Tag Archives: Vogue 7303

Green smoothie and sprouted buckwheat pancakes

10/12/2009 3:55 am \ 1 Comment \
I think this is one of my favourite cafes.  Perhaps the favourite.   Ever.  It is the Samudra café in Dunsborough, and it has all this wonderful furniture, crafted from driftwood, fallen trees and pylons from the old Busselton jetty when it was renovated.  All the tables are scattered artfully about under the trees on the lawn beside a tiny creek, and they have a veggie and herb patch out the back from which they harvest the produce for the menu.  I absolutely love it here.  The menu says things like “hancrafted in our kitchen with love”, and the juices (all freshly picked and squeezed of course) have names like Jubilant Juice of Joy.  Isn’t that gorgeous?  As I’m typing this a couple of kookaburras are laughing and calling to each other in the trees nearby.  What more could one want?  Natural surrounds, wildlife and scrummy food.  Complete bliss.
We are expecting my parents to join us today, and am looking forward to walking on the beach and spending time with them.
The skirt I am wearing is a standby, one I’ve worn several times and is another trans-seasonal item.  When I get time I’ll do another six-way post, on this skirt.
Other details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive corduroy
Top; Aztec Rose, op shop
Cardigan; Country Road, found secondhand and dyed yellow
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Designs
Bag; no label, bought in the Retro Star Vintage Clothing Company, Melbourne
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Banana yellow catamaran in the flowers

09/12/2009 5:15 am \ Leave a Comment \
If you take the time to look up close the coastline is home to a diverse and fertile ecology.  We’re accustomed to thinking of the bush as colourless and drab when actually the colours can be quite vibrant.  Most of the flowers of the coast are either yellow or mauve and small in size, often set off with all shades of green.
We found this catamaran tucked away in the bushes on the edge of the beach…
Other details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, printed cotton
Top; New Look 6252, lime green linen
Cardigan; Country Road, found secondhand and dyed yellow
 Hat; Country Road
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Designs
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Sky blue and coffee; off to the beach

07/12/2009 3:09 am \ Leave a Comment \

Feeling a kind of warm pastel-ly comfortable vibe happening today.  The sky is a soft, not-too-harsh blue today with a few puffy clouds scudding across, golden sunlight warming the limestone walls of our house…  I love how the glossy blue threads in the fabric of this skirt are picked up in the baby blue of my top.  And baby blue is a difficult colour to pull off at the best of times, but I feel it is nicely complemented by coffee and gold tones.  Setting the mood for the beach house… can’t wait, we’re going down to the beach house for a well-deserved break for all of us.
I’ve put together a holiday wardrobe for the next ten days, hopefully will be up to the demands of my clothing blogging.  We’ll see how we do, if all else the beach as a back-drop will be nice to look at even if the fashion isn’t!

Other details:
Top; Butterick 4985view A sleeves, view B collar, blue cotton
Skirt; Vogue 7303, fabric handwoven by my mother
Sandals; Marco Santini, from Marie claire Shoes

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Summer trench coat

01/12/2009 3:53 am \ 2 Comments \

Every so often I feel the need for a dressmaking challenge, a change from the workaday shirts, blouses, skirts and pants that can be run up in a day or two.  When my Monday morning gals gave me a Fabulous Fabrics voucher for a birthday gift a year or so back I wanted to make some sort of classic.  So I opted for this trench coat pattern, Burda 7786, view A.  
The pattern was a great pattern, one I will use again; though ended up being not extremely challenging.  Large amounts of double topstitching, but all the seams were simple straight easy seams.
Home seamstresses will concur that half the hurdles of DIY are sourcing the fabric you envisage for a project; in this case I went with this seersucker in spite of its white colour which wasn’t my ideal.  I really wanted more of a beige or tan or even chocolate coloured cotton, as a classic trench coat colour but couldn’t find anything which fitted the bill.  I feel this white is a bit too “lab coat”.  As my original career was as an analytical chemist when I wore a lab coat day in day out I’m keenly aware of avoiding the lab coat look!  However the belt on this one makes it less lab coat, and even though its a bright bright white this has ended up being a good useful fashion choice for summer.  I think I’ll keep it going for another summer in this guise, then will probably dye it for next summer, for a change.
There was enough of this fabric leftover for me to make a little top, posted about here.
Wore it out today to meet some friends for morning tea, then it’s back to the office…

Other details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive corduroy
Camisole; Country Road
Sandals; Vicenza, from Soletta shoes
Gold necklace; my grandmother’s
Pink necklace; self-made

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Favourite skirt, styled in 6 different ways

13/11/2009 2:34 am \ Leave a Comment \

Something different for today.  After my office duties I am taking my daughter out for a special treat to lunch; Fashion Friday at the Globe, so I’m wearing this dress I’ve posted about before.  Don’t want to post another picture of the same dress, so instead I’m delivering something I promised to do about a month ago, namely showing the versatility of my favourite skirt, first posted about here.
Its made of a slightly shimmery pale pink damask from my favourite skirt pattern Vogue 7303, with my own variation in the addition of three extra layers both front and back, joined onto the lining and separate from each other.  So effectively it has eight different hems.  And yes, it was extremely complex to make.  But worth it.
For today’s post I’ve styled it to be worn as a casual skirt for summer and winter, as slightly more dressy (say if I’m meeting friends during the day) winter and summer, and finally as a semi-formal skirt again for both summer and winter.  So you can see how versatile it’s been in my wardrobe!

Left; for casual summer wear, with a tank top and thongs(flipflops), and right; for casual winter wear

Below left; for nice-ish summer wear, and right; for winter wear (ie. if meeting other ladies or my husband somewhere for lunch or morning tea)
Left; worn as if for a semi-formal outdoor summer function and right; for a dressy winter function
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Limes, oranges, and thoughts on self esteem

04/11/2009 3:49 am \ 1 Comment \

This skirt is another version of Vogue 7303, made up quite plain as a mini.  I fell in love with the fresh green lime print of this fabric and thought it would be ideal for a cool little summer skirt.  Just the colour alone is refreshing!  I matched the print of limes on the skirt with these orange slice earrings that I bought back in the 80’s which are now definitely passe as earrings, but look OK strung on a chain as a necklace.  A good way to rework some old accessories.
This skirt pattern has been such a great pattern I can’t see myself ever tiring of it.  Its most important asset is that it fits me perfectly.  The value of this cannot be over-emphasised.  And its plain enough to jazz up in ways only limited by your imagination.

Actually, setting myself this challenge of wearing something completely different every day has been very good for me, and breathed new life into many of my clothes that I have passed over in favour of a few favourites too often.  And taking my photo each day has also made me more aware of my personal grooming and image that I’m presenting to my family and friends and the world.  I’m telling you it’s not always a pretty sight, and  I’m definitely trying to smarten up my act a bit.
I firmly believe that when you make an effort to look good on the outside and you are pleased with your appearance and attire, it definitely lifts your spirits and makes you feel much better within yourself.  The result is a happier more cheery me who is more pleasant for my family and friends to spend time with!  I hope!
Plus, I’m realising I’ve made heaps of clothes that aren’t maybe quite as hideous as I sometimes think.  They just need to be “styled”, with things I already have, or can be made by me if I need to.  Half the battle in making your own clothes and loving them enough to wear them is simply to just DO IT.  Without second guessing yourself too much.  We shouldn’t just assume that shop-bought is necessarily superior.

Other details:
Cardigan & T-shirt; Country Road
Sandals; Vicenza, bought at Soletta Shoes
Necklace; earrings (origins lost in the mists of time) strung on a chain

 

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Post with no name

30/10/2009 2:31 am \ Leave a Comment \

Please don’t yawn, but this skirt is … wait for it … Vogue 7303.  Again.  I know, sorry.
I really made this one for winter, out of a lovely winter-white wool mix, with a cream bemsilk lining, but it works just as well for spring.  I centred the (invisible) zip in the back this time.   Just a simple plain stylish skirt out of beautiful fabric, that can be dressed up or down.

I tried to get Sienna to pose in the picture, but she got camera shy this time and hid bashfully behind me!  I think she’s embarrassed about her naughty barking during the night…

Please excuse my unattractive feet but I wanted to show my Revlon Blackest Black toenails.  Aren’t they cool?

 

Other details:

Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Diesel, bought in Rome
Necklace; Charmed I’m Sure, gift from my husband
Sandals; Vicenza, from Soletta shoes

 

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Rediscovering the full-length skirt

28/10/2009 4:04 am \ 1 Comment \
This skirt was made last summer when I felt in the mood for something long and swishy; inspired by a skirt I had seen in a parade at Ricarda.  I can’t remember who the designer was.  This polyester chiffon was on super special at Fabulous Fabrics and I bought the rest of the roll, about 3m.  This skirt used every last cm! My starting point was Butterick 3134, a great basic pattern to have as it contains a pattern for each of two, three and four gore A-line skirts.  I used the three gore version, without the waistband.  Customising proceeded as follows:  each piece was lengthened and tapered down the left side to a “shark-tooth”point.  To the bottom of each piece was added a huge gathered part-doughnut shaped piece of fabric, skewed with a thicker doughnut width to the high side, narrowing to a lesser width on the low side, to create the ruffled swirly hemline.  The gores were then pieced together.  A silver bemsilk lining was cut using my old standby Vogue 7303, and the edge of the skirt was finished with a fine handkerchief hem. 
 I wore this a lot; it felt so elegant and feminine to wear as it flutters and kicks out with each step.  I tried to show this in the picture by getting an action shot as you can’t capture the breezy beauty of it when its just hanging flat.
Although grey is never my first choice when it comes to choosing colours for my wardrobe, and I really bought this fabric because it was a bargain, it proved to be right on trend as Australia had a love affair with grey that lasted all last summer.  Grey, grey, grey, or alternatively charcoal, stone, cement or putty (these colour descriptions from a friend that works in a very trendy boutique!)  
Why does a country so saturated with sunlight choose the drabbest of colours to garb itself?
Other details:
Camisole and cardigan; Country Road
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