Me Made May 2018 Week Two

The second week of May brought with it typical unpredictable weather with sunshine and showers.

An uncharacteristically co-ordinated collection of garments this week. You could almost say I am curating a capsule hand-made wardrobe where I am able to select my own patterns, fabric and fit!

Day Two

Top: Colette Laurel Top. Fabric: cotton, Samuel Taylors. Made: 2015

Trousers: Gap

Necklace: Tatty Devine stars

Socks: Marimekko

Watch: White G Shock

Shoes: Paul Smith black patent loafers

A simple variation of the Laurel top with slightly extended sleeves. Maybe the darts are a little high but it doesn't stop me from wearing it in the spring and summer months.

Day Nine

Top: Grainline Scout Tee. Fabric: cotton, Samuel Taylors. Made: 2013 

Trousers: Gap 

Scarf: Marimekko

Socks: Gap 

Watch: Black G Shock

Shoes: Paul Smith black patent loafers

This was my first ever Grainline Scout tee in a classic black dotty cotton. It is an easy wear for warm days.

Day Ten

Dress: So Over It Alex Shirt Dress. Fabric: Stoff and Stil. Made: 2017 

Watch: Black G Shock

Trainers: Nike

I am super happy with this shirt dress. I added a fabric belt last week (which I should have made ages ago) which makes such a difference to wearing it. This simple belt addition seems to somehow make it more polished! In the background, you can see a beautiful version of the River Quilt by Jenny Haynes at the Village Haberdashery in West Hampstead. I attended one of their Thursday night Sewing Social events were I pretty much finished off the top of my Marimekko River Quilt and met a whole bunch of lovely ladies too. (A big hello to Clea and Kara!).

Day Eleven

Dress: So Over It Zoe Dress. Fabric: Cotton Sateen, Samuel Taylors Made: 2018

Jacket: Levis

Trainers: Nike

My more recent Sew Over It dress. I have worn the Zoe dress quite a few times and the hidden pockets are soooo fab! I am certain to make more of these.

Day Twelve

Sweatshirt: Grainline Linden. Fabric: Cotton knit, Girl Charlee UK. Made: 2016

Top: Top Shop vest

Trousers: Lululemon

Watch: Black G Shock

Trainers: Nike

Super comfy and a little crumpled as I threw it in my bag to wear if the weather cooled down. This was my first ever Linden and I have worn it lots. The grey striped ribbing is from Ray Stitch and is really good quality.

Have you been taking part in Me-Made-May this year?

Re-discovered any hand-made garments or enjoying recent makes more?

Me-Made-May 2017 Week Two

Week two of Me-Made-May flew by. I started at the weekend wearing a very short shift dress Simplicity 9620 that I don't wear for work anymore since it shrunk in the wash. In my MMM2016 review I identified this dress as something I should modify by lengthening it with a section of fabric but I haven't got around to it yet. I think I should definitely do it so I can wear it more often!

The first half of the week was cold and I still needed layers of clothing (including my well-worn black Gap cardigan) but luckily it warmed up towards Thursday and Friday and you could feel spring was in the air!

Day Seven

Dress: Simplicity 9620 black and white plaid shift dress. Made 2014

Top: Gap

Tights: M&S

Necklace: Tatty Devine me-made at Brick lane workshop. Made 2017

Watch: Red G Shock

Bag: Pink Top Shop

Trainers: Liberty print Vans

Day Eight

Top: Grainline Scout Tee 100% cotton from Sophie, Hong Kong (underlined with cotton batiste). Made 2016

Trousers: Gap

Cardigan: Gap

Watch: Black G Shock

Trainers: Blue Nike Air Pegasus

Day Nine

Top: Merchant & Mills Camber Set top. Cotton seersucker. Made 2017
Skirt: Simplicity 2154 in poly-cotton twill from Samuel Taylors, Leeds. Made 2013.

Cardigan: Gap

Necklace: Tatty Devine A/W 2016

Watch: Red G Shock 

Shoes: Paul Smith black patent loafers

Day Ten

Top: Grainline Scout Tee 100% cotton from Sophie, Hong Kong (underlined with cotton batiste). Made 2016

Trousers: Gap

Cardigan: Gap

Necklace: Tatty Devine Bubbles S/S 2017

Watch: White G Shock

Shoes: Blue suede Paul Smith Miller Brogues

Day Eleven

Top: Colette Laurel Top. Made 2015
Trousers: Paul Smith
Necklace: Tatty Devine Haberdashery Floral A/W 2016
Watch: Olive G Shock
Shoes: Purple Paul Smith Dante Brogues

The length of my spotty Laurel top works really well with most of my skirts because they tend to sit at my natural waistline but with my Paul Smith trousers which fit at the hipline it meant if I tucked it in to look a little neater it soon wiggled out and bunched around. Maybe I should lengthen the body of the Laurel slightly on my next version?

Day Twelve

Top: Gap

Skirt: Sew Over It Tulip Skirt. Made 2014

Necklace: Tatty Devine Brushstrokes

Watch: White G Shock

Shoes: Red Paul Smith Miller Brogues

Another fun week of Me-Made-May. I am hoping the warmer weather is here for a little longer so I can wear more skirts and maybe some of the dresses I have made this year.

Has the weather affected your Me-Made wardrobe this week?

Me Made May 2016 Week Four

The fourth week of Me-Made-May has been great. I started the week on a mono-chrome kick and ended on one of my favourite colours of bright emerald green.

A high point was wearing the new Camber top I made last week and after wearing my Bettine dress in black and white gingham on Saturday morning I came to the conclusion that it definitely needs a re-fashion as it's way too short. My idea would be to add an extra 10cm band along the base of the skirt using the bias of the fabric to create a feature!? I might get around to it over the half term. On to the outfits:

Day Twenty One

Top: Tilly and the Buttons Bettine Dress in gingham from Goldhawk Road, London. Made 2015

Leggings: Top Shop

Necklace: Tatty Devine (sample sale 2016) Red Gem Cut Statement necklace A/W 2013

Watch: Red G Shock 

Trainers: New Balance 

I met my friend Alex at John Lewis on Saturday morning for  catch up and also to see lovely sewing bloggers like Tilly (Tilly and the Buttons), Jane (Handmade Jane), Maria (A Stitching Odyssey) who were spending their day making Tilly's Bettine Dress in the haberdashery department. It happened to be a bit of a coincidence that I was wearing the exact dress the girls were making!

I took a quick photo although you can't really make out any of them as they are deeply involved in pattern cutting and sewing. Left to right: Tilly, Maria and Jane!

Day Twenty Three

Top: Merchant and Mills Camber Set T-Shirt in ikat viscose from Samuel Taylors, Leeds. Made 2016

Trousers: Gap

Watch: Olive G Shock 

Trainers: New Balance

Day Twenty Four

Top: Colette Laurel Top in 100% cotton from Samuel Taylors, Leeds. Made 2015

Trousers: Gap

Necklace: Tatty Devine (sample sale 2016) Red Gem Cut Statement necklace A/W 2013

Cardigan: Gap

Watch: Red G Shock 

Shoes: Paul Smith red Miller brogues

Day Twenty Five

Top: 1960's hand-made vintage dress bought from a stall in Camden Passage, Islington. Mended 2015

Leggings: Top Shop

Necklace: Tatty Devine (Sample Sale 2016) Jewel Print Triple necklace A/W 2013

Cardigan: Gap

Watch: Olive G Shock 

Shoes: Paul Smith blue suede Miller brogues

Day Twenty Six

Top: Gap

Cardigan: Gap

Skirt: Self-drafted in Ikea furnishing fabric Made 2009

Necklace: Wooden necklace by Materia CA bought from London Print Studios

Watch: Red G Shock 

Shoes: Paul Smith black patent Marcello loafers

Day Twenty Seven

Top: Gap

Jacket: Levis

Skirt: Sew Over It Tulip skirt made in Medium weight cotton from Ray Stitch. Made 2014.

Necklace: Tatty Devine 'Untitled' necklace designed by me

Watch: Clear G Shock 

Shoes: Paul Smith black patent Marcello loafers

Have you enjoyed Me-Made-May so far this year?

Have you noticed any me-made 'holes' in your wardrobe?

Me-Made-May 2015 final week

My second year of participating in Me-Made-May hosted by the lovely Zoe was so much easier because I had a wider range of me-made clothing to choose from.
I pledged to wear me-made clothing and accessories from Monday to Friday again as I am still finishing the renovation of my house and knew I would be wearing the same painted DIY clothes most weekends. Having said that I did manage to squeeze in a few me-made outfits on the odd weekend when popping out of the house.

Before I conclude my 'findings', this is what I wore for the final week of May.

Day 23

Top: American Apparel

Skirt: Marilla Walker Ilsley skirt - me-made 2015

Scarf: Marimekko

Jacket: Levis

Shoes: Vans

Day 24

Top: American Apparel

Skirt: Warhol Dolores Pocket skirt - me-made 2015

Shoes: Birkenstock

Day 26

Top: Gap

Dress: Simplicity 9620 - me-made 2014

Leggings: Abercrombie and Fitch

Shoes: Vans

Day 27

Dress: Blue vintage dress - me-mended 2014

Shoes: Vans

Day 28

Top: Uniqlo t-shirt (Jonathan Adler collaboration)

Skirt: Colette Ginger skirt - me-made 2013

Leggings: Warehouse

Necklace: Marimekko

Shoes: Paul Smith purple Dante brogues

Day 29

Dress: Dixie DIY Bonnell - me-made 2015

Day 30

Top: 1970's vintage

Skirt: Marilla Walker Ilsley skirt - me-made 2015

Shoes: Birkenstock

My colourful final Me-Made-May 2015 collage.

Observations

I don't think it needs spelling out but I will anyway; I love separates!

As you can see from the above collage I have a wide range of black and white OR solid colour separates interspersed with a generous sprinkling of colourful abstract prints.

Seven new makes

I managed to make lots of new items in April and May that broadened my selection of me-made choices this year; Liberty Simplicity 1634 top, self-drafted tree skirt, Colette Laurel top, Colette Spotty Sorbetto top, Liesl & Co Everyday skirt, Warhol Dolores Pocket skirt and Dixie DIY Bonnell dress.

Conclusions and challenges

I enjoyed it much more this year as I have been honing my me-made wardrobe since MMM 2014, but there is still work to be done. I mentioned in my concluding comments last year that I needed to make some trousers - looks like this will be something I need to address before next MMM! I would also like to bust more of my fabric stash, actually make some of the dresses from my embarrassingly extensive collection of patterns , make a button up shirt and maybe some shorts. 

Favourite thing

My favourite aspect of taking part in MMM is the sense of camaraderie and friendship from other sewing bloggers. I loved the daily scroll through the Flcker group and instagram photos as well as discovering some awesome new blogs to read.

I have now added the following amazing sewers to my ever-expanding blog roll:

• Kathrina from Frobelina
• This is Moonlight
• Jo Sews
• Just Sew Jenna
• Sew Amy Sew

I am already looking forward to Me-Made-May 2016 and I hope that I will have met some of my sewing ambitions during the rest of the year.

A Mathilde Sleeve Surgery and a Colette Laurel top

Back in 2013 I really got back into sewing my own clothes with much more focus after attending Tilly's Mathilde in a weekend workshop at Ray Stitch in Islington.

It was a great workshop and it was fab being taught by Tilly herself!
I made a few mistakes on this make which in hindsight were due to inexperience in sewing clothes to fit my exact measurements. The bust darts are too high, the length of the bodice is a tad too short and the sleeve cuffs are too small.

I adore the silhouette of the Mathilde blouse but whenever I wear it I feel uncomfortable.
A combination of the fabric not having enough drape and the sleeve bands being too tight conspired to poor Mathilde languishing in the wardrobe all the time. Hence the need for some intensive sleeve surgery!

Here is the Mathilde in it's original state earlier today:

The next job was to unpick those French seams!
I had two potential sleeve donor patterns in mind for the re-sleeve.
My favourite Grainline Scout Woven tee or the new-to-me Colette Laurel sleeve.

As you can see from the photos above; on the left the Grainline sleeve has too shallow a head to be a good fit for the Mathilde, whereas the Colette Laurel sleeve has a high head making it a pretty good match. This is the one I used in the end.

Here is the finished Mathilde with new shorter sleeves!

Onto the Colette Laurel top. This little cutie has been cut out and ready to be sewn together since July 2013 when I bought this haul of fabric (which is almost all gone) from Samuel Taylors in Leeds

I am pretty happy with the fit of the Laurel and think I will be making more as it is a relatively simple sew. Although it's hard to tell on the photos below but perhaps on my next version I will reduce the curve from waist to hip because I think I can get an even better fit. What do you think?

Me-Made-May 2015 Week three

The third week of Me-Made-May 2015 and I have really enjoyed wearing some of the newer items in my wardrobe that I have made recently (Day 11 and Day 13).

Day 11

Top: Colette Laurel top - me-made 2015

Trousers: Gap

Scarf: Marimekko

Bangles: Marimekko

Shoes: Paul Smith Tan Marcello loafers

Jacket: Top Shop (2010 sale)

Day 12

Top: Grainline Scout Woven tee - me-made 2014

Trousers: Gap

Shoes: Paul Smith black patent Marcello loafers

Day 13

Top: Gap

Skirt: Dolores Pocket skirt - me-made 2015

Necklace: Marimekko

Shoes: Paul Smith Tan Marcello loafers

Leggings: Warehouse

Day 14

Top: Grainline Scout Woven tee - me-made 2013

Trousers: Gap

Necklace: Tatty Devine

Shoes: Paul Smith tan Marcello loafers

Day 15

Top: Tilly and the Buttons Mathilde blouse - me-made 2013

Trousers: Gap

Necklace: Tatty Devine

Shoes: Paul Smith tan Marcello loafers

I have really enjoyed wearing my me-mades this week.

Compared to last year I have many more options to choose from despite auditing some of my me-made garments to the charity shop. The only thing I wasn't 100% comfortable with was my Tilly blouse - a tweak with the sleeves is a must if I am to keep this in my wardrobe.

How are things with your Me-Made-May?