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!)!