Me-made May 2019 - last few days and summary

Day 29 - Smiling pink diamonds handknitted cardigan and rtw dress

Day 30 - Primroses for Spring handknitted cardigan and rtw dress

Day 31 - Greta handknitted cardigan and rtw dress

And that's it for another year!  I'm very pleased I got my six dresses made - it was a good idea to cut and sew all the bodice linings in one hit, that definitely streamlined the process and is something I'll do again.

The weather was very mixed, so there ended up being a selection of cotton dresses on the warmer days, and wool cardigans with rtw dresses, and knitted tops and skirts, on the cooler days.

And now, here are all the outfits

And finally, and actually quite importantly, sewing (and a bit of knitting too) has kept me sane this month during all the political turmoil happening here at the moment.

Me-made May 2019 - week 4 round-up

Here's a summary of week four's outfits.

Day 22 - Daisy Emery which I made in spring 2014, and rtw cardigan

Day 23 - Bobby dress which I made during summer 2015, and rtw cardi

Day 24 - Floral dress which I made during last summer's outfit-along challenge, and rtw cardi

Day 25 - Lilyanna maxi dress which I made in 2013, and rtw cardigan

Day 26 - Bluebird Emery dress which I made for the 2015 outfit-along challenge, and rtw cardigan

Day 27 - Elisalex dress made in 2014 and rtw cardigan

Day 28 - Handknitted cardigan which I made for the 2017 outfit-along challenge, and rtw dress

So, as it turned out, a selection of makes from previous years in fact.

#OAL2019 - planning

This year's outfit-along challenge runs, as usual, for June and July.

The basis of the challenge, which is hosted by Andi Satterlund and Lauren Taylor, involves making one knitted (or crocheted) and one sewn garment to be worn together as a complete outfit and that remains the same.  However, in previous years most participants (although not me) have made particular patterns with step-by-step sewalongs (hosted by Lauren) and knitalongs (hosted by Andi) - she released new patterns each year for the challenge.

This year however the format  is different in that there are no specified patterns - instead it will be based on finishing wips (works-in-progress) - which are quite loosely defined - this suits me fine as I have several options that fit with the definition.  It is also the last time the challenge is being run for the foreseeable future, which is a shame, although I think I'll probably continue to make a cardigan and dress that go with each other every June and July as I do enjoy the challenge.

So, possibilities for this year include

This cardigan which has been on my 'to knit' list for a while - although I won't be following the pattern - no collar and the back and sleeves will be stocking stitch

 I'd already started swatching when the OAL was announced.  There are three pattern repeats here and I've changed the direction of the decreases in each one - I'm not sure which version I'll go with yet.  I've found in vintage patterns that they quite often say k2tog, when a left-leaning decrease would be the one to use for symmetry.

Madeline Tosh sock in Grasshopper colourway

And I've got several fabrics that would fit the bill for a dress.

These two, which were contenders for last year's challenge, and also for me-made May this year

This double gauze

this barkcloth

also this border print which I definitely want to sew up this summer

This pattern / yarn combo has also been on my 'to knit' list for a while (it's a cotton DK)

Although I might use this pattern instead...

I think it'll go very well with this dress.

It's here in this photo I took this time last year of some potential match-ups

I've made up half the fabrics (second on the left and first three on the right) but only knitted up the wool in the bottom left!  The wool with the lemon print fabric is the one above that I've swatched with.

Six months earlier I took this photo

I've made a bit more progress with these - I've made up all the fabrics except bottom left and top right, and knitted all the yarn on the left and the turquoise one on the right, I'll probably keep doing these photos every so often as I find them to be helpful reminders.

There are also two fabrics from my options for the 2015 outfit-along which I have yet to sew.  (I've knitted all the wool up.) This one, although I don't think it really goes with either the green or rust coloured yarns,

and this one, which would go with the rust, so is a contender.

Writing this post has been a good opportunity to review my yarn and fabric stashes and come up with potential options - time will tell what get's made!

Anya dress - me-made May dress no 6

I bought this barkcloth three years ago so high time I turned it into a dress!  I love the background colour and the print, but it wasn't the easiest fabric to sew - it frayed quite a lot so all raw edges had to be overlocked, and it's quite loosely woven so unpicking had to be done carefully.  There is almost always unpicking involved when I sew...

I actually started sewing it straight after this dress, but decided I needed a break from fraying fabric and put it to one side and made dresses 2, 3, 4 and 5.  The bodice is a modified Simplicity 2444 and the skirt is the straight version from New Look 6824.

Now that it's finished though I love it. 

Me-made May 2019 - week 3 round-up

Well May is racing by... This is a scheduled post because I'm visiting the Chelsea Flower Show today so a very early start - I'm hoping for dry, if not sunny, weather!

Day 15 - I made this dress during me-made May 2016, and I still really like it.  It's a Simplicity 2444 (unmodified) and I love the aqua / turquoise colour of this fabric.  The cardigan is a Hell Bunny Paloma.

Day 16 - I made this dress last year, it's a modified Simplicity 2444 bodice and the straight skirt from New Look 6824.  And I've just clocked that the dress I'm making right now is this same pattern combo.  The cardigan is rtw.

Day 17 -Not so nice weatherwise as the previous few days (no sun...), so I wore a handknitted top and rtw skirt from Lindy Bop from a couple of years ago.

 Day 18 - I spent today at home sewing the dress that I wore on day 19.  Again, another not-so-great day weatherwise, so another handknitted top which I made in 2017, and rtw skirt (from Emily & Fin), again from a couple of years ago I think.

Day 19 - Latest dress and rtw cardigan.

Day 20 - Le tour Eiffel dress no 2 and an rtw cardigan.

Day 21 - I thought wearing a dress covered in roses would be a good choice to wear to a flower show.  Worn with an rtw cardigan from Banned Apparel.

And just like that we're at the end of week three and the annual outfit-along run by Lauren and Andi has been announced - I'm beginning to think ahead to June and July and what I might make - but that's for another blog post.

Turquoise Atomic dress - me-made May dress no 5

I wanted to get this dress finished to wear today - I'm going to the 60s exhibition at the Fashion and Textile museum in London.

I bought the fabric at the first, and so far only, Great British Sewing Bee Live event in London a couple of years ago so it isn't from deep stash, but I love it and wanted to get it made into a dress, so it's leapfrogged older fabrics.  I also have a dress length of this in the olive colourway which I've had for much longer, so this year I'll get that sewn up too, ready for the autumn.

This is another Betty / Simplicity 3749 hybrid, the fifth in fact (the others are here, here and here), and the twelfth time I've used the Betty bodice.  The first, and in fact only, Betty I made straight from the pattern I've passed on, because the fit really wasn't great.  A shame, because I loved the fabric.  Subsequently I tweaked the bodice about four times I think, to get a fit that I'm happy with.

And now I must away and get ready to go!

Turquoise Roses dress - me-made May dress no 4

I bought the fabric for this dress from Barry's in Birmingham in August 2014... and it's been waiting for me to make it up ever since.  I absolutely love it and I think the reason I've delayed using it has been that I didn't want to make it up and then wish I'd chosen a different pattern.  I decided to use the same Sew Over It Betty bodice / Butterick vintage 2248 skirt combo as for my navy lemons dress (one of my favourites) which I knew would work - problem solved!  It's a lovely cotton by John Kaldor.

This came together quickly although I did have to adjust the pleats to fit the bodice waist, but that is not difficult to do.

Unfortunately I don't have any more fabric in my stash that I could use to make another - it needs 58"+ width for the skirt - so I might break my self-imposed buying ban if I see something suitable.

So, photos.

Firstly without a petticoat,

And secondly with.

I know I'm going to wear this a lot, despite the time it takes to iron!

Me-made May 2019 - week 2 round-up

Day 8 - Well it was c o l d..., so I wore a heavyweight denim skirt, wool top and a wool cardigan today.

Day 9 -  I wore my Summertime in Paris dress and an rtw cardigan, although I changed into a wool one later in the day as it was chilly.

Day 10 - Today I wore my teal daisy dress and an rtw cardigan.

Day 11 - Warmer today, especially in the sunshine, but I was in and out of the garden getting washing off the line in an attempt to dodge the showers.  I wore one of the two dresses I made for me-made May last year, my tour Eiffel no 1 dress with a navy rtw cardigan.

Day 12 - another lovely sunny day so I wore my new yellow roses dress and a cotton cardigan I made from a Drops pattern nine years ago and it's still going strong!

Day 13 - another warm (ish) day, I wore the second of last year's me-made May dresses - Tulips in Paris, with an rtw cardigan.

Day 14- more sunshine today, I'm wearing my 30s inspired dress and Spring is in the air cardigan.

At the end of the second week it does seem like the weather is behaving more predictably for May, which can only be a good thing - more sunshine for the next few months please!

Pink Greta cardigan

I had hoped to get this finished by the end of April, but it was not to be and I did the final sewing in of ends this morning before I went to work.

I bought this yarn last year with the intention of knitting this cardigan (I rarely have such specific plans in mind when I buy wool).  I love the colour and thought it would work just as well on its own as with this top as part of a twin set - the stitch pattern is the same.

It's Eden Cottage Yarns Titus 4 - ply and is rather lovely.  I bought this from a destash, not ECY, but they have lots of lovely colours (this one is called Stonecrop and is not on their website at the moment).

The construction is my standard for knitting a cardigan without a written pattern - body in one piece up to the armholes then fronts and back are knitted separately and seamed at the shoulders.  Buttonband and neckband are picked up and knitted on, sleeves are picked up round the armholes and knitted down to the cuffs.

The buttons are vintage, I've had them for a while though so I can't remember where I bought them.

I'm really pleased with how this has turned out - here it is on its own,

and here it is photographed with the top linked to at the beginning of this post.

I hope to get lots of wear out of this one.