An apology

I'm afraid it's only four days into Me Made March and I'm having to pull out. Yes I've  seriously failed already. All of the clothes and accessories (and at the moment there's only a few) that I've made or altered are short sleeved, made of thin material or are in some way suited for spring/summery weather. So unfortunately mother nature has decided that this week in the North East (England) it will be frosty and very cold, so in other words not good weather to wear a skirt or short sleeved top. Typical.

On top of the rubbish weather, I have to hold my hands up and admit that I completely overestimated how many pieces of clothing I could alter or make from scratch in the run up to Me Made March. I got ahead of myself and probably wouldn't have been able to finish the challenge without wearing the same garments several times throughout the month. Oh well. So I'm offically declaring myself out of Me Made March this time but I will definitely participate again in the future, as I still think it's a brilliant idea and I enjoyed the laughably short amount of time I took part.

For now I have a couple of refashions/alterations ready to do and I'm making my mam's birthday present and mothers day  present this year (sorry in advance mam), but as she isn't very internet savvy and I had to spend half an hour explaining to her what a blog is, I don't need to worry about her reading the blog and discovering what she will be getting. I'm making a hot water bottle cover for her birthday with maybe some chocolates or flowers and I haven't decided what to make for mothers day. Any suggestions are welcome!

As for my party dress, I missed my deadline and wore I different dress to my neighbours party. I failed (again!) but the dress will be getting finished at some point, for now for the sake of my sanity I have put it aside and I'm focussing on my mam's presents, my refashions and a summery top that I have in the pipeline. More news on those projects soon! So to end, sorry again for pulling out of Me Made March so early on and bring on spring/summer and the warmer weather!

Nearly done

So my dress is finally taking shape! I admit I've had a couple a lot of problems, part of this is down to the pattern, as mentioned in this post one of the pattern pieces had the wrong name on it, I also find some of the instructions and diagrams too vague, maybe it's because I'm not experienced with patterns. The other thing that's caused me problems is, I fear, my lack of experience and sewing skills. It may have been too soon for me to attempt a dress, even though it states it's an easy pattern. It's the band around the bodice that I've struggled with so once I'm finished I'm going to try something a bit simpler. I have a pattern for a summery top with no band so that will be my next project. Below is a pic of my dress at the moment, I need to finish attaching the zip, fold over and sew the band around the top and sew the hem. I'm going to try to get it done tomorrow.

I pledged for Me-Made-March in my last post but there's only 8 days left until it begins and I still only have a couple of items that I can wear! I'm not giving up yet though, my problems with the dress has set me back but I've nearly finished it and once it's done I have a couple of quick refashions to do then I can start on the summery top I have planned. So as they say in those overly dramatic TV programs: I'm down but not out yet!

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!

A slight obsession

When Downton Abbey was first released I thought it would another boring period drama, not my thing. But I admit I was completely wrong! I groaned when my mam "booked" the TV (does anyone do this or is it just my family?) and put it on but within 20 minutes I was hooked and religiously watched the rest of the series week by week. I won't go on too much about the great characters and addictive storyline but what I really want to talk about is the amazing costumes. I'm slightly in love with the summery dresses that the three daughters wore on the last episode to a garden party but there were some some great styles and prints throughout the series.


I love the floaty style of these dresses



Gorgeous gloves and love that dress!

I've never really been into vintage styles but the material and shapes of the dresses has won me over. I even like the scullery maid (Daisy's) outfit, even if it is her uniform and she wears it to peel potatoes.




Daisy's uniform, I especially like the pale pink blouse

My favourite costume of the series has to be Sybil's amazing floaty trousers. On the photo they look like a skirt but are actually really wide legged trousers cuffed at the ankle like haram pants that Sybil wears when she wants to prove that women should be able to wear trousers too. Good for her!



Absolutely adore that colour and the fabric

 I can't wait for Downton Abbey to return in Autumn but I won't give any spoilers for series 1 as I believe it has only just started being aired in America and I don't want to ruin the storyline for any yanks reading this! All I will say is if you haven't seen it, it is well worth a watch.

Getting on with New Look 6789

Hope everyone had a good weekend, I scheduled in some proper sewing time and got to work on New Look 6789. The pattern and fabric was cut out ready, so I sat down to pin the pieces together and immediately hit a problem. The instructions said to sew the front section to side front sections so in theory I should have had one front and two side sections but I had four side sections... hmmm. An hour later after rereading the instructions several times and actually pinning all four side bits to the front (well you never know, I could have been having a dippy moment) I still didn't understand why I had so many pieces. So I asked my mam for help (I've had to do that a lot up to now *sigh*) so she read the instructions and didn't understand it either. Eventually we got the other piece of paper that tells you which pattern pieces you need for each view and realised that one of the two of the pieces were actually side BACK despite having side FRONT on the pattern piece in capital letters. Grr.



Just started 6789 and already annoyed at the pattern lol

 After correcting that "slight" mistake on the pattern I finally got going and I'm onto putting the interfacing on the band that goes around the top of the dress. Has anyone else ever had problems like this with patterns or instructions? I'm hoping its not just me! =)

Starting New Look 6789

So with my skirt completed I can move on to my new goal, making a dress to wear to a 40th birthday party. I've got the pattern, fabric and all the bits and bobs I'll need (hopefully) and the fabric is cut out, ready to sew. On Wednesday night, I took over the dining room table again, as my desk wasn't big enough and cut out the pattern. I pinned the pattern to the fabric... and the net table cloth underneath, which my mam found hilarious (thank god I realised before I cut it out or my mam would not have found it quite as funny). So I've cut all the pieces out and they are ready for me to sew this weekend.

Above is the pattern and the fabric I'm going to make it from. Instead of putting the ribbon with the bow across the top of the bodice, I'm going to try using a wide piece of ribbon as a sash around the waist because I think it will look nice and nip the waist in. I'll soon find out!

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.