MMM - the final days and a couple of new things

Well MMM has now wrapped up, and whilst I like wearing me-made each day, it turns out for the most part I wear at least one me-made item each day, taking a picture of myself everyday is a little tedious.  I apologize in advance for the pics that all have the same backdrop.  I am now back in Brisbane and it turns out winter is well on the way and it is now dark at 5.30pm so I can't go outside to take pics.

Day 20
A bonus for you - two outfits today! One a new one, still not sure how I feel about it though. The top is a Sorbetto (free download don't ya know!), and the skirt a simple dirndl.

That evening I met up with Erin of MissCrayolaCreepy for ice cream in Arroyo Grande.  I had emailed her for some fabric shopping tips and she suggested we meet up. "Hell Yeah" I thought, what a fun opportunity.  Of course we talked sewing patterns, adjustments and blogging all over the most delicious ice cream!  I had Strawberry with a chocolate fudgy ribbon and Erin had one called Motoroil, a super chocolate-y one!  Yum-o!  If you haven't checked out Erin's blog, go do it, she has some lovely makes and is currently hosting a Gatsby Challenge.

It was a little cooler and I wanted to wear a cardi, so I wore my Spring has Sprung Hazel.

 photo courtesy of MissCrayolaCreepy

 

Day 21

Off to LA in my I Feel Pretty Hazel.  Here I am rummaging through fabric at The Loft where they sell fabric offcuts by the pound, and when I say offcuts they were mostly 5-10 yards a piece! I bought 9lb of fabric - go me!!

Day 22
Guess where we went today (in Colette Sorbetto blogged here):

Day 23
Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, wearing Tiramisu (appropriate perhaps??).

 

Day 24

We had a super long day as our flight was not until 11.45pm. We filled most of the time in an Outlet Mall for some last minute shopping. This is a new top, a variation on the Banksia by Megan Nielsen.

Day 25 - Ha - we totally missed this day on our flight home!

Day 26 - No pics sorry, I was feeling super average after our long overnight flight. I can't even remember what I wore!!

Day 27
My Buttons are Expensive Dress

Day 28
Hmmm, black photographs so badly, I have tried lightening the photo, but now it looks like my top is see-thru!! It's not, but it is printed with little charcoal polka dots that reflect the flash. The skirt is my basic black made last year and blogged here.

Day 29
Breakfast meeting today so I had to look presentable, wearing Vintage Vogue 9463.

Day 30
More black - what can I say, it feels like winter today and the colour seems appropriate. Merino ruffle top and BurdaStyle skirt.

 

Day 31
Working at home today, yay, in my Hollyburn skirt, look out for two more soon!

 

MMM Summary

So I really learnt about my wardrobe shortfalls this month, although perhaps it wasn't super indicative as I was away for most of the month and my travelling wardrobe is always different from what I wear day to day.  Not sure why this is, I guess the majority of my time is spent at work so I need work appropriate attire.  But being away made me really notice how many casual clothes I need to make. Tops and skirts will be the go before my next trip away, whenever that might be!! This week I have also noticed a desperate shortage of work appropriate winter wear. I have started on some of these items already and hope to blog them soon. 

 

Whew, so glad to not have to photograph myself everyday - that is hard work!!  How did you all go?

MMM - Days 13-19

So we are now more than halfway through me-made-May! How are you all going?  I am on, but sorry starting to repeat now, so sorry if this is boring, I will put up new outfits separately so you can skip these if you are tired of the same clothes. Travelling severely limits the variety unfortunately, and the weather has not been as warm as I hoped, limiting me even more.

I have realised I need to make the following:
- capris
- a couple more skirts, and a better Kelly skirt, perhaps in denim
- a Minoru would make a great travel jacket if I can find the right fabric

So, on to what I wore:

Day 12
Touring in south Tennessee, such pretty country, I just love it down there!
Lorna Suzanne cardi and Old Navy jeans.

Day 13
Off to the Jack Daniels Distillery and more driving through the countryside, I wore my Sew for Victory dress, I love it, but seemed to be the only one wearing a dress in the area. It seemed like jeans were the uniform!

Day 14
Finally a warm day and I got to take a sundress out of my suitcase!  This is my Hazel dress blogged here.

Day 15 &16
Ok, I did wear me made on these days, but we arrived in San Francisco on the 15th and both the 15th and 16th were so cold that I had to layer so much that all me made was buried! This is how I looked for two whole days, cannot believe the wind in San Fran, it just rips through your clothes, but the locals seemed to think it was warm!

Day 17
Once out of the wind it was a pretty nice day. This photo taken out front of the "painted ladies" in San Francisco, I am wearing my BurdaStyle skirt and Papercut Coppelia cardi (to be blogged soon).

Day 18
Now on the drive from San Francisco to Monterey, such gorgeous scenery. Wearing the same outfit as day 12. Lorna Suzanne cardi and Old Navy jeans.

Day 19
Yay kinda warm today, so I am wearing my Colette Sorbetto and Mango jeans.

Whew! That's quite a catch-up, hopefully as we head further south I will be able to wear some different clothes to make it more interesting.

MMM - Days 6-10

So far Me Made May is going well but I am definitely learning my wardrobe shortcomings and where I need to focus going forward.

MMM is also really good for getting me to blog some of the items I haven't previously blogged as I didn't feel they deserved their own posts.

So, onto what I wore and some things I have learnt so far:

Day 6

Skirt - Kelly skirt 

Top - Coppelia Cardi by Papercut, to be blogged soon 

From prolonged wear, I have realised this skirt is still too big around the waist and I really should have used a stiffer interfacing to stop the waistband stretching further. I have already altered this once and am not super keen to pick it apart again...hmmm hot wash perhaps?? BTW - the picture is taken at our gorgeous B&B we stayed at in Kentucky, a historical mansion. 

Day 7

 

My Lorna Suzanne cardi blogged here.
I love this cardi, although the collar means I can't wear it with any of my Banksia tops as collar on collar looks weird. The three quarter sleeve also limits wearability. I still love the pattern though.
Psst...check out the brekky, yum-o, this is what we got served in the morning at the B&B!
Day 8

Top - Colette pattern Sorbetto Skirt - BurdaStyle Denim skirt
I love this skirt and wear it loads, it seems to go with everything and makes a nice change from jeans.
Day 9
 

Skirt - Kelly skirt again from above Top - Hole-y moly Banksia
Day 10
Ok, so this day I kinda cheated! We went to Mammoth Cave on this day and the caves are really cold, so I wore long cargo pants and a thick jumper, not made by me at all, but practical and warm. I didn't pack for super cold weather and so didn't really have any much warm with me, besides what if I got my nice me-made things dirty? So we walked a lot and exhausted when I got to the hotel I changed into my Pjs which I remembered I did make! Not previously blogged as I didn't fancy posing on the internets in my jammies, but you get the idea!

Floral Sorbetto

OK not very imaginatively named I know.  Not really my forte coming up with fabulous names for garments, but here it is nonetheless, my floral Sorbetto.

First of all, this was a stupid day to try and take pictures, it was 40 degrees Celsius (104F) which was ridiculous. So here I am cowering in the shade to take pics to share with you all!

Enough whinging and onto the sewing stuff. The pattern is Colette's Sorbetto able for free download, thank you again Colette for this winning pattern!

This time around I cut a size 6 in the shoulders grading to a size 10 on the bust and size 12 through the hips and I am much happier with the fit.  I also added about 1.5" to the hem and curved it up at the sides to give a nicer look when worn out over pants.

I started out by making the bias binding using Colette's continuous bias tape tutorial.  IMHO this is way faster than the individual strip method if you want to end up with a large amount of bias. I started with a pretty big square of fabric so ended up with heaps of lovely bias, enough for this top and something else in the future.

You will see above that I used the pin method to fold my tape.  I set up two pins just wider than the iron and fed the folded bias through them I then lay the iron between the pins and just guided the fabric through using both hands as the iron just lay there.  Nice and quick and a good result too.

The other addition I made was to add a trim just under the pleat on the front. I sewed this under the pleat but left the pleat so it was not sewed down as I didn't want it to have the top stitched look.

The fabric is from my Black Friday haul that I ordered in from fabric.com. A cotton called Mackinaw Island for Benartex according to the selvage. The main thing for me is that it is nice and cool to wear, especially with this crazy heat wave we seem to be having. 

My biggest problem with this heat is getting into my sewing room, it is like a sauna as it is upstairs and I guess closer to the roof space. I have an aircon unit, but it blows my sewing all over the place!  Might have to relocate for a bit I think.

By the way, the bush I am standing in front of is a Hibiscus, isn't the flower pretty and a stunning colour?

Kelly Skirt AKA the Shorts that Weren't...and a Sorbetto

Originally I had planned to make some capris next as per my Spring/Summer Plan however for some crazy reason when I bought the fabric thought I could get long shorts out of one and a quarter yards. What was I thinking? The fabric is only 44" wide....unless I was going to make hotpants.... nah, never going to happen.

No matter which way I tried to manipulate the shorts pattern it just wasn't going to work. So onto plan B - a skirt, the Kelly Skirt to be precise.  It seems I was very slow catching onto the Megan Nielsen patterns, but I am now converted having recently completed two Banksias blogged here and here.

The pattern was a dream to sew up and miraculously I made no adjustments.

Ok, well I didn't cut the waistband in one piece as prescribed, I didn't have enough fabric for that, so I cut in in three pieces, one back piece and two fronts, as the seam allowances all line up it looks like it was supposed to be that way.

The side seams and waistband are all topstitched which I think has given a more professional finish.



To remove bulk and add some fun, I lined the pockets with fabric left over from a previous Banksia. 

 

 

Not being able to find buttons that I was happy with I went with covered buttons.

 

Initially I wasn't sure I would like the pleats and thought they might stick out weirdly, but they don't and I think the silhouette is actually quite flattering - look, I have a waist!

 

 

For the observant Colette fans you may recognise the top pattern, it is the ubiquitous Sorbetto not previously blogged.  This is my only Sorbetto so far as I found it a bit boxy but it works really well tucked into this skirt.

Interestingly I was on Twitter tonight and saw the link to a news article where some researchers have worked out mathematically the perfect skirt length to make your legs look fantastic.  Now I never considered there would be an equation for this, surely it depends on the occasion and one length is not for all styles or events?  However, curiosity got the better of me and coincidentally this skirt turns out to be my perfect length!  (84cm from my shoulders if you are interested)

 

In reality it is actually this length because it is the length of the original pattern piece and I didn't have enough fabric to make it longer!! But I am pretty happy that I didn't make it longer.

 

 

I expect I may be making more of these - when I bought this fabric, I also bought two other pieces in different colouts with the intetion to make several shorts, but of course that fabric is too short too - DUH!  Guess my summer wardrobe will be skirt based, not shorts!

 

Does anyone else make stupid mistakes like me, buying the wrong amount of fabric for a specific project and then having to revert to a plan B??