Me-Made-May'15 Giveaway #3 (and review): My Image Magazine

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS EVERYONE WHO ENTERED. THE WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED**

Well, if there was ever any doubt, last week's Jennifer Lauren Vintage giveaway confirmed that you peops love sewing patterns! And you're hungry for more. Fancy winning a whole magazine full of them? 

If you live in Holland, Belgium or Germany you may well have heard of My Image magazine already. It's been going since 2010, but this magazine is produced by a tiny team: just two guys, Jet and Martijn, based in east Holland. With almost 20 years experience in the industry, they decided to go it alone and produce this independent pattern magazine after their former employers folded. They do everything themselves, from designing the patterns, to organising the photoshoots, to the marketing, to distribution. 

On top of producing this pattern magazine, they also produce children's wear pattern magazine, a range of paper 'envelope' sewing patterns and AND a line of PDF patterns, phew! Despite the only having two employees (what happens when they get sick?!), their product is pretty impressive and they are trying to reach a wider audience. Hence this review/giveaway. I was given one copy to use and review (see below), and one copy to send to a giveaway winner. 

So let's get on with the review part. First up, the magazine itself as a source of sewing inspiration is hella pretty. It's printed on lovely paper with great photos. I found the fabric choices and styling unobtrusive enough to be able to ascertain the potential in each pattern design. I think there's a good mix of simple/quick and more tricky/time consuming projects. The patterns could be used to make a nice little summer wardrobe and I think that most sewers would be drawn to at least a couple of the designs (all of which are pictured above). 

Of course I wanted to try a pattern to see what the magazine is like to actual use, as opposed to simply gazing at in bed before going to sleep. I really like one of the dress styles (pictured above), but in the end I chose this simple top/woven T-shirt pattern as I was strapped for time, plus I had suitable fabric already in my stash. The top is a bit like the Scout woven tee but with bust darts. I'd imagine this one might worn better for those with larger boobs, including those who generally need to do FBA's. My Image patterns are multi-sized and printed on separate pattern sheets, just like Burdastyle magazine. Unlike Burdastyle though, there are fewer patterns printed on each sheet so it wasn't such a pain in the arse to trace out. 

I often feel that simple garments are often the most difficult to draft and fit, because any flaws are going to be impossible to disguise. I found the fit of this top to be excellent, it really hits the sweet spot between fitted and loose and I found the sizing to be accurate. I made this top for my best mate Vic and she's a big fan of it. I made two small changes. Firstly, I ended up shortening to sleeves one stripes-worth after taking these pictures. Secondly, I repositioned the pocket lower because it's intended breast-pocket position wasn't sitting well with the obvious, wide stripes. The fabric I chose, BTW, was a slinky viscose that I scored in a fabric swap in Brighton a few years ago.  

Now for the negative: the instructions. They are sparse, plus in places the English translation isn't great. And like Burdastyle, there aren't any diagrams. When making this top, I really had to rely on my own judgement and past sewing experiences to complete the neckline. It kind of puts me off attempting the trousers/shorts pattern because I'm not very experienced in making fly fronts and I'd like my hand firmly held for that step. I guess it could be do-able with some googling and youtubing at the same time, however, if you don't own a good sewing manual (which sadly I don't).  

So with the instructions in mind, I think this magazine would be most appropriate for 'intermediate' and more experienced sewers. Even though some styles, including this top, might be considered basic and therefore a good project for beginners, I think the experience would be disheartening for those without a number of completed garments already under their belt. 

Review over, on to the giveaway bit. This giveaway is open to participants of Me-Made-May only. To enter, simply leave your comment on this post which includes your email address, unless I can access your email address within two clicks of my mouse. No email address, no way to contact you to send you the magazine. If you aren't positive that it can be accessed within two clicks, then leave it in the comment itself. Your email address will not be used for any purpose other than contacting you if you are the winner. Every time I host a giveaway (last week's included) some people comment without any way to contact them, and it sucks to be them coz often those peops get picked by the random number generator and I have to re-draw. Don't let that be you! Leave your comment by midnight GMT Friday 22nd May 2015. I will pick a winner by random number generator the following day.

Me-Made-May'15: Days 7 - 13

Thanks everyone who commented on my last batch of documentation from my personal Me-Made-May'15 challenge. There's more where they came from:

Day 7 (photographed a few days later because this outfit got totally covered in toddler vomit before I could get a shot on the actual day, which is a shame because I was wearing it with mustard tights and cardi and I thought it looked pretty 'put together'!)

Me-Mades:

Long sleeved black knit top that is pretty boring but very useful

Abandoned bandstand in the foliage skirt

Vest

Undies

Day 8 (There was no one about to take my picture until it got too dark due to looking after a sickly toddler and therefore being in quarantine)

Me-Mades:

Bronte top

Nautical Palazzo Pants

Vest

Undies

Day 9

Me-Mades:

Captain jacket

Cressida skirt

Stripy Dolores batwing top

Vest

Undies

Day 10

Me-Mades:

Dolores batwing dress

Vest

Undies

Day 11

Me-Mades:

Slinky breton top

Cressida skirt

Vest

Undies

Day 12

Me-Mades:

Leopard print Jenna cardi

Boring black long sleeved knit top

Stripy Mabel skirt

Vest

Undies

Day 13

Me-Mades:
1960's Breton top

Mustard Marinière Trousers

Vest

Undies

Thoughts this week:

• I'd prefer to have been more consistent with the photos documenting this challenge, for my own aesthetic pleasure if no one elses, but life happens so I'm not going to be annoyed with myself about a mixtures of approaches.
• I almost forgot that I'm allowed to wear trousers sometimes! 
• My nautical Cressida skirt is wayyyy more comfy than I expected. 

Charity Shop Scores: Bexhill and Eastbourne

You know me, if I can't make an item of clothing (or can't be bothered to make it), then I try to get it second hand. That means I'm often found 'hunting' in charity shops with eyes a'peeled! Here's a recent haul that was acquired in two locations within a few days. This particular batch features a rare inclusion: stuff for Pat (Mr So Zo)! I often feel guilty about how little I focus on sewing or charity shopping for him these days now that we have a daughter. These two garments won't exactly redress the balance, but they have provided him with much-needed clothing for his new teacher's wardrobe. He even started a Pinterest board to work out what to wear! Can you guess which pin I added in there for a laugh whilst he wasn't looking?! 

Above:

Wool jumper, 50p

Spotty shirt, £4.45

Jojo Maman Bebe Breton top, £2.45

Fleece top, 99p

Back to my usual charity shop fodder: things for Dolores. I was chatting to the mum of a two-and-a-half-year old and she was saying how useful lots of tops can be for busy, messy little peops. I plan to make Dolores lots and lots of tops, of course, but a few nice second-hand additions may prevent me from being chained to the sewing machine following a growth spurt! Although I must admit, the challenge of having to make everything she wears does appeal to me, but would possibly break me in real life.

I particularly like these two pictured above because the breton top is excellent quality (and it's a breton top!), and the other is a sweet, cosy style that is quite different to anything I'd be likely to make myself. Also, I don't have any fleece in my stash and although I think it's a great fabric for children's wear, second hand fleece garments in charity shops (that I would buy as a source of fabric) often look a bit ropey. 

Anchor print jacket, 99p

That's a lot of anchors for less than a quid, isn't it?! This spring jacket is fleece lined and Dolores has  worn it heaps this week once the weather perked up. As a 'bonus', it instantly turns whatever else she is wearing into, what Pat and I call, a ''How old is he?' outfit'! I really don't care if people assume she's a boy upon first sight, and I imagine a lot of the assumptions come from the fact she has very little/short hair, but I find it interesting that even though her shoes or wellies, reins and bits of her pushchair are pink, it's always assumed she's a boy in this jacket.

Stripy tops, blue tracksuit & mint sweatshirt: between 50p - £1.25 each

This pile of crazy was all bought for the fabric, I promise. I don't plan to be rocking a size 22 cornflower blue tracksuit with embroidered roses any time soon. This Bexhill charity shop was having a massive sale on everything and the staff were more or less making up the prices when you brought stuff to the counter. When I found that out I got all squinty-eyed to try and block out what the actual garments on the rails looked like and rummaged through to find lovely quality fabric instead. 

Spotty vests/onesies, 99p each

Thanks to my previous subscription to Ottobre magazine, I do actually have patterns to make these things. But life is too damn short IMO, when you can swipe them from a charity shop for very little. 

How about you? Any decent charity/thrift/op-shop scores recently? Tell me tell me tell me...

Me-Made-May'15: Jennifer Lauren Vintage Giveaway

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS EVERYONE WHO ENTERED. THE WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED**

You peops love a giveaway! There were so many entries for last week's Village Haberdashery giveaway, and it's such a shame that there can only be one winner. Oh but wait... here's another fabulous sewing-related treat to have a whirl at winning! 

This week's prize is being donated by lovely lady and super-talented pattern designer Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage. She has kindly promised one lucky Me-Made-May participant a copy of a sewing pattern of their choice from her fabulous range. It's no secret how awesome I think Jen's patterns are, the Bronte knit top (pictured above) in particular. 

If you're asking me, I think the new Felicity dress pattern (pictured above) or the Cressida skirt pattern (pictured below) would also be fantastic choices. I've always been impressed with how Jen's designs have a distinctly retro feel, but are all completely wearable for day to day life, not just sitting around in whilst taking high tea. That's a really tough sweet spot to find but somehow she manages to every time. 

So, on to the giveaway. This giveaway is open to participants of Me-Made-May only. You do not need to decide what pattern you will choose if you win, but why not help a sister out and suggest what type of garment you'd like Jen to release as a sewing pattern in the future? Jen is currently hella pregnant, so don't hold your breath for an imminent new pattern release, but it will give her something mull over whilst she spends hours sitting on the sofa underneath a snoozing infant! 

To enter, simply leave your comment on this post which includes your email address, unless I can access your email address within two clicks of my mouse. No email address, no way to contact you about your choice of pattern. If you aren't positive that it can be accessed within two clicks, then leave it in the comment itself. Your email address will not be used for any purpose other than contacting you if you are the winner. Every time I host a giveaway (last week's included) some people comment without any way to contact them, and it sucks to be them coz often those peops get picked by the random number generator and I have to re-draw. Don't let that be you! Leave your comment by midnight GMT Friday 15th May 2015. I will pick a winner by random number generator the following day.

Me-Made-May'15: Days 1 - 6

Bloody hell, has a year really gone by already?! So much has happened but I'm excited to be back and challenging myself again this May. It seems that for most Me-Made-may participants who have been sewing for a while, the main thrust of their pledges is to excavate what lies within the dark crevices of their hand-made wardrobe! I am doing that in the form of wearing skirts and dresses far more than I usually do, to see if I can get myself out of my 'jeans and knit top' formula/rut. Here goes: 

Day 1 (spent in Spain!)

Me-Mades:

Staple Dress

Undies

Day 2 (spent in Spain)

Me-Mades:

Stripy Dolores batwing top

Denim Simplicity 2451 skirt

Undies

Day 3 (spent in airports)

Me-Mades:

Slinky breton top

Undies

(with secondhand jeans)

Day 4

Me-Mades:

Black Dolores batwing top

Stripy Mabel skirt

Undies

Day 5

Me-Mades:

Ceylon dress

Vest

Undies

Day 6

Me-Mades:

Tova dress/tunic

Black leggings (yes, they were once maternity leggings, although I called them treggings back then)

Vest

Undies

Early findings:

• How comfortable a dress or skirt is really seems to hang on the comfort levels of the footwear and hosiery! Dresses and skirts that can be worn with trainers stop people asking 'why are you all dressed up?' when they are used to seeing me in stained jeans every day. 
• Doing no photo editing whatsoever leads to less than fab photos (unless you're in sunny Spain) but makes the documentation and sharing process much more amenable. 

Happy Me-Made-May'15!: Village Haberdashery Giveaway

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS EVERYONE WHO ENTERED. THE WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED**

Happy Me-Made-May'15!!!!! I hope you stepped out of the door this morning in your fabulous handmade garment/s feeling super proud of yourself! Like last year, round these parts I'm going to be celebrating this year's Me-Made-May with weekly giveaways for participants of the challenge to enter. There's a nice range of sewing/garment-creating related gear up for grabs, and this first week's is a real corker.  

North London based shop-of-dreams, The Village Haberdashery, are offering up a £50 voucher for one lucky participant (to be chosen at random) to spend on their online shop. The Village Haberdashery post internationally, so this giveaway is open to ALL Me-Made-Mayers. 

The Village Haberdashery are sponsors of this blog, plus I also teach sewing classes there from time to time. Therefore I am lucky enough to have spent a lot of time in the presence of their seriously impressive inventory. I can tell you that they stock a frightening quantity of the most awesome quilting cottons known to (wo)man, and have a rapidly growing range of gorgeous garment fabrics, both woven and knit. They also stock stunning yarns (check me out not calling it 'wool'!), a great selection of notions and every freaking independent printed sewing pattern ever released (don't quote me on that last bit, but it certainly seems that way when you're standing in front of them all).  

So let me further whet your whistle with what you could spend the fiddy-quid on. Well, as I say there a squillion amazing quilting cotton designs like the two Cotton + Steel options pictured above. The lime green above is called Mochi and is currently available in sky blue here. The blue floral fabric on the right is a lovely border print called Mustang which you can see better here. Both these dresses are made using the fabulous Made by Rae Geranium dress pattern which you can also buy from The Village Haberdashery, AND make with me in a class in London on 6th June. 

Or, if you're more into wearing knit garments, you could use the spends on some luscious organic interlock. I can personally vouch that this stuff is seriously soft and cosy. The pattern used for the garment pictured above is the Christine Haynes Marianne dress pattern (would you be surprised to learn that you can also buy that pattern from VH?!) AND you can make one with me in a class on 20th June. 

Here's one more suggestion on what you could spend the voucher on. Some epically awesome printed organic needle corduroy designed by that multi-talented Made By Rae for Cloud9 Fabrics. Both the fabric collection and this specific print design are called Small World. See all the designs the VH stock in this collection here. I'm a lucky lady as I have 1 metre in my sticky mitts that the VH kindly gave me which I'll hopefully turn into something great that will be blogged about soon.  

So, the giveaway. You are not required to do anything in order to be in the running to win this £50 voucher, but I would very much recommend signing up to their newsletter. Also, I have started following their beautiful feed on Instagram (@vhaberdashery) and suggest you do too if you like be visually teased by beautiful fabric and projects on a regular basis!

Please remember that the giveaway is open to participants of Me-Made-may only. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post which includes your email address, unless I can access your email address within two clicks of my mouse. No email address, no way to get the voucher to you. If you aren't positive that it can be accessed within two clicks, then leave it in the comment itself. Your email address will not be used for any purpose other than contacting you if you are the winner. Leave your comment by midnight GMT Friday 8th May 2015. I will pick a winner by random number generator the following day. 

Happy May lovelies!!!

Kid's Clothes Week 'Wild Things' Summary

So I've already blogged about the three garments I made for last week's KCW challenge, so sadly no new discoveries in this post, I'm afraid. However, I'd like to post a little summary on my thoughts and experiences from the challenge, and learn any lessons there are for me to take away. 

My favourite bits:

• The challenge gives participants the permission to prioritise our creative endeavours. I think it's fair to assume that most of the participants of this challenge are parents. And therefore I'm going to assume that many of us usually find our hobbies get pushed to the bottom of the 'things to do' list. This challenge encourages (no, insists) that we make time for it every-single-freakin-day for a whole week. I'd argue that the mental health benefits of that are massive.
• Seeing what other participants have created is mind-blowing! If you sign up as a part of the community, you are able to view all the projects uploaded to the site, but even if you don't sign-up, you can enjoy a wealth of kid's sewing inspiration in the daily summary posts on their blog. 
• I'm really pleased with the actually garments I made. They are not without their flaws (for more details, please read the individual posts for the lightning flash sweatshirt, leopard trousers and fawn pinafore dress), but generally they have come out more or less as I envisaged them and I'm proud of my achievements.
• I love making stuff using fabric from my stash and/or reusing unwanted garments, and all three of these projects included elements of both upcycling and stash busting. In fact, the only thing I needed to buy all week was a reel of pink thread for the lightning flaw appliqué.  

My least favourite bits:

• Forgive the sob story, but this season's challenge came at an exceptionally busy time for me. I had a heap of sample sewing for the Village Haberdashery and Me-Made-May organisation to do, on top of normal childcare, teaching and other activities. Which made taking part way more stressful than it has been previously, although I know that taking part was a choice and no one made me sign up. 
• Because of the above, I kind of had to cheat in order to take part. I actually planned, prepped and cut out my projects a couple of weeks before, and actually stitched the two knit garments the week before the 'official' KCW. I feel a bit rubbish about that. I like the idea of everyone taking part simultaneously and I feel I spoiled that element of the challenge this time. 
• Linked to the above, I found trying to squeeze in photo sessions and blogging about the garments  a bit of an added pressure as well. It's a double-edged sword though, because posting and sharing creations as, or close to when, the challenge is taking place feels more like full participation to me, although obviously that part isn't the 'real' challenge. 

Lessons learnt:

• Keep taking part! Even when the week coincides with an extra busy patch in my life, not taking part would have felt rubbish. I love the productivity, the excuse to really focus on an area of sewing that is currently bringing me so much joy AND being part of new-to-me section of the sewing community. 
• Keep making stuff that involves stash busting and refashioning/upcycling existing garments. It's such a thrill to make useful stuff without any spends. 
• Make more stuff with animals on it! Dolores really engages with pictures of animals more than anything else at the moment. 

Lessons still to be learnt:

• I'm not sure how to approach the community sharing and blogging aspect. I know it's not the point of the challenge, just as it isn't the point of Me-Made-May. But to me it feels important, integral even. Maybe it'll be fine next time and it won't even be an issue if the challenge coincides with a quieter period of my on and offline life.