Nesting Dolls of Science

You know what the best part about this challenge has been so far?   By not shopping this week, my brain is like "Girl, you are crushing this challenge!"   So, I could passively go through a year of not buying clothes and feel good about myself!   BOOM.   But here’s the thing:   looking forward, I'm going to need to do some serious wardrobe consideration.   My jeans are quite a few years old and wearing out in places.   I had a baby a year ago so my body is still changing.   I'm also trying to be more active, so yeah it's going to keep changing.   Plus, I'm rocking the tail end of my 20's, therefore weddings.   Always.   I have three invites for this year alone (one my daughter is going to be a flower girl, exciting!) Basically, the goal for this week was to sit down and figure a few things out. Define my personal style. What pieces do I need? What pieces do I want? How do I get those pieces? STEP NUMBER FUN:   D...

Look at me, progressing with actually sewing something!  I think the moral of my story is have someone to keep you accountable, like a mom.  Every mom needs a mom. This was my daughter's first time in the magical place that is Joann's Fabric, and it turns out my kid as she is right now rocks at errands.  Frankly, she's more patient than me.  I don't think it hurts that she was complimented by I think just about everyone.  I had done some research on Joanns.com before we went to the store, so that is a huge plus.  I knew I wanted some light weight fabric for the peplum top and something kind of linen-y for the playsuit. I knew white withe some kind of embroidery was what I wanted for the top, but I hadn't decided what it would look like, and I saw some navy light weight embroidered fabric that I fell madly in love with.  The issue was that fabric was not really in the direction that worked best for the pattern, so I landed on this floral embroidere...

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...

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...

I have a Pinterest problem.  I love it, so very very much.  When I have moments of downtime during my days, I'll peruse it at my leisure for craft ideas, hair ideas, fashion ideas, teaching activity ideas or just basic inspiration.   My husband often wonders why we run out of data every month.  Between Pinterest and Instagram, it's me.  It's all me. Now to the purpose of this post.  As I began preparation for Me Made May (see last post), I found myself spending an increasing amount of time on Pinterest, and I found myself actually starting to consider some of the projects I've Pinned.  A lot of the modification and project idea (as well as informative tutorials) have found their way onto my boards, and I want to share this journey with you. How We Met I was introduced to the magic that is Pinterest via my teacher education program.  No, I'm not kidding.  During our technology class, we learned about Blogger as way to share our teach...

Let's begin this grand experiment. I have only been sewing for about a year and a half, but in that time, I've begun to amass quite the collection of handmade clothing or hand mended clothing, and I wanted to spend the month of May honestly celebrating that. So I found this post through Colette Blog last year and I was incredibly inspired, so I'm going to try and do it this year.  The whole point of Me-Made-May is to challenge you to wear things that are usually not the number one choices in your closet, which I desperately need to do, but I also want to use it as a way to really inspire myself to stretch creatively. But here's the big thing, I am a full time teacher, meaning I don't have a ton of time to consider fully handmade outfits or make extra pieces, so I'm going to make some rules to make this realistic for me to actually have enough pieces to make it through the month. Maybe in the future, I'll take some of the supports out.  That's what...

There's a saying:  Jack of all trades, master of none.  Which is how I feel more than 90% of the time.  I can do a handful of things fairly well, but I can't do any particular trade particularly well.   What you will see in this blog is a smattering of what I like as well as some family stories mixed in.  This list includes but is not limited to: Drawing Painting Animating Music Sewing Embroidering Crafting Needle felting Knitting Crochet Croquet Food Eating Building Breaking Teaching Dog walking You know, usual stuff.  Tutorials mixed in, one hopes, as well as completed projects.   I can't promise much outside this, but I'll try to amuse you like a sewing, dancing Schnauzer puppy.  Like my Schnauzer puppy.  He amuses me. I might also complain about messing projects up.  That's likely too. No matter what, I'm going to enjoy myself and I hope you do too.