Spring Palette Challenge

At long last I managed to finish three pieces for the Spring Palette Challenge. I realized that I have a very bad habit of leaving the final hand sewing and then moving on the the next project. So yesterday I forced my self to sit and sew while watching a movie. Zombieland. My only excuse was that there are teenage boys in the house and one had control of the remote!!

Anyway, I finished a beige a-line skirt. Self drafted, my first attempt actually. Then I made a pair of cropped pants in a light brown from Simplicity pattern 5259 and also a skirt and top from vogue 2218. I had said I wanted to do a beige jumper dress, but I had this material in my stash and it looked very similar to the picture on the vogue pattern envelope, so made that instead!

Now I have a piece of black material ready to cut out more cropped pants. I also want to make a black a-line skirt as I have so much to wear with a black skirt for work (even though it wasn't on my initial list for the challenge).

I also have the black and white check dress ready except for button holes and a hem.

Me Made March

Days 5 - 8

Stop press! Great excitement! Gertie from Gerties New Blog For better Sewing, featured a picture of my crepe dress on her blog on the weekend.




http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2011/03/gallery-of-delicious-crepes.html

Anyway, back to MMM. This weekend I discovered a major gap in my wardrobe of handmade clothes. I haven't made casual clothes. So at lunchtime today I nipped up the road to Fabricland and bought two pieces of knit fabric and will make two tops for weekend / casual wear.

So what did I wear this weekend? Well on Saturday I remembered a sweater I knitted a number of years ago. While on holiday in the Eastern Cape of South Africa (KleineMond for anyone who knows the area!), I bought some hand spun angora at a little farm. The earrings are also hand crafted, from beads from one of my Grandmother's necklaces. So quite suitable for a day at the Toronto Golf and Travel show.

Sunday was tough. After my long run, all I was planning to do was laze around the house. Tempting as it was to put on an evening dress and pretend that is how I spend my Sundays, all I could come up with was an apron. I ask you, an apron!! It has a winter theme so very fitting as we had a huge dump of snow on Saturday night.

Monday and today were good. Yesterday I wore a hand sewn top made a number of years ago from an old McCall's pattern 7444. I had made the jacket and skirt too, but they are long gone. I teamed this up with black trousers and jacket.

Today was a black skirt from Simplicity  5259. Worn with a plain white blouse and a grey  sweater.

Me Made March

The Early Days!

So far so good. I have had my clothes out ready the night before so that I know exactly what I am wearing.  That is most unusual for me; I normally open the closet door in the morning and see what takes my fancy! But often if I am running late, it is a matter of what is clean does not require any ironing!!

Day One, the purple dress. This is a fast and easy dress (Butterick B5247). I made it almost entirely with my serger. Very nice to wear. I have been meaning to use the pattern and make a top  as well. As I work in an office, dresses are perfect.

Day two, my jumper dress. Simplicity 2848 (inspired by Project Runway). Love it to bits, I either wear it with a black blouse like I did on day two, or with a white blouse. I like to wear it with black boots. The gemstone necklace is also self -made. I call it my yoga necklace as I got the idea from a yoga web site. The different gemstones have different healing and mood properties and work with your chakras apparently!

Day three, I wore my Sewaholic Pendrell blouse for the first time. I got so many compliments, so that made me very happy! I hauled my pearl necklace out as I wear it so rarely these days and I think it went vey nicely with the polka dots.

Day four and it’s Friday. That means casual in our office.  This denim skirt I made a couple of year ago from a 1990’s 5 hour jeans/ skirt pattern. (Do the 1990s count as vintage yet??! ) The scarf is self-made; I laid various threads onto water-soluble paper, put a layer of the same paper on top and then stitched in a big zigzag motion all over the scarf. Then soaked in water, and a very pretty scarf and so easy.

Evening Dress

One of the items on my to-do list was to make an evening dress. I saw a Vogue pattern V1208 and fell in love with it's simplicity. Cut on the bias with no darts, or zips, it was a cinch to make. I bought the light satin material from Fabricland on sale. The lining actually cost more than the material! Although it can't be seen in the photo, it is a beautiful teal colour. There is some spare and I am hoping to be able to make another  Pendrell blouse from it.

Luckily I didn't have to wait too long for a function to wear the dress to. Our son's annual high school dinner dance fund raiser.

The necklace is also self made. The boys bought me a book last time we were in Namibia, "Dare to Bead some More" by South African bead artist Heather Laithwaite. I had started the necklace a while ago, and then the night before the function, realized that it would be perfect with the dress!

The little evening bag is one I made from scraps last year. trying my hand at patchwork.