Handmade by Carolyn

What: I've finished knitting a new cardigan; another Miette, yes, that fantastically popular cardigan design and it's super easy to see why, too. Such a quick and easy thing to make, top-down, seamless, cute with nicely subtle zig-zag lace design at all borders, free to download here. LOVE THIS SO MUCH! I'm just stuck on it and maybe I can never move on. A bad case of "fools never differ" happening here ;)
This is my third Miette, my previous two are dark green and mustard, all of them in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran. Green, yellow and now blue. Slightly embarrassing fact; I already have red wool purchased and earmarked for this design! The same yarn too ... I could happily have the full colour range because they're all pretty yummy :)

Why: Well, I have felt like a navy blue cardigan would be a very handy little colour to have on hand for aaaaaaages, and this is just me finally making it happen. Navy blue is a great neutral, I reckon it looks fab with everything, and even though it's not officially one of "my" colours I think it's rather lovely against the browns, yellows, oranges and reds that I tend to favour. I have a nice navy blue silk blazer which was/is terrific but I wanted a woolly cardigan. I think I'm more of a cardigan person than a blazer person.
Problemmos: Actually I anticipated a quick project out of this one since it is super easy and not my first go at it, but I had surprising rough trot this time. Mostly because this yarn is so dark darkdark navy, and I usually knit in front of the telly in terrible low light; and so half the time I literally could not tell whether a stitch was a knit or a purl. Seriously! Several times I had to frustratingly pull out a whole bunch of rows and re-do it because one wrong stitch had gone unnoticed... I ended up having a torch on standby to illuminate and assess the situ-bar as required. grrrrrr! This cardigan has taken me nearly all winter to finish!
Changeroonies: I made a small but vital change to the design this time; I transferred the bust dart shaping to the underarm side seam each side. I think this is a much better shaping pozzie for a small busted person like myself.

Details:
Cardigan; the Miette by Andi Satterlund, in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tween Aran, col. 360039 (Midnight) from Calico and Ivy
Jeans; the Ginger jeans by Closet Case patterns, navy blue cotton denim, details here
Tshirt; Vogue 8879, ivory cotton jersey, details here

The following is some technical blahdy-blah notes to myself, 'cos I always forget this and have to re-knit tension squares, which I do not enjoy:
I've knitted the main using three different needle sizes for the three cardigans, because the tension of the design does not match the tension of my chosen yarn exactly. The Miette recommends 16st x 22rows per 10cm square, while the DBliss Aran tension is 18st x 24rows per 10cm square. So, my first, green Miette was knitted on size 9 (UK) or 3 3/4mm needles, giving a tension midway between that recommended for the yarn and the design and is a slightly relaxed fit. The second, mustard Miette was knitted on size 10 or 3 1/2mm needles, giving the correct tension for the yarn but a tighter tension than the design; and was a closer fit. This cardigan is knitted on size 8 or 4mm needles, giving me the correct tension for the design and a slightly loose tension for the yarn, and is a more relaxed fit. I like all of them, the differences do not feel massive.
I definitely prefer moving the bust shaping to the underarm. Each version, I've extended the length by 2 pattern repeats, this requires picking up 79 stitches for the front button bands. Each version I've selected size 42, which is technically a size up for me, but I remember from my first go at this pattern that "my" size would be a tad too tight for my tastes... I had to unravel and start over! It might work to go down a size in the looser tension; would be a risk but maaaaaybe? I might just try it for my red version... we'll see.
I need 6 balls of the Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tween Aran, and with the two extra pattern repeats 10 buttons. These 1.5cm, navy blue ones are from Fabulous Fabrics

I fully admit it; this could very well be the weirdest, most bizarre thing I've ever made! I had toyed with the idea of making a lingerie set to complete my one year one outfit... er... outfit; but rejected the idea as being impractical and unwearable; then re-embraced the idea, then rejected it again. And found myself pondering it again... and then dismissed it again. Finally I just decided to have a go, although this part of my project was in danger of never ever getting blogged!
So; lingerie, made using ONLY locally sourced materials; quite a challenge, quite a challenge. My set is very very simple; a string bikini top and high waisted knickers cinched in at the top with a drawstring.
As per the criteria of the challenge, I could not use anything not made here in Western Australia ... which ruled out elastic, findings, thread and even FABRIC! Hmmm, yes, quite a challenge... Like every other part of my outfit for this challenge, I had to make my own fabric. Fortunately I had some pieces of merino felt leftover from my dress, and I made another small piece to complete the knickers, so my set is mostly made from scraps, yay! The yellow blanket stitch edging is in locally handspun merino yarn from Bilby Yarns, that I dyed myself using sour grass from our garden; here. The bikini strings and the drawstring are a single crochet chain.
In my early planning stages, I had contemplated knitting some knickers and bra from my handspun Western Australian merino yarn, and actually found a free pattern for a knitted bra too! but rejected that idea... why? well to be perfectly honest, this set is probably not going to get a hekkuvva lot of wear! if any! and so I really wanted to minimise the use of my beautiful handspun yarn. I felt OK about using my leftover felt though, since that was made from my own labour.
The bra is self-drafted, if you can call two, felted-together, darted triangles a self-drafted pattern, ahem. I gave them a gentle cupped shape by cutting darts from the lower edge and felting them closed with my felting needle, just like I did the darts in my dress, so the darts are seamless; and felted them together at centre front the same way.
The knickers are loosely based on the Tried & True knickers pattern, by the Makers Journal, an undies pattern designed for non-stretch wovens. This design is a little on the low-rise side which I modified slightly by making it a higher rise design with a drawstring to pull them in at high hip level, also the crotch and leg holes have also been cut away significantly with a deeper curve to the crotch and straighter front leg-line; I did this because the fabric was a tad on the bunchy side around this area otherwise. When they're on the knickers look like tap pants, flaring out a little from the waist and away from the hips, and are actually quite cute, believe it or not!

I made a little cotton jersey lining for the knickers, and have loosely tacked it in with running stitch This small piece of fabric is the only part of the set that does not fit the criteria of my one year one outfit challenge; but I'm sorry, I just consider a liner to be an absolutely essential thing to have in a pair of knickers. I've done my absolute best to eliminate non-local elements in all of the components in my one year one outfit, but you can only go so far for this challenge! and I'm drawing a line at unlined knickers.
While making them I was reminded of Sheldon fashioning historically accurate undergarments from linen just to wear to the Renaissance fair... so funny!... meaning, yes; I'm fully aware that this is just about the silliest set of lingerie ever, but I made them mostly from my leftovers and using my "experimentally" dyed yarn so I don't consider making them to be too much of a waste of resources. I think I made them just for fun, really! Think of it as wearable art!

MY OUTFIT IS FINISHED!!!
And I am showing it all together here for the first time. Can I just say right here; wooooohooooot!
The challenge, as laid out by Nicki of this is moonlight, should you choose to accept it, and I did! was to make for yourself an entire outfit using ONLY locally sourced materials. Sounds simple, right? It has been anything but!
I'm very grateful to Nicki for conceiving this brilliant and very thought-provoking challenge, and for inviting me to take part. This has been one exceedingly amazing ride, has blown my mind more than any other dressmaking challenge I've ever done, and really pushed my creativity to the limit. At the beginning of the year I seriously did not think I would be taking my outfit to the levels I did.... I thought for sure I would be giving myself a pass on some things, for example; thread, and allowing myself to use regular Gutermann's thread. As time went on though I toughened up, embraced the idea of going the whole hog; and I'm very pleased that I did manage to rise to the challenge and make the maximum possible from locally sourced products!
In fact, I'm quite proud and extremely happy! :))
For the challenge, I made:
a knitted alpaca cardigan/jacket
a merino felt dress
merino felt and pine shoes
a merino fleece bag
merino fleece undies and bra
In a nutshell, every single blinking thing I have on here is made by myself, using pretty close to 100% south-west Australian sourced materials

Those of us in Western Australia; Sue, Megan, Nicki and myself, have had to be quite innovative in our approach, I think. I mean, forget zips, thread, elastic... there is not even any freaking fabric made in WA! This was our single biggest hurdle, I think!
However, we are extremely fortunate in that we have wool available to us; lots and lots of wool! Australia has the world's biggest wool economy... did you know that 80% of the world's apparel wool is from Australia? and Australian merino is the world's best quality woollen fibre. 22% of the country's wool production is here in Western Australia (source)

Hardly surprising then that all four of us have used wool as the majority component in our outfits.
My dress, bag, underwear and shoe tops are made from Western Australian merino fleece. I made my wool felt fabric from the fleece as outlined in this post. My dress is made from natural undyed merino fleece felt, and I hand-embroidered the fleece all over with locally handspun, undyed merino yarn.

Anigozanthos manglesii

The embroidery design is my own; a random arrangement of of kangaroo paw motif, for our Western Australian state floral emblem.

My underwear features the only "colour" in my entire outfit; I dyed the decorative yellow edging and ties using sour grass picked from my own garden, as posted here.
All the other fleece, yarn and wood in my outfit I left in its naturally coloured state.

My cardigan is alpaca yarn, from the Fibre of the Gods, a tiny mill operating on a farm in Toodyay. This establishment produces alpaca yarn on their own property, from the fleece of their very own alpaca herd. I bought some of their yarn directly from off the farm and knitted my cardigan, as posted here.

My wooden shoe soles are hand carved by me, using Western Australian pine. The pine is grown by Bunnings on their own pine plantations down south and milled by Bunnings in Manjimup. I made my shoes and my bag from my merino fleece as outlined here My bag and shoe tops are also merino fleece, with a grid pattern made of naturally black sheep yarn.

And that's it, in a nutshell!
Well, typing it all out like this has kinda brought it home to me for the first time; I am wearing a pretty-close-to 100% homegrown outfit, top to toe, for maybe the first time in my life! I'm kinda amazed, even at myself. It's a little mind-blowing to me.
Final thoughts: I've learnt a tonne doing this challenge. Firstly, our local industries are precious and need our support. That goes for everywhere, not just here in WA! I personally am going to put more effort into supporting our local products regularly. I mean, I'm definitely not giving up my more "regular" sewing, but I am going to do this challenge again.
Secondly, that if you really put your mind towards doing something, keep yourself focused on getting a project done, to overcoming obstacles, then you probably can do it. Sometimes you need to sleep on it, think outside the box a bit. I learnt a lot as I was going along, and several times had to improvise a solution to a problem. There were moments when I questioned my sanity in doing this, when I wondered if my ideas were even going to work... a felt dress? unlined? felt underwear? sounds like the vision of a lunatic, or at least a recipe for disaster, for sure... well OK even I can admit that the underwear is not really a practical nor a workable thing! ... do not recommend. ;)
Also, I had lots of fun!! I LOVE a challenge and this challenge really stretched my capabilities; which is the very best sort of challenge, in my opinion! I thought hard and long about each aspect of my outfut and tried very hard to honour the materials, to minimise my waste and to make something truly Western Australian in feel and flavour as well as provenance.
There were also moments when I realised I had to accept a small defeat; in the case of this outfit; the glue holding pieces of wood together in my shoes (from NSW, Australia), the nails holding the felt to the soles of my shoes (China) and the cotton jersey liner for my knickers (China). They are very small elements so I'm not going to beat myself up over them too much.
I guess the important thing is that I gave everything careful consideration, and really thought about provenance and the possibility of substituting local products in as many instances as I was able. As well, I wanted to produce something stylish and lovely, that I knew I would love wearing and feel proud and happy in. I genuinely love my outfit, and feel pretty pleased with my efforts!
Lastly; maybe I'm on a bit of a post-challenge high, but I'm quite excited about attempting this again next year... in fact I already have ideas and plans!
Mad? maybe, but quite happy to be so!

Details:
Cardigan; the Caramel cardigan, in Fibre of the Gods natural alpaca, grown, shorn, washed, carded and spun in Toodyay, Western Australia and hand-knitted by me, details here
Dress; my own design based upon Burda 8511, made from merino felt made by me and hand embroidered with locally handspun merino yarn from Bilby Yarns, details here
Shoes; my own design, pine soles from Bunnings hand carved by me, felt tops made by me from merino fleece bought at Bilby Yarns, details here
Bag; my own design, in felt made by me from merino fleece bought at Bilby Yarns, details here
Underwear; my own design, knickers derived from the Tried & True knickers pattern by the Makers Journal, in felt made from merino fleece bought at Bilby Yarns, details here

I'm scratching a long-standing itch by making something from this 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693 ... see, I've used it once before, when it very first came out! to make a skirt and the top for myself. I wore that outfit to a number of 21st birthday parties with my then brand new fiancé, now my husband :) There's probably a picture lobbing around somewhere of me wearing it, just don't know where! perhaps in a few of our old schoolmates' dusty old photo albums shoved in the back of a cupboard somewhere. My first skirt and top from this pattern was in a sateen with a rather psychedelic splotchy print of bright yellow, purple, a bit of bright orange and I think, splashes of black thrown in there. I remember being extremely proud of it, haha! I used to wear it with hydrangea purple court shoes, or pumps. We used to call them court shoes back then.
So, I think maybe it's ok for me to claim this as a vintage pattern! and item number three going towards fulfilling my vintage pattern pledge... to make five items from my vintage patterns.
Fabric; a loose woven, slubby wool blend from Tessuti's, Melbourne bought during a holiday over there with my Mum and Cassie. A bit rough in feel, but in a beautiful, high quality way, if that makes any sense at all; quite thick, probably too thick for the design in retrospect and it was a little difficult to make it work with the pattern, Almost cried a few times when I thought I'd ruined it, but managed to wrangle it into submission eventually. Major relief when it all worked out. I used the hammer a few times to flatten some of the more bulky layers down thinner, so they would fit under my sewing machine foot.

Perfectly matching buttons from Calico and Ivy.
Technical notes; all seams flat felled as per the pattern.

To avoid bulk in the waistband, the inside edge was cut along the selvedge, and this is not folded inside the waistband but left out inside the skirt and topstitched down from the right side, stitching in-the-ditch. I also cut the overlay against the selvedge and left the selvedge edge out along the edge of the turned in facing. Same reason as the waistband treatment; to reduce the bulk of having a raw edge turned under.

Also HongKong bounds edges for an inside side edge and the hem, again to avoid as much unnecessary bulk as possible. For this, I used a beige/light honey coloured poplin voile to make bias binding. I bought about 2m of this a few years ago and have almost used all of it in HongKong binding for various things... need to get some more, asap!
Happiness scale; 9/10 at having another of these skirts, since the pattern is a sentimental favourite of all time for me. It lost a point due to my struggles with the fabric, but if I had to do it all over again I would probably still want the skirt in this same fabric. Feels great on, and like skirt and pattern were meant for each other, like star crossed lovers or something like that, go figure. Next time I will choose something with a little less bulk though.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1693, slubby mustard wool blend
Tshirt; self-drafted, white/grey stripe cotton jersey, details here
Shoes; Diavolina, from Zomp shoes

I thought it might be a good idea to take a few pictures of Cassie wearing one of her own self-made ball gowns, since she has pretty much abandoned her own sewing blog years ago... I'm sure she'll appreciate that I took a few pictures for her one day in the future! I'm a wee bit sad that I have absolutely zero pictures of my own creations from when I was younger.

Cassie made this ball gown for herself three years ago, and wore it for the second time last night when she attended the Australian Chinese Youth Association gala with a group of girlfriends. These pictures are like a re-enactment, taken the morning after the night before! if you like!
Its first outing was to an Amanda Young Foundation ball, and it was at that time teamed with bright blood-red lipstick and fangs. Yup, fangs... she was a vampire! She cut the fangs from fake pinkie nails and stuck them to her teeth with nail glue. Apparently she had to pull the fangs off before she could have dinner though... aah, the trials and tribulations of being a vampire.

The top and skirt are deep moss green silk dupion with the bodice back in black lace. In lieu of a zip at centre back, she made a multi-button band, with 21 closely spaced shank buttons. To make this, she stitched a folded band of black silk satin for the button side, and hand-stitched button loops using black embroidery floss to the lace on the other side. All materials from Fabulous Fabrics.

She used a favourite top pattern, Burda 8609 and melded it with the skirt pieces from NewLook 6401. This is a really gorgeous gown pattern, that she has used once before actually for another different ball gown.... probably I should get her to put that one on for a few pictures too!

Continuing my trip down nostalgia lane, I've made the top from my 1986 Issey Miyake pattern; Vogue 1693...

Fabric: a lightweight, fully embroidered cotton voile in pure-as-the-driven-snow white, a remnant from Potter's Textiles. I had barely enough fabric to squeak out the pattern pieces, and had to lay the belt and front bands across the grain. Since they are interfaced I don't think that's going to affect the efficacy of the blouse too drastically. Lack of fabric forced me to cut the armhole facings from a different white cotton from my stash, provenance long forgotten. White buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.

I'd half forgotten how much I love this blouse pattern but it all came flooding back over me in a happy sentimental wave during the construction of this new blouse. The finishing instructions are wonderful with a truly great attention to detail that you rarely see in a pattern any more; all raw edges are neatly hidden away, either under flat felled seams or neatly turned under and top-stitched down on either side of a seam.

The style is also very much my cuppa tea; loose, asymmetric, interesting. It closes with just two buttons on a gently diagonal crossover front and two crossed belts at the back pull the blousiness in to the small of the back and help define your shape quite nicely.
Happiness scale; 10/10 Say no more!

Details:
Blouse; Vogue 1693, embroidered cotton voile
Trousers; own design, very old, white linen

To complete my Issey Miyake trilogy; the trousers.
Pattern; Vogue 1693, an Issey Miyake design from 1986.
I used a navy blue cotton drill from Spotlight, buttons from Fabulous Fabrics.
Hmmm, navy blue again. Can't explain it but I'm a bit mad for it right now. Navy; so hot right now!
When I finished these and popped them on; I felt quite happy and positive about them, thinking they looked pretty sharp. A bit reminiscent of sailor's pants, which pleases me a lot. And wide legs are IN IN IN. One of my favourite pieces in the Paris autumn/winter collections was Dries van Noten's super wide leg pants; slouchy, relaxed, oversized trousers in the plainest of plain khaki cotton chino. So comfy, so practical, so unfussy, so damn chic. I saw, and I wanted!
So I strutted out confidently to my husband to show him, anticipating a comment along the lines of, hey super cool pants! or something like that. Ha! his reaction: hmmm VERY eighties, aren't they? His tone was not the tone of a man who thought the eighties had anything worth resurrecting, fashion-wise.
*pop*
Bubble burst.
Hmm, well, yes; no denying that they are, most definitely, eighties. A full-on ridgydidge piece of authentic eighties, right here. But I'm an eighties girl. Owning that. And anyway I reckon this shape is pretty NOW too!

In eighties speak we used to say gauchos, but the hip n' happening term now is culottes, whether rightly or wrongly? They are very wide at the waistline and pulled in with four big pleats, held into place with buttoned arrowhead tabs to nip in and define your waist, so have that little something different and interesting about them. They also have satisfyingly deep slanted front pockets, like all the 80's and early 90's Vogues used to have.

Some technical bizzo: the instructions left some parts a little bit shonky/half-done; I went back and unpicked a few spots so I could re-do/overlock to neaten it up inside when I realised that was the case... Also, the construction of the waistband was a little strange, and so I modified it slightly; instead of hand-stitching the short edges of the waistband facing, I wrapped it around over on the outside of the waistband and front, machine-stitched the side seams, then pulling the front back through so the front is all nicely enclosed between the waistband/waistband facing. This results in it all being far more securely stitched together. I still fell-stitched the lower edge of the facing though.

Finally though, I couldn't be happier with the finished product! so I'm deducting just one point for the dodgy waistband construction issues.
Happiness factor; 9/10

Details:
Pants; Vogue 1693, navy blue cotton drill
Top; Nettie Tshirt with breast pocket, Closet Case patterns, details here
Shoes; bensimon, from seed boutique

Imagine that said in an vehhy posh accent along the lines of "are you being served modom?"...
Little anecdote; many years ago I took part in a group craft project, and another lady in the group had clear and firm ideas about what we were to produce, and how. At our first meeting she approached one lady and as a first spoken utterance to her, enquired "do you appliqué?"

Hehe, that's neither here nor there obviously, but it's stuck with me for years and years and still gives me a laugh.
Man I need to get out more...
Anyway...
skirt!

We bought this novelty print cotton drill from Spotlight a few years ago, and Cassie was supposed to make the skirt herself, but you know.. time goes on, you get busy, life takes over, whatevs, and it eventually falls to your mother who is sick to blinking death of looking at this blasted fabric hanging around, gathering dust and generally taking up precious stash space that could be given over to her own fabrics ... gathering dust ahem...
Anyway! time for some interventive action.
I used no pattern but just made it up to fit what she wanted. She wanted high-waisted, close-fitting at the waist and this length, and for the paintbrushes to be situated exactly so high and for not a single skerrick of print to be hidden or broken up in any darts or shaping. I cut two rectangles with no shaping, to maintain the print, put in an invisible zip at centre back, and pinned tapered box pleats to fit her waist, each one going straight at first then tapering narrower for the last third to accommodate her hips. There are four such pleats both front and back.

Pretty easy, once I got going on it! I added a shaped, interfaced facing, and hand-hemmed.
Done!
The one difficulty; inserting the zip centre back was a teeny bit angsty, because I discovered that the paintbrushes are printed just slightly slanty and off-grain... OF COURSE THEY ARE.

I chose that shortest pencil on the fold to be the "sacrificial" pencil through which to cut the centre back seam, and sewed the seam with as narrow seam allowances as practically possible and as close to the pencil/brush on either side as I could get. It passes right on each one, touching the very tippy top of the one at left and scraping the very bottom of the one at right. Phew!

Answer? Yaaas dahhling, we do most certainly Art.

OK, so I couldn't resist downloading Madalynne's free bralette pattern the Sierra and giving it a go! Plus I made the usual two pairs of matching knickers to go with it. These are both the Watson knickers, by Cloth Habit.
Fabrics; pink bamboo knit and pink, slightly glittery, lace from Fabulous Fabrics, all elastics and other findings from Homecraft Textiles
I made this set for Cassie. I bought materials to make a Sierra and Watson set for me too, but mine is quite different in style.

The Sierra bra is a really cute and interesting design for smaller chested ladies, and is something a bit different in a bra design, which I like. Well, we all love a bit of variety, yes? It looks kinda complex on, but it's really a fairly straightforward, wraparound bra; and for a simple soft bra with no shaping or obvious support, does feel nicely secure and snug when worn. And did I mention; it's freeeeeeeeee!

Cassie chose the fabrics, including that pink lace. That lace! Looks so pretty and girlishly innocent and totes adorbs, right?!
Well, so did that kid in the Exorcist, just saying... and unpicking fine-grade slinky stretchy bamboo knit away from delicate lace; tendril by freaking tendril is NOT the joyous meditative pastime to sake and soothe your soul like you want your hobbies to be.
Initially I intended to have the two fabrics entirely overlaid for the whole set, like the bra, and the bra went together really well. Then I made a pair of knickers with the two overlaid like that. The lace then showed itself to be completely wrong for knickers. It was such an ordeal and they looked so hideous that I was just too depressed to even bother salvaging any of it... that got emotionally binned, and I had to walk out to eat chocolate and sulk in front of the TV for an evening.
Went back to it the next morning with renewed vigour. Did think about not having any lace on the knickers at all. But she wanted it to be a nice cohesive set, so some lace had appear somewhere, and it's all worked out, I think. I like the knickers to match the bra but still be different to it, like this.

There's nowhere to put a little decorative bow on the bra, part from just below the shoulder straps like this, and I actually love it! my favourite bit of the bra. It's also a nice way to hide the stitching of bra cup-to-ring. I sewed the bra shoulder straps as two regular ones rather than halter; but she's thinking about that. If she decides she wants the halter I'm gonna change it, because I think the halter is a lot easier to put on in this design.

I think the set did eventually turn out very nice and the bra looks really cute on. Cassie is happy so I'm happy. Well, I'm happy now it's finished.
Happiness factor; well the memory of those failed knickers hasn't faded away completely, so I'm awarding this project 5/10 overall. It's gone up since yesterday, believe me!

Bra; the Sierra by Madalynne, free to download here
Knickers; the Watson by Cloth Habit

... for me!
Fabric; slithery, slinky-malinki poly knit from Fabulous Fabrics in a divinely luxuriously glossy mocha shade; all elastic and other findings from Homecraft Textiles. I wanted to make a Sierra bra for myself too; and while I love lace-y underthingies, this time I went for smooth, sleek and sophisticated, with a grownup vibe more befitting to an ancient old crone such as myself.
Haha, no really, I do have a nice selection of frillies already and just wanted a change of pace :)
Features; none. Letting the fabric glow on its own with absolutely nil embellishment.
LOVE this unadorned look, I mean I adore pretty bits and bobs too but sometimes the simplest and plainest of styles in a sophisticated colour and liquid-y fabric like this feels just as gorgeous!

I cut the back double layered, clean finished the seams within the layers, and also lined the front/cups with self fabric to about centre front. I just left the lining CF straight edge floating unfinished on the inside; it's not going to fray or anything and doesn't show up at all. The remainder of the fronts/straps are single layered.
That black hook and eye tape at the back is bothering me, but well, options here are pretty limited. I've found Homecraft Textiles to have the absolute best array of lingerie elastics to be found in Perth. Well worth hitting up.
2x pairs of undies, both super plain Watson briefs. Boring and barely worth a photo... close-up for elastic-attachment detail purposes only.

Full set: so normally I love my things to be photographed looking artfully arranged to best show them off but couldn't resist going the full Merchant and Mills here.

artistic dishevelment and not a randomly chucked down pile of clothes at all

What is that aesthetic anyway? just kind of throw it down in a messed up crumpled heap on the floor, y'know? just like when your teenagers kick their grotty clothes aside as they step into the shower or something, and leave them there. For days, if you don't ~~nag~~ gently point it out.
*deep breath*
Embrace the crumple.
Feel the crumple.
BE. The crumple.

Hehe, not to diss Merchant and Mills! I actually have the workbook myself... a recent birthday pressie, and heavy hints had nothing to do with it at all! *cough cough* and I love a lot of the stuff in it! Just that the screwed-up-and abandoned-on-the-floor thing cracks me up. The new cool... OK!
Actually, my clothing is more usually kept like below...
Aaaah, that's better! *sigh of contended happiness* ooo, did someone say neat freak? Order and method, my friends. Order and method:)

Happiness factor; plain, but supremely happy with that plainness, and I love the wraparound bra style; it's nice to have something a bit different. Construction, smooth sailing all the way. For visual purposes I'm deducting one point for the black hook and eyes at the back. 9/10 :)

Bra; the Sierra by Madalynne, free to download here
Knickers; the Watson briefs by Cloth Habit.

There are a bajillion great posts out there with good tips for sewing lingerie; hopefully this one is adding one or two new pieces of info into the pot...

Pattern pieces: If your pattern pieces are half ones it's well worth doubling them to make full pattern pieces, that do not need to be placed on a fold. This is useful for many reasons; one is pattern placement when it comes to lining up lace motifs, another is getting the most economical layout on a small piece of possibly expensive lace.
Also if your pieces are to be cut on the bias... some knickers patterns are suitable for fine wovens like Liberty, and need to be cut on the bias and it's only about 1000 times easier with a full pattern piece than folding the fabric accurately for a "cut on the fold". Mark the bias line on all new pattern pieces too.

Usually I save paper by taping together scrap pieces or even newspaper to make the other half pieces; for frequently used patterns, or if the original is a fragile tissue paper pattern, the pieces can be traced as whole new ones on thin, sheer plastic which is more durable (above). For this I use plastic table-clothing, sold in 30m rolls from the party section of Spotlight.

Also, I jot on the actual pattern pieces the lengths of elastic needed, to save re-measuring for each new project.

When sewing the ends of the rings and sliders; cut, pin and sew the pairs together and at the same time. It's hand down the best way to guarantee the two sides will be identical, if such things as symmetry are important to you. Actually the same goes for anything there will be a "pair" of in the project.

Satin ribbon trim; I always "heat seal" the cut ends of ribbon bows so they don't fray during wear. Just hold the cut end of the ribbon close to a candle flame and carefully watch it as you sloooowly move it closer; it gets to a point where it starts to melt away in the heat. This happens pretty quickly so you need to keep a close eye on it and pull it away the very second you see it happening.

Hook and eye tape: I prefer to buy separate hook and eye tape if it's available but my closest store sells only "bra extenders". I've found these to be an adequate substitute if I can't find the proper arrangement; the pieces can just be picked apart quite easily. If the "hook" piece is too long the extra length can be cut away and the edge zig-zagged. It's not as neatly finished or as professional looking, but it's perfectly fine in a pinch.

Sewing edging elastic onto lightweight and super-stretchy fabrics ...
Super stretchy fabrics are obviously perfect for underthingies but also obviously come with their own little challenges... and one of them is the dreaded "lettuce leaf" edge happening.

yes, this is my own work *hangs head in shame*

I've found it very helpful to sew a long basting or stay stitching 6mm (1/4") from all edges before attaching any elastic. I know, straight stitch on knits, *horrified gasp* it's a huge no-no and I could get blasted for this! but meh, it works out pretty good for me :)

I mean, everyone has their own, slightly unique way of attaching elastic, I'm of the school of thought that whatever works, works; and lots of different ways are going to work.
The lettuce leaf occurs when the elastic is overstretched while sewing it to the edge of the fabric, and it's pretty easy to do this when sewing with a particularly stretchy fabric. It's better for the elastic to be sewn to the edge of the fabric "flat" that is, for the elastic to be stretched to the minimal amount and for the fabric to be stretched not at all, while sewing them together. A stay stitching helps to prevent this, and after the elastic is attached and before the final zig-zag you can pull out those initial basting/stay-stitching threads, if you like; to keep things looking nice and neat and tidy.

New skirt.
The above picture is showing what I actually wore out and about today... please note the far less glamorous shoes than featured in the remainder of this post!
Pattern; Vogue 1521, a Perry Ellis design from 1985.
Fabric; taupe and white silk/linen mix from Fabulous Fabrics, with a crisp and rather dry and paper-y texture to it. The taupe was purchased as a remnant, and I added the panel of ivory onto the bottom edge. I added it underneath the hem, leaving a little overhang of the brown, so it looks more like an underskirt than a pieced addition. Pockets are cut from some nondescript cream-coloured cottony stuff, from a bundle of scraps Mum gave to me.

So; this is another thing to fit in with my vintage pattern pledge; only my version is terribly unfaithful to the original design. It is supposed to have an absolute truckload of pleats up the top there. I got halfway through making it, pinned the pleats and all and I and suddenly just hated it, and veered whimsically off and away for a random new look.
But, I'm still counting this as part of my vintage pattern pledge :) ... not because it's almost the end of the year and I'm running out of time to fulfil it ... ;) well, okaaaay, there is totally that! ;) Anyway technically these are all the pattern pieces cut out right and they're all joined up in the ordinary way and all; just that instead of multiple pleats there is just one giant pleat both front and back. I wrapped the extra width back upon itself, folding the same way on both the front and the back. And bought it into my waist more with some discreet darts along the top, both front and back, and overlapped the R side pocket with the front pleat a little bit too. This worked out quite well, I think.
Moral of the story; if you're hating where something is going but you really do want it to work, because you really love the fabric and don't want to waste it, or can see some potential in there somewhere ... DON'T GIVE UP! There will ALWAYS be a way to make it work out!
Being that it is so unfaithful to the original look, is this a cheat on my vintage pattern pledge? Meh, I'm not angsting over whether I'm sticking to the letter of the law all that much. Generally speaking I prefer an avant garde skirt over a safe one.

I maintained the L side pocket closure, which I've always though was a brilliant closure/pocket combination deal. I should do these more often! And instead of button/buttonhole I sewed on some long tweed straps, made from sewing up a scrap of bias cut piping tweed that was wrapped around a bundle of fabric I bought at the Morrison remnants sale a few years ago. It's very nice tobacco-brown tweed and I always knew I'd like to use it featured somewhere in a thing. I really like how it its rough matte texture looks against the smooth dull sheen of the silk.

Wanna see something funny? here is my 20 year old self wearing the top I made for myself using this same pattern, thirty years ago. I know I made both the top and skirt when the pattern was first released, but strangely I can't remember any of the details of that first skirt! A bit sad too; I know there are loads of things from my younger years that I've forgotten, simply because I have no photos of them.. Here, I'm visiting a rose garden in Pinjarra with my mother and grandmother. I totally would not remember that outing without the photo. It's sad how much of our memories are only cemented in later years by the existence of a picture, to jog them.

Project happiness factor; given my rising hate for it halfway through (bad) followed by serendipitous ad-libbing and eventual satisfaction (good) I'm awarding this one 8/10.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1521, a Perry Ellis design from 1985, taupe and ivory silk/linen
Top; my own design; blue jersey dyed black, details here
Shoes; low sandals are 2 baia vista from Zomp shoes... high black are Diavolina from Zomp shoes

...some new summer shorts :)

Pattern; ye olde faithful Burda 7723. Someone alerted me to the fact that this pattern has been discontinued…. boooo! This is fair dinkum one of my favourite patterns… goodness knows why Burda would let go such a nice flattering design as this :( However, last time I was in the fabric store I had a good squizz at the pattern catalogues, and while there are no Burdas like this any more, I noticed Vogue 8836 cut to shorts length might just be a pretty good substitute? It has the same high rise with deep/wide waistband, the same slightly flared leg, the same slanted front pockets, the same double pleats at top to enable decent hand-shoving access to said pockets.

One thing I really loooove about the Burda pattern is the way the pocket piece extends right into the fly; which gives you a kind of inbuilt tummy control panel right across the front. I don’t know if the Vogue has this feature but if not that would be sad, since this is a GIANT WIN!

Alterations; just the usual, the pattern doesn’t instruct to put a protective placket behind the fly but I always put one in. It's an easy add-on and always a nice finishing touch to any fly front.

Fabric; some lovely stretch sateen from Fabulous Fabrics; soft, sturdy without being very thick, and the print has a sharp, painterly appearance, like old-fashioned ceramics. Mum bought it for me for my birthday. Actually, the fabric is very lovely and totally deserves to be something far more dressy. Just that I’m a funny bun when I get an idea in my head, sorry; and I really fancied some luxe-ish shorts. I’m excited about the thought of wearing them both pretty pretty style, with my ultra feminine broderie anglais top; and also more contrast-y like, with my more masculine, utilitiarian khaki linen shirt too.

The lovely Margo recently posted about showing your sewing creations in action … which inspired the following bit of awkwardness, ahem.

Thought bubble emanating from Sienna; what the flippin’ heck is she doing NOW!????

She knows, you see, that in real life this particular action is pretty much non-existent from my daily repertoire of actions, haha. Pegging clothes on the line or taking out the rubbish would be more realistic, if slightly less riveting for a picture.

Okay! wrapping it up...

Happiness factor; well, a favourite pattern and totally lovely fabric, all going together as smooth as silk. I’m giving this project 10/10 :)

Details:

Shorts; Burda 7723, floral sateen

Tshirt; the Nettie, Closet Case patterns, white bamboo jersey. details here

Cardigan; midnight blue Miette, details here
Thongs; Havaianas

I took some time out from making something far more time-consuming and complicated, ahem Alabama Chanin, cough cough.... ooo did I once say I would never get addicted to Alabama Chanin??? yaas, going back on my word, guilty as charged!! Anyway, I took a day to put together this simple little cardigan from some scraps. It's a light and nothingy-to-it sort of a thing with no closure except for a necktie at the bust level. A little something to throw over a summery ensemble on cooler summer evenings, or to cope with air conditioning.
It's mostly made from scraps; a piece of paprika stretch knit from Fabulous Fabrics, leftover from my paprika Nettie bodysuit and I bought a little extra to get out the pieces for this cardigan. Once again I used the fabric wrong side out, because I prefer the duller, deeper, richer colour of it.
Speaking of Nettie, I actually made this using the Nettie pattern too! just with a touch of ad-libbing. Such a good basic pattern and a fantabulous springboard to a lot of other variations. I can honestly see myself making like a tonne of these over my lifetime, with slightly different additions, subtractions and/or bits and bobs going on.

Changes to the pattern:
I cut size 18 which is a coupla sizes bigger than my usual, so as to get a looser "cardigan" fit rather than the skin-tight bodysuit fit; cut it to hip level with a wider shoulder, a low V-neck, and split the front up the middle. I added a wide band all along the bottom edges and wide cuffs to the edges of the sleeves, a long wide necktie, which is basically a very long skinny rectangle sewn along the top edge and with the "tie" edges sewn right side together, with pointy points on the ends of the ties, then turned right side out. The remaining gap of the necktie is slip-stitched closed to the cardigan on the inside.

The front edges I finished with strips of red crepe, itself leftover from my infinity dress here. This was sewn on to the front edges, turned inside and topstitched down along the outside. It's a nice stable edge and the crepe takes away any tendency to stretch out, but I'm not wowed by my efforts here and in the making of this thing I conceived a much better way of doing the cardigan fronts. I'll probably make another one of these pretty soon, incorporating my imagined improved way of finishing the edge, but I'll need a lot more fabric than the scraps I used for this one.
Hmmm, that's all I need; an excuse to go fabric shopping!

Project happiness factor; front edge satisfactory but I'm a bit meh about it and I've thought of a better way of doing it... otherwise it's not too bad and I'm happy. 9/10

Details:
Cardigan; my own design modifications to the Nettie bodysuit, by Closet Case patterns, paprika stretch
Dress; Vogue 1194, floral stretch, details and my review of this pattern here
Thongs; Rusty
Sunnies; RayBan

The very lovely Lisa, of Lisa's Carolina Handmade very kindly sent to me some really beautiful and special fabric; some 100% organic cotton jersey from the Alabama Chanin store in the United States. How sweet is that?!!! I'm so grateful to Lisa... and so excited about what I could do with this very precious stuff. Obviously only an Alabama Chanin project would do. SO I've been busy planning, plotting and generally scheming as to what could do the fabric justice.
The colour is Dusk, which is a kind of blue-y/greeny/grey with a mostly blue-ish bent to it, if that makes any sense. I had enough for a skirt and also to fully bind and appliqué a tank top. I liked the idea of another allover, fully embellished Alabama Chanin project since I reeeeeeeeally love my first ensemble; so I bought some plain white cotton jersey from Spotlight, broke out the dyes and got cracking. My aim was to make some colours to blend in nicely with the Dusk. Since the dusk is a mostly blue with green/grey tinge, I was going for some mostly green with blue/grey tinge, and also some mostly grey with a blue/green tinge; meaning they will hopefully blend in really nicely with each other. Several days of dyeing and some more dyeing and then some over-dyeing to fine-tune some of the colours; and I have a nice range of blue/green/grey shades to go nicely with my Dusk..

Dusk is the middle one in the lower row

I used iDye for natural fabrics in a mix of colours; mostly Royal Blue, Golden Yellow and Brown. I really liked the shades of grey I was getting with the iDye Brown to "dirty" the various teals, but the "grey" wasn't quite grey enough, so over dyed those pieces further with just a touch of iDye in Black. This turned out just close enough to perfect! The colours are a little blotchy and swirly and I am very happy with that, since the Alabama Chanin jersey has a veeeery subtly motley tone to it too. I really like the contrasts and variations in tones of the fabrics.

The next thing was to choose a stencil design. I toyed with the idea of going with Anna's Garden again, like with my first Alabama Chanin project and also the project I stencilled for Mum. I really LOVE that design! But of course I eventually decided I should go with something new. I finally chose Magdalena from the Alabama Chanin website, available here. I resized it slightly, traced it onto drafting film from Jacksons art supplies, cut out the stencil. I'd nearly finished tracing before it dawned on me that the upper part of the design is actually identical to the lower part, just on a smaller scale! *light bulb*

At that point I had started to realise that smaller part of the design might be too small a scale for what I wanted to do, so I've pretty much decided to just use the lower, larger scale part for my project. I haven't ruled out using the entire design on a future project but for this one I'm just going for the one size motif, repeated all over. :)

I bought some spray paint from Bunnings; White Knight "Squirts", colour Flat Black, to stencil the design to the back of the upper fabric. A few experimental "sprays" onto newspaper made me realise this was intense stuff! So I cut a piece of silk organza, the type used for making silk screens and laid it over the stencil.

This lightened the spray considerably, the resultant coverage is satisfactorily sheer and shadowy, and not so much of an intense thick solid coat of paint on my fabric like it would have been otherwise.

At this point I decided that I quite liked the look of it printed just like this actually! and gave serious thought to dyeing more fabric, printing it like this and making it up as the finished thing; boom done. Hmmm, do I really need two of the same print in my wardrobe?

Maybe not... damn.

I've started cutting out my motifs and just lightly sticking them in place to the base fabric. For this I use acrylic glue from Bunnings and just applied the lightest of thin coats of glue to the motifs. I did this using the cut-off finger of an old rubber glove, dipped it with glue, which I then dabbed sparingly onto the back of each motif. It's not a very secure attachment but it's not meant to be permanent, just enough to hold them in place, rolled up, until I can get everything stitched on securely.

And then it's on to the process of stitching and appliquéing! This could take some time, but with a bit of ~~luck~~ dedication and application and doing just a little bit at a time, frequently; my outfit could even be ready for next autumn.

In fact; yes, I think I can do it. I'm better with a deadline and having a definite concrete goal to work towards keeps me on track... soooo I'm making the pledge now!

I AM going to finish this by the end of March, next year.

Now I just have to keep my promise to myself.... fingers crossed!

It's a yearly ritual; summer approaching, new bathers.

I'm very hard on my bathers. I hardly ever wash the salt water or chlorine out; they get scrumpled up in a wet, sandy, salty towel, left in the boot of the car, dried out under the full blast of the harsh Australian sun. I occasionally toss them in the washing machine but for the most part they are expected to do solid hard duty with the bare minimum of care. Some fabrics perform better under these conditions than others, but I don't stress about it for even one second if they don't. I just plan for a new pair per year, no worries; and don't give it a thought besides some pleasant day-dreaming about what colour/print I should have next time.

This year, that decision was taken out of my hands by my very practical daughter, who announced she wanted to give me fabric for my bathers for my birthday. So sweet! Well, apart from the fact that she then had absolute control over the colour I would be wearing! Aaaagh! giving over control of my wardrobe, so difficult for control-freak-me! But, one sometimes has to bow down and accept the dictums of another. And I think it's good for me, helps me for a short while to relax my iron-clad expectations for myself and frequently surprises and delights me.

So, Cassie and I went shopping for the fabric in Fabulous Fabrics together; and I hopefully pointed out a nice navy blue and white striped fabric. Aah, navy blue! you sure have me in your clutches at the mo! I briefly entertained a vision of myself in some Fwanch-inspired, nautically navy/white striped number with a chic wide-brimmed hat set at an elegant angle, paddling about in the shallows in a ladylike manner.

But no! I had not reckoned with the even more iron-clad will of my daughter; who firmly told me that navy/white stripes were so boring and that I would just look the same as everyone else.
POP *bubble bursting*

I was told I would be wearing this nice shade of brick instead.
You know, we have this saying in Australia about being built like a brick, er, house... * Haha! I jest; obviously this deep coral/terracotta colour is very much moi, a tonne nicer for my colouring than navy and white, I admit it; and I think it also looks rather striking set against the sea-and-sky blues and sandy whites of summer. It's a bit Uluru actually, a very Australian colour.
Cassie chose well, very well indeed :)

Pattern is ye old fave; McCalls 2772; a halter neck bikini which I have modified to be a tankini, and with the matching bikini bottoms. I was thinking; one day I should write for myself a little tute on how to do this. Each time I do it I kind of have to think back through first principles. Good for my brain, yes, but what if I stuff it up one year?

Details:
Bathers; McCalls 2772, bikini pattern modified to be a tankini
Hat; Country Road (from many years ago)
Location; Leighton Dog Beach

*just to explain; my Mum reads my blog sometimes, and I would get ticked off if I finished that there saying... yes, even at my age!

New dress!
Well actually it's not really new at all, in fact I made it barely a year ago... it just feels like a brand spanking new thing somehow just because it's a brand spanking new colour.

I thought some of the dye batches I'd made up for my Alabama Chanin project still had some oomph in them, and of course I am incapable of throwing out something that still has a use. I absolutely have to scrounge around to find a further use for it first. I selected this dress as a suitable ~~victim~~, ahem candidate for an update. Its original pale baby blue was never really very good for me, really. I liked and have worn this dress a lot, but I had to admit the colour didn't really like me back. It washed me right out.
But I still love the fabric; it has an unusual and very charming thing about it, some sort of hard translucent plastic has been "splattered" all over it that sparkle in the sun rather prettily, like random sequins or something. I only bought the fabric in the first place because I fell in love with those sparkly splatter-dots.
Anyway; I soaked it, plunged it into an old, cold bath of various mixed up dyes; iDye in Royal Blue, Golden Yellow and small amount of Brown, and left it overnight. The dye had so much staying power... the colour came out incredibly strong!

The buttons on the sleeves were white plastic and I was prepared to change them if the white stood out glaringly hideous afterwards. However the dye had SO much further oomph left in it that it actually stained the buttons teal as well. Win!
Another little happy side effect is that I think the darker colour makes my beloved sparkly splatter-dots stand out even MORE than they did before.

Moral of the story; you love something but its colour doesn't love you back? Dye is most definitely your friend, and well worth a shot :)

Do not be afraid of The Dye!

Details:

Dress; dress "f", from the Stylish Dress Book, by Yoshiko Tsukiori, dyed linen, first appearing in its original, powder blue form here.

Thongs; Havaianas

Location: Canal Rocks, Dunsborough

Remember recently I made a little paprika cardigan? and I wasn't super happy with my construction technique of the fronts and could visualise a far better method of getting that front edge nice and neat ... well, of course I could not rest until I had seen it through.
Voila; new, stormy-grey-blue cardigan
Essentially, the gist is to cut each front piece on the fold through the centre front; meaning the fronts are double thickness, with one half acting as a facing. The fold at centre front is its own neat finish with no further need to do anything at all to it. Also, the front plus facing enclose the lower band between their two layers. For this reason, this technique works very well with very thin knits.
Fabric; thin blue/grey marl cotton jersey, leftover from Sam's hoodie and originally a remnant bought from the Morrison sale, although when I say remnant there was at least 5m of it! Morrison is tres generous with their "remnants", to say the least! I still have quite a lot left.
Pattern; I used the Nettie from Closet Case patterns, which is my go-to basic now for form-fitting Tshirts/bodysuits, however any tried and true Tshirt pattern could be used for this same modification.

I cut my pieces like so: top parts; fabric folded along the right hand side; with the top two horizontal bands being the "rough cut" lower edge band and the sleeve cuff bands respectively; underneath are the back cut on the fold, the sleeves and at the left is the long neckband. This last is joined right sides together along one short edge to make a double length band on the grain.
After cutting these: the fabric is then re-folded in from each edge so as to cut those two fronts (below) on a fold, with the centre front laid on each fold. Cut from the inside shoulder edge out to the CF fold at bustline level on a straight diagonal line, to create the V-neck opening edge.

front piece at left is folded in half, front piece at right opened out along CF fold

Construction details:
first, stitch fronts to back at shoulders. Sandwich the back between the two fronts so that the seam allowances get tucked away between the layers. You have to twist it around it in a weird funny-looking way but it does work out.

Stitch front to back at side seams, keeping the front facing free.
Then trim the cardigan to the length you want it to be, taking into account the width of the lower band. Measure the around the lower edge to determine the length of the lower band and cut it to fit; allowing for a 1cm seam allowance at each end.
Pin the band to the lower edge of the cardigan, again keeping the front facings free. Stitch, between the seam allowances, right sides together.

front facing free

Turn the band up in half, lengthwise, right sides together, and stitch the short edges closed, ceasing stitching at the end of the previous stitching. Turn bands right side out and press.

Now fold the facing to the outside, laying it over the lower bands and keeping raw edges even, and stitch lower edge seam through all layers, keeping the stitching just a whiskers' width outside the previous stitching. The reason for keeping it just outside is so that the previous stitching does not show through on the right side of the band.
Now when you pull the band out and turn it all back right side out, the seam allowances are nice and neatly hidden away out of sight. Yay!

outside of cardigan? inside? impossible to tell which is which!

To anchor the front facing to the side seams, I opted to simply lay the front facing down to the side seam allowances, aligning raw edges, and top-stitch from the right side, 6mm away from the seam. The raw edge won't fray, and it looks reasonably neat stitched down, also the top-stitching also accomplishes a sort of faux-felling of the seam allowances too. However this is definitely not ideal and I have to admit I have since thought of a different and better way of doing this bit too! so there may well have to be yet another little cardi in my near future... to see that thought through too... eeek! am I getting a bit obsessive or what? hmmm could be could be... ;)

Sleeves; same technique as for every other Tshirt/cardigan ever invented. Namely, stitch the sleeve seams, set sleeves in the armhole and stitch. The raw edges can be finished with overlocking if desired.
Attach sleeve cuffs, for this I nearly always employ this method, which gives a nice neat finish I think.
Last step; the neckband: pin the long neckband to the raw edges of the neck edge, including the facing, keeping raw edges even, right sides together and stitch.

Fold the ties in half along the length, right sides together and stitch the long tie ends together, starting at the endpoints of the previous stitching. Stitch the short ends in a diagonal point, if desired.

Trim, turn the ties right sides out and press.
Turn under the seam allowances of the remaining raw edge of the neckband, press, pin and slip-stitch closed by hand.

Finito!

Details:
Cardigan, the Nettie, by Closet Case patterns with my own design modifications
Tshirt (under); another Nettie, white jersey, details here
Shorts; Burda 7723, pinstripe linen, details here
Thongs: Havaianas
Location; Coode St jetty, South Perth

Hello!
I've made a new slip; which looks superficially rather plain and boring, belying the hours of of care that has been lavished upon it, haha! Bias hemlines! aaaaugh! *insert Munchian scream here*
Pattern; the Ruby slip, designed by Sheryll of pattern scissors cloth. I downloaded it years ago but this is the first time I've used it! I've wanted to, but actually felt a little shy of doing so since she made her blog private for quite a long time. Anyhow, now she's back ... yay! and so I feel ok about using and linking to her pattern again. Thank you so much for the wonderful pattern, Sherry!
Fabric; a fine and slithery ivory crepe from FabulousFabrics. The slip is cut on the bias, so hurrah for large-scale floor tiles! I can't say how many times I've found them super useful for lining up grain lines, selvedges, bias lines etc etc when laying and cutting out my pattern pieces. And especially when you're dealing with a slippery slithery fabric like crepe, which is so dodgy it can deviate and deform at the slightest provocation.

Sherry's pattern is designed for a lace bodice but I cut my pieces all from the crepe, with a double layered bodice front and back. The skinny skinny spaghetti straps are encased within the two layers on the front bodice, whereas at the back (pictured below) I hand-tacked them inside the bodice, not within the two layers, to enable easy unpicking/readjustment in the case of the straps stretching out over time. The under stitching of the bodice lining is visible in this picture here too.

Those skinny straps, by the way; I know everyone probably has their own individual way of turning them; I tie the seam thread ends through the eye of a wool needle and let it drop/push it through through the tube, turning the tube out. A wool needle is generally quite blunt enough to use for this purpose and unlikely to get stuck in your fabric on the way, but if you're worried about the point being a little too sharp you can always put it through eye first.
Also; cut your straps a few centimetres longer than required, so you can trim off the ends that invariably turn out a little scrappy-looking after turning.

I sewed all seams as French seams but just overlocked the bodice-to-dress seam on the inside to finish it *blush*
Picking my battles here...!
The slip then spent a week hanging up on Bessie to let that bias drop out as much as possible. Then I spent aaaaaages measuring and measuring and re-measuring and double checking that hemline, first on both Bessie then myself to be absolutely sure it's straight, before cutting it to length.
The length is determined by the fact that this slip is tailor-made to go under another dress I'm in the process of making right now, by the way; but I do hope to wear it with other things too, of course :)

In the close-up above, at the very lower edge of the picture can be seen some white stay-stitching along that hem... if the fabric is very light and slithery like this, I generally stay-stitch a stitching guideline, situated a few millimetres outside the measured lower edge of a bias-cut garment, on the machine. Then I trim the seam allowance outside that, it gets rolled up and I stitch along and into that machine stitching when hemming. The benefits of this stay-stitching are threefold: it not only makes it a heckuvva lot easier to stitch a hand-rolled hem, it stabilises the fabric substantially and prevents the bias from stretching out too much while you're stitching, the dreaded lettuce leaf edge! AND also keeps your hem on the straight and narrow as it were, keeping it even and helps avoid any little dips, ducks and dives in the final product. Even the best hand-roller is bound to roll a little bit more, a little bit less every now and again. Nit-picky; I know, but every little bit helps I think, and after all that careful measuring to ensure the hemline is perfectly even, it makes sense to safeguard it and keep it as straight as is humanly possible for the stitching of it too, yes?
Also as seen in the picture; I often don't "roll" the French-seamed side seam under twice at the hem either, but turn it up just the once for its short bit of hemline... why? frequently it's too bulky and often creates a little dip or worse, a "flip-out" of the hem at that point if I've tried to force it. Probably my bad sewing, but there it is, I get better results like this!

Recently I was asked by Two Blue Birdies; a Melbourne based, online fabric and haberdashery store to review their Stash Box. What is the Stash Box, you might ask? Well, it is like a little mystery box of fabric and haberdashery goodies. Once a month, the girls at Two Blue Birdies select a colour co-ordinated range of crafty things from their range of fabrics, felt, patterns and haberdashery and send it out to you.
The box I received contained the following bits and bobs;
a pattern for a stuffed toy hedgehog, 4 pieces of fabric, 2 squares of felt, two spools of thread, 4 buttons, a soluble marking pen, and a length of mini pompom trim. This last is ultra cute; I've not come across this before and it is cute!

It was fun waiting for and receiving the box, and opening it to see what was inside! I took it along to my local craft group to get their opinion and they all agreed that it is a pretty cute and fun way to get a new little range of goodies to play with. If you do crafty things with your children/grandchildren; and/or if you yourself love crafting and fiddling about making cute little bits and bobs then this is a terrific way to get a new boost to the craft supply box each month.
The deal sounds pretty flexible; if you don't need a box that month you can easily opt out of the subscription as long as you get in touch with Two Blue Birdies before the date of postage. And conversely, if you don't have or don't want a subscription but really like the look of the stash box that month, you can buy just a box at a time, supplies permitting and with no need to lock yourself into a subscription.

What did I make with the contents of my stash box? well, since Two Blue Birdies were so generous as to send me the box for free, and I'm all about paying it forward... I really wanted to do something good with it. By that I mean, something unselfish, for once! I know, we seamsters all joke about sewing selfishly, myself included! and heaven knows I sew plenty for myself.
So I hunted about for a local charity and almost immediately found Tiny Sparks WA.
Tiny Sparks is devoted to helping women experiencing a high-risk pregnancy and babies born sick or premature. Obviously donations are welcome, and one way to get involved is to be a part of the knitting and sewing community that work to provide a gift of special clothes for the babies for when they leave hospital and go to their own homes. You can read more about the charity and how to get involved on their website here, and the site is regularly updated to notify items that are particularly low in stock, and currently required. Importantly, the site also has the free patterns for the particular clothing and beanies that fit the babies and their requirements. These four little outfits here are all for size up to 1.6kg. I know, so tiny!!!!! This isn't even the smallest size!

Initially I thought to make two boys' outfits and two girls' outfits; however the fabrics, while they were sorta unisex in colour, seemed to my eye to be quite feminine in style, so I ended up making four girls' outfits. However! of course I do not want the boys to miss out! so pretty soon I will be making some boys' outfits, to make up for the imbalance. Because I will be doing this again. In fact, I enjoyed making these so much that I will probably make this a regular project, as long as there is a demand.
I bought baby yarn from Spotlight to knit the matching beanies. The Tiny Sparks website outlines quite specific requirements regarding fabrics; all fabrics must be new, soft, lightweight cotton; and beanies are to be knitted from new, machine-washable yarn preferably the acrylic/wool mix OR 100% acrylic, that is specifically designed for babies' knitwear. I bought a ball each in white and red, so as to make each one different. The white has a chevron design and the red one is moss stitch. The two-colour ones are plain stocking stitch, one with a Where's Wally like stripe and the other with a few rows of simple fair isle, of alternating one red stitch, one white stitch.

The dresses do not have closures on them yet, because they require specialised plastic snaps; I'm not familiar with it so didn't want to risk putting the wrong thing on. In any case, Tiny Sparks encourages you to send in the clothing sans closure so they can finish that bit themselves.
So there you have it: four teeny tiny little baby outfits! I've already sent them off... and although I will probably never know, I certainly hope that a parent likes a set enough to choose it for their baby; absolutely nothing would make me happier than for that to happen!
Thank you so much to Two Blue Birdies, for giving me the impetus to get on and do something for a very worthwhile cause :)

Also! courtesy of Two Blue Birdies, I am offering up the pattern for the cute little Hollie Hedgehog for a giveaway! If you would like this pattern, maybe to make some little Christmas pressies then please either leave a comment below stating so, OR send me an email; before this Friday, 4th December. and I will randomly select a recipient. I've received lots of emails telling me that comments are for some annoying reason not going through on my blog; trust me, I'm working on it! So, if you are unable to comment, then please do contact me by email instead and I'll still put you in the draw. My email address can be found by clicking on the mid blue "envelope" button, up there with my media icons, at top right :)
Obviously, if you don't want to enter the draw for the pattern but still would like to comment, then by all means, do so. Like everyone, I love comments!

Please note; as always there are no affiliate links on my blog

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