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. 

Le tour Eiffel dresses 2 & 3

Well, I've now completed half of my me-made May challenge for this year with these two dresses.

I've had the fabric for both of these for some time - I bought the blue version in October 2014 and I've had the orange since at least August 2014, so I'm very pleased to have got them both made up as I love this print.  The orange one in particular is now one of my current top 10 favourite me-made dresses.  (The others are - not in any order, I don't have an absolute favourite, Happy Homemaker, Wing Song, Bobby dress, 50s print dress, Flamingolex, navy lemons, lime green roses, bluebird on the vine and Tropicanna.)

So, these two dresses - firstly the blue one.  This is a mash-up of the bodice from Butterick 5748 and the pleated skirt from New Look 6824.  I think this is the first combination of these two options (although I did make two dresses last year with the the straight skirt option from this pattern).  It came together pretty quickly, and there's not really any more I have to say about it!

Now, the orange one.  This is the bodice from Simplicity 2444 and the skirt from a vintage Simplicity pattern, 3749.  This is also a first combination of these two patterns and one I'll make again.  An easy sew and I'll almost certainly be taking this one to Paris with me next month.

I love orange and pink together, it's such a summery colour combination.

Multicoloured dress - me-made May dress no 1

This is the first dress to be finished this month.

I picked up this John Kaldor fabric from the swap table at last year's SewBrum event - I was drawn to it because I love the colours in it.  There were two metres and at 54" wide that was enough for a dress with a flared skirt and pockets - yay!  I'm not sure what the composition of the fabric is, I think it's got some cotton in it, but it didn't behave like 100% cotton, and it doesn't feel polycottonish, so maybe a viscose blend?

The bodice is a modified Simplicity 2444 (lowered the neckline front and back, and brought the shoulders in a bit) and the pleated skirt is from New Look 6824.

I had a bit of an overlocking mishap with this dress; normally I pink all my seams to finish them, but because this fabric frayed a bit I decided to overlock them.  I shouldn't sew when I'm tired because the cutter blade ran into one of the pockets when I was finishing the side seams.  Fortunately not very much by the time I saw what I'd done, but I decided it was best to put it to one side for the rest of the evening and take up my knitting instead.

The following morning I decided rather than try and mend it I'd cut another pocket as I had enough left over fabric.  So that's what I did, and promptly managed to replace the wrong (i.e. the undamaged) one.  Arrgghhh!  End result I replaced both pockets.  The rest of the overlocking went fine.

Now I just need the weather to warm up so that I can wear this - I don't think I'll be wearing it on days that don't need sunglasses!

Birds in Paradise dress

I bought this fabric four years ago from Ditto in Brighton, so it was high time I turned it into a dress.  I used the bodice from Simplicity 2444 which I've modified - lowered the neckline and brought the shoulders in - and the straight skirt from NewLook 6824.  I only had 2m of fabric and this took all of it.

I finished this at the beginning of August and wore it quite a bit before summer disappeared.

Purple bricks dress

I bought this fabric in John Lewis a couple of years ago and it's lovely quality - I really don't know why it took me so long to sew it up!  This is a Simplicity 2444 and I lined the bodice rather than use the facings that come with the pattern. 

Not really anything else to say about it!

Hummingbird dress

So, hot on the heels of the Homemaker dress, I made this one.  Again, I used fabric which I've had for a while and which I thought would go well with the cardigan I'd decided to make.

This dress is a mash-up of the bodice from Simplicity 2444 which I modified to have a lower neckline at both the front and the back, and which I lined rather than faced, and the skirt is Christine Haynes Emery. 

 
I've used both these patterns before and since the skirt is gathered there was no lining up to do at the waistline and this was a quick make.  Another addition to my growing collection of bird print dresses!

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 (2016) dress no 3 - Art Gallery Birds

Right, as part of my Big Easter Weekend Spring Clean it is time to dust off this blog and catch up with everything I've made since I last wrote!  Which was May last year.  Eek.  I guess the fact that I'd rather spend my time making than writing about making, and, let's be honest here, Instagram making for a much quicker posting experience are responsible for the extended break.  However, I don't really want to give up on blogging so I'm going to make a concerted effort now to get this up to date and then try and add things as I make them.

First up is this dress which I made during Me Made May 2016.  It's a Simplicity 2444 and I've worn it a lot since I made it.  The fabric was lovely to sew with, and I'm definitely going to make more dresses with this pattern.

I'm not sure why the armhole facings are described as such - they're not - which is why it took me a while to find the relevant pattern piece - I was looking for a curved facing and what this actually is is a strip of bias binding.  Not sure I'd do this way again, although I like how it's turned out I think I'd prefer to cut a bodice lining than neckline facing and armhole bias binding.  I also think it would make the armholes quite bulky to follow the pattern if using a thicker (e.g. quilting) fabric.  Since this cotton is a lighter weight than that it didn't matter.

Simplicity 2444 Art Gallery Birds dress

I'm very pleased with how this turned out and it's another dress to add to my collection of bird print dresses.

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!

Carmen Miranda

I didn't make this dress until the August bank holiday weekend and was hoping for an Indian summer during September so that I could wear it before the weather got too cold and it got put away for the winter.  This isn't a print that I would wear when it's freezing cold outside.  Well, the weather gods smiled on me and we have had some lovely sunny and really quite hot days this month and I've worn it twice.

I can't remember exactly how I came across this fabric - possibly a google search for pineapple fabric - but I bought it from The Polished Button earlier in the summer and I absolutely love it!  The bodice of this dress is Butterick 5748 and the skirt is Simplicity 2444.  I think I'd recently made the blue polka dot dress and couldn't face another circle skirt so soon so decided on a pleated one instead.  However... the bodice darts and skirt pleats don't line up with each other, which I don't think matters particularly with this fabric because it's such a busy print, but I don't think I'll use this particular pattern combo again.

Carmen Miranda dress

Despite the mismatching, I'm very pleased with this dress - the fabric is very soft and I love the colours and the print.  And it makes me smile whenever I look at it. :-)

Autumn and winter sewing plans

My sewing plans for the next few months are to make up dresses in the following

Purple tape measures - a shirtdress (although not sure which pattern yet), John Lewis purple bricks - at the moment I'm thinking a Simplicity 2444 with a stand up collar and long sleeves.

Tape measures and bricks

Khaki polka dot fabric - another shirtdress, olive atomic fabric - something with a fitted bodice, long sleeves and a straight skirt, mustard keys - not sure yet, but something with long sleeves and not too many seams to break up the pattern.

Olive atomic, mustard keys and khaki polka dots

Viva Frida fabric - still undecided on pattern for this one.  The brown and blue floral and the turquoise roses are, I think, destined to be made up with 60s patterns.

Viva Frida, brown & blue floral and turquoise roses

 
The sunflower fabric I absolutely love, and I think I'll save this to make up when we have some grey, gloomy days in the depths of winter - which I'm sure we will - and it will cheer me up as I sew.  Not sure of pattern, but maybe an Emery.  The resin beads fabric (I've called it this because that's what it reminds me of) will be a Simplicity 3774. 

Sunflowers and resin beads

Then  there are three Liberty fabrics which my mother has had for years and now they are mine!  The yellow floral one is voile and has a real 40s vibe to it I think, so I'll almost certainly use a 40s, or 40s inspired pattern for it.  The other two are Tana lawn - there is enough of the top one to make a dress - maybe a 40s pattern again, but the turquoise one will probably become a blouse because I don't think there's enough for a dress.

Liberty fabrics

I'd also like to make some separates.  The two fabrics below are destined to become skirts although I haven't decided on pattern(s) yet, and I'd like to make some shirts and blouses, but haven't decided which patterns to match with which fabrics, and in fact, to start with, I might just practise by using up some of my left overs - I like the way Rochelle New mixes and matches the fabrics she uses.

Trees and ferns

I realise that even without the knitting this is almost certainly far too ambitious to get through in six months, but ever the optimist I'd like to think I'll get at least some of this done.  And I can come back to this post next spring and see just how much I managed to make (or not!)

Check these out

Well, so much for getting a couple more posts in before Christmas.  Time just ran away from me but there is now a lull in the festivities between now and New Year, so time to catch up with the blogging.

I really like gingham but the fabric that I have sewn with so far hasn’t been great, so I’ve realised that actually I really like cotton gingham, and there doesn’t seem to be nearly as much of that around as the polyester & cotton gingham that the next three dresses are made from.

The first one is Vogue 8727 made with ⅛” gingham from Fabricland.  I bought this pattern mainly because I thought it would be a good starting point for recreating the shape of the Limb teadress which I blogged about last month.  I think with the NL6824 narrow skirt option and some self-drafted (should that be self-draughted? Hmm… not sure) cap sleeves it’ll work rather nicely.  This is a pattern which would have completely passed me by if I’d only considered the initial photograph, however, the line drawings showed that it had potential and so I bought it.  For its first outing I cut it according to the pattern and did view D in a size 14.  Which as I now know, turned out to be too big and so I had to do some fiddling around with the side seams to get it to fit.  Next time I’ll cut a size 12.



Vogue 8727



I love the shape of this dress and it can be dressed up (with a smart plain navy jacket) or down (on its own with some wacky jewellery) but is now put away for the winter since I don’t have enough wardrobe space to not have to pack away summer clothes in the winter and winter clothes in the summer.  As an aside, there was a thread on Ravelry which I came across whilst noodling about, asking how many dresses ravellers had.  So I did a quick count this evening – there are currently 26 rtw and 4 handmade dresses hanging in my wardrobe, so I reckon the total count (including summer dresses) is probably quite a bit higher.  I do love me a dress.  In fact I really like the one I’m wearing right now which I got in H&M a couple of weeks ago.  Let me see if I can get a link to it.  No, sorry, not on their website.  It’s black, sleeveless, just above the knee (probably half way up the thighs of a 5’ 10” model), fitted through the waist and bodice and with a flared skirt.  I may take a photo of it at some point, it’s a perfect go-anywhere LBD – I wore it out for lunch today and could just as easily wear it to work or for an evening out.

On to dresses two and three, both made in purple gingham fabric which I bought because 1. gingham and 2. purple.  However, these fabrics are truly unpleasant imo, they’re shiny, full of static and fray like be-atches.  So they have both become trial versions of patterns which I will be making up in better fabric later.  The 1” gingham is Simplicity 2444 (and yes, there is a seam down the bodice front, don’t ask me why I cut down the fold because I truly have no idea), and the ¼” is New Look 6567.


Simplicity 2444

New Look 6567

For both these dresses the sleeves feel a bit skimpily cut, so I might try them with the sleeves from Butterick 5813  which fit fine.  I don’t think I have weightlifters’ arms by any means, but they’re not stick thin either.  I’ll see how I get on, if it’s too much hassle I’ll probably stick to making sleeveless dresses, but as it’s winter I wanted some sleeves.  Or it could just be that the fabric has no give in it at all and cotton, with a bit of widthways stretch, will be fine.  The New Look dress is also surprisingly short.  So far, I’ve either hemmed dresses per the pattern instructions or chopped off between 5” and 7” of the length, but this pattern could do with being a bit longer – not much – just enough for the finished length to be at the cutting line, but it was a bit of a surprise when I tried it on.  It sewed up very quickly but once I put the sleeves in I found that they pulled the shoulders down, so when I make this up with ‘proper’ fabric I’ll probably cut either the square or the sweetheart neckline, because they have more fabric at the shoulders, and I might cut the back neckline a bit higher.

I have another gingham dress cut out waiting for me to sew it up which will also be a test version because it has several small flaws in it.  Not sure that anyone else would notice them, but I know they are there so it is a trial run for Simplicity 3673.  I’ve got some 1” gingham for the final version – I thought this pattern would be good for a version of the Peggy Olson check dress which has popped up on various blogs as part of Julia Bobbin’s Mad Men challenge – but that won’t get made up until next year.

Well that’s all for now, I hope to be back tomorrow.