Sleeveless Mathilde

Here is my Mathilde Sleeveless Blouse as promised! I love this blouse, it's floaty, spring-like, work appropriate, and a stash bust, hoorah. The fabric was bought in my years at Abakhan and is a polyester-type chiffon-type material (not very accurate description I know). 

It's been a staple through Me Made May, as some of you may have noticed. Not sure why I'm pouting in so many of these pictures... maybe I was feeling especially posey. Apologies for looking so shattered in these, it's been a hard week! I'm shattered, but it's nearly the bank holiday weekend. Before I get into the ins and outs of this make, I wanted to let you know that me, my sis and best friend went to London last weekend and found the bridesmaid dresses... and they are amazing! Can't wait to show you, you lucky people you.

I put a lot of effort into this blouse, this is the first time I've ever worked with chiffon (?), and wanted to make sure it wasn't skew whiff. I took my time, and wasn't able to draw on the fabric with anything that would show up due to the pattern/ material so as you can see (just) in the above three pics, I traced all my markings with tacking stitches in orange. This was a very lengthy process, but totally worth it, as everything turned out straight, and my tucks are much better than with my black Mathilde.

I wanted to really highlight the best elements of this top (like the tucks and yoke) and didn't want them to get lost in the pattern, so I added some lace along the seam of the yoke, and was going to add some behind each tuck, but it just looked far too busy, so I settled on the top line and I'm really happy with it.

I also bought both ivory and pale grey bias binding to finish the seams, to see how both looked, and I settled on the ivory as it went so well with the lace. And I bought orange flower buttons to go along the back, but again it looked busy so I went for ivory buttons, but in all different shapes and sizes (relatively similar) this did take a while, as each button hole was different to the last. But it was a great stash buster, this has been good on the stash-busting all round. To complete, here are some pics of me looking silly and tired.

Storm Trooper Desert

This is our Storm Trooper blue desert, not much to explain really. We bought the cactii from a giant garden centre that has opened near my mum and dad, and I got the mini greenhouse years ago at the Gardeners World show in Birmingham. I love gardens, and gardening, and my sewing usually takes a back burner this time of year while I try and keep up with all the seeds and things that are ready at the moment.

I lined the base with a thick compost bag, filled it with compost and then placed the cactii (still in their pots) in between the compost, the cactus on the right was deadly! All I did was brush it and my whole hand was covered in tiny needles, I'm glad it's safely behind glass now. I then covered in the blue sand, and placed the all important storm trooper pride of place in his desert, he finds it very difficult to stand up.

This is now my favourite corner in the house, with the jellyfish from my previous post, curtains all hung up, and now a new lamp and lampshade which goes with the colour scheme in the room (instead of the red which Mr T was pretty attached to. More house things to come, including an in-depth look at my sewing room, the first room in the house that feels properly finished!

MMM'13 Week 2 Day 3

MMM'13 Week 2 Day 2

MMM'13 Week 2 Day 1

Apologies for the delay in last weeks posts, I have no excuse except extra special tiredness and Mr T's birthday... in order to keep some element of interest I'll post these once a day over the next three days, and resume normal service on Sunday.

Me Made May '13

'I, Deborah of dfabrication, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear at least one me made item twice a week, posting the outfits on my blog at least once a week for the duration of May 2013' 

I signed up for Me Made May! Possibly the hair that broke the camels back or some other such proverb, but I couldn't help myself. I'm trying to be much more involved in the whole sewing community and therefore So'Zo's massively popular challenge (where members wear one me made item a day for the month) seemed a good place to start. Of course, I haven't gone quite to that extent, mostly because of my four skirts, 2 dresses and 2 tops does not a months worth of clothes made. But I thought it would be a great opportunity to try and stick to blogging more, (which is why you can see I've added blogging to my pledge) and a way of finding inspiration for my next make. 

And on to my first pic for Me Made May!

A fabulous pose I'm sure you'll agree... quizzical

This is my second Mathilde Blouse, I loved the first one I made so much I started another immediately, worn with my second New Look 6128. You can't tell in this (rather badly lit) photo, but it's a sleeveless option. I'm so proud of this top, it's made of a chiffon-like mystery fabric (another pickup from my days at Abakhan). And I managed to get the tucks to be pretty darned straight! I've got a more in-depth post planned... But in the meantime Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!

I've got my embroidery workshop tomorrow, only one place left! I'm so excited, and nervous, and various expletives of feeling. Wish me luck,

Deborah