Me Made May 2016: May 27 to 31 outfits

The last few outfits for the Me-Made-May 2016! I joined the challenge a little late this year but better late than never! Here are the remaining me made outfits:

May 27:
Me-made knit faux wrap dress
Me-altered denim shirt

May 28:
Me-Made cotton lace print dress
Me-altered cotton cardigan

May 29:
Refashioned linen blend embroidered beaded kameez

May 30:
Me altered knit size L dress

May 31:
Me made knit tank
Me made linen blend shorts

For some reason this photo is blurry!

Just like all previous years, it has been great fun and I really look forward to another challenge like this again. Thanks to Zoe Edwards of 'So Zo, what do you know...' for organizing this!

Refashion: Sweatshirt and Curtain remnants to Kids' Shorts

The weather is getting so warm that it has reached 30 Celsius or over for more than a week. My kids need some shorts! I went through my remnant stash and the to-be-refashioned pile for materials. I found a sweatshirt that was too small for my hubby and some remnant rainbow twill that I used for my kid's curtain.

I'm happy to have used up some stash. More kids shorts are needed. Off I go rummaging the stash again!

MAGAM Mad May Projects Completed!

I was really busy for the first two thirds of the month of May.  How life can get in the way of my sewing adventure! So a week ago I started panicking about the project for Mad May theme for Make A Garment A Month. I didn't have any ideas for anything 'mad' sewing projects. So I decided to just look into my to-be-refashioned pile and see what inspirations I could fine. I found 2 items: 1) A beautifully embroidered linen kameez that I thrifted quite a few years ago when I was pregnant with my 2nd child; 2) a pair of black mom jeans from my mom and some jean remnants left over from other projects.

First up, the linen kameez. It was too long and too loose in the body but the short sleeves were very tight on my arms. It has incredible gold embroidery and beading and I wanted to make a simple pullover dress.

 

I treated this kameez as the other ones I have refashioned before. With my trusty seam ripper, I took off the sleeves and added a bust darts from the sleeves to the chest area. I did this by putting on the kameez and pinning the darts according to my body shape. I then sewed the side split seams together to make a dress. I cut off the dress at the knee and then hemmed it into a dress that hit just above my knee. 

I wore this dress yesterday and it was really breezy even though it was humid and 31 Celsius! I am really pleased with it so far!

The next refashioning projects were for my children's teachers. Yes the end of the school year is almost upon us and I needed to start making Teachers Appreciation Gifts. I like making refashioned or upcycled bags for teachers as end of year gifts. Denim remnants are perfect for this purpose.

The first bag I made is from my mom's black jeans. 

Almost all the materials for this bag were from salvaged/thrifted sources. I used both the back pockets for my mom's jeans, thrifted zippers, a salvaged strap from and old laptop bag, and remnant orange poplin scraps. 

I made 2 identical bags and sewed them together to make a good size cross-shoulder bag.

I also made another smaller cross-shoulder bag from other denim remnants in my stash. This one is also made with old jeans and a thrifted zipper.

I'm happy with all these 3 projects in a week's time. They are not really of the 'Mad May' theme but I'm pretty happy with the outcome!

Me Made May 2016 - May 15 to May 26

It's been so busy that I hadn't had time to blog. And I have barely managed to take pictures of my outfits. The weather got warmer and warmer and yesterday it was 29 Celsius! Hot and humid weather already and it's not June yet!

May 15:
Me-Made denim jacket from a pair of old men's jeans
Refashioned red ponte dress from a RTW XL dress

May 16:
Refashioned XXL RTW sweatshirt
Me-Made cotton knit checker pants (McCall's 5273)

May 17:
Refashioned merino sweater dress to tunic
Me-Made black knit slim pants (McCall's 5273)

May 18:
Me-Made denim jacket from a pair of old men's jeans
Refashioned blouse from a 80's men's shirt

May 19:
Me-Made boucle cardigan jacket
Me-Made charcoal jeggings (McCall's 5273)

May 20:
Me-Made cotton tunic
Me-Made linen shorts

May 21:
Me-altered denim shirt
Me-altered white brocade slim pants

May 22:
Me-shrunken wool/silk blend cardigan
Me-Made fabric scraps scarf
Me-Made knit maxi dress

May 23:
Me-Made linen blend tank
Me-Made linen blend pants

May 24:
Me-altered thrifted cotton cardigan
Me-Made faux wrap knit dress

May 25:
Me-altered denim shirt
Me-Made cotton floral shorts

May 26:
Me-Made floral top
Me-Made linen blend pants

I have lots of floral sun dresses so I'm looking forward to wearing them the rest of the month!

Me Made May 2016 - May 14

It's cloudy and rainy today. A thin, thrifted merino wool cardigan will do the trick. I also pulled out the rarely worn refashioned white silver brocade pants. The silver fabric remnant scarf echoes the silvery threads on the pants.

May 14:
Me Refashioned, thrifted white brocade pants
Me Made silver knit fabric remnant scarf
Thrifted mernio wool cardigan
Thrifted loafers

Me Made May 2016 - May 13 Outfit

It's a little warmer and more humid today. So I took the opportunity to wear a summer dress with no tights/leggings.

May 13:
Me Refashioned, thrifted white lace dress (from a table cloth)
Me Refashioned, thrifted white slip
Me altered denim shirt
Thrifted boots

Me Made may 2016 - May 12 outfit

Today is sunny but with a cool breeze. Again, a layering jacket is excellent for this type of weather. A lightweight scarf is useful too!

May 12:
Me-Made Red slim jeans
Me-Made fabric remnant scarf
Thrifted black leather boots

Me-Made May 2016 - 1st outfit

This is my first outfit for Me-Made May 2016. It's always difficult to dress in May in my part of the globe. The temperature in the morning can be below 5 Celsius and then would go up to 25 Celsius by noon! So layering is key as always.

May 11:
Refashioned thrifted cotton/silk tweed jacket 
Refashioned thrifted teal silk tunic
Self-altered jeans

Me-Made May 2016

I can't believe I forgot to sign up for Zoe Edwards' Me-Made May this year! I have done this for a few years now and had thoroughly enjoyed it. Well. better late than never! Here is my pledge:

 'I, Lovenicky of http://lovenicky-froufrou.blogspot.ca/, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavour to wear 2 or more self-stitched or self-altered/refashioned item each day for the rest of May 2016'

Spring sewing - Spring Tweed Dress McCall's 5518

I thought I would put aside the beige wool fail project for a while and start something fun and easy. I chose this yellowish/greenish spring tweed with little sequins from my stash. I wanted to make a simple pullover tweed dress for spring.

For the pattern, I chose McCall's 5518 from my stash. It looked like a pretty straight forward pullover tunic dress pattern:

I chose View C but as I was sewing, I forgot to sew in the collar piece. So now the dress has the split neck  but not the collar. I drafted my own pocket pieces  as the ones in the pattern were too large for my liking. I decorated the top of the pockets with strips of the selvage. I also experimented the with sleeves and without sleeves options:

I decided against sleeves as I thought the boxy sleeves make me look even more dumpy.

I'm not in love with the dress. It's too boxy for my liking and for my body shape. Even with the belt, the dress is too shapeless for me. McCall's 5518 is not for me! I do like the fabric so I'll have to figure out if I want to refashion it to something else or not. This unfortunately was not the easy 'win' I was hoping for. Oh well! Back to the Beige Fail jacket.......

The review for this pattern is at PatternReview.