Handmade by Carolyn

Hello! I've made a new blouse :)
Yes, it is currently winter here in Perth. I am braving the freezing depths of winter to take these photos.
Haha, not really! Actually I am wearing my new blouse responsibly and weather-appropriately here, in warm and sunny Italy! I made the blouse before we left on our recent hiking holiday and took it away with us so I could enjoy it in the warm weather :)
This is the Origami Blouse from the book Twinkle Sews, by Wenlan Chia. My lovely sewing neighbour Megan kindly lent her book to me. Thank you so much, Megan!

The fabric is a lovely creamy coloured silk/linen; bought as a remnant from Fabulous Fabrics. I only had about 80cm and with some experimenting to find the most economical pattern arrangement just managed to squeak out the pieces with barely any scraps left at all. And added 2cm in length to the blouse ... I cut it that little bit longer just because I had enough length and thought I would get a nice deep hem. However when trying it on I detected a certain, um shall we say, lamb-ness? to the style, at odds with the general muttonness of my person... Anyway, I decided any and all extra length that could be got definitely should be got at all costs; and stitched the skinniest of skinny hems that I could!
For that same reason I did not gather up the lower edge of the sleeves with elastic, but just left them straight and ungathered. The resulting lack of sleeve puffiness raises the maturity level just a touch, I reckon :)
The origami thingies on the front are rather interesting, and although they look complex are simpler than they look. Having said that, I still found them quite fiddly to make and mine are not particularly neat, although I tried! Fabric is not like paper at all, it's springy and thick, especially when seams come into the equation, and true origami perfection is a pretty tall order. I ended up abandoning all aspirations to razor sharp points and perfectly angled edges and just tried to accept the imperfection. I think I wrangled them to look passable. I can almost imagine they are like a flutter of little creamy butterflies, alighting onto my shirt for a little butterfly gathering.

I'm not too terribly distressed at their imperfection, as when I'm wearing the top they are sneakily tucked away behind that black velvet tie anyway, mwahaha...

Verdict: I think it turned out, not too cutesy cute, but nice and just mildly cute, and rather fresh and romantic and just slightly poetic.

My thoughts on Twinkle Sews, the book...
This is a nice book; it contains patterns for 25 garments; 7 skirts, 13 tops and 5 dresses. The designs include some that are easy and plain, others that are both interesting and unique, with some very innovative ideas in many of the pieces. If you're interested in something a bit different, basics with a twist, then this book contains some promising projects.
The fabrics chosen for the sample garments and the styling of them is sometimes a little questionable and I didn't always find them visually appealing. But disregarding fabrics and prints and just paying careful attention to the lines and shapes of the pieces, I reckon there are some real gems in there. Check out Megan's lovely shibori dress from the book.
The patterns come in sizes 0-16 (US) and are all on a CD included with the book. The pattern pieces are all whole pieces, meaning, no half pieces to be placed on the fold. This has advantages; it's easier to lay the full-size pieces on a flat unfolded piece of fabric to obtain the most economical layout: also disadvantages; the most obvious being that you have to do a heckuvva lot more taping!
The early chapters are aimed at a beginner seamster, with some nice and encouraging chat about the joys of fabric and making clothes for yourself; and extensive, clear and helpful explanations of basic sewing terms as well as for all the techniques used in the projects.

Details:
Blouse; the origami blouse from Twinkle Sews, by Wenlan Chia, creamy linen-silk with black velvet ribbon
Shorts; Burda 7723, green cotton gingham, details here and my review of this pattern here
Thongs (above); Havaiana
Hat (Craig's); Billabong
Socks (below); hand-knitted by me, details here
Hiking boots (below); Mountain Designs

Time away:
21 days
Where to:
Italy; primarily Tuscany and the Amalfi coast, a few days in Copenhagen, one day in Singapore
Season:
early summer.
Hot in Italy, in fact everyone commented on how unseasonably warm it was! with daily temps of 17-34C. Then cold, wintery conditions (for us) in Copenhagen, 8-16C. Singapore; hot and very humid; 27-32C
Expected activities:
Lots of medium to heavy duty hiking, with evenings spent hanging out in small villages. Some city sightseeing and shopping.
Colour scheme:
cheerful primaries, in solids and in fun gingham, stripes and florals.
Hmmm, I must've been in a rather whimsical party/holiday mood when I selected this lot!
What I packed:

each garment made by me is linked to its original construction post:
2 cardigans;
turquoise Metalicus cardigan rtw
ivory CR cardigan rtw
2 prs shorts;
greige corduroy shorts
green gingham shorts
2 dresses;
red gingham dress; casual
floral dress bit more dressy
6 tops;
cream blouse with black velvet tie
royal blue velvet top
ivory LS shirt
green gingham top
orange/cream stripe top
brown Tshirt
1 red scarf rtw
2 skirts;
blue corduroy skirt
yellow corduroy skirt
1 olive green cap; my husband's, rtw
2 prs pants;
burnt brown jeans
olive green hiking pants
4 prs shoes;
turquoise sandals, , hiking boots, white thongs, black sandshoes
green floral bathers
blue raincoat (under)
black tights
3 prs socks; handknitted ginger socks + 2 prs thick hiking socks rtw
chocolate brown leather handbag

also, obviously I took my nightie, toiletries bag and a selection of underwear :)

My daily outfits:

Thoughts:
I think I'm actually getting better at minimising my packing, since this is a far smaller selection that the last time we went to Italy. True, this was a shorter trip by 6 days, but I felt as though I had plenty of options and probably could have happily eked another week's worth of outfits out of this lot pretty easily!
I did make one ginormous packing boo boo; I neglected to bring a hat, DOH! You can imagine how hard I was kicking myself when I discovered this, getting dressed for our first day out hiking!! I had intended to bring my white, wide-brimmed hat, which is fantabulous for keeping off the sun and I thought it would complement all my outfits just perfectly but just forgot to put it in somehow!... oh well, all the best-laid plans and all that. Very fortunately my husband had brought two hats so he allowed me to use one of his on our holiday. Of course I could have bought a new one if need be; but you know how weird I am about not buying clothes, right?
Weather appropriateness: it was very hot hiking in Italy, and to be honest there were times I found myself pining for a few more warm weather options; but really I made do with what I had just fine. Happily our schedule was such that we could do a bit of hand-washing in our room every few nights and could put something fresh and clean on every morning.
During our time in Italy, we both felt like the cooler weather options we'd brought were a complete waste of suitcase space. But of course then we got to Copenhagen and it was freezing! and then I leapt upon my tights and cardigans and my raincoat, rugging up with relief and joy. Weather! You just can never tell!
Likewise, I packed the floral dress just in case, and while we were hiking and hanging out in rural and seaside areas with a downbeat, casual vibe, it languished uselessly in the suitcase, bugging me. However, obviously we did eventually get to cities, with restaurants and cocktail bars where there were beautiful people dressed very smartly indeed; and I was happy I could sashay out looking just that little bit glamorous!
Other, non-sartorial thoughts:
I took my fitbit and was super chuffed that I set two new personal bests! on two separate days.

moment of smug self-backpatting

We did a huge amount of hiking and mountain/hill/stair climbing, and averaged 25,000 steps and 150 floors per day. Phew! We sure earned our gelati each day! or sometimes *blush* even two gelati, ahem.
Another "thing" I did was keep a diary. I always have good intentions to keep travel journals but rarely do I actually manage to keep it going for the whole trip. This time I gave myself extra motivation by buying for myself a really beautiful book. It worked! I loved my book so much it was an absolute pleasure to write in it, and I found myself looking forward each day to summarising the events of the day, recalling funny anecdotes, little thoughts I had, conversations we had, and general stooff like that.
I know I'm going to enjoy reading it one day when I'm old and can no longer remember that we even ever went to Italy, once upon a time, hehe :)

... a Friesian cow!
And here I am, out standing in the field.
Ha! whenever I hear about someone, some highly accomplished person gaining recognition for being outstanding in the field of whatever, I cannot help it but that old joke just pops into my head; you know the one...
How did the cow win a Nobel prize? Because it was out standing in its field.
And I will have a little inner laugh. With cavalier lack of regard for the importance or gravity of the accomplishment. I know, it's not even that funny. Clearly, I am very easily amused.
So, yes, I am wearing a new skirt, while I'm out standing in my field, here.
*muffled giggle*.

The fabric is a ivory/black fake fur from Spotlight, plush but with a low pile and not very thick. I used black silk dupion for the waistband, as the plush was too thick to make a nice clean flat waistband, and I lined my skirt with ivory polyacetate lining fabric.

I used Vogue 1247 with the pieces spliced together so as to make a plain little skirt with no pockets. I know, Vogue 1247 again! sorry to be boring! it's just that the silhouette of Vogue 1247 suits my current winter wardrobe right down to the ground so it's very much the golden child of my pattern family. It may or may not fall out of my favour at some point but y'know, when you're enamoured of a pattern and it seems perfect for every occasion so you keep reaching for it over and over and over again. To the exclusion of all the other, perfectly good, skirt patterns.
Probably all my other patterns hate it, and when the cupboard door is shut and the light goes out and I leave the room, they studiously ignore it and exclude it from their whispered conversations with a disdainful curl to their lips.
She's so full of herself.
Oh, like totally.
(I'm telling you, it's like high school in there...)
Hey guys! I just got made up; again! In cow fabric!!
Did she just say what I thought she did?
Mmmm. Just pretend you didn't hear...
Guys, look!
Omigod, seriously.
And she lined me! I'm not even supposed to be lined!
Oh please. Like half of us don't have lining already. You don't hear us bragging.
I know right? Just keep walking.

Vogue 1247 sadly walks away, to eat her lunch. Alone.
Trying to bravely rise above it.
Their turn will come. Oh, their turn will come.

Hmmm, goodness knows how that happened, but somehow I seem to have segued right into the screenplay for a new high school soapie, starring a cast of dressmaking patterns.
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode! Will Vogue 1247 be forgiven her teacher's pet status? Or will a new pattern topple her from her pedestal? Will there be hair-pulling? Or will someone steal someone else's boyfriend?!

Hehe, thought about deleting all that nonsense, but nah; left it.

Adios! or should I say; MOOOOOO!

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 modified and lined; plush faux fur, my review of this pattern here
Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic, ivory stretch, details here
Tights; black poly stretch, from my own custom-fit pattern, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

Plenty of skirt patterns do not come with separate pieces nor instructions for adding a lining to the skirt. And often you want a lining; particularly in a winter skirt that you wish to wear with tights.
In a nutshell: my own method for adding this is now to generally to cut a skirt lining using the same pattern pieces as the skirt, and -- critical difference -- sew them together using narrower seams. So your lining has a wider girth than the skirt itself, i.e. a nice dose of extra wearing ease... this is a small thing but makes a big difference for slimline or pencil skirts particularly! Why? well, a few ripped linings later...! haha! I jest! but seriously; in my experience sometimes I would find that linings would habitually start to pull away from the zip tape right at hip level. I re-stitch them back on, only for them to pull away yet again.

old skirt

When I did start making my linings just a touch roomier than the skirt itself, this pesky little problem has not recurred!

I just sew the side seams using the narrowest possible seam allowance, around 6mm(1/4"). For a plain skirt pattern with a standard 1.5cm (5/8") seam allowance, this alone gives around 3.5cm (1 1/4") extra wearing ease in there.
Another, equally viable option would be to cut the lining just one size bigger instead.

The CB seam of the lining; stitch with a 1cm (3/8") seam allowance up to the bottom edge of the zip opening, then re-enforce the stitching line at the lower edge of the zip opening with stay stitching; stitching each side separately and keeping the seam allowance free of the stitching. Snip into the corners, fold the seam allowances under and press.

With wrong sides together, pin the lining to the skirt at the side seams. Pin the zip opening of the lining skirt to the tip tape of the skirt.

Also; do not stitch waist darts but merely fold the excess widthof the lining at the waist dart point into a pleat and pin. As expected, thanks to those narrower seams, these will be slightly deeper pleats than the skirt darts. Pleating the wait darts rather than stitching them down also builds just a touch more ease into the lining.

Hand-stitch the skirt lining to the zip tape around the zip opening.

Attach the waistband as normal, and hem. I generally hem a lining to 2.5cm (1") shorter than the skirt, but this is a matter of personal taste.

Remember these trousers below? well, they've had a little makeover!

before...

These are the tapered trousers from "she has a mannish style" a Japanese pattern book by Yuko Takada. Renamed "She Wears the Pants" for the English version of the book, in spite of the fact that there are very few patterns for pants in there. Bad re-name, imo. Very misleading.
Anyway, this wasn't a drastic re-vamp, but to my mind they look waaaay better now. I removed a tonne of dropped-crotchedness from these trousers; and I realise that's not an actual word... and now things are a lot more streamlined and far less, er, nappy-like, perish the thought.
Pre the re-do, I was all happy and "how cool are these?", and then the second time I reached for them... well an "o my gawwwwd" lightning bolt struck. It was like; I'd had a fun first day, wearing something new and cool and funky and out-there, but now I just wanted some nice pants, thank you very much.
I had to Do Something and just grabbed my unpicker... *inner screaming* JUST DO IT!!!!!!

Capricious is my middle name, don't you know. Anyway, I capriciously ripped open the crotch and almost the entire of each inside leg seam. Followed by some non-capricous, actually quite careful experiments; pinning/trialling new crotch curves within the constraints of the existing curve. Luckily the legs had enough cloth area that I could get a nice new curve that I decided was reasonably flattering to my be-hind, ahem. I ended up cutting away a big wedge off of each inner leg edge: 5.5cm from each of the front inner leg top edges, and a whopping 8.5cm from each of the back inner leg top edges; in each case tapering all the way down to nothing at the lower hem. And re-sewed it all up again.

that taper goes nearly all the way down to the lower hem

Everything else is still the same, including this back belt that I really love. It's a nice feature to the back, and cinching in the waist to define it is a good idea in an otherwise rather loose and baggy style.

And now? I'm satisfied :)

Details:
Trousers; tapered trousers 13 from the Japanese pattern book "she has a mannish style" (also known as She wears the Pants) by Yuko Takada, modified, blue cotton corduroy
Top; Nettie bodysuit by Closet Case patterns; burnt orange stretch, details and my review of this pattern here
Scarf; a kit from Ivy and Maude (now Calico and Ivy), knitted by me, details here

Sorry for the slightly blurry side and back view photographs... only upon setting up did I discover that the battery was flat in my remote, meaning I had to set the self timer and sprint out in front of my camera! I think it didn't know what to focus on! However, consequently I was far more economical in my picture taking; these three are literally the only ones I took. Probably a good thing, and maybe it's what I should always do!

So, at the beginning of the year I mentioned that I was taking part in one year one outfit, the brain child of Nicki of this is moonlight; the challenge being that we participants have one year in which to make an outfit for ourselves that is 100% locally grown or sourced.
And this cardigan is my first thing! the first component of my outfit finally finished. Phew!

Earlier in the year, Nicki drove Sue of fadanista and me to Toodyay, where the three of us visited the Fibre of the Gods, the alpaca farm owned and run by Hazel and Michael McKone. The farm is also home to a tiny and thriving wool mill; processing fleece into yarn for anyone who has some and wants it done; AND very importantly for the purpose of our project, also processes and spins its own alpaca yarn, shorn from their very own animals! The lovely Hazel took us into the girls' paddock and introduced us ... below are some of the hembras. That's the term for a female alpaca, fyi. Also did you know that a male alpaca is known as a macho?! We saw one macho, out on his lonely lonesome in a separate paddock, all manly-like and aloof, looking down on us girls.

No, they're not checking out the macho... they're giving the evil eye to the farm's cat! Alpacas are very wary of cats; and dogs too, according to my friend J, who has a small herd of her own. They will protect your sheep from vermin like foxes, and are likely to turn on a dog and kick him out of a paddock if they don't know him well.

Hazel kindly showed us the mill equipment and explained how the entire operation is run entirely on their farm; from the animal right through to the finished yarn. And then we obviously shopped in their tiny store, cleaning out a, erm, sizeably large chunk of their eponymous stock, eep! They do stock some lovely coloured yarns and a few knitted and felted products for sale, however we were all of us after their own natural, un-dyed yarns for the purposes of our 100% homegrown project :)

Sue and Nicki also have written about our day out on their individual blogs too.

Anyway; my cardigan!

I used natural or undyed alpaca yarn from "white" alpacas, which when viewed objectively and ex situ is actually not even vaguely white at all really! but this lovely, very pale caramel colour. So how apt that I should choose a pattern called "Caramel"!
The Caramel blanket-style cardigan or jacket is designed by Isabell Kraemer, and is freeeee!available to download here on Ravelry. Basically; I put the search words "free""cardigan""8ply" into the Ravelry search engine and this came up... I thought it a rather nice and elegant shape. Well, "shape"; of course "blanket style" is basically another way of saying "giant rectangle with sleeves"... anyway I love how it looks loose with the fronts gently draping upon themselves, the points hanging down longer than the back.
My Caramel is knitted pretty much to the pattern; with just a few minor variations. Obviously mine has no real stripes. My sleeves and body are much longer. Also, I left off the the decorative? purl side seam stitching and the ribbing off the sleeves and lower edge. In the process of knitting I decided I really preferred the streamlined look with slight curl-up of the ends that you get with no ribbing. I had initially finished a sleeve lower edge with ribbing, to trial it; but then I unravelled that bit and redid the edges sans ribbing.
Plus; and herein is a huge advantage of a top-down knitted design, I just kept on knitting knitting knitting until I had used up all my wool, then cast off that lower edge. It's a lot easier to do that if you know you don't have to allow for ribbing.
Result; barely no leftovers! Win!

One thing about the Fibre of the Gods yarn that I really really LOVE! is how Hazel and Michael have labelled the balls with the name of the animal along with a little picture of them. So I know that my alpaca yarn came from Bandit, Coral and Pearl.
Hey, guys! Thanks so much for the shirts off your backs... figuratively speaking. ;)

I did notice some slight variation in the shade of the yarn, due to the slight variations in the three alpacas' different natural colourings. I find these subtle "stripes" quite charming.

subtle stripes are very subtle

I also made a little wooden "pin" to hold the cardigan closed if it's cold; by sanding down a nice and straight, little stick, found on my morning walk. It's local obviously, so it too fits in with my one year one outfit challenge!

I can't decide if I prefer my cardigan open or closed; I think I like it both ways equally!

Details:
Cardigan; hand-knitted by me, the Caramel pattern by Isabell Kraemer, natural alpaca yarn from Fibre of the Gods mill in Toodyay.
Tshirt; own pattern, blue jersey over dyed black, details here
Skirt; own pattern, charcoal ponte, details here
Tights; own pattern, black stretch poly, details here
Socks; not seen, hand-knit by me from Noro wool yarn, details here

During a recent closet clean-out I decided to bid adieu to this royal blue hoodie type of a thing. I made it a few years ago from Pattern Magic 3, and have worn it to death!
Cue orchestral flourish, aaaaand, in sonorous tones, "Blue Pattern Magic hoodie thing; This Is Your Life...!" *rising swell of stirring music*
My initial construction post is here... from the word go I've enjoyed wearing this thing. The deep royal blue worked with everything and the shape is kinda interesting and unique while managing to be still plain enough that it became practically a basic in my wardrobe. My favourite view of it has always been the back view where the "hoodiness" of it was the most apparent. The front view is plainer, with a subtle drapey elegance.
The fabric was initially given to me by my friend C from her mother's stash, and I was just mucking about when I threw it together. It was really just a wearable trial of the Pattern Magic design and I didn't realise how very handy it would become. I've tossed it the suitcase several times to take it overseas with me because it was such a terrific little wardrobe mixer. Thus it has featured in loooooads of our holiday photos :)

I've promised myself over and over again that I really need to make this up a second time in decent fabric and I reckon finally putting away this old one could be just the excuse I need :)

Chosen from dozens, these are six of my favourite daily outfits with it...
Barring shoes, all clothes I am wearing in these pictures are made by me.
In the early stages of its life I tended to wear it just like a Tshirt, as in at left; worn with hot pink linen shorts and hand-knitted Noro socks while hiking in Lake Como, and at right, worn with my ombre-dyed velveteen skirt in Milan...

I discovered it looked really good when worn over a longer sleeved Tshirt, like as a tunic, and this became my most preferred way to wear it.
At left; with striped Tshirt, over-dyed blue corduroy skirt and black woollen tights, in Stockholm; and at right with a green bodysuit, green corduroy skirt, navy blue tights in Helsingor, Denmark

At left; worn with purple Tshirt, knitted green handwarmers, overdyed brown denim mini skirt and blue tights in Iceland, and at right; finally, non-exotically, just at home, worn with red bodysuit, blue corduroy skirt, maroon scarf and orange tights.

I dragged this dusty, cobwebby ol' 70's skirt from outta some trunk in the attic... hehe, just kidding.
It's new :)
A chocolate pleather, A-line, midi skirt was high on my mental list of things to make for myself this winter and I'd bought all the fabric etc... then I somehow got chooffing along happily, oh yeah went away a coupla times too, then got bogged down in several other, quite involved, longer term projects, and just suddenly realised we are halfway through winter and I still hadn't made it, ha! So yesterday I got cracking and whipped it up quick sticks. Done!
Technically speaking; this is the second thing to go towards fulfilling my vintage pattern pledge to sew up five of my vintage patterns this year. The pattern is Simplicity 7308, hailing from 1976. I say "technically", because this is like the very plainest of plain, classical of classic patterns you could possibly imagine; so... Am I cheating on my vintage pattern pledge by using this? I feel like maybe the purpose of the pledge is to get you acknowledging some the more obvious and recognisably vintage styles, in whic this one is a cop-out! eeeep sorry! I promise that some of my other vintage pattern plans are definitely of the more dated variety! Maybe I'll make up an extra vintage pattern, to make up for it :)

Back in its day, this could likely have been made up in beige, or tan suede, maybe pale blue denim or possibly a large scale plaid on the bias. In my memories my Mum had a blue denim skirt just like those... Can you just imagine? Instead I've used a very NOW fabric; a deep chocolate fake leather. At the first stirrings of winter this year, the fashion column in our local paper advised all who cared that leather and leather details were the absolute dernier cri for Perth fashionistas. My brain seems to have latched on the idea, since several of my newer wardrobe additions have gone this route; my moto jacket, my cow skirt, and another skirt I've ig'ed but is still in the works.
Clearly I'm a lemming.

failed twirl. gawd knows why I even attempt this nonsense. at least it shows the skirt in motion...

Nuts and Bolts: a plain A-line, midi-length skirt, side seams and a CB zip, pretty timeless and possibly boring. I eliminated the CF seam since I have an irrational grudge against them in a skirt, and lengthened by about 15cm. The width of my fabric also allowed me to widen the flare by just a touch, both front and back.
Fake leather is from Spotlight, all other materials from Fabulous Fabrics. Lined with chocolate polyacetate lining fabric and with a waistband of black silk dupion leftover from my cow skirt.

Details:
Skirt; Simplicity 7308 from 1976, chocolate pleather
Bodysuit; the Nettie by Closet Case patterns, black stretch, details here
Tights (not seen); own pattern, orange stretch, details here
Scarf; own pattern ivory wool, details here
Boots; Sempre di, from Zomp shoes

Hello!
So furthering onward with my one year one outfit adventures, I thought I would put together a post on my other efforts so far... I have also been making my fabric for the other components of my outfit. Yes, making freakin' fabric!!!! transforming Western Australian sheep fleece into felt, with which I shall make.... something. Still ruminating on exactly what...
Along with my fellow one year one outfitters Sue, Nicki and Megan, I visited Bilby Yarns; a small but treasure-packed little shop in Willagee that supports local wool producers and enthusiasts and stocks supplies for anything and everything wool-related you could possibly think of! spinning, weaving, felting, needle felting, knitting and crochet and probably some other endeavours that I haven't taken in yet, too. It also stocks dyes, both natural and chemical and, most fabulously; yarn from Western Australian sheep, hand processed and hand spun by local ladies. It's a truly fantastic local resource! and I can see myself paying the shop many more visits in the future. The lovely chatty Jean kindly demonstrated spinning and also felting to us; and we all came away with supplies of fleece, greatly enthused to make us some felt...

I have made some decorative felt panels a few times before, small and therefore easy things; blogged here and here and a couple of others that I've given away and never blogged. However, this project would have to fit in with Nicki's strict criteria; to be a TOTALLY home grown product. Normally if I was considering making felt for a garment to wear; I would felt onto a piece of silk chiffon to give strength to the fabric.

felt with silk chiffon backing

However; obviously silk chiffon is not a thing ever produced here in Western Australia! so in terms of our challenge it was a no-no. I had to think of some other way of building some toughness into my felt... I noticed a small sample in the shop with a yarn grid felted into it, and thought this would be a brilliant way of solving the strength problem. I incorporated a yarn grid feature into one piece of my felt and I will be using another method of building strength into the remaining pieces.
I bought some washed and combed, naturally white Corriedale sheep fleece, and also two balls of locally hand-spun, West Australian wool yarn; one naturally black the other naturally white; and 3 large, thin, plastic, painting drop-sheets from Bunnings.

Modus Operandi:
First of all.. key words: GENTLE! EVEN! Those two words were to be my mantra throughout this entire procedure. OK.
Now: you need a fair amount of uninterrupted time, and for large pieces of felt big enough for an actual garment, a large table; preferably indoors in a wind-less, breeze-free environment. I used my dining room table. When laying out the fleece, bear in mind the fleece will shrink to roughly 75% of its former size in the process of becoming felt, so if you're after a specific size you'll need to allow at least an extra third in size dimensions each way.
I laid my cut-to-fit plastic drop sheet on the table and start laying out small hanks of fleece onto it. You hold the combed fleece loosely in your left hand, not too tight and not applying any pressure, and then with your right hand you grab and just pull away a small flat wodge. Aim to keep the sections you're pulling out of reasonably even spread and thickness; i.e., with no thick bits in the middle.

Then, you're simply laying them all in an even layer as possible, in one direction onto the plastic sheet. I used my whole 2m x 1m table space. This is why you need a good wedge of time, since your family's not going to be able to eat dinner on the table during this process! and you can't exactly pack it up out of the way since the wool fleece is so light and floaty that at all times it's in danger of wafting about, blowing onto itself, or onto the floor if a door opens and a breeze comes through. Plus in my three cat household there's the very real danger that a curious little helper is suddenly going to jump up onto the table to check out what you're doing and keep you company while you're doing it. Eeeeeeeek! The potential for disaster is HUGE!

The top end that you "grabbed" is a little thicker than the tail end, so overlap these by a little bit in each row. Once you've covered the area, go over again, this time laying the hanks of fleece crosswise to the previous layer.

For my gridded felt I cut lengths of the homespun wool and laid it out over the fleece in an even grid. Then I laid a very light and thin third layer of fleece over this one. btw, some of the following pictures in this tutorial are of the grid felt and some are just the plain, un-gridded felt... because I was a little erratic in my picture taking; sorry! But the felting process is just exactly the same in each case :)

Fill a spray bottle with hot soapy* water and with the nozzle set to a fine mist lightly and carefully start spraying the fleece evenly all over. Take great care to not blow the fleece about with an inadvertently strong spray or jet of water here! which could destroy all that carefully even laying-out... you're aiming to very gently dampen down the fleece with a light misty spray. Once the fleece has an allover layer of misty dew-like droplets all over, you can spray with slightly more vigour, pausing occasionally to gently flatten down the fleece with your hand, patting it down and allowing the water to seep through the layers of fleece.

* Soap: the ladies in Bilby Yarns recommend the use of a gentle olive oil soap, and I agree this would be a wonderful option. However, inadequate preparation and an impatience to just do it!!! meant that I just used a dash of regular dishwashing liquid for mine. *horrified gasp*

Sorry to the purists out there! I know, I'm a philistine *hangs head in shame* Please don't boot me out of the felting club!

Eventually the fleece layers will be wet enough that they are no longer in danger of blowing about, and at this stage I allowed myself to add water just a bit more freely, but still lightly! sprinkling the fleece carefully using a small, plastic hand-watering can.

Check all over to make sure there are no dry bits; and once the fleece is wet through lay another cut-to-fit plastic dropsheet over the fleece, smoothing out any air bubbles, and start gently massaging to felt the fleece together. Be light but firm, use small circular movements, and cover the whole area evenly. Every now and again peel back a corner to check that it's felting together.

Once it seems to be melded and matted together enough that you can peel a corner away from the plastic and it seems to hold together in a sodden sheet of wool; replace that corner back between the plastic layers, and roll or fold the whole shebang up. Fill a bucket with quite warm, but nothot! soapy water, plonk it in and start to gently agitate the plastic-wrapped fleece in the water. Use the same sort of movements you would if you were hand-washing a precious cashmere jumper. So, a bit of smooth slow swooshing, but no rubbing and nothing very vigorous. Just some nice gentle easy swirling.

After a few minutes, say 5-10 minutes of this; check to see how the felting is going. Once it has achieved a more stable, fabric-like texture you can peel away the plastic and remove that from the bucket.

Gently rinse out all the soap, using cool water. Still absolutely NO wringing or twisting the felt during this delicate procedure!!

Just like you would that precious cashmere jumper; gently squeeze some excess water out, then lay the felt out on old towels and smooth it out as flat and smooth and even as possible. Gently pull it into shape, tease out the crumply edges, smooth out any creases or little folds. It will have shrunk somewhat during the felting process. For the record; I initially laid out my fleece in a 90cm x 180cm rectangle. After felting; my pieces had shrunk to roughly 67cm x 133cm; ie. approx. 75% of the previous size in both dimensions.

When satisfied it is pulled flat and smooth and into a more or less rectangular shape, roll it up in the towel, smoothing out any little creases that may form as you're going along. Squeeze excess water out by kneeling on and pressing down on the towel roll.
Unroll, lay the wet felt onto fresh dry towels, and let it dry flat.

Et voila! felt!
The gridded felt is quite tough, sturdy enough to use on its own; and I plan to add extra strength to my plain cream pieces by adding some wool embroidery of some sort, which I am in the process of designing right now.
The most difficult part of all will be to cut into this precious stuff... eeep! must not ruin..!

... is in getting it to show up in a picture. My new skirt looks completely boringly plain in these pictures, which just proves it; the camera does lie! Actually it has a rather beautiful lace appliquéd tulle overlay. I guess I just fail at photography.

The appliquéd tulle came from the remnants table at Fabulous Fabrics and is so lovely that I was helpless to resist it when I saw it there. Then again, I rarely do. My relationship with the remnants table is somewhat akin to that of a vulture to a carcass, ahem.
Anyway, there's not much else to say about the skirt except that it is fulfilling a desire for a black lace skirt that I have had for a loooooong time! so it's kind of funny to me that it's taken me this long to realise that desire. I think I'm generally more of a whimsical seamster than a methodical or practical one, although I try very hard to be the latter.
It's actually a very comfortable skirt. The appliqued tulle is underlined with a black rayon crepe, a quite heavy and substantial fabric; both fabrics are quite crease-resistant too which also makes it almost... practical? dare I claim that for a lace thing! :) and I lined the skirt with black polyacetate lining fabric. All fabrics are from Fabulous Fabrics.

I used Vogue 8363, one of my favourite skirt patterns. I say; "one of the favourites" meaning like top five material, easily. I've just counted and I've made eight skirts from it! not too shabby if I say so myself, not too shabby. This pattern is a terrific one; with lots of variations and different views. This skirt is a version that isn't any one particular view, but I used the pattern pieces that gave me those lovely and very deep, front slanted pockets, an un-pleated one piece front and a back with CB zip.

I aligned the lace motifs to match each other up around the skirt and at the CB seam as best as I could, and used up all of my remnant bar a couple of scraps. Yay!
I cut the lining using spliced together Vogue 1247, cut longer so it sits just 2.5cm shorter than the skirt.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 8363 lined, black lace and black rayon crepe, my review of this pattern here
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, of dk olive linen, details here and my review of this pattern here

Also I have been doing a tiny amount of unselfish sewing... I made a caramel-coloured merino wool top for Cassie, using fabric we bought in Melbourne's the Fabric Store during our last girly trip away. I used a pattern that I have custom-fit to Cassie; based upon my own custom-fit Tshirt pattern; itself originally based upon a Burdastyle Tshirt top, the details of my "custom-fitting saga" here. I thought I had lost my own pattern, which was a pretty heartbreaking state of affairs, but I recently found it again. I had just stuffed it into the wrong pattern envelope, seems so obvious now but still I could have wept for joy when I discovered it. I'd been thinking hmmm, really should get onto properly fitting that Tshirt pattern again, but it just seemed insurmountably difficult so I'd kept putting it off. Plus it's winter, and too cold for all that, too.
Anyway, I found it!

The Tshirt does look a whole tonne better on an actual person with arms, however its intended person had to suddenly hurry away for an important social engagement and I was too impatient to wait for her to return to perform modelling duties. It has long sleeves, a scooped neckline finished with a folded band as described in my tutorial here, and with sleeve and hems finished with my twin needle. There was an awkwardly small piece of merino left over which was too small for anything on its own but too big and too nice a fabric to throw away. So I cut the ends square and straight and now it is a scarf.
I might borrow the scarf occasionally ;)

I've made a little sundress for myself :) in very fine, light handkerchief-grade linen from Fabulous Fabrics, deep browny/olive green. I asked my husband how to describe the colour and he replied immediately "Sherman tank", haha. Hmmm!
I've been told a zillion million times that I should wear drab colours, but I struggled with them for years. My teenage self desperately loved pretty feminine colours, hey it was the 80's; and I thought muddy sombre colours like this were horrible and ugly, like the exact opposite of pretty. *sigh* Anyway. I've learnt to embrace couleur de Sherman tank.
I added a little bit of pretty in the form of some cream lace-y motifs appliquéd around the lower hem edge. I cut the motifs from a quite thickish, lace-y fabric and hand-stitched them on to look kinda random and rambling and lending some semblance of froth and frivolity... I think the lace was maybe from Spotlight originally, but honestly I've actually forgotten where it came from exactly.

I sewed all seams throughout as French seams

The pattern is the Mississippi Avenue top/dress by Sew House Seven, a pretty, easy-to-wear little number with a modest V-neckline and skinny ties gathering the shoulders up. It's a satisfyingly quick and simple project that goes together easily, and I think it's all of sweet, cool, casual and flattering. The very thorough and helpful instructions are aimed at the beginner.
And it is included in the bundle of patterns to be sold as a set for Sew Indie Month.
What is Sew Indie Month? do I hear you ask? well it is in September this year and has a charitable component, yes, we all joke about sewing selfishly and this is seamsters trying to give a little bit back! The lowdown...

The idea behind Sew Indie Month is to create a global community sewing event, sort of like a big, online sewing workshop, if you like, while simultaneously supporting small women-owned businesses and raising money for charity. During the month of September, pattern designers are collaborating on the Sew Independent site to put together blog posts and informative tutorials; and a terrific bonus is a sewalong contest with prizes! Sew Indie Month is co-ordinated this year by Mari from Seamster Sewing Patterns
The pattern bundle is available to buy here, and the sale will run from Monday 3rd August to Wednesday 12th August.
20% of bundle proceeds will be donated to the International Folk Art Alliance, which provides education and exhibition opportunities to folk artists from around the world. Just a few examples of what the International Folk Art Alliance has been able to accomplish by helping artists create stable, year-round livelihoods includes helping shelter women from domestic violence in Ecuador, building a school for children in Pakistan, empowering women in repressive cultures around the world, and feeding villages in Niger.
You can check out all the details and information on participating patterns and the pricing options, here; on the Sew Independent site

My fellow participating seamsters who will be making their own lovely and unique creations using one or more of the patterns are:

Please do check them out; remember, it's for a very good cause :)

I also added slanted front pockets to my dress... because, well, pockets. Where there's a will there's a way, mwahaha. I did these same sort of pockets for my blocky sundress, and it's an easy feature to add when the front is already in 3-panels like this. For this reason, my method could also work in a princess seamed dress. I took a few piccies this time to illustrate how I put them in...

Mark on the pattern piece a slanted line where you want the top of your pocket to sit, and another horizontal line to mark the bottom of the pocket edge. Instead of cutting the side front as one piece, cut three pieces:
1. piece at left, upper S (side) front, from the top edge of the pattern piece to the bottom edge of the marked pocket allowance, plus seam allowance,
2. middle piece, pocket; from the top edge of the slanted pocket line to the lower edge of the pocket allowance, plus seam allowances top and bottom.
3. piece at right; lower S front; from the slanted pocket line plus seam allowance, to the lower edge of the pattern piece. It's a good idea to add an extra, say, 4-5cm in length to the lower edge to allow for possible boo-boos in seaming, just in case.
Transfer all notches and new marks to all pieces.

Stay stitch the slanted edges, and then stitch the pocket piece to the lower S front piece, right sides together, along that top, slanted edge. Press seam open, turn out, under stitch inside the pocket.

Lay lower S front/pocket piece over upper S front piece, aligning notches, pin along side edges.

Lift aside the lower S front piece and check how well the lower edge of the pocket aligns to the lower edge of the upper S front piece. If they differ, trim them to match each other.

Stitch lower edges of pocket and upper S front piece together in a French seam.

Pin the three layers of upper S front, pocket, lower S front together at side edges, baste.

Lay the original side front pattern piece over and trim any excess length off the lower edge. From now on just keep on putting the dress together just as normal.

Voila! slanted front pockets!

btw; please know that, as always, there are no affiliate links on my blog and never will be. I received the patterns free, for me to make an item to help spread the word, and I chose to use the Mississippi dress pattern :)

Details:
Dress; the Mississippi Avenue dress by Sew House Seven; in deep olive linen with cream lace appliqué
Hat; Vogue 8844, cream cotton corduroy, details and my review of this pattern here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

buzzy buzz
I've made some zigzaggy bumblebee pyjamas, but not for me. This was a request. It is nice to get a request! well, every now and again I mean. Not too frequently, hehe.
I know they look pretty baggy on me but I'm happy to report that they do fit their actual owner very nicely. :)
The cotton flannelette is from Spotlight, and the colour and print were the choice of the recipient. Fortunately I pretty much had design carte blanche; the only stipulation was the yellow zigzag for the bottoms and the black for the top. I was worried about it all being a bit bland and/or strange looking, so decided to insert some piping from the other colour onto each piece for a bit of interest and to tie them more to each other, make it look more like a "set". And it's funny, because the fabric didn't turn me on much at first, but doing that piping detail really turned them from "meh" to "hmmm, I think I likey!" for me! Now they're finished, I even think, ahem; maybe I love them, just a little?
Serendipitous discovery of the day; chevron makes a rather attractive piping insert.

The yellow cuffs might look like an interesting design decision but were really a necessity born of lack-of-fabric, because I barely had enough of the black to squeak out the pieces for the top, and the pyjama-recipient wanted lovely long sleeves. Much longer than I had enough fabric for! eeeek! One thing I've learnt to my cost is that the Spotlight range of flannelette is very narrow; annoyingly so... grrrrrrr!
Although once I put those yellow cuffs on I actually love them too. I was very worried they would look weird too. Miraculously I think they do not. The top actually looked rather blah without them.
So woot! New jammies to keep my loved one beautifully warm and cosy for these last nasty days of winter, and I can tick another item off my list.
Also, I discovered there's nothing quite like a set of oversized pyjamas for bringing out the diva supermodel in one's posing repertoire...

Patterns:
The pyjama pants are traced from off of a previous pair, and have a faux fly, elastic waistband, side seam pockets and a folded cuffs with piping insert. The top is based upon Burda magazine 10/2009, top 121, with a minor modification; namely for the neckline to have an almost grandpa-like buttoned placket, but made with a front and back inner facing. The buttons are navy blue, also as chosen by the recipient. They work surprisingly well with black and yellow!
I've used this same top pattern twice before, firstly for my very own winter jammie top here, and secondly for my olive faux suede top.

I've just been updating a few bits and bobs in my wardrobe...
when I get bored or dissatisfied with a particular item but it's still in perfectly good nick or I still kinda like it because of a good shape/style or I put a dangload of effort into finishing it off particularly well or whatever; I will not toss it out. Instead I 'avvago at re-vamping it somehow.
And this often includes dragging out ye olde dyepot and potions, aka dyes, eeeeeeeEEE heheheheheheheeeeee!! That was an evil witch's cackle there, just in case my written word did not adequately translate to the spoken word, ahem.

So, revamp-eroonie; DONE.

Exhibit A; my little yellow cotton corduroy skirt. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, but I was just getting meh about it. Plus the clear yellow colour was a bit sharp and not one of "mine". Since my khaki dress I have been thinking more about "my" colours and having more of them in my wardrobe. Sorta de-wintering my wardrobe and autumn-ifying it some more, if you will.
I used iDye in Brown and a tiny touch of the True Red, and got this rather wonderful deep caramel colour, in the top picture. Hehe, it's funny; because actually I was aiming for mustard! important moral of the story; you should never ever never dye something that you are so much in love with that you couldn't bear an unexpected outcome. Potential dyers, engrave that on your dye pots as it is one of the Commandments of Dyeing.
Anyway, I could not be happier with this super yummy, albeit unexpected, colour.
Unsurprisingly, the poly satin I used for the lining and bias binding did not take up the dye one tiny little bit.

woa, crack out the sunnies!

Exhibit B; while in the mood for dyeing, I also got out my pale blue, supposedly silk shirt (all original construction details here) and gave it a facelift. Supposedly? well it was sold as silk, but its mild lack of enthusiasm for taking up the dye speaks to some synthetic content, ahem. Not that I mind! it's been a wonderful blouse and I love the shape unconditionally. Just that it has faded drastically and its colour was now palling on me; or should that more accurately read, appalling on me? Yeah, probably.
Anyway, it got treated to iDye in True Red.

Much better!
Now; compare the new colour of the previously same coloured cotton bias binding ... that strong red was what I was aiming for, although I like this warm tangerine colour just fine. I'm just going to enjoy it as this colour for a while; and if I still want the deep true red colour I'll pick up some red dye suitable for synthetics and give another whirl. See how we go.

Exhibit C; not a biggie, but I switched the yellow buttons on my forest green Miette cardigan for new deep green ones.

I think it's going to be a tonne more mix 'n' matchable like this, since previously it pretty much went ONLY with my mustard dress below, or with all-white ensembles. The yellow buttons were a distraction, I can see that now. My mistake. Also, I think the lacework shines a little more than it did before.

So, that's it!
In my current sewing news; I'm still struggling away with embroidering my felted wool, for my 1 year 1 outfit ensemble. Every now and again I have to lay it aside and do something else. It's wearing me down a bit but I am certain I am going to love the finished piece and am quite excited to see it all come together. Ever onward and upwards!

my tutorial on basic dyeing here

I love working out convoluted construction puzzles in the process of sewing something and this new dress ticked that box very nicely.
It looks kinda plain upon first glance, but it's actually based upon a very unusual twisted design by Anita, of Studio Faro.
Also, I have to apologise right here; I've just searched forever trying to find her original design sketch to link to it but it's been a while since I first saw it and I find I did not even pin it, so I cannot. I'm sorry! In my memory though I'm pretty sure that my dress, while self-drafted, was born from a design on either her blog, well-suited, or maybe her Facebook page.
Later edit; thanks to Emily I found it, Anita's original design is here.
Anyway. In making it, I realised it was just like an infinity scarf, but in dress form. Unique!

And, it's fully reversible! with all the seam allowances enclosed and tucked away neatly between the two layers of the dress. The construction technique to make it reversible is one that I worked out myself and not something I've ever seen in any pattern or design before. This was the part of it that kept me on my toes, brainstorming a way to make it happen. I'm super chuffed that it did work out. :)
In my initial plans; it was not going to be a reversible design and I wanted to use double-sided fabric for my dress, but the only ones I could find were kinda expensive, and much as I craved the actualisation of that idea I just couldn't justify the cost... economy can often be the mother of invention, non? Eventually I settled with a double layered dress using two lightweight fabrics, and then while I was fiddling about with the two layers I realised I could actually make it a completely reversible dress, meaning I could wear it inside out just as easily ... and ta da! this is the result!

Right way out; I wanted the white at the front and red at the back. The way the infinity twist goes; the dress is actually mostly open at the right side seam, but the way it crosses over there is a restriction in the drape of the hemline so that it sits with the opening closed quite securely; and there is absolutely no danger of the drape falling open and exposing your knickers at all. I tried to move and sit in it a few times to see if I could possibly get humiliated from any hint of exposure in the dress and am happy to say I could not make it happen.

The one single pattern piece looks like this, and you rotate the "upside-down" part around clockwise and up, to lie over on the "right-side up" part. This naturally forms an infinity-twisted drape at the side, and the wrong side of the fabric against the right side, front and back.

Any straight or sheath dress design could be used to get this pattern piece; I used my old standby Burda 8511 as my sheath dress sloper. It's one I've made enough times over the years to have tweaked and fiddled with it enough to have fine-tuned the fit to my pear-shaped self just about perfectly.
By the way; if you're at all interested in creating your own pattern manipulations like this one, and this goes for just about all the Pattern Magic designs too; my recommendation is make a sturdy, fabric sloper. It's a good idea to have one for a sheath dress, a bodice and possibly a skirt too. You could use a well-fitting, tried and true pattern like this one, if you have one; in any case get a basic pattern and make up a few samples to fine-tune your fit. Once you've fiddled and diddled enough to discover the perfect adjustments for you; get some strong fabric that's not going to rip or fray easily, like an old sheet... these often have the most fabulously high thread count making them super-tough! Then cut out your perfectly-fitting pattern pieces. Using a clear, easy-to-see marking pen of some sort, mark on the sloper pieces the waist line, hipline, bust points, back dart points, the straight grainline and the bias grainlines going both ways. I used bright red marking pen. This sloper can be kept rolled up with your patterns for whenever you have new ideas and want to play about with making new designs for yourself :)
Why fabric, not paper? well obviously so you can baste it together and put it on! wearing a paper version of a thing is absolutely nothing like the real fabric thing, we all know that! Paper has zero drape, plus it rips all too easily :D

The middle, joining piece goes from the waist to the hemline. I left off all shaping darts, so the "dress" portion is a kinda shapeless sack, a base-point which I think is a good criteria for a double layered reversible design. I also cut it so that I can just slip the dress over my head, eliminating the need for a zip. Obviously that feature is essential in a reversible dress too!
I used a lovely rayon crepe from Fabulous Fabrics, in red and white, and needed 1.8m of 150cm wide fabric in each colour. Having the nice wide fabric meant I could cut my pieces on-grain and with no joining seams in the pieces.
The white is quite sheer, and just about all seam finishes except for French looked absolutely dreadful underneath it; so after a bit of experimenting I went with seam allowances done like this:

Firstly I stitched the seam allowances with a regular 1.5cm(5/8") seam allowance. Pressed to set it, pressed open to get the crease set, then pressed back closed again. Secondly stitched a second pass of stitching just inside the seam allowance. Lastly, trimmed the seam allowance to an even narrow width. This should be pretty secure and stable with the double stitching. And the "ghost" of this seam allowance as it appears showing on the white outside looks quite nice, almost like a French seam.

By the way, I did consider trying to do actual French seams in this dress for about a hot minute, before I got sensible and realised in that way insanity lies and I would be tearing my hair out and frothing at the mouth in no time at all.... in any case, the reversibility of my construction technique means that all my seam allowances are enclosed with the two layers of the dress, so there's no danger of any seam allowance coming out on view anyway. The ultimate in neat-looking insides, yay!
There are only three bits of almost invisible hand-stitching closing the layers: the two inside shoulder seams, and a short length on the inside hanging drape; through which I pulled the entire dress in the very last step before closing it up.

The drape can be adjusted to sit in different ways; like pulled completely through to the front as in the top picture. I also like it pull it back through on itself a little bit, and have it sitting more balanced. It does look nice like this, but it does eventually tend to slip naturally back into its default position, probably because my fabric is quite slithery and slippery. If it were made up in linen, which is more "grabby", it would probably hold a different position better.

The dress does have a front and a back, the only way to tell them apart is by holding it up at the shoulders so you can see the lower scoop of the front neckline. However I can wear it with a red front and a white back if I like by pulling it inside out and wearing it with the lining side out... hello, reversibility for the win! Below is the dress worn in reverse; i.e., with the "lining" on the outside. It doesn't look that different to if the dress was worn back to front, just in small details. Unless you looked closely at the shoulders and saw that they were hand-stitched closed, you probably couldn't tell this was the inside of the dress!

Although I really like how the dress looks, I'm not completely happy with some of my construction in this one... I found to my cost that one majorly important aspect is to make sure that the two outer, left side-seam edges are exactly, and I mean exactly the same length!! This is the boo boo I made; mine were out by a mere 1cm, which was enough to put my side seam out by a touch, so it hangs a weeny bit too wibbly-wobbly for my taste. So I'm thinking of this one as a kind of prototype or wearable muslin, and want to make another "proper" one for myself, although I will wear this one a lot too.

Maybe if I make it again I'll do a proper tute on how it all goes together, reversibly.
Maybe.

Details:
Dress; a variation on Burda 8511 and based upon a design idea of Anita from studio faro; in red and white rayon crepe
Sandals; Zomp, from Zomp shoes

I’ve made a new top.

This is, as my title oh-so subtly suggests, the twist top from Pattern Magic; and is my fourth iteration of this top. First three are here, here and here.

Clearly I love this design. And I’ve often pondered upon how much I would like to have one in every colour. Except that would be excessive and wasteful. Bad me, for even thinking it. Bad, extravagant, greedy, covetous me. I guess one good thing about making everything yourself is that you are constrained from having an overly huge wardrobe by your own free time, or lack of it; by having to physically make each and every darn thing yourself. I like to pretend to myself that this factor introduces some carefully considered introspection into the matter.

Ha! We can but hope!

I bought this length of stable, slightly stretchy, thin-but-warm, forest green ponte from Potters Textiles, from the $2 remnant bin. Hmmm, don’t you just HATE when someone brags about how cheap their fabric/pattern/clothing/whatever was? Yeah, me too. Loathe it.

Anyway, it’s the kind of project that you can start and have ready to wear in about half an hour, flat; even including weaving those bitsy overlocker ends back in. Fabric out, pattern down, cut, vroom through the machines by turn, a few minutes of weaving and neckline-hemming. Done!

Believe me, I needed something fast and brainlessly easy, as a little bit of light relief from my 1year1outfit project. Honestly, that’s been a far bigger endeavor that I originally anticipated. But the good news is that the second component of my outfit is actually and finally finished!!! WOOOOOT! To be appearing here very soon. Very very soon.

In the meantime, this.

So, in a nutshell…

One of my favourite designs; check.

One of “my” colours; check.

Is it seasonally appropriate… oh bum. No.

Winter’s practically over and it’s actually getting comfortably warm around about these here parts. Oh well! There’s always next year! As if I have any reason at all to complain about the return of warmer weather, no sirree, not I most definitely do not. Summer, oo yeah baby, bring it. I am so ready!!!

OK I got nothing else! Tootles!

Details:

Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic, forest green ponte
Jeans; Burda 7863, brown stretch bengaline, details here and my review ofthis pattern here

Socks; handknit by me, details here

Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

OK; it's done, the second and arguably the most time consuming component of my one year one outfit project!
Can I just interject right here... WOOOOHOOOOO!

Phew! so, just saying, but I'm tentatively predicting that this one piece could well be my piece de resistance for the year. I made the dress, and not only did I make the dress but I made the fabric too! previously post about making my fabric from Western Australian Corriedale fleece here.
And I hand-embroidered it, with a motif of my own design. Also the dress is of my own design. Is this a little insane? probably.
Ok, YES.

So, the dress. As mentioned, it is fully embroidered with kangaroo paws. Why kangaroo paws, you may ask? Well, the kangaroo paw is our state floral emblem and my project is an all-Western Australian deal, so it seemed like a pretty appropriate choice. I sketched a stylised kangaroo paw design based upon one from one of my own photographs. I drew a few in different sizes and then for each section of the dress drew up separate, big all-over patterns. Some of the paws wrap around the side seams from front to back, which was planned since I wanted to kinda tie the design together as well as I could.

my muse

This style of all-over embroidery is obviously inspired by the Alabama Chanin style, but the design is all mine. I chose to incorporate embroidery for a few reasons; firstly to give some added strength to my felt, since the felt seemed just a touch fragile on its own.
Secondly, for decorative impact too, of course! My felt is quite textured already, but I really liked the idea of something more, and a white-on-white design. I embroidered the under-dress, below, in a regularly spaced and repeating pattern of identical kangaroo paws, while the overdress, above, has a more random appearance, with different sized kangaroo paws, placed non-regularly and more artfully; as if someone had taken a bouquet of kangaroo paws and scattered it across the piece.

For the embroidery: I used natural, undyed Western Australian Corriedale yarn, handspun here in Perth by a lady named Beverly. I bought this from Bilby Yarns.
The side seams are hand-stitched and hand-fellstitched in a thinner version of the same yarn. I left the lower edge of the dress with its naturally wobbly self-edge, just as how it came out from the felting.

As per the one year one outfit strict criteria, I could not use anything in my dress that was not locally sourced; meaning no thread or zips. So, I could have used buttons, since I still have some lovely ones made by my Dad using wood from my parent's block... but I decided to go with a dress that I could just pull on over my head and with no closure required. I used my standby plainy-plain dress pattern, Burda 8511 and drew up a wide, midi-length, loose, A-line dress pattern; two layered and with slanting asymmetrical hemlines. The under layer is a full length dress; and the over layer is a shorter and briefer one, one-shouldered with a diagonal top edge disappearing into the side edge/armpit. I cut out "facings" for the top edge, and these are fused/felted to the inside of the dress, underneath the single layer part of the under-dress. Meaning, the dress has two layers of fabric all over, which I fused together by felting nearly all over after embroidering. The front has felted-together layers to waist level, while the back has the layers felted together to below bum level. The remaining lower portion of the overdress float free, and the only parts that are a completely single layer are the lower portion of the underdress.
Clear as mud? Yep, I thought so!

Also: it may superficially look like the dress has not a skerrick of shaping, with no visible darts or piecing, but actually that is not the case! It is shaped... with invisible darts!!! yes, really invisible :) The shaping is not drastic since I needed some looseness to enable me to get the thing over my shoulders ok... but the shaping is there. I cut out the bust darts and back waist shaping darts, and closed them together by hand-felting the layers together with a felting needle. This is a clever little needle, long and with tiny serrated point. You jab it in through the layers of your felt and its serrations enable the wool fibres to meld and mesh together thanks to their own naturally barbed nature, albeit microscopic. This is how felting is even possible, of course! Thanks to this wonderful property exclusive to wool, my dress has a nice subtle shape but with no visible evidence of such shaping, such as darts or seams. It's also how I felted together the two layers of the dress, all over.
It's like magic, I'm telling you.

running stitch edging, and invisible bust dart

Once I had completed all my wool embroidery, I went over and painstakingly hand-felted those upper and underdresses together as described above. Then the very final step was to run a simple running stitch around the neckline and armholes. I wanted a nice subtle edging to these areas, not only for some strength, as the running stitch is almost like stay-stitching if you like, and stabilises these vulnerable areas that might otherwise get stretched out every time I pull the dress over my head and push my arms through those armholes. The edging also provide a nice visual border that that does not compete with my embroidery... and obviously I want my embroidery to have the biggest visual impact.

So! This is merely part two of my one year one outfit project, part numero uno was my knitted alpaca jacket/cardigan, posted here, and I have a couple more components still going in the works. What will they be? we shall see, we shall see... :)
I may have a few surprises still up my sleeve, mwahaha!

Details:
Dress; my own design based upon Burda 8511, of self-made wool felt with wool embroidery of my own design
Ugg boots; from some ugg boot shop, forgotten which one

Ahhh, the uggies. I know they're pretty awful but I just could not resist! Seemed only fitting. I'm gahn the full Strine here, mate. :)

True to form, right at the beginning of spring I've made a rather wintery ensemble for myself. Typical! :D
No, actually Mari from Seamster Patterns contacted me again asking me to take part in the second and last part of the SewIndependent month and as luck would have it Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater dress was one of the patterns available. I've had my eye on this pattern thanks to Megan's and Sue's versions. We're all Perth girls so how fun would it be if we all met up wearing our matching Jaspers, hehe. For my Jasper, I decided get some of this lovely chocolate-brown marled knit from KnitWit, which I have also had my eye on for some time but been unable to justify the purchase. It's gorgeous stuff. Soft and springy and slightly fluffy and ever so snuggly. With yet another little bout of luck, I discovered it was on sale for half price. The advantages to shopping at the end of the season! Booyeah!! *does an almighty air fist pump, although only mentally because the lady in the store would have thought I was bonkers*
I made up the dress version with collar, and left off that buttoned placket thingie. I was a little doubtful about how the curved-in nature of the skirt would look on my pear-shaped self, and so I cut the pegged portion edge of the pieces from hip level down to flare out straight and slightly A-line, rather than curving inwards. I think this silhouette is far far better on me.

I also left off the lower band and simply hand-hemmed the lower edge instead... this gave me a little fabric leftover, and so I decided to use this to make a kind of mini-slip to wear underneath the dress, so it's like a set. My "slip" is the simplest affair; comprising a "skirt" cut from the chocolate brown knit attached to a "singlet" cut from cream-coloured poly stretch knit. I vaguely used the Nettie bodysuit pattern for this bit, although any Tshirt pattern would've done. I cut it wider and looser, the armholes quite a bit deeper and wider, and gave a random mid-point scoop to the neckline, to get more of a singlet shape at the top. I finished the armhole and neckline edges using a self-fabric band and hand-hemmed the lower edge of the skirt.

I originally had high-flown ideas of adding a few faux leather details to my ensemble, thanks to a quiet ongoing little love affair with pleather detailing; and so I did the tunic welt pockets in pleather. Also partly for the extra stability it lends to the welt. I think they turned out rather well, and aesthetically I LOVE how the shiny smooth pleather contrasts against the fluffy softness of the knit.

I then proceeded to finish the lower edge of the slip skirt with pleather binding. I cannot stress enough how hideous this turned out; the pleather was so stiff and structural compared to my soft and super-flowy chocolate knit that it made the hem of the skirt flare stiffly and super-duper-unattractively. No sooner had I finished it, put it on and laid eyes on it in the mirror than I seized the scissors and cut that bit off; ahem, taking absolutely no pictures to assault the eyes. Trust me, it was just too awful for words. So now, the welts are the only lonely bit of pleather appearing anywhere on the ensemble; nowhere else to balance it out. I'm a little disappointed, but think it doesn't look too ridick. Maybe a bit. Anyway, it's done, so yeah. There's no point in getting too upset after the fact.

LOVE this collar. This colour, too.

Fortunately, I adore it and can see myself wearing it a tonne. Besides being warm and comfortable and cuddly like wearing a blanket, it's absolutely my winter style. I love minis for winter, and I love loose drapey tunic tops, and double-decker love the combination of the two together. It's also "my" colour. Sorry to yammer on about "my" colours, but I'm lately on a bit of a thing about autumnifying my wardrobe, colour-wise.
Adhering dutifully but very happily to my resolution to be more mindful in my sewing :)

Details:
Tunic dress; the Jasper by Paprika Patterns, chocolate brown knit
Slip; Nettie bodysuit modified; chocolate brown knit and cream poly stretch knit
Tights; my own pattern, black poly stretch knit, details here It can possibly be seen from my pictures; these have HAD IT. I've worn these to sags-and-bagsville and back; and desperately need new ones! but with spring here I'm trying to hold off until next year :)
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

Funny coindidink; I've only just now realised that I mindlessly plucked the Nettie pattern out to eyeball for my slip because I already have this pattern; however it's actually another one of the patterns on offer in sew indie month!

As mentioned, the pattern is part of the Sewing Indie month. I received the pattern free in order to help spread the word, but chose it myself, paid for my materials, made it myself and am very happy with the pattern. Please note that as always, there are no affiliate links on my blog and never will be.
The Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater dress, along with the Nettie bodysuit and eight other patterns, is part of the Indie pattern bundle on sale from Monday 1st September until Thursday 10th September.
As with the first pattern bundle there is a charitable component to the sale, with 20% of pattern sale proceeds to be donated to Women for Women, which helps women dealing with violence, marginalization, and poverty due to war and conflict.

My fellow seamsters participating and making their own version of the patterns are:

Please do check them out :)

I've finished the next coupla components in my 1 year 1 outfit project!
First up; shoes!
Following the same formula that I used for my previous two pairs of shoes; these have a carved wooden base and a fabric top. For the soles I used Western Australian pine from Bunnings.
I actually had several pieces of wood from which to choose for this project; my Dad had given me some marri from their block; and I also, albeit briefly, considered jarrah as another truly Western Australian product. Also, my brother had given me some jacaranda logs from when he had to lop a branch from the tree in their back yard. But I eventually decided to go with pine ... why? Well it's the softest, lightest and easiest to work with! and our ancient old bandsaw has finally given out, meaning it was going to be a ginormous struggle to cut the marri or jacaranda or jarrah either on any of our other equipment. These are all pretty rock hard woods, also both marri and jarrah weigh a tonne and you'd only want very thin soles of it for a shoe. Pine was the path of least resistance. I have definitely not ruled out using the other wood that I have for future pairs of shoes though. I just need to get better at woodworking first :)

personalised soles :)

Craig helped me with the big cutting and I did the finer shaping using the belt sander, and hand-sanding out the heel groove and some grooves for the ball of my feet. I also carved my initials, just for fun :)
The upper is 100% Western Australian Merino wool felt; made from natural, undyed, white fleece and natural, undyed, handspun black sheep's wool as outlined in this post. By the way; I incorrectly stated in my previous post on my dress that the wool I used for the felt was Corriedale, and I have since discovered that it was pure Merino wool, sorry! I've corrected the error in that post now. And am actually rather thrilled to be wrong, to be honest!
Anyway my black and white "plaid" was the thickest and strongest of the felts that I made, so I kept it for these more demanding of my outfit components. Sadly, I realised that it's still not particularly sturdy and is probably going to stretch out pretty quickly :(( But I've devised a devious plan to cope with the inevitability of The Stretch, mwahahahaha... see that central seam running right down the top/middle? well as it stretches out I can just unpick it, cinch in the top seam a bit, trim and re-stitch. Simple! And when it has stretched out past the point of saving, which it will; then I can easily unscrew the screws from the sides, remove the whole felt top and substitute something sturdier like leather. Hopefully I can somehow find a nice piece of thick WA leather, so that my shoes will still be eligible as a 1 year 1 outfit piece!

OK: confession time... I did have to cheat on a few minor parts of this project; the glue holding the pine layers together is made in NSW, and the screws holding the felt upper to the wooden soles are made in *embarrassed whisper* China. I did investigate making these; and concluded that to make my own local glue and "nails" is both possible and achievable. You can make your own glue using boiled animal bones, sap, or milk and vinegar; and I could have made wooden "nails" using pine dowel. And originally I was seriously gung-ho about doing just that; until my Dad and my husband advised me to get real.

You see, the wooden soles are honestly such a hugely time-consuming and difficult component for me to make that I really really wanted them to hold together firm and fast and be perfectly secure; and NOT EVER fall apart. A rank woodworking beginner like me could all-too-easily destroy my carefully hand carved soles trying to ram wooden dowel nails, with hot homemade glue dripping everywhere; and even then if I was miraculously successful; they could later on just fall out or snap at a moment's notice. Which, according to my experienced father and my husband; is pretty darn likely.
And I would, um, yeah; be sad. Understatement of the year, right there.
Anyway, I went the route of properly manufactured wood glue and steel screws... but I just want to say, for the record, that I did investigate the 100% hardcore approach, and gave it serious and careful thought.
And I do not regret not going there either, not one little bit, sorry! You can only do so much!
What is more! I will also be gluing some thick rubber to the soles to protect them from damage. I haven't done that yet, I plan to "show" them first in this virginal state. But I will.

Exhibit two; a bag!

And it perfectly matches my shoes, hehe. Isn't that the old fashion must-do advice for a lady from the 50's or something? I seem to remember reading somewhere that a lady would never dream of sashaying out with non-matching shoes and bag. Ancient stuff, I know; we definitely do not adhere to such a strict dress code anymore! But I had enough felt for it so here I am, totally regressing to the standards of a previous era.
ooo yea.
It's just a simple, um, something-bag? A sort of rustic briefcase? I don't know the correct term to describe this kind of bag. A fold-over, almost-envelope, with rectangular side gusset thingies to make it box-like. It's all held together and decorated with blanket stitch. For the handhold; I cut and blanket-stitch edged three slits that line up with each other through all layers. Ta da! Simple, but it does the trick.

I like the way the felt is thick enough that it can stand up by itself... just.
I am toying with a few extra components for my 1year1outfit project, but minor things that may or may not come to anything. However, they may; fingers crossed. If all else fails, at least I do have a complete outfit now!

I've made a new lingerie set and I think it turned out quite noice.
This little soft bralette design has been bouncing around in my mental wish-to-make-list for yonks. It's more of a pull over the head, lacy camisole than a bra really; and is a near-copy of a Lovable bralette I used to wear donkey's years ago. I've even kept the original one tucked away in a drawer, just to try to reproduce it one day. That day has come, weeeee! I'm very happy with my copy, even though the lace I used is a bit too wide. It's such extraordinarily pretty lace though, so that's an ok compromise in my book.
The reason I wanted to make another one for myself is that the original one really was such a nice thing to wear under big loose tops or something a little sheer. The lace shoulder straps look really pretty if they happen to peep out and don't really look too much like a "bra".
Also I wear a lot of white/ivory in summer, so white/beige underthings are always very handy.

It's super comfortable, and although it doesn't look particularly supportive, it actually is. Pictured above on poor long-suffering Bessie, that joining seam appears to cut right across her bust in a most uncomfortable way; however Bessie is actually bigger than me. On me the shoulder strap lace comes down and around and sits perfectly moulded underneath my bust and so it's actually does give a surprisingly good amount of support. I'm fairly fortunate I guess in that I don't need much, hehehe... well, hey; there's got to be some advantages!!

I made the usual two pairs of matching undies to wear with it; at bottom is my old favourite McCalls 2772; above it is the cloth habit Watson knickers, which I also like a lot. They're very similar designs, I like wearing both. The Watson sits lower on the hip and is thus a touch broader in the beam; the McCalls sits at high hip and is is actually cut a bit slimmer. I added some lace scraps to the fronts for decoration and bravely snipped away the poly-knit from behind; something I haven't done before.

Fabric notes: Clotted cream poly-knit and gold satin ribbon from Spotlight; my hand hovered over the ivory ribbon but on the spur of the moment I honed in on gold! I love how it gleams quietly and luxuriously against cream and ivory.
Ivory stretch lace and lingerie elastic from Fabulous Fabrics. This lace is 8cm wide, and yes; it works fine and is super pretty. I mean, no way was I going to walk away and leave that in the store!!! However my original bralette had considerably narrower lace, 5cm. I still need to keep my eye out for some 5cm lace so I can someday have another go at that perfect reproduction. I think the ideal combination would be 5cm wide lace for the straps and 8cm lace for the cups. But it's hard enough finding lovely stretch lace even in plain black and/or white/ivory here, let alone specific widths, and in matching colours! The search continues... :)

bralette; copied from an old Lovable design

Inspired by Nicki of this is moonlight, I've been having a go at solar dyeing. What is solar dyeing...? well, it's basically just chucking fabric and chopped up organic material into a glass jar and leaving it outside for a while until your fabric has changed colour.
Boom yeah: blog post done!
Hmmm, well maybe just one or two more details would be helpful...
So I was just ~~weeding my garden~~, I mean; harvesting my carefully nurtured dye-plant crop! of course! and spontaneously decided to experiment. This plant is Oxalis stricta or common yellow wood sorrel; more commonly known around here as sour grass. I have fond memories of sitting with my fellow primary school friends on the school oval at lunchtime, munching on this stuff ... ah, memories! It grows like mad around these parts, you can find it everywhere and it's considered a weed. But a useful weed!

This was just a little play to see if I like the effect; so I used about a dozen flowering plants, and 20g natural merino wool. My wool happens to be 100% Western Australian merino, handspun locally and bought in Bilby yarns.
I snipped the whole plant minus the bottom third of the stalks, roots and root ball into small pieces, straight into a large glass pitcher along with 1/2 cup salt, half filled the pitcher with water, and stirred it around pretty vigorously to dissolve the salt. Then added my yarn, which I'd loosely tied in a skein to guard against knots.

Once the yarn was in, I swooshed it around very gently to immerse it in the plant material, covered the pitcher with glad wrap, then popped it outside in the sun. I left it for five days; moving the whole kit'n'caboodle around during the day, following the sun, and would always bring it in each night. Basically, did not stir again.

After five days, the wool seemed to have picked up a nice amount of colour, so I gave it a very thorough rinse in cold water and picked off as much organic material as possible.
And, ta da!

This could not have been any easier! and I'm very happy with that bright yet delicate chartreuse shade of my wool. Not to mention the non-toxicity of the whole process too. I will definitely be doing this again;on a bigger scale with more yarn and more plants and leaving it for longer next time :)
Notes for next time; picking out the organic material takes ages and is a bit of a pain. I'm toying with how to keep the plant matter and fibre separate next time, so as to avoid a gazzilion squishy rotting bits of plant muck stuck tight to my wool everywhere. Maybe with a very loose-weave synthetic gauze "bag" for the plant matter. I'm not sure if this would reduce the effectiveness of the dye though... but will give it some thought and a shot.
This is not going to be my only experiment with natural dyeing either; I've bought some indigo seeds and am raring to see that experiment come to fruition as well...

origami blouse

Hiking in Italy; a travel wardrobe

I'm a cow

adding lining to a skirt; some tips

not quite so baggy, blue pants

alpaca cardigan; a 100% local product

blue Pattern Magic hoodie; 6 different ways

that 70's show

making felt from fleece

the difficulty of black lace...

Mississippi Avenue

ziggyzag madness

a bit of re-colouration

reversible infinity, or twist, dress

forest green twist top

an all Western Australian dress

snuggly chocolate-y ensemble

I made matching shoes and bag

Lace-y bralette + undies

Natural dyeing; sour grass on merino wool