Friday 24 May 2019

Me-Made-May 2019: Discount Codes!!!!!

If you've been taking part in Me-Made-May this year, then congratulations! You've completed more than three weeks of your challenge! But I get it, it's very  possible that you're enthusiasm may be waning somewhat. Well, I've got something that may help push you towards the 31st: a whole heap of discount codes from amazing making-related businesses. The idea behind these discounts is this: by week three of the challenge it's very likely that you've identified items that are missing from your wardrobe: items that would help you get more out of the rest of your clothing selection. Perhaps you have heaps garments made with crazy prints, and a solid coloured T-shirt or cardigan would be a welcome edition to balance things out. Or maybe you love to wear trousers and jeans but have yet to make the leap and make some yourself. 

A major aim of the Me-Made-May challenge is to help people be more considered when choosing their projects, so that we are all making clothes that will hopefully be loved and worn for years to come. So with any luck, there will be a discount code below to help you get a pattern/yarn/fabric etc. that you need to fill a gap and make those items that are going to help gel your wardrobe together.

Remember: if you are planing to buy a physical product, be sure to check where the business ships from before you rush to the checkout. It's possible you may be charged additional duties or taxes for items sent from afar.




15% off all fabric
Code: MMMAY19
Valid: May 25th to 31st



10% off
Code: MeMadeMay19
Valid: May 25th to 31st



CocoWawa Crafts
10% off all PDF patterns
Code: CWMEMADEMAY19
Valid: May 25th to 31st



Crafty Sew and So 
10% off fabric or patterns
Code: MMM2019
Valid: May 25th to 31st UK time



Creative Industry
10% off all orders
Code: memademay
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



15% off
Code: memademay19
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



50% off
No code needed
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



10% off fabric
Code: MMM19
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



20% off
Code: MeMade2019
Valid: May 25th to 31st



Girl Charlee UK
20% off all fabrics (except sale and bargain lots) for UK and Europe
Code: MEMADE20
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



Girl Charlee USA
20% off all fabrics (except sale and bargain lots) for customers outside Europe
Code: MEMADE20
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



Guthrie and Ghani
10% off full priced fabrics
Code: MEMADEMAY19
Valid: May 25th & 26th UK time, midnight to midnight 



Halfmoon Atelier

10% off all individual sewing patterns
Code: MMMAY2019
Valid: 25th May to 31st May ending at 11:59pm, EST on 31st May



20% off
Code: memademay19
Valid: May 25th to 31st



25% off
Code: SOZO25
Valid: May 25th to 31st



20% off
Code: MMM19
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



Like Sew Amazing
15% off full priced fabrics
Code: MMMAY19
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



Made by Rae
15% off women's patterns
Code: MEMADE
Valid: May 25th to 31st 


20% off full priced fabric
Code: MeMadeMay2019
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



20% off across the website
Code: Memademay
Valid: May 25th May to 31st




Sew Me Sunshine
10% off all fabric
Code: MEMADEMAY2019
Valid: May 25th May to 31st



10% off across the website
Code: MMM10
Valid: May 25th May to 31st



10% off the whole site
Code: MMM19
Valid: 25th May 12:00am PST - 31st May 11:59pm PST



So Zo Patterns
50% off
No code needed
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



15% off your next order
Code: MMM19
Valid: 25th May 12am EDT to 31st May 11.59pm EDT 



Tilly and the Buttons
20% off all paper and digital patterns (excludes bundles)
Code: MEMADEMAY19
Valid: May 25th to 31st 



The Confident Stitch
15% off
Code: MEMADE19
Valid: May 25th to 31st (US mountain time)



The Fold Line
10% off all patterns (PDF and paper)
Code: memademay10
Valid: May 25th to 31st


Spend £50 or more, online or in store, and receive a £5 voucher. 
Plus free shipping within the UK on order £50 
No code needed
Valid: May 25th to 31st 2019




True Bias
15% off
Code: TRUEMMMAY19
Valid: 25th May & 26th May (MST)


Thursday 23 May 2019

Quadra Jeans Ambassador Project for Fabric Godmother


For this, my second Fabric Godmother Ambassador project (you can see my first one here), I decided to take on the mother of all selfless sewing projects: jeans for Mr SoZo. You can read my post about this project on the Fabric Godmother website here, however, here's an abridged version with some extra details. 


For this Ambassador project, I chose the Thread Theory Quadra Jeans pattern which is part of the range of PDF patterns that you can purchase through Fabric Godmother's website. I paired the pattern with this unusual rust-coloured denim. I thought that it'll add an alternative to the sea of navy and grey that comprises his wardrobe, plus I thought the small stretch content would make these slim legged jeans more comfortable.  

If you're attempting to implement more of a 'slow fashion' approach to your sewing, as I am, making a dude a pair of jeans ticks a lot of the boxes. Firstly, making jeans is literally a comparatively slow sewing project. Secondly, Pat, like many guys, will wear his clothes until they are basically rags. So these jeans are likely to have a lonnngggggg life with many wears.

So, the instructions recommended sizing down if you are using a fabric with stretch, so I chose the size 28” even though his measurements put him as a size 30. In the end, I let them out again a bit at the waist (I waited until I fitted the side seams before cutting out the waistband), so I’d probably start with the size 30” next time and give him a bit more room throughout the whole leg.


I'd also like to mention something that an Instagram post featuring someone else's Quadra jeans project gave me a heads up about; if you're making one of the smaller sizes, you may find that the back pocket pattern piece is crazy-big. Unlike the Ginger jeans pattern, for example, the pocket piece is one size, rather than graded between the size range. After measuring the pockets on his current RTW jeans, I ended up reducing the pocket by about 1.5cm along the sides and bottom.


This final thing I'd like to mention about this project that I didn't write about in the FG post is the pocket bags. Although my woven fabric scraps selection is extensive, I really didn't have anything that worked well with the rust denim. But in the same week that I began this project, I also had to encourage Pat to decommission one of his well-loved and overly-worn out work shirts. The fabric was excellent quality, somehow both crisp and soft, and I was able to squeeze both pocket bag pieces out of the back section, thus giving his old faithful a kind of reincarnation.  


So would I use this pattern again? Very likely. The next time he needs a pair of jeans, if I can find the time and muster the selflessness, I'd definitely consider making him some more. This might be one of the rare sewing projects that might be cheaper to make yourself than to buy at a comparable level of quality in the shops. Is that some kind of unicorn of the sewing world?!

Wednesday 22 May 2019

My-Me-Made-May 2019: Days 16 - 22

Agh!!! This month is whizzing by and I feel like I've hardly had a minute to see what's going on in the rest of the Me-Made-May community. But what I have seen, I've LOVED!!!! So many amazing sewers, knitters, crocheters, refashioners, visible-menders and so on wearing and sharing their amazing pieces. The creativity on display is truly overwhelming. And the variety of styles and appraoches to dressing is so exciting. To say that I feel inspired doesn't even begin to fully express it. Anyways, enough gushing for now, here's my week three round up...

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18 (although this outfit proved too warm and I changed into a blouse)

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21 
I forget to get a picture, which is annoying because I feel it was one of my more successful outfits! You'll have to take my word for it that it was a unique combo!

Day 22 (I need to get m fringe trimmed)

Sunday 19 May 2019

A Trio of Apollons


Umm, exactly HOW selfless has my sewing been lately?! Bloody selfless. Although, if I'm honest, I didn't make these three sweatshirts back to back. But I did get them all done within about a month, so I can still claim some sort of prize, no?!

Anyway, when the weather started to warm up and we began to claw our way out of winter, Pat (AKA Mr SoZo) discovered a major hole in his wardrobe. This hole existed between the wool jumpers (or sweaters, if you prefer) and the T-shirts, where some cotton-y long-sleeved tops should have been residing. Somehow he found he had just one fine cotton jumper that his mum had bought him that fit the criteria. And that had a very visible hole in the neckline at the front, and a matching one at the back from where he'd cut out an itchy label. TBH, I disliked that jumper so I struggled (and failed) to find the motivation to fix the holes before they got too large. 


Pattern:

I was just about to hit the charity shops on his behalf when French pattern company, I Am Patterns launched a mini collection of styles for men, including a men's version of their super simple women's Apollon sweatshirt pattern. I was immediately very excited because the proportions looked perfect for Pat's slender frame. I atypically bought a paper copy (I normally buy PDF patterns for the immediacy, and lower price) from Fabric Godmother and got prepping.  

I chose not to dive straight in wielding the scissors, and took Pat's measurements carefully, comparing them to the pattern. I expected to have to make adjustments for his relatively narrow shoulders, however, the XS size seemed like it was going to be fine, so I went straight ahead and made it with no adjustments (the army green version). Both Pat and myself were super happy with the fit, and I love the balance of the the resultant widths of the neckband, waistband and cuffs. Going forwards, I decided to make the cuffs and waistband a little tighter and I think you can see the improvement in the rust and grey versions. 

(image source: I Am Patterns)

The only other change I made to the pattern was adding a stage to the construction to stabilise the shoulder seams. I used cotton twill tape on the army green version, but then I found I had some clear elastic in my stash that I used for the other two. I prefer the look of the clear elastic, but it is a total faff to apply. 

The construction of these is embarrassingly straight forward (which is in no way related to why I made three in quick succession!). The seam allowance included is very narrow, which encourages the use of an overlocker to make these, if you have one. The last time I sewed with sweatshirt weight knit on my overlocker, I had major hassles. The seams were stretching out, and because you can't adjust the differential feed on my machine, I was left with no way to prevent it (a call to my favourite sewing machine repair guy confirmed this) and serious steaming with my iron was doing nothing to improve the situation. After some experimentation with my regular machine, I found an overcast stitch that looks and functions similarly to the stitch off an overlocker. And because the seam allowance included in the pattern is so narrow, there was no excess fabric that would need to be trimmed away. For my third version (the grey one), I decided to test my overlocker again, just in case. Miraculously, it seemed to be working with the fabric fine, so the seams on the last one are sewn with the overlocker.  


Fabrics:

I scoured the shelves at Fabric Godmother for sweatshirt fabric that I thought Pat would be happy to wear. His colouring is on the ginger spectrum, so the army green cotton french terry seemed an obvious choice. I think they must have sold out because I couldn't find it on their site to link to, however it's a thick, hefty, excellent quality fabric that feels good and solid, if you know what I mean. My second choice was a bit of a wild card. This speckled sweatshirt fleece (pictured below) is a really bold, almost orange shade of rust. I told him I would happily use it for me if he didn't like it, but no, he was fine for me to go ahead. It's a lighter weight than the french terry, with a lovely soft reverse side. When Pat first wore this version, our daughter told him he would be in trouble with me because she thought he'd already got it dirty! I also bought a length of the navy version, which I believe is the the same as the fabric used for the sample pictured on the I Am Patterns site. I bought it with the intention of making another Apollon sweatshirt, but I've since hatched a slightly different plan for that. Watch this space...

(image source: Fabric Godmother)

The final version of this batch also counts as one of my #2019makenine projects. I had a length of this fun lightning flash french terry kindly given to me by Girl Charlee UK, and although I really love it, I wasn't quite sure what it should be. I'm not really into wearing sweatshirts these days, so my plans were erring towards a cardigan. But when I randomly decided to hold it up to Pat whilst tidying my fabric shelf, the scale of the print looked really good on him so I realised I had to help it fulfil it's destiny as a sweatshirt for him. Once again, I think it must have sold out as I can't find it on the Girl Charlee site, but that's perhaps not surprising as it featured on the most recent series of GBSB. 

Back to the sweatshirt (who knew there was so much to say about such simple garments!). I find that tops that have bands that have been made in self fabric can look a bit weird if the print is a large scale, so I went on the hunt for some matching plain ribbing. I hit the jackpot when I chanced upon this pale grey marl rib, which is near-as-dammit an exact colour match. 


I can't remember exactly how much I had of the lightning flash french terry, (the Apollon pattern requires 1.5m), but I had just enough to squeeze a pair of joggers for Frankie out of the remains. I'm in love with this new-to-me joggers pattern so I'll blog about it separately soon, however needlessly to say, I'm finding it beyond adorable that they are matching. Of course, it's not the for the first time.....

Thoughts:

Ok, so please no one tell Pat exactly how easy these types are garments are to make. It's, like, the exact same amount of work as making this or this. You could fancy things up with topstitching the seams/seam allowances around the neckline, cuffs and waistband. If I had a cover stitch machine (yes please, universe!), or if I'd have more success with a twin needle, I would. But I haven't so I didn't.

As for the pattern itself, I'm so happy to have one that I can easily turn to whenever suitable fabric crosses my path. I'd love to see experiment with fine sweater knits and potentially rustle up some fancier looking garments. The only thing that I dislike about it, is that there isn't a sleeve head notch to help with the sleeve insertion. The sleeve pattern doesn't have a front or back: the curves are the same on both sides. And I measured the armholes of the front and back pattern pieces, and they aren't the same, so it's not a case of simply folding the sleeve head in half and making a snip. But really it is a tint gripe that effects only one process of the construction. Anyways, I can happily report that all three of these sweatshirts are in regular rotation, and I'm excited to make more.   

Wednesday 15 May 2019

My-Me-Made-May 2019: Days 9 - 15

If you're looking for more down and dirty, random-looking, completely unedited photos of me in my daily outfits, then you've come to the right place. Picking out a unique outfit hasn't been too tricky yet, but unless it warms up and I can access some of my more summery tops, I'm going to have to get super creative and/or start wearing some really odd combos! And wow, I really do wear that mustard-yellow Kinder cardigan A LOT, don't I?!

If you are taking part in MMM, I hope your challenge is going well, and that you've already got some lessons and insights under your belt. I'd love to hear them, so please leave me a comment below.

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

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