Uncategorized Archives - Page 158 of 177

Candy floss colours

13/03/2010 8:42 am \ 1 Comment \ Carolyn

The colours in my photos have disappointed me a little as my camisole is really pinker than it appears here. Today I felt in the mood for an artificial and unnatural candy-floss pop of colour, a peek into the Hello Kitty world with its both hard and soft clashing colours. Thus my atypical backdrop, a grey and black concrete and glass monolith all hard edges and manmade lines with not a speck of nature to be seen. (And how fortuitous that the building should have my initial inset in marble and brass in it’s doorstep?!)
I’m also inspired by this Josh Goot dress I spied in the latest Vogue magazine; the colours so sharp, impossibly lolly-pink and blue with the touches of stark black and white; stepping just out of a sci-fi cartoon world. Nothing natural here. Bring on the digital age, yeah. I would love to have this dress in my wardrobe, but for now I’ll just have to settle for reproducing its colour scheme as best I can with what I’ve already got, but isn’t this fabric out of this world?
Though if I really look at these hues again wouldn’t they be just right for a sunrise peeping over ocean waters lapping onto pristine beach sands, the charred remains of a midnight driftwood campfire scattered about…. the epitome of a natural environs…. ah nature always has one tucked up the sleeve, does it not? Just when fashion has contrived a seemingly artificial colour scheme mother nature slips in the reminder of a colourama of her own…

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1023 view C, turquoise polycotton
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Metalicus
Scarf; made by me
Bag; pink satin Olga Berg, birthday gift from a friend
Shoes; Perrini, had these for so many years I’ve forgotten where they came from
Nail varnish; Fools Paradise, BYS

Photo below from Josh Goot, Spring/Summer 10

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, own design, scarf, skirt, Vogue 1023

Wardrobe Refashion, project 6

12/03/2010 4:57 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

This refashion was actually excessively easy and barely worth a tutorial of “during” pictures, but here it is…
I started out with these drawstring waist, three quarter pants. They are shapeless and unattractive and only suitable for pyjamas… but the fabric is lovely fine linen in a gorgeous shade of pistachio that I fall in love with straight away… but am I ever going to wear these pants as is? No way. Drawstring and elasticised waists are just a no-go in my wardrobe. I feel they bunch unattractively around my waist/hips, adding bulk to a problem area, and as a recent commenter kindly reminded me, I am not model thin. Yeeeah….. If I will take the risk of putting myself out there then people will feel free to inform me of my figure flaws, but hey I can take it.
So here are the before pants:
No way am I modelling these for the blog, they do look ridiculous and I have some pride.

I removed the drawstring and the elastic from the waist casing and cut the leg pieces off just below crotch level:

Now I took each of the legs; in these pants the back leg pieces are wider than the front pieces, so when ironed flat you get a pressing line with the leg seamline just inside of this running down the length of the legs … I marked with pins on the leg backs the line of this seamline that is on the leg fronts, and cut the fabric of the leg backs approximately 1cm in from this pinned line and overlocked the raw edges… Then on the leg fronts (which looks superficially the same as it did before) I stitch in the ditch down the original seamline… this is being pointed to by my unpicker in this photo… and thus a hem is created on each side of the two long leg pieces utilising the original pressing line. (phew! that probably made no sense whatsoever! the picture can do the talking…)

I fitted these two pieces over my shoulders and pinned them inside the original waistband and stitched them on the top stitching line as well as the bottom stitching line of the waistband casing. The short crotch seams front and back are re-sewn to be straight seams. The original back of the pants with its pockets still intact I placed at the front.. and cut new holes for the drawstring at the new front…

There was a little slit at the bottom of the legs (now the bodice), I kept this and sewed it down with a button for an extra detail and to bring it in under the arm and help avoid bra flashing…

Hemmed the bottom, et voila….

I think it looks a little like a scrubs top, but then I do like this look. The team that brought us Scrubs the TV show introduced to non-hospital workers a whole new wardrobe concept in the sexy loose-fitting comfort of scrubs, (and who didn’t just love “Scrubs”?) This will be a good light floaty top which will be lovely and cool for hot days. And comfortable! Man, I might just still use it for pyjamas as well as day-wear…

Details:
Top; pistachio linen, refashioned from old pants
Skirt; Diesel
Shoes; Timberland

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: own design, Sienna, top, tutorial, Wardrobe Refashion

Carrying off your muslin

11/03/2010 3:40 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

I posted recently about a calico trial of a jacket that my daughter has appropriated and spirited off to her wardrobe; well I thought I’d show you her style of wearing it. I think she looks very artistic. She made her own skirt; she’s quite the accomplished seamstress herself, and although I promised myself I wouldn’t blog about her achievements and let her do that herself in her own blog one day, but since she’s wearing it in this picture I’ve included the pattern number for reference. It’s Butterick 5488, a pattern I’ve had for years. Just the picture of the models on the front looks kinda 80’s. She made it using fabric I bought in the US to use as a tablecloth, from memory.
The “jacket” of course is calico, sewn up, then washed, with unfinished edges. I used McCalls 5276 view B, but with no collar or facings. Btw for anyone wishing to use this pattern, the sizing is HUGE. I recommend if you pick up this pattern, go down a size.

Oh, and remember this?

I’ve been feeling guilty about this bag of old clothes, and decided I’d better get back to refashioning. My last few posts on Wardrobe Refashion have been on my garments I’ve made from scratch so I’m feeling like I should do a refashion, if only to make some sort of dent in this monstrosity. I keep telling myself I shouldn’t feel guilty about sewing from new fabric, after all I’m not buying new clothes and that still counts, right? So many of the posts I’ve read on that site talk about using thrifted fabric, (and yay to everyone for using old! thumbs up for saving the planet!) but my understanding of the rules says it OK to use new too, yes? And I don’t want to feel guilty about using new fabric once in a while… I LOVE new fabric. It’s one of my biggest passions.
Anyhow I have done another refashion and it is the easiest one I’ve done so far. I remembered to take pictures and I’ll post more details tomorrow….

Details:
Jacket; McCalls 5276, unfinished calico, no facings or collar
Skirt; Butterick 5488, cotton print
Camisole; Country Road

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Butterick 5488, Cassie, McCalls 5276

Carpet of leaves

10/03/2010 3:59 am \ 7 Comments \ Carolyn

Autumn is my favourite season. The extreme of heat has passed so the mornings are pleasant and cool, and yet the days are still warm enough for swimming, walking, picnics and enjoyable sociable activities. And who says Australia doesn’t get autumn colours? I found this divinely pretty little spot under the trees carpeted all in soft greens, golds and browns… all I needed was some morning tea in my backpack and a friend to share these beautiful surroundings with. A friend apart from Sienna, that is. She would be more than happy to wolf down a few snacks with me but the vet told me this morning she is a tad overweight and needs to go on a diet. Oh, and since we had to squeeze this visit to the vet into the morning schedule I’m also lacking the all-important time to have this hypothetical morning tea anyway….
I wore this skirt a lot last year but it’s only had a few airings this season as it’s just been too hot to wear it. Now I’m feeling its warm bright hues are just right for the colourful mood I’m turning to in my autumn wardrobe lately…

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view C, cotton print
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; Metalicus
Necklace; souvenir from Santorini
Sandals; Neo, from Nine West (I think?)
Nail varnish; Fools Paradise, BYS

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Fabulous fabrics, Sienna, skirt, Vogue 7880

Making boring black satin “snake-worthy”

09/03/2010 5:24 am \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

So I’m working on this python print satin outfit, inspired by this gorgeousness of Prada. (At right, Prada, Spring/Summer 09) I’ve finished the top. And I really want some kind of black detailing on the skirt to offset the python print. I had a small amount of black satin, leftover scraps. But plain black satin looks so boring; flat, shiny and plain. I wanted some pizzazz, here. What to do?
I spent a lot of time contemplating this and trying different things. I even drove up to Fabulous fabrics and found some really gorgeous black snakeskin-detailed rubber coated jersey that I thought might be fabulous. Bought 70cm. It is fabulous. Love it. But against the python print skirt, it … just wasn’t working its magic. It subtle little scales were lost against the python print, which is a pretty bold and striking print. So I turned back to the black satin and tried to dream up some way of making it more exciting. I know crushing satin permanently is a chemical process beyond the scope of my amateur skills; it had to be a sewing thing. So I tried this:
Here’s a bit of black satin. Not very “snake-y”, now, is it?

Folding the fabric with right sides together, I sewed 3cm-4cm lengths of pintucking, randomly placed to form rough asymmetric triangles and quadrangles. This part is very random and “artistic”. I’m aiming for a sort of fluid, languid flow of chaotic lines.

This is what it looks like from the wrong side.

And this is the right side, before ironing. (Sorry, flash went off and I didn’t realise) Looks kind of like a quilted eiderdown sewn by five year olds. Fabulous.

Then I ironed on the right side, being careful not to pull the fabric out too much. I kind of “placed” the iron onto the wrinkles to set them down as naturally and as scrunchy as possible.
Ironed, right side up.

And here I’ve pressed down the edges in a random wavy line (this is easy with satin) and sewn the finished satin strip along the side of my skirt.

Snaky enough?
I think so!
Stay tuned for the final outfit, shouldn’t be too far off now.
(And I still have that fantastic bit of black snakeskin jersey to make a matching cardigan, woot!)

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: own design, Spotlight, tutorial

“What a curious feeling…”

08/03/2010 5:01 am \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

When I sat under this tree today I felt a bit like a gypsy-ish Alice in Wonderland. I had this big solid tree comfortably at my back with its branches swaying and drooping, its canopy of foliage like a whispering crowd of woodland onlookers, I’m looking over a lake sprinkled with silent and watchful ducks and a couple of black swans drifting and foraging in the mud at bottom… all I needed was a cake and a bottle marked “Drink me” though the pool was not of my tears and I could see no dodo… my dog lay peacefully and companionably in the dry grass nearby watching me and waiting patiently for me to finish this strange early morning photography ritual… she’s a faithful soul.
I’m getting braver in my choice of colour combinations; a month ago I would never have worn this top with this skirt. These golden jewelled sandals always feel so light, sparkly and frivolous on my feet, but the solid brown beads anchor me back down. I need anchoring, to be reminded me I have a job to do and it’s time to check back into the office and leave my daydreaming for another day…

Details:
Top; Country Road, dyed with turmeric
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view B, multicoloured polyester chiffon
Necklace; made by me
Sandals; Anna, from MarieClaire
Nail varnish; Fools Paradise, BYS

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, dyeing, Fabulous fabrics, own design, skirt, Spotlight, Vogue 7880

Tea Cosy, specimen 14

07/03/2010 5:20 am \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

This is the fourteenth and final tea cosy I have to show you. This one was for J, and she keeps chooks, thus the three on top. The colouring is also slightly different from the previous chook one I made for our mutual friend C. J has the most divine garden and house filled with antique bits and pieces and every corner is a picture to gladden the heart of a photography freak. She has things like old farming boots, filled with plants and sitting on an old rusty iron table in a leafy corner of the garden; a discarded bike leans casually under a tree; an ornate gate leans against another tree, forming the backrest to a bench; the verandah is hung with quaint birdcages, paint a-peeling, some with bird ornaments perched inside. There is even a rusty jalopy parked in one corner, getting overgrown… She has pet alpacas! I regret deeply I didn’t have my camera when I visited…
She took this picture for me of the cosy with one of her antique finds, a tea caddy. She sent me about six pictures of the cosy, each with cuter and cuter accessories alongside and it was tough for me to narrow the picture choice down to just one! but here it is.
The base is again the base for RolyPoly, from Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior, but the chooks are my own design.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Knitted, own design, Spotlight, tea cosy, wild tea cosies

Orange skirt

06/03/2010 3:03 am \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve finished a new skirt, as part of my autumn wardrobe plans! It was a little delayed in getting finished as I debated whether to go and buy matching cotton to finish the seams ; yeah, HongKong seaming is my new passion!…. but I eventually settled for a bit of leftover print in my scraps bag (you may recognise it as the remains of the floral skirt I’ve been wearing a lot past summer).
It’s using Vogue 7303 again, cut short and lined. This is a plain pattern but one I turn to over and over as it fits me so well, and I really wanted this skirt to be a plain unadorned little number to add a splash of bright cheery colour to my wardrobe, I think I got it, no? Most of my encounters today resulted in a complimentary comment, so I’m very happy with it!