Tuesday 31 May 2016

#MMMay16, Day 31 so the last day for a whole year.






Today I am wearing my side striped leggings here: 38: side panel leggings with my #MMMay16, Day 18, blue/black raglan sleeved top and my 33: Huge stripey hand knit jumper.

To be quite honest I have found it harder and harder to think of something to wear I have not worn before. As expected I do know what I need to make to fill gaps. Skirts and trousers and hand knit jumpers are the main things so really lots of basic stuff.

I also DID NOT complete my personal challenge since I have still got one side of my easy hand knit bat wing jumper that I have yet to finish knitting. That is a kind of a disappointment to be quite honest but I am simply a pretty slow knitter. I started it ages ago here: 18: Wonderful people and easy knitting bat wing sleeved jumper or sweater

By this time next year I intend to have a much better wardrobe of Me Made.
Thanks to everyone who has popped over to visit me in the last month,
Bracken

#MMMay16. Day 30


This is yet another wearing of one of my raglan T shirts ( I do seem to wear them a great deal!) this time with a thrifted sequin and lace skirt.











Thanks for visiting my blog
Bracken

46: New mesh dress made from frump dress, #MMMay16 Day 30


Today I am wearing my blue frump dress which I decided I hated here:#MMMay16, Day 15


I took it appart after posting those horrible images and remade in a size 8 ( it was a size 12.) I also made a mesh dress similar to these: 42: Loads of mesh dresses and none for me!which I made for other people for an event next month. I attached the pale blue dress to the mesh dress at the shoulders only by hand stitching together.

I think it is a big improvement on my frumpy look of two weeks ago!







Thanks for visiting
Bracken

#MMMay16 Day 29

To day I am wearing my block printed fabric cullottes made here: http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/circular-shorts-or-cullottes
with my dark navy top made here: 7: Dark navy top with a step by step tutorial guide to making




Thanks for reading my blog
Bracken


Friday 27 May 2016

45: Goldfish Dress, #MMMay16, Day 27


109_0912_b_large This is my Goldfish dress made from this Burda style pattern from the September 2012 magazine.  
I used Ikea fabric for this. Its the same dress pattern as this dress here: 39: Black bug dress 2, MMMay16, Day 12 and again is made one size larger than I am meant to be due to me using cotton fabric with no stretch when this is a stretch fabric pattern.

The pattern has two options for a dress with a round neck and a top with a V back neckline. I decided to do something a bit different to the bug dress so went for  a V back like the top option. 106b_0912_b_large 
I had some problems getting the collar to sit right and ended up adding a press stud/snap fastener to make it lie flat and not stick out but it works now. The top pattern does not have a centre back zip but the dress does so I used one and that is why the collar does not sit right I think since on the top the two sides of the V collar are joined and on my dress they are not so need some kind of fastener. Also although I have a centre back zip I can actually put this dress on without undoing it. Probably that is due to the wider neckline with the V-back. If I make another version I will leave the back zip out.

  




You will have to ignore the bra strap here. It is not part of the dress!


Thanks for visiting my blog, 
Bracken

Thursday 26 May 2016

#MMMay16, Day 26


Today I am wearing my Burdastyle oversized hoody from the January 2016 magazine which I made here: 24: Red lace hoody - Burdastyle 01/2016 and black faux leather leggings
With my side stripe leggings made here: 38: side panel legging



So we are in the last few days of #MMMay16!!! I could list all the things I now want to make but I think I will just get on with actually making stuff instead.

 

Thanks for reading & for visiting my blog,
Bracken

#MMMay16, raglan sleeved top with coral sleeves

Today I am wearing my top made from a free pattern which you can read about here: 25: Comparing the free raglan sleeved T shirt patterns available on the internet
Unfortunately, I am wearing RTW trousers with it but they do go surprisingly well and I happen to particularly like this pair of trousers which date back to 1997. 

Thanks for reading,
 Bracken



Tuesday 24 May 2016

#MMMay16, Day 24

Today I am wearing my upcycled skirt again made from my Dad's Pyjama top with my black raglan top made here: 27: Better picture of orange raglan top and a new top  from Newlook 6230. This is definitely not the best top I ever made or even a very well fitting top but does work well over my exercise kit so has turned out surprisingly useful. 
I made a mistake when I made this top since it is meant to have a centre back seam and it seemed to me a bit stupid so I put it on the fold to eliminate it but forgot to remove the seam allowance so its a bit bigger at the back than it should be.


 It does make a great ballet style neckline top though and works off one shoulder too so if I wear it with the right things its great despite my mistake.

I suppose if you do not want to spend hours making couture clothing, which to be honest I would love to do but right now I do not have time time let alone the patience to make, then you need to either scrap your mistakes or make them work for you. I do really admire blogs like https://fiftydresses.com and would love to be that skilled, but my wardrobe making is more about variety and having something I can afford that is a bit different from what I can buy on the High Street. Maybe one day I will have gained the skill to make such beautiful clothing but right now I just need stuff I can wear.


Also my lifestyle is very fast and stressful like many other people so I simply do not go to places where I can actually wear a lot of the lovely clothes I would like to make.

I have recently, to be honest been concentrating on fast makes often with knits since I am addicted to my overlocker. I think though in the next few months I need some more structured clothing which inevitably will mean, timewise, much longer projects but it could be the next direction for this blog. I already started a really quite nice duster coat 30: Summer coat last month with the intention of taking part in "The Monthly Stitch" project but I still have not finished it. Thats something I really need to get back to asap. I may not need it right now but it will be worth the effort once the currently nice sunny weather goes back to normal rainy England.

Bracken

Monday 23 May 2016

#MMMay16, Day 23, I need more hand knit jumpers!

Today I decided to again wear my green hand knit jumper so that is the third time this month. I knew it was a favourite and I wear it lots but this month I am actually trying not to wear it and have still ended up wearing this three times including today. I obviously need more hand knit jumpers!

Here is today's emsemble then:

This is my black dress here:
 with RTW leggings from H&M and my green jumper. 

Thanks for visiting my blog,
Bracken

#MMMay16, Sunday 22nd May, My green scarf dress

I am not sure this mesh dress really counts as upcycling. I made it from two halloween scarves from the Pound Shop but I did buy them with the idea to do this with them so it is not really upcycling. More a new fabric source.

 Everything is overlocked - seams and hems.


You can see the skulls better in the next few photos.

It has overlocked side seams with exposed seams but I did the sleeve seams with the overlocking inside to make the distinction that the outer side seams are MEANT to be outside as a feature of the design. 


 Unfortunately the fabric is very delicate so I may only get a few wearings before it goes in lots of ladders but it is a fun dress for a sunny weekend and I really like the bright green with the skulls.

Still it only cost me £2.00 so if I get to wear it ten times that is a bargain really!

Its made very similarly to this: 7: Dark navy top with a step by step tutorial guide to making
except I did the sleeve seams on the inside this time.

Thanks for visiting
Bracken

#MMMay Saturday 21st May - My recycled/upcycled sock skirt


Today was lovely weather so I decided I cannot do #MMMay16 without wearing this skirt.

Its far from perfect but is a bit unusual in that I made it from old socks. Generally when you wear out a pair of socks you have just one go in holes not both. Also usually the leg bit of your sock is perfect.

I needed a clear out since I had so many socks with holes in and was going to send this lot of old socks to landfill when I got the idea to make this surfing skirt.

It was a few years ago now and I did not have a fabric stash then and also no spare money to buy any. Its a bit strange maybe making a skirt from old socks but I do love this item in my wardrobe.

 It is not something I can wear very often and I originally intended this as just a beach skirt for holidays and its very similar to lots of surfing clothing that you find at holiday resorts and also festival clothing.

The waistband has a pullcord made from a Doc Martin Boot shoe lace. The waistband is a strip of black jersey recyled from an old holey T shirt. The entire skirt is made using a zigzag stitch. You can see a close up lower down of the inside of the skirt.

To make each square I opened up the socks and used the fabric single layered. As a bonus all of the squarea also contain lycra so its a very stretchy skirt that doesn't get any baggier with wear since the lycra lets it retain it's imperfect but fun shape.







Thanks for visiting
Bracken

Friday 20 May 2016

#MMMay16, Day 20, I feel very "punk" today!


 Today I decided to wear my lovely tartan leggings
10: Tartan leggings with both versions of my self drafted top together. 7: Dark navy top with a step by step tutorial guide to making
This top has exposed seams though you could wear it with them on the inside just as well but I like the slight punk feel to the exposed overlocked seams.

I am actually wearing two tops in different lengths both made from the same pattern and same material just the self-striped fabric has the stripes going in different directions on each top. It was just an experiment and until today I have never worn both at once but I like the effect so may well wear them like this again.

I feel very "punk" today!
Reggie-dog has photo-bombed me again! This dog just loves being photographed. Honestly he rushes in as soon as my partner gets the phone out and starts taking photos.






This outfit I really like. Should have tried this outfit sooner because I have been struggling a bit with #MMMay. Still thats the point isn't it?
Thanks for reading and see you soon.........
Bracken