But it can’t be from Dolly Clackett. She gave me an Easter egg!

You probably know by now that the sewing blogosphere (coordinated by Sarah) is celebrating Roisin’s wedding by making a Sew Dolly Clackett fit and flare dress. As you read this, you might have already uploaded your dress in the Flickr group, since I’m probably the last one to upload mine – today is the last day and I’m almost too late.

I love all of Roisin’s dresses and I usually end up buying the patterns she’s using. This time it was Simplicity 2444.

I used this cotton sateen with a watercolor-like print. It somehow reminded me of this beautiful Oscar de la Renta dress. Yes, those are flowers and mine doesn’t have any, and mine is way busier, but well… it’s probably all the crazy colors on a white background that looked similar to me.

After measuring the pattern I cut the pattern 2 sizes smaller than the envelope said I should. I shortened the bodice by 2cm and I made the skirt 50cm long, but I see now that it’s not a great length for me. Not short, not long/midi, just somewhere there around the knee. I might cut another 5 cm, and next time I make the dress I’ll use the pattern length.

I didn’t read reviews of this pattern yet, but I wonder if anybody else had issues with the sleeves. I couldn’t ease those in for the life of me, I had to gather them a bit at the top. I don’t mind that, I love gathered sleeves, but the instructions and drawings were pretty clear – the sleeves should be eased in the armscye and no gathering is mentioned.

I have a pair of Irregular Choice pumps, but they are in black and they don’t go so well with this dress 😦

I wish all the best to Roisin and Nic, and I cant wait to read the after wedding post 🙂

 

Pattern Pyramid still in London

Second stop in London and 4th in the UK, the pyramid had a great time here in her home land, but she now wants to see the world again 🙂

I picked 2 lovely 1960s patterns – The People 143 added by Joanne and McCalls 5996 added by Jennifer via Amy.

Have a look at some of the other awesome patterns that long to travel

I love that Simplicity 3552

I added 3 patterns but I’ll add a Burda mag too if the pyramid goes to Australia or NZ, or other countries where Burdas are rare.

If you want to spend some quality time with the pyramid and show her around your place of the world, leave a comment below. I will be travelling in the next 2 weeks so I’ll pick the pyramid’s new destination when I come back, on the 5th of May.

P.S. I am so lucky! Not only did the pyramid visit me this week, I have also won 4 yards of fabric from a sewnews giveaway.

Tweedy Dan

I finished knitting this sweater exactly one year after adding the pattern in my favorites on Ravlery on 27/03/2013. 🙂

I started working on it in December last year and after finishing the body and half the cuffs, I just let it sit for a while before I could bring myself to finish the simple stockinette sleeves and sew everything together.

I loved the pattern as soon as I saw it, and it was free at that time! I was a bit afraid of all that cabling, but somehow everything went so well, after a couple of repeats I didn’t need to look at the instructions anymore. I just made a note of all the rows where I needed to do increases, decreases,  center cable left/right, etc.

Some reviews on Ravelry say the pattern is confusing and it could be so if you’re an absolute beginner. I did find it confusing at times, but not so that I couldn’t improvise and trust my “advanced beginner” intuition to sort thing out. The cabling is pretty straight forward, what I thought it’s not clear is whether the increase/decrease rows are included in the repeats. I can live with the decision I made – to add the decrease in the 5th row.

I’m happy with the result, here’s my giraffe pose to prove it 😀

Me Made May 2014

Me-Made-May’14 (MMM’14 for short) is a challenge designed to encourage people who sew/knit/crochet/refashion/upcycle garments for themselves to actually wear and love them. The me-made and self-stitched challenges have been taking place for over four years now and they work on both a personal and community level. The participants decide the specifics of their own challenge pledge, so that the month is appropriate and challenging for them (more on this below). A very common pledge is for a participant to aim to wear one self-stitched or refashioned garment each day for the duration of May 2014. The participants can also choose to document their challenge with daily photos (though this is in no way compulsory for taking part) and share them with other participants (more on this below).

I’ve been following the MMM movement from the beginning, but I never felt I have enough me made items to join the crowd. I am confident I can make it this year, so here is my pledge:

I, Geo of Made in my living room, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’14. I endeavor to wear at least one me made item each day for the duration of May 2014.

My plan is to take a daily photo and post it on Instagram and blog about it once a week.

Lately I find myself reaching for the same pair of black skinnies and that needs to change! But there’ll always be my ladybug pin for panic days 🙂