Me Made May

It’s that time of the year again!

I have been making an effort to wear at least one me-made thing every day, whether it’s handsewn or handknit. (I eat something me-made every day as well but that doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment.)

The intent is to take regular outfit of the day pics to share once a week. Helps that the summer weather just arrived as I was getting bored with sweaters. Here’s what I've got so far:

Floral embroidered gingham shirt with removable pussybow, denim wrap skirt 

Felted banya hat 

Fit-and-flare shirtdress with bell sleeves in organza with silver polka dots 

V-neck ruched dress in floral/dotted jersey 

Cotton poplin wrap dress with topstitched floral trim and tie

Muslin shirtdress with waist tie and piping 

They’re not all exactly the same but there are definitely some recurring themes here... shirts and shirtdresses, knee-length skirts, wraps and ties and bows, dots and florals, black and white and red. I’m fine with that though, clearly I know what I like to wear!

Part of the purpose of this exercise is not just knowing what I like, but actually wearing it—not second-guessing whether it’s age-appropriate, or “too costumey,” or whatever other element of self-doubt and insecurity tries to sneak in and steal joy. Just be unabashedly whatever one wants to be, wearing whatever one wants to wear. So far so good?

Two for me

Before getting too stuck into kid stuff, I decided to take a day to make things for me!

First a hoodie for a cover-up after a run or tennis, and then I converted some regular socks into pompom socks!

Here are the socks:

The socks!

I had a bunch of mid-calf athletic socks that I bought last year. I hate mid-calf socks. I only bought them because I was buying a pair of ski boots from someone off kijiji (which is why it never snowed last winter) and forgot to bring socks for trying them on. So no great loss to me if I ended up destroying a pair of socks I didn’t wear anyway. And I happened to have a small length of red pompom trim, about 8” (6 pompoms).

So pompom socks! A favourite from childhood. And practical, because they don’t get eaten by your shoe.

First thing I did was to chop the socks off. I left about an inch of the ribbing that started at the calf, folded over a 1/2” hem, and sewed down using a triple zigzag for stretch. I started sewing about 1/2” to the left of centre back, so when I was reaching the place where I started, I added a length of pompom trim (about 1” long, or 1 pompom) and continued my triple zigzag to attach.

Sock trimmed, hemmed, and with pompom attached

Hem and pompom as seen from the inside

Then, using an upholstery needle and some red cotton yarn from an unfinished knitting project (whoops), I went around the edge of the sock in a deep, somewhat loose blanket stitch. When that was done, I slipped 2.25mm dpns through the loops of handsewing. I picked up and knit these as stitches, working one row of stockinette and two rows of k1p1 rib, before doing a stretchy bind off (yo before each stitch, and then slip the yo over the stitch and off the needle, along with the previous stitch). For this sock I ended up with 52 sts, but I think 48 would have been better.

Here’s a finished sock!

The finished project!

The hoodie:

Hard to see the front pocket, but it’s big! 

I wanted a cocoon-ish kinda feel, so I made it extra long, with a ginormous front pocket and a sort of funnel-neck hood, very shaped.

Started with my standard pyjama top pattern, except added a few inches in width and length, to both the bodice and the sleeves. I added an extra swoop of length to the back, for when I’m wearing it over running tights and want to cover up the rear view.

Longer in the back for coverage

For both the hood and the front pocket, I started by copying from a hoodie of my kid’s, and then basically eyeballing some modifications. For the pocket, I just made it a little bigger, in case I want to put some tennis balls in there. For the hood itself, I cut on the fold instead of having a centre seam, and then fashioned a gusset, so it’s more head-shaped.

Hood down

Hood up

Adding a truly crappy pic of how I altered the hood—black outline is roughly what I traced from the kid’s hoodie, red outline is how I altered it.

Terrible sketch, but you get the idea

I still need to add some drawstrings—I mean they’re not strictly necessary, but I want to. I also made a pair of booty shorts from the scraps, but I’m not posing in those!

Editing to add: I went to Brother WorldSew yesterday to buy some stuff for cosplay and grabbed a few of these cotton bootlaces—thrilled at what a perfect colour match they are! And a perfect length and weight as well.

Drawstrings!

 

Cosplay season is back!

About to swing into high gear with cosplay stuff! One for my kid, one for my niece. I’ll just be the Warner Sister Dot again. 

So I was determined to get at least a couple of my own projects out of the way first... 

A(nother) striped sweater, Montmartre jumper by Fabel Knitwear:

Bought the yarn over a year ago! It was time!

Replaced the lining in a velvet jacket:

Check the pattern matching on this pocket!

And altering/remaking a skirt from my cousin Pamela.

But then I accidentally bought more fabric, whoops... couldn’t resist Japanese panels in silk and wool at the Textile Museum sale:

But it’s my difficult time of year, and I did my taxes, so I deserve a treat?