Me-Made-May 2014: Week 2

altered-khaki-dress1

Half way there! It was significantly easier to reach for my handmade clothes this past week for Me-Made-May, though my choices are starting to dwindle (laundry is my achilles’ heel). Through this exercise I’m experiencing a lot of revelations — both good and bad — and I plan on ruminating about them at the end of the month, but for today, I have a quick and dirty update to what I started calling my ham hock dress.

altered-khaki-dress2

Mutton chop arms are not my look of choice, so early yesterday morning, I took my scissors to the sleeves and hacked off most of the length. I also remembered that I didn’t like the neckline, so I widened that too. Luckily I had enough of the fabric left to make a new bias tape. As I worked on this while K and her friend slumbered (I take the neighbor girl to school with K sometimes and she comes over early), I was reminded of a college friend. She told me once that she wakes up every morning at 5 to sew something for herself. At the time, I had no interest in sewing so it struck me as a little odd that she would forsake precious sleep just to make something to wear, but now I totally get it.

And did you notice? I’m wearing the dress backwards! One of my astute readers suggested trying that, and I really like it. I scooped out the neckline a little for a boatneck vibe, and the gathers seem to hit at the right spot.

altered-khaki-dress4

I also wore it the “right” way, and I like this too! I’m patting myself on the back for chopping the sleeves — I LOVE the dress now, and not a ham hock arm to be seen. And being able to wear it both ways just makes it all the more lovable. Big win!

Here’s the round-up from this past week. Temperatures have been rising here, and it already feels like summer, which is very unusual for May in Seattle.

MMMay2014-days8to14

Day 8: Moss Green Jacket (I’m also wearing my skinnified jeans)

Day 9: Kimono Top + Clover Pants

Day 10: Weekend Getaway Blouse

Day 11: White Skirt

Day 12: Buffalo Check Washi

Day 13: Waffle Maxi

Day 14: Altered Khaki Linen Dress

And you can see last week’s roundup here!

12 thoughts on “Me-Made-May 2014: Week 2

  1. Turn it around? Genius! Now I’m trying to picture what the backs of some of my less-loved items look like. And the sleeve alteration is perfect. I have one handmade dress that I adore, save for the slightly awkward sleeve length. Color me inspired to just cut them already!

    1. I can’t take credit for the idea of turning the dress around, but thank you, Meagan! And yes, chop those sleeves off! It’s very cathartic 🙂

  2. Love how you changed the dress – so much better! And I like it backwards! Favorite outfit: day 8!

    1. The dress is so much more wearable now! I love it when small changes make all the difference in the world! Thanks, Ute!

    1. Yay for fluttery sleeves! With this sudden spike in temperatures, it was a necessary move and now my other long-sleeve dresses are starting to look like they need a good pruning too…

    1. Thanks, Greta! Creating these collages of my weekly outfits is actually quite excruciating, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be glad that I documented the process later on 🙂

  3. Talk about a versatile dress!! Not too many outfits look just as good backwards as well as forwards:) So glad you love it even more now with the shorter sleeves – the joy of sewing is that you can make it the way YOU want it!

    1. Sewing is really a superhero skill if you ask me, Lucinda. I was telling the husband the other day that nowadays, whenever I see a piece of clothing I like, I immediately start deconstructing it in my head. Progress!!

    1. You’re so right, Tara! So proud to have a PR moment 🙂 And yep, it helps a girl to have extra boobage support.

Leave a Reply to Ute Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *