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 1 summary

I've finally finished my clothes cull and have donated several bags of clothes and shoes to charity so now I  have a bit of storage capacity for new makes.  That being said, I haven't actually finished anything yet this month, but I do have tomorrow off work, so there maybe something finished soon!

I spent some time last weekend sorting out and photographing outfits which led to the realisation that I need to knit up the cardigan quantities of green yarn which I have stashed, and I could also do with a pink t-shirt!  Photographing things in advance saves the hassle of doing daily photos, which I find makes for an easier life.

So, without further ado, here is my round up of the first week for this year's Me Made May challenge.

Monday was a bank holiday and therefore was freezing cold!  I wore my Monochrome Breton jumper with some black leggings (although the photo shows a skirt - I can't put trousers on Myrtle unfortunately).

On Tuesday I wore a dress which I made during MMM 2016, and an rtw cardigan.  I have these in several colours and they will probably feature a few times this month.  They're very useful with summer dresses and are from Woolovers, although they don't seem to have them on their website now.

Simplicity 2444

Wednesday's outfit was another dress which I made for MMM2016 and an rtw cardigan.

Christine Haynes Emery

On Thursday I wore a lime green By Hand London Elisalex dress and rtw cropped cardigan from Fever - again, not on their website now.

By Hand London Elisalex

On Friday I wore my green birds dress with an rtw cardigan

McCalls 5764 - vintage from 1961

Saturday's choice was my tape measures dress and rtw cardigan from H&M.  A woman came up to me in the petrol station as I was going to pay and told me she loved my dress - it's lovely to get a compliment like that, I was smiling all the way home!

Vogue 8789

And today I'm wearing my red roses dress and an rtw cardigan by Banned.

Butterick 5748

I hope to spend a large part of tomorrow sewing because I haven't taken the cover off my machine yet this month!  Actually this year...  There has been progress on the knitting front though, so that's good.

Me made May final round-up

Here's the final round up for this year's me made May.  I'm hoping that June will be warmer!

Day 22 - a vintage Laura Ashley dress and Cad cardigan, which I knitted back in 2011.

Vintage Laura Ashley dress and Cad cardigan

Day 23 - a Simplicity 1990 dress and an rtw cardigan.

Simplicity 1990 and rtw cardigan

Day 24 - Yes, it was just about warm enough to justify wearing my Flamingolex dress - hooray!  This is still one of my absolute favourite dresses. With an eye-searingly bright rtw cardigan.

Flamingolex dress and rtw cardigan

Day 25 - An Anthropologie dress which I adore, and Emelie cardigan which I knitted in early 2013.

Burgeoning hypericum dress and Norway Spruce toshsock Emelie

Day 26 - Bluebirds dress and an rtw cardigan.

Bluebirds dress and rtw cardigan

Day 27 - Up, up and away dress and rtw cardigan.

Up, up and away dress and rtw cardigan

Day 28 - Watermelons Anna dress and rtw cardigan.

Watermelons dress and rtw cardigan

Day 29 - Ocean Waves cardigan, finished in 2012, and polka dot Simplicity 3774 dress - I must make another of these very soon, I love this pattern!  This is the first time I've worn these two together and I'll do it more often - they really go well together.

Simplicity 3774 dress and Ocean Waves cardigan

Day 30 - Carmen Miranda dress and Gooseberry Fool cardigan, knitted in 2011.

Carmen Miranda dress and Goosebery Fool cardigan

Day 31 - Tropicanna Anna maxi dress - I love this, although because it's got a V-neck back as well as front I think I'm going to replace the front bodice with a bateau-neck because it slips off my shoulders rather too easily if I'm sitting down.  It's fine when I'm vertical, gravity keeps it in place!

Tropicanna dress

And that's it for this year's me made May.  19 handknitted cardigans and 22 me made dresses - three Annas & variations, three Elisalexes & variations, three Emerys, two Butterick 5748s, one New Look 6824, one Simplicity 1990, one Simplicity 3774, two Vogue 8789s, one Vogue 8728, two Cambies and three dresses which were mash-up combinations of two patterns (Elisalex/Emery, Butterick 5748/Simplicity 2444 and Elisalex/New Look 6824).  I've really enjoyed it and it's made deciding what to wear each day easy.  I took the outfit photos in batches, usually on Sundays, and once I'd seen the weather forecast for each day I'd look through the photos and pick something suitable.  It says something about how cold this month has been that so many me-made cardigans have featured - normally at this time of year I wouldn't be wearing wool!

And now I must do some housework!

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...

Knitting and Sewing (and a few other) thoughts for 2015

I've decided that 2015 is going to be a frugal year in terms of spending money on 'things'.  I'm not going to buy any clothes at all, nor anything else unless it is a replacement for something which I already have which has broken irreparably, or worn out, and which actually needs to be replaced.  I'm hoping to end the year with fewer things and more space in my house!

This decision also means that I will be knitting and sewing entirely from stash - and that includes patterns as well as yarn and fabric.  I have more than enough to keep me going for at least a year (unless by some miracle I suddenly start knitting at the speed of light, or only sew multiple repeats of the same pattern - which I probably will, but I also want to branch out a bit as well).  This year I also want to tackle my box of clothes which need mending or altering - possibly alternating one new make with one recycled or renewed garment.

Recycled photo - the mending / alterations box is the one at the bottom (the top one mostly has leftovers in)

On the knitting front I intend to keep on knitting cardigans for me and jumpers and cardigans for my grandson.  I've just reread this post and hope some of the plans I blogged about will come to fruition but the reality is that there will always be other yarn/pattern combos that jump to the top of my knitting queue.

For sewing, there will be more dresses, and I'd like to use more of my vintage patterns for these, both the poufy-skirted ones and those with a more fitted silhouette.  There will, I'm sure, still be more versions of Emery, Elisalex, Anna, Butterick 5748 and New Look 6824 though - and mash-ups between them - because having made a few of them now they are quick to sew, I really like them and they will be easy to make up when I need a quick dress.  I also want to make some separates and maybe tackle sewing with knit fabrics - although I don't have any in my stash.  There is a grey and black Phase 8 dress in the alterations box though which may be my knit sewing guinea pig and become a top.

Another thing I'd like to do this year is trace more of my patterns so that I can cut the fabric in one layer rather than folded.  I can be very picky about pattern placement and lining up polka dots, and it's much easier with a single layer of fabric.

I also want to tackle buttonholes and master my overlocker - I've bought a craftsy class which I hope will help with this.  Finally I would also like to learn more about fit - I should actually read the books I've bought on this subject!

And that's it really, no concrete plans other than to make what I want, when I want and to go where my mojo takes me. 

In the land of grey (leaves) and pink (birds)

Two dresses here, one (the grey one) I actually made in November last year, but have only worn once because of an accident with the pinking shears.  It's a combination of two New Look patterns - 6824 skirt & 6723 bodice and why I decided on that particular combination I really can't remember now.

Grey leaves dress

As I was trimming the back seam I managed to snip the dress - arrrgghhhh!  I decided to fix it with some fusible interfacing - since I hadn't actually cut any of the fabric out of the dress I thought this would be a good way to glue it back together.  Actually, I thought it was a brilliant idea and felt quite smug that I'd thought of it.  And it worked.  No-one would know there had been an accident except me.

Unfortunately... once it had been washed in the machine the interfacing came partially unstuck and took some fabric with it and there was a definite hole in the dress so I put it to one side knowing that it would need a more substantial repair.  And it has stayed put aside for months.  I was really quite pissed off about it because I love this fabric, I bought it ages ago in Ikea and of course they don't sell it now.  I only bought one metre which is why the centre of the bodice is plain grey - there wasn't enough to make the whole dress out of it.  I have got a few offcuts left over and I think I'll have to make a feature patch to sew on top of the offending hole - I haven't thought of any other way of making an invisible repair.  If it had been a gatherered skirt I'd have unpicked it at the waist and just cut the back pieces narrower, but it isn't.  I've ignored it all summer but since it's now definitely grey dress weather I think I need to get creative - maybe I'll cut out one of the leaves and applique it on - the hole is at the top of the back vent so I'm hoping this will look OK.


The second dress is from some fabric that I bought at Ditto in Brighton in the summer.  I nearly bought it in a blue, but then spotted the pink and decided that I preferred that.  This dress is an Elisalex bodice with an Emery skirt although without the pockets because I didn't have enough fabric.  I love it, it's so summery - which means it's now been put away for the winter, but will make me smile when I unpack it next spring.

Pink birds dress

Ditto roses

Here are two dresses which I've made using the same fabric in two different colourways.  I love this print and have got it in another two colours as well, although I haven't made them up yet.  I bought these two from Ditto Fabrics in Brighton - a lovely shop in the North Laine area with lots of gems and well worth a visit.  As is Brighton of course - I love it.

The first one is an Elisalex which came together very quickly since I've made quite a few of these now.  Not much to say about it other than I love it! 

Lime green roses Elisalex

The second one is from a vintage Simplicity pattern, although I've cut the skirt 8" shorter.

I love the cover art on this, the finished dress not so much sadly.  I feel a bit meh about it although I can't quite put my finger on why - I'll give this some thought!  It's been nearly finished for ages and has been sitting waiting for me to hem it for weeks.  I've finally got around to it though, and so now it's finished.

Turquoise roses dress

 I think I'll put it away for the winter now and maybe the passage of time will endear it to me more.  I hope so!  And now I have another dress to hem...

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).