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 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!

Like London buses, three came along at once

During the summer I made three Cambie dresses one after the other.  One I've already blogged about here, and then I made two more in quick succession.

The first of these I made from some lawn which I got as a 3m coupon from Classic Textiles on the Goldhawk Road earlier this year.  My sister tells me that it's "very Antoine et Lili", and since she pointed that out, I kind of agree.  (Antoine et Lili have several shops in Paris and elsewhere in France - I love their aesthetic).

This didn't take long to make - I decided since the skirt was gathered and had quite a lot of fabric in it I wouldn't bother to line it - and I'd made it before so it came together pretty quickly.  However, once it was finished and I tried it on in front of a mirror on a sunny day I decided that actually, the skirt definitely needed lining because it was practically see through.  So I cut an A-line skirt lining and sewed it in.  I really like this fabric / pattern combo and am very pleased with how it's turned out.

Antoine et Lili vibe Cambie

The third Cambie from this summer I made with some fabric which I bought in Decorative Cloth in Leamington Spa last summer.  I love this fabric, it's so summery.  Not much more to say about making up this pattern, except that I didn't line this skirt either - and this one has stayed unlined because the fabric is thick enough not to need it.

Beachhuts Cambie

I really like all three of this summer's Cambies, and having unpicked the yellow one I made last year I had intended to recut and resew it straight away, but actually... it's joined my growing alterations pile because after making three in quick succession I fancied sewing something else instead.

And now autumn is approaching and my thoughts are turning to knitting so it probably won't get put back together until next spring now.  I still have five dresses which are cut out and waiting to be sewn up (although in fact one is nearly done and just needs hemming), so perhaps I should get those done first, especially since one of them I cut out last year, and another one in January.  But the siren call of wool, and knitting, is getting louder...

Paper Roses at Kew Gardens

I've just had a fabulous day out at Kew Gardens - the weather was beautiful, proper summer heat and sunshine and the place was blissfully uncrowded.  I discovered parts of the garden which I've never seen before - and I've visited on and off since childhood.  I must have walked miles!

More about Kew in a bit, first the Paper Roses part.  I wore a Cambie dress which I made this summer - my second.  I bought the fabric, a Liberty Tana lawn called Paper Roses, from Fabrics Galore at the Stitching Show at Olympia in March this year.  I went to the show with my sister and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time there.  This is the first time I've sewn with Tana lawn (I think, I don't remember sewing with it when I was younger, although I do remember my mother making us dresses from it when we were little) and I'm smitten.  It is a delight to sew with and a delight to wear.  There will be more in my sewing future!

Paper Roses A-line Cambie

I made the A-line skirt version and it took about 1.5 metres of fabric, so pretty economical.  I cut a size smaller than the first one I made last year, which didn't fit particularly well and which I have since unpicked to recut and resew.  I also moved the shoulder straps in by half an inch towards the centre front.

I love the fact that the fabric has scissors in with the roses - makes me smile!

Liberty Tana lawn Paper Roses (and scissors)

And now back to Kew...

This is outside the Princess of Wales glasshouse - yes cacti outside in September.

Outside the Princess of Wales glasshouse

Inside the palm house - I made the mistake of walking up the spiral stairs to the walkway which goes around the top of the glasshouse - won't do that again unless it's winter, it was really hot up there!

Inside the palm house

One of ten statues outside the palm house - this is the Unicorn of Scotland and photographing this particular one seemed apt since today the people of Scotland are voting on independence.

The Unicorn of Scotland

The waterlily house

The waterlily house

And a particularly beautiful waterlily

Waterlily

Then there were roses,

Rosa Lady of Shalott

and orchids,

Orchids

 

 

carnivorous plants

Maybe a sarracenia, the label was hidden

and a traditional Japanese house (a minka) which has been there since 2001 and which I'd never seen before.

Minka

Minka

And finally the parterre behind Kew Palace.

Parterre behind Kew Palace

All in all it was a wonderful day.

Oranges and lemons

Yes, there are an orange dress and a lemon yellow dress coming up.  The orange one is Vogue 8789, I can’t remember when I bought this, but it was one of my first pattern purchases.  I like the neckline and kimono sleeves and the fact that the bodice is cut on the cross – I think I’ll probably make one of these out of tape measure fabric at some point.  I altered it to put the zip in the back but I won’t do that next time I make this (and there will be a next time – it was a quick make); I’ll also make the bodice a bit shorter and maybe take the bust darts in even more than I did on this version.  I also didn’t use the skirt pattern pieces; I think there would have been too much bulk around the waist if I had.  So the skirt is just two widths of the fabric (about 60” wide) and that is plenty full enough as it is quite thick cotton.

V-8789

And now to the lemon.  This is the first dress I made back in June of this year when I returned to sewing.  I had seen lots of lovely Cambies by Sewaholic on the interwebz, decided I wanted one and that I had to start somewhere so that’s how this became the first dress I’d sewn for hmm… let’s say 20+ years.  The yellow seersucker fabric which I used I’d had for so long that I can’t remember when or where I bought it, and it was 36” wide which I seem to recall used to be a standard width for fabrics in my dim and distant youth, but not any more.  Because of this I didn’t follow the recommended cutting layout and used pretty much all of the 3m that I had.  I put a centred zip in this, and after it was finished decided it was time to buy an invisible zipper foot and all the dresses I’ve made since have had concealed zips.

This is such a pretty pattern, I really like it a lot a lot a lot and will definitely make more.  Although not in the depths of winter.  But come next spring – oh yes, I have lots of fabric permutations in my head already.

Yellow A-line Cambie