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Me-Made-May ’14: Week 2 Round-Up

Happy Friday, everyone! One week down into Me-Made-May – and time for another round-up!

5/3, Saturday
Dress: Fabulous Silk Birds
Slip: Ruby Slip
Shoes: Jessica Simpson

My baby brother graduated college on Saturday! Here I am with all my siblings – of course, I’m the shortest one (and this photo is a little misleading because I’m standing on an incline. I’m actually a good 7″ shorter than my sister, who in turn is shorter than my brothers, ha). I used the graduation as an excuse to pull out my favorite Me-Made to date – the Fabulous Silk Birds dress (I don’t name all my handmades, but I named this one! Because it’s fabulous!). I love love love this dress – I always feel so, well, fabulous in it 🙂 Plus, wearing this dress means I get to wear my equally amazing 4ply silk slip (note to self: sell organs and buy more 4ply silk asap), which is always a plus in my book 🙂

5/4, Sunday
Dress: Seersucker Anna
Shoes: Born
Belt: Thrifted
Sunglasses: Franco Sarto
Purse: Scarlett Begonia

Wore this to go plant shopping and ice cream eatin’ with Landon. I realize that I have this dress styled the exact same way I did in the original FO post – I guess I’m not very creative when it comes to pink seersucker! Anyway, love it and it’s great for hot weather. Also, if my hair looks brighter than it did the day before – that’s cos we redyed it 🙂 I slept in the dye so it’s SUPER bright now haha.

5/5, Monday
Tank: Target
Skirt: Cascade
Shoes: Jessica Simpson
Necklace: Handmade by me

Another favorite me-made! I LOVE this skirt, and everyone else seems to love it too – I’ve literally been followed around retail stores over it, multiple times. It’s the perfect marriage of pattern and fabric (and, before you ask – the fabric came aaaaall the way from Macedonia. My BFF picked it up for me while she was living there a few years ago. Wish I had more of it!), and it’s just so fun to wear. I feel like Shakira, and I mean that in the best way.

5/6, Tuesday
Dress: Emery
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Born

Can’t ever be sad when your hair matches your dress 🙂

5/7, Wednesday
Dress: Lady Skater
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: xoxo

ESPECIALLY if that dress has tigers printed on it!

5/8, Thursday
Top: Briar
Skirt: Moss Mini
Necklace: Thrifted
Shoes: Keds

I took some advice on styling this skirt and went with a tshirt that has a looser fit – and I LOVE how it looks with this skirt! Especially the hemline on this Briar – hi-lo hem gives it the look as if it’s tucked in, without it actually being, you know, tucked. The whole outfit is totally comfy and I’m not gonna lie – I felt pretty good about it all day.

5/9, Friday (that’s today!)
Top: Advance 8511
Pants: Thurlows (but skinny!)
Shoes: Born

I actually had a different outfit planned today – I wanted to wear a skirt. But then I stepped outside, noticed the chill in the air, and decided to wear my red Thurlows instead. No regrets!

All in all, I think I had a pretty successful first (full)week of MMM! The changing weather has been a little tricky, but I’m working on a lightweight trench coat right now that will hopefully get me through the chilly mornings and occasional rain (actually, the trench is done – I’m just waiting on the buttons to be delivered!). How are y’all doing with your pledges? Find any fun outfit combinations or gaping holes in your closet yet?

Oh, just a few more announcements before I sign off for the weekend:
– If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to enter in the Colette Guide to Sewing Knits Giveaway! I’ll be drawing the lucky winner on Monday morning, so you’ve still got time!
– My girl Elizabeth is looking for part time seamstresses to help her with some sewing work. If you’re in the Nashville area and would like to sew on an amazingly fun industrial machine in a gorgeous studio (I’m not even kidding about either of those – that’s me in her studio on 5/6!) for a lil’ extra cash, send her an email at hello@elizabethsuzann.com. I’m currently doing part time work for her on the side, and it’s super awesome because we listen to 80s music and watch Nicolas Cage movies. I have no intentions of quitting; her business is just growing very fast and she needs more help! All levels of experience are welcome – we’re not handbeading couture or anything here 🙂 – but you must already have a basic understanding of clothing construction and know how to operate a sewing machine. Bonus points if you’re a speedy sewer!
– My class at Watkins, Introduction to Fashion Sewing still has a couple of spots open, if you’ve been on the fence about signing up. DO IT NOW, GO!
– Aaaaaand, Nashville’s newest/cutest fabric store, The Fabric Studio, is finally open and just released the class schedule for June! I’ve got a few gigs there as well – Learn to Sew the Colette Ginger Skirt, All About Zippers Sewing Lab, and Apparel Patterns Demystified (seminar/info session)! I’m really excited about all these classes – excited to share my knowledge, excited to teach, excited to meet other sewers in the area! I think it’s gonna be fun! 🙂 Also, I promise to stop spamming y’all about my classes now 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Tags: 4 ply silk, advance, Anna, briar, Cascade skirt, Emery, I am fabulous, Lady Skater, Me Made May '14, moss mini, silkkk, Thurlow

Comments 30 Comments
Categories Me Made May

Completed: Advance 8511 in Gingham

19 Jun

In an attempt to catch up on all the stuff I’ve finished that I haven’t posted yet (I just counted and there are 8… yikes), here’s a gingham top I made using Advance 8511, which is a vintage pattern.

I also forgot to mention that the pictures are REALLY bad; this is what happens when you don’t wait for it to finish raining (hence, me standing on the porch) and then position yourself so that the sunlight is directly behind you, and then try to lighten the pictures and when they turn out grainy and grey, you say, “Eh, fuck it.” and post them anyway.

Not that I know anything about that.

Anyway, I’m sorry.

This was a fun little pattern to make! It would have gone together a lot more quickly if I didn’t have so many fit issues. I don’t think the fit of the pattern was too bad – the size was a little big, but nothing too tragic – but rather, my fabric was a terrible choice for this pattern. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

This pattern only has 4 pieces – a front, a back, a back neck facing (the front facing is all attached to the front as one piece) and the collar (no undercollar). The armholes are bound with self-made bias tape and it only uses 4 buttons. So economical!

The fabric, again, is from Mood Fabrics in New York. It’s really lovely stuff – a cotton gingham seersucker with lots of texture and LOTS of stretch – but that damn stretch was nearly my undoing. I kept taking in the side seams over and over to get this shirt to fit (I know slightly-loose button-ups can look good, but not this shape/style with a woven stretch. Just… no), and I think I ended up removing a good 2″ from each side, possibly more. I don’t think stretch wovens are inherently bad (take a look at my fabric stash if you don’t believe me), but they really should not be used for a pattern that is already a little big to start.

You can’t see too well (because the pictures are so bad, again, SORRY), but there are tucks at the front and back waist, and soft pleats at the neckline under the collar. I had to extend the front tucks to be longer (originally they were only about 1″ long) because they ended up giving me this weird fullness in an area where it wasn’t needed. I don’t know how I feel about the neckline pleats – they are beautiful in theory, but in this fabric I think it kind of looks like I messed something up and hid it under the collar. Oh well.

Hey look, Dolly went on a diet and now she can actually model my clothes again! And they BUTTON UP. Holy shit!

I had to add a pleat to the center back because it was MASSIVE compared to the collar. Seriously, the width of that pleat is how much bigger the back was than the collar. I double checked my pattern pieces and they don’t match either, so I’m assuming someone was hitting the bottle hard at the Advance pattern drafting headquarters that day.

Despite the fitting issues, I do love my little shirt! Navy gingham goes with everything, surprisingly.

By the way… check out my new back porch!

I wish you could have seen what it looked like before (if you think it looks trashy now, let me tell you… this is an improvement). The previous renters laid this horrible fake hardwood all over the porch – you know, the kind that is supposed to go INSIDE a house – and didn’t even cover the whole flooring area. There were bare spots of concrete by the stairs. It was just drab and ugly and sad and we mostly ignored it for the past year. A couple weekends ago, we tore up the flooring (yes, we are renters, but I’m pretty sure my landlord dgaf), bought and painted the screen door, as well as hung the curtains and that tapestry. Now I am on the lurk for a tiny bistro table to fit back there.

Here’s another view – and there’s the old shed! I reckon you can guess where at least one of those chairs went 😉

Now we are actually inclined to hang on the back porch, IMAGINE THAT. If only I could figure out a way to permanently fend off the ‘skeeters…

Tags: advance, completed, Mood Fabrics, shirt, stretch cotton, top, vintage

Comments 34 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Advance 8295

30 Jul

Hey-o, remember when I got all that awesome swap haul a couple of weeks ago?

And this pattern was part of the prize?

Well, look Ma – it’s a real dress now!

This was a pretty easy/fast make – although I caught myself trying to cut corners to get it put together even faster. WTF! I actually considered omitting the buttons & installing an invisible zipper – WTF! The buttons are the cutest part! Thank god I put the pattern aside for an evening & got my senses back.

But in all honestly – arranging those gathers at the yoke & sewing everything down was a giant pain in the ass. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s passable and that’ll be ok with me!

The only change I made to the pattern was a drastic shortening from tea-length and I took about 2″ off the side as the bodice was a bit loose – I just folded the placket over one more time & that worked perfectly! Oh, and the bodice is underlined with batiste – the fabric is a bit sheer. Hope you can’t see my undies lol.

I sewed the whole thing up without any clue what kind of buttons would make the final cut – I didn’t have anything decent on hand, and I needed at least 9 for this dress! And buttons are expensive, ugh! Thankfully, I found a little card of these yellow guys at the flea market – $1 for 9 🙂 Not too shabby! I wanted blue buttons to tie in the blue yoke, but yellow is good enough 🙂

Oh, the blue yoke, btw – I don’t look too fine in this shade of yellow (or ANY shade of yellow for that matter!) so the blue yoke was necessary to keep my face from getting too sallow-looking. There is blue in the floral print, but it’s darker (the bright was all I could find). I think it works, Landon thinks it’s too randumb. Thoughts?

Do you see my tiny slip-stitches on the inside? NEITHER DO I. Seriously – the best thing I learned from that Bombshell class was slip stitch. I use it on everything!

Here are those yellow buttons – I took a tip from Sunni and stitched all the button holes with bright blue thread, to tie in the blue yoke. Unfortunately, you don’t see it too well when it’s buttoned up. Ha, oh well!

I also made a matching belt – it’s a tiny bit small. I suck at making belts, boo.

As a side note, it might be a little quiet ’round these parts for the next couple of weeks – Landon & I just got approved for a new house (it’s rental, we’re not buying!) so we’ve got a month to move. Which means boring stuff like packing & lifting, but also fun stuff like paint colors & new decor! I’m super pumped, albeit a little stressed (and poor!). Oh, and don’t worry – I still have a sewing room. A bigger, better sewing room – with hardwood floors. Yay!