Me-Made-May 2015 overview

At first, I have to admit that I did not keep my pledge 100%. I tried and kept wearing me-made clothes the whole month, but at least one me-made garment every day was little bit too much.

The weather was somehow strange the whole month and I realized that after 2 winters and only one summer of me sewing, I just do not have enough summery things. And not enough separates.

However, the month is far from being lost because I kept sewing and sewing. Besides finishing my first coat, I sewed 3 more tops, out of which I have already worn 2. In addition, I bought Anna pdf pattern and started sewing a more than wearable muslin of it. Already finished, but will need some time to take pictures and blog about it.

All-in-all, I have consumed almost 10m of fabric (compared to 18m bought, ehm, ehm).

I also realized that I have too many finished garments which I have not blogged about yet. Mostly because I am too lazy to take pictures of myself in them, or, I have not worn them yet so taking pictures is more difficult.

But back to Me-Made-May: and a few lessons I need to learn from for next year

As always, I have a few favorite garments which I tend to wear over and over. I am even thinking of the same styles sewing again from another (already bought) fabric. This is somehow getting against my hope to try and sew new pattern. And I have many of those as well. 

Separates are a great way to keep with my pledge (all 3 pics from our trip to Berlin):

Black is certainly my colour. Ok, most of the pictures are my work-outfits. I tend to wear brown-black-grey and that’s it. Perhaps if it was a me-made August when I spend 3 weeks on vacation, the colour palette might be different.

I should definitely sew some more skirts. This grey one is a great staple and the brown one is soo comfy. And I just love both patterns.

Ok, there is probably nothing transcending in this article, but I felt obliged to post a MMM recap in the end. It was fun to take pictures f myself every day and it is interesting to see the whole month here. In the end, little bit of colour might not harm… :o)

Flowery top (stash-busting May bonus)

And a great top! So I have finished my coat... Before schedule. But more details on that later, I still need to take pictures of it. 

I still had two week-end days before me so I went for a quick top. I have some beautiful silk to use on this top, so I wanted to make a wearable muslin first.

The pattern I used is Simplicity 6808 which I bought in pdf version >>> BIG mistake. I am used to Burda print patterns which are usually not much paper-consuming (as Burda combines all sizes together and you need to trace them out). But this one was just a nightmare. 

Actually, they want you to print out the three big sheets which you usually find in the paper version. All this just for one simple top. I ended up looking at the plans just to figure out which part I do not have to print. Not because I am saving up on the cartridge, but I trace out all patterns (never cut them out) on silk paper anyway, so all the printed paper then goes to the bin.

Anyhow, for the first time I did the usual shoulder-sleeve adjustments before cutting the fabric and I shortened the top. I used a rest of a very lovely flowery viscose from this dress. I just love the fabric but I have seen it not keeping the proper form. It is quite OK on the dress, since its top is body-hugging and the skirt quite large, but on the top I was afraid it would become like a cheap t-shirt.

That’s why I decided to interface the top with brown silk-cotton muslin. I bought this wonder in a few colours and basically used it only once for this top (in double layer).  As interfacing it worked wonderfully. It does not add any bulk but just keeps the viscose from extending.

As my top is basically a wearable muslin, I did not bother inserting the zip. Instead, I used only 3 press buttons – a closing which I should have done from front to back and not the other way. I will do better next time.

The sleeves got in perfectly and I decided to fold them at the hem as well. 

 For my version I went with the asymmetrical collar, minus the bow.

All in all, I am very happy about this top. It is adjusted, with cute sleeves and the right collar, and of course many further options. I will certainly be sewing some more from this pattern.

Inspiration: wearable muslin

Pattern: Simplicity 6808

Pattern changes: shoulder-sleeves, length

Technique: nothing special..

Fabric: flowery viscose, silk-cotton muslin for interfacing

Time to Complete: 1 day

Total Cost: 12 EUR

MMM 2015 - 2nd week

I am writing my weekly summary already now, because between my Sunday's activities of sewing, cooking and sports I know I will not be wearing any me-made clothes.

This is the first time I am really following the MMM challenge and I find it quite fun. Strangely, I thought I would need more time to find the right clothes to wear in the morning, but the limited choice actually makes things easier.

I also had 2 constraints added to the challenge: one is a constantly changing weather, the other was my hurt foot, therefore, I spent the whole week in my boots without heels. This should get better next week.

  Day 4: Silk dress with little flowers

  Day 5: Apple-seed dress

  Day 6: Black wool skirt and silk-viscose top

Day 7: Brown skirt with pockets

  Day 8: Wool dress (kind of shrunken now, so I do not wear it too often

  Day 9: Grey wool skirt (I went fabric shopping, buying a lot of silks, yay)

Looking at these pictures, I admit I tend to wear a very similar pattern, in terms of colours, as in terms of clothes. But this is not limited to my me-mades, I believe you would see something rather similar if I were to wear purely RTW as well.

PS: my spring coat is finished, way ahead of time, I just need to take pictures and post it here

MMM 2015 – 1st (mini)week

The first week of this year’s MMM was actually a long week-end I spent travelling to Germany and Austria, which meant multiple challenge:

• The weather forecast was quite bad for this time of year, so I had to stick to my winter coat
• I only had a small luggage to share with my BF
• At least one of my Me-Made clothes

So here we go Day 1: visiting Herreninsel on the Chiemsee. The place was really nice and the castle somehow foolish, but certainly worth the stop. Wearing my brown pocket skirt.

Day 2: sightseeing in Salzburg, this outfit is probably too green/khaki, but as said I was stuck with only one winter coat. Khaki dress, made by me.

Day 3 was not me-made for one simple reason: I run the Salzburg marathon (in a very bad rainy weather, oh well, that happens), and all my running, as well as post-running clothes were bought.