Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m gonna party…

24/09/2011 6:50 am \ 32 Comments \

…like it’s ma birthday…
‘Cos it is!  Hehe, and I’m going to take full advantage, by doing exactly as I please… which means very little office work.  Sadly Craig is working all today  :((  but we are all going out to dinner together as a family tonight, so I am looking forward to that.  This morning I stayed in bed for a bit, super self-indulgently flipping through Vogue, then Cassie brought me a cup of tea as well as one for herself and we sat chatting for a good half hour.  It was so nice!  She is a very sweet and spontaneous daughter like this sometimes …  Then I wheedled Tim and Sam out of bed (who are also sweet, if not so spontaneous) and we went out for brekkie together.  Again, so nice!  I’m glad my children are great fun company…
I plan to walk the dog and sew too.  (so nice!  oh, OK I’ll stop that now…)
So today being a please-myself kind of a day, I picked out my favourite (self-stitched) spring-time dress to wear.  Thankfully the weather gods are smiling with a delightful 23C and only light-ish breezes, so I can. 
I can, so I do.
I dress, therefore I am.
(Descartes, you know… sort of)
Being lace it can look quite dressy but I happily downgraded this dress to casual status a while ago, and so it gets worn anywhere anytime now.  Weather permitting, obviously…!  It used to be one of my formal choices and I have worn it to weddings, cocktail thingy-s and dressy afternoon gatherings but I think it looks perfectly elegant with thongs or low casual sandals for ordinary days.  I think favourite dresses should be worn whenever, don’t you?
First thing this morning was a little fresh so I also had on my own brown cardi, which I am carrying here.  Even with that old textured cardi it looked quite good together.  Or should I say; the dress made the cardi look good…?  When we go out tonight I will fling on my grey wool spring coat, step into some heels, put up my hair, and be perfectly elegant for a swisho restaurant too.
Hope you all avagoodone!

Details:
Dress; based loosely on NewLook 6699, beige and silver lace, purple/brown shot silk chiffon, beige border lace, beige cotton lining
Cardigan, my own design, Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed in Brindle, details here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

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Heya…

23/09/2011 11:36 am \ 6 Comments \

… and thank you so much for your kind well-wishes yesterday.   Sorry, I’m still a bit flat.  Today our schizophrenic weather who doesn’t know if it’s Arthur or Martha, turned so so beautiful.  This was such a contrast to the last few dismal days I couldn’t bear the thought of wasting it, so I forced myself to get out and involved in my normal daily activities.  That could have been a mistake.
Today I am wearing a skirt (with side seam pockets) and shirt, all re-fashioned from three of Craig’s old business shirts here.  It is still one of my favourite re-fashions, and just pulling it out of the wardrobe and putting it on kinda inspired me to think about a few more of the men’s shirts that I still have in my re-fashion pile…. oh dear, so many plans and so little time to actually implement them!
Hehe, in case you didn’t know by now, I do often like a little “weird” or at least a little twisted, with my clothes.  I think I was so pleased with this outfit because it looks like a sort of freaky monster version of the mundane boring business shirt.  So the fabric is business shirt fabric, quiet tasteful stripes and all (even the orange fabric has a very tiny pinstripe although it is hard to tell from this picture) and the general shape of the shirt and skirt has that business shirt aura.  But first impressions can be deceiving, the eye, on first registering “business shirt” then takes a second look and goes, “hang on a minute… this is NOT a business shirt.  This is like the business shirt after that twisted little next door neighbour kid in Toy Story who frankensteined his toys got a hold of it… !”
(cue twilight zone music) this is the psyched-out, butchered, business-shirt-on-elm-street!

source

Hmmm,I’ve just read back that whole load of nonsense above, apparently written by me.  Perhaps I’d better go and lie down…

Details:
Shirt and skirt; my own design, a refashion of three old business shirts, details here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

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Back again

22/09/2011 11:08 am \ 11 Comments \
Hello.
I’m feeling a bit woolly-headed so I’m warmly rugged up and back to standing in a familiar place for self-stitched September today.  So I’m not feeling very imaginative.  But fortuitously so; I think the thickly clouded whiteness of sky, the smooth beige stretch of pale river sand and the glassy grey stillness of the river set off the rough tweedy textures and dull blue and rusty red colours in my (self-stitched) outfit quite well, no?
I’m going to squeeze a few lemons and consume some vitamin C now… later dudes.
Details:
Top; based on top “a” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa with a collar of my own design; blue shot cotton, details here
Jacket; the “wearing a square” design from Pattern Magic 2 by Tomoko Nakamichi; blue grey mystery fabric, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363, rusty red wool and silk tweed, details here
Tights; my own design, denim look jersey, details and my tutorial on drafting your own custom fit tights here
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes
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Having a cuppa…

21/09/2011 11:25 am \ 12 Comments \

Self-stitched September, Day 21
Today’s mini photo challenge, to be eating/drinking.
I whipped up a new Tshirt yesterday.
Hehe, “whipped-up”, a phrase that is music to the seamster’s ears, no?  Don’t you just love the very thought of it; whipping something up.  Especially since I am normally not much of a whipper-upper, but more of an agoniser-over-the-smallest-detail-er… well whipping something up is nice thing to do once in a while.
As whipping-up implies, my Tshirt is devoid of exciting or innovative dressmaking features.  It’s just an ordinary white Tshirt and is not exciting at all.  But I decided to be kinda official about it this time… usually I lay down one of my existing Tshirts and trace around it but I’ve decided that I should do something about getting a proper pattern that is reproducable over and over.  In the 06/2011 Burdastyle magazine I noticed this Tshirt pattern 120 immediately and thought I would give it a whirl.  So traced out my size based on my measurements, cut it out, machine basted and tried it on (normal modus operandi for trying out a new pattern)  Was a bit surprised to find out I swam in it!  Look at the photograph; the model is hardly swimmming in her Tshirt now, is she?  In fact it looks like a remarkably well-fitting garment, so what is going on here?  Here below are my pattern pieces; the black lines are the stipulated stitching lines and the red lines are my adjusted stitching lines in order for me to get a garment that looks like the one in the picture.  Only the shoulder seams remain unaltered…  ridiculous, no?  

I also noticed that the pattern calls for an invisible zip closure in a centre back seam and for front and back neck facings. Personally I think that is overkill for a Tshirt.  Invisible zips?  Facings?  I think not.  Instead I opted to cut the back in one piece on a centre fold and cut bands to finish the sleeve and neck-hole edges.  This is a very nice finish I learnt it by studying some of my Metalicus tops to see how they finish some of their knit edges, so I think of it in my head as “the Metalicus finish”.  I think it is a beautifully clean and easy finish.  It uses the self-fabric so blends in nicely with the garment and doesn’t require you to find matching ribbing or to own an expensive coverstitch machine.  You just cut a band to fit (or a little bit smaller), sew it into a ring and fold in half along its length, then serge the raw edges together with the raw sleeve and neckline edges in one seam, like so.  I like this finish for a Tshirt.  For the lower hem I just overlocked the raw edge, pressed under by about 4cm and hand slipstitched into place.  This is a flatter and smoother finish than the Metalicus band method, so works well for the lower hem where I wanted less bulk.
I also altered the neckline of the pattern, cutting a deeper and wider curve, and lengthened the sleeves to elbow length.  Hehe, I guess it is not even the same top now, is it?  
So, since I haven’t really used the pattern as intended I won’t write a pattern review, but will save that for a time when I actually check out the pattern properly!

Details:
Tshirt; kinda my own design, using Burdastyle 06/2011, 120 as a starting point, white knit stuff
Dress; the gathered hole dress drafted from Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi, grey wool mix, details here
Leggings; my own design, beige knit stuff, details here, and my tutorial for making your own custom fit leggings pattern here
Hand warmers; knitted by me using Morris 4 ply wool in Imperial Blue, details and my pattern here
Boots; Andrea and Joen from Uggies in Dunsborough (now Eco boutique)

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Shades of grey…

20/09/2011 5:04 am \ 14 Comments \

Self-stitched September; day 20:
Awkward time of the year.  Donned tights again this morning because of a pessimistic weather forecast, only to later find myself too hot.  Lol!
And not sewing or handmaking related at all, but still exciting… the first batch of cygnets has arrived!  Here they are below with their mother and father; and did you know that swans mate for life?  They are always in pairs; very romantic, I think…  and I’ve also noticed that swans are extremely good parents.  Once their cygnets have appeared, both parents stick close together with their little family until they have fully grown into adults, and then the group still hangs around together for even a bit longer, presumably until the second generation find their own mate and leave.  There is still another nesting swan nearby here, and I’m looking forward to seeing how many are in her brood too…
Some reading this may not be aware that black swans are native to Western Australia, or possibly that they even exist; I only mention this because when we had our delightful foreign exchange student staying with us she was quite amazed to see black swans hanging around.  She had seen them in the movie Black Swan, but had assumed the ones in the movie were fake.  Well, of course, black swans are not fake at all, and occur naturally and plentifully here.  It is the white swans which are exotic around these parts!

Details:
Jacket; my own design, a re-fashioned pair of old pants, ivory cotton drill, details and tutorial here
Tshirt; self-drafted, leopard print knit stuff, part of a twin-set, details here; and to see this styled in 6 different ways go here
Skirt; self-drafted, charcoal knit stuff, details here
Tights; Spencer & Lacy
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Unique Clothes, top “p”

19/09/2011 5:58 am \ 25 Comments \

A new top; this one is top “p” from the Japanese pattern book Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa.  I was intrigued by and loved the look of this little thing from the first, and always knew I would get around to making one up.  I love how when you see it from the front you are just like… oh, an ordinary little top, it’s OK but not breaking any ground here; but from the back, wooo, what is happening with that top?  Is it a wrap, is it a shawl or is it a top?  As is usual with the delightfully unpredictable nature of Japanese designs, one isn’t quite sure.
I finally got brave enough to use some of the fabric I bought from Tessuti’s in Melbourne nearly a year ago (!), a piece of milk-chocolate coloured heavy-ish silk that has a quietly textured matte surface, and blessedly no right side, making it ideal for this project.  It is completely divine against the skin; soft, slippery and drape-y, so naturally a real *&%# to work with.    Out of the three pieces I bought in Tessuti’s this is the first to be made up.  So if you hadn’t worked it out, I have to confess right here to being pretty overwhelmed by those fabrics; I know that is pretty silly and illogical, but you know when you’ve bought something really special the likelihood making a big ugly expensive mistake looms a heck of a lot more menacingly…   Well, it’s not like I can just pop back to the store to get a bit more now, is it?  Hmmm, whole different kettle of fish when you’re two thousand miles away, right?  And fabric from Tessuti’s is not cheap even to start with… I think you can grasp at the foundations behind my trepidation here now.  But I think my new top is a success.
The design is a simple concept once you’ve seen it laid out flat like below; the back when worn has one twist in it, and the two fronts are attached one positioned up the other the down, and the back piece has the armholes; one up and one down.  So clever, no?
The top is not difficult to make, the only proviso is that care must be taken with the finishing.  Since the hemlines are sometimes inside sometimes outside the finishes are visible and so have to be done well.  Hence, the side and shoulder seams are flat felled, and the lower/upper hems are finished with a self bias strip and hand-stitched down to the other side.  So the bias strip ends up half on the inside and half on the outside and switches from one to the other halfway along the hemline.  Hmmm, if you’re not understanding well it’s kinda hard to explain.  But nowhere near as hard as it was getting those silk bias strips stitched down neatly in an even width hemline… whew.  This fabric is soft and drapey, but it has quite a springy robust nature and was not the slightest bit obedient.
I need get out some nice easy cotton or linen next I think…

Details:
Top; top “p” from the Japanese pattern book Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa, made of brown silk
Shirt; my own design, a mix of patterns, black cotton, details here
Jeans; Burda 7863, khaki stretch gabardine, details and my review of this pattern here
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough (now renamed Boutique Eco)

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Having a blast

18/09/2011 7:34 am \ 13 Comments \

… it’s a crazy windy day here in Perth!  I was thinking today how wind machines are probably obsolete around here, the real deal being present in such a massive way.
Last night we had a fairly intense storm and even into this morning lots of rain and gusts of wind galore… so I’ve gone from thinking optimistically about all the dresses and spring-y things I can pull out to wear for next week, to instead thinking pessimistically that I might being pulling on the ol’ tights again… Nooooo!  Of course all the rain has been wonderful for our dams, and I’m happy for the farmers, who are having a pretty good season so far with plenty of rain, but just thinking selfishly of my own completely trivial wants it would be nice to have more sunny days now please…
So, I should say something about today’s self-stitched effort.  I do love this cosy hooded cardigan.   I’ve been pulling it on the last few evenings as the warmth of the day dissipates with the setting sun, and with today being like a return to bonafide winter all over again (groan) well, yeah I’ve been in it all day.  It’s my own design, just started knitting and winged it.  For the hood I drew a hood shape on a piece of paper and knitted to fit it… it’s not difficult to wing your way through a knitting project although lately I’ve been toying with the rather radical old-fashioned idea of buying a knitting pattern book and actually following some sort of pattern.  Yowza!  I’m halfway through knitting something at the mo’ that is sort of following a pattern, and which should be ready just as the summer warmth really hits; my timing in the weather appropriateness of the clothing I am producing is, as per usual, spot on.
What else; an ordinary wrap front white blouse, which has proved very useful indeed and will need replacing soon.  And this white lace-y skirt which I like to wear quite a lot during these transitional days as it is actually a lot warmer than it looks.  It looks very light and summery but (as the saying goes);  looks can be deceiving.  The lining is of one of those stiffish polyester acetate fabrics that does not breath one little bit, making it a stifling choice for a summer-y day (which style-wise it looks like it should be perfect for) but actually perfect for a cooler day like today (when people often ask worriedly if I am warm enough in that summer skirt.  The answer is yes actually pretty toasty, thanks.  I then get the raised eyebrows and the “don’t-believe-you” look.  That’s OK.  I know if I’m warm enough.)

Details:
Top; Burda 8497, white cotton, details here
Skirt; my own design of layers of stretch white lace, based on the basic shape of Vogue 7303, details here
Cardigan; my own design, Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed in Ambrosia, details here
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough

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The dreaded flannie…

17/09/2011 7:45 am \ 9 Comments \

When I first made this shirtdress I received a comment on Pattern Review that it was “like the dreaded flannie“, but so much nicer”  Of course this was the exact effect I was absolutely hoping to evoke… ;D
It’s comfortable, so (shrug)  mmm.  And it is not summer yet, so a little skirt underneath gives a little extra wind protection to the legs.  Yeah.
…
…
I have nothing else intelligent to say.  Come to think of it, it’s not like I’ve even said anything halfway intelligent so far.  So I should just quit now, cutting straight to, I wish you all a wonderful weekend and …er, see ya round like a rissole!
Oops, that wasn’t an intelligent thing to say either.  Just the sort of thing a flannie-wearer would come up with…  Maybe wearing this thing is transmuting me.  I’ll try to wear something more erudite tomorrow, which might help leach some brain-liness back into the ol’ psyche.
So, on the morrow, fellow needle-wielders; for a spot of worthy debate on poetry and philosophy.

Details:
Dress; Burdastyle magazine 05/2010, 111 with minor modifications, plaid brushed cotton, details and my review of this pattern here
Skirt; Vogue 7303 lined, orange silk hessian, details here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

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