Me-Made-May 2014

As May has been spectacularly busy for me, I thought I would put all my Me-Made pictures into one post as regular blogging has just been impossible for me.  I am excited to be getting back to sewing and blogging though now that things have calmed down a bit.  (Apologise for the messy bedroom/ camera phone shots but I have misplaced my camera charger in the move!)

 3rd May - Wore my yellow daisy dress on a very sunny day off where I managed a bit of geocaching and some wedding decoration making.

Yellow Daisy Dress

7th May - I wore my strawberry shirt for a day of sewing bunting, making decorations and general wedding preparations.  This is a super busy week with our wedding on Saturday and we are doing it all ourselves so we have a lot of running around picking up glasses and plates, decorating the scout hall where we are holding it, making 25+ metres of bunting, finishing sewing the bridesmaid dresses and making a few adjustments to my wedding dress.  Phew!

Strawberry Shirt

10th May - WEDDING DAY!!!!   

 Disclaimer:  I did not make my wedding dress but I did alter it.  I saw this 1950's dress on Etsy and I fell in love with it, even though it was far too small for me.  I bought it anyway and figured out that if I added lacing to the back then it would fit.  I was and still am really pleased with the finished dress, it felt beautiful and flattering on which is the whole point of a wedding dress right?

Back lacing

 I would highly recommend altering a dress in this way if like me you do not have a vintage waist.  It was quick and easy to do (though lacing it up isn't!) and best of all it could be easily reversed and the original zip could be put back in afterwards if required.

Lacing

I don't have my professional pictures back yet but as soon as I do there will be a proper wedding post with all the handmade details.  The bridesmaids were wearing genuine me-made.  When we started wedding planning the bridesmaid dresses were the one thing I was absolutely certain of what I wanted.  They actually turned out really well and I am pretty sure all the girls were happy wearing them.

11th/12th May - I'm married!!!!  Yay!  This is one of my favourite dresses I have made so I wore it for our post-wedding BBQ with our immediate families.  We had an fantastic day and the BBQ was a great way to wind down and spend a bit of extra time with our families before they travelled home.  We ended up staying at the house where we held the party so I actually wore this for 2 days!  Smelly!

Red New Girl Dress

20th May - Another beautiful day in Swansea so I pulled out this dress.  It is rather tight in the bust area now but I can't resist wearing it as I still love the horses around the hem.  We had a little mini-honeymoon where we visited Sam's sister in Durham who had recently given birth to a beautiful baby boy and consequently couldn't make the wedding.  We had a lovely time, with lots of walking and visiting a few sites and holding new baby Harry.

Carousel Dress 

27th May - Wore my nautical skirt to write thank you notes, clean the house and prepare for my best friends wedding.

Nautical Circle Skirt

31st May - Another wedding!  This time it is my best friend and my chief bridesmaids turn.  She had her dress and the bridesmaid dresses handmade by her maid of honours mum (complicated! heehee) so I feel I can include them here.  She really is an amazing dressmaker and the dresses were so bright and beautiful they really show up well in the photos.  

Beautiful bride and groom

What a month!  I'm hoping to get the old sewing machine churning again soon, though it has been nice to have a break from manic wedding sewing.  I would have liked to get a few more outfits in as there are some things I haven't worn but sometimes it is too easy to throw on the same old outfits every morning.  I definitely need to gear my future sewing towards casual day dresses and I would like to make some work appropriate blouses I can wear too.  I no longer have to wear a uniform to work (yay promotion!) but I am finding it very difficult to find comfortable durable and smart blouses.  The shops are full of lovely chiffon and sheer tops but these just won't work for me are I need something more hard wearing that I won't tear or rip.  So let the pattern/fabric hunt begin!

Apple of My Eye Dress

Our house sale finally went through and we now have the keys in our hot little hands so I will be on a sewing break for a while now until we have decorated and moved in.  Progress pics will be popping up soon!

Here are the details on my polka dot dress for the recent wedding I attended.  I used Simplicity 3780 which is a vintage re-print pattern which I have made before for my sister and it turned out really well.  I really want to use this for my own bridesmaid dresses too so this was a good trial run.

Myself and the bride

I used an awesome polka dot print fabric (saved in my Pinterest for ages!) with some of the dots actually made of little apples!  I was a bridesmaid and we got to pick our own dresses so I just had to make mine.  Unfortunately I didn't buy enough of the fabric (I really should have read the envelope rather than assuming I knew how much fabric I used last time) so I only used the pattern for the bodice and just made a simple gathered skirt.  The fabric is by Riley Blake and called 'Apple of my Eye' which I thought was a good name for my dress as I am so pleased with it.

Myself and Amy

I used a plain white cotton for the halterneck band and some sweet little glass buttons from my grandmothers button box which made it that little extra bit special.  I did try to pattern match the bodice but it didn't really work when I cam to sew it up.  I did manage to get the front piece to frame a little apple at the top though.

I am really pleased with how it turned out and the wedding was pretty much on the last day of summer so I didn't look that out of place in a summer dress.

The only problem with the gathered skirt is that it bunches around my waist and because I am holding my bouquet in each picture it doesn't really look like I have a waist!  In my bridesmaid dresses I will use the skirt pattern that came with the dress as the circle-shape is a lot more flattering.  I bought these gorgeous cream coloured wedges as I didn't want to sink into the soft earth and they worked a treat.  Unfortunately they are nearly the same colour as my pale legs so they don't really show up in the pictures!

Wedding Daze

I love a wedding.  Seriously I LOVE them!  I love all the random crazy little things that brides have sent hours obsessing over like place cards and favours and I love crying at the vows and laughing at the speeches.  Going to weddings reminds me why I am planning my own when I get bogged down in the details, it is the overall air of love, happiness and lifetime commitment which I love most of all, not whether the napkins match the tablecloths.

These are some images I took of Kylie and Matt's relaxed garden wedding in Oxfordshire.  Such a different non-traditional wedding from anything I have ever been too.

Get ready for a picture dump!

Father of the Bride and the Bride 

 Kylie's dress was an original 1950's party dress with gorgeous rhinestones on the bodice which I LOVE.  Her hair and make up was done by her very talented friends which I got to meet for the first time prepping for the wedding.

 Our gorgeous bridesmaid bouquets, made by some of the bridesmaids themselves!

Amy, bridesmaid, and Kylie

 Excitement at arriving at the venue and pulling a 'Kylie face.'  We soon discovered that the bride could not stop giggling through the ceremony, at least until the point she started crying instead!

 The bride and groom.  Look at those happy faces!  What they wore really reflected their personalities and there was so much of 'them' in the ceremony and party.

Bridesmaids, Best Man, Bride and Groom

 The four bridesmaids (that's me on the end and a sneak peek of my finished Apple dress) didn't have a dress code, we just wore what we liked (though some coordinated in advance!) and we had sweet flower crowns and bouquets too.

 They had looooads of pretty and colourful decorations hung everywhere around the venue and I love this picture of lanterns, fans and birdies!

 Th tables were named after mythical creatures and we were on the Dragon table roar!!

 Kylie hand made the glittery stars and the chiffon fabric really made it feel magical without blocking all the light.  We had fabulous BBQ food served family style and I loved the roasted peppers and homemade coleslaw.

 There were lots of garden games including mini golf and, of course, jenga and there were so many little photo op places around the grounds, see the bench with lanterns behind?  These lit up at night and there were fairy lights everywhere.  It was so magical!

 As you can see Kylie is a really good sport and we just had to take a few photos are the place, there are many more like this (one of a crazy dwarf beard that appeared during some manic dancing) we all had a brilliant time and I can't wait to see Kylie and Matt again soon.

Wedding Hoopla

What do you get the crafty bride who doesn't want presents?  Something homemade of course!

One of my bestest buds got married this weekend and I made her an embroidery hoop with their wedding date as a present.  The lanterns were taken from her hand-drawn invitations, ala Tangled, and it was my first time at embroidery, which was better on the lanterns than the writing but I did perfect my French knots.

I am really happy with it!  It went down a STORM and really broke the ice with all of her wizard friends (she's a Harry Potter nut).  I knew she would like it as strangely, seeing as I turned them into animals, it actually looks like them.  Kylie is a vintage loving, mis-matched print wearing red head and Matt loves metal, horror films, gaming and Wolverhampton Wanderers, hence the football shirt. The wedding itself was fantastic, so much laughter and happiness, lots of pictures of that to come!

Oh and if you haven't seen this the watch it!

Spring Catch Up

 March Snow! Nr Durham

Long time no post!  Sorry guys, it has been a while!  Real life has just gotten a little crazy so I thought I had better do a little catch up post for the last 2 months.  Firstly we went to stay with the fiancés sister and now husband near Durham in the run up to their wedding at Easter weekend.  We didn't have any snow in South Wales so turning up to snow like this at the end of March was just a little bit of a shock!

We had a lovely few days making confetti cones, a hat box, running wedding related errands and sledging.  

Sledging fun

Toby, the best sledge Retriever ever!

After a few days staying at their house we checked into the gorgeous wedding venue and hotel at Matfen Hall.  I would completely recommend it as a venue though it is definitely out of my wedding price range, it was a lovely place to stay and Sam and I had the whole weekend there which was really lovely.

Kat & Colin

Beautiful!

The ceremony was lovely and everyone had a fantastic time at the wedding.   It has definitely sparked a relapse of wedding fever in me, heehee!

Stunning dress

  The flowers were gorgeous, I loved the colour scheme and they were all put together in situ the day before by a member of Colin's family.  The food was lovely with a to-die-for chocolate pudding that we managed to order in the bar the next day too!  Staying with Katherine and Colin before the wedding really helped me get to know them better and I know they will have a very happy marriage as they compliment each other perfectly.

The week before the wedding we had been viewing houses and had settled on one really liked.  We took the weeks holiday to decide properly then had another viewing with my parents who came to stay for a few days and put in an offer.  Our first was rejected but our second got accepted!  Hooray!  How grown up do I feel buying a house?  Crazy.

Back of the house from garden

So now we are waiting for the boring bits of mortgage and searches to go through, so have everything crossed for us!

Lilac Love Wedding Party Dress - WIP1

I am lucky enough to have a week at the moment so I have been working on my party dress as the weeding is this Saturday!  EEK I am excited!  Pattern cutting took a long while compared to normal as I had to cut the lilac fabric on the grain and then try and line up the heart tulle so that it was straight on the grianline and would match at the side seams.  I only achieved minimal success but I don't think it looks too bad and the all important front panel is pretty perfect.

Pattern matching

Nice straight front lines

Just pinned here but the seams are not exactly matched though they are straight

I think my pattern matching went a bit awol as I forgot I couldn't just line the hearts up as it has the dots in between and I didn't allow enough room for the repeat.  Oh and my dress form is smaller than me, hence the overlap.

After the outer bodice fabric was sewn I started on the lining.  I am using the same lilac for the lining and instead of making boning channels as the pattern stated I used some matching grosgrain ribbon which I actually bought for another little project.  The bodice has plastic bones on each of the seams which will help to keep its shape and hopefully prevent wrinkles in the fabric and make it stay up better.

Lining with bones

Ribbon boning channels

Next I made up the halter straps for the bodice which I have made pretty wide as I prefer the look of wider straps and it will give me more support and less worry of my dress falling down while dancing!

Halter straps, not tied

I am pretty happy with how it is looking so far.  My boyfriend keeps telling me it looks too modest, he thinks the neckline comes up too high but I keep telling him I haven't done the top seam yet.  I am wondering whether to take a bit extra out at the front to make it lower or perhaps make the V a bit deeper?   Any suggestions?

Lilac Love Wedding Party Dress Planning

This September is the wedding of my lovely friend Emma which I am so excited for.  Her very talented mother is making her wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses so I thought it was only right that I make my own dress for the wedding and evening shindig.

I wanted something summery that would work for the church service and stand up to A LOT of dancing in the evening.  She is the first of my uni friends to get married and her wedding is going to be like a huge reunion and knowing how much dancing went on at the hen weekend the reception is set to be rather active!  I had a look through my saved inspiration photos and found myself often coming back to this really cute dress from Modcloth.

Modcloth Walk with Me Dress

Sweet, no?  Then up popped this McCall's M5849 pattern on ebay which I had saved a search for as it was so highly recommended by Suzannah at Adventures in Dressmaking here, here and here and the similarity hit me right away.  I won the auction for no less than 99p, (!) after being prepared for a fight, and I am using it for the base of my dress.  The Modcloth version has the dotted lace making a sort of illusion neckline (which is hard to see on the form) but I am doing mine a little differently.  I decided to make it as a halter neck dress using the strapless dress pattern and adding straps as strapless dresses don't look very balanced on me as I have a bigger bust.  I really love the colours though so I found some cheap polycotton on ebay in a slightly pinker lilac but I had a bit of a nightmare trying to find some similar white spot tulle.

McCall's 5849 and lilac polycotton

The only ones I could find that looked right were on Etsy and were just too expensive for me.  So I widened my search a little and found this adorable heart print on Cheap Fabrics.   I couldn't resist it, plus it has glitter!  You can't really see the glitter in the picture but it is there and is just sprinkled over the tulle.  The problem with this is that it is quite a stiff tulle, more like netting really and is meant to be used for petticoats or tutus so it won't be the nice drapy tulle of the Modcloth version.  (I might not be using the correct terms but I think you know what sort of thing I mean!)

Heart flock tulle over the lilac

The polycotton is pretty thin though so the net might give it a little strength anyway.  I am not sure about the waistband bow yet, as my tulle is less white so I won't need to break up the white and it may be a little bulky at the waist anyway.  I am planning on making the straps in just the lilac (so it won't be scratchy) and the bodice will be lilac with the heart net sewn to it like an underlining.  The bodice will be fully lined and will have plastic boning to help it stay up and the net piece will be loose over the lilac layer of the skirt.  I am hoping to have the net shorten than the cotton like the original inspiration.  I have even had a bra fitting and got myself a new strapless bra to wear under it and to withstand the dancing!  heehee!  Plus it will help to fit it exactly to my shape and stop any over-spillage.  It will be interesting to see if this pattern would work as a strapless dress on me too but the halter will help if it is a little loose.