Me-Made May, Days 2-6

May 2nd – Grumpy-looking and in the rain. Applied a weird filter to the photo because it has a peculiar streak right across it.

I hate this cardigan. It’s gone all floppy, it’s difficult to wash and dry, and it isn’t warm. I keep it because it goes with everything I own, and I have a cardigan shortage. If I hadn’t been focussing on things I’ve made myself, I’d have worn a plain dark grey cardigan that my Mum knitted for me about twenty years ago.

Dress: Self drafted, loose fitting linen dress with square yoke and deep ruffle at the hem
Petticoat: Self drafted, elastic waist with ruffle at the hem and eyelet lace trim
Cardigan: Eve, in Colinette Giotto (ravel.me/eternalmagpie/e2)
Shoes: Fairysteps

May 3rd – a bit over-excited in a shoe shop!

I just about never wear this jacket, because polar fleece (which it’s lined with) makes me go a bit hot and bothered. This was the first time I’d worn it with the matching psychedelic print belt (identical to the shoes!), and I quite liked it. The bow stayed put, and the belt didn’t slip around even without belt loops to hold it in place. (Yes, I bought the shoes. Obviously.)

Yellow Submarine jacket, Butterick 5254, blogged here:
eternalmagpie.com/blog/2009/10/09/yellow-submarine-jacket/
I may have got a little over excited when I found a pair of matching Vans this morning! 😀

May 4th – a bad selfie that doesn’t even really show the t-shirt. Never mind.

This was a real stretch to wear something me-made. I tend to wallow about in jeans and t-shirts when I’m not at work, and those are all bought from shops. If I hadn’t had this top lurking in the back of the wardrobe, Sunday would have been a me-made fail.

Refashioned t-shirt – removed the sleeves and neck binding, turned a small hem to the outside. Shaped the side seams to make a flared tunic.
(Also: ancient jeans, new Beatles Vans.) 

May 5th – why do I always look weird in photos?!

I hate this cardigan as well. I love the shape of it, but it’s hard to wash and dry, and because it’s chunky yarn its own weight stretches it at the shoulders. It went bobbly almost immediately, and it sheds more hair than the damn rabbit. I heartily do NOT recommend Rowan Polar. (Thankfully I think it’s discontinued now.) I need to re-knit this in a different yarn. Or at a lighter gauge. Or both. The bloomers I love, and I’m especially pleased that they couldn’t have matched the dress better if I’d bought them together!

Dress & slip: Phase Eight (drastically reduced in Debenhams because one strap had come adrift from the slip – nothing a few stitches couldn’t fix.)
Cardigan: Cate in Rowan Polar (ravel.me/eternalmagpie/c1)
Bloomers: adapted from a pyjama pattern (eternalmagpie.com/blog/2013/07/11/blooming-lovely/)
Sandals: Think!

May 6th – I really need to clean my mirror!

I like black and grey stripes. Can you tell? I also like loose, floppy, soft, comfy clothes. Particularly when I’m not feeling well, which is quite often. Every time I wear this cardigan I think “I must chop off the giant ridiculous hood so it’s less bunchy at the shoulders”, and every time it goes in the wash and comes out again and I’m so keen to wear it that I don’t have time to take the scissors to it. I really must get around to that. (I made the stripy part of the sleeves wrong too, so I can’t push them up – the stretch goes lengthways instead of sideways. Oops.) I need to make more cardigans like this. I need to make more leggings too, as these keep falling down. I’m a bit larger than I was when I made them, and they’re a really good heavy jersey with lots of lycra, but they just won’t stay up!

Top: (underneath) New Look – the shop not the pattern company! 😉
Dress: Vintage Vogue 2787 in viscose jersey (eternalmagpie.com/blog/2010/08/19/vogue-2787/)
Leggings: self-drafted
Cardigan: self-drafted
Shoes: Conker (conkershoes.com)

General observations…

I don’t know why I thought cutting in a fringe would be a good idea, my hair seems determined not to stay put. Maybe I’ll just grow it out again.

Now I’ve found a handy place to balance the mirror, hopefully the photos will improve.

I should probably smile more. Except that I’m not a very smily person, so smiling at the camera just feels really fake and weird. (And all you can see is TEETH.) But then the one photo of me actually genuinely smiling is definitely my favourite. So I should probably smile more, whether I like it or not.

I’m enjoying looking at other people’s photos and noticing the variations between people who obviously sew things that they want to wear (like leggings, jeans, t-shirts) and those who sew because they want something fancy (like novelty print dresses, jackets, some vintage patterns). I need to find a better balance in this myself – or find a way to wear the fancy stuff more often.

Thanks to a suggestion from Mim at Crinoline Robot, I am now keeping track of Me-Made May via a spreadsheet! As well as noting what I actually wore, I’m also colour coding each item depending on whether it’s handmade by me, handmade by someone else (e.g. my Conker and Fairysteps shoes), was bought or given to me second-hand, or was bought new but is made from organic cotton or in an otherwise ethical manner. So far my biggest “bought in a shop and not even slightly ethically produced” culprits are underwear, jeans and t-shirts. (I do own some organic and Fair Trade tees, but most of mine pre-date me starting to care about that. Which I suppose is ethical in a different way – wearing your clothes to death instead of just chucking them out on a whim.)

I’ve also cast on a new cardigan, as I clearly have a lack of cardigans that I actually like! The one that keeps coming up over and over again in other people’s photos is Miette, so I’m now knitting a pink sparkly short-sleeved one. I don’t think I’ll get it finished before the end of May, but I think it’ll overtake the stripy tank top that I’m sick of wrestling.

So, erm, could try harder? Is that the general consensus? Also, I think it’s a bit weird that I put so much time and effort into choosing patterns and buying fabrics and making clothes… and then I really don’t care at all about what I actually wear every day. Making decisions at 7am is hard.