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...

Birthday haul

It's that time of year when I get a little bit older but to make it a bit easier to handle I get a fancy dinner and some wine!

This year I also got a boat load of sewing goodies!

Mmmmm, birthday goodies all for me!

Check all that out! A colleague at work got me the Great British Sewing Bee Book and it looks really good. I've read all the blog reviews over the last week but I still probably never would have bought it myself so it's a nice treat.

I am soooo excited about Fit for Real People! I have not even come close to sorting my fit out yet so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with this book and hopefully working out what my issues are and of course how to fix them. I'm desperate to do the body graph thing but not sure who I can get to spend hours drawing round me accurately, has anyone ever done this? It looks like a bit of a faff but I bet you'd spot loads of little things that you don't see when you look in the mirror.

The three patterns were from my boyfriend. I'm looking forward to making up the Kelly skirt and having a go at a Renfrew ready for Me Made May. I went out today to add to my birthday haul and picked up some red linen/cotton mix for the skirt and some plain jersey for the Renfrew. Wish me luck with my first attempt at a knit.

I had a lovely chilled out day and even managed to finish my Sorbetto top.  Apologies for the blurry picture, photies with it actually on to follow soon!

Me Made May '13!

I, Charlotte of Charlie Says Sew, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear one handmade garment two days a week for the duration of May 2013. And I will blog about it every week!

So. I've done it. I've signed up for Me Made May. I haven't gone crazy and promised to wear something every day because that would just be setting myself up for a massive fail! Wearing something twice a week should be ok but making it something different will be a bit trickier!

This is the kind of challenge I need to give me a kick up the backside and get making some quick wins. I jumped for the joy the other day when I finally found the Sorbetto pattern and realised it was free. I've seen loads of these since I started following blogs but I thought I'd missed the boat as I had never come across the pattern. I obviously wasn't looking very hard.

Anyhow, I immediately downloaded it and there is currently a half finished Sorbetto on my kitchen sewing table. I've also put off getting stuck into a Renfrew as I'm scared of the mighty Knit but Me Made May is the time for everyday wearable items like this. 

The other great thing about this challenge is that it will force me to post at least once a week and finally blog about the few things that I have made over the past 6 months, so watch this space for some actual posts about actual clothes!

Here's a peek os something I will definitely be busting out during MMM.

Done: Baby quilt!

I am currently a rather excited soon to be aunty. My sister is due to have her first baby in two weeks time and I can't wait to meet my little niece or nephew.

When she told me she was pregnant all those months ago I immediately started scouring the Internet looking for inspiration of things I could make. Knitting was banned so I turned my attention to other things and decided to make a little quilt. The sex of the baby is going to surprise which made it a little bit trickier to make something unisex but I eventually settled on Les Amis from The Village Haberdashery.

See, from far away it kind of looks ok.

I went for a simple pattern mixing up the peach and teal colour ways on a plain white background. For this and the backing I used organic flannel with a bamboo wadding sandwich from Raystitch.

I made binding out of the grey tree bark print and hand sewed it down along the back edge.

My biggest mistake was deciding to topstitch in both directions. I don't have a walking foot so the backing bunched up along the way which meant the quite ended up an inch or two shore than it should have done. Then the top of the quilt ended up with lots of gathers and pulls, it's not my best sewing but it just about looked passable from a distance.

Also, here's a sneak peek of the cakes I made for her baby shower today...

Look how cute those babies are! I used a tutorial from Sheeren's Cakes and Bakes for these lovelies.

Great British Sewing Bee!

I loved loved loved the Sewing Bee! And, I want, no NEED that haberdashery in my house!

Well done Tilly! There is no way I could have done half of those challenges especially with those scary judges watching over me. It was great to see such a variety of sewers and although I'm already an avid sewer it's definitely inspired me to sew even more and just keep trying to improve.

My aims from today's episode:

1. I must master the invisible zip. I've been putting it off for far too long.
2. I really should slow down when I'm sewing and spend more time on the detail and finish. I'm always racing myself and then disappointed when something's a bit wonky.
3. Find out what that balance issue is! I totally have that issue but I don't know how to fix it! Somebody tell me!

Scary but lovely.... ?