me-make may?

Denim Archer shirt I made for myself (for fun!) a few months ago

I know. May is the time of year when all the AWOL sewing bloggers suddenly show up in your blog reader with bathroom selfies galore for Me-Made-May. Don't worry; I've definitely been AWOL and here I am suddenly on May 1st, but bathroom selfies ain't me. I decided that I wouldn't make a proper pledge for MMM15, because I tend to (try to) wear at least one item of handmade clothing everyday and I'm pretty aware of my wardrobe needs and desires already. 

Kimono thing I made two weeks ago. Sooo slapdash but I'm kinda obsessed.

My problem is actually making time to address those needs and committing to sewing for my own damn self. When you sew for a [modest] living, every moment at the sewing machine is a potential money-maker, so it's hard to shove my to-do pile aside and sew for fun. I figure May is a good enough time to spoil myself, though. I've been having major Insta-Envy, where I scroll through Instagram with a pit in my stomach because everyone's making Ginger Jeans and Morris Blazers and undies and cool bags and all the things I want for myself but don't have time to make. #PoorBaby. I know it's the price I pay for choosing this ridiculous career path, but I'm grateful that my passion for sewing is still strong and that my only limitation is lack of time, not lack of desire or inspiration.

Baby quilt for my future nephew I made in March. Really should have taken better photos on a proper camera.

So I'm calling it Me-Make-May, where instead of just wearing my existing handmade stuff, I'm going to try to set aside time to sew more clothes for myself... that aren't cut off-grain and slapped together on a serger and left unhemmed as per usual these past few months. I'm afraid to set quantitative goals for myself because I can't always predict my work schedule and deadlines, but I would love to work towards accomplishing the following:

• Tops. I wear black jeans like everyday and have few tops to pair them with. Maybe one knit tee and a short-sleeve button-up?
• Maxi dress. I still feel like I'm playing dress-up when I wear the one I have (never blogged), but it's so damn comfortable that I need another.
• Pajamas and underwear. Not very fun but the situation is dire.
• Dress for my friends' wedding at the end of May. I have some knit lace I want to use, but need pattern inspo.

Linden Sweatshirt I made as a sample for my knits class at Butcher's Sew Shop

Here's to hoping I can get all that done. My plan is to check in with you all again, either halfway through May or at the end of it (let's be real... how about July?), to see how I did. Fingers crossed!

Do you guys also have sewing goals for MMM15, or is it more about reflecting on and celebrating what you've already made?

me.made.may.the.end.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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. 
3. 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?
4. 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.
5. 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...

me.made.may.week.three

Sweet! Onto the next. If you're just tuning in and wondering why I seem more narcissistic than usual with my selfies and am going overboard with the Picmonkey collages, it's because it's Me-Made-May 2-0-1-3. Every day during the month of May, I'm wearing at least one handmade garment. In case I'm audited by some MMM enforcement service, I'm taking daily photos to prove that I'm sticking to my pledge.

Day Fifteen

Red ponte dress (blogged here, kinda, with my coverstitch machine review). The perfect work dress.

Day Sixteen

Thrifted plaid button-up with navy half-circle knit skirt (blogged here). Today a volunteer at the place I work complimented me out of the blue and said this outfit "really suited me." Can't say I disagree. Definitely an Andrea outfit.

Day Seventeen

Black OWOP blouse (blogged here) over thrifted knit dress. One of the remaining survivors of my One-Week-One-Pattern sewathon last March. This blouse has always been a bit tight so I don't wear it much. I felt a little awkward tying it in a knot like this, but it's a good way to cover an unflattering dress bodice by featuring it as a skirt instead.

Day Eighteen

White Archer shirt (blogged here) and blue denim Moss Mini skirt (blogged for my 80s challenge here). A Grainline Studio Pattern kinda day! I finished this skirt on Saturday morning so was pumped to wear it out. But it looks like I wore this outfit to bed, damn. Tuck your shirt in! Use an iron! Well, I wore it to eat French fries and drink beer, so I was not projecting much elegance today as it was. Cute 'brella, though, amirite? Cute Philly sidewalk litter, amirite?

Day Nineteen

80s outfit (blogged here). Tubular. I'm digging this jacket more and more. It's stretch denim and actually fits my broad back so I can flail my arms around like a normal person (who flails). My other fitted jackets provide no such luxury.

Day Twenty

Cambie dress (blogged here). Zzzz. I mean, it's fine, I'm just kinda tired of it already. Maybe it's because I look so cool in my 80s outfit from yesterday and I look so... precious in this knee-length A-line dress and cardigan combo today. I think my style is definitely changing (for the worse?) because I just want to hack off this hem and yank down the neckline. Whoa, girl, calm down.

Day Twenty-One

White Archer shirt again (found here) and chevron print skirt (blogged here). I'm pretty excited that I'm still actually wearing stuff that I made a full year ago. Last year at this time is when I really noticed my sewing starting to improve, which means more wearable and long-lasting garments, hoorah. I know I wore this shirt on Saturday but it's great to finally have something to wear with this skirt. For some reason I always struggled to style this thing because I didn't want to overwhelm my body with color and prints. A basic white button-up was the ticket.

So what have I learned so far? I should stop wearing the same shoes every day. And since they're secondhand Urban Outfitters shoes (shudder), they probably have 3 wears left in them before they fall apart.

me.made.may.week.two

Konnichiwa y'all. How appropriate that on the day I'm posting my second full week of me-mades, my friend Abby from Dear Abby Leigh is hosting me on her weekly blog series, "Dress for the Day You Want to Have." Not many people I know in real life have active blogs (after the social demise of the mighty LiveJournal, haa), but Abby had one going strong before I was a reader or participant in the blogging community at all. I owe her for being part of my inspiration to start a blog (without her knowing it) as well as introducing us to the best blood orange margaritas in Philly. Her "Dress for the Day" series features stories, cute outfits, guest posts and a linky party that celebrates the clothing that helps us feel confident and inspired each day. Today I'm over there talking about my aspiration to create a fully handmade wardrobe. Thanks for hosting me, Abby! Move back to Pennsylvania! Anyway, check it out.

Onto the me-mades...

Day Eight

Blue and black psychedelic lace dress. Wuuuttt! Not blogged yet because I made it last week while I was supposed to be working on my Project Sewn outfit. I procrastinate my sewing by... sewing? Anyway, I'm kind of in love with this dress. It's hard to tell but the fabric is a knit, and the black is a crazy zig zag lace that is pre-fused to the blue underlining. The pattern is New Look 6176 with modifications, like fisheye darts in the front. Did you know that New Look has 18 million shift dress patterns available that look exactly like the Colette Laurel pattern? Just sayin'.

Day Nine

ANOTHER buttonless Beignet, this time in a bizarre print, ALSO unblogged. Sowwy. This fabric is a stretch cotton sateen that's easily the most expensive fabric I've ever bought from JoAnn's. And I don't even know for sure if I like it, because it kiiiind of reminds me of animal print and I do not wear animal print. Anyway, did you know that you can squeeze a size 6 buttonless Beignet skirt shell out of less than one yard of 59" fabric? Now that's efficiency at its finest. I realize my pieces are slightly different because of the closure modification, but the button placket facing alone would not require an extra yard and a half, I promise.

Day Ten

Hey frump mcgrump. Retro orange knit top (first blogged a million years ago here) and F21 jeans. So I actually did wear jeans for Casual Friday. I was not comfortable at all today, despite the fact that I'm dressed down. The temperature was above 80 degrees, meaning this medium-weight vintage polyester shirt was a little toasty. And the shirt neckline is slightly too wide so I had to wear a strapless bra, which is not fun when you don't have fitted woven clothes to keep it in check. And the top is a bit tight in the hips and loose in the waist, so I kept having to tug it around. Wear and learn.

Day Eleven

Stripey jersey dress (blogged here). Ooh nice awkward iPhone photo, taken on our walk back from an Indian food gnosh fest. I look so short and red in this photo! Is Corey 8 feet tall? I was thrilled to remember that I had this dress tucked back in the depths of my closet. I wore it several times in the winter but never felt that comfortable because cotton jersey and thermal tights do not get along well. I think the dress looks better with bare legs, so I'm glad to officially bring it into my warm weather wardrobe rotation. It has a coffee stain on the skirt front now but do I look like i.g.a.d?

Day Twelve

Pintuck bodice sundress (blogged here). I just posted about this baby so I have no more words except that I love this dress.

Days Thirteen & Fourteen

Cocktail Cambie dress (blogged here) and gray linen Kelly skirt (blogged here). More black, more white, more red belts, more gray. I almost wore a black top with that gray Kelly today but it felt sad and stuffy. The purple top is secondhand.

Oof! Still enjoying my participation Me-Made-May, but I'm likely going to have to start repeating pieces soon. Halfway through -- how have you fared?

me.made.may.week.one

Yep, your sewing blogroll is regurgitating the same title for everyone's posts this month. Mmm, mmm, good, MMM is here! It seems we all have different ideas of what constitutes the "first week," but I've interpreted it to mean 7 consecutive days. So welcome to my first weekly post in which I showcase the handmade outfits I scrounged together for Me-Made-May 2013. My pledge is to wear at least one handmade item per day during the month of May, so this is what you'll witness below. I wrote in the present tense for each day because I actually updated this blog post at the end of every day. That's commitment, man.

Day One

Striped jersey top (blogged here) with black buttonless Beignet skirt (unblogged - similar here). You'll probably see a lot of this black skirt because, hello. It's black and it's a Beignet, my fave-o pattern. Today I decided to be "brave" and mix prints. My mom bought me the scarf from Modcloth -- it's soft as silk (but not actually silk, o' course) and it's got poniiiiies on it.

Day Two

Floral wrap dress (blogged here). This is one of the very few floral-printed garments I own, handmade or otherwise. I'm more of a graphic print or plaid kinda girl, I think. Sometimes I love this dress and the colors and the fact that it's rayon, but sometimes I'm just not feelin' it (hence the dead-eyed look in my photo above). I haven't worn it since last summer, though, so I thought I would give 'er another go.

Day Three

Jersey feather racerback dress (blogged here). Ugh, full-length shot is blurry. I need a camera shutter release remote. I ain't reshooting at this point, though, that's for sure. It's ~Friday~ and this stressful work week is over and it's beautiful outside and some neighbor is blasting "Get Down Tonight" by KC & the Sunshine Band out their window (no joke) and I have adult beverages to consume on the asap. Anyway, this is the dress I wore today, paired with a gray cardigan from Forever 21 that is barely intact. My colleagues tease me for rarely wearing jeans on casual Friday, but what's more casual than a racerback jersey dress, aka belted jim jams?

Day Four

My Project Sewn contest outfit for the "black and white" theme (see here for the full blog post and vote here for me if you're so inclined!). I actually did spend most of my day in this ensemble, red lipstick included, even though I was trucking up and down the stairs doing laundry in between sewing sessions and photo ops. Yep, neighbors, I always do laundry in heels.

Day Five

Tribal dress (unblogged). Today was another clear sunny day so I wanted to pretend like it was warm enough for this dress alone, but it wasn't. I eventually put on tights and a jacket to go out for Cinco de Mayo dinner. I made this dress in like 3 hours a few weeks ago-- it's just a kimono tee thing with an elastic waist. The fabric is rayon --a rare find at JoAnn's-- from the "tribal fabric" section. Who do you think is the tribal fabric consultant for JoAnn's? What tribes are we talking about here? Do I sense some political incorrectness?

Days Six and Seven

Back to work in my usual suspects. Left - my (wrinkled) beige buttonless Beignet worn with secondhand blouse and gift scarf. Right - my polka dot wrap dress. So glad I made this wrap dress -- it's a no-brainer piece for work, which I certainly needed this morning with only five hours of sleep and a complete lack of interest in the whole primping process. Just throw on one thing and, magically, you're fully dressed. Not very interesting for MMM, though.

7 days and 7 outfits down. 24 to go-o-o. Let's see if I can learn to focus my camera by then. I don't feel wardrobe-challenged yet, but who knows how I'll be limping along by the end of this. If you're participating in Me-Made-May, how are you feeling at this point?