Category Archives: Uncategorized

introducing Clara

27/08/2017 10:43 pm \ 74 Comments \

Please say hello to Clara! the newest, and arguably the bounciest and bonniest member of our family… 😉   She is a blue merle border collie, just 8 weeks of age at the present, and a hilariously rambunctious little bundle of fluffy fun.We’ve been waiting for this little poppet for sooooo long! she’s actually been “ours” since birth, in fact, even before she was a twinkle in her daddy’s eye!  😉 and when the timing worked out so that we knew we would be receiving her just a few short weeks after our long-planned Alaska/Canada holiday, well, the timing could not have been more perfect.

… so adorable I can hardly stand it…

… that fat fluffy bottom with little stumpy legs… #squeeeeee

… we’re all wondering if her eyes are going to stay blue…!

brand new!!!  at top right, with her siblings…

… wot a roly-poly, eh?!

We’ve only had her for a couple of days but are all head over heels in love with this irrepressible little fluff-bucket.  This girl knows how to live… she plays hard, and sleeps hard!  She’s a bundle of energy and pretty exhausting, but of course it’s a the very best sort of exhaustion to have.

Anyway I am hoping that Clara and I are going to be excellent buddies and have hours and hours of fun and joy together.  She’s already so much fun as a puppy, and I can hardly wait for when she’s old enough to venture forth for walkies!

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boatin’, campin’, bikin’ and hikin’ stoof

09/08/2017 10:57 pm \ 54 Comments \

We’ve just come back from a holiday in Alaska, USA and British Columbia, Canada; had the most AWESOME-est time of course! but more about that later…  I made a few bits and pieces to fill in some gaps in the “mucking about in the great, but wet n’dirty, outdoors” areas of my wardrobe.  Specifically, I needed some things that were both quick-drying and warm… which means, and I apologise right now to any strict natural-fibrarians reading this  … polyester.   #ohtheshame

Hehe, just kidding, of course polyester has appeared here on my blog before and no doubt will again.  When you are roughing it out camping, and particularly in extreme climates, then unnatural fibres are definitely the go.

I made five new things prior to going on our holiday; a zip up fleece hoodie, a fleece sweater, some shorts for kayaking, a fleece neck warmer and a new sunhat.  I made some other new things too, while we were actually ON our holiday, but I’ll save those for another post!

In the order that I made them…

White fleece sweater

wearing beanie, sweater, hiking pants
location: Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska, USA

Pattern is Burda 09/2010; 121, fabric is 100% polyester fleece from Spotlight.

I’d bought my polyester fleece back in the height of hot hot February during their 40% off all fabrics sale, made it straight away and actually posted it to instagram way back then too, although it didn’t get truly worn until our holiday…

wearing sweater, skirt

Mods; made the sleeves a little longer, and I pinned the side seams out to fit it directly on me so it’s shaped and fitted to my taste.  After the first few days of wearing it I found the turtleneck to be extremely strangliferous.  This is not necessarily a criticism of the pattern, since I’ve always felt strangled by turtlenecks, ever since I was a child; I really should have known this one would be the same too, doh! Fortunately it’s an easy fix.  I simply borrowed a pair of scissors from the owner of the lodge and snip snip!! just chopped the turtleneck-y bit right off!  No hems or seams, well, I was desperate! but hey, fleece doesn’t really need edging anyway and now it’s a funnel neck, and only about a thousand times more comfortable.

I really really LOVE this.

Pink zip-up hoodie

wearing hoodie, white tee, grey tee, black jeans
location: the Khutzeymateen Wilderness Lodge on the Khutzeymateen River, British Columbia, Canada

Pattern is Burda 8042, the same 100% polyester fleece from Spotlight

Mods; in lieu of the patch pockets, I added welt pockets which were absolutely great for shoving my cold hands into… however I thought they gave a rather lumpy and thick look to my stomach region, even when said hands were not shoved into said pockets, and like most women I am not very partial to a lumpy thick look to my stomach region!  But it was awesome to have the pockets?  I dunno.

wearing hoodie, sweater, skirt

I wore this thing so much, like practically every day even though it’s not in all my pictures… and I pretty much hate it now.  It’s not really my colour, I only chose it because I actually had the perfectly coloured open-end zip in my stash already, inherited at some point from one of Mum’s periodic sewing-room clean outs, and I rationalised that the colour would be cheerful and fun.  But now I cannot stand the thought of ever wearing it again.  Can’t quite put my finger on the problem… as well as not suiting me, the colour feels somehow wrong for my personality, and then there was the lumpy stomach pockets thing.  It was a good thing to have though, perfect for camping, beautifully warm and it dried off very quickly.  Maybe I’m just sick of it.  I’m giving it a bit of time out at the top of the wardrobe, and maybe another wet and freezing cold camping trip will crop up again, some time in the future…

Black poly kayaking shorts

wearing hat, tee, shorts, raincoat

Please excuse the lack of an exotic location here … I didn’t realise until we got home that I neglected to get even one photo during our holiday that showed my new shorts !  thus a re-enactment of a holiday outfit and yes I am absolutely freezing  😉

My new shorts are refashioned from out of an old pair of Tim’s work pants, rescued from the refashioning bag… I knew from many years of washing these things how quickly they dry, so thought they would be perfect for the kayaking camp.  And they were absolutely brilliant…!

before, the observant will notice straight away that these have been nibbled at previously; that’s a pocket lining for something or another cut out of the bottom there…

To make them: I kept only the fly front and the button closure intact; unpicked most of the waistband and sliced off basically every single other seam! taking it in at both side seams, the centre back seam, and altering the crotch curve super drastically to fit.  Approximately 7″ is taken out of the waistband overall tapering out to almost no width from the legs so they are nicely flared, just the way I like them.  This also means that the hip pockets have a pretty tiny opening now! but I figured that’s a small price to pay for free new shorts and funnily enough I don’t really find occasion to put  my hands in my pockets while kayaking  😉

I cut down and reattached the waistband, re-positioned the belt loops and created a cuff for the bottom hem of the shorts.  I think they turned out quite cute!  I’d planned to wear these with black leggings for kayaking, but as it turned out the days we kayaked were warm enough so that the leggings were not necessary.

Love these, they were perfectamondo for paddling, and I expect they will be my go-to paddling uniform from now on…

Cherry red neckwarmer

wearing neck warmer, raincoat, skirt, tights
location; the dock in Haines, Alaska, USA

The most basic thing ever, literally a lined cylinder.  The outer is the same 100% fleece from Spotlight, the lining was cut from an old Tshirt from my refashioning bag.  Yes, that thing is still like a bottomless pit of fabric!  It’s a monster, but a pretty fabulous one for someone like me who is always sewing  😉

For my own future reference, the dimensions are:

fleece; 65cm x 29cm

cotton jersey lining; 64cm x 27cm

I made it by stitching the fleece rectangle and lining rectangle together at top and bottom, pinned the seam edges and the fleece edges together, and stitched the side seam leaving a 10cm or so gap in the side edge of the inner lining.  Turned the whole thing right side out through this 10cm gap, then slip-stitched the gap closed to finish.

Like the pink hoodie this simple thing got worn most days, but unlike the pink hoodie I actually still like it!  Just goes to show, ignore “your” colours at your peril!  And it went with EVERYTHING!

wearing neck warmer, striped tee, green tee, skirt, tights, raincoat
location: Haines, Alaska, USA

Olive sunhat

wearing hat, grey tee, shorts, raincoat
location; Hanson Island, British Columbia, Canada

Pattern is Vogue 8844, fabric is olive cotton rip-stop from an online store whose name I have absolutely no memory of whatsoever.  It’s leftover from the fabric I used for my khaki army-style jacket… I bought it in a joint order with my friend and neighbour Megan, and all I can remember is that the postage fee was so horrendously high that maybe I’ve deliberately blocked the store’s name from my memory in post-purchase shock, haha.

I lined the hat with floral rayon, leftovers from my French Navy Forsythe dress, I thought they went quite nicely together! and the crown is stayed with a coffee-coloured cotton braid that is a VERY long term resident in my stash.  Since I would be wearing the hat kayaking, I decided it would be a good idea to add a chin strap; this is an old, orphaned bootlace, snipped in half and stitched in each side underneath the crown stay.  For some reason, I decided to go with an additional method of tightening the hat to my head, and laced a piece of white cotton cord through the crown stay.  Probably not necessary and now it’s a rather over-engineered hat but oh well.  Got it now!

Technically, I didn’t really neeeeed a new sunhat, since I do have my perfectly lovely ivory corduroy sunhat, made a few years ago…. but still I decided a new one was in order.  Partly because I didn’t want my ivory one to get irrevocably dirty while camping, a khaki one would be more colour suitable for out in the dirt of the wilderness.  As it turned out, the weather wasn’t actually warm enough for it until well into our holiday! laugh! the first few weeks or our holiday were mostly wet and very cold and the sunhat languished unworn… squashed sadly and disconsolately in my suitcase *sob*  Then finally the weather turned warmer and we even got a bit of sun and I was like, hurrah, I CAN WEAR MY HAT!!!  and was pretty glad I’d gone to the effort of making it after all.

wearing hat, raincoat
location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada

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french navy forsythe dress x2 and some tights

08/07/2017 8:47 pm \ 37 Comments \

hello!  I’ve made a couple of new dresses lately… followers of my ootd blog may have seen these pop up over there already.  Remember back in January I made up the free Orla dress pattern designed by Sarah May of French Navy? well Sarah very kindly invited me to be a part of her tester group for her new dress pattern, the Forsythe dress.  That little Orla has been an excellent wardrobe mainstay… my little counter tells me I’ve worn it ten times already since I made it in January, which is pretty good for me!  so I happily accepted.

The Forsythe is a relaxed fit dress with short, cuffed kimono sleeves, a slightly dropped waistline and a gathered skirt with hip yoke pockets, and a back button closure.  However, I have found that that button-back closure is pretty much decorative… the wide neckline and relaxed fit is sufficient enough that I can pull the dress easily over my head without having to undo any buttons.  Win!

I’ve actually made two Forsythes… the floral at top is my second and “real” version of the pattern, and that is me dressed to wear it out out to our recent anniversary dinner, at Cape Lodge in Yallingup.  We’ve been married 29 years! and little chic little floral rayon number paired with black tights, black booties and my chocolate leather jacket was the perfect thing for a special and romantic dinner out.

But maybe I should talk about this one, my first “muslin” version first… I made this one using three pairs of my husband’s old dress trousers, respectively a charcoal wool, charcoal and white cotton/linen pinstripe, and a chocolate/blue cotton pinstripe…  these have been in my refashioning bag so long there was actually an old spider’s nest on one of them!  eeeek! I gave them all a quick brush over the garden and then into the washing machine they went… then it was out with the scissors… snip snip!

This dress was really just a quick run-up of the pattern to test for fit and to see that it worked.  Of course it did! but the trousers fabric was really too stiff for the gathered skirt as in the pattern, so I instead folded the excess fabric into wide pleats in the front.  I quite like this effect because it also suits the formal “dress pants” vibe of the fabric too.

The relaxed fit in crisp fabric gave a rather boxy result for my taste, so I later unpicked and took in the bodice through those handy princess seams in the bodice.  I think the more shaped and fitted streamlined look suits the crisp, stiff fabric better.

I also put  inset strips of the plain charcoal into the princess seams to highlight the seaming… I LOVE how this looks, and the play of different stripes, blocks, lines and crisp angular intersections

I really like this little “trousers” Forsythe dress, however I felt a bit bad though that I had used cruddy old fabric to make up my dress, and hadn’t even done the recommended gathered skirt either, like I hadn’t done a “proper” job. so I quickly nipped out to Spotlight to get some nicer fabric and make my “real” Forsythe.  I thought the gathered skirt was more suited to a very thin and slinky drapey fabric like rayon.  Sarah May is from Cape Town in South Africa, and so as soon as I saw the selvedge of this lovely rayon floral print I knew it was totally perfect!

Plus it’s sooooo pretty!  I actually like this one a lot more than the “trousers” one, hardly surprising really!  I took care when laying out the pattern pieces in order to get a really nice and hopefully, a visually pleasing print placement on the dress.

This version is made up exactly to the pattern, with the proper gathered skirt and all, the only exception is that I put seven buttons on the button band at the back instead of the recommended five.  The only reason for this is that the little packet of perfect brown tortoiseshell buttons I picked up in Spotlight had seven buttons in it and I didn’t want leftovers.

In other news; some other things I’ve made recently.   Four more pairs of black tights, in polyester stretchy stuff from Spotlight.

I made these using my own custom-fit pattern, devised as described here.

I wear black tights a LOT; I wore last years’ well over one hundred times, the heels on some have worn out and so I chopped off the feet and converted them to leggings now.  So I reckon making a few new pairs each year is very worthy use of my time.  And, for everyday wear, my own handmade tights really are so much better than rtw, for two simple reasons.

  1. FIT!   Take a gander at the side-by-side comparison of my own handmade tights to a pair of extra-tall rtw tights on the right.  Yes, those are extra-talls!!  It’s easy to see why I have to nip into the ladies room several times a day to hoink the tights back up…  SO ANNOYING!  After wearing my own tights for a year I’d forgotten that that was even a thing…  I love the sophistication of beautifully sheer seamless legs that you can only get with rtw, and I don’t mind putting up with the disadvantage of the crotch migrating inexorably southwards for the advantage of that on special occasions, but on an ordinary, everyday, day? Nope.

My custom fit tights have fitted feet, and are shaped all the way up my legs.  They might look a little funny, but they were made to fit exclusively ME!

2) and secondly WARMTH.  I make my own handmade tights from opaque black polyester stretch, and they are super warm and comfy compared to even the thickest of thick rtw tights.  Again, for special occasions, being a bit cold is a small price to pay for the beauty of sleek sheer legs, but not for everyday.

Four pairs of handmade tights can feel like a bit of an unexciting production line to make, but ultimately they are the most hardworking and practical things in my wardrobe.

high-tech method for telling the front from the back in the pre-dawn light that usually illuminates my dressing…

Details:

Floral at top and below;
Dress; the Forsythe dress by French Navy, printed rayon
Jacket; Burda 08/2010;113, chocolate pleather, details and my review of this pattern here
Tights; made by me, my tutorial on how to make your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Booties; nylon, from Zomp shoes

Charcoal/chocolate striped version:
Dress; slightly altered French Navy Forsythe dress, made using three pairs of old business trousers
Tights; made by me, my tutorial on how to make your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Shoes; made by me, details here

location: out to dinner l’anniversaire; Yallingup in the south west of Western Australia

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chilli-red paprika jade skirt

14/06/2017 12:13 pm \ 14 Comments \

Oh hello, fellow needle-wielders!

Recently I decided I wanted, nay needed, a new colourful Jade mini-skirt; since my purple one was tragically taken too soon… *a minute’s silence, please*

…

Well, ta da!

I’d gone back to Knitwit in search of the same purple knit… why the same colour? perhaps because I’m a boring unoriginal creature of habit? but unfortunately they had sold out of the purple.  So I chose this chilli-red instead.  Rather nice, hmmm?

Every time I try to take any pictures in the full-on blasting sun, I regret it… however this does show off the lovely vibrant fiery-ness of this intense red rather well

For the lining, I cutup an old black Tshirt, one of Sam’s toss-outs, it’s quite a nice, sturdy, not-very stretchy and robust 100% cotton black knit, so should work really well as a lining. .  I’d given some thought into the lining this time, since the tragedy of too-much stretchiness of the purple one… that was a 100% polyester whereas my other stretch mini skirt, my self-lined charcoal one is a cotton jersey, quite stiffish with only a one-way stretch and that is holding up very nicely.  The black Tshirt fabric I used for this is very like that…

obligatory lining picture is pretty boring, sorry

With this version, I fitted and reinforced the waistband with stretch interfacing so it is quite firm and minimally flexible…

… AND put in an exposed black/brass jeans zip into this skirt.. I’m hoping these two factors will help keep that waistband firm and strong, so it suffers minimal stretching out and extend the life of the skirt…  Just for looksie’s alone, I just love the brassy glint of the zip, I think it looks really cool.

Going from my past jade skirt AND my past red skirt experiences, I KNOW I’m going to wear this a metric tonne.  Can’t wait to mix and match this  one to bits!

Details:

Skirt; Paprika patterns Jade skirt, red silk/linen knit from KnitWit
Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic, in ivory ponte also from KnitWit, details here
Tights; my own design, black polyester stretch from Spotlight, details here and my tutorial on how to make your own custom tights pattern here
Boots; made by me and my own design, all details here

location; the bush in south western Western Australia

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a shirt for David and a dress for Cassie

02/06/2017 7:10 pm \ 36 Comments \

hey bro!

Woooh!  I’m so excited to finally hand this over!  My brother has had/is having a big BIG birthday… and my sister-in-law made the brilliant suggestion that he would like a shirt made by me for his birthday.  Well, oh my goodness, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself!!  So I dutifully and sisterly-lovingly spent LOADS of time and care into making this as perfect as I possibly could, and it pretty much is.  Ta da!

looks like a kinda cool dress when Bessie is wearing it, yes?  Gotta admit, I WAS a little tempted to steal it …

I know what you’re thinking… don’t I pour loads of love and care into making shirts for my husband and two sons too? well of course I do.  Buuuut, see…  my brother’s shirt is going to be handled, worn, laundered, ironed and generally available for up close and personal inspection by someone other than me… and I quaked with fear at the thought   * imagines to oneself, my brother and sister-in-law with a magnifying glass going over each and every stitch*   Ha!

And yeah, this really is a VIB (Very Important Birthday).  and so I just really wanted for this shirt to this to be really really lovely for my really really lovely brother.

Pattern: I used my new mens’ shirt pattern Burda 6874, graded to fit David, plus I made his extra long as per the shirt whose size I was going off.  My sister-in-law had secretly given me a well-fitting shirt of his that I could measure off to custom-fit his shirt … David is a 6’4″ champion swimmer, and built like one too… did I ever mention he has swum the Rottnest Channel swim solo?!   Yep!!  Meaning that I needed to substantially re-grade my pattern to fit his physique.  I didn’t have David himself to check the fit off of, just that one shirt; so I was pretty terrified how mine was going to go.  Luckily the fit turned out to be absolutely spot on!  *pheeeew!!!

Fabric; a really nice deep indigo cotton/linen with a permanently scrunchy texture to it, I went big guns and bought this from Calico House, because well, it IS a special birthday.  The red buttons are from Fabulous Fabrics.

But enough boring chit-chat…  how about some gratuitous detail shots  #shirtporn #oooyouknowyouwantit

buttondown collar

it took me three goes to get the second of these buttonholes looking exactly the same as the first!

sleeve placket.  contrasting red cotton for the cuff and yoke facings, topstitched in a way that a tiny sliver peeked out on the right side


fully flat-felled seams throughout

sorry for collar picture overload.. I was just so thrilled at how nice it turned out!

I was once asked what the inside of these side seam gusset/insert thingies looks like …  Folding the inner edges all around made them pretty bulky so I cut away all seam allowances of “hidden” edges ie. those of the underside of the gusset and the turned under edge of the shirt hem, tucked them inside the upper gusset edge and topstitched them all down… thus considerably reducing bulk here

As soon as he opened it, he put it on.. obviously this made me SO HAPPY to see him wearing it!

Also… recently I mentioned that I had made a dress for Cassie?  well here ’tis!

Pattern; the Sudley by Megan Nielsen patterns,  I gathered up the sleeve hems with skinny elastic, like I had done for my own Sudley blouse, at her request.  All seams are French seams, dress is fully lined with the lining cut as an extended bodice.  The fabric is a very realistic silk-like poly from Spotlight, lining also from Spotlight.

 

 

To be honest, halfway through making it I felt pretty down about it, like this was a dress that couldn’t possibly be saved… but fortunately once it was on her it suddenly looked adorable. And she loves it!  Despite that very serious facial expression!

No no no!  I’m not about to be a granny yet… this is just a pose that made us both roar with laughter!  Demonstrating the… um, capacity of this design.

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purple-y Jade mini skirt, 6 different ways

26/05/2017 10:08 am \ 28 Comments \

During another of my sometimes brutal wardrobe clean outs, I parted ways with this little purple skirt… I have to admit it was a little gut-wrenching to get rid of this one because it had only been in existence for one sad little winter, albeit a glorious one, since I wore it at least once every week!  Aah! little purple mini skirt, the light that burns twice as bright burns but half as long… and your light has burned so very very bright…  *

I made it in a purple wool/silk knit from KnitWit, using the Paprika patterns Jade skirt… and it was such a devastatingly useful, mix-and-match-tastic item of clothing! actually as all sludgy coloured little mini skirts are.  Sadly, the knit, while a gorgeous colour, of a lovely weighty thickness and with a magnificent “quality” feel and texture to it, didn’t have a huge amount of recovery… and I’d used a VERY stretchy black poly for lining it, some leftovers from my tights! if I recall correctly!  Definitely not sturdy enough to give the purple knit the backbone it needed, so the whole thing got floppy quite quickly.  Toward the end of winter I actually worried a bit that it would at some point slide slowly and gracefully south down my smooth, black-tights clad legs to my ankles and become a rather gorgeous purple hobble…. haha wouldn’t that be glamorous/fabulous/amusing… NOT.

Anyway, because it’s been that good I thought I’d give it a little farewell party… the fact that I only wore it for one winter and still found six outfits where it is paired with almost totally different items of clothing in each one is testament to its versatility!  Also, since these were all taken during my Year of Handmade; you know, that year in which I wore ONLY clothing and shoes made by myself, ahem…I made every single blinking thing I am wearing in each of these photos, which is why the black boots appear in so many outfits, sorry…

Links to all construction posts provided  🙂

Below: at left; with its matching top, charcoal gloves, black tights, black boots
At right; with ivory top, blue cardigan, navy cardigan, purple scarf, charcoal gloves, navy tights, black boots

Below, at left: with charcoal twist top, raspberry tights, black boots;
At right; with pink jumper, green scarf, lime green hand warmers, black tights, black boots

Below at left: with ivory top, grey coat, raspberry scarf, black tights, black boots
at right: with coffee Tshirt, striped jumper, black tights, black oxford shoes

Ok, so it’s awff to the sewing room… because clearly I need a new one …

* Blade Runner, after Lao Tzu

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gingham Kalle dress

19/04/2017 2:38 pm \ 38 Comments \

My new dress!  Hehe, seems like I’ve got new stuff coming out every day lately but actually this is not new at all! really, it’s months and months old!!  but it is new to my blog here.  And the pattern is brand new to the world too, so… “new”, with caveats.  The pattern is Closet Case patterns’ newest release, the Kalle shirtdress.  I have been SOOOOO looking forward to wearing my version here only like ALL SUMMER LONG, welcoming it into my rotation of little dresses, cos you know how I love wearing my little dresses!  I made it back in October when Heather kindly asked me to be a tester for her new pattern.  SO I made it, bam! and like a good little tester I sat on it and didn’t wear it, well, not publicly, anyway! waiting for the go-ahead from Heather.  Finally!

So, yes, it’s a adorable little pattern, I really love it.  Heather says it is her most requested design yet, and I can well believe it! her own personal first white version was utterly delectable and had me all drool-y want-y too!  The pattern has three variations; I made the dress version C but with the half-length button placket of version B.  Except I used snaps because they were just handy.  I also added three pockets to mine, one breast pocket, and two inseam side pockets… my curved-bottom breast pocket is a lot smaller than the one in the final version of the pattern, because the tester version was pocketless and I just added one for fun and visual interest.  I see Heather has added a breast pocket to the final version of the pattern, yay! and as for the hip pockets, well I mean, who doesn’t LOVE hip pockets?!  Hehe, I tried to not have my hands shoved into them in all my pictures, you know, to show the dress as it’s been designed but they just crept in there every now and again.  I’m sorry, it’s just… pockets!  I couldn’t help it!

The design is beautifully breezy and very comfortably roomy… I love the cute little cut-on sleeves with a simple cuff, the petite collar has prettily feminine proportions, and the exaggerated lower hemline looks quite dramatic and really cool, imo.  That one big box pleat in the back is fabulous, and a pretty dramatic feature too, yes?  love how the folds balloon out and down to that gently shaped back hemline.  In fact I love all the features and the shape of the dress, full stop.  It’s like the perfect little summer shirt-dress.  I’m going to wear this one a tonne, for sure, and and probably going to make a tonne more too!

Fabric; a 100% cotton seersucker gingham.  This is, um, it’s a little embarrassing… ahem, but it is actually an old tablecloth that I bought from the op shop in Toodyay, when I went there with Sue and Nicki on an alpaca-finding mission, a few years back now!  Hohhhh, yeah!!  “Tablecloth” might give one the urge to squeal “ew, groooosss!” but I assure you it was well washed, has no stains, and is in fabulous nick.  The fabric is actually beautiful; crinkly, crisp and strong, but with a soft lovely drape.  They just don’t make tablecloths like they used to!

Alterations: I pretty much made it up exactly to the pattern, because obviously I was testing! and needed to give accurate feedback.  However I did do a few very minor little things…

a) as mentioned previously, I added three pockets; a curved-bottom breast pocket, and two inseam side pockets

b) for the lower hem I didn’t bother with bias tape to finish it, just turned up a skinny hem twice and hand stitched it in place.  I know bias tape is an excellent choice for curved hems in certain types of fabrics, in fact sometimes it’s just about essential; but I found it just wasn’t necessary for my seersucker.  Plus, I wanted my hem to be light and floppy and breezy, without any of the stiffness that comes with the extra fabric and seams.

c) for visual interest, I cut the front plackets, the sleeve cuffs, breast pocket and outer collar on the bias, although the under collar is on-grain, for stability.

d) not an alteration, but I inverted the back pleat on mine, so it’s set the same as for the little cropped shirt version A.  Which, by the way, is OMIGODSOCUTE.  I need to make one of these!

e) also not really an alteration as such, but Heather has reduced the neckline size by a few inches, so my collar doesn’t sit as close to my neck as it would do in the final pattern.

Note; also an excellent design for cat-cuddling

 Sophie!!  it’s hard to tell, but she’s being made to “wave” to the camera

   

Details:

Dress; the Kalle shirtdress by Closet Case patterns, gingham cotton seersucker, also my tutorial for adding inseam side pockets is here
Hat(below); Vogue 8844, ivory corduroy, details and my review of this pattern here
Shoes; made by me! details here

below; before I could “reveal” it I sneakily did wear it once or twice anyway…  😉

location: Bunker Bay, Western Australia

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“bookshelf” skirt

18/04/2017 3:32 pm \ 21 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve finished the second part of my little autumn wardrobe-lette… a new skirt! using a printed, upholstery-weight cotton canvas from the Fabric Store in Melbourne, the fifth fabric from the top in this pic of my Melbourne acquisitions…

I absolutely fell in love with this print at first sight, in fact the very minute I spotted it I GRABBED IT!  Not even counting the rather yummy autumnal colours… it reminds me of bookshelves, stacked not quite full, with the colourful spines of the books tipping over a bit into the gaps between them.  I love libraries, in fact it’s been a lifelong daydream of mine to have a room that is completely lined with shelves of books, from floor to ceiling, and a big squishy armchair right in the middle of the room, either faded rusty-red or bottle-green velvet, can’t decide but either would be nice, big enough for me plus at least one cat, and with one little curly-legged side table just big enough for a stained glass lamp and a cup of tea perched on top.  *sigh*

Wait, where was I? oh yes ahem…SKIRT.

 

Pattern; Vogue 8363, one I’ve used many times before, actually I’ve just counted and have made it TWELVE times previously!  You can look at ALL of them by clicking here….

Some of the many reasons I love this pattern so are; a) gorgeously deep slanted side pockets, in fact I can’t help noticing I have my hands shoved deep deep down into those pockets in, only like, every single picture.  They’re just that wonderful, I simply can’t resist!  Also b) straight side seams, making it a nice one for pattern matching, c) double darts in the back which lend themselves very nicely to the wide hips/narrow waist/slight sway back adjustment that I usually make.  I tend to use view D for the pockets, which has a button front placket at the centre front; I obviously eliminate this though and instead have an invisible zip closure at the centre back.  I also like to cut the skirt part roughly two sizes up from the waist part, because I like that boxy with nipped in waist silhouette on me.

Also, this time I added belt loops because I decided all that psychedelic tipping-stripe-y action could probably benefit by being visually reined in with a solid, sombre, no-nonsense belt.  Now it’s finished and I’ve worn it thus, I think yep, this was a good idea

Partly because I stingily didn’t buy much of the print, and also partly for the same visual grounding reason as having a belt: I cut the pocket bags in a thick chocolate brushed twill, a small bit of leftover fabric harvested from Craig’s old pair of chocolate moleskins and which I used to make this skirt, also  Vogue 8363.

Inner workings; I had to piece the chocolate moleskin to get pieces big enough for the pocket bags, but the seams are tucked down deep in the pockets… I used plain black cotton for the waistband facing and pocket facings.  Because I’m a bit of a stickler for matching threads, I switched threads on BOTH my sewing machine and overlocker several times during the making of this skirt!

Above, I spaced it to turn up the hem exactly between two horizontal stripes in the print.  The lower edge of the skirt is finished in bias cut black cotton, the same as for the inner waistband and pocket facings.  See that little tiny row of mustard stitches along the top? I initially started hemming with black thread to match the bias; but quickly realised that even though I made my stitches as tiny as tiny could be, that row of minuscule black dots did show up on the right side of the skirt if you looked closely enough, and I didn’t like it!!  So I switched to the same mustard thread that I’d used in other seams, which disappears nicely into the print.. so they’re pretty much invisible on the right side, which is the main thing!

Above; I chose a mustard invisible zip.  When it came to placing the belt loops, I put two on the front, spaced just outside the waist-shaping dart; and three on the back, the outer two just outside the outer waist shaping dart, and one in the centre back.  It abuts the waist closure, which I wondered would make it difficult to put in the belt; but it doesn’t, it slips through just fine and isn’t a bother at all.  Oh, and waistband closure? there’s a wide hook/eye stitched in under there.

Also, darts?!  One of the most serendipitous things I discovered about this print is that you can barely make out any darts at all! can you even see them in the above picture?? they’re just buried there in amongst those higgledy-piggledy books.  WIN!

I’m wearing today paired with my basic black Tshirt because I wanted the skirt to take centre stage in this, its own dedicated post… but I also think it looks quite nice worn with the, as yet one other piece in my autumn mini-wardrobe, the apricot top.  Actually, I only picked up the apricot crepe because of this fabric!

sorry for the blurriness.  Clearly I’m busily dashing off on a very important mission… like, to get the leaf blower

 

Details:

Skirt; Vogue 8363, printed cotton canvas, my review of this pattern here
Black Tshirt; self drafted, details here
Belt; had this for about 30 years
Black shoes; designed and made by me! details here

Above picture:
Apricot top; the epaulette cut and sewn, pattern no.4 from “she has a mannish style” by Tuko Takada, details here
Brown and ivory clogs; also designed and made by me, details here

  

Also; on Eagle Bay beach, Western Australia… Every time we come down here I have to walk along the beach and clamber over the rocks each day.  This is one of my favourite places on Earth.

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