My maiden "Me Made May".

Hello hello.

So my Instagram feed is chock full of fabulous Me Made outfits from sewists across the world. I am loving seeing people's takes on all sorts of pattern. 

You may have read that I have decided to take part in Me Made May this year And not just because I am a sucker for alliteration. I thought it would be fun to see if I could wear or carry at least one me made item every day for a month.

Week one has seen quite a big drop in temp here in Mildura, as you will see from the photos, I started may with bare legs, and today I am wearing tights, a scarf and coat.

Ok, so hear is the run down so far. In no particular order (left to right, top to bottom):

Image one, Isley skirt by Marillia Walker in chambray.

Image two, a vintage shirt dress patterns from Butterick in double gauze ikat.

Image three McCall's 6885 in striped upholstery fabric.

Image four New Look 6394 in a red and white gingham print rayon.

Image five, Rebecca Taylor for Vouge 1395 in a bow print poly

Image six, pants Simplicity 1430 in red strech satire with a bambo print, jacket McCall's 7100 in black neoprene, the gorgeous boy is borrowed.

Image seven, dress vintage Style 1116 in chambray and jacket a lengthened McCall's 7100 in grey wool

Image eight, coat Burda 7072 in a cream upholstery fabric

I've saved my two favourite outfits for last.

Image nine, another McCall's 6885 with a reduced collar in some fun wool I found in an op shop

Image ten, black and grey shirt vintage Simplicity 7057 in black and grey double gauze

Are you taking part in Me Made May? How long will you last before you have to repeat? 

A bunch of Bombers - Mccalls 7100

Hello lovely people of the internet sewing world.

Are you taking part in "Me Made May 15"? I am doing it for the first time this year, and am loving seeing all the wonderful 'me made' items on instagram each day.

If you haven't heard about it before, check out Zoe blog. She started the whole thing a few years back. I have decided to try and wear at least one me made item a day.

One of the reason I haven't done MMMay before is that May is a coldish month for us here in Victoria, and a lot of my me made clothing is for summer.

Enter McCall's 7100, the perfect Autumnal jacket to help fill the wintry gaps in my me made wardrobe!

I loved this pattern from the moment a saw it on the McCall's website. Sadly It didn't hit my local Spotlight store for another few months.

By the time I got my grubby little hands on it, I had the fabric and ribbing lined up for two versions, which I banged out in less than a week!

The first was a green pre quilted cotton that I picked up from and op-shop, but I think it was originally from Spotlight.

I made a Medium without any alterations.

My love then turned in to an obsession; the fit and the style of the jacket was perfect, so I decided it deserved to be lined. The pattern does not include a lining, but it wasn't to hard to work out. I cut the front, sleeves and back pieces out of the lining fabric, adding a 2 inch vent in the centre back for movement.  I made it up the same as the shell, machine sewed it on at the neck and base band then hand stitched the sleeves to the cuff and the front opening in behind the facing.

This jacket is pretty straight forward to construct, but the instructions are a little bit tricky to follow. It looks to me like they have forgotten to colour them in. They have the key indicating what the right side of the fabric and the wrong side of the fabric look like, but the pictures don't seem to use it.

 I also couldn't work out the method for inserting the pocket lining, in the end I just made it up and I am happy with the results.

Version two I made out of this amazing black neoprene from Darn Cheap Fabrics, in Melbourne. It has a pattern cut in to it which is not very clear in the photos so you will have to take my word on that.

This version of the jacket is probably the weakest, the stretch of the fabric made the neckline go wobbly even though I stayed stitched it, it also doesn't sit as nicely as the others. I will still wear it for sure but I will go with stiffer/thicker fabrics in the feature.

For my third and final - for now - I lengthened the pattern by 9 inches to make it in to a coat. I decided to omit the bottom band and just hem it.

I lined this one too, and I put bias binding on the edge of the front facing to avoid a bulky hem.

 

This is my favourite version and I can see myself wearing it a lot this winter. yay.

 

Inspired by Obus New Look 6983

Hello hello.

Autumn is here in the southern hemisphere; it has kicked in quickly.  Last week I was in a thin dress with the air-con on full blast and now, as I type this, I have long sleeves and slippers.

I have been busy sewing recently and have had some real vintage pattern wins, which I will photograph soon - I hope.

Today I want to tell you about a dress I made last year that was inspired by Obus.

 I had spotted this top on a Pinterest board and liked the the shape and colour blocking options.

I saved this from Pinterest but the link had gone so I don't know where it can from, sorry.

I made my version using some soft shot cotton from the quilters' section of Spotlight.

I used my tried and tested New look 6983 because the idea called for a simple silhouette.

I drew out a hexagon, thank you year 8 maths, and then set to work on the fabric.

I decided to sew the navy and the light blue together first rather than trying to match up the line whilst sewing in a 6 sided shape. Then I cut out a hexagon from lining it up with the neckline and the seam. I didn't quite make the seam match up, but hey, my arms mostly cover that?

It was pretty fiddly and there is a bit of puckering, I think I would be able to get it in better now that I have done it once, so I might have to make another version.

Have you been inspired by any ready to wear recently?

A whole bunch of stuff that I made - Tate Top and Simplicity 1430

Hello.

I have been on a bit of a Tate Top binge recently. The Tate Top is a free pattern from the wonderful Workroom social; you can get it here.

Ok, so the beginning of this Tate Top madness was this top. I made it out of some cotton that had been sitting in my stash for a little while.

I cut out a size 10 in the longer tunic length.

I decided to omit the back zip. I left the top open and added a button and hoop.

I have lined all of my Tate Top variations with stretch mesh; I read about lining things with stretch mesh on a blog a few years ago, but I can not remember who's it was. If you know, please tell me so that I can credit them and gush with thanks because it is a great tip - you do not have to worry about darts etc.

I ended up taking 1 1/2 inches off the shoulder seam to make the armpits higher. I'm not a big fan of the visible bra, still not quite right, but 'better than it was.

The shorts are Simplicity 1430. I made them with some upholstery fabric that I picked up in an op-shop. They are a little tight, I think I might need to go up a size for the next pair. Not to happy with the pulling on the zip.

Ok, on to the bit I am most excited about!

The dresses.

I used the Tate Top pattern in the crop length. To make the skirt I cut a rectangle 1 1/2 times the width of the bottom of the top, I cut the top of the skirt to mirror the curved hem of the top.

I gathered the skirt to fit the top using three rows of long stitches.

The fabric is a cotton from my stash that I picked up in an op-shop a few months ago.

I love this dress. I was so happy with how this test run turned out that I jumped straight in to the final (for now) version.

I got this fabric in the Spotlight clearance a few weeks ago.

This dress was inspired by all the wonderful dresses by Gorman. I have had my eyes open for a suitably cheeky fabric to make my own and this sea gull fabric nailed it.

 

Thanks for reading.

A vintage triumph - Style 1116

Hello, hello.

I hope that your Christmases and New Year's were a delight.

We headed to NZ for Christmas with the family. It was so nice to be back in NZ seeing the family and walking along the beautiful beaches, plus I got a bunch of awesome fabrics.

We were back in Aus for New Year's, lots of friends and a fair amount of wine, throw in a piano accordion and a handful of Scots and you have yourself a top night out!

It hasn't all been holidays and parties though I have had a couple of sewing wins which I will blog as soon as I take some photos.

Today I want to show you a wee vintage dress that I made up a few months ago. The pattern Style 1116 was printed in 1975 and features some fun tucks from the shoulders.

I made my version up in some upholstery weight cotton, with a herring bone stripe.

 

It is a bit of a wearable muslin; the fabric is nice but it was on sale so I thought I would throw it at this pattern and hope for the best.

I love the tucks and the pockets and over all I am pretty happy with the finished dress.

Next time I will use a lighter weight fabric as this is a little heavy along the top.

I had to add a panel around the bottom. I really wanted the stripes to run from top to bottom but couldn't quite get it to fit on the fabric.

I think I will make it again soon as it is a nice, loose, easy wearing dress for the summer. Check out this action shot, totally summer-tastic!

Thanks for reading. xx

Felling Fruity McCalls 6739

Well Christmas is charging at us, and I am beginning to realise that my Christmas trousers are just a pipe dream. I love catching up with everyone and having lots of lovely dinners, but I have barely had any time to sew.

Fortunately I have a few un-blogged items from the start of Spring tucked up my sleeve, the first one being this.

I picked this fabric up on a whim from Spotlight a few months ago. It is a drill, so it took me a while to decide what to turn it into.

Enter McCalls 6739

I was drawn to this pattern because of the boxy fit, the square arm holes and the front pocket!

I decided to make view 'D' to protect my paisty sholders from the sun.

 

  Before I jumped in I had a look at some reviews, the common complaint with this pattern is that it comes out really big - and I am going to have to echo that.k

I ended up taking 3 inches off the side seams by the end, fortunately it is pretty easy to do, because the pattern is pretty simple.

   It has ended up a little tight across the top of my back, so I will have to revise the fit alterations for the next one.

I have a love hate relationship Simplicity 1872

Hello lovelys.

Today I want to show you a Cynthia Rowley dress I made ages ago (about 2 years ago).

This dress took forever to cut out, it was super fiddly to sew and was so misshapen it took me a while to get around to wearing it.

I cut out a size 8 because it matched my bust measurement. Alas It came out so big and unflattering I ended up taking 2 inches off of each seam (which was a nightmare on the skirt as there are so many seams).

Eventually I got the fit right and now enough time has passed for the wounds to heal and I can enjoy this dress.

The fabric is a polyester that I picked up on sale at Spotlight. It was very slippy and added to the pain of making this dress, but the drape is great and it is very pleasing to wear. There are a lot of pieces so it is essential to cut and mark the pieces carefully.

I love the three tiers and the gathers on the shoulder. The neck came down too low for my tastes so I am currently pinning it closed.

 In conclusion this is a very pretty dress. Well worth making but I would recommend thinking carefully about the fit before you cut.