Turtleneck tute - inspired by Rumi Neely

In 50 years' time, when historians look back at the blogging boom, one of the people they'll definitely have to interview is Rumi Neely of fashiontoast. Thanks to her gorgeous (half Japanese!) looks and fabulous fashion sense (and a boyfriend who's handy with a camera), she is always on my watch list. The other day I fell in love with this jumper that she was wearing.

I love pieces that have a simple, yet extremely effective twist to them that can easily translate into a DIY project, so this loose jumper with plaits running through the sleeve and around the neckline was inspiring to say the least. And I had exactly the right jumper to try it out on, because a while ago I bought a huge turtleneck one from an op shop (but of course!) that looked like this.

Nothing really wrong with it (ignore the wrinkles, I'd just brought it out from my winter storage when I took this shot), and I sometimes love the Audrey Hepburn-ness of a simple black turtleneck, but I'm rarely anywhere that's cold enough to really require something up around my neck the whole time and it was itchy too. Plus, I had bought this bulky black cord trimming at a market haberdashery stall earlier this year and was dying to use it for something (it's really meant for use in trimming sofas or other interior furnishings, but what care I about such things when I can find a way to wear it!).
I had thought about copying Rumi's jumper but sort of wussed out of cutting all those holes in the sleeves (although the holes and plaits idea is still on my mind for a later project!). Instead, I just cut off the turtleneck part of the jumper to make a round neckline and then pinned and stitched the cord around it. The cord has bias binding attached so I was actually stitching through that, not the cord, which is mega-thick. I didn't bother finishing off the raw edges of the jumper because I machine-stitched about 75mm away from the edge, and then went over the machine stitching by hand using big blanket stitches. Thanks to the jumper being black, everything just blends in and you can't see how rough my work is!
I still had quite a bit of cord after going around the neckline once, so went round a second time, although this time had to fold the bias binding under the cord and stitch it to the jumper by hand. Here's how it turned out!


Fastening the ends of the cord at the back of the jumper was a bit of a challenge but I decided to wrap them in some non-fray leather-look material. I stitched this in place by hand, so that the cord ends were wrapped very tightly.

I'm pretty happy with my Neely-new jumper (apologies for that if you're reading, Rumi, but with posts that attract over 400 comments, I doubt you would even have time to groan at this little blogger's puns!)!

This remake project is not really that tricky, and of course if you're not into the big chunky look like I am, you could always use much finer cord, and a more fitted jumper. It doesn't have to be a turtleneck either, of course. It could be a good way to update a cowl neck jumper though, or any jumper with a neckline that you don't like. Let me know if I've managed to inspire you to have a go at it!

My-thai top

Hi, and welcome to the latest installment of "finally getting around to doing something with stuff that has been in my cupboard for about twenty years". (First installment here, for those of you who need to waste time at work). Today's episode showcases the exciting adventures of a jacket that my next door neighbour gave me when I was in high school. Originally it had an asymmetric front, sort of like a Mao jacket that had a diagonally closing flap with bells on it, but I took that off years ago to make it look like this.

I'm not sure where my neighbour got it, but judging by the embroidery on the pockets and the indigo-dyed, handwoven look of the fabric, I would say it is probably the work of Hmong people somewhere in Thailand or that neck of the woods anyway.

The embroidery is different on each pocket, but if you try to spot each difference you will probably go insane. Have a go anyway if you're up for a challenge. (By reading this post, not only do you get to check out my sewing project, you get to play games too!! How many more ways to waste time can there be??!)

I loved the embroidery but the jacket was too big and shapeless and "proto sleeves" (as I'm sure I've heard some clever seamstress refer to sleeves made from rectangles rather than properly curved and set in to a garment) really don't do much for anybody. I didn't want to muck around too much though, as I was too lazy to relocate the pockets and also wanted to retain the cord-trimmed neckline. So I just sewed the fronts together to make a loose top instead of a jacket, then unpicked the sleeves and cut them half way up to use the decorated part of the cuffs. Then I tried on the top and made some darts along the shoulders to give it a bit of shape, gathered the top part of the sleeves to give them a little bit of puff and reattached them. Better, don't you think?

As luck would have it, I found this Asian-style hat at an op shop for a few dollars a little while ago, so it gets to be in the picture too, along with my Lao earrings, even though I'm not usually into being all matchy-matchy.

Cat Rabbit!

Since last week I've been working in the city at the same office as my sister, which is exhausting (the 3-hour per day commute, not being in the same office as my sister, although it is sometimes tiring having to explain that we are two different people, as everyone gets us mixed up). However, one of the cool things about working in the metropolis otherwise known as Melbourne is that you can just drop in to cool exhibition openings after work, like I did tonight, and see what animals would wear if they had corporate jobs!

Or if they liked huntin' and fishin'.

Or what they'd wear to hang around and eat hamburgers.

Or even what they'd wear just to hang around.




These are all from an exhibition by Cat Rabbit called Secret Animal Realms. Look what some animals do on their days off!

They like to have picnics, just like us. (Isn't the sleeping owl in the tree trunk adorable?)

Cat Rabbit is so multi-talented that she can make softies out of felt and other fabrics, as well as carve pictures into wood and make more 2D style wall hangings.



The exhibition is at No Vacancy Project Gallery in Federation Square until May 8, so if you are in Melbourne, go and check it out (more info here).


You will see things like this! (these creatures were actually watching a movie, the screen was showing real images, even though the whole projector setup was made from cardboard!)

And this is a fantasy softie factory... there was an owl coming out a chute at the other end of the production line which my camera couldn't capture.

OK, enough excitement for one evening. I'm off to bed. Ta-ta, people!

Crushing on 100% royan

If there's one thing blogging's great for, it's helping you push style boundaries. Crushed velvet has never been one of my favourite materials, in fact, in my mind, it rates right up there with polar fleece, and that's saying something. But when I found these embroidered black crushed velvet pants for $4.99 at Savers I decided to give them a go.

They're 100% royan, which had me puzzled for a while until I realised that swapping two letters around would make "rayon".

If they'd been plain I probably would have passed them over but I can spot handworked embroidery at 50 paces.

I checked that my hunches were correct by looking at the inside!

As the embroidery goes over the seams it made adjusting them very tricky, so I had to be inventive with how I took them in (they were quite big around the hips). In the end I decided I wasn't going to show off hip area anyway so did a fairly dodgy job, simply making a tuck down the front of both legs and overlapping the flies. So I have to wear a long top with them to cover up my front bottom (tee hee!) which is a bit of a problem as despite a wardrobe bursting with clothes I don't own that many long tops. Here's two looks I managed to rustle up yesterday though!


Remember when Juicy Couture velour tracksuits were in? I never had one, but I imagine my new-old crushed velvet embroidered pants are just as comfy. But teaming them with a matching zipped-up crushed velvet top is one styling combo I'm not going to attempt.

Tube tute: ruffled up*

As Melbourne edges ever closer to the black hole** of winter, it's heartening to think that somewhere in the world, it is a warm, bright, sunny day. The kind of day when you can get away with wearing a tube top.

Well, maybe thinking about that is not so heartening. It's actually extremely annoying as we sit here preparing to freeze our butts off in the gloom. However, I digress.

 

Today's project is about jazzing up a tube top. It was the result of a ridiculous trend several years ago for brands in Japan to give away tube tops (called "bare tops" in Japanese) as their novelty item at press events. One of the brands gave me a top with an ugly dinosaur print on it, and loath to throw anything away, I decided to cover up the dinosaur so the top could remain as a contributing member in my wardrobe..

 

In my fabric stash at the time was a large amount of cheap, synthetic lace which had been used on a shoot, from which I decided to make ruffled tiers. I cut the lace into six strips, each about 10-15cm wide and long enough to wrap around my body about twice (there's no strict measurement for this, I just make things up depending on how much material there is). I then ran gathering threads along the length of each strip to create ruffles before pinning and stitching them in slightly overlapping tiers onto the top. As a tube top is stretchy, you need to stretch it a bit as you pin and subsequently sew, and it's best to use a zig zag stitch. 

Depending on how much material you have, and how much volume you like, you could attach the ruffles to the front of the top only, or you can make them go all the way around to cover the back too, which is what I did.

To add a bit more interest, I stitched a satin ribbon to only the back and sides of the top in several spots and tied it at the side front in a bow. Easy!

 

Admittedly this top is not really quite "me" any more, and I haven't worn it in years. But it's fun to see it whenever I change my summer wardrobe for my winter one, and reminisce about how the girls in the office used to look naked because of this "bare tops" trend. I thought it would be a good post for you northern hemisphere ladies going into summer, because it's an easy way to rejuvenate a tube or tank top if all that's wrong with it is that you don't like the print/colour. Aren't I helpful!?

*Yes, yes, I was going to call this post "Tiers of joy" but I'd already used the "tier" thing once this week... I'm going to have to outwit myself when it comes to wordplay one of these days.

**So called (by me, anyway) because Melburnians wear even more black in this season than at other times of the year, although you wouldn't think it possible.

Feeling a bit tiery

Sorry! Some people play with their food, I play with my words. Although style like this is no laughing matter.

I still have a few scans from the Iris Apfel book I posted about last week and will put them up later, but just wanted to share more of the amazingness with you very quickly.... I am so in awe of her style - I LOVE everything about this outfit (the massive amber beads in the necklace! the chunky bangles! the perfection of the tiered dress - who knew that such humble colours could make such an impact?) but it was her turquoise collection (see post from last week) that had me obsessing. So much so that I signed up to eBay again (I was blackbanned from it for ages .. long, boring story but I haven't been able to use it for about three years, so was pleasantly surprised to be able to register) and hunted for turquoise like a woman possessed for probably the better part of last weekend. I didn't manage to find anything of the calibre of Iris' rocks, but there is a pendant on its way to me now and I have bid on something else too. Oh dear!! I'm wondering whether there's some deep spiritual reason I'm craving turquoise or whether it's just the idolising of Iris that's done it. Thoughts, anyone?

T-shirt tutorial: gone troppo

Despite the lack of a decent summer this year, or perhaps because of it, the weather in Melbourne has been pretty darn good these past few days. Even though the doona's well and truly on the bed, it's still warm enough during the day to wear a T-shirt. Not that you'll ever see me wearing a plain old T-shirt. As you know, I have to fiddle with everything. Take this dress that I bought at Savers for $7 over a year ago.

I loved the crazy explosion of colour but the collar made it so old-lady-like. I wasted no time in its removal. In fact, I snipped it off so quick-smartly that I didn't get a "before" picture which is why the collar section and the body have a big gap between them where you can see the mannequin's cleavage!

All I did after cutting the collar section out was to fold the raw edge of the neckline under and hand-stitch it in place. Too easy.

I was going to cut the dress to mini length but decided to leave it long instead. More fabric=more surface area for colour= more impact!

If you wanted to make a mini dress similar to this you could easily cut the collar out of a big plain polo shirt, or even just cut the neckline on a big T-shirt a bit deeper, and then go crazy with fabric paints or pastels.
Due to the yukky collar placket stretching quite far down and the neckline I created being deeper than I'd like, I have to wear a singlet top underneath this dress to keep myself nice. and I also tend to pile on the jewellery to cover it up a bit.

All my accessories in this shot are the result of some crafty evenings....the turquoise earrings are my new favourites. I bought the turquoise ball-y sections at the Salvos for $2 last week, they were on small gold posts for pierced ears but I removed them and attached them to these big gold clip-ons that my sister gave me for my birthday. Jump rings and pliers - where would I be without you?

'70s splendour

When the modern world gets too much, do you wish you could go back to the good old days? How about we take a trip back to the '70s today? I got several issues of this UK magazine from the early '70s at a market at the start of the year and have finally got around to scanning them for your viewing pleasure (well, actually, for my own, but at least you get to see what kind of kooky stuff gets me all excited).

Excitement-inducing exhibit A. Boots with a cat in them.

Actually, I want these boots even if they don't come with a free cat. They're fur lined (fake fur, I imagine) AND waterproof AND cool. AND no longer available as far as I am aware, dammit.

The handiest stool ever is also no longer available and therefore, illogically, also high on my list of desirable items.

How cool is it!? You can put stuff in it and carry around the top part like a bucket! And you can sit on it! I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants one of these!

I also want this psychedelic blind for a child's room, even though I don't want the child. I think this might be the low-tech, eco-friendly version of that Pokemon cartoon that managed to give several children seizures a few years ago.

When I eventually persuade some unsuspecting male to go out with me, I am going to make them recreate this shot. Given that it never snows in Melbourne and I don't know any available men, don't hold your breath on this one. I don't have the crochet rug either, but that would be the least of my worries.


I'm also very keen to get a blowtorch for my future soulmate (he'd probably give me a vacuum cleaner or maybe an iron in return). Because after all, there's no way a mere girl could use a blowtorch!! I love how they list all the useful things that this tool can do (by "tool" I mean the blowtorch, not the guy in the picture) - and then they choose to show a crappy front door sign that he made.


So here is where I stop fantasising about all the good stuff from the '70s and look at things that really were best left behind. I've no idea who to credit for these photos as so many people have emailed them to me lately and I can't tell where they are from. I'm sure the men in these ads, plus all their relatives, prefer it that way.

I don't know if you can make the image bigger to read the copy about this stunning jumpsuit but my favourite line (although I have to stop myself from vomiting at the same time) is "Easy on, easy off, quick as a flick of her tongue".


Don't say I didn't warn you about the vomiting thing!

Most of the time when you chuck stuff in the washing machine on the wrong setting, it shrinks, but this collar has got longer instead. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Well, actually...


I think the best of the lot is Men in belted sweaters.
I just love the title. Kind of like Men in Black, but not quite as intimidating. Although scary in a completely different way. I'd like to see a collaboration between the film and the pattern book ... Men in black belted sweaters?


Is this guy the spitting image of James Franco (who I happen to think is a bit of a spunk although there is no way I would see the movie where he cuts off his own arm) or what? Notice how he gets the girl, because he looks like James Franco, whereas the other men in belted sweaters are by themselves. Hmm, if all guys were this hot in the '70s, a revival might not be such a bad thing...

And considering I have a pattern where the model looks like Australia's prime minister, maybe I should start a spin-off blog about famous people who happen to model for craft publications?