May 2014 – maevesshed

Now onto the next bandwagon – Fehr Trades Spring Race Challenge. My race of choice is a 50 mile walk I’ve taken part in the last few years. This is the third year of the walk, the first year I walked 38 miles (60 KM), last year I walked every one of those 50 miles (80 Km). The area of the walk is where I was born and reared, the scenery is spectacular. Its a tiny place and still this walk has attracted masses of people and raised loada money for Cancer care in the area. A very worthy cause and much needed in these times of cutbacks.

This year I’ll be lucky to walk my goal of 30 miles. I haven’t walked as much this year in preparation, I’ve been running a bit – like 5 k a few times a week and walking 5 miles once or twice a week. The last few weeks I’ve upped the frequency and length of my walking so I’m hoping that’ll get me to the 30 mile marker. I find the recovery period hard, I’ve been sooo tired after the previous years walks, but thankfully I’ve escaped the dreaded blisters, so far.

The date of the walk is Saturday 7th June – Just 10 days away. Ive made a new pair of Fehr Trades Duathlon capri leggings and hopefully a new tShirt which isn’t made yet or fabric purchased aagghh, better get onto that pronto!!

This is my pledge for my first ever Me-Made-May!!!

‘I, Maeve, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’14. I endeavour to wear at least one me made item each day for the duration of May 2014.

MMM14 Day 1 Audrey in Unst Cardigan & Sewaholic Minoru Jacket.

So how am I going to make this work for me???? Well to complicate matters we are off on holidays next Sunday for a week. This is going to be a rugged outdoor hiking, walking, playing on the (chilly) beach type of holiday. Our holiday cottage is in the middle of nowhere a few Kms from a very small village. My ideal holiday.

Right, what I needed for this week away was a new pair of hiking pants, I have older ones but they are from my serious field work jobs and are a bit too serious. I found a respectable pattern in my modest stash of Burda magazines.

I applied my pants modifications that I figured out from a craftsy course about 2 years ago – you know – the curves and all that. I ordered some poly cotton from Pennine Outdoor. Have to say I got great service – I emailed them a while back because I couldn’t figure out what type of fabric would work for my pants and got a prompt reply with suggestions. I ordered and received it within 2/3 days -from the UK to the parcel motel near me.

Burda 118 04/2010

I muslined a pair last week after my Easter guests had left – I hadn’t sewn for over 3 weeks so was itching to sew. I cut the size 44 with my adjustments and drafted a curved waistband cos they suit my wide hips/narrow waist curves. There is supposed to be two side cargo style pockets but as I was under time pressure I gave up after one. I’d need to practise this technique. My RTW hiking pants only have one pocket and I’ve survived with these for years!!

My other little helpers for MMM are a few pairs of underwear I have made/hope to make over the course of the month to replace all my very old worn out M&S pairs. I found the SOZO free pattern is a good fit and I’ve tried one paire from Gerties Slip pattern using jersey scraps. I would like to try one of Measuretwicecutonce new patterns too.

My running gear is also going to count – the PB jam leggings and XYT top and the Duathlon leggings.

If I have time I’m going to make more seperates- tshirts, shirts, more pants maybe. Then I’ll be on a skirt frenzy for June. I didn’t really like most of the skirts I wore last summer in the heatwave we had so have a few new patterns to try out – Sewaholic Crescent skirt is first on the list.

I will write an occasional post about my progress at MMM14 but I am not going to overdo it, I’ll post on IG or twitter more often, but this is just as much for me to wear a bit more of my me made wardrobe.