Wrapping up: thoughts on Me-Made-May (and the month in general)

So now that I'm at the end of another month of me-made, here's some thoughts and stats....

First off, the day I apparently forgot to post, which was day 16:

The "If I Had $1000000" dress, worn with a Modcloth belt and those Montego Bay sandals. Jewelry is the "Earth" set from the elements series. I was a bit ambivalent about the outfit, personally, due to the over-poofiness of the skirt. I'm strongly considering chopping out the organza that makes it do that in the lining, and just letting it hang a little longer. (It also feels a little too short for comfort to me.) However, this was one of the outfits that got the most love in the Flickr group, with 7 comments. (A lot for me.)

Now, some stats:
# of me-made/refashioned clothing items worn: 36
# of repeats: 0
# of pieces of handmade jewelry worn (counting necklace/earring sets that were designed to go together as one): 29
# of repeats: 5
# of non-jewelry handmade accessories: 1
Favorite outfits: Days 3, 4, 8, 13, 21, 23 and 30
Least favorite outifts: Days 2, 7, 9 and 31-- the common thread in all of these was that I just didn't feel like the store-bought pants looked good and/or flattering with the tops.
Separates combinations that I'll be most likely to wear again: Days 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 14 and 17
New articles of clothing made: 1 (the "Zeros and Ones" blouse from day 10)
Articles of clothing discarded: 1 (the Pendrell blouse from day 22, due to unfixable fitting issues).
 I'm still on the fence about the t-shirt from day 19, but I guess with the right pair of jeans, it won't feel too short. So we'll see.

Other thoughts:

• Me-made May, June, July or August is not going to be a struggle for me, for a very long time. I've been switching out my wardrobe in pieces due to the up-and-down temperatures this spring, and when I was hauling out the summery-est of my warm weather clothes near the end of the month, I did a quick little count...I could probably go for at least 2 more weeks without repeats, depending on how I mix things. And that's not counting things that are seasonally inappropriate, like all of those jackets I made earlier this year. (Now, if they ever do a Me-Made December or something, I'll be in trouble for that.)
• I am surprised at some of the clothes I ended up not getting to this month. It's not that I didn't want to wear them, and I can think of at least 3 pieces off the top of my head that I thought about wearing, but just didn't get to for one reason or another. Mostly weather-related, I think. It's certainly not that I still don't like them.
• A fashion blogger I am not. It's like I've said everything interesting that I can about an outfit, once I've blogged the making of a piece. And I still feel a little silly taking all of those pictures of myself.
• That being said, I did have fun putting the different outfits together! And I do think that my little unspoken challenge to myself to not repeat outfits (and to not repeat them from Self-Stitched September, if possible), helped me to put together some more daring, interesting combinations than I would have otherwise.
• Though it's still my least favorite part, having a boyfriend who really likes taking (multiple) pictures of me every time I hand him my camera definitely helped on the photography end of things.
• The handmade accessories bit was surprisingly hard! I wouldn't have thought so, given all of the jewelry I've made over the years. But there were some days that all I wanted to do was throw on a pair of dangly metal earrings and be done with it, especially if said dangly metal earrings would have gone with the outfit better IMO. There were also days where I'd wished I had accessory options other than jewelry. So I'm trying to expand my repertoire there a bit--I have one in-progress answer to this, and an idea for a second project that also isn't jewelry, (I think handmade accessories might actually end up being easier in cooler weather, because then I always have the option of knitting a small project! When things are as warm as they've suddenly gotten around here, the last thing I want to do is throw on a knitted scarf or hat!)
• I know I've said it before, but this month certainly reinforced that the biggest holes in my wardrobe are casual knit tops and pants. I have plenty of t-shirts, but not that many that I've made, so that part of my wardrobe certainly suffers in the me-made months.
• Since this seems to be a list of contradictions, I did find that wearing dresses is more comfortable than I thought! At least, this time of year. But I still want more jeans/pants!

Other thoughts on the month in general-- I've found myself very discouraged about my sewing lately, mostly due to the lack of time. Except for the one weekend where I was visiting friends out of town, every single weekend was taken up with long hours at work. So I barely got anything done, and I sadly have to admit that I really didn't do so great on the Colette Palette Challenge. The top got done, and I have been working on the jeans (which are being more difficult than I'd hoped.) I guess I can't really call the skirt a total fail, since it was more a case of discovering that I already had that spot in my wardrobe filled with the red dress from day 4, in a more versatile way than the skirt would have allowed. But I still didn't make it.

As far as the other goals go, I did succeed at Me-Made-May, with only one flakeout day on the photos (and given that I was at work for 11 hours of that day, I think it's allowed.) And I did finish clearing out my wardrobe, though the pile is still in my room and not at Goodwill. The knitting project did get worked on, though I ended up ripping out most of it in order to fix an issue with my decreasing--it was too much too fast, and looked awful.

For this month, I do want to keep working on fitting those jeans. It's one of those projects I can do when I have a few moments here or there, but not when I'm around other people due to all of the trying on and adjusting. So I think my new goal there will be to get the jeans muslin fitted and the pattern altered by the end of the month. I'm going to keep knitting on my Strafford tee, of course. And despite my Colette challenge failure, I am strongly considering the Summer Spark Sew-Along. I mean, I only have to sew one thing. Surely I can manage that, right? I do have one particular project in mind, which will also nicely assist me in my Check The Technique list. But I'll save that for the next post, along with some show and tell....stay tuned.

MMM, Days 3 & 4-- To Be(ignet), or not to Be(ignet)?

I didn't have time to post yesterday, so I'll have to make up for it today.

Day 3:
T-shirt: From Woot.com
Jacket: "Floral Fantasy" jacket, blogged here
Jeans: The Gap, via Goodwill
Sandals: Birkenstocks, via Amazon.com
Headband: Me-made from scraps of a reconstruction, blogged here
Earrings: Me-made, see below
Wristband: courtesy of Union Transfer

My big exciting thing yesterday was that I headed up to Philadelphia with two of my friends for a concert! So this was taken at the Union Transfer, which was a new venue for us. We got there early enough that the seats in the balcony were vacated, which gave me just enough time to hand the camera over to my best friend so she could kindly oblige me on the outfit shot. This was the first time I've actually worn this jacket as a jacket-- until yesterday, I've worn it as a shirt a couple of times. I wasn't sure how it would go with the neckline, but one thing I'm trying to do with this month is wear things in new ways, and I think the jacket looked pretty good with this particular t-shirt! It's an owl with headphones and a wooden record player in a tree, and totally cute. And very appropriate, since we were going to see Andrew Bird!

So this is what I got to enjoy last night. If you've never checked out his music, you really should--the man is a genius, and can do amazing things with a violin and whistling. Yes, whistling. This is "Orpheus Looks Back", which is one of my favorites so far off of his latest album, Break It Yourself.  (If I can get Blogger to cooperate in loading it...)

 

 And here's a closer-up view of the earrings-- pretty simple, just some bits of goldstone and jasper.

 And here's today:
Day 4: 
Blouse: "Puzzle Pieces", blogged here
Dress: Wet Seal, via Goodwill
Belt: Sash from said dress
Shoes: Softspots, I think from Maryland Square
Earrings: Me-made, see below

It's gotten warmer again here today, and I was thinking at work today that this would be a good blouse to pull out. I was originally thinking of going simple with my black capri pants, but I guess they're still under the bed or something because I haven't found them in the pile of things to put in the closet. (With this yo-yo spring, switching out my wardrobe is being quite the drawn-out process!) So I decided more color might be good, and on a whim, I pulled out this strapless red dress that I picked up on my last thrift store run. I didn't want to wear the dress as is, because a) I didn't make it and b) I'd like to add some kind of strap, just for my own personal comfort--although this particular dress is fitted enough at the top that I might just safety pin them in to cover bra straps, because it's not going to fall down! In fact, it might be too fitted. I hope this won't be a problem for breathing at rehearsal for flute choir tonight... Anyway, I think this dress works amazingly well as a skirt. So much so, that I'm wondering if I really need to make the red Beignet skirt that I have pulled out for the Palette Challenge. I know it's a slightly different silhouette, but do I really need two red skirts? On the other hand, I'm not sure what else I would do with two yards of red twill. And I did buy some really awesome buttons to go with it. They're red, and they're sparkly. And my machine actually makes decent buttonholes now, since the shop discovered that it was actually the original replacement buttonhole foot that was defective and not my machine. Decisions, decisions....

What do you think? Should I stick with the challenge and make the skirt? Or try to come up with another use for the fabric?

Oh, I almost forgot--today's earrings!

April in review

I figured I'd go ahead and do this month's writeup now--I know there's still a day left, but honestly, I'm not going to make any progress towards anything tomorrow, between work and teaching and finally getting my car into the shop to get repaired from its fender-bender. I had to get two estimates thanks to the insurance run-around, and then I couldn't get an appointment at the shop for well over a week after that.

On the plus side, I do get to pick up Bernadette and the unnamed serger from the shop tomorrow. (Christina suggested Sergio, which is a great idea. But I already have a friend who is somewhat "real life", since I know her from the internet but did meet her in person once, who named her serger that, and I don't want to steal her thunder. At the moment, I'm considering Molly, after the somewhat temperamental apprentice wizard from The Dresden Files book series.) Oh, and before I forget-- turns out that the reason that Bernadette wasn't doing so well with the newer buttonhole foot was due to the foot itself. I guess it was defective. So I have to get a new one again, but if it means I get my automatic buttonhole feature back, it's worth it!

So, enough of that....on to the review. This month was a lot less productive than I'd hoped, due to having little to no weekend time to myself. I knew I'd have extra Sunday afternoon rehearsals since I have a concert next Sunday, but I wasn't expecting to end up having to work a bunch of Saturdays in a row and lose my prime sewing time as a result. But I did get some stuff done. Let's see how I did, shall we?

#1: Finish the blue corduroy jacket. Check. This also enabled me to check bagged linings on my Check the Technique.

#2: Go through the Jean-ius class that I have from Craftsy. A partial win, as I've only gotten through two of the videos so far. But I'm hoping that maybe I can at least start on part 3 this week and get cracking on that pattern.

#3: I'd like to get a quick project in between the jacket and the jeans. Which I did, with the convertible dress. I also cut out and have about halfway sewn the blouse for my Colette Palette Challenge, since I got stuck on the jeans. 

#4: Get my Onyx sweater sorted out so I can continue that. I did at least get an answer on Ravelry for something to try. But I honestly haven't touched this one in about a month. Fortunately, my KAL buddy has also been busy, so I'm not holding her up.




#5: Cast on my Strafford Tee. I have done this, and have knitted about 2" so far. See, progress!

#6: Finish putting my fabric swatches in their new notebook. Yeah, I think I did about 2 swatches this entire month. Fail.

#7: Make one scrapbook page. Now this I actually did do! Since they were very simple pages, I actually managed to get three 2-page spreads assembled. Nothing exciting design-wise, but it's something.

I guess I did better than I thought, but on the sewing front especially, I still feel rather behind. I'm anticipating this month being similarly nuts, since I already know this weekend is shot between rehearsals/concert and having to work before the Saturday practice, I already know I'm going to lose a good chunk of Memorial Day weekend due to having to work yet again on the Saturday, and I'm very much hoping that I will be out of town (and therefore not working) for one of those weekends. (But in that case, the girls I'd be hanging out with are my crocheting buddies, so there's a fairly decent chance I can get some knitting in between rounds of board games, and it wouldn't be a total loss of craftiness.) So I'm going to keep things fairly simple this month. Here's what I'm hoping to get done:

#1. Not flake out on Me-Made-May. If I have limited time to create things, I want to at least enjoy the things I've made already. And since I need to add some things to the Handmade Closet page on here, I am going to try to keep up with the daily photos, with the goal of posting those outfit photos a couple of times a week. (Besides, my boyfriend was excited to hear that I've taken on something that involves taking lots of pictures of myself that he can steal for himself later!)

On a side note, before I continue, it occurs to me that I never actually posted my pledge on here. So here it is:

I, Becky, of Sew and So, pledge to wear at least one me-made or refashioned piece of clothing a day, and aspire to wear at least one handmade accessory, for the duration of May. I also pledge to aspire to do better with taking photos this time! 

#2: Finish the three pieces of clothing for my Palette Challenge:
      a) the blouse, which as I mentioned, is about halfway done
      b) the jeans, which I need to make the pattern for and then actually make, as per the class instructions
      c) the skirt, which I've only started in my head about a dozen times when work gets boring, but haven't touched in the real world.

#3: Make some visible progress on my Strafford Tee. This shouldn't be too terribly difficult to accomplish, since I'm sure I'll at least have some tv-watching time with my guy on our lower-key hangout nights. (Thankfully, he is completely cool with me keeping my hands busy with crafty stuff while we watch movies or hockey or tv shows. Hey, maybe I'll do something totally crazy and finish that next step on the Onyx too! We'll see how it goes.)

#4: Finish weeding out my wardrobe, and get the things I'm getting rid of out of here and to the thrift store so I don't have a huge pile of laundry lurking just behind my door!

So, yeah, I'm going to just leave it at that. Hopefully once I get past the spring, which is the busiest season at a garden center, I won't be working 6 days a week anymore and can actually get some of my personal stuff done. If nothing else, I should be able to get some Sunday afternoon craft time in there, once I get through the concert next week.

Meet my favorite jeans.

After a little deliberation, I've decided that I am going to go ahead and give this Colette Palette Challenge a shot. I saw a post on the Coletterie this morning where one of the editors had decided she'd just focus on three pieces, and it was a lightbulb moment for me....I can actually make this work without completely derailing my plan to work through those "kits" I've made from my stash, and without overwhelming myself with an overly ambitious plan that I just can't get through while I'm in my busy season at work. (I hope. Given that I don't have a day off for at least the next 13 days after today, I might not get to sew much at all!)

So I'm going to use this challenge to focus on three of those pieces, with a rather basic palette of black, white, dark blue and red. The dark blue will be my jeans, which I'd already planned to do this month while working through the Jean-ius class on Craftsy. I'm also going to aim to work on the blouse from the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, using a black and white print I finally caved on after about a month of deliberation back in December, and the Beignet in a red organic cotton twill that I've had sitting around for awhile to make a skirt out of. That seems like a manageable amount for the 6ish weeks that the challenge goes on, and if I can manage to finish all three pieces, I'll have two complete outfits, since the top can easily pair with both bottoms.

So, to kick things off and to gear myself up for starting the Jean-ius class, since I'm this close to finishing the convertible dress and will most likely finish it up this evening, this is me taking a look at the jeans I'm going to be basing this class on.

I bought these jeans a few years ago at Goodwill. The brand is Southpole, which is not one I would have ever picked up new since it's more of an urban style type shop and that just isn't me. (Also, their website now says it basically focuses on kids' and juniors' clothes.) But they fit me amazingly well.

They don't gap in the back at all. And the rise is absolutely perfect--low enough to be comfortable and stylish, but high enough that I don't have to worry about flashing my undies at people.

Even the length is perfect--they're long enough that they work with my heeled boots, but short enough that I can wear them with flats without stepping on the hem.

These are the jeans I go to pretty much every time I go hang out with friends, when I want to be comfortable but still look good. And they've been washed and worn so many times that the fly is starting to pull back and expose the zipper, the fabric around the button is beginning to fray and I'm getting worried that one of these days it'll just completely fall out, and the pocket stitching is beginning to come undone. And so it's definitely time to clone them before they fall apart completely, because I haven't found a pair of jeans that fit as well since.