Me Made May 2019 Review

If you recall, I decided to try Me Made May this year. I vowed to wear at least three Me Made outfits per week and I’d definitely wear a Me Made on Sunday. So, now that it’s June, we get to see how I did.

I think that I did pretty well. I had one outfit that I didn’t manage to get photographed, but overall, this all comes out to 20 days of Me Made outfits in May. I’m pretty proud of that.

I went into this trying to figure out what outfits in my closet spark joy in me, and I definitely made progress on that. I definitely have items that I love more than others and fits that I’m more comfortable with than others. (Some of these dresses do odd things to my arms for example.)

I also found some holes in my wardrobe. I realized that I need more casual me-mades. I’ve been thinking for a while that I need to learn how to sew a basic knit top, and my experiences this month definitely supported that. I also would like to knit a few more lightweight tops. And I have plans to work on both of those things this summer.

I also realized that I value my Me mades more than I value my Ready to Wear garments. I think that knowing that I put time and effort into these garments makes them more special to me. I also really appreciate knowing that they are tailored to my body shape and they flatter (generally) the things that I want to call attention to better than RTW clothes do.

For me, this really helped me realize how much I enjoy wearing clothes that I’ve made and what clothes I really want in my wardrobe. I’m going to keep trying to wear my Me Mades more and more and building a stronger Me Made Wardrobe.

And I’m definitely doing this again next year. Definitely.

Me-Made May

In crafting circles, May has become something of an opportunity to celebrating crafting and making your own clothing. And it’s called (quite charmingly in my opinion) Me Made May.

Now I’ve never participated in Me-Made May before. I’ve seen it on Instagram and various sewing blogs that I follow. It’s fun to follow, and it looks like it would be fun to do. But I’ve never done it myself. I decided to change that this year.

Different people handle it in different ways. Some people commit to wearing a something “me-made” every day. Some people pick a number of days per week or a number of outfits per week. I’ve decided to commit to wearing something “me-made” two or three times per week. I’m going to try to wear something that i wear every single Sunday of May, and I also want to try to wear something that I’ve made to work at least two days each week.

I’m not going to be posting each outfit on my blog as I wear it, but I will be posting a pic each day that I wear something “me made” on Instagram. I’m also planning of posting an end of month “roundup” post with all of my different “me made” outfits. If you want to follow along, please feel free to follow me on Instagram. (You’ll have to send me a request but I’ll accept it as long as you’re not a spambot or a creeper.)

Sunday Sewing

Back in May, I went to JoAnn’s and bought two yards of a gorgeous dark plum linen fabric. I was planning on making a top out of it. I even had a pattern in mind. I had plans. I was going to have an adorable top and soon.

Ahem. Some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years-or for two months, the fabric and pattern passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, the ring ensnared a new bearer…or I finally remembered that I wanted to make a really cute dark purple top.

And with that memory came motivation. I was going to do this. In fact, I was going to do the whole thing in one day. And then, while I was at it, I was going to use the leftover fabric (the pattern only uses about a yard and a half) to make a cowl.

I got home from church around 1:30pm. I took this picture around 5:30pm.

This is what winning really looks like.

The caption says it all. This, Charlie Sheen, is winning. Winning is making a new top (including modifying the pattern and putting in a zipper) and a new cowl…all in under four hours.

The cowl was SUPER easy.

That’s about a yard and a half of fabric folded in half with two seams…looped around my neck twice. Classy.

And the cowl actually looks good with the top I’m wearing today…which is an unexpected bonus. (I am not, however, wearing it at the moment. Ninety-three degrees Fahrenheit is a bit too hot for a linen cowl.)

And then there’s my new top.

Fierce

I modified the pattern slightly from its original decision. The pattern was designed to have a side zipper. I didn’t like the idea of having a zipper in my armpit, so I cut the back out differently that directed and put the zipper in the center back instead of in the side. Also, I used a 7″ zipper instead of a 12″ zipper. This appears to be working out just fine for me.

Also, I added two ties to make the top a little more fitted. I really like this addition.

Back view…including back zipper and ties

Now I need some excuses to wear these two new gorgeous additions to my wardrobe. Maybe a brief vacation next weekend to the setting of Somewhere in Time could help?

But right now I need to try to finish knitting a sweater and a cowl by Thursday evening. Bring on the coffee…and watching Inspector Lewis with Momsy…

(P.S. Bonus points if you can find my modification of a Lord of the Rings quote…we all know how much I love to modify things.)

FO: Ava

I finished a dress today. And I named it Ava. If you pay much attention to my posts about my sewing projects, you’ll notice that I name things. So what was View A from Simplicity pattern 2246 is now Ava.

I started my photo shoot with this dress in the backyard and later moved to the front yard for a different setting and light.

I really wish that I could tell you that what kind of fabric I made Ava out of, but I can’t. I know that it is a machine washable fabric, and it’s a very comfortable fabric at that. I can also tell you that it is an absolutely lovely shirtwaist dress and I adore it.

I bought the pattern and fabric for Ava back in August, but I only actually really started working on the dress last weekend.

The project works up pretty quickly. It’s a quick and fun job. The only reason that it took me a week to finish it was that it took me until today to ask Mom for buttonhole making lessons. And once she showed me how to do it, it was all smooth sailing.

The belt, which I poached off a flannel shirt I bought at Vanity a year or so ago, does wonders for the dress. On its own, the dress is shapeless, but the belt gives it shape and a little pizzazz.

I probably bring a little pizzazz of my own, come to think of it.

And I’m expecting to get quite  a bit of wear out of this dress-both as a church dress and as a work dress. I have a feeling it will look fabulous over a pair of leggings or tights.

I can’t wait to see all the wardrobe possibilities this dress brings.

Where have I been?

I haven’t blogged in three weeks. And I realized that the longer it’s been, the harder it gets to come back to it. Real life is wearing me out. And if you’re wondering where I’ve been, I’ve been here, living my life. I’ve been teaching and sewing and knitting and drinking tea (Have I mentioned how much I love this place? Or this one?) and coffee and reading and living.

I’m also kind of on a baking/cooking spree. (Sorry about the mess that the loaf of bread I “need” to make is going to make, Mom. But some days, you just need to make bread.)

Well, Saturday, it was some days, you just need to make brownies with pretzel M&Ms in them.

But they are super delicious. Trust me.

Of course, Saturday was also the day of “some days, you just have to make a dairy-free grilled cheese sandwich. Thankfully, Whole Foods sells almond cheese, which is delicious.

The really great thing about the Lisanetti cheese is that each chunk is enough cheese for me to make three sandwiches. And I love grilled cheese. It’s probably the thing I miss the most in my dairy-free life. Sure, I miss ice cream, but there’s always sorbet. And I rarely find myself missing mac and cheese. And I have some great dairy-free tuna noodle casserole recipes. But I miss grilled cheese sandwiches. And then I found Lisanetti at Whole Foods. It’s more expensive than cow cheese, but every now and then it’s a great treat.

Like I said, I’ve also being doing some sewing. Saturday, I spent the day working on a dress that I’ve been plotting since August. I bought the pattern and fabric in August. I cut the pattern and material out in October. (Side note: That blue dress that I blogged about back in October is uber-popular. People ask me where I bought it and how they can get one. Yesterday, someone even told me I should try to sell them. But then, it is an awesome dress.) Back then, I thought I’d have the thing done by the end of the month and I’d be wearing it all over the place all fall/winter.

Well, umm, that never happened. I lost steam on it. I lost interest in it. I neglected it for other projects. And it just sat in my bedroom until Saturday.

Saturday, I got home from running errands around two in the afternoon, sat down at the sewing machine and set to work. This is what I had by six o’clock.

I know it’s hard to tell from the picture, but the dress is almost done. All it needs are buttonholes and buttons. I own the buttons. I have a mother who is planning on teaching me how to use the buttonhole feature on her sewing machine on Saturday.

In other words, dudes, I shall have a finished dress by Sunday.

And yes, I know that it currently looks like a lab coat.

And then there is my current knitting project. (Side note: By “current knitting project,” I mean “my current knitting project with which I am spending the most time. I have three other projects on needle right now. But one is only for while watching Bones and Castle. And one is traveling knitting and one is teacher-free-period-while-subbing knitting. So this is my highest priority project at the moment. That’s because it’s my only project with a real, serious deadline in my future. But I digress…as usual…)

The picture is over a week old and the project is much larger now. It’s an Abalone sweater that will be a friend’s birthday present. I’m adding some colorwork to the bottom and the chest…and the sleeves, which will also be altered/added…mostly because, well, I can. I figured out how to do it, so I decided to take some advice from Nike and just do it.

And now, I’m going to check on my bread and get back to my real life.

Update on My 2012 Goals

We are almost 25% of the way through 2012, so I thought I’d update us all on how I’m doing towards accomplishing my twelve goals for 2012. So I’m copying and pasting my original list here. Then I’ll mark what’s complete and what’s not. And I may even amend a few goals.

1. Finish reading Middlemarch. It’s a carryover from last year, but this year I’m going to do it. Sorry, George Eliot, but you will not be on my 2013 list. Anthony Trollope will be replacing you. DONE! (And it has been for a while.)
2. Make six shawls this year. I made four pairs of socks last year, and I’m determined to do something awesome this year. To be entirely honest, I don’t know why I’m so fixated on this, but I am. So, six shawls, here I come. (If you’re wondering why I switched from socks to shawls, it’s because I use sock yarn to make shawls, but I like shawls more because they’re accessories you can really show off to everyone…even if they don’t notice.)
3. To find a real job-I think this is self-explanatory.
4. Take the GRE…so I can go to grad school and, ya know, get a PhD in English literature
5. Figure out which schools I want to apply to for grad school…and maybe apply this year? I might put that off another year. It depends on how a few other things play out. I really want to apply to the University of Pittsburgh. 
6. Go to Iowa for a week and see The Hunger Games with Jenn. DONE! And I’m more than willing to tell you how much I loved The Hunger Games. I loved it. I laughed. I cried. It moved me, Bob. 
7. Make Katie a sweater for her birthday…I know, I said I was going to do this last year, but I’m really going to do it this year.  She picked a pattern and a yarn today. It’s going to happen. And it’s going to be a design I create. I already have it in my head. 
8. I want to make myself six sweaters this year. And I want the Ravelympics to help me to this goal. (NB: These six sweaters do include the two cardigans I currently have on needle from 2011. They do not include the tunic I am frantically trying to finish right now or the two short sleeved shrugs I’m planning to make in the next week or so.) I have two done and two on needle. The tunic died in the dryer but that’s another story. 
9. I want to sew more of my own clothes. There’s something that I love about looking at a piece in my wardrobe and knowing that I created it. I value my homemade (both knit and sewn) wardrobe pieces more than I value store-bought stuff. Working on this…
10. I want to have an adventure this year. I’m not entirely sure what that means, and based on the amount of uncertainty in my life at this point, I’m fairly certain that some sort of adventure is inevitable. Life is an adventure. 
11. Spent more time praying…and actually finish reading both of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth books; I’m thinking that I need to accept that having a cup of coffee with God in the morning or a mug of tea with him in the evening is actually acceptable-and good for me. I finished the first Jesus of Nazareth book last night. And Momsy gave me the second one this morning so I can find out how it all ended. Don’t give me spoiler alerts. 
12. Last year, my final goal was to become more patient. This year, I have the same final goal but with a slightly different approach. I want to find some form of meditation that will help me to achieve some sort of peace/patience in my life. The prayer to St. Michael is helping me with this, interestingly enough. 

 And that’s all for now. I am making progress on these goals, and it is nice to see how I’m accomplishing things.

12 Goals for 2012

I did this last year, and I thought I’d try it again. Last year, since it was 2011, I gave myself eleven goals. This year, I’m upping the ante slightly and giving myself twelve goals. I might continue in this vein for the next several years although around 2027, I might start to have trouble coming up with 27 goals for my life. But you never know. I might actually be able to do that. However, we’ve got 15 years before we have to find that one out.

So now, here are my 12 goals for 2012.

1. Finish reading Middlemarch. It’s a carryover from last year, but this year I’m going to do it. Sorry, George Eliot, but you will not be on my 2013 list. Anthony Trollope will be replacing you.
2. Make six pairs of socks this year. I made four last year, and I’m determined to do better this year. To be entirely honest, I don’t know why I’m so fixated on this, but I am. So, six pairs of socks, here I come.
3. To find a real job-I think this is self-explanatory.
4. Take the GRE…so I can go to grad school and, ya know, get a PhD in English literature
5. Figure out which schools I want to apply to for grad school…and maybe apply this year? I might put that off another year. It depends on how a few other things play out.
6. Go to Iowa for a week and see The Hunger Games with Jenn.
7. Make Katie a sweater for her birthday…I know, I said I was going to do this last year, but I’m really going to do it this year.  She picked a pattern and a yarn today. It’s going to happen.
8. I want to make myself six sweaters this year. And I want the Ravelympics to help me to this goal. (NB: These six sweaters do include the two cardigans I currently have on needle from 2011. They do not include the tunic I am frantically trying to finish right now or the two short sleeved shrugs I’m planning to make in the next week or so.)
9. I want to sew more of my own clothes. There’s something that I love about looking at a piece in my wardrobe and knowing that I created it. I value my homemade (both knit and sewn) wardrobe pieces more than I value store-bought stuff.
10. I want to have an adventure this year. I’m not entirely sure what that means, and based on the amount of uncertainty in my life at this point, I’m fairly certain that some sort of adventure is inevitable.
11. Spent more time praying…and actually finish reading both of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth books; I’m thinking that I need to accept that having a cup of coffee with God in the morning or a mug of tea with him in the evening is actually acceptable-and good for me.
12. Last year, my final goal was to become more patient. This year, I have the same final goal but with a slightly different approach. I want to find some form of meditation that will help me to achieve some sort of peace/patience in my life.

So those are my goals. I think I have some other dreams and hopes up my sleeves, but those are other stories for other days.

But for now, Happy New Year!

The Last FO of 2011

Most people do not spend about six hours out of their New Year’s Eve sewing two skirts. Clearly, I am not most people since that’s exactly how I spent my New Year’s Eve. (P.S. After I publish this post, I’m going to either convince Momsy to watch a movie with me or I’ll read a book until we go watch the ball fall at midnight. And yes, I know I’m lame. I don’t care.)

Anyway, it all started yesterday when I went to JoAnn’s to buy a size 15 circular knitting needle and some yarn to make a friend’s impending niece a blanket. While I was there, I saw these two bolts of fabric sitting next to each other.

I’ve seen these two together before. And honestly, I’ve seen them with better pricing than I saw them yesterday. But that’s not the point. They were there. They were 30% off. I had a coupon for 15% off my total purchase, including sale items. And I was in desperate want of a cute new skirt or two.

So, I bought three yards of each one and brought them home, intending to use my tried-and-true wrap skirt pattern (McCall’s 5430) and my crafting genius to make a reversible skirt.

But then, Momsy pointed out that if I wanted two different skirts, I should just make two different skirts and call it good. So, I decided to go with it. But the skirts wouldn’t be made all from one fabric. For each skirt, one fabric would be the “body” and the other fabric would be the waistband and, for one of the skirts, the pockets.

Last night, I cut out the fabric, and this afternoon, I sat down and sewed until dinner time. After dinner, I went back at it again.

And here’s the end result. (Also, because I’m a dork, I named both of the skirts. Live with it.)

The first one is Lily. I’m not really sure why, but the name seems to have stuck. This skirt is view B from the pattern, which is the most basic way to make the skirt.

And here’s a close-up of the bow.

And then there’s a close-up of the fabric so you can see the gorgeous vine detail.

The second skirt is view C on the pattern. I named this one Poppy because it seems a little more vivacious and silly and fun. But you can judge that for yourself.

A close-up of the bow and a pocket…

So those are my last Finished Objects of 2011. And I’m pretty proud of myself for making two skirts in one day.

It’s been a good but hard year. I’m looking forward to 2012 and hoping that it’ll bring some pretty amazing things into my life…and yours, of course dear blog readers.

So good night and have an utterly fantastic 2012!

Pattern Release: Abigail

On Tuesday, I blogged that I was working on something called “Abigail.”

Abigail, I am now excited to tell you, is a headband pattern. It requires both sewing and knitting skills. It’s a fairly easy pattern, and I’m quite proud of it.

This particular Abigail that you see me wearing above is destined to be a Christmas gift.

And this one is being mailed to Iowa in the morning.

So hop on over to the Knitting Patterns page and check it out.

The Abigail Project

I have something up my sleeve.

It’s a new knitting pattern.

But it also involves other crafts.

It’s something that I’m really excited about.

And it looks something like this.

And its name is Abigail.

Abigail is a knitted headband lined with anti-pill fleece and decorated with a floral applique. Originally, it was just an item that someone requested from me. But now I’m in love with it. I’ve made one, I’m working on a second, and I’ll probably have a pattern posted here and on Ravelry by the weekend.