Me made May week 1 round-up

Well, I need to catch up here, it's already day 23 of me-made May!  So, without further delay, rewind to the beginning of the month.

1 May - Roses are Red dress and Sam Stewart cardigan.  I blogged about the dress here, but the cardigan I only finished last month and it will get its own post later.  This was the first time I'd worn this dress this year - it's not really one I would wear in the winter so I'm very glad that Spring is here because I love it!

Day 1 - Roses are Red dress and Sam Stewart cardigan

 2 May - Pink tape measures dress and Shell Pink cardigan.  I wrote about the dress here, and the cardigan here and here.  This cardigan is lovely and warm, although it has pilled a bit...

Day 2 - Pink tape measures dress and Shell Pink cardigan

3 May - Noro cardigan and jeans - which won't fit on Myrtle so they didn't get photographed.  It was flippin' cold and this cardigan is nice and warm!  I haven't blogged about it because I made it back in 2012, before I started writing this blog.  It's just a basic stocking stitch cardigan really - not much more to say about it than that!

Cardigan made with Noro Silk Garden yarn

4 May - Dotty Anna dress and Pecan Primrose cardigan.  Dress blogged here, and cardigan here.  I really like both of these - separately and together!

Day 4 - Dotty Anna dress and Pecan Primrose cardigan

5 May - Garden Birds dress and Blue Palm Leaf cardigan.  Dress blogged here, and cardigan blogged here.  It says something about the weather we had at the beginning of the month that I was wearing wool cardigans rather than lighter weight rtw ones.

Day 5 - Garden Birds dress and Blue Palm Leaf cardigan

6 May - Paper Roses Cambie dress and Sam Stewart cardigan.  Again.  Dress blogged here.  I am so pleased with this cardigan - it goes with quite a lot of my dresses!

Day 6 - Paper Roses Cambie and Sam Stewart cardigan

7 May - Pink Polka Dot Butterick 5748 and an rtw cardigan - the weather must have been warmer!  Dress is blogged here.

Pink Polka Dot Butterick 5748 and rtw cardigan

And there we have it - a week's worth of outfits; only two more catch-up me-made May posts to go!

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).

The love affair with bird print dresses continues (Sew Dolly Clackett dresses 3 & 4)

Two more Dolly Clackett inspired dresses in this post.  The first one is a mash-up of a size 14 Elisalex bodice and the pleated skirt from New Look 6824 in a size 12.  The front half of the dress lined up beautifully - the princess seams matched up exactly with two of the pleats, and the side seams matched too.  I had to do a bit of fiddling about with the centre pleats on the back though to get them to line up.  I had already bought an rtw version of this dress but, because I love the print, and inspired by Roisin's Madarch dress I bought a metre and a half of furnishing fabric to make myself another in a different colour.

I'm really pleased with how this has turned out, my only concern is whether the invisible zip will hold up to use because the fabric is quite thick.  Time will tell I guess.  And I like this bodice / skirt combination, I can see it happening again!


Garden Birds dress

 The second dress is all New Look 6824 although I decided I wanted a v-neck.  I first saw rtw dresses made from this fabric in Zegerman & Lusky in Greek St London and fell in love with the fabric but couldn't bring myself to spend over a £100 on a ready-made dress, so decided to try and find the fabric online.  Get Cutie in Brighton have it as part of their range of fabrics, so I bit the bullet (I think this is the most expensive fabric I have bought so far) and bought two and half metres.  So, another bird print dress to add to my collection.  I think I may have a week of wearing just bird print dresses to work next month, can't wait to wear my Flamingolex again, I just love that dress. ;-)

And now I'm off to hem another avian creation.


Bluebird dress

 

Watch the birdie(s)

I do like me a bird print fabric, no particular reason that I can think of, I am not a twitcher (or twitterer come to that, yet), I just like bird print fabric.

So… here are three dresses which when I saw them in their respective shops I had to have.  The first one is a current season Cath Kidston which first came to my attention on Coopknits'  blog.  It’s the garden birds dress and gets a link because it’s still available.  I tried on both colourways and decided that the charcoal looked better on me, although I’d gone shopping intending to buy the olive/khaki version.  I love this print, and inspired by Dolly Clackett’s recent post about her mushroom dress I also bought some of the furnishing fabric – same print but a different background colour – although the birds are the same colours as on the rtw dress, just a bit larger.  Not sure which pattern I’ll use for this, possibly a sleeveless Elisalex, definitely NOT anything with a gathered skirt as it will be too bulky round the waist.  It may be months before I get around to making this up though.

Cath Kidston garden birds dress

Dress number two I got in White Stuff three or four years ago and it’s now a bit big on the chest as I’ve lost weight since then so I really should take it in a bit (it’s pinned at the back in the photo).  Haven’t yet added it to my enormo pile of clothes which need altering though.  I keep everything which needs altering or mending in a large blue Ikea bag next to my sewing area – thinking that if I can see it every time I sit down at the machine I might actually do some of it.  This only works very occasionally unfortunately, I’d probably be better off blitzing it in two or three sessions.  Anyway, I digress.

Skein Queen was wearing this dress at Unravel (she is on the left in the photo on Coopknits’ post, so we now have at least two dresses the same) and it was another case of see it, want it, buy it.

White Stuff birds dress

And the third one is a tea dress which I bought at Zegerman & Lusky in London this summer.  It’s by Vanity Project and I love it.  Unfortunately they don’t seem to do this style any more, but I have plans in my head to make something similar (actually probably several somethings similar) because it is such a flattering shape.  I also love love LOVE the fabric and am very tempted to buy some and make another dress in a different style from it.

Vanity Project tea dress

Vanity Project tea dress back view