floaty yellow skirt

Floatly yellow skirt?  I'm pretty imaginative with my me-made names, no?  I just blank when trying to be clever ;-)

This fabric started out in the bin at Michael Levine loft in downtown LA.  Some lady had it in her hands at first and I kept giving it the sidelong eye.  I love yellow and this looked so Florida tropical, I really wanted it.  She changed her mind and dropped it back in the bin and I jumped, huzzah!  Overall, it ended up being almost 2 yards at 60" wide, and...it's SILK!  That in itself is almost unheard of at the Loft.  Most everything requires some sort of polyester content to make it's way in that place.  I suspected as much when I bought it, but did a burn test when I got home, and got the ash and hair smell that proved me wrong.  Even better, if you're not familiar with the Loft, everything is $2 a pound.  A POUND.  So yeah, it was quite the bargain.

Having had my "colors" done as a teenager (anybody else ever do that?), I know yellow isn't my color.  Not by my face at least.  But I really love it anyway.  So, this fabric was destined to become the flowingest, flowy silk maxi skirt I could muster.  Of course, in my utmost wisdom, I screwed up cutting it out.  Seems like I have to attempt a project a couple times before I can get it right.  I screwed up my black jersey maxi, too, and had to redo it as well.  In my mind, I want my maxi's more of an A-line shape, not a rectangle.  But what I do is cut them to end up rectangle.  Why do I do that? 

 air venting

After sewing it, I put it on, and it wasn't the flowy, silky version I had imagined.  It felt constricting.  So, not having enough to recut the skirt (and what a waste that would be anyway), I decided to add some slits up the sides to give it movement.  Right now, they are in the perfect place, as I'm wearing the skirt above the bump, but post-baby I will extend the slits higher and redo the hem for a shorter length.  Now, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  

 bemberg lining

The fabric alone is quite sheer, so I lined it with some white bemberg rayon I had in my stash.  For the hems and slits, I serged them, then turned over and straight stitched them in place.  The end result is this is one of the most comfortable me-mades yet.  These pictures were taken as soon as we got home from a flight, hence the wrinkles and tired face (sorry), and it was so very comfy.  Basically, it feels like I'm not wearing anything, hehe.  And isn't being nekkid the most comfortable we can be?  I think so.

Not quite the flowing, ethereal skirt of my imagination, but pretty damn happy with the end result anyway!

mmm '13-week 4

Starting work again has definitely taken it's toll on my picture taking.  So selfies it is.  I'm not so good at these, hehe.

worn to work

5.22.13-Tuesday

jalie 2920 leggings

Funny story in the work bathroom.  I was about to take my shot and someone walked in, which startled me, and I pulled my hand away, SO embarrassed, lol.  How do people do this all the time??

5.23.13-Wednesday

 sew u-what a waist shirt

another day at work, and my worst selfie yet

5.24.13-Thursday

sew u dress

BONUS!  I haven't made my So, Zo maternity top yet, but I did make it into a Renfrew maternity dress for a wedding we went to this past weekend.  Which really means I had a extra #4 me-made I wore last week, huzzah!

5.25.13
renfrew maternity dressed (unblogged)

Seems I have a back log of non-blogged items, which never happens to me!  I'm gonna get on that this week!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful week and safe holiday weekend for those in the US!

mmm '13-week 3

Last week was a whirlwind!  My stepdaughter graduated from high school and we traveled to Kansas City for the event.  We left Thursday, the graduation was Friday, and flew back Saturday.  To top it off, I started back to work yesterday after a 2 month hiatus.  Yay for work!  Boo for being back on a schedule!

The me-mades I'm rockin right now are super comfy, so I decided they would be my travel wardrobe:

Please, for the love of god, forgive me for this most awful shot.  It was about 1am here, and we had traveled all day.  Needless to say, this is me exhausted.

5.16.13

cynthia rowley for target shirt

black maxi skirt (unblogged)

Me and the ecstatic graduate!

5.17.13

shirt ?

me made stretch velvet leggings (not blogged yet)

Travel home

5.18.13

cynthia rowley for target shirt

me made yellow silk skirt (not blogged yet)

So far during MMM, I've come to the conclusion I don't have many me made tops that will fit during big belly time.  Last night I re-cut out my Renfrew pattern to hack into a maternity T, a la Zoe's tutorial here.  Hopefully I can balance my work schedule with some sewing!

be nice v.2-the METAL version!

We have another finished embroidery of the "Be Nice" series!  The story behind this fun series is here.  This time, I wanted to reflect my husband's musical love and what's better than some sweet metal?!? 

Again, I used Sublime Stitching, the Heavy Metal Alphabet and guitars from one of their old kits.  You can find more metal stuff in their Totally Metal patterns.

For my last "Be Nice" I'm going to use the embroidery hoop as the frame.  This one I decided to stretch the fabric, leaving it looking frameless.

I used stretchers I got at a craft store.  Depending on size, they run anywhere from $1-$2 each.  For this particular project, I used 8" on the sides and 10" for the top and bottom.  

They just slide together at the corners.  You can secure with your heavy duty stapler, but I didn't bother, they stick together really well.

 

Then take your fabric, lay it out wrong side up, making sure the frame and fabric are centered with each other, and staple your fabric to the back of the frame, pulling taut.  I started on the top center, moving outwards from there.  Then I switched to the opposite side, doing the same, then each side piece.  Last, do the corners.  I know I'm not explaining it very well, doh.  But, this is a great video by Blick that shows the whole process from beginning to end!!

save the corners for last

back stitch for the lettering

stem stitch for the guitar body, neck and pickups

french knots for the knobs and tuning pegs

Special thanks goes out to my husband who helped me pick out all the colors (had to be accurate!)

link love

I thought it'd be fun to do a link round up of some of my favorite weekly posts.  I started collecting links I thought were cool, then totally forgot about posting.  They aren't all sewing links, but I think a lot of people in this corner of the interwebs will enjoy them!  The ones below are from the last 2 (3?) weeks but I figured I'd post them anyway :-)

i can't have a blog post w/out pictures :)

but seriously, look at all the bebes sprouting!

Who doesn't love some DIY beauty treatments?  This blogger is an esthetician by trade and regularly has some posts on DIY treatments.

diy skin soothing mask

Important for all bloggers, and something I've wondered how to do for a while.  How to copyright  your photos.

registering copyrights

Many sewing and fashion bloggers have a retro streak.  This shows you how to do a strong brow.  Brows are always what I look at first on someone's face.  I just love thick, strong brows!

the secret to a strong retro brow

I'm lucky enough to know these two ladies in real life, Nhi and Amity of the new pattern company, Lolita Patterns!  Nhi's mom was a factory garment seamstress and grew up learning to sew from her.  Here she lists a bunch of sewing tools that play double duty!

dual duty tools

I just think this photography is mind blowing. 

living photography

Who had any idea you could dye notions?!?  Not me!  So cool!

dyeing lingerie notions

Another just-cause-I-think-it's-cool post.  Put in your zip and you can see a water color of the map!  It'd make great art!

watercolor maps

Necklace lengths...good to know!

guide to necklace lengths

One of the best news stories I've read in a while!  Freaking awesome!!

dad makes daughters prom dress

We all have different reasons for making our own clothes, but this poses an interesting question...Would you be more willing to buy ethically labeled clothes than not?

ethically labeled clothes

Hope you enjoy all the links!  

mmm '13-week 2 and some birthday napkins

Let's get to business shall we?

I'm going to pretend that I just wore this outfit on Wednesday, but in truth, it may have been worn Tuesday as well, hehe.  Do I get double points for that or does it cancel out?  I can't remember where or what I did this day, ha.  These are the jalie 2920 leggings.

5.8.13

white shirt-??

me made leggings

Saturday evening we headed to a friends birthday BBQ.  This is an unblogged jersey maxi skirt I made last year.  It's pretty darn comfy.  And an old gray t-shirt, knotted above the belly.

5.11.13

t-shirt-??

me made jersey maxi skirt

Last night was chillin and bedtime in my Colette Madeleine bloomers.  For obvious reasons, I'm not ready to share an actual picture of me wearing them :-)  I wore the red with white polka dots one.  The waist is really low on these, so perfect for the big belly.

5.12.13

me made bloomers 

Saturday's birthday celebration was for a friend that's really into Day of the Dead style.  Last year, when her birthday was drawing close, I found some DOD fabric at Jo-Ann's and thought it be perfect for napkins.  Well, cut to a year later and I still hadn't made them.  That's just how I roll.  

 funky fabric

This year I got all motivated and got busy (day of the party of course).  I made 6 napkins, cut at 18" square each, folded over 1/2", then folded over another 1/2" and sewn.  I really like how they turned out and the birthday girl loved them!

 

I wanted the perfect mitered corners, which you would think is simple to figure out, but of course, confounded me.  Simple projects get me every time!  But, this is a great tutorial I used to decode corners.  For the most part, mine came out pretty good.

And that is it for my MMM '13 take 2!  Hope everyone had a fantastic week!!

mmm '13-week 1

I totally missed doing a roundup yesterday, so here's my 3 days in all it's glory, lol:

This is a thrifted shirt that started life as a knee length dress.  It's Forever 21 and shocker, is silk.   I chopped off the length and hemmed.  Much better as a shirt, IMO.  It's getting pretty short with the expanding belly, so, I think it's life is limited very soon.

5.1.13-Wednesday

I really liked the cute heart print.

This is the first shirt I made from the Sew U Home Stretch book blogged here.  Just worn with some F21 tights that I narrowed and shortened.  We had been running errands all day, and I was so, so tired here.  We were on our way to dinner with a friend.  One of the errands was to get some new shoes, cause my feet have been crazy sore.  These are Croc wedges, can you believe that??  Finally, they make some cute shoes.

5.3.13-Friday

Yesterday was another crazy day.  We've been doing a lot of painting and nesting around these parts and by the time this picture was taken I was plain exhausted, but still not near done.  But little breaks with my feet up helps.  This is the first "muslin" Renfrew I made last year blogged here.  Looks a lot different on me last year than this year, hahahaha!  It's probably close to being done as well, as my belly kept popping out :-D  I'm wearing my other pair of Crocs that I got the other day, these are my indoor shoes.  Amazing how much a decent pair of shoes makes a difference.  My backaches are much better now. 

5.5.13-Sunday

That's it for the first week!  It's certainly going to be a challenge for the rest of the month, but I've got one more item almost finished, and another in the works, exciting!  Now I'm off to peruse the Flickr group!

MMM '13

Ok, I'm jumping in at the 11th hour...

 image souce 

 'I, Jill of ohcraftyone.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear me-made or upcycled at least 3 days per week for the duration of May 2013'

Even at 3 days a week, a challenge it will be.  A lot of the me-mades that occupy my closet are no longer viable options in my present prego state.  I'm living for stretch and jersey these days!  So far it's been fun to think outside the box putting new clothing combos together and I hope to continue doing that throughout May.  The real challenge is there isn't much to start with, so this should be interesting!  And not to inundate with (3) daily outfit posts, I'll just do a once weekly wrap up.

Can't wait to raid the flickr pool and check out everyone's outfits!!