Me Made May 2015 - Week Four

Well, it's June 1st which means Me Made May is done and over for another year.  I'm sure that those who follow my Instagram, unless they're Me Made May-ers as well, will be happy to not be subjected to a daily, "Hey, look what I'm wearing today" picture from me.  It's been a fun month though, and I've really enjoyed the challenge.  It's definitely shown me areas that I can work on improving in my wardrobe and really shown me the go to pieces that I've made that I truly love and feel great in.

How did my final week (plus two extra days) go?  Well here's the run down.  I started out figuring I'd go out with a bang and not do any repeats all week long.  I'm pretty sure that lasted until day two of the week.  The weather continued to be at odds - some days sunny and hot, some days really cold.  We even had frost warnings for heaven's sake (but thankfully no more snow! Phew!!!!!)

May 23rd -  I chose my short sleeved, blouse length Patricia tunic top on Saturday as we were headed out to supper and I wanted to be dressed nicely, but comfortably.  I like everything about this version of the Patricia.  Too bad my recent one didn't work out.  (I'm still feeling a bit bitter about last week's sewing fiasco)

May 24th - the sun was shining so I decided to pull out my Washi Tunic that I made a couple of summers ago.  I like the ease and comfort of the shirring along the back and have been thinking it may be time to make another version of this.  

  

May 25th - Ok.  So I made it until day three of the week before I reached for a repeat.  This is, of course, my Hetty cardi and my "Love My Dress" that I made as a knock off of Modcloth's Love Your Dress for the Scientific Seamstress Just for Me January challenge.

May 26th - This is another Modcloth knock off that I made a couple of summers ago.  I used the same Simplicity pattern bodice for both this and my Love my Dress.  This one has become a smidge tight on me (ahem... too many snacks!) though and felt a bit like a corset.  I'm not sure how much wear it's going to get this summer, which is too bad because other than the corset-y feeling of the bodice, I really loved this polka dot dress.  I've paired it with my Miette cardi, that was my first ever Andi Satterlund pattern that I made.  Sadly, it is also a bit snug.  Sigh...

 May 27th - Hello, again my good friend, Onyx!  I really, really could live in this top.  (I'm actually wearing my Diana Ross version today!).  I've started thinking I need to make another one soon!  You've seen this photo already in my last post, because this was the day I finished my Clemence Shorts.  You remember?  The ones that are too big... sob...  I still haven't decided what to do with them yet.

May 28th - I had a busy day planned of getting things done around the yard and house so didn't put a whole lot of thought into what I was going to wear, but I did grab my new Gathered Raglan tee that I made a week and a half ago.  As much as I was feeling sort of meh about this top when I finished it, it has grown on me and I like it more and more.  I do not like that I have to always iron the sleeve hems though when I pull it out of the drier, because they flip out every single time.  

May 29th - It was another chilly day again.  The sort that you curl up in your favourite sweater and drink cup after cup of tea in hopes that you'll thaw out eventually.  In my case that meant my Laura Aylor Beach in the Winter and Earl Grey Tea.

  

May 30th - It was still cool out, but nowhere like the day before and at least the sun was shining!  I decided on my Sew Liberated School House Tunic.

May 31st - After puttering about in the garden and yard most of the day, I washed the mud off of me, changed out of my tortolla tank and shorts, and put on my comfy like pjs cotton lawn Jamie dress that I made ages ago!  This dress sees so much wear every summer that it's starting to show that use.  I think it might be time to make a new one for kicking about it!  Little Man was insistent that he take the photo for me and wanted to play around with the different filters on my phone.  I like what he chose for this one.

So that's it for my first ever Me Made May.  I am really happy that I did better than I really had expected.  I was sure at some point I would take the lazy way out and say, "Oh look here, I'm using my handmade bag or wallet" but I really felt that wouldn't be much of a challenge given that I don't actually own a store bought bag or wallet. I was glad that I put more effort in than that.  How about you?  Did you do a Me Made May challenge for yourself?  How did it go?  Do you plan to participate again next year?

Me Made May 2015 Week Three

How are we already at the end of another week??  Is it just me or did the week just fly by?

We had some crazy weather over the last seven days - it started out gorgeous and spring like on Saturday, but by evening the temps had dropped, the rain clouds rolled in and things went downhill from there.  By Monday morning there was snow on the ground.  Thankfully things improved fairly quickly and today is glorious once again.  Sunny and summery.  It's wonderful... and gives me so many more me made wardrobe options (although I ended up with a repeat today anyways.  Ha ha!)

Here's how my me made week three looked!

May 16th - Was an identical repeat of May 1st right down to the jeans I paired with my Honey Blouse.  I think I should have probably ironed it before wearing.  OOPS!

May 17th -  It was pouring rain out making it the kind of day you want to curl up on the couch and do pretty much nothing at all but be cozy and comfy.  I wore my Sis Boom Tortola Top and my Jocole Yoga Pants.  The temperature dropped considerably again by the end of the day and the next morning we woke up to this... (which was actually a bit of a relief to only see that and not the 10-15cm they were forecasting. Still. Yeesh. Mother Nature.  Cut it out!!!)

May 18th - The snow was finally melting away when I got this photo of my me made (but somehow never blogged) Raglan Gathered Tee that I modified from a Simplicity pattern last year and an Abalone Cardi I knit forever ago.

May 19th - Little Man took this photo of me Tuesday morning before he went off to school.  It was still pretty cool that morning, so I grabbed my Hay Cove cardi to ward of the chill before heading out the door.  Have I mentioned just how much I love this cardigan???

May 20th - What a difference in weather a few days makes!  Wednesday was definitely flip flop weather!  I am wearing my new version of the same tee I wore earlier in the week.  Haven't blogged about this one either (obviously).  I'm not sure how I feel about it to be brutally honest.  The fabric is super soft cotton spandex, but the recovery isn't great (despite being advertised as having great recovery. HA!) and by late afternoon my tee was doing some pretty heavy duty sagging and bagging.  Also odd was the general looseness of it from the start given I used the exact same pattern pieces I'd used to make the black one.  Did I shrink the black one that much over the course of the year?  I fought and fought with this blue version taking it in here and there, reworking bits and generally spending way more time than anyone ever should on a t-shirt.

May 21st - I know you just saw this just yesterday, but here it is again, because I really, really love this top and I was so happy to finally be able to show it off since Paprika Patterns released the Onyx pattern yesterday.  (Remember - you still can snap it up for the intro price for the next couple of days!)

May 22nd - Another repeat day today.  It's gorgeous out and I'd planned to wear a dress.  I took no less than four out of the closet this morning, but they all needed a good pressing if I was going to wear them and well, I just didn't feel like doing that, so I went a different route instead and grabbed my Jocole Yoga Skirt instead.  No ironing, no fuss and it's comfy like pjs.

So that's been my week.  I'm still doing well with my challenge and managing to wear at least one me made per day even if they are repeats.  I have a few projects on the sewing desk right now - a wearable muslin of the Clemence Shorts for women that I snapped up in the Bundle Up Sale as well as another Sis Boom Patricia.  Hopefully I will get those finished up or at least iron some dresses and have some variation in my final week of Me Made May for next week.

Me Made May 2015 Week Two

Week two of Me Made May 2015 has come to an end.  I'm still doing well on the challenge and once again have successfully worn at least one handmade item each day.  The weather for week two was pretty cool and rainy for the most part and it's made me realize that there are some definite holes in my me made wardrobe when it comes to cooler weather items, which sort of surprised me to be honest.  I'm going to start thinking about what I want to make in the future to fill out those gaps that I didn't realize existed.

But moving back to the here and now, here's how my week looked.

May 9th - I started out week two with great gusto! It was really chilly last Saturday.  Little Man had a friend's birthday party to go to at the park and although the sun was shining, the high for the day was only +10C with a brisk wind making it feel a lot cooler.   To stay warm that day I chose my School House Tunic and my lace weight Clapotis.

May 10th - Brrr.  The weather was rainy and cold yet again.  I snuggled up on the couch that morning with a cup of tea, the little boys and my Sunstruck shawl.  I'm also wearing the necklace that Baby Boy made for me at school.

May 11th -  Rainy and cold yet again.  Only way to conquer the day was to wear wool socks.  My toes kept toasty in my Water for the Elephants socks by Rose Hiver.

May 12th - Blue sky, slightly warmer temperatures and both boys at school meant it was high time I tackle the gardens and reclaim them from the weeds.  I spent all day outside comfy in my interlock knit tortola top.  (By the way, I'm happy to say that raised bed no longer is over run by weeds!  Nor are the flower beds or the herb garden.  Some progress was made on the big garden too. WHOOT!!!!)

May 13th - It's raining again, oh no my love's at an end, oh no it's raining again... Ok so, unlike Supertramp,  my love's not at an end at all, but my patience with Mother Nature is certainly getting to that point.  It's cold too.  But at least I have a cute umbrella.  Let's focus on that since apparently the camera was either not focused at all, or the rain was making everything blurry...  It was a me made repeat day with my fave sweater, Beach in the Winter.

May 14th - Rain, rain go away.  Seriously.  Enough.  It poured all day.  Bucket loads of rain.  Biblical proportions of rain. Once again it was a wool wearing kind of day.  Thinking it might be pushing it a bit to reach for my Beach in Winter yet again, I opted for another favourite instead, my Hetty cardigan.

May 15th - I'm ending the week on a bang wearing not one, but two me mades!!  The sun is out, it's relatively warm (read: GLORIOUS!!!!!) and it felt like a good day for the inaugural wearing of my "Love My Dress" SisBoom Jamie/Simplicity #2180 dress that I made back in January for the Just for Me challenge as a knock off of ModCloth's I Love Your Dress.  I'm also wearing my Andi Satterlund Myrna cardi that I made last summer as part of the Untangling Knots Outfit Along.  I can't wait for this year's outfit along, and hoping Andi announces it really soon!  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! I just went to grab a link for you for Andi's blog and her announcement is up.  SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!  I'm so excited.  I already know what dress I want to make!  Hello Sis Boom/Scientific Seamstress Carolina Mae!!!! Oh and by the way - if you're in the market for some great patterns (you know how much I love them!) you can snag a 45% off discount over at the Scientific Seamstress Etsy shop right now if you use the code MIDMAY but you'll have to hurry - the sale ends on May 17th!!

Ok.  Deep breaths... We now return to our regularly scheduled Me Made May post...

So there we are.  End of week two!  It's the Victoria Day long weekend this weekend, which unfortunately generally means crummy weather. It's a thing.  I swear it - the next two day's forecast is for something like 70mm of rain and I'm just going to choose to ignore the little snowflake symbol that the Weather Network is showing on Sunday's forecast.  Cease and desist Mother Nature.  Cease and desist.  However, next week the sun is supposed to come out again and it's supposed to start warming up again as well.   I'm hoping the weather does improve!  I've got so many spring/summer skirts and dresses I've been wanting to wear...  How did your second week of Me Made May go?  I'd love to hear about it!

Me Made May 2015 Week One

Well, week one of May is over and I have, so far, maintained my very reasonable challenge of wearing/using at least one handmade item per day.  I had some doubts after signing up that maybe I shouldn't have after all.  As I read around the blogosphere about crafters worrying that they didn't have enough outfits for the entire month and would have have repeats so they weren't participating, or reading here and there, comments such as "I'd better hurry up and sew {x} amount of dresses so I can participate" etc. the doubts just compounded.  But then I went back and re-read Zoe's sign up post and I felt a whole lot better about it all.  I'm really enjoying the personal challenge that I set forth for myself and that's really the whole point of it I think.

So here's a bit of a round up for week one. You have seen last Friday already so I'm just going to jump on in today with Saturday.

May 2nd:  Jocole's A-Line Yoga Skirt (blogged here)- I absolutely need more of these in my wardrobe. I love it!!!  It's a "wearing pyjamas" kind of comfy but looks put together (unlike my actual pyjamas - although I'm sincerely considering rectifying that matter this spring. No, don't worry I won't be wearing them out in public, but it's high time I had some nice, not threadbare and tattered jammies).

May 3rd: Mouse House Creations' Julia Cardigan - Once again,  I need more of these.  I made this one a few years ago now (yet somehow never blogged about it).  I've worn it so much it's pretty much worn out.  The fabric, which was just cheapo clearance section unknown fibre content sags and bags now and is definitely showing it's age.  Time to make a new one.  In possibly every colour.  (If I'm looking a bit ragged it's because Baby Boy had been up and down all night with a nagging cough then was up for the day before six, then we had done the MS Walk that morning and although it was warm it was also really windy and there is something about being outside in the wind that sucks all the energy out of me.  By the time this picture was taken I just wanted to have supper and curl up on the couch.)

May 4th: Laura Aylor's beach in winter (blogged here) - Monday morning started out brisk.  So I decided to ward off the chill with my new favourite pullover.  I really like everything about this sweater.  It's comfortable, it fits, it's cozy without being crazy warm and the Northern Wool with Tweed is such a soft yarn against the skin.

May 5th: The sun was shining and the temperature glorious on Tuesday.  It was the perfect day to wear my "Bluebirds of Happiness" SisBoom Rebecca Shift for the first time of the year.  This dress is one of my favourites. It's easy to just pull on but makes me feel really great.  At the same time it's comfy enough to just hang around the house in too!  What more can a gal ask for in a dress?  I blogged about it last year here.

May 6th: My Sweatshop of Love Work+Shelter top was the choice for Wednesday.  I knit it two years ago (blogged here) and I've worn it so often over those two years.  My only disappointment with this top is that I knit it out of 100% bamboo yarn and over time my top (that I was once worried would be too short) has now migrated quite far south with stretching.  The yarn has also definitely lost its once upon a time lustre, becoming quite matte and muted now.  I need to figure out how to tighten it up a bit.  I'm considering just tossing it in the dryer and hoping for the best because it's getting to the point where it's looking pretty sloppy these days.

May 7th: Thursday was dreary and rainy here on the prairies.  The morning started out warm with a temperature of +17C when we woke up.  By the time afternoon had rolled around it was +6C.  Yikes!  I figured that morning, upon looking at the forecast, that layering was my best option, so SisBoom's Tortola Top (blogged here) and Andi Satterlund's Marion cardi (blogged here) were the way to go.

May 8th: Today has been downright cold. What the heck Mother Nature??? You can't be +26C one day and then three days later dive down to -1C.  It's just not nice.  So it was a "wear all the wool" kind of day.  Laura Aylor's Hay Cove (blogged here) and my own Just Around the Corner socks (blogged here) kept the freezing weather at bay somewhat at least.  I really hope the sun comes out tomorrow and the temperature starts to climb again!

So that's a wrap for the first week of my first ever participation in Me Made Made!  I'm looking forward to seeing what hand mades I can wear next week - of course a lot of it depends on what Mother Nature throws at us next temperature wise...

How about you?  Did you pledge a Me Made May challenge for yourself this year?  If you did how's it going?