Frocktails 2024

Melbourne Frocktails is always such a blast and the display of garment making talent and taste is extraordinary. Everyone has their own take on "cocktail" and as an organiser the last thing I want is for anyone to feel it's a competition, or that they're under, or over, dressed. Just come as you!

And as an organiser the last thing I've got time to do is make anything over complicated for myself. Enter some easy to sew cotton and a straight outta the packet Vogue pattern:

Bonus it has pockets!

I better start with that fabric cause then I can (maybe) explain what's on my head!

Ages ago I bought some cotton sateen from SuperCheap Fabrics and made this dress for A. I didn't have much expectation of the fabric but when it arrived I really kind of wished I was keeping it for myself. It was a lovely tight, crisp weave with a slight sheen... Anyway, when the same print with a white background recently reappeared on their website, and of course it was on sale (are they never not?!) I snapped some up. From memory it was about $8/m

A moment of calm just before the start of Frocktails 2024

I wanted a fairly straightforward pattern for the print, enter Vogue 1898 a Badgley Mischka pattern that I must have picked up some time ago and stuck on the shelf. 

All I needed was an invisible zip and some lining - the perfect rayon, high quality lining (at all of $12/m) came from Textile Merchants (which happens to be right near Darebin Indoors Sports Centre where the kids were enjoying some track cycling fun over the school holidays. Winning!)

I had a back up plan if this dress didn't work out, which would to make another Vena Cava knit dress in some stashed knit fabric. So with nothing to lose I just cut a straight size 16 as per measurements and sewed it up. No adjustments. Super easy, super cheap. But what to wear underneath it?!

I couldn't find a sewing pattern for a "plunge" bra that would go anywhere near low enough so I hit the shops and found a Spanx branded bodysuit that had a crazy low front, but held everything in nicely (cost about 3x the dress!). Going to the toilet would have been a challenge, but there were so many people wearing jumpsuits (what's the collective noun for Zadies?) I wouldn't have been the only one struggling.

So what's on my head you're asking?

I figured it would be fun to add a bit more bird action to the whole ensemble, so I created this little fellow then made a little fascinator thingy for him to perch on. And you know me, of course I had to over commit to my crafting and complicate things

The crochet bird pattern comes from the Vanessa Mooncie Crocheted birds book which I've dived into a few times already. One of the birds on my dress fabric is a little red breasted robin. There is a robin in the crocheted birds book but I preferred the shape of the wren, so I just adjusted the colours to give him a red chest.

Oh, and I went way down on crochet hook size and used Scheepjes Sweet treats fine crochet cotton so he'd come out suitably tiny.

The bit where you make the wire legs before inserting them in the body always cracks me up

Then I bought as fascinator sinamay base that had a comb on the underside as well as some flowers and foliage from feather.com.au and set about creating something to perch on my head. I was fully expecting it to look ridiculous, but I didn't care. I take my Frocktails job of looking daft enough to put other people at ease very seriously!

I stitched all the flowers and foliage in place then sewed the little birds feet to the branch. Sorry bud! 

I was quite surprised that it almost looked elegant. :) Most importantly it was quite light and pretty secure.

Frocktails was a blast. Like a garage sale, they turn up early and start queuing....

But unlike any garage sale they're an amazingly well dressed bunch! We had just over 400 attendees this year and it was a whirlwind. Lisa always knocks it out of the park with her outfits!

 We made life easier for ourselves by staying in the hotel next to the venue, and had our uber-helpful door blokes on hand again

And so there was a different backdrop for the annual post frocktails bedtime bathroom mirror selfie

Until next year!

Photos are either by me, or the good ones are from Penny Stephens (@bypennystephens)

You said how baggy?

P has been loving his oversized Jalie trackpants which I've made him 4 pairs of now (and a pair of shorts) and made zero notes or blog posts about how oversized or how much extra leg length. He also has a pair of black denim Thread Theory cargo pants that were upsized to a 34 waist (then elasticated) and extra leg length added, also undocumented.

Anyway, he ever so kindly asked me for some massively oversized jeans...

I toyed with the idea of just up sizing a pattern I already had and then cinching in the waist with elastic, but I'd already done that with the Thread Theory and he wanted even bigger. Anyway, pattern shopping sounded much more appealing. I typed something like "ridiculously baggy men's jeans sewing pattern" into a search engine and found a few new to me sewing pattern companies specialising in men's patterns.

I landed on the Mascultory Baggy Jeans_02 an even daggier-crotched baggy version of their Baggy Jeans pattern.

They're single size patterns and he has a good two size discrepancy between waist and hips (as does his dad). While the pattern suggested choosing by hip size for pants I went with waist size as otherwise I was worried they'd just fall straight off him. His waist put him at upper end of size 28 and his hips at the upper end of 32. I went with a size 30.

Instant download and emailed straight to Creffield digital print and I had the pattern in my hands the next day.

The instructions were all on a Youtube tutorial which is not my favourite way to work, but it was clearly presented and nicely done. The buttonfly was the first one I've done and it came together very neatly. All the pattern markings were clear and the whole pattern experience was very good.

 The pattern helpfully give an outer leg length measurement (waist to hem) but I'd only measured the kid's inner leg and I had no idea how low that crotch would be. I added 20cm length when I cut the fabric to be safe but ended up removing all but 7cm of it. Still, if they're going to be ludicrously oversized they can not be too short!

I gave the back pockets a bit of mountain bike embroidery but I was restricted by the black only instructions. I did sneak some reflective silver tape under the pocket edges and threw some labels on.

The fabric was some stashed cotton drill from SuperCheap Fabrics if I remember correctly, so all up, with pattern purchase, printing and fabric it was probably less than $40 total.

And he loves them like they're worth tent times that. Happy days (just don't forget to tuck them into your socks before you get on your bike kiddo)

Shawls (that necessitated white shirts)

Wow, happy new year I guess, and it's April...

I've been making the same ludicrous amount of stuff but I just can't seem to get around to documenting anything. And of course that means I have no idea if that means I added 4" leg length to P's trackpants, or 8" to his sleeve length. And since that's meant to be the whole point of the blog, I get stuck and don't start.

Here's some pictures of shawls I knitted in 2023 that then required me to sew black ponte leggings and white shirts. Which did get recorded on the blog.

This shawl is the Girl's Best Friend Shawl by Isabel Kramer

It came about after I'd attended the She's So Crafty stall/fair with Rootaberger and bought three skeins of gorgeously squishy yarn with no particular plan in mind.

All three are merino/silk/yak light fingering weight. Two from Fluff and Nonsense, and one from The Purl Box (Maven yarn)

Then I just had to find a pattern that would use no more than what I'd bought, all three colours, and be interesting to knit. 

The pattern was very well written and definitely engaging. It also helped that I'd just rolled my ankle at that mountain bike race, round about this time last year, so I was very happy to sit and knit. And knit. And knit. 

I hadn't really thought I was a pom pom person, but they're perfect on the shawl.

I'm sure I then went on to sew, crochet or knit other things. I might have even tidied up, or done my tax return. But since I photographed this next shawl on the same day, it can be documented here, all out of order, as well.

This time I knew exactly what I wanted to make, and then I set out to find the yarn to suit the pattern. The pattern is the Scout Mini Shawl by Florence Spurling

I had so much fun knitting the big Scout Shawl. This one has all same interest generated by little panels of colourwork joined with intarsia, but with a smaller yarn and time outlay. Winner!

The yarns came from Fibresmith and are their hand-dyed merino mini skeins. At that stage Leslie was only selling them in bundles and at 70m/20g I would need two of each colour, plus a third skein of one of them. thankfully, with a little begging email I managed to get a single skein of almost the exact same shade as the two lightest skeins.

Then I just had to work out which ones to use where... It's very low contrast colourwork no matter how I arranged them, but I'm good with that.

This yarn comes in at about 400m/100g and the difference in the final knitted fabric between this, and my original scout shawl is quiet noticeable. this is a really, dense, almost felted feeling fabric. I suspect I may not have swatched and just used the pattern's recommended needle size, whereas I'd gone up two sizes for my Scout Shawl

I could definitely make this pattern over again as well. I guess I'm on my way to having enough little bits of yarn leftovers that a "free" one might come about one day...

NAiMA Pullover

It's been such a constantly rainy day here that it seems appropriate to finally upload some details of a jumper I knitted in winter of last year.

It's the NAiMA Pullover by Ankestrick knitted in cascade Heathers yarn (100g/200m Colour 2431)

I think it was as I was making white shirts I suddenly decided I needed a chocolate brown, chunky knit sweater to wear over them, But then I went and fell in love with a sweater pattern that had a high neck such that it wouldn't work well over a collar with a shirt after all.

I got gauge, or at least very close to, using bigger needles than the pattern recommended: 4.5mm for body and 3.75mm for the ribbing. My gauge was 17 stitches and 22 rows per 10x10cm instead of 16/22 and I guess over a full garment that one stitch per 10cm makes a difference.

I made size 4 which would give me 5" positive ease around the chest but it probably came out a bit smaller, and more fitted, than the pattern model's version. But I really like the fit as it is. Initially I was wishing I'd gone slightly longer in the body, but after wearing it quite a bit last winter I've come around to the top of the hip length. I knitted the straight body version (there balloon shape and  A line shape options) and did, for some reason, stop about 5cm shorter than the pattern suggestion.

The pattern was very well written and was a delight to knit. There is this lovely eyelet pattern that continues from the raglan sleeve down the front and back sides. It's not the softest wool in the world (there's a knitted cardigan in the world's softest wool yet to be blogged about) but over a merino tee it's a very useful winter sweater.

Of course I did then go on to find the perfect V neck pattern (and more yarn :) ) to knit for wearing over my white shirts. That one will have to wait until next winter. It might be raining here but it's not cold enough to be knitting heavy wool

Holiday sewing

In September we had one of those "once in a lifetime" holidays. Only it wasn't a one-off, but an exact repeat of the holiday that Flipper and I had in 2006. Sometimes a really great trip needs repeating.

I'm over at the Oliver + S blog sharing all the Liesl + Co patterns I made to take on the holiday with us, including gifts for our kayaking guides. Go check it out. The pattern count numbers 6 Metro Ts and 2 pair of Wynwood swim shorts. Plus, I also took my Sintra Dress and my Cinema Dress on holiday.

Just before we left the big kid realised he's lost a pair of swim trunks somewhere, so he got two new pairs of Ottobre Seamus (03-2009) swim trunks

And he'd also outgrown his boardshorts, so I added two new pairs of the Jalie 2678 boardshorts, again with a cargo pocket addition.

Our kayaking trip was a 7 day trip paddling in the Yasawa islands of Fiji with Southern Sea Ventures. We revisited the same village that we'd stayed in 17 years earlier and even met some of the same people again. I can't begin to describe how great the trip was, the company, the guiding, the ocean, the people.... Can't possibly show you all the pics, but here's a selection from each day...

Our guides were so fabulous. Semi, the Fijian local was quietly funny, always organised and calm and just the nicest, hard working guy. He wore an amazing palm frond hat that his mum wove, so I made him a kayaking T-shirt with his hat stencilled on it.

Russell, the Canadian guide is too awesome for words. It only takes a quick look at his Instagram (seriously, check this out) to realise that paddling tourists around the Yasawas must have been pretty dull, but he never showed it. He was funny, organised, hard working and always up for anything. Bit like Barbie there seemed to be nothing he hadn't done, or couldn't put his hand to trying. He impressed P with being a box lacrosse player, wowed A with his ability to pull of a gymnast backflip and all of us when the guitar came out and of course he could play and sing. But, BUT, he couldn't whip cream*  when it came to our dessert at Navotua village. And that alone will never be forgotten! :)

*the lack of a whisk or beater shall not be mentioned

Of course his kayaking top needed to have a white water kayaker and a whisk on it!

I added the hood from the Jalie skating skinsuit pattern 3135 (all my previous versions here) but sadly didn't think of how much higher the neckline is on that pattern than the Metro T I was using. I got P to try in to before I posted it....

And oops, the hood pulls far too much when it's on. Ah well, it can still be some kind of a back of neck sun protection even if it can't be worn.

After the week of "roughing it" (seriously, we were so well looked after, but composting toilets and no internet still counts, right?) we crossed Fiji to stay on a little island just off the coast from Suva. Toberua island resort is a tiny resort with just a dozen bures around a central pool, a dive shop and a beachside restaurant/bar. Everything is catered and during the morning the staff would find us, bringing the menu for lunch and dinner. The barman recognised Flipper from 17 years earlier! P did a pool dive then joined us for his first ever scuba dive. We all ate too much, drank too many mocktails/cocktails and played all day long.

I'd argue this is a once-in-a-lifetime holiday that would easily stand up to a third round!