Self-Made Dresses Outfit challenge - Day 3

Thsi morning it was 0 Celsius with a freezing rain warning. It's still sweater dress weather I suppose. I put on the easy to wear striped wool blend sweater dress that I made recently (see this post). I also wore my latest self-knitted item: a simple snood/infinity scarf made with thrifted teal yarn. I love this teal colour so I bought this big ball of boucle yarn at the thrift store last month, even though it's 100% acrylic.

I also wore the dress with thrifted brown fleece lined tights and thrifted brown leather boots.

I quite like the pop of teal among the brown/wine of the overall outfit. And the snood was quite warm too!

Self-Made Dresses Outfit Challenge - Day 2

Today is -5 Celsius again and it actually started snowing in the late morning. A long sleeves, warm and toasty sweater dress is in order. So I chose the grey sweater dress that I had chopped off to knee length (see this post). I wore it with a thrifted purple scarf, thrifted fleece lined purple leggings and thrifted polka-dot rainboots.

This is just too easy a challenge! Throwing on a sweater dress is a no-brainer for me. That's why I have so many sweater dresses. It's a easy uniform for me: put on a sweater dress, acolourful scarf, a pair of leggings or tights, and a pair of thrifted boots. What weather will tomorrow bring?

Self-Made dresses outfit challenge - Day 1

Well, it's time for another 7 day challenge. I like doing these 7 day challenges so that I'll remember to wear all my clothes in my closet - not just the clean ones on top of the folded laundry pile!

And it's not really a challenge because I have more than 7 self-made or self-refashioned dresses. The real challenge is how to wear them in this unpredictable spring weather: 10 Celsius one day and then -5 Celsius with snow the next day!

It was -5 C this morning but sunny. So I decided to wear this short sleeves refashioned sweater dress today (see post here). Although it has short sleeves, the whole dress from the collar to the hem is made with 100% wool so it's super warm (or hot). I wore the dress with thrifted leggings and thrifted suede winter boots. As the dress is already colour-blocked, there was no need to accessorize it.

Looking forward to the next 6 days of self-made dresses!

Spring Travel - 1 week packing

It's that time of the year again - March Break. We always travel out of town to visit family and friend this time of the year. Packing for March in this part of the world is always a headache - it can be warm and rainy one day, and snow and blizzard the next! So layering is definitely key. Also, a warm, 100% wool sweater/cardigan is a must.

Since having children, I have been pretty diligent in using a minimalist packing list for the maximum number of outfits. For this 7 day trip, I will be packing the following for myself. These items are all very travel friendly (no ironing!). The outfits will enable me to do outdoor activities with the kids, dinner with friends and even a funeral. Moreover, I will be wearing almost half of it on my body on the way there and back!

The list consists of:
- Red 100% merino wool cardigan (thrifted)
- Refashioned denim jacket (see this post)
- Refashioned black cotton knit dress (see this post)
- jeans
- blue plaid shirt (thrifted)
- black long sleeves t-shirt (thrifted)
- brown fleece lined tights (thrifted)
- silver knit scarf from remnant fabric in my stash (see this post)
- blue silk scarf (x'mas gift some years ago)
- brown skinny belt (thrifted)
- green suede loafers (thrifted)
- black knee high boots

Note: I always pack a somber outfit now since there are a few infirmed and elderly family members. I was caught out one time without a funeral outfit and had to hastily buy some ill-fitting and expensive clothes.

From this list I am able to create the following 7 outfits (or more):

Hopefully these outfits will work for whatever occasion or weather I will be encountering during this trip!

MAGAM March Project - Striped sweater dress - Butterick 5146

I can hardly believe it's already March! We have lots of snow this week so we are still in the deep of winter here. No chance for me to think about sewing Spring clothing yet. And for me, when in doubt (regarding sewing projects), sew a sweater dress!

The March theme for the Make A Garment A Month group is 'Make over March'. I decided to use a stash fabric that I had used before and a stash striped wool blend sweater knit fabric to make a dress. The last time I used this pattern, I did a refashion of a RTW dress into a little red dress for myself:

Refashioned RTW dress based on Butterick 5146

I thought it fit well enough so I wanted to use it again to make a proper dress with long sleeves. I used size 14 again and did the short waist adjustment and changed the split neck into a jewel neckline. I found the sleeve cap and the upper arms to be too voluminous. So the next time I make it I will scale it down properly. It was a very easy to sew pattern for knit dresses or tunics. Highly recommended! I'm sure I will use it again in the future for another knit dress.

The wool blend sweater knit fabric has been in my stash for almost 6 years! I bought it to make stuff for the kids but then realized that kids and wool might not be such a good idea. It has 2 sides: one side is a grey and wine striped and the other side is plain grey. This allowed me to play with both sides and use the plain side as the sleeves as well as the neck binding.

My review of this pattern is at PatternReview.com.