The Mae sew-along winners announced!!!

 I have tallied all your votes and the margins were tight! Wow did you guys get on board with the voting, Crazy!

So without further ado, here are the winners of the Mae sew-along contest!!!!

1st  Prize Winner

 Sew Charleston

2nd Prize Winner

PAUNNET

3rd Prize Winner

HANDMADE BY HEATHER B

Winners please be sure to get in contact with via email: abbyhorskins@gmail.com to claim your goodies!!! I'm so excited for you to receive them they are awesome.

A round of applause to everyone who participated, you gals did a fabulous job they  are all gorgeous and i hope you feel glam wearing them :)
 
Remember this Friday the 4th the new Bluegingerdoll pattern will be released!!

Abby
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NEW PATTERN COMING SOON!!!

Get excited peoples and pencil this in your diaries, the new Bluegingerdoll pattern will be released on the 4th of October!!!!!!!

Abby

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Vote for your favorite MAE!!!!!

Time to cast your votes, folks!

This so, so exciting! All the entries are so darn beautiful! I'm kinda glad its not me voting, i truly don't think i could pick between them all, I'd want to give everyone a prize, haha.

So below is how to vote and  its real simple to:

    1. Check out  the fabulous contestants listed below.                      

     2.   Then cast your vote on the  voting form and and pick your favorite.
 
Once your all done with voting, i will tally them to find out who YOU chose as the 3 winners!

Due to the extension for more time to upload your finished Mae blouses, the winners will now  be announced on Monday 30th September (aest) so you will need to cast your vote by 29th Sunday (aest).

In case you have forgotten, here is what the lucky ducks could win:

Below is the fun part, the Contestants!!!

So get voting!!


Paunnet

Sew Charleston

Handmade by Heather B

Sew Classic

Mmi Crafts

Have fun  voting!!!!


Abby
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Quick reminder: Last chance to enter!!!

Just a quick reminder that this is your last chance to upload your photos  of your finish Mae blouse to the  Flickr group, to  enter the Mae sew-along contest and win cool stuff! 
I have extended the cut off date until the 24th to give everyone some more extra time and have the chance to participate.

So hop to it, voting will being here on the blog on the 25th September 2013! Yay!!!

Abby
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Strawberry Mae...

For  all of you still sewing up your Mae blouses at the moment to enter the Mae sew-along contest or those of you in need of a little inspiration, check out this most lovely of loveliest Mae blouse made by Heather over on her blog handmadebyheather.

Heather was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about her sewing experience with the Mae blouse, so take it away Heather:

What type of fabric did you use? What inspired your choice of fabric?

My Mae blouse is made from some vintage cotton purchased off of Etsy.  It's most likely quilting cotton, which I usually shy away from for garments, but I'll make an exception for a vintage fruity print.  I love fruit prints, especially ones that aren't too cute.

 Did your Mae blouse live up to the image you had in your mind?

Yes!  I've mentioned before that my figure is probably just a larger version of yours.  Makes it easy to picture how Bluegingerdoll patterns will look on me, just add some more cake ease.

How did you decide to reflect your personal style in the pattern?

Mostly through fabric choice. I wanted a top that was classic looking but fun. Also I match my vintage inspired pieces with modern shoes and accessories. Otherwise I just look like I'm wearing a Halloween costume.  

Tell us a bit about your sewing process, any tweaks you made?

I started with some of my normal fitting tweaks, a forward shoulder adjustment and adding more ease in the waist and hip area.  I think the neckline is lovely as is, but I also like flashing my collar bones, so I decided to cut it back.   I did this by tracing the scallop edge with a clear ruler 5/8" away from the pattern edge.  This change makes the centre scallops larger but the neckline still looks great.  Make the same change to the facings and sew as instructed.

 What thoughts do you have about the project?

This was a fun little project to sew together other than the fact I can't see any markings on this fabric!  Putting in the buttonholes was a bit of a hit and miss affair.  It all worked out in the end and I can even button all those buttons myself!

Have you got  any plans for any future Mae Blouses?

Oh yes, I wanted to sew along with everyone else so I'm making a white with black polka dot version. It's gonna have some red accents just for fun.

Thanks Heather for sewing up the Mae blouse so, so  beautifully!


The Mae giveaway is still very much open to all who wish to participate, there is still time to upload your finished Mae blouse to the Flickr group, and go in the running to win some fab prizes! I will extend the cut off date, due to a quite a few queries from you all that want to participate but are a little bit behind. So you will have until Tuesday the 24th to  upload your photos,  then lets the voting begin!!!

I have spied some really gorgeous Mae blouses in the Flickr group already and all i can say is WOW! They all look so AMAZING..  I'm even more excited to see  more of your beautiful Mae blouses!



Abby
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MAE SEW-ALONG # 7 HEM & FINISHING TOUCHES & DONE!!

Hello again! Today is the final post for the Mae sew-along, we made it, Yay! I am getting so excited to see all your finished Mae blouses and open the contest for all you folks to win cool stuff, very,very exciting! 
Thank you to all who joined in, i have seen a lot of brand new faces, and its  so lovely to meet you all! And to all the ole regulars thank you for all your continued support for the patterns, the whole lot of ya are good eggs!

So let's kick off straight away. 

Yesterday's post we  attached the armhole facings and stitched up the bodice side seams, so if  you have completed these steps, then keep reading on. For the final post of the Mae sew-along we will be finishing off our Mae blouses by stitching up the hem, the buttonholes and sewing on the buttons. I hope you have some cute buttons ready :)

OK, let's do this:

HEM

1. First things, first create a 1/4'' hem, by folding up the bottom edge of the blouse. 
2. Stitch and press.





2. Now turn the bodice  back edge to the right side of the blouse, again along the button down back fold lines that should have been marked. This step is  just like we did at the neckline when attaching the neckline facing.. remember? Need a refresher, check it here.
3. Once you have folded that back edge to the right side of the blouse, stitch across this folded bodice back edge,  3/4'' away from the 1/4'' lower hem edge you have already created.The photo below will probably make this clearer.



Now,  this cool little trick coming up will get your hem corners nicely finished and professionally looking. 
4.Trim the bodice back edge close the stitching you just created, 3/4'' up from the hem edge. Trim it away to within 5/8'' of  the inner edge of the back bodice edge. Again see the photo below, it shows this step clearly.

5. You can now turn the centre back facing back  to the inside of the blouse, and as you do the 1/4'' hem you created will want to naturally fold underneath it, if it doesn't then make it! Again this step is basically the same as  what we did at the neckline edge.

Next up the final step to creating our hems.
6. Fold up the bottom edge of the blouse 1'' and over the bodice back edge.
7. Stitch and press your new hem.

And there you have it, you have completed your bodice hem, Ta Da!

Buttonholes & Buttons

Our last couple of steps till we are done, we need to create our buttonholes and sew on our buttons.

1. On the right side of the blouse, stitch the button holes horizontally into the left side of the bodice back.

2. Lap the left of the bodice over the right of the bodice back and match the buttons placement with the button holes already sewn in. Now you can sew on your fancy buttons you have chosen.

If you cant find the perfect button, why not make your own? Have a squizz at the recent tutorial i did on the how to make fabric covered buttons for your Mae.

The very last job before your done is to give your  newly created Mae blouse a nice big press all over, especially the scalloped neckline! 

Now go and out on your new Mae blouse and strut your stuff, oh and take some photos and upload them to the Flickr group!

For those of you who have had a memory lapse, below are the details  on how you can enter  into the Mae sew-along contest and also the most important part.. the dates you need to have them uploaded and ready to put up for voting:

One  must upload  your completed Mae blouse photos onto the Bluegingerdoll Flickr group  and also use the  tag Mae  on your photos to officially enter into the contest and go in the running to win the  prizes. Don't tag, not entered - Easy.

The sew-along finishes up on the 18th of September ( today), so  you will need to have your photos uploaded  to the Flickr group by  22nd Sunday (aest), but this is flexible so you are a little behind then yell out, we will work something out ;)

Myself and some other very helpful elves will be choosing several favorites ( depending on how many entries roughly between 5-10)  from the Flickr group that will then be voted on by the sewing  public, that means you fine folk  out there.For the chance to win the cool  prizes. 

Voting will opened up here on the blog  around the 23/24th September and close on the  27/28th September (aest). Again this is flexible, i want everyone to have the opportunity to finish their Mae and enter the contest!

After all the votes are tallied up,  the  winners  will then be  announced in the following days thereafter, here on the blog.

And there you have it! Thanks again for all of you who followed along, I've had a blast and i think each sew-along is getting bigger and better each time.

Before i go here is another puppy photo for y'all, just cause they are so friggin cute!! I tell ya tho, its been an exhausting 5 days since they arrived, phew... So i apologize for any errors in any of the posts since last Friday, i have been functioning on on a couple hours of sleep each night and i am delirious.... these little critters just need lots of help in these early days, to get them on the right road to being strong and healthy :)
For those of you who are interested or even if you are in need of a adorable puppy fix, i am  posting A LOT  of photos on Instagram/bluegingerdoll  at the moment!!!! :)

 

  



Abby

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MAE SEW-ALONG # 6 ARMHOLE FACINGS & SIDE SEAMS

Do a little dance y'all cause we are heading towards the finishing line!!!!

Today is the second last sew-along post, Yay!  I hope everyone is enjoying themselves and creating some gorgeous Mae blouses!? I am starting a see a flurry of Mae blouse hysteria around the blogosphere and i soooo  can't to see them all when they are finished, they look amazing.

So today's post we will be attaching our armhole facings and stitching up the bodice side seams.

Quick recap, yesterday's post was all about stitching on the neckline facing and creating that perfect signature scalloped neckline on the Mae blouse. If you have finished all of those steps, than read on...

Attach the armhole facings 

Before we attach the armhole facings to the bodice , we need to finish the raw edges of the armhole facings, in the same way we did on the neckline facing. 
Once you have tidied up the raw edges we can attached the armhole facings to the bodice.

Step 1. Right sides together, pin the armhole facing to the bodice armhole. Stitch armhole facing to the bodice. Trim and finish the seams.

**Tip: If you aren't a fan of the finishing your armhole with the facings that are  included with the Mae  pattern, you could simply finish them with some cute matching or contrast bias binding and achieve the same clean edge finish.

BODICE SIDE SEAMS

1. Open the armhole facings away from the bodice. 
2.Right sides together, stitch the bodice side seams together .
3.Finish the seams and press.

FINAL STEPS

Now that you have stitched up the bodice side seams, you can now turn the armhole facings to the inside of the blouse and give them a good press. Just like we previously did with the neckline facing, we will also tack the armhole facing to the shoulder seam, to keep them in place and nice and secure.

When you have finished the above steps, your Mae blouse should now be looking pretty much well done, except for the hem and the buttonholes and buttons on the back, which we will cover in tomorrow's final sew-along post.

Until then, refresh your sewing mind with  what you can win once the Mae sew-along is all done and dusted:

1 x $50 fabric voucher from Sewbox.
Check out the  beautiful range of fabrics they have in stock, this voucher will get you some pretty cool fabric for your stash.

1 x $35 voucher from A Fashionable Stitch,  for you to spend on anything in this fabulous shop which stocks lovely,  hard to find and unique sewing notions. 

1 x Pattern voucher, for you  to pick out any  pattern of your choice from the  Indie Stitches shop. This indie pattern shop  caters for you, the lovers of Indie patterns as well as  supports all of us indie pattern designers!

Ahh how exciting, i hope  these prizes have inspired you to sew up a most f***king gorgeous Mae blouse EVER!!!


Reminder, if you haven't already done so, you need to join up to the  Flickr group, so you can upload your final Mae blouse to go into the running to win these awesome giveaway prizes... Go on quickly now ;)

OK lovely folks see ya tomorrow for the final Mae sew-along post! Woo hoo! 

Abby
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MAE SEW-ALONG #5 CREATE & ATTACH NECK FACINGS

Welcome back sew-alongers! We are truly heading towards the end of the Mae sew-along, soon it will be time to post up all your finished Mae blouses, get ready to vote and try and win those awesome prizes!

So lets keep the momentum going, and get started:

Quick recap, yesterday you should have stitched  up the bodice shoulder seams and back bodice edges. So your Mae blouse should be looking pretty good by now, like a real blouse :)

OK, ready? Let's go...

CREATE  NECKLINE FACINGS

1. The time has come to stitch up our neckline facings and attach them to your Mae bodice. So with right sides together stitch  the front neck facing (4) to the back neck facings (3) at the shoulder seams. 

2. Finish your seams and press open.

3. To make your Mae just as pretty on the inside as well as the outside, its a good idea to finish the raw edges of the neckline facing, just makes it all pretty. You can either finish off the raw edges of the neckline facing either by creating a small 1/4'' hem around the outer edge and stitching it down or you can simply use your overlocker/serger  to finish the outer raw edge, either way will work, its up to you which you prefer.

  BODICE BACK EDGE 

OK so you have your neckline facings ready to go, but  for the moment, just put them to the side. Turn your attention to the back edges of the bodice.

4. Turn the centre back folded to the right side of the bodice along the button down back fold lines, which you would have marked with you traced your pattern.

5. Baste it down along the top edge of the  neckline, roughly at the same measurement as the stay-stitching on the neckline.

ATTACH NECKLINE FACINGS

OK, with the back bodice edge done, now you can grab your neckline facing you created cause we're ready to attach it to the bodice.

1. Right sides together pin the neck facing to the blouse neckline edge. Matching each scallop curve and shoulder seams as you go. You will notice that the back neck facing will hang over the back edge a little bit, that's OK just leave it for the time being, do not trim it yet.

A nifty little tip to help you stitch a swoon worthy scalloped neckline, is to mark the depth of each scallop point. Measure  the depth of each scallop on the neckline  facing and using a marker, chalk etc mark the depth. Doing this will help you stitch to the correct depth on each scallop, leaving you with perfectly symmetrical scallop shapes.

1. Once you have marked your scallop depth, you can start stitching  the entire neck edge carefully and slowly around each scallop. Pivot at each inner point of each of the scallops.

I have also recently posted a  tutorial on how to sew with scallops, and achieve the perfect neckline on the Mae blouse, which i recommend you  check it out, here . 

2. Trim seam and clip curves all along the seam. Cut a notch at each inner point of the scallop, to remove the excess fabric.

Now that you have attached the neckline facing, you can trim that excess neckline fabric that is hanging over at the bodice back edge.

Staying at the bodice back edge, we are going to create a nice clean finish at the neckline edge. Apologies if it is a little hard to see the upcoming process on how to do this, it was a tad hard to  photograph clearly :)

Basically,  what you want to do is fold the back edge to inside of the bodice, folding the neckline edge under the back edge facing you created

1. Fold the neckline facing to the inside of the blouse.

2.Fold the bodice back edge to the inside of the blouse as well, folding the neckline facing under it as you go. You notice it will create a nice finished corner edge at the neckline.

Below is a look at what it should look like once your done. Give a good press with a warm iron.

 Again check out the tutorial on 'sewing with scallops' to find out how to finish off the your Mae blouse neckline nicely.

TACK 

  Tack - To hand -sew once section of a garment to another with a few somewhat loose stitches, to keep in place. 

 

You can now tack these facings and bodice back edge together at the corner point where they meet, to keep them nice and tidy and in place. Also tack the neckline facings to the bodice shoulder seam will also help them stay securely in place.

 

Tomorrow's sew-along post we will be attaching the armhole facings, and stitching up the bodice side seams. 

We are heading towards the finish line! Yay! See ya tomorrow!

Abby

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