I really wanted a 1940s bag to go with my outfits but all the ones I found were made with crochet. I then came across a knitted bag pattern. It was the first project I unravelled yarn from a cardigan for, and used a second hand dress for the lining and handles from another bag.
I'm starting to run out of photos to share! 😆 Here are some floral fascinators I made a few years ago. Because I like to make items from second hand materials, I made these from second hand fake flowers I bought online that were left over from weddings etc. When I used to own a shop, I ran a fascinator workshop for people to come along and make their own. About 6 people attended and it was so much fun to watch others create their own designs.
This dress is one that I embellished rather than made from scratch. I was invited to a work colleagues wedding reception and at the time I was redecorating my daughter's bedroom into my sewing room and didn't have the time to make a dress. I did have in my wardrobe a navy blue dress originally from Joanie clothing, that I bought for £3.10 from a charity shop and still had the tags on it. It fitted really well but I thought it was a little bit plain, and I remembered that I had a pink dress I got free from a clothes swap and a green dress from the charity bargain basket for £1.10. I got these to reuse the fabric and decided to make roses and leaves out of them to decorate the navy dress. So I was making roses and leaves any time I could in-between work and school pick up and finally got it finished a night before the wedding.
I bought this strawberry duvet cover from Matalan last year and wanted to make a skirt out of it. In February, I managed to get tickets to see Of Monsters and Men live in Manchester on the 15th, so thought that it would be cute to make it into a heart shaped pinafore dress with the heart detachable so it could be worn as a dress or a skirt on its own. The whole thing was self drafted by me and I did run into issues trying to get the heart to sit across my torso but I still like it.
Last December I made my daughter a Christmas tree inspired dress and I wanted to make one for myself.
I had some green fabric left over in my stash and bought several metres of light and dark green tulle, as well £10 worth of multicoloured pom-poms for the 'baubles'.
I used the bodice pattern from Simple Sew The Ruby Dress and drafted a pattern for the skirt layers. The base was a tiered petticoat and then I added layers of tulle that I folded in half and then sewed the open long edges to the petticoat to make a pocket. I then filled the tulle pockets with pompoms before seaming all the layers up at the back.
It's such a fun dress to wear and wore it several times over Christmas ☺️
I've just finished this dress on Friday ready in time to see Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox on the weekend for my birthday.
This was my first attempt at grading a sewing pattern. It's an original 1950s dress pattern from Leech Way and was only in a 36 inch bust. It's made of 8 pieces and is a slip on dress with no darts or zips so thought it would make the perfect first project for practicing to grade on. You then add a belt to cinch in the waist and create that iconic 1950s silhouette. Before I cut into the lovely rose print fabric I had, I made a toile first from old fabric as I wanted to check that the fit was ok and if any other adjustments were needed. I discovered that the armhole depth was too big so I needed to take it up by an inch or so. Making a practice piece meant that sewing the one in the fabric I wanted was a lot quicker and the armhole depth was much better.
I am planning to do a Tiktok/Instagram reel as well as a YouTube short and longer video to show how the process.
I came across a pattern a while ago from the 1940s on how to make a turban out of old dresses. During the war years, material and yarn was rationed and as it became harder to source new fabric, people were encouraged to either repair clothing or make new out of old.
I made several fabric turbans in different colours which are great for bad hair days and it inspired me to write my first knitting pattern for a turban.
I knitted this 1930s pattern back in August 2025. I used 100% cotton yarn that I harvested from a jumper I bought from a charity shop for £1.10. I didn't need to size it up as much because of the lacy stitch. I really enjoyed knitting this piece and it's great for wearing on warm sunny days.
Back in April 2025 I was going away to Mallorca for the first time and wanted some "new" items to take with me. I saw a post on Pinterest of 1940s and 50s peasant or off the shoulder tops and wanted to make one myself but didn't have a pattern. I bought a cotton blouse from a charity shop for £3 and cut across the neckline and the waist before adding elastic around the edges to create a cropped off the shoulder top.
I bought a valance bed sheet from a charity shop and thought the ruffled edging would be great on the bottom of a circle skirt, after seeing an image of a similar design on Pinterest. I unpicked the ruffle off first and then cut out a circle skirt from the bedsheets, before sewing the ruffle back on. Unfortunately I miscalculated the depth of the pleats so it came up a bit short on the first try, so had to unpick and do it again 😮💨
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 29 of Me Made May
I really wanted a 1940s bag to go with my outfits but all the ones I found were made with crochet. I then came across a knitted bag pattern. It was the first project I unravelled yarn from a cardigan for, and used a second hand dress for the lining and handles from another bag.
There's a YouTube short available to watch about it here:
youtube.com/shorts/oZqEBgckam...
#memademay #memademay2026 #1940sbag #vintageaccessories #upcycledclothing
4 days ago | [YT] | 18
View 0 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 28 of Me Made May
I'm starting to run out of photos to share! 😆
Here are some floral fascinators I made a few years ago.
Because I like to make items from second hand materials, I made these from second hand fake flowers I bought online that were left over from weddings etc.
When I used to own a shop, I ran a fascinator workshop for people to come along and make their own. About 6 people attended and it was so much fun to watch others create their own designs.
#memademay #memademay2026 #fakeflowers #fascinators #hairflowers
5 days ago | [YT] | 18
View 1 reply
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 27 of Me Made May
This dress is one that I embellished rather than made from scratch.
I was invited to a work colleagues wedding reception and at the time I was redecorating my daughter's bedroom into my sewing room and didn't have the time to make a dress.
I did have in my wardrobe a navy blue dress originally from Joanie clothing, that I bought for £3.10 from a charity shop and still had the tags on it.
It fitted really well but I thought it was a little bit plain, and I remembered that I had a pink dress I got free from a clothes swap and a green dress from the charity bargain basket for £1.10. I got these to reuse the fabric and decided to make roses and leaves out of them to decorate the navy dress.
So I was making roses and leaves any time I could in-between work and school pick up and finally got it finished a night before the wedding.
I made a longer video explaining how I made the roses and decorated the dress here:
https://youtu.be/cx0MrIDcI3c?si=k9bKI...
#memademay #memademay2026 #fabricroses #upcyclingclothing #customisingclothing
1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 20
View 2 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 26 of Me Made May
I bought this strawberry duvet cover from Matalan last year and wanted to make a skirt out of it.
In February, I managed to get tickets to see Of Monsters and Men live in Manchester on the 15th, so thought that it would be cute to make it into a heart shaped pinafore dress with the heart detachable so it could be worn as a dress or a skirt on its own.
The whole thing was self drafted by me and I did run into issues trying to get the heart to sit across my torso but I still like it.
I have uploaded a YouTube short about it here:
youtube.com/shorts/lBcDfG2Ikf...
#memademay #memademay2026 #pinaforedress #heart #strawberries
1 week ago | [YT] | 18
View 0 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 25 of Me Made May
Last December I made my daughter a Christmas tree inspired dress and I wanted to make one for myself.
I had some green fabric left over in my stash and bought several metres of light and dark green tulle, as well £10 worth of multicoloured pom-poms for the 'baubles'.
I used the bodice pattern from Simple Sew The Ruby Dress and drafted a pattern for the skirt layers. The base was a tiered petticoat and then I added layers of tulle that I folded in half and then sewed the open long edges to the petticoat to make a pocket. I then filled the tulle pockets with pompoms before seaming all the layers up at the back.
It's such a fun dress to wear and wore it several times over Christmas ☺️
You can watch a YouTube short on how I made it here:
youtube.com/shorts/6NOnMZssd9...
#memademay #memademay2026 #christmastreedress #sewing #holidayoutfit
1 week ago | [YT] | 17
View 0 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 24 of Me Made May
I've just finished this dress on Friday ready in time to see Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox on the weekend for my birthday.
This was my first attempt at grading a sewing pattern. It's an original 1950s dress pattern from Leech Way and was only in a 36 inch bust. It's made of 8 pieces and is a slip on dress with no darts or zips so thought it would make the perfect first project for practicing to grade on.
You then add a belt to cinch in the waist and create that iconic 1950s silhouette.
Before I cut into the lovely rose print fabric I had, I made a toile first from old fabric as I wanted to check that the fit was ok and if any other adjustments were needed.
I discovered that the armhole depth was too big so I needed to take it up by an inch or so.
Making a practice piece meant that sewing the one in the fabric I wanted was a lot quicker and the armhole depth was much better.
I am planning to do a Tiktok/Instagram reel as well as a YouTube short and longer video to show how the process.
This is the YouTube video I used to help me grade up the pattern:
https://youtu.be/3nGv3FeXHdg?si=5nDTl...
#memademay #memademay2026 #1950sdress #vintagesewingpattern #gradingup
1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 22
View 0 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 23 of Me Made May
I came across a pattern a while ago from the 1940s on how to make a turban out of old dresses. During the war years, material and yarn was rationed and as it became harder to source new fabric, people were encouraged to either repair clothing or make new out of old.
I made several fabric turbans in different colours which are great for bad hair days and it inspired me to write my first knitting pattern for a turban.
If you are interested, you can watch a YouTube short on how I made the fabric turban here:
youtube.com/shorts/ukfCPDQfWv...
There's a free blog post on my website on how to make your own here:
www.ultimatepinupvintage.com/post/sewing-a-1940s-t…
And the link to my knitting pattern on my website is here:
www.ultimatepinupvintage.com/product-page/jumping-…
#memademay #memademay2026 #1940sturban #makedoandmend #1940sfashion
1 week ago | [YT] | 14
View 0 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 22 of Me Made May
I knitted this 1930s pattern back in August 2025. I used 100% cotton yarn that I harvested from a jumper I bought from a charity shop for £1.10.
I didn't need to size it up as much because of the lacy stitch.
I really enjoyed knitting this piece and it's great for wearing on warm sunny days.
You can watch a short on YouTube about it here:
youtube.com/shorts/UdXYe68biY...
This is the short on how I unravelled the original jumper:
youtube.com/shorts/ypnGYIdxBh...
#memademay #memademay2026 #1930s #vintageknitting #cottonyarn
1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 28
View 2 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 21 of Me Made May
Back in April 2025 I was going away to Mallorca for the first time and wanted some "new" items to take with me.
I saw a post on Pinterest of 1940s and 50s peasant or off the shoulder tops and wanted to make one myself but didn't have a pattern.
I bought a cotton blouse from a charity shop for £3 and cut across the neckline and the waist before adding elastic around the edges to create a cropped off the shoulder top.
You can watch a YouTube short on how I made it here:
youtube.com/shorts/n_VLNnhSBJ...
#memademay #memademay2026 #croptop #offtheshoulder #sewing
1 week ago | [YT] | 18
View 3 replies
Emily@Ultimate Pin-Up
Day 20 of Me Made May
I bought a valance bed sheet from a charity shop and thought the ruffled edging would be great on the bottom of a circle skirt, after seeing an image of a similar design on Pinterest.
I unpicked the ruffle off first and then cut out a circle skirt from the bedsheets, before sewing the ruffle back on.
Unfortunately I miscalculated the depth of the pleats so it came up a bit short on the first try, so had to unpick and do it again 😮💨
You can watch a YouTube short here about it:
youtube.com/shorts/FiOfEISUhi...
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 16
View 0 replies
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