Farewell to June

Alas. I pledged to wear me-made clothing or sport me-made accessories all month, and I pretty much succeeded, but with such mind-numbing repetition that I could not bring myself to pose for one more picture of my me-made bag or jammies.

And I pledged to make 4 dresses this month. Well, there's 45 minutes left to the month of June in Los Angeles, and I've made a dress! So, yay?



Now, I grant you, it hasn't been hemmed (I thought it should hang overnight) and it needs a couple of alterations (I think I'll nip a half-inch out of each shoulder to raise the decolletage and the arm scyes and take in the side seams a bit, but it is a recognizable dress, no? Which I would not have made (well, not tonight) but for the Naked Seamstress's June Challenge. So, I have failed but the challenge has succeeded?

About the dress: it made from Simplicity 2580 using a yummy silk jersey I bought from Mood in Los Angeles with a Groupon. I had decided to use the Groupon ($15 off) on silk jersey, but the selection was uninspiring. This is a nice rich brown with cream polka-dots, though, so it's ok. I decided to treat my mother to an expedition to Mood--she sewed beautiful clothing for years and years buying all her fabric in midwestern US suburbs so I thought she'd find Mood interesting--but she got carsick on the drive from the San Fernando Valley to greater Beverly Hills and spent the whole time at Mood perched on a folding chair with her eyes closed dreading the return trip. Oh well. It still looks to be a pretty useful dress.

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.

Day 1, and D-Day Minus 2

How did it get to be June already? Well, thanks to my relaxed summer schedule, I managed to sally forth in a brand new me-made top this afternoon. Technically, the new top was not necessary to hold up my end of the challenge today, because I woke up in a new pair of me-made jammies, which you do not need to see, made of the same stuff as the cycling/field hockey dress. Here's the top:



The top is Simplicity 2580 cut down from dress to top. That's a cowl neck folded over there. I relied entirely on Melissa Fehr's instructions for assembling the top (you can see them printed out in the pic) and I'm pretty pleased with it.



As for D-Day minus 2: I have an appointment for a hair cut and bleach and color at Manic Panic Salon on Friday. What color should I go for (in furtherance of my campaign to embarrass my daughter)? I'm leaning toward purple with lavender and blue highlights.

In for a Penny, In for a Pound

So, Zo, here we go:



I, KC of The Sewcratic Method, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-June '11. I endeavour to wear
at least one hand made or refashioned item each day for the duration of June 2011.

Now, the catch here is, I'm a professor and I don't teach in the summer, plus I don't have any handmade summer clothes to speak of (certainly not to photograph!). I haven't been to a retail store since Christmas unless you count Goodwill or JoAnn either. So those June togs will have to come from somewhere. To increase the odds of getting dressed in June, I've also signed up for Stephanie's June challenge to

Sew 4 summer dresses in 1 month!

I completely identify with what Stephanie says in posing the challenge:

Now for some of you this might not seem like a big challenge, but it is for me. Not only will I have to stop procrastinating and doubting my decisions but I will also fill a gaping hole in my wardobe: summer dresses!

Except the gap in my wardrobe is, well, clothing! So if I don't succeed in these challenges I'll resemble Stephanie in another way--she calls her blog The Naked Seamstress!