



Any questions, please leave a comment and I'll be happy to clarify anything. It's a free and easy group, I just needed to sharpen up a few points to make this the best and most enjoyable me-made/self-stitched challenge yet!
So, Refashionistas, have you been feeling somewhat lonely since the Wardrobe Refashion blog/community came to an end? Been missing the wealth of tips and inspiration that it provided? Wish there was some place you could share your latest refashions and receive the advice and (well deserved) praise that WR could be relied upon for? DON'T WORRY!!!!! The Refashion Co-op is here to make everything better!
I first heard about the Refashion Co-op (RC) when it existed only as an idea, when its inventor Eddie contacted me to do an interview about my life as a refashioner (which can be found here). The day we conducted the interview we were both at our respective homes, having been snowed in and unable to go to work, and I got to hear all about her excited plan for making a new home for the online refashioning community. I can't believe she has taken her idea to full fruition in such a short space of time!
Thanks everyone for such an awesome response to the latest handmade challenge! So exciting to see so many new names, but also incredibly lovely to see lots of 'me-made' or 'self-stitched' 'veterans' stepping up to the challenge once again. Something that is particularly cool is that some of the veterans have upped the ante this time round, for example, pledging to try to wear two handmade garments each day rather than the one a day that they previously achieved. If you're a 'veteran' back for more self-stitched challengery, I would love to hear why you chose to sign up again. Please leave a comment if you have a spare sec.
Anyways, on to the goods. If you cast your eyes to the right of my blog to where it says 'Current Projects', you will see a spanking new 'Me-Made-March '11' button/widget which, when clicked on, handily links back to my initial 'Me-Made-March '11: Join Me' post. If you choose to be a participant, and have a blog, the benefits of one of these beauts are numerous! Here are but a few:
There are probably a squillion more reasons why you should hook yourself up with this badge/button widget which currently escape me....
So, if you would like one, follow these steps:
1# Copy the following HTML code:
<a
href="http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2011/02/me-made-march-11-join-me.html" target="_blank"> <img border="0" alt="Photobucket" src="http://i855.photobucket.com/albums/ab120/zozowahine/memademarchbanner.jpg" width="200" height="25" /> </a>
2# (This is for blogger, not sure about other blog hosts). Click on 'Customise' on your own blog;
3# click on 'Layout';
4# click on 'Add Gadget';
5# choose HTML/Javascript;
6# paste the code in;
7# click on 'save changes'; ta da!!!!
Let me know if there's any problems! I'm not formerly trained in the art of sharing good juju, my amateur status sometimes shows me up, particularly when good juju involves HTML!
The purpose of Me-Made-March '11 is to encourage those of us who make and/or refashion clothes to actually wear them in their everyday lives. Rather than spend hours on projects that then languish unworn and unloved in the bottom of a drawer, I believe we should be proud of our achievements and creations. Let's show ourselves as much as anyone else, that our efforts are more than just a pastime, that we have been slowly developing valueable skills that we can use to actually clothe ourselves, damn it! Let's learn to love our creations, to look past any flaws we can see in them (that probably no-one else would even notice). Why not take an opportunity to learn about what garments work best for our bodies and lifestyles so we can make more informed choices when sewing/knitting/refashioning etc. in the future? Participating in Me-Made-March '11 can do all of these things and more!
Here's how it works: to sign up you copy the paragraph below then fill in the blanks as you choose best to create your own personal challenge contract. Then, post this personalised challenge contract in the comments section of this post and BAM!: You're all signed up! I would recommend you then post your contract on your blog if you have one, so your readers can see what you are up to. Please include a link back to this post so that anyone else who is interested can also get involved. From past experience, the more people involved, the merrier the experience is for all!
'I, (insert name here and blog address if you have one), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-March '11. I endeavour to wear
......................................................... each day for the duration of March 2011'
(Mumma E, enjoying a bevvie)
Me: What was your first sewing project?
Mumma E: My first clear memory of me sewing is when I was 9 or 10 when I made myself a summer skirt. Fabric was gingham (can't remember the colour) bought with my pocket money from Peter Jones Stores in Holloway Road, London. It was a very simple skirt gathered onto a waistband. I made it by hand and I have no idea what prompted the activity.
Me: Wow, quite an ambitious first project! What next?:
Mumma E: The next major memory was early/mid 60s when I was 14 or 15. I was a Mod and had my finger well and truly on the pulse of fashion. I liked to be ahead of the game and so I made most of my outfits but could only wear them once or twice because stuff went out of fashion that quickly. Fabric was bought on Pitsea or Basildon market (my mum had moved with her parents from London to Essex by then) on Saturday morning. The outfit would then be knocked up very quickly (and probably very badly) in the afternoon and worn at the Locarno for the dance on Saturday night. Two memorable outfits were the nightdress dress - layers of grey blue frills on a plum colour shift and an A line dress in some plum colour fabric with bell sleeves with holes cut in the length of the sleeve (very Courreges).
Me: Why did you sew your going-out clothes instead of buying them RTW?
Mumma E: Mostly because of having little money but desperately wanting to be in fashion - but there was of course a culture, both generally and especially in my family of making clothes so it was quite an obvious thing to do. Also fabric and patterns were cheap and readily available.
Me: Did any of your friends sew their own clothes when you were teenagers?
Mumma E: Both my best friends did and one of their mothers was a very good dressmaker too so she had double my wardrobe.
Me: I detect no lingering hint of envy, Mum! Did you make anything else around this time, aside from things to do out dancing in?
Mumma E: I made a dress to submit for my needlework 'O' level which was gorgeous. Made from a Mary Quant paper pattern it was grey pinstripe wool with contrast button stand and cuffs and I remember having a real battle with my teacher over the length of the skirt who thought that the mini was a very transitory fashion and I would be sorry that I made it that short!
Me: You studied at the London College of Fashion didn't you?
Mumma E: Yes. The outfit I made for my interview for the London College of Fashion in 1967 was equally as short as the grey pinstripe wool one. This outfit was an orange wool A-line wrapover skirt with the edge bound in dark green and I dyed a shirt the same colour to match. Well it must have worked 'cos I got in. The length of my skirts then got ridiculous. Because they were so short I made matching hot pants to wear underneath otherwise I would have been arrested! The making of garments then slowed up a bit - so much college work and I was working at the weekends too so had much less time. But I did make use of a suit I made at college when I used it as my going-away outfit when I got married in '71. Beautiful rust coloured wool bought from the local market with a collar of exactly the same shade velvet. And as you know I also made my wedding dress - very simple, cream colour wool A-line dress.
Me: I did indeed know that, in fact you recently celebrated your's and Dad's Ruby wedding anniversary, congratulations! So, forty years after the event, what can you tell me about making your wedding dress? Did you have any help? Any last minute panics?
(Mumma and Daddy E on their wedding day in 1971)
Mumma E: At the time I was the manageress of the fashion workroom in a department store called Keddies. I did have some help at the end to finish my wedding dress but that was only because one of my workers got fed up with my slow progress and seeing it laying around, so one day when I went out for an extended lunch, I came back to find it virtually finished! It was one of the other workers there who crocheted the long waistcoat that went over it. As for your last question, I cannot think of any last minute panics over finishing something other than when I was working in the workroom and we had forgotten to alter a bride's dress until she phoned and asked if it was ready! She had ordered it months previously and it was left at the back of the rail - you have never seen an alteration done so quickly!
(The pattern Mumma E used to make her wedding dress)
Thanks very much to Mumma E for taking the time to share her early sewing history with me, for exposing me to fabric in the first place and for listening to all my sewing project gripes over the years!