Me-Made-May, Days 1-8*, Greek-style

I’m back! And boy was Crete glorious!

I have to admit, I am missing the sun already. I need to go out in this wretched weather but all I want to do is wrap myself up in a duvet and re-live last week, cocktail in hand. Oh well. Life in London must go on. I missed my sewing machine and cannot wait to get started on making tops and dresses. I wasn’t able to sew everything that was on my island-spired sewing list but I do still plan to make them soon.

So let’s begin.

Day 1 of MMM’12 is brought to you by the a Colette Sorbetto I never blogged about. It’s a buttery floral top that I love wearing with my mint green cardi. It was the perfect travel outfit; nice and comfy.

Warning: I apologize if my eyes look shifty or cartoonish. They like to disappear as soon as the sun comes out. And that sun was BLAZING in Crete. It was wonderful.

On Day 2 I wore my Simplicity 2451 Lobster Skirt. That cardi didn’t last long. It was super warm by the time 10AM rolled around.

I wore my new linen paisley Darling Ranges Dress on Day 3. It was very see-through so I had to wear it with a light slip. It was so light and airy, like wearing my own personal air conditioner. I’m having a love affair with linen and linen/cotton at the moment. I wore it quite a bit on this trip.

The sun was killing my eyes. So not used to it anymore.

Day 4

Another Darling Ranges Dress. Not a perfect make but I’ll take it. I griped about the darts on this garment but I still wear it ALL.THE.TIME. I love the blue color with the contrasting buttons. It’s uber comfy and makes me feel like skipping.

On Day 5 We headed to Knossos Palace, where the land the palace is built on was first settled in 8000 B.C. WHOAH.

Day 6 I wore a linen/cotton mix maxi dress (New Look 6230).

Day 7 was spent pool-side so I wore my linen Darling dress as a bathing suit cover-up.

Day 8 was our last day in the sun. Boo. I wore another not-blogged Colette Sorbetto, made with a linen/cotton paisley fabric.

So my first MMM’12 week went great! I definitely did more than the 3 days a week that I set out to do but that was my plan. I know it’ll get more complicated as the days go by so I might fall back to 3 days at some point. Although, I am hoping not to.

Can someone please work on getting the sun to visit England? This weather is bleak!

*UPDATE: I thought I wore my maxi dress and my linen Darling dress on the same day (Day 6) but realized it was in fact two separate days. Helps that my hair was styled differently in both photos. Ha!

A lovely Monday

“But today is Tuesday,” you may say. Yes, that is true. But yesterday was one of the best Mondays I’ve had in a while. It began with me finishing up my final Darling Ranges Dress. I didn’t have enough of the blue linen that I wanted to use so I substituted it with a flowery one from my stash. I bought the floral linen ages ago so I’m glad it finally got used. Lowering the darts fixed the bagginess in the bust, the main issue in my last muslin. Why hadn’t I done that initially? Bad, Mela.

Here’s a preview*:

After working on Darling I decided to check my email and I was thrilled to find one from Flossie Teacakes letting me know that I won her giveaway!

I’ve been drooling over this dress ever since Colette Patterns announced their new patterns last week. I was well tickled that I won.

Quite buzzed over finishing Darling and winning a new pattern I got started on a maxi dress. A maxi wasn’t part of my island-inspired-sewing list but I’ve learned that my lists are more of a guide. I like coloring outside of the lines too much to follow them to the letter. With that said, I think I may swap out some of the button garments on the list for other dresses. I forget how long, and nerve-wracking, to make button holes can be until I am sat there doing them…with my heart in my stomach waiting for the needle and stitches to go nuts. Well anyhow…here’s my maxi.

So yeah. I had a great Monday. And Tuesday isn’t looking too shabby either. I got my yarn in the post today so I can get started on Gail and Jo’s Miette knit-along. Giddy-up now!

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week as well!

*I’ll model my vacation garments during Me-Made May

Island-inspired sewing

Source: http://www.cretanbeaches.com/

May is getting closer and closer and it brings a long ago booked holiday (Crete!). I thought it was still far in the future but…nope. It sneaked up on me and my plans to sew my vacation wardrobe might be thwarted. Might! I still have time to make a handful of pieces. Assuming I get the fit okay I hope to pack these (mostly button-up) beauties in my suitcase:

I totally jumped on the Lobster fabric bandwagon . Freya and I were browsing on Goldhawk Road recently and we instantly snapped some up when we saw it. I settled to make it into a skirt because I don’t think my lady lumps can pull it off in a dress.

Another pattern that I am planning to finally make is the Sewaholic’s Renfrew. Marie’s gorgeous takes on this simple T settled it for me: must make now. I have some plain red and coral jerseys in my stash that I can use but I will be on the look out for stripey ones at Walthamstow market this weekend.

So that’s my sewing plan for April. It should keep me nice and busy.