Me-Made-May 2014 Week 1

  Here's my summary for my first week and a day of me-made-may 2014 :)

 1st May 

I wore an asymmetrical skirt that I wear all the time for school that just never got blogged.

 2nd May

I wore my me-made suit with a peplum top. Really really need to work on this posing thing.

3rd May

I wore my camden lady skater with my black hoodie. Both of these I wear to death and I really need more of them. A hoodie in every colour of the rainbow would be fantastic.

Day 4

I put a wrap skirt over a black dress. I have issues with this skirt. The fact is that it's fastened with poppers. Every time I move an inch, pop! and I'm half naked. This one is going to be going into the mending pile and the poppers replaced by buttons and buttonholes.

Day 5

I wore my floral top. Love this top, wear it all the time, need more of them.

Day 6

I wore my newly finished archer shirt for the first time! (I say finished, well no one can see the lack of a hem...) and my grey suit.

Day 7

Black pencil skirt. The waistband of this skirt was originally attached with snaps but this was also a grave mistake. Regrettably it took me over 6 months to change the snaps to hooks and eyes, and now I'm not feeling round the back of the waistband every 5 minutes to check it's still fastened which is a plus.

Day 8

I didn't even manage a selfie, but I wore my grey suit again with this red top that I wear to death and need to make a copy of.

Day 9

Today I wore my black half circle skirt which I love but attracts fluff like crazy :( Need to make one of these in navy.

That's me up to date! All the me-mades seen in this post can be found on my portfolio page, apart from the asymmetrical skirt from day 1.

Thanks for reading!

Lauren xx

Leading Ladies Challenge: Gathered purple circle skirt

My inspiration was from Lauren Bacalls outfit in the film Key Largo (1948). The aspects of her outfit that I took were the full gathered skirt and the white skirt. I love how simple and elegant this outfit is. 

For the gathered circle skirt I added 5cm onto my normal circle skirt measurement, cut it out and gathered it to fit my waist measurement. I did struggle with keeping the gathers in place so in the end I gathered it with elastic, turned it over and top-stitched. However, it doesn't look quite right without a waistband so I wear a ribbon or a belt over it.

The skirt material is from one of two curtains that I bought from a charity shop for five pounds. They look and feel like silk dupion but are actually 100% polyester. Because of the added waist measurement the skirt is much shorter than I wanted it to be but thankfully it is still wearable...just. To conserve the length I did an improvised version of a narrow hem which consisted of an overlocked edge turned under and stitched about 1cm from the edge. I really love the extra fullness that the gathered circle skirt gives.

The shirt is one of dads that I refashioned about a year ago by removing the sleeves and collar, taking it in at the sides and elasticating the waist. On reflection I wish I hadn't gathered the waist because the gathering always shows if's tucked into anything and looks kinda weird.

I love this photo because I look like I'm about to fall on my face when I'm actually just running...

That's all I have to say about this outfit! Thanks to Project Sewn for inspiring me, because otherwise this skirt would never had existed! Oh and also thanks to Ed for taking photos.

Thanks for reading,

Lauren xx

Drama costumes for Matilda Liar!

For my drama AS Level you get the choice to perform, do lighting, sound or costumes and of course I chose costumes and thought you might like to see them. The play we chose is called Matilda Liar. The rough outline is that Matilda tells lies and then takes a truth pill that she thinks is a slimming pill and gets into trouble with her family for bringing to the front all the truths that they don't want to face. The play ends with the start of act 2 again, with Matilda appearing without her tongue, preventing all of the horrors that happened previously.

We had to choose a practitioner to base our work on. Our group chose Berkoff, who uses very exaggerated and un-naturalistic movements in his plays. His style had to be conveyed through the costumes as well as the cautionary tale style of the play.

I'll start with Jordan's costume. He played the father who was the head of the family with all of the authority. He is quite a ridiculous character which I chose to enhance with a massive tie made in a disgusting fabric. This tie is the only coloured item, the rest of the costumes a monochromatic, which was a key feature of Berkoff's work. This demonstrated his superiority within the group as if only he was allowed to break the rules. I also gave him a hunch by stuffing a small pillow up his blazer to give him a slightly weird silhouette.

 This is Beth, who played the main character Matilda. This was her "lies" dress, worn at the beginning and ripped off to reveal a white dress when she learns that she's taken a truth drug. I used the Kitschy Coo Lady Skater dress pattern for both dresses, modifying the black one to have a buttonband down the centre front. . The neckline doesn't match up because I wanted an aspect of every costume to be not quite right, representing the family who seems okay at the start but falls apart as the truth starts being told.

The buttons are decorative because the dress is attached with velcro which made a great ripping sound when Matilda ripped it off in a fit of rage.

 Katie played the mother, a very aggressive character, who is imprisoned within the family, a slave to housework and so on. This is why I chose black and grey stripes because they remind me of prison uniforms. As you can see the stripes are completely off here, to add the element of something that isn't quite right.

I used the Lady Skater pattern for this dress as well, but had to hugely shorten the waist. It could do with a bit more shortening actually. I made it very loose to make it look ill-fitting and dowdy.To enhance katies silhouette I padded her bum using an old pillowcase and stuffing. There was originally padding in the boob area but it was taken out because we decided that there was enough in that area already.

And we put a spoon in her hair, because, just because...

And that's all of my costumes!
I was very lucky to work with an amazingly talented group of people, who all looked amazing in their costumes. I can't wait to do this as a job!
Thanks so much for reading and to Katie for her amazing facial expressions and pictures!
Lauren xx

Me-Made-May 2014

So, Zo's  Me Made May 2014 is quickly approaching (tomorrow). My original pledge was:

"I, Lauren Digby, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear at least one different item of me-made clothing for each day of the week for the duration of May 2014." 

However, I've been thinking about it and I don't see how that challenge helps me. It'll probably just get me incredibly stressed in the middle of exam season, which I really do not need. This is what I've changed it to:

"I, Lauren Digby, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made  item of clothing every day for the duration of May 2014."

This will enable me to see what I wear the most, what I need more of and the gaps in my wardrobe without getting me all stressy.

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's outfits!

Lauren xx

A Sewing Legacy

My Grandpa came down for Easter Weekend, and as he lives so far away we rarely get to see him so this was a real treat. To make it even more of a treat, he brought me piles and piles of fabric and patterns! Sadly, my Grandma passed away several years ago, but she was an avid seamstress and made most of her own clothes! Her collection of patterns and fabrics were just collecting dust so Grandpa brought them up for me to make some use of them. It makes me sad that I can't share my sewing with Grandma now, but I hope that somehow, somewhere she can see my sewing and be proud.

This skirt is not something I've made, but is rather something that my Grandma made years and years ago which has been passed on to me. Luckily it is fastened with a drawstring so was easily adjustable to fit me.

I'm ashamed to say that my first thought when I saw this beautiful skirt was that I'll just chop some of the length off and it'll be perfect. You see, as a rule, I don't wear particularly long skirts in fear of looking dowdy and old fashioned instead of a 17 year old. Now of course, I've realised that I sew my own things, and that I can wear whatever the hell I want! Just because all of the skirts in the high street shops stop just below the bum it does not mean that skirts I have to wear need to be that short. 

So now, I have no intention of shortening the skirt because, pardon me for being forward, but I think it actually looks pretty good. Not pretty good, amazing. I feel  so fantastic and empowered when wearing this skirt, not just because it helps me to remember Grandma, but because it enabled me to shake off what everybody else is wearing and just look at what I like, and what I think looks good, which is more important than anything.

 Thanks very much for reading, and to Ed who took these beautiful photos, 

Lauren xx