My Me Made May 2019 pledge

Well, after a few years of not participating in Me Made May, I had an idea yesterday. A notable day, obviously! I wear me-made garments every day now so the challenge needs to have something in it that really challenges me now. However, like a lot of sewists out there, if you've got quite a few hand sewn things, it probably means you also have quite a few garments that rarely, or have never (!) seen the light of day. So, that's my challenge and here's my pledge: 

'I, Joyce, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May 2019. I endeavour to wear two seldom or never worn makes each week and to blog any un-blogged garments. I will also decide whether to keep them, alter or donate them, during May 2019' 

I inadvertently started off well yesterday with this challenge but it doesn't count as it's still April! I'll save that shirt for sometime in May! I've got behind in my blogging so it should also make me catch up with that too. 

Anyone else out there with a pledge for Me Made May 2019?

New sleep masks

I don't know about you but I've got into the habit of using sleep masks to help get a good night's sleep. This is especially useful when the sun rises earlier and earlier in Scotland and it can be light at 4am in high summer. The ones I'd been using for years were free when we flew with Virgin Atlantic to the USA for a holiday on the west coast. But those eye masks were never intended for long term use and the elastic was really suffering from repeated washing. It's taken ages for me to get around to tracing a template from the old ones, adding a seam allowance and finding the fabric and elastic to make new masks. But here they are!

I also wanted the new sleep masks to be made from natural fibres so I dived in to my cotton scraps that I use to make pocket bags in trousers and jeans, and got to work. All in all it took me less than an hour to make one mask. Why did I wait so long to replace the old ones?!?

If you're interested, I used four layers of cotton fabric so the light wouldn't penetrate too much and so I wouldn't have to use interfacing. I pulled at the elastic a wee bit, just to relax it before sewing it into the masks. I left a gap along the top of the mask so I could turn it inside out, then did a row of edge stitching to enclose all the raw edges. I know some sleep masks encase the elastic inside a tube of fabric but I didn't like that idea. I just feel it would be too bulky to sleep on.

Hey, it's not exciting sewing but for me it's an essential! And it uses some fabric scraps and end bits of elastic that are too small to use in waistbands. Result!