My new baby

I have been wanting an iron press for some time but when I had to block fuse my fabric for the RTW Tailored Jacket sewalong I was really keen. I have been keeping my eye on Ebay and this one popped up in a suburb close to me. I am yet to use it, as I want to give it a bit of a clean, but it should be really handy.

MMJ 18-23

Day 18:blue tee, purple cowl jumper, newer jeans
Plans: Going out socialising, outside, in the freezing cold. I had to add a coat plus I had a blanket around me I was so cold.

Day 19: white tee, charcoal grey wide leg pants, yellow RTW jumper
Plans: Sunday school and chores at home.
Day 20: Hot pink tee, blue jumper, black straight leg pants, plus coat and scarf.
Plans:working late. Thhis was taken after work and I was exhusted. Last week of school before holidays.

21: purple jalie top, purple jumper, grey pants
Plans: working. It ended up being a horrible day for me, let's just say good thing I only had one more day of work. My principal gave me chocolate for doing an extra bus duty the day before - he knows how to make me happy.

22: Forgot to take photo. I was in holiday mood.

23:Purple tee, blue jumper, new grey pants
Plans: baking for "bug ball" + attending "bug ball"

MMJ 17 - another pair of pants sewn up

I decided to wear my new pants so I would only have to take one lot of photos for them! I used a charcoal polyester rayon blend, it has a very such metallic sheen to it. Very similar fabric to my other charcoal pants, although that fabric has a faint stripe through it.

The pattern is a combination of two patterns to make some pants with a wide curved waistband, front fly zipper, front pockets and straight legs (just had a look,# 107A from Burda 1/2006 plus #113 from 8/2003). After my last pair of pants (apparently they are flared, I call them wide leg) I wanted to make up my next pair with a skinnier leg. I decided a straight leg wasn't so unflattering at all.



For my next pair, I am going to try the alteration described by Sew 4 Fun. Just to see if I can get rid of those diagonal wrinkles under my butt!
It is really windy today, but sunny so it is not totally fresh. The pockets on the front have been very handy today for holding my keys. I always miss it when I don't have pockets in my pants while out and about.

I am wearing a RTW jumper, but a self made tee under.

MMJ Days 12-16

Day 12: Red wool blend Burda pants, off white tee and off white cowl jumper
Plans: hanging at home, sewing, dropping daughter off for sleepover.

Missed taking a photo of day 13. I work purple marle cowl jumper and black cord pants. It was a public holiday for the Queen's birthday, and I did my normal last day of the weekend of washing, folding, baking and cooking a roast chook.

Day 14: Floral mock wrap Jalie top, new Jalie jeans and RTW cardi
Plans: Work day - I am counting down the days until holidays, while enjoying working in a heated classroom.

Day 15: New herringbone pants, white tee and blue jumper. Much the same outfit as I work to church on MMJ 11! Also bomber jacket and scarf as I am freezing my butt off these days.
Plans: work and then professional development after classes. It is funny but I love these pants now. The fabric feels so nice and they are ultra comfy while looking professional enough for school.

Day 16: RTW jacket and hoodie, me made viscose knit tee plus black cord pants again.

Plans: at home. I did some washing and sewing, read a book, worked on the pattern for a Burda jacket and watched a taped TV show. I really felt like wearing some old tracky daks today, not sure why. I did not even bother to brush my hair today, I was just in a mood.

MMJ day 11 - my new pants

Okay, my latest pants morph is bit of a flop. The wool pants I made from my original favourite pattern (from a Burda WOF magazine circa 2003) have obviously shrunk, so the pattern does not represent the pants shape that I wanted to copy.

My new pants are a combination of my original favourite pants and these wide leg ones with the waistband, pockets and fly zipper I love (which funnily enough looks flared in the photo). They ended up way too wide and so I took them in by 1cm on the side seam from the thigh area down.

At least I only picked out some fabric that was worthy of these stupid pants. The content is apparently polyester and rayon but it frayed like crazy and puckered more than any fabric I have used in years that I suspect that the rayon content is very low, if present at all.

I was drawn to the herringbone weave - it makes the pants look grey, but the fabric is black and white.

Based on the photos I have been taking for Me Made June, I think I am going to stick to only variations of a couple of my favourite pants patterns: Jalie jeans, Jalie 2909 pants for stretch and my Burda straight leg pants. Somehow I feel they are more flattering.

More Jalie jeans

I have finally finished my second pair of Jalie jeans. I truly thought this pair would be easier. I had one pair under my belt and hadn't had any problems with them, so why would I think there would be a problem this time around. Turns out there were going to be numerous issues and annoyances crop up.

See, I used a much thicker and stretchier fabric that my last pair. I could not locate any jeans needles anywhere locally, so I went ahead a used a regular size 16 needle. Worked fine for the regular thread, but my machine had a fit when I had to topstitch with the topstitch thread.

And the waistband totally stretched out when I sewed it. This wouldn't have mattered so much if I had sewn on the belt loops. But in my wisdom, I had left them off thinking my needle/machine would not be able to cope with so many layers at once. So the stretched out waistband was a total disaster. And I had no more fabric to recut the waistband.

Lucky for the jeans, my stubborn streak kicked in and I spent an evening unpicking, pressing, adding some interfacing at the top edge and re-attaching the annoying piece. I ended up topstitching the seam where it is attached at the waist with regular thread and the buttonhole is in the navy thread as well. The other three sides of the waistband is the the topstitch thread. I figure no one is really going to notice and anyway, who cares.
I tried to come up with a really cool picture for the back pockets, something like Mary Nanna's here or here or this amazing design from 21Wale, but I don't want to be a copycat and I can't draw, so I just went for some not so random lines. It took me a whole morning to come up with what I wanted, how sad is that.

Look Mum, these are not real jeans. I actually made them, check out the mistakes.

They are super comfortable and I think will be in high rotation this month. Although I am hoping to churn out a few more things before the Me Made Month is over. This is a long weekend without any out-of-home plans and there is only two more weeks of school before the holidays. I really want some more pants and maybe some more tees and jumpers.

MMJ day 6, 7, 8 and 9

Day 6: off white tee (Kwik Sew), purple cowl jumper (Kwik Sew), black wool pants (Burda)
Weather: Cool with cloud cover
Plans: Work. This is the first time in a long time that I have been happy about going to work.

Day 7: purple cross over tee (Jalie), grey wide leg pants (Burda), black cardigan (RTW). Love the loop hanging there
Weather: Coolish
Plans: Work. I was feeling extremely happy because I am loving going to work. This year has been very stressful for me.

Day 8: white tee (Kwik Sew), off white cowl jumper (Kwik Sew), jeans (Jalie)
Weather: cold. It was cloudy all day and never warmed up.
Plans: Work again. Jalisa is off to school. Tracksuits are such a good look.


Day 9: black viscose knit skirt (Kwik Sew, with some changes), viscose knit tee (Kwik Sew, old and ugly), red velour hoodie (Kwik Sew). It looks funny because it is caught on my tights.
Weather: absolutely freezing
Plans: Sewing and lounging at home. I like to wear comfy clothes to dag around in. As it is, I have been sewing with my shoes on, which I hate.

MMJ 3, 4 and 5

I have read that some bloggers are a little over the Me Made/Self-Stitched concept. Me, not so much plus I had a mini-revelation regarding my pants and pants leg shape.

Day 3:purple ruched sleeve tee, blue flared jumper, grey wool pinstripe pants.

Weather: cool but not too bad

Plans: grocery shopping, general chores, tracing patterns

I made the pants from a wool blend that I washed before cutting but I am sure that they shrank because they were not always this tight. This was made using my old favourite Burda pants pattern (circle 2003!). It has the curved waistband (yoke as Burda say) on the front, invisible zipper at the side and a flared leg. Love me a flared leg. I don't use this pattern anymore because I like my fly front pants better.

When I looked at the pictures of me on day 1, I was not happy. Those wide leg pants are very comfortable but they make me look really wide. The red straight legs ones are alright, but like I said, I like flared legs.

So that afternoon I traced off a new pants pattern, combining the elements that I like. I have cut out the fabric to test them out, but it will have to wait until at least Thursday when I get a chance to sit down at the machine and actually be able to think.

Day 4:purple marle cowl jumper, elastic waist black skirt + blue tee, black gored skirt and tweed jacket to church (no photo)

Weather: Coolish and bearable

Plans: Buying supplies at some fabric stores, sewing jeans, pulling my hair out as jeans were not behaving themselves.

Day 4: bright blue tee and Jalie jeans

Weather: lovely in the sun, icebox inside our house.

Plans: teach sunday school, nanna nap, chores

The start of Me Made June

Me Made June (MMJ) here is going to be a tad boring. June is Australia is the first month of Winter. Being a Queenslander born and bred, I tend to be a bit of a wimp and freeze throughout the colder months while people that have migrated here tend to think that Winter is really mild and you only require a light jacket at the most.

Winter for me means a uniform of tees, jumpers or cardigans and pants. And a coat. When sewing, I use the same patterns over and over. Being stressed and quite sick lately, I have not produced many new Winter clothes. I did sew some new jumpers and tops earlier in the year, so that is good, but the one jacket I did sew is being held by the show society to go into the State final, so I don't have that to add to my rotation. I have a half sewn long jacket that would have been ideal, but I have stalled after getting to the lining and feeling bored.

MMJ will probably see the addition of my trusty RTW coat, which I need to wear most days and can't survive without.


Day 1: Grey pinstripe pants (Burda), off white tee (Kwik Sew), off white cowl jumper (Kwik Sew). Topped with a denim jacket, that was removed and replaced with a warm black coat.
Weather: grey and freezing
Plans: Work day

Day 2: red pants (Burda), white tee (Kwik Sew)

Weather: warmer with plenty of sun

Plans: School drop off, hanging at home, shopping at the larger shopping centre in town.