How Much Nautical is Too Much?

I'm probably a bit late to the nautical party, but my love of the nautical flavoured fashion snuck up on me.  A horizontal navy stripe here...

An anchor print there...

And there...

And suddenly I'm stashing boat prints, and anchor buttons, and perhaps Joss needs a sailor dress, perhaps I need a sailor dress!  

So the pile of patterns has been growing, and the knits!  Oh there is a very special place in my heart for nautical knitwear.  Like this and this from Drops, and this from a 1990 Verena, and little gem below that I've had for a few years now.  

I promise I won't go overboard (ha), just a Bonny top, maybe a sailboat shirt and just one knit. It doesn't count if you make a sailor dress in a floral print does it? I don't think it does. 

12 More Outfits - Menswear!

The vast majority of the garments I make are for myself.  My kids occasionally nab a handmade, but really I'm a fairly selfish seamstress.  One of the main reasons is it is easy.  I'm always available for fittings, I've got a fair idea of what works for me, i know what i like and I can live with the inconsistencies and design features that sometimes make their way into my work.  Given that I'm working as much as I can to minimise the mistakes and rushed inconsistencies, it's time to branch out.

Darron is my biggest supporter, cheerleader and promoter.  He has always encouraged and complimented my work, he is proud of the things I make.  We had been planning for me to make him a blazer for a while now and we were discussing that when the idea rolled around to do another, overlapping 12 outfits in 12 months to overhaul his wardrobe.  My 12 outfits have been completely stress free, life has been extremely challenging, but my outfits have been pure enjoyment.  So the idea of 12 months of making stuff for the love of my life greatly appealed to me.

Here's what I'm working with: Darron is tall, nearly 6'2", athletic build, with long arms and legs.  He struggles to find jackets and blazers with sleeves long enough.  He loves colour and unique, interesting one of a kind type garments.  He is actually the perfect candidate for a custom made wardrobe.

We've planned a little, shopped a little, pinned a little.  There are plans for at least on blazer, a three piece suit, casual trousers and shorts, shirts and tees, long and short sleeved, a couple of cardigans and some pyjamas.  I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this.  I've bought the Thread Theory Parklands collection of patterns because its like they were designed just for Darron, and will cover a lot of bases for us, so I'm ready to go!  I'll update soon with the more detailed plan for the whole 12 months!

In Which I Show The Internet My Undies

First let me answer the question, will there be modelled shots?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Hahahahaha, oh hell no!

Last week, while I had planned to work on my September outfit I was distracted by uncomfortable undies.  What does any self respecting procrastinator do under these circumstances?  Drop everything and make new undies!  

I have a couple of super classy, multi size undies patterns from the 1970s.  Between them they cover every rise from indecently low rise to the highest of high nanna pants rise.

 This time I went with a couple of the highest of the high pants and one pair of regular hip high bikinis. All using leftover jersey fabric from tops I've made this year.

The main reason I went with ultra high rise is for under skirts.  Lately all the skirts I've made sit on my natural waist, so it makes sense to have any undergarments sit at the same spot to avoid a lumpy silhouette, also it's nice to know that should the wind invert your skirt, you've got full coverage.

I have a rather large collection of underwear elastic, in loads of colours and widths, so I think I might make some more undies.  Perhaps not the utilitarian variety, but something a bit more special, maybe from an Oooh Lulu pattern.

So thats an adventure in underwear as procrastination.  Also, please note that if you call these undergarments "panties" in my presence, I may cause you bodily harm.

Making Progress and Getting Distracted

This last week has been hard work.  Darron was just recovering from pericarditis when he was struck down with a demon flu.  The poor guy was bed ridden and quarantined for most of the week.  So I've been solo parenting, which of course means both kids got injured!  Joss got her leg stuck in the ladder at the swimming pool, then Coen jarred his knee pretty badly at school, requiring the dreaded call from the school office to come deal with my injured hysterical drama llama.  So I've been nursing the sick and tending to the injured all week.  But that hasn't stopped me from getting some of my stuff done.  Actually, if anything, getting stuck into making stuff has kept me on an even keel.

Last weekend I went fabric shopping in my mum's amazing stash and came home with a boot load of beautiful fabric.  Then on Monday, before Darron suddenly went downhill, he and I went shopping for some more masculine fabric to make some menswear.  We're working on something that I'm really excited about, and will share the details soon!

My Dahlia is coming along much faster than I was expecting, lots of evening knitting time at the moment.  The back panel and one side are done, and the other side is rowing out pretty quickly too.  How nice is this lace panel?  I can't wait to get it finished and blocked.

I have cut out my shirt for September, but haven't decided whether or not I want a contrasting collar and cuffs so I haven't started sewing yet.  Then I was preparing to cut my September skirt and my undies were riding up so I set it aside and started making new undies instead!  So now I have three new pairs of undies of varying waist heights and I did eventually get around to cutting my skirt from this amazing print.

Now that things have calmed down a bit, I'm going to rearrange my studio to fit in all this fabric and get stuck into some sewing!