deondergangvanmijnouders

Hey! It's my David Lynch print & I in matching blue! So happy to show you this skirt I started & finished at Sewing School this last month! Yes, my sewing classes with Couture Nomad Shanghai have started again for the year and I’m again surprised at how talking ideas over with my teacher and her hands on approach helps me so much… the work I do there has been SO neat, and I feel like punching the air at the end of every step. At home however, I whizz through and muck up the hem a little (luckily just the lining) as I wrapped the whole thing up… but well-rounded is a good way to consider my sewing approach… fast & slow, neat & messy… I balance myself out. So, the pattern is part of the Couture Nomad sewing school collection, called Taipei and shows you a simple A shape, with a wide waistband and pockets. I traced it in a size M, using my lower waist just above the hips instead of that high waist part… I do like highwaist on my hourglass, but this would hang a litt...

Hi there! This week I've started wearing my winter-y scarves again... it's dropped a whole 10 degrees (celcius!) during the day in the last fortnight... and I'm so not ready for winter yet! Three of our holidays this year has been back to the homeland hemisphere, and the most recent one in October really threw out my weather gauge. Ha Ha. *sigh* So I pulled out this scarf loop I made for one of our little pop up markets in September, and now it's officially mine! It's almost a metre wide, and the width of the fabric long... sewn in the long edge, but I leave space each side to turn it... then right sides together - stitch - pull through your hole and then slipstitch closed with the little Veronica Darling tag sandwiched in. My friend Michell suggests everything I make needs a tag, as people prefer it... making it all a little more polished I suppose! What are you making for winter? I'm super stuck, but have a few things to finish off ... I think with some...

A few months ago, I shared some little boy shorts that I made from the spare tropical holiday red cotton fabric … from my Sophia Dress. They were the little Oliver + S Art Museum Trousers , but these gingham ones are my first pair! Felix wore them a few times over summer when the weather wasn’t too hot, but he has officially gone off them… and that happens, so looking at them again here, it might be cause they’re a little small already. Kids grow! That happens too. I just L.O.V.E.D making this pattern, it is spot on in shape, design and has just gorgeous little details! I adore little children in sharp trousers, so I will definitely make them again… but will try a bigger size… this one is a 3 and maybe if I try a winter pair in the size 4 it will be just right for the next 6 months. Perhaps the trousers are a little on the slim shape of sizing, if you’re noticing your child has the bigger bones and the bigger tum… Felix is kind of inbetween that kind of sizing… but considering he was ...

Thank goodness Future Islands wrote Seasons (Waiting On You) because now when I feel like the shift in temperature, the wind a little chillier, and the sun a little less strong... I have this song in my head. And so we're feeling the autumnal vibes around Shanghai this week, especially after a sunny holiday in Australia. The weather here makes us cough a little more, as our lungs and noses adjust to the pollution level... because that air in Australia is just so clear. And through this season and climate change (and that red moon last night), I am again confronted with all the millions of possibilities and choice of this fantastically great city! Last night I went to the comedy festival, the FIRST Shanghai International Comedy Festival, and will represent an Australian colleague today at a comedy discussion forum. I'm overjoyed to be meeting new people and sharing some stories about Australia's comedy industry. Also my friend and I are constantly working over new projec...

There’s something rewarding about learning a new skill or completing a new project, and while it’s fun to gather up the knowledge & materials yourself and wing it (I do this plenty of times), it’s also great doing it with others face to face. Until I started sewing classes earlier this year … I rarely did face to face classes or workshops. I'd spent years problem solving sewing myself with my vintage patterns, and in sewing the biggest mystery for me was solved when I realised clothing was sewing right sides together! Or inside out! DUR. So here's Mae from Craft'd Shanghai and I grinning about making shoes! Making espadrilles was something I’d wanted to do, to solve the shoe making mystery… I guess! Plus, the classes were with Craft’d Shanghai and I wanted to hear about another group here in Shanghai helping people be creative. And so, here’s another of my ‘Made in China’ series for you today… where I look at the offbeat & creative side of life in China. Handmakin...

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 ...

I’ve been photographing art and street art and spaces in Shanghai, as you do… living in a busy metropolis that’s still not your familiar home city. And this year, I’ve always been pondering about the creative life and who I am and how I am as a creative type. There’s a few hints at this in my ‘Made in China’ series, as I’ve just not felt artististic or creative 100 per cent… I’m extremely practical and full of problem solving and needing to know WHY all the time. USUALLY. But in Shanghai, I’m feeling a shift. I am definitely letting things go when they don’t matter anymore… And I guess more importantly, the self awareness has just kept growing… and recently the fog of ‘Who the fuck am I?' has lifted and I feel some great clarity. Without my job, my friends and family around me like in Australia… I’m just me, just a mother, a wife. And while I know that’s just not all there is about me… I have felt really stripped back and the need to rebuild myself has been very strong. From ta...