Me Made May the first half!

Well Me Made May is off to a great start! I'm over half way through with only one day off, but that's because I was poorly and stayed at home all day. Not bad going, I didn't realize I had made myself so much to be perfectly honest.

Day 1 I wore my super twirly circle skirt made with my amazing teapot fabric. I bought this fabric quite early on in my sewing 'career' from fabric land and was too scared to cut it for a long time as I loved it so much! I finally did and did my maths wrong so it's a bit big but still wearable, though the pockets are very low down!


Day 2 is my walkaway dress which I have blogged about before here I made this from a double duvet from Dunelm on sale so I think I did pretty well. Again this was before I really knew what I was doing so it is a little thin, and I didn't finish the edges properly so it is starting to fray, but boy do I know about these things now!



Day 3 is my beloved Tilly and the buttons Bettine dress blogged about here this is the only dress I have since made multiples of, some for friends and some for myself and the first pattern I have used to make something from jersey. I really recomment this pattern for beginners as it really is very easy and the fit is simple to apply to yourself.

Day 4 is my Winslow Culottes blogged about here These were my first time using crepe AND my first time making trousers/making a gusset! I love swishing around in these and cant resist showing everyone they are culottes hence the ridiculous picture!



Day 5 is my first Moneta dress that I made for the Moneta Party and blogged about here. I'm also wearing my By hand London Victoria Blazer that I hacked and made from jersey so it's super comfy and I wear it so often with jeans or for work. I don't think I've blogged out the jacket though as to be honest it's not my best work, and this picture is far away! ;)



Day 6 I had a guiding even I was running so I had to wear uniform but I took with my my camp blanket which i have blogged about here but have since added a shed load more badges on. If you are interested check out my Instagram for a video of the whole blanket.

Day 7 I glammed it up a bit as I was going out for sunday lunch. I wore my Simplicity 8065 blogged about here This is another duvet cover dress because really who can afford all that fabric! and is great for dressing up with my petticoat under or not for a sunday lunch.

Day 8 saw me in my new Studio TKB Fallon top blogged about here with my normal work trousers. I love this top as it's nice and floaty and the shape is really flattering, as you can see though it was a bit windy that day!



Day 9 I waorked from home with a serious case of the lurgy, caught from my husbands man flu, so I didn't really get dressed so definitely no pictures for you today!

Day 10 was the Butterick B6318 which I blogged about here This dress had never made it out in the wild as the bat wing arms and big boobs meant I couldn't lift my arms very much but I thought I'd give it a try. I think MMM has been great for this as now I know I don't want to wear it again and it was so uncomfy so I'm going to make it into something else. This was a Design Team project for Sew Crafty and I learnt loads in the process but sadly it's not for me.
Day 11 a new circle skirt, which I still got the maths wrong on, made with a remnant of chiffony type fabric from peterborough market. It looks great as I walk around as it floats nicely but I think the waist is a bit big as it lays too low on my hips.

Day 12 THE DRESSMAKERS BALL! I'm going to do a separate post for this but needless to say, it was fabulous I felt fabulous, everyone was fabulous. Just wow.


Day 13 was definitely a slouchy day as I had been rushing around so much on the Friday and didn't get home from the ball until around 130 am. I wore a RTW dress from dotty p's and a Cardi my grandma made me. I love snuggling in my Grandma made cardis! Ok so technically I didn't make it but someone in my family did so i'm claiming it!

Day 14 I went to the Handmade fair at ragley hall. I'm going to do another post about that too, but I made a new Moneta dress for the occasion. This is made from the fabric I got on the St.Ives bank holiday market I got 3m for a fiver and I only used just over 1m for this dress (with careful placement and and clever back seams) I'm getting a wizz at the twin need now thanks to the Moneta party, and I put box pleats in the front of this, mostly cos I ran out of elastic, but I think I prefer the shape on me.

So two whole weeks down! another 2 and a bit to go but I'm having lots of fun and getting SOO much inspiration from everyone's makes! Keep it up everyone well done!

The Butterick Retro B6318

This was another project from the lovely people at Sew Crafty Online the fabric is absolutely beautiful and all my scraps have been carefully saved for future quilting and small projects as I couldn't bare to throw them out!

My Butterick Retro pattern has caused me a few headaches. Mostly in the boobage area! My first issue was my measurement didn't really fit the sizing. So I just made the on the was going to fit my top half with the hope the skirt would be floaty enough to survive.

As you can see even on the mannequin this appeared to be a strange shape but my hope was the waist band would pull it in a bit. Which it did beautifully on a real person, the mannequin doesn't do it justice.

I think if I were to make this again, I would take the top in slightly across the boobs as it doesn't have any dates to give the top any shape. I think they shape would be perfect for a the larger breasted lady though i'm afraid mine were a little lost!

Once the tie is around the middle you really can see the shape it is aiming for which is beautiful, though I think I have learnt to stay away from Kimono tops as they don't fit me properly. I found the tie quite hard to attache and the instructions weren't great but after some perseverance I think I cracked it.

But seriously whilst the fit isn't perfect on this dress it is absolutely beautiful because of the fabric. The flowers are so cheerful and wonderful it brightens up any day in the office! So all in all a successful escapade.

Daisy Dress, from Simply sewing mag

I made this beautiful dress for our Christmas present to go see Phantom of the Opera (amazing by the way!)

It was a perfectly timed free pattern from the Simply Sewing magazine.

I used some vintage cotton fabric my grandmother had in her stash. It still had the label on it saying the cost of £2.80!! The total outfit cost me about £3 as I only had to buy the zips and the thread, my kind of outfit!

I traced out the size I needed and cut it all out and put it all together in just a few hours and it has so few pieces. Perfect for me as I hate the tracing out stage!

I really struggled in putting the facing around the neck area though. I sewed it all on then I couldn't turn it back the right way out. I had to unpick the shoulders and re sew them afterwards which left them a little frayed but now I know what to do next time.

I love the part circle skirt of this dress as its a perfect shape for me. And is really flattering. The fold on the neckline adds a beautiful touch and the dress would look even better in a plain fabric I think.

Beautiful dress which is perfect for work, Simply Sewing mag even included my version on their website!

The infamous 'Walkaway dress' Butterick B4790

After seeing this dress on The Great British Sewing Bee I instantly fell in love! My personal style is very retro and flared dresses like this flatter my curves well.
I bought the pattern on a whim when it was half price thinking I'll get round to it when I'm a bit more skilled, but no I decided to go head first on this one!

I was a bit daunted by the amount of fabric I needed to make this, so I thought if I mess it up it's going to be a huge waste of money. So whilst in Dunelm I saw that their plain block coloured duvets and sheets were on sale! I bought a bright pink and a bright turquoise double duvet for the grand total of £9! Perfect for messing things up I though!


I started by Ironing out the pattern pieces as this was my first go with a proper pattern so I was following all the things I had learnt watching plenty on YouTube! Once I have ironed them, I taped them to our living room floor then taped tracing paper over it. I copied out all the lines for my size then cut it out. I carefully folded my pattern back away and from then on only used the tracing paper and the instructions that came with the pattern.

Now as I was using a duvet the normal pattern placing on my instructions didn't quite work as my fabric wasn't the usual width or length. I made sure the folds were in the right places and I cut out enough of every piece.

Tia wasn't very helpful in this stage!

So after I cut all my piece out. I followed the instructions in the pattern to the letter, and I ended up with something that resembled a dress! Please keep in mind I am a beginning so I didn't move any of the darts or change the pattern in any way and I have since learnt it definitely needs to be done on this dress as it's a vintage pattern which doesn't fit modern bodies as well.

I then had the task of the miles of bias binding! I decided rather than buy a specific amount which I would probably end up messing up and needing to source more, I bought a 20m roll from ebay as the fabric was very plain I bought some polka dot bias binding to jazz the dress up a bit. I bought extra wide binding, half because I wanted to make life a bit easier and less fiddly and half because I wanted it to stand out.


I watched a tutorial on ebay about bias binding on clothing as I have only put it on quilts so far so there is much more of a sandwich involved. The video suggested ironing the binding in half reading to be slotted over the dress edges already ironed in place. I ironed about 4m of binding and started to put it around the dress starting on the corner of the piece that is at the back and covered by the skirt. I used my quilting clips rather than pinning it as it stopped it from being a bit too fiddly. This also helped me just keep moving the clips further down as I went the whole loop around the dress. make sure you leave extra binding along the back to tie the back panels together. I let about 20cm on either side which is enough to leave a small bow under the skirt.

I started by putting buttons in the front, but because I hadn't tweaked the pattern at all it didn't quite close properly in the middle and it wasn't very comfortable. So instead I took the buttons off and replaced it with some extra bias binding which I tie in a box at the front making it much more comfortable, and perfect for going out for a meal and overeating as it expands!

Ta daa! A very awkward looking me in an unruly looking garden!! As you can see the top it really baggy about my boobs and you may not see by under may arms is quite low and shows my bra so I would need to tweak the darts next time I make this. I'll have to learn how to do that first though! ;)