Things I have discovered during Me Made May 15 Week 1

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with delphine, Francoise, Gabriola, MMM15, Sewing, Sewing blogs, Sorbetto, Sureau 09/05/2015

Hello all, I hope you are set for a FAB weekend? It is a bit windy here but I have shedloads of marking to do so the weather is fairly irrelevant. So, my first time of joining in with MMM15 – as I only started sewing in April 2014 it is quite exciting for me to be able to join in.

Day 1 – Wearing my Colette patterns Dahlia – this dress was such a struggle to make (details here) – I had so many problems with the neckline. There is an inverted pleat at the back scooping up four inches of surplus fabric (which is why I am wearing a cardigan). The first thing I’ve realised during MMM15 is that it is quite tricky finding someone to take photos for you/of you without feeling deeply embarrassed. Friday was the last day for our Y11s so we were outside having a class photo and I got one of the students to take this – I hadn’t realised at all that I was being photo-bombed till the girls all started shrieking with laughter. I do like the Dahlia but have yet to brave making another.

Being photo-bombed

Day 2 – this is part of my Saturday routine. I do the shopping (you can see it on the floor next to me) then I finish up by popping into a local coffee shop for a latte – it is here I usually catch up on blogs. This is another thing I have discovered – MMY15 is an absolute time thief. I am only doing Instagram (I did think about Flickr and Pinterest but thank goodness I abandoned those) but it is taking all my time to keep up with everyone – I actually feel anxious that I might miss something! I have seen some lovely makes over the past week and found some new blogs to follow which is really good. Here I a wearing one of my early Sorbettos – made with leftovers from the dress I made for the work sewing bee.

At GROUNDS our local, independent coffee shop

Day 3 – I was pottering about at home trying to finish my Gabriola and popped down to my friend Ali’s for her help with fitting. She was busily adding the finishing touches to her FAB Map Dress (a collar which was apparently later discarded). I am wearing my Tilly and the Buttons Francoise which was my Christmas Day dress (another neckline problem for me). What is so odd about this dress is that it looks as if it should be fairly formal/uncomfortable being made in wool but it’s not at all – I am wearing it as a comfy, slob about in, sweater dress. And here is another thing I have discovered – all my garments are too big for me. I clearly do not measure myself properly.

Map dress credit to my friend Ali

Day 4 – Bank Holiday Monday and a glorious day for a walk. We went off in search of bluebells as I had just finished my Gabriola and thought it would make a great location shot – it was quite fun lurking behind a tree to whip off my Sew Over it Ultimate trousers and change into skirt and heels. Before we came to the bluebells we passed these gorgeous fields of Rapeseed – I saw three other MMM15 participants on Instagram similarly photographed.

Gorgeous fields of Rape

Day 5 – back to work and here I am in one of my Y13 lessons. You can hardly see it in the photo but I made the shirt at a workshop at Sew Pretty and it is covered in little bumble bees. I would say this is my most frequently worn garment – not sure why I haven’t tacked another shirt yet – I certainly have bought patterns. I think it is to do with a fear of buttonholes.

This is how I spend my days

Day 6 – I look a bit of a mess here. The skirt is new from Seasalt and even when I bought it I was thinking I could easily make that but I was really drawn to the fabric and then struggled to team it with anything. My Me Made item here is the cardigan which has a cable edge and a single button. I was a knitter before I was a sewer but not a very advanced one and I had never heard of blocking until I started reading blogs. I have really enjoyed seeing all of the sophisticated knits being proudly worn for MMM15.

back to the tree shot

Day 7 – Election day. I was waiting outside before the Polling Station opened and asked the guy next to me in the queue if he would take my photo. I explained it was for my blog and he asked what I blogged about – he certainly was not anticipating my answer! I am wearing another Sorbetto made in a fabric with beautiful garden birds on it. One of my students said I looked very “FatFace” which I take as a compliment. I posted this pic on my Facebook and a number of people asked if I was standing – I guess it does look like it. Anyway, not so smiley the next day as my team didn’t win.

Election Day!

Day 8 – I realise now that the scarf doesn’t go! This is my Tilly and the Buttons Delphine. I have made two now and I have to say – very functional work wear.

At the Juniors

Day 9 – and so to today! I am home alone which led me to take my first ever mirror selfie. I am wearing my Deer and Doe Sureau which is clearly far too big for me: a shame because I love the denim and antique brassy buttons. I’ve taken far longer over this blog post than I intended – clearly operating as a displacement activity for what is waiting for me!

First ever mirror shot

Bonus – here is the Gabriola I wore on BH Monday (but only briefly to get blog photos)

blog photo shoot!

Thank you for reading, if you managed to get this far! I hope you are having a lovely weekend and enjoying MMM15 if you are playing along.

Toodle pip,

Clarinda x

The reason why I will not be sewing this weekend

Me Made May Pledge 2015 (and a bit of chat)

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with A spool of blue thread, Anne Tyler, delphine, Liberty, libertytanalawn, MMM15, Sorbetto 21/04/2015

Good evening fellow sewistas

Thought I’d take the opportunity to write a little mid-week blogpost and make my pledge for Me Made May 2015. I find it astonishing that I am in a position to even contemplate such a challenge. It was a year ago this month I bought my sewing machine and I remember that when I first started looking at blogs people were posting about MMM and I had no idea what was going on! Yet now I’m up for it myself and really looking forward to participating. Look … I even had a little dummy run today.

Apart from my myriad of Sorbetto tops, most of my makes are quite patterned and not really sensible teacher fare. This is my strawberries and ants Delphine blogged about here. I think by wearing everything else in black I just about got away with it but May will need some careful thought. The trickiest bit will be that for the last week I am on a school trip: a tennis camp in Portugal. I will be in sports clothes pretty much all week but I have bought some fabric with racquets to make a ….. Sorbetto and, I’m really excited about this, I have managed to buy some wooden buttons in the shape of tennis balls!

So, here it is:

‘I, Clarinda of http://www.clarindakaleidoscope.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’15. I endeavour to wear one me made item (even if it’s only pants) each day for the duration of May 2015’

It looks as if I’m the 235th person to sign up – how great is that? Clearly we are all part of a vibrant, enthusiastic group and I am looking forward to seeing what other people have been making and finding some new blogs to follow.

I bought some gorgeous fabric at the weekend – three different Liberty Tana Lawns. I have already cut out the Daisies: two ties; one Belcarra (gift for my 2ic who is leaving at the end of this term); one Sorbetto. I was really pleased with how far I was able to make two metres go but it took me almost four hours because I kept re-jigging everything.

The ties are made all bar the hand sewing, which is my little treat tonight. If you follow this blog you might remember that I bought myself Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread for my Easter reading – seduced 100%, not my the cover but by the title: I thought it would be something to do with sewing – doh! I had anticipated it would be about a quilt making community or something similar and would explore the secret lives of the members etc. Well, I finally finished it tonight. Having ploughed through it I had concluded that the blue thread was metaphorical and then, on page 350 out of 357, there it was, a spool of blue thread which appeared to symbolise forgiveness, or it might just have been …. a spool of blue thread!

Toodle pip,

Clarinda x

Dotty Delectable Delphine

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with delphine, Love at First Stitch, polkadotjanuary, Sew Over It, sewcialists, Sewing, skirt, Tilly and the Buttons 25/01/2015

This is my first skirt and I know already that I will be making lots more. It is SO practical – I can see this becoming a real staple for work but there is also scope to dress it up/down too. In fact, I did try to dress it up and tried it on with these cute shoes I bought for a wedding three years ago and haven’t worn since. Needless to say, they are not going to be worn with my Delphine because it was just too polka-dotastic and I looked ridiculous! Back to the skirt (although it is always nice to look at shoes). This is the Delphine from Love at First Stitch by super-talented Tilly. This is my third Tilly make now and I am really impressed with her clear instructions, lots of photos and simplicity of design. I am also a straight size 4 and for someone who is still not confident with fitting this suits me fine. Although I am really pleased with it – there are a number of things I would do differently next time – to be honest there are a number of things I should do to this skirt to improve it but I am eager to get onto the next thing – as per usual. I am looking forward to achieving the wisdom and patience that the more experienced sewistas have. OK – here is my list of boo boos – it never occurred to me to try and wriggle the fabric around a bit so that my seams didn’t slice off half a dot making it look like this. I thought with a pattern it wouldn’t notice but it does (and at the waistband too), I also, and it’s the second time I have done this, not bought an invisible zip when I thought I had. I stupidly decided to insert it just as if it were an invisible zip but got into a right mess with the end which was exposed so there is another bodge job involving a bit of hand sewing. You will recall from my Denim Sureau that I am now an expert at top-stitching (!) so I decided to add it to my Delphine even though there is no requirement. You can see the fabric a little clearer. It is a lovely cotton which has a look of linen and I bought it on my first fabric shop of the year at Ditto Fabrics. The big excitement for me this week is that I begin my four week course at Sew Over It to make a 1960’s coat. I am already thinking this is too ambitious but it was my Christmas present and I am looking forward to learning some new techniques and meeting some fellow sewing enthusiasts. I am planning to blog my weekly progress so do drop by again to see how I am getting on. Toodle pip, Clarinda x