My new skirt + Self-Stitched-September Day 16

I'm pretty impressed with myself - I used a bit of my G-Street fabric haul, and made up this skirt.



When sewing this, I wanted to replicate an existing simple RTW knit skirt that's one of the mainstays of my wardrobe. So, I just pinned it on the fabric, added seam allowances, and cut. No darts, this is basically a tube with a tiny bit of waist-shaping. The skirt is also lined (knit lining), and has elastic at the waist. Super simple!

As usual, no hemming. I'm sure that not hemming my skirt speaks to the moral decline of my generation, or some such thing. But it isn't going to ravel, and I'm sure that if I tried to hem it, I'd ruin it.

The rest of the outfit? Can you tell I'm all snuggled up in my shawl cause I'm cold? Under the shawl, I'm wearing the Minimalist cowl, inspired by the Selfish Seamstress.

Self-Stitched September - Days 11, 12 and 14

Rather sporadic picture taking on my part (and corresponding posting of pictures on the flickr group), but trust me, I'm participating. I'm cold and miserable and wearing the same thing over and over, but I'm participating.

(I'm joking. A little.)

Day 11 - Minimalist cowl, inspired by the Selfish Seamstress, Simpicity 4036 skirt.


Day 12 - Simplicity 4076 grey t-shirt, Simplicity 4236 blue checked skirt




Day 14 - McCalls 6035 pink skirt, blue skirt (McCalls something, I need to find and review this, since I love the way it turned out.) Excuse the wrinkles, I'd been sitting in the skirt all day. (Celebrating at a friend's place cause she got a new job - bonus!)

Self-Stitched-September Day 9

Fall's in the air, and it is making me very nervous. I've only one pair of pants (I'm wearing it today) and let's just say we'll see a lot of it this month?

Yesterday though, I wore my St Patrick's Day dress. It is McCalls 5466, view B. I added tights and a blue scarf for warmth, and I mourned the passing of summer.

My newest cardigan + Self-Stitched-September Day 7

I bought this fabric at Wal-Mart expressly for the purpose of trying out a cardigan. The problem with this fabric is that it stretches out of shape pretty easily, and also, it's pretty sheer. The magic Jalie method worked less magically as a result, and the cardigan is falling off my shoulders a bit. Still, without the magic Jalie method, I'd have ended up with a stretched-out shapeless mess, so let's give credit where credit is due.

The pattern is McCalls 5105. As before, I added 1.5 inches to the center front width, and didn't cut on the fold. However, I think my math is wrong here, and I'll need to add 2.5 inches to the center front to provide for a proper overlapping front.

I don't love this one as much as I do my last attempt. But it did go well with my red dress.

Much closer - the quest for the perfect wrap dress

So much better. I finally took some time and finished my second draft of the New Look 6674 dress. I have to say, I'm liking this one quite a bit.

After the last version, I realized I needed to raise the neckline so I could wear the dress without a tank-top underneath.

Here's what I did:

- Raise the shoulder by 2 inches. (Because of my shoulder modifications, the bust dart is in the wrong place with this dress, but the black hides it a bit.)
- Take a half-inch off the entire armsycle - since it was a bit too snug because I'd reduced the shoulder so much.
- Add a center back seam, and take in a good 1.5 inches at the center back neckline.

Ok, if I want to do this correctly, I need to redraft the bodice entirely, I think, rather than mucking around with it like this. But you know what? It works ok. I can wear this dress.

Oh, this is also what I wore on Self-Stitched-September Day 6.

A New Top + Self-Stitched September - Day 3

Ok - here's where I trash-talk about a fellow sewer. The Selfish Seamstress? Not selfish. I totally stole this idea from her, downloaded her Minimalist Cowl pattern (that she self-less-ly put up, scanned through the instructions, and then did my own thing anyway. (Because I (a) doubt I'll fit in an XS/S, and (b) am too lazy to print, tape together, cut out, etc - especially when I have a basic pattern that'll work almost as well.)

I didn't have enough fabric to make as wide a cowl, but that's fine! I really like the look of this one.

And you can tell I loved it by the fact that I made it Thursday night, and wore it Friday morning! I've been needing a work-appropriate basic black top for a while now. Sweet...

The skirt is McCalls 5474, reviewed here. I don't think I wore this skirt during Me-Made-May, and I think it was because I didn't have a black t-shirt to pair with it...

Self-Stitched September - Days 1 & 2

Day 1 - I'd a meeting at work that I needed to look professional for, and I thought this dress would fit the bill. Almost - but the neckline gapes, and I need to alter this dress to take some width of the back neck to keep the front neck in place (does that even make sense to anyone?)



Day 2 - It was a complete fluke that I discovered that this dress and this cardigan actually look good together. I was wearing the dress while sewing the cardigan, slipped it on, and had a Who-Knew? moment. My hair is still damp in this picture, and I look super-sleepy, since I'd had no coffee when this picture was taken. The sacrifices we must make! Here's the dress review, and here's the cardigan details.

Self-Stitched September!!!

'I, Reethi, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavor to wear only handmade and refashioned items of clothing every day for the duration of September 2010'.

Yes, dear Readers, I am officially insane.

Ok, let's add some guidelines, shall we?

- Just like the last time, I'm officially excluding outer-wear. Tail end of September in Toronto? Nope, my sheer cardigans won't quite cut it.

- Also just like last time, I'm officially allowing myself 3 freebies - days that I can wear RTW. (On the off-chance something at work will crop up that I'll have to wear a suit to.)

For the record, I sat on the fence about Self-Stitched September for months. Yes, I had a total blast in May, but then again, I've done a huge wardrobe purge since then, getting rid of the things I'm not thrilled about, etc. As a result, I'm afraid that every one of my outfits will look home-made and/or did-she-dress-in-the-dark?

But then I remembered, Me-Made-May really helped me sew in a more coordinated way, think more creatively about outfits, and had a wonderful community feel to it, and really, there was no way to sit this one out.

So yeah, I'm in!