What to Let Go

 Hello everyone, so I have mentioned that for memademay I am focusing on remaking and using up fabric scraps.  This has presented me with a dilema as I  was doing a bit of sorting through last night.  There are some things that I wish to change and there are some pieces that I piece togther to use in garments etc.  However there are also scraps that I will likely never use again, I am not particularly fond of, or I have just seen too many times given that I work on fabrics for my job.  In the latter case they are just taking up space, not only space in my cupboards and drawers but also space in my head as I can't get past them, don't want to use them, so there they sit in limbo.

 Today I am going to have to be a bit ruthless with these bits I feel, I still have friends in schools so I am going to ask if some of those people would like a scrap bag each for craft projects in school.  I had also thought of making up a couple of bags of pre cut squares for patchwork but of course this is a more time consuming task.  Doing both these things will then clear the decks for me to see what I actually will use in either garments or bags. 

I know I have an issue with letting these things go, as I am by nature a very thrifty and use it up sort of person.  The thing is that I have to remind myself is that I did not buy these pieces, almost all are from work projects and I do not need to feel guilt over them.  I can find homes for them else where and it does not need to be here. Just by typing that this morning I already feel like I can begin the process of removing many of them. 

Here is a recent remake of mine from a dress that I made a number of years ago, the dress was from a magazine pattern,  very straight with a tie middle.  The dress always felt a little short ,so was not worn very often despite being a lovely fabric.  To remake it I used a burda magazine pattern from july 2021, this particular pattern has a collar, button up front, a tie waist with elastic casing and also it is sleeveless.  I had to be a little creative with my cutting as the front where the tie adds on I have cut in two pieces when it should have been all in one.  I have also used plain black for the inner collar facing and back inner yoke piece.  

Now I love it! It will get lots of wear because even on cooler days I will a long sleeve top under it.  here it is...

I actually made this a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed the fact that I had saved this dress for further use. 

It has a yoke back and pleat which can't clearly be seen here.

All this has sort of got me thinking what else I need to let go of?  I do sort my books every now and then to keep them down to a managable amount on the bookshelf but even with that I feel I am at a point where I want to keep all the ones I have now.   I could never be a minimalist, but I am trying to reduce clutter.  I recently gave a big pile of picture books to my husband to offer to his collegues with young children, they were much appreciated and while I was keeping all the favourite books from when my boys were young, will they all be used again? Will they even be relevant if my sons have families one day? So I have kept some but not all.   I will keep at it.

Have a lovely day all, what are you letting go of today? 

  

Me Made May 2024

 Hello everyone I hope you are all doing well I know it has been a while.  There are so many things that I haven't posted that I just don't know where to start so for now I am going to share my Me made May so far just to get the ball rolling.  As I have been absent from here a while I thought this would just get me moving in the right direction. 

Are you taking part in Me Made May? If so what is your pledge?  I have decided to focus on remaking, repairing and using up fabrics that are in little bits.  I have made a start and I will share these another day, today I will show you my outfits for the last few days which have all been made previously and a couple have had a bit of a tweak to get them into regular circulation.

So for day one I wore the Kielo wrap dress by named clothing, made up in jersey.  I love this colourful fabric and the dress is really comfortable.

Day 2 we were out on our bikes and I wore this top from burda magazine, the top has sleeves that are in two pieces with sort of a mock short sleeve at the top.  The reason for this is that I was using up scrap fabrics when I made this, the back is also in two pieces with a central back seam.  It has a zip neck and feels a bit sporty.  The fabric is viscose challis in painted bouquet from Minerva.

Day 3, I am wearing the Tremplin cargo trousers by maison fauve made last year, the top is a t shirt part burda mag and part self drafted as I changed so much on it!  The fabric for the trousers is cotton twill,

 the fabric for the T is cotton pique.

Day 4, I am wearing the morgan jeans in green denim by closet core, and the top is a new look pattern but I have added sleeves to the t shirt.  The pattern had a jacket , top and trousers and the trousers have been made a lot. New look pattern K6532.  The top is jersy fabric.

Day 5, Morgan jeans again but this time with a style arc top in viscose challis.  The pattern is called retro rockery and some days I love it, and others not sure I think it depends on the weather outside. 

Day 6, I am wearing a self drafted t shirt in jersey and a simplicity 8652 pencil skirt,  that I have recently altered from the waist to make it shorter.  It has cute kick pleats at the back that I didn;t want to lose but I did want to be able to walk in it at speed so I took quite a chunk out of it.  Now it will be worn more often.

Here we are a Dam flask...

Well that ia all for today I will try and be more on it with this blog, but right now I need to get on with some work, walk the dog, return something to asda (out of date bread grrrr!) and a million other things.

Take care everyone. 

A Slow Week, A few Books and Pretty PJs

 Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well.  So this week has been brought to a bit of a standstill for me.  I have somehow injured my back again! This happens every now and then and I really don't know why, I exercise my core, I walk every day and I am careful of bending and lifting but every few months crack there it goes and leaves me hardly able to move.  Now I do a lot of cutting out on the floor, I know that is not good is it? But space dictates and the dining table is not a good option for bending over  either so yesterday I had been cutting out lots of pattern pieces for a suit then went to stand up and crack I could hardly move and it was agony.  So that stopped play! I struggled downstairs and sat on a hard back chair holding the table for support for about an hour before the spasms let me get to the kitchen for the hot water bottle and pain killers, couldn't get in the cupboard bending too painful.  Last night was awaful today still in pain and hobbling but not as bad, when I finally made it to standing that is because getting out of bed was a right carry on. 

So while I am feeling sorry for myself and sat with a very hot water bottle pressed to my lower back I have been looking at folding tables that could maybe go under the bed upstairs when not in use.  The trouble is finding one that goes high enough with the legs.  Some have very bad reviews and also state they are hard to put up and take down so I can do without that every day.  My other thought was if my husband could make me a folding light weight table to go on top of our dining table to bring it up higher.  So short legs on hinges, a fold in the middle and a light top in two pieces.  I will be discussing this extra job for him when he arrives home. The outcome being that I have finally decided that maybe cutting out on the floor is not so good for me, especially with my somewhat temperamental back.  That said I have been in this situation before and it has had nothing to do with cutting out.  I discovered quite some time ago that running or any kind of impact sport like that really bothers it in recent years.  

This has all left me feeling at a bit of a loose end as there are things I want and need to be getting on with, and also thoughts about how we take for granted being pain free when there are lots of people who live with constant pain. 

Well now I have got that out of the way I will show you these pjs that I made last week, this was a sample make so not for me but really cute just the same. 

Very pretty I may make a pair for myself when I am moving about again, I can't wear anything like this in bed all that fabric would twist and drive me crazy but they would be nice for lounge wear in the summer.  Agh summer that seems so far way right now doesn't it?

I also have a piece of basket weave fabric in black that arrived last week and that is going to be my brand ambassador piece for the month.  I am most certainly going to be making some sort of skirt with that because the amount of times I have wanted to reach for a plain black skirt to go with a print top and there isn't one, so yes that is the plan. 

This month  has seen me reading and stop starting with a number of books, I really don't carry on with any more if they are not grabbing me as there is just no point .  I didn't finish the puspoise by Mark Haddon, I wasn't enjoying that at all.  Then I have read Crushed and this I did enjoy, a dark theme and I felt it was perhaps a YA title but maybe some of the themes kept it from being in  that section. I am not always entirely sure how they catagorise them as I have read some titles from that section that were very disturbing!  It had me turning the pages anyway...

So that one was the best of the three, I will have to look out for more by that author.   With regards to books I have done the same thing again this week I just went into the library went to one section and picked up three.  All the browsing in the world doesn't always get me a good choice so I am taking this new potluck approach.  It found me one good one out of three last time, the bonus being I didn't buy the two I was not keen on.  I try to be very careful of buying books that I am pretty sure about before parting with my money. 

I have been watching a new to me youtube channel this past few weeks called Kutovakika, she is so fun to watch and very cheerful and I like that.  She originally started off making films about her photography which is really lovely and imaginative.  Now she focuses on knitting as she is a knitwear designer. I love all her sweaters, videography and aesthetic, why not take a look especially if knitting is your thing or just to look at the beautiful scenery and artistic shots. 

Thank you for stopping by today, any thoughts on the pattern cutting table ideas would be helpful, but please keep in mind I work in a box room so a full size cutting table is out of the question for me.

Have a lovely week.