Frilliest skirt

I asked Little I to pose for photos.  Look, straight away, no hesitancy at all, she stepped into a sewing blogger pose.  Is this the result of watching her mother take self made garment photos for the past few years??  Um, I guess it probably is. 

I love this tutu-style skirt.  It was a very simple make but the fabric is just fabulous.  Due to its unfinished frilly nature, I didn't bother hemming it.  I bought the fabric from a shop called Meme in Exeter.  They are in the process of closing down their 'real life' shop and transferring to being an online retailer. 

As a result there was a sale on in the shop. 

This fabulous textured fabric was £12 per metre, reduced from £24. The assistant said it was polyester.   I only needed half a metre.  I had ventured into the shop originally looking for denim with a bit of stretch in it, but it wasn't the type of fabric shop that sells stretch denim.  They seemed to specialise in feminine pretty prints and floaty chiffon types of fabric.  All very pretty.  All screaming out (in a discreet lady like way) to be made into partywear for almost six year olds.

I was tempted temporarily to make a frilly skirt for myself, but then sense prevailed, and I made the skirt for Little I.  I just wasn't sure I would wear such a frilly skirt as often as she will.  Plus she does go to a hell of a lot more parties than me!  Plus she has better shoes and tights to match it.

But I am compromising and planning a grown up ruffled skirt for myself!  I was swayed by seeing a woman walking along, in her forties wearing a 3 tiered light brown skirt, knee length, with a sequin trim on each tier.  It was a perfect mix of grown up and frills. 

Wardrobe review and Me Made May



A few weeks ago the rail in my wardrobe collapsed at about 3am, waking me up.  The next day I had to pull out all my clothes and get inside the wardrobe to superglue the rail back in place.
The sheer weight of clothes in my overstuffed crappy little wardrobe was what had caused the collapse.  I have given my chest of drawers over to Little I's clothes so all mine have to now cram into one small wardrobe.

 My clothes were liberally scattered round the bedroom for a few days while I sorted them out and got rid of a few.  I took an inventory of my me mades while sorting.  Here's just a few...and a few realisations. 
Patterned fabric: Oh my goodness, I have a lot of patterned woven tops!  They make me dizzy when viewed en masses.  I also have a fair number of patterned skirts! I still have a lack of plain tops.
Loose billowing fit:
I have a lot of patterned woven loose fitting tops.  I feel a huge urge to step away from sewing loose fitting tops and challenge myself to get to grips with fit.  I like wearing my loose fitting tops but am aware they are not always the most flattering, and sometimes look at bit tent like.  I hate to look pregnant when I am not pregnant! Having said that I have recently sewn two tova blouses, as yet unblogged, I think they are my final loose woven tops for a while.  I am closing that door and please feel free to scold me if I suddenly produce more loose fitting woven tops.  What I want to sew to go with all these loose fitting tops is a pair of Sew Liberated skinny jeans and a pair of summer shorts.  I just have no spending money at present to buy fabric or pattern so they'll have to wait. 

Built by Wendy/ Simplicity 3835
Thrifted and dyed duvet cover
Mystery plaid fabric given to me by a friend
Orange and brown floral from thrifted cutain





Built by Wendy/ Simplicity 3835
Amy Butler fabric, Pink floral fabric bought from Clothkits, floral Amy Butler fabric

Simplicity 3835

Oh my, I have made this six times.  For a while it was my automatic go-to pattern for a speedy sew.   I wear the floral orange and brown, the brown spotty Amy Butler every week at the moment. They hide a multitude of cake eating.   The grey about every fortnight.  The others are short sleeved so I wear them a lot in the summer.  The floral Amy Butler is too tight around the bust and having seen how unflattering it is in photos I have designated it to being unpicked and re-used. 
Simplicity 2599
The reason why I never made a Colette Sorbetto top was I was already using this pattern.

All the 2599 tops are my go-to summer wear.  I have made it five times I think, maybe more.   Just two are in the photo below.

L to R:  Simplicity 2599, Anna Maria Horner Museum tunic, Simplicity 2259, Simplicity Portfolio top

Looking at these clothes I have sewn makes me feel a bit dizzy with patterned fabric.

With this being just a glimpse at my me-made clothes, I think it is definitely time I posted my Me Made May pledge. 

'I, Debbie, of Minnado's House, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear me-made garments  each day for the duration of May 2013'

And I repeat, "I will stay away from loose fitting top sewing, I will, I will, I will"

Recently ...and a finished skirt

Roll up and see the unsuccessful photos! These are the best of a sorry bunch.  You will see Rocket Girl getting in the act too.  It has been school holidays for 2 weeks and one day and my attempts at recording my sewing and blogging were highly unsuccessful.  My attempts at entertaining three children of widely varying ages were slightly better.  I finished my Vogue 1247 skirt at the start of the holidays and have been wearing it a lot since then.  I was inspired by Solvi's red version . (Funnily enough Ali just posted about her Solvi jacket inspiration).   It feels very novel for me to sew a skirt that is NOT using the skirt block from the Sew U book. 

Fabric: A thrifted green fine green cord fabric that cost £2.50.  I bought it from the same charity shop as my floral cord and wondered if it had come from the same person's donations.  It is a very bright emerald green. 

Notions: The pattern calls for binding on the seams, I used some binding bought on ebay rather than attempt the task of self binding from corduroy.  That would be just daft, wouldn't it?  I used a thrifted green zip (cost 20p) from the same charity shop as the cord fabric.   

Sewing: I added about four inches in length when cutting out as I had been warned by other sewers that this skirt is short.  Then I had about a two inch hem.  The skirt went together easily, it was fun to follow a different construction method to my usual skirt making.

Verdict: I feel I have roadtested this skirt literally as I wore it to drive 200 miles with three kids and no other adults! It was comfortable for driving in and the pockets were a god-send for dropping car keys and coins into in a rush at the service station.  It gives me enough movability to run after the fast moving Rocket Girl and the bright green is cheerful.  It has withstood pizza making, playgrounds and easter egg hunts.  It is in the wash now but I plan to share picture of the inside soon.  Before I made the skirt I had thought it has one big front pocket but it in fact has two front pockets. 

Finally, I have to show you a peep of the wooden cabin we drove all that way to stay in.  Ahhhhhhh, it was fab, fab fab.  Holidays - what a great concept.

FO: Paris in Spring skirt

This teeney piece of vintage Paris street scence fabric has been lingering in my stash for a couple of years.  Too small to be a skirt for me, it was destined for Little I. 

On sunday when tidying up and seeing it still lying on my bookshelf I snapped, put the baby in the highchair, got Little I to dance in front of the baby to keep her entertained,  and pulled out my sewing machine. 

The quickest simplest skirt.  There wasn't enough fabric to use a pattern, so, just one side seam, top casing and a hem, then elastic in the casing and ta-dah!  I do like it when I finally get a lingering project done. 

FO: The sweetest polka dot frock

cutting and taping

I am trying not to buy any new patterns but one Sunday morning, browsing sewing blogs in pyjamas was a dangerous time.  Seriously, there should have been a huge flashing sign and wailing siren as I hopped from one sewing site to another and ended up at Go To Patterns.  Then, losing my mind temporarily, I allowed Little I to choose a PDF dress pattern and clicked "buy".  It doesn't seem like spending money but it is....and she chose the Little Bow Pleat dress by Melly Sews. 

I have to say despite kicking myself for falling off the No-Spend-Frugal wagon, I do love this pattern.  It is super easy to sew and creates a lovely dress.  It is sized 18 months to 8 years so I am fully expecting to make it again in a smaller size for RG. 

The final dress is A line, with a standup collar, slightly puffed sleeves, centre front pleat and self fabric big bow.  I mean what's not to love here? I just wish I was almost six years old so I could wear it. I also imagine this is what my sewing friend Scruffybadger would wear if she too were almost six. 

I made it from bright pink cotton with orange polka dots bought from Clothkits. I used a discount offer so I had the fabric for £4 per metre and used about 1.50 metres.  The dress has a thrifted red zip in the back (20p). 

The most tricky bits to sew were the sleeve bands as they are so small that they are quite fiddly.  If I make it smaller I may omit them as I found them so fiddly, or try sewing them on before sewing up the sleeve.  Would that work?

fiddly sleeve band

I think it could look great in a jersey knit as it would drape so well.  

FO: The Longest Unfinshed Object, finally finished

This little pink apron is for Little I but originally I started it for a friend's daughter six years ago.  Yes, six years.  The original recipient is now nearly ten and too tall and too old for such a pink spotty apron.   I started it, sewed the applique butterflies and then for some reason the apron was folded away and left in a box under the bed.  Is six years a record for completing an unfinished item of sewing? 

Yesterday I added ribbon ties and sewed the remaining seams and hems.  It has a blue shirting lining on the back and the ties are sewn into the seams.    

This task took about ten minutes while RG slept.  Um, yes, six years to do ten minutes of finishing off.  Can anyone else beat six years for leaving a project half done?  Come on, please confess and make me feel better.

FO: Simplicity 2246/ Sew Lisette Traveller Dress

Oh yes, I am a cultured person, hanging around museums, and looking pensive, is my modus operandi

Finally, I finished my Simplicity 2246 / Traveller dress in dark blue.   Yipeeeeeeee.  I started this back in August I think, oh no, checking my past posts I realise I cut it out in June. so that is 10 months in the making.   

This is view A - the classic shirt dress style.  I sewed it in fits and starts from Summer to  the second week of March. It wasn't such a long time in the making because it is a hard pattern to sew, I just kept getting distracted by other projects.  It had been waiting just for the buttonholes and buttons for three months.  finally I sewed those buttonholes in half an hour one morning this week.  And then wondered why I had been putting them off for so long. 

Please note, me-made bag

Another reason why it took a long time to complete is because I made it as a wearable muslin first and so didn't have that shiny lure of a new pattern when making it the second time.

The wearable muslin version

 I  am glad I finished it as I like wearing it very much. Very much. Plus it was getting on my nerves, just hanging up in my dining room, having baby food thrown at it.  A bit like a guest who outstayed their welcome. *

 For fabric I used some blue linen look cheapy fabric from the Rag Market in Birmingham.  It was £3 per metre I think.  it was originally a brighter blue, more like royal blue, but in September I dyed it with an indigo dye as I wanted it to be a very dark navy.  I was aiming to make a very boring, plain, classic shirt dress that will be worn with lots of different accessories, cardigans and footwear. 

For some reason I made the sleeves just above the elbow.  I can't remember why now. 

I used very simple little pale blue shirt buttons, having been tempted by pretty polka dot buttons, red floral buttons and white vintage buttons, I remembered I was trying to keep it plain!



 Bad points: This fabric creased a lot by on the skirt the end of the day,  so it's a dress that needs careful ironing before each wear. 

Good points: This ticks the box for a plain dress, that can be worn in a variety of ways. making use of clothes and shoes I already own.  Not to mention my substantial scarf collection.   I think it has year round potential.  I am pleased I stuck to a plan for once and kept it simple resisting the lure of novelty buttons, piping and trims.  I am also sooooooo happy this dress is no longer hanging up half done.

I am looking a bit shifty now.  Think the attendant's coming over.  Time for a sharp exit.

Finally I have to confess in a sewing geek way, that when I can't get to sleep, I still keep planning possible ways to make version C of this dress in my head, with a fuller contrasting skirt and  puff sleeved top.  I have several possibilities in my stash. Am I the only sewing geek who plans patterns rather than count sheep?

* DISCLAIMER: Please note we do not really throw baby food or any other food at guests here, how ever long they stay.  Honest.