End of Me Made May, The Queen and a Wedding Dress

Hello dears,

Hope we're all well and haven't been washed away in the torrents.  As a write this it's a windy, rainy and sunny evening in Brighty so a mixed bag a bit like May this year.

Well unfortunately my blinking camera has gone up the wall and will not turn on so I've only got one picture from the last week of Me Made May'12 boo :s  It's bad camera luck all round at the mo when I caught up with the lovely Kathryn of Yes I Like That at the inaugural and ace Brighton Bloggers' Bash she told me the sad tale of leaving her camera at Farnborough station double boo :(

So here's the one pic I have.

Day 23 - A lovely afternoon by the sea catching up with my gorge friend Shirley and wearing the Burda Neon Twister dress rouched up as a top.

Part of my pledge this May was to get all my mending done.  Sadly life took over and that didn't happen but I did manage to finally tackle the sewing corner yay!

Look at the state of it - shameful!

A few hours later there was room for a sit down and a few verses of Suspicious Minds.  Before the year is out I'm gonna nail that sucker on the uke

Well what have I learned from MMM12?  That I truly am a frosting and not so much a cake kind of gal when it comes to sewing. The frosting versus cake phenomenon has been discussed heavily round the blogosphere with a very thoughtful post by Tasia.  I think the joy in being able to make loads of lovely frocks that in my previously RTW life would have been denied to me because of my odd bod make up led me to make plenty of show stoppers and not so many the show must go on items.  So I've realised I now need to get a few basics rocking.  That's cool though because I've finally got to grips with the overlocker and I've bought Sew U Home Stretch so let the back to basics training begin.  

Fear not though faithful readers as the showstoppers show no sign of stopping as the other thing I realised about my wearing habits is that I walk a different line in regards to appropriate attire.  By that I mean I'm as happy to rock to the shops in a flouncy frock as I am in leggings and a t-shirt.  That's the great thing I guess about sewing for yourself you define it.  So yay for Me Made May'12 and to it's faithful curator the lovely Zoe.

I took a rare afternoon off to indulge in the Jubilee revelry and knocked up Mary Berry's Union Jack tray bake for my sister's street party.  The cake was a hit but the weather sadly not.  Gale force winds and rain but being British we didn't let it stop us.  The kids ran round in the mud and rain and the adults kept toasty under the tarpaulin with mulled wine a plenty :)

Note I'm rocking a red, white and blue best to make the cake, which was delicious even if I do say so myself :) Happy Diamond M'am

Jubilee granny square for our crochet workshop

Thanks to Zoe mending and reassessing of wardrobe requirements weren't the only thing I got up to craft wise in May.  As some of you may know Zoe in another of her guises runs an amazing crafty affair in Brighton called Craftaganza.  Over the Jubilee weekend there was a two day craft love in, which I was very happy to be apart of.  My role included running a crochet workshop with Zoe's beloved, Mr P who himself is a very accomplished hooker (pardon me on the crochet related jokes I just can't help myself).  We had a lovely turn out and everyone went away with their very own hand crafted granny square.  Being a bit of Queenie fanatic I took the opportunity to dress as a royal highness.

I crocheted my tiara and my ruff and managed to get a second use out of the Royal Wedding macaron

Over the Jubilee I can report I was busy as the Queen because as soon as I finished Craftaganza I was off like a shot to Devon on a sewing mercy mission for my cousin Rowena.  Her eldest daughter had chose to make a wedding dress as her handwork project at school and with just a few weeks to go and Rowena 7 months pregnant with baby number 5 they needed help.  Never one to turn down a few days at their beautiful cottage in the rolling Devon countryside I was on the train with Brenda and my first knitting project quicker than you can say I do.

Keziah had chosen Vogue V2902 as the starting point but with the desire to make it floor length

On arrival I saw the patterns had been sufficiently altered and we got cutting.  I will now always have measure twice cut once ringing in my ears.  As bless her at 14 in the 8 weeks since the pattern had been altered she had grown taller and nothing fitted properly so we had to start all over again from scratch.  Needless to say the dress wasn't done by the Friday afternoon that I was leaving so I took it with me and my already ample luggage back home.

Always happy to create a bit more adventure I was going home via London.  I'd bought myself an early birthday present to see the ever amazing Richard Hawley at the Forum in Kentish Town.  The look on the cloakroom attendant's face on checking in a sewing machine and a wedding dress was priceless.  The effort was well worth it though because Mr Hawley was his usual epic self despite having broken his leg a few days earlier.  What a Northern trooper I say and a foxy one at that ;-)

The smoking hot Mr Hawley - I really hope they didn't break the mould after this one

After I came down from the ceiling after 90 minutes in his presence I got to work on the rest of the wedding dress and here she is.

She's actually made of material that is used to make duvets but it gave the dress a beautiful drape

I've since spoken to Keziah and she said it fits like a glove and she's over the moon so I'm very happy indeed :)  She's planning to take photos of her in it down by the sea so I'll post the dress in action when I have one.

So there you go my darlings from May to June I dressed in me made, I dressed a Queen (pearly), I dressed as a Queen and then I dressed a bride well technically at 14 she's a tad too young but you never know I may make her wedding dress one day.

Phew are you tired because I know I am so I will bid you adieu until next time.

I leave you with Richard Hawley's take on music and why I love him:

"All great songs should make you want to fight, cry, drink, dance or make love.  The dream would be to write one that made you want to do all those things at once.  Now that really would be something."

Miss D 

xxx

The Fit For a Queen jacket

Hello my sweethearts,

I'm messing with the order here and popping a post in about a little project that I have been teasing those that follow me on Twitter and Facebook with.  I could only allude to what had been a foot because the commission in question was for charity and had to be kept under wraps.  Normal programming will resume as of tomorrow when I finally finish yapping about my participation in Me Made May 12'.

Enough of the preamble and just tell us what you've been doing Miss I hear you cry.  Well for those of you who don't know I worked for a charity called Macmillan Cancer Support last year in my other guise as a journalist.  I helped the media team by interviewing people who had been directly and indirectly affected by cancer.  It was a wonderful experience, which at times was sad but also incredibly life affirming because I learned how amazing and strong people are at what I can only imagine is the worst time in their lives and to hear how much people had been helped by Macmillan and how grateful they were.

It was during this time that I started to learn to sew and the rest of the team followed my making adventures avidly.  Fast forward a year and they got in touch to ask if I could create a jacket for the Pearly Queen of Hackney, Jackie Murphy who had received support when her husband, Micky died from cancer three years ago.

Jackie Murphy, Pearly Queen of Hackney (left) as pictured in the Islington Tribune

 Jackie in her role as a Pearly, which are London's second oldest charity and raises a massive amount of money for good causes wears a full Pearl embroidered suit that takes months to make.  You can read more about the Pearly Kings and Queens at The Pearlies website.

The only answer was an absolute yes so here is the story of the Fit for a Queen jacket.

The task was to create a Jubilee themed Pearly jacket using the charity badges above that are being sold in Poundland and are available to buy now.

These were the sketches I created that provided the basis for  final jacket design.

The plain old jacket.

Creating the traditional bejewelled Pearly collar.

Delilah and I made an ace team for this project she never moaned once when I kept accidentally pinning the badges to her.

The front taking shape and starting to get very heavy.

Halfway through and the front is finished with well over 500 badges pinned.

The wording on the back was the trickiest part of the project.  The B in Jubilee took numerous attempts.

 A diamond really helped the jacket sparkle :)

The final stage was to add a little bunting over the shoulders and down the arms.

From beginning to end it took about a week to make after all the fiddling and repinning, is made of over a 1000 badges and although I didn't weigh it my guess on trying it on was around 3 stone (19kg).  

Now you've seen how it was made over to Jackie to show you how it should be worn.

By royal decree: Jackie Murphy, Pearly Queen of Hackney as pictured in the Evening Standard (photo by James McCauley)

So there we have it a jacket fit for a queen.  I just want to say a massive thank you to Macmillan for asking me to help them raise awareness and funds for their amazing work it was my absolute pleasure.

Love Miss D

xxx

Me Made Days 12 - 22

Ciao darlings,

A touch behind with the Me Made May'12 blogging apols but I've been all tied up creating a commission for Macmillan Cancer Support that I will blog about in due course.

Day 12 - no photo I'm afraid because I was too busy running my lovely friend Lana's baby shower and forgot to get a picture but I was rushing around in the Luck of the Irish dress.  It obviously did give me a lot of luck because the shower was a storming success, which was not bad as prior to my research I had no idea what a occurred at a baby shower.

Day 13 - Another day of no photos but I was rocking my flamingos PJs that I made for Karen's pyjama party.  It had been a hectic week and I'm not ashamed to say I spent the entire day in pyjamas or as I like to think of them leisure wear ;-)

Day 14 - I went for a two tone rude girl look  to go about my business.

 

My me made item is the hand crocheted bow tie that I made last year.  It had it's first outing when I finally got to see some of my fave musical style icons The Specials.

Day 15 - I had a couple of interviews to sort out and I felt the need to be efficient yet foxy so it had to be the I Heart Joanie Forever dress

Day 16 - I had a Brighton Fringe event to hit up and nothing to wear.  No fear though because I used one one of my mending projects.   The checked librarian dress took a turn for the worst and developed a big old hole :(  I wasn't going to let it go down like that and instead made it shorter to heal the hole and nipped off the arms by doing a machine lined bodice to strengthen it.

The before and after :)

The mended version got rocked at The Iron Boot Scrapers gig - they're an ace Brighton based band that  play versions of modern songs using trumpets and what not in a trad jazz style.  Check them out below doing their version of Rhianna's Umbrella.

Day 17 - I had a busy day winding up with a lovely Stitch and Bitch at Purl so I yanked out the polka dot secret agent dress.

Oona provided the tutorial for this simple but foxy dress.  I urge you to get involved you will not regret it.

Day 18 - I'm not putting picture up of me for this day because I wanted to post one of a dear friend of mine who was incredibly supportive of my various making escapades and whose funeral I attended.  Tanya was my youngest brother's best friend's Mum and an amazing lady who sadly lost her battle with cancer.  She was an ace knitter, a keen crafter and all around fantastic person who I feel very lucky to have known and very sad to have said good bye too.

Tanya - a very good soul indeed xxx

Day 19 - I had a day with the family whilst back home and I decided to wear something really bright in honour of Tanya so I whipped on the Sunshine of My Life skirt because I know it would make her smile.

Day 20 - Zoe, my friend Aymi and I made the most of the sun to hit up some open houses.  There was still a nip in the air so I twinned the Supergirl half circle skirt with my electric blue trench coat.

Clothes aren't the only thing that has got mended in May.  My beloved bike Rita who had been robbed of her wheels finally got fixed up thanks to my legendary Uncle Brian and is now sporting an electric blue pair, which match nicely with my skirt ;-)

Day 21 - I had the last day of my intermediate sewing course at Sew in Brighton so I popped on my Mime Artist stretch top and a headscarf to get down to business.  I picked up loads of tips as always and I'm going to use my gathering skills on my latest make the Ripe Ones Are More Juicy dress - post to follow.

Day 22 - The sun came out to play and the obvious choice was a seafood based the Lobster mini.  

There we go a whistle stop tour of mid May.  Hope you've all been having a fabulous time in the sunshine.

Ta ta for now sweethearts,

xxx

Me Made May'12 days 4 - 10

Howdy partners,

Hope we are all rootin and tootin now the rain has gone away and the sun has come out to play.  I realised I was serrrrrrrrrrriously behind on my documenting of Me Made May'12 and to just put a spanner in the works I also clocked that several days had not been photographed.  So I've done some mock ups but I've tried to bring out the spirit of each garment using my facial muscles and strong poses :)  It's up to you to decide whether I have achieved this or indeed just look like I've ruptured a vessel.

Friday - Day 4

A trip to London for a meeting and the need to project the look that says I am stylish yet efficient - the obvious garment to achieve this was the Bet Lynch Eat Your Hear Out dress

Delilah modelling my apron and the top of half of my next project.

To give the dress a little more zing I added a handmade brooch courtesy of the fabulous Kirstin Stride.  Her jewellery is gorgeous and every piece is hand drawn so each one is unique and will liven up any outfit. She's also starring as Miss Monday in Zoe's Me Made for others May.

It had been a long day in London so the slippers were straight on.

Then it was time for a lay down with a wine and a little TV.

Saturday - Day 5 

The Minnie Mouse Sencha and a stretchy skirt.

Twinned with my mended Tatty Devine Jarvis specs.

That day was v productive - I learned to knit and how to make handmade bread courtesy of a great tutorial from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  I can confirm it was phenom and is the way forward.  I can also confirm I fancy the pants off Hugh :)

Sunday - Day 6

The Luck of the Irish got whipped out for an afternoon spent exploring Brighton's open houses with some fabulous friends.

Me Made's faithful leader Zoe and the lovely Elena of Seamless.  After all the snooping we settled down for a well deserved bevvy.

Monday - Day 7

Spent the day getting the hang of knit and purl in the lobster Macaron and was every inch the relaxing day a bank holiday should be :)

Tuesday - Day 8

I had a private view to nip to for the fantastically talented Sarah of Rockcakes jewellery and the maker of my much loved heart of gold brooch. I then had a knit bootcamp to hop to at Purl so I needed something to rush about in so the You Are The Sunshine of My Life skirt was just the thing.

Wednesday - Day 9

The rain was coming down but I was bringing the sunshine out with the 60s Summer Holiday dress.

Thursday - Day 9

Again the rains came down but I thought what the hell bring out the flamingoes and have a margarita and make like I'm in Barbados instead of Brighton.

Friday - Day 10

A busy day spent planning the first ever baby shower I had ever organised or in fact attended.  I wanted something effective to wear so I threw on my animal print cardigan with my me made tube skirt.  It's the second thing I ever made on an overlocker and it's holding up well.

Phew so there we have it last week partially mocked up but fully documented.  Hope you are all enjoying May as much as I am.  I just love seeing everyone's finery.

Until next time,

Take a picture it last longer mwah!

Miss D

xxx

Day 3 in the big Me Made May'12 house

Ahoy there,

It's still raining hard in Brighty but it's okay because I'm housebound at present working on some bits and bobs for a little adventure I'm taking tomorrow.

Just a short and sweet post today because I've already waxed lyrical about the Holiday Cafe Owner skirt previously.  It's actually the skirt from the Colette Macaron.  Originally, I was going full on Macaron but time as always was my enemy so she ended up as just a skirt but I'm happy with that and especially how nautical she looks with my H&M anchor vest from many moons ago when I shopped.  I've not completely given up but I have to say that's one of the other happy bonuses of sewing is that I'm no longer a consumer driven diva.  Instead I look for inspiration and then I make whoopee :)

Rocking Heidi hair - "Grandfather where are you?"

What does differ from my wearing of this skirt now as opposed to Self Stitched September is that I had style asymmetric do more Rhianna than Phil Oakey though I have had a Phil in the past.  I may have already gone on about this a lot but last year I decided to make a commitment yes the fly by the seat of my pants kind of a girl decided to jump into a long term investment - my hair not an ISA ;-)  So as the pic reveals I can barely contain my excitement that I now have just enough hair to French braid.  As the year goes on I will bring hair updates as I work towards my ultimate dream do a full beehive.

Right back to the grind darlings.  Have a lovely day whatever the weather in your part of the world.

Until next time remember - the higher the hair the closer to heaven.

Miss D

xxx

Hey it's May and that can only mean one thing - Me Made May'12 has landed BOOM!

Hello fabulous ones,

I hope we're all well and those that attended the PJ party have recovered from all the late night gossip and contraband ;-)  I know I fully enjoyed my tropical turn.

So here we are at the beginning of Zoe's handmade extravaganza Me Made May'12 and I'm staring down the barrel of a whole month of wearing at least one handmade and likely mended piece of clothing or an accessory.  Strangely I'm not feeling as daunted as I thought because I went for a wardrobe assessment on Sunday and the sea of handmade that greeted me was very pleasing to my peepers :)

I originally participated in the Self-Stitched September last year before I had a blog so although I documented my wares on Facebook it will be nice to have a reason to blog daily and I'm hoping this will really get me into the swing of regular blogging.

Well today's handmade offering is the Mysterious Cities of Gold Sorbetto.

As predicted here the damn banana fell off again!

I'm extremely pleased to be starting the challenge in such a bright piece of clothing because despite the weather I still have a reason to wear sunnies because it's so flipping lairy.  As previously blogged this amazing fabric comes courtesy of the lovely Kathryn of Yes I like that who I gnabbed it off in the Brighton fabric de-stash.  So in theory this top only cost me the price of the bias binding and the printing of free Sorbetto pattern, which was £1.20!  Just over a quid for a handmade piece of happiness well yes Siree that'll ding dang do for me :)

Today, has been super busy and will continue to be so for the next couple of hours until I head to stitch and bitch at Super+Super.  So this top is lovely and airy and just what a Miss on a mission needs to be wearing.

Hope everyone is having a fine day and I can't wait to see outfit posts in due course.

Mwah,

Miss D

xxx

Going bananas in pyjamas - pyjama party live

Good day darlings,

*yawns and stretches* Ooh it's the weekend and that means it's a get back into bed for a read and a cup of tea day but courtesy of did you make that? today is no ordinary Saturday it's pyjama party Saturday!  In my case it's totally tropical pyjama party Saturday.  There'll be no tea just a virgin cocktail and a good read.

I used Simplicity 3971 and a couple of metres of the outrageously tropical pink flamingo fabric at £3.49 a a metre from Fabricland in Brighton.  I shortened the legs because I'm more of a knee than ankle length kind of a gal. I had plans to sew the jacket originally and I hope to get round to it in due course but life got in way so for now I'm modelling them with my flamingo camisole sewn last year to see Pulp at Primavera.

It maybe raining outside but in my flat it's paradise!

As well I must say a huge thank you to Karen for giving me an opportunity to rock my Carmen Miranda fruit hat.  The chances don't come along often and I always seize them with both hands :)  It was originally bought for a good friend's hen do but I have to admit secretly when I've had a crap day I come home put it on, fix a cocktail and pretend I'm Carmen herself - I'm a big believer in whatever gets you through.  The only bad thing about the hat is the need to always have super glue on you if you're out because the banana has an annoying habit of dislodging.

The Help an ace book and a film full of amazing outfits including Miss Celia Foot's playsuit

As for reading my material I just finished a very odd book from my book club and I'm glad to be diving straight back into The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  Having watched the film late last year and laughed and cried my eyes out I was desperate to read the book hoping as is usual that it was even better than the film.  It doesn't disappoint with feisty female heroines and the most appallingly awful narrow minded character Miss Hilly Holebrook that you just love to hate.  It's a real page turner and I have a feeling that I may send a good part of the weekend ensconced it and now thanks to the pyjama party fantastically clothed at the same time ;-)  Ooh I would highly recommend watching the film too because it's just choc full of gorgeous 60s outfits and the soundtrack is ace.

Enjoy pyjama day everyone and I can't wait to see everyone's lovely leisure wear.

Until next time happy lounging.

Miss D

xxx