Category Archives: Uncategorized

green Japanese wool tartan

07/09/2024 12:51 pm \ 2 Comments \

I know, I know … “tartan” and “Japanese” are not words that should generally go together but anyway, let’s not digress!  I bought a short length of this beautiful piece of wool during our recent holiday to Japan.  At the time, I vowed to make up everything I’d bought in Japan within a year, and so, ta da –  I made a little skirt, and then since there was a decently sized piece leftover I made up a matching top too.

The skirt is our very own Meelup pattern, which is currently my number one top favourite.  It has all my desired features; deep pockets, no zip, and a streamlined, yet comfortable and roomy silhouette.  I carefully lined up the pockets to match the pattern in the skirt front; Pattern Matching 101.  The skirt is lined in deep green lining fabric, not a perfect match colour-wise but t’was already in the stash thus making it the perfect candidate.

later edit; our Carolyn & Cassie Meelup pattern is available in our Etsy store, here

 

I also used a khaki cotton for the pocket lining and red buttons for the same reason… I know I know; the purist in me shrieks “NO!” however the thrifty-miss in me reassures myself that it’s not like you can ever see either of these wrongly coloured things when you’re wearing the skirt!  I used the same khaki cotton to make bias binding to finish the raw edge of the hem inside…

Some waistband thoughts:  sometimes I think applying a fusible interfacing to wool is just not a good idea; the interfacing is surely not going to adhere to the “fuzziness” of wool felt and will peel off too easily, although I have no evidence to back up this thought.  Just a hunch.  Anyway; to ensure the waistband stays nicely interfaced in the long term, I used dark green thread to run a hand-running stitch around the top edge of the waistband, around 4mm or so in from the fold, through all layers.  You can’t even really see it, but it’s there and I just feel better knowing the fold is being held firmly in place like this, as well as keeping the interfacing where it should be too.  btw, my apologies for the “fluff” in this photo I promise it’s actually barely visible to the naked eye!  It’s just very hard to see those tiny hand stitches without zooming in this hard.

The little tee-top is kinda based on another old favourite, the epaulette top from “she has a mannish style” by Yuki Takada.  I had enough tartan for the sleeves and two big patch pockets, and the body is cut from an ivory wool felt that has been such a very long-term stash resident that I cannot remember its provenance.  I did not include the eponymous epaulettes, … also I lined the body fully with an ivory silk habotai (also long-term stash) because the ivory wool is really itchy.

I stabilised the neckline with a biascut strip of cream cotton, then attached the lining to this, before stitching them all down to the top around the neckline.. yes, quite complicated but gives a nice finish, imo.  The armscye of the lining is also stitched to that of the outer, and the remainder of the body and side seams float freely from each other.   Having a silk lining makes it quite beautiful to wear!

I finished the lower raw edge with cotton bias, just like with the skirt…  You can see here how I used dark green thread in the bobbin to stitch on those patch pockets… and no that is not a mistake!  I discovered that a cream coloured thread to match the wool showed up just very slightly on the outside of the pockets, not terribly but enough to bother me…so I unpicked that and re-did it with the green thread. Now the topstitching on the pockets is nicely invisible… 🙂

I’ve also run up two new ivory merino T-shirts in the past week… this is another of our patterns, the Pinjarra twinset.  These two items are of course the tee part of the pattern, and both have the scoop neckline.  I basically made these to use up the last of a length of ivory merino that I’d bought a few years ago but only made one tee so far.  Now it has happily realised the purpose it was bought for, at last!

A few little moth holes had sprung up during its confinement to the stash, so while I could cut mostly around them, I darned the few unavoidable ones up before making my tops…  The merino is so fine, I used regular stitching thread for darning… and even then it looks thicker than I’d like.

Honestly, though, it really is near invisible, unless you get up really close! and I know these two items are going to work hard in my wardrobe next winter…  btw, can you see how I used a white thread and and ivory thread in that double top-stitching?  No?!

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little pink jumper

30/08/2024 2:54 pm \ 3 Comments \

I’ve knitted a little jumper… this is made completely from scraps and leftover wool from other projects and the (still) large bag of bits and pieces that Mum gave me a couple of years ago.  Something from nothing!  Seriously, my favourite sort of thing to make…

the unpromising beginnings…

I started out following a pattern, but before long ended up frogging and reknitting the entire thing  just following my gut instinct.  It’s a simple raglan design, top down, in the round, with double increases at the two sleeve junctions every row until the underarm, otherwise no shaping.  Top down meant I could keep knitting until I ran out of wool; which to be honest happened a little sooner than ideal!  Ideally I would have liked it a little longer, and with longer sleeves too, but well… c’est la vie.

To Craig, I’d voiced my concerns that I was going to run out of wool and he replied that I could just go and buy some more… so logical! But of course completely defeating the purpose of using up Le Stash!  Honestly, sometimes I feel like the stash-reduction project is maybe just a martyred pursuit… but, you know.  Also a virtuous one too, sometimes.  I used up every single scrap of yarn pictured above, except for one small ball that I decided the colour looked a little off against the others.

I’m quite happy with how the yarns worked out distributed across the jumper, not too much concentrated across any particular section.  When it came to changing the colours, I knitted a few centimetres past the previous colour change before changing to the new colour, so that there wouldn’t be a build up of knots and bulky weave-ins concentrated in one area; and this worked well too.  I wove in all ends as I was going along, and am always thankful at the end of any project whenever I think to do this!  Seriously, a life saver!

The thing is… I already have a vaguely similar jumper to this one, that is quite precious to me since the yarn was a gift from a dear friend.  Do I even need another little pink jumper?!  It is actually not too bad looking, I think; and very warm, and comfortable to wear.  Serendipitously, Mum admired it the first day I wore it, so I may give it to her.

I’m also super happy I managed to finish this one a few days before my end of the month deadline!  Yay!  My knit/month pledge has turned out to be quite gruelling to be honest, and it’s difficult to fit in so much knitting.  To look on the bright side, I’m two thirds of the way through, and only have four projects to go!

Details:  I also made my ivory top worn underneath, and my jeans too…

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little sludgy cardigan

31/07/2024 11:54 am \ 3 Comments \

…once again slithering in under the wire on the last day of the month with my knit-of-the-month!  For July’s effort I made a new little cardigan.  This is yarn that I bought during our hiking trip to Italy 12 years ago! astounding really, I can’t believe it’s been that long!   there was a tiny little craft store in Menagio, Lake Como, and that’s where I found it.  I posted about that trip on my blog back here…

I’m so thrilled this yarn has finally been realised into a wearable thing, because it’s actually lovely.  It is Lang Yarns Maxi Tosca, col. 5706 which is genuinely made in Italy, believe it or not!  I was pretty thrilled to find homegrown produce, because souvenir shopping does not always result in such joys, sadly.  I bought 6 x 50g balls, and managed to use almost the whole lot while adding one extra pattern repeat to the length.  There is just a fairly small quantity leftover.

I chose an old favourite, the Miette pattern by Andy Satterlund; a pattern that since its debut was later rebranded as the Crumb and is now sadly unavailable.  Actually the designer has retired all her patterns and you can’t get any of them any more, which is quite sad.

I’ve made the Miette pattern five times now, customising slightly by the time I got to the last one, and referred to my previous notes to make this one the same way.  Namely this post.  The main adjustment I make is to switch the bust shaping to under the arm.  I did include the lacework but kinda regret it, if I’m being honest… in a variegated  yarn such as this it doesn’t stand out as much as you’d like, and then when you do notice it it somehow detracts from the loveliness of the colours in the yarn.  Definitely something for me to keep in mind for future lacework knitting…

Buttons!  is it weird to say the buttons could be my favourite part of the whole thing?  yes, pretty weird since I actually think my new cardigan is allover a very satisfying thing.  The buttons feels super satisfying though since I made these too… !

 

so you know I’m trying to use what I have rather than buy anything new… well I hunted through my, still rather large, button stash for nine matching buttons, and even contemplated using non-matching buttons but couldn’t even make that work.  I’d almost accepted that I was going to have to head out and buy new buttons but then remembered my modelling clay.  Yay!  I’ve used this to make buttons before, specifically for this coat here; and even to make the jewellery for my Queen Rutella cosplay, here.  I thought I’d been painting them once finished… however was rather thrilled when I realised the final baked colour of them was actually perfect for my cardigan as is.  Such luck!  I just painted on a clear varnish finish to protect them and bob’s your uncle!  SO happy with how they look on my new cardigan.

worn here with a ivory tee, sludgy skirt and tights, all made by me…

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Balinese sarong-style “alberthe” dress

07/07/2024 2:27 pm \ 12 Comments \

I made a new dress, possibly the last summer sundress before our cold winter sets in for real… I was very fortunate to have a warmish enough day recently in which I could wear it to the beach and take photos of it!  although it was cold enough that I couldn’t bring myself to take off my little white Tshirt from underneath.  I used a new pattern; the Fibremood Alberthe, and a sarong/piece of fabric that I bought in Indonesia back in 2018, when we went there to attend a friend’s wedding.  I posted about my travel wardrobe back … whoops, and wow, I’ve just realised I never posted about that travel wardrobe at all.  I wonder if I should gather together some pictures and write about it?!

The pattern can be made as either a little top or a dress… I wanted to use the border at the bottom of the dress, so the pattern pieces were laid down on the cross, and made the dress version as long as I was able to cut it.  Actually, it’s supposed to be a much longer dress, like ankle length; however I was pretty happy that my pieces fitted perfectly on my fabric, albeit shorter; with almost no leftovers at all.  My aim with sewing nowadays is for a few key outcomes, namely:

  1. to use fabric already in the stash
  2. cutting the pattern out with as few leftovers as possible
  3. to also use all haberdashery, like buttons, zips, elastic etc etc from stash as much as possible too.

So far this year I’ve succeeded in just about all of these endeavours, which has certainly made me really happy… at least enough to assuage my occasional desires to violate outcome number 1, and indulge in buying new fabric.  Yes, I still have such desires!  I’m only human!

Anyway, that’s neither here not there right now… although I just wanted to mention it again to reaffirm that it’s still an ongoing thing.

The Alberthe is quite an interesting pattern, with an asymmetric long front fold providing width to the dress.  It’s supposed to have a zip in the side seam, but I tested how it went over my head first and was happy to realise I could slip it on easily without the need for a zip.  The back is a plainish, regular sundress style, with wide straps stitched in between the dress and a facing.

It has lovely deep pockets which is nice, although I certainly would have added them myself even if it didn’t!  I didn’t hem it, which sounds lazy, but I wanted to retain the border as much as possible.  After photographing it, I have second thoughts about this decision.  It does look a little unfinished, to be honest.  I may or may not go back before next summer and give it a narrow hem, we’ll see.

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Japan; a travel wardrobe

17/04/2024 2:01 pm \ 4 Comments \

Hello!  We’ve just got back from our … fifth! I think? trip to Japan, and it was absolutely fantastic, as always!  For the purposes of hand-making related blogging, here’s a compilation of the clothes that I took and how I wore them, plus general rundown of how it all worked out.

Time away:  25 days

Where to:  Japan… we visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Matsumoto, and also almost a week of hiking in the mountains.

Season:   early spring

Expected activities:  lots of hiking, plenty of city strolling, viewing cherry blossom, catching trains, and shopping.

hiking details:   3 days along the Kumano Kodo trail (Takijiri-Oji to Takahara, to Chikatsuyu, to Hongu Taisha) and 2 days along the Nakasendo trail in the Kiso Valley (Nagiso to Nojiri, then Nagiso to Tsumago-juku, and Tsumago-juku to Magome-juku and back). We were NOT backpacking though, we had our luggage ferried in between towns which is the absolute best way to hike, imo!

Colour scheme:  lots of pink, black and white, with my moss green and yellow jackets playing along

What I packed:

all items linked to the original construction posts with the exception of the two new starred items blogged right here in this post, below

green jacket     *pink jumper              striped jumper             cream scarf              yellow raincoat

pink striped jumper   black check jacket  red neck warmer

charcoal skirt   *pink miniskirt               black jeans             rtw black gloves

blue miniskirt   black tights (x4)                                            cream T-shirt       charcoal twist top

white fleece top    ivory Tshirt

cream twist top    sockettes(4) hand knitsocks(x3)

yellow handbag    bathers                                                       black hiking boots           black boots

not pictured, pink thongs, pyjamas, underwear

My daily outfits:  not necessarily in order, in fact all reproduced after I returned home, since I pretty much only took rough mirror selfies just to remind myself what I wore each day…

Thoughts:  I didn’t allow myself enough time to pack and kinda threw a lot of stuff in this time (hangs head in shame) however, I’m very pleased with the variety of outfits I had at my fingertips.  Really, I know I could probably get by with less but I’m definitely the type who gets really bored and a little sad with wearing the same outfit day after day, so I try as much as possible to achieve a variety of different looks over the span of a trip.  Also, it was all quite light and compact and I still had plenty of room in the suitcase for shopping, very important!

I admit though, I was rather astonished when I realised I’d packed FOUR white or white-ish tops!  What was I thinking?! Although to be fair to myself, they all serve different functions.  Yes, really!  One cream T-shirt goes hand in hand with my pink striped jumper; I always wear them together and they count as one item of clothing really.  The white fleece top is SUPER warm and a little bulky, ideal for those extremely cold days, which we had a few at the beginning of the trip.   The ivory twist top is kind of a stand alone top, that is visually interesting and good for wearing by itself.  And the ivory merino T-shirt very thin and lightweight for warmer days – probably didn’t need this one to be completely honest.  I really could have put more forethought into the ivory top situation!

Things I didn’t need at all, my bathers and thongs.  I’ve said this every trip though; I toss them in, just in case because they don’t take up much room, but I’ve hardly ever needed them in Japan.  maybe I should rethink if I ever take them on future trips?

I was so pleased with the skirts I took; all of them are very comfortable and versatile.  I wondered if I would need those jeans at all; but I very much appreciated them on those few very cold days in the cities.

I also wondered about whether I’d need the green jacket, but it’s lovely and cosy and was great to wear around the city; I was glad I had it.  My yellow raincoat was absolutely essential, for the few times we were hiking in torrential rain, and is a good windbreaker too.

I didn’t make the gloves – they’re actually Craig’s but his hands don’t get cold and he was happy for me to wear them.  These are kinda special; they have a metallic fibre knitted into the finger and thumb tips so you can operate your smart phone while wearing them.  Such a good idea!  I’m thinking of incorporating this into a future pair that I knit for myself… somehow?!

Maybe now is a good time to introduce the two new items of clothing in my wardrobe, made just especially for this trip!

Firstly, the little pink mini skirt… this is made using the Paprika Patterns Jade mini skirt pattern; an old favourite that is instantly recognisable as a stalwart in my tried and true pattern collection.  I made it using a piece of cotton jersey bought a few years ago, during the early days of covid, just before lockdown and I was panic shopping at the thought of being unable to go to a fabric store in days/weeks to come.  Priorities!

I lined it with lightweight blue cotton jersey, the same stuff I used for the blue mini skirt also pictured in this trip’s lineup.  The blue is not a very stable knit, quite flimsy actually, but I figured the pink jersey had enough body that it didn’t need a super stable lining.  I really love this new pink skirt and felt really good about my outfit each time I wore it.  No surprises there since I love this pattern so much, and I really love the colour too.  Win!

(worn here with my ivory twist top, and at the top of this post with hand knit jumper and yellow raincoat)

Item 2; a pink sewn jumper, made using the Paprika patterns Jasper pattern (worn here with my black jeans).  I’ve made this once before and love my first one too.  I made this the dress length, without the little collar clinch, and more flared around the hips than the pattern and am happy with this extra width.  To be honest it’s way too short for me as a dress, but I find it perfect as a sweater top.

The fabric is super fluffy and cuddly knit stuff from Spotlight… I’ve been hoarding this fabric for quite a while but it’s always been intended for a Jasper.  Just one of those projects waiting for the right opportunity, and of course a cherry blossom viewing holiday in Japan was exactly that!  I whipped this up with barely half a day to spare before our flight out, actually.  I’d almost forgotten how I’d once-upon-a-time planned this fabric+pattern for this holiday, and was so so glad I was able to fit the making of it in, because it was indeed exactly the new thing I wanted.

doing some hard yakka up a mountain

I made the pocket in the front without welts but just turning under the seam allowance and topstitching the pocket edges to stabilise them, and I really like this small variation.  Really, my fabric was too bulky for welts and I think it would have been disastrous to attempt them; plus I didn’t have another fabric I wanted to use for welts either.  For the pocket inside, I used the some pink jersey leftover from my new skirt.  There is just something about this pocket though; I’m not sure what I did different or if it’s the fabric, but the pocket has a tendency to hang on the inside in a way that shows up visibly on the outside.  I may or may not cut the pocket in half inside to make it two separate pockets.  I’ll see how I feel about this after a bit more wear.

I straightened the pocket out for this picture but it has a tendency to drop down after a while, and visibly “hang”

Some other making news from the trip; I was thrilled to meet up again with my dear friend Yoshimi… she had kindly organised a very interesting activity for us to do which was a bicycling, sock-making workshop!  These are semi-automatic sock making machines, that have been attached to bicycles so you can use human power to knit your socks… it was such fun!  You chose your colours, the ladies in the “factory” pre-programmed the machines for your individual sock lengths, both foot and above ankle sections, and away you went!  It took about ten minutes or so for each sock, and the ladies stitched up the toe for us.  It was lots of fun, and something I wish I could do again some day.  Also, fastest socks that I’ve ever “knitted”, if I can even lay claim to that!

Anyway.  We had an absolutely wonderful time!  I bought a few little kits…  and several books… and just one piece of fabric.  I know, so restrained!  I’m still very committed to reducing the stash, but just had to allow myself one souvenir piece!

Vowing right now that each of these things will be used/made in the space of one year…  I’m holding myself accountable!

I also bought skin care, a manga, quite a few little odds and ends and bits and bobs…  Also Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Japanese.  This is so I can read side by side with my English copy and hopefully improve my Japanese.  Oh, by the way, I managed to speak Japanese every day!  This is the first time I’ve got to actually speak with people, and I really enjoyed trying…  however, I know the lack of Japanese speaking people in my life is going to be the reason I’ll never been fluent since it was sometimes quite challenging.  Honestly, I feel so dumb compared to Yoshimi who’s English is so completely excellent.

On that note, maybe it’s time for me to go and do another lesson… ever onwards and upwards!

頑張る!!

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the Karijini dress

16/03/2024 7:36 pm \ 8 Comments \

Hello! I’m back, and with a BIG project that has been on my mind for quite some time now… a new pattern!  Please welcome the newest pattern to gallop out from the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co stable, the Karijini dress!

This is possibly our most ambitious design to date; being a complex arrangement of diagonal and asymmetric  lines, pin tucks, folds and overlays, and hemline that dips low at the back and shows off your legs at the front… We absolutely love it; its unique style, structural lines, its comfortable fit combined with a (we think) quite elegant silhouette … and we hope that you do too!  It is quite an advanced sew, but one that we think is well worth the effort.

Quick description; the Karijini is a comfortable summer dress with very interesting style lines…  Technical description; the Karijini is a loose-fitting sleeveless asymmetric dress; with partial overlays both front and back.  Features include generous inseam side pockets and asymmetric pin tucked hemlines across front and back.  Skirt hits above knee at the front and tapers off to calf length at the back  The dress has no closure but is designed to be slipped on over the head.

Some more important technical info;

I know, I know; the descriptions always sound so flat, but I promise this is not a flat design at all!  I first made and profiled this design this design back in 2018 and, in the process of fine-tuning the construction procedure and writing the instructions I have made many for myself and more than a few for others too!  The final pattern – well, my size anyway, of course not counting the grading – is practically identical to the first iteration, because I really was completely happy with that one straight off the bat.  The only changes were to improve the construction and finishing techniques a little bit.

The name?  well the Karijini National Park is in upper/middle Western Australia; and has always been one of our favourite places in WA.  The gorges are absolutely beautiful, with waterfalls, rocky stratifications and layers at all angles .. all of which went towards inspiring the style lines of our new design.

following photo from the website;

the Travel Guide to Karijini National Park, WA – Tourism Australia

To showcase the design on a group of different ages and sizes, we have once again roped family members into modelng for us … I’m not kidding when I say this is one of our favourite aspects of doing the patterns!  For our previous pattern, the Meelup skirt, we asked our niece/cousin Tiffany to model for us, this time it was her sister Jacinta who honoured us with her modelling skills.

My lovely mother/Cassie’s grandmother; was our other model, and both our photo sessions were such fun family events!

Jacinta’s dress was made in a softly “antique-y” blue floral from Spotlight, and Mum’s was made in a dark chocolate linen/cotton from the Morrison clothing fabric sale from a few years back.  I love how the structural lines of the design are showcased in the solid, dark coloured fabric; as well as how soft and pretty it appears in the floral.

Cassie also made one for herself in two contrasting fabrics; a large scale blue check and plain white cottons…  doesn’t this look so cool?!

As a reminder, here are some of my previously made versions of the Karijini;

the original, ochre linen version…

this green sparkle version…

this striped version… I have received many compliments for this one over the years!

this large scale check version…  I have since dyed this version dark blue, and it looks quite different!  At some stage I will take a photo and upload it here to show…

To celebrate the release of our newest pattern, we are currently offering 20% off the price for one week only, until Sunday 24th March… this apples to all our patterns in our Etsy shop here.  Discount applies automatically at checkout, no code is needed.  We hope you enjoy the sale, and our new Karijini pattern!

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2023; a retrospective

31/12/2023 5:29 pm \ 10 Comments \

Hello!  It’s the last day of 2023, and I’m feeling miraculously motivated to look back upon my year of making, and see what I made, how it worked out and generally do a bit of retrospective musing on the things to come… first of all I’m putting up some favourite photos/outfits, one from each month of the year.  I made everything I’m wearing in each picture, barring some shoes…

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

NovemberDecember

Actually, it was funny for me looking back to find some favourite pictures because to be honest I had a bit of a photo slump this year.  I stopped enjoying taking pictures of myself and struggled to find any motivation in it, particularly during the last four months.

What did I make this year?

So, I made 64 items this year, including 1 knitted jumper, 2 underwear sets comprising a bra plus two pairs of matching undies, 1 leather bag, 1 wallet, 3 hats, 8 dresses, 2 jackets, 12 tops, 10 skirts, 3 cardigans, 15 kiddies’ garments, 4 pj’s, 1 pr hand warmers, and 1 Wedding Dress!  capitals intended…  30 of these items were for other people.  The absolute biggest and most involved project for me this year was of course Lainey’s wedding dress.  Yes, it sounds like a lot, and of course it is!  That stash is not going to reduce itself!

Cassie and I were absolutely over the moon to add two new patterns to our Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co stable this year; the Pinjarra twinset and the Meelup skirt.  It seems like this has been the Year of Basics for our tiny company!  It feels great to have some more tried and true patterns that we truly believe in and wear ourselves very frequently.  And we’re excited about moving onto more adventurous design next year. #bighint

 

Stashbusting vs new fabric

I’m still diligently working through my stash, and not buying or accepting new fabric.  I’m pretty proud of my restraint… in fact the only time I worked with new fabric this year was Lainey’s wedding dress! I’ve worked through quite a lot of my collection and it’s all looking quite manageable nowadays.  Realistically, I estimate I have maybe another year of not buying new to get rid of absolutely EVERYTHING, maybe even less?  Exciting thought! but we’ll see how that goes!  #fingerscrossed. Wish me luck!

Regarding the very large wool stash I’ve inherited from relatives’ …  I’m planning to enquire about donating most of it to my grandson’s daycare/kindergarten actually, because realistically it would take me years to knit my way through that.  I have to be realistic about what is achievable!

Favourite makes?

Hmm, no surprises here, but of course Lainey’s wedding dress is by far my favourite make of the year! as well as being the most involved.  This was a pure labour of love, into which I poured my heart and soul.  Although there were challenges… I still have slight ptsd about that hem! I’m pretty proud of the final product and felt like Lainey chose an absolutely beautiful design that I was genuinely in love with myself too.  I’m so thrilled with how beautifully she shone on this day, which was a truly lovely time in every way.

Some other favourites makes of the year are:

I’m really happy with how both this pretty pink Pinjarra cardigan and this little blue Jade mini skirt turned out, and I’ve worn both of these pieces pretty frequently.  The ivory tee is my most most worn item of the year!  I really need to make another, to take the pressure off!

For creativity, I was really happy with this weird little outfit!

And, so random, but I was thrilled with this little knitted set that I made for baby Gilbert!  Making things like this, and the purple/raspberry set above just reinforce for me the joy I feel with making something useful from scraps and bits and pieces that otherwise suggest nothing.  I need to embrace more projects like these because they are nearly always the most rewarding and satisfying to me. 🙂

any fails?

ooh gosh, that’s tough, because I didn’t really make anything this year that stands out negatively…  strictly speaking there are a few items I’ve only worn once so far, but they are all things I like!

I made a whole bunch of things from this rather terrible paprika-coloured stretch fabric, all of which have a tendency to stretch out, and it was a relief to get this ghastly stuff out of the stash.  However, all of them been worn a bunch so I can’t really call any of these a true fail either…  Theo insists the red T-shirt is his favourite top!

What did I wear? 

My most worn items can be summed up neatly in the following #ootd photos.

Everything made by me, in fact I wore close to 100% me made clothing as usual.  My most worn items are my ivory merino tee (23 wears), my Oxen Fibremood Jill dress (top row, middle, 21 wears), and jointly my navy Miette knitted cardigan and yellow merino Pinjarra cardigan (18 wears each).  Honourable mentions go to my green Karijini dress (top row, left, 16 wears), and as usual my yellow raincoat, the number of wears I did not count…  I’m also not counting my black tights, hand knitted sock, handmade sockettes nor any hats, all of which were very worn more than anything, of course!

other doings in general

I’m still learning Japanese, it’s been nearly four years now! and I am excited to announce we’ll be visiting Japan again next year.  I’m thrilled to be able to try speaking a little, as well as catch up again with my lovely friend Yoshimi.

I’ve kept up my outfit of the day blog over on Tumblr for 10 years now!  Wow! I’m pleased I managed this, however like I mentioned at the beginning of this post the habit of taking a photo of myself everyday has started to become tiring and I’ve decided to gently let it go.  Actually, correction; I’m abruptly letting it go!  10 years is quite a long time!  There have been plenty of times in the last year I’ve almost forgotten about it and have to hurriedly take a picture just before putting my pyjamas on… haha.  Whoops!  I think you’ve got to sometimes take stock of whether an activity is contributing to your happiness, or if it’s become a chore; and take the appropriate action.  I may or may not take the occasional picture if I particularly love my outfit, but definitely not daily, and will most likely post only instagram from now on.

Finally, if you’re still reading, then thank you very much for sticking with me for another year!  I really appreciate everyone who does and who chooses to leave a kind and generous comment every now and then; each and every one really makes my day and I’m so thankful for all of you.

I hope you all had a wonderful year, and wish you all a happy, healthy, rewarding and creative 2024 ahead!

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Christmas dress! hot choccy treats and some cute little kiddie things

28/12/2023 3:39 pm \ 2 Comments \

I’ve made some new things…

… including a new Christmas Day dress for myself… the latest subtraction from ye good old stash.  So this new dress was made with a piece of lovely border print stuff bought in the closing days of 2019,  New York when I went there with Yoshimi… I’m pretty sure it was from Metro Textiles?

I thought I’d make a simple, very plain shift dress and turned to a rather lovely little shift dress pattern I’ve made previously, Burda 07/2018; 118, which is exactly that, but with pockets!  Win!

As usual I hadn’t really bought enough fabric and cutting out the pieces was a tight squeeze!  I had to cut out those awkwardly shaped facing pieces from a different fabric.  I used a pale latte coloured, stiff cotton for this.

Fortunately I also had a zip of the appropriate length in my stash too, although it’s a less than ideal bright white instead of ivory; it’s a little more noticeable that in appears in this picture.

This picture is really just to show the selvedge being used for the centre back seam; I often do this if the selvedge is lying nice and flat, and it does save that little bit extra if fabric is short.

If I’m totally honest with myself I’m not 100% happy with how the print matched up along this back seam but again, I didn’t have enough fabric to do anything about this so c’est la vie.

wearing it here with my crocheted hat…

This really is such a lovely print! and I’m absolutely thrilled it has now become a cute little summer dress that I felt comfortable and very happy in, all day long.  I didn’t get any photos from Christmas Day because I was just rushed off my feet all day, but I wore it again today and took these pics. 🙂

Next up! for Christmas gifts, something I always like to do is to make some little edible treat for the whole family.  This year I thought I’d make hot chocolate bombs…  however, a lot of the recipes I found online were in the form of perfectly spherical, beautifully shiny chocolate shells that you fill with cocoa powder and maybe sugar and/or marshmallows… well such chocolatey artistry was completely beyond my skills!  I decided instead to just make hot chocolate “bricks” 😉

These little morsels might not be things of beauty but they do comprise everything that one needs for a mug of yummy hot chocolate.  My recipe:

Hot Chocolate Bricks

each brick contains:

  • 45g dark cooking chocolate
  • 1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp sugar
  • 4 mini marshmallows

I used double the above mixture, which was an easy quantity to handle, to make two at a time.  Simply melt the chocolate in the microwave then quickly and thoroughly stir through the cocoa powder and sugar.  The mixture should be sticking together into a self-contained blob, picking up all the mixture off the sides of the bowl as you mix and leaving almost no residue.  If it wasn’t, I would add a little more cocoa powder until it did stick together.  Divide between two mini patty pans and gently push the marshmallows on top… this means people can remove them before melting the brick and pop them on top of their hot chocolate just before serving.

Each brick is designed to go in 100-150mL milk, depending on how strong you like it.  If you like it super rich then you can substitute a little cream for a portion of milk!  because they’re quite rock solid little things they actually need a LOT of stirring and occasional re-heating to mix in thoroughly enough.  But they are delicious!  I used one of the earlier, not-so-pretty ones to check out that they worked ok…

btw I also made a little instruction slip to put in with each pack, explaining the how-to stuff.  Actually, I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the final packages, obviously I got a bit stressed for time towards the end there!(Later edit: Mum took a picture of hers for me…  :). )

However, to describe; throughout the year I’d saved up those little plastic punnets mini tomatoes are sold in… I peeled off the labels and managed to squeeze 7 chocolate bricks in each punnet.  I popped the instructions in as well and finished off with tying up the punnets with coloured ribbons.

Finally, and possibly my very last makes for the year? there are just three days to go, so maybe!  I made three little garments, for my three little grandsons.  Two raglan sleeve T-shirts in different sizes and a little onesie for the newest and littlest, all self-drafted.  Each using a mix of white and vaguely Christmassy red plaid cotton jersey, although I didn’t actually make them for Christmas!  I bought the red plaid cotton jersey from (I think?) the Fabric Store in Melbourne during a past trip over there… it’s quite thin and was actually not much fun to sew with.   Doing the twin needle hems on the T-shirt sleeves was a hideous experience, each one unpicked and re-done multiple times each.  I don’t really know what the issue was but it only occurred on this particular fabric, not the white cotton body hems.

The white jersey was from old stash.  I think they turned out pretty cute, and if I get a picture of the little guys wearing their new things I will upload it here!

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