Uncategorized Archives - Page 140 of 177

Jacket inspired by ?

17/08/2010 9:54 am \ 11 Comments \ Carolyn

Well, I’ve reduced my refashioning bag by one half of an item; being that the pockets of this new jacket used up one leg of Sam’s old khaki corduroy pants that had holes in the knees… so I’m gettin’ somewhere, if not very fast!! I also managed to use up some stash fabric, which I’ve decided I don’t like very much… Bit of a story behind this fabric; well, I’ve had a failure. I don’t like to dwell on failures, but I’ll just mention it briefly then move quickly and smoothly right along and it will be in the past, never to be referred to again. Right? Right.
Well, I had downloaded a free Alexander McQueen jacket pattern at some point, the link is here; if anyone wishes to torture themselves with nightmare-ishly difficult patterns then feel free to go for it… I think I missed out on some key page of the instructions, because after two attempts with lots of unpicking I still had something looking like this…

Hideous, no? Well, we live and learn… I might still have another go at this pattern, using fabric that is not patterned, not so loosely woven and not a wee bit stretchy, all three qualities contributing to a very bad jacket-making experience.
So instead I stitched up the below very simple jacket pattern of my own design. I don’t love this jacket. I think it will be OK for casual warmth when I’m walking the dog, maybe I will come to love it more with use. Its problematic genesis has prejudiced me against it, poor thing.

I basically copied the pocket design off a designer jacket I saw in Vogue magazine (although my pockets are not as ginormous, and the purpose of mine is to cover up seams of patched together fabric), but I don’t know who the original designer is, if anyone recognises it and can tell me I will gladly acknowledge the source…

Details:
Jacket; pattern drafted by me, pockets from Sam’s old childhood pants
Jeans; Country Road (these are going in the refashioning bag too, soon)
Top; Country Road
Shoes; Lute, from Betts and Betts

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: coat, jacket, own design, Wardrobe Refashion

Riverside python

16/08/2010 6:39 am \ 7 Comments \ Carolyn

How much am I loving animal print right now? Oh, way too much. Somebody stop me. I wore my new leopard print twinset, like all weekend, and am only not wearing it today because it’s in the wash… and for today turned to the other animal in my wardrobe. Hello, python print. You’ve been languishing too long on your hanger, and it’s time for another airing. Having a brown-ish tinge about it I wore it today with my tobacco wide-leg pants, that I’ve have for quite a few years now (not telling how many…!) Oh, wide legged pants, how much do I love thee? Enabling one to step out on cold mornings with thermals on underneath and still look chic on the outside… sometimes I worry the extra layer on underneath this style of pants makes for a big bottom look from the rear, so I decided to take a photo of myself from behind to check. I think I’m being pretty brave putting it up here, no? But I’m quite pleased the rear view isn’t too bottom heavy, so doubling up the love for wide-legged pants…
Met my pals for morning tea this morning, the fun part of the day; then office work this arvo…

Details:
Top; Burda 8497, with modified sleeves and cuffs, python print satin
Top (under); Metalicus
Pants; Morrison
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes
Bag; Gucci

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 8497, Spotlight, top

Cardigan plus top equals a twinset!

14/08/2010 3:08 pm \ 10 Comments \ Carolyn

So I originally bought 1.5m of this thin but warm leopard print jersey, and the cardigan only used up about 70cm so I still had bit to play around with. At first I just tossed it back into the cupboard where I store all my fabric but then it occurred to me; if I made a matching top then I would have a twinset! How quaint and fifties and prim and proper! And using the leopard print, which is kinda exotic and has a slightly decadent seventies vibe to it saves it from being too prim and gives it a bit of an edge…
Tops are so easy; I can see no need to buy a pattern; here I simply did just like I did for the cardigan and traced around a top I already had…

Sewed the shoulder seams…

Luckily I had a tiny bit of the same grosgrain ribbon left that I had used for the cardigan here, and used this to stabilise the shoulder seams the same way, now they match too! Satisfies the obsessive side of me…

Sewed up the side seams…

Now as there was still a little bit of leftover fabric to play with I decided to try out a different hemming technique than I used for the cardigan, which was all invisibly hand-stitched. I cut strips of about 4cm in width and used these to bind the raw edges on the wrists, the lower hem and the neckline. All these edges were finished in the following way; firstly the strips are cut to the same length as the edges to be finished. Then sew together the short ends of the strip to form a loop; this is one of the wrist loops…

Fold the strip in half longitudinally with wrong sides together, and apply to the right side of the edge to be finished, raw edges together. Sew all around… Here are the wrist edges finished, one of them inside out to display the loop edges from the inside, and one right side out to show how it looks when finished. If you do have enough fabric leftover, this is a good way to finish the raw edges of jersey knits.

And here is my new twinset…

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, own design, top, tutorial

A very simple cardigan

13/08/2010 9:27 am \ 17 Comments \ Carolyn

I made myself a cardigan; a quick fix project out of some stash fabric… and put together a little tutorial. I did another cardigan tutorial back here, but this one is a leeetle different, although using the same pattern…
The fabric I am using is a thin but closely knit, slightly fluffy leopard print stretch jersey, and I have planned a simple single thickness cardigan. I’m using grosgrain ribbon tape to strengthen and stabilise some seams, and have got five tiny pearl buttons to finish.
First I turned to my standby basic cardigan pattern; this I drafted using an old favourite cardigan as a basis. I just laid down the cardigan as flat and as straight as possible and drew around all its edges… then once I had cut out the paper pattern I re-checked it against the original fabric cardigan to see it was close enough to the right dimensions. This is a style and shape that has proven to fit me and (I think) to flatter me, so I’ve used it several times… The back piece is laid on the fabric fold at right, the front is in the middle and the sleeve is laid out left hand side of the fabric. btw, this is a half sleeve, and has to be flipped over halfway through cutting to get the whole sleeve, er… now you can see how slapdash a cutter I can be…! lol. Even though it looks a bit makeshift, and why don’t I get serious and just cut out a whole sleeve paper pattern piece; it has actually worked very well for me like this every time, so I haven’t bothered. Lazy, I know… Oh, and I cut the body and the sleeves longer than these pieces since I had enough fabric to do so.

I sew the shoulder seams first, then fit the sleeve cap into the arm scye and sew these seams next…

Then sew the underarm seam in one go, from the bottom hem edge right up the sides of the cardigan and on under the sleeve to the wrist edge, making sure to match up those sleeve-to-body seams to each other.

Use a short strip of grosgrain ribbon, sew it on over the shoulder seam and catching it under. This will stabilise this seam and prevent it from stretching through wear…

Pin the grosgrain ribbon, right sides together, all around the front and neck edge…

Sew the grosgrain ribbon to the edge, as close as possible to the ridge of the ribbon edge…

Turn the ribbon to the inside of the cardigan and invisibly hand-sew the edge of the ribbon on the inside… Make sure the edge of the ribbon is cut off evenly on both fronts of the cardigan, and level with where you want the bottom edge to be…

Turn up the lower edge of the cardigan twice, press and invisibly hand-stitch hem in place, also the wrist hems…

Measure where buttons and buttonholes are to be, and sew them in position. Using a grosgrain ribbon to line the neck-edge enables you to machine sew buttonholes straight onto delicate knit fabrics easily, and also to stitch buttons on securely through the two layers without risk of light knit fabrics pulling out of shape; which they would without a strong backing…

Et voila, a very simple cardigan to provide an extra layer of colour to your ensemble, if not some warmth!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: cardigan, Fabulous fabrics, own design, tutorial

Domestic diva

12/08/2010 2:25 am \ 12 Comments \ Carolyn

Should one make the effort to look stylish when one’s daily schedule involves simply popping into the supermarket, the post office and the bank? Or if one’s place of work is in the home? After all, if the peeps around you are in their tracky dacks and ugg boots the pressure is on to follow suit, and if you’ve gone to the effort to dress up kinda nice then you run the risk of feeling overdressed and flashy when all about are very casz…
Well, I reckon all power to the thoughtful dresser. I feel better within myself if I look like I cared… so I do make an effort.
Having said that I’m not super dressed up here, but just a bit. This is a very simple dress (sometimes the simplest will be the most worn item in one’s wardrobe!) that is not gorgeous, but handy. I’ve found it to be a very versatile garment; to see how I styled it in six different way, see here. Oh, and I know I wore this cardigan only the other day, but I’m loving its drab blue sooooo much, could be grabbing it everyday if I wasn’t trying to mix it up more… and it went so well with the socks I had on I just had to put it back on again for today. I’m really making an effort to rotate through my wardrobe, but some things are proving handy and comfortable and fit in so well with my style thoughts for that day… so here it is again. And the new shoes. Wearing them in. Love them so much…

Details:
Dress; Burda 8071, ivory eyelet cheesecloth
Petticoat; Metalicus
Cardigan (under); Country Road
Cardigan (over); refashioned by me from old jumper
Socks; knitted by me, Patonyles sock wool
Shoes; Francesco Morrichetti from Zomp shoes
Bag; Gucci

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 8071, cardigan, dress, Fabric warehouse, Knitted, own design, Patons knitting book C11, socks, Wardrobe Refashion

Flower patch tapestry cushion

11/08/2010 4:26 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

Out of all the tapestry cushions I’ve worked, this is my favourite. (well, since the others were all for the chapel and given away, to see the others click on the “tapestry” link in the “labels” below) And no, this doesn’t live on an outside chair as pictured, but in pride of position on our bed. If the house was burning down I would probably grab this cushion…
I stitched this one from a design in a Kaffe Fassett book, borrowed from Mum. At the time I just bought some canvas and some threads in colours I liked and just started happily stitching away, as is my wont. It wasn’t long before I realised that the canvas he had used for his design must have had a much bigger grid, and that my resulting cushion would be tiny. His original design was for a four flower by four flower cushion, each unique. Well, once I had completed this part of the design I ad-libbed a few more flowers, based on his designs and tweaking the petals and whatnot to get some extra flowers in the same style, until my design was an acceptable size for a cushion, five flowers by five flowers as it turned out. Grr, so much extra stitching, if only I’d checked the canvas requirements would have finished so much quicker…!
I also changed the border design a little, on his cushion design the little border motifs weren’t meeting up in a nice neat order which was distressing to me; so on my cushion I altered and fudged them so they met up in each corner in a kind of “mitred” fashion (see close-up below)…

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: handcrafts, home wares, Kaffe Fassett, own design, Tapestry

Just blown in…

10/08/2010 5:55 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

Scene 1:
A dilapidated hall. The monthly scheduled meeting of Shoe-aholics Anonymous. A circle of seated ladies, subdued and looking sheepish, but very well shod. All eyeing each others footwear covetously.
Convenor; Ladies, we have a new member, here to confess her sins. Please make her welcome.
Me; Hi, I’m Carolyn and I’m …. (gulps and takes a deep breathe, lower lip wobbling) addicted to shoes.
All in unison; Hi, Carolyn

Yes, it’s true. I stay away from shoe shops as much as possible, in order to avoid wear and tear on the credit card… but look at my New Shoes!! Cool, no? I bought them on a recent day out with my friend J, my enabler and partner in shopping crime… These are going to be worn and worn and worn… I think they are tres stylish and they are as comfy as. Perfect for my lifestyle. Welcome to my shoe shelf(ves) new friends, I hope the other shoes make you welcome and don’t get jealous of your fabulousness.
Oh, and if I look a bit wwwwwindswept here, it’s because I AM. Very. This morning was like being in a windtunnel.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, green cotton velveteen
Top; Cue
Cardigan; refashioned from old jumper
Tights; Metalicus
Boots; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes
Bag; Gucci

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: cardigan, own design, skirt, Spotlight, Vogue 7303, Wardrobe Refashion

I was featured…!

09/08/2010 2:31 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

I was interviewed today over at Sewing with Trudy… so exciting!! I’m thrilled about this international aspect of blogging, how those of us with like interests can support each other in the pursuit of our creativity… Trudy always leaves such sweet and supportive comments on my blog. I’m so impressed she has the time to come and visit me here, given her very busy and full family life as well as her own artistic achievements. Trudy has interviewed me and also put up some photos of my own favourite creations…!
Thankyou Trudy!!