deondergangvanmijnouders

Hello! Today I have another Couture Nomad dress, sewn up over several weeks at my lovely Teacher Catherine's Couture Nomad Sewing School here in Shanghai! This is called the Pusan dress , and part of Catherine's Urban Jungle collection. She uses a business shirt style fabric for her version, and when I saw how easily she pops on her pushbike with it, I thought I've got to sew it up for Spring... well spring kind of came and went here in Shanghai, there were some nice warmer days, but it's RAINED so much. At least once a week, and today... it actually was quite cold. Humid AND cold. Not fun! So I started this to wear in Spring, and only just wore it yesterday on a lovely humid & sunny day... AND in our NEW HOUSE! I have so much to tell you about... I definitely need a pause button for our life right now! Pusan Dress was Couture Nomad's Pattern of the Month a few months back, and is a light and loose wrap dress with optional collar and different ways to tie/c...

A dress sewn in Shanghai, China and photographed in Gippsland, Australia! Very excited to show you this dress today, and yes! I’m back in Australia for a short visit, with Husbie’s demanding work schedule clearing up around Golden Week in China, we’ve secured a few extra weeks away and catching up with all the nature we can find at my parents place in Gippsland. It’s GLORIOUS! I made this dress the week before we left for our trip and had hoped this fabric would turn magically into a happy holiday dress, and that’s what happened! Yay! It’s a different shape for me, but after my Orangey Floral Kim Dress wasn’t my favourite fit (the fabric is exactly the same light linen feel) I wanted to try a flowy kaftan or kimono sleeve with this absolute favourite purple fabric! And I think it worked! The fabric is from the usual fabric markets (you can see it here ) and I got it at the start of summer. I am in LOVE with these colours. Purple, green, red, yellow. I think they’re my absolute golden ...

Hi! Welcome to my fabulously printed Kim Dress blog post! It’s full of brightness and clever camera angles thanks to my clever clogs Husband and his new camera attachment on his iPhone! I’ll tell you about that at the end, but sewing this dress was fun! Pity I didn’t get the fit right! I bought lots of light fabric this summer as I visited the markets here in Shanghai. It’s been very hot and I wanted to be prepared but I actually couldn’t sew much. I got too hot even inside with the AC on. Of course I did sew up a few things, but it’s only these last few weeks that I’ve felt like sewing again. Luckily, in Shanghai it’s mid 20s for a while and it doesn’t seem to get cold at nighttime till November (I remember really balmy November nights) so I might be ok with making these lighter dresses … as I have a purple one on the go this week. But ALSO, we’ll be visiting Australia for a bit, so I’m hoping it’s not freezing cold there when we’ll be there! So, this is the Kim Dress of the By Hand...

This week is my BIRTHDAY week and I wanted a bright and cheery dress to wear out and about in Shanghai… but especially to wear a nice new dress on my birthday day. It’s my first time having a birthday in Shanghai, so I was looking forward to sitting on a rooftop sipping some bubbly and generally being amazing in the summertime… compared to wintertime birthdays in Melbourne. BUT, no one saw more TYPHOON weather coming! It rained all day Saturday & Sunday and even most of my birthday on Monday. Husbie was glowingly positive saying “Shanghai smells so beautiful and fresh thanks to all the rain!”. He was right, despite the wetness, the town was smelling amazing! So before we picked the little one up from kindergarten, we popped out for some photos but without a lot of covered areas near our apartment, we found a little corner near the cafe that was sheltered from the blustering wind and rain for some photographs! And can you see my birthday present from little ...

We made it! Ah! It's a Happy Friday! Here's my second version of the summer dresses I've made recently; for some reason the entire week has flown by due to sickness in our house! *glee* being ill in summer just hits you for six! *gush* love being sick with a toddler around! *squeal* (actually genuinely here) I watched the rest of Orphan Black season 3 and now all of Sense 8. I am officially addicted to Sci Fi TV shows when I'm sick. Learning new things all the time about being me! This fabric was also from Taobao, and while it's not my usual colour, I actually just picked it because it looks weird. I thought it looks like pixels like the flowers are hidden underneath gingham pixels or something. I like it. It also has a little stretch in the fabric, and while I used the same pattern for the bodice pieces as my black dress , this fabric is a lot more floppier, so stretched out a little differently widthwise... I noticed this week after wearing it a bit that I have ...

Darlings, today I have some double trouble darling dresses! Have you ever needed something sewn up super quickly because the weather calls for it? You need to wear it EVERY day because everything else in your wardrobe is so hot and heavy, you need a floppy frock STAT! Here’s my quick fix for that humid hotness and I quickly created two dresses at once and I made this first black one, put it on, and then started the next one right away. Shanghai has been a huge bowl of hot velvety air, and just these last few days thanks to a (very) southern Typhoon, we’ve started to breath normally again and felt some fresh cooler winds! Oh it’s hard to do anything when it’s THAT hot, so you can imagine me slowly plodding through the days with a 2 year old…dragging him from various pools to indoor play centres trying to avoid the crowds and any stickiness! So, the first dress to talk about today is the black one, and tomorrow I’ll post about the creamy/greeny one! The fabric is light cotton, that my ...

Ha! I have a great summer frock for you today! AND some fun nighttime photos! Sewing in Shanghai in Summer is getting *very* hot! Wearing clothes, sewing clothes, all exhausting! I have lots of projects on my wishlist, but I also have lots of water, swimming plans and cocktails on there too. Fingers crossed the humidity here in Shanghai doesn't melt us all away! OK, so firstly, the photos are very rough, but cute... Husbie and I took them very quickly after Pizza Friday (just made that up) and we did try to get some daytime photos on another day, but our darling boy wasn't interested, and then we bumped into friends and we drank and laughed the day away while the children ran around in the afternoon shade. A lovely afternoon, but yes, that's why we have some fun and spontaneous photos for you... but it's kinda funny to show you a totally random Shanghai street! That white shop bag! Felix showing off his many facial expressions! Onto the dress. Yes, this is my THIRD By ...