Week 2 of MMM and other thoughts.

You guys! I made my Me Made May challenge super easy, but I'm still slacking.

I have reasons!

1. I've been running late in the morning so when that happens I tend to just grab and go. Since my challenge was to restyle my few pieces, I'll just grab something else that I don't have to think about. In other news, I am finally working some of my other clothing items that usually stay stuffed in the closet into my regular rotation. So, I guess that's good news.

2. The weather is not cooperating. How can I wear a bright yellow sun dress when it's cold and rainy? Also, when can I stop wearing my winter coat?!

3. I have been working like a mad woman! I think I'm going to quit my full time job (and keep my part time job since it pays about as much as the full time job) and look for another part time job to supplement the other. (Ahem, anyone looking for a personal assistant in the NYC area for 2-3 days a week? Let me know!)

4. I finally gave up on fixing my sewing machine myself. I packed her up in a little tote and lugged her to the repairman. The sky was clear when we left, though thundering, and the bf and I stepped inside the shop just as the skies opened up. The place was dark and I swear for a minute I thought no one was in there, but then the owner popped out of the shadows. I showed him the problem and he carefully inspected my baby. He said he thinks I might have damaged the bobbin case, which is why the thread was catching on the bobbin raceway (or whatever the terms are!). He kept her and told me he'd call me when she was ready, maybe on Monday or Tuesday.

You guys, I've never gone to a sewing machine repair shop before! There were so many sewing machines lined up. He sells old refurbished ones, which were in the window and very cool to see, but I also thought it was cool to see everyone else's machine. They all had their own personal touches and I sort of felt like I was in a hospital looking in the nursery at everyone's babies. And I really wanted to wait around and meet the parents!


Sorry, I'm weird, I know.

Anyway, here's my only MMM outfit from last week. As mentioned, I was going to wear one over the weekend to get it up to 2 days/week, but then the weather changed. Boo. I'll try and wear 3 this week to make up for it.

You might remember this dress from the first Mad Men challenge. It was a refashion and I rushed and rushed to finish it by the deadline (and I was still a day late). Tellingly, my blog at the time was called "I Think I Just Screwed It Up" and this dress definitely has issues, but you can't see them thanks to my cardigan! Even the hem has some issues, but you can't tell unless I'm perfectly still and have the problem area facing you. And even then, because of the fashions nowadays, there's a chance you'd be all, "Hm, maybe it's supposed to look like that." (Also, if you're curious, don't bother clicking on the link as I tried hard to hide all my mistakes for some reason.)


Hopefully my machine will be out of the shop soon and I'll step up my MMM game!

(Also, I have a contest going that ends Wednesday - enter if you want!)

(ALSO I sort of feel like I should name my sewing machine - I didn't realize I felt this strongly about her (or that it was even a her) until I wrote this post. Thinking Belinda, Thelma, Zelda, Hazel, Pearl, or something like that...)

Me Made May and other news

After a lot of denying the inevitable, I have decided to join Me Made May.

I originally didn't want to for a few reasons.

1. I already wear the clothes I make.
2. As a beginner, I haven't made a lot of clothes.
3. I already know the gaps in my handmade wardrobe. (Hint: it's all of it.)
4. I'm probably not going to finish my pile of "just needs to be stitched a little." I'm too lazy to change out all the different color threads.

But then I decided that, yes, I was being way too lazy. I re-read the description and it's all about challenging yourself and I was just excusing myself and my negligence.

I tend to wear the same outfits over and over and yes, many of them already have something handmade in them. But it's the same. So to challenge myself, I'm going to attempt to style them differently so even if it's the same skirt or dress, it won't be an exact copycat outfit. Because that's normally what I'm all about.

And yes, perhaps I will tailor some outfits from my pile.

 'I, Kristin from Sew Classic, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear 2 hand made items each week for the duration of May 2013. I will also tailor 2 items of clothing during May 2013.'

Whew, this might be harder than it sounds.

Because I'm doing Me Made May, I set up a flickr account. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but maybe we can be friends there?

And because of that, I went ahead and set up a facebook so if you feel so inclined, you can like me on there! I've had a tumblr for awhile if that floats your boat.

A few people have found my twitter, which is cool and not hard to do, but it's not totally sewing-centric. I don't really want to create a new handle since twitter won't let you do that easily (or switch between handles easily) so I'm not sure if I'll change mine to something more generic but slightly sewing based or what. Hm. Facebook might be a big enough leap for now!

Okay, I changed my twitter handle. New one here!

Musings

So now that I've wrapped my first ever sew along, I have a few thoughts. Firstly, oh my gosh, wow, I can't believe how tedious sew alongs are!

Secondly, yay for other Pushing Daisies dresses! Shelley over at Cuckoo Chanel did an adorable Chuck dress. Here was her inspiration:

And here is her daisy sundress that I really want to make now! It's so perfect for spring and summer!

Let me know if you made one as well because I would love to see!

But, yes, this sewalong: tedious. I really had no idea. I love when other people do sew alongs because I enjoy watching other people's processes. Sometimes it's the same as mine, sometimes mine is better, and sometimes I learn A LOT from whoever posted. I don't feel like I'm an advanced enough sewer to really teach new and high quality techniques, but maybe they help someone who's less advanced than I am. And maybe someone out there can teach me something after I've posted something monstrous.

"You want me to do what now?"

Obviously sew alongs are tedious and slow because you have to stop and document every single step of the process and then blog about it. But it's more than just that, at least for me.

I have a slight confession: I don't always enjoy sewing. I get a backache when hunched over my machine after a few hours. At night, there's never enough light to see and my eyes strain. When I'm sewing something and the fabric catches causing a pucker, I get very angry. When the tension goes crazy, I see red (especially when I was newer and didn't realize machines needed to be cleaned - oops!).

RAWR

So because I don't always enjoy the process, I take short cuts. I hide mistakes rather than fixing them. I don't like to finish my seams - I say let them unravel!

This sew along has made me slow down. A lot. When I made a mistake, I would take the time to rip the seams out and start again. But as I was going through and redoing parts of my dress (and hating it), I stumbled across a blog that was discussing how clothes used to be made.

Clothes used to be higher quality, especially because they were made in the home, as opposed to being made by child slaves and then sold across the country for $5 a pop. The blog* mentioned how many vintage handmade clothing items were lined, and she mentioned how nice it would be if everything were lined in silk just because it would feel amazing against your skin. Every time you moved, it would be luxurious.

So luxurious you just want to fall asleep.

Now, as a sweater (e.g. someone who sweats excessively) and someone who lives in a ridiculously hot climate with no air conditioning in the summer, I'm not so sure I like the idea of everything being lined in silk. But it still made me think. If I want to have an entire wardrobe of mostly hand sewn things, of course I should focus on quality and not just the end result.

So my resolve for nicer things, along with the fact that I'm broadcasting my every stitch and I don't like the idea of pointing out mistakes (and how to hide them) made what should have been a simple project take weeks longer than planned.

"Weeks longer?! I'm exhausted already."

That said, I'm ready to dive into so many more projects, but I'm excited for one in particular and I may blog excessively about it at times. I'll have more info up soon, but it's going to be from another television show, and it's going to be from the 1960s. Like this one that tackled lace, I'm going to tackle another something that intrigues me, but also frightens me a bit: jackets. (And maybe it'll be ready in time for the fall!)

But first I need to finish my Mad Men dress! Thanks goodness the deadline is extended!

*Sorry, I can't find who wrote it or where! If this sounds like your posting or you know whose it is, please let me know so I can give credit.