Of personal palettes and mini-wardrobes

I'm sure that many of you have seen Gillian's Me-Made-May posts in which she aimed to wear clothes that fit into her own personal color palette that she's created. Which led to a discussion on Twitter in which she generously created palettes for a few other bloggers, myself included, based on the colors she found a lot of in our own me-made creations. So this is what she came up with for me:

















Figures that mine is loaded with blue and green, right? Even the wall behind me in this picture fits! The coral caused some discussion--it's not that I don't have any coral in my closet, because I do, and with all of these cool, oceany colors, I need some warmth in there! But when I first clicked on it, my computer monitor was reading this as a pinkish mauvish rusty color, which did not look pretty at all.

I've also been plotting out and packing my honeymoon wardrobe, as you know. So, just for fun, I figured I'd show what I'm taking and see how closely it matches with this! Prepare for a rather picture-heavy post...(with really crappy photos. Sorry. I had to have my bed model for sake of time, and I promise I'll try to start doing better with the photos after the wedding!)

1. Given that I'm going to a tropical island, I based it all around the swimwear, of course. I did not make either of these swimsuits, I bought them at the end of last summer specifically for this purpose. (Which is why this is the skimpiest swimsuit I have ever owned in my life--I went with two of my cousins and my sis-in-law, and they wouldn't let me leave the shop without a bikini! I'm usually more of a tankini girl, tbh.) The 1-piece was purchased because we were originally talking about going to a resort with this giant waterslide park, and I didn't want any wardrobe malfunctions! We're not staying at that resort, but we are going to one where you can take an outing to swim with dolphins, so avoiding wardrobe malfunctions sounds like a good idea there, too. Anyway, I'm basing the colors for the wardrobe as a whole around this bikini top, just because I can. And I did make the cover-up and the beach bag. The latter has seen better days because I made this years ago, possibly back in late high school/college years, when I was able to get access to my grandmother's embroidery machine and painstakingly programmed that design into the computer based on the lining fabric. But aside from re-stitching a bit of the lining to the zipper area, no holes yet, so I think I can keep using it for at least one more adventure.

2. The convertible dress, which looks way better on me than on my bed, because it's perfect for the airport--and easy to adjust for air conditioning vs. outside heat and humidity. 















 3. I tried to go a little mix-and-matchy here. So I have my reconstructed jeans skirt, a purchased turquoise tank top, the "Make It Work" Sadie tank, and a long white skirt that I purchased at the beach one time (because if you can't wear a skirt with real seashells sewn to it on a tropical island, where can you?) I also threw in the green tank that I re-embellished a couple of years ago, and some jeans cutoffs. (Nothing exciting, just some thrifted jeans I've been wearing to work that are obnoxiously slightly too short for my legs. I haven't even hemmed them yet, so I'll probably just roll them to whatever length I want.) Depending on what I choose to wear with what and how often, I potentially have 6 outfits here!


4. A thrifted strapless red dress, specifically at my fiance's request. I wore this one back around Christmas with a sweater over top, and he really liked it! And some of the restaurants within the resort area that we have access to are listed as "resort evening" dress codes, so I figure this can be my fancy dinner dress. (I checked, the resort has ironing boards in the room, so I can just give this a quick press and be good to go.)











5. A second-hand maxi dress that I added straps to somewhere around 2 summers ago, because this is another comfortable dress for summer heat. I thought I'd blogged this one somewhere, but I guess not...I just wasn't comfortable with the ability of shirred fabric to stay where it was supposed to without help! But this can be another fancier resort dress, I think.














6. In case I want to cover up some, either from sun or because I will be the one person who can get cold on a tropical island, some thrifted cropped jeans and the latest addition to my me-made wardrobe, the Pavlova cardigan. (Which is still going to get its own dedicated post later.)













7. Accessories--the turquoise shoes are for the beach because my feet hate flip flops and get nasty blisters between my toes whenever I try to wear them, the silver sandals for a dressier look and the flat black ones for everyday. Also, a big, dorky, floppy sunhat, because my heritage is "all the European people who sunburn the easiest", and I have rosacea to boot, so my face needs this! I did try to buy the least dorky one I could, but I just don't seem to have the gift of being able to wear hats and still look cool. Which is sad. There will most likely be some earrings in here somewhere too, but I haven't gotten that far yet.


So--no teal this time, and I have red instead of coral, but I seem to have hit pretty close to Gillian's palette! It'll be interesting to see how close I stick with this as I use up my stash and acquire new fabrics. And I'm strongly tempted to come up with my own new palette for my cold-weather wardrobe, since that's when I get the most bored with my closet and crave more color!

So how did I do with my island getaway wardrobe? And one week to go, eeeee! I guess that means this is probably my last post until after the wedding. So congrats to all of you who successfully made it through another Me-Made-May, happy sewing/crafting, and I'll see you on the other side. :)