Hello again! I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has messaged, sent love and thought about me in my absence. I'm pleased to say I'm currently doing well and looking forward to sewing {and blogging} more regularly again.  I'm really happy to introduce the Nottingham Top to you along with my Mountain View Jeans I made a few weeks ago.  The Nottingham is the newest pattern by Itch to Stitch and the Mountain View Jeans are a fairly recent one of theirs too.  Nottingham is a lovely quick sew for jersey fabrics, with just 4 pattern pieces ad looks far more complicated than it is to sew.  In the past week I've made 3 and I'm only sewing an hour or so a day at the moment!

Those of you who have been following me a while will certainly not be surprised to see the first one I made was in a floral fabric! I bought this pretty viscose lycra at Kingston Fabricland in March and love how it turned out for this. It has plenty of stretch, beautiful drape and good recovery and it was the first of my stash fabrics which called to me having seen this pattern and even better that it perfectly matched my new pink jeans! 

The pattern includes 3 sleeve options (elbow, long and butterfly flutter) a round neck and is relaxed in fit through the body but with slim sleeves.  I chose the elbow length for this one as I knew it would make a pretty summer top.

Like all Itch to Stitch patterns, the sizing is US 00-20 (31-46" bust, 33-48" hips) and is a printable PDF pattern.  An A0 version is included if you prefer to skip the taping and get a copy shop to print full size for you however the pages all went together perfectly when printed 100% on my laser printer and I'd already sewn my first one {bar hemming} within an hour from downloading the pattern!  

It's exactly a year since I started this blog ready for Me-Made-May'15! Now it's that time again!!  my pledge this year is

I plan to wear a completely MeMade outfit on as many days as possible and definitely on the 31st May to mark the end of this years challenge!  I'll blog about what I have been wearing every few days so you aren't inundated with posts!

Earlier this year I lost my spark and enthusiasm for sewing.....it had become a chore! I was sewing for hours and hours a night to make sure all my customers got their orders on time and never had time to make anything for myself or my family. Then I went on maternity leave with my second child and just couldn't get back into it.  It was suggested I tried sewing a few bits for myself, so I did! I whizzed up a couple of skirts, tops, dresses and even a cocktail dress and finally started to enjoy sewing again! Perfect!  

Then I heard of MeMadeMay, a month in which you try to wear clothes made by yourself.  The extent of the challenge is a personal thing to set, some I know are pledging ONLY to wear garments they have made themselves, others are pledging to made 1 item of clothing at least per week and make sure it is worn.  I don't have enough handmade clothes yet to only wear those but by the end of May I hope to have completed 1 of every garment I would need so that I can wear an ENTIRELY handmade outfit on 31st, whatever the weather......underwear included!! 

I hope to keep you up to date with my sewing achievements, share/review patterns, tutorials and hopefully inspire some of you to start sewing for yourself too!