Me-Made May Week 4

Hello! Wow, May is flying by, isn't it? I can't believe I haven't blogged any makes yet this month. I will soon! May has been a crazy month, with my dad ill and me ill. I'm much MUCH better now, and dad is getting there, so things are looking up. Plus I've been pretty busy with a variety of work stuff, so I don't seem to have much time, energy or motivation to sew!

I have, however, been planning and researching a very exciting project - my wedding dress!! Our wedding is just over a year away, and is going to be a small, intimate, home-made and completely wonderful affair. I'm excited to make my dress, but also slightly nervous. I've just discovered that I have VERY expensive taste in lace. Sigh.

Back to this week's round-up!

Sunday 25th May

Dress: me-made, the Stevie dress

Shoes: my fluffy slippers!

Today was an R&R day. And it was blooming marvellous. Me and the cat hung out, I did a bit of casual crafting, sang a bit, read my book and lazed around. 'Twas glorious.

Monday 26th May

Skirt: me-made, the Grey Matter skirt

Top: Orla Kiely for Uniqlo

Belt: vintage

Tights: Dorothy Perkins

Shoes: black Topshop suede flats

Ah, Bank Holiday Monday. I loved this day, and I loved this outfit. The top is a bird print:

It was pretty chilly today, hence the wool skirt. I thought I'd put this away for the summer, but was glad to be able to wear it. I have concluded I need to make more separates, so I can mix and match a bit more.

Tuesday 27th May

Head-scarf: me-made from Bluegingerdoll pattern (yet to be blogged)
Cardigan: pale blue with white pattern, Dorothy Perkins
Jeans: red skinny jeans, Oliver Bonas

Oops. Today is kind of a fail on two counts. This is the extent of outfit shot I got today. Also, I wasn't going to count a headscarf as my one me-made item of the day. But I have to because I've run out of days this week in which to wear my self-stipulated four items a week. Oh dear Ree.

I am going to blog these Bluegingerdoll headscarves soon - I have made a couple out of scraps. You may recognise this as the fabric from my Flowers for Jane dress.

Wednesday 28th May

Dress: me-made, the Rock Around the Clock dress
Cardigan: black 3/4 length sleeves, Zara
Leggings: Topshop

Big hair day for no apparent reason! My hair is so fine, I feel it needs a little round of applause when it manages to have some volume. Well done, hair. And here's my favourite dress again! Once again it felt great to wear it. We did get some surprise rain, and my feet got soaked. Luckily I was rehearsing a show so when I got to work was changing my shoes anyway! I was so glad to get my soggy pumps off. Wet feet all day is one thing that is sure to put me in a major grump.


Another week gone! Only a few more days of May left. I really, truly wanted to finish and wear my newest dress in time for the end of May, but it ain't gonna happen now. One of the reasons I am putting off finishing the dress is that it for some reason is too small in the bust, despite having previously made a toile. I really want to get it actually finished so I can show you though.

Over and out!

Me-Made May Week 3

This week I have had lots of "repeats". I don't want that to sound negative, because it's not. I think it's a good thing. Wardrobe repeats seeming to be a bad thing are a mild version of the irritation I feel when magazines talk of celebrities "recycling outfits". Wearing a dress more than once is not recycling, it's wearing your clothes normally!

Where was I? Ah, week three.

Friday 16th May

Dress: me-made, the Flowers for Jane dress
Shoes: blue denim peep toe flats, a market stall!
Belt: vintage ('twas my Nanna's)

Today was HOT. Such a glorious day. I went for a walk in the sunshine, ran errands, worked from home and then taught in the evening. All the while smiling at the sun.

Sunday 18th May

Dress: me-made, The Lady Luck dress

Belt: vintage (again, 'twas Nanna's. She had good taste in belts, my Nanna)

Shoes: blue denim peep toe flats, a market stall

Shades: Topshop

Another beautiful day. I was at an audition workshop today so needed something appropriate and not too hot. Later on Liam & I went to look at a potential wedding reception venue. Exciting times! In other news I really like the vintage pink belt I put with my Lady Luck dress. Pity I snapped that belt later that evening. Belt-grief is setting in. 

Monday 19th May

Dress: me-made, the Rock Around the Clock dress

Shoes: black suede flats, Topshop

My dad has been really poorly, so I went up to Leeds to visit for a few days. I just threw a few things in a bag, so I ended up wearing the Rock Around the Clock dress again today. Every time I wear it I'm reminded how much I love it. 

Tuesday 20th May

Dress: me-made, the Flowers for Jane dress

Shoes: black suede flats, Topshop

Tights: good old opaques, Boots

Different back drop! Enjoying this dress again today. 

I felt good in my me-mades this week! I did think I would have finished at least 2 new garments in May by now, but everything has been so nuts with all my jobs being busy (happily so), dad being poorly and wedding planning, I have only done a little bit of sewing. I have got something very nearly finished that I can show you soon!

Over and out!

Me-Made May Week 2

Wow, two weeks gone already!

Again I managed to wear my pledged four me-mades in the week, although I don't think the outfits were as successful or stylish as last week's. One of this week's lessons has been: dress for the flipping weather, Marie! 

Friday 9th

Blouse: me-made (unblogged) from vintage skirt
Trousers: Joy
Cardigan: Topshop

This blouse is oooooold. By which I mean I made it ages ago, but actually the fabric is also old, as I made this from a skirt of my Nanna's. It was a midi length button fronted skirt - nice in theory but looked frumpy as heck on me. I liked the fabric though, so made it into a blouse. I quite like the interesting collar I put on it, although I do like to call myself the polka dot vicar when I'm wearing it.

There are major sewing errors in this blouse! I have no idea why I didn't fix the awful stitching on the photo bottom right, but I didn't. For some reason I still sort of love the blouse, despite it's faults.

These trousers, however, I do not love. I seriously need to get into sewing trousers. These ones are just ill fitting and worse for wear. I do love the colour though.

Today I had one of those crazy days where I went from job to job all day and into the night, constantly changing "hats". I wish I had actual hats to change, that would make it much more fun!

Sunday 11th

Dress: me-made, the Queue dress

Tights: Dorothy Perkins

Jumper: Joy

I'm STILL trying to shake a stupid cold and cough. I really, really wanted to wear my Queue dress though, so I put it on with tights and a not-too-well coordinated jumper. Note to self: I need more cropped jumpers and cardigans to go with waisted dresses. I actually prefer this dress with opaque tights (it's so short!). I felt a little shoddily styled today, but actually didn't care. The fine people in Tesco didn't seem to mind either, although the walk there was WINDY. Short, full skirts and sudden gusts of wind = hilarity for all. 

Monday 12th

Dress: me-made, The Ancient Mariner dress
Leggings: H&M

Well, I'm sad to say today's outfit, The Ancient Mariner dress, was not a success. I felt uncomfortable and self conscious all day. The truth is I just don't like this dress. I like the idea of it, and it should work, but for me it just doesn't. To be fair this is mostly a fit issue. It's waaaay too big, but I've already shrunk it down in the wash, and because of the shrinking the waistline is way too high up above my actual waist. And it's still baggy. 

I included all the pics I snapped this morning purely because you can see how grumpy it makes me! Crack a smile, Ree! 

This dress has since gone in the bin. No use wasting previous wardrobe space with a dud!

Tuesday 13th

Dress: me-made, the Stevie dress
Shirt: TK Maxx
Leggings: Uniqlo

A day of teaching, writing a kid's show, doing admin and flyering. Busy. (Fun fact, every time I type flyering my phone changes it to either flying or flirting. Sadly I did neither). 

I love this dress. This is one that really does fit well and makes me feel great when I wear it. This has already been worn lots and lots since I made it.


Well, that's it! You can tell it was a busy week, I look pretty tired in all these pictures. I have a feeling the real challenge is going to start now. I am running out of me-mades, so there'll be some repeats soon. I am hoping to finish my latest dress today, so it'll be nice if I can add that to my handmade wardrobe.

I hope you're all still enjoying Me-Made May!

Me-Made May Week 1

Yes, I've decided to do my weekly updates on a Wednesday. We have, after all, now had one week of May. I pledged to wear me-mades 4 days a week in May, so here is my first week's effort.

Thursday 1st May 

Top: me-made (pre-blog)

Skirt: refashioned vintage 

Leggings: Topshop

Shoes: Topshop black suede flats

Sleepy face: tube strike 

I love this little outfit. Today I was teaching very very small children and babies, running a music class for mums and their little ones. It is so much fun. The early morning, however, was not very fun. Especially after 3 days of tube strike travel. Thankfully the strike is not on this morning or I would have had to leave even earlier! 

Back to the outfit. When I'm teaching the babies there is a lot of sitting cross legged, and crawling around on the floor. So I pretty much always wear a skirt or dress with leggings on a Thursday. This skirt was my Nanna's and was long. I just chopped a load off the hem and re-hemmed it. The top I made over a year ago from the pattern in the GBSB book and I've worn it a lot. This was pre-overlocker, and the pinked seams are sadly starting to fall apart. There's also a little hole preventing me from wearing this untucked. My sewing and fitting skills have got much better since I made this, so I want to sew another of these to replace this top when I get chance. 

In the evening I went to see the place Liam and I are getting married in! Very exciting. 

Saturday 3rd May

Dress: me-made, the Rock Around the Clock dress

Shoes: Topshop black suede flats 

Cropped jersey cardigan: New Look
Sunglasses: Topshop

I have worn this outfit a lot. I really need some more daytime flats in fun accent colours. I'd have liked to have worn some fun flats with this dress today. It was a beautiful day!! 

I had a morning of more teaching singing, a lovely lunch with my best friend, and a gig with my band - the Pink Champagne Sisters - in the evening. The gig was a Blitz party and was loads of fun. The guests at the event had all made loads of effort and dressed up in forties attire. There were some great outfits and hats!

Sunday 4th May

Dress: me-made, the Flamin' Go! dress

Shoes: Melissa heart shoes

What an awesome day. Today was the wedding ceremony and party of two of our dearest friends. They asked me to conduct the ceremony in the groom's parents' lovely garden (having already done the legal bit earlier in the week) and it was amazing. I wore the Flamin' Go! dress, and my new Melissa heels. I found these by chance in TK Maxx for £30. BARGAIN. I was, however, the only person there who hadn't heeded the "you might want to wear flats, there are a lot of mole holes" memo. But I was fine and didn't really have any trouble with the mole holes!! The dress got a lot of love. It was so amazing and emotional to do the ceremony for our dear friends. I'm so, so happy for them. 

Monday 5th May

Dress: me made, the Lady Luck dress

Cardigan: TK Maxx 

Shoes: those Topshop black suede flats again

The more I wear this dress, the more versions of the Anna pattern I want to make. It's just such a great shape for me, I must make more. 

It's getting to be nice enough weather to go bare legged, and I'm excited about this fact! That's partly why I love dresses so much. You put your dress on, slip some shoes on, and you're done. Instant outfit. 

We had stayed in a local B & B after the wedding last night. We were almost going to camp, but in the end were so glad we had a bed to climb into. It was pretty cold for camping by the evening! I felt a little bit delicate after the previous day's indulgences, but a bit of breakfast and copious amounts of tea sorted me out. 

We then headed back on the drive home for a Bank Holiday style (lazy) Monday. A glorious day. 

Well, week one was pretty easy and very successful I would say! Bring on week 2!

Ree-made May

I have decided to take part in Me-Made May 2014 for the first time. Having followed other blogger's response to the challenge last year, I'm excited about joining in!

I don't quite have enough hand-made clothes yet to wear something me-made every single day of May, but luckily one can set one's own MMM challenge, so here is my pledge:

'I, Marie of Ree-Sewn, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear self-stitched garments at least four days a week for the duration of May 2014'.

I intend to take mirror photos of each outfit and post a weekly update (I just know I won't have time to do a "proper" outfit shot on most of those May days, but if I do, bonus!). It'll also be good for me to keep track of my favourite Ree-Sewn clothes to reach for! 

Queue dress

Hello everyone! I stayed up on Sunday night to finish this, the very summery Queue dress. She is a sleeveless Emery dress with a pleated dirndl skirt, made up in the wonderful Eiffel Tower print fabric I got at B&M in Leeds market back in February. No pockets this time. 

the Queue dress (Christine Haynes' Emery pattern)

This is one of those dresses where lots of the features happened by accident, but on the most part I'm glad they did. 

Firstly, I really didn't buy enough fabric. I cut out the bodice pieces and then discovered that with my lovely directional print, my pleated drindl skirt would have to be just 18 and a half inches long. Oops. I honestly don't know how I made such a rookie sewing error as not purchasing enough fabric. Luckily I don't mind a short skirt! 

I did a fair few alterations and a muslin out of an old sheet. I really want to get this bodice fit perfect, as the Emery is such a versatile pattern. I can't wait to get it all perfect so that I can just cut out and sew up without all the altering and fit time that was involved in this one. 

The fit on my Flowers for Jane dress was pretty good, but there were a couple of things I really wanted to change. 

I moved the waist darts down an inch, and lengthened the bodice by about 3/8". I moved the bust darts up slightly to be pointing at the apex of the bust, and got rid of excess fabric pooling under the bust by shaping the bust darts using Gertie's excellent tutorial (thank you Lynne for pointing me to this tutorial!). I'm so chuffed with the fit on the bust and waist now. I took the shoulder seams up slightly and angled them to fit my big shoulders, then redid the neckline afterwards. I wish I had taken a bit more out of the neckline actually, it's a bit high for my liking. I took half an inch out of each side of the centre back as well, and made the neck darts a smidge bigger. I'm starting to think that this is what's pulling the front neckline out and making it gape, so more work needed there. I'm happy with the fit of this dress on the whole, though. 

I knife pleated my skirt in opposite directions, so there's effectively an inverted box pleat in the centre.

Pleats (and creases)

Because the skirt is so much shorter than originally planned, I didn't want to lose any more length hemming the thing. By happy coincidence, I had bought 6 packs of this navy bias binding from a charity shop weeks ago for 69p a pack, and it's a perfect colour match! Woohoo! It also gives the hem some body so it looks extra full.

I also over corrected the armscye from my last version. I wanted short sleeves with this dress but when I went to put them in, even after adding to the sleeve pattern to allow for the fabric I'd scooped out of the back of the armscye, that sleeve was never going to fit or look nice. ANY kind of sleeve was never going to fit, I had just scooped too much out of the arm hole. Drat. I then tried the Flowers for Jane dress back on and thought "What the heck was I worried about? These are perfect!". So since sleeves were out of the question on this dress, the armholes got bias bound too. And the neckline to match. I decided not to line it, especially since my edges were all going to be finished and bound anyway, and, you know, summer's just around the corner.

The only issues to iron out next time are: gaping at centre front of neckline (would having sleeves change this anyway?) and the waistline, which pulls down slightly at the back. Oh and to retrace the pattern again to go back to the Flowers for Jane sized armholes. Almost there on my quest for perfect fit!

My Invisible zip really is invisible. Hooray! I would have like to pattern match along the centre back, but flipping heck I didn't really have enough fabric for a dress anyway, never mind pattern matching!!

I put a press stud on some of the binding folded in half as a little belt. I thought it needed it to continue the theme and also accentuate the lines of the dress. But this way I can always remove for the wearing of a different belt.

I'm not sure on the bias bound neckline. Maybe it's because the neckline is a bit high anyway, or maybe it's the harsh contrast of colours? Maybe the bias binding is a bit thick? I'm going to live with it for a bit and if it gets to be too annoying I can always chop that neckline down a bit and bind it all over again. I've got enough of the stuff. 

I love navy and white for summer. I'll wear it with red, green, turquoise, bright pink, or perhaps yellow. For now there are always tights and cardigans! When we get some sun it can be flats and bare arms. Come on, sunshine, we're ready for you! 

It's called the Queue dress because when I first went to Paris with my mum and dad as a teenager, I can remember us getting to the Eiffel Tower, having planned to go up, and my dad in true Yorkshireman fashion declaring "I'm not bloody queuing in that!". It was a very long queue, he had a point. But I've told Liam he has to take me to Paris soon so we can go up the tower. And so I can wear my dress of course.

Off to cut out another Emery. Over and out! 

Sew Dolly Clackett - What an Awesome Competition

Hello all! Well, I hope you've enjoyed Sew Dolly Clackett as much as I have. It has been an amazing competition, with some truly wonderful dresses sewn by a lot of talented seamstresses. 

It was so SO much fun to be a part of, and the whole competition had a really positive, supportive atmosphere. (You may say that a sewing competition on the internet full of people you have never actually met can't possibly have any kind of atmosphere, but you'd be wrong there). And come on - the inspiration! Oh man, people have outdone themselves. I would like to make pretty much all of the dresses in the Sew Dolly Clackett flickr pool. I have A LOT of favourites, including Ashley's Owlie Cambie, Jessica's Coo Coo Ca-Choo Dress, Taracat's Eiffel Tower dress, Zoe B's duvet cover dress, Lynne's Lucky Elisalex, and every single one of Jade's awesome Emerys. 

The competition has also lead me to discovering more wonderful sewing blogs. I would like to echo Sarah's words: I flipping love the online sewing community. I'm pretty new to it as a contributor, and I already adore being part of that community. It's one of my favourite things about the internet. I absolutely wouldn't have improved my sewing to it's current level without the existence of sewing blogs. I'm very grateful to all of you inspiring seamstresses out there in blog land!

Sew Dolly Clackett also really helped me to get my flipping skates on. I managed five dresses in the time frame:

The Ancient Mariner dress, the Rock Around the Clock dress, the Stevie dress, the Flamin' Go! dress & the Flowers for Jane dress

I think my favourite out of the five is the Rock Around the Clock dress. It just turned out so well! At a shivery Easter BBQ a non-sewer friend even complimented my tulip sleeves (completely unprompted I might add).

I just loved seeing how different people interpret Roisin's sewing style. It's so interesting. The dresses that had giant helpings of Clackett-ness, quirk AND the style of the maker in the mix too were the most inspiring to me. 

What a lovely way to pay homage to a fab sewing blogger, and to tip our hats to her wonderful style. Not to mention an extremely thoughtful wedding present. I hope it's heartening for Roisin to see how many people she inspires. 

Bravo, Sarah at Rhinestones and Telephones, for giving us this marvelous treat. 

Over and out! 

Ps I mentioned in my last post that an Eiffel Tower dress was in the offing. I didn't get it finished for the deadline for SDC, but rest assured it will be done soon. I kind of ran out of fabric, so it's, um, SHORT.