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

MMMay14 Days 11 - 18

Another week of Me Made May documentation, taking me up to Sunday the 18th of May:


Day 11


Day 11 was Mother's Day in this part of the world. My kids spoilt me with handmade treasures, and Mr UpSewLate had repaired a favourite glass ring for me - yay! And we celebrated with my mum over breakfast at a lovely sunny French cafe.



I wore my recent BHL Elisalex/Vogue Pink Panther dress (a SewDollyClackett make) with a big yellow RTW cardi - I got it at a third of the normal price even though it was brand new stock, simply because most people apparently don't want to wear yellow. Crazy!!! But I do wish I could knit so I could make my own big chunky knitwear!
 

Look what the shop was selling - I was so tempted by these French oilcloths till I looked at the price:



Later in the day we headed over for a "bring a plate" dinner at my mother-in-law's house to celebrate a brother-in-law's birthday.  We brought a traditional bouef bourgignon that Mr UpSewLate had spent hours slaving over (we use the Simone Beck / Louisette Bertholle / Julia Child recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking and I'm going to resist a little aside on Julia Child mythology, as it really irritates me... ). We finished off with my MIL's lemon pound cake, then it was time to scarper off home and rush the kids to bed.  It had gotten chilly so I wore an old Vogue patterns black wool jersey dress. I'm not too sure of this dress - it always feels too short and too loose on - but my MIL loved the way it draped... And unfortunately I took very few photos and you can't see much in them. If you do want a better view, you can also see this dress under Day 17 in this blog post from MMM13 and under Day 25 in this blog post from MMM12.
 

Photos taken by me and MrIUpSewLate (backdoor of the cafe), then later with camera on tripod with 10 second timer on, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 12

Back to work - I don't hate Mondays though! It was another gorgeous Autumn day, so I wore my plaid wool jacket-cape, made from a vintage Vogue pattern reissue. Evidently I don't know how to wear scarves, even though I wear them all the time in the cooler months. These pictures were taken in the Royal Botanic Gardens.  I was planning to take pictures with the sea and /or Opera House behind me, but there were too many other people already doing the same thing (tourists? or maybe they were MMMay-ers?). 

Photo taken by me with camera on a bench (tree photo) and attached to a handrail (statue), on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 13

A long meeting at my old office meant one good thing: photos on one of their terraces after the meeting. The doors to this particular terrace are normally locked, but the staff told me I was allowed out there if the doors weren't locked - and they weren't :). So I got the whole area to myself, with the downside that everyone walking past the glass doors on that level would have been able to see my foolishness. Oh well, I'm working on that thick skin... Wearing my self-drafted geometric silk top (this shape reminds me of the Belcarra top!) with my cropped cashmere jacket and The RTW pants that fit (even though they don't fit perfectly).
 
 

Photo taken by me with camera on a low wall, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 14

On day 14 I had another long (all morning) meeting at my old office, so I took my lunch break on the way back, via Darling Harbour. There are plenty of photogenic backdrops here, but there are also always loads of tourists and city office workers down here at lunchtime, so it was hard to find a spot that wouldn't have other people in the pictures. I managed to hide some people behind posts, and then I went up to the pedestrian overpass that takes people across Darling Harbour from Pyrmont into the city - I figured people up here would either be moving too briskly to notice me or taking pictures for themselves!  I was wearing my Converging Lines Brasilia dress - I really should make another of these, and take in CF below the bust!
 

Photo taken by me with camera on a raised ramp, then later attached to a post, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 15

Busy, busy day! I had a substantial piece of work due on Friday, so I put my head down and only dashed out to Martin Place briefly for photos when I was grabbing some lunch. I completely mistimed it though and ran out at the busiest time - people everywhere! Because I was a bit nervous and in a hurry I thought I'd probably stuff my photos up, so I found an attractive backdrop (which I asked permission to photograph) to distract you just in case :]. And the me made clothes? It's two Vogue/Tessuti combinations: a V8486 dress made from a gorgeous Tessuti silk, and my lush cashmere-wool V1098 jacket.  I don't wear either of these garments too often, but that's because I want to keep them nice!

 

Photo taken by me with camera on a bench next to a very confused young man who had to get to walk away from it all, replaced by a solicitous older man, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 16

On Friday we had a team yum cha, and we ate so much and so fast! Our organiser had warned us to wear loose clothes, but I think I was the only one who did so :). After lunch I raced to the top of Martin Place for a photo with the lucky wild boar (Il Porcellino) that sits on Macquarie Street.  I wore my Starry, Starry Gabby dress with a red linen jacket (I know this looks like the Tokyo jacket pattern, but it's an old Vogue Anne Klein pattern, and the sleeves aren't cut on). Not the best pictures, but embarrassing getting them as usual as the boar faces down Martin Place across a pedestrian crossing / set of traffic lights, and there are always office-y people coming and going down Macquarie Street. As well as joggers who are determined to do ALL their stretches by the boar even if your camera is clicking at them lol. As I don't think he was wearing me mades I shan't include those photos.

Photo taken by me with camera attached to railings, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode, then a regular non-timer photo looking down Martin Place from across the road from the wild boar.


Day 17

Saturday was going to be a quiet day with a bit of kids sport thrown in, but we were woken at 7am by the sound of a large concrete mixer truck coming down our driveway to do some work for the neighbours who live behind us. I'm glad my neighbours are finally fixing up their driveway - we'll be able to have a side fence soon! - but I do wish their builders wouldn't use my back garden as their staging area. I talked to the builders about it before I went out, they apologised and said they'd fix it, but when I came back home they'd established even more equipment in my garden! Grrr! I went out again and bought some cheap plastic fencing and bamboo sticks and that was the afternoon's craft activity - making a crappy plastic fence to remind the various builders of the boundary. While I was out getting my fence supplies I took these snaps of what I was wearing - I don't know what the buildings are but the light looked lovely and I didn't think anyone else was around. Wearing my Maria Denmark Kirsten Kimono tee and my denim Grainline Moss Mini.

Photo taken by me with camera on a low bollard, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 18    

Sunday! I haven't been doing enough sewing lately but on Friday night I read all the reviews I could find of the Papercut Patterns Pleated Pants, on Saturday night I traced the pattern and and on Sunday morning I cut out some nice weighty denim. I won this pattern last year from a giveaway on Juliet's blog and I have been so slow to sew it up! Sorry Juliet! Anyway, for a comfortable day at home I wore another Gabby dress, this one made from a stretch fabric. Unfortunately not only have I shrunk in the last year, but the weight of the fabric has also stretched this dress out - so it's another I really need take in. In the photos below you can see I'm cutting out the instructions for the Papercut pants and celebrating unreasonably once that was done :). Small steps, small steps...

 

Photo taken by me with camera on a tripod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.

Phew!  Another week down. I don't have too many observations to make at the moment, apart from that it's nice to see my sewing has improved over time (there were some dodgy seams back when I started, like in the silk dress on day 15) and that I obviously like blue and red!

I'm aiming to wear 10 me mades each 7 days in May. My tally for this week is 13 me mades in 8 days, including repeats, and to date that's 28 me mades in 18 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!