Me made May week 2 round-up

Moving swiftly on, here's a round-up of week 2's outfits.

8 May - This is an rtw dress, I absolutely love the print and have bought some of the fabric which I have yet to make up.  Once I've done that I'll probably either turn this dress into a skirt, or maybe pass it on.  The cardigan is an Emelie which I made in 2013.

Day 8 - Home Sewing is Easy dress and Emelie cardigan

9 May - Here we have my grey and yellow birds Emery, and Little Grey Cardi, which I made back in 2011.  I should wear it more - I've got quite a lot of clothes that it would go with and I wore it a lot when I first made it.

Day 9 - Grey and yellow birds Emery and Little Grey Cardi

10 May - This cardigan is the same pattern as the one for day 9, but in blue and made a year later.  The dress is my Antoine et Lili-ish Cambie

Day 10 Antoine et Lili-ish Cambie and Queen Anne cardigan

11 May - Red daisy Emery dress and an rtw cardigan.

Day 11 - Red Daisy Emery and rtw cardigan

12 May - Vogue repro pattern 8728 in floral fabric which I love, and an rtw cardigan.  I think I've got enough of this fabric left to make a blouse - it's very soft and has a lovely drape - so that's added to the ever increasing list of things I want to sew!

Day 12 - Mustard yellow Vogue 8728 and rtw cardigan

13 May - An rtw dress which I bought in Sainsbury's last year after seeing it on Sarah's blog and a work colleague telling me the same week that she had seen a dress in her local Sainsbury's which she though was very 'me'.  It was obviously meant to be mine!  The cardigan is one I've knitted this year and yet to blog about.

Day 13 - Lemons dress by Tu and Primroses for Spring cardigan

14 May - another freezing cold day - wearing an aran weight cardigan in the middle of May is just not on!  I finished it in early 2013, so it predates this blog.  The dress came from People Tree a few years ago and is one that I've worn a lot.

Day 14 - People Tree dress and grey aran cabled cardigan

Well, that's two weeks caught up now, only one more to go!

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 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