me-made and new-to-me

I've been holding off on posting about a knitting project I completed for myself last week because the weather has been too rainy and dark to get good photos... but I am so excited to be making clothes for myself again. Except stretch clothes.  I made a t-shirt and I hated it. Straight up Gumpy Cat NOPE on stretch sewing, once-and-for-all.

http://www.tshirtoutlet.com/gr92bro.html

But I am happily nearing completion on a wearable muslin of Megan Neilsen's Veronika skirt. It's a simply beautiful circle skirt pattern that is quite easy to make and... it's free to download!

I love her Kelly skirt so much that I made 4. Well. actually, I made, like, 3.75.  I still have to do the buttonholes for the vintage yellow corduroy one... over a year later. :(  But it is on my list, for real now. Kelly is a great skirt, but I am not a huge fan of making that many button holes. Nor am I a fan of how they start to get a little out of shape after a year of frequent wear and start to become less-than-secure closures.  After two summers, my Kelly skirts are on their way out and I would love some me-made cotton skirts for this summer's curated closet.

So I definitely got excited when I saw that Megan Neilsen has come out with some new skirt patterns since I lost steam for making buttonholes, lo these many months ago.  I got really excited about the dirndl-style Brumby pattern, but I decided to make the Veronika first, since it was a free download. I just wanted to ease back into sewing for myself to be sure I really wanted to take the plunge before buying a new pattern.

Here's a little sneak peak of the Veronika in a small primary colors floral cotton.  I think the fabric is from the late 70s or early 80s. It feels like childhood-era fabric to me. I love the high waist and the fullness of the circle skirt. The waistband finishing was also clever, easy, and sleek. It's waiting on a hanger for a couple days before hemming, to let the bias in the circle skirt get sorted, then it will be ready for summer. Ahhh, just look at that snug high waist! This is such a joy to me. I forgot, after a winter of not wearing any skirts I made, how badly off-the-rack skirts fit my pear-shaped figure. What a luxury to make & wear a perfectly fitted garment. 

I got so mad at my ready-to-wear denim skirt sagging down below my natural waist today that I impulsively bought the Brumby pattern on my lunch break to make a replacement. I am really happy that I bought this pattern, but once home for the evening, I thought better of ditching the current denim skirt before trying to fix it. As it turns out, I was able to alter it without too much trouble and it now fits at my natural waist.  Here is the offending extra waist fabric, post-excising. I had to rip out quite a lot of stitching to open it up enough to cut this bit out, but I think I put the skirt back together pretty well. 

I was eyeing a lovely dotted chambray for a skirt and then I thought it would look so cute with the Brumby pattern.  Turns out someone else had the same idea and it was a really *good* idea. I will shamelessly copy Carly in Stitches, I just wanted to be sure to mention that she did make it first and her photos only make me want to make it more!  But I will wait until May to buy the new fabric. 

Till then, it's wearable muslins and stash-busting with some favorite wild and crazy print fabrics that I have had tucked away since my big summer of sewing in 2014. 

I also had a big thrifting adventure last night. I know, I know... that's twice in less than a week and I am supposed to not be shopping much, right?! This was an anomaly. I went to the mall to return the sweater that I was debating about returning. Since we had to go out that way and I had a gift card to Goodwill that I needed to use up in my own county... (FYI: Goodwill giftcards are not good at all Goodwills, only locally.) we decided to visit the Goodwill Super Store near to the mall for a shopping spree.

I'd had the card for over a year and felt it was getting down to a use-it or lose-it situation. It was an older style of card that wasn't scanning in their system any more, but fortunately they keyed the numbers in and we were able to finish out the card. Whew! Now, no more shopping till April. 

I found practically a whole capsule collection of navy and white tops, a cute sweatshirt to feed my athleisure casual obsession, and a cute babydoll dress that could be worn across a lot of Oregon seasons. I also got some amazing boots, plus some Cole Hahn loafers and books & movies for my husband too. 

l to r: Ann Taylor longsleeve, Kenneth Cole Reaction shortsleeve, I Love H81 cardigan

l to r: Talbots blouse, J. Crew blouse, J. Crew velveteen blazer.

Modo B sweatshirt

H & M dress

And the boots!  The boots are vintage over-the-knee cognac leather.  Made in Brazil. With pockets!  I wanted brown boots to wear with leggings.  They were on my list... but I thought ankle boots or combat boots would look good with leggings.  These -as it turns out- also look good with leggings. I really like them!

Pockets!

I'm so happy with everything that I found and with the approach of shopping while keeping my list in mind. But I am also really relieved not to have any more shopping trips or buying decisions to make for a while, so I can just relax and settle into making some more things for myself in the weeks ahead. <3