Me Made May - Days 14 & 18

Wow, over half through May! This month (and year) is flying by. I have to admit I cheated a little bit with my photos this week - I didn't manage to get any photos of my outfit on Tuesday so I recreated it this morning. On the plus side, I actually wore this same outfit twice this week (I had meetings with different people so I thought I could get away with it!)

This is the circle skirt I wore the week before paired with the second Sencha blouse I made.

I made this last summer following my (as yet unblogged) first attempt at the Sencha blouse. This one is made from organic bamboo silk from Raystitch with a silk dupion collar and covered buttons. It's been a while since I made this but I recall (after many many toiles for my first one) making a square shoulder adjustment of about 3cm to alleviate some serious pulling from the shoulders and a lethal strangling neckline. At first it seemed to have been the right thing but I have realised that the neck stills pulls up a bit so next time I might drop the neckline a little.

I also took in the back darts quite a bit as there was lots of room in the back and I prefer things a little more fitted. I think I took them in a couple of cm on each side. The fabric is quite sheer which really called for french seams. But I forgot. So instead I employed a lovely little faux french seam. I had already sewed the seams with a 5/8" allowance, I then folded each side of the seam inwards to enclose the raw edge and sewed them up. Not a bad save in the end!

I think you just about make out the faux french seam (apologies for the worn/un-ironed mess)

The inside of this top is far from perfect but I loved spending a bit more time on it and really enjoyed all the hand stitching that is suggested, I think catchstitch might be my most favourite thing ever! I drafted the collar following Gertie's tutorial and it turned out perfect! The tutorial was so easy to follow and the collar went together great. Because of the sheerness of the fabric I had to reduce the neck facing so it sat right behind the collar and didn't show through. I got a piece of silk dupion off eBay for a few pounds to help build my stash and thought it would be nice to use for this. It was, until I decided to stick my top in the machine a couple of times and it's now started to wear. Oops. Here's a pic of the collar and silk covered buttons.

Can you see the frayed edge on the right? I should really take more care.

 I love this top, the only problem is I get this crazy crease and baggy areas around the middle. It's either a result of terrible posture or bad fitting. Or both. Look.

Can you make out the huge crease along the front?

(Not sure if you've noticed but I am not friends with the iron). I'm hopeful that I may have found a solution and by lengthening the darts it will reduce the excess fabric here. I'm going to try it on my next Sencha but if there are any other suggestions out there I'm all ears. 

Saturday's outfit consisted of my recent Grainline Moss. I made this with a nice wool mix so it's work perfect but I think it works pretty well for a casual weekend too. I'll share some more details on this next week. 

Surprise - it's not ironed!

Me Made May Days 6 & 7

The sun is finally out! Kind of - the last few days have been beautiful but our summer in the Lakes appears to be over already, it's forecast rainy showers for the next two weeks. I wish I had got a photo of Windermere this morning to share with you, the lake was like glass and the reflection was incredible. But alas, you'll just have to imagine it instead. Sorry.

Yesterday was beautiful too and I managed to finish another Sorbetto top at the weekend which made for a perfect casual me made bank holiday outfit.

I feel like such a latecomer to the Sorbetto party but I can see why it's been so popular. I added about 5 cm to my second version as the original was a bit too short to wear untucked. I'm really glad I did this as I think this one goes really well with jeans but I'll still be able to tuck it in with skirts for work. I've made no other adjustments apart from the length but I have realised that there's a lot of room in the back...

Hmmm. The word swayback keeps entering my head. Please can someone tell me it's not as scary as it sounds...

I'm really not a floral person and I'm generally pretty rubbish at buying prints but I've seen so many lovely things on other people that I thought I should take a punt and I think it's worked out ok. I got this viscose fabric at my local fabric shop (30 miles away!) for £6.99 which I thought was pretty good. It took easily less than a metre to make so I reckon it cost me a about a fiver.

Back to work today and I got to wear my brand spanking Kelly Skirt! I made this last week and was really pleased to do it in a day from tracing the pattern to doing all those pesky buttonholes. It is a beginner pattern and was super easy but I think I'm a pretty slow sewer and there's always something I have to unpick.

I love this skirt but it does crease a bit easily. It's a linen/cotton blend and I took these pictures after a day at work so you can probably see the creases from where I've been sat on my backside all day and the bad crease along the waistband.

I didn't make any changes to the pattern at all, cutting a straight size S and the fit is pretty good. There's a bit of dodgy sewing on the front waistband which means it gapes a little but its not too bad. You would be shocked to see the insides of some of the things I've made but I'm trying to make a effort to be a neater and all round better sewer and I finished all the inside seams on this with the overcast stitch on my machine. What a revelation! I'd tried this stitch before but it hadn't quite worked so I had just been zigzagging on the odd occasion that I bothered but it never turned out very well. This on the other hand looked beautiful! But the best thing is...I've got owls in my pockets!

Everybody needs owls in their pockets

Mmmm, look at these lovely buttons!

Me Made May - Day 2

Welcome along to my little corner of Me Made May 13!

Today is the second day of MMM 13 but this is my first post. My pledge is to wear two handmade garments each week and although this is my first post I actually wore a me made yesterday too! Unfortunately, I was in London for work yesterday so I was up super early and back super late so after a day on the train and the rest of day sitting in meetings a photo was not going to do me or my clothes any justice.

Which brings me on to today, my first official Me Made day and I'm so excited to be taking part in something with so many other sewers.

Sorbetto top - fabric bought from Walthamstow market for £4/m. Black half circle skirt.  Frowny face.

I made the half circle skirt sometime last summer using Casey's sewalong instructions and have worn it absolutely tons! The fabric is a pretty stiff moleskin type fabric, at first I thought it was a bit too stiff and sticky-outy but now I love the shape it ends up. I didn't line the skirt which was a massive mistake and I can often be found wandering around with my skirt halfway up my legs, but I still wear it all the time anyway! Must put another one on the to-do list.

I made the Sorbetto a week or two ago and was super proud to be wearing it when I met my little nephew for the first time last week! I had a bit of trouble with sewing 1/2" binding on so I made the neckline binding 2cm instead, that little bit of extra width helped a lot and I think it looks much better. Some of the other pictures I've seen look like they've got wider binding on but I haven't seen any mention of it.

So, MMM to be continued...