Tag Archives: Vogue 1247

Cassie’s Christmas ensemble

29/12/2014 6:04 am \ 44 Comments \

So, this year I asked Cassie what she would like for Christmas and she replied without hesitation, a long, white skirt.
Alrighty then!
I bought both fabrics at my local Spotlight; I considered buying Melbourne fabric like I did for the boys but reasoned that I could probably find nice enough white fabric at home.  So fortunate then that I did!  I was particularly thrilled with these finds.  The overlayer is a sheer cotton muslin and the lining/underlayer is a cotton voile; both light and airy and quite beautifully soft.  I really like how the layers of sheers and seams give a kind of “striped” effect to the outfit.
Honestly, Spotlight really can be such a hit or miss affair, so thank goodness for a hit.  A very palpable hit!  Random pop quiz; Can you name that quote…?
I used Butterick 3134; a very useful basic multi-gored skirt pattern and selected the six-gore option.  I cut it longer and flared out the lower edge a little more, for a nice swish.  I cut the lining/underlayer skirt using the spliced together pieces of Vogue 1247, lengthened, and put an invisible zip in the left side seam.  All French seams throughout, including that zip seam.  
Incidentally, I took a few pictures of doing the zip French seam in a sheer fabric, and can write a tut for anyone who is interested?  
I had enough fabric leftover to cut out a little blouse/top for her also, so she has a complete ensemble.  The little cropped blouse is a cut down version of NewLook 6483 with the sleeves lengthened.
Only the bodice of the top is lined and also French seams everywhere with only the armscye seams of the little top finished on the overlocker.  I’ve found that I’m really enjoying finishing my seams using more traditional methods lately and resorting to using the overlocker less and less.
Phew!  I have to confess I started making this outfit at the crack of dawn on Christmas Eve and finished it at about 6.30pm that evening.  It was a frantic race to the finish!  But it was worth it to see Cassie looking so lovely and summery and fresh and pretty in her outfit on Christmas Day.

Details:
Top; NewLook 6483 modified by cropping bodice and lengthening sleeves, white muslin and voile
Skirt; Butterick 3134, lengthened and lined with spliced-together Vogue 1247 lining, white muslin and voile
Sandals; 2 baia vista, from Zomp shoes

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Incredi-Yellow!

21/05/2014 6:45 am \ 38 Comments \

I think every year I seem compelled to make for myself one skirt in some extremely garish shade.  This year isn’t get away scot free either.
I bought this brilliant daffodil yellow pin-wale corduroy from Spotlight a few years ago.  And I apologise for my painfully predictable choice of another Vogue 1247 skirt.
So, I put some thought into thinking of something new to write about the pattern here.  I’ve used it a lot so clearly its got a lot going for it and so it shouldn’t be hard to write some fresh and original new praise for the pattern.  Truly I wish I could expound long and freely and with poetic abandon upon the multitude merits of the humble Vogue 1247 skirt. But the well of words has run dry.  So my love just has to be expressed wordlessly and in the mute evidence of the sheer number of them that have rolled off the sewing machine.

OK, lining.  I can say something about that.  I wanted to line it, so I could wear it with tights during winter.  So, when in Spotlight recently I checked out the lining situ-bar.  It was poor.  But they had something called Dancetime Satin which was both cheap and a not-terrible colour.  See, here’s the thing; my most favourite-ist skirt lining of all time has been the ivory satin I used in my curtaining skirt; another Vogue 1247.  It’s been a sheer joy to wear this skirt, every time, and part of it is in the quiet hidden luxury of the rich lining with its sheen and its cool slipperiness.   But there’s satin and then there’s satin.

Like a fool, I fell for a low price.
I have some hard-won advice for everyone; do not ever, under any circumstances, EVER, buy Dancetime Satin.  Unless you are planning to set fire to something quickly.
Dancetime Satin is like demon’s spawn, put on this earth in order to torment the unsuspecting home seamster.  Truthfully.

Really I should have given up on it, sought out some regular polyacetate lining from Fabulous Fabrics.  But I struggled on with the Dancetime Satin lining, and because there was some leftover I made some bias to finish the lower hem.
I’m hoping it proves itself nice to wear, at least.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247, lengthened and lined and more A-line, yellow corduroy, my review of this pattern here
Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi, charcoal ponte, details here
Tights, self-drafted, black merino knit, details here, and my tutorial on how to make your own custom fit tights here
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

Not that the back view of this skirt is particularly noteworthy, but I’ve realised I’ve pretty much never provided on my blog a back view of this Pattern Magic twist top.  I love this top.  I want it to last forever.

LATER EDIT;
this skirt has received a dye bath and now looks like this:
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Olive Frankenstein skirt

12/05/2014 5:49 am \ 36 Comments \

I am notoriously bad at tossing out old scraps of fabric. Particularly if I really really like the colour.  
And I really really like olive.
So; after finishing my patched pockets skirt I still had some promisingly largish pieces of grey-green corduroy and olive-green moleskin leftover, and I unearthed from my “useful scraps” bag the remains of a different pair of grey-green corduroy pants that both my boys had worn at the age of eight to ten or thereabouts.  Yeah, I keep stuff a long time.  The knee areas were a bit thin in them all but there was still some nice sturdy fabric to be had there.  And the colour!

oh ok I agree, doesn’t look very promising…

So I’ve made a little skirt; just a casual knock around kinda of a thing.  It is patched together from three different fabrics but it still looks quite plain I think since the colours are so similar to each other.  I’m pretty chuffed with it!  Of the pluses of working with old unwanted textiles; it’s green, it’s economical, you can sew to your heart’s content unfettered by fear of failure.  If you’re reworking with the constraints of an old garment it exercises the ol’ brain cells a bit.  And so a successful outcome feels like a mega bonus!

The boys’ old cords had kinda cool, oversized patch pockets on them that I’ve always liked and kept because I thought they might come in handy one day.  I used these pieces with the pockets still in situ.  Some of the leg fabric of these pants had previously gone into making the Green parliament, here.  I also added some oddly shaped patch pockets to the back of my new skirt too, just because the back was a bit boring-looking without them.

Technically speaking; I used the upper skirt pattern pieces of Vogue 1247 to cut the waist to hips part with the waist-shaping darts but the overall shape of my skirt is more A-line than the pattern.  This is pretty much my favourite “little skirt” silhouette at the moment.
I used an invisible zip in the back, an old button harvested from something else long forgotten, long ago, and plain white cotton to face the waistband,  I made a bias strip of the same plain white cotton to finish the lower raw edge, turned up the lower edge once and stitched in the ditch by machine to hem.  I reckon this is the best hemming method for thick fabric since bulk is minimised by only turning up once and a bias strip looks a lot neater and prettier than overlocking. Also if you are short on fabric you can still get a nice deep hem without losing length off the skirt. . 

Details:
Skirt; my own design based upon Vogue 1247, made from three old pairs of jeans
Shirt; my own design variations upon Burda 7767, deep olive linen, details here
Thongs; Mountain Designs

this picture just because it made me laugh… o well hello there!
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on the Map

25/11/2013 7:46 am \ 68 Comments \

I saw this awesome world map fabric in Spotlight and just couldn’t resist.  Novelty fabrics just make the best mini-skirts for summer.  Simple and understated but still interesting and quietly eye-catching.  Best worn with a plain white top.
The fabric was sold by the panel, and I used Vogue 1247, splicing the pieces together to make one solid front and one solid back.  I put the invisible zip closure in the left side seam, so as to have as much seamless and uninterrupted flow of map happening as possible, and wrapped the button closure just a bit further along from the side seam and around the corner to the back.  Believe it or not, this looks much better than having it right boom on the side seam, less bulky and gives a more streamlined look. 

 The waistband is faced with plain ice-blue lightweight Rowan cotton, bought from purl soho about two? three? years ago.  Unlined, because it’s practically summer; overlocked raw edges and a bias-bound and hand-stitched hem.  Australia is on the front.
That’s it.

Oh, and also, um, so yes.  It can be seen that my Constant Companion has had a haircut.  A rather drastic one.  The tail.  That was a shock.  Did not expect that.  I’m still not used to it, and am hoping it will actually grow back!  Think I’m going to have be a heap more specific when liaising with the dog-groomer from now on!  In the meantime, she’s answering to Miss Rat-tail O’Skinnypins, thanks very much.
But what do I know; she’s pretty happy.  Puppy-like frolicking ensues  🙂

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 modified, printed cotton drill, my review of this pattern 
Top; the bamboo shoot top from Pattern Magic, white linen, details here
Sienna in summer attire

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Wedgwood blue damask, reworked

19/08/2013 1:30 am \ 33 Comments \

With the fingers of spring tickling at the edges of our days, I’ve been renovating my wardrobe.  And came across this dress…

Although the dress had a sorta sporty feel to it and I think my style is vaguely sorta sporty? maybe? whatever the heck is my style anyway…. seriously I have no idea!  anyhow, somehow the dress felt wrong on me.  I wore it a few times, gave it a shot, but no.
But you know I’m not one to let lovely fabric go to waste and this fabric had been a gift from Sam.  So I unpicked the panels, saving all those zips.  And managed to patch together enough fabric for a new little skirt.  Which is great because a few skirts were jettisoned in the clean-out so it is only fitting that some new skirts could come in, yes?  Just keeping the balance!  🙂
I used Vogue 1247 and lengthened it… surprise!  I know I have a few of these in my wardrobe already but what can I say? it’s just an absolute winner.  It’s so quick and easy to make, is exactly to my style tastes and you cn put it together with small bitsy pieces of fabric.  How many times have I made this pattern already?  I’m not sure, but lots.

Ok I’ve just counted.  Eight times I have made this pattern.  Eight.  That’s not even counting the two times I’ve spliced the pieces and made it up plain, without those distinctive waitress-y pockets.
Some of the beige double topstitched seaming of the original dress is still intact in the skirt, which is fine by me.  I like weird little quirks in my clothes, didn’t you know?

The pockets are lined with blue sprigged cotton, leftovers from my sew bossy dress in its pre-dyed colour, and the lining is the original pale latte coloured acetate lining of the dress, simply cut to the right length from the bottom and keeping the hemline intact.  Instead of sewing the darts in the lining I folded them in pleats instead, as is my wont.  This is not laziness, honest! the idea is that there is some wearing ease in pleats whereas as there is no wearing ease in sewn down darts.

Does this happen to you when snapping a picture of your sewing details?

I know you can’t see them in the photo… but I am totally wearing matching socks too.  Ha!  I love matching details, even those you can’t see!

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 lined, blue damask, my review of this pattern here
Blouse; a mixture of different patterns, powder blue silk, details here
Socks; hand-knit by me to a 60’s pattern, details here
Boots; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp shoes

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Navy bloo-p

21/04/2013 9:10 am \ 37 Comments \

Hello  🙂
So, it turns out that navy blue is just as difficult to photograph as black… oh well!
I have made a skirt.   This used to be a pair of extra-huge, navy blue, corduroy jeans, that I bought from the op shop yonks and yonks ago for a fancy dress party.  They’ve been sitting in my refashioning pile, awaiting a new life.  The fabric is perfectly good but they haven’t been worn ever since the aforementioned fancy dress party, because they did not fit anyone in my family.

My new skirt is based upon a firm favourite skirt pattern, Vogue 1247.  I unpicked and re-used the sturdy silver jeans zip from the old jeans in the centre back, as well I took off and re-sized the waistband with its attached belt loops, and managed to retain the silver jeans button and its corresponding buttonhole, both in situ from the original jeans.
The pockets are lined with blue-and-white stripe fabric, leftover from Sam’s Christmas shirt.

Due to the fabric limitations, I had to cut the skirt to have a centre front seam, as well as the standard centre back seam.

Now you might be thinking; if the jeans were so big to start with, how could you possibly have “fabric limitations” in making a rather small skirt out of them?  Well, when it comes to re-fashioning a new garment from an old, even if your old garment has plenty of fabric it still can be quite a trick to get even a smaller new garment out of it.  This can be due to several factors, such as awkwardly placed seams, or if your fabric has a nap.  In the case of this old jeans to new skirt refashion, there were both of these factors to contend with.  Even though I was starting with satisfactorily extra-big trousers, they were cut in an old-fashioned, late 80’s, early 90’s style, with wide hips tapering down into narrower ankles.  This is the exact opposite of what I wanted in my little skirt; which is narrowest at the waist and gets wider going down to the lower hem; plus there was the nap of the corduroy which you always want to be running down the garment, never ever up the garment.  Plus there were big slanted hip pockets in the jeans, getting in the way of cutting anything out from the top of the jeans.  Plus, a lot of the old bar-stitching was done with an incredibly strong thread, almost like fair dinkum fishing wire or something, making unpicking a sheer joy.  That was heavy sarcasm just there, by the way.  So in the end, it took quite some careful measuring and giving and taking a few centimetres here and a few centimetres there from different pieces, to get out the pieces I wanted.  This is a lengthy justification for why my skirt has a centre front seam, as well as a centre back seam.  So not ideal, I know, but it was the only way the skirt could be!

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 modified, refashioned from a pair of old navy blue jeans/trousers… my review of this pattern here
Top; the hoodie from Pattern Magic 3, blue knit, details here
Thongs; Havaianas

D’ya want to hear/see something funny?  This will give everyone a laugh…. I actually made this skirt back in January of this year, specifically for my high school reunion! and wore it, and photographed it on that day for the blog, but I never put the photo up here…  I decided I just looked silly.  Now I’ve decided that it’s not toooo bad, so here it is!  I made the skirt because I got this whacky idea in my head to kinda reproduce my old school uniform for the reunion.  I found my old school tie, which is tiny! and wore it.  The other pieces are from my regular handmade wardrobe, but it was such a hot night that I left that blazer in the car…
Yes, it was silly… but it was fun!
So, this outfit below is a pretty close representation of what I used to wear to school, every day  😀

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247, as above
Top; the bamboo shoot top from Pattern Magic, white linen, details here
Tie; my old school tie
Blazer; Simplicity 4698, navy blue silk, seen first here, and also worn in 6 different ways here
Sandals; Vincenza, from Soletta shoes

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Denimen. Ineminem.

06/01/2013 11:00 pm \ 33 Comments \


First garment for the year!

The credit for the cute pocket and the funky piecing and top-stitching goes to Mum of course  😉  Yes, remember this Vogue 8561 skirt that she made, and
passed on to me because she didn’t like it?  Unfortunately that particular combo of pattern and fabric was kinda unforgivably frumpy.  I think the older you get, the far less
you can get away with anything remotely frumpy.  When she saw it on me even Mum said “oh just toss it out Carolyn,
it does nothing for you either”
But it was of lovely, new fabric; slightly stretchy denim from
KnitWit? I think? and waaaaay too nice to ditch so hastily; and I liked the idea
of a little blue denim skirt in my wardrobe.  Key word there: “little”.  And blue denim; always a favourite!
So the unfrumpy Vogue 1247 came to the rescue… I
spliced the upper and lower skirt pattern pieces together and managed to cut a
front and back from the very lowest portion of the skirt, keeping most of the
original hemline intact.  
Interesting, huh? that the hemline circumference of that long long original is almost exactly the same as it is in this much much shorter skirt.  Explains a lot, in retrospect it was pretty constrictive and difficult to stride briskly along in….  and I’m a strider.
I cut out
that adorable little pocket from the top and re-attached it to the skirt;
because imo it was the hands-down highlight of the original skirt and I just had to keep it!  The original dress zip was unpicked and
re-used in the CB seam, and I found a piece of non-stretchy denim in my stash
with a wrong side having an excellent colour match, leftover from a skirt
Cassie had made for herself.  From this, I cut
a new waistband, and to reduce bulk and avoid that quintuple layer of fabric
you get in the joining seam of a traditional waistband, I edged the inside raw facing
edge with pale blue bias binding (leftovers from this shirt) and stitched them
together in-the-ditch.  I re-used
the same heavy-duty hook and eye closure.
Voila!  I think
this is a far more flattering and usable skirt in our climate, and there is no
doubt it is going to get a heck of a lot more wear now!
Details:
Skirt; a refashion of a Vogue 8561 denim skirt, using a
modified version of Vogue 1247, my review of this pattern here
Top; the top portion of a dress from Pattern Magic 3 by
Tomoko Nakamichi, of white cotton jersey, details here
Thongs; Havaiana
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Blood Orange top; 6 different ways

19/12/2012 11:00 pm \ 22 Comments \
Hey y’all peeps.
I’ve been
having a play around with my blood orange Vogue 1247 top… trying out different ways to wear it.
So… I might have said this before, once, or twice, or twenty times  😉  but I absolutely love brainstorming in my wardrobe
trying out different outfits like this.  It never fails to inspire me with
new and different ways to wear my clothes.  I frequently get tired with everything in my wardrobe and crave to break free of the
little “outfit ruts” I get into; and experimenting with unusual and different combinations really keeps my
pieces interesting to me and helps my wardrobe to achieve the fullest variety
of which it is capable.
Having said that; I have to admit that the first two looks are the two ways I wear this top and its older twin the clementine top, just about all the time.  But, I’m setting my sights on breaking free from that  😀

 

Below left; unadorned and no frills, it is the perfect thing to wear with shorts on a really hot hot summer’s day at the beach or around the house.  Cool and airy enough for the hottest of hot days.  Colourwise, I also adore the unexpectedness of this sombre claret against the shocking pink too.  Below right; pop on a sludgy little skirt, cute ballet flats and throw on a couple of entwined skinny scarves, and the top looks quite smart enough to sally forth on some errand requiring a bit more style.
boshirt1
Below left; on very hot summer days you might want to wear a dress with spaghetti straps, but need to protect your shoulders from the sun.  Cardigans are too hot and cloying to even contemplate, but a light boxy top like this is comfortable and cool and fits the bill quite well.  And looks sort of boho-chic too…  Below right; I know we all in the sewing blogging world have been conditioned into thinking that this top must be worn hanging out! and I have sure been guilty of this too… well not necessarily!  I actually love how it looks when tucked into a high waisted skirt as well.  Looks pretty cute like this, yes?  I was also serendipitously thrilled to discover that the top is just about a perfect colour match for my high heeled caramel wedges too  🙂
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This top is just made of cotton, and therefore it’s not really suitable for really cold or winter-y days.. but it can still be worn as part of a cooler weather ensemble and not look silly imo…
Below left; sometimes, y’know you just want a bit of that colour, added into your outfit??  worn like this, I like how it looks peeping out as just a layer of colour layered over a long skirt and under a shorter jacket, and co-ordinating with a matching scarf and boots.  Below right; being quite loose, it can also be comfortably worn over an insulative Tshirt, with jeans and a skinny scarf.  I’ve always liked this slightly grunge-y double-top look, with shorter sleeves worn over longer.
boshirt3
Actually I really love both these last two looks.   I just wish I’d thought of them during our winter just gone!  Aah, well, there’s always next year  🙂
Which look am I wearing today?  well being quite a fairly hot day and having errands I am sporting the green ballet flats, the sludgy little skirt and twisted blue and black scarves.  I love dark sludgy colours made just slightly edgy with just an unexpected splash of bright colour.  Kinda reminds me of Tron.
(And incidentally I’ve done something new with this 6-way post… I’ve linked to the construction posts of all the other garments appearing in the outfits here.  Please let me know if this is helpful or interesting, and whether you think it is worth my continuing with this… thanks  🙂  )
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