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.

Toffy pants in denim

I thought it would be a good idea to make DD, DS and my jeans altogether. I finished the boy's pair an age ago, so it was about time to finish the girl's before I finished mine.

The pattern is Ottobre's Toffy pants (#15 from 4/2009) but with the pockets from #12. The Tulip pants (#12) are the girly version of the Toffy pants, but with the gathered wide legs, it was probably too baggy for my skinny minny. I liked the gathering on the front pockets and the pintucks on the back pockets though. The binding looked good too.

I find it hard to believe that I traced a size 116 for the girl. Of course, she is still 98 in the width (and I had to take it in more at the waist since there is no elastic).

Jalisa is thrilled with them. I am glad to get them finished and into her wardrobe where they are needed to the chilly weather we are having.

Pink Wool Burda jacket

I have spent the better part of today finishing the jacket and dress pictured here. I quickly snapped some photos because it is nearly time to do the pick up and I want to enter them into the local show this afternoon.

Both patterns are from Burda. The fuchsia jacket is #116 from 9/2005. I followed Sherry of the Scissors, Paper, Cloth blog's RTW Tailored Jacket Sewalong. If you haven't checked the sewalong out, you simply must. Sherry has generously demonstrated so many wonderful tricks of the trade and shared a lot of information.

The jacket I chose has curved panels on the front, curved lapels and collar, two piece set in sleeves (no vent though), and a back peplum with two back vents. I did leave these vents out, since I wasn't sure I would be able to bag out the lining with them plus the extra ease from the curvy hems at the back. I added bound buttonholes, since the wool crepe had become quite thick in the wash (yep, I just chucked it right in the washing machine, and the drier too!).

Here is the back view.

Side view

I tried to zoom in here to get the buttonholes. I take suc

Here is the jacket unbuttoned. It still looks pretty good. This is how I will wear it most probably.



I hate being lazy. I tried to take more photos, but I am really no good, so I gave up. I need to get the entry organised - one last press etc before it gets bagged up.

This boy cracks me up

This was Scott's favourite spot last week. He has to crawl through the dishwasher to get in.

I snapped some more photos of the boy's new clothes. The hoodie is from the newer version of Kwik Sew for Toddler. I made a size 4. Nothing special, just something to keep him warm in the cooler months. I had Wayne draw a picture of a hotrod to stitch on to the front. The fabric is polar fleece.

The pants are the Eskimo pattern from Ottobre 5/2006, #11. These were my trial pair in an 80 width and they were too wide. They are size 86 in the height, which is perfect for him, even though he is a lot taller than that. I had to use his inseam/outseam measurements to get it right. The thing is, I think there is a nappy allowance in the smaller sizes so I can't go too small without getting too baggy in the crotch. I used a beige coloured cotton fabric.

The back panels almost make a circle with their big , wide curves. The front panels only have a slight curve. It is an easy pattern, although the back panels look tricky to put together, they go in fast.

Here is a close up of the hot rod. I don't like how it picked up where I stopped and started, but I wasn't about to bin it when the mistakes are only noticed when you are very close.

I have been lazy

I have been lazy and not kept the blog updated. I have been a little bit stressed at work but I have been sewing as normal. Hopefully I should get a couple of posts up soon, since I have a few things to photograph.

I took these photos at night, as we were wearing the new clothes to church (so the photos are blurry - I am making them do)

First up is a off-white jumper for me. The pattern is Kwik Sew 742, size 10 (it is a vintage pattern, thus the different sizing). I added flared sleeves just to make it a little different from the last time I made it.
Pants from Ottobre 2/2005 (my favourite Otto). These are design #23 but lengthened as they are only short length. For my skinny minny child I use size 80 for the width and size 86 for the length (I used a different pattern for reference). Size 80 ended up being too wide still, so I removed some of the seam allowance, reducing each leg by about 2cm. They are still baggy but look more in proportion.

It was a lot harder to get the perfect length pants. Normally for shorts, it does not matter where they end, but I had to go through several trials to get the perfect length, and actually measure his inseam and outseam. I tried using his height measurement alone, and that just ended with super long, extremely baggy pants.

Jalisa's outfit: The tiered skirt doesn't have a pattern as such, just a formula. You start with the waist measurement and multiple anywhere from 1.5 - 2.5, depending on the fabric used. I went with 1.6, as I thought that is what I had used previously. When I later checked my notes, I found that 1.4 was adequate for baby cord fabric. You need to add hem, waist casing and seam allowances to the panels too. I made each teir the same length visually, so tier 1 and 3 end up being bigger since they have the hem and waist casing added.
The jumper is from Ottobre 5/2006 #22. Ottobre have it made in a drapey knit, but I thought it would make a good jumper. The fabric is the same off-white as my jumper. It is 100% acrylic but it is lovely to sew and very soft on the skin. I love the little sections that are shirred - at the front, top of sleeve and are the wrist.

I had originally bought this denim fabric for me, but I already had some other denim for my jeans and I thought my kids could do with some of their own jeans. The pattern is the same as Scott's pants above. I liked the patterns because it had a couple of cute features that wouldn't take me too much time to get through. I am really impatient when sewing kids clothes. Simple works for me and the kids. The pants have a faux fly, front pockets and back flaps. I used a green thread to topstitch.

It is supposed to have belt loops, but they annoy me when sewing and that part isn't shown under his shirts, so I did not bother.

At the moment I am working on a few things: a jacket for Sherry's RTW Tailored Jacket Sewalong, a dress for me and jeans for Jalisa. The jacket and dress will be entered in to the local show sometime this week. I have only to bag the hem and sew on the buttons on the jacket, and dress needs hemming and the lining sewn down.. I should be able to reveal the jacket very soon.