Back for MMM!

Ahhhhh - that was a lovely little blogging break! In fact, I’m not quite ready for it to be over… and so I’m cutting back a bit on my Me-Made May pledge to make life easier!

My original plan was to pick 5 of my favourite TNT patterns, and wear one pattern pattern every day for a week. Well, the problem with that is there there are only 4 weeks in May! Instead of trying to shoehorn in 7 days of the 5th patttern, I’m just going to make things simple and focus on 4 patterns - one for each week of the month. 

Here are my patterns:

• Cake Espresso Leggings


• Maria of Denmark Kristen Kimono Tee


• Jamie Christina Mission Maxi


• Jalie Raglan Tee


• Style Arc Elle Pants

I love the Kimono tee pattern, but I realised that some of my kimono-style tees were actually made with a different-but-similar pattern, so it seems like the easiest one to cut. I’ll still wear some during the month, but I won’t wear 7! 

Because I’m rather obsessive, I’ve been sketching and resketching version of my chosen patterns on my ipad. It’s partly to remember all the versions I have, and partly to plan for more! Here’s where I’m at so far…

As you can see, I’ve got at least 8 versions of three of the patterns… but less of the Jalie Raglan! The black raglan dress with the red star above it doesn’t actually exist yet… but I’ve got the fabric, so hopefully I’ll sew it before raglan week!)

In other MMM news, I’ve moved around my dining table so that I can leave my tripod permanently set up and ready for daily pictures. I also bought some cheap rolls of turquoise wrapping paper to try as a background - I HATE my beige walls, and I’ve always been envious of Tilly’s turquoise wall!

Now all that’s left is to actually make sure my me-made wardrobe is CLEAN in time for May! 

A wee blogging break coming up!

Lately all I want to do is lie on the couch and watch Netflix. It’s a busy time of year at school, plus I’m taking a 3-month teacher-training course… and even the beginning of spring isn’t making me want to sew! I’m barely even on Twitter or IG anymore…so I figure it’s time to take a hint and take a break! The cat and I will be happily hibernating until Me-Made May. 

Have you ever taken a blogging break, officially or unofficially? How’s your sewjo and regular ol’ mojo doing this spring?

Me-Made May - My challenge for 2014!

It’s time for Me-Made May! I love this month a lot - the community spirit, the challenge to dress nicely for a month, and a chance to test my handmade wardrobe!

The first time I participated I had only been sewing for 4 months, but I manages to squeak through wearing me-mades every day. I set myself the extra challenge of doing "Japanese for Crafters" - holding up a sign with a Japanese vocab word every day. It gave me something to go with my hands while I posed, and made for a fun conversation started in the flickr group! 

Looking back on those pictures I can see how different my style was then - only one thing I wore was made with knits! 

Last year I chose to experiment with my personal colour palette. Could I manage to wear the colours from my palette every day? (Answer: Yes!) It was really interesting to see which colours I actually wear the most though, and I ended up tweaking my palette a bit at the end. 

(If you are doing the Colette Wardrobe Architect series, I really recommend testing out your palette this way! It really helped me narrow down what I like and what I should look for in the fabric shops!)

Which brings us to this year! 

You all know that I love repeating patterns… so I decided this year I’m going to celebrate the repeats! 

I’ve chosen 5 of my favourite patterns, and I’m planning on wearing different versions of each pattern for a week. It’s my own version of Tilly’s One Week, One Pattern, combined with MMM! 

My patterns are: 

• Cake Espresso Leggings


• Maria of Denmark Kristen Kimono Tee


• Jamie Christina Mission Maxi


• Jalie Raglan Tee


• Style Arc Elle Pants

(Yes, there are 4 weeks in the month, and 5 patterns, but since I’ll have top/pants combos, and leggings/dress combos.)

I’ve got at least 7 versions of all of these patterns, except the Jalie Raglan top - guess I’d better get sewing raglans! I’m going to be wearing other patterns too, otherwise things would get a bit dull.

Here’s my official pledge: 

'I, Gillian of http://crafting-a-rainbow.tumblr.com/, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ‘14. I endeavour to wear me-made clothes every day, including a week each of my 5 favourite patterns.’

I’m hoping for two things this month: a chance for me to evaluate which fabrics work best for these favourite patterns, and a chance to show how varied a wardrobe you can make with just a few patterns! 

Are you doing MMM this year? Whether you are or not, do you love, dread, or ignore the sudden torrent of outfit posts that takeover the blogosphere?