Tag Archives: Mmm11

Me-Made March, Day 30
I’m not 100% feeling this outfit.  Both the top and the skirt are getting old and have been kicking around in my wardrobe for a few years… both were part of my earlier plan to inject some colour into my life when I first started this blog.  I’m not sure how that’s panned out for me.  I feel a little conspicuous whenever I wear bright colours, so maybe they are not for me after all.  And combining two really bright vigorous colours like in this outfit is really pushing my comfort barrier…!
Actually, I’d forgotten how much I liked this skirt with its sharp kick pleats.  They lend such an old-fashioned ladylike air to an skirt, no?  Maybe I should bring it back into regular rotation.
And although I’ve enjoyed this month-long me-made challenge …. just one day to go!  (squeee!)  My camera will be glad of a break!

Details:
Top; Butterick 4985, orange polkadot print cotton, refashioned from a costume skirt here
Skirt Vogue 1023 shortened, some turquoise synthetic stuff, details here
Sandals; la soffitadi Gilde, from Zomp shoes
Nail varnish; Santorini Sunset

Earlier in the month I wore a silk dress for general gardening.  Today I have selected black lace… to clean out the garage and shed.  Don’t worry, it’s not expensive lace just cheap-ish polyester-y stuff.  But it is lace, meaning cool and open to breezes; a priority.
Every six months local councils around here organise a verge pick-up.  That is, you get to toss out all your unwanted old junk onto your verge, and theoretically the council will come around and pick it all up for you to cart off to the tip.  Theoretically.  In reality however, everyone’s rubbish pile is reduced to a fraction of its original size by the time of the pick-up because this is just the best neighbourhood re-cycling scheme ever devised. Cars cruising very slowly up and down the streets become a common sight; people checking out everyone’s rubbish piles and periodically hopping out to retrieve a few treasures to stash in the boot for their own house and garden.   Kudos to the clever cookie in the public service who thought this one up.
And for once, this time we have managed to not pick up anybody else’s junk, although we had a close call when Sam spotted an old TV on the way home from volleyball yesterday… and I had to talk firmly and convincingly about how not only did we not know whether it actually worked  (sometimes people put a helpful note on the top telling you whether things still work; not this time which tells me it probably didn’t) but that personal TV’s in one’s bedroom are unsociable and unhealthy and not conducive to study, blah blah blah.  None of these points of view being particularly relevant arguments to the teenage mind.

Details:
Top; Butterick 4985 with different plainer sleeves, black lace and blue nacre heart-shaped buttons
Shorts; Burda 7723 modified, ivory corduroy, details here
Nail varnish; Santorini Sunset

Later: I lie.  We just got an old beautifully decorative ironwork gate from next door.  Score!

It’s actually too hot to be wearing my new shoes today, but I don’t care.  Wore them anyway, because I  just couldn’t resist their ever-so-slightly blotchy ivory leather, their pinked-edged, laced-up, strategically placed cut-outed charm.  Wore them to volleyball (we won).  To the supermarket.  Now they are off because my feet were swel-ter-ing and crying out to please be free of hot closed-in footwear… but I am already looking forward to wearing them again, soon.  Tonight, in fact, at a family barbecue…
All the other garments today are basic old favourites, all made years ago, including the necklace.  Comfort dressing.
Me-Made March has held an unexpected challenge for me in that we have had such an unprecedentedly long hot summer.  This first month of autumn has brought temperatures more like we would expect in January, meaning pretty hot.  So I haven’t been able to even think about wearing some of my old or new autumn things as planned, some of which haven’t been shown in that me-made group before.  I’m a little disappointed that most of my outfits have been just plain… well, plain.  I like to play around in my wardrobe and layer and mix things up, but when the days are an unending parade of 35C* one is limited to an unimaginative unlayered approach. Even so I’m pretty pleased with myself I’ve managed to (so far) not have any repeats, apart from my beige, sorry, sorry! nude petticoat.  The obvious inference from the fact that I am even able to do this is of course that perhaps I have too many clothes…

Details:
Top; my own design based on the basic shape of NewLook 6483, ivory cotton and crochet trim
Skirt; Vogue 7303 lined, ivory wool mix
Necklace, my own design
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

*35C=95F in the old measurements

…  shopping and lunching with my mother and my two sisters-in-law.  Simply delightful.  We had a cocktail with lunch as well as a load of fun, and I spent a birthday gift voucher for Zomp on some totally adorable new shoes!  Will be showing them off here soon, for sure.

Details:
Top; my own design, made from an old pair of three quarter pants, details here
Skirt; my own design, charcoal jersey knit, seen first here
Sandals; Pedro Miralles, from Soletta shoes
Nail varnish; Pouty Purple, BYS