{"id":10105,"date":"2014-06-05T05:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=10105"},"modified":"2014-06-04T16:45:53","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T23:45:53","slug":"me-made-may-2014-the-final-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=10105","title":{"rendered":"Me-Made-May 2014: The Final Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wiksten-tanks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What a great experience this whole Me-Made-May ride has been! I could have done without the daily photo-taking, but now that I have pictorial evidence of carrying out my mission, I’m pleased with the results. I managed to wear a different me-made garment every day, and I learned some important lessons, the biggest of which I yammered on about yesterday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"wiksten-tanks2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But first, here’s another new thing I was able to produce during the month of May: the ubiquitous Wiksten Tank<\/a>. I’ve had this pattern downloaded and assembled for a good three months and kept forgetting about it. The multi-color one you see above is my muslin version. I cut out the neck bias binding incorrectly (I failed to cut it on the bias), so the neckline juts out, especially at the back. The fabric is a quilting cotton called Gallery Fiori<\/em> by Karen Tusinski and I’ve had this since the beginning of time…<\/p>\n

\"wiksten-tanks3\"<\/a>I don’t normally make muslins, but lately I’ve been wanting to use nicer fabric for myself like my prized double-gauze fabric from Drygoods<\/a>; its always an excellent idea to make any necessary adjustments before cutting into lovely double-gauze. The medium seemed just right without any alterations with the quilting cotton (maybe a smidgen snug under the arms), but the double-gauze seemed to stretch more so this one is looser all around. Even so, and even with the slightly pucker-y hem, I’m in love with the easy breezy top! Double-gauze is just ultimate comfort.<\/p>\n

There’s not a whole lot I can say about the Wiksten pattern that hasn’t been said already. It’s a quick and satisfying sew with good results. These photos were taken yesterday as you’ll see that I was actually wearing different pants on day 31.\u00a0Speaking of day 31, I wrapped up the final days of Me-Made-May in hues of blue.<\/p>\n

\"MMMay2014-days29to31\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sumo Top<\/a><\/p>\n

Lady Skater<\/a><\/p>\n

Wiksten Double-Gauze Tank<\/p>\n

********************************<\/p>\n

And whoa, here are all the weeks together for the grand finale:<\/p>\n

\"MMMay2014-all\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 3<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 4<\/a><\/p>\n

…that’s a lot of me at once.<\/p>\n

********************************<\/p>\n

I’ll keep the lessons learned short:<\/p>\n

1. I love dresses, but I don’t like skirts. Maybe I need to explore different styles more?<\/p>\n

2. I figured out which clothes to eliminate – like the blue floral washi. As much as I adore the fabric, the dress just doesn’t feel like me. And there were quite a few items that are either too badly constructed from earlier days or just don’t fit well anymore for some reason. The Clover pants, for example. They made me look really dumpy.<\/p>\n

3. I tend to cuff my jeans because I’ve always had it in my head that doing so elongates my stubby legs, but I see from the photos that in fact, it shortens my legs, depending on the shoes I’m wearing. Along those lines, nude shoes with a little heel will always create the illusion of longer legs.<\/p>\n

4. I really, really like the color blue. Maybe even more than grey these days.<\/p>\n

5. I should also try more fitted clothing. I’m starting to think I tend to err on the too-large side of things when I sew clothes.<\/p>\n

6. I actually like most of the clothes I’ve made! It was simply out of habit that I rarely reached for my handmade items. And bonus: I got so many compliments from people this month, especially when I wore a dress — from random people! I didn’t always tell them I made whatever it was they commented on, but maybe they could tell extra care went into the clothing?<\/p>\n

That’s it! None of them are perfectly made, a bunch of stitches are wonky or I’ve had to mend seams that have fallen apart, etc. etc., but it feels kind of magical that all of these tops and bottoms and dresses came from my own two hands. And there are at least 20 things that I didn’t get a chance to wear! I still have so much to learn and can improve tons, but I definitely feel so much more confident about wearing clothes I’ve made myself. I have big plans, friends, big plans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a great experience this whole Me-Made-May ride has been! I could have done without the daily photo-taking, but now that I have pictorial evidence of carrying out my mission, I’m pleased with the results. I managed to wear a different me-made garment every day, and I learned some important lessons, the biggest of which I yammered on about yesterday. But first, here’s another new thing I was able to produce during the month of May: the ubiquitous Wiksten Tank. I’ve had this pattern downloaded and assembled for a good three months and kept forgetting about it. The multi-color one you see above is my muslin version. I cut out the neck bias binding incorrectly (I failed to cut it on the bias), so the neckline juts out, especially at the back. The fabric is a quilting cotton called Gallery Fiori by Karen Tusinski and I’ve had this since the beginning of time… I don’t normally make muslins, but lately I’ve been wanting to use nicer fabric for myself like my prized double-gauze fabric from Drygoods; its always an excellent idea to make any necessary adjustments before cutting into lovely double-gauze. The medium seemed just right without any alterations with the quilting cotton (maybe a smidgen snug under the arms), but the double-gauze seemed to stretch more so this one is looser all around. Even so, and even with the slightly pucker-y hem, I’m in love with the easy breezy top! Double-gauze is just ultimate comfort. There’s not a whole lot I can say about the Wiksten pattern that hasn’t been said already. It’s a quick and satisfying sew with good results. These photos were taken yesterday as you’ll see that I was actually wearing different pants on day 31.\u00a0Speaking of day 31, I wrapped up the final days of Me-Made-May in hues of blue. The Sumo Top Lady Skater Wiksten Double-Gauze Tank ******************************** And whoa, here are all the weeks together for the grand finale: Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 …that’s a lot of me at once. ******************************** I’ll keep the lessons learned short: 1. I love dresses, but I don’t like skirts. Maybe I need to explore different styles more? 2. I figured out which clothes to eliminate – like the blue floral washi. As much as I adore the fabric, the dress just doesn’t feel like me. And there were quite a few items that are either too badly constructed from earlier days or just don’t fit well anymore for some reason. The Clover pants, for example. They made me look really dumpy. 3. I tend to cuff my jeans because I’ve always had it in my head that doing so elongates my stubby legs, but I see from the photos that in fact, it shortens my legs, depending on the shoes I’m wearing. Along those lines, nude shoes with a little heel will always create the illusion of longer legs. 4. I really, really like the color blue. Maybe even more than grey these days. 5. I should also try more fitted clothing. I’m starting to think I tend to err on the too-large side of things when I sew clothes. 6. I actually like most of the clothes I’ve made! It was simply out of habit that I rarely reached for my handmade items. And bonus: I got so many compliments from people this month, especially when I wore a dress — from random people! I didn’t always tell them I made whatever it was they commented on, but maybe they could tell extra care went into the clothing? That’s it! None of them are perfectly made, a bunch of stitches are wonky or I’ve had to mend seams that have fallen apart, etc. etc., but it feels kind of magical that all of these tops and bottoms and dresses came from my own two hands. And there are at least 20 things that I didn’t get a chance to wear! I still have so much to learn and can improve tons, but I definitely feel so much more confident about wearing clothes I’ve made myself. I have big plans, friends, big plans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sewing","7":"category-sewing-for-me","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10105"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10135,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105\/revisions\/10135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}