Me Made May '17 Pledge

This year, I have totally dropped the ball on getting prepped for Me Made May. Thanks to some fairly significant weight loss in the past few months (Yay!) a number of my handmade items no longer fit (Boo!). Just like a lot of my rtw clothing. Funny how they don't magically change size with you. I'm crossing my fingers that I can manage without having to sew up 20 new things, because I really don't have time for that. I have a 5 year old with a broken leg, and cosplays to get working on for June.

So with that, here's my MMMay17 pledge:

'I, Kate of The Fairy Dust Bin blog and @thefairydustbin, sign up as a participant of Me Made May '17. I endeavor to wear at least one item of me-made clothing each day, and all me-made outfits (excluding underwear, socks, footwear) 3 days per week for the duration of Me Made May.'

Typically I take daily photos and post them to IG. I plan to do that again, but am not making it part of my pledge this year.

At a glance, with most of my me-mades tossed on a bed, this will definitely be a challenge.

Yeah... That's a mess.

Several things that no longer fit well haven't made it out of my closet, and one pair of leggings is my lone pair of pants. Yikes. It's not as warm this year doing Me Made May in Maine instead of Maryland (whoa, that's a lot of "M"s), so I see at least a couple new pairs of leggings being sewn in my near future. Maybe a pair of real pants if I can make the time. But we'll make this work! Wish me luck!

Sewing Up Spring

I am so, so ready for spring this year. Signs of it are finally starting to pop up here, and we've had a couple of teaser days that warm weather might decide to stick around eventually. Mostly though, it's still been pretty cold, so planning new things for warm weather has been more like dreaming. I wasn't feeling terribly springy when it came time to plan for this tour, but at some point I mentioned it to a friend who not only puts up with my babble about craft stuff, but is super amazing and sometimes even actually pays attention. ;) He gave me a suggestion that bears little resemblance to what I ultimately made, but it was enough to spark a new stream of ideas, which was exactly what I needed.

I'd found the butterfly voile at JoAnns, while looking in the quilting fabrics with my mom. I had no idea what I'd do with it, but I loved it and just had to buy it. It was perfectly springy for this project, but I don't typically wear a lot of light colored dresses. Black? You bet. Darks and brights? I like them too. But pastels and white? Um, no. Solution? Layer it with black. Add lace. I'm really just excited that this pretty much worked just like it did in my head, because in the past things usually haven't.

This dress, believe it or not, started out as the Made for Mermaids Mama Quinn. Yup. I made up a straight from the pattern version first (oh hey, that one's pretty light and springy too!), which I also adore, and then hacked the pattern to pieces and redrafted them to make the dress pattern that I just. could. not. find. I added in a waistband, made the back bodice more fitted, and used a skater style skirt instead of an a-line. It took two test versions, and it's not totally perfect, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The bodice is both underlined and lined in black, and there are two black underskirts, both with lace in the hems.

For this project, I actually broke out my grandmother's old pinking shears to finish a lot of the inside seams. The lining is only sewn in around the neckline, so the bodice seams aren't truly enclosed. Serging felt like it would add too much bulk, but these fabrics really wanted to fray, so I decided it was as good a time as any to try out pinking them to help things hold up a little better.

I had intended to style this with the tights and boots. The arm warmers weren't in my original plan, but the colors worked, and it was just over 40 degrees when I went out to take pictures. Not so much on the spring weather here in Maine. I'm looking forward to warmer weather, whenever it finally comes to stay, and wearing this without all of the extras!

Thanks for checking this out, now go see what the rest of the bloggers have done this month!
Be sure to follow along to be inspired!

April 1st: Sewing By Ti



Monday, April 3rd Sewing By Ti

April 4th Crafty Like a Rox

April 5th The Socially Awkward Seamstress

April 6th The Socially Awkward Seamstress

April 7th Robynne and the Bobbin



Sunday April 9th Sew Like a Sloth

April 10th That's Sew Lily

April 11th Hazelnut Handmade

April 12th Doodle Number 5

April 13th Crafty Like a Rox

April 14th Sewing By Ti, Ma Moose



Monday April 17th Anne Mari Sews, Robynne and the Bobbin

April 18th Rebel and Malice

April 19th Very Blissful

April 20th The Fairy Dust Bin

April 21st Sewing By Ti



Sunday April 23rd On Wednesdays We Sew

April 24th Tenille's Thread

April 25th Ma Moose

April 26th Margarita on the Ross

April 27th The Socially Awkward Seamstress

April 28th Sewing By Ti