May has finished and so has my challenge. I got rid of a lot of t-shirts before the month started, so I was perfectly happy to wear store bought ones where needed. T-shirts was the only category of which I wore all the me-mades I own. The weather fluctuated massively, so some days I wore scarves and other days short sleeved dresses could be worn by themselves.
As you can see, I managed to wear a fair amount of non-pants, over half of the days. I also apparently have made a lot of clothes, because at the end of the challenge, my cupboard was not as full but also certainly not empty. Some of the items were not worn because there simply was no time, or the weather didn’t fit. Some because I simply didn’t want to.
I took pictures of all the stuff that I didn’t wear. The colourful plaid pants below are no longer comfortable, so they have been excised from the wardrobe. As was a pair of pinstriped shorts. The skirt from May 10 has also been promoted to the donate pile. There are some things still left that I probably won’t wear again but can’t let go of for sentimental reasons.
Unworn shortsUnworn pants, dungarees and jumpsuitsUnworn sweatersUnworn dressesUnworn skirtsUnworn jumpsuitsUnworn long sleevesUnworn bolerosUnworn various
And I didn’t opt to try and scavenge all the accessories that I did or dit not use. Like bags, scarves, shawls, coats etc. I do like wearing my stuff out, so a successful May for me!
I’m wholly unsure whether there is a global Me Made May again, but I’m doing it anyway because I make too many clothes that I do not wear enough. I have also recently purged a bit of the closet and want to see what is leftover and what I have no interest in wearing again.
This May had a lot better weather than last year. I didn’t feel like I was freezing for most of it, so that was really nice. Below are terrible pictures of all the me-made stuff I’ve worn over May.
Conclusions from this year’s experiment were that it’s fairly easy to wear me-mades all May. I do indeed have too many clothes, since I still have some left over. I also have no plans in stopping my adventures in knitting and sewing because I do really enjoy them.
There are a few items that are going to be discarded. Two sweaters that just aren’t very nice anymore (or too brown) and a wrap dress that feels too exposing.
May is the one month where most of my dresses get worn and thereby it’s the single most influential time that reduces the cost-per-wear of any special occasion outfit. So I’ll probably do it again next year!
Most of my wardrobe is self-made and most of my dresses stay on their hangers. So I’m yet again participating in Me Made May and recycling the pledge from 2021, 2, 3 and 4. I’m still trying to reduce the cost per wear of all those non-pants items, and each May is one step closer!
Making a four piece suit from 1906 that only took 3.5 years to complete.
Back in October of 2022, I talked about finishing the blouse of a 1906 Beach Suit pattern I’d bought on Etsy in July of 2021. The pattern has four elements; a blouse, a belt, a skirt and a jacket. I have now managed to complete one of each element!
The original plan was to make the fun leafy blouse and make the rest of the suit in a dark fabric. However, after cutting out all the pieces from the black fabric, it turned out to be a wrong fabric choice. It was too stiff and there were sun marks all over is, so it looked faded in places. In the end, those pieces ended up in the bin because there was no point in continuing. I’d never be happy with the end result. So I pivoted, and found a red fabric in my stash.
It’s a strange, probably quite synthetic material that’s soft on the outside but almost crunchy (?) on the inside. I can’t really explain it. It’s not very thick, but there was enough of it to cut the other pieces of the suit. Based on a picture from April 2023, I had already cut the skirt, jacket and probably most of the belt some time after finishing the blouse.
The skirt was the piece I believe I finished next. I added pockets, because without pockets a skirt is not useful. They are quite large and can hold some stuff. I also wanted to make it somewhat adjustable. The aim was to make it wearable with or without a corset, so I added some extra thread loops to the back for closure. Since it was supposed to be worn with a belt, I figured that could be hidden effectively enough. I think this skirt was finished sometime in April 2023.
The belt however, took another half a year. I wanted it to be stable enough so there is something that I believe might be horsehair in it for stiffening. It’s also got a few bones and it’s almost entirely handsewn, because I kept messing up. As with the skirt, I wanted this to also be adjustable, so I added lacing. And then I decided to make my life a lot harder and added hooks and eyes to allow it to open without having to undo all the laces. My brain took so long to figure out how to get this to work, and it think it mostly does now. A message to a friend indicates that I finished it in September 2023.
That jacket has been hanging, mostly finished over one or the other mannequin in my living room since at least April 2023, if not longer. I had tried sewing the facing in but it puckered like no tomorrow, so I gave up. Earlier this week, I finally got the courage to try again. In two fell swoops with some help from an iron and simple perseverance, I finally finished all the seams and it’s now done!
So that means that all four parts of the beach suit have been completed! It only took 3.5 years… And with the change in fabric, the blouse and the suit don’t really go together anymore. It’s very Christmassy in colours, not in amount of winter warmth. That’s a problem for another day though. The skirt does need a petticoat for wear, because it’s too thin otherwise and doesn’t fall correctly. I think the belt solution works, even if it’s possibly not the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen. I like the big sleeves of the jacket and how it hits. Now it’s just waiting for decent weather and taking it out to the beach!
Blank canvas allows for letter options on this sweater.
A few years ago, we got a Christmas card at my work that was a white background, with black letters: kerstkaart. (translates as: Christmas card.)
The most minimalistic Christmas card I’ve ever seen. I love it so much. That caused this idea to float in my head about getting a sweater with ‘trui.’ (sweater.) on it, and adding interchangeable letters to the front. That would allow for the outfit to match my mood/the circumstances.
I finally decided to take some action. I didn’t feel like making a super simple blank canvas sweater, so I bought one. Then I found a font I liked on the internet and settled on ‘Simply Mono‘. It looked nice, and the < part of the k was attached firmly and not just stuck on. I liked the shape of the i too. So I decided on the font size (130), printed it out and cut the letters out of a felt placemat.
I attached the pointy parts of snaps to the front of the sweater and the flatter bits to the back of the letters. Since the letters didn’t all have the same amount of ‘letter’ in the same space, some letters are spaced closer together when they are snapped to the sweater. But I’m embracing that imperfection and actually think it looks more fun.
The trui. letters were sewn down, so they are not interchangeable. For now, I’ve made the letters that you see above and the 5 dots. I might decide to make more if I feel like it or find another brilliant idea that has 5 or fewer letters. Leave your suggestions!
Our new tradition of making an award for the end of roller derby season took place again. I got to make an award for one of our newest skaters. My inspiration came very late, but when it did, it hit hard. My skater is someone who does all kinds of things; in her daily life she’s a hairdresser and a barber, is getting married soon, moving into her house etc. I wanted to reference all of that, and include her way of turning around on roller skates, which is more of a ‘disco turn’ than a step transition. So I decided to make an octopus plush with a disco ball for helmet.
I already had the Octopus plush pattern from Choly Knight, so I decided to reference that. Since the normal round arms from the pattern wouldn’t be conducive to give a ‘holding something’ impression, I wanted some longer arms. Reddit came to the rescue with this post by CynamonoweKrzeslo, where the sewist also helpfully shared the pattern for their tentacles. I enlarged the pattern a little until it was the size that I wanted and cut some out in a grey fleece and yellow bobble minky. The test-tentacle looked great! So I cut out eight more before heading to bed.
The next morning, I assembled all tentacles and needed to decide on the size of the head. In the end, the original Octopus plush pattern head shape, the eyes and laughing mouth were all enlarged 150% and printed out. This looked great, so I embroidered the eyes and mouth on and assembled the plush together. One of its arms is put into the disco fever pose with a little hook that you can hang a tiny loop on. The helmet is made from foam and an overlay of sequin fabric (for a disco ball effect) – I am still finding sequins in my house. The pattern was based on the normal head shape of the octopus plush with a little extra space. Some ribbon is used for the straps.
To reference all the items, which I wanted to keep removable, I chose word icons (to keep a similar style) and printed them on cardstock. I put two together with a loop of sticky tape to get them to stay around the tentacles. There are two roller skates, a ring, a donut, a cupcake, a comb, scissors and keys. I also wrote a rhyming poem to explain what I did. The helmet is also removable, so it can also be a ‘naked’ octopus.
I think he’s adorable and I hope she’ll enjoy having him around!
So I forgot it was May until the evening of May 2nd. Luckily I wear quite a lot of me-mades in daily life, but those didn’t really fit the challenge. I did manage to get myself in gear from the 3rd of May onwards. Below are terrible pictures of all the me-made stuff I’ve worn over May.
Conclusions from this year’s experiment were that the weather really wasn’t cooperating. I didn’t get to wear any of my shorts, and I think that all dresses and skirts were worn with tights. On the only days that were nice enough for bare legs, I wore the culottes. I did manage to wear a fair amount of my clothes and I still had some left over at the end of the month. I may or may not have too many clothes, but it’s not stopping me from making more.
There’s only one item that’s going to be discarded, which is the top from May 29. The Aurea and Center Street project is too short, it doesn’t really want to stay on my shoulders and it pulls down in the back. It’s not pleasant to wear, so I’ll donate to see if anyone else can make it work for them.
I’m still planning on doing this next year again, it’s good to wear some of these things I keep making!
Nowadays I’m mostly wearing me-mades, but I still need incentives to wear anything other than pants. So I’m yet again participating in Me Made May and recycling the pledge from 2021,2, and 3. Count it as an attempt to lower the cost of wear for all my event-outfits.
I am not a warm-blooded person. I’m more a lizard in disguise and since that blue coat that I’ve been dreaming about hasn’t materialized yet, I’ve been wearing my dinosaur coat most winter. Sadly, the weather has been quite miserable and my office is also a cold, cold place. To catch two birds with stone, I decided to make a vest to wear over my clothes and under my coat.
I settled on the fur vest from Model 28 in Simplicity Naaimode 31, also known as view D of Simplicity 8218. I went through my stash and decided that I wanted neutral colours, black and grey maybe? So I pulled a number of options and started putting the pattern pieces on. In the end, I chose a thick grey fabric that had some bits cut out already and a thick black fabric that also had some parts cut out before. I think I inherited these when a friend tried to de-stash.
For the outside, I chose the black and I cut the two fronts, the back and the collar. The grey was the inside and since the collar was a folded one, only two fronts and a back were needed. Since everything is enclosed, I thought that it would even be possible to wear the grey on the outside. To achieve this, I added a little elastic loop to one edge. Then two buttons were positioned, one on the inside and one on the outside to keep the little vest closed. I think the buttons are very cute.
I have worn this thing a lot over the course of the past few months, it’s truly been a warmth saver and makes me so much more comfortable. It’s also slightly more elegant than the oversized bodywarmer that I’d been wearing before. All in all, good project!
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