Operation winter coat - fabric prep

As I had some lovely (and more expensive than usual) fabrics for this coat, I wanted to treat them right. Since I asked for a lot of advice and googled a fair bit, I thought my findings might be useful to others.

Starting with the outer fabric which is a wool blend - 90% wool, 10% poly. This is a good combination for me as I am sensitive to 100% wool  A lot of people can get away with wool in a coat as it doesn't sit against the skin but I particularly dislike it against my neck and this coat has a collar so wool blend it was. 

After a lot of googling I found 3 main methods for pre shrinking wool. First is taking to the dry cleaners.  Easy but pricy so not for me. Second is steaming with the iron (as Tasia did here). Simple but time consuming. Thirdly is this method outlined by Pam from Off the Cuff (this is a link to her new blog but her old one here is a treasure trove of tips, especially for shirtmaking).  To save you a click, you wet large towels with hot water and put in the tumble dryer with your dry yardage. That's it!

I was concerned about trying this with my whole yardage so I tumble dried a swatch first for the recommended 40 minutes.  There was no obvious change to the look of the fabric so I put the whole yardage in the dryer with 2 damp (wrung out as much as possible) bath towels. It worked perfectly - but if you do this be careful taking it out of the machine as it was still boiling hot! A quick press later and my wool was ready to go.

The lining is viscose acetate.  I had planned to wash as normal but when the fabric arrived it had a dry clean only sticker on the tissue it was wrapped in. I considered not prewashing as I plan to dryclean the finished garment but advice from the lovely Claire Louise from the Thrifty Stitcher that it's really important to pre wash linings as even a bit of sweat can cause shrinkage.  So I decided to put in in a delicate wash and it came out fine. Another great tip from Claire Louise was to iron it damp to get the creases out properly. This worked brilliantly and not sure why I haven't tried it before!

This just left the interfacing. I ordered Speed Tailoring from Gill Arnold on the advice of Anne from Mercury Handmade and it came with really detailed instructions on how to pre shrink,  which I have never done with fusible interfacing before. I soaked it in hand hot water for 20 minutes, rolled it up in a towel to take out excess water and hung up to dry. When applying, Gill recommends a steam shrink, where you place the interfacing on top of the fabric and steam from a couple of inches away, smooth out fabric and interfacing and then press using a press cloth to adhere.  This method worked really well and the interfacing is really lovely stuff.  It stabilises without stiffening and adhered perfectly and easily to the fabric.

Hopefully some of these tips might help if you are making a coat in future!

My Christmas dress

This is my last vintage pledge make of 2014 and number 4 of the original 5 I pledged.

Fittingly, the pattern came from Marie at Stitch Odyssey as she added it to the vintage pattern pyramid before it came to me. I fell in love with the gorgeous asymmetric neckline as soon as I saw it and snapped it up as my pick from the parcel.

Why can't I flip this to landscape?  Grrr Blogger!

I bought this John Kaldor fabric from the sale at Sew Essential a while ago and had it earmarked for this dress as soon as I nabbed the pattern. It was marked as a french crepe. It washes fine and pressed reasonably well with a medium iron.  It's lovely to wear and barely creases.

The pattern was for a 40" bust and I thought I was going to have a bit of work to make it fit, but it was actually pretty good from the start. I lengthened the bodice and skirt by 2" each and lowered the bust darts by 1.5". Other than lowering the darts, the main adjustment was a square shoulder adjustment. I took it in at the sides once it was constructed which meant a bit of tinkering with skirt pleats to get them even. I'm never keen on that just above the elbow length of sleeve so I shortened by about 1.5" to make it easier to wear with a cardigan.

As usual I didn't quite think how the drape of the fabric would affect the neckline and the piece at the side. It meant this piece was a bit floppy and didn't quite sit properly. I fused an additional piece of interfacing to the facing and the bodice front which fixed the problem.

Closer shot of the neckline (with bonus derp-face)

I didn't add the bow at the neck in the end. I may make it and attach it with a pin - in my experience these details don't do well in the washing machine so making it removable seems sensible.

I used Hug Snug to make a waist stay and also machine sewed it around the skirt and sleeve hems before catch stitching by hand.  This was really time consuming on such a full skirt but it gives a lovely finish.

Operation winter coat - the reveal!

So here is my final coat!

I am so happy with it and it's an absolute pleasure to put it on every day. Of course the cost/effort per wear on a coat comes out pretty well which is satisfying! 

In this post, I'm showing off the final pics and will talk about fitting adjustments I made, and I'll show you details in another post. 

On comparing my actual measurements to my pattern measurements, I found I needed an FBA (no surprise), a little extra room at the hips/ bum level (another non - surprise) and more ease in the arms (I appear to have weirdly big elbows!). I also added 1/2" shoulder width and did a small square shoulder adjustment.

The front pattern piece was tough to adjust as it looked like this:

On the advice of lovely Brooke from Custom Style I had planned to cut it apart at the waist, but as I needed extra room at the hips too I was able to slash the pattern piece all the way down and add in some extra in the right places.

Should have taken my hands out of my pockets to photograph the back - that pulling isn't there without them!

The weirdest thing is that I did no length adjustments in the body at all! The waist was in the right place and the hem length was perfect.  In hindsight, the pockets could stand to be perhaps 1.5" lower  as it feels like I pull on them slightly when I put my hands in. But they are totally functional.  I also lengthened the sleeves to full length from bracelet length and as a result had to taper them slightly.

I muslined one sleeve and also the collar piece as I was concerned it looked a bit small in the picture (it's fine). However I decided to add darts to the back to take out some excess fabric at back waist. This was done by pinching out the right amount of fabric at waist level, splitting that between 2 darts and measuring where I wanted them to end top and bottom. I had a bit of trial and error in the dart positioning at first as I placed them too close to the side seams so I was glad I had just pinned them to begin with. Me and the seam ripper are too friendly as it is!  

In the final fabric I ended up taking in the side seams more to narrow the bodice to the waist as the shape as drafted  just wasn't working for me. Unfortunately I feel like I took a lot of the vintage flavour out of the coat, but it definitely works better for me this way. 

Details of the construction to follow! 

One last pic as it's a nice background!

Topstitching help please

I mentioned on the post about my Peggy skirt that I had some issues with the topstitching.

It looks ok from the right side (bar a few skipped stitches on the sections where there are a lot of layers):

But pretty awful from the wrong side as you can see below:

Believe it or not, this is a distinct improvement on how it looked originally. 

Based on advice from Twitter and Instagram, I switched from a denim needle to a topstitching one and used normal thread in the bobbin with topstitching thread on top only. I fiddled with the tension on the top thread.

These lessened the problem considerably but it's still not great.  My machine didn't seem to have any issues with sewing the layers with normal thread, just with topstitching thread.

The only thing I could find online was that Gutermann topstitching thread (which I used) is apparently much thicker than other brands.

Can anyone shed any light on my problem? Any great topstitching tips to share? Have you found that the brand of thread made a difference? All suggestions gratefully received as I want to make jeans at some point and that's a lot of topstitching!  

Grease Inspiration

I've just put up my bad girl inspiration post for the Grease sewalong on the Sewcialists blog - head on over a have a read here!

The Grease Sewalong!

I'm co-hosting this month's sewalong on the Sewcialists blog, and it's a theme very close to my heart - Grease!

Click here to read the post - and there's a competition too!

Will you be joining in?

Operation winter coat is go!

I may not have been blogging too much due to work and general life busy-ness, but I have been sewing and planning quite a bit!

The big project I am working on is a winter coat.

I was looking for a fairly simple shape with a collar and some waist shaping and I picked up this great 1960s pattern on Etsy:

It has lovely princess seams running to the waist with welt pockets at the bottom, bound buttonholes and is fully lined.

I knew I was going to have to buy fabric online for it as my local fabric shop just doesn't stock great quality coating. The fabric I used for my Anise really hasn't held up well which is frustrating when you think of all the work that goes into a coat (especially one with welt pockets and bound buttonholes!). After much perusing of online fabric shops (it's a dirty job...) I ordered a stack of swatches from Stone Fabrics. They have a great selection of coatings and I have read good things about their quality. You have to call up and order but they were very helpful and got my order out really quickly - they're not paying me to recommend them BTW, I just like to give praise where it's due!

I ordered this wool mix coating (90% wool but not scratchy - 100% wool rarely works on my skin). A good tip I found was to keep rubbing the swatches together over a few days to see how they might hold up to wear. I actually rejected my original choice after it went a bit fluffy when I did this so hopefully I have chosen one that will wear well!

The lining is also from Stone Fabrics and it's viscose acetate in a beautiful peacock blue - the picture really does not do the colour justice.

As ever, I asked for advice on twitter for interfacing and the ever helpful Anne from Mercury Handmade recommended Speed Tailoring from Gill Arnold as she uses it in all her coats. This stuff is ideal for stabilising an open weave and is beautifully soft.

For buttons, I bought huge 1960s style ones from John  Lewis. I hope they don't look stupidly big on as I'll have to do the bound buttonholes first!

I think you'll be getting quite a lot of in progress posts on this as coats take such a long time. Wish me luck!

The long awaited Moneta

I sewed this forever ago, but as you have probably noticed, finding time to blog things recently has been difficult!

I made this Moneta from Colette Patterns for our holiday to Sicily back in August, and it's great to look back on the beautiful scenery and lovely weather!  The pictures are on the island of Stromboli (an active volcano) where we went on a boat trip.

There seemed to be a lot of relatively similar knit dress patterns released by the indies this summer, and although I probably could have hacked this myself, I decided to go the convenience route.  I also love this neckline - it's perfect for me, and the downloadable collar options sealed the deal!  Annoyingly I don't have a pic of the cute crossover collar at the back so you'll need to imagine.

It's a simple knit bodice with no darts and a gathered skirt.  I lengthened both the bodice and skirt by 2" based on measuring the pattern pieces - this is a standard adjustment for me,  The only fitting issue I had was some gaping under the arms.  To get rid of it, I pinched it out at the side seam - it's not perfect but it worked OK.

I'm not sure about the gathering method used on the skirt - it calls for clear elastic to be stretched and sewn to the skirt which gathered it up when the stretch is released.  It really wasn't that easy to do.  I'll probably give it another go on another version I have planned, but I suspect that other gathering methods may be just as easy.

This pattern is a total fabric hog for such a simple knit dress!  I had bought 2.5 metres of this cotton jersey from Goldhawk Road without checking the fabric requirements, but as it's a self lined bodice, the pattern calls for close to 3 yards.  With my length adjustments, I wouldn't have had enough to line, so I overlocked the armhole edges and turned inside.  I finished with a double needle.

An arty shot from my husband - he loved that the writing on the wall matched the dress!

I love this dress - the fabric is quite weighty and the skirt swishes really nicely,.  It's quick and easy to make, and I have a winter version in the works now that the weather is getting colder.  I had plans for a striped version too but didn't manage to find the right fabric.  Maybe for next summer!

Minerva Blogger Network - the Staple Skirt

I've been thinking a lot about what items I need to make for winter to fill some wardrobe gaps and I realised I really needed a dark denim skirt.

 I ordered this dark denim from Minerva with the intention of making (another) Kelly skirt, but I spotted the Blue Ginger Doll Peggy skirt pattern in my stash (which I won from the lovely Roobeedoo in a giveaway). The denim is quite weighty so it definitely good for something that needs a bit of structure.

 I decided to make view A with a straight waistband and tabs, as I had ordered some silver jeans buttons as part of my kit.

I must admit this was not the most straightforward project I have ever made. The pattern was pretty hard to trace as the lines for each size were the same (although this has apparently been changed due to feedback so if you like the pattern, don’t let that stop you ordering it!). The fitting was very easy – it’s an a-line skirt, so using my waist measurement worked perfectly. I shaved a tiny amount out of the hips once it was completed but that was all. It’s really long – 27” from waist to hem, so I didn't even need to lengthen it!

 The rest of the problems I had were machine related. I struggled to get my topstitching looking neat. I used topstitching thread in a pale grey (also included in the kit) with a topstitching needle, and played with the tension a lot on the advice of the ever helpful twitter and instagrammers. The inside doesn’t look pretty but I decided to call it good and move on – from the outside it looks fine.

'Scuse creases - I had just got out of the car after a morning of rushing around!

 For the lapped zip, I used a silver metal zip from John Lewis as I didn't have one in my stash and wanted to match with the buttons and topstitching.

 My machine did not want to play ball when it came to making buttonholes. It took many many tries to produce the 5 I needed for the tabs and waistband. But I got there in the end. In contrast, the jeans buttons were really easy to attach – I used the tool provided in the pack, made a hole in the fabric with an awl (a slim skewer would work just as well) and bashed it a few times with a hammer.

It wasn't the easiest project but I am happy with the end result – I know I’ll wear it a lot all year round, with flats in the summer and tights and boots in winter.

 If you want to make your own Peggy (or the kit would work for a Kelly too) you can buy a kit which includes 2m of dark denim, a pack of 8 silver jeans buttons and a spool of pale grey topstitching thread from Minerva here:

 http://www.minervacrafts.com/es018denim-60-wide-100-cotton-7.5oz-denim-dress-fabric-black-or-indigo-blue.html
 http://www.minervacrafts.com/622251-prym-non-sew-jeans-buttons-silver-matt-laurel-wreath-17mm-8-pieces.html
 http://www.minervacrafts.com/2t308-gutermann-(sewing-thread)-top-stitch-30m-8.html

Minerva Blogger Network - The Polkadot Frock

I love polkadots but realised recently I have hardly any polkadot items that are in regular rotation!  When I saw this lovely navy polkadot stretch cotton on the Minerva site, I decided to rectify the situation.

The fabric is a really lovely weight – not too stiff but not especially drapey.  It’s not as smooth as sateen but has a lovely feel to it.  Of course, the stretch makes it really easy to get a good fit and it’s lovely to sew with.

I’ve been meaning to make another Anna dress for ages – no idea why I haven’t got around to it before now!  Probably just distracted by newer, shinier patterns!  The boat neck is my favourite neckline and I love the fit of the bodice and the kimono sleeves.  It’s also super quick to sew with no sleeves to set in..  I wanted to change up the skirt, and while on holiday, I realised that the full skirt from my Mad Men vintage dress pattern is pretty much my perfect skirt style so I used that.

I had already fitted the Anna bodice, lengthening by 2”, doing a ½” FBA and adding a couple of inches to the waist.  I measured the waist, subtracted the seam allowances and adjusted the skirt pattern to ensure that it was the same size so that the side seams would match up.  In a fit of paranoia, I added an extra 2” at the waist which I later ended up removing.

I had added the pockets from the Emery pattern as I really like the way they are joined into the waist seam and so don’t flap around like some side seam pockets can do.  Unfortunately when I had to take out the extra at the waist, I had to remove the pockets to make the skirt sit correctly over the hips.  But I’ll definitely use them against next time.

I must remember next time that the skirt on this pattern Is really long – I took 5” in length off, leaving  2.5” hem and I’m 5’9”.

All the seams are finished with overlocking.

I had planned to do a blind hem by machine.  I spent some time working out how to do it and then decided to sew in by hand using a catch stitch.  The end result is lovely but this is a seriously long hem to sew by hand!

I’m really happy with this dress – I can wear it now with bare legs and later in the year with tights and boots so it’s going to be really useful.

If you want to make a dress like this, the kit from Minerva includes 3m of polkadot stretch cotton and an invisible zip (links to the individual items rather than the kit link while the new website is under construction):

http://www.minervacrafts.com/50.c-4138-b-navy-bluewhite-polka-dot-print-stretch-cotton-designer-dress-fabric-per-metre.html

http://www.minervacrafts.com/3cc56-560-22-56cm-concealed-invisible-closed-end-zips-navy-blue-per-single-zip.html

Minerva Blogger Network - Vintage shirt dress

Hot on the heels of finally posting my reveal of my party dress, it's time for my July make.

Cat photobomb!

I've had this vintage pattern in my stash for about 6 months and just fell in love with the notched yoke and cute collar so it wasn't going to languish unused for long!

I ordered some linen look cotton that Kathryn used for this dress, and it's really lovely.  It's lightweight but with a lovely textured linen finish (and it doesn't crease as much as linen does either!).  I wore this on a pretty hot day and it was lovely and cool.  For the £4.99 a metre price tag it's great and comes in a huge range of colours.  I went for red, and it's just the colour of red I like - not too orangey.

As I was running out of time on this make, I tissue fitted the tracing and found that my usual adjustments were fine, so I did a small FBA and lengthened the bodice by 2".

Although there are a huge number of pattern pieces for the bodice - the front and back both have bodices, yokes, bodice facings and neck facings, this came together really quickly and easily.  The construction method to get the lovely notches involved attaching a bodice facing piece to the bodice piece which is turned and pressed and then topstitched to the yoke piece.  I couldn't quite understand it reading the instructions until I actually tried and it was pretty easy and gave a great finish.

I decided not to use the pleated skirt pieces that came with the pattern as the bottom hem would have measured 83" which seemed crazy!  The skirt pattern had 3 pieces - 2 side pieces and a back piece.  I went for a simpler gathered rectangle using the Emery pattern pieces as a guide to size and length, and positioned the seams at centre front and centre back to allow for the front opening.  I used the same method of finishing the skirt edges as the patterns uses - the top edges under the notches (which I transferred from the vintage pattern pieces) are finished using bias tape and turned under, and then the gap is left open.  I stitched on a couple of hooks and eyes in the hope of holding this closed but as this hasn't been all that successful, I think I will add another couple of buttons on to avoid knicker flashing (and contrast bias tape flashing - this cherry print bias is adorable but I probably would go for matching stuff with hindsight!).

The pattern calls for covered buttons, which I ordered as part of my kit from Minerva.  However I had a total fail with these!  The teeth didn't seem to want to grab the little circle of fabric and when I finally got it all tucked in, the back wouldn't stay on - anyone got any tips on how to use these?  I went with some buttons from the stash instead.  The front of these buttons felt a bit fancy for the style, so I flipped them over and used the other side.

The only other change I made was to move the button placement a bit as it was more flattering to have them starting lower down.

I'm really happy with this dress - it's lovely and cool and easy to wear, and it feels like a vintage dress on.  Perfect for the warm weather we've been having (long may it continue!).  And this is item number 2 for my Vintage Pledge!

Minerva are working on their website currently so rather than one link to my kit, here are the links to the individual components of it if you want to make a similar dress for yourself!

http://www.minervacrafts.com/c5183-58-wide-linen-look-cotton-dress-fabric-full-range-of-colours.html

http://www.minervacrafts.com/2vh200wht-vilene-iron-on-interlining-softline-light-90cm-wide-white-per-metre.html

http://www.minervacrafts.com/2t100-365-gutermann-(sewing-thread)-sew-all-thread-100m-365.html

http://www.minervacrafts.com/h473.11-hemline-metal-selfcover-buttons-11mm-(6pk).html

http://www.minervacrafts.com/bbf25cherry-25mm-wide-cherry-patterned-cotton-bias-binding-full-range-of-colours.html

Reveal - the Disco Apocalypse dress

Somewhat belatedly, here's my Minerva Crafts make for June (I thought I had already posted this, so it's even later than expected!)

As you might remember we had to make a party dress to celebrate Minerva's win at the British Sewing Awards and to wear to the meet up at the Crafts Centre. Due to unforeseen circumstances I couldn't make the meet up and  a bit late in photographing and blogging my final dress!

As per my preview post, I used pewter sequinned lace to fulfil my hankering after a lace dress, and lined it with navy lining to make the lace pattern really stand out.  This worked well and I much preferred it to matching or nude lining.

I had initially planned to make a straight By Hand London Flora with the wrap bodice but when the lace arrived I realised it had a scalloped edge which I wanted to show off. So I looked for a pattern with a full skirt that was cut straight across the hem and settled on Gather Mortmain. I love how the pleats look on the skirt!

I underlined the bodice with the navy lining and basted them together.  I also marked the darts with basting stitches so that the two layers didn't separate and make the darts wonky. I also spent a lot of time unpicking sequins from the seam lines.  I'm not sure whether this was totally necessary or whether I could have sewn over them. But this gave rise to the name of the dress - by the time I had cut the lace and unpicked sequins my house was covered in glitter and it really did look like the Disco Apocalypse had arrived! We are still finding sequins now!

I also lined the bodice as per the pattern instructions. Due to the contrast, understitching was really needed with this dress to stop the lining peeking out.

I decided not to line and underline the skirt as I had intended, and just went for underlining.  I cut my pattern pieces in lining and hemmed them by machine. I then lined them up with the point on the fabric where I wanted the hem to fall so that I could have the scallops extending out at the bottom. I used french seams to finish the side seams.

I sewed it with my walking foot throughout and I was really happy with the results as it definitely stopped the layers from shifting! The only issue was on the side seams of the skirt where it doesn't sit perfectly - you can see this in the side view above. I suspect this is to do with attaching the lining to the skirt as underlining and the heavy lace wanting to pull down more than the lighter lining. Anyone able to shed more light on this?

The bodice is a bit wrinkly but again I think this it mainly due to the lace pulling down slightly more than the lining. I could probably have fixed it by taking out a lot of the ease but I wanted a slightly looser fit for eating and dancing!

The zip does actually do up all the way. Damn.

The name is based on the state of my living room floor after cutting this fabric - it looked like a glitter ball had exploded!  We are still finding sequins now (yes, I do clean - sometimes!).

Sorry I missed the party Vicki and all at Minerva - I hear it was a good one!

Spring Sewing Swap

I was so excited to participate in the Spring Sewing Swap this year organised by the lovely Kerry from Kestrel Makes.  It's one of the things I really loved when I first got into the world of sewing blogs.

I was paired up with Emma Jayne from Clipped Curves.  if you don't already follow her blog, you should as she makes excellently fitted garments (check her sailor trousers!) with a nautical flair.  Basically I want to be her when I grow up!

She also lives quite close to me so we are hoping for a meet up for coffee and sewing chat some time soon!

Here's the lovely bundle she sent me:

Navy twill
a lightweight bird print cotton
navy twill tape
cute stripy buttons

plus this excellent vintage A-line skirt/ culottes pattern (with pockets!  I love pockets!)

Hop over to Emma Jayne's blog to see what was in the parcel I sent her (being much more organised than me, she has already blogged about it here!).

Thanks for organising Kerry - roll on next year!

Capital Chic patterns launches!

Today is an exciting day for one of our lovely Spoolettes! Sally who you will know as the genius refashioner Charity Shop Chic is launching her pattern line Capital Chic!

Sally is known for her modern and catwalk inspired makes which have a different aesthetic to a lot of other more vintage inspired pattern companies, and this really comes through in her first collection.

As the name suggests, it's a really chic and sleek collection of work and evening wear. If you saw the photos from the Minerva Crafts evening party, you'll recognise the Martini dress that Sally was wearing, and I know you're going to see some of her patterns popping up on your favourite blogs soon.

My favourite pattern is the Bellini blouse which has options for a cutaway and a scalloped collar and has french seams and bound armholes. I've had a sneak peak at the pattern and the instructions are really clear and show you how to construct the french seams if you haven't done them before. You'll see it on the blog soon!

Wishing Sally all the luck in the world with this one and hope you all love the patterns! You can read about the line here, see the full range of patterns here and purchase either print at home or print at copy shop pdfs from her site here. Which is your favourite?

Minerva Blogger Network project - Sneak Preview!

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll have heard about the Minerva meet up on Saturday.  If not, details can be found here - it's going to be a great day!

To celebrate, all of us bloggers on the network are making a party dress, which we will be revealing on the night (so watch out for pics on Twitter and Instagram) as well as on the Minerva site.

Here's a sneak preview of mine.

It's a Flora/ Mortmain mash-up - Flormain? Mortra? (sounds like a Thundercats villain!)

After hankering for a lace dress for ages, I chose a beautiful pewter sequinned lace with a navy underlining.  You can see in this pic how they actually look together - I love how the pattern of the lace really stands out with the dark lining!

Looking forward to showing you my final dress!

Me Made Everyday!

After a conversation on Twitter (isn't that always how these things start?), a few of us were missing the community aspect of Me Made May and decided to start Me Made Everyday!

I always find that having a record of what you wore most and what looked good together really helps spot wardrobe gaps, see what you actually wear most and plan future sewing, and from reading other blogs lots of others do too.

There's no pledging, no pressure and no need for fancy pics - a cameraphone and mirror will do! No need to wear something everyday or photograph everything (unless you want to of course!).  Just show off your lovely handmade garments how you actually wore them. You decide whether to include bags, jewellery and accessories.

Opinions were divided on the best way to do this so I have set up a group on Flickr that you can find here or you can use the hashtag #memadeeveryday on Twitter or Instagram (oh, and I have finally started using my Instagram account - follow me - I'm JoLittleTime, or let me have your name below and I'll find you!).  You'll need to request to join the Flickr group as with Me Made May (to keep the worst of the Flickr pervs out!) but I'll approve people as soon as possible.

What do you think?  Are you in?  The lovely Katie from What Katie Sews is going to make a much prettier logo that the one above which you can grab for your blog if you so desire!

Spread the word about it as it would be great to have a regular me made community going!

Me Made May wrap up

So it's all over!

Here are my final few days of outfits.  Picmonkey isn't playing ball today so no pretty collage I'm afraid!

29th May - the Bowling dress

30th May - Burda cowl neck tee

31st May - Rose print Maria Denmark kimono tee (unblogged).

So I did it!  I didn't wear a few of my most summery dresses that I love since the weather didn't really play ball - it was definitely tights weather for most of the month.  I was hoping to wear them the last few days but we went camping for the weekend and pretty dresses + campsite really don't go!

I'm pretty happy with how I did.  I didn't feel like I wore things I wasn't keen on just because they were me made.  Yes, there were days I would have put on something different (or a vintage dress rather than a me made one) but generally it went well.  I think having a definite colour palette worked as I have lots of things that match and work well together.  Like everyone else, I need some me made trousers and jeans, so I'll be joining in with Lizzy on Jeans in June (thankfully she's extended it into July!).  I'd also like a couple more me made tees, including another couple of Renfrews.

I also pledged to get through my mending/ alterations pile.  I mended split seams on 2 dresses, replaced a zip on hubby's jacket, fixed the zip on my Flora which was coming away and shortened the sleeves on my Blackberry dress:

I loved the sleeves but i wasn't happy with the way they were finished and it made the dress harder to wear with a cardigan - as you can probably tell from my month of pics I am a die-hard cardie wearer!

I also pledged to make some knickers and managed to make up a muslin of the Measure Twice Cut Once Jane knickers.

Eek, weird colours, but they are actually pale blue not green.  I adjusted the pattern following these but didn't get a chance to make up any more.  It's on my list for this weekend!

If you are missing Me Made May, come back tomorrow for news on something we have been plotting on Twitter!