Me Made May 2015 Roundup

Me made may has come to a close and annoyingly we just seem to be getting the warmer weather I kept hoping for all month! My handmade wardrobe was severely tested by the climatic conditions and I have made a mental note to sew more warm clothing!!

For those who have been living under a rock for the last few years Me Made May is an annual pledge made by many sewists and bloggers to try and wear handmade as much as possible for the month of May, lead by Zoe of 'So, Zo....what do you know?' It is a challenge you make to yourself to wear more handmade than usual, not about panic sewing and expanding the wardrobe by tenfold over the month, although it seems wearing handmade has this exact effect on me and I clocked up 8 new handmade clothing items!

The mosaic below shows almost all of my outfits from the month, I wore handmade every single day but there are a few days that went undocumented. On several says I even managed to wear multiple handmade items!

I thoroughly enjoy wearing handmade, it gives me a sense of pride that I have fashioned the clothing I am wearing, it is always considerably more comfortable than RTW given that it is sewn solely for my body shape and tailored to fit me.

Comfort is always important to me. I work from home and unless I am going out to teach I don't feel I need to dress up, I would much rather be warm and comfortable than smart!

This prompted me to add to my handmade wardrobe in May, finding I had plenty of dresses and skirts but not much leisure wear, I concentrated on knits and jersey, a relatively unexplored area for me. I love the speed I can whip up a raglan on my overlocker now! I now boast a new liberty raglan long sleeve tee and two new sweatshirts, thank you chilly May!

I also turned to the Love at First Stitch book from Tilly Walnes for another Delphine skirt, this time in chambray in anticipation of the warm summer weather (hurry up please sunshine!) and had a go at a new pattern, the Mimi blouse. 

I really love the Mimi, smart and grown up, yet comfortable and there are some great design details. I already have at least one more planned from stash, once I have recovered from the Me Made May whirlwind!!

Dressmaking was my first sewing love, and it will always hold a very special place in my heart. Me Made May is the perfect opportunity to remind myself of that, enjoy old and new items and remember the importance of ethical clothing and savour the simplicity of handmade garments.

I will be back next week to introduce you to a brand new book, that I have contributed too! There is a fantastic blog hop happening right now with all the authors.

Here is the full schedule:
Monday 1st June - Jo Avery -  myBearpaw 
Tuesday 2nd June - Liz Betts - BetsyBetts
Wednesday 3rd June - Ali Burdon - VeryBerryHandmade
Thursday 4th June - Jesse Fincham - MessyJesse
Friday 5th June - Louise Horler - SewScrumptious
Monday 8th June - Kevin Kosbab - Feeddog
Tuesday 9th June - Emily Levey - StrawberryPatchRamblings
Wednesday 10th June - Cynthia Shaffer
Thursday 11th June - Kaye Prince - MissPrint
Friday 12th June - Ame Verso - StitchCraftCreate

Both Ali and Jo are giving away copies of the book on their blogs, hurry over for your chance to win! And I am sure I can come up with a little giveaway for you next week too ;-)

You can buy 50 Fat Quarter Makes in all good bookshops, or here on the publishers website where you can also buy an e-book version for your tablet or iPad. They currently have 40% off all books and ebooks until this Sunday so if you hurry you can get a bargain! And of course you buy from Amazon!

Thrifty Thursday & more makes....

Happy sunny days are here, Eloise has broken up for the summer and although it likely means I will get less sewing done I'm looking forward to lots of childish fun!

Firstly I'm just itching to share with you my latest thrifty finds from the car boot sale this week, my top find is a simply stunning patchwork quilt.

Its perfect for the fresh summery look I was wanting for my bedroom. It was one of those finds that has you hopping from foot to foot with excitement, its absolutely perfect, its just what I wanted and I love it, best of all I wasn't even looking for it! Some thoughtless person appears to have used the reverse side as a dust sheet when painting but thankfully you don't see that side when it is on the bed.
I love the lace details, they perfectly match a table cloth made by Grahams Nan that I have on my bedside table.

I also picked up a battered old sewing box, I discarded the box as it really was in a terrible state but I did get a nice little pile of notions to add to my stash. On my way out I happened upon this great book, Crochet Adorned which is choc full of cute little patterns, perfect for adding to clothes, soft furnishings, bags, shoes, in fact anywhere you and attach them!

Its also been a week of trying to get jobs finished and off the WIP list. First I finished my Mollie Makes Issue 2 Embroidery project. I love hand embroidery but rarely get the time to practice so when I saw this fab 'Josies Garden' template by Charlotte Lyons I just had to give it a go.

I made it up into a cushion to sit on my bed, it just goes perfectly with the new quilt :) You can get the template here if you fancy giving it a go.

I also finally found time to finish off my 'Vintage Feedsack Dress' using the tutorial from the amazing Jess at Craftiness Is Not Optional

I think you can see that Jools is pleased with it ( I am too but lets not be big-headed about it!)

Then having gotten the bug I moved straight onto Jess's new 'sew-along' for the Junebug dress

I have since added the sleeves and skirt and it just needs hemming, finished photo soon hopefully!

Finally, I had to whizz up a couple of cards, a birthday card for Grahams Dad who is mad for golf

And a thank you card for Grahams Aunt who recently sent me a HUGE box bursting with fabric she no longer needed.

All in all, a very productive week, my favourite kind!