1st – 8th May

so can we even believe this year is the 10th anniversary of me-made May?!! so amazing!  Of course I took part again, because I’m completely unable to resist any sort of wardrobe challenge, and also because I absolutely love it!  Also; I apologise for the following distracted and sort disjointed post because today is the day before our family’s Big Day, and I’m just a little… um, time-poor?!! and just kind banged this one out.  It’s unsatisfactory, I know.  I’m sorry!

I wore 100% self-made clothing each day! including my shoes, underwear and hosiery, and only made one exception of the evening of the 30th when we met Kelly’s parents – our new in-laws! – for an introductory dinner; when I decided to wear my rtw black booties, but I’m going to give myself a pass for that particular special occasion!  Social-media-wise, I joined in on instagram, posting a picture of my outfit each day to my stories with pattern details.  The daily outfits have all been put together in a saved story; Me-Made May 2019 which you can view all in one go, if you should so desire, but no one reading this will probably so desire since all the pics are here too.  Ha!

9th – 16th May

I do feel really bad that I wasn’t able to be as social as I have in the past, not much chatting or commenting because I have just been so unnaturally distracted and super-busy with getting ready for our big day tomorrow, don’t you hate people who brag about being super busy?? I sure do, but for me this month it’s just the plain and simple truth.  But I’m looking forward now to getting full-on back into the happy busy chit-chat in the online sewing community that I LOVE.

17th -24th May

My outfits: a lot of times I just resorted to previously tried and true outfit combinations that I’d worn before and knew that I loved, so just slipped them on without much thought, but I did try to think of a few new combinations.  Some combinations are more successful than others!

I’d consciously tried to wear different garments everyday to mix it up and really get through my wardrobe; and was nearly completely successful!  Only two things got doubled up during the month: my cream cotton cardigan, and my navy blue Miette cardigan both got worn twice during the month.  Oh, apart from my black tights, and all my self-made shoes, all of which got multiple wears.

25th – 31st May,

including the evening of the 30th May in which I glammed up a little

Also: everyday I wore my Me-Made May 2019 pin, that Zoe kindly sent to me and a few of the other OG girls.  So cute! Thank you so much, Zoe!

The post me-made May 2019 appeared first on Handmade by Carolyn.

So, I made my own outfit for Tim and Kelly’s wedding too, of course!  I’m posting about this outfit before the wedding dress, partly because I’m waiting for the professional photos … a social media blackout was imposed for the wedding, although of course I was far too occupied chatting to all our friends and relatives to even think about taking out my phone a lot of the time anyway!!  I did take a coupla snaps during our getting-ready period, and during the reception, but for about 99% of the day my phone stayed firmly silent, neglected and untouched in my bag.  And honestly, that’s the way important celebrations should be done anyway, I think!

If there’s a nice professional picture of my outfit from the wedding, I will edit later to put it here.   But in the meantime these’ll do…

I used Vogue 1537, a Kay Unger design.  I bought this pattern ages ago and have always wanted to use it for some special occasion outfit.  What could be more special than my son’s wedding?!!

I knew in my head exactly the fabric I wanted to make it out of… textured damask or brocade ideally a nice warm light pink, though actually dark pink, would have been ok or anything even remotely pink would have been considered actually.  Yes, pink is my current obsession, I may have mentioned that once or twice before, hehe…. anyway, do you think I could find anything even vaguely pink? of course not! despite the fact that pink is allegedly the colour of the season and although I scoured through every single fabric shop in Perth and Tokyo, and even hunted through the offerings of several online stores with the single minded determination of a sniffer dog.  Ultimately a failed sniffer dog with absolutely nothing to show for a heckuvva lot of sniffing though, sadly…

I found a few damasks at Fabulous Fabrics, less than a handful of colour choices, and the colour that was the most acceptable to me was this ruby red silk.  Admittedly, it is a lovely colour.  I did consult with Kelly as to whether she thought it too bright – I didn’t want to be be too conspicuous!!  and luckily she gave it a big thumbs up  

The dress has a fairly plain front, which I love! with a shallow scooped, wide neckline giving a 60s-chic, almost Jackie Kennedy feel to it!  The visual interest here is in the back; a deep low V with wide straps to hold the two sides stable, and which also fortuitously happen to hide one’s bra strap.  Handy!

The dress has neckline facings, and is fully lined with deep navy/gunmetal blue lining fabric, also from Fabulous Fabrics.

I bought the deep maroon zip from either Spotlight? or Fabulous Fabrics? … I can’t remember which now.  Often one store doesn’t have quite the colour I need so I’ll just quickly stop by the other and hope for a better match there!

I attached a small length of ribbon with a press stud so to hold the bra strap securely under.  Remember the lingerie set I made specifically to wear with this ensemble?  Now you can see why although my outfit is not navy blue, how it matches perfectly!!

The sheath dress as it is drafted turned out way too boxy for my tastes, in fact I’m willing to bet money that the model on the pattern cover has the dress nipped in at the back with a big peg or two! – and I ended up bringing it in through the back princess seams by several inches to give it a lot more shape through the waist.  I also had cut the dress longer by 5cm all round, and just had to trim the hemline off shorter around the front,  to make the shaping adjustment possible.

The coat!!  I do LOVE the dress but the coat HAS to be my favourite part of the ensemble!  It is single breasted, with three quarter sleeves, with arrowhead tabs and self-covered, decorative buttons – more about these infamous things later!, a deep, curved collar, and lovely deep deep patch pockets with flap openings.

It too is fully lined with the same navy/gunmetal blue lining fabric, and I stitched in one of my new labels…

spare button attached inside….

I loved making this, and wearing it, and I think I will be able to wear it again in the future, even over jeans or dresses for daywear every now and then.  I will see!

I went all out with the bound buttonholes…

oh the button saga! sooooooo, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I covered 100 11mm buttons for Kelly’s dresss, and thought what this ensemble reeeeeeeally needed was also self-covered buttons, because after all the entire thing is all in one fabric and some other non-self-covered buttons would have just looked a bit random, probably not quite matching, and just scream “homemade”.  So I ordered some 28mm buttons from the same vendor from which I purchased Kelly’s buttons.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited!!  For about three weeks! and I was just getting more and more worried, finally with only just over two weeks to go until the wedding, I thought that if they’d been lost in the post as I suspected they had, then I’d better order more NOW or the replacement order was just not going to get here on time.  So I contacted the vendor with an emergency request to send me some more 28mm buttons by the very fastest postage service possible with a tracking number, and she did so.  And to my great relief the replacement buttons turned up with just a week to the wedding!  Phew!!

As I did with the bridal buttons; I spray painted the bare buttons with red spray paint, leftover from my Queen Rutela cosplay; which helps make the smooth metal surface a bit “grippier” and easier to cover.  They covered up perfectly, and I could finally finish my outfit, in plenty of time for the wedding.  So relieved!

there’s that spare button!

Dressmaking details now, er addressed, haha; the following is story time… please feel free to stop right now if the sewing details are all that is of interest.  Fair warning:

So, the previous modelled photos are obviously a bit of a pre-enactment, and the above mirror selfie in which I am all made-up and coiffured as befits the mother-of-the-groom status about to be undertaken, was quickly snapped on the day while waiting for my uber, … it was such a busy day!!  In fact it was a super busy week beforehand too, come to think of it.  Kelly’s family came over from Adelaide during the week, and we had a delightful dinner at the Boatshed Restaurant with her parents on the Thursday night, actually overlooking the jetty where Tim proposed to Kelly which was nice!  Then on Friday evening, we had a big family dinner with both parents and all of our kids, and T & G who are the other groomsman and bridesmaid alongside Sam and Cassie.

On the day itself, Craig and I walked Clara early, then I had my hair appointment, then quickly came home and threw on my outfit and headed straight to the hotel to “get ready” with all the other girls! though obviously I myself was ready by that point, Kelly had kindly invited me to be a part of the girly fun and I was really excited to join in with them too.  Craig had already headed in separately for his own “getting ready” session and photoshoot with Tim, Sam and the other groomsman T, before he had to nip out and come back home to meet the dog sitter, pick up Craig’s parents and bring them in to the hotel where they were checking in for that night.

The hotel room where the girls were getting ready was a scene of quietly controlled pandemonium.  Kelly had booked a suite with a living area, coffee table and desk area; the coffee table was piled high with snacks, fruit and drinks and just general crap; and the desk was absolutely chocka with hair and makeup paraphernalia…  Flowers, dresses, shoes, and overflowing suitcases were stacked up in the dressing room.  Not to mention the room was bursting with people too!  Kelly, Cassie and G (bride and bridesmaids), L  and me (mothers of the bride and groom respectively), H (Kelly’s sister), the hairdresser, the makeup artist, Shosh the photographer and a male videographer whose name I was told but which is now lost to me in the excitement of the day…  everybody bustling and chatting and working and laughing and manoeuvre-ing around each other taking pictures… so much fun!

Cassie went and sat on the window sill to be out of the way, and she looked so pretty I couldn’t help snapping a picture…

we hung the wedding dress up in the window for Shosh to take some detail shots and I took a picture of her, taking a picture of the dress  #someta …

Kelly putting on her jewellery…  she was supposed to be wearing a bracelet belonging to an aunt for her “something borrowed”, but there was some miscommunication, I’m not sure what happened, but I ended up lending her my own bracelet … Shosh took a picture of me putting it on Kelly’s wrist, I’ll post it when I get it!

also, my three at the reception… my heart was fair dinkum bursting with pride when I took this one!

Cassie made her own dress, and it turned out just beautiful!!

oh did I mention I made the other bridesmaid G’s dress?  She looks absolutely lovely yes? I think so, and I’m so grateful to her for her charm and natural beauty, making my dressmaking look far better than I deserve.  To be honest, I wasn’t very happy with this dress, it was actually a bit of a nightmare and once or twice I nearly despaired of it and seriously considered heaving the whole thing in the bin and starting over from scratch… however it came together in the end and on the night G’s radiant demeanour made it look far more lovely than I could have hoped for!  Thank goodness for gorgeous young girls!!

Essentially, I used the same patterns I used for Kelly’s dress; the bodice from Vogue 9239 (above left) and skirt modified from Vogue 1032 (above right), all custom fit to G.  Style-wise, for G’s dress I obviously cut the skirt pieces so as to not have a train, and the back pieces are cut so as to have straight up princess seams at the back and not have that weird seam curve in to centre back.  I made the initial muslins to include that curve and we all agreed that it was, ah, unattractive…  The front and back skirt pieces were all cut so as to have a straight-as-possible waistline seam at the top, attaching it to the bodice.  I altered the seams on the bodice so as to join up to the skirt princess seams, and of course did a FBA for both G and K.  Both girls I had to custom fit quite extensively from the pattern, and I think I did a pretty good job here if I say so myself, because the fit is spot on!  We discussed the neckline for G, and settled on a wide, off-the shoulder V neck, which is absolutely lovely on her.

The slightly stretchy, navy blue crepe was bought from Homecraft Textiles? I think? and unfortunately it was pretty awful to work with.  It did NOT want to iron flat and smooth and just seemed to shrink back slowly into a natural, very slight crinkle that just looked like it needed a good press all the time.  So you’d give a good solid press, and an hour later it would once again look just like it had been rolled up in a plastic bag for the last few days.  Also the neckline, despite extremely careful hand-basting and stay-stitching and under-stitching, just wanted to curl outwards, both front and back, in a way that fair dinkum drove me absolutely crazy and almost broke me, to be honest.  I’m pretty sure I shed actual tears over this, at least once, although it’s all a blur now because I had “moments” over just about everything to do with sewing for this wedding #iwishiwaskidding.  I tried everything I could think of to fix the aforementioned curling, ultimately the only thing that worked was a very subtle hand-done gathering stitch along the under-stitching line, which I drew up just very slightly and fastened off each end at each endpoint of the V, front and back.  Sounds like a pretty tacky way of dealing with it, I agree, but I was desperate and in the end this actually seemed to do the trick.  Hallelujah!

I did the narrow rolled hem by hand, which took about as long as you’d imagine  #aLONGTIME The navy/gunmetal blue lining fabric from Fabulous Fabrics is the same that I used for my own outfit, navy blue zip from Spotlight.

When she was dancing she did a few twirls that really brought the dress to life for me and it really made me so very happy to see it looking so absolutely lovely in these moments… so I asked her to do an extra one for me at the end of the evening.  Thank you G, for making this thing look actually amazing!!

Ohhh! I also made a tie for Craig! using leftovers from my outfit, so we can be all lovey-dovey match-matchy, hehe #SOnotus  Well, I just thought it would be a nice idea.  And while I had doubts he might actually want to wear it, he did, which I thought very nice of him  

Of course the tie is properly made, with a padding, and an underlining as well as a lining because I do actually know how to make a tie! Also, many years ago I made a free pdf pattern for Burdastyle, it’s not a very sophisticated pattern by today’s pdf standards, but I’m thinking about polishing it off and making it more up-to-date for today’s seamster with much higher pdf expectations!  However it does work perfectly well and my instructions, while sparse, do work! particularly if you’re not a beginner.  Anyway!  I slimmed down the shape because you know, even fashions in mens ties change and the width of that one is… well, wi-i-i-de in a most unfashionable way!

Aaaagh! One last thing, before I forget!  I am sooooooo behind here… this one is not even wedding related?!

I made a new walkies-bag for Clara, to hold all her poo-bags and treats, here she is in all her haughty supermodel glory…  I used the leg from some old jeans, the loop at the top is harvested from the double top-stitched side seam of the jeans so it’s super sturdy; and I also used one of the zips from the large bag of randoms Mum gave me a few years ago.  It’ll be a miracle if I can actually get through that bag, but I’ve made a bit of headway over the years!

Hey Clara-banana!!!

So that’s all! at least until the wedding dress post, and that is going to be a HUUUUGE one, I’m sorry!  I’m afraid that one’s going to take quite some time for me to put it all together… #gatheringstrength

The post the mother-of-the-groom, plus a gorgeous bridesmaid appeared first on Handmade by Carolyn.

photo by Shoshana Kruger Photography

Kelly’s hair by Higley’s Hairdressing

location; the Melbourne Hotel in Perth

dress and veil; made by me!

SO; Tim and Kelly became engaged to be married in January of last year…

and shortly afterwards Kelly asked me to make her dress for her.  Of course I was honoured to be asked!  Kelly had checked out a few dresses online and pinned a few she liked, and had also tried on a few irl; narrowing down the style and shape that suited her the best.  She eventually settled upon having a dress with an ivory crepe skirt and a “nude” illusion style bodice overlaid with random beaded and sequinned lace; the bodice to be very fitting, sleeveless and with a scooped neckline so as to show off the necklace Tim had given to her; and the skirt to skim her body to the hips, then flare out below that into a graceful, gently mermaid-style hemline.  And a train!

The bodice was to be lace in an organic, “growing vines” look to it, and the lace would extend down onto the skirt and around to the back.  The train was to have lace too, and with have a cut-away insert section so you could see the floor underneath the lace.  The border of the skirt was to be edged with lace.  In addition, there were to be self-fabric covered buttons down the entire centre back seam of the dress.  Okay!!

First things first; we swooped upon Fabulous Fabrics during their yearly sale, perused and selected patterns, and spent ages picking out laces, various silks, nets and crepes, and draping and layering everything over each other, and Kelly.  The very definition of girly fun!!!

What did we pick??  In the end, we settled upon two patterns for the dress; Vogue 9239 as a starting point for the bodice, and Vogue 1032 as a starting point for the skirt.  I made a first muslin using grey sheets, put it on Kelly and got pinning and drawing lines on the muslin for fit.

Oh my gosh, fit!  there was quite a lot of fit customisation.   Kelly has a classic hourglass shape; busty with a small waist and flat stomach, and looks absolutely wonderful in her chosen silhouette, imo.  We wanted a perfectly fitted bodice, and for the skirt to skim her hips without being tight, nor for there to be any folds about her body from being even little bit loose.  Kelly bought a corset, I made measurements and issued strict instructions for her to neither lose, nor gain weight!  The pattern I used for the bodice, V9239, is actually brilliant for having different pieces for different cup sizes, which made for a much easier starting point; although my final pieces of course look very different from the starting point!  As it is drafted, the pattern is not actually very fitted at all.  I also altered the pattern pieces so as to have a straight waistline seam, which Kelly was firm about.  The skirt of Vogue 1032 is absolutely lovely; but at the centre back the three seams curve to join up in the middle in a sort of pointed arch-shape; which we all agreed is um, decidedly unattractive.  I fixed it so as to have more regular seams, and cut up the grey muslin to use as my pattern for the second muslin…

Made up the second muslin in white sheets, and the fit and style were given a big thumbs up… perfect!  I cut this one up to use as my pattern for the actual dress…

I then got brave and started cutting out the REAL fabric!

early bodice…

Bodice; for the illusion bodice, we’d chosen light coffee coloured silk habotai, overlaid with a beige/pink soft netting… this was for two reasons, firstly because the coffee-coloured silk was quite yellow in tone, too yellow; and the beige/pink net toned it down to be a better colour for Kelly’s skin.  Secondly, having a net bodice made a nice background to the lace we’d chosen for the appliquéd bodice, because it had a net background too, obviously; so having net as the default background for the bodice meant that everything blended in nicely together and looked more seamless.  So essentially, the bodice was pink/beige net/ underlined with coffee silk habotai, and I made the lining in the coffee silk habotai too.  Everything was hand-basted together and double checked for fit before machine-stitching…

skirt fabric…

lining and underlining fabric, doubled up…

The skirt is ivory crepe, underlined with ivory lining fabric, and with the separate lining of ivory lining fabric too.  I cut out the skirt and underlining and laid the pieces together, and then hand-basted all together around all edges.  MAN!!  This alone took me DAYS; literally .

Little story:  Craig absolutely insisted that we go down to Eagle Bay one long weekend, grrrr, even though he knew I was flat-chat working on the dress, so I’d bundled all the skirt pieces together and into a bag, and taken them down with me.  I spent the entire long weekend standing up at the kitchen counter in our cottage, hand basting the skirt/underlining pieces together, and to each other.  Then they were bundled back into a bag to bring home again at the end of the it.  Obviously everything was quite crinkled after such treatment and needed pressing again.  And pressing them took me over an hour too.  NEVER AGAIN!  After that, I kept all pieces laid out flat on our spare bed, and once the skirt, and then dress was pieced together, hanging up from a high curtain rod; and absolutely nothing was rolled up in a bag, ever again.

I found a length of turquoise ribbon in my stash, which I snipped in half and then stitched securely to each side seam at the waist through all layers, so as to hang it up and keep everything smooth and wrinkle free.

Also… something blue!

Technical edge finishing bizzo inside the skirt:  To lessen seam bulk, because let’s just consider for a minute that there are SIX layers of fabric at each seamline on that skirt, that need to sit as nice and as unobtrusively flat as possible; I treated the edges in the following ways; the skirt edges are pinked, the underlining edges are overlocked, and the seams pressed open.  For the skirt lining, I overlocked both seam allowances together, quite close to the stitching.  In the bodice, I didn’t actually finish the raw edges at all (gasp) because all that appliqué keeps things pretty secure I think and also, well after, bodices never face quite the fraying risks that skirts do.

below: edge finishing deets: pinked skirt and overlocked underlining edging, basting stitches can also be seen here, separate lining seen at top right with edges overlocked together close to seam stitching

zip and waist stay: so I pride myself on getting seamlines and zip tops and bottoms lining up perfectly on everything I make, and I obviously wanted to achieve that here too…

We also wanted for the waistline to fit Kelly to a tee.  At this point, I’m going to mention again that the three layered, fairly massive skirt is HEAVY, and that little flimsy bodice is constructed purely of very lightweight silk habotai and net… so I realised there needed to be some fairly substantial internal engineering required.  I made a waist stay from grosgrain ribbon and stitched it firmly to the waist seam allowances, in between the outer dress and lining dress.  Then, I stitched buttonholes in the lining dress, about 12cm away from the centre back, through which the ribbon could emerge.

At Kelly’s exact waist measurement, I stitched on a metal hook and eye; so this is a “belt” that basically holds up the skirt and prevents too much strain on that lightweight bodice.  The last thing I wanted was ripping shoulder seams, or anything like that!  Getting the zip inserted at this exact spot, to match the belt, and of course, Kelly’s waist measurement, felt HUGE to me!  Its this sort of precision work that no one will ever see, but that is hugely satisfying to get right, that makes projects like this such a rush!  I was so proud of myself to get this bit exactly right!

Then for the arguably pretty and frivolous bit; appliquéing the lace.  Haha.

So, to digress for a minute: I realise the order here sounds counter-intuitive, I mean, wouldn’t it be better to appliqué the lace onto that little bodice before attaching it to that huge skirt with its like 20-odd metres of fabric, give or take?  And yes, I concede this might have been a good plan, for ease of stitching.  However, because the lace extended over both the bodice and the skirt, covering the join, and because the appliqué was very much going to be a 3D thing going all around Kelly’s curves, well I am actually glad I did it this way.  I started with the lace at the waistline, so as to place it over the waist seam “just right” and then started cutting motifs and laying them so as to achieve the “organically growing” look we wanted, moving up and over each shoulder.

This is the lace as bought:

snipped down into smaller motifs…

… fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle…

Motifs were cut down to size to fit holes and gaps; and I arranged so as to achieve an even and fully covered look with no overlapping.  Kelly also wanted for the motifs to reach the very edges of the bodice but very definitely NOT go over the edge, she hates that look! but at the same time we didn’t want any flowers or leaves to be cut in half, so there was much careful planning and placing going on…. Far from being fluffy and frivolous this part of the process was hands-down of course the most time-consuming part of the whole project.

During our trip to Japan, Yoshimi had given to me the most wonderful pair of magnifying spectacles (Hizumi), which helped enormously to stitch the tiniest, most invisible hand-stitches of lace to bodice I could achieve, and also the white-on-white appliqué on the skirt!

Because of course there is appliqué on the upper part of the skirt.  The train is fully covered with lace motifs too, although here I allowed for the motifs to be not so crowded on each other, and for there to be more “skirt” around each one.

All the motifs on the skirt are stitched to the skirt shell only, with the underlining kept free, and all the motifs on the bodice are stitched to the net and habotai shell, and the lining is kept free.  The only part where this proved difficult was when I was stitching motifs to the shoulder areas of the bodice… because Kelly wanted the motifs to be placed so as to kiss the edges of the bodice without sticking out and also I didn’t want motifs to be caught in the edges either, I stitched the bodice lining on before adding any motifs, and finished the under stitching etc, fully.  So appliquéing on these motifs required sliding my hand up carefully inside and ensuring the needle did not go through the lining layer underneath!  A little tricky, but doable, and I really love how the motifs turned out here.  The dress lining was hand-stitched to the zip tape inside after I’d finished all the appliqué.

Sorta funny story… so it was near the end and I’d basically finished the dress, and Kelly was trying it on; Cassie was there and she ever so casually pointed out a slightly bald spot, only about a few cm too big, near the back of one shoulder.  Moment of pure shock!!  Kelly said she didn’t even notice it, but for me … well obviously I just could NOT unsee again!  I just sighed, mentally girded my loins and cut out a new motif, stitched it on.  I honestly don’t think anyone would ever have noticed, but I just had to fix it.  Also did a ultra careful inspection to see if there were any more bald spots… there were not!

weeks and weeks… that’s all…

Shout out to my wonderful Mum who responded to my stressed-out vibes through the phone, came up for a weekend and spent two days working on lace appliqué while I worked on Georgia’s dress… thank you Mum!!  and I’m sorry I was such an exacting taskmaster!!

The lace border to the skirt… this is also a cautionary tale … initially I’d stitched the border onto both the skirt and underlining together.  BIG mistake!  Because the skirt is crepe, which has a heavy-fish drape to it, and the underlining is polyacetate lining fabric, which has less drape to it; the skirt just “hung” over the border lace, just ever so slightly, in several places, in a most unattractive way.  It was subtle, but noticeable.  I could not believe my eyes when I hung the dress up on its curtain rod, and noticed it.  Moment of utter deep depression; I was going to have to unpick that border lace and re-attach it to just the shell this time.  I mean, let’s just speculate for a minute on the length of that skirt border.  I reckon it is, oh I dunno; 6m? or more?? I couldn’t bring myself to actually measure… and what’s more, I’d done a really good job sewing on that lace border; nice solid zig-zag stitch, by machine, around each and every in-and-out bit.  This was a real low-point for me, where I actually wanted to cry.  However I just got out that old seam-ripper, immediately; and like a robot just got straight onto it; otherwise I knew I might actually break down.  The border hung perfectly after I’d re-attached it to just the top layer, thank goodness for that.

The lace insert for the train was another moment of “how the heck am I going to do this??”  In the end, I made a tissue-paper pattern of the train, in the size and shape that we wanted the lace insert to be, and simply arranged lace motifs in as artistic and “interesting” way as I could.  I’d used lots of the lace we’d bought on the bodice by this time and was running low on the bigger pieces, but managed to make it work!  Then I stitched them together onto the pattern, ripped the tissue-paper away, and firmly zig-zag stitched the whole thing around its edge to the; as yet still intact, train.

I left cutting away the crepe from underneath until quite late in the whole saga, simply because I was so nervous about this part!  The point of no return!  What if we didn’t like it?!   In the end it was fine and I needn’t have stressed about this.  I also cut away the underlining a bit bigger, and carefully overlocked the edges.  To keep the underlining in place underneath the skirt and not fold in on itself, or flip underneath the lace insert and show underneath; I joined shell and underlining together all around the lower edge with hand-stitched “tethers” about 1″ long, at about 6″ intervals.  This worked really well!

The buttons…  So I spent some time investigating and sourcing possible candidates for the self-fabric covered buttons.  The ones you get at Spotlight are absolute CRAP, by the way.  DO NOT BUY.  You can order custom-made self-covered buttons done at Buttonmania in Melbourne, for a price.  In the end though, I bought a 100 pack of 11mm self-cover buttons from this etsy store, and was very happy with both the product and the delivery time.  Have I written before about the experience of covering them?  If so, I am about to repeat myself, because this story illustrates quite clearly how very mad and insanely attention-detail-y I can be, ahem…  so the metal buttons are naturally silver, and I covered a few experimentally and for Kelly to see.  Both she and I could see that the silver of the buttons was showing through the crepe a little, and making them look noticeably grey in comparison to the dress.  Also, being metal and slippery, it was quite difficult to hold the little circle of fabric in place evenly while trying to push the edges in between button and shank-piece.  So eventually; I got the remainder of the 100 buttons and lined them up along bamboo skewers that had been set up like train tracks, and spray-painted them all with ivory spray paint, leftover from when I made my Queen Rutela cosplay…  the painted surface not only provided a nice “grippy” surface making them a lot easier to cover, but they were also noticeably less grey.

Finicky? yes, but a definite win and worth it in the end. I stitched the buttons down the back seam of the dress at 2.3cm intervals.

This length chosen because it was visually pleasing, and worked out to be a perfect division of the seam length from the top point down to the bustle point and to the bustle loop point; where I stitched the upper of the train lace motifs.

At the aforementioned bustle points; I stitched plain buttons inside – blue ones, something else blue!!  – beneath the outer, decorative ones, stitching them together to the seam allowance through shell and underlining skirt layers.

For the bustle loop, I took 4 strands of Gutermann’s upholstery thread, for strength, and crotched a 4.6cm length to fit perfectly around the button above and back, so the button spacing would be perfectly even even with the bustle done up.   The thread ends of the crochet loop passed through the skirt and through the holes of the button underneath, and were then fastened off with multiple, very firm tight knots.  The loop is not itself stitched to the skirt, because I worried about the possibility of the skirt ripping if there was any strain placed on it, instead all the strain is placed on the button on the inside.  You know what? that train is HEAVY.  As it is, in a lot of pictures where the train is bustled up I see, or think I can see, at least, how the weight of it is pulling the back of the dress down quite substantially.  I don’t think there’s any way around this, it’s just how it is; but I’m glad I made that crochet loop industrial strength!  It held up beautifully.  When the train was not bustled up, the loop sat unobtrusively and fairly invisibly looped around the button above, nicely tucked out of the way.

the veil:

the funny thing is that at first Kelly didn’t even want a veil; but we’d visited a bridal boutique where the girl dressing her just popped one on her head, without being asked.  It looked so lovely against her dark hair and Kelly just froze, I could immediately see that a veil had suddenly become a very firm “yes” in her head.  The veil was very simple and plain, one soft waterfall of unadorned net, with a comb and one single lace motif.  So we bought a metre of net in the right shade of ivory, too.

Now is the time to mention; Kelly also had a piece of her grandmother’s wedding dress that we wanted to incorporate into her dress somehow… it is peach satin; completely lovely, however a very different colour and texture to any of the other fabrics that Kelly had chosen for her dress.

I’d put a lot of thought into how we could use some of it in her dress, eventually I had the idea of using some to make the padded base for her veil on which to sew the lace motif she wanted…  I cut a short piece of batting and hand-covered it with a piece of the peach satin, then stitched this to the metal comb Kelly gave me… the first double pass of stitching I used regular all-purpose thread, then for the second pass of stitching I used ivory Gutermann’s upholstery thread.

I snipped a motif from the wedding dress lace down to a good size/arrangement, but it was quite floppy on its own so I boiled up a solution of cornflour/water to make a homemade starch to stiffen it.  A short soak in the starch, then left it to dry overnight… I had intended to use more starch if the lace wasn’t stiff enough however my very helpful husband threw out the starch and washed the saucepan, thinking it was just dirty water!!  Fortunately, just one soak in the starch was enough to stiffen it perfectly fine  

I’d lightly tacked the wedding netting on the comb already, and then just stitched the stiffened lace motif to the top… voila!!  All I had to do was trim the veil to the right length… I laid it out on the table, measured, measured again, measured a third time!!  Then in one clean go, cut a nice even swoop off at the length we’d decided.

I think it looks so understated and beautiful, and perfect for Kelly’s style.

the garter; Kelly had planned to make the garter herself, but with less than a week to go and she was still super busy she emergency-asked if I could please make a garter too?  fortunately this is super easy.  I used another piece of the precious scrap from her grandmother’s wedding dress, and whipped one up.  Along with a tiny lace motif stitched on the join.

The very last touch?!  As a secret surprise for Kelly, I embroidered another piece of her grandmother’s wedding satin with Tim and Kelly’s names, and the date of the wedding.  I used a water-soluble pen to handwrite as neatly as I could, my own hand-writing; and hand embroidered using embroidery floss.  Something else blue!!  I stitched this precious patch inside the dress as a final touch. and she did not see this until the very moment she put on the dress on the day of their wedding!

I’m just going to write a story of transportation of the dress to the hotel on the day; because we spent some time worrying how to get it there, perfectly clean and safe from rain, street dirt, or anything like that… the solution; a mattress protector!  Yep, Tim went to Bunnings, picked up a single size mattress protector, which is basically a huge plastic bag.  I pulled it up over the dress and taped it shut at the top, over the hanger.  Hehe, funny story; he initially bought a Queen sized mattress protector, which made for some outraged jokes from Kelly along the lines of “just how big do you think I am, TIM?!!!”  Lol!

One other little story; the buttons on Tim’s waistcoat were coming loose so he’d asked me to stitch them on again, so I did.  I also took the opportunity to stitch a tiny, subtle little good luck message to the inside.  I wondered if he’d even notice it? and he did!  The lovely photographer Shosh made sure …  

I’m just going to write a story of transportation of the dress to the hotel on the day; because we spent some time worrying how to get it there, perfectly clean and safe from rain, street dirt, or anything like that… the solution; a mattress protector!  Yep, Tim went to Bunnings, picked up a single size mattress protector, which is basically a huge plastic bag.  I pulled it up over the dress and taped it shut at the top, over the hanger.  Hehe, funny story; he initially bought a Queen sized mattress protector, which made for some outraged jokes from Kelly along the lines of “just how big do you think I am, TIM?!!!”  Lol!

I just had to include this picture… look at our handsome boy!!!

photograph by Shoshana Kruger Photography;  genes by us  

So that is that!  Easily the biggest and most emotional thing I have ever made so far in my sewing life; I’ve been living and breathing this for like six months and have actually done very little else during that time.  However? also one of the most wonderful and rewarding things I have ever done!  I am so grateful for the experience, and for the trust placed in me and my abilities by Kelly, entrusting me with the task of making her dream dress.  This will forever be one of my most special projects.

And of course she looked absolutely beautiful!! glowing with love, lending her beauty to the dress, making it look amazing!!  She was an absolute dream to sew for, not only committed to her original ideas, but also ultra-enthusiastic and infectiously excited about every single step.; it was really wonderful to be buoyed along by such joy and interest in how I was getting along with it every time she came over… also, let it be said, that she had such a very firm vision of how her dress was to be, which certainly made my life happily so much easier when it came to the creative process.  She never ever backtracked on her earliest decisions or her vision of the dress, not one little bit, which thank goodness for that! I mean, this is my first experience making a wedding dress, and I can now fully appreciate now how very hard it could be if you had a bride constantly second-guessing or changing their mind half way.

I love this picture of Tim twirling Kelly about…

photograph by Shoshana Kruger Photography

Also of course most importantly of all to mention is that Kelly and I forged even more lovely solid bond of friendship during the process of bringing her special dress to life, which I hope continues to strengthen and grow in the years to come…  

jarrah wedding arch made by Tim himself

flowers by Green Vase Flowers, Perth

 photograph by Shoshana Kruger Photography

Kelly’s hair by Higley’s Hairdressing

The post Kelly’s wedding dress appeared first on Handmade by Carolyn.

I made a new outfit for myself! well actually I thought I was, although as it turns out I had only made half a new outfit for myself.  But as halves go, I’m pretty happy!  Also,  I know it seems like I’ve only just finished wedding sewing, but how does one choose to wind down after a bout of incredibly, stressfully intense, VIS???    btw, that’s Very Important Sewing in case it wasn’t obvious.   Well, one dives head-first into a fresh new sewing project, of course!!  Ha!  and it felt awesome too… because by comparison this is VUS, or Very Unimportant Sewing, and man it sure felt good! I loved every minute of making these new things  #youknowyoureobsessedwhen

First things first; I made some new trousers…  I’ve been wanting to make this particular love-child of these two different Closet-Case patterns for aaaages now!  I’ve always really liked the mid-riding style of the Sashas; how it sits feels very comfortable, and how it fits is quite flattering for me.  I also love the magnificently flared wide-legs of the Jennys, and thought how cool it would be if they could be jammed together into one, gloriously slouchy, flare-y package.  Well, ta da!!!

please excuse horrible but apparently obligatory butt-picture…

I just needed some nice fabric, which popped up suddenly in Spotlight of all places… Spotlight has fabric highs, where they’re stuffed with a tonne of really very nice and affordable options and you’re completely spoilt for choice; and also sad and lengthy lows, where there’s nothing but absolute crap…   You just have get in there and stock up during the good times and then endure the bad times until the good times roll around again.  Anyway, currently they’re having a rather awesome high, which is pretty nice for us sewing-obsessed peeps.  I mean, I’m not supposed to be buying any fabric right now… but you know.  When you see something good, it’s not going to be there forever!  I pounced upon this stretchy, narrow-whale cotton corduroy in this gorgeously yummy shade of caramel pretty much instantly… not only is the colour so very me, but the stretchiness is just exactly right for that required for the Sasha’s too.  Right nearby was some really lovely, very soft honey-coloured knit; very cashmere-like in its feel though it’s actually just acrylic, but that’s fine.  Fabric snob, I am not, well, most of the time anyway.  I planned a honey/caramelly sort of an outfit for myself.  A Mars Bar, sort of an outfit.  #nowiwantamarsbar  #damn

What is the other half of the wannabe outfit?? well, I’d downloaded the free, tessuti patterns Monroe turtleneck pattern ages ago, printed it out and had it lying around; and I decided it would be a good one for the honey-coloured knit.  In my head my snuggly new sweater was going to look absolute perfect with my new, wide-legged slouchy trousers.    I could hardly wait to wear them together!  So did things work out just exactly as planned?  don’t be silly!

I absolute adore my caramel trousers, they turned out to be everything I could have hoped for; however… the turtleneck…    Well right from the word go it did not want to be my turtleneck.  It really really just wanted to be Cassie’s.   I was barely halfway through when I realised it had her name written all over it.  The sleeves and collar of the Monroe turtleneck are tight-fitting, with a dropped shoulder and a very boxy, oversized body; a combination which looks pretty terrible on me,  I’m coming to terms with that sad fact (sob) but I know is quite gorgeous on Cassie.  It’s a style she has worn before, and worn well too.  When she came over in the evening I gave it to her, and her reception was most satisfyingly enthusiastic!  I might even whip some more for her… it’s a very quick and easy pattern to make and you only need about 1.2m or so.  And I do have several other tops already that I can wear with my trousers.  I’m ok with passing things on that don’t want to look good on me, especially when they look so good on another, and are so warmly received!  

Some technical sewing deets:

The turtleneck; nothing much to say, just made straight up; sleeve hems done using a twin needle, hemline done by hand because the fabric was stretching out some.  Super easy.

R2D2 says hi….

The trousers; I cut out the tops as Sashas, and from the hip down they are almost Jenny’s.  Not exactly Jenny’s because the patterns are actually completely different from each other and can’t really be “melded” that easily.  For one thing, the Sasha’s are drafted for a stretch while the Jenny’s are not.  Another thing I pondered quite a bit, was the alignment of the back leg piece; because the grainlines of the back legs in the two patterns are very different to each other.  I’ve made up two pairs of Sasha trousers previously, exactly to the pattern, and for this new pair I decided to alter the alignment of the back leg piece, pivoting the ankle a little outward, so it’s got a similar grain line to the Jenny’s.

The waistband lining and pockets are cut from some ikat cotton, that Mum gave to me a few years ago, from when she cleaned out her stash.  You can see I attempted to finish the pocket edges with French seams as indicated in the pattern, but it was just too bulky around the heavily-interfaced pocket opening area, so I overlocked the edges for that little bit.  Probably would have looked better to overlock the whole thing, but the pockets were all basically finished, done and dusted by this point so I was just, ehhh  *shrug*  I used the little Closet Case label Heather sent out along with the pattern.  Cute, huh?

I’ve found that around the waistband hook and eye closure at the front, no matter how heavily you interface the waistband and facing, the hook and eye will pull the facing out a little, just because the two layers aren’t joined together at this point…. for these ones I kind of stab-stitched the two layers together all around the hook, keeping the stitches tiny and almost invisible on the right side of the waistband.  You can see the stitches if you know they’re there, but I think you can barely tell, and it does help to keep the waistband nice and flat-looking, and no hint of pulling out of shape while you’re wearing them.

I am SO PROUD of my welt pockets!!  You know how sometimes one welt pocket might look a little better than the other and so you just take picture of that one for your sewing blog and quietly leave out the other??  oh wait, what? no I never!!  oooo I would never something so devious, oh no….  Well anyway, both my pockets turned out to be things of perfectly-matching beauty, if I say so myself…

.

Details:

Trousers; Sasha trousers by Closet Case patterns, with wide legs from the Jenny trouser pattern
Honey coloured turtleneck; the free Monroe turtleneck by Tessuti Patterns
my pink top; the twist top from the Japanese pattern book “Pattern Magic” by Tomoko Nakamachi 

 this picture adds nothing to the story apart from Zoe looking kinda funny … oo I’m so mean.  Would I ever post a picture of myself looking kinda funny??  NO

The post sasha-jenny trousers, and a honey-coloured turtleneck appeared first on Handmade by Carolyn.

Pair of no-frills socks, but look at those pretty stripes!  LOVE those bright pastels!!  Making these has dutifully used up some more of the leftovers from my advent jumper, from the Dingo Dyeworks advent calendar of last year…  pretty cute and frugal, huh? *self-back-pat*  and this yarn is so soft and divinely snuggly.

the box of socks is looking quite colourful!

Oh! and I also ran up a little bag, specifically for my sock knitting.  I’ve been using my pink bum bag for this purpose ever since Japan, which was… fine, I guess, but still not ideal.  It wasn’t really big enough, for one thing, and had zero pockets.  Hmmm, yes; ordinarily a zero-pocket bag would have its days very much numbered, except that I’m kinda sentimental about it since Mum and Dad gave it to me when I was quite a young teenager and it’s always been … well, one of those forever things, you know??  Anyway, I digress…  What I really wanted for my knitting bag was one identical to the one I made for Mum, blogged here.  So I rummaged through the old clothing chuck-out bag and came out with a pair of old chinos that I used to wear when the kids were really little. Haven’t worn them in decades and don’t really know why I kept these hideous things but probably for the usual reason, that the fabric would come in handy some day.

The new bag is terrible really; slapdash, ugly, just thrown together in a very uncaring way.  But man, it was so much fun to do a bit of rough, random, whatever sewing!  Quite a therapeutic project, in fact!   And/or cathartic!  Slicing, dicing and cutting on the fly, drawing straight onto the fabric, machine-stitching rather wildly, minimal measuring, if any.   FELT SO GOOD.  THIS HOUSE, IS CLEAN!!!

I used the back of the chinos, and gave the bag a “bottom”, so it can stand up by itself.  It is self-lined, using more of the same fabric from a leg of the chinos, and has five pockets including the two outside patch pockets with buttoned flaps, that were originally in situ on the seat of the chinos.  Inside, I stitched two new, rectangular open patch pockets to the lining, as well as the tiny and rather adorable coin pocket that I painstakingly unpicked from the chinos just because it was so super cute.

I slipped a few coins in there for … I dunno, just in case

The other pockets hold my kindy scissors, my notebook and pen, a wool needle, and my personal, basic knitting pattern.  Which is near-identical to the Patons one I’ve been using for years, but has one or two mods that I’ve developed along the way to make my own idea of the perfect sock.  Actually I recently re-typed it all into a new word document so I can print it out for myself any time, and now I no longer have to decipher the old photocopied one from the Patons pamphlet that is almost falling to bits from un-folding and re-folding, and has multiple crossing-outs and arrows and modifications and notes scribbled chaotically in the margins and on the back.  Hurrah!

The inside waistband of my old chinos had  a rather nice bias bound strip finishing, so I kept this and used it to edge the, also recycled zip for the bag,  Goodness knows why I once went to the trouble of ripping out and stowing away an old zip just in case, but hey.  I did indeed find a use for it in the end!

So, cute bag? or piece of trash?  completely rhetorical questions btw since I know that; yes it is a pretty rubbishy sort of a thing!  It’s nowhere near as nice as the one I made for Mum, which I did measure out, cut carefully, and sew somewhat meticulously, and also had really nice fabric going for it.  But it only cost me some thread and half a day, and it will do for now.  And I had a lot of fun making it!  Maybe I’ll treat myself to a proper one, one of these days.

couldn’t resist taking a picture showing my ever-present companion, wondering what the heck I’m doing…

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Not very long ago, I was contacted by dp studio, a pattern company whose offerings I’ve always found super interesting and intriguing… I bought a few of their patterns last year but am still yet to find time to make them up… eek!!  Anyway, they wanted to know if I would like to review one of their latest.  Would I?!  Omigosh, yes!!  They have recently brought out a new thing… something called a “kit couture” that is a collaboration between dp studio and Hamon, a fabric and haberdashery store in Paris.  The kit comes in a rather beautifully packed box, and includes the sewing pattern, fabric, and all notions and bits and bobs you needed to finish making it.  Very luxe.  I was so excited to try it out!!  They didn’t have my first choice, but I did like the look of the kit they offered me quite a lot and I anxiously awaited its arrival.

Did not disappoint!!  The kit I received was for Le 912, the Eve dress, described on the box as “Robe effect portefeuille a matches longues”  Oh, how I wish I could speak French! everything sounds so much lovelier and more poetic than in English…  the translation is “dress with wallet effect and long sleeves”

The fabric from Hamon is absolutely lovely; a 100% viscose with a beautifully soft and floaty hand to it, and a loose flowy, silk-like drape.  Divine!!  Even better, the print is super pretty; black flowers and leafy tendrils on a creamy background.  I think this creamy ground suits me quite well, my “white”, so to speak; so I was very happy with this.  The kit also contained a lightweight, fusible interfacing, a stable, fusible stay-tape for the bias cut opening edges and the shoulder seams; and length of perfectly colour-matched satin ribbon for the belt/tie.  Oh! and a reel of perfectly colour-matched, cream coloured thread.  This was actually overlocking thread rather than all-purpose thread, but I found it quite nice, not woolly; and to be absolutely fine for the purposes of sewing this very delicate fabric.

I really enjoyed making up my dress.  Lately – well I mean, once I’d got my mad, rough knitting bag project out of my system; I’ve been more in the mood for careful, quietly lengthy and dedicated sewing projects; something that takes time and effort, and maybe even requires unpicking and re-doing things over and over until I get them right.  I think it’s the process of making Kelly’s wedding dress that has brought this new mood for meticulous perfection upon me.  Will this be the case from now on?  possibly not! but it is right now so I’m contentedly riding that wave in serene and unhurried happiness.

I initially made long; bias cut ties, seen above; using the black/cream print for the waist tie, which is actually what the pattern instructions tell you to make.  Ultimately though, I didn’t like these so substituted the included cream coloured ribbon tie instead, which is really much nicer in the end; prettier, softer, and easier and more comfortable to wear too.

Craig heartily approves of the dress which I found slightly surprising.  After all, the dress is quite “covered up” and not figure hugging or the least bit “sexy”; and Craig usually prefers this sort of thing…  #husbands  However, he really likes this one; called it “classy” and “really nice”.  Well OK then!!

One thing the kit did not include was a required button; but I’m perfectly ok with that since I have about a billion buttons and absolutely zero need to ever buy buttons again in my lifetime.  I used a tiny, “pearl-with-a-shank” button for the closure.

Yesterday, we went to the city and my reluctant-photographer husband Craig kindly took a few pictures of me, for my blog.  Well, that was an unusually nice surprise!  Hurray!!  Afterwards, I regretted a little that we hadn’d taken Clara, since she goes so nicely with the dress.  #dressingtomatchyourdog  #itsathing  #promise

So I couldn’t resist another picture at home, this time including my very worthy little accessory, hehe

Details:

Dress: le 912, the “eve” dress by dp studio, cream/black viscose
Shoes; Vitullimoda, from Zomp shoes
I also wore my hand-knitted cardigan all day, because it was a COLD day!  Jo Sharp Tweed Coat, shortened, in Jo Sharp Silkroad DK  tweed yarn in colour Peppercorn (col 425), blogged here

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So, I have some extremely exciting news… !!  I am going to be a granny!!!!

Last week, Tim and Kelly announced they had a “souvenir” from their honeymoon to give to all of us and gave each of us a package… I unwrapped mine and what should I find, but a length of this adorable fabric and a pattern for a weeny little onesie and beanie…! everyone else had suitably themed pressies too; Sam had a T-shirt with “world’s best uncle”, Craig had a book “Grandad jokes”, and Cassie had a “World’s best auntie” Tshirt… oooh, such an incredibly lovely surprise! We were all stunned and then excited; and of course completely over the moon!  We all cannot WAIT to welcome the newest and littlest member of the family next year…!! the first one in our next generation!!  In the meantime of course I’ve made up the baby fabric immediately! Such fun to be making baby clothes again!   #itsbeenawhile

So this is the pattern they chose; Burda 9434, and the cotton jersey is from Spotlight.  I’m like, haha, first time parents; they bought a full 1.5m of fabric!  Enough for two babies, lol!   Wait, what?!!  but no no, before we all get too excited Kelly has had a scan and there is just a singleton in there  

I immediately traced off the one month size and ran up a onesie.  And a beanie.  Eeeee so cute! and it was such an absolute joy to be making these!!  By the way; I had to trace the pattern in full, and will need to do so again and again, and probably even again! because obviously all sizes must stay intact since we’ll be needing those down the track too, that’s life…   babies GROW  The pieces are all so tiny though it’s not exactly an unduly cumbersome chore.

I forgot to mention, the beanie is made from navy blue merino from the Fabric Store; I bought in in Melbourne during one of our girly jaunts over there and previously made this T-shirt/sweater using it too.

Kelly also mentioned that she needed to buy maternity clothes, and daa da da daaaa!  (bugle call to arms) mum-in-law to the rescue and all that.  Well, I do love sewing and have SO MUCH time on my hands now I no longer have a wedding dress to make, haha.  I thought this a perfectly good excuse to buy the Closet Case Ebony tee pattern.  This is one of the few Closet Case patterns I hadn’t got my hands on already … I had eyed it up a number of times but not pulled the trigger.  Anyway, I finally did!  And immediately printed out two copies; one for Kelly and one for me.

I know this isn’t a maternity pattern but I also knew it could easily work as one!  I sized up from Kelly’s normal size, just in case; and you know what? it fits her perfectly!  Pregnancy boobs, you know.

now this is a nice touch!  personal.  I like.  I wonder if I can do this for our patterns?!

This is me here, modelling it for ye olde blog, before I hand it over to Kelly.  Maybe I’ll get a shot of her wearing it, one of these days, maybe not.    I’m not feeling very strict about blog photos for this one, because it’s essentially just a wearable muslin to check for size.  It’s all leftovers; the body was from the leftovers from this top (Fabulous Fabrics) and the sleeves leftover from this, old favourite dress (Spotlight).  To be honest, even though they’re both stretch fabrics, I don’t think they had enough stretch actually, but it still worked out, um; reasonable? I think?!  And it’s just a muslin, but I still had to obsessively pin each and every stripe, grrr.    This is a pretty silly thing to do, but it does result in great stripe-matching so *shrug* it’s worth it? I guess?

One thing I can guarantee; I am going to make lots more of both these patterns, and SOON!!!

Details:

Baby clothes; Burda 9434, cotton jersey and merino for the beanie
Tunic; the Ebony tee by Closet Case patterns, striped stuff, probably not enough stretch
Skirt; Vogue 1247, striped drill, details here
Tights; my own custom fit pattern, details on how to make your own here
Booties;  Officine Creative, birthday  present from Craig last year  

The post a new baby in the family!!! plus something for Mummy too :) appeared first on Handmade by Carolyn.

Recently I made a large batch of dog treats for Clara and she’s completely obsessed!   And I, unlike many bloggers, do not use that word lightly!  She would do absolutely anything for these, and what’s more they cost roughly a third of what we’ve being paying for dog treats up until now… so I thought I’d record my recipe for posterity…

this is her “super attentive and totally focused on me” face…

We’ve gone through a metric tonne, give or take, of dog treats in our quest to train this adorable, but quite feisty little wench… I must say I don’t remember Sienna ever being such a handful but maybe like having babies, you forget.  Anyway,… she had a definite favourite treat, that’s proven quite difficult to lay our hands on because it seems to be perpetually sold out.  This elusive treat is like a rusk; it’s made with real beef, and sometimes has cranberries and rosemary in it too.  It’s also pretty expensive.  Anyway I decided, how hard could it be??

I made up my own recipe and it was staggeringly successful!  I’d googled “dog treat recipes” and the options that came up, well WOOF; and I don’t mean that in a good way.  Most of them didn’t even have meat in them, while still claiming to be a tasty “treat” for your dog.  I mean, Clara likes not-meat things too, but meat is definitely her very favouritest thing in the whole wide world to eat!  In the end, I got inspiration from a baby-rusk recipe, of all things.  This one to be specific; although if you look at it you’ll see it bears zero relation to mine here.

Without further ado!

Dog treats:

500g minced beef
2 cups plain flour
1 large egg

Cook mince in a frying pan, stirring constantly so as to keep it all broken up and no lumps.  If mince is very lean I sometimes start with a little water to keep things moving and avoid the mince sticking to the pan; but usually the meat’s own juices are sufficient…  When cooked let it cool to lukewarm.  Tip mince into a food processor with the flour and blend thoroughly… it should end up with a mealy/breadcrumb-y texture.  When thoroughly “crumb-y” add the egg and pulse again, the mixture should form a good dough-like texture that is not sticky and can be rolled out easily.  If it is a bit sticky, knead in a touch more flour.  Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and quite hard.  The length of cooking time depends on how thick you’ve rolled it… I rolled to about 4mm, and this yielded a HUGE quantity of bikkies.

Obviously you don’t need to cut fancy shapes, because this is the time-consuming bit really; you could just cut into a grid of squares and separate them for baking.  Also, this is quite a basic recipe; I just wanted to sound her out to see how it all worked out before getting into gourmet territory.  For the next batch I plan to try some variations:

To be added at the same time as the flour and blended in::

1/4 cup of dried fruit, such as apples or cranberries,

and/or 1tsp dried herbs, such as rosemary, sage or parsley

My only regret? That I do not have a dog-bone shaped cutter.  I do though, plan to address this awful travesty…

obedience!!!!

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Oh hai!  So I’m suddenly and frantically trying to blog things I’ve made in a month WITHIN the month.  Something I am lately failing at dismally!

However, not much to say really.  I made a bra and two pairs of matching undies.

Bra pattern is my standby MakeBra pattern 2610, now renamed DL 03; and the two pairs of undies are both my favourite cloth habit Watson briefs.  I used a lovely aqua-turquoise stretch lace from Minerva crafts, and a cream coloured polyester from Spotlight, the latter has been in my stash for yonks – also used for this set, actually.  Pretty pink ribbon and all matching cream elastics from Homecraft Textiles.  Foam for the cups from the MakeBra basic kit I purchased years ago.  Rings and sliders recycled from an old, also made-by-me bra.

I did some slightly different with the cups this time, and instead of piecing the lace to cover the cups, I stretched it over the foam cups that I’d already covered with the cream polyester, pieced in the usual way.  I did this because I didn’t want to break up the pretty design of the lace with obvious seaming.  Always an issue with a pieced bra cup!  When you seee bras in the store they don’t really have this pieced cup thing going on and I wanted to see if I could make it happen with my own homemade bras too.   I had to very slight gather the bottom edge of the lace in order for this to work, but I think it turned out ok.

I didn’t have quite enough of the lace to cut the bra band out in one, single piece, so there is piecing towards the back of the band.  However I think this is subtle enough that it’s not a problem.

Extremely eagle eyed observers might pick up that the hook and eye closure are on the wrong sides here!!  Now this is the reason why I usually haul out an existing bra every single time and check FOR SURE before adding these, because the one time you don’t?!!….  Of course I only discovered this when I went to put the bra on for the first time….. DOH!  I managed to get it on ok at the time, but before wearing it again I unpicked them and swapped them to the correct sides.  My hands are like old dogs, and are not used to learning new bra-wrangling tricks like this anymore!

I made the bra and one pair of knickers to be total lace; but didn’t have enough lace for another entire pair of undies… but well I like to have the undies different from each other anyway.  In fact, I decided I liked the half-lace undies more in the end!  I carefully cut and appliquéd to get them all neat and nice.  After my wedding dress adventures, I now consider myself a lace-applique expert, actually

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I’ve made another little onesie!  Looks a bit goth, you say??  well, there’s a story…  

The sewcialists blog had this fun, little mini-challenge last weekend; you spun the wheel to get a colour and then you had the weekend to whip up something with your colour.  I spun and got:

I’m sorry to say I felt very uninspired at first, and just left it for a few days.  And yes, it did say you could spin again and again, in fact as many times as you like to get the colour you want! but that’s just not me… I’m a stick-with-what-you’ve-got, kind of a person, and spinning a second time would have felt like cheating.  Stubborn? oh yes, but you know, gotta own what you are!

Then it occurred to me… make something else for the new baby!!  Now if that’s not a fun motivation I don’t know what is!!  So, you know I’ve got a huge bag of the family’s old clothes that are still very good quality fabric, and I fished out this old T-shirt of Tim’s…

I had this idea he might like for his new baby to have a little something of Dad’s when he gets here… pretty cute idea, huh?  Well, I thought so.    No sooner did I post a picture on instagram, than Tim sent me this one picture of himself wearing the T-shirt.  The grim-looking persona here is all an act, honestly; he’d dressed as a rocker for a dress-up party, haha.

Pattern; I again used the pattern Tim and Kelly had given me; Burda 9434, the 1 month size, except this time I cut the front as one piece, so as to maintain the cool tree/crows motif on the front of the T-shirt; and put 3 snaps in the crotch for closure.

I also made the little ivory beanie; using part of an old dress of Cassie’s.  No picture of that one in its original condition sadly; and it’s already been cut up in the past for a heap for other things; in any case, this is totally a very recycled and eco-friendly outfit for the new bub!

Just some boring construction thoughts:  I did have to cut and piece a little bit near one shoulder, because for some reason the motif had been placed super high on the T-shirt; so close to the neckline edging that you couldn’t possibly cut out the narrow baby onesie piece AND keep the motif intact otherwise.  You’d think the manufacturer’s would consider that people might want to cut out a baby onesie when they print their T-shirts, wouldn’t you; sheesh.  So inconsiderate!  Really, in retrospect I should have pieced BOTH shoulder pieces, which would have centred the motif better, but oh well; you live and learn.  I think it’s super cute, and honestly, I can hardly wait for Tim to be holding his new baby wearing this onesie! seems like full circle, you know?  That is; the baby wearing the onesie, not Tim, obviously!

addendum; aaaaaaaaand, I’ve just finished another shortie onesie… and matching beanie. Reason number one; Kelly and Tim really did buy SO MUCH of this fabric! and reason number two; because I’ve made a salient discovery; you can never actually get tired of making baby onesies.

So, the beanie matches the very first “long-ie” onesie I made, obviously, because it’s from the same fabric; and this onesie also matches the above, ivory beanie; because I used the ivory fabric for the binding… I stitched on miniature sew-on press-studs for the closure on this one because I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the hammer-in ones, and am currently residing in the hate phase…

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Dotty socks?  Socks with the pox? Poxy socks? A pox on socks!

Squeaking in under the wire at the very last minute for the month again, I present this month’s pair of socks… kinda fun, huh?  I absolutely love them retroactively.  While I was actually making them, hmmm, not so much!  I really struggled to get into these ones, funnily enough.  I liked the turquoise yarn with colourful flecks very much at first, but it rapidly became quite blah and too subtle to my eyes.   I felt it really lacked a certain necessary “something”, and I discovered some of that something when I laid the ball of bright yellow yarn against it.  Drab to fab in one fell swoop!  I experimented with several different ways of getting the yellow in there somewhere, but (obviously) in the end settled on embroidering random dots of various sizes here and there.  This gave exactly the fun and quirky look I craved, but was surprisingly difficult to get them looking neat, owing I think to the fact that the yarns were of completely different gauge.  This discrepancy can be seen most clearly in the heels and toes, where the yellow looks quite “puffy” and plumped up compared to the much finer turquoise yarn.  Yeah, it’s funny-looking but still, I love it.

I only had time to embroider a sprinkling of the dots around the top few inches of sock; but if I get some more time -which seems very unlikely – I may add some more “pox”…

Pattern; my usual plain Jane favourite, from a Patons 60s pamphlet with my own modifications

Yarns: flecked turquoise is Opal “Relief” sock yarn, colour 9494; with a yellow Piccolo multi-purpose craft yarn, made in Japan.  Both yarns purchased in Japan during our recent holiday there

oh hey there my lovely little photobomber… must be close to dinner time, mmmm?

The box of socks is looking a bit squished, but pretty!

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Oh my gosh, I am so behind!  I’ve made this new dress … and have worn it and why have I not blogged it?  I used to have quite a strict rule about not wearing something until I have written a blog post for it, but things have been so hectic and complicated lately.

So I received a length of beautifully soft, perforated black suedette fabric from Minerva, and also the Clementine dress pattern, the inaugural pattern from a new pattern company, Forget-Me-not patterns and the marriage of these two items bore the most satisfactory fruit; this delightfully witchy-chic and I think rather elegant little number…  I only had 2m of the suedette fabric which was technically not enough to make the dress I wanted to, but somehow I made it work! with some sneaky patching together here and there.  Specifically, the side front and side back panels have a waist seam, and the back panel has a centre back seam.  Not that you’d ever know that wasn’t completely intentional if I hadn’t pointed it out, right?!

The Clementine is a terrifically versatile pattern, a fit and flare style with princess seams, designed for a stretch knit, and includes a top and dress variations, with either a scoop neck or a cowl neck option.  Also three different sleeve lengths marked too.

I went, very predictably I’m afraid, for the dress option, with the cowl neck, and the three quarter sleeve length…

My suedette, being perforated, is actually a little bit “peekaboo” close-up, so I chose to underline my dress completely with some very thin, beige/greyish-ivory knits I had in my stash already.  Two slightly different fabrics, of an annoying length each of which wasn’t really enough on their own to be useful enough for anything much so I was mighty pleased with myself when it occurred to me I had “just enough” of each combined to cut out my underlining!  I clean cut the suedette and the beige knits using my rotary cutter and left them unhemmed, since the fabrics are all non-frayable and quite stable; however I did opt to hem the sleeve hems since these areas are subject to a bit more stretch and strain.  Each of the underlining pieces was cut to be 5cm shorter than its corresponding outer shell piece.  I stitched each seam, before overlocking the raw edges in a second pass.  The pattern is reeeeally economically designed for minimum fabric wastage, with a 6mm seam allowance.  Highly approve of such thriftiness! although it doesn’t leave any wriggle room, should one wish to indulge in a bit of post-cutting size-fudging/alteration, ahem!  fortunately I went with my recommended size and feel like the sizing is just right.

I am completely in love with that s0ftly draping cowl neckline!  It’s my favourite feature of the dress!

At the back neckline I overlocked the raw edge of the suedette shell self-facing, turned it down over the underlining, and simply topstitched it in place…

I was quite pleased with myself when the front facing/underlining turned out quite clean and neatly done; I cut the front underlining the right length so as to stitch to the lower edge of the front self-facing, right sides together, and then when I stitched the shoulder seam I sandwiched the back shoulder edges in-between the front and its self-facing, so all raw edges are neatly hidden inside.

I liked the idea of the dress being middy length, so lengthened all pieces by 15cm at the lower edges… this is the very maximum I could get out of my metre-age!  I was actually kicking myself I had not ordered more fabric, but was rather chuffed I managed to make it work, yay!

And that swish factor!  I love a dress with a bit of swish!

I have to say; Clara was being so sweet the day I took these pictures!  I was down south alone with her on this particular week, and setting up to take photos of my new dress and she just snuck over and plopped herself down loyally at my feet, without even being asked… I was so touched!  although the little nose touching my hand in the first picture make me suspect she thought a treat might be in the offing; poor girl, it was not!

I am wearing the dress here with my self-made tights – think I might need to make a new batch of these before winter ends!; and the boots Craig gave me for my last birthday.  It’s funny, I didn’t actually think these would get a tonne of wear since I have several pairs of black booties/boots; but I’ve enjoyed wearing them so much this winter.  Maybe even my most worn pair of boots for the year?… maybe?!

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I’ve loved this skirt so much! but it’s been worn and worn and worn and the placky-dack fabric got so crazed and brittle in places towards the end there, I’ve finally been forced, forced I say! to bid it adieu; because my husband was like, that skirt is AWFUL.   And I had to sadly admit; dear, thou speaketh the truth.

I made it two years ago, using a plastic-fantastic polyacetate/vinyl stuff from Spotlight, and the Megan Nielsen Axel skirt pattern.   It most definitely got its magic number of 30 wears… just.  It was fairly shredded towards the end of its life, but it got there!   I’m giving this awesome little terracotta workhorse a little salutary send-off by reminiscing about some of my favourite outfits in which it featured…  Six outfits, to be precise… and everything else I’ve made in the outfits here is linked to its original construction post.

Above; at left; ok, being real here; this is not the most awesome “outfit”, per se; but this OOTD pictures holds a special place in my heart because it was Clara’s first feature on my OOTD blog… LOOK AT THAT LITTLE SCRAP OF PURE CUTENESS!!  SO TINYYYYYYY!! sigh.  If only they could stay so little and cute like that.  But without the puppy-insanity, thanks….  I’m wearing the skirt here with my leather sleeved/wool/silk top, my trusty homemade tights (as always) and my heeled black booties…

At right; I really love this outfit, and wore my caramel suede cardigan with the skirt quite frequently… also with my pink Pattern Magic twist top, ye olde homemade black tights, and my favourite motorcycle boots that I wear practically all winter long…

Both these outfits above were from my spring 10×10 challenge from two years ago, during which the skirt proved its workhorse-ness to me most satisfactorily!  At left; worn with my mustard silk crepe blouse, itself another of my creations using a Megan Nielsen pattern, the Sudley…. and also my own handmade white oxford shoes.

At right; worn with my blue-check hoodie from a Burda pattern, my navy edged white Nettie tee, my black tights and, yet again, the favourite boots….

Above, at left; I love the colour combination of this outfit, so much!! wearing the skirt with my teal-blue Nettie tee, my paprika tie-front cardigan, my mustard raincoat, the homemade black tights and my KronKron shoes that I bought during our holiday in Iceland…

At right; I discovered this outfit combo quite late in the skirt’s life, sadly, because I absolutely love it so much I definitely would have worn it over and over again if the skirt had lived a bit longer!  My wonky apricot striped T-shirt from a Burda pattern, and my olive suede tunic-tee, from another Burda pattern.  Same old black tights, and the little suede booties Craig gave me for my last birthday.  Love these !!

Sooooo, this skirt has been pretty great, so I’m a little sad it died, but you know what? Time to cultivate a new favourite.  What will take its place in my little skirt-loving heart, I wonder?  I can hardly wait to find out  

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I’ve been whipping up (k-chaaaaa!) some maternity clothes for Kelly… I’ve been making a lot “for others” lately, all this year in fact, or at least it feels like it! but I’m ok with that; for one thing; it gives me a chance to get that aspirational 30 wears out of my own wardrobe, and for another… well that’s reason enough, I think?  I have lots of nice clothes and I’m enjoying getting the most out of what I have lately    But I still want to sew! so it’s both fun and enjoyable for me to make clothing for my loved ones instead.  Kelly needs new clothes to fit her fast-changing body and is keen for me to make them, and I am more than happy to make them for her, so it’s a win-win situation for both of us. She recently had a birthday, and we headed out to Homecraft Textiles and Spotlight together and did a bit of shopping; my birthday present to her.

A lovely reader of my blog, Graca sent to me this maternity skirt pattern, Burda 7023, thank you so much Graca!.  First of all, I ran up a little test number, using a soft, grey and white cotton jersey sweat shirting, leftover from this hoodie I made for Sam a few years ago.  The leftover scrap I had was the perfect size for the skirt!  The sizing chart of the Burda pattern was a little weird; Kelly’s hip size put her between a size 20 and 22, the very top of Burda’s size range which seemed quite quite bizarre!  I eyeballed the pattern pieces and decided to size down to 18-20 for Kelly, and of course it fits pretty well so sizing down was a pretty good decision.  Also, of course the skirt is currently huge on her, not surprising given that she is in the very early stages of her pregnancy.  But we both feel it will be a good thing for her to have in the later stages of the pregnancy.

On our shopping trip for the real version we picked up a few very nice fabrics; including a truly gorgeous, creamy/ivory/grey cotton jersey – I bought enough for me to have something too! – and this absolutely drool-worthy rose printed stretch velvet.  I used the Burda 7023 skirt pattern to make the skirt, and “early-maternitised” it a little bit, so it’s more suitable for her to wear during this wintery, early stage of her pregnancy.  I did this by reducing the amount of gathered rise in that front portion of the skirt.  I also installed a drawstring in the front band, so she can pull in some of the extra width now, and let it out gradually as she expands over the coming months.

How?  Firstly; I ironed a square of iron-on interfacing in the centre of the skirt front facing section, and stitched a sort of double buttonhole/figure 8 stitching using a narrow width, short-stitch zig-zag stitching.  I used small shape scissors to cut X-shapes int he square centres of this stitching.  Next, I cut long strips from the ivory jersey I used for the little T-shirt top; these left unheeded naturally roll up in to nice little rolls of fabric.  These I stitched into the side seam stitching of the front/back waistband/facing/casing so the strips are hidden inside, and threaded the ends through my makeshift eyelets.

So, they emerge inside the front waistband of the skirt, and Kelly can pull the waistband in to fit now, and let it out as she grows.  I think this is quite an improvement on the original, which is left to stay big and loose and floppy no matter which stage of the pregnancy you are!

I also made the little top, using the Ebony top pattern I’d bought recently, totally for maternity purposes only of course.  Though I did get an extra one printed out for myself too! ahem…  Kelly has been wearing the striped, raglan-sleeved test version I’d made up, and requested it be streamlined just a little bit, so I brought in the “swing” of the side seams by about 2 inches at each side seam, keeping the side seams straight.  And it still has plenty of swing!  The next request was to bring it in even more next time! though I’m pretty sure the bit of extra room will come in very handy come breastfeeding time.

When making a T-shirt; I like to stitch the shoulder seams down towards the back, and also to stitch the neckline seam allowances down onto the shirt at the back only, like so…. I believe it stabilises this part of a T-shirt which is often subject to the most strain.

This is the regular, set-in sleeve version of the pattern …

I already have some other versions in the pipeline, as well as a few as yet unblogged things awaiting in the wings; I need to get cracking and catch up!

The post some naice new clothes appeared first on Handmade by Carolyn.

Yes, I may be modelling it here, since maybe I stole it for a few days after finishing it, hehe, but this raincoat was always for Cassie and is now safely residing in her wardrobe, where it should be!  I ended up finally giving it to her a coupla weeks ago.  Luckily I had taken photos of me wearing it because it’s just not so easy anymore to take photos of her, now she’s moved out of home… *sob*  She popped over today for some Mum/daughter time and I asked her how it’s been.  She says it’s waterproof, it’s a good size to wear over regular winter clothes which is just what you want from a raincoat, and she loves it, all three of which are always very gratifying to hear!

Materials; So, I’ve had this beige pleather in my stash for aaaaaaaaages, so long that I barely even remember buying it! although I do remember it was from Spotlight.  I’m in a real stash-busting frame of mind lately, so TIME TO GET THIS STUFF MADE UP AND OOOOOUUTTA THERE!  It’s pretty hideous stuff to sew; slightly stretchy and with that “sticky-ness” of pleather so it doesn’t move nicely under the sewing machine foot at all.  I used strips of tissue paper for each and every top-stitching seam…  see here for my tips on sewing leather or pleather

Lining fabric from the deep stash; have no idea now whether I bought it originally or whether it was one of Mum’s throw-outs.  I used a slightly different beige lining fabric, also deep stash; for the sleeves.  All three zips, hood cord, cord stops and eyelets are all from Spotlight.

I couldn’t find the same seam sealer I’ve used for all my other raincoats; BCF is now stocking the above sticks of wax for the job.  I couldn’t help thinking they were basically candles without the wicks and maybe I could use one of the many candles I have already! but bought one anyway.  It proved not very easy to use, since it was quite “firm”, not really soft enough for the job; and  you have to rub it quite vigorously over the seam to get it insinuated into the stitch holes which seemed to stretch the fabric out a little.  Then, I tried melting it a little in a (real) candle flame, before dripping it over the seams, then eventually moved to softening the wax stick in the flame just a little before commencing to rub it in.  The last wasn’t particularly easy either, because the wax only stayed softened for about five seconds away from the flame before it hardened up again, and needed another “soften” in the flame; but in the end I decided this was the best way to get the wax well-worked thoroughly into the seam holes.

But it works! the raincoat is waterproof and that’s the main thing.  Though if I had a choice, I would probably choose the chemical seam sealer over the wax stick… actually I only just had a thought; I have some real beeswax somewhere, and wonder if this would actually work better?  It’s quite soft naturally and so might prove easier to massage into the seams….  something to think about trying next time!

Pattern; is my own.  I’ve made this up three times previously, my first go is here, my second, also for Cassie! is here, my third is here.  I’ve added little improvements and modifications each time I’ve made it up; this one is, dare I say, the nicest yet… although it’s always had the most awesomely practical and deep pockets, if I do say so myself!  I gave this one a big upgrade when I lined it fully with golden beige polyactate lining fabric.  This makes it quite delicious to wear, and makes me wish I’d properly lined my own raincoats with something more traditionally “dressmaker-y” like this.  I lined my first and second raincoats with a soft mesh, which is very nice, but the lining fabric is definitely silkier and far more luxurious against the skin.  Again… next time!

o hey you gorgeous thing!  fluffy photo bombers are always welcome!!

I also gave it an internal pocket, just a simple patch pocket on the left breast; simple but extremely useful.  Yes, ahem; I am realising this raincoat IS most definitely far nicer than my own!  I should have kept it!  jk

.. cheekily wearing it “out” another day!  I wore it to the sewing guild meeting with my dp studio “Eve” dress, my handmade black tights, and the booties Craig bought for my last birthday present…

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So, I loved my red velveteen pinafore so much… it’s such a lot of fun to wear.  I can’t believe I worried a little that I was too, er mature, for such a garment and I thought I might become the butt of mutton-dressed-as-lamb commentary but you know what? I wasn’t, and I’ve throughly enjoyed having a “pinny”.  So I made another! though I believe this is an improvement even upon its predecessor’s near-perfection because the pockets are a tonne better, in my opinion.

Again, I used the pauline alice Turia dungarees pattern for the bodice section, and modified so the bottom part is a skirt.  I put the pinafore on and pinned carefully so as to achieve the ideal proportion to suit my figure, but it actually turned out identical to the shape of my red one!  I’m really really happy with the shape and length of this, it’s absolutely perfect for me,I think…

I really love the front bib pocket of the Turia pattern, I think it’s super cute.

For the pockets, I got out the pattern pieces for Vogue 1115; the shape construction and placement of these pockets is also close to perfection, in my opinion!  I like my pockets to be a bit bigger, but instead of cutting the pockets bigger, I simply stitch the with a 6mm (1/4″) seam allowance instead of the regular 15mm, and boom! I have bigger pockets!

Fabric; cotton corduroy in the most totally divine shade of dusky pink!!  I saw it on Potters’ Textiles instagram and raced in immediately to snap some up!  Then, for some bizarre reason that I have absolutely no explanation for, I bought only 1.5m.  Sure; it’s quite wide; but still I was struggling to cut my pinafore out of such a small piece, especially since you do have to be strict about following the corduroy’s nap when laying out your pieces.  To be honest; I totally would have cut my pockets bigger, but was dealing with mere scraps after getting out my big, important pieces first.  Anyway, I did get everything I wanted successfully, thank goodness…  Normally you’d think, oh I can always get more fabric! but while I was buying it the lady in the store specifically mentioned that they were nearly out!

Like with my red pinny; I chose to line this one fully.  I cut the lining using three of Craig’s discarded old business shirts.  I’m kind of a stash-busting mission lately; really making an effort to reduce pieces in there that have been kept “just in case”; and particularly; fabrics/garments from my refashioning bag.  I carefully harvested all the buttons off the shirts first, of course…

these matching sets of buttons are quite valuable if you make shirts for the menfolk in your life; particularly the shirts that have those mini-buttons often found on the sleeve plackets and button-down collars.  It’s almost impossible to find the two sizes in complete matching sets like this in haberdashery stores.

So you’d think there’s loooooooads of fabric in 3 shirts; and surely more than enough to line a little pinafore??  but of course unless I want my lining to be a heavily patched/seamed, and therefore rather bulky thing, I could really only use the largest swathes of fabric from the backs of the shirts, and still had to join!  But that’s ok; I still feel good about using up at least a little bit more of the refashioning bag!  The lining for my straps was harvested from one sleeve.

THIS! is a cautionary tale…. so, when you’re making welt pockets, and you come to the all-important, ever-so-precise task of cutting the welt opening in your dress fabric?  It’s a good idea to check that your lining fabric has been flipped up out of the way first.  Yeah.  *kicking myself BAD over this disaster…. I used my rotary cutter, and cut the most beautiful clean neat welt pocket opening through the front of my pinny…. AND THE LINING UNDERNEATH AT THE SAME TIME TOO.  Fortunately this only happened once, on just one pocket I mean, and I realised straight away.  If I’d done it for both pockets, I would have seriously considered replacing the lining, for real.  Anyway; I bandaid-ed the problem by ironing on a strip of iron-on interfacing and indulging in some furious and thorough zig-zagging.  Not the most beautiful of repairs, but experience has taught me that this is both a durable and efficient method of fixing a cut like this.

Miraculously, I unearthed a very small length of pink, bias cotton cotton voile from my stash, that I made so long ago I barely remember it.  But it was just enough to finish the hem!!  STOKED!!!

So happy with my pinny!!!!!  I’ve worn it a couple of times already, and am over the moon with it!

I am wearing it here with one of my wool-mix Nettie tees, probably one of my most worn winter tees! my self-designed and -made black tights, and my favourite motorcycle boots.

Now… for something completely different!

Recently I had a conversation with my good friend E.  Now, E is one of my closest friends, we’ve been so for decades and I hold her opinion in high regard.  At the same time! she doesn’t even know I have a sewing blog really, and though she knows I have an instagram account I’m totally sure she has never looked at it… why? because the topic of our conversation on this day was about her recent holiday with her husband, and as an extension of that; how she feels super strongly that “instagrammers” are ruining the world and are just beyond despicable, in her eyes.  In her own words; she despises instagram, because people are obsessed with taking their pictures in the most beautiful places and are thus destroying these places for everyone else, in both the taking of the photos, and the damage they do while doing so.  And not to mention they look ridiculous in their ballgowns and long tresses blowing in the wind, out on the moors, or in front of a particularly picturesque cottage, that’s not even their cottage, or whatever…..  Now… on the one hand I can certainly see her point, especially when it comes to people monopolising key beautiful tourist spots, setting up tripods and preventing other people from enjoying the view because they are prancing around right in the middle of it.  Our conversation didn’t even touch on people leaving rubbish behind, or treading on and damaging delicate flora or anything physically destructive like that! though of course that is a problem too.  My friend blames instagram completely for all this.

Now of course, I have thoughts!  I personally love instagram! though I can see too that all of her points have validity.  I know exactly the type of instagrammer to which she is referring… I have seen them myself too.  And secretly thought how silly it all looks.  And I know I might well be accused of being one of “those prancers” sometimes…!!   HOWEVER; I would argue not! since I take great care to take my own photos in complete private.  I think this is something not many readers of my blog or viewers of my instagram understand about me; I am actually a very shy and quiet person; and would be terrified to take photos of myself in front of other people.  I need complete isolation!  If there were other people there enjoying the view and taking their own pictures or whatever, you can bet your bottom dollar I am NOT going to be getting in their way, or taking my own pictures.  So while the evidence is there on my blog that I do indeed take pictures of myself in beautiful locations, I’m not really making a spectacle of myself in the action of doing it; if that makes sense.

It’s always felt logical to take photos of my new creations in my favourite spots.  It just gives me lots of pleasure to make this happen.  Should I stop? because I’m being ridiculous? or continue because it gives me joy?  rhetorical question btw, no need to answer… I don’t even know why I’m going got all this effort to explain myself really, except maybe to lay out my own thoughts coherently.  Did she strike a nerve?  maybe.  I have a sense of the ridiculousness of it all, even while I’m doing it.  But at the same time, I want to take pictures of my clothes, and I like the idea of nice photos, though my commitment to this waxes and wanes. I did actually go for a fairly long period of time where I only took pictures in my own garage, or in our own house and garden.  I don’t know if it even went noticed on my blog here because I am fortunate to have some quite picturesque corners in my garden, but yes; I went off the idea of ” real” photos “out and about” for nearly a year…

And obviously; I am super opposed to damaging the environment in any way.  If I love a beautiful spot, I definitely want it to stay beautiful for the future!  Leave only footprints and take only pictures.  Am a big proponent of that.

I’m not sure what the right answer is, but I guess I should just continue to be super vigilant and careful about taking my photos only when alone.  It’s easy to “say”, like many people do in this time of (over?)-sharing; that I don’t care what other people think of me, but obviously that would not be true!

What a weird, double life I’m living!  Maybe I should just delete all this?!

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Wait, it’s now September.  It’s not August any more…. dammmmmm!!!!  I’m a day late!

In my own defence I did actually finish these yesterday, which was still August; but it was like nigh on midnight and the lighting at midnight is kinda not conducive to Un Fashion Shoot of Le Feet.  And I was tired.  I had to wait until morning.  But I got there eventually!

I chose this warm, colourful and cheerful colourway specifically because August has always legit been my least favourite month; the last month of winter, my least favourite season, and it’s so cold and miserable and depressing and always seems to drag on fooooreeeeveeeeer.  So I wanted, nay needed! a project that I thought would cheer me up.  Even so; I don’t want to even go into the details of now these socks were started and unravelled and restarted and re-unravelled over and over.  I think they had four, if not five; false starts.  I had grand fair isle plans, shall we say, that came to naught and got abandoned…  it’s a bit depressing to think about though, so that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.  Instead; look how upliftingly joyful and lovely!  They’re like a warm, comforting, crackling fire for the feet!

I bought the yarn in Japan; it’s the Opal Regenwald 14 or “rainforest” range of sock yarn, in col. 9627 “Sascha – der Sommelier”, and added some blue in the heels and toes; this is a yarn I bought in Haynes, Alaska during our holiday from two years ago; Online Supersocke 100, Vintage Colour; col. 1412.  The heels are alternate stitches of the two colours, with the two yarns carried and crossed over each and every stitch at the back; making them double thickness for a bit of extra strength in an area which always wears through the fastest.  I’m not sure now why I selected this particular blue which doesn’t even match for the purpose but it’s neither here nor there any more since there it is.  The toes are in the straight blue.  I was quite doubtful about the blue after the first heel was finished, but at that point was NOT going to unravel yet again and redo; and actually I like the contrast with all that orangey/crimson-y/turquoise in the end.  Yay!!

I went to great lengths to make the stripes identical.  This is not as straightforward as it sounds; some of the orange sections had four orange stripes, some had five.  There are more than a few joins in there; all neatly woven in on the inside.  Final verdict?  I really love them, the colour is so happy and heart-warming; but phew boy! I am SO GLAD to have finished them!

the box of socks… looking quaite naice I reckon!

and PS; thanks so much every one for your kind and thoughtful responses to my previous post.  I wasn’t trying to complain! honestly! but I really REALLY appreciate all those lovely thoughts.   xxx

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Hack attack!

Despite initial appearances, my new shorts are actually based upon the Pietra shorts/pants pattern by Closet Case patterns… I loved this pattern immediately, loved the high waisted flat front with no waistband, and those cool side panels with pockets.  However, I was not quite so much in love with the elasticated back … or perhaps I should specify I was not quite so much in love with my own rear view in the aforementioned elastic waist version of the pattern?!   I did actually make up a test version with the elastic waist first …

For version number one, I cut up an old linen dress given to me by Mum.  Unfortunately I decided I’m tragically allergic to elastic waistbands, with the one and only exception of pyjama bottoms.  Although looking at these pictures now the rear view is not as offensive to me as it was when I first looked at these pictures!  at the same time, I am still much happier with the rear view of my second, non-elasticated and more streamlined version.

I was pretty sure I would be able to alter, modify, wrangle a de-elasticised waist with a bit of finagling… putting an invisible zip in the centre back seam and removing a whole lot of real estate from the back waist area, retaining that lovely flat front and pockets completely.

And I did!   I think the front view looks exaclty the same!

I shall now proceed to explain my butchery… and please note that these measurements laid out here are tailored to my own personal waist measurements and will obviously be different for other people.  Specific measurements for each of these modifications can best be determined from your own waist and hip measurements.

I removed 6cm from the waist of the back piece; and actually swung the side edge out towards the hem edge at the same time, adding a bit of flare to the back view of the shorts…

I also removed 2cm from the top/back edge of the side pieces, tapering off to nothing at the top edge of the pocket.  This wedge was also removed “mirror-image” from the front facing, shown already stitched on at the left…

I put a dart in the back piece… while my picture illustrates it to be 10.5cm, I actually stitched it a bit longer, closer to 11.5cm at its end point

… the dart is situated 10cm in from the centre back raw edge and is 3cm in width at its top edge

… I used the existing back waistband piece to cut my two new back waistbands to fit the new size…

… inserted an invisible zip into the centre back seam.  Note, the centre back seam is essentially unaltered, except that the back waistband now has a vertical centre back seam too.

Because I whimsically fancied something a bit different for the back of my waistband, specifically a V-shaped cut-out effect at the centre back … I put in the zip a bit lower and stitched the top edge in an angle like so…  Yes, I’m very much oversimplifying here, because making my two sides exactly identical actually took aaaaages and some super precise measuring.  I even unpicked one side completely and re-did it because it’s amazing how even 1 or 2mm difference will show up as a glaring inconsistency.  Hint; making a little paper template made it a lot easier to get everything perfectly mirror image; which yes, seems super obvious in retrospect!

corners trimmed and turned out…

I hand stitched the waistband self-facing down with tiny fell-stitches…

To finish; the side seams were pinned, and the already-understitched front facing was wrapped around over the top and over the back waistband piece.

Side seams were then stitched, corners trimmed and seam allowances finished etc. before pulling the whole thing right sides out.  And that’s it!

Oh! of course, the ever important fabric notes… this is actually just a super cheap cotton drill from Spotlight… I LOVE the orange-y mustard colour of course, SO MEEEEE! and the random vertical dashes.  The pattern sorta reminds me a lot of this felted wall hanging I made, many moons ago; my vision was of a sort of poem carved by an artistic cave man, in a language or alphabet wrought in colours and strokes of differing lengths and groupings.  This is still hanging up in our front room! and you can read more about it here

Details:

Shorts; both the Pietra shorts/pants pattern by Closet Case patterns
Drapey white top; based on the loose drape top no.1 in the Japanese pattern book “drape drape”, by Hisako Sato
Hat; Vogue 8844, in khaki drill
Plain white tee; Nettie tee by Closet Case patterns, white jersey

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Last week, on a whim; I randomly decided to mini-wardrobe-challenge myself to wear this khaki/olive suede tee  for one whole week, styling it differently each day … I’d made it five years ago! back in 2014 and it’s been such a great versatile piece!  It’s mostly a winter-y sort of a thing to wear, though it’s quite nice to pop on for a half-warm but not hot day.  A transitional piece, is what the cool kids of fashion would say, yeah.  Although, what am I talking about??  I’m the cool kid, well I can dub myself so here in the realm of my own funny little blog at least, anyway!   #imtheONLYkid

So yeah, I made this 5 yrs ago, using Burda 10/2009;121 and a very realistic dark olive green suedette that I bought in Tokyo during a holiday there; original post is here.  I remember Yoshimi bought the same stuff in pale pink at the same time, and made herself a top too.  I’ve worn my own top lots over the past five years, ‘cos it pretty much went with everything I own, though I still did develop favourite ensembles with it.  One of those I included in my previous 6-different ways post, with my terracotta skirt! but I decided it would be sorta cheating to include that outfit in with this six too.  Although it totally should be here too really, because it still ranks amongst my favourites for this year.

Anyway! without further chitchat!  I made every item of clothing I’m wearing in the following pictures, with the exception of my shoes.  All items are linked to their original construction post.

Below left: worn with my over-dyed Nettie tee, sage green wool tweed skirt, and my self-designed chenille scarf and black tights; and my old black booties.  I love love LOVE the olive green and raspberry colour combination together…  Need to establish more opportunities for such in Ye Olde Wardrobe….

Below right; worn with an ivory wool Nettie tee, my purple Jade miniskirt, ivory hand knit möbius scarf, black tights, and my beloved motorcycle boots.  I guess purple is basically a variation on raspberry, because the olive/purple colour combo similarly speaks to my soul too!  Sadly this little skirt bit the dust last year too…

Below left; proving that chambray goes with everything.  I wore this outfit on a warmish day during my recent Week of the Olive Suede Top.  My blue chambray shirt is an oldie but a goodie, and the little blue denim skirt is another staple.  Also wearing unseen sockettes made by moi.

Below right; with my over-dyed Nettie tee, my once yellow, over-dyed corduroy skirt, a scarf knitted by Mum – oh, ok, there is one item of clothing not made by me! –  my over-dyed khaki leggings, and hand knit socks.  And my favourite desert boots.

Below left; This is my outfit from just yesterday, an unexpectedly very wintery day.  Worn with my mustard merino Nettie, my outback wife barkcloth skirt, hand knit mustard cowl, black tights, and my mustard raincoat. Did I mention that olive green and mustard is another favourite colour combination?!  Maybe I should amend that to say, olive green and anything?

Below right; I paired the olive green top pretty frequently with white, black to black-and-white combinations; all of which it looked pretty good with, I thought, lending warmth and life to the general colourless-ness, however chic said colourless-ness may be!  I picked this outfit for this post though, because it was one of the few times I tried belting the tunic.  I actually like it a lot belted; slightly 80s-inspired in a look that makes me nostalgic, in a good way.  I think I should have done this more often I think!

Worn with my Eve dress, black tights. and the lovely suede booties Craig bought for my last birthday…

So!  Sadly, the tunic has pretty much done its dash now… while the fabric seemed reasonably sturdy it actually was not; and over years of use it eventually developed a few holes from rubbing and little tears, particular around the side splits and the underarm area.  I haven’t actually tossed it out, but I may think about repurposing the fabric for something else sometime.  Because I still really really love the fabric!

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There’s a new pattern in Le Shop!!

So, last Christmas I made a few shopping totes, one for Kelly and one for Sam’s lady L, and they were quite nice if I say so myself!  Kelly in particular carried hers around a tonne, bringing it around practically every week, packed full of her stuff.  She reckoned it was an incredibly useful size…  Shortly afterwards I received several requests from lovely readers who were interested in the pattern which made me feel, yeah we can do this, and; well, wedding sewing did put pattern-making on the back burner for quite a while but ta da! finally we made it happen… and it’s now live in our shop!

I asked Cassie to name this one, and she decided upon Claremont, after our favourite shopping centre.  Well, I should qualify; our actual favourite places to shop are like; Fabulous Fabrics, and Potters, and Spotlight, but well, you know  

Specifics; the Claremont is an unlined, shopping tote with box-base and cut-on handles, with two options for internal pockets . The base measures 30cm x 20cm (12” x 8”); the height of bag not including handles is 33cm (13”). The length of the shoulder straps enables a person to sling the tote easily on the shoulder and to still be able comfortably access inside the tote while you’re wearing it.  The cut-on handles makes for a very strong bag that can withstand a quite heavy load of shopping.

The totes I made for Kelly and L were quite simple with no pockets, however for the pattern itself we added pattern pieces and instructions for two internal pockets; an open pocket for your phone, and a zipped pocket for your keys.  I ran up a pocketed version for a birthday gift for a friend, using a really lovely Spindle and Ink canvas; this is called Flowering Gum in Bluestone and Stream.  Isn’t that a gorgeous name?!  It’s designed by Lara Cameron.

The pattern is available to purchase in digital pdf format; and also; in consideration of the fact that I understand that lots of people prefer paper sewing patterns, and/or do not easily have access to printing it out at home, or just don’t want to; we are also making available an actual paper pattern too.  

This is unavoidably a more expensive option, sorry! so sweeten the paper pattern deal; with the first five paper patterns sold I’m throwing in one of our pattern company labels.  These are produced by the Dutch Label company, and I currently only have the five.  Anyone who has  bought from them knows and no doubt loves the very high quality of their work!  I’m thinking of ordering more!

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