April 2021 - Anna-Jo Sews

Me Made May 2021: my pledge

Oh hi, blog! It’s been a few weeks. My house has been in disarray as our living/dining room floor replacement has taken much longer than we bargained for. Turns out narrow engineered wood floorboards in a large and complicated shaped room take quite a while for two amateurs to install! We’re hoping to finish this weekend, though, and it’s going to look absolutely awesome when we do.

All this means no sewing has been going on as all my sewing stuff is heaped up in a pile in Lauren’s room, while she camps out in Gabriel’s room, and all our furniture is in weird places and I can’t find anything I need. Interesting times.

Anyway, I thought I’d spend a few minutes to blog my #memademay2021 plans. Here’s the pledge:

The Metallic Raincoat – making McCall’s M6517

Yes, I finally did it. I made the raincoat I’ve been promising to make myself for years (I’ve had McCall’s M6517 in my stash for years too!) It’s definitely a much needed item in Somerset, and I’ve been struggling with just a pac-a-mac and a brolly these last few years, since I got rid of my fancy technical raincoat when I decided powder blue really didn’t suit me.

McCall's M6517 raincoat in Lady McElroy metallic oilskin fabric

My raincoat dreams finally got a kick up the arse when I found this gorgeous metallic snakeskin raincoat fabric (affiliate link) on offer as part of the Minerva Brand Ambassador programme. I figured having a deadline would really help motivate me to get going on this project at long last, and I was right! You can find my post on the Minerva site here: https://www.minerva.com /posts/1073665

The Art Gallery Shirt – sewing Butterick 5526

This is one of those projects which while it isn’t perfect, I’m really proud of. Yes, I made a proper shirt for me! Using designer fabric! And finally using that Butterick 5526 pattern I’ve had hanging around for so long it’s now out of print *facepalm*

I’m pulling a bit of a strange expression here, but what the hell, the picture shows the shirt well!

You might have noticed I missed posting last week, and that’s because I was insanely busy trying to finish this beauty up before the deadline that’s part of any Minerva Brand Ambassador projects. Full disclosure, this Art Gallery Fabrics poplin (affiliate link) was provided free of charge in return for a review over on Minerva’s site. You can find my review here: https://www.minerva.com/posts/1072416

Now, I’ve had two months to make this up and I honestly didn’t leave it all till the last minute. I just spent quite a while trying to sort out the fit of the toile, and then my perfectionist side wanted to sew everything the most complicated, time consuming way. And then Daisy needed a couple of trips to hospital for some anticoagulant injections (missed warfarin dose- whoops!) on the days I had earmarked to finish everything off. Ah well. I got it done, just in time.