Me-made-March: My pledge

I am really excited right now because I've just signed up on Zoe's blog for Me-made-March! So without any further ado heres my pledge:
'I, Hayley from http://gohandmade.blogspot.com/ sign up as a participant of Me-Made-March '11. I endeavour to wear one handmade piece of clothing or accessory each day for the duration of March 2011'

Woohoo! This is the motivation I need to get some serious sewing done by March as at the moment I only have one belt and one skirt that I have made myself and I need to make a slip for the skirt before I dare wear it in public as I realised too late that the material is kinda, well, thin. Oh well, live and learn. So right now the plan is to finish New Look 6789, which unfortunately I'm still having trouble with the instructions but I'm slowly getting with help from the mother. Then I'm going to make some more skirts using New Look 6004 and have a go at making some long T-shirt dresses that I can wear with leggings. I'll have to make another one of Tilly's belts too, as I love the black one I made. Maybe I'll make it in navy blue or postbox red, ooo the possibilities!

New Look 6004 finished!

Woohoo my first skirt made "from scratch" and my first time at using a pattern! I worked at it all day Sunday and just finished the hem this morning so I would estimate it took about 8-10 hours including cutting out the pattern, not bad. The pattern was really easy to follow and only had to unpick once (purely due to me being thick and not measuring the seam allowance properly) but there were no real problems.



All pinned and ready to unleash the sewing machine



Woohoo finished!

So with my skirt project done, I finally got around to taking my sewing stuff upstairs and sorting out my "sewing area" more specifically the desk in the corner of my room. Its small but I'm quite pleased with it (and my mam will be thrilled I've moved from the dining room table.)

So now onto my next project... I mentioned my new goal, to make a dress I can wear at my neighbors 40th birthday party. More info on that coming soon.



Shopping and a new goal

So as some people may already know, I'm from the north east (England) and around here there isn't really anywhere to buy sewing patterns, notions and fabric... or so I thought! My mam remembered a shop in an industrial estate that sells all things crafty and she took me there today. I was in heaven and can guarantee I'll be back there again soon, I must have been there for nearly 2 hours running around like a kid in a sweet shop! I bought some fat quarters of fabric to experiment with and a couple of patterns that to get me started so I think I'm all good for now. This is my fave pattern:



New Look 6004


I've decided to do this pattern first instead of simplicity 7141 as its simply and I'm worried that simplicity 7141 is too complicated for my (very) basic sewing skills. I've also set myself a goal... Its my neighbors 40th birthday near the end of February and I'm determined to sew myself either a skirt or a dress to wear at her party. Tall orders but I'm gonna try! =) I'm going to get started tomorrow hopefully so more to come soon.