Me Made May 2015

As I said when I wrote my pledge on Zoe's blog, last year I couldn't document my MMM because I was working two jobs - for a few months I was a vet's assistant in addition to giving my usual lessons after office hours and at the weekend. It was a wonderful experience, I LOVE animals so I'd literally fly to work because I knew I'd be with them and the vet and I would do our best to help them!
Unfortunately the doctor is quite old and he has almost retired since the beginning of the year except for emergencies so for now I'm back to teaching only, sigh :(
Anyway, this year I swore I'd wear at least two me-made things everyday, garments and accessories, which shouldn't be too difficult because now my wardrobe is almost completely handmade except for bras and jeans!
So let's start with day 01:

Me-made knit top and cotton skirt from Burda mag patterns, self-drafted handbag and the super cute star earrings were made by my friend Vanessa!

 Day 02:

Self-drafted poplin top, denim shorts from a Japanese pattern, earrings and bracelet made by me :)

Day 03:

Me-made knit tee-shirt copied from an RTW top and cotton shorts from a Japanese pattern.

Another best summer dress

Well I said I would sew more and since this dress is so quick and easy to make, here's the second version:

I used 1 metre of cotton fabric from the same local shop as my Liberty knock-off one, I think the print is adorable with its stripes and flower bouquets! The pockets are light yellow poplin and I finished the neckline and sleeves with bias tape.
I also made the necklace using beads from an old one from my teenage years -I'm not a hoarder obviously^^- and adding a little chain from my stash:

 I stole this awesome scorpio pendant from my mum.

I hope you're not bored of this design already because I really have several more planned!

OWOP day one

For this challenge I had to choose between the three patterns that I have made the most: first my self-drafted loose top or dress, then the NHK book 60's style dress and finally the Stylish Dress Book Y dress. I went for the Y design simply because I dug out my white linen version a few weeks ago and it made me think of all the cool garments I sewed from this excellent pattern :)
As a quick reminder the Y dress originally looks like this, it's a high-waisted dress with gathered skirt, wide sleeves and contrast outer facings. I believe this type of design looks better on tiny frames so I altered it to fit my body, I added bust darts, lengthened the upper bodice and shortened the sleeves and I reduced the skirt's width to get rid of the gathers, also I didn't include the contrast panels in most of my versions.
So for day one, which was a busy one for me since I have four different lessons to teach in four different corners of the island, I wore a short, Liberty fabric version that is super comfortable and still looks cute IMO:

I made the necklace too :)

I'm sorry that the last photo looks so lame but there is so much wind at the moment that it's impossible for garments to stay still, hence the pregnant look :( Today I'm not working and I went hiking so I couldn't wear anything Y-related but tomorrow I'll be back with another variation!

A complete outfit for Marie

I haven't posted about my doll for a while but it doesn't mean she was sitting around wearing a barrel all this time^^ Actually the outfit she's wearing today inspired me to make a little something similar for me and I wanted to finish it so that I could show you both Marie's stuff and mine.
So here she is:

She's wearing a milliardaire muumuu -it's Cacharel fabric!- with trim at the neckline, the two straps close at the back with snaps:

I also crocheted a cardigan with some light green cotton yarn leftover:

And she has super simple sandals made with two straps of brown bias tape and a crocheted cotton bag with the same bias for the handles:

And it's that bag that got me inspired, I used the same yarn in a slightly different colour to make one for me, except that mine has a lining and the straps are twill tape:

 

Me-Made-May 2013 week two recap

Another week of having fun with me-made things, this time I wore rather old stuff but I felt soooo good in it :)
On 08th I wore a 70's dress, the same as the broderie anglaise one except I used red Japanese cotton for it, I love the print which features traditional children's summer staples such as uchiwa fans, kitsune masks, iced desserts etc... and a refashioned denim jacket from my teenage years^^:

On 09th I felt tired and I obviously wanted to bring my bed outside with me since I wore pajama-esque shorts in white dots on navy crepe and the oldest tee I could find:

On 10th I was in a much better mood since 1) I had washed my hair 2) I wore my cute Burda peplum top with beaded daisy triiiiim:

That outfit was totally inspired by Dora. 

On 11th a blast from the past with this Japanese top I had almost forgotten about, I changed the sleeves from gathered to straight and it became much more wearable:

On 12th I had ZERO inspiration for my outfit so dragged an old black gingham shirt (with daisy trim naturally) that I copied from an RTW garment out of the drawer and my trusted denim shorts from Fait Main and somehow it worked:

On 13th it was mah birthday, my mom gave me an awesome malachite necklace so I paired it with my old navy blended linen Japanese dress -bonus for the sack design because I went to an all-you-can-eat buffet for lunch:

Finally on 14th another "Please don't make me leave my bed" day with the denim shorts from Sunday and a self-drafted bag in Japanese linen:

My favourite skirt

I hadn't made a skirt in a looong time but when I saw pattern 133 in the February issue of Burda mag I knew I just had to have it! I adored the pleats, pockets and large belt and wanted one in... navy, of course. Well, for once I finally decided to go with my second favourite colour and made this:

It's a chartreuse green beautyyyyy! Hum, you can sort of see the colour better in the next pic:

Yes it's that bright but as long as I wear it with black, white or grey it's okay. So, I slightly altered the pattern by shortening it, gathering the back pieces instead of repeating the front pleats and adding belt loops. 
I even made a "bag" out of upholstery fabric to go with it -sigh, I must confess that I'm super snob when it comes to fashion and I'd rather carry my stuff in my hands than wear trendy things but I couldn't resist the appeal of the CLUTCH which is the most impractical container in the world but looks so good with the skirt!

I went the whole way and made a matching little purse and seeing it in the clutch made me stupidly happy :)

I don't like daisies

It's true! I adore them: I put some on my garments, I buy fabrics printed with them, naturally I grow some in my garden and the faithful teddy bear from my "childhood" -okay I still had it when I moved out at 24- was called Marguerite which is French for Daisy.
And you know what? I'm obsessed with daisy earrings! Since I can't have my ears pierced because there are always complications I got used to making my own clip-ons. That made for some truly awful jewellery when all I had to work with in my extremely remote island was my mama's 80s costume stuff but then, thanks heaven, Etsy and its endless supply of cabochons arrived :)

Above is my latest realisation totally copied from some vintage designs I saw on the net, I made 2 circles out of some plastic packaging and glued the tiny flowers over them so obviously I can't guarantee how long they're going to last^^

These ones were much simpler, I just glued them to the clip-on settings, the white pair was my first, then I couldn't live without the blue ones, I wore the pink ones almost everyday for 2 weeks when I made them and finally the purple ones were bought on a whim but I quite like them anyway.

 The whole family!

This is the little pouch I made to stock them, the cute embroidery detail comes from a Japanese book.
Also did I tell you that chrysanthemums were actually my absolute favourite flower?...

Halloween!

We had a Halloween party at work yesterday and we were all supposed to dress in orange and black or green and black so I made this:

OMG I NEVER wear this colour and I know why, it's so flashy my camera didn''t work and all the pics were blurred -which was very fitted since it made me look like a ghost! Even though I don't like the colour I must say that the design is pretty cool, it's a shortened version of the T dress from the first Stylish Dress Book but with the Y neckline and yes, this all makes sense^^. I also lengthened the upper bodice, mixed sizes 9 and 11 and added side ties for a nicer fit. I also made a bracelet for the occasion using a felt sticker and a plastic loop cabochon:

The party was great, we ate pumpkin cakes, donuts, pies etc and drank excellent Halloween punch but we also worked since all the students had to pick a short scary story in English and say it to the others. Here's the scariest story according to everyone's vote, I found it in the third volume of Alvin Schwartz's tales and adapted it to make it easier for my French students (the words in bold were given in French on a side vocabulary sheet):

"A little girl was coming home at night and she was late so she took a shortcut through the cemetery. She felt very nervous and when she saw another little girl walking through the graves she felt better and ran to her. She told the girl: “Can I walk with you? Walking through the cemetery at night scares me.” “Of course”, the other girl replied, “I used to be scared too when I was alive.”

Happy Halloween!

Jewellery time

I noticed that I'm rarely wearing jewellery on the outfit pictures on this blog which is strange since I always have at least a ring or a bracelet, I guess I must be so concentrated on the whole self portrait thing without a tripod and with an unpredictable camera timer that I forget about the rest!
So today I'll tell you about some of my favourite sparklers:

They all come from South Africa and they're quite old, I bought them as a little girl when I went there in 1989. I remember this trip being both wonderful and terrible because on the one hand it was an incredibly beautiful country but on the other hand apartheid was still going on so it was shocking to see the "Whites only" signs almost eveywhere and the sad conditions in which many people were forced to live.
This country made such a deep impression on me that I have tried to keep all the things that I bought there among which these pieces that are silver or gold pleated and semi precious stones. They haven't tarnished or broken at all even though I've worn them at least once a week for more than 20 years! I'm MAD that I managed to lose an amethyst bracelet -same design as the onyx one above- though.
As for the rings, I made them using amethyst, onyx and tiger's eye that I selected in the + 1 kilo of rough stones that we brought back. I simply glued them to adjustable rings. I've recently come across some turquoises and malachites from this trip and I'd love to make something out of them :)

Bags galore

 Hey there! I wanted to share with you some pics of the bags that I created for friends and clients, they're all made with cotton and twill fabrics meaning they're fully washable, they seem to be pretty solid -two are a year old- and dare I say that they look sort of cute^^?

Last weekend I made one for me and of course my impeccable sense of style drew me towards some extremely discreet and age-appropriate fabric soberly called "Jungle friends":

Lol I LOVE my silly bag even though it doesn't have any monkeys on it -what sort of jungle is that?!

Today's top...

... is a tee length version of The Favourite One made with black striped cotton, it also has slightly shorter sleeves because with summer coming back the less fabric the better! I don't know why after finishing it I got totally obsessed with making an origami brooch to wear with it, so I settled for a basic paper hen design and it's mock origami of course -I'm lazy like that^^- I simply topstitched the fabric where the pleats should be to give it a little relief. The fabric is Japanese tiny flowers on a red background -bought in 2008, stash busting's not dead- that was fused with heavy interfacing and I finished the back with fusable green felt before attaching the brooch.

Happy new year!

Hello, so sorry I haven't posted in such a long time, I've been busy and have sewn so many things and all I have to show you is this one bag :( BUT let me say it's no ordinary bag since it's made of beautiful Japanese linen, I adore it and I wear it every single day! Have a very happy new year, big kisses and wishes to all of you!




See you!

Me-Made-June Day four

Helloooooooo friends, how are you? I'm feeling mighty better today so I was able to put up a real, fully Me-Made outfit :)


Alright, we have a Japanese top from the first Stylish Dress Book (design C) in flowery cotton lawn, a trusted Burda skirt in black twill and a slightly bigger Buttercup bag in divine Calais embroidery -I'm in complete awe at this fabric, I want to buy dozens of yards and roll myself in it^^!
The midday light isn't the best to take pictures so here are the details:



Have a nice weekend, see you!

Me-Made-June Day one

At last it's started! Today's outfit is nothing spectacular yet I'm quite fond of it:


That skirt is "self drafted" ie it's a bunch of rectangles and trapezes but I think it works! It was a happy accident since my mum has a skirt she wore until destruction and after she asked me to knock it off for her the result was so cute that I "perfected" it -I just cut the back waist piece in two to put the zipper there instead of the side^^- to make some for me.


What's more depending on your fabric width you only need from 1 to 1.2 metres to make it. It's low waisted -I LOVE that- and has plenty of room for hips and bottom... You're definitely going to see more like this one :)

Gratuitous shot of my AWESOME shoes, I bought them on discount in 2009 for like 10$ and I remember the year because it was the last time I bought leather stuff.

I also took a pic of the slightly bigger Buttercup bag I made for Mother's Day:


She wanted a Liberty bag unfortunately the only shop that sells this fabric on our tiny island was out of stock so I took Kaffe Fassett instead. See you tomorrow!