MMM26-31

MMM is over! It’s always a relief to be done wit the daily photos, but sad to lose the sense of community. 

So how did I do? As you probably are sick of hearing, my pledge was to wear me-mades every day, specifically wearing shades from this self-assigned palette of my favourite colours. 

MMM26

3/9 colours, MM Pendrell blouse and refashioned cardigan. 

This top is lovely to wear, but BRRRR! The challis lets every draft through! Definitely better for warmer days!

MMM27

A new dress! 6/9 colours. Woot! Thanks to the input from the Flickr group, I’m going to shorten this a few inches to make it sassier.

MMM28

Interview day! MM Truffle skirt and Pendrell blouse. I’ll find out by late June if the interview was successful!

MMM29

4/9 colours, MM two-tone Sorbetto (heavily redrafted to be more like a Wicksten tank!) This top is a bit snug, but I like the concept… I should get cracking on a better-fitting version! 

MMM30

2/9 colours, MM Truffle dress. Finally we had proper summer temperatures! I love this dress - it’s one of the last fitted, fully-lined woven dresses that I made last year before I started getting into knits! Now I’m so used to quick projects that a dress like this seems like a lot of work, so I’m grateful that past-me put in the effort! 

MMM31

The end! 3/9 colours, and a fully-me made, Zoe-inspired outfit: Red capris, Maria of Denmark cowl, and Fimo necklace! 

And now it’s done! I really enjoyed the colour palette component of the challenge. It was just enough to make me really think about my outfits in the morning, but not so hard that it was a burden! 

Here are the colours I wore: 

• Lots of white, which makes sense because I like patterns that balance bright colours with neutrals.


• Lots of navy, which includes jeans. 


• Not nearly as much Emerald or Fuschia as I would have predicted! Now I’m motivated to shop for some fabric in these colours and work them into my wardrobe more.


• A year ago I didn’t wear coral, and now it’s a major part of my wardrobe! Proof that trends do influence my colour choices!

So are these the right colours? Yeah, I think so! I do tend to wear lighter shades of these colours in summer, but still the same shades. One change is needed though…

Purple! I’ve got a fair bit of RTW clothing in this colour, and I like it. Time to sew with it too! 

As for MMM itself, I loved it. Thank you so much to the amazing people on Flickr and here on my blog, who made every morning a little more fun! I’ll miss waking up to compliments! :P I loved seeing how other people dressed every day, and stealing style inspiration. It motivated me to think about shoes and accessories a little more, and to try out some new-to-me colour combinations and styles. 

Since June started I’ve worn me-mades both days, but enjoyed the sense of “rebelling” by wearing non-palette colours! Heck, I might even wear RTW tomorrow! Well, maybe…

Thanks for sticking through this long post, and a month of navel-gazing!

MMM20-25

Oh man - so close to the end! I have heaps of clothes left to wear though… I”m hoping the weather stays nice for the next week so I can wear my summer favourites! 

Let’s do this. 

MMM20: 

2/9 colours, MM red capris and tee. I’m happy to report that these pants have loosened up a bit with wear and are now less indecently tight! :) 

MMM21: 

3/9 colours, MM Tiramisu. Now that I’m wearing my Tiras without a long winter coat, I’m finding that the wind can lift up my skirt and flash the world very easily! Anyone else find this with full skirts? (Besides Oanh, who wrote a hilarious post about something similar!?

MMM22: 

4/9 colours, MM Alma dress. Seriously, given how crazy bright this dress is, you’d think it would have more of my palette colours!  

MMM23: 

4/9 colours, MM Scout Knit tee. This was a sad wardrobe day! I got all dressed in a cute bright summer skirt and new stripe tank, then realised it was 10 degres and quickly threw on anything warm I could find. Also realised that when I lean over to lecture 6 year olds on why swearing is bad, this shirt becomes a window to my whole bra. Guess how I figured that out? 

MMM24: 

Total fail! The only palette colour I’m wearing is the poorly-fitting grey jeans that you can see! Instead, I’m showing you my first try at the Kirsten Kimono tee pattern and a beautiful button necklace that my Mom bought me on a recent Morris dancing trip to Britain! (Yup, my parents are border Morris dancers, and they regularly spend a few weeks dancing in England and Wales. We’re a family full of nerds!)

This was our Track and Field Day at school - and instead of the usually sunny, hot May weather, it was windy and only 3 degrees! On top of this I wore several sweaters and a long winter coat. Brrr!!!

The Friday theme this week is “hometown”, so here’s my town: 

Exciting, hunh? 

MMM25:

4/9 colours, MM capris. After the boring cold-weather clothes I’d been wearing for a few days, I wanted something bright and fun! I love how bright these red pats are… they make my RTW red jeans looks dark and dull! 

And that’s it for now! Not many days left… 

So, now for something completely unrelated… How do you feel about the new Flickr? Have you found anything it handles better? I’m finding it visually more cluttered, which is frustrating… but since we’ve all got to live with it, I’m trying to learn to like it!

MMM14-19

Oh, Me-Made May, you sure do take over! Every time I sit down to blog some newly finished items, I realise that I’ve fallen behind blogging about MMM! Time for another weekly review first, I guess… 

This year I pledged to wear MM clothes every day this month, and to create outfits using my self-assigned wardrobe colour palette. 

Here goes!

MMM14

4/9 colours, MM Peony dress, refashioned sweater (turned it into a cardigan), and “belt” made from fold-over elastic. 

My second ever dress! Made last February sometime… I had to alter the heck out of the pattern to make it work, but I didn’t know ay better back then. Now I shy away from Colette patterns for just that reason. Here’s a post I wrote last fall about my many versions of the Peony pattern, if you are interested…

MMM15: 

2/9 colours. MM Renfrew, a la Zoe! This top is made from a really lovely  navy double knit… I just wish I could remember where it came from! The stripe fabric is thin and not-so-nice, so I underlined it with a white jersey. Just spray-basted them together with quilting spray, and sewed as one!

MMM16: 

Self drafted tee and thrifted chambray shirt (Seriously, blogosphere, I blame YOU for making me want this shirt! Its not a style I would have picked before… but with all the lovely Archers being made, and the obsessive shopping for chambray fabric, when i saw this is just had to give it a go! 

Remember how in my last post I said I was going to try to beat my maximum numbers of colours worn? Well, you gave me some great suggestions which I can’t wait to try… but in the mean time, this shirt does all the work! 

7/9 colours! Bam! I got this jersey for $3/m last summer. I have to say it’s not the best quality, but come on, that print! It shrank up over time, so I recently replaced the original folded-under hem with a wide band. Now it’s back in rotation!

MMM17: 

4/9 colours, MM Renfrew hack tank. 

Woohoo! It’s the Friday of the long weekend, and my husband handed me a drink that matches my outfit! (Also, aparently my combo of turquoise pants, electric blue cardi, and blue wall turned the who pic a funny colour!)

MMM18

3/9 colours. MM Style Arc capris (again) and a new Day-to-Night cowl! 

Remember when I wishing for something a little more “fun” to wear on weekends? Well, so many of you suggested this pattern from Maria of Denmark that I just had to give it a go! I’d actually made one before for the animal print challenge back in the winter,but the print placement and fabric choices just felt off. It’s a great easy pattern though, so I have happy to make a nicer version!

I think this top is the anti-Cake top: If I tried to do the “Look! No gapping!” pose, you’d all see straight to my belly button! (In other words, when I leave over, the cowl drapes right open and everything is on show! Not that my husband seemed to mind that feature… Did I mention I’ve already made another one? ;) 

MMM19

3/9 colours. MM kimono tee (traced from RTW), Style Arc capris (finally photographed and ready to be blogged!), and a polymer clay necklace I made this morning! 

It’s a lazy Sunday today, so I actually spent most of the day in Maria of Denmark lounge pants and a sweater knit cardigan. It’s warm during the day, so I switched to this. I spent a couple house this morning making beads with polymer clay and fiddling around with jewellery. (Blog post to follow, eventually!)

***

So here we are, with 11 days left in May… What colours have I worn most? 

Navy = jeans, most of the time… and white tend to be mixed in prints, so no surprise there! I really did think I wore more fuschia though, and less emerald… and more grey and red! It’s interesting how evenly worn most of the colours are, in fact! We’ll see what happens for the rest of the month! 

P.S. I’ve been having fun making wardrobe colours palettes for a few other bloggers… It’s really neat going through someone else’s blog pics and trying to figure out what colours they are consistently drawn to! If anyone else is interested, I’d be happy to give your colours a try!

MMM11-14

MMM11 

A measly 1 colour from my palette! I really think this purple needs to be added though, because I own an awful lot of RTW tops in this shade! 

MM STyle Arc Jeans, cropped out, and appliqued Echino birds on the hoodie.

MMM12

3/9 wardrobe palette colours.

MM flannel scout tee and McCalls cardigan, blogged here.

It snowed ALL DAY! WTF, Canada? It’s May! This was Mother’s Day, so I spent 2 hours each way driving to see my mother-in-law. (And somehow, I just happened to find myself in a fabric store on the way home! ;)

MMM13

4/9 colours. MM Tiramisu dress, blogged here.

This dress is so comfy! It’s a drapy rayon knit, which means that the self-drafted a-line skirt hangs quite close… but it feels comfier than pyjamas! 

* * * 

Oh, as as an added MMM bonus, my sister just spent 3 days at a conference and happened to wear made-by-me clothes for every day! I’m so excited that she actually wears that things I make… certainly motivates me to make her more! And we’ve cut a deal for her to knit me a cowl for the fall - sweet!

(She is very kindly letting me share her very-early-morning selfies!)

Recognise the green skirt that I wore last week and then promptly gave away? Turns out it’s a much better match for her wardrobe colours, which are slightly warmer than mine… (Those are knitting inspiration pics, BTW…)

So my new goal? Wear an outfit with 5 colours! I’ve had a couple of 4-colour outfits… which makes sense, because I tend to wear either warm or cool tones with a neutral, but not warm and cool at once. Can you picture any 5 of these colours together? Let me know what you think might work! 

 

MMM5-10

Wow. MMM is just rushing by this year! Thanks so much for all of your supportive comments when I was whining about job stuff in my last post - It was another rough week this week, but c’est la vie, right? I have faith that this coming week is going to be better! :)  

MMM5: 

3/9 colours from my wardrobe colour palette.

MM: Style Arc leggings, French terry knit Scout (not-so-woven) tee, and infinity scarf.

Here I am, blatently showing off my sister’s lovely rainbow blanket to distract from a rather basic outfit… 

MMM6

3/9 colours from my wardrobe palette

MM Alma blouse, made with reversible Japanese double gauze. Blogged here.

Can’ you believe this is my first time wearing this top? I made it last fall and it’s hung in the closet ever since. I didn’t like all the buttons and plackets and cuffs that I’d had to add after botching a neckline alteration. It’s still not my favourite, but wearing it really helped me appreciate it’s strengths: the double gauze is buttery soft and drapes beautifully over my bumps and lumps, but the darts of the Alma shape it really nicely. I think I need to give some other double gauze a go this month!

MMM7

4/9 colours from my wardrobe palette

MM Tiramisu dress made with ITY border print fabric.

Tiramisu #5 for me! (And #9, if you include sewing for others!) I got so many compliments while wearing this dress - and not one person said, “Hey, don’t you own that dress in another colour?” Phew! 

MMM8

3/9 colours… barely! 

MM skirt, modified from the Colette Truffle dress. 

Oh man, this one *barely* fit the colour palette challenge… and consequently it was SO HARD to make an outfit I liked around this green skirt! I bought the fabric thinking that I could pull out the pops of turquoise and coral in the print, but that wasn’t as easy as I thought. In the end I went with this 9 year old cardigan (from my bridesmaid outfit at my sister’s wedding!) and this 5 years old lace cami from Japan. End result? I felt like it was an outfit I’d have liked 5 years ago. 

Don’t worry, there is a happy ending - I gave the skirt that night to my sister, and she loves it! 

MMM9

4/9 wardrobe palette colours.

MM sloper dress.

I love this dress! It’s made with a quilting cotton that I stashed just before leaving Japan… and it’s a gaudy, bright, rainbow! I’m such a sucker for bright colours on a dark background. 

3/9 colours from my wardrobe palette - though you’d never know the jeans are blue from the picture!

MM Style Arc jeans and self-drafted kimono tee.

Not much to say here… I got less than .7m of this rayon knit for $3 (with printing errors), and just barely squeaked a top out of it. I love the colours, even if my camera didn’t appreciate the saturated colours! :P

********************************************

It’s occurred to me lately that 2 years ago I’d never even THINK of wearing a loose/tent-like top like a Scout tee, and now I wear them all the time! On the other hand, I’ve also realise that my wardrobe is a bit, uh, professional and demure. I don’t have ANY me-made’s that I couldn’t wear to work. I want something for a night out or a day shopping with friends… and more confusingly, I’m not really sure what I would want to wear these days to show a bit of skin. (I’m starting to look forward to my Seamless Pledge ending so I can go buy some clothes and find out!) 

Does anyone have a suggestion for a knit top that is a bit more youthful or sexy? Help!

Me-Made May, Days 1-4

Hurray! It’s time for MMM!

Here’s my pledge this year: ‘I, Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ‘13. I endeavour to wear me-made clothing that matches my personal colour palette for the duration of May 2013’I’ve been honing my palette all year - these are the colours that I love, look good in, and am allowed to stash! My goal for this month is to see if they really are the colours I wear and sew, or if it’s just wishful thinking! 

(The eagle-eyed among you might notice that I already tweaked my palette before starting… I had a paler coral in there originally, but I switched it for the cool pink on the right.)

How’s it going? Well, spoiler alert: I’m pretty sure one of those colours does not belong! 

 Day 1: 2/9 colours, Me-Made head to toe! Renfrew tank, McCall’s cardi, Style Arc jeans, and me-made necklace. 

I had to wear blue for a school event on May 1st, which lead to me making a rushed royal blue top the night before… which of course, ended up with a wobbly hem and a weird fit! Doomed to be pyjamas, I think. As I was digging through my (clean) laundry piles looking for something better to wear, I found this cardigan, which doesn’t get much wear…. but score! It worked for this outfit.

Also: LOOK! A remote! I’ve borrowed my dad’s DSLR, tripod and remote to make picture-taking a bit easier. I love getting my husband to take outdoor pics when there’s time, but at least this way I can grab a quick shot before work in the morning!

Day 2: 4/9 colours, MM sleeveless Pendrell blouse

Not much to say - I stashed this fabric just before leaving Japan, and made it up during MMM last year.

Day 3: Water-themed fishy face! 2/9 colours. MM Scout woven tee and Style Arc black pants. 

My class had a zoo-themed party today, so I wore this koala top with a very 80’s animal necklace of my mom’s! I got funny looks for other staff all day, but who am I to be shy when there is a dress-up theme? 

Day 4: 4/9 colours on a MM Renfrew dress!

Enough of all that coral - time for greens and blues! I didn’t quite buy enough of this fabric, so the skirt is a big snug… emphasizes my gut IRL! Added to which the waistband is think in some spots and thin in other… I think I’m going to have to hack it up and make a peplum tee at some point.

(In other news, I spent the day working on job applications for myself and my husband. His temporary teaching job just ended 2 months earlier than we hoped, and new laws mean that I’ve got all kinds of hoops to jump through just to be eligible to be hired for the same kind of job next year!  It’s all pretty frustrating, and means that we’ll be living with my parents for a while longer… They are wonderful, and have already let us live here for two years. Unfortunately work is so hard to come by that two qualified, experienced 30 year-old teachers can’t support themselves! ERGGGGGHHHHH!)

 

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, clothes. Here are my thoughts so far: 

• With all kinds of employment drama going on, it feels pretty superficial to think about clothes every day… but on the other hand, it gives me something fun to focus on! 


• I’m enjoying my palette challenge… but something off with the emerald green. It’s a colour I love, but turns out I don’t really own any! I think it maybe needs to be changed to a more grass green, or even a leaf green… or then again, maybe I just need to sew more with that colour! 


• I loved participating so much last year… but I have to admit, I’m already finding this year a bit overwhelming! The Flickr group is HUGE!

How do you feel about MMM? Do you get inspired or bored when it takes over the blogosphere? If you participate in it, do you like the daily dress-up or the online community more?