Me Made May

I participated in Me Made May again this year .  I wore Me Made clothes each day and shared pictures of myself on Instagram.

I am a bit late, but here are my thoughts on a fantastic month of wearing, photographing, Instagramming my me-made clothes.

I love using the selfie timer on my phone!  I staged my photos in several venues:

my bedroom

outside in the garden

in the kitchen

I wore mostly different clothes each day, really because I wanted to try everything I have made rather than that be my normal routine.  There were things I wore more than once (Cleo pinafore dress and brown shorts), and there were things I didn't wear at all.


I made lots of connections on Instagram.  I am now following lots of 'new-to-me' sewists, and have new followers myself.  I love Instagram!

May is a great month to choose for a 'Me-Made' month as the weather usually improves through the month, and here in the UK we are putting away our Winter clothes getting out our Summer wardrobe by the end of the month.


Looking at me 'Me Made Wardrobe' I realise that I sew with lovely colourful patterned fabric.  I am really happy when I open my wardrobe doors now and see the colour in there.  But... if I want to wear all 'Me-Made' I should sew some plain coloured basics, eg jeans, skirts, t-shirts to go with it all.   I know that I am not alone in this - I see this in most reviews I have read!




I have had jeans on my to-sew list for a while, in fact, the brown shorts are a toile for a good fit.


I show cased my most recent makes, my second Tiramisu dress from Cake Patterns , and a maxi dress from New Look 6280



I also wore some refashioned and pre-owned items, such as these brown trousers (bought from a charity shop and altered to fit) and this corduroy jacket from eBay.

I can't wait until next year!

Memorandum Monday–Monday 10th October

In an effort to get back to blogging, I am joining in with Sian’s Memorandum Monday.

Mine was a slow weekend.  It started off not with Boot Camp at the gym (as is usual on a Saturday morning), but queueing up at the doctors for my annual flu jab.  So of course, as the weekend wore on, my arm began to get that heavy feeling you get afterwards.  If that’s the worse I get then I am thankful.  A small price to pay for not getting a nasty bout of flu this winter.

There was a short walk to the post office to post some sales from my Etsy shop, followed by our first visit to the new Costa coffee shop in our local parade of shops.  The unanimous verdict is that it is very good!  We had a lovely long facebook call with daughter Lucy, who is working in Connecticut, USA for a few weeks.  She has been helping out at a local fair, ‘seeing the real USA, with tractor pulling and pumpkin competitions’!  They got her directing the traffic!  Not sure that was a good idea seeing as they drive on the other side of the road!

Sunday saw me sewing up a storm!  But, first a dog walk and coffee.

We have put our patio table and chairs  away for the winter, so it’s Sunday morning coffee in the summer house now.

I made some bunting from vintage fabrics to sell on my Etsy shop, and continued with my dress.

I then cut out a skirt with this lovely autumnal fabric.

 

 

 

And then of course, it was a Strictly sort of weekend!  We are loving Strictly Come Dancing, this season.  Some great dancers!

1969 dress

Since starting to collect and sell vintage dress patterns on Etsy, I have been wanting to make one of them.  I choose Simplicity 8381, a 1969 shift dress with princess seams and pockets on the front.

The pattern istself was not in great condition, but still usable.  Laura at More Sewing helped me with the fitting.  The pattern is a size 16 (38inch bust).  Adjustments included taking an inch or so off the bust and adding onto the hips.  If you look n the pictures below, I cut the lining where the pins are.  Just shows how we have changed shape over the years!

Here’s the invisible zip going in, and a close up of the fabric.  It is a crepe like material and has a lovely drape.  It was easy to sew with and pressed nicely too.  The fabric was in a big bag of scraps given to my friend by Maryamm at Mazelino Designs, a wedding dress designer and sewing school.   I lined it with white polyester to give it that 1960s ‘rustle’ as I swish around!

I am really pleased with the fit of the dress!  I love the princess seam detail and the groovy pockets!  I found some vintage buttons to finish off the pockets.  If I made it again I think I would make the neckline a little bigger, it’s just a little high for my taste and comfort.

And a bonus!  A photobombing puppy!