Me Made May Wrap Up

I'm back from my East Coast travels! I spent the last week recovering and spending lots of quality cuddle time with Walnut and Mr. Cation (and my bed). Thanks to the constant demands of making sure no students wandered off, I managed to come back without having added to my stash at all. The downside of this, of course, is that I also didn't get to bring back any fabric souvenirs, and I didn't get a chance to meet up with any of the fabulous ladies out in NYC or Philly (I'm sure there are fabulous ladies in Washington DC, too, but I don't personally know any). I also managed to only scrape by with three more me-made days, thanks to the vagaries of the weather and the limitations of what I packed. I appreciated all of your helpful tips about layering, but in the end I decided not to stress about wearing me-made every day.

Days 26, 27, and 29: Refashioned Old Navy dress, new floral top, and coral stripe dress. Hello, growing baby bump!

Final count at the end of the month: 24 out of 31 days, and no repeats!

What I learned from MMM'14:
- Apparently I didn't really stretch myself during this challenge, because that's actually about the same percentage of days I wear me-made items during the rest of the year. Oops.
- Wearing me-made is really easy when one has a lot of knits. Stretchy fabrics are more comfortable and can accommodate my belly more easily than wovens.
- At the same time, I really miss my woven dresses :(
- Most of my favorite me-mades have been either self-drafted or made from free patterns. There's no need to buy a bunch of patterns to have a wearable wardrobe...and yet I keep acquiring more!
- Maybe I should delve into more serious underwear-making? That would give me an automatic easy me-made item every day, and I need some new pairs anyway...
- I wear A LOT of cardigans, and a fair number of leggings. It's time to work on filling those two gaps in my me-made wardrobe! I don't foresee learning how to knit anytime soon, though, and finding appropriate fabrics for cardigans and leggings is going to be a challenge if I'm stashbusting, too. I have a few sweater knits and cardigan patterns in my stash that I can use, but a serious lack of legging material and/or patterns.
- I need to make more skinny jeans/trousers too. I'm going to give myself a pass on this for now, though, since I don't know what shape I'm going to end up.
- I like belts. I don't think I'll take up belt-making though.

I never blogged that second to last tunic-y floral top (although I did post about my seam allowance cutting mishap and fix on Instagram), so I'll do a quick blurb about it now, if only just for my own records. It's the same pattern as the chemise from my hobbit costume, the vintage Simplicity 7842 peasant blouse. This time I used view 2, without any sleeve gathering or crazy ruffles, and it worked beautifully with my rayon jersey for a breezy, cool top.  Since it's so loose and swingy, I figured that it would be a versatile top -- I can theoretically wear it unbelted, belted at the empire waist during pregnancy, or at the natural waist post-pregnancy. I had originally made it long enough to be worn with leggings as a tunic top, but unfortunately it shrank in the wash and will have to just be a regular top. I usually don't pre-wash my knits since they rarely shrink, but the amount of rayon in this fabric made it the exception. Oops. And I passed my textiles class with flying colors, too!

I was trying to take better pictures of this top when I wore it yesterday, but that didn't really work out so well.
But hey, at least I blogged it before I forgot about the making of it!

Summary:
Fabric: 1.5 yards of very soft, drapey, thin rayon jersey. I originally bought it at Fabrix two years ago with the intention of making it into a dolman sleeve top, but never got around to it.
Notions: A piece of 1/4" elastic salvaged from a RTW top that died, and a tiny scrap of fusible interfacing to fix my snipping error!
Hours: Less than two...no seam finishing, no sleeve-setting, so fast! I did hem it, though, as lately I've been a little ashamed of the unhemmed edges on my earlier knit makes. Nothing fancy, just flipped it over and straight stitched (I know! Gasp! But I don't like how the zig-zag stitch looks and it's not like this hem needs to stretch!).
Will you make it again? Maybe? I can't really predict my need for peasant tunics in the future.
Total cost: $4.50
Final thoughts: If I pair it with flared jeans, it looks really hippie? That's probably the most I've thought about this otherwise unremarkable top. It's serviceable but not my favorite garment. But not everything I make can be (or needs to be) THE BEST THING EVER, so I'm totally fine with that!