Those of you who've been following my blog for a while will probably know that I love Kim Hargreaves knitting patterns.
I've got several of her books, and yesterday received her new one ~ Spirit ~ in the post.
It's totally gorgeous, by far the nicest out of those I own. I want to make about half the items at least!
I think I'd like to start with Edgy.
I have some lilac Katia Pima cotton in my stash that would work, but I'm hankering for a mustard yellow instead.
I'd also like to make Beat, Cheeky and Clear, to name but three more!
Oh, and I'm also desperate now for a pair of bright yellow trousers, after seeing the gorgeous cover photo!
I did pretty well last week on my first few days of Me Made May 2013 and I think I've done even better this week - in fact I know I have!
Although there are only 5 outfits pictured below, I've managed to wear at least one Me Made item every day this last week.
7th May - Burdastyle Danielle dress, which was one of the very first things I blogged about last June. I got a compliment from the lady on the checkout in Sainsbury's who told me I looked gorgeous!
8th May - My spotty Sorbetto with sleeves, again a very early Me Made item, I think it's actually pre-blog. Excuse the trousers - they always look wrinkly when I'm standing still!
9th May - the weather started cooling a bit and I was working from home so I wore my recently completed Ramona sweater with jeans. I really love this sweater, the yarn is so soft and silky and it's incredibly light, but quite warm.
10th May - 2 Me Made items - my gorgeous New Look 6000 70's floral top and my Simplicity 2562 Amazing Fit trousers. I normally wear a tighter fitting top with these trousers, but I do quite like this outfit. Sadly I was either at home alone, or had my coat on when I was out, so hardly anyone saw it!
11th May - Again 2 Me Made items, both yet to be blogged. A lace kimono tee drafted using Miss P's tutorial, and a very recently completed cardigan. The pattern is Blue Sky Alpaca's Afternoon Cardi, and it's lovely (even if I do say so myself!).
12th May (not pictured). I wore the Afternoon Cardi again, this time with my Sailor Stripes top underneath. Had my coat on most of the day, so no one saw them!
13th May (not pictured). Working from home today, and it's cold! I'm wearing a not yet blogged long sleeved t-shirt with my yoga trousers and slippers. I'm quite glad no one's seen this outfit, but at least part of it is Me Made!
And very excitingly - and Me Made May related - I have won a pattern in So Zo's MMM'13 giveaway in conjunction with Sewbox. I chose the Hot Patterns Riviera Boulevard Cardigan-Jacket and to my surprise it arrived this morning!
I just wish I had time to make one before I go on holiday this weekend.
Thank you so much to Zoe for organising the giveaway and Sewbox for my lovely prize. I'll be searching for suitable fabric while I'm away.
Recently I was lucky enough to receive some lovely red, white and navy striped cotton jersey fabric from Rosy of Sewingadicta, as part of House of Pinheiro's Nautical Swap.
I love jersey tops, so it was the perfect gift. However I didn't start cutting straight away, as I knew I wanted to do something special with it, not just make a plain t-shirt.
Then a couple of weeks ago I was browsing through a magazine and saw this dress.
I immediately knew I wanted to do something similar with my striped jersey!
I decided on a top rather than a dress as I was a bit worried about having red, white and navy stripes all over the lower half of my body.
First I made myself a pattern. I used a well fitting jersey top I already own as the basis, and set about working out the shapes I'd need to cut.
I ended up with a bit of a jigsaw, as you can see!
The next step was obviously trying to match those stripes as I cut each individual piece out. I think I did pretty well!
I made the back plain:
I don't have an overlocker so I was a bit worried about the seams going horribly wobbly as I sewed them. After a bit of thought I decided to stabilise one side of each seam with a very thin strip of fusible interfacing. You might just be able to see it in this photo.
The interfacing I used had a bit of give in one direction, so I made sure I took advantage of that. I then spent quite a bit of time making sure I'd got all the necessary stripes lined up and tacked each seam before I sewed it.
It was definitely worth spending the time on these steps as it made the actual sewing much easier.
Because the stripes on the front went here, there and everywhere I didn't even try and match them with the back, but I did manage to get some of the body/sleeve stripes matching. They're good enough for me anyway!
Here's a photo of me modelling it - the same one you saw earlier this week in my MMM post!
I'm keeping my jigsaw of pattern pieces, as I could see these diagonal waist stripes looking good on a plain dress, black and white on a black dress possibly?
I'll just add that to my ever growing list of ideas!
So, my first Me Made May!
I pledged to wear Me Made items at least three times a week. Let's see how I'm doing so far.
1st May - as yet unblogged self drafted striped jersey top. Blog post on this coming soon, I promise! Worn with jeans (not me made) as I was working from home.
2nd May - I wore my Coral Pebble cardigan, with a navy and cream striped maxi skirt and navy t-shirt (neither me made). The photo I've used is an old one, as I forgot to photograph this. Not good to forget on day 2, is it!?
3rd May - my recently completed Lovely Linen Laurel was worn, along with some gorgeous red wedges that I bought months ago. This was their first outing!
4th May - during the day I wore my linen Laurel again, then in the evening I changed into my Lattice Topped Dress to go and watch a band at our local pub. I added a pink belt to this outfit just before we went out - a big improvement!
5th - 6th May - no Me Made items worn! However I've easily achieved my target of Me Made items at least 3 times a week.
I've already identified that I need to make more casual clothes though, particularly tops to go with jeans, and maybe a couple of casual jersey dresses.
After telling you about that very expensive fabric in my last post I thought you might like to see it, and what I'm going to do with it.
On the left is the embroidered silk dupion at cost £85.00 a metre. It has large flowers embroidered in a darker shade of lilac, surrounded by silver corded embroidery (which is actually quite hard to see in this photo, but shows up much better in real life).
On the right is polyester satin backed crepe which I will be using to make a simple shift dress - the silk dupion is for a knee length jacket/coat. I'll be using the matte side of the crepe as the right side.
Here's the pattern.
Both the dress and coat will be shortened to just below the knee. This is actually the pattern that Jenny had her own wedding dress made from, so it's nice she's going to be wearing an outfit from the same pattern for her son's wedding.
I'll be making a start this evening, firstly with the linings for both dress and coat which will be used as muslins.
You might remember that I'd planned on making my own outfit for this wedding as well. When I last spoke about it I was having fitting problems with the jacket. Although I haven't mentioned it since, I spent quite a bit of time taking in some seams and letting out others, and I did achieve a much better fit. The trouble now is I really, really don't like it!
I know it's only at muslin stage, but the waterfall frill made my chest look enormous! No modelled photo's I'm afraid, only one with Rosie wearing it. And believe me, it looks better on her than it did on me.
The fabric I had planned on using is quite heavy, so I can just imagine what those ruffles would look like!
I'm so disappointed, and also feel rather silly after whittering on so much about how it was the perfect jacket. Turns out that it isn't - well not for me anyway!
On further reflection, I also felt that the blue crepe I'd bought to go with the jacket fabric looked a bit "mumsy" for me. Ugh!
Plan B revolved around some fabric I bought in London when Jenny bought her fabrics. Don't worry, mine was a remnant and was only £15.00.
But I can't decide what to do with it! I've got 2.5 metres, enough for a dress, or possibly a shift dress and cropped jacket. But it's not doing it for me right now.
So, I'm now on plan C! Plan C features a dress I've had for 4 years and only worn twice. Not one I made, this is a Nicole Farhi dress I bought second hand to wear for my 40th birthday party. It's gorgeous.
It came without a slip - when I've worn it before I wore a long black slip, but I'd prefer a nude one this time. The lace you can see at the neckline is actually the camisole underneath, so you can see, it's rather low cut! I will be adding a lace panel to the front to cover my cleavage you'll be pleased to know.
I'll need something to go over it though. Although the wedding is at the end of June, this is the UK, so it's likely to be freezing cold! (And I'm not joking!)
I was thinking of view 3 on this pattern, without the bow or collar. What do you think?
And what colour? I'm thinking a beige/coffee colour, but I'm open to suggestions. What I'd really like is some metallic linen like Tasia used here on her Cordova jacket. Looks like I need to go on another fabric buying trip!
After spending ages convincing myself I wasn't going to buy Colette's new Laurel dress pattern I totally caved and bought it! Must have been the lure of the fabulous prizes in their contest (not that I expect to win for one minute!)
I had some navy viscose/linen in my stash that I bought quite recently to make another dress with and when it arrived (I bought it online) it didn't feel right for the other dress. However it was perfect for Laurel.
This is what I did with it.
I couldn't be bothered to make a muslin, so I used my NL6000 pattern (which fits perfectly) to make a few minor adjustments, but after that I went my own way completely.
I drafted some little pockets, which I think you can just about see have a little pleat at the top. The bias tape edging the neck and pockets is self made (my first time at making bias tape - managed to burn my fingers several times!) and I used the scallops from the bottom of Colette's Meringue skirt pattern.
Inside, the side seams, shoulder seams and sleeve seams are French seams (my favourite seam finish), the armhole/sleeve seams are bound with bias tape (my second favourite seam finish) and the edge of the hem facing is covered with bias tape and hand finished. I thought I'd got photos of them but it appears I've deleted them by mistake. Ooops!
Anyway, I love it. I think it will (weather permitting) make a great addition to my Me Made May wardrobe, and I've entered it into the "Details" section of Colette's Laurel contest.
I'm currently halfway through making a stripy top from the jersey Rosy sent me as part of my Nautical gift exchange, then it's on to unselfish sewing!
Last night I took delivery of £400 worth of embroidered silk dupion and satin back crepe to make a "Mother of the Groom" outfit for a friend of ours. I'm absolutely terrified about cutting the silk up, it cost £85 a metre! First job is to grade up the pattern slightly and make a muslin!
No not this one!
(Although I have to say I loved a bit of David Essex when I was young!)
This one:
How gorgeous is that!?
My friend Sarah designs and makes silver jewellery. Inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee she's been making sewing machine and scissor pendants.
Mine is customised with the etching detail and the pearl on the chain and I got it in the post this morning. Isn't it lovely?
If you're interested, you can find Sarah's designs here on Folksy: Sarah Brooks Jewellery.
