I achieved two sewing-related accomplishments in the past week: finishing and successfully fulfilling my first Me-Made-May pledge, and coming in second place in Season 1 of Project Sewn! Now, to come in second to the all-around talented, hilarious and stunning Sophie of Cirque du Bebe is no small feat, so I'm very proud of myself and incredibly grateful to those who voted me for throughout the series. Congrats on your win, Sophie! Totally deserved and totally impressive. And also congrats to Jess, the Sewing Rabbit, who made some stellar women's clothes, though that's not her usual focus. She did a great job and I loved everything she made. All my fellow contestants were superstars and I was so happy to get to know them better and sew alongside them. Great groupa gals.
So onto the final MMM round up. I decided to squeeze the remaining ten days into one post so I'd only bore you once instead of twice more. I think we're all a little relieved it's now June, whether you participated in Me-Made-May or just had to witness the madness on the blogosphere. And I'm happy to stop dismantling my living room all the time to photograph myself in front of this damn brick wall.
Days Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three
Wednesday - Black buttonless Beignet skirt (never blogged) with an H&M blouse. I had a meeting with a funder today so tried to look half-professional, which to me means wear a basic black skirt. This blouse is the last new off-the-rack made-in-China item of clothing I've bought. I bought it in August 2012 when I first moved to Philly and needed something to wear to the first day of my new job. I still wear it quite a bit even though it feels like polyester hell and gives me guilty heebie geebies.
Thursday - Blue OWOP dress (blogged here). It fits all wonky in the shoulders/bodice. I rarely wear this.
Days Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five
Friday - ikat skirt from the black & white challenge of Project Sewn (blogged here), with a secondhand jacket. Guys, I just wrote ikat as "iKat," as though it were an iPod or iPhone. ~*~* Apple's taking over our iLives~*~*~
Saturday - gray knit dress (unblogged). Another dreary day, another dreary outfit. I was hungover and had to sit my ass at my sewing machine all day, so I wore this dress which is basically a belted nightgown (I have worn it to bed a few times, too, let's be real). I never blogged about it because it didn't seem worth it. I used an 80s pattern but I changed the button placket to a deep V-neck, and gathered the sleeves vertically.
Days Twenty-Six and Twenty-Seven
Sunday - striped chambray dress (blogged here). Today I finished and took photos of my Signature Style dress and wore it to the park where Corey and I chilled along the river reading books on a blanket.
Monday - Blue denim Moss mini skirt (blogged here) with F21 tee and cardigan. Today was a holiday -- holler -- and I wore this to our friend's cookout. I love this skirt, but as with all straight fitted skirts, when you're sitting down you have to cross your legs or otherwise hold a pillow or your purse in your lap to hide that peek-a-boo gap thing. To avoid any indecent moments, I had to stand up and hover awkwardly around the fire pit all evening like a chump.
Days Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine
Tuesday - striped chambray dress again. I wanted to wear my new dress to work, but it turned kinda cold AGAIN so I had to put on tights and my granny shoes.
Wednesday - blue rayon feather dress (new, unblogged). I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I made this dress with the intention of it being my Signature Style entry. I wasn't sure about the print and how the whole thing would turn out, but I followed through with it until it was finished on Saturday morning. It didn't feel right -- too busy and bright, maybe -- so I vetoed it and ended up pre-washing, cutting and sewing the real Signature Style dress on Saturday night to be photographed on Sunday and submitted on Monday. I'm glad I made the switch and finished the new dress in time because I'm much happier with it. Anyway, the feather dress was made using McCalls 6503 (my first version blogged here) with a circley instead of pleated skirt.
Days Thirty and Thirty-One
Thursday - blue check dress (blogged here) and white Archer shirt (blogged here). I like this dress in theory, but I never want to wear it because I feel that the weird bodice darts call attention to an area I typically try not to draw attention to. Solution? Cover it up. Sorry the blue checks look distorted and wavy in this photo. It happened every time I resized the photo to fit into this collage. I can't be bothered to fool with it. I've already culled and edited 31 self-portraits for these MMM posts and I'm exhausted by the process.
Friday - black OWOP blouse (blogged here) and a skirt that I found in my mom's storage closet and hacked off the hem a few years ago.
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Weee! I did it, we did it. My first Me-Made-May was a pretty good run and I'm proud that I have handmade items that can stretch across 31 days with only a few repeats. Some observations:
- The most repeated items were my new blue Moss mini skirt and my white Archer shirt (three wears each). What does this mean?! I love Jen Beeman, I guess.
- There are still several handmade items in my closet that never made it on my body this month, mostly because they have poor fit, poor execution, or poor historic judgment on my part of what looks good on my body. Others I just never had an occasion for or are more winter-appropriate.
- Most of what you see in my round-ups is what I wore to work, but I often changed when I went out to bars and such. A lot of my clothes are pretty cutesy or conservative, so I'm wondering what I can make that will better suit the other part of my life. Don't think I wear knee-length floral wrap dresses to work and then change to sequined bodycon minidresses or anything (ha!); I just want to make some clothes that are casual and flattering (= not jeans) but with more of an edge. Suggestions welcome, fashionistas. How do you balance your work/play wardrobe?
- The store-bought or thrifted items I wore were mostly tops, so I've concluded I need to make more tops, though I knew that before May started. I just never know what kind of tops to make and I'm not inspired by my current stash of patterns. Sounds tedious to trace off my current tops but maybe it's worth it.
- Oh yeah, I still need new shoes.
How did your MMM go, and did you discover anything about your wardrobe that may affect your sewing plans for the future? Whose MMM inspired you? I enjoyed following along with the me-made round-ups of Lauren of Lladybird, Sue of Sewin' Steady, Morgan of Crab & Bee, Rachel of House of Pinheiro and Anna of Paunnet, just to name a tiny few. I'd gladly snatch anything out of those girls' closets.
Thanks for following along. Onto another year of furious me-mading...
Above Left: Grainline Moss Mini skirt in black and white speckled cotton sateen from fabric.com (here). The red zipper was all I had. This is a quick little pattern but I still can't insert a fly zipper without instructions. One day...
