Burda sew-along extended, and another challenge begins

We’ve heard you, and we agreed – we’re extending the Burda sew-along so everyone has a chance to finish what they’re working on. (Including me – two things cut out and partially sewn, I need a few more days to get them finished. Oops!)

So the new end date will be Sunday 9 June. I’ll do the final wrap-up post on Monday 10 June and we can all pat ourselves on the back for a job well done and Burda fears overcome.

Want to see what everyone has been up to? You can see the first two round-ups here and here. Also have a look on the sew-along Pinterest board to see all the pretty pictures of creations, inspirations, and works in progress.

And now….

Ready for the next challenge?

The Curious Kiwi and I declare that June is Indie Patterns Month!

That’s right, we’ve shown the love to the Burda brand, now it’s time to let the indie designers represent. Sew up something from an indie pattern (or two, or three). Buy another pattern or two to add to your collection. Do a review. Whatever you want, let’s show ‘em some love and support! (Because really, indie designers are pretty darn awesome and we want them to keep producing lovely designs.)

There’ll be a badge coming out soon, and we’ll have round-up posts and the like as well.

What do you think – will you be showing an indie designer or two some love this month?

Myself, I’m going to start off with the La Slyphide dress from Papercut Patterns. Isn’t it cute?

Papercut Patterns – La Sylphide dress

Me-Made-May ’13 – the final countdown

23 May

Me-made Duchess coat
Jacket – Max, from a clothes swap
Necklace – Boh Runga
Skirt – Trelise Cooper, from an op shop
Purple tights – Columbine
Shoes – Dr Martens

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: Ok, I admit it – I didn’t really like this coat all that much when I made it last year. Sure, I like the colour and the buttons, but it didn’t make me feel “pretty” to wear it. (And what’s the point of having clothes if they don’t make you feel good?!?) But since my me-made challenge this year is to wear every me-made garment in my wardrobe that fits both myself and my current lifestyle needs, I dragged it out of hiding. And wore it. And you know what? I now like it! And even got compliments on it. So thanks me-made-May – you rescued a coat for me.

(I do apologise for the blurry photo though. Odd lighting at that time of day resulted in odd blurriness….)

24 May

Horse cardigan – Max
Me-made black/white floral blouse (finished the night before and yet to be blogged about)
Navy belt – vintage, from an op shop
Skirt – from a clothes swap
Over-the-knee socks – Columbine
Shoes – Converse

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: It’s a winner! Yay!

25 May
No photos today, but nothing you haven’t seen me wear before this month anyway.

26 May

Me-made Strangers UFO jacket
Yellow cardigan – Glassons
Dice necklace – Iko Iko
Me-made Hungry Cat-erpillar skirt
Vintage handback – from a clothes swap
Over-the-knee socks – Columbine
Shoes – Minx, second hand from TradeMe

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: I go through phases of liking this jacket, and those of not liking it. It’s not my usual style – slightly cropped sleeves, no pockets, and not at all fitted. But sometimes, that just works. (And I got a random compliment on it too, which always makes me feel better about a garment, haha! We went to see “Star Trek: Into The Darkness” at the movies and the girl behind the counter wanted to know where I’d bought my jacket and was rather amazed that I’d made it. Woot!) Anyway, no changes needed to this garment. If I could do it again, I’d have made the sleeves a good inch longer, but since I wasn’t the one who cut out the fabric there wasn’t overly much choice in sleeve length….

27 May

Horse cardigan – Max
Me-made Amelia shirt
Pink belt – Glassons
Skirt – Moochi, from an op shop
Grey tights – Columbine
Purple wedges – Minx

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: Shamefully enough, this has been in my alterations pile for a couple of months, as the hem needed re-doing. Rapidly approaching the end of the month, I fixed it up last night so I could wear it before May was over. And now? Back into rotation it goes, no more changes needed!

28 May

My-mother-made handkitted 1940′s cardigan
Me-made black/white floral blouse (see? I told you I’d already worn it again!)
Handknitted fingerless gloves (cold snap sweeping the country today *brrr*)
Skirt – vintage, from an op shop
Tartan tights – Columbine
Shoes – Ziera

No thoughts on today’s me-made, coz you’ve seen it before…. (Starting to run out of new things now….!)

29 May

Checked jacket – Glassons, from an op shop
Merino top – can’t remember, but from a factory outlet a few years ago
Necklace – barrel of monkeys from Miss G
Me-made Hungry Cat-erpillar skirt (again! What can I say? I love this skirt.)
Grey/black striped footless tights – from a clothes swap
Purple/black striped knee-high socks – think I might have bought these in China? I forget…
Boots – Dr Martens

30 May

Pink jacket – Max, from a clothes swap
Me-made 70′s Lounge skirt
Lilac tights – Glassons
Shoes – can’t remember purchased in Tauranga a couple of years ago

31 May

Me-made Strangers UFO jacket
My-mother-made handknitted blue cardigan
Purple merino top – Glassons
Trousers – Glassons
Shoes – Converse
Photo – thanks to The Curious Kiwi
Statue – a new one in central Wellington, of Katherine Mansfield. It’s fabulous – her clothes are covered in words (she was an author), and I’ve been told it lights up at night from within so the words glow.

And there we have it, folks. The end of Me-Made-May ’13! (And an end to the relentless outfit posts, for which you’re probably thankful. )

I’m glad I gave myself the extra challenge of wearing things. It made me look at them a lot more closely and figure out why I wasn’t wearing things. I now have some that have been reclaimed and will now get worn (yay!), a bunch that I’m going to alter/fix in one way or another (and yes, I’d like you all to hold me to that! When should I commit to doing alterations by? Give me a date, lovely people! I work best with deadlines, haha!), and another bunch of things that never got worn due to needing alterations/fixes. Let the changing up of garments commence!

How about you? Did you take part in me-made-May? How did you find it? What did you learn?

Catchin’ up with Pieces of Us Project

Yikes! I’m running a bit behind with my little friends for the Pieces of Us project!!! Time to do a bit of catching up and make some little creatures, I think.

Here’s a couple I’ve just finished. Allow me to introduce you to two little house sisters – Molly and Mandy.

Mandy

Molly

Molly is the Pieces of Us project “friend” that goes with my Johanna shirt. (The black floral fabric on her roof/head and the heart are scraps left over from the shirt.)

Mandy is the “friend” that goes with my Anne blouse. (Her arms and legs are made from scraps left over from that creation.)

Molly is heading out into the world tomorrow – she’ll be collected by the local Plunket nurse (along with some things my mother has knitted) to be given out to a (higher need) child in our area. (Just like the baby trousers I made recently. My mother heard about them and knitted some super-cute little striped jerseys and a hat to be given out to babies that need them, so I’ve made Molly to keep them company while they all find new homes.)

Mandy will be venturing out this weekend – we’re going away for the weekend so on our trip I’ll find a playground and leave her there to find a new friend.

Been a while since I’ve released one of these little guys into the wild – it’s always kind of exciting, and makes me nervous at the same time – will they find a new home? Will they be loved? I hope so!

Baby got back

So, it’s kinda getting cold over here these days. We’re well into autumn, and winter is sneaking in rather fast.

Which sadly also means there are a lot of cold children around in the poorer households.

My local Plunket group put together winter care packages for the less well-off families in our neighbourhood – this year, there were 45 families in my area that were getting care packages, and a group of them had babies under a year old.

Which sounded to me like the perfect reason to have a sew-in and make a bunch of merino wool baby trousers to keep little creatures warm and cozy!

(And guess what? It also coincided wonderfully with the May Friday night sew-in. Woop!)

Sadly my overlocker was playing up (argh! Tempermental beastie! I’m thinking it’s angry with me for neglecting it quite a bit lately… Oops….) so it took a bit longer than expected. But I still managed to make 6 pairs for the winter care packages – 5 pairs of 6-12 months sizes, and 1 pair of 0-3 months for a little newborn.

I had a lot of fun playing around with the merino colours – the pattern I used for these started out as a rub-off of a pair of the Little Man’s trousers, and then I altered it by removing the side leg seams. Super fast and fun to make up, with an inset over the bum for extra nappy space. (And for fun-with-contrasting-colours space, haha!)

Four pairs of burgundy/brown – two with black on the bum, two with pink on the bum.

One pair of bright blue. And another pair of purple-with-light blue (they were for the little newborn baby girl).

And because he’s in need of more trousers due to continuously growing out of them, a black pair for our Little Man! (Sadly not the best photo of him – he was being super-wiggly and this is the only non-blurry one I managed to grab!)

The six I made for the Plunket care packages have now all gone to their new homes, hopefully their new owners will like them and they’ll help keep them warm over winter.

And now, back to work on my current Burda sew-along creation…. (Hoping to show you a completed garment from that this weekend, fingers crossed.)

Me-Made-May ’13 – part 4

How on earth am I up to the fourth post on Me-Made-May already!?!? Yikes!!!

Anyway, here are the next few Days of May….

16 May

Me-made Anne blouse
Yellow cardigan – Glassons
Skirt – vintage (1960′s or 70′s) from a thrift shop
Tights – Columbine
Shoes – United Nude

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: First time I’ve worn this blouse! Always an exciting moment. I think this one is a winner. Although I’m still debating a bit about the fit, after you all commented so wonderfully on the post where I showed it to you, I’m feeling a lot better about the fit of it. Thanks so much for your feedback!

17 May
I was sick today, and spent pretty much all day lying around on the couch or the floor, with the Little Man playing near me. While I could have gotten a photo of my pajamas and dressing gown, I elected not to subject you all to that. (I did still have a me-made day though, with my Turkey pajamas!

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: Must make more pajama pants….. They are awesome.

18 May

Me-made 70′s lounge cardigan
Denim skirt – Moochi, from a thrift store
Over-the-knee purple socks – Glassons
Nursing singlet – The Warehouse
Shoes – Minx, second hand from TradeMe

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: What can I say? It’s a waist-length brown cardigan. *shrug* And it’s fine. Not exciting, but a good wardrobe staple.

19 May
No photo today sorry, but nothing you haven’t seen before. My Hungry Cat-erpillar skirt, with a singlet and cardigan.

20 May

Me-made Beatrice dress
Me-made 40s Meets 80s bolero
Navy belt – vintage, from a thrift shop
Grey tights – Columbine
Shoes – Soles

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: same 1940 bolero pattern as the 40s Tartan bolero. And just like the 40s Tartan bolero, this doesn’t get worn very much as I often don’t know what to wear it with. It seems this shirt dress is the answer to the what-to-wear-boleros-with question. I suspect they will now be in proper rotation in my wardrobe. Aside from that, no thoughts on today’s me-made garment – it fits fine, I like it, I’ll now be wearing it. All good.

21 May

Me-made All Buttoned Up dress
Yellow cardigan – Glassons
Duffle coat – Max
Boots – Dr Martens
Pulling funny faces – amusing a Little Person who was waiting in the car while we took a quick photo after collecting him from daycare

No me-made garments you haven’t already seen this month, so no thoughts on them….. I’m starting to run out of things you haven’t seen that aren’t languishing in my mending/alterations pile…. Maybe I need to do some of those alterations this weekend!?!

22 May

Me-made Piratical cardigan
Nursing singlet – The Warehouse
Skirt – Sanctuary (indie Wellington designer)
Boots – Molly N

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: I made this a bit too small. Oops. As such, it is a bit too tight. But it’s red and black striped merino, so I pull it out and wear it sometimes anyway. And when I do, I like it.

Right, we’re nearing the home stretch of Me-Made-May now, folks! And I’ve run out of me-made garments you haven’t already seen that aren’t in the mending/alterations/needs finishing pile. So my next mission – get some of those out of that pile and wear them before the end of the month! (You might want to wish me luck with that, since time is not something I have much of right now…. We’ll see how it goes.)

(PS I’m rather excited that I’ve now found something I can wear my boleros with. Yay! )

Photo A Day

Another (somewhat late) week of the April Photo A Day challenge!

17 April – Busy

Only been back at work a month, and my desk is already a huge to-do list. *sigh*

18 April – Hello!

Poster in the lift at the central library, while hunting out a book on how to do Montessori at home for under-3 year olds.

19 April – Button

Some of the selection of buttons my friend Gina passed on to me when she left to travel the world recently.

20 April – On your mind

I want to sew!!! (I also want to tidy my sewing desk – that is just one massive to-do pile that keeps on growing faster than I can do things with it. *sigh*)

21 April – Fire

Three of the burners on our gas hob, at night, reflecting in the splashback.

22 April – Blurry

Looking up at the trees outside Newtown School in between showers of rain.

23 April – Time
(Couldn’t think of what to take today. Well, that’s not quite true – I wanted to take a time lapse photo of our digital oven clock, with the minute numbers blurring as they change. But that didn’t happen, so just picture it in your mind instead, ok? That way, I don’t have to figure out how to take that shot….) (<- cheats way out, haha!)

24 April – I saw this person today

Working breakfast with my friend-and-colleague Alix, at our fortnightly breakfast-meeting haunt – Drexels. (Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel – yum!)

25 April – Life is…

… a mystery.

(Yes, I’ve had the opening of a Madonna song going through my head for several days after this challenge.)

Trees at night, up beside the War Memorial near Massey University. (Sssh, don’t tell anyone – this was taken a day late because I couldn’t find the right shot on the 25th. Taken when leaving the Great Hall after helping set up for Fabric-a-brac for the following day.)

Me-Made-May part 3

‘ere we go, another Me-Made-May ’13 post….

11 May
Forgot to get a photo today. Oops! Nothing exciting to show you anyway, as it has all already been worn this month. My Hungry Cat-erpillar skirt and the green cardigan my mother made that I wore back on 7 May.

12 May

Me-made black merino cardigan (un blogged, made about 3 years ago)
Denim skirt – Moochi, from a thrift store
Black nursing singlet – The Warehouse
Black over-the-knee socks with white hearts – somewhere in China (or Japan? I forget which…)
Black ultra-hi Converse sneakers

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: I did a boo-boo while making this top. Somehow, while cutting out the fabric, I got distracted and cut the sleeves the wrong way. And didn’t have any fabric left to re-cut them with. So the stretch goes along the sleeve rather than across. Oops. Anyway, despite that, this tends to be on high rotation in my wardrobe. And every time I wear it, I get annoyed that the top of the v doesn’t sit flat, as the hook and eye tape that closes it up the front stops about 1.5 cm from the top. So now, I’m going to fix it. A new hook-and-eye will be added, and annoyance will be gone! Yessss!!!

13 May


Me-made Beatrice dress
Me-made 40s Tartan bolero
Navy belt – from a thrift shop
Black tights with skulls – Leg Avenue
Heels – Dr Martens

(Check it – I had punk moments at the office. Skulls on the back of the tights, skulls on the shoes. Oh yeah.)

Thoughts on today’s me-made garments: Loving the Beatrice dress! Although I do need to put some finishing touches to the inside of it, got some facing to tack down and a couple of button holes need a bit of going over by hand as my machine wasn’t liking the fabric. Must do that soon…. As for the bolero? No changes needed, I’m perfectly happy with this one. Although I don’t wear it often as I struggle to figure out what to wear it with…. This dress seems to work, I think?!? (Opinions, please? Dress and bolero combination – yes or no? I can’t decide – argh!)

14 May

Me-made Flip Side dress
Yellow cardigan – Glassons
Jacket from a clothes swap party
Sunglasses – Kate Sylvester
Grey tights – Columbine
Black boots – Dr Martens
Bag – gift from Karen in Canada (thanks, Karen! )
In the cup – amazing 75% dark hot chocolate. Mmmm!
(Thanks to Natalie for the photo and a lovely outing at lunch today.)

Thoughts on today’s Me-Made garment: Oh, if only this fabric were better than it was! I love the print, I love the style of this dress, I don’t love that the cotton is a looser weave than it should be and as a result doesn’t sit as well as it should. *sigh* As a direct result of that too, the pockets are a bit mis-aligned (despite my super-careful placing of them) and the invisible zip at the front is a bit puckered at one side on the end. Which I do intend to go back and fix, as well as tacking down the armhole facings more since the dratted things keep flipping out despite all the tacking that’s already in place at the seams. Oh well, it’s still pretty colours and it turns out it can be layered for autumn dressing, so I’ll keep on wearing it.

15 May

Me-made Patch skirt (unblogged as I made it about 12 years ago…!)
Heart cardigan – Glassons, from TradeMe
Nursing singlet – The Warehouse
Tights – Columbine
Shoes – “Stylish Lady” by Minx

Thoughts on today’s me-made garment: I can’t believe how long this has been in my wardrobe…! Even though I hardly ever wear it, somehow it escapes all the wardrobe culls. It’s the Skirt That Would Not Die! Note to self: must wear this more often.