I’ve signed to take part again in Zoe’s seasonal challenge, this time to be called Me-Made June 11.
I, Carolyn of “Handmade by Carolyn”, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-June ’11. I endeavour to wear as much handmade as possible each day for the duration of June 2011′
And I’m not going to be so hard on myself this time; I will not (sternly shaking my finger at my always-makes-things-too-hard-for-myself self) make too much of an effort to not-repeat. Just maybe a small, teensy-tiny effort, to stave off boredom. Hehe…
And since June is newly winter for us southern hemisphere dwellers I may have to pop on a few RTW thermals or Tshirts once in a while for a bit of extra warmth! I may need to, I may not. We’ll have to see how we go with that one.
See, here’s the dilemma, the same ol’ dilemma. I have a collection of perfectly serviceable Tshirts and cardigans. I like challenging myself to wear all me-made, but I still have to make use of the garments I’ve got, right? Otherwise, I am just being wasteful of my current resources, er wardrobe. It’s silly for me to go out and, source, say, black stretch fabric to make myself useful black Tshirts and cardigans, when I have some RTW ones already. So, yeah…
And yesterday, with all the new technological lessons being introduced into my sad, old brain such as a) how to film myself, talking all by myself and b) learning how to upload a video onto YouTube (they didn’t teach this in school in my day), it slipped my mind that I had taken an outfit photo on our walk that morning. So there it is, what I was wearing yesterday. In the vlog too. I’m just putting it in here, just because. The weather has been such that one has to start the morning with a cardigan, but before one has got more than 100m on one’s walk one needs to take it off. And then one needs it again as the sun drops below the yard-arm (there’s that random saying again, what does that even mean?)
And sewing-wise, I will just hint that I have been sewing up a veritable storm lately! I have lots of newly constructed stuff to show, with which I’m extremely pleased… but I’m waiting for the right moment. You’ll see soon. Promise.
Details:
Dress; Vogue 1152, cotton chambray, details and a review of this pattern here
Scarf; re-fashioned from an old Tshirt, tutorial here
Cardigan; Country Road found secondhand, and dyed yellow by me here
Sandals; Anna, from Marie-Claire shoes
I've always loved that dress pattern. It's even more gorgeous in cotton chambray!
Wow! You will do it again! I can not wait to see your closet …
Carolyn, this is too funny. I also decided that *if* I participate in MMJ, that I would allow some items that I did not make myself. But I still haven't decided for sure. 🙂
I love this dress on you. 🙂
I thought about officially signing up, but last time I didn't really get into it because it's not so much of a challenge for me as for others. But I do have a lot more summer clothing for June and school is done for now, so maybe I'll just unofficially do the me-made-june thing and document when I do wear handmade stuff.
I loved your vlog. You have such a sweet and beautiful voice. I might make one, too. I'd hate to miss out on the fun. I'll let you know if I do.
You're totally keeping with the spirit of MMJune'11 by simply WEARING more of the clothes you've made. You're extraordinary, tho, as you wear mostly what you've made most of the time. It's all good!
So, we'll meet up on a regular basis again! Nice to hear that!
Ummm… no, I haven't thought of making a vlog :). I find it very odd to hear my voice recorded, especially because I lisp a bit, and I have a feeling that it's exaggerated when I'm nervous (and making a video makes me nervous and I am quite unnatural in front of the camera).
Regarding my accent – all of my English teachers were actually Serbs who had studied English. They all had different accents varying from British to American. I have never been in a country where English was a formal language, but I talked with native English speakers from all over the world. The accent differences were obvious, and I found the Irish accent to be the most difficult one to understand.
I guess my US accent comes from watching too many American movies (since we don't synchronize foreign moves here, in Serbia). What's typical for Serbs is that we don't have a strong accent like Russians, Spanish, Germans, or French have, so I guess we absorb other accents relatively easy.
I know what you mean about rtw stuff you already have. I want to do me made june, but I have a rtw summer dress I love and my summers are so short that I would hate to go a whole month without wearing it. I also love the picture, the dress is so cute and great with the yellow cardi.
Looking forward to seeing your MMJ outfits, i'm going to be including re-fashioned items this time, otherwise it would be the same as March!
yard-arm … I THINK it is a nautical term? maybe?
Love this gold yellow. And as always eager to see your creations.
Yup, I think we might have the same weather for a week or two, we are supposed to have cool nights for a few days this weekend. It's pouring down rain (the first time in MONTHS!!) and then a cold front will push through. So I might get a smidge more use from my spring things. Maybe. Our highs will still be in the 80's though.
This is such a pretty, easy dress! love it! and love it when you do zoe's challenges. Maybe I should do it. hmmm…..
Regarding the yard-arm I found this:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/15/messages/458.html
sounds very plausible to me.
I still have not made up my mind whether to join MM-June-11, but your contributions will be the among the high-light for me, no matter whether I lurk or participate.
I love easy to wear cotton dresses (I don't have enough!) and your's looks great with the splash of yellow!
The yard arm is part of a ships mast, and apparently the sun goes below it remarkably early in the day! My g-g-grandfather came out as a guard on a convict ship, and so I read quite a bit about those journeys, and they drunk rum very regularly to keep their spirits up, he he I suppose that is where that expression comes from too!
Hi Carolyn,
So pleased you have signed up for the next MM challenge! I totally agree with you, there is absolutely no point in making something just so you can say it's self-stitched, if you already have something which performs that function fine. Personally, I aim/aimed to replace those things when they 'died' with something self-stitched or thrifted. I see you are still sporting the Wardrobe Refashion Life pledge button!!! Me too!!! It's good to see it still out there, isn't it?! It had such an effect on how I approached a more sustainable lifestyle. So nice to see it's effected someone else in a similar vein.
All the best and have a great weekend
Zoe xxx
The dress looks great–I just got a similar pattern (same style but not the same) that I'm looking forward to doing.
I hear you about the me-made challenges. I'm doing it also, but for myself I've decided to try for just one item a day rather than a whole outfit so I don't worry myself about basics like t-shirts.