It’s all me Mimi

Well firstly, hello to everyone who found me through Tilly’s blog! I actually have another Tilly make for you today, I hope you like it. Meet Mimi.

I actually started making this (I really want to call it her) months ago and it seems to have taken me ages to actually get around to finishing it. The pieces sat cut out for weeks, then I had a little flurry of activity, nearly finished it and then kept putting off the handstitching and buttons – I hate sewing buttons on. Always have and even now I think I would rather sit and slipstitch a hem on a circle skirt than sew a couple of buttons on. Leigh logic.

Mimi is the most complicated pattern I’ve sewn and I’m quite pleased with the new skills I’ve learnt and I wouldn’t say I found it too challenging a make, even though I did have several accidents. I interfaced the wrong bit of collar but looked up the sewalongs of other things with collars to see if it mattered that much and decided to still use the bit I wanted to as the top – it had the prettier flowers on and looked better. I also sewed the left bodice front to the right side of the yoke and vice versa and then had to unpick and redo them, which wasn’t fun considering I was using French seams. Oh and button holes were a blinkin’ nightmare. The buttonhole on my machine seems to be really picky and needs me to reset the buttonhole stitch if I touch anything. Just turning the handcrank slightly to make sure the thread uptake lever thingy (I know all the words) was up made it sew one side of the buttonhole and then just stop and sew the bartack over and over again. So now I reset then sew, no matter how many times I’ve already reset it because buttonholes are seriously not fun to unpick. I know this, I had to do it three times.

I sewed Mimi in a straight size 3 because I made my Megan in a 4 and I had a gapey back so I thought that a 3 would fit better around the shoulders and neck and I hoped that the loose design would mean it still fit okay everywhere else, just a little closer than intended. This almost worked out but I was foiled by my arms. The sleeves are a little tight around the armscye and at the sleeve hem. Side note, am I the only one who changes armscye to arm scythe in their heads when they read or write it? I have absolutely  no idea how you actually say it – arm sigh? Arm sky? Arm shy?

But anyway, back on topic. When I move house, Manfriend’s Power Rack is going to live in my garage and I will start working out and running more than I have been over the last few months and will hopefully slim down a little bit and the sleeves will fit better. Or I the bicep gainz will make it fit even worse, we’ll see. For future makes I might see if I can trace a size bigger at the armhole anyway. I did wonder if sewing it again with a slightly bigger seam allowance would help make this version fit better. Any suggestions?

The fabric is cotton lawn from Abakhan and I really love it. I have a tea dress from Dorothy Perkins in a very similar print that I’ve always loved so I fell for this fabric straight away and bought 3 metres. I used about 1.5m for Mimi so I’ve been having a think about what to make with the rest. I think I’d probably be able to get New Look 6069 (view C) out what I have left but I have also been toying with making a circle skirt, maybe a button up version to have a sort of mix and match set with the Mimi blouse. Skirt, blouse and a sort of shirt dress looking thing when worn together.

I used french seams throughout the blouse, even on the armscye because I hate finishing seams with a zig zag stitch and Jen from Grainline says you can use French seams for armholes so I took her word for it and I love the neat finish it gives to the insides.

Mimi isn’t something I would normally buy to wear but I really loved the look of it and it was one of the things that made me buy Love at First Stitch. When I first wore it I wasn’t sure how me it was as the neck felt really low, which is something I tend to avoid but looking at these photos it’s not low at all so I don’t know what planet I was on that particularly day. I really love the way it looks in these photos. I adore the fabric and I really like that I can wear the blouse loose with skinny jeans or trousers or tucked into a skirt so I’m definitely considering this a win.