Category Archives: Me Made May

Me Made May

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Here it is again. May. Me Made May. I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed and how little I have been able to achieve craftwise. I know, I have produced a lot but I rarely stretch myself to more difficult tasks. As I usually don’t have much time, I try to be efficient by using the patterns that I have already prepared. Unfortunately this means that I do not learn anything new. At least I have been able to develop the trousers project. I definitely made a lot of trousers over the course of the past year. But for myself, I have only made a few crazy leggings (I guess we can count them as trousers) and one pair of light summer trousers.

Anyway, for Me Made May, I decided to challenge myself and endeavour to use new patterns, especially for tops as I really do not seem to own any decent well fitting top. But for now, I will show you my attempt of a neutral, black or grey skirt to be worn with crazy leggings. Because as much as I do love leggings, I think they should not be seen from upper thigh upwards. Unless you are in a fitness class. So, either you are wearing a tunic or a mini skirt. And since my leggings are not exactly in subtle shades or patterns,

I would need something neutral. Idealy black or grey.

In the spirit of my new found desire to get out of my comfort zone, I have chosen a style that I have never been wearing, at least not for the last 30 years. A ballon skirt.

DSC_0430pattern: Ballonrock by Lybstes, fabric: jaquard sweat by Lillestoff, 40cm left over on sale

I think it looks supercool and it is really comfy. Plus it has pockets for all those little things you need to carry around.

 

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No, I am not colourblind. I am aware that this is neither black nor grey. But thanks for pointing it out to me. I only need a couple of black or grey leggings to combine it with. And anyway, I wanted to try the new pattern with left over fabrics to be sustainable and use up what I have rather than buying new material. Plus, I already got a compliment for it. Actually 2. One by my daugther and one by my favourite neighbour.

And now over to creadienstag   to see what other creative people have made today.

 

 

Me Made May round up: a tremendous success

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Me Made May is over and I haven’t once managed to blog about it. Clearly I was too busy Me Made Maying. Or whatever.

So lets see if we can tick a few boxes:

I pledged to wear one me made piece every day and I can assure you that I have succeeded tremendously. Well, apart from the very last day and that wasn’t my fault. Really. Apart from that. Tremendously. But this part of my pledge had been easy anyway.

So let’s have a look at the slightly more difficult part: Decluttering my wardrobe and identifying my needs. Also tremendous success. I looked into my wardrobe once every day thinking that I will have to throw away this or that (things with holes for example) before putting it back again. So, the main part of the work is basically done, all I need to do now, is to take the things I don’t need any longer and put them into different piles, one with things that are still good for someone else (like thinner and younger people) and one with things that are still good for a new life as cleaning devices.

Another important point of the whole Me Made May experience this year was to identify my problems and needs. Well, surprise surprise, my parrot wardrobe needs a few items that are…. what was the word for it again? Monochrome? No? Neutral? No. Boring! Yes, that was it! It is almost impossible for me to combine two me made items because the all have different patterns and colours. Which came to me as a total surprise, I have to say. Sure, I always hated “twin sets” (a German! expression for these matching T-Shirt – cardigan combos sold by catalogue businesses) and I really don’t understand that lady in my local haberdashery shop who keeps telling me that she always sews in sets: Trousers, top, cardigan, coat, belt, handbag all in 1 (one!) colour. But should I have taken from these experiences that I do have a problem? I don’t think so.

Anyway, time to tackle the problem and make a few items that could go with my many colourful skirts, dresses and tops. Lets have a look into my fabric stash, surely I will find something to get me started.  Or not. But there are a few other nice fabrics just waiting to get turned into dresses. Lovely floral organic cotton jerseys by lillestoff for example.  That could be a useful time filler before magically some of my clothes turn into simple black and white trousers and tops, no? And anyway, I am wearing dresses every day.

So I started with a lovely mustard-purple-orange jersey by enemenemeins and lillestoff which is not only totally unsuitable for my skin type but also as close as one can get to black-white-grey as possible (at least out of my stash).

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The pattern is Gloria by Milchmonster (what a fantastic name) and it is actually suitable for breastfeeding even though I don’t normally like this style of top exposure. I am more of a pull up girl. But it is good to know that in theory I can actually breastfeed if necessary.  And to be honest I have already been wearing this dress at home. A lot. It is very comfy. Probably also because I chose not to do the darts at the back to accommodate my wobbly tummy (according to my lovely children and my mirror).

Those of you who keep focussing on the negative sides of this blog or even life in general might think that this little project is against my Me Made May pledges. Well, at least it doesn’t add to the number of uncombinable (I don’t care if this is in the dictionary or not. It definitely is in my wardrobe) items as I do not actually have to combine it with anything anyway as it is a dress.

And if you absolutely must know, I also have started my announced trousers project. I have already purchased an online class at Tilly and the buttons and printed about 60 pages of pattern. Since this seemed a lot to stick together I have started with a trial project: Two pairs of Sachensuchershorts by fabelwald for my children.

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I love them and they look even better when worn but the children run too fast in these for me to catch them on camera. And for those of you who are still complaining that I got once again side-tracked: You are really starting to annoy me and I am refusing to show you the promised Zsazsa coat. Even though it is finished since aaages. And looks amazing. Not until you apologise and promise to stop being such smarty pants!

 

 

 

Me Made May challenge

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The lovely Zoe of So, Zo… What do you know? is once again hosting the Me Made May challenge and I am happy to say that I just about managed to sign up on time.

I was really looking forward to this as I have made quite a few clothes for myself over the last year. So I was ready for this. However, now that the day has finally come, I wasn’t sure what to pledge. The basic pledge would be to wear one me made item each day. That is not challenging as currently I do that anyway. Mainly because the only T-shirts without holes are the ones that I have made a couple of weeks ago here and here. And there is of course my hoodie. So, I do wear at least one me made item every day anyway.

Another pledge often used in this challenge, is to wear each garment only once or to wear each garment at least once. For the first, I would not have enough yet, for the latter, well, I do not have appropriate occasions to wear all of them. Unfortunately I have a tendency to make lovely dresses although I do not actually wear dresses in my everyday life.

So, I feel that this year, I can not actually do the challenge properly. Being at home without any likelihood to dress up nicely limits the choice in my wardrobe. On the other hand, it is also unlikely to get many new items done in the next couple of weeks.

I have therefore decided to take the challenge as a step forward towards a bigger goal of becoming self-sustaining wardrobe-wise. I am not sure if this will ever be possible or if this is what I really want. What about underwear and things like tights and leggings. Or more functional outdoor wear? I am not sure about that.

So for Me Made May 17 it will be one me made piece of clothing everyday as a base plus I will actually declutter my wardrobe in order to identify my needs and following this, I would like to start eventually adding more useful pieces (rather than just “colourful and fun but unfortunately not matching  with anything else I already own” kind of items). I will also try to finish two projects.  One would be a Zsa Zsa coat as I kind of started this project already. Unfortunately it will fall in the “colourful and fun but unfortunately not matching with anything else I already own” category. The second project will be a pair of trousers. Probably using a pattern by Tilly and the Buttons. I really feel that this will be an important step forward. I have been sewing simple tops and dresses for children for far too long. Time to get out of the comfort zone again and learn something new.

 

Scrap Sunday: A few Me Made May thoughts and a perfect match

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May is long gone and I still haven’t summed up my Me Made May experience. So lets have a look.

I pledged

To declutter my wardrobe. Which I did.

To wear me made items three times a week. Which I think I mainly did. Sometimes not for the whole day. But you try and live with a little vomitter and don’t get changed 7 times a day.

To create some new me mades. Which I definitely did.

And to make some progress on the perfect breastfeeding top. Which I haven’t really. Except if you are accepting a head full of vague ideas as progress. Oh well, I will just have to continue breastfeeding for a while.

I guess, I did the challenge only half heartedly as I have so many things on my plate these days but it was still a very good and inspiring experience. And I am already looking forward to taking part next year.

I have realised that my wardrobe consists of lots of ill fitting and mismatching items. I still kept those that might fit again one day. Even though it is hard to tell where kilos things will be going.

The mismatching is another problem, probably unsolvable. I have the colour palette of a parrot so it is difficult to match things. I guess i should add some neutral colours to the mix to be able to combine things better. But if you know me, that will be a difficult task. I might just accidentally turn something that started as a navy blue top into a parrot coat again.

I have also realised that I tend to think that me mades are precious and not to be worn at messy times. For the children I might be making casual items but I still have a tiny bit the feeling that they shouldn’t ruin them because mummy made them. So they shouldn’t be wearing them when they play. Or eat. Which is basically what children do. So whilst in my knitting classes I am always preaching of “making and letting go”, I do struggle a tiny bit of following this for my own makes.

For myself it is even worse. I love making dresses. Especially nice dresses. But I am not an everyday dress type of person. I am a jeans and whatever shirt I pulled out of the wardrobe type of person. So I don’t really have occasions to wear nice dresses and if I wear them for the school run I feel uncomfortable and overdressed.

I guess the main lesson learned from Me Made May 16 was to make not only more clothes for myself and the children but to focus on staples and more wearable items. And to take it more seriously in general. The ideal would be to be able to make all the clothes for the family myself, wouldn’t it. Which would also mean to not only look out for those cute and special printed fabrics but some plain colours too. Even I wouldn’t mix a patterned top with a multicoloured even more patterned skirt. I said “wouldn’t” because I have done it in the past. Due to lack of a plain item in the right colour.

Oh, and when I say “all” the clothes, I don’t include things like rain clothes or winter coats,… Not for now at least. But I am actually planning to make trousers. As I am clearly wearing trousers more often than dresses.

One good side effect of that new plan would also be to reduce my stash considerably. It had gone down lately. Until dotsnstripes had a super sale, selling some lovely fabrics for £3 a metre. So I am back to huge piles of fabric. I wish a day had 48 hours.

So this week started pretty well, I cut out a T-Shirt and a dress last weekend and managed to sew both on Monday. Then I thought, I could continue with one piece a day but this was it 🙂 Well, apart from a Pippi Longstocking apron which I will show you in a seperate post.

Both patterns  are from my klimperklein book Naehen mit Jersey Kinderleicht!

For the dress I used some of the fabric that had been in my Advent calendar last december. And what a perfect match for the size I had to use 🙂 (the pattern doesn’t even include seam allowance yet!):

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I love it, it is obviously girly but not the usual boring pinkish stuff.

For the pirate shirt I had plenty of fabric because I had bought that fabric for  a onesie which never happened. So for once I actually looked at the position of the pattern when cutting out rather than just squeezing it into a corner of the fabric to have as little waste as possible and so the motives are spread out evenly.

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I combined it with palm tree green stripes for the sleeves and orange for the neck and sleeves.

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After I had made the sleeve cuffs too tightly, I panicked and the neck binding is now slightly too loose. But I love the combination and have decided to make a similar combo for his brother. I don’t normally like matching children but I guess pirates usually do come in bunches.

Oh, I almost forgot. I also made a pair of shorts out of scraps. The pattern suggested jogging sweat and I had grey or blue. The boy chose blue (believe it or not but I would have preferred the grey) and as I am struggling with plain colours I put lots of other stuff there, like a double layered application. Which is also a good way of using up tiny pieces of scrap 🙂

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I am a teeny weeny bit unsure about the material choice. Obviously a certain thickness is needed for robustness. But then it might get quite warm. Which doesn’t make sense for a pair of shorts. Hmm. I might just try the same pattern with a woven fabric. It will be much cooler and we will see how long it will survive. But that will have to wait a little bit as this week it will be my and mini pirate’s turn.