Wardrobe By Me - Haute Curvy Pants

Alrighty then! I'll keep this one short and sweet, I made these jeans several months ago and then they lay unworn and forgotten about for ages until I rediscovered them a couple of weeks ago and thought that the Me Made May challenge would be the perfect time to actually start wearing them :)

So let's start with some thoughts on the pattern, construction and fabric. I had never used a Wardrobe By Me pattern before, but it had received really good reviews and I'm all for a trouser pattern that will work with my ample behind 😂 I went to the Fancy Silk Store in Birmingham to stock up on denim and got to work. The pattern was easy to follow and the trews came together nice and quick! I overlocked all the edges before sewing them and when inserting the zipper, decided to forgo the hook and eye at the top because I didn't think it was necessary, HOWEVER, after wearing them for a few hours I discovered that the tops of zips are very itchy and annoying so when a pattern tells you to insert the zip a couple of centimeters from the top and insert a hook and eye, you do it!! 😂 I also think that the denim I chose may be a tad on the heavy side and could do with some more stretch in it. I placed the pockets (which are of a very good size) where the pattern indicated, but I think they could do with being moved up a couple of inches because the point of the pockets ends up sitting at the top of my thigh.

So overall, I think they're a perfectly wearable pair of trousers, but the next time I make them I think I'll use a lighter weight and slightly stretchier fabric and move the pockets up a few inches :)

Grad Ball Anna Dress

I'm back! I promise I haven't died or been abducted by aliens or anything! If you've seen my Instagram recently you'll know that I suddenly realised that I had nothing fancy to wear to Gregor's Grad Ball. So I hatched a clever and cunning plan, I would make a lovely By Hand London Anna dress in black triple crepe. So off I went with a spring in my step to get the train to Birmingham to go to the Fancy Silk Store only to be stopped by terrible train services (I'm looking at you London Midland!) So long story short, I got to the shop and had a look around. I found some nice black triple crepe, but I wanted something a bit more special to go with it and found some beauuutiful beaded net.

It's so beautiful!  Like a clear starry night 😍😍 I got it all cut out that evening and started sewing it the next day in between making wedding invitations with the other half. By this point I only had 2 days to get it finished and I was working on both days so cue some frantic evening sewing! I did french seams all over to keep it nice and neat, but bloody hell is it time consuming! I only bought 1.5m of the beaded fabric so I decided to do a small train instead of having the full skirt covered and I'm actually glad I did it that way because I felt super fancy!

The finished dress is actually quite heavy because it took 3.5m of triple crepe to make the main dress, but once it's on you don't notice the weight. I wont be posting a picture of it on me because the only picture I have is one where I have a big cardigan over it because it was freezing and I had a big fat moon face 😂😂😂 so here it is on Busty LaRoux!

I will note that I wasn't tripping over it, I just don't have the mannequin set up to my height. I really love the dress but its not really something I could wear on a regular basis, but hopefully I'll get more wear out of it since it was also surprisingly comfy for being fancy evening wear :)


Difficulty level - 3/5 because of the hand stitching of the beaded train

Cost - triple crepe 3.5m x 9.99 = £34.97
         - beaded net 1.5m x 15.99 = £23.99
         - 22" concealed zip = £4

Total - £62.96 A bit more than I would normally spend, but if I had bought something like this in a shop, it would have likely cost a lot more!

Simplicity 8212 Leggings Practice Run

So I've been wanting to make a pair of leggings for a while, but I didn't want to get really nice Lycra and then bugger it up so I had a wee practice run! I used Simplicity 8212 which gives a choice between full length and calf length, panels or no panels and mid rise or high rise waistband. I decided to do the full length, no panels and high rise waistband, because I'm one of those people that wears their tights up to their tits 😂

I needed some fabric for my practice run so my lovely friend Nora took me to the Fancy Silk Store in Birmingham (which is amazing btw, you should all go) and I found a nice sort of snakey/scaley print black lycra that would do just nicely!

Ooohh shiny!

The pattern called for 1.6m to make the full length with mid rise waistband pair in the largest size so I decided to get 1.8m just to be double safety sure with the higher waistband, which was POINTLESS. I only ended up using, 1.3m and that was with the higher waistband. Maybe if I had to pattern match I would have used the 1.6m but now I have half a metre of lycra sitting unused, so if anyone has any ideas of what to do with it, hit me up!

The leggings themselves were easy enough to make, although I had to use a zigzag stitch on my regular machine since my overlocker was acting the goat. The waistband was a bit on the fiddly side to put on, but overall not too bad! Here is a very unclear picture of the finished product, I don't have a full length mirror so I had to prop my phone on my chair and put the timer on haha!

Now, these are not the type of thing I would normally wear out of the house, so I'm keeping them as 'hoose clothes' just now, but let me tell you this, they are SO FREAKIN' COMFY! I literally want a pair in every print! Buuuuut, since I'm not a billionaire I will be sticking to gradually building up my collection of them. The fabric that I really wanted from Funki Fabrics was a beautiful galaxy print one, but I can't find it now! So my next two choices were The Scream and colourful balls things.

 Are they not amazing?! But, while I was browsing the site, I found the perfect fabric for visiting home...

 FREEDOM!!!

SCOTLAND!!!! YASSSSS!!! *ahem* Anyway... overall this was a good wee project, even though I lost the battle with my overlocker. I will definitely be making more pairs of these and if anyone ever wants to buy my love, I take Funki Fabrics vouchers 😉😉

Cost

• Pattern - £4.50 (I bought it half price, of course!)
• Fabric - 1.6m at £11.99 = £19.18
• Elastic and thread - stash

Total cost - £23.68 

 Difficulty Rating

2/5 because the waistband is a bit fiddly