Me-Made-May, part 3

Moving along…trying to get a bit caught up before I fall too far behind and have to do a monster post. This one is monster enough.

Day 12: I had teaching and then a rehearsal, and it was actually a warmer day! So I wore my new Plantain cardigan with the same capris I had worn to the garden shop earlier that day and a tank top that I swapped the beading out on. Also a funky beaded necklace that I strung.

WA analysis:  I was pleasantly surprised by the cardigan colors–I’d originally brought khaki pants to wear, but it was too warm, and the lighter tan strips were just the right shade to somehow tie the tan and grey together. Good thing, since those tan sandals were the only shoes I’d brought that weren’t my crappy work sneakers. The cardigan makes my hips look a bit wide in the photo, but I felt pretty good about the silhouette overall while it was on.

Day 13: Another victim of my method of grabbing things out of the closet that look like they’ll go without having the ability to actually get dressed and look in the mirror first.  I thought the refashioned dress-to-top would go well with the peasant skirt that had been out of rotation for awhile– I finally just cut the torn lining out and decided to wear a slip with it. Way easier than taking off and sewing on an elastic waistband just to add a lining.

WA analysis:  The colors were good, but the proportions were off, and tucking it in just made it worse. In the picture, it looks like a fairly decent silhouette, but I think it would have been better if the top was shorter or the skirt was longer.

Day 14: I dressed up for teaching, but the one lesson I had got cancelled at the last minute. Oh well. This is the charcoal Thurlows, the “Time for Tea(L)” top, and the infinity scarf I made out of my leftovers from the teal Plantain.

WA analysis: Of course I’m happy with the colors, since teal is practically my favorite! I’m trying to be braver about mixing prints, and I think it worked pretty well here since the top is a subtle one. I thought I did a pretty good job of looking polished but comfortable.

Day 15: More teaching, but with a student whose mom is friends with my mom and they don’t care how casual I dress. So I just threw the “spring fever” blouse on with the jeans I’d already worn to work.

WA analysis: I’m happy with the colors, they feel really fresh, and the brown jewelry went really nicely without being too matchy-matchy, which I am definitely prone to. (It’s hard to see in this picture, but there is brown in the print.) Very basic silhouette, but it works.

Day 16: See day 15 for the day’s activities, but with nicer jeans. I wasn’t sure how warm it would be, so I wore my Ayden shirt because I knew I could easily adjust the sleeves for the weather. There is a subtle yellow stripe in the plaid, so it was a good enough excuse to pull out these earrings.

WA analysis: With the definite reddish-peach tones in this top, it’s not exactly in my palette. But I still like it! Besides, they’re more like guidelines than actual rules, right?

Day 17: I had to work in the morning (a Saturday), and didn’t want to bother dressing up too much after. The only thing we did, aside from me doing some sewing at home afterwards, was go to the Waffle House for dinner. So rather than a complete outfit, I wore my painted TARDIS shoes along with this super-fun T-shirt, and counted the Tofino pj pants as my garment for the day. I’m skipping the Wardrobe Architect analysis because, you know, pajamas. Though I definitely proudly let my geek colors show with everything else.

Day 18: I had to go with something fairly versatile and quick-change today, because I was going from church to lunch at my parents’ to playing in a concert! So I pulled out a basic black skirt, a blouse handed down to me from my mom (it looks more coral in real life than the hot pink it looks like here), and the same jewelry I wore on an earlier day this month. I later swapped the boots for sandals and the coral blouse for a black top for the concert. Which was so fun.

WA analysis: It’s a nice outfit, but I’ve noticed that I feel like I’m being boring whenever I wear all solids! This is the only coral thing I currently own, though, and since I have it in my palette, I wanted to pull it out and test it. I guess maybe this means I need some kind of skirt with coral in the print? Or a funky scarf or something?

 Day 19: A very me-made outfit for teaching! This was the grey Thurlows, my “Puzzle Pieces” blouse, a refashioned sweater, and jewelry that I made for myself and the other bridesmaids for my friend Julie’s wedding several years ago. With all those neutrals, I wanted a pop of color!

WA analysis: That pop of color was a good idea, I think. Otherwise, I probably would have been bored again.

Side note: I noticed this time that the armholes felt a little tight on the blouse. Not enough that I’m going to get rid of it at this point, just enough to be noticeable. But I’m thinking it’s a result of trying to do an FBA, because I had the same problem with that Pendrell blouse that I don’t have anymore.

Day 20: Went casual for this teaching day with my Happy Camper blouse, navy denim Thurlows, and a little leaf jewelry set I made back in college.

WA analysis: The colors are good. Also, denim trousers are the best. They’re basically sneaky jeans!

Side note: The jewelry is also secretly geeky, because I made this during the era of the Lord of the Rings movies. And I purposely put 9 seed beads between every green bead–one for every member of the Fellowship. Yes, I’m a dork. And proud of it.

Day 21: More teaching! So I wore my brown Thurlows (I guess this was the unintentional week of Thurlows), my Sea Flowers top, a purchased cardigan, and–if I may say so–possibly some of my best-crafted pieces of jewelry ever.

WA analysis: I was a pretty big fan of this outfit overall, both in terms of silhouette and color.

Day 22 (yesterday): In the interest of keeping it real, this outfit is called “it got warm on the day where I hadn’t bothered to shave my legs because it had been oddly cold all week.” I’m pretty sure that’s one of the reasons maxi-skirts are so popular! Anyway, I made the earrings, and embroidered the skirt back in college. The shirt is from ModCloth.

WA analysis: Definitely a better take on the peplum top and skirt look than Day 13! I still think it would have looked better with a shorter top, but I’m pretty sure I did that outfit last year. And I’m not sorry about wearing sleeveless when it was suddenly 80 degrees and humid, vs. the 60s and rainy that it had been the day before! Oh, Mid-Atlantic weather….

And I’m going to stop there, since I haven’t actually had a chance to get my picture for today yet. Hopefully I can bribe Doug to snap that picture with some homemade pizza….which I actually need to start making.

put a bird on it

There was a week or week and a half or so near the end of March where I had absolutely no time to sew at home– I had five rehearsals for various music things in 7 days (!), and all more in the northern part of the state. My parents live closer to everything I do than I do now, and I still teach there anyway, so I just killed the extra time at their place rather than lose the extra hour (and gas/toll money) driving home and back. The point of all this is that my mom is great, and not only let me use her sewing machine to construct these badly-needed pajama pants, she also let me raid her stash! I tried really hard to finish these in April, because it’s the one contribution to Pink April that I could have possibly had in my anti-pink stash, but didn’t quite make it.

To continue the running theme of Sewaholic patterns that I seem to have going on this year, these are the Tofino pants. The side panels didn’t really add a whole lot of extra construction time, and I like that I can mix fabrics. The added waistband piece vs. fold over and sew is kind of nice, too–I think the crotch depth of this pair is more flattering than other pj pants I’ve made. Plus once the top starts getting holes in the top but the rest of the pants are still in good shape, I could always just remove that piece and sew on a new waistband, rather than toss the whole pair!

Isn’t this bird print fun? I’ve had it for a couple of years. I originally bought it with a Sewaholic Crescent skirt in mind, since the pattern specifically says it works with quilt cotton! But in typical fashion, the print ended up being a much larger scale than I’d thought when I ordered, and I just didn’t think it would work for the skirt seaming, especially in the yoke. But it’s great for crazy loud pj pants! Of course, since I bought it for a skirt, I didn’t have quite enough to make the full-length pj pants. I didn’t want to make the shorts, because pants that were lighter than flannel but warmer than shorts were really what I needed. I seriously thought about cropping the pants to mid-calf to see if I could squeeze them out, but then Mom said she wouldn’t mind letting me steal a piece of her quilt cotton. I settled on this bright dragonfly print. I had to cut it on the crosswise grain to squeeze it out, but it still worked.

There really isn’t too much I can say about construction, other than they were easy, just a little time-consuming to get the piping sandwiched in well. They’re super-comfortable. I’ve been wearing these literally every single night since I finished. I think this may be my new go-to pajama pattern!

On a random note, every time I look at the print, I think of this song.Which isn’t a bad thing, since it’s pretty and it has a great flute solo in it. Yes, I will freely admit that I have a strong bias towards songs that feature my instrument!

 Stashbusting stats:

Total used up (from my stash): 2.5 yards. Plus some piping, though I unfortunately had to buy another pack because I ran out with one line to go.

And since I forgot to add it to my last post, total used up from the Plantain cardigan: ~1.1 yards.

happy accidents

Trying to catch up a little here, and I figured it’s better to have phone photos than none at all, right?

Anyway, this month’s Stashbusting Sewalong theme is knits, and since I’ve been pretty short on sewing time lately, I thought it would be good to try and knock something out. I had a striped ivory knit tee on my capsule wardrobe list, and decided that it might be more useful as a layering piece rather than a more traditional tee. So here’s what I ended up with!

I still based this on the Plantain pattern, as originally planned, with a few modifications. I got the fabric from Kerilee in last year’s Sewing Surprises swap, and there wasn’t a whole lot of either piece. So I used Heather‘s yoke modification again, so I could work in the polka dot mesh and use that to stretch the stripes. (I’m print-mixing! It’s a start.) Short sleeves, obviously, which are bound at the edges with the striped fabric.

The polka dots look cooler from the back, obviously. I like that it lets some color from whatever tank top I’m wearing show through, and I think it will be a very versatile summer layer as a result.

Ugggh, I look so tired in this picture! Anyway, the collar/front was sort of a happy accident. My pattern drafting skills aren’t the hottest, and when I was cutting this out, I had the presence of mind to slope the neckline downward to the center front, but I forgot about silly little things like adding seam allowances! So when I tried this on partway through, the front looked pretty wonky because it was so skinny. I had a fairly largeish, mostly rectangular scrap left. So I cut it in half lengthwise, seamed it in the middle, and basically made it a big wide binding strip. The inner edge is just a fold, so it looks pretty nice and clean. I’m actually really happy with the finished look of it, so one of these days, I might actually draft this as a pattern piece to use for a future pattern hack!

So now I just have one other fairly quick project and a refashion to post, and I’m all caught up. Unless I actually have time to sew something else. We shall see, since I haven’t been able to sew a single stitch this week.

Me-Made-May, part 2

I’m in the opposite boat that I was last week, when I had nothing new to show– I managed to finish 2 projects and my first real refashion in awhile last week! Just need to take some pics and write up the details. For now, it’s time to continue with my me-made wardrobe analysis. (And lots of doggy photobombing.)

This outfit was a lot of fun to put together! Worn for teaching. I wasn’t 100% sold on the boots with it, but the weather was right on the borderline of too cold for sandals, too warm for shoes. So I decided to err on the side of warmer feet. I was also excited to find a way to wear this thrifted moto jacket and my me-made mahjong bracelet, because I hadn’t found a way to wear the jacket in particular yet at all.

WA analysis: The grey boots and TARDIS skirt fit right in, color-wise. The jacket is this strange hybrid color between brown, plum, and maroon, so it’s close enough to my palette, I think. (Besides, it reminds me of Martha Jones and Emma Swan, and neither is a bad association. The silhouette isn’t quite one I’d called out–both pieces fitted, cropped top, high-waisted skirt–but I like it. Definitely geek-casual!
Day 7– I didn’t have teaching, but I did have a rehearsal, so I wanted to be comfortable. So I wore thrifted jeans, an H&M cardigan, and my Hummingbird top, along with a me-made bracelet and the Etsy-bought jewelry I wore for my wedding. I like these beads, they remind me of shields.

WA analysis: The cardigan isn’t the ideal length for the peplum top, IMO, but the knit is casual enough that it works all right. The colors are definitely in my palette! I’d call this one cozy/casual/colorful.

Day 8: Another teaching day. I was hoping to get 2 wears out of these pants, since I only wore them for a few hours and they’re a pain to iron, but then one of the goldies drooled all over them when I got home…oh well. Everything was me-made except the shoes (pants, top, and earrings. And wow, I’m wearing more or less the exact same outfit in that post with the top.)

WA analysis: I felt like the more fitted top and looser pants silhouette was working better for actual wearing than they are in this picture. Maybe it’s the shoes? Or that my hair is pulled back? I’d say cozy/casual, and the green/camel/black, again, are very much in my palette.

My day 9 outfit was worn for a bit of teaching and grocery shopping– I’d brought different pants, but then decided that my student wouldn’t care, and stuck with the same thrifted jeans I’d worn to work. This is one of my Anthropologie-inspired refashioned tops, and I made the necklace and earrings as well.

WA analysis: Blue is definitely good, and the fitted jeans/top silhouette is one that I’m comfortable in. I do wish that the top had been just a little longer, though.

Day 10: I had to work in the morning, and we took my in-laws out to lunch afterwards for Mother’s Day. So I took the chance of wearing my me-made jeans and earrings to work, and kept my Harry Potter tee on under my work tee so I could quick-change afterwards. I was a little warm at the time, but I’m glad I did jeans and sandals, because then some rain came through and cooled things down.

WA analysis: Moar blue!! This would definitely fall under casual-geeky, and I still love the jeans and t-shirt look. Especially for weekends. I’m also thrilled that even though they’re tight, the me-made jeans fit again! Especially since I haven’t been able to exercise for about 3 weeks straight now. I need to get back on that. (And make more jeans. With stretch, next time.)

Today: I asked Doug which dress I should wear between this and another one, and so he picked my outfit today! It was a good pick, as the Reeses’-inspired Tiramisu was comfortable and cute enough to easily go from church to a casual lunch at my parents’ to grabbing some water ice and doing some cooking when I got home. This is also one of my favorite jewelry sets that I’ve made!

WA analysis: Finally, a different section of my palette! I like that this dress has a touch of yellow in it, as it’s not a color that I have a ton of. I like the silhouette of the dress as well, and I definitely need to revisit this pattern sometime as well. I found myself wishing that I had some different accessories to go with this, especially to bring out the yellow more. (I’m definitely going to want to play with some beads again before the month is out, I think!)

Costume progress

I’ve been meaning to write this post for ages, but life kept getting in the way. But I have made some actual progress on my Tauriel costume from Shieldmaiden March (ha!), so I thought I’d share how my dyeing experiment in particular went.

The short answer:  the right side is the before, and the left side is the after. Much improved!

The longer answer:I started off with an old green bedsheet set that my mom had passed on to me for muslin purposes. It’s a good thing I had both the fitted and the flat sheet, because I ended up needing the fitted sheet to cut the last two pieces of the coat out of. I went ahead and roughly sewed the outside pieces together, too, minus the sleeves, because I wasn’t sure how much the dyeing and washing process would make things fray. (Good thing, because it was a LOT. Fortunately, the costume ended up being huge on me anyway, so I was able to take it in enough to compensate.)

This was my first time experimenting with iDye— as a reminder, I already tried dyeing the bedsheets once with regular RIT dye, and it didn’t make much difference due to the partial polyester content of the fabric. So I bought one specifically for poly in green, and also an olive for natural fibers, just so both types would be covered.I bought a huge cheap pot at Walmart, which I normally avoid whenever possible, but for a pot I’d never want to cook food in, I figured it would be ok. And I went to work.

The pot turned out to be a pretty good size for all of the fabric. I realized as I was looking at their website just now that I did mess up the directions a little by cutting open the packets and dumping the dye powder in. Apparently, you just throw the whole packet in and it dissolves. Oops. I let it simmer for about an hour, while stirring it with a big stick and reading a book. Then I threw it right in the washer, as soon as I’d gotten enough cold water into the pot that I could handle the hot fabric.

A few tips for working with the iDye, since I’d never done stovetop dyeing before, and I’m sure I’m not the only one:

• Wear old clothes. I did end up splashing some dye on myself at one point when the stick slipped, and if Doug hadn’t advised me beforehand to change into my painting shirt, I would have ruined a perfectly good band t-shirt. (Thanks, Doug!)
•  Turn on the stove vent and open a window. The poly stuff in particular smells pretty bad.
• So far, I’ve washed this three times, because it still smells, and the fumes are permeating my sewing room! I ended up tweeting Dharma Trading Company (where I bought it from) to ask for some advice, and they suggested washing it in vinegar and warm water, and letting it air dry. Doug was kind enough to do this for me, since we finally had a warm, sunny day and I was at a rehearsal for most of it. It reduced the odor, but it hasn’t gone away entirely. (Though thankfully, it is starting to fade– I only notice it now when I’m bent close to the fabric.) But the edges were getting very, very ragged, and all of the washing actually tore some of the lower seams open, so I think I’m going to wait until this is actually more finished before washing this again.

 

Now that I know how to dye on the stovetop, I think it will come in handy for smaller batches, like one piece of clothing or whatever.   

Here’s where I’m at now. (Sorry for the not-great photos. Between extra rehearsals for multiple concerts–yay! and 6-day workweeks at the garden center again–boo! I’ve barely been home for a couple of weeks now. And when I am, it’s usually dark.)
Here’s the front, sans sleeves. Obviously I need to give this a good pressing–it’s more to show the length of the front angles and all. I may need to shorten these a bit. I’m also still trying to figure out how to handle the collar. After all of that frankenpatterning, I watched the movie again, and the collar was stitched on as a separate piece. It wasn’t really working anyway, so I chopped it off and will tweak it and the facing to lay a little better. I’m thinking I’m just going to do some hooks and eyes as the front closure, since this has a leather-looking bodice over top anyway. I also need to figure out exactly where to stitch the shoulder seams, which are currently just pin-basted closed.

Here’s the back, and a lot more splits. I’m also trying to figure out how to hem these. Since I’m trying to fake suede with a bedsheet, it will probably look the best if I blind hem it by hand. But then, a really huge part of me is wondering if I want to spend all of that time hemming all of those split seams for a costume that I’m more likely than not only going to wear once. It’s not like this is my wedding dress, you know?

In the meantime, one of my projects lately has been this detailing over the seams. I still have several more to do this initial stitching, which is just one of the decorative stitches that Bernadette has, slightly overlapping the seams. (The added perk is that this will strengthen the seams a bit, since the last round through the washer to try to get rid of the dye smell made several of them tear at the bottom. It’s a good thing that this thing turned out huge, because all of those tears are now mended and  will be confined to the hems.)

I’m also going to do one more pass on either side of them once the initial embroidery is done, as a satin stitch with the shinier machine embroidery thread.  Basically, I’m trying to replicate this look:

//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js

Honestly, considering their material vs. mine, I think it’s pretty close!

I really need to get my butt in gear and try to finish this coat up. I had to pause because I was running out of thread, but I bought more. I still also need make a bodice, gauntlets, leggings, and fake weaponry. I was going to make some faux boot tops, but since I ended up replacing my old brown boots recently, I think the ones I bought will be close enough.  Oh, and did I mention that I need to make about 3 other costumes for this event? And all those other clothes I want to make? But I have a plan to make as many of these costume components real-world wearable as possible. In fact, one is already on my capsule wardrobe list, and the other will fit right in, if I can find the right fabric!

Me-made-May, part 1

As much as I wish I could be posting fabulous new clothing items, I’ve still been very short on sewing time. Although I’m pretty close to finishing some much-needed PJ pants! And I’ve made progress on the costume from Shieldmaiden March (ha!), but nothing is actually finished yet. And that deserves a separate post. So I’m going to use this one to evaluate my outfits so far in light of the Wardrobe Architect component of my self-challenge.

I also have to say, I’m actually really enjoying doing the pictures with Instagram. I know they’re not the best quality photos, but it’s working for me!   Also, any close-up pics of jewelry are things I’ve made, I just don’t necessarily have specific posts for them, depending on when I’ve made them. On with the show, shall we?

Day 1 was a teaching day, so I tried to dress the part. 
Me-mades: the top (Simplicity 5555, pre-blog), the Olive Thurlows, and the jewelry.

WA analysis: The core words I think of for this one are “casual” and “artsy”. The colors are definitely in my palette, the print on the top adds some interest to the all-neutral outfit, and the silhouette is definitely within the range of what I called out (semi-fitted top & pants).

On a side note, I keep thinking I should revisit this pattern. I love the funky sleeves.
Day 2 was another teaching day, along with going to see a local school play (they did Sound of Music, and borrowed one of my mom’s German shepherds to be the SS officer’s dog.)
Me mades: the “Silk Road” refashioned top, the jewelry, and a skirt passed on from a friend, which I altered to fit me better.  

WA analysis: This strikes me most as a skirt riff on the “fitted pants, looser top” silhouette, and I think it works. It was pretty hard to get a picture of the skirt that didn’t make it look like pants, though! Again, with all the blues, this fits right into the palette. Style is probably more “casual, colorful”.

Day 3: This was the day that I didn’t think would happen–if I look like I’m really forcing that smile, it’s because this was shortly after spending over 10 hours at a retail job on a Saturday! In fact, the only reason I managed this outfit at all was because I’d asked Doug to figure out dinner, and he decided to just drive us to the Waffle House. So these horribly faded jeans are the same ones I wore to work–I only bothered to change my top and threw on the “Junior Mints” jacket.
WA analysis: The layered jeans and t-shirt look is definitely one I’d wear–just not these jeans, as I prefer darker ones. (My “work” jeans are all ones that I got at the thrift store, they fit well enough, and I don’t care about the style because they usually end up covered in dirt and occasionally paint.) The red t-shirt isn’t really my palette, but I love the design on it–they had shirts in colors I like better at this particular concert, but I liked this design the best.  Overall, I’d call this “casual, colorful, geeky.”

I really wanted to wear something Star Wars yesterday (May the Fourth!!), but realized I don’t own a SW shirt at the moment. Oops. I was running from church to a rehearsal to an orchestral concert, along with killing some time at the library, so I figured I should try to go with a more versatile outfit anyway. So I wore my navy denim Thurlows, and a me-made scarf. I’m really glad I also had my Smauglock coat, because it was a lot colder than it was supposed to be!

WA analysis: Definitely a “Casual, colorful, cozy” look. The white isn’t quite the palette, but it’s close enough to ivory. Also, it was surprisingly hard to find something to go with this particular scarf, which surprised me, because turquoise and royal blue are definitely colors I gravitate towards! This will have to be remedied, I think.

Today’s outfit was worn for teaching again. Me-mades: the Eva Equestrian jacket and the “Zeros and Ones” blouse.

WA analysis: I feel like it worked better in my head than it does in the photograph. I think it’s the pants. They’re just a little too wide and too short for the boots, and the silhouette strikes me as dumpy. But that could also be me being angry that it’s Cinco de Mayo and I’m still having to break out corduroy jackets–it’s usually a lot warmer than this by now! Aside from the silhouette fail, the colors are definitely me. I definitely need to consider whether these pants should stay, though. 

Overall, I think that days 1 and 4 were the most successful looks for me so far. How’s your MMM going?

Me-Made-May is here!

Just a fly-by post from me today to say that I’ve decided to do my outfit posting mainly on Instagram this year, though I’ll probably do a roundup here every so often. Or maybe at the beginning of June. We’ll see how things go this month, now that I’ve been thrown back into the arena of 6-day workweeks at the garden center. (And I was doing so well with avoiding Saturdays…)

Anyway, if you want to see what I’m wearing, and a lot of canine photobombing, I go by my other usual screenname there, sunnyb64.