Category Archives: Musings

Me-Made May wrap-up

I thought I’d wrap up Me-Made May with another update of some outfits from the second half of the month. After basically only wearing me-made trousers for the first half of the month, I did make a slight deliberate effort to wear some different silhouettes in the later half. This led to digging out some older makes which made me fall back in love with them a bit, like my Ronja dungarees and a Closet Case Fiona sundress, which I made as a wearable toile and is indeed very wearable. The weather also got nicer which meant I could ditch the RTW knitwear and my new jacket was a late-entry winner.

It’s clear to see I stuck well within the colour stratosphere I defined for myself last update:

I’m really glad to have a palette I know I feel great in – however I do miss prints sometimes and would like to find a way for them to edge back in a bit. I also have a good sense of what I want to make next to keep building on this really nice foundation wardrobe I’ve got going. Here are a few things on my to-sew list:

  1. Another pair of McCall 7445 in powder blue needlecord
  2. A couple of Wiksten midi length shift dresses – a solid and a print?
  3. Another pair of TPC12 in sand/tan denim from Cloth House
  4. Silk/cotton summer tops in blue, lilac and white – I love this vintage New Look pattern

As Zoe says in the MMM kickoff post, “Hopefully, by the end of the month, you will have learnt a whole load about yourself, your style, how you feel about your wardrobe, and how best to spend your clothes-making time going forwards.” and I certainly feel like I have this year.

Me-Made May update

It’s nearly halfway through Me-Made May! I didn’t make a specific pledge but I’m following along sporadically on Instagram and taking it as my usual opportunity to look at my wardrobe and personal style with an analytical eye: What do I really wear? What do I feel my best in? What are gaps that I can fill with a new sewing project?

Well, one obvious answer for a start is I wear 100% me-made trousers…

Week 1: Philippa pants, M7445 pants (twice :D), and Ginger jeans (from 2015!)

Week 2: Trend TPC12, Ninni culottes, Lander pants, Philippa pants

I ‘ve also had one of my big semi-annual wardrobe clear-outs, in particular of my tops which are generally more RTW than me-made. I don’t buy a lot of new clothes or sew as prolifically as I did when I was learning, but things still seem to stack up: generally through items I’ve hung onto for nostalgic reasons or me-mades that didn’t quite work out and I’m on the fence about keeping, altering or recycling.

As I batched my things back onto their matching hangers, it was interesting to see that there are fairly clear groupings around colour theme, both in the hue – I only need five different hanger colours to cover almost all of my tops – and the specific tones within. I started to divide the colours into groups based on frequency in my wardrobe and tangential thoughts about how often I wear each hue and how good I feel when I wear it. I counted up each group and this is what I came up with:

My categories seemed to be:
Neutral: The basics: black, greys and cream/white. Stuff to wear when I don’t feel like deciding what to wear, or as a background to the other colours.
Primary: The colours I wear the most as accents and usually feel great in. I’m pretty sure these are the colours that suit me best and they all happen to work well as crayon-style all-over colour blocks too.
Secondary: A bit of a riff and extension of the primary palette with perhaps slightly quirkier or more fashion-led tones: lilac, chocolate, olive and sky blue.

I then pulled these colours into this little palette, which I think will be a very useful thing to keep pinned to a Pinterest board or even to physically print out and carry with me when I shop for fabric or clothes to guide purchase decisions.

Finally, my friend happened to post this little colour meme on Twitter which I posed on Instagram, and it was interesting and probably non-surprising to see that most of the answers that came through were firmly within the same colour themes: blues, browns and neutrals. Funny!

And, more importantly, all useful info to help me keeping making sure I choose to sew things that have longevity and high likelihood of regular wearing. Is anyone else using Me-Made May as a chance for a bit of wardrobe introspection?

A month of #dresslikeacrayon

It’s has been SO nice to see #dresslikeacrayon resonating and taking off a little bit with other people on Instagram during January. I started it primarily to kick myself into re-sharing outfits and thinking about new sewing plans, so for other people to get on board was a huge bonus. It ended up being incredibly inspiring seeing how other people crayoned; I found a lot of new folk to follow and added a lot of ideas to my sewing list!

I have to give a shout out to some of the most dedicated crayoners in particular: jessiejessyg who I think was the most frequent hashtagger and most dedicated to complete-crayoning with a really eclectic range of outfits. KatieKortmanArt who again really took the theme to heart, especially with bright colours, and invented the crayon box dance! And Charlotte who shared some wonderfully textural outfits as well as a cute armful of crayons.

Personally, the crayoning theme largely achieved what I hoped. I was able to look at my wardrobe with new eyes, combine items that I hadn’t considered before, and come out with quite a clear idea of what I might be lacking in terms of adaptable pieces that my wardrobe would benefit from to unlock a load of new outfit combos. I also learned what I already expected; that since I gravitate towards a fairly constrained palette anyway I had a fair amount of crayoning choice and it definitely often reduced the time it took me to decide what to wear. I also learned that I CAN wear bright(-ish) colours and not feel horribly self-conscious. The red and green crayon outfits were some of my favourites, even if I didn’t feel completely myself in them..

That said, the theme became really difficult to follow the crayoning theme over the last couple of weeks as it got really cold and my only completely full-length pants, and winter boots, are black! So I did end up either defaulting to boring black-crayoning quite a bit or my usual pair-anything-with-black outfit formula. I fully expect to keep crayoning all year round, and I think it will only be easier and more fun in the spring.

What has been added to my sewing plans as a result? Definitely pants in more colours to pair with my collection of sweater and tops. Tan/brown was a really popular colour on the hashtag and I am scouring the world for the perfect shade of corduroy for wide-leg trousers. Likewise I’m fond of the idea of more powder blue, which seems to span a nice area between the logistical difficulties of wearing full-on white and the ubiquitous boringness of denim. And more jumpsuits/overalls! I wear my small collection of all-in-ones so frequently and they are the first thing I turn to on indecisive/nothing-to-wear days. Instantly dressed, layer-able for all weathers, instant crayon.

I have saved just some of the posts from the hashtag into colour-themed Instagram stories which you can explore from my profile, and I highly recommend browsing the hashtag for a dose of colourful crayon inspiration. Thank you so much to everyone who’s taken part, it’s been such a joy to ‘host’ and kick off this fun theme. Keep at it!

Dress like a Crayon

I have a fun little idea for January dressing and sewing plans to get me back into taking photos, identifying potential wardrobe gaps, and trying out different ways to pair up my clothes, as well as brightening up a rather dark month. Dressing like a crayon; that is, wearing the same colour outfit from head to toe.

My theory is this will be a really easy way to not have to think too hard about getting dressed while still looking fairly put-together thanks to the restrained palette. I hang my clothes by colour and tend towards mostly solids in a rather fixed palette these days (green, pink, blue, white and black – that’s pretty much it!), so it will be interesting to see how many whole outfits I can make while wearing just a single hue at a time. In terms of rules, I’m not really imposing any. Any shade of the same colour will do, and if I can include footwear, accessories and outerwear I will do so, but I don’t have a full spectrum of shoes, coats and hats!

I’ll take pics to document my daily outfits on Instagram – though it may not be every day – and other inspiration (all these pics are from my Pinterest board). If you feel like playing along use the tag #dresslikeacrayon on Instagram so I can see your outfit too!

Upcoming plans, and thoughts on capsules

Long time no sew. I’m having a bit of a dry, introspective patch with my sewing lately. It got kicked off by getting a new wardrobe recently, which necessitated getting all my clothes out and dumping them in my sewing room for a week while the new one was installed.

I didn’t have physical space to sew for one thing, plus being surrounded by my clothes forced me to confront the amount I own and consider how I can balance my desire to keep sewing with the fact that I really only want to make garments that my wardrobe needs and I know I’ll love and wear often.

Yeah, that old chestnut again, eh?!

Admittedly I don’t actually have tons of clothes perhaps compared to others – I have one half of a smallish wardrobe which holds everything – but still feel increasingly uncomfortable with owning more than I need.

As I carefully sorted and hung things back in the new wardrobe (with colour-coded hangers, thanks for noticing) it made me realise I really like the idea of having a much smaller choice. It makes getting dressed much easier: when I was in the midst of everything-everywhere chaos I found I would automatically reach for my top ten garments almost unthinkingly. The old 80-20 rule in full effect.

There’s a million and one thinkpieces about how to create a capsule wardrobe (and I have a Pinterest board dedicated to the concept), but I found the steps and advice in this article pretty useful to think about.

It begs questions like: What are those pieces I reach for all the time? What’s common about them? Can I combine them to make easy outfits? How can I make more things like these, without making the exact same thing again for the sake of it? How do I keep up sewing while not needlessly making clothing I don’t want or need?

The above is a collage of the garments which I do love and end up grabbing day after day, and it’s not hard to see a pattern, right?

Dark colours (with the odd pop of pale or pastel), tied or high waists, sparse, sketchy prints and drapey fabrics are clearly my jam. Clothes that are comfortable and well-made in lovely fabrics always float to the top.


[All sources on Pinterest]

Of course, sewing still needs to be fun too! I’ve really missed being at my machine the last month or so, and with spring not too far away I’ve been starting to squirrel away ideas for the new season. The solution I’m going to test out is being even more considered in the garments I pick to sew, and aiming for longer projects where I perhaps try new skills or really labour over the little details I am often too lazy to invest in. That way I get to enjoy precious sewing time while still building well-made and needed items into my closet.

That’s the plan anyway, and these are some ideas on the next few garments I think would be great additions to my carefully-edited wardrobe.

1. Another Helmi dress, maybe one plain and one print.
2. Casual mini tee-dress, maybe another Inari.
3. Pull-on big pocket trousers, probably self-drafted
4. Windowpane check peg trousers – I have the fabric and pattern earmarked for this.
5. A spring-weight coat. I have the Orageuse Londres in mind, in a tencel or cupro. Not sure if I’ll go for pink or a maybe more classic navy.
6. Midi length knit sheath dress, might hack the Trend knot-front dress.
7. Button-up blouse/tee (maybe with sleeves) in a silk noil or linen; New Look 6250
8. Nice plain jumpsuit, Butterick 6312
9. More wide-leg pants, either Landers or high-waist Ginger flares.


[All sources on Pinterest]

Finally, here’s a little moodboard to help out with my idea on cohesion, colours and silhouettes. I think I already do pretty well on picking out naturally cohesive projects, but it’s always useful to have a little reference board.

Is anyone else thinking about this stuff? Am I overthinking things?! I just finished a lovely spring-facing project which really got me back in love with sewing, so I promise it won’t be a month between posts again!

2016 (and 2015) Top Five

I might not have time to squeeze in any more sewing this year – I’m all done with work and off on a little holiday before Christmas – so it’s a good time to reflect back on another year of sewing by doing my Gillian’s top five. Here they are!

1. My Named Yona coat was one of this year’s first projects back in January. It’s on its second winter now and holding up quite well, although I wish I had used a better quality interfacing as it has sagged and stretched a little bit through the raglan shoulder seams. I also think I need a slightly warmer or fasten-able coat if it gets any colder. But style-wise I still adore this coat!
2. This rib-knit Celine dress feels like me in dress form. I love it and feel great whenever I wear it, and it always gets comments! I gotta make another one, it’s just such a pain to cut out that I’ve been resisting it, ha ha.
3. While this black midi V1501 is not a wardrobe regular, it still makes my favourites list because I am so pleased with the fabric, construction and minor pattern hacks I put in to make quite a unique dress.
4. It’s been a Named-heavy year! Mt first Inari dress set the scene for making a few others. This fabric’s held up really well and I think it’s still my favourite of them all.
5. This starry silk Named Helmi dress is another one that I always feel awesome in and really represents the sort of style I try to shoot for. (I just wore it on Friday to celebrate my last working day of the year, hurrah!) Again I was really pleased with the construction I achieved and must make another one soon.

Looking at my list, I think there’s definitely a correlation between sewing enjoyment factor, quality of the result, and frequency of wear/wardrobe success. I don’t always get it right and there have certainly been garments this year that haven’t made the grade. But I do think it’s been a good year of solidifying my skills and making better choices about fabrics and silhouettes to make garments I’ll love to wear.

I also thought it would be good to look back a further year, and see which garments from 2015 are still going strong. As sewists it’s often our goal to make long-lasting and non-disposable garments, and I could definitely do better at this. But here are some older makes that are still in regular rotation.

My black cotton Roberts dungarees are still my go-to on ‘nothing to wear’ days. I love them! Likewise this Shibori swing dress is trans-seasonal and so easy to wear. Of all the jeans I’ve made, not that many have stayed the course; these Blue Gingers have done because the fabric has such great recovery and hasn’t bagged out (and I still love that shirt too!). My black Waver jacket got a second season of wear in the autumn before it got too cold, and my lovely Alder dress gets rocked out every summer – and is safely packed for my upcoming holiday to Mexico!