Category Archives: Uncategorized

Style Statements…

26/08/2010 8:58 am \ 12 Comments \

Personal style blogs, anyone?  Personally, I adore personal style blogs.
I just love to look at clothing choices, how people interpret and use fashion, and am fascinated by the ability of clothes to express one’s personality somehow.  People-watching is such a fun and interesting thing to do, because you can really tell such a lot about someone, simply by the clothes they have chosen to wear…
Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of composing a personal style sentence for myself, just for fun.  I do think I’ve got a distinct style, and this blog is partly to help me determine what it is (you’d think at my age I’d know by now, yeah)  A personal style sentence would help me make choices in clothing, and everything else, that I won’t regret later, both in shopping for ready-made as well as in my sewing endeavours.
I’ve already had some debate with Mum and Cassie, about each of our own style sentences, but none of us are satisfied with what we’ve come up with.  I thought mine could include the word “sporty” but Cassie disagreed strongly.  It’s because she associates the word “sporty” with tracksuits, which I NEVER (ever ever) wear… but I am outdoors a lot and am reasonably active in my life so I think “sporty” could be in there somewhere.  “Polished sporty”?  Hmmm.  Have to give it more thought… but so far I’ve come up with some adjectives to play with: natural, simple, sporty-but-not-of-the-tracksuit-variety (outdoors-y?)…
I once read about a two-woman company, Carrie & Danielle, who assess people’s lifestyles and come up with a two word Style Statement to describe them.  Just two!  As an example; Modern Luminous.  The first word describes your core; the second word is your creative edge.  It’s a kind of style sound-bite, or mantra that is designed to streamline your consumption choices.  (Oh, and it’s nice to know it’s all positive; no one is classified as Grumpy Stress-bunny, or Whiny Neurotic…phew) While a small cynical side of me rolls my eyes at the narcissistic desire to categorise oneself, the other side of me is attracted to just that.  So part of me is “how silly” and the other part of me would just  love to know what my two words are…!
Afterthought: this was my ensemble for today’s agenda of dog-walking and bike-riding, followed by grocery-shopping and a smidge of office work.  It was good to be out and about on such a glorious day.  (and looking forward to the final of the Ben Cousins‘ documentary tonight…)

Details:

Cardigan; refashioned by me from husband’s old jumper, which has already stretched and is overlapped decoratively and fastened with a pin to a new better fitting position
Top; Sexy Woman, found secondhand
Jeans; Soon
Pony necklace; souvenir from girls’ weekend away, some little shop in Melbourne
Boots; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Bluey/pink loopy scarf

25/08/2010 5:29 am \ 7 Comments \

I’ve made quite a lot of these loopy scarves, here and here are two of them… this is the one I made for Mum’s birthday a few years back.  She looks lovely in this group of blues and purply pinks, I reckon…

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New use for a hole-y old top

24/08/2010 6:17 am \ 4 Comments \

Another re-fashioning project has been completed… yay…
This pure wool top is a pretty shade of pink but had developed some nasty big holes over summer storage.  I continued to wear it as a thermal for a while, with its pink edges peeping out and adding a layer of colour to other ensembles but then as the holes got awfully big I sadly accepted it was too raggedy and resigned it to the re-fashioning bag … (you can see one BIG hole centre front lower edge, but trust me, there’s about four other littler ones lurking about there too…)

Firstly chopped its arms off.

I cut some thumb holes in the ends at the correct “thumb” height and overstitched the edges of these holes to finish.  Then finished off the cut top edges of the sleeves with an elastic zig-zag stitch.

(Oh, please excuse the weird Adam-reaching-out-to-the-hand-of-God-from-the-ceiling-of-the-Sistine-Chapel pose, tried to achieve a naturalistic hand position and failed, sorry!  At least you can see the buttonhole-bound thumb holes…)
With the hole-y body of the top I removed the neck edge, and cut off the side seams.

Opened out the top and bottom of the top (still hinged at the shoulder seams) and cut right up the middle, being careful to leave enough width at the ends of the loop.  I also rounded off the square edges of the loop and cut out the hole that was really big.

Dunked the new scarf in HOT soapy water and did plenty of whooshing about (it’s a technical term) to felt up those raw edges as much as possible (have you ever tried to take a photo of your other hand swooshing fabric about in a bucket?  It’s a little like the rubbing-the-tummy-while-patting-the-head thing; the same kinda tricky feeling…)

Voila; new hand warmers and a sort of artsy scarf…!  This is a good way to re-use an old top that is a colour you love.

Details:
Handwarmers and scarf; refashioned from wool top
Skirt; Vogue 7856 view B with some added skirt bits, grey and black printed cotton
Top and cardigan; Country Road
Boots; Andrea and Joen; from Uggies

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Going for the full skirt look

23/08/2010 6:30 am \ 5 Comments \

I went through my wardrobe this weekend, to determine how easy it was going to be to fulfill my own personal Self-Stitched September challenge of “all handmade with no double-ups”.  I learnt some things; firstly, thirty outfits is a LOT of outfits!!  Secondly, and as I thought, the tops issue is the tricky part.  I’ve realised during the chilly months I practically live in store-bought cardigans and Metalicus tops!  Most of the tops I’ve made are summer weight, so I’m going to have to allow myself the additional clause to wear my trench coat on any day that is a bit chilly!  I’ve also realised that most of my handmade separates have been made to “go with” an existing store-bought item that I’ve had for years. Matching up my handmade separates will be an interesting exercise, please be kind if you think one of my ensembles isn’t up to scratch…!  Of course I have some tops that go with all the skirts and pants, and vice versa, and some separates that are difficult…  Also I’ve got quite a few dresses that haven’t seen the light of day for months… why?  because I don’t like them anymore.  Obviously I’ve got current favourites I’ve been wearing a lot lately and should be mixing up more…  I was debating with myself whether to go ahead and wear some less-than-favourite dresses during September, or to keep some back for reserves, or to ruthlessly evict them from my wardrobe…  no one’s getting evicted just yet, but may have to get together a Salvo’s bag or add to the refashioning pile next month, sigh…
This skirt is part of my standard go-to (seen here) for when we go to live theatre or the ballet… it’s very warm (to survive air-conditioning!) and perhaps a little too luxe for day-wear.  However, put it on for today anyway…  this look is inspired by the latest looks in Australian Vogue; the full skirts with prim blouses, little button up cardigans and “rockabilly” shoes.  This is the fullest skirt I’ve got!

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 8296 view B, (expensive!) cream printed wool from Astratex
Top; Brown Sugar
Cardigan; Allure
Socks; (stolen from husband!) Discoverer
Boots; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Pink lace dress

21/08/2010 4:50 am \ 16 Comments \

I’ve made a new dress for spring, but I’ve persuaded Bessie to model it for today… because I’ve started to think about Self-Stitched September coming up where I’ll be documenting my handmade daily outfits everyday (hope that’s not going to be too boring) and no doubt I’ll be wearing it one of those days and will take a snap of myself then.  I’ve decided to challenge myself to wear totally handmade, save for tights and shoes… and to never double-up.  It will be a challenge, so I’ll see how I go.  May have to pop on a store-bought top or T-shirt getting to the end of it, but I’ll try not to…
I bought this pink lace back in the Fabulous Fabrics sale last December and finally got around to sewing the dress I first envisioned back then… the first hurdle was of course that the fabric is completely see through, so a slip was an obvious mandatory requirement.  For some strange mental reason, I determined to finish this slip to moderately high standards, yes, even though it’s a slip.  I get these funny urges sometimes, maybe it’s because of reading other peoples’ blogs about applying immaculate finishes that is spurring me on…  I’m not always this patient because sometimes you just want to get the thing done, no?
Anyhoo, the slip has French seams on the side seams, and Hong Kong binding on the centre back seam, where the invisible zip is inserted.  The lower hem and the bodice facing is all invisibly stitched by hand (OK I do do this to all my dresses), although I’m not 100% happy with how the hem looks and may do a different finish on this (any ideas?)… the silk satin won’t be pressed into a traditional double fold hem as flat as I would like.  The ribbon straps have lingerie findings incorporated to enable the straps to be adjustable.  The pattern I used for the slip is Burda 8071, and for the dress itself I drafted a heavily modified version of Simplicity 3745.  Heavily modified in that all the gathering and pleating and the zip has been removed from the dress in order to streamline the silhouette and to use less fabric.  The lace is a stretch so can just be pulled over my head.

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Moebius strip, in wearable form

20/08/2010 4:21 am \ 11 Comments \

Oh, I finished a new scarf.  Or cowl, more accurately.  A ginormous cowl.  I finished it a coupla weeks back and put it in one of my photos yesterday, in the outfit that seemed to have been the most popular with my kind commenters. (and thanks all, for your comments!  I do love comments!)  But the cowl hasn’t been properly introduced here, so here it is in its own showcase post….

I used Patons Jet 100% wool, about six and a half balls.
Tension; 16 stitches to 10cm.

Cast on 50 stitches, K2 P2 ad infinitum until one reaches the required length.  I knitted mine to 175cm long.  Sew the ends together remembering to put one twist in the scarf before sewing up, so it’s really a giant Moebius strip rather than a loop.
Done!

I like it with two drapes around the neck, but it’s easily long enough for three drapes if I want.  It becomes more of a big pseudo-turtleneck collar with three loops.
Seen on my walk this morning below: definitely signs of spring in the air, the arrival of the cygnets.  I love watching the new batches of cygnets grow into adulthood.

Details:
Skirt; my own design variations, based on Vogue 7303, pale pink damask
Top; Country Road
Trench; Burda 7786, modified to be double breasted and with added tabs, beige cotton
Scarf; my own design, cream wool
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies

 

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Leopard twin-set; 6 different ways

19/08/2010 2:43 am \ 15 Comments \

 

I haven’t done one of these for a while and I just felt like doing another one, thanks to my enthusiasm for my new leopard print twinset!
I foresee the future usefulness and versatility of this twin-set is in the fabric and the print.  Firstly the jersey is close knit and of high quality that looks quite luxe; and here I’m just going to say I reckon it pays off in the long run to spend a little more on quality fabrics.   Your clothes will last longer, they will look better, and most importantly you will look better in them too!  Isn’t the time and effort you put into your dressmaking worth a good quality fabric?
Secondly the print is a mix of ivory, grey, charcoal and just a touch of black, a particularly useful colour combination to have in a print.  I don’t know about other ladies, but I have a lot of solid colour neutrals in my wardrobe and not many prints.  Although I love neutrals with a passion, just occasionally I feel I look a little uninspired and dull when I wear them as a set of unrelieved solids.  Every now and then a print, and particularly an exotic print like this, is what is needed to refresh and add a touch of interest to a mix of blocked neutral solids…
Of course the beauty of a twin-set is that it can be split, the top and the cardigan can work separately with other garments as well as, natch, together.  Is this cheating, doing a six way styling feature using essentially two garments?  Well I don’t think so… anyway here ‘tis…
When going casz, the top and cardigan works just as well for summer and winter…
At left, when a tiny bit more chic-ness is required, say for shopping or running errands about the neighbourhood; and at right, for the first time I’ve included an option for business attire!  I don’t have very much need for business wear in my lifestyle, but I think this combo is smart enough for this purpose…
And for a more dressy option when say, meeting friends or the husband for lunch, or going out in the evening (the ensemble at right is how I wore it last Saturday night for a soccer wind-up dinner and presentation at Sam’s school, he won fairest and best trophy for his team!! so proud… )

 

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Cross-stitch initial cushions

18/08/2010 2:57 am \ 6 Comments \

These are some cushions I embroidered with my parents’ initials a few years ago (hehe, when I was into cross-stitch a while back…)  and sewed up the cushion covers with some gathered broderie anglaise edging.  I think on the backs I sewed proper little fold-over closures with buttonholes and cute pearly buttons; but I forgot to turn over the cushions when I was taking this photo to refresh my memory…  Mum and Dad pay me the honour of having them permanently sitting on their bed, and I love the all-white embroidered and belgian lace bedlinen they have here… but then the all-white look is my favourite decorating style.  As well as in clothing… but I’m told white doesn’t suit me so I shouldn’t wear it so much.  Apparently I should stick to ivory or beige.

On my walk this morning; below, the first signs of spring?  Seems incredible but there it is.
Truthfully I am sick of winter.  More accurately, I’m sick of the cold, we are still so desperate for rain.  My friend J was telling me how they may turn their sheep loose into the crops because the growth has been so pathetic they may as well utilise it for sheep feed… a bad situation.  She’s measured that they’ve had all of 127mm of rain this winter (non-metric people, that’s about 5 inches) and everything is as dry as a bone, keeping fingers crossed for a wetter spring…

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