Me Made May 2018 - Mission accomplished

I made it! Fourth time lucky, is that even a thing? I fulfilled my personal Me Made May 2018 challenge. It was tough but worth it in the end...

The story...

I made a WATG sweater last year out of the most precious cotton yarn - so soft and sumptuous. I wore it in St. Tropez, it was good to have it on the breezy boat trip...

 

BUT, this is me wearing it when it was fresh and new. I had purposely made the sleeves a little longer because that is how I like them but as the Summer nights lengthened so did my sleeves.

The weight of the yarn made them longer and longer until I eventually stopped wearing it because I couldn't chop tomatoes without the cuffs mopping up the juices off the chopping board! I did what I always do in these situations - I hid it under the bed.

On my most recent seasonal wardrobe swap over it peeped out from the drawer and made me feel more than a little guilty. I decided to re knit the sleeves, after all I liked the body and the high quality yarn.

Firstly I tried a quick fix. I re knit a sleeve with unravelled yarn however the wobbly yarn made for the most appalling tension.

I went through the process of unravelling both sleeves, stretching and washing the yarn in skeins ready to start over again. I knit a sleeve. Grr! it was still wrong. I had not done enough decreases to make the sleeves narrow enough and then ran out of yarn resulting in another wide, baggy, useless sleeve which was now too short.

I unpicked, unravelled, washed, stretched and tried again another time. 

This time I really was like a dog with a bone. The left sleeve was now on its fourth incarnation. I was so pleased when it was finished not just because the torture was over but it is back to being the summer knit I originally wanted. It may not look too different to you but it is so much lighter in the sleeves length and width.

Did I ever mention I am a capricorn? Stubborn as a goat me. Thanks Me Made May, a great motivator to use the worlds resources wisely. 

Jo xxx

Me Made May 2018

My pledge for Me Made May 2108 is very specific this year...

I Jo, of Three stories High, sign up to participate in Me Made May 2018. I shall endeavour to wear my WATG jumper again during May 2018... The arms stretched way out of shape and are dangling over my hands, I made them too long in the first place! I will unravel them and re shape and knit them to save the worlds cotton resources. 

There is preparation, motivation (that is where you folks come in) and a touch of angst in this project which is why I have set myself this challenge. 

No mater how lucky you feel, or how half full your glass is you can't just unravel a couple of sleeves and re-knit the yarn. I know I have tried...the wobbly wool looses all tension especially on large needles. Meh!

You have to put in some time and know how. I knew this before but somehow thought I was a special human being and it wouldn't happen to me!

Firstly, I wound the wool onto a chair, then tied it in a few places to hold it steady.

Next, I put it in the sink for a little bath and stretched it out, I appreciate that this image looks like a toilet but rest assured it is the sink.

I hung them up to dry.

 Some small kind arms helped me get it back into usable balls. 

I won't lie to you it has been a faff but I loved wearing this sweater so much on holiday last year in France and want it back in the mix. Next up some knitting....I am going to change the sleeve shape so that it doesn't flop over my hands. 

This is what Me Made May does for me, it forces me into a corner!

Jo xxxx

#Me Made May 16 - Week 4

It is that time of year when I swap my clothes over and have a really good sort out. I pack my winter clothes in the spare room drawers and become reawakened by my summer clothes which have been out of my minds eye for a few months, it feels like having a whole new wardrobe of outfits.

Out with the wool skirts, sheepskin gilet, velvet skirt, tartan kilts, cordouroy, boiled wool cardigan, miette in wool aran, Noro chunky layering jumper plus my long sleeved t-shirts - they wont be worn now until October so they are all hibernating.

What this activity does for me is to assess what have I actually been wearing during Autumn and Winter as well as what has fell to the bottom of the drawers unworn? I found this Me Made item which I knew had not been worn since I made it never mind all winter - shame.

It is a beautifully made(though I say so myself)pencil skirt in a sort of ribbed navy velour kind of fabric. The problem was it was too long. It was the sort of mad man length that looked really chic and feminine if you could manage to wear a pair of heels all day which it turns out I can't. So I unpicked that beautiful bias trimmed hem and made it shorter. This sort of hem is great for bulky fabrics that would look too chunky turned over twice.

Now I can wear this with thick tights and boots or flat shoes but sadly it is going straight into the drawer upstairs because it is too thick for summer - but all fixed and ready to be worn.The other problem I have found is that I do not put hanging ribbons in my clothes so this skirt was out of sight by being in a drawer and not hanging in my wardrobe where I could see it. Here is my before (July 2015) and after (May 2016):

 

In return, as I pull out the summer things I have flashbacks of items that were uncomfortable or malfunctioning, they are of my own making so I am trying to knuckle down and sort some out as my pledge for Me Made May 16. I can't pretend I didn't know about this zip finish!

I was so busy getting the waist band seam to match that the top of the zip was out and I just wore it which is silly because you would not believe the care I took on pattern matching the plaid on the front pleats. It made a little red mark under my arm every time I wore it (I mean the three times I suffered it) and for such a small bit of fabric, it was surprisingly pointy.

I was going to take the whole zip out but as the waist seam was well matched I decided to take a curve from the armsyce to blend down to the other side which was a great decision. Oh! the relief when I tried it on. There are no armpit photos, obviously, but trust me by checking out the relaxed smile on my face.

Well another year of Me Made May with a slightly different angle. Here is what I have learnt so far:

Me Made May 2015  

• All my handmade clothes are patterned so nothing goes with anything else!I need to make some solid colour items.

Me Made May 2016  

• You can revisit your homemade stuff and learn from your mistakes. 
• If you make hanging ribbons in your clothes you can see them all. 
• I didn't know I needed a mustard cardigan this badly, it goes with so many of my clothes, it was a great buy in April.

Have you got bought or homemade things you could alter? Go on give it a go. The worst that can happen is you learn something new and that really is rather wonderful.

Jo xxx

#Me Made May 2016 - Week 3

It is amazing how much homemade stuff I can wear now that I have returned to so many items and fixed the problems I had with them! This weeks round up is a traditional little post of my favourite makes alongside what I did this week. #Me Made May Week 3...

MONDAY
I love this vintage pattern top with the ribbon border but I always wore it with jeans and now I have fixed my work trousers I wore it to work on Monday to invigilate exams all day. I am wearing my glasses whilst modelling today for Frankie from knitwitsowls who has had to start getting used to wearing glasses so I thought I would send my MMM16 support for her and all who model in their specs.

TUESDAY
Today I have been teaching apprentices Maths. They are 16-19 year old hairdresser trainees. Tuesday is a real whole work day for me and I love it: wearing a dress and talking to grown ups - lovely. In the evening I teach at our sewing group. All day I wore a handmade cotton lawn shift dress that moves from season to season by needing either leggings/tights/bare legs, which are all dependent on the weather. I also wore my own crochet necklace now that I have a new yellow cardigan.

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I sometimes have work and sometimes I don't depending on the time of year/contracts/courses and at the moment I am work free. I spend Wednesday doing the extra things that make mine and our family's life enjoyable: allotment, sewing, making, fixing something at home, gardening, haircut, chiropractor appointment, exercise(no I was only joking!), shopping for things we need, any of these make my life really nice - nicer in fact than working another day and getting more money. Today I am wearing my Me-made jeans, replica blouse and one of my most worn items a beaded crochet neckerchief.

THURSDAY
I wear this tunic all the time made from an ottobre pattern, it was my first foray into a stretchy fabric. I sometimes layer it with tops underneath and cardigans on the top or wear it on it's own.I took the top off by 11:00 as the day warmed up. It is lazy but I like it. I made my necklace too from here.

I work from home in the morning marking and lesson planning then in the afternoon I teach Maths to a lovely group of parents at a school. It improves their own maths skills and then they can help their children with theirs, it is very rewarding work.

FRIDAY
Back to the apprentices in the morning and then my GCSE English group in the Friday afternoon. My 16-19 year olds are not that mad to take a resit GCSE course on a Friday afternoon but after nearly a year of working together they are doing just great and they have resits in June. (My writing here is not always GCSE worthy itself, but you understand that these are musings don't you? Way too much use of the word 'and' and sometimes some very strange punctuation for spoken language effect!) I wore my stretchy Bettine dress - I wear it so much.

So just the weekend to go - you may have noticed I rarely blog on a weekend, we just do family stuff and that is when we have some relaxing time together. What will I wear? I have no idea because I have no idea what we are doing yet. Oooh the excitement of it all...

I hope my weeks synopsis has not bored you but what I wear is very much linked to what I am doing. Is it for you?

Have a great weekend Love from Jo x

Me Made May 2016 - week 2

This week in Me Made May I have been fixing malfunctioning trousers so that I can continue to wear homemade. I am feeling better too. 


I have also squeezed in a little t-shirt make with improvements.

I have made this t-shirt here from New Look K6217 and the fit was way too big on the neck so I went down a size and now the pattern is going to be a firm favourite. I have also been wearing some homemade jewellery by buying myself a new yellow cardigan. A whole new outfit pulled together with some sewing alterations.

My alterations this week include:

Adding belt loops to my stripey jeans. 

Problem: They are fine for the first hour and then as the day wears on and the fabric relaxes, they get too big on the waist. It makes for a saggy crotch at the front which is not a look I am aiming for.

Next up:

Problem:I think I may have been constructing a zip fly incorrectly (?) but it was strange because by following the pattern carefully the second time for the stripey ones above the same thing happened. Anyway my zip on my jeans keeps pinching my stomach. (I remedied the stripey ones when I made them learning from experience to make a flap over the zip teeth)Can you see, the flap on the right is under the zip and waistband exposing the metal to my skin (ouch!)

Remedy: Make a fly flap to cover the zip on the inside.

Not strictly me made but I have a perfectly lovely pair of narrow leg office trousers from Next which needed sewing attention.

Problem: The waist was too big 

Remedy: I unpicked 3" of the back crotch seam up to the waist, cut through the waistband and lining and took out an inch at the top tapering back to the original seam. Then I hand stitched the lining back in place.

Finally these.

I think we can all see the problem here! I clipped too close to the crotch seam for the curve and it eventually made a hole in the bum of my favourite chambray work trousers which I wear a lot.

So this week I have brought two pairs of jeans back into comfy order along with two pairs of now well fitting work trousers. With a bonus T-shirt re hack, a new treat buy cardigan which brought into play a necklace I made last year but had rarely worn.

I am enjoying my version of Me Made May 2016, it is making me think and be very honest about my makes and how they went wrong but can of course be improved.

Are you joining in? Leave me a link to follow if you are.

Me Made May 2016 - Week 1

I am joining in with Me Made May 2106 this year, I really enjoyed it last year. In the truest sense of the pledge it really made me understand what I wanted to sew and what I liked to wear on a daily basis.

This year I have made a slightly different, personal pledge:

'I, Jo Roberts, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavor to alter some of the clothes I have already made but rarely wear for a tiny ill fitting reason. I will round up my alterations each week for the duration of May 2016'

I know that when I finish an item it is blogged for all to see but in reality until you have actually worn it a few times you don't know if it really works - sometimes there are issues you only know when you actually wear it to do real things in real life rather than standing in the garden or bathroom with the self timer on the camera an hour after it is finished!

This week I have made a crucial alteration/revisit. My Coco dress was the first garment under the knife.

Problem: The funnel neck meant that I could not comfortably wear a cardigan or warm garment over it. The second problem was that the jersey stuck to my leggings on my bum and the third problem was it was too short to wear my petticoat underneath to stop it sticking to my bottom!

Remedy: I took the funnel neck off and replaced it with a neck binding. Then I cut the length to suit me as a top. It also seemed too big so I took a seam from cuff to waist all the way through the armhole to make it a slimmer fit. Good old serger. I must have worn this three or four times since the alteration but I only wore the dress once.

Does this make you think of an item you could revisit to bring it back into your wardrobe? See you next week. Jo xx

Me Made May #4

Hellooo! We are back from our holidays and I have some feel good holiday snaps mixed in with my last Me Made May post.It is a bit more chaotic this time with some days missed but clothes made and worn by me nonetheless.

Worn to - Home day today packing for holidays

Made - Mathilde Blouse in Liberty Florence fabric.Jersey necker made up out of fabric that was too thin for a T-shirt

With - New jeans with stars!!! bought in M&S for £14 on a sale rail.

Thoughts - I like this blouse but I do struggle with what to wear it with so it has occasional outings when the temperatures are Spring like.

Make again? - Probably not. I took quite a bit of fabric out of the sleeves when I made it. It doesn't earn it's keep in my wardrobe really. Sorry.

Journey stop off at Hardwick Hall

Worn to - Travel on holidays

Made - Jeans from burda

With - A second hand sweatshirt

Thoughts - They really are a home made staple, as you will see!

Make again? - yep, maybe in fine cord or cotton drill

Worn to - The beach

Made - Cord skirt, t-shirt and neck wrap

With - navy leggings

Make again? - Yes

Worn to - Exploring Whitby

Made - T-shirt

With - New Gap city slicker trousers (thanks Bloke, I love them)denim jacket later when it got windy

Worn to - Meal out with my dad and his wife who joined us on holiday and the children too

Made - Shift dress

With - Leggings and a denim jacket. Along with my cherry brooch from Amy at Love made my home.

Thoughts - Staple summer dress.

Make again? - Definitely. I altered the pattern specially for me.

Little M joined in with her going out dress too with a similar-ish pose! I made it in early March and it is getting small already.My mum knit the cardigan.

Worn to - Play crazy golf!

Made - Vintage top

With - Gap trousers

Worn to - Lunch and more walking

Made - Dress and necker

With - Leggings and navy jumper

Worn to - Fossil hunting at Robin Hoods Bay on the beach

Made - Jeans from burda

With - A bought t-shirt

So I wore variations of these clothes for a week and never got tired of them. What have I learnt from doing Me Made May?

1. I must stop making things because 'they-go-with-jeans' because I am at work four days a week when I can't even wear jeans!
2. I need to make a summer jacket because I only have a denim one and that is either too casual or I am wearing denim jeans so it looks silly.
3. I need to make some plain knits and solid colour items so that I can wear my floral/patterned makes easily.
4. I actually like wearing the clothes I make.

I hope you have enjoyed this little journey of sewing, I know it is a bit of a marathon. I have loved seeing other peoples clothes which I have been following on Pinterest and it has given me a lot of inspiration. I'm off to catch up on some of your some blogs because we didn't have the internet for a whole week on holiday!!!

Love Jo xxx

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