June Gloom

We're not actually gloomy here. "June Gloom" is the name for typical June weather in Los Angeles--foggy haze all morning, burning off to sunny in the afternoon. Every. Single. Day. It saves us from broiling under the brutal 16-hour sun of the Summer Solstice. Killer summer doesn't actually settle on Los Angeles until September when, thank goodness, the days are shorter.

But I'm a bit gloomy about my me-made June progress. Technically I'm fully complying with my pledge because I sleep each night and wake each day in me-made jammies, and carry my me-made suede bag whenever I go out. But I'm not about to post daily pix of my jammies.

I did run up a Top 4 from April 2011 KnipMode in a brown jersey remnant I picked up at Mood.



The plan was to finish it in a couple hours, put it on and take a picture, but I took what must be the world's most foolish shortcut--I did not stabilize the neckline before sewing on the facing, so FAIL. But the whole process of figuring out my size in centimeters, tracing the pattern, remembering to cut seam allowances, translating the instructions from Dutch and actually sewing is so challenging that ending up with a wadder is not too bad, paradoxically. Like doing a difficult crossword puzzle in ink and nearly finishing it.

Anyway, I declare today a victory. Yesterday I stopped at Goodwill (with my me-made bag) on my way to Costco--I'm so the jet-setter!--and bought this lovely madras dress:



I thought the fit could use a little tweaking, so I went to work on it today (switching between my sewing machine and my serger on a corner of the dining room table) and produced this:



which I am currently wearing. I removed the sleeves and replaced them with the cap sleeves from Simplicity 2580 cut fom the foot of fabric I removed from the hem. The sleeves are a little comical and I will probably reduce their size, and maybe add self ties at the high waist, tomorrow (so I can count it as another new dress) but for now I am happy.