Me Made May '13 - The Rest of Week One

Day Four: Star Wars Day!  May the fourth be with you!  I made some alterations to my trousers from the April outfit and the fit is much better now!  Yay! With my striped t shirt, Effortless, and Song of the Sea cowl, this is an entirely me-made, warm and casual outfit.

Day Five:  The grey jersey dress with my thrifty green v-neck tee over the top.  I'm digging the t shirt over a dress thing, extra layer for warmth, extra wardrobe options, it's a winner!  Also wearing my Honey Bunny cowl.  I love the way the colours in the cowl are picked up by the rest of the outfit.

Day Six:  A busy day so I didn't manage to get a photo during daylight hours, and we're getting less and less of those as we head towards winter.  This outfit is the sleeveless blouse from May's upcoming outfit, my Damson shawl and Forestry cardigan.  The cardigan was made some time ago, and while the body still fits well, the sleeves are too big now, I'm trying to decide whether or not to rip the sleeves and  do them again because I really really love this cardigan.  The jeans in this one are thrifted, a whole 50 cents worth! 

Day Seven:  The pink cord skirt and tie dyed tights from May's outfit, my refashioned blouse and refashioned cardigan.  This one is another very me-made outfit!

So, one week down and I'm tracking pretty well.  I still have garments that haven't made an appearance yet and combinations that I want to try out so I'm really happy with the progress and versatility of my handmade wardrobe so far.  It will be interesting to see how I go as the weather gets colder, I must say I'm glad I'm a knitter!

Outfit Three: April

Now that the weather is cooling down my outfits are getting a bit more substantial.  April is four pieces, five if you count the bracelet I made by deconstructing necklace.  The main feature is the blazer.  I fell in love with this cotton drill critter fabric and bought a couple of metres of it with  plans to make a dress for Joss and maybe a bag for me.  The more I looked at it though the more I wanted to keep it for myself.  Now it's all mine! 

A simple blazer with a shawl collar, cropped sleeves and a single button.  I'm really pleased with my top stitching on this one.  I have a tendency to rush it and get all wonky, but I'm finally taking my time and getting good results.

This is the first time I've made a blazer so the whole thing was a learning experience.  I lined it with some light grey poly cotton I scored from the op shop.

Another first: double welt pockets.  I'm not 100% satisfied with them, but for a first effort they're alright.  One of the best things about doing 12 outfits is that I'm using techniques that I haven't tried before.

Blazer Pattern: Burda magazine 9/2008 pattern 129.

I have mixed feelings about the trousers.  They're comfortable, and the fit is ok, but the linen in there means they crease like crazy and get a bit baggy with wear.  They spring right back into shape with a wash but as you can see from the pics, after a day's wear they're not sitting very well.  More learning!

Trousers pattern: Burda magazine 1/2009 pattern 121

I got the wool blend jersey for April's top from the spotlight bargain table for $3 a metre.  It is lightweight, soft and super drapey.  I had planned to make a different top with it but that style didn't sit right under the blazer so I had to find another pattern.  This one is another Burda mag pattern, 3/2010, 118B.  The deep cowl neckline and drawstring waist make it a bit fancier than a plain tee and it dresses up and down really well.

Finally, the silk scarf.  It took forever to knit and I was so pleased to be done with it, but it was worth every minute and every hand cramp.  It is gorgeous and soft and drapey and light and warm.  I only ended up using half the 100g skein of yarn even though I did a full 13 pattern repeats.  This is also number 5 of my 13 in 13 from stash.

Pattern: Groovy in laceweight

Yarn: Sulky Silk from Mayhem & Chaos in Bad Things

Needles: 2.5mm

I tried to make every part of this outfit as versatile and wearable as possible.  With Me Made May just around the corner we'll see just how successful that was!

Pyjamarama

The last week has been a busy and productive sewing week.  Which is strange because it was the first week of school holidays and I really wasn't expecting to get much done with both kids home all day every day.  Early in the week I dragged out some ribbed fabric I bought at the op shop several years ago.  I had always planned to make pyjamas with it, bit had never got past that point of planning.  There were only 2 metres of fabric so it was going to be a tricky to get a pair of adult PJs but i managed it.

The bottoms are from this lovely unisex trackies pattern.  Narrow legs and very high waist.  I mean extremely high waist.  I could have added straps to the waistband and worn it as a jumpsuit.  Even after reducing the hight they sit right up to my waist but for pyjamas thats pretty damn comfy.  Having used the pattern for PJs I'm going to make a few little mods and make some trackie pants.  

For the top I drafted the pattern below up to size 14.  I shouldn't have bothered as the pattern has way more ease than I was expecting, I could have cut a size 10.

To break up the vast expanse of blue I used some of my large collection of thrifted elastic.  Cream lace at the neckline and the hem.  My local op shop has a bigger range of undies elastic and elastic lace than any of the fabric stores around here.  Its brilliant.

The best part of the sewing week was Friday.  Darron took both kids to the zoo for the day and I got to spend a whole day sewing uninterrupted with my music loud.  I finished my trousers for April, but even trying them on and adjusting as I went, once the waistband went on they were miles too big.  So the waistband came off.  More adjustments were made yesterday and now they (mostly) fit!  

It has been over three years since I've made trousers, and even then I was a novice.  Fitting has never been my strong suit and fitting trousers properly is a skill I am yet to master.  So I will make more and figure it out.  I may need to look into a class.

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