Me Made (Tuesday night in) May! Week 4

My original plan was to do Me Made Saturdays in May because I don't have enough own made clothes for the whole month, but I ran out of steam this weekend and decided to wait until Tuesday night, a friend's birthday meal out.

You probably don't recognise this dress, it was knocked together hours before a Christmas night out and I've not had a chance to take nice photos for the blog. One day it'll be snapped properly!

Anyway, it was a great night, and everyone loved the dramatic ruffles!

The Joanie dress

I've finally done it! After weeks of delaying because I felt intimidated I've tackled and completed the Joanie dress (New Look 6000). I was so sure it'd be difficult, and I was really unsure about what fabric to chose, due to the fitted and curvy style, very different to my other dresses so far. 

There's lots of inspiration out there, it's a really popular dress to make up, as you can see over on Burda Style. People tend to call it the 'Joanie' dress thanks to the 1950/60s Mad Men style worked by the beautiful Christina Hendricks. 

Once I'd got round to building up the courage and bought my fabric (a navy jersey knit from Fabrics Galore) making the dress was remarkably simple!

It's pretty fitted, and I'm delighted with the lined sleeves - never thought it could be so easy! I started just a few weeks ago and since then the fabric choice has become obviously wrong one. Taking these photos at 9am I was already pretty warm!

The pleat details worked out mostly ok, though they're not perfect...

And the button was a hard choice but was eventually picked up at Liberty's - their very last one in this size.

It was a cool day up in Liverpool so I decided to wear it for a good friend's wedding, what do you think? It's with nude shoes, a cream knit jacket from Zara and lots of red lipstick...

I have absolutely no idea where to wear it more normally - it's not really my normal style for work. How would you wear it, and what do you think of the finished version?

Me Made (Saturdays in) May: Week 3

Only one more Saturday to go in the 'Me Made May' month! I have to say I'm a little relieved - really running out of clothes!

This week was a surprise birthday party for an old friend Tammy, a meal in an Italian at lunchtime. I went pretty casual with my first New Look 6963 blouse, a thrifted Mango coat and jeans.

 

This is absolutely my most worn self-crafted piece but I think it's time to break free! I've got my eyes on a nice wide collared Vogue number next :)

A gift in a bag: Simplicity 2685

For Christmas I tried to make as many gifts as possible, this blog didn't exist at the time so I'm only just getting round to putting them up. Anyway, for a family member I made Simplicity 2685, a cute bag that's great for shopping or lugging around papers etc.

This family member was soon to open a florist's shop so I wanted a stylish, but flower based print. The Ragmarket came up trumps with an upholstery fabric for £1 per metre! It's the same fabric as used for this cushion.  Making the bag was pretty straightforward, even for a novice like I was at the time.

The button was picked up at Hobbycraft, it was one of their more independent producers. I just love it! The bag is lined too, and if I get to take a photo I'll update this blog post with it later - it matches perfectly, but shows through a little - whoops!

Anyway, what do you think? If you're interested in where I buy fabric I've got this Google map I'm working on with brief reviews of shops. Feel free to share the link if it's helpful to you.

Me Made (Saturdays in) May! Week 2

Well it's Week 2 of Me Made May. Today's been spent mostly essay writing and sewing, however there's only so much of one room I can take before I go a little stir crazy! So here's Week 2's entry, shots taken in my local park. The blouse is my JJ goes girly blouse, based on a Burda pattern. This shirt has so many problems, straining at the bust, random creases - luckily you can't see any of them in these shots. Time to finally fix the issues I think!

What do you think - how would you wear this blouse?

Me Made (Saturdays in) May! Week 1

So, I've come across this wonderful idea via Twitter, called 'Me Made May'. Essentially the point is to make the most of your own creations for the month, wearing clothes you've made but not worn as much as you'd like.

As a new sewist I'm not yet ready to go a whole month, but I'm still up for a bit of a challenge. This Saturday saw an action packed hen do, so I actually got to wear two of my makes! The daytime involved sewing a quilt with the ladies, for which I wore my lovely new Japanese blossom blouse paired with some jeans and a cardie. As ever the shape offered a slightly vintage feel and was really easy to wear (trying hard not to make a third version!). 

Here shown with one of my quilt squares...

We had a bit of a night out too, which meant that the Ted Faker dress / TPD got a bit of a work out... The photo from that blog post was taken early on, this next one was in fact, the only shot of the dress from the night... Rather than being passed out I can reassure that this was dancing on a chair in the restaurant... We were told to... honest!

The verdict on the dress is that it shows creases pretty quickly and the poplin skirt is probably a bit too lightweight for the job. It held up to the evenings activities pretty well though! I doubt I'll make this one again, aside from as a 'quick' gift.

The Ted Faker dress / TPD / Lisette 2209

So, finally another dress... This one is the dress of many names! I made this using Lisette 2209, which I got free with Sew Magazine. It's a really easy pattern, which would be perfect for anyone's first project.

 

I fell in love with this Wookey Hole Liberty Tana Lawn fabric, picked up from Shaukat. It was created by merging a painting and photography of the caves in Somerset. I loved the pattern and remembered having driven past recently, it seemed perfect! I combined it with a lightweight poplin

So... here's the finished product! 

What do you think? My Mum thinks it looks like a Ted Baker design, hence 'Ted Faker'. TPD stands for The Purple Dress :)

And wearability? Well that's the next post!