Me Made May 2018 - week 1

I decided sort of lackadaisically to participate in Me Made May.  I'm working nights, living in limbo and it means I commit to anything these days rather hesitantly.  Even wearing things I make.  Which I do anyway.

Because I don't change clothes on a normal schedule (nights! and surfing!) I'm not bothering to take photos of me in the clothes.  I have put in a modicum of effort to make sure I'm wearing something me made almost all the time, though - I think I didn't sleep in me-mades this week but sure, I can fix that for the next few weeks.  Conveniently enough I'm about to make even more loungepants!

This also forced me to finally learn how to make photo collages.  I'm so behind on the concept that there is an app for everything.

Week one included the following items:

Many tshirts: Briar and 2 Renfrews - the red one is upcycled
Mission maxi upcycled tank.
Mystery swimsuit, pattern tester.
Hampshire pants
Calyer pants.
New Jalie cardigan, soon-to-be blogged

I'm perfectly aware that my wardrobe in New Zealand ends up always falling back on comfortable, easy wearing but not necessarily flattering basics.  I am repeatedly surprised how much wear these Hampshire pants have gotten but they are the perfect post-surf pants for fall and winter, which means I wear them regularly once the weather is too cold for capri length pants.  

The best undercover hood ever - in double face Italian wool

Me Made May was a brilliant idea for about 4 days while it was warm and sunny out...but then Seattle got all rainy.  It does that sometimes.  So in order to stave off the cold I was inspecting my me-made wardrobe for gaps.  That's what me-made-May is for, right?  Makes one reflect a bit on what things we ought to be making, instead of, say, dresses....

As I noted in my plans for the year, I need to make more cardigans.  I also have a weird jacket fetish, and probably I should make some jackets too, not because I need them per se but because it will distract me from buying them.  But anyway right this minute, the solution was a warm, fuzzy Undercover Hood by Papercut.  I've done it so many times that I couldn't go wrong, and now I know to use a heavier weight knit.  So I went off to Nancy's Sewing Basket, in the rain, to see what they had.  Naturally, what they had was exquisitely expensive double faced Italian wool, and after sucking in a breath and going for it, I rushed home to roll myself up in it for a day or so.  The outside is grey/heathered navy with a normal knit face, and the inside face is fleecy/almost felted soft navy.  I stuck a tiny square in the wash but I didn't like how it took away some of the fleeciness, so I washed this in the machine on 'ultra-delicate' and that seemed to do ok.  I air-dried it.

I made my usual alterations to the Undercover hood.  I cut an XS, 2" removed from the sleeve length, 1" from the middle front, and shortened the front pocket about 1" accordingly.  I cut two pockets, so that I could sew them together for a clean edge, but I kept the fleecy side facing in on the inside layer.  Same thing on the hood- I sewed them together so that I would have the woven outside and fleecy inside even though it's two layers.  

I was terrified to iron this, although ironing made it just shiny enough that I got worried, it flattened it out quite a bit and that might have made it easier to sew at times.  Overall the fabric was very well behaved.  It cut easily, shed only some bits of fluff everywhere, and it flattened as I sewed so even though I was sewing 4 layers, it didn't mess up the Necchi.  (We're on better terms now, since I stole him from my parent's house and took him home.)

What I didn't anticipate is how the thick wool makes this sweatshirt a lot smaller than in the stretchy past versions.  It fits me perfectly but if I start to warm up at all it gets really hot.  In this fabric I could have left it a bit larger just so it would air more.  I am already starting to dream of a version with a zip up the front...

Grainline Maritime shorts in wool

Are you shocked that I'm finally making a summer item when it's near summer?  Never fear...I started these in February.  It's only on accident that they're being finished in a season-appropriate fashion.

This fabric is a lightweight wool that I found as a scrap from Nancy's Fabric Shop on Queen Anne in Seattle.  It's a lovely shop to go into but similar to Global Fabrics in Wellington it can quickly eat up your money!  The ladies there really know what they are doing and give thorough advice. 

I figured this pair of Maritime shorts would be a muslin for another pair that I want to make in another heavy fabric - a beautiful tweed that I have found...but first things first.  Everyone else had some fit issues with the shorts so I wasn't sure how mine would go.  Based on chats I had with Lizzy, I cut out a 6 to start.  I had some trouble figuring out the front pockets and I didn't feel like the Grainline photo tutorial helped at all.  It just showed more pictures of the same confusing thing!  Eventually I put all the pieces together in the right way, at least of the pockets, and I didn't have more trouble after that.

The rest of construction was straightforward until I got to the fly.  I was making my dad's Burda trousers at the same time, and with similar pieces, but the very confusing instructions led me astray.  (The Burda instruction should have helped, but didn't.)  Something about my fly is wrong.  It took me ages to figure this out, but shouldn't the zip be hidden by that bit of fabric?  

Oh and that bit of striped ribbon?  Yeah, that was where the waistband was totally not the same length as the lining...

Unfortunately these shorts languished while I was in Switzerland and so they became a bit of a UFO.  They were finished in short order, with no real further problems.  The waistband was too short.  And funny shaped.  I had initially put it together wrong but I'm pretty sure I fixed that, but still it has a few wrinkles - and again I found the directions less than helpful.  I left my Thurlow pattern in New Zealand but I think I'll buy it again because it has the most straightforward pants explanations, and I prefer to do the stupid fly first and get it over with, rather than leaving it for last.

Sorry about the spots, my mother fixed the camera afterwards but didn't take any more back views.

The size six fit fine, and I didn't make any adjustments. I am not sure I love these enough to make a lot of them (mainly because I don't wear very many shorts except one hideous pink pair that will last me another 20 years) but I might try lengthening them first into knee-length shorts and see what I think.

These were done in time to wear them for Me-Made-May, hurrah! 

Me Made May 2014!

I wasn't going to do it, because in Bern I didn't have enough me-made items to make it possible.  But my plans changed and I'm in Seattle, at loose ends.  So I made a decision and I'm joining me-made-May. 

I vow to wear one item of me made clothing every day for the month of May 2014!

I'll be posting to Instagram as soelimano.  You can follow me there.  I am already starting to reorganise this month's sewing plans because I don't think I can live in dresses after all.  I guess that's what it's for - reflecting on what I wear and how to make that me-made.  But I have a lot of half finished and sort of in progress things that I've carried all the way from New Zealand so hopefully I can also clean up some of the disorder (finish projects!) while waiting for some more secure life plans to hatch.