Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tea Cosy, specimen 4

06/12/2009 4:07 am \ 1 Comment \

This is the tea cosy I made for my sister-in-law S; another version of the Roly Poly from “Wild Tea Cosies” by Loani Prior.  I love the colours of this tea cosy; before giving it to S for her birthday I had it sitting up in our lounge room because the colours were so, well, cosy is the best word I can think of.  Sort of toasty and reminiscent of the colours that are associated with an afternoon tea of cakes and sweet nibblies…  Picture this in the middle of plates of fruit cake, and strawberry tarts and lemon curd tarts and you get a feel for the foody comfort factor I’m visualising here…  My sister in law is a wonderful and dedicated cook which is a quality I greatly admire in others as I am so sadly lacking in this area myself.  She even makes her own meat pies.  And her own pastry.  And a sponge cake which is always the object of awed admiration at any gathering.  Respect.
I photographed this on their dining room table, with their china tea set which has a teal blue/purple/gold decal strip nicely picked up in the cosy also.

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Cherry velvet cocktail dress

05/12/2009 5:04 am \ 3 Comments \

Went out to my bookclub Christmas dinner last night and ta-dah, this is what I wore.  My hair only looks this nice because it was styled by my hairdresser, I am sadly incapable of achieving this look on my own.  My efforts with my hair always end up with wild crazy hair and me vowing to leave nature alone in future.
I made this dress about four years ago, maybe more, I really can’t remember.  It was when the wonderful Fabric Warehouse in Myaree was still open and they had this absolutely gorgeous crinkled velvet there.  I fell in love with this fabric, and I’ve never seen the likes of it since.  I chose the pattern New Look 6035 view A (the red one seen on the pattern cover above) because its wonderful simplicity would show off this fabric to best effect.  I’ve worn this dress several times and it always has a great impact;  I also lent it to my friend J to wear once and she paid me the great compliment of saying how much she loved it too (and wanted it if I should ever throw it out!)
The shoulder straps are simply dark cherry coloured thin ribbon, again for simplicity’s sake.  I always keep my accessories very simple and neutral when I wear this dress as I feel the fabric makes this one a bit of a show-stopper just in itself.  Laughably easy pattern, I remember I made this dress in just a few hours on the afternoon of the night I first wore it.

Other details:
Shoes; Alannah Hill, second hand shop
Cardigan; MNG suit, second hand shop
Bag; gift from my parents

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Classic and cool

04/12/2009 6:29 am \ 2 Comments \

I think of this dress as my “indestructible” dress, as no matter how roughly it gets treated it washes up as fresh looking as the day it was made, about three or four years ago.  It must be the polyester crepe; crease resistant, stain resistant, pill resistant, tough and sturdy.  I used Burda 8511 and laid the front and back pieces down crosswise (hemline on selvedge) to get the border print right and with the back piece on a central fold to eliminate the centre back seam (which would have broken up the print).  I moved the invisible zipper to the left side seam and sewed the darts in the back much deeper and longer, to improve the somewhat sack-like appearance of the original pattern.  The hem is minimal, to get the dress length and placement of the border print just where I wanted it.
Obviously the indestructible dress has been quite useful in my wardrobe.  In its heyday it was deemed dressy enough to wear with heels to smart lunches and fashion parades, now it serves as an attractive daytime knockabout dress for hot weather.  Sometimes a perverse side of me wishes it would get shabby, or suddenly show a hole or a spot that won’t come out, then I could freely evict it with no guilty conscience.  But it keeps coming up from its wash; spotlessly white, crisp, all classic looking and glamourous, so back into the wardrobe it goes.
OK, you can tell I’m a little bored with it, but its just too damn useful to ever frivolously toss out.  And on a sweltering hot day it’s the one I sigh with relief when I spy it lurking amongst the other dresses in the wardrobe, “Oh, yes, the perfect dress” and grab it for yet again another day out…

Other details:
Sandals; Sportscraft, from David Jones

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Another walk on the foreshore

03/12/2009 3:52 am \ 1 Comment \

After dropping my youngest son off at work experience I swung by my old childhood neighbourhood to take my photos this morning.  This is a stretch of beach I’ve always loved walking along; it soothes my soul and recharges my batteries and all that jazz.  Not sure if its just the childhood memories, but being around water and the beach is somehow necessary to my well-being.  Where we live now is (not coincidentally) also on the water, just twenty minutes up the road.  
When we lived in rural Pennsylvania, USA a few years back, the lack of a coastline brought home to me how important having one was to my state of mind.  I wonder if people brought up in other environments feel the same way about their surroundings…
I posted about this outfit here recently, but Mum rightly commented that wearing a cardigan over the top (as I did because it was a bit nippy that day) means that the outfit cannot be seen clearly, so here it is on its own. Its actually getting a bit washed and worn; the fabric is so thin in some places I accidentally ripped it by treading on it’s hem taking these photos, a quick repair job and then maybe off to the Samaritans’?

Other details:
Top; McCalls 4454 view C
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view B,
both in sage green self embroidered cotton and edged in black rolled hem
Thongs(flipflops); some little shop in South Africa
Bag; Gucci

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A Walk on the Foreshore…

02/12/2009 3:22 am \ 1 Comment \

For something a bit different today I’m taking you on a walk with Sienna and me.  We usually head out for an hour each morning and briskly zoom along to get our heart rate up high.  This is Sienna’s favourite part of the day… on a beautiful day it’s mine too …

Other details:
Top; Metalicus
Skirt; Vogue 2894, cotton
Thongs (flipflops); Mountain Designs

 

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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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“Duro” dress

30/11/2009 2:09 am \ 2 Comments \

I made this dress from Simplicity 3745 view C (no bow), out of spotted swiss cotton voile with a crotcheted lace trim.  I was inspired by the “Duro” dress that was touted in Vogue magazine as being flattering to all figure types.  Well, I dispute that theory, as when I first put on this dress to show my family they all said it looked like a maternity dress.  And I looked pregnant.  Well, no thank you very much!  I’ve already been there done that (quite a few years ago) and it’s not a fashion look I’m aiming for, actually!  So I sewed down the pleats in the back to try and slim it down a little (see picture below).  I thought this improved the look of the dress a lot.  I also added big pockets, both for practicality and to add interest to the front of the dress, and lined it with plain voile as the single layer of swiss voile was completely see-through.  Even with this lining it is still a light floaty dress and will be cool to wear on hot days.  I’m particularly happy with the look of the crotcheted lace trim.  Can’t get past my love of white lace…
Today I’m meeting the Monday morning gals for lunch at Cottesloe beach, as its our last Monday before the school holidays we may only see each other sporadically for this time.  Some of us are going to the beach for a swim first; well, I intend to swim even if none of the others do!  Others may just sit on the beach looking pretty.  That is definitely not my thing.

Other details:
Cardigan; Metalicus
Necklace; souvenir from Murano, Venice
Shoes; Sandler, op shop

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Tea Cosy, specimen 3

29/11/2009 11:17 am \ 2 Comments \

This is my version of the Chicken Little tea cosy I knitted for my friend L from “Wild Tea Cosies” by Loani Prior.  I chose these colours for L because she often wears soft browns, olives and greens such as these (and looks lovely in them too), and because she is very artistic and I knew she would appreciate the lumpy rustic beauty of this tea cosy.  This look is due completely to the nature of this lovely multi-coloured fleecy wool which varies from sometimes very skinny to sometimes very fat!  A bit of a challenge to knit as you try to avoid getting “patches” of fat or skinny areas appearing, but are aiming for an overall even spread of thicknesses somehow.  However managed this successfully and I think the outcome is rather gorgeous, if I say so myself!
The cosy is photographed on L’s outdoor table, with her china.

My husband and I had breakfast and went for a lovely walk along the beach this morning with friends, and did masses of housework this weekend also, so a mixture of fun and drudgery; but I’m looking forward to doing some more dressmaking this week and making a start on the fabric I bought on Friday!  Also I’ve nearly finished a dress I’ve been working on for a few weeks, so will post pictures of this in a few days, with luck.  I’ve even remembered to take progress pictures this time, a first.  Getting out the camera and snapping pictures of my stuff has never been something I’ve ever done in the past, but it’s been fun even if my pictures are less than professional!  Well, can only improve with practice….

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