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Monday, 6 May 2013

I'm not dead! Murder Mysteries and Me-Made-May



Wow, I was quiet for a while there Hu? Bet you thought I’d poisoned myself with them Pancakes?

Sorry about that, I’ve been so busy being involved with local amateur dramatics group Hook Players, I kinda let the whole blogging thing slide. I was working on the costumes for our latest production Secondary Cause of Death, a Miss Marple meets Pink Panther murder mystery. The reviews aren’t in yet but it all went very well even if I do say so myself!

I promise to give the play a proper post of its own but first I want to talk about Me-Made-May. I wasn’t sure about signing up as I'm not actually sure I have enough garments for the challenge but I thought to hell with it and I sneaked in at the last minute to make my pledge.


me-made-may'13

'I, Vondalin of sometimes-sewing, sign up as a participant 
of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear at least one 
me-made item each day for the duration of May 2013
 and will post on my blog at least once a week'

So nearly a week in and I’m not doing too bad, just need to keep up with the blogging part…


Day 1
MMM13 - Day 1
These Jeans are my Jean-ius Jeans or as I call them the GFA Jeans, inspired by Patricks Sewing Bee comment – Its Good From Afar, But Far from Good. I had some issues with the fabric I knew the fabric was crazy off grain but what else was I gonna do with 3 meters of denim? So I made them up, the centre front and back seams twist off centre. I don’t really think anyone else has noticed but if you know it’s there it’s obvious, not helped that I also stitched the pockets on non-symmetrical. Other than that (and the poor topstitching) I actually think these are the best fitting jeans in my wardrobe (RTW is awful on me), I’m itching to find time to make more and I think I’ll probably add a little more width through the front thigh as its pretty snug

The T-shirt is based on a Sew U Home Stretch pattern with a self-drafted peter pan collar, I made this yonks ago and really it’s not some of my best work but I think the collar distracts from the poor topstitching. (BTW a lady stopped me in town to tell me she loved it and thought I was going to say it was from ‘somewhere really expensive’ when she asked where I got it, she must have been crazy but it was nice :D )


Day 2
MMM13 - Day 2

These Sailor trousers are the second pair I’ve made, the first pair shrunk so bad over many washes that they have become un-wearable, the pattern for these were made by deconstructing and tracing a pair of cheap Primark trousers. These get worn fairly often and I’m toying with the idea of making a pair in red cord.
This top has a really cute 40s feel to it. I picked it up in a charity shop last summer as I liked the shape but the original colour, a pinky peach flesh tone wasn’t at all flattering on me so I bunged it in the wash with some red Dylon and now I bloomin’ love it. I’m not really sure if this can count as a refashion? But it will probably be appearing again in MMM.


Day 3
MMM13 - Day 3

This skirt is based on the Kasia pattern from the Burdastyle website, this is the very first garment I made from a real pattern, everything made at college and uni was self-drafted from blocks, about 5 years ago.  Pattern sizing was a real head scratcher and as a result this sits on my hips rather than the waist but I don’t mind as it’s a more relaxed feel. You may notice it’s the same fabric and buttons as my sailor trousers, love these buttons and I brought a lot, I defiantly have enough left for another make.
The photos a bit of fun for the Friday theme of water and the planters get pretty thirsty with all the nice weather we’ve been having lately - finally after the crappy never ending winter we had.

Day 4
MMM13 - Day 4

 For the weekend we went to visit Toms mum, a 4 hour drive away, I wanted comfort for the car ride and the weekend was destined to be relaxed involving catching up and dog walks so I opted for my GFA Jeans for Saturday. Making more of these is pretty high on my to-do list but I have a few other things to do first so you are gonna get bored of seeing these.
I brought this tee at the charity shop last week thinking it would be destined to become some pants as it’s a couple of sizes too big but I grabbed it out the airing cupboard and shoved it on whilst we were getting ready in the morning and realised I quite like the relaxed fit. It may still become pants I’m not 100% decided.


Day 5
MMM13 - Day 5


Sunday we decided to head out for a pub lunch, so I decided to make a bit of an effort, OK so not much - I wanted comfort. I paired up my Denim Simplicity 2451, version 1 from January's OLMPs contest, with my comfy blue sweater and bright red tights.
After an hour and a half of driving round what felt like half of Shropshire we had been unable to find a pub either a. open or b. willing to serve food after 3pm on a Sunday, A SUNDAY! We visited Little Chef for sausage and mash. Yum.


Day 6 
MMM13 - Day 6


Today was a bank holiday here in the UK so without work to go to and the sun shining we decided to take a little ride out on the bike, the first of the year for me. I knew today would be a bit of a challenge in terms of MMM, the bike gear is a pretty essential bit of kit and it was hard to decide what to wear… I stuck on my self-drafted kimono tee but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any decent pics so I will blog about it next time. For now I will leave you with a picture for Tom sunbathing on Bognor Beach. Enjoy x 


beach



Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Pancakes and patterns

Its Shrove Tuesday and that means one thing Pancakes!!!

I don’t think my culinary skills are quite up to the standard where I’m willing to post pictures of my food on the blog but we had pancakes with maple syrup, pecans and vanilla ice cream. Yum!

My progress with the Craftsy Jean-ius course is slow but steady, I’ve watched all the videos and I must say I’m happy with the course everything is explained clearly, although the actual jeans construction lessons don’t cover more advanced ‘jeans styling’ techniques such as flat felled seams and rivets, I brought this course to learn how to get a pattern from my jeans without having to rip them apart (my previous method) and the other techniques are available elsewhere.

My progress has been slow due to two reasons. Firstly I was waiting for my silk organza to arrive, as this was only going to be drawn all over I wasn’t too worried about the quality, I brought it form ebay and it was shipped from China. The second reason it that I’m copying my favourite jeans and as they are my favourites I’m usually wearing them.

But last weekend I took them off, laundered them and Saturday set about my thread tracing I used doubled up silk thread, I wanted to make sure it was visible, it didn’t take as long as I’d expected, I watched Elizabeth Taylor in the Taming of the Shrew as I worked, and traced off my pattern onto the organza. Sunday I copied of my draft and set about trueing up the pattern. I really wasn’t looking forwards to this part and considered skipping it but reminded myself that if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing it right :)

jeans

So now I have a pattern the next stage is to create and toile and check the fit.