A person could be forgiven for thinking that I had abandoned my totally local, 1 year 1 outfit project, since there has been no mention of it here for months!… *blush* however, it has been plodding along, slowly but surely, and is now FINISHED!!!! Hurrah! At last!
The concept: last year Nicki from this is moonlight conceived the very interesting 1 year 1 outfit project and invited me to take part with her… the idea was that you make an outfit using ONLY local materials and primary supplies grown and/or sourced in your own area. Well you know how weak at the knees I go for a dressmaking challenge! and the more difficult the better! Several of us here in Perth took part last year; Nicki, Sue, Megan and me. Sue, Megan and I met up for a hilarious photoshoot in our outfits one day last February; it was so much fun! and we all had plans for this year too.
from left: Megan, Sue, and me… the links in this post go to everyone’s individual posts about their outfits
So yes, I was all enthusiastic… however! It really is a difficult challenge, far more difficult than you might think! and though I made a good start with dyeing some yarn early, my other challenge, my Year of Handmade, has consequently swept me away with its even higher degree of difficulty … I’m not whinging, ’cause I really do like challenges honestly! however I’ve struggled with everything this year a bit and it’s taken a while for me to get my groove on. Fortunately Nicki announced a March deadline recently, which lit a fire under me. I got cracking, and got finished!!!!
Thoughts going in: I loved my first 1 year 1 outfit project from last year; although I confess I’ve barely worn it at all! Reason being that while I think my embroidered felt is ethereally beautiful, at the same time it is fairly fragile and can only stand up to light wearing on special occasions. So my major priority for this year’s outfit was casual wearability; something that I could toss on and wear on a daily basis without fear of ruining it. I also wanted it to try out some natural dyeing techniques.
What did I make: a simple knitted dress and a matching beanie, showcasing my dyeing experiments in stripes. I just wanted my hard-won colours to shine on their own merits equally without compete with each other, and individual stripes separated by the blankness of the natural undyed ivory just seemed a good way to accomplish this.
Sources; I obtained all my handspun merino yarn from Bilby Yarns, which is an absolute treasure trove for Western Australian interested in local wool products and supplies. My yarn is from Western Australian Merino sheep; born, grown and shorn right here in the south-west of WA. The raw fleece is transported to Bilby Yarns in Willagee, where local spinning enthusiasts can purchase it, spin it in their own homes, and sell it to people like me back through Bilby Yarns. It’s such a great scheme!! All my yarn was spun by the talented Beverley L. whose yarn I also used last year! Some of my yarn this year was leftover from last year, and I managed to buy some more of her’s this year…. I’m so pleased I was able to purchase so much of her gloriously lovely handspun! I bought mostly undyed natural white, and some natural grey. The grey is quite rare, and I was lucky to get hold of this! I used the grey to highlight each colour; I like how the grey stripe adds a bit of trompe l’oeil 3D-ness to the coloured stripes, like a shadow underneath each one.
So! I had my natural ivory and grey yarn, now for the colours! All my dyeing experiments are outlined in this post here. I didn’t end up using all the colours I produced… leaving something for the next 1year1outfit maybe?? The colours I chose from my experiments are, from the hemline going up, are:
Orange, from Coreopsis flowers;
Acid yellow; from sour grass stems and flowers,
Blue, from Japanese indigo, and I’m so grateful to Nicki for the use of her dye vat,
Pink, from avocado pits,
and that lime-y green colour at the top was the result of over-dyeing, soaking some of my spare indigo yarn in a sour grass (oxalis) dye bath and then with just a single coreopsis flower (orange) tossed in to give it a bit more oomph when I realised the yellow was a bit weak.
The design: is my own!! I did about a million calculations first but even then there was plenty of unravelling and re-doing bits until I was satisfied with it! I wrote down my final pattern below, just in case I ever want to revisit this pattern, or if anyone is interested in knitting an entire dress for themselves! It’s ok, I wouldn’t blame anyone who didn’t but still… The only thing is that it’s only got the one size; That lower hemline with slightly forward slits? yes, it’s pretty obvious that my hemline is totally inspired by the Named patterns Inari tee dress, a pattern I have made five times now and unequivocally LOVE. I just really like the way the Inari dress slits do the job of a walking vent, but is visually more interesting and obvious than your regular, garden variety, centre-back walking vent … and I really like the terraced high-low look of that longer back and shorter front.
The dress is mostly stocking stitch, with the lower edges, the sleeve edges, and pocket opening welts highlighted with various width rows of garter stitch. Those sleeves! OK, I’ll confess these almost did me in … initially I had other ideas, resulting four false starts on the sleeves before the final design decision. Four!! It was a bit gut-wrenching, each time I would be chooffing merrily along with a sleeve, before the dawning realisation that my previously thought-to-be cool idea was actually going to look really really stupid. Gut-wrenching! SO MUCH UNRAVELLING!! But I refused to give up, I kept reminding myself that this HAD to work, I’d put so much into it already and I just could not abandon it in its hour of need. Finally I hit upon this sleeve, a very simple, and plain, , unadorned long-sleeved style , which worked out just right, I think.
Pockets; of course it has pockets!! the dress is knitted in the round, so there are no side seams, but I left openings at the front hip to knit in the pockets later. There are little extension “flaps” at the pocket openings, for a continuous look when you’ve got your hands in the pockets and may catch glimpses of the pocket insides; and the pockets are just little “bags” made by picking up stitches along this edge, knitting a simple rectangular strip and folding it in on itself. The garter stitch “welt” was knitted on before stitching the pocket piece closed.
The neckline; just wanted something really simple and streamlined, so I did one single row of chain stitch embroidery around the neckline edge.
The beanie: is a slightly loose and slouchy beanie, as I love this look and have decided this style of beanie suits me quite well, I think… hope! The arrangement of the stripes is the same as the dress, just on a smaller scale. This got unravelled and re-knitted only once before I worked out just exactly how I wanted it to look.
Le Whole Shebang, with accessories and all:
Shoes and bag; I’m wearing the same shoes and bag I made for last year’s project. At first I worried that they wouldn’t “go” but well; I reckon they go just fine. I carved my shoe bases from Manjimup pine and made the felted tops in natural white and black merino fleece and handspun, as described here. The matching bag is of the same felt.
Underwear: yep, same as last year. Well, I’m not going to make a new pair when I never wear this set at all! However, it is totally 100% local so I’m counting it as part of my totally local outfit again for this year, hehe.
So that’s it!! Am I going to take part in the “1 year 1 outfit” project again next year? well I do have ideas, but confess I’m a little exhausted, by, well… everything, at this point. Maybe, maybe not. The truth is that I actually do have enough totally local materials still, to produce something… so maybe… yes?! We’ll see!
fun fact; the small tree with bright green leaves behind and to the right of me in the picture, is called a Snottygobble. Yes, really!! #weirdAussienames
Following is my free pattern for this knitted, slightly A-line dress with inset, welted pockets, split hem, long sleeves. Includes pattern for optional beanie also. Please link back to me and credit me if you use this pattern, thank you so much 
Location; Leeuwin National Park, in the south-west of Western Australia… though the picture below is actually taken in our own garden, since I forgot to take my bag with me when I went to the park, doh!!
Now, you may be wondering… Carolyn, isn’t it summer? Aren’t you absolutely roasting alive like a broiled lobster in that warm and ultra-cosy-looking woollen ensemble?? The short answer to that is YES, yes I am. Ahem. The maestro of Seasonally Inappropriate Sewing strikes yet again.
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