Summer outfits challenge - 14 pieces to 30 outfits

One of the things that the Me-Made-May 2017 challenge has informed me is that I have way too much clothing in my wardrobe! In order to simplify my wardrobe, I'm trying to see if I can work 14 pieces of Me-Made/Me-refashioned/Me-tinkered clothing in a full month of outfits. the objective is after this challenge, I should have a good idea on what summer garments to toss/donate from my massive wardrobe.

I rummaged through my me-made clothes and here is my 14 pieces to 30 outfits challenge for June 1-30. I have chosen:
- 5 tops
- 4 bottoms
- 3 dresses
- 2 toppers

All in all, only 1 top (the thrifted black beaded tunic) is NOT a Me-Tinkered garment.

This summer challenge will actually include a road trip for a week. Let's see how this will work in June!

Stash Fabric Busting self-challenge - 1 Clear Bin at a time!

The MAGAM April theme or using one of my oldest fabric stash has given me an idea for my new self-challenge. I have lots of clear bin/boxes that house various stash fabrics. I will choose 1 bin each month and create garments/accessories with whatever fabric is in that bin. I think this will really help me destash in a quicker and more systematic way. I'm sure I will get much satisfaction in seeing the bins being emptied one by one. It will force me to sew more creatively (constrained by whatever fabric is in the box) and sew more for others as well.

As soon as I finished slogging away at the Chanel-esque jacket, I will choose a box of fabrics and get on with my self-challenge!

Self-Made Dresses Outfit Challenge - Day 4-7

I hadn't post for a while because was an ice storm last week and I got really  busy with things. Regardless, here are the outfits for day 4-7 of the Self-Made Dresses Outfit challenge:

Day 4 - I wore a refashioned Black Cotton knit dress with my self-made and refashioned blue boucle cardigan jacket. The belt was thrifted. It was still raining so I wore my thrifted rainboots. It was actually a bit warm with that cardi-jacket.

Day 5 - I wore my self-made copycat wool blend New Look 6779 dress. I don't wear this dress enough because it's a bit dressy for day-to-day. But I really should try to find occasions to wear it. It wasn't raining so I could wear my thrifted red leather boots with the outfit.

Day 6 - It was a bit colder on this day. I wore my dress that was refashioned from a wool sweater dress. I wore a thrifted long sleeves t-shirt, thrifted suede winter boots and an alpaca scarf that was gifted to me for x'mas.

Day 7 - It was rainy again. I was in a rush in the morning so I just grabbed my cold weather uniform - a navy wool sweater dress. I altered the thrifted dress by shrinking it and adding silver buttons on the pockets. I wore my thrifted rainboots again.

It was a fun challenge. The main goal was to force me to wear things that I usually don't remember to wear. I will definitely be doing more of these challenges to force me to wear the other items in my closet.

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!

Wardrobe Stash Cleansing - the Plan

Since ranting about wanting to pare down my wardrobe to a sustainable level a few days ago, I decided to set a self-challenge: to cleanse something from my wardrobe stash every week between now and the end of the year. To accomplish this challenge, I need to put a plan in place.

First, I will deal with just the Fall/Winter garments and accessories. I will lay out all the wintry items, photograph them, and wear different items each day for the next month to test their wear-ability. I will then evaluate each items in with the following questions:

1. Does it fit?
2. Is it comfortable?
3. Is it warm?
4. Is it practical for day to day purpose (e.g. driving, grocery shopping, taking care of young children, running after children, carrying heavy loads, cooking, etc)?
5. Is it beautiful?
6. Does it have great sentimental value (e.g. given to me by a special person, me-made items that took lots of sweat and tears, etc)?

I think I'll probably falter at the last question regarding sentimentality since most of my wardrobe consists of me-made items. Perhaps I will end up purging all the store purchased stuff from my wardrobe once and for all! LOL!

Also, once I have catalogued all the items in the wardrobe, I will be shocked at the actual volume and be shamed into purging at least some of them.

I have called a couple of local charity shops and sadly they have confirmed that they would sometimes throw away donated items that didn't have tags on them. They said that the tagged items (especially the known brands like H&M, Gap, Zara, TopShop, etc) were the ones that sell well whereas the custom made stuff (no tags) stayed on the racks forever. So they would rather not receive them. How sad! I will need to find a good home for them somehow if I do decide to purge them.

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Quick and Easy Neck Warmers

With some fleece scraps in my scrap box, I decided to make some quick and easy neck warmers (neck gaiters) for hubby and the kids. to match the fleece hats I made them. Luckily I had just enough fabric scraps. It was such an easy and quick project. All three neck warmers only took an hour from cutting to finishing! I used fold over elastics that I already have in my stash to bind the edges. And here they are:

I am happy with the progress of this handmade Christmas some far. I have more gifts to make. Let's get on with it!

Day 7 - Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

I hadn't worn a long skirt in the last 2 days since there was howling wind and pouring rain (remnant of Hurricane Patricia). Although there were intermittent showers today, I thought the weather was well enough to finally wear my long skirt outfits. I chose this red wool gored skirt (Simplicity 5914) that I hadn't blogged about, and wore it with a casual black t-shirt, a rarely worn thrifted beaded cardigan and my rain boots (for the rain puddles):

(Unfortunately I didn't have time to take the photo until dusk today. The quality of the photo is drastically worse.)

I have thoroughly enjoyed this long skirt outfit challenge. It was great to trot out the long skirts that I rarely had a chance to wear. I feel that I have utilized my wardrobe better and the cost per wear for each clothing item is better than before. Here is a summary of my 7 day Long skirt outfits challenge:

Now what other self-challenges should I set next? Do you have any clothing self-challenges as well?

Day 6 - Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

Yes I'm trotting this item out again! I wore this thrifted wool blend lurex sweater skirt in my last self-challenge: Daytime glitter and glam as well. It is indeed a long skirt isn't it? This time I'm wearing this with a self-made wool blend sweater knit cowlneck tunic and black boots:

Tomorrow will be the last day of my self-challenge. I'm really having fun with this!

Day 5 - Self-challenge: Long skirt oufits

Today I brought out this dark green wool blend skirt (Simplicity 8850) that I made a while back but forgot to blog about it. I used the same pattern as the wool burgundy skirt that I wore earlier this week because I thought the skirt shape was suitable for my body shape. I used a medium wool coating fabric that I had used for my much-loved winter coat as well as my hubby's winter coat. I wore this skirt today with a wool blend teal cardigan, a self-made scarf, a black belt and black boots:

This is the first time I had worn this skirt out because I was waiting to get some inspirations to embellish this skirt. I think it looks okay without any embellishments but I'm still hoping to embellish it in the future.

Tomorrow is the 2nd last day of my Long skirt outfit challenge. Looking forward to it!

Day 1, 2, 3 of my Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

I have been wearing long skirts outfits for the last 3 days but I just hadn't have time to blog about it yet. So here they are:

Day 1: 
I wore this newly made square fringed plaid skirt that I made this week with a thrifted black leather jacket and a self-made scarf.

Day 2:
I chose this burgundy wool skirt (Simplicity 8850) that I made a few years ago. It was one of my favourite skirts but I hadn't worn it for a while. I'm happy to have worn this again with a thrifted blue plaid skirt, thrifted brown leather jacket and thrifted brown boots.

Day 3:
This time I worn a self-drafted a-line brown stretch velvet skirt that I made before the kids were born (a long time ago!!). I wore it often a few years ago but had neglected it in recent years. I wore this with a thrifted refashioned men's wool sweater, a thrifted purple scarf and thrifted leather boots.

(I guess I have to clean the camera lens again!)

I am happy with this challenge so far. I hope it doesn't start snowing before this challenge is finished!

On another note - I'm trying to remember to take my blog photos during the day in natural daylight. I think it shows the texture and the colours of the fabrics much better than indoor lighting. The problem is that I'm usually very busy during the day that I only remember to take the photo at the end of the day with poor lighting.

Another Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

Yes, I'm doing another self-challenge. This time I want to do a Long Skirt outfits challenge. I have a number of Fall/Winter long skirts that I don't wear much. The reason is a practical one: it snows here in winter and long skirts do not fare well in knee deep snow. Short skirts or dresses with warm leggings and knee high boots are much more practical in the winter for me. So the only suitable time to wear these Fall/Winter weight long skirts are in the Fall just before the snow starts falling.

I'm excited to start this 7 day Long skirt challenge!

Day 7 - Self-challenge: Daytime glitter and glam

This is the last day of this self-challenge. It was really cold this morning with frost on the ground. I chose this self-stitched antique gold brocade gored skirt for today. It's a skirt that I wore quite frequently a few years ago but has since been much neglected:

I wore this with a teal wool blend cardigan, denim shirt, black tights and brown tall boots:

So that's it for my 7 day self-challenge. Here is a summary of the outfits:

I am quite happy to have gone through this challenge. Some of my never-worn or rarely worn clothes have finally seen daylight! The outfits in general were a bit more dressy than I usually would have worn but not overtly so. I'm going to have to remember to wear these slightly 'glam' pieces out once in a while.

Okay! What other self-challenge should I try next? Do you set yourself some outfit challenges as well?

Day 6 - Self-challenge: Daytime glitter and glam

I have a few faux fur clothing items and I wear some of them quite often during Fall/Winter. However, this faux fur bolero jacket that I made had never been worn by me (I think my mom wore it once to someone's wedding). It looks like it's meant for special occasion (especially with the rhinestone button) but that occasion hasn't happened for me yet:

It's a beautifully soft fur and it's quite warm. So I decided to wear it today with a thrifted refashioned men's wool sweater, a self-stitched pair of charcoal jeggings and thrifted ankle boots:

I think it looks okay. I'm just happy to have finally worn something glam that I made after it had been sitting in the wardrobe for so long!

Day 5 - Self-challenge: Daytime glitter and glam

For today I chose this wool lurex sweater skirt that I thrifted a few years ago. I think I wore it twice which again is a crime! ;-) The lurex instantly says festive and the high wool content and sweater knit makes it warm and comfy to wear.

So I added a thrifted and refashioned merino wool tunic, a thrifted casual belt and brown boots for daytime wear:

I think this will be good for my Christmas roadtrip this year. It's 'casually-glam'. I will have to remember to pack this outfit. Let's see what outfit I'll come up with for tomorrow!

Day 4 - Self-challenge: Daytime glitter and glam

I made this Chainmail-like knit dress with buckle detail last year and I had only worn it once! Sacrilege! :-) It needed to see some daylight!

 I decided to wear it today with a thrifted long black cardigan, thrifted belt, black tights and thrifted ankle boots:

I like how the buckle and the glittery knit fabric was peeking out from the otherwise all black ensemble. Fun! It's a very comfy dress. I really should wear it more often.

Looking forward to tomorrow's outfit!

Day 3 - Self-Challenge: Daytime Glitter and Glam

Today I decided to wear some brocade for daytime. I chose this antique gold brocade dress that I made (New look 6752). I think I wore this less than a handful of times since I made it a few years ago. It's time for the dress to see some daylight:

I added a denim shirt, a thrifted skinny belt and brown boots for this daytime look:

I'm glad to have trotted this old dress out again! It's actually not too difficult to wear these more dressy garments during the day. I just have to put a little more thought into the outfit. Looking forward to tomorrow's outfit!

Day 2 - Self-Challenge: Daytime Glitter and Glam

For day 2 of the challenge, I chose this XL white brocade pants that I altered/refashioned last year:

I think I have worn it less than 5 times in the last year. Why? I thought it was too dressy for everyday wear. Well, I don't care anymore! ;-) I wore it today with a dark denim jacket, a thrifted grey t-shirt, and thrifted black ankle boots. I think it definitely doesn't look as dressy anymore. In fact, it just looks like a regular pair of white jeans:

Looking forward to tomorrow's daytime glam outfit!

Day 1 - Self-Challenge: Daytime Glitter and Glam

I thrifted this beautiful sequined tank top from my local thrift store a couple of months ago. I hadn't worn it until yesterday:

I decided to wear it with a thrifted blue plaid shirt, thrifted black leggings and black ankle boots to tone it down:

I actually like that the sparkles are peeping out from the casual plaid shirt. It jazzes up the casual outfit just a little bit. Looking forward to another sparkly/glam outfit tomorrow!