I’m a little late on this post.  This past week+ has been hectic and I haven’t had time for nearly all the things I had hoped to do.  But better late than never.

First, I have one more outfit to show.  I didn’t leave the house or get dressed either the 29th or the 30th, so I only have the one bad work bathroom selfie for the 31st to close out Me Made May ’16.

Tuesday, May 31

This is the Rose Red Lady Skater that I made during MMM.

Lessons Learned 

• I really do like to make (and wear) dresses, mostly knits.  I work in an industry where I can wear jeans/shorts and tees everyday, and I did for many years.  But last year, at my previous job, I started wearing one or two of the dresses I made to work each week.  When I quit my job last summer, I had a lot of free time to sew and by the time I started my new job in September, I had enough dresses to wear them almost every day.  Knit dresses are comfortable to wear and I feel like they look better on my shape than jeans and tees.

• I need cardigans and leggings!  When the weather is a little cooler, I find I need to reach for RTW leggings and sweaters, so I need to start making some of those to help fill out my wardrobe.

• I find it difficult to tell people I made my outfit.  There are some people at work, specifically the ladies in my weight watchers group, who know I make a lot of my own clothes and will usually ask me, “did you make that?”  But when I get a random compliment about what I’m wearing, I usually just say, “Thanks.”  I wonder if I should say that I made it and if my husband is with me, he’ll brag on me that way.  Do other people have that internal conflict when they get a compliment on a me-made item?

Wrap Up

I’m really glad I participated in Me Made May ’16.  And I actually met my goal.  I even had a few more options that I could have worn if I hadn’t been so lazy on the weekends.  That actually surprised me.  I’ll definitely be planning on participating next year too!

Here are my week 3 outfits.

Sunday, May 15

Again, I didn’t leave the house and I just lounged around sewing and planning.  I cut out a red Lady Skater with a full lining for the May Monthly Stitch challenge, and I thought it would be a quick make, but I messed up trying to get fancy with the sleeve insertion and I have a lot of stitching to rip out now.  I’ve not had a chance to get it done during the day when the light is good.  But I identified a problem that I need to resolve — better lighting in my living room next to where I want to sit and do the hand work (ripping, catch stitching, etc.)

Now what you’ve been anxiously awaiting, the awesome work bathroom selfies for the week.

Monday, May 16

Sew Straight and Gather Uptown/Downtown dress.  This was the wearable muslin I made from some Girl Charlee (affiliate link) flawed bargain lot fabric.  I love this dress, but the fabric is very thin, so I have to wear a slip with it.  I should have fully lined it.

Tuesday, May 17

This is a self drafted 6 panel skirt.  I had this fabric from some point in my way-back past and I think there was about a yard and a half.  I calculated a pattern for a 6 panel circle skirt, but I didn’t have enough fabric for that, so I trimmed the edges down until I could fit 6 panels onto my fabric, matching the plaid horizontally.

I pretty much always wear this skirt with this Coheed and Cambria concert tee because the colors match really well and also because I love to promote my favorite band.

Wednesday, May 18

Polka dotted GreenStyle Creations Laurel.

Thursday, May 19

SisBoom Megan with a nice 70s vibe.  I got many compliments on this dress.  One from a guy at work and many from people at my dance studio.  I think maybe that was because it’s so short!  I did wear a pair of white Old Navy shorts underneath, even at work, just to feel confident I wouldn’t flash anyone.

Now that I’ve actually worn it, I have some additional thoughts that didn’t occur to me when I wrote up my original blog post.  I like the bell sleeves, but as you can see in the photo, you can often see the inside of the sleeve, which just bothers me for some reason.  And the construction method of the sleeves calls for a bias strip sewn to the sleeve up in the bicep area to make a casing for the elastic.  I think if I were to make this dress again with the bell sleeves, I would make the upper sleeve and lower sleeve two separate pieces and sew them together to create the elastic casing and line the lower sleeve so that it would look good from any angle.

Friday, May 20

My very first Lady Skater dress.

Saturay, May 14

Seamwork Moji.  I’m not very fond of these pants and I think the fabric I used makes them look like hospital scrubs, but I wore them to brunch on this chilly morning.  The place we went to is partially open and a cool breeze would waft in occasionally, so I stayed all bundled up the entire time.

Here are my week 2 outfits.

Sunday, May 8

I didn’t end up leaving the house, so I was just in lounge wear all day sewing a (hopefully) wearable muslin of the Seamwork Perry from the latest issue.

I spent a lazy day trimming the pages for a few Seamwork patterns then taped the Perry together.  Then I spent way too long trying to decide which size to make.  Of course all this while I’m lazing on my couch watching the Magic Mike movies and then 10 Things I Hate About You for the 200th time.  Hopefully I’ll post something about that Perry soon.

On to the bad work bathroom selfies for the week.

Monday, May 9

Colette Moneta.  This is one of my favorite dresses to wear.

Tuesday, May 10

Today I’m wearing my first Ottobre Optic Flowers dress that I blogged about last July.

Wednesday, May 11

Today’s dress is my dyed GreenStyle Creations Laurel.  I’m not sure I love this dress.  Although, it has gotten fairly big — more so than a lot of my other dresses I made during the same time.  So that might be one of the reasons I feel like it’s not the most flattering silhouette on me.

Thursday, May 12

Another Ottobre Twig made out of the white green daisy on white cotton jersey knit from a Girl Charlee knitfix that I dyed purple.

Friday, May 13

Lady Skater dress.  I took a bunch of cute photos in this dress at the pocket park at the end of the street, but apparently never posted anything about it.  Worst. Blogger. Evar.

Saturay, May 14

This is a Seamwork Perry that I finished up on Friday.  I really like it and I already have my next one cut.  I need to take some better photos then write up a blog post about it.  My husband didn’t tell me that I was frowning in almost all of them.

This is my first year participating in Me-Made-May.  Yay!

Here’s what I said in my pledge that I managed to add on the signup post on May 2nd.

I have planned to participate for a while, but now I’m officially stating that I, jennifer (MizzSmartyPants) of http://www.clothinghacker.com/, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’16. I endeavor to wear at least one me-made item each work day for the duration of May 2016. In addition, I also pledge to wear a me-made item on any weekend day where I leave the house.

So here’s my first week of outfits.

Sunday, May 1

I was in Portland for a dance competition last weekend, but I knew that Sunday was May 1st, so I specifically packed a me-made dress to wear to come home in.  Although, silly me, I didn’t think about getting a good photo, but I do have a photo that you can kind of see what I’m wearing.

I took this photo to see my hair after I took down the updo that the hair ladies gave me for Saturday’s competition that I slept in because I was too tired to deal with all the hairspray and glue (yes, glue) in my hair.

This was the most recent Lady Skater I made.

Monday, May 2

My work week photos will most likely all be work bathroom mirror shots.  I don’t have a full length mirror at home for some reason and I’m always in too big of a rush out the door in the mornings anyway.

This is my animal print Moneta that I made over a year ago and wear quite often.

Tuesday, May 3

This is a dress from the Ottobre 5/2015 issue and the design is called Twig.  I thought I blogged about it, but couldn’t find the published post.  Well, it’s because I never finished the blog post and it’s sitting there as a draft.  I guess I need to get on the ball with that!

Wednesday, May 4

This is my Rainbow Ethnic Chevron Lady Skater that I didn’t blog about, but mentioned in my Top 5 of 2015 post.  It’s one of my favorite dresses because the colors are so pretty.  I have some extra of this fabric so I can make another when this one wears out or if I lose too much weight to be able to wear it anymore.

Thursday, May 5

I was feeling a little blah this day and I also had a dance lesson after work and no clean dance pants to wear under a dress/skirt due to not having done laundry yet since spending a long weekend dancing.  So I’m wearing RTW jeans with a See Kate Sew Dreamer Tee I made last summer from a green stripe knit and then hand painted flowers on it to cover up some dye bleed the fabric picked up in the wash.  I swear I remember writing up a blog post about this top, but I don’t have one, so who knows what I was remembering.  I’m also wearing my elephant kimono that I did actually blog about in February.  I’m not as pleased with how I look in pants and tops because they all cut me right in half at my widest point.  But I have some ideas about how to fix 

Friday, May 6

This is one of the dresses I made for last weekend’s dance competition.  Friday night’s dinner had a Bohemian theme, so I, of course, had to make a dress.  I was a little unsure about wearing it to work because it sorta feels a bit on the nicer side.  But it was fine and I was worried about nothing.

Saturday, May 7

This is a Simplicity 1375 dress I made last summer as part of a contest that I ended up winning.  I thought I blogged about it because I remember writing details about the construction and posting a photo of the sketch I did if it.  But I must just be blogging in my dreams. 

 
I don’t think I’ve ever actually worn this dress before today.  I wore a $3 Old Navy tank top underneath to give a little bit of modesty.  I’m not usually one to worry about that too much, but the neckline on this dress is pretty low and we were going out to a family place for breakfast.