Gemstone Staple Dress

When I learned that Cotton + Steel was going to release a rayon line, I knew I simply had to try it. No surprise, I chose the navy blue and white Gemstone pattern to make myself a dress. After I bought the fabric, I learned that it is supposed to be dry clean only. I don’t do dry clean only, so I was happy to read that several bloggers felt the same way and had machine washed their rayon without any issues. Originally, I had planned to sew a Myrtle Dress, but after whipping up a quick infinity scarf from the same fabric, I decided I needed a simpler pattern for my first rayon garment. Last month, I grabbed my tried and true Staple Dress pattern pieces and that was that.

I’m glad I tried rayon, but it’s not my favorite fabric to work with. It shifted a bunch while I cut it, pinned it, and sewed it. When I used my mock overlock stitch to finish the seams, it pulled in on itself, which I didn’t like. While I was working with it, I didn’t intend to work with it again. Then I tried it on and realized what all the hype was about. It feels really, really nice on. The rayon is smooth, flowy, and lovely for summer.

There’s not much more to say about this dress. As always, I love the pockets. Since I usually wear belts with my Staple Dresses, I omitted the elastic shirring. This dress is easily my new favorite dress. I can’t wait to try my hand at rayon again.

Me-Made-May '15: Week 5 and Summary

The end of May means the end of Me-Made-May. This was my second time participating, and I would definitely call it a success! I had pledged to wear at least one me-made garment every day, and to sew something with rayon, and I accomplished both. In fact, on several days I wore more than one handmade garment, and one day I managed to fit in four!

Over the course of the month, I wore twenty-one unique handmade garments, which I made from ten different patterns. Three of those items were made this month: my first Clémence Skirt, my third Aberdeen Tunic and my fourth Staple Dress. One of the garments, the Twinkle Twinkle Wiksten tank I made in 2013, was ruined due to a laundry mishap. The most frequently worn item was my Basic Black Aberdeen Tunic, and it’s no surprise that the pattern I wore the most was the Aberdeen Tunic, which showed up a total of ten times. The Julia Cardigan was a close second, at nine times. The only handmade garment in my closet that I didn’t wear was my Oslo Cardigan, so it may be time to donate it.

For the daily photographs, this year I set up my tripod inside our house, next to a window. While it was an improvement over last year’s smartphone photos in front of our door, it still left something to be desired. Most days, it was a little darker than I would have liked, and the limited space meant I cropped my feet out of every picture. Oh well, I have a year to figure out how to improve on this year’s photography.

I love participating in Me-Made-May and following along with other people on Instagram. What I enjoy most about the event, though, is recording my daily outfits and using that data to reflect on what direction I want to take my garment sewing next. Right now, I am conflicted on a couple of points. With the help of the Wardrobe Architect challenge, I have been moving towards a more cohesive capsule wardrobe. However, during this month, I got so bored with my clothes, that I impulsively whipped up the Crimson Poppies Aberdeen Tunic, which I love, and also brought out my two cat themed shirts that had been previously banished because they were the “wrong” colors. Going forward, I need to balance boring but useful staples with quirky and fun pieces that bring me joy. The other point I’m waffling on is the tension between my tendency to remake the same pattern over and over again and the need to try new patterns. I really enjoy making the same thing over and over again, but when I put thirty-one pictures of what I wore this month side-by-side, it looks a little boring, especially when I wear the same pattern two days in a row. There are times when I want to make seven of the same shirt and wear it every day of the week, and times when I want to dress more creatively. I’m not going to stop sewing repeats of the same pattern, but I am going to try to be more thoughtful about it, and intentionally try new patterns. I will admit that one of the reasons I make the same thing repeatedly is that I dislike both assembling PDFs and tracing patterns, so I tend to just reach for my already prepared patterns. I need to get over that.

Here are the details for Week 5:

Monday, May 25, 2015: Cattitude Wiksten Tank, Basic Black Julia Cardigan
Tuesday, May 26, 2015: Crimson Poppies Aberdeen Tunic, Navy Julia Cardigan
Wednesday, May 27, 2015: Basic Black Plantain Tee
Thursday, May 28, 2015: Pearl Bracelet Wiksten Tank, Cotton + Steel XOXO Clémence Skirt
Friday, May 29, 2015: Domino Staple Dress
Saturday, May 30, 2015: Basic Black Aberdeen Tunic
Sunday, May 31, 2015: Cotton + Steel Gemstone Staple Dress (not yet blogged)

I’m actually kind of sad that Me-Made-May is over and can’t wait until next May!

Crimson Poppies Aberdeen Tunic

This isn’t the first Aberdeen Tunic I’ve made, and it probably won’t be the last. The pattern is from the March 2015 issue of Seamwork magazine. It calls for one and a half yards of knit fabric, but for this version, I managed to cut the main fabric out of just a yard, and used a scrap from my Navy Julia Cardigan for the neckband. Earlier during Me-Made-May, it was pointed out to me that I tend to dress primarily in dark blues. This is true. However, I wanted a bright new top for the new season, so I decided to deviate from my usual somber hues and picked Paparounes Knit in Crimson by Katarina Roccella for this shirt. Since it’s an Art Gallery knit fabric, it was easy to work with. I didn’t even try to match the stripes at the seams. I did, however, carefully pin the selvages together in order to make sure that the stripes were perfectly horizontal since this was my first time working with striped apparel fabric.

One of the things I love about the Seamwork patterns is that they are designed to be super quick. I am usually a very slow garment sewer. Generally, I cut pattern pieces out on Sunday, sew 15-30 minutes a day during the work week and stay up late Friday and/or Saturday to finish a garment in a week. The Aberdeen Tunic is such a quick sew that I cut it out on a Friday and sewed it up on a Saturday. Talk about instant gratification!

There’s not much more to say about this shirt. It’s quick, fun and comfy to wear. I’m looking forward to the new installment of Seamwork because I’m hoping to discover another speedy go-to pattern for my repertoire.

For this photoshoot, my pint-size photography assistant wasn’t nearly as helpful, so I’m back to taking all the pictures myself with the self-timer function on my camera.