As you may be aware from my previous blog or social network feeds, that I have challenged myself to partake in the Me Made May challenge 2014. This is where I had vowed to wear something made by myself everyday, for the entire month of May. So here is my Me Made May 2014 break down from day 12 to day 31. Days 1 to 11 are on my previous blog is you want to have a peek. Day 12 to 16 - Its my birthday and ill go to a book lunch if I want to!Kicking off with day 12, you may recognise this self drafted t shirt as it is made with the left over moustache material I used for The Great British Sewing Bee PJ task in episode two. Day 13 is what I would have made for episode six for the made to measure challenge. My Military jacket is Inspired by the 70's, my design was based on Jimi Hendrix's iconic jacket and The Beatles, Sgt. Peppers. Day 14 is a shirt that I made when I first started to get into sewing. Gotta love that big collar!!! Day 15 and its my birthday! I was very excited that not only was it my birthday but it was also Tilly's 'Love at first stitch' book launch! So in attempting to kill two birds with one stone, Kirk and I went in the hope of also going for a lovely romantic supper for two. Not realising it, I decided to wear my vintage skirt (Maudella 5911) made with denim and left over African print fabric for the inside pockets and my striped boob tube, Tilly and I were matching! It was so lovely to finally meet Tilly. We had a lot of fun as you can see, Tilly and Lauren are so tiny that I decided to kneel down for the pictures. With my book signed we then set off to the pub for a glass or two of fizz. With all the excitement at the launch and by the time we had finished our drinks it got so late that we decided to head back home for a Chinese takeaway instead. Last of the romantics but I had a great night. Day 16 and the birthday celebrations continue with a family and friends gathering at The Church in Hockley, Birmingham for some Soul Food and drinks. Therefore I had to wear my wrap around skirt. This way after eating my body weight in Jambalya I can adjust my wrap skirt to fit my expanding and ready to burst waist! Day 17 to 22 - Time to Vote!Day 17 and it's my best friend's uncle's wedding and we have been kindly invited to the evening do! As it was a lovely warm evening I thought I would bust out my halter neck harlequin dress for the occasion. This was the first dress that I made after my wedding dress. It's not perfect at all, my waist band does not match up very well at all, at the side zip but its nice to see how much I have improved from when I made it. I had completely forgotten about it at the bottom of the wardrobe. Day 18, Its workshop day at Guthrie and Ghani, so I've decided to wear my make from the weekend, which was Tilly's 'Delphine' skirt. The fabric is suede that I was kindly given by a lovely lady who I had never met because she wanted the fabric to go to 'someone who will put it to good use'. Hopefully, I fulfilled that duty! Day 19 and I was not feeling very well at all, so was tucked up in bed, however had I got dressed on this day, I would be wearing 'Beatrice' apron pinafore from Sew Me Something. I slightly adapted mine to make it reversible so I have two dresses in one if you like. Perfect for holidays! Day 20 and I'm feeling much better. So back to work and I'm wearing my upcycled men's shirt dress. This garment uses five men's shirts, which I cut up and made into a dress. A little quirky but I like it! Day 21 and its Dungaree day, well pinafore but you know what I mean. Self drafted pattern with cheeky pockets using corduroy. Day 22 and its your day to Vote. So off I go in my 'go everywhere' dress which is a vintage Simplicity pattern 7135. The material is a lightweight cotton that I got from Walthamstow market with Chinelo, in between filming episodes for The Great British Sewing Bee. Day 23 to 26 - Festival Fun and feeling #snooty!With the run up to the weekend, I was getting very excited. Day 23 and I had upcycled an old bed sheet into what i'm calling my 'festival' dress. It has huge pockets in the side seams and a little pleat in the front with a scooped back. It's so comfortable and with it being a very old bed sheet from the 70's the fabric was not only amazing print wise but was super soft through god knows how many times through the washing machine! Day 24, Kirk and I was heading down to London to meet up with my old school friend Emma Westwood, to go and watch 'Rooster' at Saddlers Wells. Both Emma and I studied dance at school. It was so amazing to get to watch this performance together and try and rein-act the performance after! Day 25 and very tired as we didn't get in until two in the morning, Kirk and I say goodbye and head to Stevenage for Hogsozzle Festival. Armed with our matching upcycled poncho's and Band T-shirts, we prepared to get ready for our performance by part-taking in the Paint Fight! So much fun and it makes a great stage outfit! Day 26 cold and wet as we camped over night, we crawled back to Birmingham in our tie dye t shirts and snooty pants. An improved look for the T shirt, I'm not so sure I looked so great! #hanging. Day 27 to 31 - The last few days :(Feeling well rested after the festival its now Day 27 and I'm up early as I have two workshops in Stratford Upon Avon at Sew Me Something. My first mixed group with adults and children, I wanted to look 'cool' so with my birthday moccasins on I teamed it up with my Pinafore and long sleeve vest. Workshop was awesome, so much fun and lovely students! Day 28 and its a little chilly so I went with my light corduroy shirt dress. The pattern was from a sewing magazine I bought when I first started sewing, unfortunately I cannot find it to let you know the pattern name. Sorry everyone. Day 29, so it has to be my upcycled shirt skirt. Made from two matching men's shirts. I wanted to look the part as I was involved in interviewing new recruits at my normal 9-5 job. ITS FRIDAY and Day 30 so it has to be my snooty moustache shirt. Its a 1978 pattern by style 2465. The fabulous fabric I purchased online from Plush Addict. And so my Me Made May 2014 comes to an end with Day 31. This is a Tunic dress I made from the fabric Chinelo gave me while we were filming the Great British Sewing Bee. After a few hours of filming Chinelo said that she has the perfect piece of fabric at home and it has my name on it! I thought she was joking when she said that but the very next round of filming and she presented the fabric as a gift. She is so lovely and kind hearted, I decided to use the material to make a tunic dress using a 1969 Style pattern 2521. I used the off cuts to make my pockets for my Day 15 Skirt. It's such a treasured piece of fabric I wanted to make sure I used every last centimeter. I hope you have enjoyed following my Me Made May adventure. I've really enjoyed wearing the garments that I had completely forgotten about. Those early items I made when I first started sewing compared to more recent makes (don't turn the item inside out you'll see the stitches - practice really does make perfect) . Even some of the fabrics have stories of their own. Can't wait to sew more memories!!! #sewingrevolution. I want to hear about your Me Made Makes! Do you have garments that hold memories?
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Its been two years since we (Kirk and I) have been on a holiday abroad for a sun break which was our honeymoon to Morocco in 2012. With all the excitement and hard work of The Great British Sewing Bee all over, working full time throughout the period as well as starting up my #sewingrevolution workshops and gigging with SnootyBobs, which has been taking up pretty much each weekend, we were both in need of a break and some quality time together. For our honeymoon, we originally wanted to go to New Orleans. Friend and family gifted dollar's as presents so we could go. However with Hurricane Isaac hitting the area hard in August 2012, our blues and food dream was not to be. With the dollar's burning a hole in our top draw and money being too tight to mention, we cashed in our dollar's and booked a last minute deal to Fuertaventura. At 26 degrees every day and an all inclusive break, it was exactly what we needed. RELAXATION. It was a little scary going on holiday and leaving Tailor Taylor behind. Promising to keep my phone off (not that I had any reception anyway- sorry Kirk I did try to have a peak once), this holiday was for relaxing and replenishing only. Knowing that I cannot keep still for five minutes, I decided to take the book 'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote and try to take up crochet. Armed with a little beginners guide and a brief five minute demo by a friend, I attempted to crochet. I was rubbish! Just couldn't get to grips with the instructions. I could start a chain and singles but couldn't fathom the half, treble and double treble. I gave up and started to make it up. I created what can only describe as a fisherman's net. Using three as the magic number, I made a couple of square nets. I have no idea what they are going to be but I gave it ago. If at first you don't succeed and all that .... as they say. We bring the S.T.A.R's out.Upon my return to the midlands at 02:00, it was straight back to work at 09:00 on the same day. On my previous blog, I had mentioned that I was involved in a project called S.T.A.R's. Saturday the 3rd of May was the competition date and I along with two others, Melody Harris and Mark Anthony were to judge three categories. Voice, Dance and Fashion! It was so much fun, It was like 'Britain's Got Talent' but without the big red button. Walsall has some serious talent! These kids were just amazing. We were completely blown away. Each person presented their track, performance and collection to a filled auditorium and in front of the three scary judges. We each provided critical feed back to each individual and also had to fill out a scoring sheet. There were live camera's projecting the performance and our reactions on a big screen. It must have been so daunting for them. Me, I'm strangely used to it now, seeing myself from angles you don't normally see. Remembering the first episode airing on BBC2, it wasn't comfortable to watch. First up was the voice category. We had singer/song writers, guitarist, covers. Classic and current music. There were some real stand out performances, I just wanted to get up on stage and sing with them, they were so good. We had two dance performances, one street and one contemporary improvised. This brought back memories of High school, Northern Contemporary School of Dance of which I attended for a year before completing my BA Hons Degree in Dance and Visual Arts at Brighton Uni. How I miss throwing myself around a dance studio #feelingold. The last category was Fashion, we had three collections to assess. Each had been given a brief to create a fashion collection by up-cycling and customizing old clothes to create a modern and edgy line. Boy did they do that, I needed to get some tips off them. After four hours of performance and catwalks, it was our time to get down to some serious work. It was decision making time! One winner from each category. After a few difficult conversations we had decided on the winner of the fashion and dance. The tough one being Voice, we just couldn't decide on shortlisted three of the acts. We needed a TIE BREAKER! We invited the three acts back on stage to provide them with a few words of encouragement before they gave us their final performance. The hairs on the back of my head stood on end, they really gave it their all! With a little audience participation, we made our decision. All the participants were awarded S.T.A.R medals and the winner's received a prestigious S.T.A.R. award and a monetary gift. It was a fantastic and very inspiring day. I believe they are already planning next years event so I do hope I can be involved again next year! #MeMadeMay2014 Challenge.Upon my return from holiday and catching up on all the Social Media feeds. I came across #MMMAY2014 and straightaway thought what a great idea! What better way to show I'm committed to the #sewingrevolution than vow to wear my Me-Made clothes in May, my birthday month. So here it is! My eleven days so far, posted every day on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I'm quite enjoying this one. Checking my wardrobe I'm not sure I have enough Me-Made items to get through the whole month, so this is a perfect excuse to make more!!! Don't forget you can take part to! I'm still checking up on your#sewingrevoultion / Me-Made makes so please keep posting! Sorry that this is quite a long post this week but needed to catch up on two weeks worth of shenanigans! Hope to see you here next week and have a fab Sewing Sunday. |
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