A Me Made Week

An amazing thing occurred last week. Apart from one RTW Moochi top and my under garments all of the clothes I wore to work were me made, including my coat. To celebrate I took selfies of the outfit each day. Apologies if anyone is offended by the bathroom pictures but it is the only way to take pictures of my outfits when I am away from home during the week.

If you ever wondered how my wardrobe plan for the week works it is often driven by the pair of shoes chosen to wear for the four days I am away (can't be bothered to carry extra shoes for such a short work trip). Once I had decided on the United Nude Zen bootie everything had to work with the colour red, and then the navy of my recently sewn trousers which led me to my Ecopossum coat cardi and...

Left to right: Meandering Chrysanthemum Swirl top; plus Zephyr Ecopossum coat cardi; and Moochi Kicked tee
All worn with Papercut Patterns Peter and the Wolf trousers and United Nude Zen Mid Merlot booties

Left to right: Issey Miyake Gorgeous raincoat; Squiggles Squares dress; and Winter Floral dress 

Gratuitous photo of the Winter Floral dress (note different shoes) included because I love the way Google has made the background black and white so the dress really pops

There are probably not enough me made clothes in the wardrobe for this to occur too often unless I make a conscious effort, but it shows that the proportion of clothes I have made versus bought is starting to change.

Probably the biggest driver for this change is the demise of my favourite boutiques. There are now only two shops I frequent with any regularity Moochi where I have only ever bought tops and dresses; and Untouched World which provides mainly my woolly garments although I do have two pairs of their jeans.

Interestingly I haven't bought any trousers apart from the two pairs of Untouched World jeans since Andrea Moore closed in March 2018.  My waist has recently expanded and many of my Andrea Moore trousers no longer fit. As I can't be bothered to find another go-to source for trousers you will probably find a few more trouser makes featured on the blog, including the Papercut Patterns Peter & the Wolf trousers worn in these pictures.

This week of me made clothes has me wondering about trying to wear a sewn garment every week day for a month to identify the lacking areas in my wardrobe. This idea was inspired by Becky at Trial Balloons who wore a sewn garment every day for the month of May and recorded each day's outfit with a selfie. It helped Becky identify what she likes to wear in her everyday life and those garments which are a joy to sew but remain unworn.

I will have to cogitate on this idea whilst I make a few more pairs of trousers, as I don't have enough tops and dresses for a whole month without lots of repetition, which would be boring when there is so much variety to choose from in my wardrobe. Or maybe I should just take a selfie every day for a longer period of time to see what I love to wear. This would have the added benefit of helping me remove some of the unworn items in my wardrobe and provide a bit more breathing space for what is left.

And finally a picture to celebrate friendship. This gorgeous bouquet of flowers was given to me by a friend to brighten up my winter week. Not only did they look wonderful they smelt divine and came with a bar of chocolate, what more could a girl want.

What's a sewing blog with no sewing? ...neglected

Thank goodness nobody is hanging on my every word, as nearly two months has passed since my last post.  Once again there was a plan but no sewing, why?

A sewing deadline makes me want to either sew things other than those planned or not sew at all. My everyday life is ruled by deadlines and I am normally very driven to meet (exceed) expectations. I discussed the inability to translate this drive to my sewing with a friend and we decided it was all to do with the enjoyment. Meeting sewing deadlines removes the fun and becomes more of a task. My mind rebels against more nagging for completion and the sewing ceases.

The plan but no sewing...

For the second year in a row my good intentions of participating in the Pattern Review wardrobe contest came to nought. I was even further away from an entry this year than last, having not completed a single garment in my mini wardrobe plan.

The three tops and two pairs of trousers that are still but a twinkle in the eye

Not quite finished - Silhouette Patterns #3300 Lana's Jeans in deep red linen metallic blend

Between the start of the Mini Wardrobe competition on 15 April and today only one of the planned items has been even partly sewn. The red linen/metallic Lana's jeans have been in the partially sewn state you see above since our Easter holiday. Pretty pathetic for an ambition to sew five garments in four weeks. Part of the issue is that I overlocked all of the pieces before we went away so they could be sewn on my Singer Featherweight but I forgot to overlock the back of the pants where they sew to the yoke. My overlocker currently has cream thread in it and it's inconceivable that the threads would be changed to black just for that little bit of sewing. Pathetic but true.

So if the mini wardrobe hasn't been sewn has anything else?

Silhouette Patterns #4000 Swing Dress

One of these has been completed, another is in progress and a third is a dud.  I will write a proper review one day about this pattern but in the meantime here is the dud. This lovely border print ITY knit (also from Silhouette Patterns) was carefully cut so the black border was down the middle with one of the patterned sections cut on and the other sewn on.

The flat lay outfit photographs make this dress look reasonable but it is not a flattering dress to wear. I am still playing with the hem to see if I can make it into something wearable but am coming to the conclusion that it is the bold back stripe down centre front which is causing all the problems.

Unflattering dress styled with Mulberry mini Lily bag, One Trick Pony Geddes nude loafer and DKNY self-drafted leggings

Self-drafted leggings

These could be considered a match your shoes outfit (the current competition running on Pattern Review) except the tops are all ready to wear. Cobalt blue is one of my favourite colours and ITY knit makes great leggings so fabric and pattern were a perfect match. Coincidentally I happen to have this pair of United Nude bootees with the flash of cobalt blue.

Left and right: Moochi Rule dress in cobalt;
Top centre: Double diamond ITY knit self-drafted leggings and United Nude Jacky Lo bootee;
Bottom centre Lace: tabard with Andrea Moore dot mesh body in cobalt

Maybe I could make this Issey Miyake V1563 dress before the end of July as an actual entry for the Match Your Shoes Pattern Review contest.

KonMari-ing a bit more of the stash

Aside from trying to store all of my fabric unobtrusively (a really lost cause) there are far too many patterns for the old storage method. Added to which the plastic boxes ended up behind the sewing cabinet and difficult to reach. The over-flow of patterns were housed in old copier paper boxes.

Enter the new storage idea 30cm cubes with fabric box inserts, which are now stacked five high (two more have been purchased since this photo). These are fabulous for my Vogue designer patterns. Four of them have the Vogue designer patterns in numerical order, then a box each for Donna Karan (& DKNY), Issey Miyake, and Marcy & Katherine Tilton. The last three boxes contain independent pattern brands, one for The Sewing Workshop and two for other assorted brands.

I am debating the purchase of another column of cubes as I still have a plastic container of Silhouette Patterns as well as a copier box with Diane Ericson and assorted accessory patterns. This would however require a new spot for Dorothy my dressmakers mannequin.

The set of plastic drawers which used to live next to Dorothy are now hidden at the back of the sewing table with the bottom two drawers reorganised to contain small format big four patterns (mainly Butterick and Vogue) in numerical order. The top drawer is still home to my felt and interfacing collection.

Now that the patterns are neatly stored I should really invest in a cataloguing system then I might be able to find them and not buy the same style (or exact same pattern) again.

With the release of two plastic boxes some more of my fabric stash was tidied away.

Top: a recently empty plastic box housing fabric for some new outfit ideas
Middle: another box sorted for the 2019 red white and black wardrobe
Bottom: various unfinished class projects re-homed from the bottom two plastic drawers

The multi-coloured rectangles (Kobayashi squiggle squares cotton twill) fabric in the top photo has been made into a dress from a mish-mash of patterns and I have also sewn a Style Arc Toni designer dress from the Liberty fabric below. Hopefully I will get to reviewing both of these on the blog soon.

Liberty Argyll Swim fabric in design Mike, colourway B 

Alterations

This is an old RTW cardigan bought in the era of over-long (to the point of ridiculousness) sleeves, rediscovered during the sorting of the wardrobe jumper drawers.  The colour and overall style of the Juo cardigan still appealed but the sleeves needed to be shortened if the cardigan was ever going to be worn. As the colours fitted into my red, white and black wardrobe concept the alteration was executed pretty quickly. The sleeves were chopped off ⅝" past the grey band, 4½" removed from the black sleeve and the red/grey cuff part reattached using the overlocker. The stitching line is on the edge of the grey band and is invisible on the outside.

Left and middle the overlong sleeves; right after shortening

Wardrobe sweater drawers: Top drawer pre KonMari; Middle and Bottom drawers post KonMari

Poppy brooch

And finally this gorgeous poppy brooch made by my friend Cath. Looks great with my black and white fur bomber jacket. At the moment it is pinned to my Horizontal Hold Trench. Just fabulous.