Taking the plunge

I, Jo of Jo Sews, sign up (in the nick of time) as a participant of Me-Made-May '13.

I endeavour to wear at least one handmade or refashioned item of clothing,

at least five days a week for the duration of May 2013. 

Have you signed up for Me Made May? Do you even know what it is? (If not, follow that link to find out!)

I've known about it for a while, and have been actively looking forward to it for about, ooh only 6 months or so. But when it came to actually taking the pledge, I found myself suddenly unsure of whether I actually wanted to join in. As Zoe says, it shouldn't be too easy, but it shouldn't be stressful either. I found I had (have!) grave doubts about my ability to carry off handmade clothes for a sizeable chunk of the coming month.

Because, well, I shouldn't exactly complain I suppose ...

Yes, I will be there, on that beach and in its surroundings, for two whole weeks.

And the thing is, while in general I'm very happy with the amount of handmade getting worn in my everyday life, an overwhelming amount of it gets worn to work. I wear far fewer handmade clothes at weekends or on holiday.  I just haven't sewn so much casual stuff yet, I think because I've only recently got comfortable enough sewing with knits to even think about designing and building myself a wearable off-duty wardrobe. And, yeah, things get busy in the run-up to going away, especially with little kids. Plus there's the usual work and life things to do too.

But in the end, I am going to take part, because the reasons I wanted to still stand. I want to know: how wearable, really, are my handmade clothes? Where are the wardrobe gaps and what can I do about them? Might committing to regular handmade wear change how I see my style, clothes, and, well heck, - myself, as well as my wardrobe sewing? Or, y'know, not...

I've given myself two 'days off' a week; I'll be wearing at least one handmade item for at least five days out of every seven. It's my first time and  I've no idea how achievable this is. And in the end, well, there's no such thing as failure is there? If I can't do it, that's an answer to those questions too.

Are you taking part? If so, what form does your challenge take? If you've done it before, how did you find it and what are you doing different this year? What were your answers to my questions above?

Looking forward to reporting back on how this goes...!

Roots, beer, clothes for the boy

 

On the road into G's hometown is this. This is the Primus brewery.

 

 



Where they make, among other things, Primus beer: 

 

 

 

 

Among the other things they make is apparently promotional t-shirts. Remember this? :

G's dad still lives in G's hometown, and every now and again he'll go to some sort of social event / fundraiser and buy a tombola ticket. If he wins, which he seems to do with great frequency, he may well donate his prize to us. I must say here that the prizes are often less good than this one. But this XXL men's t-shirt - well I saw G about to politely refuse it, and had to intervene.

I mean, couldn't he see the potential?

It had toddler rock star potential!

 

 

 

 

Is he not adorably, absolutely, mini Jon Bon Jovi? I'm probably biased or something, but seriously - I could actually EAT him.

 

(Pattern is the sleeveless skater dress bodice, size 3-4, lengthened).

Skunks! Hedgehogs! Tightrope-cycling monkeys!

What is this place and what are all those animals doing here??



It can only be the land of Lillestoff! And a beautiful neckline finish like that can only mean that I managed to follow without a hitch the excellent and comprehensive instructions that come with the Kitschy Coo Skater dress pattern. This one's a real winner, folks. Its so easy and so comfy and so absolutely just right for little girls.



This dress manages to look twirly and tomboy, cute and no-nonsense, pretty and practical all at once. And the organic knit fabric is absolutely beautiful to behold, handle and wear. It was a splurge, which is something I rarely do on fabrics and especially not for the kids - they grow so fast! They scrape holes in things! But I had good reason to decide that this spring's wardrobe for my daughter was worth an exception to the rule, and when I can formulate my thoughts I shall tell you about it - I'd really like to see what others think. But I won't get ahead of myself; that's for when it isn't midnight, midweek.

Show me your moves, L!

And tonight was more cutting and prepping, ready for sewing again on KCW Day 4 tomorrow. Back soon (I hope...)

:: :: ::

• Pattern: Skater dress by Kitschy Coo.
• Fabric: Lillestoff organic cotton knit and coordinating ribbing from Miss Tiggr.
• Helpful hints and brilliantly massive details on sewing with knits here on Amanda's blog.





I am a soft-spined weakling



Who is utterly unable to resist the lure of Kids Clothes Week. I have a horrible horrible cold, I'm busy, there's plenty of other stuff I could be getting on with. 

 

But, you know, it's fun. It's a bit of a challenge and a lot of community, and I'm kind of a sucker for both of those things, especially if there's sewing involved.

 

Thus, we have here an explosion of activity and brightly printed fabric.

 

 

Because also, L needs dresses. Lots of dresses. She'd rather wear dresses than anything else, and as she's grown out of everything again, it seemed futile to fight it. Under these circumstances I think you'll agree that I was practically obliged to buy the patterns - the fact that I'd been eyeing them both anyway has nothing to do with it.

 

 

The roller skate dress I've mentioned already. There will be another. There will also be skater dresses. Oh yes, there will be many. I've already made up this pattern once (but failed to photograph the results) and it's another total corker. I'll write more about it when I've got a finished one to show you; for now I'll just say: thank you Amanda! You evil genius with your fabulous patterns and shop full of wondrous knits.

 

For girl-boy balance I'll be upcycling a top for T from this XL men's t-shirt, generously given to me by my father-in-law who won it on a tombola.



 

 

 

I doesn't look like much, but I have a Secret Plan that hopefully will turn out well (or I'll just totally regret ever having mentioned it and we'll never speak of it again, ok?) He also wants a Red Indians t-shirt from the fabric below, so I've been cutting a skater dress very carefully out of my precious metre of it and should be able to oblige.

 

 

 

And that's the sum total of my ambitions. It think it'll be plenty, given I can only breathe through my mouth right now (where am I going to put my pins??)

I hope to be back soon with some actual makes!

Who all else is sewing along with KCW? What're you planning, and how's progress? I'd love to see!

In which spring gets its skates on

Look! We've been playing outside!

And someone's got a new dress...

As for me, I've fallen a little bit in love with the pattern. It's been a while since I felt the urge to sew kids' clothes, but this one's got me back into it with a bang. It's the Roller Skate dress, one of the new Oliver & S patterns, and I ADORES it. I sort of knew I would as soon as I saw it (and the speediest mail order-er ever obliged, as promptly as always).

 

It's just my and L's style, and while I must admit to having struggled a little with the fiddliness of the Ice Cream dress (which by the way is now, already, massively too small and hardly covers her bum), it was immediately obvious that this one is more straightforward. It was a joy to sew, even having opted for the yoke/facing option.

I still managed to mess up slightly (of course), trimming the seam allowance at the neckline point a bit too closely. In its first wash it came loose and frayed a bit, so I edgedstitched the whole neckline and it seems to be keeping things in place OK.

The button, I was astonished to discover, was the only one in a not inconsiderable stash of the right size. Luckily it matched.

The lining peeks out of the sleeves, despite great care to keep everything smooth in the right place.Why? WHY?? *

* I don't actually care.

Anyway, the main thing I wanted to say about this dress is that it made me realise why Oliver & S patterns inspire devotion (yes, apparently they do). The instructions are absolutely impeccable - you are literally hand-held through the entire thing. I can hardly recall the details of making this because I just switched off and let the pattern do the thinking. L chose the fabrics out of my stash so it was a no-effort thing from start to finish.

She's been doing a lot of growing out of her clothes this winter, so there'll likely be a slew of posts soon featuring a new wardrobe for her; happily, this may well coincide with Kids' Clothes Week. Either way, to redress the girl-boy balance in this one, here's T in his current favourite get-up:

I was trying to get him to pose like he was catching those red fish embellishing the floor, but all he was interested in was stretching the fishing rod and pinging it. It frustrates me much and often, but actually I'm rather proud that no-one makes either of my kids do what they've decided not to.