Category Archives: Uncategorized

By the lake

10/02/2010 4:28 am \ 6 Comments \
Today the sky is grey and white; the sun is veiled behind an impenetrable smudgy mattress and there’s a cool sharp tang in the air; such a relief after a hot few days.  For those of us who like photography; we’re joyously bursting out of the shadows and into the open air with our cameras, as the lack of harsh direct sunlight means a return to our pictures of some focus, details and colour!  Yes, colour is the first victim in our strong Australian light, and as for details such as a pretty print or beautiful embroidery, well subtle contrasts just disappear into a general blob of indeterminate brightness.
Another cause for general celebration is the opportunity for me to don a cardigan; and I JUST LOVE cardigans!  They’re a wardrobe item I can’t get enough of….  Oh, yeah, apart from shoes.  And sandals…. and, er, ok then, lots of other stuff too… oh,  I’m such a fashion sucker.
I left my sunnies off for this photo, partly because I felt I was wearing them way too much in my photos and I wanted to mix it up a little, and partly because I thought I could get away without them in this more subdued light, but it’s actually still pretty bright out today.  I’m trying hard not to squint in this photo, not very successfully I can see now.  Well, it’s actually supposed to be about the fashion and not about my face, really.
I’ve worn this dress on and off over summer; this is the one with a too-short zip that entails much wriggling and tugging to actually get on and off, imagine a deranged lunatic struggling with a strait-jacket in a padded cell and you’re getting some idea.  I love the embroidery and appliqué on this fabric, and the odd subdued colours.  I think they’re set off well with this bright aqua silk scarf, and a little demure charcoal cardigan.
Details:
Dress; my own design variations on New Look 6699, using two cotton prints
Cardigan; Country Road
Scarf; aqua silk chiffon, made by me
Sandals; Micam by Joanne Mercer, bought from Hobbs
Nail varnish; my own mix of BYS French White and Mint Condition
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Gelato colours

09/02/2010 3:05 am \ 5 Comments \

When wearing pastels, especially head-to-toe, one is in danger of looking sticky sickly sweet.  Additionally if the silhouette is too “safe” you may come across as grandmotherly or queen-motherish.  An outfit of this type needs some elements of hard-edge or rawness to save it; my ensemble here(worn yesterday) has a tweed skirt, a pink camisole and a little cardigan, all in safe pastel colours, so has all the sweet little old lady boxes ticked off right there.  Not my ideal look, obviously.  I think my normal style is aim for a little deconstruction, not too polished.  But I’m still liking this look here.
I think it’s the unfinished fringe on the edge of my skirt and the raw edges of my cardigan that save it from being too pretty and ordinary and give the outfit that little zing of deconstruction that is needed.  Although raw edges are seen everywhere now and hardly put you in the punk category anymore.  Perhaps it’s also my jade green pedicure that also adds that necessary unexpected note.  And my necklace, while composed of shades of pretty pink, has a kind of random twisty-ness quality to it.
So, “pretty in pink”?  Not what I’m aiming for, but chic enough to pass muster, hopefully.

Details;
Skirt; Vogue 7303, fabric handwoven by my Mum
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; own design, coffee and white net
Necklace; own design
Sunnies; RayBan
Shoes; op shop
Nail polish; own mix of BYS French White and Mint Condition

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Birthday girl

08/02/2010 3:19 am \ 9 Comments \
Today is my daughter’s birthday…. Happy birthday, sweets!  So I really wanted to feature her for today’s post.  Luckily she hasn’t started uni yet and she agreed to pose for me. 
She’s wearing a dress I made about three years ago, inspired again by Vivienne Westwood; this time a cocktail dress featured in her Spring/Summer 2006 collection.  I found a 1m remnant of silk at my favourite fabric store and with a bit of design magic managed to get this dress out of it!  I remember telling a friend about my 1m dress during the making and she inquired whether it was going to be backless, or possibly even frontless! but I think it’s turned out a very demure dress!  I used every last scrap of fabric, and there wasn’t even enough to use for the backing of the belt, I had to use a bit of lining fabric for that purpose.  So I joke that this is my $10 cocktail dress, and with the amount of use that both my daughter and I have got out of it brings it down to less than a dollar per wear, so it’s been a goodie.  Another little fact that makes me laugh about this dress is that the shade card was still attached to the remnant when I bought it, which revealed it to be a colour named “swamp”  Takes away from the glamour quotient somewhat, no?!  Still brings a smile to my face now…
But I love this colour, so does my daughter and we both look good in the dress, she considerably more so being gorgeous and young…
Details:
Dress; own design, green (swamp!) silk
Shoes; from Hobbs
Photo from Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2006
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Tea Cosy, specimen 11

07/02/2010 12:33 am \ 4 Comments \

This is the tea cosy I knitted for my friend A for her birthday.  It’s actually the very first tea cosy I made out of all of them and I love its little bobbles.  It’s made from Jo Sharp wool; and from memory.  I saw an example very like this one in a Jo Sharp knitting book and made this cosy pretty much from what I could remember of it.  On a side note here, something that really bugs me is how yarn manufacturers bring out these veeeery expensive pattern books for sale which usually, often, contain about fifteen or twenty patterns.  How ridiculous is that?  You might only want to make one, or possibly two of the patterns in the book (how much knitting is the average person capable of, really), and you have to pay $50 for a whole bunch of patterns you’re not even remotely interested in.  It would be so much more sensible if the patterns could be available singly, on a pamphlet and you could then just purchase the ones you want.  That’s my opinion, anyway.  What do others think?
Anyhow, getting back to this cosy; my friend A is a very classic and tasteful dresser and I’ve always thought of these subdued sophisticated shades as being her kind of colours.

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Khaki and lace

06/02/2010 4:54 am \ 4 Comments \
Today I look a little like I’m on safari.  Hilarious, considering the only wildlife around the beach here is birds, possums, the odd bobtail and Sienna.
I know I showcased this olive skirt only recently, paired with a rainbow of colours; but I just couldn’t resist pulling it out again.  Here it is in a neutral ensemble and complemented by all the soft subtle colouring that distinguishes the coastal palette.  Smudgy khaki and browns have always been my best neutrals I think.  I used to have a whole bunch of khaki clothes I took to Africa with me in the top of our wardrobe which have now inexplicably disappeared.  Surely I couldn’t have thrown them out?  That would be extremely idiotic, even for a forgetful airhead like me.  Not impossibly idiotic, though…
My cream lace top is another old favourite that is more interesting than it appears from a distance; having lace strips sewn randomly all over and lovely old buttons.
My nail varnish is a colour I mixed up myself, after seeing a similar shade in a magazine editorial and immediately thinking “want”.  Aiming for a light jade green I used mostly BYS French White with a little bit of BYS Mint Condition thrown in.  Does anyone else mix their own nail varnish at all?  I found it trickier than I thought.  I recommend mixing only enough for one coat, then mixing the second coat when you need it; as the varnish dries so quickly you’re faced with a gluggy difficult-to-apply sludge by the time your first coat dries… of course I could have just paid ten times as much for the designer colour already mixed and saved myself the hassle, but that’s just no challenge to a DIY-er like me….
Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy
Top; Butterick 4985; cream broderie anglaise cheesecloth with cotton lace overlays and crotchet tie
Overshirt; bought from Tinga Game Lodge, South Africa (stolen from husband’s wardrobe)
Belt; stolen from husband
Shoes; op shop
Bag; made by my Mum
Nail varnish; self mixed, using BYS French White and Mint Condition
(David Attenborough-style whispered voiceover) “Here we have a dangerously cute specimen which may attack without warning, smothering its victim with excessive licking… may mercilessly flay an unprepared observer with its wildly whipping tail…  give this beast a wide berth”
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Wardrobe Refashion, project 5

05/02/2010 7:00 am \ 12 Comments \
Has anyone seen the Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2010 collection, a parade which included what looks like Frankenstein-ed business shirts jammed together in magnificent artistic disarray, at left; sigh, pure gorgeousness incarnate, no?  I think Vivienne Westwood is a design genius, and this is not the first time I have sighed lustfully over her collection.  In a further enticement I also spotted and was mesmerised by this sculptural and beautiful shirt-monster, at right, which I found on outsapop.
Obviously for my own wardrobe I need to tone down the overall excessiveness of these extreme looks, as I live and operate in a fairly conservative little community where artistic fabulousness is likely to provoke tears of hilarity rather than admiration; but I felt so inspired by these examples I wanted to attempt my own version.
Enter; three old business shirts belonging to my husband, which had been put in my “fabric” trunk many years ago.  Don’t remember now exactly why I decided to hang onto these, but I must have had an inkling that they would come in handy one day…
I didn’t take any photos during the construction process this time.  However, the sleeves used for the top have been shortened to be ¾ length, which I think is a more feminine look and I used the collar of one shirt to make a partial attached belt to bring in the back of the top and give it a bit more shape and definition as well as to bring in this fabric colour to the top.  The skirt is comprised of two layers formed by the bodies of the two remaining shirts.  I made a bias binding of some of the leftover fabric to bind the waistband of the skirt which has a single button closure at the left waist, and saved the sleeves of the short-sleeved shirt to make the inserted pockets (see details below)  I really love the final outcome, satisfies my “waste-not-want-not” instincts whilst also looking kind of shabby/trendy and still undeniably unique all together…  I confess it did turn a few heads when I went grocery shopping in town this morning but I’m hoping it was in a good way.  Nobody was pointing and laughing and I take this as a good sign.
Details:
Skirt and top; re-fashioned from three old business shirts
Shoes; Country Road
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Teal dress and, er, white lacy thing

04/02/2010 1:10 am \ 4 Comments \
I apologise in advance for the appearance of a yet another white lacy number.  I actually made this about a year ago and don’t wear it very much, especially not since I became aware of and then started feeling embarrassed about the glut of white lacy clothes in my wardrobe….
I wish I could say I made this teal dress, but it was a birthday gift from my darling husband who wanted to buy me some clothes so I wouldn’t suffer from the creative burden of having to sew my own, without perhaps considering how much I love said burden….  like an addict loves the drug that enslaves them.  My friend D first coined this metaphor as it applies to creative types and I relate, really I do.  No sooner am I putting the finishing touches onto one project than already my brain is feverishly planning the next sartorial experiment… and I’m really making an effort to slow down and plan more carefully for economy, practicality and versatility!
I do adore this dress, like I do nearly all Metalicus for its spectacular ease of wear combined with intense beautiful colours.  With varying degrees of success I’ve tried at times to reproduce some of my favourite items but the difficulty is, as always, getting hold of fabric…. The usual seamstress’ complaint.  This dress is from the wool range, and amazingly it’s incredibly cool to wear in summer.
The bag I made about two years ago and first posted about here.
Details:
Dress; Metalicus
Top; my own design, white cut-out embroidered linen
Bag; my own design, cream wool
Shoes; Sandler, op shop
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Kreativ Blogger Award

03/02/2010 2:25 am \ 5 Comments \

Thankyou so much Yoshimi for giving me this Kreativ Blogger Award!  So today instead of my usual sewing and fashion post ( I did have something planned , but I’ll do it tomorrow) I’ll try to dredge up 7 things about myself…hmm this will be tricky as I’m not particularly interesting…
1. I have a degree in chemistry.  I started out studying veterinary science, but my brain is mathematically wired (plus being an animal lover, this made some of the assignments we were given in veterinary science traumatic for me) and I switched over.  I’m ideally suited to being tucked away alone in a laboratory, not talking to anyone, working on a problem, which is not unlike when I’m sewing actually!
2. I’m painfully shy, and when people first meet me I come across as aloof and stuck-up.  I’m not really.  If I have a drink I turn into a garrulous party animal, embarrassingly.
3. I have a crazy obsession about not using my car as much as possible.  I think my friends think I’m insane when I rock up at a swish cafe, on my bike, with my fancy shoes stashed in the basket.
4. Our household has four pets.  And three teenagers.  Yes, we live in a menagerie.

5.  I’m very sentimental about trees and get very upset when old ones are cut down.  Yeah, bit of a hippy aesthetic there.  Probably why so many of my photos have a tree, or at least some sort of greenery, in there somewhere…!

6. Unlike just about everybody else in the world, I can’t bear the smell and taste of coffee.  Actually the smell I can cope with, just.  Once I tried to force myself to get over this and drink the stuff, be an adult, for heaven’s sake.  Then my friend A pointed out, why take on an unhealthy habit unnecessarily?  Yeah, she had a point.  So I abstain.

I consider this to be a useful dye, rather than a consumable…

7. Hmm, struggling to think of anything else about myself not too personal or weird here…. 
I saw snow for the first time in my life when I was 27.  Well, I do live in one of the hottest and driest states of one of the hottest and driest countries on Earth, and Perth is possibly the most isolated capital city in the world.  When I was growing up we didn’t travel much.  As children, my friends and I considered we were going overseas when we went to Rottnest Island (small island about 10km away from Perth).  Maybe this is why Aussies have that wanderlust to the nth degree and as adults we all aim to travel.  A lot.  My husband and I love travelling.  Since reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” I really want to go to Scandinavia.

Now, the rules are that I should nominate 7 people, but I’m going to take a leaf out of Yoshimi’s book and just name 3. 

So, the very creative people who get my award are;

Lauriana; whose tailoring skills are faultless, I would love to see her outfits every day!

Stephanie, who is a very talented lady who can make her own leather bags!  as well as lovely clothes; I’m so impressed by this I can’t begin to express my admiration……

Ruta, another gorgeous creative lady who along with stunning clothes also makes her own bags, and leather skirts, again, very impressed…

I would add the very creative Lily, but she just did something similar recently; and I also went to Trudy and Ann, but they both had this award already…

The Rules
1. Copy/paste the Kreativ Blogger Award picture onto your blog
2. Thank the person who awarded it to you and post a link to her/his blog
3. Write 7 things about yourself we might not know
4. Choose 7 other bloggers to award
5. Link to them
6. Notify your 7 bloggers of their award

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