Okay, in honor of May and the "Me-Made May" phenomena that happens all over the sewing blog world, I thought I would parade out five recent outfits that feature one item that was made by me, in conjunction with a bunch of non-made by me items, of course, since I have only been doing this sewing thing for so long. I expect that maybe in a few years I could actually feature entire ensembles made by me, but I ain't there yet.
Where: Angus's friend's birthday party.
Ease of Wear: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) The Silky Vintage Top (currently at 25% off here
The shorts (see original post on them here), though, are the reason for the fallen ease score. I am okay with *why* it fell since the shorts are now so big on me in the waist that it is somewhat laughable how close they came to falling off of me by the end of the day. See even though they look fine in the original shots (the last three), you can see that I had to untuck the top in the first photo to cover up how loose they had become. (The fabric is a loosely woven linen/rayon blend and while it is very nice to sew and feels pretty soft, it is very stretchy and very wrinkle-prone.)
Cool Factor: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I think this is a solid effort. Feels very vintage inspired, of course. LOVE the buttons on the back, adds to the retro feel.
Where: Hanging out with friends and their kids.
Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) This pretty little skirt that I made last year (see here) will always be one of my favorites since it fits my shape so nicely, and is a mini without being too mini. I realized after wearing it that I have nearly a yard of this gorgeous tana lawn left, and I can make a top from part of that (still plan on making some hair ties for some blog friends from the rest of that, cough cough, I know I am late).
The sandals are great and went well with the outfit, but do feel a bit tight upon first wearing them. They do stretch out, though, so there's that.
Cool Factor: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I have had this tee for a while, having bought it back in 2010. I never thought of pairing it with something more "upscale," and have always worn it with shorts or pants, but after realizing the colors worked exactly right together, I knew I had to wear it with this skirt.
Where: Volunteering at the school, Winesday, and Rex's batting practice.
Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) I felt good, but bear in mind that it was stupid hot and humid yesterday, I had a migraine in the morning, and the only way we could get to Winesday this week was to drag all three kids with us. Since bringing all three to the world's most uppity Whole Foods is insane, I decided to put Angus in my carrier on my back so I would at least have one kid away from all the goodies in the aisles. Yeah, my poor top was a bit soaked after that.
Cool Factor: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) This top is made from a beautiful tana lawn from Liberty of London (see the original post on it here), so that ups the cool factor a bit. The combo of the slim denim shorts and darling tied striped sandals with the top make it look very 50s/60s, so I would say I felt pretty cool, even if my poor tired soul was anything but...
Where: Bowling, G Street Fabrics, Barnes & Noble, and School Pickup.
Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) Yesterday was H-O-T, and today was cool and rainy. Ugh. I prefer hot to this, honestly. I felt weird dragging out my boucle sweater (post on that one here) in late May, but the temp barely reached 65. Sigh. At least I had it all washed and ready to go. And I am glad I had a cool-weather top to wear for part of my Made by Me outfits quest.
The shoes are too loose, should have bought the 40. They work, but the toe area is very wide, and the 40 would have likely been more narrow there.
Cool Factor: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I don't know that I love the whole look together, but I am glad I wore the pieces together, and popped some crazy neon color in the sandals. Otherwise my grey outfit would have blended into the cloudy background.
I really like how my makeup turned out, though. Very simple, but I felt like it worked. Now if only I could get my eyebrows freshened up, and a good ninety hour nap, I could take care of all of my cosmetic wants.
Where: Mother's Day Mass, Zaytinya, and 9:30 Club to see Elbow.
Ease of Wear: (5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) This dress may be one of my favorites I have ever made for me (see more on that here). I find getting shift dresses to properly work on my slimmer upper body and larger lower half very challenging, but hey, you make your own, you can make it fit you just right. Aw, yeah. Go comfort!
So you all know, I am not dumb, and did not wear those darling J. Crew strappy wedge sandals to watch Elbow in the concert. I changed into a pair of black sparkly flip-flops for that.
Cool Factor: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I think it is pretty darn cool, and since neon tropical prints and shift dresses are "in" (see this Just Cavalli one), I would say yeah, I looked cool. (And was still "modest" enough for mass. So yay for that, too.)
At the Elbow concert, there were about ten percent of the crowd who must have only been at the concert to *go and do something, anything* that night, because they kept TALKING LOUDLY while the wonderful Guy Garvey of Elbow sang his sweet tunes all romantic like to us. I kind of wished that Guy would have come down to them and gone, "whatcha you all doing?" But he didn't. Instead this kind of nerdy fifty-year old guy walked up to them and said "SHUT UP." LOL. Go, you! I loved that!
Okay, that's all for now. I hope everyone is ready for a nice weekend. :-)
