MMMay14 Days 19 - 25

Sorry everyone, it's nearly over - normal blogging will resume soon!

Day 19
 On Day 19 I wore my "Love my 'Lisalex" dress to work with a favourite little RTW linen jacket. The dress was obviously too tight when I first made it, but this year it fits, though you really can't tell from these photos.  Not a good move to leave your MMM photos till you're on the way home, especially when wearing black!

Also, note to self: dark alley ways don't help!

I tried to get a photo out in the open but there were so many people going past - so embarrassing - sorry, that's another fail!

Photos taken by me with camera attached to a railing, bench, whatever via my gorillapod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 20

Learning from my mistakes, day 20's me made was photographed at the start of the day on my way in to work.  Actually this isn't something I made, it's a top my mum made, but my MMM14 commitment lets me include other people's sewing (yes, I know that's a bit cheeky...)

 

 

Photos taken by me with camera attached to a railing via my gorillapod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode. 


Day 21

On day 21 I went for a walk to Circular Quay at lunch; I was planning on using the "Coathanger" (the Sydney Harbour Bridge) as a backdrop but because the lunchtime light was terrible for photos in that direction I flipped my camera around and used the city as a backdrop. I was wearing a silk twill skirt made from Vogue 1174 (which is a dress pattern, but very easily altered into a skirt pattern, and seems to suit a variety of fabrics) with an altered green silk RTW top (my mum's alterations though, not mine) and green cotton RTW jumper. I haven't been wearing this skirt lately as it had become too loose, but it only took 5 minutes on the sewing machine in the morning to add a couple of centimetres to the pleats - and whooshka, a skirt that fits again! I also hadn't realised it went with this lovely vibrant green; yet it's so much better a match than the teal blue I was wearing the skirt with last year!

Photos taken by me with camera attached to a bench via my gorillapod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 22

On day 22 I wore my Vogue 1193 "Out of Darkness" dress - it probably looks OK from the front, and with a belt, but this dress is getting seriously baggy! I've included a photo that shows the side on baggy view, but if you look back at the original post you'll see this dress was meant to - and used to - fit like a glove! 

These pictures were taken in a big rush which is why I couldn't manage a proper, relaxed smile. I'd scoped out a nice backdrop on my way to get lunch at a foodcourt, but when I went back there 15 minutes later the place was cordoned off for a televised interview with some bigwig! Lesson learnt for next time: photos first, food second.

 

And here's the baggy view:

 

Photos taken by me with camera attached to a railing via my gorillapod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 23

On day 23, a Friday, my manager and I had the pleasure of catching up with a colleague who's now on maternity leave and her darling little daughter.  Do you remember Marylene, who took the bulk of my photos for me in Me Made May 2013? I was wearing my "To the Gallery" vintage Vogue 8811 (reissue) dress with a boxy red linen jacket made from an 80s/90s Vogue 1325 pattern.

Marylene very kindly offered to take some photos for me, and I also got to borrow her daughter for a few minutes - isn't she gorgeous!

 

Photos taken by my colleague Marylene., with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 24

Day 24 was just a regular Saturday with kids sport and a few jobs to get done. The weather was still beautiful, so I wore this linen top (unblogged, and I made it years and years ago; it's made from a Vogue pattern but I can't recall the pattern number and I know it'll definitely be OOP) with my Tessuti patterns Anita ponte pants and a necklace my daughter made me for Mother's Day last Sunday. I'm not going to show you a back view, but suffice to say these pants really need a longer top; the fabric is not really thick enough and it appears I've inadverdently done "leggings as pants". Oops, won't happen again!

 

Photos taken by me with camera on el cheapo tripod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 25

Day 25 was a very productive day - I practically finished my Papercut patterns pleated pants! If you follow me on Instagram you'll know I started them last weekend, and there have been some dramas along the way.  After reading everyone's reviews I went boldly ahead and cut them out 2 sizes smaller than my measurements... well, guess what? The new prints of the pattern aren't as big as the original prints, and the sizing is now true! So these pants now have "feature" stripes down the leg outers, and hidden stripes down the leg inners. They do seem to fit though, which is a relief.

Oh yes, and I wore another Vogue 1174 pleated skirt in aqua linen (hmm I've made this pattern about 4 times I think...) with a grey pleated t-shirt made using a vintage Advance pattern. It's still warm weather here...

Photos taken by me with camera on el cheapo tripod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.

 

I'm aiming to wear 10 me mades each 7 days in May. My tally for this week is 10 me mades in 7 days, including repeats and a top made by my mum, and to date that's 38 me mades in 25 days.

See you soon


Gabrielle x

The Inspector here was just warning me that I had to watch my step. You see, back in France, he's known as King of the Tango.

Isn't this week great - a week with public holidays on either end! It's also school holidays of course, so I've taken the whole week off to look after my little darlings (mostly). We've done heaps of pottering about at home, but today I took my youngest (or should that be younger?) out for a touristy excursion to the Sydney Opera House end of the city and Cockatoo Island.  I love being a tourist in my own city :).

The Cockatoo Island outing is one I've been promising for a few weeks, and the timing worked out well with the Sew Dolly Clackett challenge; dresses are due by c.o.b. today, so I wore the dress I'd finished literally 5 minutes before we had to dash out the door for the train this morning. There was crazy GBSB-style hemming involved: pedal to the medal!

Panther on the Island dress, front view

I wanted to use one of Roisin's favourite patterns (of course), and the one I've made before is By Hand London's Elisalex.  First time around I have to say the Elisalex bodice was not a great fit for me so I used my trusty Vogue 1193 DKNY dress pattern to adjust the bodice's princess seams, side seams, armhole shape and length. The Elisalex skirt is also waaaaay too long (and I'm 5'9") so I lopped off a few inches from the bottom (first time around I removed length from halfway down the skirt as I wanted to keep the lovely tulip shape, but this time around it's more a "fit and flare" dress).

Panther on the Island dress, side view

This is not my house, by the way, it's the Cockatoo Island Military Officer's Quarters (c.1845-57 ie very historic by Australian standards).

The first thing everyone notices about this dress is of course is the dress fabric, which is a Pink Panther quilting cotton.  I was a bit dubious about how this soft fabric would work as a dress, but being lined in a proper lining fabric seems to make all the difference in how the fabric wears, and it ironed very nicely. I wore this dress traipsing around the city and up and down Cockatoo Island all day and at the end of the day it's only looking wrinkled on the back from sitting in the train. The dress got a lot of stares through the day from teenagers, but absolutely no derision :).  So I guess the Pink Panther is either cool or very strange?

Panther on the Island dress, back view

My pattern matching was reasonably successful... except on the centre back, where years of "just in case it's too-tight" practice now has me sewing in invisible zips with a less than 1.5 cm seam allowance, even when I've cut the fabric pieces for pattern matching assuming the full 1.5 cm allowance. Oh well :(.

All in all, I have to say this is a really flattering silhouette, and wearing an interesting print dress is F.U.N. - I'm sorely tempted to make a few more of these dresses!


There's one more thing still to say... Roisin and Nic, I've never met you, but I just know I can trust the internet and twitterdom that you're lovely people, and I hope you have a FANTASTIC wedding and a very happy married life! Hip hip, hooray!


Now if you're still there, it's time for your close-ups:

Something so very, very painful, so hideous, your father will have no choice but to cooperate.

Back

Front

Lining

And that's all!


Thank you and goodnight :)


- Gabrielle x

Love My 'Lisalex!

 Ta daaaa - my Elisalex dress!

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane? No?? What then?

I'm sure you've already heard / seen for yourself the gorgeous By Hand London patterns - such a delectation compared to the Big 4! The Elisalex dress pattern comes in a pretty blue box, and includes a By Hand London label to stitch into your dress, the pattern tissue and an instruction booklet. The instructions were a bit sparser than I'd expected, but were really nicely illustrated - and it's not a complex construction so most of us wouldn't need more details. The pattern tissue is very lightweight and includes all sizes, but I found the print lines for the different sizes hard to distinguish.

I think you can tell... I like this one!

Finished about 2 weeks ago, then waited for ideal weather, and procrastinated on ideal locations. And after all that you're getting the same late afternoon balcony shots as usual and an unimpressive skyline - sorry!
 

I like the front view of the dress. I was aiming for very fitted in the bodice, but went a bit far with fitting in the bust - too tight! It's good to see how the other half lives occasionally isn't it?  The waist looks but doesn't feel too tight.

oops -  pulling it

Side view - and yes, you can walk in a tulip skirt!

There IS TOO room for striding

I don't know what my fabric is apart from an interesting Tessuti remnant, but it's definitely man made and unforgiving. Lots of mean puckering when I tried to speed up the seams, and any unpicked stitches left permanent scars. Plus I don't think it likes being ironed... On the plus side it's quite a glam fabric and quite a strong one, and the dress can pretty much stand up on its own if I run out of coat hangers or something. And I love that it holds the exaggerated skirt shape so well!  On the negative side the back view of the dress is not great - I inserted a hand picked zip but the fabric was really tough on my hand sewing needle and I must have been pulling the threads too tight. I may go back and redo this...what a mess!

I'm a bit shocked to tell you this was my first ever purchased independent pattern. Accordingly I was pretty cautious: I meaured the paper pattern (as well as myself) and made a muslin before attacking the real fabric. But the fit of my calico muslin was so different to the fit in my fashion fabric though that I had to make lots of new adjustments in the fashion fabric. \ ^..^ / 

Starting with the paper pattern, I used the sizes recommended based on my measurements. The skirt pattern pieces looked terrifically long so I measured them against myself before removing 10cm (I'm about 173cm tall, with most of my length below the waist, so I guess the pattern is designed for very, very leggy ladies...). To keep the exciting tulip shape I took this length out about 2/3 of the way down the skirt, in the section where the tulip was starting to narrow.  Interestingly the hem turn up doesn't get factored into the side seam shaping - so I took in / reshaped the side seams from hem level to about 15cm above the hems to avoid having to create hemline pleats.

In muslining the bodice I only made a very minor reshaping of the princess seams to fit my (smaller) bust. However in the very unyielding fashion fabric I had excess fabric above my bust and at the sides of my bust. To correct these issues I shifted the centre bodice piece upwards slightly against the side bodice pieces, and to made deep side darts which I then rotated into the princess seam going into the arm scye. These cunning moves worked reasonably well (although the bodice now looks too tight), but affected the front bodice shape of the arm holes. Luckily I didn't have to do any post muslin adjustments in the back.


Overall I'm really happy with this dress pattern and I am definitely thinking to make it again - with sleeves and a bit more ease. Love my 'Lisalex!