Thread Carefully does Me Made May 2012! Weeks 1 and 2 round up. And a blog award!

Hello hello!

We Thread Carefully girls have both been participating in Me-Made-May 2012.  You may have seen some of our photos on Flickr, but we thought we’d do a weekly round-up blog post too.  We are running a little bit behind schedule though, which is why we’re only just getting round to posting the first week’s round up.  But before we share the first week’s sartorial adventures with you, Tabatha needs to say a big THANK YOU to Caffy of Bundana Begins Dressmaking, who recently bestowed upon her, and by extension, Julia, a ‘Versatile Blogger’ award!

The rules can be found back on Caffy’s post here – we won’t repeat them because these things are doing the rounds at the moment so you may already be familiar with them, but, for your entertainment(?!), here are 7 random facts about us:

Tabatha:

1. As part of my degree I lived in Perpignan, France and then Sevilla, Spain for a year.
2. I got married in 2006, and had a traditional church wedding except that my dress was red (and my bridesmaids wore a Champagne colour).
3. My first job was as a shop assistant in a butcher’s when I was 14, and I worked there for two and a half years.  Since then I’ve worked as a barmaid and waitress, been a script checker for an exam board, worked in retail, been an administrator for a telecoms company, a languages tutor, a logistics planner, an accountant and most recently a primary school teacher.
4. I can’t swim very well.  I only ever got a certificate for my 10m (a width).  When I attempted 25m (a length) I nearly drowned and the instructor had to fish me out with a big stick.  Then my 10m swimming certificate burnt in the school fire anyway.
5. In my bedside table cupboard I keep the following:  a pen, a notebook, tissues, earphones, my Kindle and a box of Charbonnel et Walker pink Champagne truffles.
6. I love the nonsense poetry of Edward Lear, Spike Milligan and Lewis Carroll.
7. The first single I bought was ‘Common People’ by Pulp.  I still love it.

Julia:

1. I am a great-aunt! I have two great nieces – Annie-Kate and Étaín – which makes me feel really, real old because I’m only 28. I also have 16 nephews and nieces ranging in age from 8 to 30.
2. I am (fairly) handy at DIY and can lay carpet, wallpaper, plaster, do basic electrics and, bizarrely, weld.
3. I worked at the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland during my summer holidays from University.
4. I know at least 6 other people who share my birthday, including my ex who is 2 hours younger than me.
5. I know a tonne of random facts about Elvis (did you know he was an avid reader and took a crate of books everywhere with him? Or that he didn’t care much for the taste of alcohol?) which led me to win a prize on the Country Music Hall of Fame tour to RCA Studio B when we were in Nashville.
6. I am fascinated by language – the acquisition, structure and meaning – and would have loved to do something with it as a career, but I ended up becoming a pharmacist. I also have no idea at what point I thought being a pharmacist would be a good idea.
7. I’m absolutely fascinated by piranhas and I’m always gutted if an aquarium or a zoo doesn’t have them. That said, there’s no way I’m paying to see “Piranha 3DD”.

The rules state that we should now nominate 7 other blogs to receive this award, but many of our favourite blogs have already received it, so instead we would just like to invite you to check out our blogroll on the right-hand side of the screen – all of which we read, enjoy and admire.

Now, onto the Me-Made-May round-up…

Day 1

Julia:

Colette Peony Dress. Paired with Red or Dead Navy patent shoes and a navy cardigan for work.

Tabatha:


Colette Truffle dress made with red satin dupioni, worn with black wedge shoes from Office.

Day 2:

Julia

Colette hazel dress in green chambray. Paired with navy shoes and cardigan for work. This dress is slightly too big but so easy to put together. I’ll make another one, but in a size down next time.

Tabatha

New Look 6000 Black double knit dress and Ness shoes.

Day 3:

Julia

A third peony dress! This one was made for my niece’s naming day. I paired this with navy shoes and a cream cardigan for work.

Tabatha

Style 4772 dress in pink cotton jersey with Irregular Choice Flick-Flack shoes

Day 4:

Julia

Serendipity studios monique dress over Next brown trousers. Paired with a brown cardigan and black shoes for work. This dress is a little too short for my linking so I usually wear it over leggings (if I’m at home) or trousers for work.

Tabatha

Morning: Simplicity 2317 and New Look 6392 pyjamas – mummy made PJs!

Day: Simplicity 2591 in Michael Miller Marcia fabric with pink cowboy boots.

Day 5:

Julia

Serendipity Studios Claire Cami dress over jeans, tights, socks…you name it, I was wearing it. We went camping in Wales and it was cold. I might bust this dress out at a later date so that it gets a fair picture, if nothing else!

Tabatha

Sewaholic Crescent skirt in Michael Miller lovebirds fabric with pink shoes from Primark.

Day 6:

Julia

My beloved Lovepark dress – the Colette Ceylon dress.

Tabatha

Simplicity 4055 Regency gowns for Pride and Prejudice day!

Day 7:

Julia
I was in a tent. In Wales. Trying not to be blown away. Taking a pic was the last thing on my mind. I did wear a sewaholic pendrell blouse which I might bust out again in the coming weeks!

Tabatha

Colette Licorice dress and Negroni shirt and navy Topshop shoes.

Day 8:

Julia

Colette Peony dress in a poly mix that Tabatha gave me. I love the drape in this and will be buying similar fabrics when I get the chance (and after my Seamless pledge to work through the stash is over…)

Tabatha

Colette Rooibos dress and Red or Dead Lovebird flats in blue.

Day 9:

Julia

Another Colette Ceylon in black with lace trim.
Tabatha

Simplicity 2591 in Kitty Yoshida Brooklyn beights and Irregular Choice Little Miss Oh! shoes

Day 10:

Julia

Colette Rooibos dress in navy with green Amy Butler Daisy Chain fabric contrast
Tabatha

Butterick B4914 in green viscose jersey and Irregular choice boots.

Day 11:

Julia

The fourth Peony, and one of my favourites. Paired with turquoise flats for work.
Tabatha

Colette Chantilly dress and red Topshop shoes

Day 12:

Julia

Sewaholic Renfrew top in super soft bamboo knit.
Tabatha

Colette Taffy blouse and black and white heels from Dorothy Perkins

Self crocheted Snood and Colette Rooibos dress

Day 13:

Julia

The final peony, you’ll be glad to hear, in Elvis silhouette fabric. Paired with navy flats for work.
Tabatha

Sewaholic crescent skirt and THE SHOES OF GLORY!

Day 14:

Julia

Sewaholic crescent skirt in Libery Cranford fabric, matched with a black vest top and cardigan (and black flats) for work. Pockets are essential where I work, and these pockets are essential everywhere. When I get time, I’ll be making this up in plain black.
Tabatha

Colette Parfait dress in red cotton, navy peep-toe wedges with floral bow and sunshine!

What we’ve learned so far from Me Made May

Julia: Before I even started the challenge I knew that my repertoire was Colette patterns heavy. Now that I’m looking at it, I can see just how heavy it is, and I need to scale back my reliance on these easy to use and well laid out patterns and push myself a little farther. I need to challenge myself to doing full bust adjustments and finding out techniques for myself  to make garments that not everyone has which is one of the reasons I took up sewing in the first place.

I also noticed that I tend to use a lot of patterned material when making up garments, yet I buy only plain clothes when shopping. I think I need to make more solid-colour basics (t-shirts, trousers, skirts etc) so that I can tone things down when I need to. And I need to do more with stretch knits.

Tabatha: Although I’ve been making a bit of an effort to sew more winter-appropriate clothes, I’m still finding that a lot of my clothes are better suited to warmer weather.  There’s only so many layers you can wear with a cotton dress!  To be honest I didn’t think it was going to present much of a problem in May, but such is our English weather!  Let’s hope it gets warmer in the second half of May so that I can wear more dresses and sandals, especially as I also pledged to wear a different pair of shoes each day!

We’ve been keeping up with the Flickr group and we’ve seen some fantastic, inspiring outfits.  Can’t wait to see even more!