Me Made May 2015 Round up!

Hi all,

Today I am back with a round up of all of my Me Made May outfits. I have to say I started this challenge thinking I would just enter the odd day here and there when I could but in the end, I wore me made clothing every day for the month of May. It was however a challenge and I will get to that later. First lets do a round up, the fun bit, with photographs, yay!

Ok outfit one was my Tartan Linden sweatshirt, which I really enjoyed wearing layer over a shirt, this worked for me.

Outfit two was one of my Dungaree dresses that I drafted from a RTW dress, this gets worn a lot, and I love it.

Outfit three is my Grainline studio alder shirt dress layered with a jumper, I think I prefer it like this as the neck is a little large so the jumper helps hide this a little ;)

Outfit number four were my Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers in a paisley pattern, super comfy like a stretch jean and also get a lot of wear because of that. 

Outfit number five is a chiffon tunic dress, self drafted, that has a silk yoke made from a scarf, I used to wear this for work a lot (with trousers, not leggings, fear not) but I think I have fallen out of love with it....

Outfit number six, I think is up there with my favourites, my self drafted polka dot vest and my By Hand London Victoria Blazer in a navy crepe?

Outfit seven is my Grainline studio Alder shirt dress shirt refashion which you can read more about here. 

Outfit eight is a self drafted boxy top made in some striped stretch satin viscose, this was made to wear to work but still gets a lot of wear now. 

Outfit nine is the same self drafted top as outfit eight but in grey chiffon and with a faux black collar and back neck keyhole detail, again this is old now and used to get a lot of wear to work. 

Outfit ten is my Tilly and the Buttons Francoise dress which you can see here.

Outfit eleven is another pair of Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers, this time in a stretch cotton featuring a tile print.

Outfit twelve is my Grainline studio Linden dress hack which can be seen here.

Outfit thirteen is my Parrott party frock or Emery dress if you like. I love this dress, it would have been better with ought the tights but it was way too cold!

Outfit fourteen is another self drafted boxy top in a really cool digital printed chiffon I picked up earlier this year and made during selfish sewing week, read more about that here.

Outfit fifteen is my Ikea fabric house print dress in a self drafted pattern. I loved this dress when I made it but looking at it now I am not so sure.

Outfit sixteen is my self drafted vest again, this has proven to be so useful to layer up between seasons.

Outfit seventeen is another dungaree dress in navy cotton twill, nautical is my favourite. 

Outfit eighteen is my third and last pair of Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers in a Tartan cotton. 

I skipped one day of Me Made May, well I didn't, I was still wearing my super comfortable snowflake Linden but I had come down with tonsillitis and wasn't feeling the selfies so I had a few days of accessories and stand ins to get me through.

Outfit nineteen is my latest and most favourite newly knitted bobble hat, I can't remember the yarn I used but it is wonderful.

Outfit twenty is my mustard scarf, which technically isn't me made at all, but Mum made. She made a piece of batik cloth for me with polka dots on it the hemmed it to make it into a scarf, it is the softest thing ever and rather dear to my heart. 

Outfit twenty one, Mr. F stood in for me and modelled one of the bow ties I made him for Christmas, it is a favourite of mine, I wish I had a matching party frock of the same fabric!

Outfit twenty two is my Carolyn Friedlander Nest Egg Tote which double as a handbag. 

Outfit twenty three is my Peter Pan vintage fabric emery which was also made earlier this year during selfish sewing week.

Outfit twenty four was my newly drafted t-shirt style top with cuffs, soon to be blogged. 

Outfit twenty five is my Sew Over It Ultimate Shift Dress in a cotton lounging leopards print. 

And that about sums it up, I have left out any repeats, as I am pretty sure seeing twenty five selfies of me is enough to last anyone a lifetime! 

I didn't think much of it when I signed up the this challenge, I just thought, hey, this will be fun, I might get to meet some new people and get some inspiration. It was so much more than that! 

When I have looked back though my photographs of the month I can honestly say there are very few outfits that I am really happy with. So I decided I needed to analyse this and do something about it. 

I took a look at the outfits I really liked and tried to narrow things down a bit. 

And as it turns out, this is it. Twelve out of twenty five and I am still not sure about a couple of these but I think that has more to do with fit than anything else. 

I looked at what I was left with and it still didn't fill me with joy, it wasn't a whole wardrobe of garments that I could piece together to make outfits. 

The other outfits that didn't make the cut were just, not me anymore, I think it is a combination of poor choice of colour and just out growing a style. 

So here are my findings from my Me Made May challenge.

I do not make enough me made comfortable clothes, I tend to make clothes for occasions, dresses mainly, this is ok, but I am at home a lot at the moment and party frocks just won't cut it! 

I do not have a colour palette so my me made clothes do no coordinate particularly well, this is fine for individual garments such as dresses, but for separates, it would be nice to be able to coordinate my pieces. 

I do not make many warm items of clothing, so, when the weather is bad I am often left wearing RTW items that I am not happy with.

So, I have decided I would like to do a bit of a wardrobe overhaul and reassess what is missing from my wardrobe. I can then draw up an action plan of how to fix it. 

In my next blog post I will go into more detail about my plan to make my me made wardrobe work for me! 

Lastly I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone that took part this year. I have met some amazing, inspirational people through this challenge, people I would not normally have had a chance to chat to, everyone has been so welcoming and supportive. The sewing community really is a great thing to be a part of. 

If you have taken part in Me Made May this year and have found it helpful, I would love to know why? 

Has it helped you identify gaps in your wardrobe? 

Has it made you realise which are your favourite me made items of clothing and which go largely unworn?

Or have you just seen people's entries into the Me Made May challenge and are inspired to join in yourself next year?

Let me know in the comments below...

~HJF~ 

Ahoy there, it's another dungaree dress!

Hi guys,

I am back this week with another dungaree dress, first I feel there is a little bit of back story needed so let me tell you...

When I was younger, say in my mid/late teens I loved anything nautical, for example I loved anchors, anything with anchors on it I had to have it. I also loved anything with sailboats, stripes and the colour scheme navy, red and white. I thought I would grow out of all things nautical, but I guess, I didn't. 

Ok, ok, so now I don't have a need to be covered in anchors but I still love me some nautical pieces in my wardrobe. 

Onto my latest make, which I am hoping will be a well worn addition to my wardrobe. 

A navy twill dungaree dress with burgundy accent stitching and an embroidered anchor. 

(Ok, so maybe I just had to sneak a little anchor in there!)

I originally planned to just use a navy cotton for the stitching but my mum suggested some burgundy to liven things up and I am so glad she did.

I used some snazzy bronze buttons for this which I just love with the burgundy, I had bought some traditional style jean buttons but somehow they just didn't seam right for this, too heavy. What do you think?

This fabric was also a bit of a stash buster, it has been in my cupboards for a while and I am so happy I made use of it with this dungaree dress. 

This fabric is a cotton and acrylic twill mix in a traditional navy. I love it, but it does seem to however attract fluff at every move, I am hoping that with washing that will disappear. 

I used a pattern I made from a favourite RTW dungaree dress a couple of weeks ago. You can read more about it here. I love this version so much, It is so much more wearable than the floral version I made a couple of weeks ago and I can see myself making this a few more times over in more lightweight fabrics for the summer. I already have a chambray in my sights.

Do you have a favourite pattern that you make over and over? 

If so I would love to hear about it...

~HJF~ 

90's Floral Dungaree Dress

Hi all,

It's been a while!! I have been out with a virus and tonsillitis, but I am back (almost) ha ha. 

I have a favourite denim dungaree dress, it was a super bargain from a high street store last year and ever since we have been inseparable!! 

It is a dream to pair with thick tights and long sleeve stripey sailor tops and brogues, my favourite. 

My RTW version is a very soft drapey denim, which falls beautifully. I have had so much wear out of it over the winter season, I decided it was time to crack out the pattern paper and get drafting a pattern for it.

I have issues with doing this, tracing a pattern from a RTW garment, it doesn't feel right, as I normally draft my own from scratch, but I NEEDED this to be the same as my Denim Dungaree dress I love so much, ha ha. 

I decided to use a stretch floral twill for my toile, in hindsight the stetch element turned out not to be in my favour so much. All in all it became a wearable garment and I learnt a few tips for the next one!!! 

I bought this fabric to make myself a pair of floral trousers from, I was happy to have found a floral print I liked with some stretch in it, perfect. I did however think this fabric was black, (naughty shop lighting!) and only realised when I got home it was a very dark brown (although my family have done their best to convince me it is black....) 

One thing I love about this dress is the button fastenings on the straps, so fun! 

This toile also gave me the oppertunity to practice my top stitching, I have a twin needle ( I am just too lazy to get it out, there I said it!) I think it went ok, aside a few wobbles due to my machine not liking the thickness of the fabric and it stretching slightly, I think it isn't too bad. 

The dress has three buttons down the side, intended to be there to help you get it on and off, but the dress just pulls over my head so I could eliminate them if I felt I wanted to.  On the original they are lovely denim metal buttons, but I opted for yellow this time round. 

And finally here we have it, me with my awkward posing again, this time on the stairs, in the hope those lovely stairs will distract you slightly.......

I am happy with the overall fit, I did have some problems with the fabric stretching around the armholes and neckline due to the stretch in the fabric plus the cross grain, but the future versions will not be in stretch fabric and I am hopeful a quick stay stitch will rectify that. 

I am not sure this was the wisest choice of fabric for a larger lady like myself, but I will go with it for now.... Plus I have a lovely navy twill version ready and awaiting to be sewn up, so hopefully that will be a winner!

P.s. I was once told I looked like a childrens T.V. Presenter in an brightly coloured outfit I had on, and I once again feel like I am channelling that vibe...... (All those bright colours just are not me...where is the grey!!!!!! ) Haha 

Thanks for stopping by,

I would love to hear any comments you have, or if you know of any awesome denim suppliers you would like to share, don't hesitate to get in touch! 

~HJF~