Nesting Dolls of Science

Let's start with the peplum clone and how that's going so far.    I have seen some videos about cloning a garment (from WithWendy and AnnikaVictoria ) and so I have some idea of copying a shirt without destroying it.   HOWEVER, most tutorials are based around knit garments, and this garment is made of woven fabric.   The biggest issue with this is cloning a knit garment is easy because shaping is less of an issue.   Stretch is forgiving, so you can kind of wing it.   Woven material is 2D, so shaping it to 3D takes a couple techniques that can be hard to replicate.   It's got bust darts. It's got gathers on the bottom. I think to make an accurate copy, I'd have to cute the top apart, but the fabric is so thin, this might not be the best idea.   The first thing I did was call my mom.   Moms are important, and she tends to be a fount of sewing wisdom.   I told her about the issues with cloning, and she came up with s...

So I’ve done Me Made May for a few years.   Last year, I even did Me Made Maternity thanks to some stuff my mom made for me as well as some pieces that transitioned with my changing body.   And once again, your girl’s body has changed.   Really my life has changed.   A lot.   I’m now the mother of a 7 (almost 8) month old baby, which means making stuff has taken even more of a backseat than before, if you can believe it.   All of the handmade clothes I have were made and have been seen on this blog before, which makes the whole reveal of Me Made May kind of useless to me.   I mean, some I am styling differently, but honestly I don’t feel like I need to post the stuff because it’s been seen.   And I think Me Made May is supposed to be one of those inspirational things, to inspire you to wear your homemade clothes and that’s great.   Frankly, I already rock my handmade clothes a lot because they’re the stuff that fits.   So…I had a thoug...

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 c...

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...

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 y...

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, ...

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 t...

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...

What Went Right: I wore handmade clothing 26/31 days in May!  I wore the first dress and first button down I ever made.  I didn't repeat too many outfits, which is big for me in general.  I think this month of focusing on what I was wearing and what it looked like helped me define my style in a far more sophisticated way.  I don't think I would have ever called anything about myself sophisticated, but there you have it.  I think it inspired me to push for more fashion risks, which is another sentence I thought I would never say. I made more clothing this month than throughout the rest of this year.  It took me MONTHS to make a dress, and within May I made a skirt, a top, redid a sweater and a t-shirt and finished a knit sweater vest.  Now, when I look at this, it does not look prolific, but when you think about how much work I was doing at school and how busy spring weekends can be, I'm pretty happy with it.  And I'm hoping that inspiration will...

Monday:  (No IG post) Raglan T Tuesday:(No IG post) Jane T-shirt Wednesday: (No IG post) Rae Skirt in rust colored poppies Reflections: This was just a piece of the month, but it was also the final week of school, so documentation did not happen.  I think the big thing I decided was how much more important just wearing the clothes that I made was to me than to post photos.  Any teacher can tell you this is a tough week.  You're just trying to make it to the end.  But now it's over, which means more sewing!  Look for those posts as they come through.  Also, this will be short because I've made a full project reflection that I'll post during the week.  Let me just tell you what to look forward to: -Posts about sewing projects -A hair style post.  No, really, this will happen. -More We Make Stuff posts -Yard updates So, keep posted.  I'm thinking I'll stay with the Sunday post date, but it may be more frequent as it is summer. ...

Sunday:  (No IG post) Hayden top from Seamwork, see previous posts Monday:  Upcycled Old Navy top Tuesday: Jane Seamwork Top Wednesday: Colette Violet top under Sewaholic Fraser sweatshirt Thursday: Nope Friday: Nope Saturday: Nope Sunday: (No IG post) Hayden top Reflection: This week, I did what I previously thought was impossible: I think I figured out my style.  I'm casual.  The best fit for my style seem to be Seamwork patterns.  I love the magazine, and the basics provided are a stylish basis to grow an outfit via fun fabric choices.  The Hayden top is becoming my go-to dress it up or dress it down look.  There will be more, and I have a Sorbetto top cut out with a big plan for it.  (To come later in its own post). I completely agree with So, Zo on the toughest part of the project:  posting.  I feel like a terrible Millienial because I didn't like posting a photo of myself on Instagram.  I began to really fa...

Sunday: (no IG post) Homemade PJs Yeah, I failed.  Oh well.  I was putting way too much pressure on myself and this was the cost. Monday:  Seamwork Hayden top Pretty stoked on today's look. Totally going to make more #seamworkhayden now that I've got the hang of it. #keepflippingthrough #itgetsweirder #endofyearteacherproblems #mmmay17 #memademay2017 A post shared by The Shreve (and Carvalho) (@nestingdollsofscience) on May 15, 2017 at 7:14pm PDT Tuesday:  See Kate Sew Peplum top See past post for picture. Wednesday:  Sewaholic Rue Skirt and Pendrell Top #memademay2017 #mmmay17 best part about giving a test is I can wear heels and not regret it #sewaholicpatterns #rueskirt #pendrellblouse A post shared by The Shreve (and Carvalho) (@nestingdollsofscience) on May 17, 2017 at 8:26pm PDT Thursday:  Sewaholic Pendrell Top, ruffled sleeve version I have never been complimented more on a homemade thing...#pendrellblous...

Sunday:  Agnes Top from Tilly and the Buttons Casual Sunday #agnestop #tillyandthebuttons #mmmay17 #memademay2017 #iactuallywentawholeweek A post shared by The Shreve (and Carvalho) (@nestingdollsofscience) on May 7, 2017 at 12:43pm PDT Monday: Rae Skirt in polyester #Raeskirt what you don't see is the paper clips holding the skirt up since the elastic broke #mmmay17 #memademay2017 #sulerstar A post shared by The Shreve (and Carvalho) (@nestingdollsofscience) on May 8, 2017 at 4:39pm PDT So I have learned a lot by making mistakes and cutting corners.  The corner I cut?  I didn't sew the elastic together strongly enough.  Now, why this is often not an issue, at a certain point, it'll come apart if put under enough stress on the seam.  Or any stress.  Or just over time.  So...the elastic came apart first thing Monday morning.  Didn't have enough time to fix or a sewing kit.  What did I do?  Paper clip my skirt...

Here's the good news for Me Made May: It's flippin' hot here.  High 80's (F) all the way.  Also, I am a teacher, which means while shorts would feel so good, I don't feel like that is appropriate to wear in the classroom.  Even a skirt above my knees feels a bit much for me.  And it is hard to find a skirt below my knees because I am rather tall for a woman.  Another challenge is, as a science teacher, most of my day is spent running around and climbing on counters.  That means I need something to let me stay cool and look professional and be able to climb on counters.   Skirts for the temperature and bike shorts for the climbing, so it all works out. Sunday will be on the next post.  I'm still in (homemade) pjs. Monday:  Peplum Shirt from See Kate Sew #memademay17 Zuko doesn't care that my shirt is homemade. #seekatesew #girlcharlee A post shared by The Shreve (and Carvalho) (@nestingdollsofscience) on May 1, 2017 at 4:51pm P...