Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cocoa Tao

14/01/2014 11:36 am \ 44 Comments \

Hello!  I’m wearing a new blouse.
It is the Tao, by Tamanegi-Kobo.  I’ve seen lots of lovely Tamanegi-Kobo designs made by Yoshimi, and then during me-made May saw even more worn by Japanese ladies, including the adorable and very talented designer Miho.  And since I loooove Japanese designs I just had to try one out!
On a crazy spontaneous whim I added a funny little swoosh-shaped welt pocket.   I had finished sewing the blouse, tried it on and just thought; hmmm, pocket…  I had some scraps left over, the bobbin still had some of the pale grey thread wound on.  I had recently pinned this dinky little welt pocket.  Snap decision.  I just decided to go for it.  I think it turned out quite cute!

The Tao really is a very lovely style, loose and artistic, comfortable and still very feminine and flattering.  I’m still getting used to pdf patterns, I don’t mind them as long as there aren’t hundreds of pages to tape together.  The Tao is 24 pages, which is do-able.  The collar is a petite little thing,  stylistically matching the boxy cropped feel of the blouse, and I think it looks equally sweet buttoned right up.   Normally I don’t button my blouses right up to the collar stand, ‘cos I’m a laid-back Aussie beach bum, but I like this one both ways.

I made the blouse out of, believe it or not, a stark, optic white linen/silk mix from Fabulous Fabris, the leftover piece from after I had cut out the collars, cuffs and button bands for the boys’ Christmas shirts.  But since I’ve made two white shirts in hot succession recently, this one was always going to get a dye-job.  I stitched it up using a pale grey/brown thread, and once I’d finished sewing it and prior to chickening out, quickly gave it a light wash in a very weak dye solution of Brown iDye.  Giving it this subtle and rather delicate shade of pale pinky/cocoa brown.  I think this is a colour quite flattering to my skin tone.  🙂

Details:
Top; Tamanegi-Kobo Tao, white linen/silk mix dyed with a teeny amount of Brown iDye
Shorts; Burda 7723, white linen, details and my review of this pattern here

My review for this blouse pattern is below….

Pattern
Description:

The Tao is a loose-fitting, button-front
blouse; with two collar variations, wrist cuffs and a continuous
sleeve vent, cut-on sleeves and a long wrist-to-wrist yoke.
Pattern
Sizing:
Size 36-42.  I made a straight size 38.
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
I
could not follow the Japanese written instructions, but the illustrations are quite
clear and helpful.  The seam allowances
are clearly marked.
The
notches that you need for piecing and pleating points can be seen clearly and
easily, but I did think the Japanese character markings looked a little
chaotic, repeated for each of the sizes and heaped on top of each other. There
are two collar pieces: one the under- and the other the upper collar; if you’ve
made a collared shirt before and so know that the under-collar is supposed to
be a touch smaller then you should have no trouble working out which piece is
which.
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
It
looks so pretty in the photographs on the website, and I like the loose
artistic shape.  The style is really
pretty and a very nice feminine alternative to the traditional style of
button-front shirt; and easier too, in fact, since you don’t have to insert the
sleeves!  The prim little collar looks
sweet, both unbuttoned and also when buttoned up all the way to the top.
It is
a pdf pattern, which I am slooowly getting used to, old-fashioned thing that I
am  😉
Fabric
Used:
Silk/linen
mix
Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:
I added
a little asymmetrical swoosh-shaped welt pocket 
😉
Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Definitely!
and yes  🙂
Conclusion:
Oh, I
love it!  I’ve used Japanese pattern
books before and this is the first time I’ve made a “regular” Japanese
pattern.  I’ve made it in a summer-weight
linen/silk mix but I think it would be equally appropriate and just as
cute in a soft comfy flannelette for winter.
pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Double welt pocket with looped button closure

14/01/2014 4:07 am \ 28 Comments \

I wrote this tute just before Christmas then completely forgot about it …! anyhow 

This is a pocket often used as the back pocket on mens’ trousers although of course you can add one to whatever garment you wish… in this case I have used for the breast pocket on a mens’ tailored shirt.

Measure and mark the position of the welt pocket.  My welt pocket measures 13cm x 1.5 cm  (5 1/8″ x 5/8″).  Cut two strips of fabric equal in length to the length of the welt pocket plus two seam allowances, and equal in width to twice the height of the double welt; in this case my strips measure 15cm x 3cm.  Also cut a strip of fabric on the bias for the loop closure.  

Stitch the bias strip, and cut the stitching threads leaving a long length, at lease as long as the bias strip itself.  Thread the long end through a needle, and with blunt end leading, pass it through inside the strip.  Turn the strip right side out.

Press the welt strips in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and place pins in each to mark the length and width of each welt.  In this case, a length of 13cm and a width of 7.5mm.

With the pressed folds of the welt strips facing out and the open raw edges towards the middle; put these pins in exactly the same pinholes as those previously made to mark the welt position.  Arrange the welts to lie smooth, flat and straight.

Stitch the long edges of the welt, in an exactly 13cm long line, positioned exactly 7.5mm in from the folded (outer) edge of the welt.  Note; the folded edge is the visible and therefore the important one here; the accuracy and precision of your stitching MUST be relative to that outer edge).

Fold to snip into the centre of the welt. and cut to about 1cm in from the start and finish of the stitching. From this point, snip outwards in an inverted arrow shape into the very corners of the welt.

Turn welts to the inside and pin the loop closure in position to the seam allowance of the upper welt, at the centrepoint.  Stitch.

Pin the pocket piece to the lower welt seam allowance, and stitch exactly over the previous stitching.  Press down.

Stitch a button through both thickness of fabric; the shirt layer and the pocket layer, for stability, using the loop closure to determine the position of the button.

Fold up the pocket piece and pin to the seam allowance of the upper welt.  Stitch exactly over the previous stitching and press.

Complete the box of stitching around the welt by catching down the little triangles at the outer edges.  Continue stitching down the sides seams of the pocket.

Finish raw edges by overlocking or zig-zagging.  You can also finish by binding with bias binding; I tried doing this for the pocket of one shirt, the purple pin-stripe pictured below.  It looks real nice but it made the pocket feel kinda bulky and stiff.  I would probably  just stick with the overlocker in future.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

Tear drops top

11/01/2014 2:05 am \ 43 Comments \

White tops, and particularly if lace or broderie anglaise or any wildly impractical snowy stitch-festival are part of the equation, have always been a weakness of mine.  Not just during summer but any season.  One of my earliest pins as a freshly minted Pinterest-er was this Isabel Marant top.  It was immediate love at first sight.  The perfect summer top; feminine and chic, cool and blowsy, romantically pretty and casually easy-breezy.  I wanted one, and began plotting…
At first I thought to re-create the style using plain white cotton and finding some sort of broderie border to attach to the lower edges.  Then during my long weekend away in Melbourne with Mum and Cassie I chanced upon this fabric in Tessuti; white cotton voile with beautifully intricate broderie anglaise borders already in situ.  One selvedge had very wide embroidered borders, and the opposite had a narrower border in the same design.  Utter perfection!  I used the deeper edge for the body of the blouse and the narrower edge for the sleeves. 

The pattern I used is top X, from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori.  A big oversized loose T-shirt/peasant blouse thing, slightly gathered into a narrow neckband with a faced front split.  

A plain and simple top with very little shaping, designed to showcase to best effect a gorgeously bordered fabric.   I only very slightly altered the side edges of my pattern pieces so the motifs and the scalloped edge would match up seamlessly.

The shoulder seams are French seams but for all the seams within the embroidered borders; I just overlocked the edges, stitched the seams then pressed them open; that broderie is just too thick with stitches to attempt any fancy seam finishes!

So; a nice easy project but I still had to steel myself to take the scissors to my fabric.  That awful first snip!  Of course, ruining beautiful fabrics is terrible and the fear of that can spiral you into major second-guessing, but maybe it’s worse to hold back forever and never allow yourself take the chance on making something beautiful with it.  Give yourself permission to try… that is why you bought it, remember?  
I have to repeat that to myself, like a mantra, every time I’m faced with special fabric that I totally and utterly adore.  And I’m so relieved that I didn’t ruin this lovely fabric!  

Details:
Top; top X from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, broderie anglaise cotton voile
Skirt; Vogue 7303, lime print cotton
Sandals; Misano

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , ,

Alabama Chanin skirt and tank

05/01/2014 5:03 am \ 119 Comments \

Hello!
So! after hours (and hours… and hours…) of aeroplane and in-front-of-the-TV stitching, I have finished my first AC project(s).
This is the mid-length skirt and the fitted tank top, both from the book, Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, by Natalie Chanin.  The two are actually just one pattern, a full length dress pattern, which you cut off at the relevant places to make either a skirt or a top.  Or a tunic or a dress.
Great idea, by the way.    I love the economy of one all-inclusive pattern.  Means you only have one thing to store, but about a zillion “making” opportunities in there.  OK, to be accurate there are eight garment possibilities from the one pattern, but surely at least a zillion wearing and layering combinations to be had.

My skirt!  I’m so pleased with it!  It is totally hand-quilted and stitched in the reverse appliqué technique described in the book;  using a top layer of lightweight deep olive bamboo/cotton knit, bought originally from Potters Textiles years ago, and the base layer is a thicker and more stable dirt-brown cotton jersey from KnitWit, also bought years ago.  These are my colours, yo  🙂  I also used some of that same brown cotton to make part of Tim’s hoodie, here.

The stencil pattern is Anna’s Garden from the AC book, enlarged 306%.  I applied the stencil to the olive fabric using a small foam roller and regular household paint, as described here.  The thread used throughout is a brown/grey Gutermann’s upholstery thread, although Spotlight ran out of my colour (grrr!) so a small portion was done in the same colour of Gutermann’s topstitching thread.  Top-stitching thread is kinda OK stuff but I really prefer the upholstery thread; much smoother and less prone to the strands separating from each other.
All the seams are hand stitched too, and felled by hand.  I had initially toyed with machine stitching the seams; but of course after all that hand embroidery I knew I had to finish off properly….   This took a blink of an eye compared to the embroidery side of things, so I am so pleased I opted to “do it right”, so to speak.  I like the way the felling shows upon the right side as a row of dimples; barely hinted-at stitches along the seams.

I finished the waistband with chocolate brown fold over elastic, bought from Tessuti’s in Melbourne. This stuff is extraordinarily expensive here and pretty hard to find in Perth.  Believe it or not; this colour is the closest match that I’ve found… anywhere. 

My top: I actually do have a matching deep-olive-and-dirt-brown fitted tank top printed, planned and ready to go, but as soon as I finished the skirt I had a Vision; only the plainest of plain white tanks would be the absolutely perfect-est accompaniment to this busy busy skirt.  I had the immediate compulsion to make such a thing.

I bought the white cotton jersey from KnitWit, and made up a very simple fitted tank; no frills but still constructed in the Alabama Chanin way, so stylistically it matches the skirt really well.    The seams are stitched and felled by hand, and the binding applied with herringbone stitch.  Although there a visible knots aplenty on the inside of the skirt… unavoidable!  I went out of my way to hide them on the inside of the tank top, concealing all the knots inside the layers of the felling and binding.
Neckline and armhole binding and seams: below left, right side view; at right, inner view with felled seams

Fitting-wise;  I raised the back neckline of the tank and made the shoulder straps a little wider also.  In my early experiments, I sliced a biggish sway-back wedge from the pattern which affected both the tank and the skirt pieces. 
Time-wise; the tank top took, like, one day at the most? while the skirt has taken weeks!  Although I would like to add more Alabama Chanin pieces to my wardrobe, there is no danger that I am going to get addicted to this technique.  It is basically identical to hand-quilting and I have made enough quilts to know I can only take so much of that.  My left pointer finger needs time to rest and recuperate.  The tip of that finger has skin like a rhino now.  Seriously.
Obviously I am thrilled to bits with my first Alabama Chanin project, and the second!  however there will be one little hurdle; I’m going to have to force myself to wear the skirt and not treat it like a museum piece.  I’m having visions of unwittingly sitting down on a patch of oil, or brushing against a spiky bush or someone carrying a glass of red wine tripping and falling in slow motion  in my direction…. aaagh!  The stuff of nightmares!  😉

Details:
Skirt; the mid-length skirt from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, hand-embroidered and stitched cotton jersey in two solid colours
Top; the fitted tank from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, hand-stitched, white cotton jersey
Sandals: Franco Burrone, from Marie Claire

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

2013, a retrospective

31/12/2013 3:30 pm \ 37 Comments \

Separate from my rather nerdy previous post, on the last day of the year I like to reflect on my favourite posts, one from each month…
January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

A sewing summary…
Number of garments made, counting each set of 1 bra+ 2 undies as one garment: 64, including 9 items for family
Knitted garments: 4 hmmm, it’s been a slow year for knitting (blush) However, it was nearly all from stash; the only new yarn I bought was for my Hunter Miette and I think I redeemed myself by knitting it up straight away
re the Stashbusting:
Garments sewn from new fabric: 20
Knitting from stash: 3! out of the 4 things made 🙂
Garments made from stash fabric: 31
Not exactly drastic reductions in the stash, but it gets me an A+ in my stash-busting pledge 😉
Refashioned garments: 9 Another 3 were rejuvenated with dye


Favourite garments: Faux leather jacket I might not have worn it a tonne yet but I really LOVE it and am rather proud of it 🙂 I also really adore my Panellist dress.
Any fails?: I just haven’t worn my bright roses top at all. There’s nothing wrong with it and I don’t hate it or anything. I just don’t reach for it *shrug*
The biggest thing for me this year was doing a screen-printing course; I LOVED it, and have printed eight pieces of fabric; seven of which have been sewn into garments already. My favourite self-printed project is a toss-up between my poppies lingerie set and the beach-y polka dot dress.
So that’s it for another year! Thank you so much to everyone who reads my blog and takes the time to comment, I am so very grateful and appreciative of all you gorgeous sewing- and fashion-loving peeps. We who sew tend to do so on our own, so the big ol’ fantabulous internets has been pretty good for our socialising, yes? 😉

See y’all in 2014!

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

The Year of Handmade; a summary

31/12/2013 8:42 am \ 55 Comments \

So for this past year I chose to forego all RTW clothing and only allow myself to wear things that I had made myself.  All my clothing, including underwear, bathers and raincoat, hosiery and socks; everything had to be sewn or knitted by me.  The only exceptions I allowed were shoes and boots.

I drew each of my daily outfits in my Fashionary, thus keeping track of the wearing tally, if you like, of each item of clothing.
So, the quantitative assessment:  I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that yes, I analysed all those funny little paper dolls, itemising all my clothing worn this year along with adding up the number of “wears” that each item received this year.  I plugged my results into an excel spreadsheet, which is to say that I sure don’t expect anyone apart from me to be the slightest bit interested in the nitty gritty, of course!  I just did that bit for fun. 

But to summarise, the most worn items in my wardrobe this year are:

White Tshirts, by a country mile.  I have 3 identical white Tshirts, and each one alone got more wear than any other top in my collection.  Skirts: my ivory curtaining skirt (left) ; my refashioned, little denim skirt (right), my midnight blue, over dyed corduroy A-line skirt (centre).  Re-dyeing that blue skirt really did give it a fabulous new lease on life, elevating it to the third most frequently worn skirt in the wardrobe.  (left) Oversized peppercorn cardigan and (right) chocolate cotton cardigan.

My army jacket was the second most worn item in my wardrobe this year… love that thing!  My ivory cotton cardigan and the blue bell-sleeved top also came in pretty high.

Dresses, from left; the Aquarius dress, Japanese cotton sundress and the sew bossy dress.  Statistically, the sew bossy dress squeaked out on top, but actually all of my dresses got a heck of a lot of wear, even my winter dresses; with “wears” spread pretty evenly across the board.  I wore 28 dresses this year…  sounds like a LOT I agree, but actually 9 of this number have already move on to either the scrap bag or the Good Sammy’s.  None of these three, but.
Jeans:  The frequency of wears for my jeans is quite low; I’m very much a skirt/dress wearer, with tights for winter.  I think I really only need a new pair once every two years or so.  The purple flares got the most wear.

Shorts get about the same wearing frequency as jeans.  My hot pink linen shorts are firm favourites, which is interesting since they felt like a very whimsical and possibly crazy addition to my wardrobe at the time!   2013’s two favoured scarves were both simple, unhemmed pieces of jersey knit, for summer a light and breezy ecru, and for winter, a long long raspberry.  Please tell me, if a rectangle of fabric is enough to keep me happy then why o why do I knit so many scarves?
Tights; two pairs of plain black wool tights, and my paprika tights got a lot of wear too.

Um, underwear; yes, well all of that got worn too…
Obviously some of my more recently made items did not get a look in, and their usefulness will not be apparent until after next year; but this can’t be helped at this point.

Now for the qualitative assessment:  Going into this project, I wondered whether I would feel needlessly restricted by not allowing myself to wear RTW this year.   That was dumb, since I have absolutely masses of me-made clothes and didn’t feel lost for choice, not at any time.  However, and these thoughts have been with me from the very start of my totally me-made journey, ?four? years ago: I do admit to ebbing waves of uncertainty about my sanity.  I mean, making all my own clothes seems both silly and masochistic sometimes, even to me, a battle-hardened convert of several years.  When I look at and admire other ladies’ outfits it would not even enter my head to judge them on whether they made it themselves or not, and yet, I do judge myself quite severely on this basis.
But whether it’s good/sensible or not, I’m in the habit of making all my own now, and would find it hard to buy clothes in a store.  I would feel too guilty, believe it or not.  I’ve successfully brainwashed myself.  I’m in two minds whether or not to actually act on this.  Whether to continue as I am, or to rehabilitate myself, so to speak… maybe see if I even am capable of buying something.  
Yes, I do realise how very silly that sounds.
If I’ve proved anything at all to myself, it’s merely that making all your own clothes can be done.  Be your own sweatshop, yo.  I am.  I can, and I did.  Which has precisely zero significance at all, to anyone, anywhere.  And yet I feel strangely proud of myself, nonetheless.
Will I keep this up next year? well yes and no.  
NO I will not be regaling the blog with fashionary pictures any more.  And I will be happy to welcome back into my life some of my old RTW items I’ve had for many years.  That amounts to some Metalicus Tshirts and a petticoat, a handful of Country Road camisoles and a few cashmere cardigans, all very high quality items and all years and years old now.  I also have a few scarves that have been given to me as gifts by family, that will enter rotation as of tomorrow.  Black tights!  The two woollen pairs I wore this year have both sprung holes in the toes.  I think I could spoil myself and just buy these from now on, at least.
However, YES, in that I think I will continue to keep tabs on my clothing next year too… just because I found it really interesting and a useful  exercise in future wardrobe planning.

The final paper dolls…  🙂

15th-20th December
from left:
white top “b” from shape shape, white linen shorts
polka dot dress
pistachio linen top, “map” skirt
Sagittarius dress
sew bossy dress
“white trees” top, little denim skirt

21st-26th December
from left:
grey/green layered skirt, white PM Tshirt
map skirt, top “b” from shape shape
sew bossy dress
giant polka dot dress
red dress
“white trees” top, hot pink linen shorts

27th-31st December
from left:
pistachio linen top, map skirt
sew bossy dress
top “b” from shape shape, embroidered yellow shorts
Sagittarius dress
red cotton dress

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,

Three pin-striped shirts

27/12/2013 7:00 am \ 55 Comments \

My Christmas present to my boys this year is a tailored shirt for each one; in pin-striped linen with contrasting white collar, cuffs, and buttonbands, and a double welted breast pocket with looped button closure.

Three shirts in addition to Cassie’s outfit and Craig’s birthday shirt.  Phew!  These have kept me super busybusybusy, nose to the grindstone sewing machine for the last few weeks since we got back from Melbourne!  This is the first year I’ve made three long-sleeved shirts for Christmas, the past few years I’ve made things a little easier on myself by slipping at least one short-sleeved one in there.  The cuffs and little sleeve plackets are quite a bit of work, and a short sleeved shirt feels almost quick and easy by comparison.  In the past I’ve always given each item I make its own post, and particularly because of the amount of work that goes into a highly tailored item like a man’s shirt, I kinda reckon they deserve a post each; but this time I just couldn’t with that.  It’s all been just too much!

All three shirts are made using Burda 7767, with the personal fitting modifications for each of my men that I’ve fine-tuned over many many shirts.  How many of these am I up to??  Must be over 30 of them by now, I think.  

Craig’s is a white with purple pin-stripe and brown-y purple buttons, Tim’s is a charcoal with white pin/stripe and black buttons, and Sam’s is a white with blue pin-stripe and caramel-coloured buttons.  All three pin-striped linens are from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, bought during my recent girls’ weekend away with Mum and Cassie; and all the buttons are from Fabulous Fabrics.  The  white contrasting fabric is a silk/linen mix bought from Fabulous Fabrics.  I’ve totally hoarded this lovely and quite expensive stuff for aaaages and had toyed with bravely cutting into it for one for my own SWAP projects, but decided that my boys deserved the best… (deep breath, must learn to let go of precious fabrics) Fortunately I should still have enough to make something for myself.  Bonus!
All the seams are flat-felled; I used my own tutorial for flat-felling a curved seam to get a nice finish along those sleeve caps.  Craig’s shirt has a long curved hemline because it’s more business-like, and the boys’ shirts both have straight hemlines with a lapped split side seam.

My review of this excellent pattern is here

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , ,

Cassie in burnt orange

26/12/2013 7:00 am \ 31 Comments \

I made a little tank dress with a matching top for Cassie… I’m hoping these will be very useful and versatile items in both her working and her weekend wardrobe.  The two pieces can be worn together as a smart/casual ensemble; also either the tank dress OR the loose top can be worn with a pencil skirt and cardigan to work; the tank dress can be worn alone or as a tunic with with jeans as a casual weekend option, or as a petticoat underneath a sheer dress; and the top can be worn with shorts or whatever.  And imho the colour is absolutely glorious with her strawberry blond hair!!

I bought the rich orange cotton-poly mesh from Tessuti’s in Melbourne during our weekend away together, and both pieces are self-drafted.  The tank dress is a pretty simple silhouette; but sewing it together was like an exercise in spatial thinking.  The fabric is completely sheer so I made it double-layered, both layers are completely sewn together before the whole dress was finally pulled right side through a gap in the lower hemline, which was hand slip-stitched closed as the very last thing.  Meaning, all the seams are enclosed between the two dress layers.  I was so pleased when it worked out successfully!  The fabric was lightweight enough that the whole thing could be bunched up and pulled through a 10cm gap quite easily.  The outer layer is 6cm longer than the inner layer, so the joining seam sits on the inside of the dress, 3cm from the lower fold.

below right; the finished dress was pulled right side out through the short gap in the hemline joining seam at lower right, now hand slip-stitched closed,

The top is also self-drafted, and loosely based upon the shape of the pieces in a very simple top that I’ve had for years, designed by a Melbourne company, tutte which seems to be no longer around.  Basically, the front and back panels are straight rectangles, and the side panels and sleeves are cut as one piece each, on the fold at the top of the sleeve/shoulder: like capital T’s with the downstroke as the sleeve.  

I cut the neckline as a gracefully curved scoop, extending and joining the front and back panels at the shoulder, and added double thickness “flaps” at the lower edge of the front and back that enclose the raw edges.  I hand-stitched the side panel lower edges and and sleeve hems in a narrow rolled edge, and finished the neckline with a long strip, stitched on the right side, turned under and hand-stitched around the inside.

Details:
Top and dress; self-drafted, in slightly stretchy cotton-poly mesh.  I think it could be this stuff…

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , ,
Switch to mobile version
↓