Me-Made-May 2018 - Week 1: Skirts

I, Cathy, of Cathy's Makes, pledge to wear a different item of me-made clothing every day of May 2018.

As the first week of Me Made May kicked off, I wore three skirts in three days. So I thought, why not carry on and make this skirt week? Luckily the weather changed half way through and I got to wear my winter and then my summer skirts.

Tuesday 1st May
Worn: Wine Wool Skirt (2014)
Weather, Activity: Windy 13 C, Work.
Thoughts: I've worn this skirt a few times this winter. I've not pegged it, mainly because of the hassle of re-doing the hem around the double vents. I don't love it with this cardigan, my outfits in 2017 and 2015 are better, but I wanted to wear it differently.

Wednesday 2nd May
Worn: Cashmere Delphine Skirt (2016)
Weather, Activity: Rainy 13 C, Work
Thoughts: I've worn this exact same outfit a few times this season. Nothing new to see here. It's getting a bit worn out, but I'm not about to part with it.

Thursday, 3rd May
Worn: Floral Scuba Skirt (2018)
Weather, Activity: Party Cloudy 17 C, Work
Thoughts: I made this skirt on Saturday and wore this same outfit on Sunday. The weather got nicer and I thought I'd round out my first three days and make it a series of skirts.

Friday 4th May
Worn: Teal Cord Erin Skirt (2017)
Weather, Activity: Fine & Sunny, 19 C; Volunteering
Thoughts: This is the first time I've worn this skirt without tights and it worked really well, especially for the kind of day that seemed pleasant but was not truly hot.

Saturday 5th May
Worn: Garden Skirt (2014)
Weather, Activity: Warm & Sunny, 23 C; Oiling the deck (see the stripes?)
Thoughts: It was nice to wear this skirt for Me Made May for a change. I chose this one because it was short enough to move about in when I was working.

Sunday 5th May
Worn: Wild Red Skirt (2014)
Weather, Activity: Warm & Sunny, 24 C; Family dinner out
Thoughts: I was still oiling the deck, but I changed into this outfit to go out with the kids for dinner. I still think I should take an inch off the length.

I also wore my Suzy Taylor Daydream PJ Shorts (2017), but I didn't feel like posting a picture of me in my jammies on the internets.

I've pulled these photos from my Instagram feed, I decided to post there once every three days rather than every day. I don't post that much, and I don't want to fill it up with pictures of myself. I like to think that I'll maintain the discipline over the month. I'm not going to post anything else and then the whole grid of nine pictures will be 27 tiny photos of me! Standing exactly the same way!

Next week might be Tops.

Floral Scuba Skirt

This skirt is the antidote to a sewers block that I've had recently. Sewing something easy and low risk is the way to get around it, I find.

I have been wanting to make something out of scuba since I heard about it a few years ago. I was very drawn to the vibrant images that it is possible to print on the fabric. When I saw that Fabworks had scuba for just £7 per metre, I had to get some.

I love this silver colour and the pinks, blues and greens in the print, but the actual fabric is not wonderful. It is heavy with a lot of body and no drape. If it is stretched out, the print separates and shows the white through the pattern. So you wouldn't want to make a body-con outfit that is meant to hold you in. Not from a print, anyway.

I'm also going to avoid sewing with scuba in the future for a few more reasons: it's basically plastic and this means it is cold in the cool weather and hot in the warm weather; and the spongy nature of the fabric means it is quite tricky to get nice edges and seams when sewn.

The dress I started to make was coming along well, but it was looking too dressy, and I struggled to motivate myself to finish it when I knew I wasn't going to wear it. I will finish it, but I will need an occasion to do so. I believe this is the first time I have ever left a sewing project and started a new one.

To give myself a break, and unlock my sewjo, I let myself make a skirt from the leftover fabric from the dress. It's kind of the same project, using up the scraps.

I'd had to buy 2 meters, so I had a lot of fabric left over from the dress. I didn't use a pattern for the skirt. I took my hip measurement and added 2cm for seam allowance. Then I measured from my waist to the length I wanted and added 10cm for good measure. I cut a rectangle of these measurements.

The stretch is firm, kind of like a ponte. I wanted zero ease, so I draped the cylinder on myself and pinched out a dart at each side. I had folded a large facing over. To put it another way: turn cylinder wrong side out, try on, fold over 15cm, pinch out at each side, mark the pinched areas with chalk and unfold the waistband. Sew darts at the pinched areas and turn waistband in.

I left the waistband unfinished, but I did stitch down the top of the darts at the waistband so that the whole thing wouldn't slide around. I also pinched out a tiny amount at the top of the back seam.

I didn't peg the skirt because I didn't add a kick pleat. I hand sewed a stretch hem.

It pressed a little bit with a wet pressing cloth and a medium setting. I was pleasantly surprised that the hem stopped being so puffy and the darts looked better.

Final verdict: a decent enough addition to a spring wardrobe, especially with Me Made May starting on Tuesday; but I'm not going to sew with scuba again.

On that note, here is my Me Made May '18 Pledge:
I, Cathy, of Cathy's Makes, pledge to wear a different item of me made clothing each day of May 2018.

Last year was the first year I pledged to wear something every day, and this year is the first time I've felt able to wear something different every day. It scares me a bit, but that is the point of a challenge, and the other point of this challenge is to get those makes out and about in the real world.

Costs:
 Fabric: £8 
 Pattern: £0 
 Notions/tools: Thread £1.35
Total: £9.35

B&W Stripe Knit Skirt

Ahh Molly, what a cruel mistress you are! You look so lovely on Lisa Comfort, but so terrible on me.

After my dreadful experience of the Striped Molly Dress, I am so relieved that I have been able to salvage something that I like from this fabric.

I had a large-ish square of fabric left, maybe 75 x 75 cm. I sewed the edges together into a tube shape (got those stripes matched!) and hemmed the bottom. Then I tried it on, to the length I wanted, and cut off the excess at the top at my natural waist. I then pinched out two darts at either side of the waist, and a small amount at the back seam. I managed to sew these on my overlocker and they came out pretty well. 

After that, I added a length of black elastic as the waistband, and wore it out for the afternoon.

I'm so relieved that I could bounce back quickly from the fail!

B&W Stripe Jersey Molly Dress

This fabric is an interesting knit. It is a thin, black jersey with stripes of thicker white and grey jersey laid over the top. The stripes make actual tunnels because they are secured at the top and bottom of each stripe, but not in the middle. It gives a nice texture to the fabric, and makes it much weightier than the lightweight jersey underneath.

I bought 1.5m of it, with a Walkely Dress in mind. This pattern was attached to one of my Simply Sewing magazines, and is a simple knit shift, which they have belted for shaping. I am still interested in making this dress, but I need a stable knit, probably with a random geometric pattern, in a neutral colour scheme. 

All this being a long way of saying that I didn't make the intended pattern with this fabric. I have a RTW stripe dress with short sleeves, so I didn't really need two. I turned to the Molly Dress pattern from Sew Over It, but the fabric requirements are over two meters. 

I am so confused about fabric requirements. My 1.5m x 1.5m piece was plenty for the Molly, with leftovers to spare. I lie my pattern pieces upside down from one another and the pattern pieces fit in nicely, with the sleeve pieces fitting in underneath. Even with moving things about to be careful about stripe matching. 

I have cut the Molly pattern down to a size 8 to account for me not using the seam allowance with my overlocker. I like to keep the fabric running at the very edge, so the knife does almost no cutting. I find this gives me a lot better control than trying to hit a 1.5cm seam allowance with a knit fabric floating in the air. I found my previous Molly tops to be very spacious and I didn't think a stripe with some body would be the right sort of fabric with which to make a spacious dress.

After I put the dress together and tried it on, it still came up very large. I am, by no means, teeny tiny but even a size 8 seemed huge to me. I don't want negative ease, but this style should skim the body. I put the dress on inside out and pinned away the side seam ease. Almost an inch on either side, that's 4 inches of ease removed. I also took some ease out of the top of the shoulder. 

I struggled to match the stripes properly. The shoulder seams were the worst. I think parts of the fabric had stretched out so the front shoulder seams needed to be gathered into the back shoulder seams to get the stripes to match up. This means that my neckline is much wider than I wanted. I had to choose between having the seams match up, with the stripes not matching, or have the stripes touching and the front end almost an inch before the edge. I chose the stripes because that top of the shoulder seam is so big and so prominent that it would have been very jarring to have them not match.

Matching the stripes through the straight sides was much easier, especially the sleeves. But I still got one side wrong. I think my overlocker presser foot pressure was set too high and it was feeding the two layers unevenly.

I added about 2 inches to the length of the dress, but I took it all away, plus a bit extra. I think it is better to wear this on the short side, with tights, and give the eye a break from all the stripes.

I cut the neckband on the horizontal stripe. I find the vertical stripes too jarring, especially with the two-directional stripe on the sleeve. Conservative is my middle name here! I attached it with as much fabric as I could, in an effort to make the neckline fit tighter. But it is doing the funny, sitting-up-at-the-sides thing, and those sides are very wide indeed.

Having a pattern go badly is always the reason I lose my sewjo. I often feel like not finishing, or just stopping sewing all together. Lucily, this was quick to finish, and even quicker to get a pencil skirt out of the leftovers!

I am not really very happy with this dress. It seems like a tent on me, and I don't really have the figure to wear a body-con / stripe dress. Perhaps I should shorten it into a top? It would be a stunning dress on a skinny teenager. I can't see myself reaching for this of a morning. #fail

Costs: 
 Fabric: Fabricana, £12.76 
 Pattern: Sew Over It, used previously £0
 Notions: none
Total: £12.76 + a new skirt

Red Fleece Zip Jacket

After the success of my pattern hacking on the Girl's Coco Dress, I decided to push the pattern even further and go for a zip up jacket. Big Sis needed a non-hoodie top for sports and I had this red fleece and this red separating zip so decided to make up my own pattern to suit them.

I decided to trim this jacket with new silver ribbing, the only thing I bought for this project. I had navy, but red and navy are their school PE kit. I think the silver looks sort of Italian. I have no idea why.

She chose the slightly smoother side for the right side and I used silver thread for the overlocker. 

Unfortunately, the separating zip that I had (bought from a charity shop on the Isle of Wight) wasn't long enough to make a turtleneck, which is what I wanted. This is a v-neck, and is a little too low to be truly practical. But still worth making, considering I had almost all the materials to hand, and no other plans for any of them. 

After studying some of my RTW zip up tops, I decided the order of construction should be:

1. Sew shoulder seams together
2. Set sleeves in to armscye
3. Sew up side seams and under sleeve seams
4. Add ribbing to cuffs and hem band
5. Insert zip, leaving a small part not attached at the top of the zip
6. Add neckline ribbing, reducing width so that it will finish at the top of the zip  
7. Sew remaining inch of zip into place, meeting at neckline ribbing 
8. Add band of bias binding to inside of zip seam to hide the raw edge of the ribbing and the top of the zip tape. Where they meet gets quite messy.

I loved putting in the separating zip! Easiest type of zip to insert ever! And I can't believe I changed my thread colour so the topstitching created by the bias binding was red through the body and silver for the ribbing. Too bad it was a terrible mess at the top of the back. I left it as is. 

She has gone on her trip now (sob!), and we didn't have time to get photos of her wearing it, so we will have to do that when she gets back.

Costs: 

 Fabric: very old, purchased 2011 to make Christmas crafts, £0

 Pattern: Simplicity 1584, used 7 times before, £0

 Notions: 

  Zip: Charity Shop, 20p

  Ribbing: eBay, £5.25 

  Bias binding: Granny £0

Total: £5.45

Cruella de Vil Costume

How appropriate that I sit here writing this while wearing a fur coat. It is so cold today that I dug out this coat that I bought from a junk shop in Italy and have been trying to get up the courage to refashion into a throw and cushion covers. But more on that here.

For now, we are working with faux fur and turning the Vampire Cape into something for Cruella de Vil to wear to school on World Book Day. This cape was particularly suitable for two reasons: one, because it has the red lining so is perfectly in keeping with Cruella's signature colours of black, white and red; and two, because it has a lovely large collar, to which I could add some fur trim.

I cut a piece of faux fur to the top collar pattern and sewed it on by hand. I didn't cut out the bottom curve of the collar at the neckline, but left it straight. This makes the collar stand up more at the back of the neck. Then I sewed the edges of the collar right sides together to make more of a Nehru collar which I thought was more in keeping with the times. Cruella needs to fasten it tight about herself and then she can be warm and cosy about her neck.

I trimmed the cuffs of the shirt with scraps of faux fur and she is wearing a spotted cotton dress to represent the Dalmatian skins that she so badly wants to wear. The wig was bought used from eBay and their school gloves are red, so they are being worn too, the pearls are my old beads.

Blush Bamboo Molly Top

I am so excited about this blush bamboo. I realise that it is not a great colour for my skin tone, but it is too pretty, and soft, for me to care (much). 

I got it from Fabricana in Vancouver. I can't resist taking an afternoon to go there when we visit once a year. They have lovely fabrics, at much better prices than in the UK. In advance of a visit this summer, I thought I had better get on and sew a few things from last year's stash (or the year before). This is the first, and it has been top of my queue for many months now. 

I have two bamboo fabrics, this one which is printed with tiny black swallows, and a plain blush. I decided to use the print for a top and the plain for a cardigan. I find the plains too clingy to wear easily. This stuff shows every lump and bump.

I chose the Molly Top from Sew Over It, My Capsule Wardrobe, City Break because it is a brilliant drapey knit top pattern. 

It was very easy, but I sure did dither about cutting into that fabric.

A few notes to remember, and mull over another day:

I had 1.4m of fabric and I could have used as little as 1m, without nap. 

I struggle with the seam allowance on the overlocker. I cut a size 10, and I overlock with almost no seam allowance. I have gone back and re-cut the paper pattern to a size 8 to account for this. There is still quite a lot of ease in the pattern. But in this very drapey fabric, I am happy with the fit of the top.

I mixed some sewing machine threads into the overlocker and used pink for the two upper needles. The loopers had black thread, which didn't show through on the right side at all. Only pink shows at the seam, so I'll definitely do this again, rather than buy more overlocker cones.

I added 1/4 inch to each side of the lower arm pattern piece and I am very happy with the width of the sleeves. I wouldn't want them any narrower. 

For some stupid reason (laziness?) I shortened the waist on the front pattern piece, but not the back. The back has fabric pooling where it is catching on my hips. Fixed the paper pattern now.

Bad neckband

I had to remove the neckband and reduce the width by the amount of the seam allowance. It was standing up, but the re-do made it sit flat. I kept the extra seam allowance on bodice neckline.

I removed 5cm from the hemline and just left a small 1cm hem. I overlocked and then zig zagged the hem.

Costs: 
 Fabric: £16.16 
 Pattern: used previously £0
 Thread: new job lot, £8.69
Total: £24.85