Me Made May - part three

Me Made May was fun, and a challenge. I really enjoyed considering my outfit each day and I became very aware of the gaping holes in my me-made wardrobe. 

I need more basics, in solid colours that I can mix and match with other items. I love bright colours and bold prints, but they need toning down with solids.

 

This typewriter print fabric skirt has been a hit. My second make of the month, a simple pleated skirt but that fabric makes it look great, I can see it being over worn this summer. 

I made this Peter Pan blouse from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing in my third week. I had a soft cotton in my stash which has a subtle spot print, I paired it with some of my duck egg circles print on kona cotton for the collar. They work so well together and the vintage buttons I found at classic car fair matched perfectly.

My final make of the challenge was meant to be a skirt, but I hadn't considered that it was half term, so my plans changed and I just managed this bow belt, I don't have an outfit to go with it yet, so that may well become my next project!

This is a round up of the four items I made this month, I plan to try and make at least one new Me Made item each month and to continue to wear what I make more often. 

Thanks for sticking with me with all these tricky selfies! If you took part in Me Made May, has it influenced your future makes too?

Giveaway - 13 spools

Giveaway now CLOSED, thanks for entering!

As part of 13spools's Up and Coming Designer Program I'm giving away a set of 3 of my screen printed fabric panels. If you're visiting from 13 spools, hello and welcome. If you scroll through you'll see that besides screen-printing and designing, I love improv quilting and dressmaking. 

In Amy's latest post you'll see how she's paired up my fabrics with those already in her stash, I love how she's mixed them up! 
You can read my introduction here and find out more about my background and inspiration here.

Which colours would you add to your stash, juicy Raspberry?

Cool duck egg blue and stone, or maybe sunshine yellow? My Etsy shop has other colours and designs too, take a look - which are your favourites?

The lucky winner will be able to choose 3 panels of their choice from my Etsy shop. 

In return I'd like your opinion, I'm considering putting together sewing kits using my fabrics as I often get asked for them, is this something that would interest you, and if so what kits would you like to see? e.g. bag / purse, bunting, cushion making kits...? 

To be in with a chance you need to be a follower, either here on my blog (with GFC / Bloglovin / Feedly etc) or on Instagram (ColetteMoscrop) or Facebook and tell me what type of sewing kits (if any) are of interest to you. 

So to enter the giveaway leave ONE comment telling me where you follow me and what sewing kits would interest you (if any). If you're a no reply blogger please include your email address otherwise I can't contact you if you win!

The giveaway ends on Saturday 23rd May, 9pm UK BST.

Good Luck!

p.s. if you're not here from 13spools, pop over there and pick up the discount code for 15% off in my shop when you spend £10 or more!

Edited to announce the winner....

Thank you for entering and leaving comments, your thoughts on kits have been very useful.

Congratulations Sylvia, I'll be in touch and you can choose your fabric panels.

Me Made May - part two

I've been wearing something that I have made each day throughout May, as part of Me-Made-May this is a what I've been wearing so far. 

Day 5 is the boatneck top from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual, a very quick make and easy to wear everyday top, I always get lovely comments when I wear it. 

Day 6 is my live-in-it denim A-line denim skirt and a Liberty print infinity scarf.

Day 7 is an A-line corduroy skirt with a Liberty print trim and a teal silk neck tie

Day 8 another boatneck top, which is the first make as part of this challenge. Worn with a swing skirt I made many years ago with a faux moleskin, this is such a versatile skirt and it's wearing really well.

Focusing on the details - an interesting trim can make all the difference and stamp your personality onto your wardrobe.

Day 9 a collar I made which is very sweet, but shifts about a lot, especially if you put a coat on, adds a nice accent to an outfit though

Day 10 Liberty bias trim on a Zoe top, a free pattern from Tesutti 

Day 11 Inside facing on the hem of the A-line denim skirt

Day 12 I printed duckegg hexadots on a lovely raspberry cotton and made an infinity scarf, love these colours together

This challenge is proving to be fun and inspiring, take a look at the flickr group, there are many women taking part and some incredible outfits. I just need to work out how to squeeze in some more sewing time to build upon this handmade wardrobe!

Sew Mama Sew Winner!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the Sew Mama Sew giveaway. I really enjoyed reading about all the projects you have planned, in many cases multiple projects. You are a talented  bunch of ladies!

So onto the winner of this bundle of mini panels of my screen printed fabric...

Congratulation Dawn who is the lucky winner, I'll be emailing you for your address very soon!

If you didn't win this time, there will be another giveaway and a discount code for my Etsy shop very soon, so keep a look out!

Up and Coming Designer Program - and yes, that includes me!!

A while ago Amy Garro of 13 spools got in touch with me and asked if I'd like to be part of a new Up and Coming Designers program she was running. Of course I jumped at the chance, and I'm really excited to be featured over on her website this week.  As part of the series you can read about my background and inspiration over on the Craft Buds website.

Keep an eye on her website over the next few weeks, there are other designers featured in the program and it's always nice to discover new talent and add some original hand printed fabrics to your stash.

If you're new to Amy's website you'll find it packed with block and quilting tutorials, it's a real inspiration, I know I've seen plenty of projects I'd like to try!

Sew Mama Sew giveaway day

It's been a while since I last joined in with the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day, so I'm thrilled to be playing along this time.

Hello and welcome to old and new friends, if you're here for the first time, have a little nose around. You'll see that I love to screen print and sew, with dressmaking and quilting my current sewing obsessions. 

I'm giving away these 6 mini panels of my screen printed fabrics, most of which are availabe in my Etsy shop, though there are a couple of prints which are currently only available at the shows and markets I attend. 
This is a great way to sample my designs and incorporate some hand printed fabrics into your sewing projects. The minimum printed area is 23 x 13cm, most are a little larger. I use eco friendly water based ink, which is heat set to make these fully washable. I print onto natural fibres and this set contains 100% cotton and a cotton / linen blend. 

To be in with a chance to win, you need to follow me, either here on my blog (with GFC / Bloglovin / Feedly etc) or on Instagram (ColetteMoscrop) or Facebook.

You also need to tell me what will your next sewing project be, I know we all have a mile long list of projects to make, so tell me what's next on your list?

Giveaway ends on Sunday 10th May at 9pm UK BST.

I will pick a winner using the Random number generator.

So to clarify, leave ONE comment, telling me where you follow me and what your next sewing project is. If you're a no reply blogger, please leave an email address in the comment so I can reach you if you're the winner.

Good Luck!

p.s. if you're not lucky this time around there's another planned later in the month so stay tuned!



EDITED: if you leave more than one comment I am deleting the extras so that it's fair for everyone, one comment = one chance. Don't worry if I've deleted your email - I've made notes!

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

thanks for entering!

Me Made May 2015

This May I'm taking part in the Me Made May challenge hosted by Zoe, which is to actually wear the items of clothing and accessories you have made. 

I know many of the items I make lurk in the wardrobe, this is most likely because I'm saving them for best, which ties in with my last post, so I'll be wearing these items as part of my 'everyday best' challenge to myself too. 

My pledge - 

'I, Colette of www.colettemoscrop.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '15. I endeavour to wear one me-made item each day for the duration of May 2015 and create one new piece each week'

I'm documenting this challenge every few days on Instagram, this way by the end of the month I'll be able to see what I wear a lot and what I'm missing and need to make next.

This should be fun, though I'm going to run out of different items soon, prepare to see lots of repeat outfits! 

everyday best

Do you keep things for best? I do, or did. I'm trying to break the habit of a lifetime and use all those favourite objects, in particular fabrics.

I have a stack of beautiful fabrics I'm too afraid to cut into, which is ridiculous. I bought them because I want to use and see them, not to open the 'suitcase of fabric' and just stroke it now and again.

So I'm on a mission, to use my favourite fabrics in projects I will use and enjoy regularly.

First off the work bench is this Ruler Cosy, for storing and protecting my quilting rulers. I'm always afraid of dropping and chipping them, especially when transporting them. This does the job perfectly and uses lots of favourites from my stash. 

My new 'everyday best' rule applies to essentials too, my old Liberty peg bag finally fell apart after 11 years of good service. So I've made a new one, this green on natural linen makes my heart skip a beat, so I have something to make me smile whilst hanging out the endless amount of laundry.

Now it's time for a cup of tea, in the fancy vintage china I rarely use, well it is Friday after all!

cool colours, calm improv

I'm in love with this quilt, it seems to be very calm and soothing. It's not my usual colourway of choice, but I'm finding it very pleasing. Duck Egg blue seems to have that effect on me.

I made this up as a sample for a recent show I attended, it's improv, as you can see and I didn't labour too much over the placement of the prints and solids. Once you let go and just cut and sew, cut and sew, you begin to see your work in a slightly less 'control freak' sort of way, or at least this is how it works for me.

I used four colours of Kona cotton and a selection of my stone and duck egg blue prints. I cut the solids into strips and the prints into chunky rectangles and a few strips. I marked out on the floor (no fancy design wall here) roughly the size I wanted the quilt to be so I had somewhere to lay out my pieces after I had stitched them together. 

I then roughly laid out my blocks, of varying shape and size to create a strip which was the full width of the quilt. I joined up the blocks, adding and trimming as necessary, until I had a full width pieced together.

I repeated this process until I had enough strips for the full quilt and then joined all the strips together.

The back has a one off printed panel positioned slightly off centre. I printed this in stone and duck egg blue with the different designs overlapping and creating interesting patterns.

This is a cot sized quilt, 115cm x 125cm. At some point soon I'm hoping to take custom orders on these. 

I have a red one planned next, I'll keep you posted and I may even remember to take some progress shots!

Improv Quilting

At the last London Modern Quilt Guild meeting Shevvy talked to us about Improv Quilting. When quilting this is how I like to work, I like to make things up as I go along, swap and change things around and be led by the fabric and colours rather than make several identical blocks. I like to have movement within a quilt, to have different piecing throughout and I love the appearance of a random layout, though this actually takes a lot of thought and playing around.

I'm working on this Improv Quilt at the moment, I used only red, bright pink and white fabrics and tried to keep it simple and random. It just needs binding so hopefully I'll be able to show it to you soon.

The quilters that inspire me the most are the ones that have their own style and put together quilts in an original and interesting way. Ashley at Film In The Fridge is one of my favourite quilters, her quilts are all so different and she has a wonderful way of using colour and creating interesting designs with fabric.

This one, Cascading Pools has a wonderful balance of colour and neutral spaces. Have a look at her blog, you'll be inspired.

Lu Summers is another inspiration when it comes to improv quilts, her book Quilt Improv is packed with blocks, tips and inspiration to get you started. Remember this one? It's one of my favourite quilts.

I've put together a mosaic of some Improv quilts that are inspiring. I think I'm going to have to try some improv curves, these ones look so good!

Click on the links to see who made these -

1. Assembly, 2. Improv. Blocks, 3. improv curve mini quilt, 4. wool improv quilt, 5. Keeping Eden, 6. add a border plus plus, 7. "Up Down" Quilt with Facing Finish - Detail, 8. Improv / free form quilt block number 5, 9. Quiet improv quilt

Shevvy talked about how some of her Improv quilts have grown from the desire to use up her scraps, tiny as many of them are. Shevvy pieces them together, sometimes chops them up again, mixes them with solids and plays around with colour and design until she's got a quilt she's happy with, there are many examples on her Flickr page. I got a bundle of her tiny triangle scraps at the last meeting and my challenge was to make a block with them.

This is what I came up with, I tried not to overthink it and just added a few rectangles to these tiny triangles that were mostly pieced together. I'm not mad about the finished block, it's too busy for my taste, but I absolutely loved the process and trying something new. 

dressmaking

I've started the year pretty well with sewing projects, January is always a productive month for me. I love the fresh start, the quieter pace post Christmas, the ease of getting back into routine after a few weeks of crazy.

I started with some dressmaking, for me. It has been a long time goal of mine to sew myself a vintage inspired wardrobe, and I'm getting there, but it is painfully slow. So to have made two items in the first week of a new year has pleased me immensely. 

First was the boatneck top, from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. I'll be making more of these as it's quick, easy and looks pretty elegant for everyday wear. I'll make a few adjustments on the next one, but overall I love this.

I've had this floral fabric for ages, I bought it with a full skirted fifties dress in mind, (I still have enough fabric and may well make a dress too) This gathered dirndl skirt is super easy to make, it's basically two rectangles of fabric (front and back) and a waistband, there is a tutorial over on Gerties blog here. I used the full width of the fabric, 142cm for both the front and back and I love the fullness it gives. Roll on summer, I can't wait to wear this.

I got this new old pattern too, I'll need to adjust it I should imagine but I'm looking forward to getting started on this. View C  was the most popular over on Instagram and it's my favourite too so I'm on the hunt for the perfect fabric for it.