Me-made-may Day 23-31

Wow! May is a wrap, how did that happen?  This month has had crazy weather variation, we started with some lovely sun and as I write this, I feel like that was the beginning of summer and we have now jumped straight to autumn already :(  Please come back summer.  Anyway, on to my final round up.

Day 23: vintage tartan dress

Day 24: new maxi skirt!  I had a coat on over this and almost froze while taking this photo.

Day 25: It was so cold this day that I wore my refashioned jumper skirt and blingy refashioned jumper. Being dressed neck to knee in jumpers still didn't protect me from the cold and I managed to forget a photo! 

Day 26: I wore a feather plantain t-shirt for a slobby uni day. You're getting my attempt at a selfie here, clearly my modelling/photography career is a way off

Day 27: I was going on a night out with some friends in this day so made a little bit of an effort and wore my shirt dress with some sandals. Apparently I should make even a little effort on more days as I got so many compliments on my outfit. 

Day 28: my maxi skirt again with lace belcarra blouse 

Day 29: being the little mermaid at the V&A in my Jade skirt and vintage tie top. For anyone in the London area, I really recommend the 'Undressed' exhibition.

Day 30:  a bonus bank holiday day, which was much colder than we would have liked for the BBQ I was attending! I wore my Renfrew/lady skater mash up dress. 

Day 31: for the final day I wore my floral pencil skirt and Mathilde blouse.  I love this outfit but the skirt is such a terrible fit that I really need to try and find another pencil skirt pattern to attempt a different one.

This May has been the third where I've participated in me-made-May, this year was by far the easiest.  Clearly my handmade items are fitting better into my wardrobe (also I now have enough of them for colleagues/friends not to think I own no clothes).  Thanks so much Zoe for hosting again this year, I find this challenge so useful in helping me to examine my wardrobe and what it is that I want to wear.   However, interestingly this year is also the first that I haven't come out of May with a list of things to sew bigger than I started with which is refreshing.  I guess I've arrived at some kind of homoeostasis.   

Anyway, on to June which is definitely my favourite month, as its my birthday!  Here's to birthday month!

Me made May Day 9-22

As I mentioned in my last post, the last few weeks have been a bit rough so I decided to be kind to myself and not worry about what's happening on the blog or about my Me Made May photos.  Therefore you're getting the photos that I remembered to take over the last few weeks.  I have been fully participating though and actually this is the first year I have not really struggled any morning to pick myself an outfit that is at least partially me made.  

Day 9: lace belcarra blouse and strawberry circle skirt (unblogged) 

Day 10: pleather circle skirt and blingy refashioned jumper.

Day 11: 70s tartan dress for my mummy's birthday dinner. I made a cake that almost matched my dress!

Day 12: floral pencil skirt and RTW top to see the Vogue exhibition! 

Day 13: Angelica top and ultimate trousers. I really need some more of these tops in my life-I got so many compliments on it and I wear it loads. I couldn't be bothered with a photo today. 

Day 14: jeans and a Dolores top. This was a terrible day so I again opted out of the photo taking.

Day 15: Pleather skirt and vintage top.  This outfit never fails to get me compliments and I love it, however again was not in the mood for photos.

My mend this week was a summer loose knit jumper which had developed a serious hole.

Before:

After:

And its ready to wear again

Day 16: Going with the 'any photo is better than none' attitude!  Wearing my Sallie jumpsuit to go and watch the Great British Sewing Bee at the meet up hosted by Cocowawa and Sewitwithlove.

Day 17: New Orla top (that I will blog about shortly) and jumper refashion

Day 18: Stripey lady skater

Day 19: I was full of the cold and was working from home and all I really wanted to do was stay in my pyjamas but as I did have to leave the house I wore jeans, a black Dolores top (unblogged) and my owl jumper.  No photo though.

Day 20: Strawberry circle skirt and owl jumper

Day 21: This is where my me made wardrobe failed me.  I was on a friends hen do and I needed a night time party dress and I have not made any of these.  Thinking about it most of my handmade dresses are fairly casual day time ones like my lady skater dresses.

Day 22: Birdie Renfrew top (unblogged)

This weeks mend was sewing a button back on my winter coat.  I wore it to a wedding at the beginning of April and it got caught on my bag and the only way to detangle it was to snip off the button.  I'd say less than 2 months to sew it back on is pretty good going. However it really was too banal a mend to photograph so no picture.

Good luck with the final stretch of Me-made-May everyone.

Me made May 16 days 1-8

Two posts in one week!  It must be May!  I'm going to start this week's round up with a refashion, partly to save those of you who follow me on Instagram from total boredom and partly because I love it. 

I started with this jumper; a men's Asos  lambswool jumper.  It had a couple of moth (or something) holes and was too big. 

I started by pinning to bring the arm holes up to what might approximate my shoulders and pinning in the sides. I also put in bust darts which for future reference is a mistake in a fabric like this. 

I wanted a copped jumper so removed the ribbing, took a chunk off the length and then reattached the ribbing.  I found that serging the ribbing back on resulted in a very wavy join so I then topstitched the seam.  It's not really visible as the fabric absorbs the stitches but makes the whole jumper sit more pleasingly.

 I also wanted to try out the hi-low thing which is everywhere and I've never been a big fan of but thought might work well for this jumper.

The next step was to darn and embellish. I knew I wanted a bit of excitement on my jumper. One of my friends has a great jumper with similar gems on the front and I shamelessly ripped it off. The gems were from simply sequins and at £10.95 for a bag, they added considerably to the cost of my refashion. However I still have loads left for other projects.

You can just about see the darning in the above photo.  I feel like it's seriously overshadowed by the bling and this was exactly what I wanted.

You're not getting to see this jumper on as obviously the second I finished adjusting a lambswool sweater, the weather upped its game and I didn't fancy wearing it in the 20+ degree weather we've been experiencing.  I'm totally not complaining, even if I do have to wait a while to wear my new jumper. 

So on to the daily round up:

Day 1: lady skater dress. I've not made one of these for a while and I think it may be time for another! 

Day 2: feather plantain t-shirt (unblogged)

Day 3: Ultimate trousers and thrifted top

Day 4: refashioned jumper skirt, Angelica top

Day 5: Sleeveless maxi lady skater (unblogged) This is the point at which I started to fail at the photos.  Seriously it took 5 days!  I'm sure this will pop up again this month though as wearing it made me remember how much I love maxi dresses.

Day 6: My Jade skirt and a Dolores top, complete with photo bombers who are apparently better at posing for photos than I am.

Day 7: Carolyn pyjamas
I was super hungover this day so did not fancy getting a photo but I enjoyed having my lovely pyjamas to feel sorry for myself in!

Day 8: ultimate shorts (unblogged) and vintage tie top

Right, thats my week-see you all again next week.  I'm loving seeing everyones round ups.

Me-made-may pledge

It's that time of the year again, when sewists put their thinking caps on and think up their personal resolutions to take part in Zoe's Me-Made-May challenge. 

For anyone doesn't know about the challenge, the details are here and you can sign up here.   

I love this challenge as I really feel it helps me to think about my wardrobe and gaps in it and how to fill them best rather than just sewing up my latest sewing fancy.  When thinking of this years challenge, I looked back at what I did last year. My pledge was to wear one me-made item every day but also to mend one item or do one refashion each week. I was impressed with this challenge and so have decided to repeat it again this year,, last year I didn't quite manage it but lets see what happens.

Part of what I love most about this challenge is taking part in something with so many other sewists and seeing everyone's outfits and the conclusions they make about their wardrobes.  Are you taking part?  Can't wait!