Me-Made-May Conclusions

So Me-Made-May is over (well over, This post is about a week late, Sorry!)

After setting myself the very ambitious challenge/goal of wearing only me-made clothing, I attempted the best I could. I knew there would be gaps that needed to be filled, so some days I didn't have much choice but to cheat and wear store bought items. Those few times have pointed out to me a few things I need to put on my "To Sew" list to have a completely me-made wardrobe. Those things are:

# Warm Pyjamas and maybe a dressing gown

I love how the woman has cinched in her
pyjamas at the waist

# 1 or 2 Cardigans

Maybe a floral one like these from Ebay?

# 1 or 2 Slips

Which I already have this pattern for

# More Pants/Trousers

Perhaps a pair of Overalls?

I'd love to make Gertie's Capris from Butterick B5895

# A Pencil skirt or 2

Maybe one with braces like this collectif one?

Or a few lovely simple ones in many colours

# More plain blouses

Like these

And these....

# Vintage Suit (ok, this is a want, not a need)

Maybe I'll make this one for myself

# A light 50's style bomber jacket

# A Large Overcoat, for the really cold days

Like this Collectif Jacket from Elsie George

I would love to get rid of even more of my store bought clothes (I've already donated 3 large bags full) But obviously there are certain items I would keep, like my coat that I bought in York while on my Honeymoon, as well as most of my 50's reproduction clothes. But the cheapo mass produced shirts and jeans can go, and any clothes that I just don't love to wear, as they aren't worth keeping. I think Clothes should make you feel Fabulous! Even if you are just doing house or yard work. Why wear a baggy shirt and leggings when I could wear a swirl dress or a 40's style cotton blouse with matching dusting cap, and feel so much more glamorous?

I also realised, that what seems like a majority of me me-made wardrobe is Pink. While that is all well and good, I think I need more Red, Black and Leopard print in my wardrobe. 50's bad girl colours maybe? I just felt like I was always wearing pink, and didn't wear my Red lipstick any where near as much as I normally would, as I like wearing Pink Lipstick to match my Pink dresses. This probably comes down to the fact that when I fabric shop, I'm drawn to the pretty floral prints and such, so I will be making more of an effort to get more colours into my me-made wardrobe as well.

Is there anything anyone thinks I may have missed?

Dixie

Bad, Naughty Zoot!

 And so we have arrived at the day after another cult classic Friday at the Regal cinema. Originally last month they announced it would be a film called Withnail and I, but recently they changed it (perhaps due to low interest) to Monty Python and the holy grail. So last minute, I decided to make a new costume.

There isn't a great deal of female characters in the film, at least not ones with speaking parts who aren't played by men. so I chose Zoot, or was it Dingo? I guess that depends on how naughty I've been.

I cut the dress pieces out of a piece of fabric that was a little over 2m long (but luckily quite wide) before work on Thursday

Only just fit the sleeves in there.

Then began sewing it up after work. As usual I started with the shoulder seams, then I sewed a long thing rectangle, folded in half, along the neckline for the collar.

I then eased in the sleeves, and sewed up the sleeve and side seams. Here is how it looked pinned at the back, worn over a slip for modesty, as the fabric was a tiny bit sheer

Excuse the mess on the bed, I had just torn
apart the house looking for my Columbia
jacket for Sunday

I then sewed up the back seam, leaving about 5 inches at the top open, I then attached a button and button loop at the collar to close the opening. I overlocked around the bottom edge and hemmed the sleeves. I then gave it a good press. On Friday morning I made the sleeveless lace overlay, using the same pattern pieces as the base dress, omitting the sleeves and collar, and cutting out the back piece on the fold to eliminate that seam. As I used a stretch lace, the overlay was easy to throw on over the top without the need for any closures. Unfortunately my lace has a much smaller pattern than the lace used in the movie, but as I was just using stash fabric, and put this together in less than 2 days, I'm not concerned.

Then I needed to make the hat. The base was a VERY simple little pillbox hat, which I just constructed out of cardboard. Normally I would have covered the cardboard with fabric for a nicer finish, but I was being lazy. For the crown part, I traced the top of my top hat (worn previously for my Rocky Horror Costume) adding roughly 5mm all around. I then cut a long strip of 4 inch wide cardboard to fit around the crown, with a bit of overlap. I folded down 1 inch along this strip, then cut into the folded over section every 1cm or so, to allow it to curve around the crown, which was glued together. I then folded approximately 1.5cm up into the band to make it a bit narrower, and to give me something to pin the veil to.

The veil part was a large circle of sheer white fabric (I used some old curtains I had in my sewing stash) which I overlocked around the edge of, stretching the bias as much as I could while I did it, to give the fluted effect to the edge. This was then folded in half, slightly unevenly, and pinned to the inside of the hat band, to fit around my face, with about 7-8 inches extra either side. I found this gave a pretty close look to the costume used in the movie. I then added a small piece of chain, which was black as that was all I could find, and used a cute faux pearl heart shaped earring on the front. And that was the Costume done, with several hours to spare!

Quick selfie before we headed out the door

I got my husband to take a few quick photos of me at the cinema. We were quite early, so there was only about 5 people in the cinema at the time. I wish I had been able to find my contact lenses, as the glasses kind of spoiled the look. Oh well.

Hopefully there will be a few better photos taken on the night posted to the Regal Cinema's Facebook page soon that I can steal.

I didn't win best dressed this time, that honour went to a very dedicated black knight with no arms, but I did get a free ticket for the Regal for my troubles, so it was well worth it.

Dixie

And now for a little Cosplay - Part one

*Note: I have posted this a little late, as I actually wrote it a couple of weeks ago, but have been so busy, I forgot to post it*

What do you do when you have a friend that sews and you need a crazy costume for your daughter's school play? That's right, you see if they will make said crazy costume for you!

Ahsoka Tano

Ahsoka Tano

I probably should have said no, but I'm a pushover I guess. The play is not until August, so we figured we had until about a few weeks before that to get it made, so no worries.... Then at the end of April (when I had so many other projects going on) I find out they need it in a few weeks........

So of course I get to work.

For the headdress I decided to use this Youtube tutorial as the base, with a few tweaks of my own. I found the tutorial helpful, as it gives you a shot of the pattern pieces this girl used, so I could draft my own, based on hers. There are plenty more ways to make this headdress/wig thing out there, but I liked this one as it was sewn (my comfort zone) and the pattern pieces were reasonably simple. I chose to use a stretchy knit fabric, instead of a thick cotton like this video recommends, as I thought it would give a better shape overall.

After I measured nearly every part of Bogface, I started drafting up a pattern for both the headdress and the tunic. Once that was done, I began on the headdress. I used some plain off white stretch fabric that I had in my stash, and tried to make it so that it would be comfortable to wear, especially while prancing about fighting on-stage.

Pattern pieces

Once all the pieces were cut out, it sewed together reasonably quickly, but did take a bit of thinking to work out the order to sew the seams in.

Skull cap pieces

All headdress pieces cut out

Here is what it looked like without the skull cap sewn it and stuffing added.

Main part of the headdress together

skull cap sewn together

Then I put some stuffing in and tried it on. as this was for someone with a much smaller head than mine, I knew it would not fit me once the cap was sewn in.

Me  wearing the headdress with a bit of stuffing

So once the cap was sewn in, I looked around my house for a suitable model. My Husband suggested using his Terminator head, and it fit quite well.

Terminator wearing the headdress

I then began work on the tunic. When we were looking for a brown stretch fabric at spotlight, we were only able to find one type, and it was $17.99 per meter. That seemed like a bit much to be paying for a kids costume. But luckily, before we went to the register to pay, we had a lookie through the remnant bin, and I found a remnant of the exact fabric we were about to buy (among other things) for only $2! Yes Please!!!

It ended up being an 80cm length of fabric, and we wanted to make the tunic around 80cm in length, so it was the perfect size for what we needed (with a bit left over to make the arm bands later) So I started by cutting out the front of the dress. I then used the same pattern piece for the back, I just made the neckline a bit higher and left out the darts.

I then marked the cut out locations on both the back and front. I didn't cut them out at this point, as I wanted to double check to placement first.

I sewed the shoulder seams together, before realising I had forgotten to mark and sew the front darts, so I did that next.

After the side seams were sewn, I had something that looked like this.

I used a long thin rectangle of fabric, sewn into a loop and folded over as the collar, which I sewed to the neckline with a zigzag stitch, to allow it to stretch so the dress can be taken on and off. I finished the armholes with bias facing, but due to a lack of brown facing in my stash (and nowhere to buy it in town) I decided to use grey bias binding. I will also use the same grey bias binding to finish the edges of the cut-outs when I get around to them. Here is what the tunic looked like now. At this point I took it for a fitting.

At the fitting, we found the skull cap I made for the headdress was a little small, but when I unpicked some of the stitching inside it, it fit very well. So I will be adding an extra panel in there to make some more room. When she tried the tunic on, the cut outs sat exactly where I wanted them, but unfortunately the darts were a bit high. Her Nan told me not to worry fixing them, as when she is on stage no-one will notice, so I guess that will come down to how much time I have. We also held the belt straps that I had cut out of a vinyl scrap, up to her to see how they looked with the tunic, and everything is looking pretty good so far. As I thought, the neckline was a little bit tight. She said she could get it on easy enough, but taking it off was a bit difficult. Seeing as she will be covered in orange face/body paint I may have to cut through the center back and add a fastening instead.

I have since fixed the darts, by lowering them about 1.5 inches.

Anyway, That's where we are up to at the moment with her costume, as she had to take it in to school to show her teacher. When I have some more time, I will get back into it and make the belt/pouch/loincloth thingy, arm bands, boot spats and finish off the headdress.

Anyone else making any crazy costumes lately?

Dixie

Me Made May, Week 4+

Well I made it through, and here's the proof!

May 22
Wore my version of Butterick 6522, which I made from a lovely floral bed sheet that only cost me $1 from an op-shop. It was a cold dark rainy day, so here is an old selfie from when I was sewing the dress. At this point it had not yet been hemmed, and I was holding the side closed as I had not put in the zip.

May 23

No outfit photo today. I wore my black stretchy 3/4 length pants made from Burda Style 6966 and my off white self drafted shirt, with a brown vinyl bomber jacket bought second hand from Vinnies. Mostly spent the day sewing, then to a friend's place for a birthday drink around an open fire. I wore the bomber jacket specifically as I wore it last time I went camping, so it already smelt like smoke.

May 24
Sunday. As usual, that means church. On this day I chose to wear a pink apple print dress that I made from a Vintage Australian Home Journal pattern, back in 2011. I'm pretty sure the fabric was originally from spotlight, and you can't see in the photo, but I used a complimentary pink gingham on the sleeve cuffs, trim on the pockets and on the matching bag.

May 25

A day of cleaning baking and knitting. For practicality sake, I wore my Swirl dress.

May 26

For work I pulled out a dress that doesn't get worn too much these days. It is a self drafted circle skirted dress, made from the same fabric as my version of Butterick 6582 that I often wear for work and wore during week 2 of me-made-May. I actually made this dress twice, as I had so much fabric (and I still have more) As I made the first one with a zip in the back, then realised the fabric had enough stretch that I didn't need to use the zip. Rather than taking out the zip, I just made another dress. I really don't like unpicking. I have since given the zip version to a friend, which she wore to Kurri Nostalgia Festival earlier this year

May 27

Wore my current favourite outfit again, The Knitty Kitty Skirt and pink shirt. I wore pink flats with the outfit to work, but then after work I picked up the most gorgeous sparkly pink heels from Elsie George, so I wore those with the outfit to a information evening being hosted by a few travel companies later that day. I was the only one, in a room of about 50 travel agents, not wearing black....

May 28

Another day of work. Wore my Navy Pants and pink Floral Maudella blouse.

May 29

So this is pretty terrible.. I can't actually remember what I wore on Friday. I know it was me-made, but I guess my mind has just been so preoccupied with other things, and I forgot to write it down on the day. Oh well, you guys will just have to take my word for it.

May 30

Just because I love it, I wore my new Border Print Dress... Again...

Wore to my brother's place, where I sat and worked on my knitting while watching Mad Men on Netflix, and Matt went out to the shed with my brother to drink beer and talk about manly things.

May 31

I started out the day wearing my Pink Floral Nostalgia Festival dress (Frock 8853 from a 1956 Australian Home Journal) to Church, then later in the day, changed into my newly finished Stripey 3 Hour Sweater and Navy Pants

As great as it was to wear me-made all month, I sure appreciated being able to pull on long pants and a comfy long sleeve knit top today. Second day of Winter, and there was quite a frost!

I will be writing another post soon, on my Me-Made-May conclusions, what I took away from the challenge, what I need to make to complete my wardrobe, etc.

Dixie