Me Made May Giveaway #4

Competition is now closed.

Okay Me Made May-ers, here it is, the lucky last giveaway for the month!

Penny, over at Dresses & Me, is kindly sponsoring a pattern of the winner's choice from her amazing selection of patterns all by independent designers. From Sewaholic right through to Colette Patterns, Penny has the lot. Oh, and she's a fellow Kiwi, which doesn't hurt, we're a nice bunch down here :)

If I had to choose (which luckily I don't have to since I can't actually enter!) it would probably be a competition between the By Hand London Elisalex dress (I can't believe I still don't have this pattern yet!) or the Victory Patterns Hazel dress.

To sweeten the deal, I'm also going to be giving away a copy of The Afternoon Blouse pattern to the winner! Yay, two patterns, one competition!!

So, how do you enter? Simply head on over to Dresses & Me, choose a pattern* and let me know in the comments what it is.

The competition is open worldwide, anyone can enter (not just Me Made May-ers) and it closes at 12am Friday 30th May (NZ time).

Happy sewing everyone!

xx
Jen

*Prize does not include gift vouchers, sorry.

Me Made May 14 - Week Three Outfit Round Up + Giveaway #3

I've just read Zoe's latest post (in which she shares the details for giveaway number 3 courtesy of The Polished Button!!) and at the very beginning, she just casually mentions that we're half way through May. 

Ummm, WHAT? Can it be? Surely not. Except that yes, actually, we are half way through May already. So, after my last post, have you found some holes in your wardrobe that may be filled with a lovely vintage pattern from The Polished Button? Well, best go find out how you can win one then huh? It's open to everyone too, not just Me Made May-ers.

So, the weekly round up for May continues thus...

9th May

Wearing - Apples in Winter 60's pattern dress

10th May

Wearing - unblogged (but worn almost constantly ever since it was made) self-drafted wool pencil skirt.

11th May

Wearing - Self-drafted Red Circle skirt

12th May

Wearing - Self-drafted Blue Circle Skirt (ahhh, circle skirts, always coming to my rescue! Lucky I have something in mind along these lines for pattern number 3!!)

13th May

Wearing - why, it's an Afternoon Blouse of course (and pants!!)

14th May

Wearing - my Emery dress

Today, it's busy busy busy round these parts as I try my very hardest to finish pattern number 2 ready to head off to my lovely pattern testers. I'm so excited about this one!!

xx

J

Me Made May '14 Giveaway #2

*Competition is now closed*

Okay guys, here it is, giveaway number Two for Me Made May '14!

Caitlan at Indie Stitches is generously giving away one pattern of the winners choice with shipping included for anywhere in the world. Woohoo!

Indie Stitches has such a lovely selection of patterns all by independent designers. In fact, after reading her post on the Lola dress,  I'm thinking one wouldn't go amiss round these parts (especially considering my last post!).

She has also just started stocking Thread Theory, and I've promised David a Newcastle Cardigan (can you believe it'll be the first thing I've ever made him? I'm such a mean and selfish sewer!!).

To enter to win, head on over to Indie Stitches, peruse her wares and then let me know in the comments which pattern you'd choose.

The giveaway is open to everyone, not just #MMM14 participants, and closes in a week at 12am Thursday 15 May 2014 (NZ time!).

So, what's missing in your handmade wardrobe that you think could be solved with an Indie Stitches pattern?

xx
J

MMM14 Week One Round Up + A Giveaway!!

Erm, so, here is week one's round up for Me Made May. All of two outfits...

1st May

Kicking off MMM14 with a bang and wearing my Faux Liberty Macaron and Victorious Miette Cardigan (and panda slippers, not me made unfortunately!).

2nd May

Feeling the colour Blue today it seems. Wearing the Lightening Stripes Belladone.

To celebrate the start of Me Made May '14, Zoe and I have rustled up a giveaway or two for you folks and today's giveaway is being hosted by Zoe. Sew Box has generously donated not one but TWO amazing prizes for you to choose from.

Option 1 - YOUR CHOICE of sewing pattern from their enormous selection
Option 2 - YOUR CHOICE of 1 metre of fabric from their selection (including Liberty!!)

Unfortunately this competition is only open to people participating in Me Made May this year, but there will be more competitions throughout the month that are open to everyone.

So, you'd better go on over and enter then huh?

How are your pledges coming along?

xx
J

Autumn Dresses and Giveaways...

In an attempt to break up all the Afternoon Blouse spam on my blog lately, I thought I should show off a newly finished sewing project and perhaps do a little sneaky giveaway while I was at it.

It has officially started getting cold here - the days are shorter, the leaves are turning, I've pulled out my knitting again and I can feel myself leaning towards darker colours and snuggly, comfortable outfits that work well with tights and a cardigan. Cue, Winifred (and my smurf legs!).

Winifred is Abby's newest pattern - a cute variation on a shirt waist dress, except that this one is probably way faster to make up than any shirtwaist dress I've ever seen. I do love the classic button-up version, but they can take a while, what with all them buttons. Winifred however, has no fastenings what so ever, you just pop her on over your head, throw on your favourite coloured tights and you're ready to go play in the autumn leaves.

So, what's the trick? She has a comfortable elasticated waist at the back. Perfect for expanding tummies around lunch and dinner time (and Easter time, let's be honest here. I've probably already eaten my fair share of chocolate eggs over the last few weeks).

I made my Winnie (as Caitlan and I have affectionately called her) from a chocolate brown suiting cotton I picked up from my favourite charity haunt a few weeks ago (I got a huge roll of it for about $5). The fabric drapes beautifully but has a lovely weight which makes it the perfect fabric for my autumn version of Winnie.

There are two things I'd watch out for with this pattern though, both of which tripped me up when I was making it. The first are the sizings on the back. I really had no idea what size waist I should be cutting out because the sizings listed are big. I ended up cutting out a straight size 8 because that was my bust size (and I figured that my waist is really nowhere near 34 inches which is the size that corresponds to the 35inch bust, even after all those easter eggs).

Erm, wrong! The dress fit, but only because of the bigger back piece (due to the elastic). Instead of having side seams though, the front was so small around my waist and hips that I had front/hip seams! I gather the 34 inch waist is actually the finished garment waist size (?), sans elastic, but not taking into account that the front is fitted and doesn't have any elastic... So, I ended up cutting a second front and graded out one size at the waist and two at the hips to accomodate my big ol' lower half.

Even now, the skirt side seams are sitting forward a bit but not nearly as much as they were in my previous attempt. With the drape of the skirt, I kinda think they look like extra pleats, so I'm going with it. And I actually quite like it.

So, the lesson here? Measure your pattern pieces, and email Abby if you're not sure (as I didn't!!).

The second thing I'd point out is the collar instructions. I found them a tiny bit confusing at the end when it comes time to finishing the inside raw edges of the collar. Basically it's up to you how you finish it, but if you've never attached a collar before, it could leave you feeling a little puzzled. I would consider myself reasonably okay at sewing, but even then, I muddled through a bit (I've never actually inserted a collar before though). I still don't know if it's quite right quite, I inspected one of David's shirts to see how it was done and I've given mine a grade of 'passable'. I ended up folding the bottom raw edges of the back of the collar under and hand stitched them in place for a clean inside finish.

But even with these things, I'll definitely still be wearing my Winnie a tonne over winter.

Other small changes I made were to use a smaller width elastic and binding on the back (13mm binding and 7mm elastic), lower the placement of the back elastic by an inch and leave off the faux belt, lower the bottom of the darts by 1/4inch and lengthen the darts by about 1/2inch all up. I top stitched around the entire collar and neckline and opted to sew in my sleeve hems flat before sewing up the side seams. I also took my hem up by about 2 inches to a length I prefer to wear and for my next Winnie, I'll lower the neckline opening as well, as it's a tiny bit hard to get my head through as it currently is (it's no biggie though, I just can't do my hair before I get dressed!).

*Thank you all so much for entering, the competition is now closed*

Win your own Winnie!

I'll definitely be making another Winnie soon, and you can too! To celebrate the release of Winifred, Indie Stitches and I are giving away a copy of the pattern to one of you lucky folk! All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment below and you're entered.

The competition is open world wide and will be drawn at random in two weeks time (Monday 28th April NZ time). The winner will be contacted by email.

Stay tuned this week for more Afternoon Blouse fun :)

xx
Jen

An Emery and a Give Away...

I'm pretty sure most of the internet knows about the Emery Dress by now, right? It's Christine Hayne's latest pattern release and it's such a lovely design that really lets you get creative with finishing touches and construction techniques.

Oh, and you know it has pockets right? I think pockets will forever be the thing that seals the deal with seamstresses all over the world.

A few weeks ago I had a lovely email in my inbox from Caitlan who runs Indie Stitches. She was letting me know that she had just started stocking Christine's patterns and wanted to know if I'd like to help her celebrate by running a giveaway of the Emery Dress pattern on my blog for you guys. Well, of course I said yes (because I'm not silly you know!), so make sure you read on for your chance to win!

My Emery is made from a denim blue cotton plaid, perfect for the cooler seasons ahead - although on the day we took these photos, it was a bit less summery than I would have liked!

I did my usual grading at the bodice, from a 6 to an 8 and found that although it (would) fit perfectly, the shaping darts were about half an inch too low. Nobody else has seemed to have this problem with the pattern however and it's an easy fix. I must have had a moment when tracing the pattern and accidentally used the wrong sized darts. Duh!

Monty photobomb!

I constructed my bodice a bit differently than Christine instructs as I was using a standard vintage zip and not an invisible one. I also made my bow belt instead of using the attached bow pattern because I thought the dress would be a little more versatile sans bow.

The lining I used was left over floral fabric from my Faux Liberty Macaron. And I also kinda wish I had made floral inseam piping for the neckline after seeing it peeping out once it was sewn in. But in all honesty, I couldn't really be bothered unpicking it, so instead settled for ironing up the lining a smidge so you can just see it.

Hey, it works!

Over all, I really love my Emery - the colour, the full skirt with pockets and that lovely neckline. I think a sleeveless version is in order, no?

Now, let's get to the fun part and do a give away shall we?

To enter to win, all you need to do is pop on over to the Indie Stitches Facebook page and like it. Then come back here, let me know you've entered in the comments and you're done.

If you already like Indie Stitches on Facebook, don't worry, you can still enter too!  Just share the page with your friends on Facebook and leave me a comment letting me know you've done it.

The competition is open internationally for two weeks (entries close on Monday 3rd March) and the winner will be notified via email by Friday 7th March.

Indie Stitches also posts worldwide, so if you can't wait to win a copy of the Emery dress pattern, you can buy it here.

So, let's help Caitlan celebrate stocking Christine's patterns!! It's par-tay time guys!

xx

Jen

One Pattern Seven Bloggers - The Big Reveal

We've come to the end of the second One Pattern Seven Bloggers challenge and it's now time to reveal our finished Macarons.

First off, can we talk about the pockets? In-pleat pockets are officially my favourite kind of pocket! My mind is blown as to why I have never used them before, as it is, I'm quite sure I see a few Macaron skirts in my future. As some of the other challenge participants noted, the skirt is much more of a tulip shape than the pattern pictures make out and to be honest, that's why I love it. The soft pleats are very flattering across your tummy when you've had a big lunch and they hide the deep pockets so well, you could keep all number of curiosities in them and no one would know.

For this version, I moved the side zip to the centre back - something I tend to do for almost everything if I can get away with it. I'm one of these people who does their hair before they get dressed and prefer to step into a dress as opposed to pull it on over my head. I also inserted it using my preferred zip insertion method, the lapped zipper.

I underlined the yolk/sleeve fabric with a plain white cotton to stop it being as see through and replaced the neck facing with white bias binding that I hand stitched to the underlining.

I also chose to omit the bodice waist band as I tend to wear belts with almost everything. Though before I had even thought of doing that, I had to quite drastically lengthen the main bodice piece (even if I was going to keep the waist band!). I'm now officially confused as to whether I'm long waisted, short waisted or just average waisted as with almost every pattern I've made, I have to make one of the above mentioned alterations to my waist length. Any one care to fill me in on how I decide whether I'm short, long or average in the waist-length department?

Overall, I found this pattern lovely to work with. The combination of fabrics you could choose for the dress are endless as well as the number of different changes you could make (Kat made a peplum top from hers!!). The instructions are easy to follow and the dress doesn't use a lot of fabric. In fact, I loved making this pattern so much that I hopped straight back to it and made a second Macaron for the Sew Weekly Reunion Challenge right after I was done with this first version.

But, let's not forget that amazing giveaway we promised when we first announced the Challenge. The prizes have been drawn but firstly, a huge Thank You to our fabulous sponsors who donated the amazing prizes to us.

And the winners are...

Lill - 1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Colette Patterns

Josephine - 1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Guthrie & Ghani

MaciNic - 1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Stitch 56

Elizabeth - 1 x Pattern of your choice thanks to Sew Squirrel

Kathleen S - 1 x Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to Indie Stitches

Joanne - 1 x Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to The Haby Goddess

Amy - 1 x $20 gift voucher thanks to Fabric Worm

Sew Charleston - 1 x $30 gift voucher thanks to A Fashionable Stitch

All winners will be receiving an email from one of us shortly!!

Make sure you head on over to visit everyone else involved in the challenge, they've made some amazing creations. While I've gone the more casual route, there are some stunning evening versions in there which really does show how versatile this pattern can be -

Marie from A Stitching Odyssey

Reana Louise from Reana Louise

Kat from Petticoats and Peplums

Rachel from My Messings

Amy from Sewing Through the Motions

Sam from Buckingham Road

As I was editing these photos, it occurred to me that this looks a little like a modern version of Dorothy's dress from The Wizard of Oz and that I really should have worn red shoes for this photo shoot. Oh well, now I know what I'm going as to my next costume party, I just need to borrow a Toto from someone (can a black cat play Toto? We picked them up today, hooray!!)...

xx
Jen