Gingham Hannah

My next dress is a Hannah, from By Hand London.  I liked this when they first issued it, but at that time they had stopped producing paper patterns and it was only available as a pdf.  Fast forward to this year when they made a paper version - yay!

This is made from cotton gingham from Minerva, which I bought last year.

The bodice should really cross the other way, but that is my fault for misreading the pattern instructions.  I also made the waist ties with a narrower hem than the pattern gives, so they are a bit wider.

I really like this and will definitely make it again, although possible a bit longer.

Me Made May 2017 final round up

Well, May flew by!  Here are my last three outfits for me-made May.

I do wear most of my dresses to work, but not the maxis, so as Monday was a bank holiday I wore my Tropicanna dress and a Honeybee cardigan - I really love the colour of this yarn (swoon).  

On Tuesday I wore a polka dot Butterick 5748 with an rtw cardigan.

And finally, yesterday I wore my red Cambie dress and a handknitted laceweight cardigan which I made a few years ago now - I must get around to knitting up the laceweight yarn I have in my stash - I love the fact that it makes such lightweight cardigans.

Despite having a few days off work during May they, and the weekends, were mostly taken up with doing other (fun) stuff.  And so I failed on the sewing part of my pledge, which was to make four dresses.  I did get the knitting part done though which was to complete two cardigans.  

Here are all this month's outfit photos...

Some of the outfit combinations from this year I also wore during me-made May 2014, 2015 and 2016 which just goes to show how useful some of these dresses still are!  And also that my taste in clothes hasn't changed much ;-)

And now, it's on to #OAL2017!

Me Made May 2017 week 4 summary

Gosh, this month is flying by and finally, the weather has warmed up!  This has definitely influenced my choice of dresses - the summery prints are now in circulation.

Monday's outfit was an Emery dress with rtw cardigan.

On Tuesday I wore my Get Cutie bird print dress with an rtw cardigan.

Wednesday saw flamingos making an appearance with my Flamingolex dress and an rtw cardigan from Audrey Star's Boutique.  I love this dress - the style and the fabric, and I have enough fabric left over to make a skirt - I should get on and do that, I'd much rather wear it than let it languish in my leftovers box!

On Thursday I wore my Carmen Miranda dress and an rtw cardigan.

On Friday I wore my Beachhuts Cambie and an rtw cardigan.

Saturday saw the first wearing of my lemon print dress - I bought this in Sainsbury's a few years ago now and love it.  I paired it with a me-made tie front cardigan from pre-blogging days (I didn't use a pattern, so no link).

And to round off the week today I'm wearing my orange floral Simplicity 1801 maxi with an rtw cardigan.

Thinking ahead, a couple of weeks ago OAL 2017 was announced.  This is a challenge to create a complete outfit with a knitted and a sewn garment, and is hosted by Lauren Taylor and Andi Satterlund.  In 2014 I watched from the sidelines, in 2015 I made these, last year I didn't get around to joining in but this year I definitely will. The challenge runs for the whole of June and July and I've got two possible combinations lined up - I'm not sure that I'll get both cardigans knitted, but two dresses should definitely be possible.  I've got the cardigan pattern for one combo and the dress pattern for the other finalised, so still need to decide on the other two in order to get a complete outfit!

Me Made May 2017 week 3 summary

Well, we've had another week of dreary weather.  Although there has been some sunshine there hasn't really been much warmth and several days were really rather grey and either damp or downright wet.  Urgh!

So, I started the week off with an Anna dress and rtw cardigan.

Then I had a few days away with work, so Tuesday to Thursday's outfits were chosen with suitability for travelling and survival in a suitcase in mind.  On Tuesday I wore an rtw skirt and t-shirt with my Primroses for Spring cardigan.  I'm not sure how much longer this skirt is going to last, I've had it a few years now, love the colour and have worn it a lot, so once it finally does get to go for recycling I'll be looking out for some corduroy in this colour to make another one, although the style may be different.

On Wednesday it was another rtw skirt and t-shirt and my blue Palm Leaf cardigan.  This is another skirt which I've had for years and really like.

On Thursday I wore an rtw dress which has so many colours in it that I'm spoilt for choice when it comes to pairing it with a cardigan - but I chose this orange Emelie cardigan which I made in pre-blogging days and which is a bit big really now - I'm not sure though whether I can be bothered to unravel it all and reknit it, maybe... because I do love the colour.  Just not yet.

On Friday I wore an rtw t-shirt, a skirt which I've just bought from Lindy Bop, having seen Kate Davies wearing it in a pattern photo - I absolutely love it, and the yellow of my Bette cardigan is a perfect match.  I love the jumper in the Kate Davies photo as well, I hope to make it this winter...

On Saturday I had a day at home catching up on the washing, ironing and general housework and wore an rtw t-shirt, skirt and my Cherry Blossom cardigan.

And today, yay, the sun is shining and the forecast is saying that we are in for a sunny, dry and warmer week.  At last!  So I've ditched the tights and as a small celebratory gesture, I'm wearing a dress covered in sunflowers.

I haven't sewn a stitch yet this month (apart from the curtains mentioned in last week's round up post), but I have done some knitting and have finished a cardigan, which I'll write about during the week.  The second cardigan I have on the needles is also coming along nicely, I'll get the body finished today which will just leave the sleeves to get done before the end of the month.  So at least I'll fulfil the knitting part of my pledge if not the sewing one!

Blue begonia leaves Anna dress

So, this turned out to be the final dress of 2016 - I finished it in June.  It's a Kaffe Fassett print and I love the colours, although I've never seen begonia leaves in blue!  It's a By Hand London Anna dress with a V back neckline modification which I first did here.  Not really anything more to say about this... umm... it washes well... ;-)

BHL Anna

Me Made May dress number 2 - Anna La Paloma

This was another dress that I saw on someone else and wanted to make my own version - Deborah, one of the contestants on last year's Great British Sewing Bee.

Google image search is really handy when it comes to tracking down fabrics which have been around for a little while and are therefore not the latest newest thing - and an etsy seller came up trumps.  I absolutely love the colours in it, I love the print and think it's a really happy fabric that just makes me smile!

Anna la paloma

It took a while to cut out though since I did try to vaguely pattern match along the skirt side seams.  There was a point at which I thought I'd cut out two skirt side back panels the same (rather than as mirror images), but they both looked OK and on-grain so I decided to chance it and sew them up rather than cut another panel.  I think they're fine - I was writing on each skirt panel as I cut them - I've found this helps when I'm not following the cutting layout for this pattern (which is not for one-way-print fabrics) and I suspect I just wrote the wrong thing.

Back view

Since this is not the first time I've sewn this pattern (others are here, here, here and here) this came together pretty quickly once it had been cut out and marked up.  I used the v-back alteration which I'd done for my Tropicanna, but with the bateau neckline at the front.  My Tropicanna dress is fine if I'm standing up, but has a tendency to slip off my shoulders if I sit down - not helpful!  Fortunately I have some spare fabric leftover from this dress and have now cut out a bateau neck front bodice, unpicked the original v-necked one and will be putting it back together again in the next few days.  The back bodice pattern piece which comes with the pattern gapes at the centre back on me (it could do with some shoulder darts to fit it properly), but the v-neck eliminates this, which is handy.

v-back neckline

This is cut as a size 12, except the front skirt which is a size 14 so that it lines up with the bust pleats - I've found the size 12 pleats come up too high and the size 14 ones are just right.

And now I have another Anna to sew up, and one more to alter.  Toodlepip.

Me made May week 3 round-up

And here we have the outfits I wore during the third week of May - lucky there has been a long bank holiday weekend for me to do some blog catching up!

15 May - Shell Pink cardigan and rtw jeans and blouse.  As is obvious not a very good mirror selfie!  But this was the least worst of the dozen or so photos that I took...

Day 15 - Shell pink cardigan and rtw jeans and blouse

16 May - Honeybee cardigan which I made during Spring 2013, and Vogue 8789 orange dress.

Day 16 - V-8789 orange dress and Honeybee cardigan

17 May - rtw dress and Purple Hearts cardigan - blogged about here although I haven't yet published the post which I wrote once it was finished...

Day 17 - Eucalyptus dress and Purple Hearts cardigan

18 May - Pink birds dress and Bette cardigan - I've only recently finished this, so, yet another FO which I haven't blogged about yet!  Wrote about the dress here.

Day 18 - Bette cardigan and Pink Birds dress

19 May - This is a cotton cardigan which I made back in 2010 and which I haven't worn that much in the past couple of years because I prefer waist-length cardigans with dresses with full skirts.  However, I love the colour and should wear it more.  The t-shirt and skirt I've had for quite a few years.  The skirt originally had a tie sash on it, but I unpicked the side seams and took it out because I think it looks better without.  Love the vintage-y look of it.

Day 19 - Yellow cotton cardigan, skirt from Next

20 May - Shell Pink cardigan (again) and green daisy Emery dress.  I love this dress, it's so summery (shame the weather hasn't caught up with itself yet though).

Shell Pink cardigan and green daisy Emery dress

21 May - This is a tie front cardigan which I made a few years ago, and the dress is a modified Elisalex which I blogged about here.

Tangerine Dream cardigan and Birdielex dress

And now I'm all caught up with me-made-May.  Phew!  Just the posts about this year's finished cardigans to finish writing and publish now...

Curtain call

A few months ago I was browsing at the Frock Me vintage fair at Chelsea Town Hall when I spotted this fabric on a stall selling vintage haberdashery, fabrics and curtains.  I just love the colours in it and although it was made up as a curtain it was long and wide enough for me to cut the heading tape off and have enough fabric to make a dress.

And so it came home with me, was washed, dried and put to one side because summer came along and I didn't really fancy sewing with thick fabric.  However, there it was every time I opened the airing cupboard and I decided that actually I would make it up using a tried and tested combination of the By Hand London Elisalex bodice and a New Look 6824 pleated skirt.

It wasn't the nicest of sewing experiences though; being furnishing fabric it was quite loosely woven and therefore frayed like a be-atch.  Somehow I managed to sew the two back bodice pieces the wrong way round at the shoulder seams and discovered that not only did the fabric fray, it was also effing difficult to see the stitches when unpicking and I had to be careful with this otherwise the fabric would have pulled.  Having spent quite a bit of time with pattern placement at the cutting out stage I didn't have any fabric to spare so couldn't afford to mess up any of the pieces.  This meant that I had to be particularly mindful with sewing the rest of it, which of course slowed the process down!

Gorgeous green curtain dress

 The bodice is lined and I decided to underline the skirt with the same fabric - some dark grey lawn which I had in my stash and had intended to use for something else.  I usually use white lawn for lining, but this fabric needed something darker and the grey was all I had.  Normally I pink seams to finish them, but knew that wouldn't work for this fabric due to the fraying issue, so I overcast the bodice seams and finished the skirt seams and hem with bias binding, so all in all quite a lot of actual sewing.  It was very relaxing hand sewing the hem though.  I usually machine my hems, but knew that wouldn't work with thick underlined fabric - it would make the hem much too bulky so I spent a very pleasant evening with Monsieur Poirot and a needle and thread.  And then it was FINISHED!!!  And I love it.  Not ideal to be making dresses with fairly voluminous, lined skirts in the middle of summer though, and yet I chose to make four fully lined dresses this summer. Why?

I have quite a bit of blog catching-up to do so I hope to be posting more frequently until I'm all caught up.  And I don't think I'll be sewing with furnishing fabric again for a while.  Now I have some knitting to do.  Toodle pip.

Me Made May - weeks 4 & 5

The first outfit for week 4 was my Flamingolex dress, with a pink cardigan from Woolovers and pink Birkenstocks, so it must have been a warm day ;-)

I should really decide what to do with the rest of this fabric, I think I have just under 2 metres left, so enough to make another dress, but maybe I should make a skirt instead?  I've seen some other flamingo fabric which I'm tempted to buy, but haven't yet - I really have (far) more than enough fabric stashed to last me through the summer.  I also have a flamingo print Hell Bunny dress which I bought last summer and which needs altering - should get on to that soon really because it's a fab dress.

 

19th May outfit



On Tuesday I wore my red roses dress, with a green Woolovers cardigan and white Birks.  I must make another of these because I do like the circle skirt on it.

20th May outfit

On Wednesday I wore my yellow Cambie dress with a blue Woolovers cardi and navy Birkenstocks (bit of a pattern here I think).

21st May outfit

And that was it for week 4 - I had Thursday and Friday off work.

Week 5 was a four day week because Monday was a bank holiday.  My original thinking at the beginning of the month was that by this time the weather would be warm enough for me to wear any of my dresses, but Tuesday was freezing and so I wore my yellow birds Emery again, with my Pecan Primrose cardigan, woolly tights and El Naturalista shoes.  Honestly, the last week of May and the weather was like March - urrghh!  I had intended not to repeat-wear any dress this month, but the fabric of this dress is quite thick, and wearing it meant that I could also wear a wool cardigan.  I've got lots of H&M and Woolovers cardis in different colours which are great when the weather's not cold, but they don't really cut it when it is.




27th May outfit

  Wednesday was no better weather-wise and so I wore an rtw dress from Anne Elisabeth in Paris with a me-made wool cardigan which I haven't blogged about, but there is some info about it on Ravelry here.

I absolutely LOVE this dress, I bought it last year and I can see that when it eventually wears out I'll unpick it to use as a pattern.  There's something quite vintage-y about the style - although not the fabric - kimono sleeves, underarm gussets, shaped bodice and a darted skirt with a deep hem.  It even has a lapped zip.  I find AE clothes are a bit hit and miss - some years I've liked lots of them other years not.  I have a fabulous skirt which I bought a few years ago, gorgeous print and very flattering style (although I won't unpick this one - I haven't got the patience to sew up the number of seams that it has).  And there have been a few other dresses and skirts that I've liked, but they either haven't had my size or I've baulked at the prices - in the past few years the perception that spending foreign currency isn't like spending 'real' money, and anyway I'm on holiday so it's a souvenir, hasn't overridden the sharp intake of breath at the price tag.  But this dress was worth every euro.

Woolly tights and black El Naturalista shoes, again.  Nearly June and woolly tights - it just shouldn't be necessary.

28th May outfit

On Thursday it felt marginally warmer and I wore my Anthro Anna dress with a cream H&M cardi, but still with woolly tights and El Naturalista shoes.

29th May outfit

Friday was another repeat wearing - my yellow vintage repro Vogue dress with a me-made blue wool cardigan (unblogged, but will write about it soonish), navy tights and Orla Kiely for Clarks shoes.




30th May outfit

 

And that is it!  I've enjoyed wearing these dresses and am itching to make some more now, having sewn nothing at all during May.

The pink cardigan I wrote about last week didn't actually get finished until the evening of Sunday 1st June, but that is close enough to the end of May for me.  And I didn't get to make a dress with buttonholes, but I have all summer to do that!  And I wish the weather had been a bit warmer towards the end of the month... but all in all, I've enjoyed participating in Me Made May and seeing what other bloggers have worn too.

Me Made May - week 3 round up

A bit behind schedule on posting here, life, in the form of redecorating, has intervened.  There has been topsy-turvyness in these parts for the last couple of weeks, but things are pretty much back to normal now and all the boxing up, packing up and moving around of STUFF was so worth the end result.

It has meant no sewing though, and not much knitting either, but I have been able to do a bit here and there.  Now to catch up on Me Made May.  Week 3 is the only week this month that I actually went to work every day - June will be a bit of a shock to the system, since I only did one full week in April as well, a girl could very easily get used to part-time hours...

So, Monday's outfit was my Up, Up and Away dress with a fuchsia pink cardigan from H&M, dark brown tights and chocolate brown El Naturalista shoes.

12th May outfit

On Tuesday I wore my Dotty Anna with a navy cardigan from Woolovers, navy tights and Orla Kiely by Clarks shoes - I love these shoes ;-) I hope she does another collection.

13th May outfit

Wednesday was a very. good. day. because the sun was out so I could ditch the tights YAY!  I had thought about having a week of wearing bird print dresses every day, but decided that was probably a bit too much of a good thing, so the first one of the week made its appearance today - my Bluebird dress, worn with a bright blue Woolovers cardi and navy Birkenstocks - the season of painted toenails is here at last!

14th May outfit

On Thursday I wore my Measuring Up dress - the ideal dress for Me Made May don't you think ;-) - with a pink Woolovers cardigan and pink Birks.

15th May outfit

For the last day of the working week it was back to birds again.  My Cath Kidston Garden Birds furnishing fabric mash-up dress (Elisalex and NL 6824), with a blue cardi from H&M and navy Birks.  I think I may have to bias-bind the skirt seams of this dress, because having washed it a couple of times they have frayed a bit.  I usually pink seams to finish them, but these I zigzagged because I thought if I pinked them and they frayed there wouldn't be much seam allowance left to do something different.  The bodice should be fine because the seams are all encased.  Something to bear in mind on future furnishing fabric garments.

16th May outfit

Well, that's a week's worth of outfits caught up.  Last week's and next week's combos I will put in one post at the end of next week - I only worked three days last week and next week will be four days with the bank holiday tomorrow, so they can all go in one post.

The decorating work meant that I had to miss the NYLON2014 bloggers' meet up last Saturday which I had been really looking forward to.  I did think I might be able to make the afternoon shopping part of the day, but as it turned out, it was not to be.  So I shall be living vicariously through the posts of the bloggers who did go and hope that I'll be able to go to another meet up in London at some point.  And I don't really need to buy any more fabric at the moment... although my sister has bought some fab fabrics from Goldhawk Road recently which have set me thinking that one or two more purchases wouldn't hurt...  I wonder whether the fact that the Tories have been kicked out of Ham & Fulham council in the elections last week might mean a reprieve for the Goldhawk Road shops.  I really hope so.

Well, that's it for this post, I have a sleeve to finish knitting (oh what joy).