MMM, Day 4

Sorry for the fuzzy mirror photo.  It was a crazy morning, so we didn't get a decent picture before Mitch had to head to work.
I've been trying to get a bit more creative in wearing my me made clothes.  I usually wear this skirt with a RTW tee that is now falling apart and needed replacing anyway.  I tried several other tops, but they didn't work.  I'm not sure I'm loving the sweater+belt=bulk around my middle combo though.  Better get to sewing a new red top!
Anyway, this outfit is BWOF 08/2009-114 on top, with a skirt that I refashioned from a failed attempt at Butterick 4790 (the walkaway/whirlaway dress).  I really love this skirt, which is great because I really hated that dress...

MMM, Day 3

It was Monday, so I'm back to my usual "uniform" of jeans and knit top.

The top is BWOF 04-2009-112, which was in the first batch of Spring Top week picks!  How fun is that?  The jeans are Jalie 2908.  Since I have only made 3 pairs of jeans (and one is really more of a denim trouser), you'll probably be seeing these a couple of more times this month.  I'll be trying to branch out a bit and work in some of my less worn clothes, but it's Monday...  And I LOVE these jeans.

MMM, Day 2 and big news!

Sunday is church day at our house, and usually that means that my kiddos are both in Me-Made outfits, but this week Logan isn't well, so he stayed home, and lounged around in a Lightning McQueen tee shirt and shorts.

Myra and I got up and ready to go!

I'm wearing Vogue 8379, which I made in the days before my sewing blog.  It is interesting to look at the construction of this dress and all the rookie mistakes I made!!  None of the seams or edges are finished.  I used non-stretch interfacing, which might have actually been a good thing, since I didn't stabilize the neckline at all.  I made no fit adjustments and cut based on my full bust.  And despite all that, it remains one of my favorite dresses.  Some day I'll make it up right!

ETA: Sister asked what fabric I made this dress in, which reminded me that since this was pre-blog, I didn't really talk about it.  The pattern is great.  Ask any of the 40 gazillion ladies on PR who have made it.  Even two sizes too big (I know, I didn't know what I was doing) it still fits me reasonably well.  I made it out of matte jersey from Hancock, which ended up being an ideal fabric both for the pattern, as the weight gives the skirt swing and stability as well as holding those darn facings down, and for my level of inexperience at the time, as it is a reasonably firm knit that is forgiving of sewing oopsies, and the cut edges are very stable.  My biggest gripe about this dress is that the front pleats DO NOT stay flat.  I think this is primarily because I sewed a size 14 without alterations, instead of the 10 with FBA that I should have done.  Lesson learned.  Eventually.

Myra wore her Kitschy Coo Mini Mod dress.  We both love this dress.

Sure looks perky, doesn't she?  Of course, about five minutes after we got to church, she brought breakfast back up all over both of us, so we didn't get to wear our dresses for long!  We spent the rest of the day in lounge pants and tee shirts.  At least our tees were me-made!  Myra wore her Puffis, and I wore the one I drafted with Cal Patch's book.  And then I did the laundry...

In other news, one of my tops made the Finals in Spring Top week!!

It's up for voting today, so head over to Made By Rae and check them all out!

MMM, Day 1

Yesterday was the perfect day to start Me Made May, as we had already made plans to go to the Central Texas Airshow, so we had fun photo ops.  It was a little overcast and crazy windy, so there is some interesting hair action going on...

I decided to start the month off with a bang and get as many of us Me-Made as possible, so the kids and I are in entirely handmade outfits! I am wearing burda style 02/2010-122 and Simplicity 2609. The little prince is wearing New Look 6641 and the Huck Finn pants from HR's Weekend Sewing. The sweet princess is sporting Simplicity 2627 and Ottobre 01/2010-13.
The individual shots can be seen on my flickr account.
I can see that my biggest challenge this month is going to be creating outfits out of the random printed skirts and tops that I have made.  I just am not drawn to solid fabrics the way that I am to prints!!

Monthly Roundup - April '10

After my mini wardrobe, I decided that April was going to be a month of random sewing.  And so, here's what happened...


1) New Look 6932 PJs for Myra
2) Little Mermaid pillow for Myra
3) Vintage Simplicity 2823 dress and bloomers for Myra
4) McCall's 5522 top for me
5) Helicopter pillow for Logan
6) burda style 04/2010-102 top for me
7) Butterick 5042 skirt for me
8) burda style 04/2009-112 top for me
9) Simplicity 4023 shorts for Myra
10) Kitschy Coo Smocky Top for Myra
11) Simplicity 4378 scrubs for Mitch
12) Simplicity 2627 top for Myra
13) Vogue 8649 top for me
14) Kitschy Coo Smocky top (the second) for Myra
15) Simplicity 4023 shorts (the second) for Myra
16) Design it Yourself Tee shirt for me
17) Ottobre 01/2010-13 jeans for Myra
18) Ottobre 03/2008-2 Puffis tee for Myra
19) BWOF 02/2009-125 blouse for me
20) Kwik Sew 2881 running shirt for Mitch - too small!

That adds up to 22 items, 13 tops, 5 bottoms, 1 skirt, 1 dress and 2 pillows.  I know, that sounds like a crazy amount of sewing, but I didn't do anything particularly challenging.  Most of them (11) were actually for Myra.  I got 7, Logan just got a pillow and Mitch only got a set of scrubs, since the running shirt wasn't wearable.  I guess I need to do some boy sewing this coming month!  I sewed 23.75 yards, with 18.5 coming from the stash!  I have been on a crazy fabric acquisition spree this month, so I must stop!!  No fabric buying for at least the next month, but perhaps longer.  I must sew some of this up!

New skills I worked on:
1) sewing from a vintage pattern
2) sewing with slinky knit and rayon jersey
3) drafting a tee shirt

Hmm, not much there.  I really was sort of a sweat shop this month.  Lots of items made, but nothing really challenging.  I was sort of burnt out after the whole mini wardrobe, so it was a relief to "just sew".  Other goals?  I sewed 3 items from burda magazine and have traced several others, so they'll be coming down the pipe soon!  As for sewing outfits...  I don't think that my streak of happening to grab navy fabric from my stash counts here.  I did sew coordinated items for Myra, who desperately needed a summer wardrobe, but I'm still not very good at sewing coordinated items for myself.


Mary Beth's recent post really struck a chord with me.  I make a lot of cute clothes, but I don't have a coordinated wardrobe.  This is a problem.  Do I need a 12 step program?  Hi, my name is Katie and I'm a sew-aholic!  The problem is that I sew whatever happens to tickle my fancy, with no thought for what I will wear it with.  Witness the pink and green silk twill skirt - a  total orphan.  It fits me perfectly, is crazy cute and I've never worn it.  I don't have anything that it goes with.  Not even remotely.


So, I love the way that Mary Beth is attacking this problem and I am going to blatantly plagiarize (with appropriate credit, of course!).  She is starting with a palette of colors on which to build and making pieces in those colors that form a core wardrobe.  I think she's brilliant and will be following her progress with interest!

I'm also going to sew along with the 6 piece Summer wardrobe over at Stitcher's Guild. I think it will help me to stay organized and motivated.  The sewists over there are so amazing and so creative!  A total inspiration!


I think I'll start with the things I've been doing recently.  I don't know if you've noticed, but I seem to have a thing for blue lately.  Between my mini wardrobe and the navy streak I was on, I think this needs to be my core spring color.  Mitch (AKA my personal stylist) has me on a bit of a nautical kick, so I think I'll mix it up with some black, white and touches of red.  Since I tend to gravitate toward "interesting" when choosing fabric and pattern, I really don't have many wardrobe basics, so I'm going to start out with basic tops in white, black and red, a white skirt and some denim capris.  I think I can pull most of these pieces from the stash...

Here is my storyboard for my summer wardrobe.  
Clockwise from left to right, you are looking at a white poplin blouse made with Simplicity 2936, blue denim capris with BWOF 02/2009-117, an aqua cotton pique jacket with Vogue 1099, white pinstripe poplin with Butterick 5284, black and white polka dot lawn with Colette Patterns Ceylon dress, red ITY with OOP Butterick 3344, and white linen with Simplicity 2520.  I've also got a few other fabrics and patterns in mind, so stay tuned...

I will also be participating in Me-Made-May!  So, expect daily posts with my handmade outfit.  My goal is to only wear clothing that I have made.

In preparation, I pulled out all of the handmade clothes that I have and separated them in my closet.  It helped me to realize a few things.  One is that I really like printed skirts.  Funny that I don't wear them!  So, that will be goal one for Me-Made-May - Wear the skirts I've made and make some basic tops that coordinate with them.  I also have a serious dearth of dresses, so I'd like to make (and wear!) a few more dresses.  I tend to be a jeans and tee shirt girl, and I'd like to make a few more pants/capris as well, since that is my typical look.  So, for my outfits, I'll take pics one day and post the following morning - starting tomorrow with today's outfit!  I'm getting the kids in on this as well, but without as structured goals.  I'm going to try to do at least 3 me-made outfits a week for them.  We'll see how it goes!