A pair of Plantains

I have joined the Deer and Doe Plantain party, a little later than many but very pleased!

First, this one in Australian-made 100% organic cotton jersey - a plain basic that I think I will wear rather a lot. When we were in New Zealand I survived on a very minimalist wardrobe, which was quite satisfying. I felt quite liberated and had a substantial wardrobe clearout when we got home. But I did realise I could use a few new long-sleeve tops for winter, to replace some old faves that had seen better days.

The Plantain is just what I needed, and seems to really suit my 'pear shape' with fitted sleeves and upper body, and ease over the hips so it won't do that annoying creepy thing where it all ends up bunched around my waist.

As the pattern suggested, I graded out from my size 42 bust to size 44 hips, although a straight 42 probably would have been fine. It was quite long on me so I made a deep hem.

On a high from the success of this one, I nabbed a bit of Birch 'Elk Grove' organic interlock from the shop, washed it and dried it by the fire overnight so I could launch straight into another one. And here it is!

I could perhaps have thought a bit more about the print placement on the neck band but, eh, who really cares? I'll wear a bit of strange chopped up deer (elk) body, no worries.

Here's me 'directing' Jasper as photographer:

(This was after a series of shots where he neglected to notice - okay so he's an 11 year old boy - that I had Visible Bra Strap.) Ah, the joys of blog photography... awkward at the best of times.

Aside from my denim Moss skirt that you see here, the other staple I wore to bits on our holiday was a a very plain A-line denim version of Stylish Dress Book Dress A, that you can vaguely see here:

(This is my Cate Blanchett as Galadriel in Lord of the Rings impersonation, in case that is not entirely obvious. She stood by this exact tree.)

Anyway this photo is pretty representative of my holiday 'uniform'. I love the layer-able shift dress, all year around. And being half-owner of a fabric store and all, and if the perks don't currently include drawing an actual wage, y'know, well surely I can make the most of the fabric at hand. So....

Brumby Frock! In the ridiculously simple Dress D from Stylish Dress Book 2, without the sleeves and with different pockets. In stunning eco-friendly, hand-printed fabric by Cloth, from Sydney. Great as-is and supremely layerific for cooler weather. Yay!

And let's round off this blog post with a bit of special stylin' by Clem, with his beloved Pillow, and back-to-front pyjama top.

- Jane xx

A Nani Iro top for spring

There's a warmth just beginning in the air and I believe we are emerging from what seemed to me like the dreariest, rainiest winter since eleven years ago when I was stuck at home with two little boys ages zero and 14 months in a dark unrenovated cramped house but-let's-not-dwell-on-that!

I've just emailed off the first full draft of the last major piece of work I have to complete for my 'regular job' before I finish up. Yay!

Last Saturday there was a marked turn in business at the shop, with people buying summery fabrics. Yay!

The daylight is lasting longer. Yay!

I know that soon enough I will be moaning about the heat and having to water the garden and all that but for now... yay! I'm feeling all springy! And not in the least because I made myself a new top from some Nani Iro double gauze I've been eyeing off for a while.

It's such a statement fabric, I wanted to make something simple. So after lots of consideration, I settled on a pattern I'd made before, from a Japanese sewing magazine, Pochee Spring 2010. It's basically a wide raglan sleeve top with the neckline gathered up and the gathers sewn down with a long strip that also becomes the front tie. I love my first version of this shirt and still wear it often. The double gauze has held up very well to wash'n'wear.

The pattern calls for the neckline strip to be cut on the bias, and the layout shows an outrageous amount of fabric allowed simply for cutting this. There's really no need for it to be on the bias and I pieced it together from a couple of pieces cut on the grain.

However my fabric-miser tendencies bit back at me when I didn't have enough room to add seam allowances at the bottom hem. The top turned out a bit short so I headed back to my pile of scraps and eked out a little addition to the bottom, which was kind of on the bias so it kicks out a bit. Actually I quite like the effect! One of those 'happy accidents'. I would allow a bit more fabric next time though. Er, if I could remember how much I cut for this one, ha.

I also shortened the neck slit/placket thingy considerably because it was waaay too low last time - maybe a little too short now but no matter.

Thank you Jasper for the kooky-angle photos!

- Jane x

Stylish Dress Book style A

I briefly mentioned one of these dresses a couple of posts back. The pattern is Style A from the popular Japanese Stylish Dress Book. My first one, in an Alexander Henry cotton lawn - see further below - was getting so much wear that I made another. This absolutely gorgeous Anna Maria Horner voile has been in my stash for about a year waiting for just the 'right' project. 

Check out our seven day forecast and you'll understand why this is the best thing to wear right now (degrees Celcius): 35, 41, 42, 31, 36, 41, 41.  (42 being 107.6 Fahrenheit.)

Apparently I was never going to be able to get any photos of me that did not also contain a fairy-bread-munching five year old.

I should note here that I have the translated version of this book which is also graded up into 'Western-style' sizing. I haven't tried any of the other patterns yet but I can say that this one is certainly generous. By my measurements I made a muslin of size 14 which was so immensely vast, I went straight down to a size 10, which as you can see still has plenty of room.

I added simple gathered-top pockets to this first version to match the gathering at the front neckline. I also gave both dresses pintucks around the bottom above the hem because they ended up too long and I thought they could use a little more visual interest.

Then on the voile version I decided to use four small pleats instead of gathering at the neckline, and repeated the pleating on the pockets. Uh, sorry this is the creased-up version after wearing it all day yesterday!

Yes, it's probably a bit see-through in certain lights. And the style is loose and not the most slimming and flattering thing I've ever worn. But the supreme comfort factor and fabrics I adore are certainly winning in this heat!

- Jane x

The last few weeks in photos

I have to touch on the horrible violent event of last week, just to acknowledge it as I post my daily normal-ness here. Sigh. Surely some things must really change? We can't just become numb or put it in the too hard basket can we? It's been occupying my mind a lot. Anyhow. That's not why I'm here right now. Moving on (here, now).

For twelve years in this house we managed with a bathroom that was horribly ugly and became more broken and leaky and damp and nasty until we had about four plumbers standing around looking at pipes and saying it was, really, not worth investigating and mending any further. Hello, dear bank lender....

Now we have a nearly-finished bathroom that is just so luxurious in comparison, despite being only 2.1 x 2.1 metres square, and sure beats the heck out of 'washing' ourselves in the laundry sink as we did for several weeks. It's fabulous. And I have wanted one of those telephone-shower things in the bath for as long as I can remember.

We've picked strawberries and made jam. Clem's drawing and writing has taken off like a rocket since he's been at school. Um, including a lovely picture of 'farmers' on the wall by his bed. And spelling Jasper 'JasB'. He has been running a shop out of his bedroom for a couple of weeks, selling us back our wine collection and his toys and books in exchange for handfuls of buttons. Cute as that may sound, he has been driving us all nuts on the behaviour front at home. We have researched more strategies that include a lot of clear, consistent (and firmly enforced) rules, calm in the face of tantrums, encouragement in self-help skills and chores/responsibilities. It's coming along.

I have sewed a bit, including the 'shorts' (longs) for Clem from Cloud 9 organic Ed Emberley lions and tigers, which I have loved for ages. Also, a dress for me that you can hardly see in the pic above and I really should devote an actual post to because although it's incredibly simple it has been in high, high rotation in our speedily warming summer.

Charlie's been sewing. We have Wanderer caterpillars. A friend and I have been working very hard to set up a new business (more on that, I hope, soon!). You know. Life. 

I hope yours has been safe and happy.

- Jane x

leopard pants, oh yeah

I've never worn animal prints; they're just not me. But when Andy's sister Sharon, who lives in Uganda, kindly sent me some leopard print in a sturdy natural fabric (I'm guessing linen/cotton blend) I began to rethink the animal print. I mean, if leopard fabric has a right to exist anywhere, it's in Africa.

And while I may not be game (game, geddit?) to wear the leopard myself, I'm certainly not beyond turning it into amusing pants to inflict upon my four-year-old son.

As soon as I began cutting, I felt I was onto something.

I'm feeling it

 And the leopard pants were born. I mean, they're kind of awful. But kind of awesome too, if I do say so myself.

hey, I reckon I can see a leopard face on the left (photo left) knee

I used my usual Japanese Pochee (2009 Vol 8) pants pattern. I underestimated how long this boy's legs are becoming, so had to lengthen with cuffs. But I'm quite happy with the detail they add.

 And I popped on a couple of back pockets. Jeans topstitching thread would have looked great but I was too lazy to walk around the corner and get some.

And after all that... would he wear them?

Clem hadn't been consulted at all on these, apart from reluctantly trying them on a couple of times during the construction. He didn't want to put these on. "They're cold," he said. He's been known to flatly reject some items of clothing. Please, not these.

Think think think... he likes the warmth of freshly ironed clothes. "What if I iron them and make them all warm?"

"Yes!"   (Phew.)

rock'n'roll baybeh

And he's worn them for a day-and-a-half without complaint so I'd say leopard pants get the Clement tick of approval. Leopard pants. Oh yeah.

- Jane x

animal and fruit shorts

Clem had a wee little pair of shorts in this fabric and he loved them to bits and called them 'my animal and fruit shorts'. More like bug and fungi shorts but, hey. Poor beloved shorts were too small by the end of last summer. But I found more of the fabric and it was even half price. It's a quilting cotton called Woodland Friends by Ellen Crimi-Trent.

It has taken me until late summer to get these sewn up. They were really very quick.

I used the same Japanese pattern from 'Pochee' as for his pyjama pants. It's just such a great cut, the leg is ever so slightly fitted and flared. There's a little bit of an orange print in the pockets and some striped bias on the pocket edges (because they weren't bright enough?).

When I was fitting the elastic and before I had hemmed them, I asked him to try them on. He wouldn't let me take them off to finish them for several hours.

Animal-and-fruit-shorts happiness.

- Jane x

PS that's his Spoonflower t-shirt and yes, it has faded quite a bit but it has been worn and washed so very many times, not to mention soaked in stain remover, that it's probably a wonder it's not just a yicky grey all over by now. Fresh grubbiness in photos above, oh joy. And, that is a soft red ball with rainbow streamers and it is totally awesome.

KCWC days, um, two to five-and-a-half?

My Kids Clothes Week Challenge efforts have been, er, sporadic, however I think it would add up to the equivalent of around an hour a day. That's okay isn't it?
Yesterday I made these shorts for Jasper, from start to finish. Since they're made of linen, they look like he's been wearing them a thousand years already.

They're my slightly dodgy graded-up version of the Oliver + S Sketchbook Shorts, with added back pockets. The brown linen is left over from a pre-blog dress I made myself, and the pocket fabric is a quilting cotton, bought with grand plans, aaaaannnd... marinating in the stash for a while now.

Next up, and finished today, was the companion piece to Clem's pink pyjama top of my last post. He has some pretty definite ideas about his clothing. I bought some beautiful dotty Alexander Henry cotton lawn at the end of last summer and have been musing about the perfect pattern to make myself a dress. Meanwhile, mister 4y.o. spots it and demands it become his new pyjama pants. To be honest I bought plenty of the fabric and its crisp-drapey-lightness would be simply delicious for summer sleepwear. And, saying yes to the harmless whims of a 4y.o. is easier than arguing about it.

Hence:

yeah baby, the full self-styled ensemble

pockets!

totally danceable!

they do the hornpipe!

show us your dancin' bobbin*

Pattern is one I've used several times now, in varying lengths, from Japanese sewing magazine Pochee. They have nice shaping to them, although it doesn't show up as well on this version as I made sure they were big enough for comfy sleeping.

Now, I really want to get to a t-shirt or two. My first order from Spoonflower was delivered yesterday, eek!

Happy KCWC!

- Jane x

* Bobbin is Clem's word for his bottom