April Showers bring Me Made May

Whew!  Nothing like Me Made May to make remember that I still have a blog. Last year was really busy (hence the radio silence) but there was lots of sewing going on.  In fact that included a fashion show where I sent six looks down the runway that I created.  But enough about the past, let’s talk about sewing!

Allie J has started hosting a social sewing series and to kick everything off the theme for April was April Showers.  This was perfect timing as in my sewing queue I had a dress was the most obvious interpretation of the theme. 

This is Sew House Seven’s Mississippi Ave dress made out of raindrop print double gauze. I bought the PDF of this pattern way back in August 2015 as part of the Sew Independent’s Sewing Indie Month Bundle.  It reminded a lot of a favorite Anthropologie dress with the partial elastic waist but smooth front but I was neck deep in fashion show sewing so I had to resist the temptation.  Fast forward to April 2016 and it seemed like the perfect spring dress.  I found the double gauze at my local Pacific Fabrics and while I knew I wanted to make a dress out of it I finally decided that this was a pattern and fabric match made in heaven.

Having never sewn a Sew House Seven pattern before I did a quickie muslin of the bodice and kinda pulled it close to simulate how it would look with elastic and gathered shoulders.  The fit seemed pretty good and my bra wasn’t peeking out so I decided to move forward and cut the double gauze.  Tracing the pattern was quick since there’s not that many pieces and everything seemed to line up pretty well. I appreciated that the cutting layout was set up with directional prints in mind and with a few minor tweaks I was able to have enough remaining fabric left over to make something else. To be fair I chose not to cut out the shoulder ties or neck and armhole bias strips because I was a little worried about bulk.  Cutting my fabric didn’t take much time at all so I was able to start sewing right away. I sewed this dress up over a couple evenings.  I used my serger to finish my seams although it did start acting up a couple times so a few edges look less than perfect.  The waist on the dress is intended to be slightly above the natural waist. My waist measurement is pretty small so next time I might lower it an inch so it does sit on my natural waist.

I found some lovely Cotton + Steel lawn on another trip to Pacific Fabrics that perfectly matches the occasional turquoise raindrop in the print.  I used this on my neck and armhole bias facings.  Next time I will cut it a bit narrower and use it more as a binding.  On some of the curves it seemed a little excessively wide but nothing that a bunch of steam from my iron couldn’t force into submission.  I had some left over bias strip and cut that in half lengthwise for the shoulder ties.  The bias will discourage fraying and allow me to skip tying knots at the ends.  This will make it a bit less bulky under a close fitting cardigan.

Here in Seattle we’ve had a weirdly dry and warm April but that wasn’t the case yesterday when I wore it for the first time.  But even with the cool weather and my low tolerance to cold I was plenty warm during the day without needing to add tights.  I can see wearing this dress a lot – even during early fall. I also have fabric set aside to make another that will be even easier to layer up and keep wearing all year.

 

I’ve been waiting until the very eve of Me Made May to figure out this year’s challenge.  I spent a lot of time trying to decide how to make it a bit different from the past but also fit into my everyday life.  In the end I accepted that my usual pledge would be more of a challenge this year so it wasn’t necessary to come up with anything new.  This has everything to do with my newish puppy.  Daily trips to the dog park don’t really play nice with pretty dresses that you wish to keep clean.  There’s always the chance of getting jumped up on and considering the park has lake access odds are high that those paws are muddy.  So really I just want to avoid wearing a me-made top and the same jeans every day, even if that means multiple wardrobe changes throughout the day.  So here we go…

'I, Erin of fisforflamingo.blogspot.com & @fisforflamingo (Instagram) sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavor to wear at least one handmade item each day and hopefully fully me-made two days a week for the duration of May 2016.'

I’m really looking forward to checking out what everyone else is up to this month and picking up tons of inspiration!

Me Made May 15 Week 2

Just past the half way mark for the month and I’m still having fun.  Here’s the latest play by play:



Day 12

·         Sewaholic Renfrew

Despite being my least favorite Renfrew to photograph (tiny stripes make the camera’s eye twitch), this is my favorite to wear. One thing I do need to remember is that the shirt is way more sheer than it appears so I really need to pay attention what I wear underneath.

 

Day 13

·         Megan Nielsen Briar

·         Sewaholic Minoru

What can I say?  I’m a sucker for stripes and these were pretty easy to match up.  It’s nice being able to wear it without a bulky cardigan again.

 

Day 14

·         Sewaholic Renfrew

These green jeans are one of the main reasons I could never go Me-Mades only in May.  I love them way too much and have never found comparable stretch denim in a similar weight and hue intensity.  But they go perfectly with a basic navy tee.

 





Day 15

·         Deer & Doe Sureau

This was a favorite dress last year from the second I finished it.  Light and floaty, it’s super comfy on a warm day although it is a little risky when a breeze kicks up.  So naturally that’s what tried to happen while loading sewing machines in my car in front of an elementary school.  The rest of the day it was perfect.
 

 Day 16

·         Victory Patterns Lola

This is one of those garments that when I pull it out I wonder why I don’t wear it more.  Then I remember that the thickness of the knit means it’s more of a cold weather dress.

 



Day 17

·         Kitschy Coo Lady Skater

·         Infinity Scarf

·         Sewaholic Minoru

Not every girl is obsessed with the LBD, some of us prefer navy as our “goes with everything” neutral.  This navy cotton jersey Lady Skater is mine.  It was a great addition to my Blue Thunder Friday and game day wardrobe during football season and works equally well during post season.  Its works equally well for running errands and mowing the lawn.  I started the day with the scarf but when the day refused to warm up quick enough I ditched it for the jacket.

 

I hope everyone else is still going strong during this Me Made May!

Mission Not a Maxi

Ok, right off the bat I must come clean and say there’s no maxi in this post.  If that’s cool with you than keep reading, otherwise I suggest you check out one of the hundreds of true maxis out there in the internet.

Moving on!  This is Jamie Christina’s Mission Maxi dress that is much beloved out there in home sewing land. Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow even dedicated an entire week of Me Made May 2014 to it.   I’ve had this in my pattern stash for a while and now that the temperatures are heating up I figured it was a good time to try it out.

I started off with the tank version to check out how it fits.  I used some leftover turquoise wicking mesh thinking it would make a nice running tank.  I made this mostly on my serger except for topstitching the bands on my regular sewing machine with a longer stitch length.  Not my best topstitching, but close enough for a wearable muslin most likely to be regulated to workout gear.  And I couldn’t be bothered to break out my double needle to properly hem it.

Always important to crop booty shorts when Seattle pale!

As is I think it fits pretty well, no obvious pulls, bagginess or tightness.  I wore it around the house to make sure it was comfortable and traced out the maxi length on the pattern.  Someday hopefully soon I’ll actually get around to the maxi length.

I had a yard of this orange printed interlock I got last winter when I bought some jersey online for my Mom’s Christmas gift.  It was one of those times when you love a fabric online but are a bit disappointed when you see it in person.  I knew it didn’t have much stretch (15%) but the printed design was super stiff and cheap feeling – even after prewashing it didn’t feel much different.  I knew it wouldn’t work for the top I intended it for and so it sat in limbo in my stash.  This was a real shame because I really loved the print.  On a whim I pulled it out and decided I’d try it out knowing I wouldn’t be heartbroken if it didn’t work.

Ignore the bra strap - I forgot my convertible

I laid out my pattern pieces and cut them out, preserving as much length as possible.  I moved the pattern piece up and used the curved bottom edge to cut the hem.  The stiffness of the fabric made me doubt it would fold nicely for the binding when I remembered my royal blue Renfrew.  I held the Renfrew next to the orange print and discovered that it matched the blue leaves exactly.  I dug through my knits scrap bag and pulled out what little royal blue interlock I had left.  I just used my rotatory cutter and clear ruler and cut strips as long as I possibly could, counting on the stretch to make up the difference.

Finally!  A good reason to hoard hold onto those little knit scraps that I couldn’t even cut a pair of underwear out of.  Although now that I think of it I could probably cut some Plantain elbow patches out of them too…

This time around I used my sewing machine to sew the shoulder seams instead of my serger.  Last time when topstitching the binding, it got a little fiddly going over that serged seam. By sewing it I was able to press the seam open and that made everything much flatter to sew over.  I also sewed the shoulder and side seams before attaching the binding in the round.  I even went so far as to switch from white to blue serger thread before working on the binding.  I realized I was out of matching blue thread until I pulled out the spools that came with my serger.  Maybe not the strongest thread, but it worked pretty well for topstitching the binding.  Then it was over to the ironing board to blast the binding with steam to tighten everything up.

I did a lot of thinking before deciding on what thread color to hem the dress with.  I tried the blue I used for topstitching and white on a scrap but wasn’t really thrilled with either one.  That’s when I remembered I had a spool of orange thread originally used for topstitching a bag I made years ago.  I recently used it to attach binding to a baby blanket so I had a bobbin filled up and everything.  I used a twin needle for the hem and the thread blended in perfectly with all of the oranges.

I bet you can’t tell which side I redid!

I immediately tried my new finished dress on and discovered that somehow it had magically softened up some more and didn’t seem so stiff anymore.  Maybe it was the steam…  I did notice that it stuck out a bit by the arms which I didn’t notice with my tank.  At first I thought I hadn’t stretched the arm binding enough so took the time and effort to rip out the topstitching and serging.  I took two inches out off, reattached and topstitched it.  After trying it on again, I really didn’t notice much difference so I haven’t bothered to do the other side yet.  I’m blaming the lack of stretch in the knit.

In the end I’m really pleased how this dress turned out, especially since I had low expectations.  I got a lot of comments on it when I wore it on the last day of Me Made May.  As a bonus I have the option of wearing it with the matching Renfrew for a separates look.  Plus the thicker interlock does wonders for avoiding VPL.  I can see making more of these to wear this summer as the go together so quickly and don’t take much fabric at all.  In fact, I’m even planning on conquering my irrational suspicion of maxi dresses and making the pattern as originally intended. I just need to figure out what shoes to wear with it.  My initial thought is platform sandals but maybe flats/sandals would be more practical?  What type of shoes are you supposed to wear with maxis?

Me Made May Week 5 & Wrap Up

Whew!  Another Me-Made-May is over and done with.  I hope everyone had as enjoyable a month as I have.  Seattle had some great weather which allowed me to wear more of my summer clothes which I definitely prefer in both my me-mades and RTW.  First up is my final week of outfits.

 Day 26

Sewaholic Crescent

It’s Memorial Day and I was feeling patriotic so my seersucker Crescent seemed appropriate.  It was a little too warm for my red ¾ sleeved Renfrew so I went with an old red tee I’ve had forever.  As a bonus it was a lot easier to tuck in and show off the shaped waist of the skirt.

Day 27

Sewaholic Alma

Last summer on the Anthropologie website I saw a yellow top paired with jean shorts & a floral statement necklace.  It immediately reminded me of my yellow eyelet Alma and this similar necklace I really liked but didn’t wear too often.  This is also the top that started me wearing yellow again.  (I was so glad I took this picture in front of this rhododendron bush because just a few days later about half the flowers had fallen off)

Day 28

Sewaholic Renfrew

Today was another cool day that caused me to dip into my cold weather wardrobe.  Despite really liking this top I hope this will be the last time I wear it until fall.  This is one of those fabrics that made me ignore fiber content – I loved the navy & green wide stripes with silver threads separating them so much that I ignored that it’s 98% poly.

Day 29

Deer & Doe Chardon

I normally don’t wear a lot of black and sew even less but I really like this skirt.  I think it’s because despite being a black chambray, the white cross-threads makes it appear grey.  I have a couple of Andi Satterlund’s cropped sweaters planned that will be perfect to pair with this skirt come fall.  Assuming of course, that they’re done in time!

Day 30

Deer & Doe Sureau

This was one of those makes that after wearing it I immediately wanted to wear it again.  Always a good sign for my closet, but not so great for my pledge this year.  I managed to restrain myself until today and see this getting a lot of wear this summer.

Day 31

Sewaholic Renfrew & Jamie Christina Mission Maxi

Finally the weather warmed up enough to wear my latest dress!  In my mind a bright orange print requires lots of sunshine and high temperatures, or at least Seattle high, to be worn.  But when headed off to class in the morning I wasn’t sure how the day would turn out so I threw a Renfrew over it.  Briefly during the afternoon the dress was perfect on its own but I was glad to have the tee for most of the day.

Overall I’d call Me-Made-May 2014 a success.  In fact during the first few days of June I automatically went for me mades while getting dressed.  Sure, I had to check photos a couple times to check I didn’t wear the exact same thing twice but there were also some past favorites that didn’t get to come out and play.  Sometimes it just comes down to what’s newest and shiniest.  As for my hope to finish a couple pairs of jeans… that’s what Jeans June & July is for.  I did get work done on my Jamie’s but got ahead of myself and topstitched when I should have basted to check for fit. I debated including a photo but I fear there’s too much excess fabric in the crotch for the internet.

Separates & Jeans

Last year I felt I needed more non-Renfrew tops and I think over the last year I improved that.  I would like to continue in this direction.  That said when wearing separates they were usually paired with RTW.  Despite being pretty satisfied with my RTW jeans, I want to make finish some of my own.  Some of the pairs I have are pretty old and those styles stopped being made years ago. During my last duplication class at school I copied a pair but I’m not sure if I’ll get around to making/finishing three pairs in June and July!

 

Deer & Doe & Indies

Last year I wore lots of Sewaholic so it made sense that those were the patterns I wore most this year - 13 times.  The #2 pattern company did surprise me as I only tried a Deer & Doe pattern last fall and yet wore one 10 times this month.  Clearly I’ve found another favorite!  In general I seem to wear more indie patterns than the Big 4, partially because I find those are the patterns I tend to make (or plan to make) multiples of.  I guess it’s my way of justifying the higher cost compared to the 99¢ sales at the big box stores. 

In general I’m happy to see that I wear a high percentage of what I make which when it all boils down spells out success.  I didn’t include any me-made PJs this year because they’d be my most worn garments and would totally skew any results.  It’s been a long time since I’ve bought any RTW and haven’t felt like I’m missing out.  (The only exception was my much loved Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl Championship locker room tee.  Not exactly something I could make on my own or as a proud member of the 12^th Man miss out on!)  That’s not to say I don’t wear RTW anymore, I just have really high standards and often run in to problems with things fitting correctly.  All reasons why I started sewing my own clothes in the first place!  I hope everyone achieved their goals for the month and got tons of inspiration for future makes, I know I did!

 

Daisy Chain Sureau

This is my second version of Deer & Doe’s Sureau dress and I’m completely smitten.  In fact I’ve got version three planned out already!  The only dilemma is if I’ll let it jump ahead on my sewing list…

Since its spring I thought short sleeves and a fuller skirt would be more seasonally appropriate. To increase the skirt fullness all I did lay the skirt pattern piece on my massive roll of butcher paper, trace off the side edge and use the width of the paper.

My biggest adjustments were to the bodice.  I finally wised up and raised the armsyce ¼ inch.  On both my Bleuets they’ve felt a bit low and despite not noticing it as much on Sureau #1 I think that was more a matter of flannel having some give.  I went with ¼ inch to avoid over correcting and after wearing it feels pretty good.  I also adjusted the sleeves the same amount in addition to shortening them.  Oh, and I took a ½ inch out of the bodice center back.  Sometimes tiny adjustments like these make all the difference.

Originally I intended to line the dress due to the sheerness of the cotton lawn and actually cut the pieces out before deciding not to.  I used a white cotton but the more I handled it the more I became it was too thick compared to the lightness of the lawn.  It was in the evening and all the fabric stores where closed and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find the correct weight so I decided to skip it.  I really, really didn’t want to wait until the next morning and after standing in front of the mirror holding up the fabric I felt it was just opaque enough.

 

 Funnily enough Oona posted about her unlined voile pants around the same time I was making this dress.  So there must be something in the water that’s causing sewers to throw caution to the wind from coast to coast.  #nolinings



I did add a few extra steps which I felt added up to a better dress.  I stay stitched the neckline and fused very, lightweight interfacing to the facing. The neckline on my flannel version didn’t sit completely flat until I went back and sandwiched some fusible tape between the dress and facing.  I also under stitched the neckline out of habit.  I felt the placket needed the extra stabilization so I interfaced it in addition to topstitching it.  The only downside to this is that the fabric is sheer enough that you can tell what was interfaced while the dress is on my dress form.  But I think it’s less noticeable when I’m wearing the dress.

 

Like usual I set my sleeves in flat and tried it on before sewing up the side seams to determine what I wanted my final sleeve length to be.  With a few quick slices of my rotary cutter (after carefully lining up my clear plastic ruler) and I was good.  Oh yeah, I also added two thin strips of interfacing along the side where the zipper would be inserted.  This helped the invisible zipper go in almost perfectly.  I wasn’t convinced it was worth going back and trying to fix something off less than 1/16”.

 Since the placket and neckline were topstitched I simply machine hemmed the skirt.  This was quick and easy and let me finish up quicker so I could get down to the business of wearing it the next morning!  I actually found the perfect lime green flower buttons but ended up not including them.  The dress already had a lot going on and I didn’t want the buttons to be overkill.

I started off this post saying how much I love this dress and I really do.  Like it’s the type of garment I want to mentally think of who I’m going to see in a day so I can keep wearing it without it being too obvious.  Sadly this scheme is ruined by Me Made May and daily outfit photos.  But once June rolls along all bets are off!  Actually, by the end of writing this post I’ve decided that as soon as I find appropriate lining (#3 will be lined) I will let it skip ahead to the top of my “to sew” list.

 

Me Made May Week 4

Wow!  I can't believe the month is almost over and we’re heading into the home stretch!  I have yet to feel the stress of figuring out what to wear that’s new and somewhat exciting.  In fact I’ve still got a few new makes I’m hoping to bust out for the first time this month.  Here’s what I’ve been wearing this week.

Day 19

Deer & Doe Bleuet

My two favorite things about this dress are all the topstitching and being able to rip it off thanks to the pearl snaps.  This is also the make that introduced me to the awesomeness that is Deer & Doe.  A denim dress is a great basic and because it’s lightweight denim it can be worn year round.

Day 20

Simplicity 2863 (Built by Wendy)

Looking back this is the exact same outfit I wore last year on MMM13 Day 19!  And being completely honest I’m not sure how many (or how few) times I wore this dress in between but it was most likely exactly like this.  I firmly believe that when you can wear polka dot shoes, then you find an outfit that goes with polka dot shoes.

Day 21

Sewaholic Pendrell

Looks like Friday’s polka dot parade has started early between yesterday’s shoes and today’s Pendrell.  If only this top wasn’t polyester but at the time I made it my area seemed to be going through a natural fibers polka dot drought.  Luckily that has since ended.  Every time I wear this I wonder why I don’t war it more and then remember about the poly.  I really should get around to making another in a fabric I actually like wearing.

Day 22

Jamie Christina Mission Maxi Tank

I made this tank to test out the fit of Jamie Christina’s Mission Maxi pattern.  Feeling lazy, I didn’t hem it although I did serge the bottom edge.  Sometimes taking out that twin needle seems like so much effort.  It’s wicking fabric so I can see wearing this on runs.  Everything seemed good so during the evening I whipped up a dress version.  And yes, I did properly hem the dress.

Day 23

Megan Nielsen Tania culottes

It’s polka dot parade day!  Naturally my Tania culottes were the obvious choice although I went back and forth on what to wear with them.  The weather was iffy on temperature so I tried them with tights and discovered that I’ll be able to rock these babies into the fall!  But I decided to be optimistic and went with lilac & hot pink cowboy boots.  Like you do.  And I figured this slightly cropped t-shirt would be the perfect length for the Tanias.

Day 24

Sewaholic Renfrew

The easy way to make jeans and a t-shirt into a proper “outfit” is to add matching shoes.  This was the perfect outfit to wear while running a few errands and wondering if it was going to rain.

Day 25

Deer & Doe Datura

Clearly this is the weekend of purple.  While very similar to how I styled this Datura earlier in the month, my jeans and flats are different

As for the hope of working on pants this month… they’ve been put on the back burner.  As the days get longer I tend to wear dresses more so they’ve been at the front of my mind.  That and polka dots.  Add the fact that I feel the RTW jeans I have fit pretty well, even if some of them are getting kinda old.  I actually spent Sunday working on Named Jamie jeans but they need more work to get rid of some majorly unsightly excess fabric.  And more topstitching thread.

Me Made May Week 2 & 3

Over half way done and I’m still going strong!  In this group I have my first repeat although it easily could be more.  One of the downsides of Me Made May is tracking what you wore each day when you have some new favorites freshly completed.  I know I’m not the only one who after finishing something feels the need to wear it all the time and figures if different people see you wear it than its ok to wear it a couple days in a row.  However taking daily photos makes this glaringly obvious and probably a bit boring for viewers who aren’t me.  I’m attempting to exercise some restraint until June when I won’t have the evidence staring back at me.  It does help that I’m on a huge sewing kick (I even gleefully had a couple marathon tracing sessions which I normally avoid like the plague) with days getting both longer and warmer so I’ve had a number of new options.  I’ve always preferred my warm weather wardrobe and find so much more inspiration to sew all of the things.  Things would be a bit harder if we were all doing Me Made March like Zo originally did.

Day 5

Sewaholic Renfrew

This is my all-time favorite Renfrew.  It’s my favorite color (turquoise) and the rayon knit is super comfy.  Too bad the teeny, tiny 1/8” stripes photograph so terribly.

Day 6

Deer & Doe Plantain

In my quest for all things Deer & Doe I could hardly overlook Plantain, a free t-shirt pattern.  I bought this fabric specifically for the pattern and almost wish I hadn’t.  It’s printed slightly off grain so who knows what will happen after I wash it.  Regardless there will be more Plantains in my future.  Plus I wore this will sewing yet another D&D pattern: Chardon.

Day 7

Sewaholic Renfrew & Crescent

A Sewaholic twofer today!  Warm weather in Seattle means I got to bring out a favorite skirt from last summer.  In my mind few fabrics say summer quite like seersucker.  While I wore it with a Renfrew it might look better with a Nettie to better show off the pieced yoke.  And yet another project is added to the list…

Day 8

Deer & Doe Sureau

It was cold and rainy today and seemed very fall like so this plaid flannel 90’s throwback felt appropriate.  During my wardrobe rotation this was in my “needs to be cleaned before being put away for the season & yet not too dirty to wear” pile.  I can’t be the only one who has one of those, right?

Day 9

Built by Wendy: Rock the Boatneck

This was my first make from Built by Wendy’s book Sew U: Home Stretch and I’m not super in love with it.  There’s plenty of things I’d change for next time but am really fond of the navy & cream striped cotton knit.  One day I may finally get around to tweaking it a bit more (I seriously took the side seams in a ton!) but for now it works when I’m cleaning & moving stuff around.  Plus it worked for the Friday theme of blue.

Day 10

Sewaholic Renfrew & Colette Chantilly

Two makes to show today.  My school was having an open house in the evening so most of the day was spent rearranging rooms and setting everything up.  I just barely had time to go home, bake brownies & change into my Chantilly before heading back to school.  While setting up, everyone was trying to figure out what to wear and thinking it should probably be something we made.  A lot of people defaulted to black but I figured this was a great chance to rock some polka dots.  Plus I have shoes the perfectly match those dots!

Day 11

Kitschy Coo Lady Skater

Yet another to be blogged make!  Needless to say this pattern makes a perfect casual yet 100% pulled together dress that is easy to wear.  It worked out great for Mother’s Day when there were no set plans; I knew I was ready for anything wearing this.

 Day 12

Simplicity Leanne Marshall 1877

I made this dress last year in the early fall and only managed to wear it once before it got too cold.  So I was excited to wear it again after thinking about it all winter long.  It’s mostly orange ditzy floral printed linen and my favorite part just might be the origami like flounces on the shoulders.  I’m so glad I didn’t decide to toss them.

Day 13

Sewaholic Alma & Thurlow

Another all Sewaholic day.  This was a favorite combo last summer and was thrilled to finally wear it again.  The shorts went together pretty quickly and only took a little taking in to fit properly.  I think a few more pairs are needed this summer with front running ideas being grey chambray and polka dotted challis.  This is probably my perfect shorts pattern and four Almas may not be enough.

Day 14

Simplicity Cynthia Rowley OOP #?

This is actually the very first thing I used my serger on.  I wore it once, decided it might be a bit sheer in direct sunlight and it didn’t fit the best and has been taking up closet space ever since.  I wish the sleeves were a bit shorter and that I had a better belt to wear with it.  I like the contrast of the brown leather but it’s a little too big and there’s no way to make it smaller.  This may become a “just at home” dress.

 Day 15

Deer & Doe Chardon

This is my first try at the Chardon skirt and once again am pleased with the results of a Deer & Doe pattern.  Once again I can’t help but think a Nettie would be perfect for a skirt like this to really show off the waist.  I picked this shirt mainly based on footwear and don’t think it’s the best pairing but also not too bad either.  I seem to be lacking in tops to wear with skirts that hit at or just above the waist.  Everything I have just seems too bunchy after tucking in but when not seems to cover up the skirt design features.  I plan on making another version with the back bow and would hate to cover up that added cuteness.

Day 16

Deer & Doe Sureau

This Friday’s theme was: Too Pretty to Wear Pants, and it was the perfect time to debut my latest dress.  After a few minor alterations I think I have my perfect dress and yet another Deer & Doe win.  Something must be in the sewing air as I was making this the same time Oona was making her voile flyaway pants since we both brazenly chose not line them.  And I smile every time I think about it.

 Day 17

Project Runway

Some days you just have to ignore the sewing & other assorted crafting and clean.  And I’m talking real cleaning, not checking for stray threads or lint in your serger, but actual here’s my scrub brush & that is a toilet.  They type of thing I never enjoy the process of but always feel better about the results.  And this always seems like a good time to wear those makes that you just don’t wear for whatever reason.  With this dress I tried a new silhouette but don’t think it’s the most flattering for me.  I like photo #2 where I pulled it in at the waist creating some waist definition so much better but will likely keep this as a cleaning dress rather than go back and try and alter it.

 Day 18

Deer & Doe Plantain

My 1^st repeat & I fully admit I had to quick check out my previous photo to make sure I styled it differently.  This time I went more casual with straight leg jeans and Converse.  Wearing it again simply reminded me that I need to whip out a couple more versions.

I hope everyone is enjoying Me Made May and not feeling too stressed about keeping to their pledges!