Day 22: those blue striped socks again! I have one other pair of hand knitted socks, which are bright orange. They’re longer, so they work brilliantly under boots, but these little short ones are perfect for wearing with trainers, or just mooching around the house. When I embark on Operation Sock Drawer (which I really must make a concerted effort to do!), I need to remember to include short socks as well as long ones.
Day 23: That Bra again. I popped it on briefly to go bra shopping, and was met with an interesting conundrum. If this bra is made using the original pattern for a Triumph Doreen… then why doesn’t an actual Triumph Doreen fit me, when this one does? Honestly, bra shopping is a complete mystery to me. Hate, loathe and detest the stupid things.
Day 24: floral jersey dress, McCalls 5924. Made in 2011, and still going strong. For some reason this dress tends to hide itself away in the back of my wardrobe until I’ve forgotten all about it. Every time I spot it and bring it out, I wish I wore it more often! I also have a plain black one, made back in 2009, and that’s still looking great and being worn a lot too! I think I need to look out for some pretty printed jersey fabrics to make a few more of these.
Days 25 & 26: No Me-Mades. The shame! Well, it was a Bank Holiday, we were both feeling a little bit under the weather, and jeans and yoga pants and hiding under a blanket seemed to be the order of the day.
Day 27: Miette! I knitted my Miette cardigan in a tearing hurry during Me-Made-May last year. I was overcome by seeing so many people wearing lovely incarnations of this card that I cast it on and finished it in a matter of weeks. Unfortunately it has a few little… issues… which mean I don’t wear it all that often. Firstly, the yarn is an unpleasant cheap acrylic that’s already gone floppy in the wash. I bought it because it’s BRIGHT PINK and has a sparkly thread running through it, so I was basically powerless to resist. Secondly, as short-waisted as I am, this cardigan’s actually a bit short, even for me. It works over a dress, but not at all with trousers, which is what I wear most often. Third: I don’t think I like seamless construction. I know that’s probably a terrible thing for a knitter to say, but there’s just something I prefer about having proper shoulder seams. Perhaps it makes me look as thought I’ve got Proper Shoulders. (Mine are very narrow and sloping.) Perhaps it’s because I’m so used to dressmaking, and the fact that garments come in pieces that you sew together. Whatever the reason, the neck and shoulders seem very stretched out, and I think the cardigan looks a bit scruffy already. And finally, although it works over some dresses, it doesn’t work over the one dress I particularly wanted to wear it with. Oops. The dress in question is my vintage hibiscus-print shirt dress – and the sleeves on that are actually quite wide. This cardigan fits so tightly that I can’t squeeze anything more roomy than a t-shirt underneath it. As a person who increasingly appreciates the value of roomy clothes, a tight-fitting cardigan is a bit of a nonsense really! Poor Miette.
Day 28: Apparently I only have one terrible photo of this cowl neck fleece tank top. I still have a love-hate relationship with polar fleece. On the one hand, it’s a great ethical material, as it’s (usually) made from recycled plastic bottles. It’s cheap, it’s quite easy to sew with, and it comes in lots and lots of different colours and prints. But at the end of the day it’s a synthetic fabric. It might be warm but it’s also non-breathable, which causes me to overheat, and eventually it goes a bit strange and crispy in the wash. This top has been useful because it’s a great layering piece, but I think I’d actually rather knit something similar instead.
Day 29: White lace “sleep bra”, from instructions in a Singer sewing book on lingerie. I never did make the grey ones I’d intended… this white one, and the pink one I made immediately afterwards, have once again turned out to be not quite right in terms of daily wear. The bodice part on this one reaches almost to my waist, which means that every time I move, it rolls up at the bottom. Very, very annoying. Also, when my fibromyalgia is particularly bad, it can be quite difficult to get a top like this off again without any fastenings. (I can’t always cross my arms around my body, particularly by the end of the day.) So, back to the drawing board yet again, in the search for comfortable underwear.
Day 30: Look! I left the house! For an occasion that wasn’t work!
We went to a local club night (it’s effectively a school disco for middle-aged Indie kids – I really like it) where they had a couple of bands playing. The first band wasn’t really to my taste (and the room was far too small for a band to be mic’d to match a live drum kit!) so I spent half an hour sitting in the corridor outside the toilets. Classy. Loud noises make the fibromyalgia particularly bad, which is why I don’t often go to see live music any more.
Anyway, the outfit!
Using up the very last piece of polyester crushed velvet from my stash (HOO-FLIPPING-RAY!!), I drafted a very basic tunic dress with a little keyhole at the front. The peter pan collar is a remnant from a velvet dress I made back when I very first started sewing gothy things, and it has little silver stars all over it. The dress fastens at the keyhole with a hook and eye, but I need to replace that with a button and loop. It’s held closed in the photo with a great big sparkly skull-and-crossbones brooch. Under the dress are my cotton lawn bloomers, which I love, and don’t wear nearly often enough.
I have two thoughts on this outfit. One: I wish I’d added side seam pockets to the dress. I can’t believe I left them out. Two: Don’t dance the night away whilst wearing polyester velvet. I can’t believe I didn’t learn that during The Goth Years. (I say that as if they’re over. Ha.)
Day 31: Organic cotton pyjamas again. That’s more like it. An afternoon of enforced rest was very much required, having dared to leave the house again on Sunday morning. I guess sometimes you have to learn the hard way that Not Doing Stuff, whilst it might be extremely frustrating, is actually the best way (for me) to maintain any semblance of good health on a daily basis. Still. Some changes are happening which will hopefully improve things on the health front, but for now, a pyjama day was exactly what I needed!
The end!
I’m still thinking about what this year’s Me-Made-May has meant to me, and what it will mean in terms of the things I make for myself in the future. Mostly it’s felt like a bit of a disappointment, in that I’ve had to search for me-mades to wear, rather than being keen to put them on and show them off. That’s a bit sad really, considering the amount of time and money I spend on these things, so clearly a lot more thought is going to be required.