Liberty Linden Love

Ok, so I wear, a lot, of Melbourne Black, 

and navy....

and some other colours..... 

which escape me at the moment...

One colour that's pretty much missing from my wardrobe is shocking pink.

Of course, it's the perfect colour to add a bit of brightness to my winter palette. Primarily as it can't clash with anything ;)

I'm not usually a huge Liberty print fan (sacrilege, I know), I adore the feel of their Tana lawn, but the prints don't often grab me. This is Kindle* a tonal print with subtle little florals and foliage, totally gorgeous, and, well, yes, very, very pink.

*(from the Liberty of London website): Kindle Liberty print was sketched while listening to the Elysian singers perform at The Royal Festival Hall. The final hand drawn repeat has the design Elysian woven into its sound waves.

I actually had a shopping cart open on The Fabric Store's NZ  site when the word went out that it had landed in the Melbourne store... I blame Instagram (you know who you are... yes ... you... and yes, you too....)

And yes, a family trip was made the next morning so I could feel it IRL and once patted, it came home with me.
It's very perfectly fleecy, and even more so after a trip through the washing machine.

Essentially it is a woven though. I considered making another drop shouldered top, in the style of my much adored black wool awesome thing:
And then my love for my new vintage wool woven Linden won out and I made View A.
This is the size 8, with 2cm taken out of the back raglan seams, reducing to nothing by 7cm.
The sleeves are simply turned and stitched. I know much has been discussed of the long arms of the pattern as drafted and I didn't include the cuff. I do like warm hands however and would use the same arm length if I made it again (with added cuffs)

Silliness prevails. The weather conspired against this photoshoot for nearly a month.

Removing 4cm from the back neckline has brought it in nicely as well, as drafted, the Linden is a tad wider than I prefer in a rounded neckline. The boatneck on my black top is just a bit wide for many layering options and I wanted this top to be a non-drafty winter staple.
I felt very indulgent as I cut my neckline on the bias - such an inefficient use of fabric! It was worth it though. I had previously stabilised the entire neckline with iron on stay tape (yes, I love it!) and after carefully stitching the bias on, it was 'sticky-uppery' ;( I nearly cried.

I do love the cross over of our fibre arts though, I channelled my inner knitter, went into blocking mode and ignored that I wasn't playing with wool . I simply saturated the neckline pieces and patted them back into shape. After some steaming with my iron, the neckline was perfectly snugged - yes, I'm rather chuffed with my neckline.

The hip hem is taken straight from my black jumper. It's a piece of straight grain fabric, the circumference of my hips, folded and sewn to a slightly gathered bottom edge of garment. It keeps out any winter breeze and allows the top to blouson over a belt or winter padding.

Silly poses aside, it's the first top in a while to have elicited random unsolicited compliments - although, they were mostly on how lovely it was to see me in pink....

*For a hint on my previous (BL, Before Liberty) pink aversion, I mentioned a pink 80's windcheater with koalas in my 2014 black post...

Named Saunio

Such an unassuming blog post title for such a little workhorse of a cardigan.

Named Patterns released the Saunio cardigan in their SS14 All Things Nice Collection well over a year ago. I've seen it made up, by the always on-trend and stylish Kirsty of Top Notch, three times, however I never really noticed it, until now. Her third version, and Blogless Anna's, combined with Named's discount code for The Monthly Stitch's separates competition, tipped me over the edge, I wanted one, and I wanted it now.

Sea Change Sea Change One Two Three !!!

I do love a top with interesting details, especially one that has fabulous drape from big pattern pieces, fits me without headaches, and where I can move about freely without readjusting it over the day.  Having bands to finish the hem and sleeves neatly and making it both woven and knit suitable ... I'm sold!

Introducing Lily Sage & Co's Sea Change Top.

The Sea Change top is loosely fitted, with wide kimono sleeves. The hem is designed to fall just below the natural waist for a modest, cropped look that will both complement and showcase high waist pants and skirts.

The top length can easily be lengthened through the top. The armbands and bottom hem band can also be altered in length for different looks.

Recommended fabrics:

Light to medium weight, drapey fabrics will be the most flattering choices for this top.

Options include knit fabrics like jersey. Cotton, viscose, and rayon are fibres that will all work well. Woven fabrics like silk satin, silk crepe de chine, and habutai will also suit this pattern.

Dyeing for a Sea Change 1 - my experiment in dyeing rayon

I have just had my first experiments with procion dyes. (in contrast to hot water dyeing which I've never been terribly good at)

This glorious yellow rayon was the first solid rayon I found at Spotlight a year or 2 ago. I had great visions of a summery dress, however it is, rather, yellow-gold... Lovely to feel, nice and drapey, but, far to overwhelmingly yellow for a dress for me. So, inspired by all of the indigo workshops that have been filling my Pinterest feed, and Nicki's solar dyeing for One Year One Outfit, I set out to learn a little bit about dyeing.

Ying Yang Phillippa Phillip: Mixing it up top

A little while ago I joined Helen Funkbunny on an adventure into town. We visited the history filled Phillips Shirtmakers - a working factory, still sewing shirts, hidden upstairs in the middle of Melbourne's CBD. It was fascinating!
I was completely overwhelmed by the bolts of dead stock shirting available - it was their first fabric sale in their 60 years of manufacture - and limited myself to filling a bag (well, ok, 2) with scraps for $5.
Among my treasures are some decent little lengths, some vintage Liberty scraps, and 5 left sleeve plackets...
One of my favourite scraps was a navy floral cotton, so light and soft. I didn't have enough to make a top, so I paired it with two rectangular shaped scraps in a more masculine striped shirting - and made a cute little summer tank top.

Getting my feet wet: Alabama Chanin

When I finished my little scarflett, I missed having something to carry around in my (not so little) handbag, that I could pick up and play with whenever my little people were playing in a park, or while my littlest napped on me (literally).
My wonderful local library had the first Alabama Chanin book for me to loan, and even more delightfully, ordered the third, so I borrowed it as well.

Alabama Chanin top details ;)

To the bleachers! Blue tops and sandy days : The Sandpoint Top : Pattern Testing for GrayDay Patterns

I do love a draped neckline ;)
Over at The Monthly Stitch, a competition was held to choose a brand new indie pattern designer to be mentored and Helena of GrayDay Patterns and her Sandpoint Top were chosen.

I only work in black - in contrast to Burda's white lace

I only work in black, and sometimes, really, really dark grey....

Sail away with Mandy Hudson

When I was a young, voracious reader, I used to dream of adventures along the Hudson with Trixie Belden, Honey and the Bob Whites - in my dreams I had short curly hair (just like Trixie) and was a bit of a tomboy - well, not much has changed ;)

My absolute favourite book in the 34 books that I read in the series was The Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon (1979) with a genuine glow in the dark disappearing pirate ship!

Don't mind me while I climb the rigging and dream of pirate adventures...

A Tale of Two Cowls - Part Two - Vogue 1250

Ok, I know it's been said before, but surely I'm the last sewing blogger to make & write about Vogue 1250!

Vogue 1250

This very loved pattern is from DKNY for Vogue and was one of Pattern Review's Best Patterns of the year in 2011.
Almost everyone has made it and raved about it and when Vogue (finally) had $5 patterns late last year, I bought it (and a few others...).

In the interests of reviewing it for me - and also that I've not sewn any modern Vogue's since I started really paying attention to fit, I read & measured the finished garment measurements & chose to start with a size 10 bust, grading out to 12 for my waist & hips.
Once again, fabric choice is a key to the drape & fit.

A Tale of Two Cowls - Part One - DrapeDrape1 #1 - and a bonus Iconic Cami

March's Monthy Stitch Challenge is Miss Sew Bossy Patterns. I mainly played along in the Facebook group during February and it was so wonderfully interactive & built a fabulous sense of community - I was introduced to dozens & dozens of new-to-me blogs and the conversations flowed wonderfully.
Such a scathingly brilliant idea, thanks ladies!

Miss Bossy Patterns March

I had rebelled/hedged my bets and asked the Monthly Stitch Community to choose between 3 fabrics, 5 patterns.
I had a clear pattern winner (phew!) with 13 votes for the first draped top from the Japanese Pattern Book Drape Drape 1, which I've made (as bossed) in a luscious, thin, drapey red cotton knit from the Clegs Boxing Day sale.

Happy New Year - Love, the Dachshund xxx

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!
Surely that means I can post my December and January Monthly Stitch challenges on time??
no?? These are all gratuitous dachshund shots….. good enough reason? excellent! let's just ignore the timestamps and cover them here….
December's Challenge was "tis the season to Party" and I wore my project top to three Christmas functions, including family lunch on Christmas Day. Did I get a single photo of it - well, of course not ;)

Needless to say this is an 'action' shot as he spied something worth considering leaping into action for

It is Leisl+Co's Weekend Getaway Blouse and I admit, I was completely influenced by Lara Thornberry's two and SewBusyLizzy's versions.

It's a jungle out there - in the water

Jungle January in Australia finds us merging into our native environments of the beach, the freshwater lake and the local suburban pool… or with 5 days over 40C (110F), into anywhere with functioning air-conditioning…

Knowing that all of the above environments were likely in January, I needed some camouflage, stat. Something rated to SPF50+, in marine colourations, able to merge with the background water wherever it may be found and also to survive the hike in and lifeguard duty while there.

Enter Cake's Cabarita in spongy wetsuit material. It's in the snow peacock 'pant-tone' colourway, but do I spy some little kittys peeking out from that big cat print?