Thursday 31 May 2012

The final countdown

It's the last day of Me Made May! And what a month it's been.

This final week has gone much better than last week, even fitting in a new addition to the wardrobe. Here's a quick round-up of the last few days.

28 May
Forgot to make picture but wore the Megan Nielsen Banksia with some Zara black pants. I'm enjoying the Banksia top a lot more since I sliced off the sleeves, it will definitely get a lot more wear.


Look who found a new picture spot?




I've really enjoyed taking part in Me Made May (Thank you Zo!) It's made me realise what parts of my wardrobe I do wear and which ones I tend to steer clear of. Dresses get a lot of wear in my wardrobe but I prefer simple designs and shapes. Also of course am discovering my love of stretch fabric; some days you just want something simple and comfortable and stretch fabrics really cover that for me. 

Some of my earlier pieces I really just don't wear anymore I think partly because as I've been sewing I've discovered what styles suit my shape instead of just choosing a fabric I like and a design I like and squishing the two together. 

So there you go! Hopefully next year I can do even better, with more and more handmade items. 


Monday 28 May 2012

Confessions

I have a confession to make. Last week (21-25th May) didn't go so well for my Me Made May challenge.


It started off with a load of washing from Bangkok and ended with that feeling of wanting something really, ridiculously comfortable.

I managed to take NO photos either! Here's a quick wrap-up of what I did wear:

21 May
Grecian rib-knit scarf. 

22 May
Can't remember for the life of me. But I think it was the scarf again?

23 May
Burdastyle wrap-top

24 May
Sick at home. Spent the day in trackies and a t-shirt on the couch.

25 May
Nada. :( Wore a new dress from Bangkok, but it was handmade if that counts? Just not by me......

So that's my terrible MMMay week. This week feels like it will be a better one - I've washed all my clothes, almost finished a new dress and am rip-roaring to go!


Sunday 27 May 2012

One night in Bangkok

Technically it was one week. But the song doesn't sound quite the same when I hum that in my head.
I was lucky enough a to go to Bangkok for a work conference not last week but the week before. I arrived back last Sunday night and last week seems like a bit of a blur!

I was super excited, partly because I'd never been to Bangkok, partly because I would get to meet all my work colleague from the region and partly because it was warm weather so could break out all my Me Made May gear for hot weather. Hurrah!







The first outfit (15 May) was actually a blue and cream striped t-shirt dress (similar to StitchyBritts here) which I wore on the plane with leggings. I hadn't taken any pictures yet and then managed to leave it in the hotel. Funny story actually, they had one of those fire smoke alarms that had a green light that flashed constantly and kept me awake. So I hung that dress over it to block out the light. Then left it there. Poor cleaners must be wondering what I got up to!

The first day of the conference (16 May) I wore my new black dress with slightly Polish feeling trim, the Colette Pastille (yet to be blogged). I finished this the day before I left *phew*. I'll take some close up photos soon to post about but the top part of this is so nice and neat (!) as I had enough black material to line it. I added some flowery looking trim I had in my stash to make it slightly different to a plain black dress.

The second day (17 May) I had to do a presentation and decided to go with the Megan Nielsen Banksia top (not yet blogged). I originally made this with sleeves but they were so ridiculously tight and uncomfortable I had only worn it once. I ripped off the sleeves and put bias binding around the edges. The collar maybe stands out a bit more now, but at least it's comfortable and will get some wear.

Last up (18 May) I decided to go with the Colette Ginger I made last year. Paired with a black top from Kmart, I quite like how it looks like a dress if you don't look close enough.

I sort of failed to complete MMMay on the 19th May. I started the day wearing the Banksia top but I was transferring hotel (these last two days were personal holiday time) and I tell you what , boy oh boy was it hot outside! So by the time I reached the hotel I was sweating something chronic and changed into something a bit flow-ier - but not me-made.

Have you ever been to Bangkok before? It's an exciting place and he days I wasn't working I spent eating, drinking coconuts and having foot massages. I'm one of those people who travel by eating. I just move from breakfast to lunch to dinner to desert and back to breakfast again.

A delicious restaurant that's founded by an NGO that works in HIV prevention and education. It has really delicious food, cute fairy lights and funds go to the NGO's work.

Oh, they also had decorations made of condoms.

Mmmmm coconuts.

Relaxing by the pool.


Friday 25 May 2012

How to trap a man

Happy Friday! What a hectic few weeks. I have a MMM update coming up and a small confession on MMM to make, I endeavor to have these up this weekend.

In the meantime here's something for a Friday afternoon laugh. The library in the building where I work was giving away some books for free. There wasn't too much (the usual romances and bad travel books), but I did spot this beauty.



 Published in 1963 which is quite late to be publishing these kinds of books I thought? We did get a good laugh from it though.


Ah to have a man that will take care of all my bills.





The bit I managed to cut off in this photo says 'Your Chastity is your most precious asset'

Uh oh. 

Saturday 12 May 2012

Me-Made-May check-in

Whoops how time does fly! I can't believe we're almost half way into Me-Made May already. This month has turned into a really busy one at work so I haven't had much of a chance to do the sewing projects I had planned.

It's also about time for a quick wrap-up of Me Made May outfits so far.  I've managed to snap a picture each day as I was running out the door but my camera skillz aren't quite as advanced as my sewing skillz so there's a few headless shots!














 Next week I'm heading to Bangkok for a conference where it's apparently 40 degrees at the moment. This feel like the ultimate challenge, wear something handmade, conference-suitable and that I won't sweat to death in!  

I'm hoping to finish off another dress this weekend to take with me. I'll let you know how I go!


Friday 4 May 2012

Leggy brunette


Last weekend Benj and I headed back to Canberra to visit my family.My sister pointed out these leggings she wanted online yonks agobut they cost about $80. I thought this was just craaazy so I decided to whip her up a few pairs while I was in town.

We headed into the local Spotlight when we picked up this cheap green stretchy jersey and black and white stretchy jersey. I used a burdastyle pattern and a leggings drafting tutorial to double check the measurements on the pattern.

Here's Deeny sitting out in the sunshine in her new green leggings.
Doing some exercises.


The black and white pair.


It's always lovely to go back to Canberra, I particularly like the autumn days, beautiful sunny, warm days and chilly nights. We drove the new Beetle down there and boy oh boy was it fun!




Thursday 3 May 2012

Me Made May Day 1

Learning how to take photos by myself. look, no head!

Me Made May is here! I woke up this morning and had a small panic that I really needed to wash my clothes in order to have something to wear. But I pulled out old faithful, my Colette Pastille. I LOVE this dress and cannot wear it enough. Everytime I wear it I think about how I must make another version of this, I can see it becoming a real wardrobe staple. You'll most likely be seeing this one a few times in May.

On the walk to work.


Tuesday 1 May 2012

The world's slowest Indian dress

Ta-duh!


 I finally  finished my Indian delight dress. I bought this hand printed block fabric in Jaipur when we were travelling around in January. I really wanted to make something I would wear often but that was slightly special.
 
 
The vital stats
Pattern:New Look 6824
Fabric: Indian block printed
Cost: about $10?
Time to make: a few epsiodes of This American Life. Including that Mike Daisey one and The Retraction. Have you listened? If not, I highly reccomend it!


Hanging out the washing in my fancy dress


To be honest, I'm not as happy with this dress as I would have liked to be. I had some major issues with the lining and just find this style/fabric colour doesn't suit me as much as I would like. The fabric was quite thin so I decided to line the whole thing. It was the first time I'd lined a skirt section of a dress and for some reason thought that I didn't need to keep the tucks on the lining (what was I thinking?!). So I eliminated the tucks and just sewed it straight up. Rooky mistake. Once finishing I'd finished it all I discovered it didn't go over my hips. Uh oh.


So I cut a massive line up the right and left sides and sewed in an extra section of fabric. Dodgy hey?
But it all worked out alright in the end.



This fabric has this gorgeous border print that I really wanted to be a feature on whatever dress I made. I managed to figure out how to place it so it ended up right on the edge of the cap sleeves. I am quite chuffed how these turned out.

This should get a bit of rotation during Me Made May, I need to maximise every handmade item I've got at the moment!

Ps. Sorry about the pictures in this post, blogger seems to be mucking up on me and having difficulty fixing it up tonight.