Filling the dress-sized hole in my wardrobe: Part 1

So, as I said in my last post, the weather has finally started warming up here in the UK, and it immediately makes me want to swish about in dresses. And yet, when I went to my wardrobe to find a relaxed dress to throw on, I found I had very few to choose from. That surprised me to be honest! I figured I must have loads. Nope! I have my Washi dress, which is perfect in warm weather, but there's not much else. All my Monetas are quite wintery, and my Cocos are mostly too short to wear without leggings. Similarly I have a lovely crepe Laurel dress (which I don't think I've blogged about actually) which I really like, but A. it's a tad short without leggings, and B. the bust dart is too high (that bothers me most when I know people who sew will see it. Non-sewists don't realise or care about such fit issues I don't think!).

What I need are a few more dresses which I could wear with leggings and a cardy if the weather turns back to our normal 'moderate' but which will also be nice to wear while baring my arms and pasty-white legs when things warm up.

When I went to get dressed yesterday, I was faffing about unable to decide and thought I was going to have to break my MMM pledge and wear a RTW skirt and top. Then I remembered I'd mostly made another Washi dress a couple of weeks ago, only to decide it didn't look right (too 'poofy' in the skirt) and had left it unfinished. I gave it another look yesterday and decided I did quite like it after all. And all it needed was some bias binding around the arm holes (I'd decided against sleeves for this one) and hemming.

20 minutes later, boom - new dress!

This version doesn't sit as nicely in the skirt as my first one. Not sure why exactly. It's the pockets - they stick out a bit. I would say that it's because I'm using a medium weight cotton, but the pattern is drafted for that type of fabric. I think the next one I make (there will be more!) I'll cut a size smaller in the skirt piece because I always end up taking it in. Maybe less fabric will keep the puffiness to a minimum.

Anyway. First dress-sized hole in my wardrobe is plugged! This is the perfect summer dress for me. Fitted enough to have some shape, but comfy enough that I don't feel constricted or uncomfortable.





Sorry you have to see my scarily white legs. I'd like to say they'll get less white as summer wears on, but that would be a lie. They will stay this particularly vivid shade of blue-white no matter how much sun they see. Not sure I really care anymore! They are what they are!

Me Made May Week 1 Round-up

Right. We're already over a week into May (argh) so I thought it time to have a little moment of reflection about the Me Made May business. I won't do this every week I don't think, but it's nice to sit back and think about what, if anything, I've learnt throughout the process.

1. I'm already SO bored of taking photos of myself. Does everyone on Instagram/blogs feel this way? Some people seem to have mastered the art of taking photos and selfies. I have not.

2. Despite saying in my last post that I probably needed to make fewer dresses, I've realised I actually don't have enough! The weather has turned warm this week (properly so the last two days) and I found myself struggling to know what to wear. I wanted to wear dresses - light, floaty, summery, comfy dresses, but actually, I have a real lack of these in my wardrobe. Now, obviously I live in Britain, so there's no need to go too bonkers with the summer dress making, but this is a definite gap that needs to be filled. I have a couple of makes to post later today which are starting to remedy this, and a few more planned. Stay tuned!

3. On days that I don't want to wear dresses, jeans are the logical other option. Much like every other woman in the Western world, I hate buying jeans. The very thought fills me with dread. I'd actually rather go swimsuit shopping in winter. I don't fit jeans that well. I'm short (and particularly short in the leg) and my waist is slightly wider than my hips which means I need a short-legged size 8 in the legs/bum/hips, and a 10 in the waist, and they don't sell jeans like that. Making them then, seems a sensible thing to do! While the thought of making jeans fills me with considerable terror, I guess it's not impossible. The Ginger Jeans pattern does make it seem feasible, so I'm going to start slowing psyching myself up for this. My Mum thought the idea sounded good too, so maybe we'll do an international mother-daughter jeans sewalong!

4. Did I mention I'm so freaking bored of my own selfies?

Here are some pics I've posted to Instagram during the last week, plus today's outfit (and a face which shows just how bored I am of the photo-taking!)

Day 1: My fave Emmeline tee in amazing lightweight tropical print crepe 

We were painting the spare room on Day 2: failed Anima pants and a stretched out Coco dress (hacked into a top) are my 'work clothes'

That favourite Coco dress with RTW leggings was the working-at-home look on Day 3

Day 4 and the weather properly warmed up, so I swanned about in my Washi dress (which FYI, is the most comfy dress ever. This fabric is linen-y and gorgeous)

Day 5 and I was rocking my other favourite Emmeline Tee. I love this print - lets me be in my safe zone of black but still have splashes of lovely colour

Day 6 and you have to look closely to see what I'm wearing because I forgot to photograph it, but it's the flannelette Moji pants I've blogged previously. Reading a truly wonderful (work-related) book about how people wear and use their clothes. It's really really brilliant. I highly recommend it to everyone! 

Day 8 (sorry Day 7 missed being photographed) and it's hot. The pasty white legs are officially OUT. This is a new Washi dress which I will blog about shortly! 

Day 9. My face on the right says it all. Bored of looking at photos of myself now! (wearing a Coco dress with a collar)

It's Me Made May Time Again! My pledge....

Ok, seriously, how are we already at the end of April?! Can someone put the brakes on please, because I'm not kidding - I'm SO far behind on everything I'm meant to have done this year already. Arggghh!!! 

*and breathe*

Well, at least the trauma of actually realising that we're about to hit May is mitigated a bit by the fun of thinking about Me Made May, right?!

One of my earliest makes, and definitely one of my most worn. Love it when the fabric does all the hard work!

I'm sure any sewing peoples will already know, but in case any of my lovely new readers (by the way, hi you guys! Thanks so much for reading!!) aren't familiar, Me Made May (#MMMay2016 on social media) is an online 'event' started by the amazing Zoe of SoZo which aims to get people to celebrate and reflect on their handmade wardrobes. Basically, you pledge to do something which will achieve this and help you build a better relationship with your handmade clothes throughout the month of 'Me Made' May.

A lot of folks pledge to wear only handmade clothes, or one item of handmade clothing each day for the month and that's a great thing to do. It's always brilliant to wear the things we make and be proud of shouting to everyone 'I made this!'

Some of the year's most worn and loved 'me-made' garments

Last year I pledged to wear something 'me made' everyday I left the house (ie. days I went into the office, rather than working-at-home days). It wasn't particularly difficult, but it was a great push to really encourage me to wear the things I made. I was super proud to achieve my goal.

I've been thinking a lot about Me Made May this year though, and I want to do it a bit different this time around (my second year of Me Made May Madness!) I'd like to use the month as an opportunity to be a bit more critical about my sewing and my me made wardrobe. Since I'm at home all the time, I won't really learn anything by just focusing on what I wear outside the home. I really want to achieve that perfect at-home wardrobe as well. So I'm using the month to really focus on thinking about what I like to wear, why, and figuring out how I can go about making things to fit those requirements. Are there garments I already have which I could alter to make them more likely to be worn? If all I really want to wear is stretchy stuff, do I really need to make another woven garment? I want to be a more thoughtful sewist - thoughtful about what I'm wearing, and what I'm sewing, and how well those two things match up!

The Emmeline Tee has definitely been one of my most made and worn makes. It must be time for another Emmeline I think...

I've spent this month avoiding buying patterns, which has been a great way of thinking about my buying habits a bit more, and I'd like to continue doing this. I also need to extend it to fabric buying though. It's SO easy when you're on social media (especially when you follow gorgeous haberdasheries or fabric designers!) to get swept up with desperately feeling a 'need' for a particular fabric. But that doesn't work with my plan to be a more conscious and thoughtful sewist - it's not a 'need' for fabric, it's a want. So I'd like to also use Me Made May to help me to focus my sewing with my existing fabric stash, and also thinking about which fabric ends up lurking for months (or longer) in my stash - and maybe making a note for myself so that I can stop buying that kind of thing in the future! I don't mind buying fabric - I love it, it's almost addictive but it feels wasteful (financially, ecologically etc etc) to just buy stuff I don't end up using. Or making dresses from it that I won't wear! 

So my Me Made Pledge for 2016 is this: I, JessB, pledge to wear handmade as much as possible, and to really spend the month of May learning to become a more thoughtful sewist: reflecting on my handmade wardrobe, its gaps, how to fill them, and teaching myself to make fewer impulse fabric and pattern purchases!

I'm not really one for posting a 'what I'm wearing' pic everyday, but I will share a few ensembles and makes on Instagram, and I will definitely post updates here.

That all sounds a bit dull and restrictive, now that I read it back! But I do enjoy a challenge, and I like to be a thoughtful consumer, so for me this does sound fun! Plus I will definitely spend FAR too long ogling everyone else's amazing handmade clothes all month, and that is absolutely fun! Happy Me Made May everyone!

xoxo

More teeny tiny clothes for teeny tiny humans

My very good friend's bub was christened this weekend, and I thought I'd make a few more bits and pieces for her in addition to a 'normal' gift (a tiny dove charm on a Liberty fabric bracelet band).

I got this amazing stylized Tui fabric from Plush Addict (the tui is a native bird to New Zealand - both myself and my friend are from NZ so I knew she'd appreciate it) and I wanted to make another Little Geranium dress with a contrast bodice. The bub in question is 6 months old now, so I graded the pattern up. I know I should have paid for the bigger size, but the difference between 3 and 6 months is about 1cm around the bodice and I just didn't feel I could justify paying for another pattern for want of 1cm. I'm sorry. I know that's bad of me, but when Bub gets to 1+, I will buy the pattern and my sewing karma will be restored. For now, I just made do.

Front of Tui Dress

Back of Tui Dress - I love these pearly poppers! 

I'd planned to make dungarees in flowery denim that was lurking in my stash but my friend said she already had a couple of pairs of dungarees, so it was back to the drawing board. I figured a wee dungaree-style dress would be a good alternative, right? I could have bought a new pattern that was more proper dungaree styles, but instead I just made another Puperita Mini Tulips dress. Totally love this pattern. I was planning to use a FQ of pink gingham as the lining, but there wasn't quite enough of it. Nothing else in my stash seemed quite right colour-wise, and I was about to dash to Hobbycraft for more FQs when I looked at my bed. My pillowcase (which was a mismatched random one that was only in use because the 'good' linen was in the wash) was the perfect shade of pink! I whipped it off the bed, and chopped it up (I should add here that it was cleaned - I'd just changed the sheets that morning. Refashioning is one thing...giving people gifts made of dirty linen is quite another!). It wasn't wide enough to get the bodice cut on the fold, so I just added a seam allowance and there's a join. But it's very neat and honestly I don't think it matters. Plus the worn pillowcase makes the softest lining which seems perfect for delicate baby skin! Yay! 

I fancied putting a bow on this (because if you can't put a bow on baby clothes, when can you use bows!?) but I didn't think about it until I'd finished the dress and I didn't want to stitch through the lining. Next time there will be bows! 

Now. A confession. I have broken my No Pattern Promise! ARGH. But it wasn't for me, so I feel like that's a grey area?! (hell, it's my pledge. I say this is an acceptable breach!). I really wanted to make some little jersey tops. I do have a pattern which I'd bought previously, but when I made it last time, I didn't like it. It's one of those lapped neckline styles that are great for babies, but the back part came too far forward in the pattern. It looked uncomfortable, frankly. Instead I decided to fork out for a Brindille and Twig lapped tee pattern. I'm really glad I did - the drafting on this is perfect! Plus it goes up to age 5 size, so there's plenty of opportunities to reuse it later. Brindille and Twig really have some lovely children's patterns for jersey fabrics. And the great thing about sewing for tiny people? Brilliant jersey scrap busting!! Check these out! 

The cuteness!!

I also had a grey one with white bands half made (thinking it would go nicely under the Tui dress), but my machine had been getting crankier and crankier (isn't it weird how you can sew jersey 100 times and it's fine, and then suddenly the machine will chuck a hiss and start skipping stitches and fraying thread and generally making an absolute nightmare of itself?!), so I abandoned that. Another time. Three cute as a button tops seems perfectly acceptable, and at least I know this pattern works. The green and white ones go really nicely under the denim dress which is great, and the pink one is just cool! I totally want a grown-up version!! 

And now I need to make myself some things. The sun has starting shining, and that's got me feeling all summer dress-y! 

An accidental summer dress

You'll recall a week or so ago I was moaning about wanting to add to my work-from-home/casual-clothes wardrobe? And that the Washi dress was going to be one of my attempts to fill the 'tidy yet comfy' holes?

So, I've made my first Washi! I'm only about the 5000th person to make the Washi dress (seriously, search for it on Google images if you don't believe me), and I'm about 3 years later than everyone else, but better late than never right??

I was worried I'd end up looking preggers in this dress, but I don't really think that I do (phew). Don't get me wrong - it could easily be worn in the early stages of maternity wear if one needed such a thing (or if you happened to have a giant Sunday lunch, as in my case!) but I don't think it sticks out so much that people will be looking twice and giving me the side eye of speculation.

I really like this dress. I made it up in some gorgeous John Kaldor fabric I got at the Sew Essential meet last weekend. When I bought it, I thought it was a viscose linen blend, but it's actually something called ramie viscose. Ramie is - so the interwebs tell me - a plant based fibre that's pretty ancient (ancient like Egyptian mummy shrouds!!). The fabric itself is quite lovely. Super easy to sew as it presses like a dream, but it has a sort of bouncy/floaty quality to it. Being similar to a linen it does crease like an absolute bastard...you can finger press a pretty sharp crease, so I'll look pretty unkempt when I wear this, but I don't think that I care tbh. It wasn't planned to be a summer frock, but it really will be a total dream to wear in summer - it's so breathable and soft and lineny. Plus the print is great! I know it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I love the 60s retro print and colour.

The hem is level, I assure you. I apparently am just incapable of standing so that things hang straight. Also sorry for the squinty eyes. Damn sunshine ;-) 

Nyx wanted in on the photo action. 

So, the pattern. I did actually make a toile of the bodice which is quite unlike me, but I need to start doing that more often (one of the down sides to becoming a better sewist is that you realise how badly earlier garments fit!! Must start dropping darts by an inch as a standard adjustment). To my considerable surprise (and delight) the Medium fit me perfectly. My upper bust and full bust measurements put me bang in the middle of the range for Medium, and it fits brilliantly straight out of the packet. That pretty much never happens as I'm always on the cusp of a FBA. The only adjustment I made to the final dress is taking about another centimetre of the width on both sides between the bottom of the shirring and the pockets - just felt a tad baggy there. In the future I think I could afford to make the pleats a tad deeper as there is still quite a bit of ease here (acres of it really).

Oh my, but this dress is SO comfy. And this particular fabric just makes me feel like I need to be wearing it while wandering down a beach in Spain, or meandering through a gorgeous hot Italian city eating gelato (obviously sans tights and brogues, and with summer sandals instead!). Due to the creasing, I'm not sure it's going to become a standard 'round-home' wear, but it'll definitely be worn. And there will definitely be more Washis in my future, of that I am sure!

I'm so very happy to have such a satisfying make - easy to sew, easy to fit = happy to wear! Win.

And now, if you will excuse me, I need to go and search for holiday deals to Italy...!

Ciao my lovelies xx

My first sewing meet-up at Sew Essential

Sewcialism: the social networking of sewists primarily characterised by friendly online interactions, chatty offline meet-ups, and cake. Lots of cake.

A wee while back, the lovely Charlotte tweeted about a sewing blogger meet-up that was to be hosted by the team at Sew Essential in Leicestershire. I've heard loads of great things about the good times that are had when sewists get together, so I'd been dying to sort myself out and get along to a meet-up. The dates worked for me with this one, and so yesterday morning off I went (wearing my drama dress). 

About 12 of us descended on Sew Essential HQ yesterday, where we were met with smiles by Lucy and Angela of Sew Essential, along with co-hosts and fellow-bloggers Kat and Sam. First on the agenda was tea, chatting, and munching our way through the piles of delicious pastries that were waiting for us. Lucy welcomed us on behalf of the Sew Essential team, letting us know the background of this lovely family-run business. Angela who started Sew Essential has such an incredible personal sewing history and is just a fount of knowledge! After some chatting, we were invited downstairs to the Sew Essential warehouse where we were able to do some shopping (what sewist doesn't love that?!) It was such fun - like we were backstage or we'd been trapped in a mall after hours! Sew Essential is primarily an online shop and they stock tonnes of stuff. Fabric-wise they specialise in John Kaldor fabrics which I've long ogled online, but haven't ever had the chance to touch first-hand (you know what I mean...once you start sewing, you go from shopping like a normal person, to shopping by touch - every bolt of fabric must be fondled for drape and hand-feel! It's a bit odd, but I know I'm not alone in this!!). I ended up buying 3 beautiful pieces of fabric that I'm super excited to sew with - and we were given a 10% discount which didn't hurt one bit! After shopping we went back upstairs and admired Angela's quilts and the Epic embroidery machine (epic by name, epic by nature...epic by price-tag!!), and then Kat and Sam helped us all do some hand-embroidery using some of the freebies in our goody bags. From there our sewing convoy tootled off for afternoon tea and a good natter over plenty of tea (or coffee in my case) and of course, more cake!

Thanks to Lucy for these great 'action' shots of our day!

Lucy had very kindly prepared an amazing goody bag for each of us, and what a haul I got to bring home!! Check it out! 

Loads of patterns (that Kwik Sew dress looks like it's got 'comfy work-from-home wardrobe' written ALL over it!) and other fun things. The can of adhesive intrigues me...if it works, that's going to be a Game Changer! You can also see two of the fabrics I bought in the top of the above picture. On the right is a deliciously soft John Kaldor cotton lawn in pink and navy - it almost looks like its got paint splashes. It's much brighter than my norm, but I think with the navy I could pop a cardy and some tights and balance it out a bit. I got 2.5m so I have this ear-marked for my first Emery dress (another pattern bought pre-embargo). On the left is a buttery soft poly fabric, also from John Kaldor. I really like this - I'd eyed it up online before going yesterday. I'm not sure what you'd call the fabric - peachskin or lightweight crepe maybe? I don't know, but I'm not bothered - it'll make a gorgeous summer top or dress. Possibly both. Or maybe a pussybow blouse? That could work, actually. Hmm. Some thinking to do yet! 

The third fabric I bought was thrown in the washing machine for its pre-wash about 2 minutes after I got home. Can't wait to sew with this! It's John Kaldor again (there's a theme here!) and it is sitting on my bench right now ready to be cut out and sewn up into a Washi dress! I'll have a blog post on that soon hopefully! 

All in all, I had a lovely day. I knew Charlotte beforehand, and had chatted on Twitter with Rach, but we'd never met in person, and I didn't know any of the other lovely ladies until yesterday either. Now I've met some great like-minded people, and made some brilliant sewing connections. I love that. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to meet and chat with sewists. That shared interest and understanding of sewing (of the obsession, the pleasure, the planning, the shopping - all of it!) seems to make for fast friends. 

Another thing you'll notice if you ever go to a sewing meet-up yourself (or if you've been) is how bright and beautiful such gatherings are! I don't mean the people - although they are too! - but I mean the clothes! It was so striking to be in a room surrounded by women wearing completely different styles and shapes, but all in beautiful colours and patterns. I've personally noticed how much more colour I wear since I started sewing. Yesterday the room we were in felt bright and cheerful with all the individual styles and splashes of colour that were present - and that just has to make everything feel happier I think. Well done everyone for rocking such gorgeous handmade clothes!

So. My first experience of sewcialism offline. But not, I think, my last...!

Huge thank you to Lucy, Kat and Sam for organising yesterday, for taking such good care of us, and for all the lovely treats! x

The challenges of working from home (and not looking like a sloth)

Were you one of those families who had to change out of your 'good' clothes when you got home? We definitely were - as soon as we got back from school, we changed into our 'round home' clothes. As a consequence, even now, as a fully fledged grown-up living 10,000 miles from my 'home', I am still constitutionally incapable of wearing my good clothes when I'm at home!! It doesn't matter if my good clothes are super comfy things like my secret pajamas Monetas, I still feel weird waltzing around the house in them. But I work from home a lot (especially so at the moment as I'm on sabbatical which means I'm home all the time!), and I am utterly sick of wearing my sloppy old track-pants and grotty clothes. They make me feel sluggish and sloth-like in them (and not terribly attractive)! 

They are awfully comfy though. 

So I've been pondering on whether there's another option - a 3rd way if you will - between 'good' clothes and 'round home' clothes. Surely it's possible to make something that is as comfy as track-pants, which looks tidy, and is cute enough that I don't have to get changed if I want to pop to the shops or a cafe for a mid-arvo coffee, but which isn't the same as what I'd wear if I were going to the office? (This is starting to seem like an insane distinction, isn't it?). And all the many many patterns I've been buying lately have been trying to meet this challenge. Cute-ish but comfy. To me that means:

 - stretchy or loose-ish

 - but with a bit of shaping - just not tight/fitted

 - preferably no fastenings (because they just make everything feel more structured)

 - easy to sew/wear (non-iron, obvs)

 - warm (!!!! My house is old, and we have a lovely sunny living room/conservatory, but my office is upstairs on the cold side of the house and even in summer, it's frackin' cold up there. My hands often go numb while typing, though my partner attributes this to my reptile blood rather than the lack of heating!).

I've bought a bunch of patterns lately to try and deal with this: 

• the Anima pants: Damn these pants. I've made 2 versions, each more fugly than the last, and I have now decided that this is NOT the pattern for me. I so badly want to like it, but it looks crap on me. My legs are too short maybe? Perhaps you need to be willowy to wear them? I am very much not willowy, being much more shrub-like in appearance.
• a Fen dress: I'm on the fence about this. It looks pretty sack-like, which it's meant to, and it does meet a number of my criteria, but I'm not sure if it's 'me'. My test version was made in horrible cheap poly-cotton with sod-all drape, so I will try again on this. But maybe you need to be willowy for this too? 
• an Opal cardigan: My first version of this was completely hilarious! It's now been refashioned into a skirt (see below). The second version I quite like (even if it is too long), although the neckband stretched when I overlocked it and now it won't sit flat. I'm going to need a well-placed snap fastener I think...
• the Washi dress: I bought this pre-April pledge, and largely against my better judgement. I love the 10,000-odd versions online, but I'm terrified of looking preggers in it. Nothing worse for the self-esteem than a dress which makes people give up their seat for you on the tube! I'm waiting for some fabric to arrive to make a test version, so we'll see where we stand on that soon.

So mostly those are misses, and I'm still waiting for the 'hit'. In the meantime, I have discovered that the Colette Mabel is pretty great. I already had one version which I used to wear to work, but, I've been wearing it round home with tights or leggings and I think it might be a win. I still feel a bit fancy wearing it at home, but perhaps I just need to adjust my own mad clothing mind-set a bit?! I've now made 2 more versions of Mabel (one out of the original Opal - can you imagine how mad that fabric was in an oversized boxy cardigan?! Bahaha!). Both versions have been worn around the house and out in public. 

Grey Mabel with Merino Astoria. Worn with grubby slippers and dodgy pony-tail for my authentic working-at-home look! Original black Mabel which is impossible to photograph (it's flocked jersey). Worn here with the grey Opal that I like, but you can see the neckline issue. Still, fine for slouching over things. This mad orange and pink fabric is what I made my first Opal in. Um, wtF was I thinking?! Cute as a Mabel tho! Also I rediscovered a super light-weight version of Moneta that I didn't like when I made it (because it stretched a bit and just isn't as nicely fitted as the other ones)  and I find I quite like it for 'round home'. Plus it goes brilliantly with my brogues when I pop out! And an unblogged drama-dress in that gorgeous merino jersey my aunt sent - it's lovely and warm around home, and the fit issues don't matter so much (clearly the belt and heels are not worn when I'm mooching on the sofa!).   Previously unloved Moneta Drama Dress*

So I'm getting there slowly, but I think this will be an ongoing challenge. I might even try and make this issue part of my Me Made May pledge - ultimately, my me-made wardrobe needs to work for me and my lifestyle, and I'm not wholly sure it's doing that yet.

What do you guys wear when you're 'round home'?? Do you always change out of your good clothes when you get home?

*drama dress - this started as a Wren, failed majorly, was unpicked (have you tried unpicking zig zag stitches from wool jersey?? ARGH the blinding rage!!) and was resewn as a sleeveless Moneta (because I didn't have enough fabric left for sleeves). I still ended up with fit issues in the bodice that I've never had before with Moneta, but at least I finally managed (after a good couple of weeks of rage and unpicking and sobbing and worrying I'd ruined a really lovely present) to get a wearable dress. 

An April Pledge

My pattern buying has gotten way out of hand. I can't seem to stop myself. I'm not really an impulse purchaser - I do typically hum and haa over them before buying, and I do a lot of Googling (oh hai Google images!) and blog reading before buying an indie one (because: £££) - but I still almost always seem to end up clicking the BUY button. Argh!

And it's getting expensive. I'm fairly fortunate in that I can buy most of the stuff I want, but I'm forced to ask myself: do I really need to be buying so damn much?? One of the things I like about sewing is that it has made me become a much more thoughtful consumer in terms of clothes (and other related bits and pieces). But if all I've done is just transfer that consumption to pattern buying, then the problem hasn't gone away.

There are, I think, a couple of reasons for the pattern buying. I have been searching for garments that I particularly want to wear. There are SO many gorgeous sewing 'makes' on Instagram everyday, and I get such inspiration from those (and occasional bouts of jealousy - will I ever sew as well as everyone else?!). But we all have our own aesthetic, and our own sartorial needs, and while I love love love what other people make, very often it's not what I would actually wear. My main clothing needs at the moment revolve around my working-from-home situation, so fitted bodice dresses in woven fabrics, or non-stretch trousers are lovely, but just not what I want to wear (I'll write another post about the dilemmas of sewing a decent-looking at-home wardrobe!)

It's also often easy to get swept along in a social media tide with certain patterns. Maybe a new one comes out and your news-feed is full of amazing versions, or you just notice loads of people making a particular garment. Even when I realistically know that it wouldn't suit my body shape or lifestyle, I still sometimes find myself sucked in and tempted to buy.

I think the other (perhaps more important?) reason I'm so tempted to buy patterns all the time is that I still feel like a newbie sewist without strong base-level skills. So it feels safer/easier for me to buy an existing pattern, and be instructed by someone more knowledgeable than me about how to make the garment. If I were more skilled, or perhaps just a bit more confident, I would be able to either hack the patterns I already have, or pattern cut from existing clothes. I need to learn to do this - it's time to take off the training wheels!!

And I definitely need to stop buying patterns.

So. This is my April pledge - in advance of next month's Me Made May:

I pledge not to buy a single pattern in April. I will use what I already own, modifying if necessary, for any sewing that takes place this month. 

Tune in next month to see how successful I've been (and what I've learnt!)! 

Sewing stories and hand-stitched nostalgia

I've been thinking a lot about sewing and memories and nostalgia lately. Partly this relates to my 'real work' on sewing, where I've thinking about the stories we tell and share about the garments we make. I love that social media has enabled the sharing of our sewing experiences more widely, and that sewing has moved out of the private sphere and into the public - our memories are now not only stitched into the garments we make, but are also woven through the digital stories we tell about them. 

But this little wander down memory lane has also been sparked by a recent inheritance - my Mum's handmade bridesmaid dresses!! Mum was helping Grandma clear out some cupboards recently and I happened to be talking to them both on Skype at the time. The dresses were destined for the secondhand shop where goodness only knows what would have happened to them. I just couldn't let them go! Mum made them herself (and I think her wedding dress...she will no doubt correct me if I've gotten that wrong) and they are genuine 1970s delights! I actually wore the wedding dress itself at high-school in a play (we did the Sound of Music and I was Maria, so I wore the dress to get married on stage. Rather weirdly, the guy they got to play the priest was an actual priest, so it was all very authentic! Poor Mum - I also wore another of her 1970s creations as Maria's "ugly dress"...it was brown with floral and lace. In actual fact, it was probably lovely, and is very likely back in boho fashion now, but in the late 1990s, seen through my teenage eyes, it seemed an ideal Maria look), but I'd never seen the bridesmaid dresses. 

Here they are in 1977 at their original appearance (my two aunts are wearing them - Barbara is the aunt in the yellow, and Joy is wearing the green). 

I can only imagine how giant the heels my Aunty Barbara was wearing...she's under 5ft and that dress is long even on me (at my statuesque 5ft3)! You can see how gloriously late 1970s they are - the high neckline in particular is fabulous. I think Mum's dress was the same pattern. 

Mum and Dad divorced when I was around 11, so to be honest, the dresses don't necessarily have the happiest of memories attached to them in that sense (Grandma was trying to blame the dresses for that bad marital luck, but I'm less convinced of that argument!). 

But I do love that they are a piece of my Mum's (and now my) handmade history. The dresses are so carefully sewn - you can see it in the zigzag stitching along the inside seam allowances and the beautiful rouleau loops and covered buttons Mum made - I just couldn't let them end up rotting away in some second-hand store! 

                             

So now they're mine! What on earth I'm going to do with them I haven't the faintest! I had originally thought perhaps to make a sundress out of the fabric - there's plenty of it. But now I'm not sure I like the idea of cutting into Mum's handiwork. Do I really need a sundress in 1970s poly crepe, or would they be better kept for posterity?! Or is it adding to their story to refashion them into something new? I'm not yet sure. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome! 

While I decide, here are some pics of me dressing up 1970s-style! (I'm wearing the highest wedges I had in my wardrobe and there's still a good 4 inches of fabric on the ground! I couldn't fit into the yellow one. My Aunty Barb is super tiny)

Are you looking at me? Step back! (Getting my 1970s Fierce Side-Eye on)

Ohmygod Mulder - it's a UFO!

No, that's a UFO no more!

When I had my sewing crisis of faith a while back, I properly tidied my office/sewing room (which at that point had literal piles of fabric in heaps on the floor and desk, patterns and sewing magazines stacked precariously in the gaps in between, and random threads and zips floating about). It was actually a little scary. In the cleaning process, I rediscovered my box of UFOs and decided that I either needed to accept defeat with them (was I really ever going to wear this?) or finish them. Some were beyond help and are now cut up into pieces I can reuse for other things. But others I decided I should finish, and when I did that, I rediscovered one dress in particular that I've fallen back in love with.

I had great hopes for this fabric when I bought it - I loved the bold deco print and was determined to carefully pattern match it perfectly. But somehow when I started this dress (probably a year ago), I got into a total hissy fit over it. Yelling and rage. I felt that despite all my best pattern-matching efforts, I'd made a massive cock-up and it looked shit. So I threw it in the UFO box in disgust and have ignored it ever since.

But when I 'found' it again, I realised that, actually, it wasn't so bad. It was...maybe...good, even?! Ok, maybe not perfect, but the centre front is pretty damn good and for the rest of it, well, who the hell cares?! Have you looked at the pattern matching (or rather total lack thereof) in RTW clothes? Clothing retailers don't care, so why the hell should I kill myself for perfection when I'm not much bothered either? This fabric is bold and different and I like it. All I needed to do was hem it and finish the necklines and armholes (because in the UFO phase, I lost the sleeve pieces. I keep losing sleeve pieces! Must pay better attention).

Yay, insta-dress!

I also finished off a test version of the Anna dress that I'd hacked onto a Megan skirt. This is a pattern combo I think I like, but I don't like this particular version (the fabric is a bit blergh). Still, it's nice to have finished it and know that for sure. And the fit of the bodice with no alterations is bloody perfect (ignore the weird neckline - that's a facing problem). I just bought some new fabric to make my first 'real' Anna dress and I'm very excited for it!

And the last finished UFO. This is henceforth to be known as my Rat Bastard Top. It's the ill-fated Wren dress which I adjusted with some bust darts, and then shortened. Initially I shortened it to an above the knee dress but I still hated it, so figured it might work as a top with jeans and a cardy. It's ok. I have so much hatred towards it though (hemming this bastard was a total nightmare of snapped threads and snagged fabric and general cursing). But it's a decent-enough top if you don't look too closely. And at least it's finished.

I find there's a catharsis to finishing things that have long languished in a box. It's not just a new dress and a new top. It's given me a sense of satisfaction and quiet, and I needed both of those this week. It's been an up and down week work-wise (mostly great swooping downs), but sewing has been a little pocket of creativity and calm in the middle of all of that. I'm grateful to have that in my life. 

In which I rediscover my sewing groove

So it's been a while.

In part this is because I've had 2 back-to-back nasty colds (one of which is still lurking, dammit to lurgy hell) and so I didn't really have the energy to be sewing, or blogging. Blowing my nose has occupied an inordinately large amount of my time lately.

But in truth, the bigger reason for my radio sewing silence has been that whole 'sewing nothing but horrible shit' thing. It also got worse after I blogged last (the details of my latest utter balls up will be fodder for another post - I'm hoping to find a fix before I post on that!), so I really was in a total fury.

There are lots of blogs and magazine articles out there which talk about how to find your sewing groove again (they tend to call it 'finding your sewjo' but that term makes me feel mildly nauseous. Ick), and going back to a tried and true pattern is meant to be a good approach. So I ordered some fabric I liked with the plan of making a new Moneta, and sure enough, it has HEALED me! Here's the remedy garment for my sewing blues:

I completely love it. I had to cut a straight rectangle of fabric for the skirt, rather than using the Moneta skirt pattern as it is curved and I really really wanted the lines at the bottom to form the hem. Because that meant the skirt was a bit more narrow than normal, I omitted the pockets which is probably the one thing I'm sad about (because I lurrve pockets. Pockets on everything I say). So. I'm Healed. Jess got her groove back.

Since then I've been finishing off some UFOs (which I'll blog about another day) and that's felt quite good too - productive and efficient. And at the weekend, I was lucky enough to be up in Leeds visiting the lovely Shauni of Magnificent Thread who kindly took me around the fabric shops in town. I got some lovely teal knitted jersey which was intended for a cardigan, and on my drive back south, I called into Fabworks fabric mill shop (because it wasn't far off my route so what choice did I have!?) and there I got the softest, snuggliest brushed cotton fabric. I had no plan at all of putting the two together - but they are a born match! The outfit combo was obvious as soon as I got them home and looked at them. Love it when that happens!

So, I normally work from home quite a bit, and particularly so at the moment as I'm on sabbatical. I joke about working in my pjs, but in all honesty, I do always get dressed. But pjs are comfy, you know? I basically want clothes that offer the comfort of pjs without looking like you're actually in pjs (because the postman just doesn't need to see that everyday!). In summer this is easy, because I can wear jersey dresses, but at the moment I find it's too damn cold.

The Seamwork Moji pants offer pj-like appeal but because of their tapered leg and pockets, they're just a bit more stylish I think - I wouldn't be embarrassed answering the door in them. And to match, I fancied a cardi. I do have the Jenna cardi pattern, but I haven't yet printed it or pieced it together. But this month's Love Sewing magazine has the pattern for a McCall's cardigan - hurrah, no pdf to deal with! It's not actually my usual style tbh, but it's perfect for snuggling up in at home (and NO PDF. Win).

I'm really pleased with the whole ensemble, and the fit of both garments. I took an inch out of the body pieces and sleeves of the cardigan, plus I left the cuffs off (because even with an inch off the length, the cuffless sleeves were still long enough). The instructions were a bit spartan compared to my Indy-pattern norm (I'm so spoiled) but I'm quite proud that I managed to get it all together without drama. I also set the sleeves in flat because who can be arsed with easing in jersey sleeve heads?!

The Moji pants are a straight size 6 and I just put an elastic waistband on instead of draw-string because while elasticated waists are the least attractive thing in the world, they are comfortable and quite frankly, they keep your damn pants up. I only bought 1m of fabric so I didn't have enough to attempt pattern matching, but I don't really care! The cat sees me most and she doesn't appear offended by my mismatched plaid.

Hurrah cosy warm clothes that are super comfy and don't look entirely like pjs (ok, they look a wee bit like pjs, but I promise not to sleep in them!)!

And here we have the academic-on-sabbatical in her natural habitat.