This is what I wore today (Thursday May 10th):

Me-made 60′s dress made from Onion 2036, black tights (would have gone for brown, but they had a hole on them), and my currently favourite heels from Ecco (they feel like I’m walking on clouds – lovely shoes!)

Picture was taken by Frederikke – one of my 6th grade students. I spend the day teaching until 4 pm and then went home and worked on a new design.

Not a kimono tee in sight…

Me-made Kimono tee + me-made lounge pants.

I changed the t-shirt from time to time, though The weather was mixed, but it didn’t really matter, as I was spending most of my time inside on the couch with a blanket.

On Tuesday I was feeling better and the weather was cold (10 celcius) but sunny. I was at work teaching and then went into the greenhouse to plant some lettuce.

I wore the me-made purple-dotted kimono tee with a cardigan (H&M),  jeans (H&M) and Converse sneakers.

Wednesday was for teaching, but was a short day at work. I then went home to finish up the pattern for the kimono shirt and catch up on laundry. It rained all day, but it’s a bit warmer.

I was back to wearing yet another me-made teal kimono tee (I think I need a break from wearing them now – but they are soooo comfortable!), a refashioned grey cardigan, which I have taken in and shortened quite a bit, (used to be) black skinny jeans and the converse sneakers.

Thursday should see me wearing something a bit more interesting, I hope…

After a week of feeling a bit under the weather with a virus of some sort, I finally got to being able to finish up the Kimono tee pattern to get it ready for download.

And here it is:

the Kirsten Kimono Tee (pdf download)

{Front page of the pattern}

This free t-shirt pattern pdf download contains the pattern and detailed instructions – including step by step photos – for assembling the pattern and sewing the t-shirt.

You can read more about and see photos of the t-shirt and the pattern in this post

Also – I’d love to hear what you think of it (both the pattern layout and the actual pattern)!

Enjoy!

Not much sewing, but a bit of knitting – more about that later.

Anyway. ME-Made-May 2012 has begun!

On May 1st, there weren’t any red flags around me, I had to work all day, teaching, of course, and several school related meetings. I made it home for a couple of hours in the afternoon before leaving again, and Rasmus took this picture:

{In the garden, sneaking in a little fresh air between meetings}

I wore navy dotted kimono tee (Me-made, first version of my pattern), flared jeans (H&M) and lovely and very comfortable heels (Ecco). I also wore a jacket at some of the meetings.

On May 2nd we still had lovely spring weather, but it is chilly in the morning. I had teaching to do and another meeting – but I had a long lunch break and went thrift shopping. I found some nice slips and a shirt and top – all costing about 2€ each. I got this lousy Iphone pic:

{Thrift shopping during lunch break}

This is my first version of ONION 2026 - one of my favourite patterns. I made it something like 4 years ago, I think. It’s a bit short (I didn’t have enough fabric), but I wore it with tights and ballerina flats – both from H&M (loving this sunny weather).

Are you doing Me-Made-May? I’d love it if you left a link to where I can see your outfits in the comments!

And P.S: There is a new episode of the Twin Needle Podcast up. And we have a brand new blog, as well…

I started out by pressing and ironing and setting in the snaps of my shirt dress muslin, which might not be a complete muslin after all – it is wearable. ( I got tons of compliments when I wore it at work yesterday.)

We might even call it a FO!

{Tucked in. Sorry about the early morning-no make-up look. I just wanted to get a pic}

The fabric is cheap cotton polyester (5€ per meter]. I used snaps instead of buttons, and I changed the collar. I simply made a no-stand blouse collar. But I might have overdone the points I want the collar to be a bit smaller in my final version.

Me? I sot of like it, but it’s clear that I need to add a bit more fullness to the bust and I need to fine tune the sleeves as well. But overall – it fits my body nicely – and as one of my co-workers said – it gives me a very good figure, since it is shaped around my body, and skims  over any cuddly bits…

{Untucked. Horrible picture from the afternoon - that's why it's wrinkled from wear as well}

After I had finished the shirt (which is based on ONION 2015 by the way), I decided to cut into the pattern tissue of the Minoru Jacket. I had been procrastinating starting the jacket, because it meant I’d have to trace in the neighbourhood of a zillion pieces. I almost always trace patterns, that’s what most patterns I’ve used are laid out to, and I’m used to it, but this was already on thin tissue paper and as I said – a zillion pieces.

{Just before I began cutting the tissue. Aaaaargh - scary!}

So – never say never (which I think I actually did in the podcast episode) – I cut the pieces.

Which was more than a little bit scary – because then there is no going back (except, you know, you can order a new pattern) if I cut the wrong size. But I also realised: If it comes to worse, I know about grading patterns, so I can grade up or down. Anyway. I morphed and cut a size 8 at he sleeves and bust, a 10 at the waist area and a 6 in the hip area. I based the bust size on finished measurements compared to my current transition jacket (that’ll let me wear a sweater under it).

I ironed the tissue and pinned it together for tissue fitting, but didn’t do more than take a quick look (looks promising!) before I had to drive to the store for some milk (we had company coming) – and lo and behold, there was a garage sale on the way, and what did I spot??

{My new - very cheap - dress form! Yay!}

Yes. A dress form. I got her for 10 €. And she looks nice and clean  and has a wooden stand. We share bust size, but otherwise we don’t look alike (she has a tiny waist). I might try to pad her out, but for now, I’m thinking to use her for photos for my patterns. And she looks good with her wooden stand, right next to the piano (which doesn’t really work, either:-).

Now. What to call her….

This past week has been filled with teaching, an obligatory week-end  course for teachers (in which I had planned on getting a lot of knitting done, but had forgotten to bring extra skeins, so ran out of yarn after two hours), parent-teacher meetings (and there are more to come tomorrow), administrative shopwork (which I like), instruction writing and not much sewing or knitting at all.

Hence the title – since I’m not really making progress on anything.

But here’s what I’d like to work on if I had a minute or two:

{Owl sweater - but still with out any owls..}

Finish the Owl sweater. It’s been sitting there forever, and really, I just need to sit down for half an hour and knit. Maybe this week-end..

{My shirt-muslin.. I think.}

Finish my we-will-probably-consider-it-a-muslin of my ONION 2015 shirt dress. I’ve made my first version as a shirt – to check out the fit and the  look – especially of the self drafted collar. I was going for a more blouse-y collar style, but I think I want it to be a little bit smaller – and less pointy.

I have however been buying fabric (if you can’t sew, shop):

{Blue/cream Butterfly printed cotton voilé. Wrinkled from wear:-) }

{Light rose and blue-grey striped cotton jersey in a lovely medium weight quality}

I am wearing both as scarves. Today I’m wearing the striped fabric. It’s 150 cm x 160 cm and I just folded it into a triangle and wrapped it around my neck a few times. Instant wearable stuff from fabric (HINT: you can do it with stash fabric as well ). At some point the fabric will probably be turned cut and sewed into something like a dress or t-shirt. And the butterfly voilé will probably be a blouse – but for now it’s a lovely summer-y scarf.

I got to knit a bit more on the owl sweater yesterday while at meetings, and I am ready to knit the owls over the week-end. I also  hope to get some sewing done – and to tissue-fit my Minoru jacket.

But for now, I have teaching to do and more meetings this afternoon and evening. I’m thankful that week-end is approaching!

Happy Thursday!

Picture from Flickr – creative commons

Tini of Tini’s world of Crafts and the Twin Needle Podcast kindly asked me to join her in podcasting every once in a while. I’ve already been in one episode, and Tini just uploaded a brand new episode about Tissue Fitting and Fit For Real People. I have interviewed the Palmer Pletch instructor from the seminar I took last month and this new episode features that interview.

You can find the episode H E R E or at Itunes.

I’d love to hear what you think!

The reason? I want to challenge myself into trying out different outfits (it’s easy to get stuck in a jeans-and-tshirt rut when teaching middleschoolers!) and also discover where the holes in my wardrobe are. For instance. I think I need a kind of skirt, that I’d be able to wear with flats to work. Any ideas for that?

So the plan is to wear something self-made (sewn, knitted or re-fashioned) every day for the month of May 2012. It can be just a pair of socks or a t-shirt (and since I have so many of those already sewn, it might actually be do-able) And also to get pictures taken every day. And to try out new outfits once in a while.

So here we go:

‘I, Maria of MariaDenmark: Wool and Weeds, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’12.
I endeavour to wear at least one item of self stitched (sewn, knitted or re-fashioned) clothing and take pictures each day for the duration of May 2012. I will also post all outfits to my blog at least once a week.’

I am actually looking forward to it. It’s going to be a challenge to really think about what I put on in the morning (because I’ll know I have to share it with you guys!) – but it’ll be fun!

Are you participating in Me Made May, and if yes – where can I see your outfits?

Here – to get into it – is a parting pic of what I looked like when I was teaching today – It was cold today and raining a lot, so I was wearing my  teal boat neck sweater (me-made!), jeans and wellies!

Happy Tuesday!

The winner of 4 lovely MiniKrea patterns is

H.alda who commented

Please contact me with your e-mail and postal addresses (you can e-mail me at maria@shoponion.com).

If you didn’t win – fear not: You can still have the patterns at a great price. For the duration of this week – until April 15 2012 at midnight CET – you (and everybody else, who sees this code – you are welcome to share it, if you like) can use the Coupon code GIVEAWAY at checkout at MariaDenmark | shopONION.com and get a 10 % discount!

Here are the direct links to the MiniKrea Patterns:

  Find MK10300 H E R E

Find MK20400 H E R E

Find MK30000 H E R E

Find MK50220 H E R E

Thank you to everyone who participated in the drawing – it was so much fun to read your comments (please keep them coming )

Now I’ll go and figure out which new kimono tee I’ll wear to work tomorrow….

A couple of years ago I made one from a Sunday Newspaper, a towel and some rubber bands. This was getting soft (and yes, I have of course changed the towel a couple of times ) so I decided I needed to make a new one.

With the Sunday paper in a smaller format now, that wasn’t an option (it would be a short sleeve roll). So instead I took:

I placed the stick on the towel:

rolled the towel very tightly around the stick

Secured the towel with the rubber bands…

And that’s it!

A great pressing tool – very easily made!