Half May There: Featuring Birdcages, a Goldfish, and lots of Concrete

This year's is my third me made event, and I have to admit to having lots of me made choice in my wardrobe. Sounds easy, but part of my me made pledge this year was about wearing outfits I like and that I'll be happy to keep wearing later in the year. This is harder!


Me mades every day means planned clothes washing and ironing and a tonne of cajoling of potential photographers. But it's FUN :). The Flickr group is brilliant and supportive, and it's absolutely fascinating - and inspirational - to see and interact with other sewists around Australia and the world from day to day. I don't have much free time at the best of times (working mum, etc etc) and the downside of all this fun is less time for other types of fun - such as commenting on blogs and sewing. I'm sorry!



Below you'll find my MMM13 Flickr uploads up to Day 14:

Day 1

Day 1: Vogue 1308 DKNY jumpsuit made into a (Liberty) top, + Vogue 1282 Donna Karan skirt. Photo by my colleague Marylene. Sorry, I know you can't see the horizontal pleat details in the skirt but I thought these hanging birdcages were so cool that I wanted to include them in the picture!

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Day 2

Day 2: I was FREEZING!  I thought it would be just a little bit cooller than yesterday but I was wrong...

Today I wore my Vogue 8815 "troubadour" top, made from a combination of upholstery fabric (the stripes) and raw silk (the sleeves). The peplum edge is made from a strip of selvedge from the upholstery fabric. I love, love, love this top to bits - it feels really "me" and fits pretty well too, but BOY do I feel self-conscious wearing it!  My daughter had a good laugh about it this morning - many jokes about running away to the circus :(.

Thank you again to Marylene for a terrific photo - and if you're wondering where this is, it's Martin Place, Sydney.

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Day 3

Day 3: Just me and my goldfish... doing the WATER theme.

Wearing Vogue 1293 Anne Klein stretch pants, finished yesterday and unblogged, and an old white t-shirt made using the bodice pattern of Vogue 1013 (a DKNY dress pattern) and sleeves from another Vogue pattern from around the same time. Also carrying a Liberty hankie in my pocket - a few years ago I neatly hemmed a bunch of squares of different pieces of pretty Liberty tana lawn and these became my hankie staples.

Day 3

Taken at the fountain in Martin Place; thanks again to my colleague Marylene for applying her skill and creativity to my photos.

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Day 4

Day 4: Happy International Star Wars Day - May the 4th be with you!

Today I wore my Kristen Kimono t-shirt - the one that I wear soooo often with these jeans like it's a uniform, so often that I was able to find a photo from a few weeks ago showing today's outfit. It saved me taking a snotty photo, as I woke up with a really annoying cold!

I started off the day also wearing a newly made (unblogged) wool jacket, but it proved to be incredibly itchy... I don't know the fabric type as I got the fabric from a charity shop, but I'm thinking about whether I need to go back and line it now! I'll post a separate photo (also from a week or so ago?) of the jacket I wore when the day was still a bit chilly.

Day 4

Here's a photo of the Vogue 1263 jacket I started off the day wearing over my Kristen Kimono t-shirt.  I didn't wear this pink top or black pants today though.

Sorry about using these not-today photos but I have been feeling miserable with a cold today and I just didn't have the energy for photos... these photos were taken within the last few weeks though and are a pretty good representation of today's weather and location (at home) as well as what I wore.

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Day 5

Day 5: What a sartorial disaster!

This THING was made from "Wearing a Square" in one of the Pattern Magic books. There are very few seams so it's a really easy make.  Very comfortable when you're lounging around feeling ill and doing a bit of sewing, but embarrassing to be seen in. Unless playing Neptune in a very amateur play in the backyard I guess.

How embarrassing!

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Day 6

Day 6: Merino wool top I made yesterday (obv not yet blogged - I really am getting behind!). The pattern is Burda 02/2011, pattern #106, in a more fitted size than I usually wear. Very pleased with how my stripes worked out! 

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Day 7

Day 7: The aftermath of a breakfast meeting in a cafe...

I'm wearing a fully lined silk satin dress (Vogue 8486) and a cashmere/wool jacket (Vogue 1098 Anne Klein, collar left off). A bit dressed up, but not for any reason - I just felt like it!  The dress is pretty much straight up and down apart from pleats at the neckline and feels a bit shapeless round my middle - but I had wanted a really straightforward design to showcase the gorgeous fabric. The jacket is one I was also wearing in MMM last year and is one of my favourite makes.

Day 7

Close up - what I was wearing today (photos taken after a breakfast meeting in a cafe...)

Thank you again to my colleague Marylene for the lovely photos!

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Day 8

Day 8: Wearing my red Vogue 1193 DKNY dress and my Vogue 8718 stretch linen jacket.  I wear this dress heas and this jacket even more ... the jacket comes from one of those "wardrobe builder" patterns but was apparently based on a rather lovely Akris design from a few years back. I made the rather plain skirt that goes with the jacket but the skirt keeps stretching out and looks ridiculously sloppy now despite a couple of take-ins - obv stretchy linen doesn't work for pencil skirts?

Thanks again to my colleague Marylene for the photos!

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Day 9

Day 9: Today we took photos near the GPO at Martin Place, Sydney. The columns always look grand and there was a lovely dappled light, but I was looking scruffy, wearing a second hand silk chiffon shirt and my now quite tired looking Vogue 1098 summer wool trousers (they look like they need a proper ironing too). Oh well, sometimes you don't know what you looked like till you see the photos, right?

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Day 10

Day 10: My sewing space... but only in my dreams!

Here I am in the Marimekko shop on King St in Sydney. One of the shop assistants very kindly let me make myself at home and take some photos. I would so LOVE to have a big cutting table, high ceilings and lots of light, and all of this visual stimulation in my sewing room. And come to think of it a helpful person in the room would also be great (can you just see if you can locate that collar pattern piece? It's probably in the wrong envelope... and then if you could rethread the serger for me that would be great... Thanks!)

Oh and I'm wearing a summer dress while the weather is still warm enough; it's McCalls 6553 (a Fashion Star pattern). I always end up wearing it without the sash so it doesn't get too short... originally blogged here.

Day 10

My sewing space... the honest truth; it's this corner of the study. There's a window to my right (outside of the photo) but the room is still very dark and needs a skylight or something. When I'm using the serger (at the back of the table) I move my sewing machine to the floor, which is also where I cut anything out. The table is a fold up camping table but sturdy and a good size. Vintage wooden boxes on the table hold buttons and the shoe boxes on the table store different notions - one is elastics and swimwear related, one is threads, one is trim, another is bias binding, and I think the last is zips and belt making equipment.  I store most of my fabric in plastic boxes under the table, with a couple of rolls behind the door and some overflow that I should really get rid of living in a hallway cupboard at the other end of the house. My patterns have taken over a filing cabinet at the other end of the study (the study end) as well as some shelf space, and sewing books are in a discrete space on the bookshelves behind me.  I also have bags of scraps on the floor that I need to get rid of or so something with - funnily enough I didn't want to show you them! The pile of stuff on the dummy is "fixing" jobs that I can't seem to get to.

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Day 11

Day 11: After a busy day of kids sport x 2, swimming x 2, hairdresser, food shopping and cooking and cleaning up for what was quite a late-ending dinner party... I am feeling very weary. 

Wearing my Vogue 1257 DKNY merino wool dress (heavily modified to fit in the bust and sleeve areas!) with a singlet, as you do! The dress is originally blogged here, and in case you're curious about what we made for dinner (7 kids/teens + 6 adults), here's our menu (excl drinks):

bouef bourgignon (this time we used Stephanie Alexander's, but Julia Child's recipe* - which you can see here - is the BEST)
steamed rice
green salad with vinaigrette
heritage (purple) carrots and baby orange carrots cooked in stock, sugar and butter - recipe* as described  here 
steamed broccoli
raw vegetable platter
beef sausages (really for the younger kids)
crusty bread rolls
Nigella's old fashioned chocolate cake - recipe here
vanilla ice cream

* I shouldn't say Julia Child's recipe, it's the recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which of course had three authoresses... two of whom were French... And the carrot recipe is from this book too.

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Day 12

Day 12: Mother's Day! A relaxing day with lots of cuddles from the kids :). In the afternoon we went to my mum's for afternoon tea - and this is where the photo is taken. I'm wearing my 1989 Vogue Ralph Lauren pattern trousers (which are extremely wide legged; think beach PJs). I haven't worn these for ages because they look dreadful with the short or fitted tops I usually think to pair them with, but I do like this look...

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Day 13

Day 13: Back to work again cos it's Monday, oh joy. Wearing my Vogue 8815 peplum top, <a href="http://upsewlate.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-blinder-v8815-2.html" rel="nofollow">originally blogged here </a>, and Veronika Maine pants which I took in last night by 4cm on the hips and upper thighs on each side. Obviously their target market shape is curvy - another good reason to sew!

My usual photographer was at home sick, so today the photo is thanks to my colleague Helga (a big thank you Helga!)


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Day 14

Day 14

A cool day in Sydney - maybe Autumn has arrived after all. Today I wore my "Cityscape" skirt, a lined silk skirt made from Vogue 1174 (a dress pattern).  I made this skirt back in June last year (blogged here), when I was running late with my sewing plans for One Week One Pattern :). Oh well. This skirt goes with a few different tops and gets quite a bit of wear in winter - but it's hard to photograph!

Photo by my colleague Helga - thank you!

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My colourful and dramatic section of the wardrobe is diminishing... I'm going to try to avoid all-black outfits for the rest of May, but I may need to get creative with what's available!