From 2019, when the news was telling us that staring seagulls out had been proven to stop them eating your chips

work put on some lino printing sessions (health and wellbeing innit), check out my masterpiece 🐙

minor sewing gripe: when a pattern has as pathetically small pockets as ready-to-wear. like, why do you think I’m here doing this? for fun?! well okay yes, mostly fun, but also to make pockets that actually hold things. keep up!

I made a thing! pleated skirt with this awesome print I found on Spoonflower when I was supposed to be shopping for someone else 🥲. I’m particularly happy with the kaleidoscope vibe of the upper pleats, the pattern matching of the central flower on the waistband, and pockets (obvs) #sewsky #sewing 🪡

really living up to the careless part of my name at the moment, keep stabbing myself with pins and needles to the point that I have to take a break from sewing so as not to bleed all over my fabric 🥲

#meMadeMay day 31: mission complete! finishing on a fun one, with this dress which is somehow quite low-key but also feels a bit like a party frock, and gives me a bit of a lift. and with that (and a sigh of relief) I can return to lurking. see you next year, if I’ve recovered! 🥲

#meMadeMay day 30: today I will be making the most of what looks like being the last day of sun. I’m on leave next week (and my birthday is in there too), so naturally it’s rain and cloud the whole time. oh well! good incentive to stay inside and whip up some things for next May ;)

#meMadeMay day 29: not gonna lie, this is getting pretty tedious 🥲 at least doing it with the half-hearted layouts means I haven’t had to be taking pictures of myself every day, I definitely wouldn’t have made it this far if that were the case! anyway. more ruffles today!

you know, I’ve been looking at that Project Hail Mary jumper all this time thinking it vaguely reminded me of a pattern in my deep stash, a man’s jacket with a pair of wolves, wouldn’t it be funny if it was the same one. and… it is?! lmao

#meMadeMay day 28: it’s British strawberry season (according to all the shops, anyway, I haven’t asked the plants) so this top feels appropriate. last office day of the month which is good because this is the last semi-professional outfit I can muster 🥲

#meMadeMay day 27: I was planning on going into the office for some more air con today, but it took THREE HOURS to get home last night and I’m not risking that again until I have to. good opportunity to wear the other half of the two-piece though.

#meMadeMay day 26: grateful for a) office air con and b) the past-me who decided to make a two-piece from this fabric instead of a dress, so I can wear half of it to the office and maintain a somewhat professional aura. just about :)

#meMadeMay day 25: this top is barely an hour old, hot off the machine this morning. I even bought the fabric this year; it’d be one of the fastest stash-to-FO projects I’ve managed… had the pattern not been lurking in my stash untouched for nearly 18 years 💀

#meMadeMay day 24: it’s gonna crack 30°C today so I’m breaking out the short shorts. I also went for a run this morning (6 miles, longest in months!) so the only movement I plan to do for the rest of the day will be positioning myself in whatever shade I can find in my garden 😎

#meMadeMay day 23: I think this is the oldest sewn item I have still in circulation. I made it in 2012 with offcuts and trimmings I’d had in my stash for probably 15 years before that. slow fashion indeed.

#meMadeMay day 22: IT’S HERE! THE WARM! OMG!!! ahem. this skirt is self-drafted. its main feature is that it has comically large pockets. like, room for a Switch or a bottle of wine large. today, though, just phone, work badge and travel passes because alas, I have to be in the office.

#meMadeMay day 20: I’ll regret the socks later when it warms up, but they help me keep my streak. I also have almost six hours of meetings today so I need the comfort 🫠

#meMadeMay day 20: one I had not even added to my wardrobe app! I saw a shirt like this on a model in (ironically?) a knitting magazine and thought yes: that. I grabbed a random blouse pattern, added a frill to the collar, elasticated wrists and… 🌈✨🌸rainbow sparkle flower buttons!

#meMadeMay day 19: the forecast is teasing a blast of heat in the next few days, but for the moment it’s still grey and blah. big boots and cosy cardigans remain firmly on.

#meMadeMay day 18: was feeling quite green and spring-y this morning* so this cardigan seemed the appropriate choice. * not, like, physically springy of course - my run this morning was no less of a stagger than usual 🫠

#meMadeMay day 17: I suppose I should actually wear this jumper I’ve been working on for the last few months :) 🧶

#meMadeMay day 16: an odd day weatherwise so I’m matching that energy with this odd (complimentary) dress. super-summery pattern but autumnal shades, which for some reason gives me 70’s vibes like I should be at a party eating vol-au-vents, drinking lfm and slagging off Doreen’s passé eyeshadow.

not that the last jumper didn’t spark joy, but I’m now joining the #lightItUpMAL with yet another Saltburn cardigan, this time with 🌈✨RAINBOW SPARKLES✨🌈 I wasn’t planning to til I caught myself properly cackling with glee on the train as the sun caught said sparkles and thought; appropriate! 🤩🧶

#meMadeMay day 15: halfway through and I think I’ve managed a new item every day. can I make it to the end of the month in the same vein? possibly, but I may have to rely on socks to get me there. wearing my other Gemma cardigan today for a day in the office. it’s Focus Friday so gotta be comfy :)

#meMadeMay day 14: a favourite combo which I would wear every day if I could I love this cardigan so much. the stitch pattern that gives just a little bit more body but still drapes, the symmetry, the slightly shabby aesthetic, perfection. I made another in blue and am starting another today 🤩 🧶

finished an item! this is my second honeycomb aran, tweaked further from the tweaks I made the first time. this time I knitted it in the round, bottom up. this felt very smart at the time of the decision, but not so much when I got to the neck and had to do some cabling from the purl side 🫠 🧶👇

#meMadeMay day 13: in a weird mood today so I’m mixing my patterns and breaking out the yellow tights. the cardi is the first project I made when I was skint and thought making my own clothes would be cheaper than buying rtw. now you may be thinking oh, the innocence of youth 🥲…

#meMadeMay day 12: an unplanned threefer. the jacket, obviously, it’s new. the dress because I had 4 minutes to get ready this morning; it’s the ultimate throw-on-and-go. and the scarf I grabbed as I was heading out the door because I saw frost. in May! rude!

#meMadeMay day 11: stretching the definition of an ‘outfit’ somewhat, but the #showMeYourKnits stockinette theme persuaded me to put on these plain vanilla socks which I absolutely nailed, fit-wise. if only past-me had written down exactly *how* I’d nailed it… sigh… 🧶

#meMadeMay day 10: this week’s #showMeYourKnits stockinette theme reminded me of this top, which isn’t fully stockinette but contains some of the nicest, most even, well-defined stitches I’ve done (thank you Wollmeise). 🧶

#meMadeMay day 9: the forecast says this is going to be the warmest day for a while, so time to throw on the sunniest of sundresses and get myself into the garden. (I actually don’t like the neckline and front on this so I’ve got plans to remake it, watch this space 👀) #sewing

#meMadeMay day 8: office again, and breaking the dresses-at-work streak because when I looked in my wardrobe this morning my heart said ruffles. this is one of the variations of the Saraste shirt by Named Clothing, tweaked slightly to turn the ruffles into more of a cap sleeve. #sewing

#meMadeMay day 7: another office day, another dress. this one is a bit of a hack job, borrowing the top from a paper pattern and the skirt and pocket configuration from a favourite rtw dress (difficult to describe, but essentially it’s a godet with a folded bit, a really good design) #sewing

#meMadeMay day 6. what I wanted: a stylish Katherine-Hepburn-esque look; wide-leg trousers, fitted top, sunhat what I feel like: I’ve fallen out of the 90’s in my big pants, tiny top, and bucket hat I’m actually not mad 😅

#meMadeMay day 5: back to the office so it’s a twofer! a floral corduroy pinafore that’s turned into my work fave, plus my recently finished cotton drill jacket. the pink of the jacket perfectly matches the pink in the dress, which was not planned but brings me a quiet joy. #sewing

#meMadeMay day 4: it is a bank holiday (yay!) but so overcast and gloomy I’ve had to put the Big Light on (boo!). tricking myself into a better mood by wearing my sunniest knit: Ice Cream Dreams. #knitting

#meMadeMay day 3: time for some #crochet. I don’t crochet much because it wrecks my hands, but I decided I would suffer anything for this cardigan, which I loved and wanted to make on sight.

#meMadeMay day 2, crossing over with #showMeYourKnits: Vine Lace Vest, a real Old Faithful made in 2009 (!) from a recycled charity shop find. if you’d told me then I’d still be wearing it 15+ years later I’d have laughed. #knitting

been dithering about whether to do #meMadeMay because I forgot on the first… except it turns out that I forgot that I did not forget! I made the dressing gown I wear literally every morning. real ace up the (very roomy, me-made) sleeve, there. so, day 1, an entry for #sewing:

pre-washing the fabrics for my next few sewing projects; subtlety is NOT on the menu 😎

two buttonholes to go, I don’t think we’re gonna make it 😭

yesterday’s progress on the coat. collar done, hem basted, secret inner pockets added. #sewing #wip

I have absolutely no room for error on this coat cos I’m making it out of 1.5m fabric instead of 2m (and it’s discontinued). just gave myself a heart attack because a piece was six inches shorter than the one I was about to attach it to. fortunately I’d just picked up the wrong piece, ffs self

also, I am working on another coat. today’s progress (including hand-made shoulderpads, not visible but in place) #sewing #wip

back in the day I collected a frankly unmanageable number of recipes from user groups and forums and somehow ended up hacking together a locally-hosted php website and postgres database. I am now working in data and using sql every day (fortunately not php though 🥲)

Win win win. #comicsky #webcomic #winner

for the first time ever, my sewing machine managed to do all the buttonholes on something first time, without crapping out even once! I don’t have obvious unpicking marks right on the front of a finished item! 🎉

I’m laying out a paper sewing pattern, figuring out which bits I need, which bits I don’t. just said out loud, ‘what’s the flap for?’ at which Siri stopped my music and said ‘hm?’ girl. not your place. in any context. 💀

just heard the first ice cream van of the year and I really don’t know how to feel about it 😭💀

- Queuing - Tutting loudly at people who do not queue correctly - Going fully elbows-out rabid half a second after queue etiquette breaks down