more me-made-may outfits

Day 15:

It’s like me circa my freshman year of high school (including the unmatched blacks). I used to loooove long skirts, but I really couldn’t deal with how annoying this was to walk in. Perhaps because now even my slow days now involve 3-4 miles of fast walking? Anyway while I like how this looks I think long skirts and I just need some time apart.

The army shirt is fun. I keep adding bits to it. Here’s a detail shot.

Day 16:

Jeans and a t-shirt. This shirt is too short in the back, which is a known issue (the t-shirt I was using for fabric wasn’t big enough). Need to make more of these.

Day 17:

The Atomic Housedress. Still a lot of fun. It needs a few tweaks (shoulder adjustment, some tacking at the hem) but since the wrap cut is very forgiving size-wise it’s quite wearable even though I made it when I was quite a bit bigger than I am now (2 months post-partum vs. 7). And the cardigan is still one of my favorites.

Day 18:

This is the last of my four Alabama Chanin style dresses, and my burda shirt. I wore this outfit tromping around Maker Faire with a baby on my back. I enjoyed the colors a lot. The baby is getting heavy though.

Day 19:

Weird picture because backlit. There’s totally a sleeping kid on my back in that photo. Me-made leggings and refashioned shirt with applique on the sleeve. The tank top is new. I made two, one with green edging and one with purple. They’re nothing special, but they’re nice and long and should be good for layering under things. I’m getting better at knit bindings! The skirt I bought a long time ago, but it makes me very happy.

Day 20:

This outfit screams “mom”. I think it’s the cardigan and sneakers? Or perhaps the avocado the baby somehow smeared on my legs.

This is the first day without a new-to-me-made-may item. I put it off as long as possible! But unless I want to wear things that don’t work with my lifestyle (e.g. maternity clothes, long skirts and tops I really can’t nurse in) that’s pretty much it until I finish a new project.

May stashbusting: spousal unit t-shirt

Tom has always had kind of a difficult time finding t-shirts that fit him. He’s a tall guy (6’3″), with wide shoulders and a very long torso, but not as wide around as most big-and-tall sized shirts expect. So things that actually fit him at the shoulders are often enormous at the waist. Plus he’s picky about lots of things – raglan sleeves are better than regular, necks can’t be too high, the drape of the fabric has to be just right, and so on. Which means that when he finds a shirt that he likes he clings to it ferociously, and resists replacements or upgrade for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, his last batch of well-fitting t-shirts are in the process of biting the dust. Random holes, stretched out everything…they’re pretty well finished. But still he clings! It’s high time for some new shirts.

I had some Tom-approved fabric left over from this shirt. It’s a really great hemp-cotton blend – just the right weight. I also had some red cotton jersey, from who knows when. It’s a similar weight. I made this:

I used essentially the same pattern as for the aforementioned hoodie, which was originally traced from one of his favorite store-bought shirts. Obviously no hood and shorter sleeves. I used a knit band at the neck and stitched the sleeves and hem with a twin needle. (The hem part happened after these pictures were taken – getting photos in is hard!)

He looooves it. Even if I never got him to actually pose for photos and instead snuck up on him while he was making coffee. He’s only not wearing it right now because it was in the wash last night. And so on.

Historically I think I’ve shied away from making lots of basics, but I’m totally into it now. I’m also making myself a couple of really basic black tank tops. Not earth shattering, but incredibly useful and invariably better quality/fit than most of what I’d buy.

T-shirts are fast, and this is so much better than anything he’s been able to find in stores. The pieces aren’t huge, so the contrast sleeves at least are a pretty good way to use up bits of knits from my stash or bits of recycled t-shirts. Expect to see more of these in the future!

Oh by the way

I’ve been updating my me-made clothing inventory as I wear stuff. This is kind of interesting as it’s been giving me a better sense of what gets worn, and with what frequency. I’ve been doing great with tops and knit dresses, but I haven’t managed to wear anything with a full-length skirt. I even got dressed in a maxi skirt this morning, but then realized I had to change if I wanted to bike to work. So I changed – I don’t like letting fashion restrict my activities.

My Flickr set of Me-Made-May outfits can be found here.

So far I’ve managed to wear at least one new (to Me-Made-May) item each day, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep it up. Very soon I will be down to just long skirts and maternity dresses which…ehn. So unless I sew a LOT of new stuff the second half of the month is mostly going to be remixes of things you’ve already seen.

me-made-may days 10-14

Day 10:

Lots of color! The skirt is from here and the shirt is the same one as on day 4. The leggings were a really quick project from a couple of years ago – no pattern, just trace and existing pair and go. But the fabric is lots of fun! Overall I’m pretty happy with this outfit – it was comfortable and looked surprisingly put-together. I doubt I’ll be taking more photos in this spot on non-theme days though! The light leaves much to be desired.

Day 11:

Showing off my burda sew along shirt. New wardrobe options are fun!

Day 12:

Another Alabama Chanin dress. This is the first one I made. It’s all sewn by hand, and is holding up well! The hoodie is also handmade. I used some hoodie pattern I had in my stash for the rough shape of the pieces, but the sewing and finishing is all in the same style as the dress. I should really do a more in-depth blog about these pieces at some point…

Day 13:

The shirt is the never-blogged second iteration of this shirt. It had some issues – first I tried to fold the neck over and stitch (using steam-a-seam) which wasn’t stable enough and didn’t look good. So I added a neck binding, shown here. But I lost so much fabric cutting off the (impossible to seam-rip) original finish that this top is now very much off-the-shoulder, and not in a good way. Plus the fabric has already developed a mysterious hole in the center front, after maybe three wears (probably hoodie zipper related). And I think it shrunk. And the rayon knit I used is drapey in a way that’s more clingy than is really flattering. So it’s probably not going to last really long in my wardrobe. However, it has helped me identify a major wardrobe hole, which is brightly colored t-shirts. I’ll definitely be making a few more of those!

Day 14:

So I made this dress for maternity wear, and blogged it here. I made it at almost eight months pregnant, but still got a LOT of wear out of it. At the time I was all “I can totally wear this after the baby!” but really…I don’t want to. It just feels like wearing maternity clothes. I got sick of it while I was pregnant, and it’s not really a style I like on my non-pregnant body – the fullness starts to high and even with a belt or sweater over it it’s not very flattering. Plus, I just don’t like this print that much, especially with the tiered skirt making the stripes all confused. It’s going back in the box of maternity clothes until the next time I’m in my third trimester and desperate for something to wear.

burda sew along

I have survived my first Burda sewing experience! And it wasn’t super hard or anything.

This is my project for the WSBN Burda Sew Along. Because it’s fun to do things when other people are doing them. And good motivation to try something new! Belatedly I noticed that I’ve basically just ripped off this top from Anthropologie. Of course I’d never seen that top when I picked my fabric or my pattern, so all it really proves is that I’m (somewhat bizarrely) on-trend for this one.

Here’s my shirt. It’s shirt 113 A/B from Burda 3/2012. I used the pockets from view A and more or less everything else from view B. I used the teal cotton lawn from this post. It’s pretty wrinkly and not my favorite fabric ever, but it does work well with this pattern.

Here’s the burda picture:

It came together easily, with no big instructions mysteries or anything. It probably helped that I’ve made shirts before.
I did a full bust adjustment and some adjustments for sloped shoulders, but both were straightforward. I probably could have done a more extreme FBA, but this way it’ll fit after I’m done nursing.

Obligatory late-night tracing picture.

I’m kind of in love with the epaulettes. The banded collar is pretty good too!

I was a bit sloppy with some of the finishing details on this one. I forgot to cut wide enough seam allowances to do flat-felled seams, so the seam allowances are just zig-zagged (fake overlocking) and topstitched. Which looks a little weird when the sleeves are rolled up, but whatever. I am the only one who will ever notice. I also neglected to add a sleeve placket (the pattern didn’t have one) but will next time.

The buttons are bright blue and kind of shimmery. Awesome. Weirdly, I had kind of a hard time finding 15 suitable buttons that matched.

It’ll mostly get worn open.

Will I make this again? Maybe. It’s a solid shirt pattern that I’ve already adjusted to fit me. I think I’ll first wait and see how much it really gets worn. Historically I’ve avoided most button downs, but a lot of that was issues with the fit in the bust. This shirt opens up a whole new world of wardrobe options, guys. I might try one in one of the silk-cotton blends I’ve been eyeing at the fabric store…

bike to work day

Thursday was Bike to Work Day. And I did bike in! Despite opening the garage door on my knee and OWWWWWW. I normally do this a couple times a week anyway, so really not that big a deal. But I took an action photo.

(Not actually the relevant sort of action. Whatever.)

I even biked home, though it wasn’t Bike Home From Work Day. My bike commute to work is glorious and downhill and easy. My ride home is uphill and usually straight into the cold wind that’s bringing the fog back into the city in the evening, so it’s less pleasant. That means that a lot of times I’ll bike into work in the morning, and then leave my bike there until a day with good weather. So I get in a couple of round trips each week.

Bike to work day is a great event – lots of publicity and people handing out snacks and stuff, encouraging people to try biking to work. And a lot of people do – even those with 40 mile+ commutes! Sadly this year was sort of a gray day so it wasn’t as social as it has been in years past. As a general rule I’m a huge believer in biking and transit for getting around, especially in urban environments. There’s the obvious environmental stuff (too much driving, yada yada), but it’s also just…nicer. I am happier when I don’t drive.

I’m very excited about biking with Izzy. So far he’s been too small (see this post for more info on riding bikes with babies). But his head measurement just hit the low end of the size range for the smalled helmet we can find, and he’s sitting up on his own, so the plan is to strap him into a bike seat ASAP and ride off into the sunset.

So anyway, that was Thursday’s outfit (me-made-may day 9). Another Alabama Chanin dress, this one entirely hand sewn. The hoodie was a men’s one that I modified, downsizing it and adding decoration to the hood and back.

(The patch was purchased at an anarchist bookstore in Amsterdam on this trip.)

completed! tiny pocket tank, also more me-made-may

I made the tiny pocket tank from Grainline Studio in the Anna Maria Horner mermaid voile pictured in this post. It’s great! Comfy and easy to wear and more professional than a t-shirt. I left off the little pocket this time since the print is so busy. I do have to pull it up for nursing, but the fit is loose enough that it’s totally doable.

(Photographed after a day of wear. Baby is asleep. Too lazy to iron now. Sorry.)

I was inspired to actually get on with this project after seeing this post over at Crab & Bee. This is definitely a wardrobe staple I’ve been missing for a while.

I managed to squeeze this out of only a yard of the (54″ wide) fabric, and used some bias binding from my stash for the edges, instead of the self binding the pattern called for.

I did a fairly sizeable full bust adjustment (34H, bitches) and added some length because I like tops like this long. Both of these adjustments were definitely necessary. I still have some fiddling to do for my next version – the bust darts are too high (not entirely the fault of my not-so-supportive nursing bras) and I need to lower the armscye or something since I’ve got some wrinkling at the top of the bust. My theory is that maybe the extreme angle of the dart means the angle of the strap is now off with respect to the body? I’ll play with the fit more next time.

I’ll definitely make more of these, though with some fit adjustments. Still this is pretty good for a bunch of shot-in-the-dark pattern adjustments and no muslin. I’m quite happy that I managed to produce something in this style that doesn’t look totally shapeless, given my bust size.

Here it is in today’s me-made-may outfit:

And for completeness, here’s yesterday’s outfit:

I’m much smaller than the last time I wore this. Expected, given that I’m now seven months post-partum, rather than one.

It still has all the fit problems described in this post, though. I have another version of this dress cut out with a bunch of adjustments, but I haven’t sewn it together yet to see how it goes.