Remember how I never finished a summary of Me Made May 2015? Clearly I’m overachieving at dropping-the-ball this year, because I lost track in week two. (In my defense, week two ended at the beach.)

Let’s see what I can dig up…

Day Eight

Ooh! I’m wearing the second version of that tank-dress I copied. (The gray one I wore Week One is the first version.) You can’t tell in the photo, but the fabric is textured, and it has a really great weight/swing because of that.

Note to self: The straps are SLIGHTLY shorter than I’d like, so I need to update the pattern pieces with a little length.

Day Nine

Just a simple circle-ish skirt. I think it’s just the bottom half of a lady skater, lengthened.

This fabric is a scuba-knit, which is why it’s so shiny. The shine makes it look fancier than it is.

I have tightened the elastic in that waistband at least three times. Clearly my lady skater skirt hacking skills could use some work.

Day Ten

I am having PTSD now, looking at these photos. THE WEATHER WAS SO DREARY AND I WAS SO OVER EVERYTHING.

Plantain tee – one of my first, in a really slippery ITY knit. And the skirt is a stretch denim pencil skirt, the first (modified) version of M6654. My second – the gray one I wore in Week One – was slightly better, and I think I have enough of this denim to take a second run at it.

Day Eleven

OH HELLO GRAY PENCIL SKIRT, I WAS JUST TALKING ABOUT YOU. I just really love that skirt right now, and so I wore it with an old American Apparel top (that I keep meaning to copy).

Day Twelve

I don’t think I can admit publicly how long I’ve wanted to make a jumpsuit. Let’s just say that I have a get-a-grip-friend that I check in with every time I fall for some 70s-loungewear-inspired article of clothing, to find out whether it’s actually cute or if my total obsession with that era’s clothing has blinded me. (For reference: Dirty Dancing, Wet Hot American Summer, Red Oaks on Amazon Prime, literally every striped cotton dress with a chevron pattern ever.)

Thankfully, the Sallie Jumpsuit made it past her filter, and I’ve been holding onto it for almost a year, waiting for the nerve to make my own. Now that I’ve done it, I should admit that I have TWO SECRET PINBOARDS filled with jumpsuit photos. One of them is a list of variations I could make on the Sallie (or mash-ups with other patterns). I probably won’t wait another year before trying another jumpsuit!

Day Thirteen

THIS WAS UNEXPECTED.

I found this gloriously spongey floral knit at Jo-Anns when I was picking up some notions, and they had JUST over a yard left on the bolt. I bought it without a plan, and decided to try my hand at a Mesa Dress.

Unfortunately, I failed to notice that most people size up their Mesa, so that it’s not so form-fitting, which means this dress doesn’t have QUITE the playful/casual vibe I was hoping for. However, it’s still awesome, and I will probably wear it a lot once I get used to the fit.

Day Fourteen

First night at the beach: one of my only real attempts to capture a garment.

This is actually a draft, one of many in my attempts to make a TNT woven-tank pattern. Once I have the fit worked out, I’ll let myself sew it up in some drapier, silky fabrics. But until then, I keep testing it with cotton lawns (which have more movement than a quilting cottons, but not much).

Hilariously, I’m in this process because I can never find a store-bought sleeveless top that I like. The shirt I copied this from is the best option I’d ever found – it tented out more than I’d like, and I didn’t particularly love the print, but I love the IDEA of a sleeveless woven top to wear with skinny pants. So, the frustrations of this process are lessened when I realize that I will never again have to search for one in the stores, if I can perfect my own.

WEEK TWO THOUGHTS

This week really illustrates the reasons I sew: I could make a jumpsuit that is long enough for my torso, something that I am highly unlikely to find in stores. I’m also in the process of finding the best-fitting sleeveless top, so I never have to try on an ugly ill-fitting version in the store.

I have to remember that, as nit-picky as I can be with my clothing, the standard I hold when MAKING for myself is significantly higher than the standard I can expect when SHOPPING for myself. So even when these garments fall short of my ideal (“perfection”), they are so much better-fitting than 90% of the clothes available to me.

To Make:
-another jumpsuit, before the excitement wears off
-further revisions to that sleeveless top pattern
-slight update to tank dress pattern (lengthen straps)