Me Made May round up of weeks 1 & 2

Ok, so here is a round-up of the outfits which I've worn to work during the first two weeks of this challenge.

Day one, Thursday 1st May - my pink pansies dress, which I blogged about here, with a maroony / wine coloured cardigan from H&M, similar coloured tights (no idea where from other than my wardrobe), and El Naturalista shoes.  I haven't actually worn this dress much since I made it, not sure why because it's really comfortable and is a good fit, but with long (well three-quarter length) sleeves I probably won't wear it again now before the autumn.  So, MMM was a good excuse to wear it, and enjoy wearing it :-).




1st May outfit

Friday 2nd May I had the day off work and Monday 5th May was a bank holiday, so day 2 of the challenge was Tuesday 6th May when I wore my recently made pink polka dot dress with a navy cardigan from Woolovers, navy tights, and the same El Naturalista shoes as I wore on MMM day 1.  I really like this dress, it's a lovely  muted shade of pink, the fabric is beautifully soft, it's got polka dots on, and a low back.  And it looks good with navy!



6th May outfit

 Wednesday 7th May I wore my yellow and blue floral dress made from a vintage-repro Vogue pattern - I must get round to making another of these.  This fabric drapes beautifully and the print has a bit of a retro vibe to it I think.  Worn with a pale blue cardigan from H&M and Orla Kiely for Clarks shoes, which also have a retro vibe, but about two decades later than the dress!

7th May outfit

I wore another yellow dress on Thursday, my  recently completed yellow birds Emery.  I teamed this with a charcoal grey cardigan from H&M, charcoal grey woolly tights - yes it was that cold, and chocolate brown El Naturalista shoes.



8th May outfit

 The final outfit for this post was my other Emery, a sleeveless red daisy print one, which I wore with a green cardigan from Woolovers, crimson red tights and green El Naturalista shoes.  I'm really hoping that next week it will be warm enough to ditch the tights since it will be nearly the middle of May.  It's also the only week this month when I'm working all five days, so I plan to do another round-up post next weekend.



9th May outfit

 I wish I could say that I've been making good progress with my knitting, but... (Although I have done some, I'm not as far along with it as I'd hoped to be.  Still, another 20 days left in May so I just might get it finished.)

Everything's coming up roses

Or more accurately roses, pansies and a mixed bouquet (aka I'm not sure what they are, other than flowers).

So, three floral dresses in today’s post.  The first one is Butterick 5748, a vintage reprint from c1960.  I really like the cut of this dress and will definitely be making more.  I started out cutting a size 14, but once I’d sewed it up, attached the skirt and put the zip in I tried it on and it was too big, so I unpicked it all and recut the bodice to a size 12.  I sewed the side seams up at ½” rather than ⅝” and took in more fabric on the waist darts.  I think I might have also taken the shoulder seams up as well.  I bought the fabric from A One on Goldhawk Road and could have just got this dress out of 3 metres except for the fact that I was picky about the pattern placement on the front bodice – but for a plain fabric, or one with a small all-over pattern 3m would be enough.



B5748 red roses

Dress number two is a New Look pattern 6723.  Again I cut a size 14 and had to cut it down to a 12.  I’ve done this a few times now, Partly because I’d rather cut too big and then take in, than cut too small and end up with a dress that I can’t wear.  Also, I think I had in my mind that because the Elisalex in size 14 was such a good fit, that is the size I should cut for everything.  But now that I’ve made a few dresses I feel more confident that, as long as there is enough wearing ease, a 12 will be fine, at least with the patterns from the big pattern companies.  The small independents don’t seem to follow the same sizing schemes so I’ll cut whichever size I think will be the best fit for those patterns.

Pink pansies

I didn’t bother to interface the neckline on this dress and I also fully lined it and made the sleeves a bit longer.  The fabric was a 3 metre coupon (not sure what the English word for this is – a 3m cut length) from Classic Textiles on Goldhawk Road.

Dress number three is another vintage reprint pattern, this time from 1946 – Vogue 8728.  And made with another 3m coupon from Classic Textiles.  I made the skirt 5” shorter than the pattern and actually cut this as a size 12.  It’s a reasonably good fit although the neckline is quite wide, so I need to either wear a bandeau bra under it, or go out and buy one that has transparent shoulder straps.  I’ll probably make this again because I like the design, but I might try it with a size 8 neckband next time to avoid the bra strap issue.  I also might line the midriff section another time.

V 8728 yellow floral