MMM '12 #3

Day 23: Work day: Flower pants. Pardonnez-moi the weird pose. It's actually not a  a pose, I was just late.	Day 24: Attending the premiere of On The Road, sipping Lagavulin Single Malt: Boyfriend look T-shirt
Day 25: Summer dress	Day 26: New! Maxi skirt
Day 27: Weekend: Picknick in the park:, Summer dress	Day 28: Weekend: Dance pants and a new shirt!

Day 29: Business meeting, altered jacket and new shirt

The nice weather finally kicked in last week. Which is not only good for the garden, but also for me and you because I could wear something different, and you don't have to see the same outfits again. First up are the flower pants. They're definitely a keeper! Expanding my comfort zone was a good idea this time. The boyfriend shirt got worn to the cinema. Go watch that movie people, preferably with some good whiskey. The good weather lasted through the weekend, so I could finally wear the summer dress I made last year but never got to wear due to the bad weather and our move to Norway. The gathers at the bust are too far to the side. Maybe I'll chance that someday... And then, I finally sewed something new! Remember this 1,- fabric? With all these pretty maxi dresses floating around on Pinterest I thought I'd give it a try. The result: not so pretty. It looks rather heavy and stiff.  I already altered it though, I'll show you in another post.
Day 27 was the summer dress again, and day 28: I made a new shirt! I actually have been working on it for a few weeks. I'll tell you more in another post about it as well, but lets just say that the tears mentioned last time involved this shirt. And about two hours unpicking serger seams. But I love it! Which is why I wore it again the next day, but then with the altered jacket. Day 30 and 31 are not shown here, but I wore the floral shirt and the 70's dress. The dress counts because I shortened it and hand stitched the hem. Yes that counts.

I have to say, MMM '12 was quite a challenge! I mean, wearing a loop scarf hardly qualifies for a me made garment, but I was a little bit desperate every now and then. I think I'd last two weeks without repeating any garments. It did what was promised: it showed me the gaps in my wardrobe, and made me more creative in choosing my outfit every morning. You see, usually I wouldn't hesitate to wear the same thing two days in a row.

So, thank you Zoe for hosting this again! Now, where are my RTW pyjamas?

MMM '12 #2

Day 11 and 19:  Stripes & Dots Shirt, thrifted cardi

Day 12 and 17:  Loop Scarf, thrifted tunic

Day 14: Work Day: Knitted Norwegian Sweater

Day 15: Work day. Loop Scarf

Day 16: Thrifted and altered men's shirt

Day 18: Hike in Germany. Made this bandana! Fabric leftovers from the Flower Pants

Day 21: Work Day: Altered men's shirt

Day 22: Work Day: Altered men's shirt

This second week it was getting harder to make new combinations. I just don't have that many clothes! I basically wore the same in the 2nd and 3rd weekend of May. I did get a chance to mix things up a bit with the Norwegian sweater. I weaved some elastic through the sleeve cuffs so they don't flap around as much, and it looks a lot better. And I wore the men's T-shirt of day 16 with skinny jeans and heels, a much better outfit than the one in the original post. The weather is great at the moment, so I can finally start wearing some other things. I discovered that I only have a few good-weather things left though! And I have had no time for sewing for the past few weeks, with my 40 hr work week and weekends away. Well there was some sewing, but it ended in tears. NEVER sew when it's that time of the month, ladies...

MMM '12 #1

Day 1: Thrifted cardigan and floral shirt Regular work day	Day 2: 2nd hand jacket, batwing shirt and new jeans All black:  a funeral
Day 3: Knitted kimono sweater (and DIY doily lamp) Regular work day	Day 4 & 5: Mustard Hoodie Work day & Off day

Day 6: Overalls with sewn on fake leather kneepatches
Working in the garden! 

Day 7: Thrifted cardigan, refashioned men's shirt Regular work day	Day 8: 2nd hand altered blazer Work day, business meeting
Day 9: All Serger Sweater, altered jeans Half-off work day	Day 10: Loop scarf Regular work day, but with new shoes!

Loop scarf close-up

These are the first 10 days of Me Made May '12! As you can see it's a balance between nice outfits (day 2, 8 & 10) and 'just pull something out of the closet' days (day 4&5). There's some new items in here as well. First the store bought items: the mustard scarf and the black skinny jeans. I love them both very much.The scarf is perfect for the office because it's alwasy a bit chilly there.And those jeans really tie my wardrobe together! It turns out my size is actually 2 sizes smaller than I always thought. Who knew! I already altered the grey jeans a little bit, but I want to alter them into skinny jeans too. The jacket from day 8 I got from my mom, who got it from someone else. It's too big, so I took in the back seams and the side seams. And I repositioned the upper front button to pull it a bit tighter around the chest. It has a fun orange lining so I rolled up the sleeves. It's the first time I wore a jacket, and I felt great in it! The loop scarf I made yesterday. I love this fabric, I already had it in mind for a shirtdress (like this one, but with a higher waist and down to the knee), but I thought it's be perfect as a scarf so I got me some more fabric. I'm looking for olive green fabric now because it's a great colour to combine with mustard, as seen here.

Overall I'm liking MMM '12 very much. Day 2 was already a challenge, but luckily I found my batwing shirt appropriate enough for a funeral. I had to recreate some outfits because I forgot to take pictures, but other than that it really makes you realize what items are still missing in your wardrobe. I hardly have any time to make anything with the two jobs I'm working right now, and the garden needs attention at least once a week. Hence the scarf and kneepatches. They hardly qualify as self-made items, but it'll just have to do!

Thrift Store Treasures #5

OK so maybe 'treasure' is a bit exaggerated, but it's the only thrift store find I have to show at the moment. And the story is longer than the changes you see here (do you see them?). I bought this shirt in Bergen, together with the crazy maxi skirt (more on that one soon). I found it in the women's section, but I think it's actually a men's shirt (Sidenote: I am totally confused by the use of the ' here. Correct or not?). It was too big obviously, but I liked the length and the buttons on the shoulder.



The first thing I did was fold the ribbed neckband inside to make it wider. The goal was to make it more feminine, but now the neckling falls directly at the bump on my shoulder. This made me realize it shouls fall left or right of the bump for the best fit. Do you see how the shirt sort of sticks out on my right shoulder at the pic below? That's because of the bump. This is not a weird bump by the way, just the regular end of my collarbone :). The idea with this shirt was to make it into a batwing shirt. I wanted to use the excess fabric of the sleeves to create gussets to place under the arms. And I did, but it didn't work out that well. I left it like that for a while, convincing myself that it had worked, but I didn't wear the shirt. So last weekend I ripped out the gussets again and just gave the shirt a slim fit.


Again, not a very spectacular outcome, but it did take me a while to get there! And at least I'll wear it like it is now. Maybe styled a bit differently. Skinny jeans, heels and a pretty scarf, perhaps?