts etc to make a 4-panelled pattern with a narrow front and back and two, even narrower, waist-to-hem side panels which host the pockets.

Fabrics; outer and lining fabrics are both from Fabulous Fabrics, a greyish purple silk hessian for the outer shell from the remnants table and burgundy polyacetate for the lining fabric. I only had 60cm of the silk hessian, barely big enough for anything at all! Extreme laying-out skillz were employed, hehe.

lining was cut using spliced-together Vogue 1247 straight, with the waist darts simply pleated into the waistband.

The grey cotton jersey edging on those pocket panels is harvested from off of an old Tshirt of Tim’s, and lack of fabric forced me to use it for the waistband facing too.

front view is kinda boring

So… skirts. I’ve been having some deep thoughts. Well, about as deep as can be expected on the subject of skirts, which is approximately puddle-depth in the scheme of things … but still.

Keeping tabs of my wardrobe over the past few years has not been totally fluff n’ puff with no substance, believe it or not some actual useful conclusions have been reached. *gasp!*

Into Mind writes about finding your “uniform” and I find I tend to favour two quite distinct and different kinds of skirts; plain and straight “little” skirts like my new one here and then longer, three-quarter length ones that can be a bit more visually interesting, more pfouffy with layering and/or detailing.

During winter, well I could happily and comfortably live in the former, plain, straight, little skirts, all winter long. I like to wear jeans every now and then, but really, if I’m being honest, skirts are just far more “me”.

It’s nice to have some skirt-and-top “outfits”, that go together so well they don’t need to go with anything else, ie. my Alabama Chanin ensemble; but obviously solid-coloured separates are the absolute best workhorses for mixing and matching the sometimes disparate elements of my wardrobe. Colourwise, I have seasonal favourites and basics and neutrals, sure, and I also like to have some odd colours, “outliers” in my wardrobe to choose from too, to suit whatever changing mood I’m in. And, I don’t know if it’s because I pluck them from my wardrobe more frequently, or because of their straight shape, or both; but all my “little” skirts always seem to bag out and die more quickly too.

Sadness ensues. Cue tiny violins.

Anyway, just some random thoughts. Ergo, I’m stocking up on some little skirts in a few different colours. So sensible! It’s early to judge it yet, but I think this sludgy purply-grey colour might be a totally excellent one in my winter wardrobe. It’s not obviously a neutral, nor a colour, but manages to be a bit of both, if that makes any sense at all. We shall see, we shall see… 🙂

back view, also kinda boring