Tankini and skirts

Well the new undies I mentioned in the comments broke the spell and sewing has begun again in earnest.

On reviewing Me-Made-May 12 I noticed that I have very few plain skirts and a lot of patterned tops which makes finding things that are not hugely distressing to the eye somewhat of a challenge. This had led to MMM failures or thisk week, wearing the denim skirt almost every day which appeals to my uniform tendencies but it doesn’t magically solve the washing and drying of said skirt in a timely fashion so it got more and more manky looking as the week wore on.

Friday was our wedding anniversary: 10 whole years! Who knew the Queen would be having another big bash with two bank holidays again so soon! I decided that as a gift from Mr G was unlikely, I would gift myself a day of sewing for myself. I spent a good part of the morning sitting in the sun on the front doorstep unpicking two failed attempts to fix the waist on a lime green skirt that I first sewed two years ago. It started out as a BurdaStyle bias cut, zippered A line-ish skirt with back seam and back darts that was far too wide. Then I took the zip out and cut it down to an Angry Chicken Five Minute A line skirt with FOE waistband and trimmed the hem with cream bias tape but I never really liked how the top pouffed out so I haven’t worn it.

The fabric is a kind of satiny stretch drill so sewing elastic onto the waistband again didn’t really help unless wavy is what is required so I threw this down the side of the machine and went upstairs to hunt for Plan B. This appeared in the form of a very long jersey dress that I bought at a jumble sale and only wear in winter under other because Wedgwood blue really doesn’t suit me. It was in a pile for the charity shop but I thought I would cut a skirt from it and see if that worked because I needed to have achieved something by the end of the day!

I went to the caravan for the overlocker and distracted myself pulling the seat cushions out to stand against the fence in the sun to freshen them up a bit, brought in the washing that was already dry and hoped that the machine was still threaded with navy thread so I could start straight away. It was, so I got cutting. Less than half an hour later I had a pull on,  yoga waistband skirt ready to wear with any patterned thing in my wardrobe.

Having sewn a jersey waistband on that skirt I realised that this might be the best solution for the green one too – doh! Here it is on the line. It looks better but is now a bit narrow across the thighs… so I won’t be wearing it much any time soon!

Then I hemmed El Famosisimo’s work trousers that have been waiting to be shrunk by four inches since around November. I have done a tute for this which I will post next later. As I had the overlocker out I also sewed Miss Amoo’s tankini, do you remember that word? It went with Library Card and some other obsession of the week. The pattern is from Patty Young’s Sewing Modkid Style and it went together really easily. Thankfully Miss Amoo thinks it is great and although the top front foe is a bit stretched she told me that the first thing you do is not always the best one so not to worry, I’ll do it better next time……..

I finished the hem of the top with a folded band rather than stitching a hem and it holds the top down well where it could have a tendency to roll up, I think. I cut an age 10 to fit her circumference but I needed to take 2″ off the top of the shorts after taking this photo as they were a bit too high. She has already swum in them and said the set was really comfortable once she had put the shorts on the right way round!

Thrifted dress over usual skirt with usual compression stocking. It gets a bit hot under all that lycra when the sun is beating down!

I went for a haircut on Thursday and ended up with hair quite a bit shorter than I had planned due to a hairdresser who doesn’t know me mistaking me for a boy and my usual lady having to cut it even more to make me look a *bit* more feminine!  This is the newly-sewn bottom half of dress skirt with a top half of dress top. A very cool combination which I wore two days in a row.

The denim skirt again with a Made by Rae Spring Top and a sun hat from a Japanese pattern book which I squeezed out of one leg of a pair of jeans. The sieve to the left is taped to a pole and is much better than a net for pond dipping. The hear no evil monkey was rescued by Mr G from a skip somewhere.

I have another skirt that I finished this week but haven’t taken pictures of yet. It isn’t plain at all though so I still need more plain tops!

Nothing New but still Me-Made-Maying

My head is full of patterns but I’m not sewing anything. Not even Me Made May has broken my inertia sadly. Never mind.

I’ve had a couple of days when the only me made bits have been undies or a vest. Wednesday was like that as I went to an uninspiring zumba class and didn’t get hot and sweaty so stayed in my ‘sports wear’ all day eek! I’m not keen on sporty looks in general but these trousers are so comfy.

Here are some looks from this week.

This is a half circle skirt which I sewed last year from some fabric my mum bought in Ikea. I made the waist larger than I needed so I didn’t sew the side seam up but overlapped it and added poppers from waist to hip. I’m wearing it with an ancient t shirt and an ebay cardi that didn’t look this colour on the listing… and it was warm that day so I got the crocs out

This was a chillier day so it’s the long grey wrap skirt of old with a long sleeved tee and a loose kind of waistcoat I cut from one of Mr G’s old jumpers. More poppers on this one! I have yet to sew a successful buttonhole.

On Thursday I took a risk and walked to town without a coat for the first time this year. I wore a blue t-shirt, the same grey skirt and same bright cardi again with a me-made drawstring bag. Do you like the girls’ stick collection?

Today is sunny but chilly indoors as we’ve got the doors open and kids running in and out

I started off with just the skirt, t-shirt and cardi then added the over knee socks and scarf after lunch. My hair is a mess so I’ve got a wide headband on to hide it. The skit is my old four gore denim with frayed hem, I knitted the scarf for Mr G two winters ago and the hair hider is upcycled from a cotton voile maternity top.

Ummm I think I might wear a different cardi next week! I’ve got a summer skirt that needs hemming which I might do later on and chant some spells to bring weather warm enough to wear it while I’m sewing.

Ideas

Look what I got in the post today! All the way from afar…

Sigrid very kindly facilitated the purchase of much needed 206×13 needles for me and I received them today, undamaged and unbent by their journey. Thank you! Who’d have thought that is would be easier, cheaper and quicker to buy German needles from the US than to buy them from Manchester?

So now that actually sewing again is a possibility I have sewing plans bouncing around my head, the most pressing being adding horizontal pleats to Novita at chest level to disguise my bralessness under summer weight fabrics and light cardigan to layer with. The recent hot weather has jolted me out of woolly jumpers, leggings and long skirts and the girls see one hot day of spring as being the sign to wear shorts so we went out to the shed to get The Suitcase.

We don’t have room to keep out of season clothing in the house so twice a year we drag a huge suitcase on wheels out of the shed and swap our winter wear for summer wear or vice versa. This week I realised that I have only one plain summer skirt (the four gore denim one) and all the others are patterned meaning that I really do need to make some plain tops that aren’t t-shirts.

I have been Pinning sewing ideas over the past few months (again, thank you Sigrid for introducing me to that lovely place)

I am intrigued by this Cos top which looks like it has two pleats but is in fact one big slanted box pleat

cos.com

And this top with a layered peplum

zara.com

Then there are upcycles, wrap tops from triangles, a summer weight jacket or some cardigans and at least one dress. I get caught up in all these thoughts then the simplicity thing bites me. Do I really need lots of clothes? Do I need new clothes? Do I have space to put them if I sew them or acquire them? This last question is in some way foolish as if I turned all my fabric hoard into clothing the sum change in available space would be nil. The other questions are more about my rejection of the consumer society and a feeling that the world is swirling with stuff that we don’t really want or need. Where does it all go? Right now Ebay UK has 1,872,940 items listed under Women’s Clothing and that doesn’t include handbags accessories or shoes! Are we all crazy?

The difference with Sewists in my humble opinion is that we make things that we really want and we love them so we wear them and wear them. Then maybe we adjust the fit or repair them and wear them some more.

Does this mean that we end up with fewer, better clothes? Does this slow down the turnover of clothes in the wardrobe? Do we cling less tightly to things that don’t fit or look good on us?

Bump! Back to reality – probably the first thing I will do with the new needles is take up a third pair of El Famosisimo’s work trousers.

I’ve Been Mostly Wearing the Skirt

I think I have worn the grey wrap skirt of the previous post almost every day with a selection of jumpers, t-shirts, fave tops, vests and waistcoats. It hasn’t been exciting but it has fitted the bill weather-wise.

Self-stitched September has revealed some large gaps in my warm clothing collection. I need to sew some long sleeved shirts and some more woolly, or thicker, cardis and waistcoats. I have one of Mr G’s old jumpers ready-shrunk to cut into something warm and some wool I bought last year that I might sew another skirt from.

I have been itching to sew something from a new book I bought with some birthday money from my mum. I’ve been wanting to buy it for a while then it was out of stock and I was dithering about buying it from YesAsia or not. I love Japanese patterns as they are made for smaller people with a small bust. I have never had to adjust a Japanese pattern to get it to fit me, which is a joy!

Have any of you sewn anything from this book?

Another bit of birthday money was enough for anew bike rack and panniers that I found in Lidl at a ridiculously cheap price. Here I am with my capacious new panniers on my ancient bike with ancient basket in the skirt and jumper – again – and in front of our petrol guzzling family car. I am trying to use it less so being able to carry more on my bike is a good thing although the car does come in handy for carting all six of us about or lift-sharing with other families to get to home ed things.

Mmmm what shall I wear tomorrow?