Me-Made-May 2019 - Brigitte Scarf

I went away for the weekend, so I'm catching up with blog posts now I am back with my laptop again.

Day 3 of Me-Made-May I wore my Brigitte Scarf. A little head scarf that I made very shortly after I got my Tilly and the Buttons book (it's a Tilly and the Buttons pattern suprise suprise! ;) ) and it is the first pattern in there and brilliant for new beginners. It is also on her website as a tutorial, so follow the link above if you want to find out more.

I did this pattern just as a little something to keep my fingers busy before deciding what the next big sew was going to be. The fabric was from a scrap bin in a fabric shop near to my LYS, and I thought that the blue with little birds in flight was lovely. It seemed the perfect thing to make with it. The Brigitte scarf itself is very versatile as well. I have worn it in so many ways since I made it and I really do love it.

The fabric scrap wasn't long enough to make a scarf the exact same length as the pattern says, but I made one as long as I could out of the fabric I had. Fortunately I have a small head so there wasn't going to be many problems.

I wore this on the train journey up to London for the weekend and it helpfully kept my hair out of my eyes - and I have a lot of it!

Unfortunately I don't have a close up photo of the scarf, so you cannot see the stitching, but I did make some changes the following time that I made this pattern. This particular scarf when I turned the scarf the right side out, I ran a length of top stitching along the edge with the hole in it. It looks fine and when wearing the scarf it isn't noticeable, but for some reason it bugged me. I have a basic sewing machine, so I don't have any of the snazzy top stitch settings that some do, which would have finished the edge of this scarf off beautifully.

I did make a second Brigitte scarf, which you will probably see later on in the month, but for that one I hand stitched the hole closed in a way that hides the stitching from the outside, which I feel makes it so much better. But I am happy with this one! I will leave you with the picture from my Instagram stories for day 3, I also was wearing my Margot Pyjamas, well, because they are my pyjamas! ;)

Me-Made-May 2019 - Margot Pyjamas

Now I don't know if my second day of Me-Made-May is a cop-out or not. But I still wore it! For my second day, I have a lovely pair of pyjama bottoms that I made from the Tilly and the Buttons Margot pattern.

I think the pattern is only available in the Tilly and the Buttons book Love at First Stitch, which really got me into home sewing. It really was love at first stitch. If you do want to get started it is a really helpful book, and will go through everything. I mean EVERYTHING, you could never have seen a sewing machine before and by the time you'd finished that book you would be able to sew a dress. It is fun to read and there is explanations for all the sewing jargon. You can probably tell I love it.

One of the first patterns I tried from that book was the Margot pyjamas. They looked fun and were one of the easier makes - plus if it looked horrible then no one was going to see as I would be wearing them to bed. Result.

As with most projects, knitted or sewn, there is always something that doesn't quite go to plan. Just like the Fern and Feather one of my problems was to do with measuring. But that wasn't my first problem oh no. It started well before the pattern was actually started.

I had it in the back of my mind to make these and it was a trip to a fabric shop with my best friend that set the idea of making them into motion when I found the fabric. A cream coloured fabric with green planes and blue cars. I loved it, decided that was what I was going to make my pyjamas out of and bought a metre. That was my first mistake. I hadn't looked at the fabric specifications at all, and what a newbie sewer like myself didn't know what that a metre is hardly enough to do anything - even if you are a smallish size.

The disaster was saved somewhat by that same delightful friend who make a quick trip back to the same fabric shop to pick me up another metre and post it to me. Once that was sorted I got on with making the pattern. But even two meters wasn't quite enough to make the full length of the bottoms, but I made do with a cropped length. Which I think looks fine.

The second mistake, was my measuring mistake. I learned the hard way where exactly you should measure when it says "hip measurement". That is the widest part around your bum. Not the top of your hips - just sayin'. Lets put it this way, I made the size too small (I have a tiny waist but larger hips) the size would fit my waist quite well but not my hips so much. Which I found out when I first went to try the pyjamas on.

I will give you an amusing mental image. I managed to wriggle my way into the bottoms, they JUST got over my hips and settled nicely around my waist, "sorted I thought, not so bad after all", but there I was wrong. They were kinda hard to move around in and it was then I realised that I couldn't actually take them off... Luckily I had put them on inside out and the seams were easily accessible. So there I was sitting down, unpicking the side seams of my pyjama bottoms whilst still wearing them, in order to take them off.

It was rather disheartening really, but having the engineers way of thinking, I quickly came up with a solution to my problem. Re-making them in a larger size wasn't really an option. I didn't have enough fabric anyway, and to do that would have been a waste and felt wrong somehow. So I remeasured my hips and worked out how much more space I needed to create at the top to allow me to get in and out. I then created two triangle pieces to put in at the top. I put them in with the point at the place on the side seam where I was the widest, and that allowed me to be able to wear them properly. Thank goodness.

So I managed in the end to make a functional piece of clothing. It isn't the most polished or the prettiest, but I still love them. I am quite proud of them, and they are in my usual pyjama rotation now. I do intend to make another pair the right size and the right length soon too, now I know exactly what fabric I need! ;)

So here is the photo for Me-Made-May day 2, sleepy having just got up early to go and vote in the local elections with my Mam.

Happy Making!

P.S - I forgot to say they had pockets! Yes, pockets.