Me-Made-March 2011 – the final days

I can hardly believe it – March has come to an end already! Which means Me Made March 2011 has also come to an end. And I still haven’t finished unpacking my wardrobe from after the renovations, so a lot of my me-made items haven’t seen the light of day this month. Oops! Guess I’ll just have to do better next time!

What this month has shown me, though, is that there are some areas in my wardrobe where there is a definite lack of me-made garments. The main things missing are a jacket, cardigans, a hoodie, a pair of jeans, and nice work tops. On the other hand, I have a *lot* of dresses and skirts! A bit of an imbalance here, me thinks. I may have to focus on that for the upcoming Sew Weekly challenges – adding some more of those separates into my wardrobe so it’s a bit more balanced in the me-made area.

Here’s what I dug out from my wardrobe for the last week or so in March…..

Tuesday 22 March
I have no idea what I wore on the 22 March. I forgot to take a photo, and now it’s too long ago to remember! I do know that it was a me-made outfit, though!

Wednesday 23 March

23 March outfit

Me-made ‘I should Coco’ dress with matching me-made belt.
Pink cardigan from a clothes swap. I can’t find my me-made pink merino cardigan anywhere. Perhaps I gave it away? Hmmmm….

Thursday 24 March

24 March outfit

Me-made green dress.
Purchased black jacket. (Wardrobe lack!)

Friday 25 March
I actually can’t remember what I wore this day! Although I suspect it was a day off, as I really wanted to wear jeans….. Really do need to sort out that wardrobe lack before the next me-made month!

Saturday 26 March

26 March outfit

Me-made denim skirt.
My-mother-made hand-knitted cardigan (thought I’d give my mothers crafting some love on the blog this month, too!)
Purchased black tshirt (wardrobe lack!)

Sunday 27 March

27 March outfit

Me-made pink-and-navy striped tshirt
Me-made long denim shorts
Purchased black hoodie (wardrobe lack!)

Monday 28 March

28 March outfit

Me-made Oriental 60′s dress.
(Yes, this photo is from a Sew Weekly challenge post. But I didn’t think there was any chance I could convince Steve to take a photo of me wearing the same dress two days in a row, so figured I’d better reuse this one from the challenge’s photo shoot!)

Tuesday 29 March

29 March outfit

Yep, this pic is also from a Sew Weekly posting. I forgot to get a photo of today’s outfit, but since it was this exact outfit, figured it was better to reuse an image than not have one at all!
Me-made blue knit top.
Me-made charcoal straight skirt.

Wednesday 30 March

30 March outfit

Me-made red 8-gore skirt
Me-made black merino cardigan (this cardigan gets a lot of use!)
Purchased black-with-white-skulls singlet (wardrobe lack!)

Thursday 31 March

31 March outfit

Me-made Peanut Butter dress.
Me-made black merino cardigan.

So there we have it – the end of Me Made March 2011. It’s been a good challenge, making me wear some things that haven’t seen the light of day in a while! (And also rediscovering that me-made underwear is very comfortable. Yay!)

There are more lacks in my me-made wardrobe than I expected, and I’m not sure I would have noticed them if it hadn’t been for this challenge. So that’s given me something to think about – must make trousers and tops, rather than more and more skirts and dresses!

Me Made March week three

Wow, the third week of Me Made March is already over! Don’t know quite where this month is going to so quickly…. Hmmmm…. Not long left to go on the Me Made March challenge, and so far I’ve only had one double-up of outfits. I’m gonna try to make it through the rest of the month without any double-ups – we’ll see how that goes.

Here’s what I wore for the third week of the challenge. Items made by me wherever possible (including underwear, but I’ll spare you all the sight of that!). As seen in the first two weeks, there is definitely a lack of me-made cardigans in my wardrobe. In fact, it turns out I only have two of them – one black one (which you’ve now seen several times) and one pink one (wherever it is at the moment. I really must try to dig it out for the final days of the challenge….). Sadly I haven’t had much spare time for sewing this past couple of weeks, what with the renovations finally finishing (I’m still trying to make sense of the chaos that is my newly-finished bedroom/craft room) and my mother coming to stay, so no more cardigans have been added to the collection yet. However I have just dug out some lovely bright red knit fabric, so maybe I’ll get another one made and added to my collection this week.

Tuesday 15 March

Me-made Unrequited Love dress, from a Sew Weekly challenge.
Cardigan from a clothes swap party, since my me-made black cardi is still in the wash. (Oops!)

Wednesday 16 March

Once again, a bit of a fail today. I seem to be having a fail day each week, don’t know quite what’s up with that. Oh well. I wasn’t feeling too well today, so stayed home sick from work and spent the day lounging around feeling sorry for myself and wearing my old comfy jeans I got in a clothes swap. Not much me-made about the outfit, aside from the underwear, which as mentioned previously I won’t subject you to photos of.

Thursday 17 March

Me-made black-and-white tartan skirt (with a fish tail at the back, that you can’t really see in the photo). I made this years ago, and am quite happy that it finally fits me again, as it’s been too small for me for the past three years or so!
Me-made dark purple merino tshirt.

Friday 18 March

Me-made denim skirt with an orange inset at the back. I made this skirt probably around 10 years ago now – it was the very first thing I ever made from a pattern I drafted myself, so I’m quite glad I kept it, even though it’s been a few years since I’ve worn it. Yay for the Me-Made-March challenge making me dig a few of these things out of my wardrobe!
Me-made pink-and-navy striped tshirt with black mesh sleeves.

Saturday 19 March

Me-made Buzzy Bees dress. The very first dress I ever made from a vintage pattern! (Well in this case a re-released Butterick pattern from 1947 or thereabouts.)

Sunday 20 March

Turns out I forgot to get a photo of my outfit today. Which is a shame, as it’s one of my favourite dresses. It was my me-made August Dress (with polka-dots).

Monday 21 March

Me-made Domestic Goddess dress.
White cardigan from a clothes swap. Fail. I clearly need to make myself a little white cardigan – the colour goes quite well with all these vintage style dresses. Hmmm. A plan for next weekend, perhaps….

Me-Made-March 2011 – week two

Well, I’m a little bit late posting about the second week in the Me-Made-March challenge, but better late than never, right?! And I have a good excuse – the renovations finally finished this week! Yay!! Two months of chaos have come to an end!! (Or at least they will have, once I finish putting all the furniture etc back where it should be this weekend….)

And without further ado, here’s the results of week two of Me-Made-March 2011……

Tuesday 8 March

So I have no idea what happened to the photo from this day, but I can tell you I wore my Peanut Butter dress and a black cardigan, both made by me.

Wednesday 9 March.

Me-Made Tulip dress from a Sew Weekly challenge.
Cardigan I got from an op-shop. Turns out, I need to make myself some more cardigans that aren’t black. Very soon, as this is turning into one of my main lacks for this challenge!

Thursday 10 March

Sadly, a bit of a fail this day. But an explainable fail – we had a team off-site day for work, which included going up on a ropes-and-flying-foxes course, so we had to wear suitable clothing. Funnily enough, my 1950′s style dresses didn’t quite fit the bill….

Friday 11 March

Me-Made dress (from a re-released vintage Butterick pattern from the 1950′s).
Black cardigan I got in a clothes swap as the one I’d made was in the wash. Hmmm. Not doing so well with me-made cardigans this week…..

Saturday 12 March

Me-Made yellow tulips dress (made from a vintage curtain from the 60′s or 70′s!)

Sunday 13 March

Me-Made dress (part of a Sew Weekly challenge), the famous Butterick “Walk Away” pattern
(This photo was taken in my boyfriends parents garden. So not the best photo of me or the dress, but lots of pretty flowers to look at instead.

Monday 14 March

Me-Made green cherries dress

Week Two summary:
Week two didn’t go so badly. Although it did highlight my need to make some more cardigans in colours aside from black!

Now that the renovations have finished, I’m starting to unpack most of my wardrobe from the boxes it’s been stashed in for the past couple of months, so I’ll be able to start bringing out some of my older me-made garments for the next couple of weeks – exciting!

Me Made March 2011 – week one

The first week of Me Made March 2011 is now over! I gave myself a rather ambitious challenge – to wear only outfits made entirely by me (including underwear!) for all of March 2011. So far, it’s not going too badly, although there have been a couple of slip-ups (however, all with very good reasons!). I’m really liking focusing on wearing things I’ve made myself – in fact, it’s making me want to make more and more and get rid of everything from my wardrobe that wasn’t made by me! (Although that may take a while let….)

The other thing it’s doing is making me realise what gaps I have in my self-made wardrobe. Some of which I really need to fill, and will set to work filling just as soon as I get my sewing space back post-renovations! (Which had better be soon, as I’ve been unable to sew for nearly a week and I’m suffering withdrawal! Argh!!!) So to make sure I don’t forget what I need to make once I do get my space back, here’s what I’ve discovered I’m lacking in the self-made department so far:

A hoodie

Cardigans in colours other than black. (The black one has been getting quite a work out this week!)

Jeans. Been a few years since I made any for myself, definitely time to make some again!

A nice autumn-weight jacket. It got cold this week, and I wasn’t expecting that. Brrrrrr.

More work-suitable tops. Hmmm. I may have been focusing on dresses a bit much this past year, it turns out…..

And without further ado, here’s how the first week went!

1 March. My 'January dress' from last year, the first I made in the 12 Dresses challenge, in fact.

2 March. My 'Psycho' inspired dress from the Sew Weekly challenges.

3 March. My 'Something Floral, Something Blue' dress, also from a Sew Weekly challenge.

4 March. Slip-up number 1: only the skirt and underwear were made by me in this outfit. We were all wearing red and black to show our support for the people of Christchurch after their earthquake, and with the renovations happening, the only made-by-me red or black things I had were this black skirt, which I made as another Sew Weekly challenge.

5 March. Long denim shorts, pink tshirt, and a black merino cardigan. Odd photo as Steve was in an odd mood and decided to be 'arty' with it.

7 March. Charcoal denim pencil skirt and blue top, made for a Sew Weekly challenge.

Yep, there are quite a few things in that first week of outfits that were made as part of The Sew Weekly challenges I’ve done this year. But then, with nearly all of my wardrobe packed in boxes for the past two months while the renovations take longer than expected, this isn’t overly surprising! I should be able to get back into my bedroom mid next week and start finding things again, so hopefully you’ll get to see some new things from then on.

The other thing that’s missing from the above photos (for those of you who are observant!) is that there is no photo for March 6. I started off the day well, with long denim shorts and a pink-and-navy striped tshirt I’d made, but then a nasty cold Southerly kicked in. Since I was outside all day, I had to layer on the warm clothes. And without access to most of my wardrobe (*sigh*), sadly that meant things that weren’t made by me. Sad, but true. I forgot to get a pic of the outfit I started the day in, so no photo. Maybe next time.

Me Made March 2011

Over the last few months, I’ve seen references on crafty people’s blog posts to things like ‘Me Made May’ and ‘Self Stitched September’ and wondered to myself – what’s this all about? It looks kinda interesting….?

And now, I have found the answer! The lovely Zoe over at So Zo What Do You Know organises occasional challenges, where for an entire month participants are challenge to wear at least one thing they’ve made every single day. Or, if they choose to, they can up the ante and pledge to wear two items they’ve made themselves. Or three! Or even – a complete made-by-them outfit every day! Yay!!!

The latest challenge is Me Made March 2011 – and I’m taking part for the first time! I decided that I’d jump right in at the deep end and see how it goes, so here’s my pledge for March 2011:

‘I, Kat from Modern Vintage Cupcakes , sign up as a participant of Me-Made-March ’11. I endeavour to wear
completely made-by-me outfits (excluding tights and socks, but including underwear!) each day for the duration of March 2011′

Yep, you read it right. Every single day in March, I’m going to wear a completely made-by-me outfit. And since there are a few things I’m missing from my essential wardrobe of me-made stuff, I’d better get some sewing happening! At this point, I think I’ll need to make the following: jeans, more underwear, a warm jacket, another cardigan. (Actually, that’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Excellent! Been a while since I made myself a pair of jeans – this is a good excuse to do that again. )

Go on, join the challenge!