One last Self-Stitched September post

And then I promise it'll be back to crafting instead of wardrobe analysis! For awhile, anyway.

I wanted to take a little time to really look at the outfits I put together for this and see what worked and what didn't work. So I'm going to pick my favorite and least favorite looks for work/church and casual outfits.

Favorite Outfits: Work/Church: Days 1, 8, 13, 19, 26

Common threads: Each day had something with a print on it. (3 tops, 1 skirt.) And mixed with something solid. There's color involved. (It's harder to see on the last day, but the print top has both red and light blue against the black, so it really pops.) There's layering involved--if nothing else, a camisole under the shirts--and a mix of textures. There's also bold, funky jewelry involved. Days 1, 8 and 26 made me feel rather put-together and ready to take on the challenges of the day. Days 13 and 19 were a little girlier, I think, but in a somewhat artistic sort of way.

 Least favorite work/church outfits: Days 15, 16, 29

For these outfits, going a little more into specifics. Day 15 looked and felt pretty good to me when I was wearing it, actually--I just feel like on the camera, it comes off as a bit dull. Like I really needed something with color to step it up a bit. For day 16, it's kind of a combination of not liking the way that length of capris looks on me at all (thinking I may chop them into knee-length shorts after that), and feeling like the shirt looks a bit sloppy. I don't really like the way the gathering falls around my chest, and I've been meaning to go back to this one almost since I made it and add some snaps or something to help the crossover bits actually stay where I want them to. (This shirt may become a future WRW project.) For day 29, I have to admit that it's the blouse-- not really liking the way that looks on me at all. Or the way the photo makes where my camisole is rather obvious. (It probably would have been better had I used my cream-colored one instead of white, but alas, that one was in the laundry.) I'm thinking next time I may lace it less tightly. Or go back to my norm of wearing it with my Eva jacket. (It was just too warm to do so.)

Favorite Casual Outfits: Days 4, 9, 12, 24, 30

Common threads: They were comfortable to wear. There was always a knit shirt involved (even on the plaid button-up day, I was wearing a t-shirt beneath.) They were comfortable. But I still felt like I looked a little nicer than just straight-up grunginess. Again, prints were common, though not as much. Same with layering.

Least Favorite Casual Outfit:

Really, day 6 is the only one I out-and-out dislike. For most of the rest of them, I look at them and feel like maybe I should have tried a bit harder to dress up some of those t-shirts with accessories, but I don't hate the outfits. I just feel like they need a little more effort. As far as this one goes, I think it was just a combination of factors--it's not that I dislike my shirt, I just don't like it with those capris. And the lack of jewelry. And my grungy cleaning hair.

Conclusion: Nicer knit tops (like the ones I wore on days 2, 23 and 30) are definitely something I should be adding more to my wardrobe, since I liked the way those ended up looking in my outfits. Prints are not leaving my wardrobe anytime soon, although incorporating more solids to mix with them wouldn't hurt. Button-down shirts can work well for a casual outfit for me, as long as I incorporate some layering in there. Funky jewelry is a style signature for me, and one I should just run with since I make it anyway.

So thanks for bearing with me this month, and I hope you've enjoyed seeing these clothes I've been showing you somewhat in action, even though the majority of the bloggers I "met" through this challenge put me to shame on their photos!

A couple of other random thoughts, in moving forward:

1.  So, do you remember how I wanted to do that reconstruction challenge they were having at BurdaStyle, and decided not to because I didn't have enough fabric to execute my vision and it was more of a time crunch than I can handle at this point? Well, BurdaStyle got its revenge...they sent out an email to their members on Monday with a code to get a rather nice discount at Mood for 3 days. Yes, that Mood. My original plan was to get me some silk jersey-- I'm having thoughts of that little black dress that supposedly every woman should own, and I don't yet. (Justification: I can wear it for performances. And my next cousin's wedding, if I can break the family wedding fashion jinx.) More on that later, because as it turns out, the silk jersey had the excluded fabric code on it. Boo. (As did the silk organza, which I wanted to get a bit of for couture technique practice. Double boo.) But I did fall in love with a couple of cotton jersey prints, so I placed an order anyway. Bad BurdaStyle, enabling me to add to my stash!
2. I was out of town this weekend visiting friends, but since I have a tradition with these particular friends of crafting while watching sci-fi, I did get some more jewelry done. Which means I have quite a bit of photography to do.
3. I'm in this weird mental place right now where I think about sewing for several hours a day (while I'm stuck at work, since the garden center has been rather dead all week due to cold, nasty, rainy weather)....and then haven't had the energy or motivation to do any at the end of the day. I mean, on Sunday I didn't get home until about 10:30, last night I went rock climbing, and tonight I didn't get done teaching till 8 and then had to deal with necessary stuff like actually wash the clothes I already have. Hoping I get the mojo back soon, since I have the muslin for my next project all cut out and ready to go! Maybe tomorrow being Wardrobe Refashion Wednesday will help...
4. Speaking of Wardrobe Refashion Wednesday, I just wanted to make an official statement that I didn't exactly skip it last week... I was just using it to finish that most recent top (which I still need to officially blog.) By a stretch of the imagination, it counts, since I was refashioning a dress into a top. So what if it was a dress I'd never actually finished making in the first place?
5. On a much more random note, I downloaded the desktop version of Picasa (where my photos for this blog get stored anyway) on a whim today. I think I'm sold....it'll make it so much easier to organize my mountain of photos! Plus now I can make much more effortless collages for this blog than Photoshop lets me make. (I'll probably still keep using Photoshop for edits, though.)

Self-Stitched September, Days 29-30 (and closing thoughts)

So today is the last day of Self-Stitched September. Here we go....

Day 29:

The Details:
Top- Self-stitched, "Gypsy" blouse
Pants/shoes: purchased
Jewelry- Self-made, the "Titania" set

The Context:
A band/teaching day that was slightly heavier on the teaching than usual, due to some rescheduling. And it's also starting to cool down just a bit-- not enough to ditch the sandals quite yet, but enough that I was quite comfortable in the pants and barely 3/4-sleeved blouse. I was also quite happy with the jewelry choice--I think the only thing I've worn this with before is the dress that I specifically designed this set to go with, so it's good to mix it up at last!






Day 30:

And the piece de resistance....

The Details:
Top: Self-stitched, finished last night! (Loosely based on Simplicity 2883)
Jeans: Thrifted
Shoes: The Birks (but this will definitely be switched to boots before I go out tonight...)
Earrings/bracelet: Self-made, and finished about 10 minutes ago!

The Context:
As stated in a recent post, this was supposed to be a dress for a cousin's upcoming wedding. That was a fail. But I think it makes a pretty nice shirt! So since I was supposed to be at work, and the garden center didn't even open today due to the entire East Coast getting drenched, I'm just at home until I do my one lesson and go out for Bible study. (So naturally I made something. And will likely do some cutting out for my next sewing project this afternoon)

I'll post more details about the top and jewelry soon. (Like when I'm not wearing them and can take more detailed pictures.)

Closing Thoughts:

I'm really glad that I did this experiment-- I think that it was a rather valuable tool to go along with the reassessment of my personal style that I did earlier this year. I'd like to do a post later on where I re-evaluate the most and least successful outfits, but that can wait--at the moment, I'd rather reflect on the broader topics while they're still fresh in my mind.

• The easiest part: Choosing self-stitched things to wear for a work context.
• The hardest part: Hands-down, taking the daily outfit photos. The fall is traditionally my busiest time, and this one more so than usual due to adding a couple of extra activities in (Bible study, rock climbing, etc). So for the most part, my pictures were hastily taken when I had time, rather uncreative, and really not the best lighting at all. I have a lot more respect for fashion bloggers now, because that takes a lot more dedication than I thought!
• The most surprising part: How hard it was to find more casual things to wear that fit the criteria. And also that I often ended up being dissatisfied with those outfits.
• The other most surprising part: How much I missed a lot of my thrifted items. There were multiple occasions where I felt like wearing one of my great secondhand finds, but had to find something I'd actually made instead. Which led to bendings of the rules like Day 18 (in which I only mended the shirt) and Day 28 (where I basically gave up and resorted to jewelry).

So I feel like I learned a couple of valuable things:

1.  I may need to start considering what I'm sewing/buying as part of my wardrobe as a whole. It's no secret that I'm drawn to crazy prints and such, but then I tend to wear those items with the same thing all the time. Gwen made a comment on my last SSS post asking if I'd ever considered wearing a certain blouse with a certain skirt that I'd worn a couple of days apart, and the thought was pretty mind-blowing to me because I'd never even considered it! I know from following on the Flickr site and various blogs that some people felt that their contributions were getting boring because of repeats--I'm on the opposite extreme and surprised at how mix-and-matchable my wardrobe often isn't. (But don't think I'm ditching the prints entirely. Because I'm not.)
2. The most surprising thing is, I really didn't like a lot of my casual outfits. At least, not the ones that were solely for bumming around the house. Ok, to be honest, I didn't like photographing them. So part of that may have been subconsciously dressing for the camera, and I'm certainly not going to go and ditch all of my t-shirts, but now I'm feeling like I need to re-evaluate my casual style in particular.
3. In contrast, I discovered that I actually like the way I dress for work. At least in the warmer season. So I guess my style evaluation experiment had some success after all!
4. Taking pictures of myself, even with a tripod, and still getting a decent shot of my creations is hard. And not something I particularly enjoy. So yeah, you're still going to be seeing a lot of Donna the Dummy around here!
5. I did like how this made me consider the outfit as a whole--not just individual pieces, but stuff like "do those two silhouettes really go together? Can I wear that with something else?"
6.  I often felt like I would have had a lot more fun with putting outfits together if I didn't spend half the day in jeans and a grungy work-required t-shirt. Especially on the days where I wasn't set to teach afterward-- I think those were probably the days of the worst casual outfits. So I think my job definitely affects my outlook on how I'm dressing--actually, it was also that job that got me started on the personal style project in the first place!
7. There are a lot of really fun sewing bloggers that I didn't know existed before this month. So now I have several new lovely ladies to "follow"! (And probably more, once I finish clicking through the participant list-- I only got about halfway.)
8. For a month focused on self-sewn items, I did surprisingly little sewing! But the related thing I realized is that I don't feel a driving need to have an entirely self-stitched wardrobe. I was perfectly content to mix in things I made with things I thrifted or otherwise bought--though I've certainly become more conscious of the impact that store-bought fashion has on people and the environment over the past several years, my main motivation for sewing has been and still is the fun of creating things that I can use to express myself. And I also love learning new techniques and improving my abilities at pattern manipulation and fitting. Besides, thrift shopping is too much fun to give up!

So, in conclusion, I am glad I did this, even though it got a little tedious at the end. I think it helped me identify some holes in my wardrobe that will need to be filled. As for whether I'd do it again, I think I would....truth be told, I'm strongly tempted to do a mini-version in the winter, even if there's nothing official, just because of how much it helped me figure out what I do and don't like about how I dress. And winter is definitely the most challenging fashion season for me. Hopefully next time I'll have a little more time to get better pictures!

Self-Stitched September, Days 22-28

To be perfectly honest, I haven't had a whole lot of time over the last several days to photograph. So you're going to get a lot of crappy pics. Sorry. And since I've got several days to post and not a lot of time to do it, I'm going to be focusing mainly on the self-stitched elements.

Day 22:

The Details: 
Blouse: Self-stitched, "Spring Fever" blouse
Purchased capris/sandals/camisole....don't remember what jewelry I wore this day. :-(

The Context: This past Wednesday was a super-busy teaching day for me  And also still a fairly warm one--not sure how fallish this looks, but it was comfortable.

 Day 23:
The Details: 
Top: Self-stitched, "French Vanilla"
Purchased capris/sandals, thrifted sweater
Jewelry: self-made, "Autumn Leaves"

The Context:
A little bit of teaching, then dinner at Boston Market and Bible study with my friends. I wore the sleeveless top because it was still warm, and the basement where we meet usually gets really hot once everyone's in there, but I was glad I thought to brought the sweater because it was actually a bit chilly this time!

And here's a closeup of the jewelry on me--this is one of my go-to sets this time of year.















Day 24:

 The Details:
Skirt: self-stitched, sort of.... it was purchased from Dharma Trading Company, but I did the embroidery.
Top/sandals: purchased
Jewelry: the Celtic malachite set that I showed before.

The Context: 
Off work again. So this was a good pick for a day of chilling around the house and sewing. Though I do have to confess that I changed before the evening-- I was going to a party in which the main draw was busting out all of those games that we used to play as kids, and I knew Twister was going to be involved so I needed to dress appropriately--no v-necks, and definitely no skirts!

 A closeup of the embroidery.

Day 25:

The Details:
Top/sandals: purchased
Jewelry: same as 2 days ago
Skirt: Self-stitched, "Dirty Hippie" skirt 

The Context:
I had a family bridal shower to attend today, for my cousin's fiancee. I wasn't sure how dressy it would be, so a casual skirt was just the ticket.

 Day 26: 
The Context:
Pants/cami/shoes: purchased
Print top: thrifted
Sweater: Self-stitched, "Sweater Song" cardi
Belt: ModCloth
Necklace: Lia Sophia

The Details: 
I was scheduled to work on tech crew at church today--operating a video camera this time, which involves sitting on an elevated platform. Clearly, a skirt or dress was out of the question. And since it was cooler and rainy today (and my church is always cold anyway), layers were the way to go! I'll be honest, though-- I ended up ditching the belt before I left the house. This is the time of year when my seasonal allergies are the worst, and that often results in me feeling easily nauseated in the mornings. So having an elastic band around my waist and pressing on my stomach was just not doing it for me that day!

.
Day 27:
The Details: 
Blouse-- self-stitched, the "Chevron" blouse
Jeans-thrifted
Sneakers: Payless
Jewelry: self-made, but no closeup pic yet. Sorry.

The Context: 
This outfit was kind of a rush job-- it's the same jeans I wore to my retail job, with the blouse thrown on to take it out of the realm of too casual to teach. (Not that the adult student I have, my only one on Mondays, cares. But still.) I knew I wouldn't be wearing this for long, since I went rock climbing last night with some friends, so I didn't feel like going all out. (Incidentally, I also discovered that I feel a LOT more comfortable in this blouse with a cami underneath! But the one that matches best is the one I'd worn the day before.)

Day 28 (today):
The Details:
I'm scraping by on a technicality today-- I made the jewelry, but the top was thrifted, and the rest of my clothes were regular store-bought.


The Context: 
Another away-from-home teaching day. And I think that by this point in the month, I'm getting a little burned-out on the challenge. I was looking in my closet after my retail job today, and nothing I had sewn was inspiring me at all. Out of everything I haven't already worn this month, it was either too warm or too cold to pull it out. (Except for a couple of my skirts, but I was not feeling a skirt today either.) So I figured that secondhand is the next best thing to homemade for the purposes of this challenge, and it's days like this that are the reason I added the accessory clause.




Two more days. And I will certainly have thoughts to write once this challenge is done. So I'll save it for then.

In the meantime, I've also been making some jewelry (Sunday's activity), and I have some stuff percolating in my head there. And now that I'm basically done dinner, other than the apple pie in the fridge that's calling my name, I'm planning on fully taking advantage of a bit of unexpected free time to work some more on salvaging that dress....with any luck, I'll have a new shirt by the time this month is out!

Self-Stitched September, Days 19-21

Because I haven't taken today's pictures yet. Most of these are for Sunday, though.

Day 19:

The Details:
Top-- Self-stitched, Simplicity 5595 (another one that pre-dates the blog)
Skirt--Self-stitched, a repeat of the "Baby's In Black" skirt.
Camisole-purchased
Shoes- Payless
Necklace- a green amber one that my parents gave me for Christmas one year-- I saw it in a catalog and fell in love with it, so my mom tracked it down. It's so Elven-looking. I love it.

The Context: 
This is what I wore for church today.

It was also cool enough this morning to wear my self-stitched lightweight jacket--from a modified Vogue 1266 (shortened quite a bit). This is another pre-blog one. The outside is denim...

...so the inside needed to be more fun.

(I'm thinking I may need to do some retrospective posts when this is all done, to showcase some of these older projects!)

Sunday was also "Talk Like A Pirate" day, and I love silly made-up holidays like that, so I decided to celebrate with my outfit a bit while I was bumming around at home and sewing.. Since it was still warmer, I just left the skirt on (it's comfortable) and switched to this self-made pirate t-shirt that I did a couple of years ago (around when Pirates of the Caribbean was out and I was very much in a piratey mood.) Just a basic t-shirt that I rehemmed to a nicer length, and I also did the pirate stencil on it.

Day 20:

Now this was another slacker day-- between work at the garden center, needing to do some cleaning before C. came over for some crafting and Farscape/season premiere of Chuck viewing, and actually taking some time to exercise (and then needing to shower afterward), I didn't actually get dressed for real until 5 PM! So I kept it simple with this thrifted black shirt that I self-stitched the daisies around the neckline on. (This was just a quickly snapped picture from around 11 PM, which was the only time I had to take it, so please ignore the fact that I looks like I'm ready to eat your brains. Braaaaaaaains....)

Day 21: Ahhhh, that's better. No more zombie face.

The Details: 
Top: Self-stitched, the Kaylee tunic
Pants: Self-stitched, a repeat of the band teacher pantsuit pants
Earrings: Self-made
Shoes: purchased

The Context: 
Another of my more intense teaching days, since this is the drive-around one. And shiny shirts are always fun.

Self-Stitched September, Days 15-18

Day 15

The Details:
Blouse: The Painter Blouse
Camisole and trouser jeans: purchased
Jewelry: the "Air" set from the Elements series
With added kitty bonus!

The Context:
Another band/heavy teaching day.  I also went to a Lia Sophia party that one friend was hosting and another friend was selling at-- I was joking with the seller about wearing homemade jewelry to her party and she said she'd rather have that than a competing  company's! (I did get complements on the necklace too.)

D

Day 16
 (This was the part of the week where things started getting busy and I didn't have time to deal with taking really good pics-- sorry!)

The Details:
Blouse: The "Lizzie" shirt
Capris: purchased
Jewelry: a Celtic knot/moonstone set I got as a gift
Shoes: the Birks

The Context: 
Rushing around after work at the garden center to get things cleaned up enough for the one lesson I had to teach (for a family friend who doesn't care if I wear jeans!)

D

Day 17:

The Details: I wore this reconstructed t-shirt--my first real t-shirt reconstruction, from my college days. (I combined the two shirts, modeling the pattern after a shirt I already owned, and did a reverse applique from the red  to be like the Chinese symbol for "harmony". The earrings on there were also ones I made, though you can't see them too well. Aside from that, I just wore the usual jeans and sandals.

The Context: 
My hours at the garden center got cut back again. So it was super-casual for me again today, since I spent the afternoon sewing and the evening dogsitting/making jewelry  (Didn't want to wear anything too nice for the dogsitting, since she's a rather needy dog who likes to drop her drool-covered toys on my lap and/or craft projects!)

Day 18

The Details:
Shirt: Thrifted (though technically, there is some self-stitching on there because I had to mend some holes in it before I could wear it!)
Jeans, sandals: purchased
Jewelry: Self-strung. Glass plum-colored beads. This one also pre-dates the blog.

The Context:
I know I'm kind of stretching the rules here today, but I wanted to have something both cute and comfortable today. Comfortable because this morning and afternoon consisted of going to the apple orchard with my sis-in-law, and then making pies with her and my mom. And cute because I'm going to a movie viewing party tonight with several friends I've made over this summer. A blouse is too fussy for Saturday, and I'm running out of reconstructed t-shirts!

Self-Stitched September, Days 12-14

...and some reflections on the experiment now that I'm practically at the midway point.

Day 12

The Details:
T-shirt: Old Navy
Jeans: Thrifted
Sweater: The Trippy Hippie cardi, in its debut appearance
Boots: one of those mail-order places
Necklace: Made by my mom (she decided it was too heavy for her, so I inherited it.)

The Context: 
A nasty, rainy, cool-ish day. And I'd been put on tech crew for church, so I was hiding out in the techie room to run slides. Plus I was playing one song in a concert at church that night, and it was easy to just pull off the cardi long enough to do the song and then pull it back on to keep warm.

Day 13:

The Details:
Top: Don't even remember.
Vest: ModCloth (hey, I finally found something to wear it with!)
Skirt: Self-stitched. But I did this something like 5-6 years ago and I honestly don't remember what the pattern was.
Necklace: Thrifted
Sandals: The usual

The Context:
A slightly warmer day, but cool enough that I wanted some layering. And I had one lesson to teach.

Day 14:
The Details:

Blouse: The Doolittle Blouse
Pants: Purchased
Bracelet: Kohl's
Hard-to-see other jewelry: One of my souvenirs from Santiago, Chile
Shoes: The usual

The Context: 
Got several lessons to teach tonight, and some driving around in the car to boot. So these pants are pretty comfy for that. And I'm feeling the need to wear this blouse while it's still warm enough to.

So...here's what I feel like I've learned so far, at the halfway point:

• Weekends are HARD to do self-sewn things on. Because I just want to live in jeans and t-shirts. More motivation to try and get a jeans pattern to actually work...or maybe just make some comfy knit tops that can double as casual workday/weekend wear.
• I really need to get a pants pattern tweaked to fit well, since most of my purchased pants don't really fit me that great either. Though I think the pattern for the pants I wore last week still has potential--in retrospect, I shouldn't have made my muslin in stretch twill and my final in a non-stretch. So it ended up a bit over-fitted. I may need to revisit that.
• In trying to put together outfits that I know are going to be photographed every day, I'm beginning to see some value in solids. But don't think this means I'm going to be giving up my crazy prints any time soon...it just might be good to have a wider variety of things I can mix it with, so I don't end up doing stuff like just wearing that cardi from Sunday with the same black t-shirt and jeans combo all the time.
• I'm really glad I included the jewelry in this. Especially since I'm running out of things to wear for weekends that I haven't showed already.

Self-Stitched September, Week 2: Days 5-11

And away we go! (Written as the week went on.)

Day 5:

 Technically, I only wore this outfit this morning--I did wear a self-stitched t-shirt recon this afternoon, but will most likely end up wearing the same thing tomorrow since I'll only be home half the day and my post-work plans fell through. (That's right, I have to work on Labor Day. Pity me.)

The Details:
Dress: Self-stitched, the "Morning Glory" dress
Shrug: Self-stitched, the sweater knit shrug that I specifically sewed to go with this.
Shoes: Payless, I think
Jewelry-- the "Quicksilver" set, same as day 2.

The Context: 
I wore this for church--it's a fairly casual environment, but also pretty much the only opportunity I have to wear stuff like embroidered satin sundresses. So I like to take advantage of that from time to time. Also, it was a bit cooler this morning, and my church is also traditionally ridiculously air-conditioned, so layering is good.

Day 6:

T

The Details:
Tank top: self-stitched, reconstruction of an ink-stained t-shirt of my brother's (Why yes, that IS Bullet Bill. What can I say, I still have a weakness for old-school Nintendo.)
Capris: the same ones I wore to work
Earrings: Self-strung, though you can't really see them (again).

The Context: 
My not-so-relaxing Labor Day, so far, has consisted of the following: working for 4 hours at the retail job, and then coming back home and spending the entire afternoon cleaning off my desk (and giving it a thorough and badly- needed dusting), packing up some stuff to take to Goodwill and out to the recycle can, doing 2 loads of laundry (which I need to switch), and changing the sheets on my bed. And I still have chores to do! Needless to say, stuff I didn't care about getting dirty was a must for this laborious day. (Still bummed that my plans fell through at the last minute, but at least I'm getting all of these necessary things done.)
Day 7:
The Details:
Top: the seafoam pintuck shirt, revisited
Skirt: Self-stitched, the Sunflower skirt
Sandals: Mail-ordered. (Yay, the one pair of really cute sandals I own! And they fit!)
Earrings and necklace: Self-strung. (I'm pretty sure I don't have a pic of these, but it's just your basic white shell-bead-and-chain deal.)

The Context:
After the garden center, this was basically a teaching day--drove to two, taught 2 here. Plus some scrounging around in the music store to try and get the rest of the method books I need before band tomorrow, which in retrospect was not the most conducive activity to skirt-wearing. But at least I still get to rebel and wear white after Labor Day. (Which was really the inspiration for wearing this outfit, besides being comfortable for the car driving portion.) 

Day 8:

  Mixing it up a bit...

The Details:
Top/camisole- purchased
Pants: Self-stitched, from the band teacher pantsuit
Shoes: one of the mail-order places. (And I discovered this morning that they're looking rather obviously destroyed in several places, and will have to replace them. Boo. At least I got several years out of them--these have been my go-to black sandals since at least grad school!)
Necklace/earrings: Self-strung. (See below)
Bracelet: Given to me by a friend

The Context: 
Mostly teaching. Including band, day 2.

Since I'm nearly positive that this particular jewelry set pre-dates the blog, and it's one of my favorites, just wanted to take a moment to spotlight it. It was so simple-- a silver pendant from Fire Mountain Gems (one of the Hill Tribe ones), and then some black chip-type beads I picked up at a bead show I went to with my mom later that year. I think they might be wood, I'm not even entirely certain what they're made of. So simple, but it goes with SO much stuff. (And now that I'm looking at the Fire Mountain page, wow, I need to find something else to polish it with and get some of that tarnish off. Because clearly the jewelry cleaning cloth I use on my flute isn't cutting it.)

Day 9:

The Details:
Plaid shirt: The Ayden shirt (with the sleeves rolled up)
T-shirt (underneath): Old Navy
Jeans: Also Old Navy, but thrifted
Shoes: the trusty Birks
Jewelry: A cross necklace I got back in high school, and some Celtic knot earrings that my parents gave me. Can't remember if it was Christmas or birthday that year, but one of the two.

The Context: 
Keeping it casual tonight, as I'm off to Bible study pretty much as soon as I finish typing this segment. It's fairly warm out now, but seems like it's going to get pretty cool by the time I come home (low's supposed to be in the 50s tonight!) So I figured layers and the option of long sleeves would be good. Then I don't have to bust out the jacket quite yet.


Day 10:

T

The Details:
Top: Self-stitched- the MegaTokyo recon from last week 
Jeans: Thrifted
Chucks: Buffalo Exchange (I was SO happy to see those, because I've been wanting another pair for awhile!)
Earrings, even though you can't see them: Cherry studs I found in a miscellaneous pile of jewelry from the thrift store

The Context: 
Today was my brother's birthday. So he invited me to go to his favorite restaurant/brewery with him and his wife and a couple of his friends. Since said restaurant is down at the beach, I needed something that would be comfortable for the 4-ish hours in the car for the round trip, as well as eating. And since he was the one who got me into MegaTokyo all those years ago, it seemed the fitting choice. (I haven't actually read it in a long while, but I still like this shirt. Obviously, since it was my first salvage job for Wardrobe Refashion Wednesdays!)

Day 11:

The Details:
Shirt: Self-stitched, the "Shakespeare on the Green" top 
Jeans: Target
Sandals: Payless
Jewelry: Self-strung, see closeup pic below

The Context: 
Another casual day-- had to go to church for a little while this morning for a music practice before a concert tomorrow night (annoying, since I'm only playing on one song! It's a good thing I live close by). And later this afternoon, I have a family gathering for a belated Labor Day celebration/my grandfather's upcoming birthday. Hoping to get my next sewing project cut out in between.

Here's the jewelry closeup-- another set that kind of predates the blog. It's hard to tell, but the beads are green (malachite), and the links are these figure 8-sort of metal things. Purchased like that, since I don't know how to make those. Yet.



And now that I've been through this, I'm wondering if 7 days at once is too much of a post... I think that next week, I might do every couple of days as the mood strikes.

Self-Stitched Saturday, week 1: Days 1-4

What can I say? I like alliteration as much as Zo does, apparently.

So, as stated before, I've decided to limit my Self-Stitched September outfit pics to once a week, so as to not bombard you with posts for that. Though I'm going to try to write each segment of the posts out on a day-to-day basis so I can fully live out my pretense that I'm a personal style blogger and remember the outfit details! (That, and so I don't have to spend 5 hours on Saturday typing these out.) Here we go...

Day 1

The Details: 
Shirt: The "Time for Tea(L)" top
Skirt: The "Baby's In Black" skirt
Camisole: purchased
Bracelet: I won it for free as a door prize at a Lia Sophia jewelry show. (One of my friends is now a seller for them, so I get invited to a lot of their parties.)
Necklace and earrings: from Kohl's
Shoes: My slightly dressier black sandals. From one of those catalog stores that actually accommodates my shoe size.

Today's Context: 
First day back at my once-a-week band teaching job--the school has a modest dress code, so I needed to make sure everything was well-covered and leaning on the conservative side. Also some flute teaching. Also, it was about 94 degrees, so I wanted something that would help keep me cool!



Day 2:

T

The Details:
Shirt: Seafoam pintuck t-shirt
Capris: from JC Penney (they were advertised as recycled cotton, and I loved the style, so I couldn't pass those up)
Shoes: My well-work Birkenstocks
Jewelry: Though it's hard to see, I promise it's there! The "Quicksilver" set

The Context: 
I only had one lesson to teach after the retail job today, and it's a family friend so they don't care if I dress more casually. And then as of last week, I've started attending a Bible study in the area, and everyone dresses very casually for that. So the slightly funkier t-shirt style and cargo pants were just the ticket.





 
 Day 3: In which I scrape by on technicalities.

The Details: T-shirt: self-stitched in that I shortened the shirt and sleeves, originally from Random Shirts
Jeans: thrifted
Shoes: none!
Earrings: self-made, Gryffindor earrings

The Context: I wasn't in the greatest of moods, and so after I got home from the retail job, all I wanted to do was wear something comfortable and bum around. I had to do some work for my band job at my computer, and the evening's activities also included sitting on the floor to trace out a Burda magazine pattern, so this worked well for that.

Day 4 (today):

The Details:  
Shirt, self-stitched, my BurdaStyle bamboo "Sadie" top
Jeans: thrifted
Shoes: The Birks, again
Necklace and earrings: self-strung-- I think I made these before the blog, so I'll add a picture for that.
Also, now I get to show off my newly henna'd hair!

The Context: Today's Labor Day weekend festivities are going to be going to one of the local state parks for kayaking, bbq-ing, possibly some form of hiking or nature walking, or frisbee-playing, or something. So I wanted something comfortable for that, but not entirely bummy-looking. Since this bamboo jersey is the most comfy thing EVER and I want more of it, this was perfect!

And here's a better shot of the jewelry. The earrings are jasper beads, as are most of the ones in the necklace. Aside from that, it's hemp and a ceramic butterfly bead I picked up at the Renaissance Faire one year, of all places. As a general rule, when I have lower-cut shirts like this I prefer to wear choker-type necklaces to give the eyes something else to look at. (When I make this pattern again sometime, I'm going to raise the neckline a bit, because this one pushes my comfort level a little.) And since I'm already sporting Birkenstocks and natural hair dye today, and going to go tramping around in the woods, hippie jewelry is the way to go!

So there's the end of week 1, sort of.

happy bag!

So my plan to get a couple of things cut out by the end of the weekend was a complete fail-- it's Tuesday now, and I still only have the cardigan cut out! It was very much a weekend of nothing going according to my plan--ended up going out with some friends on Friday night at the last minute, and my Saturday shopping trip ended up taking a lot longer than I'd expected it to. So between that and dinner, I lost the entire day for craftiness. Didn't get much done on Sunday either, since I was helping one of my friends who just moved unpack a bit, and now I'm having to ease into my fall work schedule. And since right now that also consists of last minute panicking and rushing to get stuff done in time for band tomorrow, that means no sewing has happened in a couple of days.

I did, however, have time to finish this! Finished the machine work on Friday and stitched up the inside lining on Sunday night.

So yes, after years of searching, I've finally found the one! (Purse pattern, anyway. Still working on the guy part.) It came together so much easier than my last bag that I sewed, I love the front cutout detail (and they're actually pockets, so totally practical), and it's nice and roomy. The only alterations I made to the pattern were enlarging the dimensions about 2", and making the strap a crossover one instead of two handles. (I like the hands-free thing, and the two handles on the purse that I caved to buy last fall because I had no time to sew one ended up annoying me. Especially once it got cold enough that I had to wear my rather bulky winter coat--it would NOT stay on my shoulder!)

And look! More pockets! On both sides of the lining! No more fishing around for my chapstick! Or a pen!

And what's it got in its pocketses, you may ask? It worked out so nicely-- though it was completely unplanned, one of the pockets was the perfect size to put my fabric swatch notebook into. Another one holds my sunglasses case (which doesn't like to stay closed) rather snugly. And I can fit my largeish wallet in there and still have room for a nice-sized book. This one happens to be the 5th installment of Harry Potter, which checks out at a whopping 870 pages. And since the ability to carry a book around with me at all times is one of my bag must-haves, the fact that I have so much room left after that makes me extremely happy.

In other news, Self-Stitched September starts tomorrow! I'm really excited about this one, actually, since the focus isn't just on sewing clothes, it's about integrating them into outfits. Since I never actually put the pledge up here, figured this would be a good time to do so! So here goes...


'I, Becky, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade or refashioned item of clothing  or accessory/jewelry every day for the duration of September 2010'.

So yeah, there's the rules I'm setting for myself, other than I'm not counting my garden center job in this. (I have a t-shirt I have to wear, and everything gets dirty and, this time of year, sweaty and gross.) I'm going to aim for one piece of actual clothing that I've made or reconstructed every day--hopefully I won't have to fall back on the jewelry too often! Though I already know the weekends are probably going to be the biggest challenge for me in this, since I tend to live in jeans and knit shirts then. I'm thinking I'm also going to try for one picture post a week here to show off the outfit combos, so you'll have to excuse my pretending I'm a personal style blogger. (Any more than once a week and I'm afraid I'd bore you all with pictures of myself, lol!) 

Getting ahead of myself

I am SO close to finishing up the fall purse I'm working on. The machine work is done now, and I just need to hand-stitch the lining bottom shut and it's done. I'm really excited about how it turned out, too--this just might turn into one of my go-to bag patterns! (Pictures will come after it's actually finished.)

And of course, now that I'm so close, my brain has already moved on to the next several projects! I'm hoping to get several things cut out this weekend....

First on the menu, this cardigan, which I cut out last night. I lengthened it a bit, since the pattern makes it look like it would hit at my hips and I thought it would look much better/more me/less like a granny sweater if I brought it to about mid-thigh. I'm expecting this to be a pretty quick one, actually--if I play my cards right, I won't even have to hem it! The selvedges turn up in a natural zig-zag, and it's a really nice finished look. So I'm thinking I'm going to unfold it for serging purposes, and then tack it down by hand, and I should be done.

I'd also like to get the pattern traced out and a muslin cut out for this jacket, since I've been drooling over it for more than a year now. It's going to need some tweaking, because I can't see it looking right over top of anything else as an actual jacket. Not with that neckline. So I'm planning on making this more of a blouse, and will have to raise the neckline accordingly. It won't look right longer, but with that length I'll feel much better if I can wear a cami underneath, and I don't particularly want that showing above the jacket neckline.

One project that I forgot to mention in my fall planning post is revisiting the pattern that I made my "Green and Gray" dress from. I had this one in mind anyway, since the main print fabric has been sitting around since the same Christmas that the jacket fabric came from (also part of my fabric gift pack from Mom). But it's getting bumped up in the queue because one of my cousins is getting married in October and I need something to wear. (And there is no way that I am pulling out that dress from my brother's wedding again, unless it's to chop it into a skirt!) I figured this one would be perfect, since it's nice fallish colors, and it's a knit fabric. So it'll be really comfortable for the drive, too. Which is good, because the wedding is in his fiancee's hometown, which is 4 1/2 hours away (one way), and it's looking like my immediate family is going to drive there and back again on the same day. Anyway, I'm going to alter it so that it's long-sleeved instead of 3/4, just because the weather in that part of Pennsylvania in October could be pretty chilly. And even if it's not, this is for the ice queen that is me.

I'm also going to be sewing a little bit of the fiancee's shower gift (teaming up with my sis-in-law for the rest of it), but that may not get cut out this weekend since we're going shopping for said shower and wedding gifts later this morning. That, and I have to work on getting some music together for the band I teach, which starts up again on Wednesday. And cook some food so I actually have something to eat--my freezer stash is starting to run a little low, and all insanity (aka my fall work schedule) breaks loose on Monday! I'm hoping that I can at least find a little bit of time to keep sewing in there--I'd like to get something new done during Self-Stitched September! I've also been reconstructing a sweater, so maybe I can at least stitch on that in the evenings or something....

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...

I can't help it. I see plaid, I get that Monty Python song stuck in my head. But I think my shirt looks way better than his. And since the fabric was called "Ayden", I'm going to go with that for the sidebar, because I'd much rather go with the boys' name than my "lumberjack shirt". (Besides, I like the way they spelled it.) So here's my extremely laid-back pattern review for Burda #110 of the May 2009 issue.

It's not perfect. If I was going to do it again, I think I'd have done some things differently. Like I think I'd make the back a bit wider, because it's a little snug across the shoulders despite my having let the back pleat out quite a bit for the same reason. And I'd take it in a bit more at the waist....I may still do that if I'm feeling up to it, actually. Depends on how self-conscious I end up feeling about it. I'd definitely make the buttonholes a little bigger, because some of the buttons are reaaaaaally hard to button, but I was having some issues with that anyway (more on that later). And I ended up taking something like 6" off the hem, because when I did the test version, I knew that with the plaid, it was going to hit in a really awful spot on my hips. I think maybe I took a little too much off. Maybe.

But I do think I did well with other things. I took a little of the fullness out of the sleeves, and they're perfectly non-gathered just like I wanted--and I added the right length, too! And I still like the way the pleats turned out! I like the double-buttoned cuffs even though I don't think the pattern called for that. (I have to admit that once I got to the buttonholes yesterday afternoon, I kind of ignored the magazine's instructions altogether and just stuck them where they'd look good. And no collar button that I'm never, ever going to use!) I think I did a pretty good job of matching up the stripes, too, at least to the extent that I could given the pattern. I'm still proud of myself for picking this fabric, because it's not in my color comfort zone at all-- no blue, green, black or brown anywhere, and I still like it.

I do like the pattern overall, and I think with a couple of tweaks to fix those fitting issues, I'd use it again.

So that issue I'm having with buttonholes... I think I may have broken the buttonhole foot on my machine. :-( I have this bad habit of setting it on the edge of the table--earlier this year or late last year I found a travel toiletry case at Goodwill and I've been using that as my "sewing box", which has worked really well, and had been keeping it in there. Which worked much better. Except that apparently I forgot to do that one time recently, and it got knocked onto the floor and into two pieces. It's back together now, but it doesn't quite slide around as well as it should, and still comes apart sometimes. I'm also not entirely convinced that because of that, it doesn't affect the length the buttonholes actually end up being in relation to each other--my machine has the ability to make one buttonhole and then go on auto to remember the length, but if the foot's not starting in the right place, I think it may be shortening a few of them. I'm not sure if I'll be able to replace it either, since I have an older model machine. :-( Guess I'll have to start checking eBay.

I also did a minor refashion recently, which I finished up on Friday night. I got this tank top awhile back because I liked the color and the length and overall shape of it. What I did not like was this embellishment. I was ok with the sequins, but those clusters of fake pearls were just nasty. Especially since I'm not a pearl fan anyway--too grandmotherly for my taste. So I took those off, as well as the sequins since they were coming off anyway. I wanted to take the lace off too, but I took a couple of stitches out and found that it was leaving visible holes in the fabric, so it had to stay. It was too plain with just the lace, so I ended up sewing beads on there.

Much better. (Except for the photo coloring.)

A couple of updates on previously mentioned things:
#1: I've decided for certain that I will be doing Self-Stitched September. My pledge is to wear at least one handmade or reconstructed article of clothing and/or accessory each day for the month. (Good thing I have my jewelry stash.)

#2: You remember that jeans muslin? The one that was just refusing to work? The class instructor did get it in the mail. (And is actually using it as an example in the jeans-fitting class she's teaching at a fashion school there, eep! I guess it's a good example of what not to do....or how many fitting issues one girl can have...) The nice thing is that she's going to make a pattern from the muslin (hopefully after fixing the crotch issues) and send that back to me. So that saves me a step, and then I don't have to worry about remembering the ridiculous amount of changes I ended up making. So maybe, just maybe, there is hope that someday I will be able to make a pair of jeans that really fit! (And don't fall apart after 3 wearings. Yes, I'm still a little bitter about that one.)

Next on the agenda: a new bag for fall. I broke down and bought a purse last fall because I didn't have time to sew one, and ended up hating it. At least, hating the straps, which had a tendency to constantly fall off my shoulder when I had to wear a coat. Especially this one, which is quite bulky due to all of the layers...stuff like that makes me wish I could wear wool.  (Also, for a pricey leather bag, which thankfully was on sale, it was kind of poorly constructed-- I had a tear in it before 2 months had passed!) So this year I'm going back to my funky printed cotton bag. And using up some stash to boot! Hoping to cut that out tonight, since I have reduced teaching and will be home earlier than usual. Ah, end of summer/beginning of marching band season.