MeMadeMay week 3

Where did the weekend go?! As I prepare this post on Tuesday morning I cannot fathom where the last three days have gone! I managed to get some sewing in last sunday and finished up this first run of my Deer and Doe Ondee sweater - it's a little too big however still totally wearable. After finishing this all motivation to do anything left me so instead of fixing up the pattern pieces I sat doing a jigsaw for about 3 hours.

Day 11:

My ear is absolutely killing me today so whereas I took a picture I felt no inclination to smile... the skirt is a RTW from Oasis it's a favourite RTW piece that i'm not parting with any time soon :-D.


Day 12:
When we got in yesterday our upstairs neighbours were in full on party mode. From the sounds of it there were at least 20 of them jabbering on up there. When I got ready for work this morning and left at around 9 they were still going strong. Hopefully we can find our house soon and be rid of them! I  other news today was another day for my second NL6020 and Deer and Doe Ondee.

My ear was still sore on Tuesday however had calmed down significantly from Monday. I managed some sewing in the evening however I honestly don't know where time went as all of a sudden it was like 23:30 - I'm working on a present right now and will be able to share this by the end of June :-)

Day 13:
Nothing much to report today. I was trying to make a rose plot all day at work and was voluneered to do some invigilation on Monday. Sould give me scope to write up some thesis.

Today I wore my Thurlows and Bronte top. The office is just too cold for tights just now. The whole of instagram seemed to be enjoying sunshine yet we have a cold dark office :-(

Day 14:
I wore my new look 1467. We didn't do anything much on Thursday but our shower rail fell down :-(. Oh well we bought a new one, it only cost £13!

Day 15:
We ended up going out for dinner at the fort - nothing fancy, just a Frankie and Bennies - or Ben and Jerrie's as I always get confused!! haha. I was well prepared as I had on my New Look 6144 which I think looks quite smart for both work and dinner out.

Day 16:
Today I went to the Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow. A great hidden treasure! It was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh - the same person who designed glasgow school of art. After I went to one of my friends for cocktails! It was a great day (mostly - you cannot account for arsehole neighbours!) but as we went for drinks I thought my Oktoberfest dress appropriate.

The Oktoberfest dress is there - under the school uniform!!

Day 17:
It was around 8:30 pm before I got a picture today - I was so damn busy!

Another outing for my grey coco dress

We had friends over for dinner - and we had wine - a magnum of wine. It felt so middle class we brought out the crystal glasses - just to finish off proceedings!

So all in all another succesfull week I think! I'm certainly seeing some patterns emerging and know what I need to make more of to enable my wardrobe to work better for me!

Hope you are all still enjoying Me Made May :-)

Jenn xx

A Completed Emery Dress

I have joined the party!

Meet my latest make - Emery. I did make this a few weeks back so I have got a lot of wear out of this especially at the games and laterally at the festival. A little fox pas though - at the time of making this dress I did not realise how much it resembled the school tunic of Glasgow academy....

Outside St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh

So following in the footsteps of my philatelists dress, this is the Glasgow Academy dress. Usage strictly limited to weekends and halowe'en. Heh.

Lurking the close - Well as it is an emery I had to get a Dolly Clacket esque shot outside the door :p

I bought the fabric back in April at Sherringham market in the pretty Norfolk town where me and the other half went on holiday - to visit where he grew up. I'm not really sure what the composition is but I melted a little bit of the inner waistband when I was presing it so there's at least a good %age of polyester in there... it was also all kinds of stretchy which made it a pain to sew.

I've read a few places that the bodice of the emery was a little short and sure enough after making a muslin (:O:O:O (only of the bodice though)) that it was indeed a little short. I also didn't like how high the neckline sat so edited the pattern to remove a small slice starting at the botton of the shoulder and along to the centre front.

After adding a little bit of length at the lengthen/shorten lines allowed the bodice to hit my waist

I didn't fancy the bow or the collar so made up the dress with none of the options but made sure to keep the inseam pockets. Im not sure I could wear this style with no pockets they're so darn handy! They're the perfect size for keys and a phone (both were totally in my pockets while taking photos) and are so effortlessly hidden within the fabric of the skirt when you're wearing the dress.

there was a slight offset occurred when hand stitching the waist - im not gonna lie you can notice it when worn but meh the front looks good!!

I'm thinking the back of this dress is still a little broad so the next time I'm going to either make the top back darts a little bigger or maybe cut the size down and only use 1/2 inch seams - does anyone have any thoughts on this fitting issue?

Added bonus - the zip lined up!

I really like the pattern for this dress - it really lends itself to large prints so much so I have another one ready to go - once the back issue is sorted!

The only thing i would do differently next time is to shorten the hem by about an inch so I don't have to take such a large hem.

Has anyone else made up the emery dress?

Also while i'm here I have a couple of shots of the cat print bronte I posted last week

Another photo lurking around next to St Mary's

This one is a little far out but I think it's just possible to see that the fit is prety good.

A slightly closer shot the top is a little loose around the waist but then - thats how she wanted it!

Have a good week guys
JCS

A Second Cat Print Bronte

Happy Monday!

Where has time gone?? So after a busy two weeks of taking part commonwealth games activities, and another week of the Edinburgh festival plus a thesis which has now passed the mere planning phase, free sewing time has been strictly limited!
 On the plus I did manage to whip up this Bronte top for my mum on Friday night. (I'm also waiting to find a tripod for my camera to arrive so the picture is awful at best)

Bronte Top

 It really was a fast make this one and because I had made it before and there were now the full compliment of sewalong instructions ( here) I was confident I knew what I was doing! I kid not I am like the slowest sewer ever and i started this at 6 pm on friday and after a dinner break and a beer run and an hour long battle rethreading my overlocker it was finished by about half 10.

The top is a little tight on me but my mums measurements are that of the patterns size 10 and I cut mine in a 14. Although on seing this I think i'll make any subsequent versions for me in a size 12.

The fabric for this was a cat print lightweight jersey from remnant kings - I picked it up near the end of the sale and they don't have it online any more, but yeh! cats :-D. I also think the binding worked out better this time than the last - it sits flatter and doesn't droop the same after a full day at the festival! (after giving it to her it was put on straight away and she loved it!) so she liked it, I'm proud of how it turned out and I have some fabric left over for a tank top. WIN!

Has anyone else made up the bronte? I really love the neckline (as i've said before) and reckon when the cold breaks through the window in the flat it will be a useful extra layer!

Also a recent purchase I made was some woven labels to add to my makes! Does anyone else use these? I thought they were pretty cool.

 

Hopefully I'll have my big project finished soon and can share a few more makes.

Have a good week all

JCS

A Completed Bronte

So this wasn't in the sewing plan however when this pattern was released I couldn't resist! Meet [Charlotte] Bronte!

Apologies for the distance shots - I was trying to keep the sunburn out of view!

 Made up in an Alexander Henry jersey knit, this is the softest fabric i have ever had the pleasure of putting next to my skin!

this was a metre long remnant I have had in my stash for about 6 months and was just waiting to be made into this top. There were vague musings that I would draft a tank top but I thought the fabric deserved something a little better...

This top included a lot of firsts for me:
1st time sewing a knit
1st binding
1st time using twin needle and proper stretch stitch

and all in I think it turned out pretty damn well! I also think this was a good fabric/pattern to try working with knits on because it was dark - any snags of the thread have been hidden! and the small issue I had with attaching the binding at the end is cleverly hidden by the overlap :p

These pics were taken after wearing the top to work all day and apart from a little drooping of the front neckline it kept its shape pretty well.

Clearly the other half never got the memo to tidy the house...

 I cut a straight size 14 with no alterations - and the fit was perfect! I could have cu a 12 but would have resulted in a tighter fit which I'm not so keen on in knits. I also made absolutely no attempt to match the pattern... haha I don't even think its possible with this pattern

I don't quite know whats going on with the hem on the right hand side there...

another first for this make - it was the first make on my machine since it was repaired! and its running like a dream! :-)

So i'm not sure when i'll make this up again but it certainly fills a hole in the wardrobe. I really like the style and think it could work well made up in a more plain knit.

Has anyone else made up the Bronte top?

Take care guys

JCS :-)