Nesting Dolls of Science

Monday:   Seamwork Jane tie front shirt in blue stripes from Joann's No photo, busy day You know what I find interesting: I have been on Instagram looking at outfits for other sewists rocking their #mmmay looks, and I have been reusing so many pieces this year.  I am super impressed with those who can make and wear a whole bunch of stuff, but my time right now does not allow it.  And you know what: I'm actually really happy with the repeats.  I feel like I haven't styled them the exact same way every time, like trying out different bottoms with the tops or different accessories.  I think, however, that I do need to branch outside of jeans a little and mix up skirts some more.  I think, especially at this time of year for teachers, it is super easy to get caught doing the same look. Tuesday:   Butterick slacks by mom in grey stretch from Joann's Again, no photo, busy day.  Again, I wish these pants had pockets, but I'm really feeling how I can dress them up or

Preface:  My dad described me as having A WEEK this week.  We found out that 20 ft. worth of water pipe has to be replaced, it's the last week before finals, I had a huge district meeting to go to on Tuesday and on Wednesday I landed myself in the hospital (I'll talk about it there).  To say photos this week are spotty is an understatement.  I'm proud that I was able to finish out this week at all.  Read Friday to hear more. Monday:  Butterick dress in peach floral satin-y fabric from Joann's I am so upset with myself that I don't have a photo of this one!  I got tons of complements on this dress.  This was the first version my mom made of this dress, and I wore it Easter Sunday as well as to work on this particular Monday.  It is the perfect color for my complexion, and while it is a bit baggy still, it's super comfortable.  When I was trying to remember what I wore or even find a photo of it, my mind drew a complete and utter blank, speaking to the "I

Monday:  Rae skirt from last week with Old Navy maternity top I had to dress this one up fro work as I was presenting at a showcase.  The good news is that skirt can dress up, down and all around town.  I wasn't as thrilled with the proportions, especially in the photo they took of me at the event.  It just made me say mentally "OH MAMA AM I PREGGERS."  I did get a lot of compliments on it, weirdly enough.  And my presentation went well. I forgot to download the photo from my work email, so c’est la vie. Tuesday:  Butterick maternity dress in polka dot fabric, also by Mom I love this dress and this pattern.  I will wear it for as long as I can.  Initially, the polka dots did not thrill me as much as the as thoroughly as the floral (I may be obsessed with floral prints) but I like how it turned out.  I also packed up the drawers of my desk in the nursery, as the desk will be moving out this week.  Kind of a weird feeling to be wearing handmade clothes and pur

Day 1: Butterick B6068 Maternity Dress by Mom in cotton First, I want to say I love this dress and everything that went into it. Looking super pregnant... Zuko: "My mom is crazy..." Here's the hardest thing about doing Me Made Maternity: there are not a lot of patterns for maternity clothes.  Back in February when I hadn't popped yet, my mom and I went on a pilgrimage to Joann's for maternity clothes patterns.  When my mom was pregnant with us in the 80's, her mother made maternity clothes for her to wear, which saved her a lot of time and money.  However, nowadays, patterns were few and far between.  I think we found a total of like three patterns, and we chose one with dresses and one with tops.  We still haven't found a good one for overalls/dungarees.  (I found a pair for sale at Motherhood that was abo $76, and I'm not sure that I'm ready to pay that much for overalls.)  My mom swears by overalls for pregnant ladies because yo

My final stages of getting excited and prepping and drawing to a close.  My mom made some dresses and they have been hemmed, I'm snipping loose threads from my new skirt and ironing some other stuff to prep for this month.  I'm actually becoming excited, and it's all thanks to elasticated waistbands and dresses. Dude, straight talk: I'm in love with elastic waistbands in clothing.  Luckily, I've made a ton of skirts with them as a main feature over the past few years. Now you may be thinking: where did this sudden epiphany come from?  I've been transitioned into maternity pants now for about a month and my bump has just gotten to the point where I really can't wear anything but maternity pants.  The only downside is a maternity pant with panels kind of tends to slide down and can get awfully uncomfortable throughout the day.  Luckily, I know have lots of elastic waistband skirts thanks to making them throughout the year (and when they stretch out, I'

As the day of actually Me Made May approaches, I have begun to reflect more on how I felt after Me Made May last year.  I think, overall, it was a great experience.  I loved showing off my handmade things that maybe I didn't wear as often.  It also pushed my sense of style and how I want to present myself.  Here are a few things that stuck with me that will most definitely impact how I prepped for Me Made May and how I'm going to post this year. Instagram Selfies, Not for Me Can you smell the awkward?  Believe it or not, this is NOT the most awkward photo I have from last year. I really don't like photos of myself.  I don't like what my face often does, I get annoyed with my body and I'm super self conscious.  I like DRAWING self portraits, but not so much PHOTOGRAPHIC self portraits.  Last year for Me Made May, I posted a photo almost every day of my outfits.  It drove me a bit crazy.  If I wanted the whole outfit in the photo, I needed help.  If I did a se

What I have found to be the biggest difference in making things before and now is one big one:  I've been tackling a lot more knits. Sewing madness. With a little help from my buddy, of course. It's much easier for me to deal with a growing, changing body if the material has some stretch to it.  Plus, I have some great and versatile patterns from, who else, Seamwork to play around with.  An outfit I'm kind of excited about is made up entirely of Seamwork pieces, and knit fabric.  Right now the skirt doesn't fit super well, but I made it for when I'm a little bit bigger. I did a ton of planning around some of these outfits, but unfortunately fabric constraints mean I had to do a bit of rearranging or changing of color.  Luckily, I had my moodboard and Pinterest to help me out.  I realized that I forgot to show you my moodboard from last post.  WHOMP HERE IT IS: Weirdly enough, I feel like a lot of these images just explain my life too.  Like succ

So as I mentioned in my last post, I did the Seamwork Design Your Wardrobe program.  Basically, it was through the email and it was worksheets, and as a teacher, it worked so well for me.  I don't want to spoil it (if you're interested, check out Seamwork ) but I do want to talk about part of the process.  Specifically, the moodboard and organizing part. I realized part of my issue last year was not having enough pieces that fit my existing wardrobe to allow me to actually wear them and feel like it looked good.  Through the Seamwork email thing, I really thought about what I needed to wear and what would work for me based on what I partially already had and what I wanted to have.  Making a moodboard always seemed so arbitrary...until I did it.  I looked at images that excited me, silhouettes I liked and colors I enjoyed and appreciated.  I also, for once, looked at seasons. The first step for me was to look at clothes on my Pinterest (specifically this board:  Season Moodb

Yes, you read that title right.  I'm going to attempt Me Made May for the second time.  Oh, and I'm 20 weeks pregnant.  Yeah, so it's been a process.  My little buddy girl has just started to pop out a little, so I've been making the move into maternity wear.  The first trimester was actually somewhat mild compared to those in my new mother's support group thing.  I had fatigue and nausea, but overall it wasn't like the worst thing.  I mean, I slept a lot but I think that was my body preparing for insomnia to come.  And the second trimester, which many call the best trimester, has been good so far.  The body changes have been weird, and I feel like I have a new body like every few days, but other than that it's been fine so far.  Luckily, I'm tall, so she has plenty of space to move around.  I have a feeling that my blog posts for Me Made May will have a similar "Baby Update" vibe to them, but if I've learned anything about how I blog, pl