A Photo an Hour: Last Friday

I'll admit I am a huge geek and went to see the midnight showing of the The Hunger Games.  Lucky for me I had the next day off so being out on the town till 3am wasn't a big deal.  Simon also has Fridays off and it was in the 70's so I decided to document my day.  Here is my first ever photo an hour.

10:00 AM

I actually got out of bed and pulled on my sneaks and went to the gym.  I mean I do this most days, but after being out late I was surprised I didn't turn my alarm off and go back to sleep for a few more hours.

11:00 AM

Home from the gym and time for some breakie.  Vegemite toast and coffee the breakfast of Aussie champions.  Of course I drank my coffee in one of my favorite Jane Austin themed mugs from Brookish.

12:00 PM

Blog time!  It may have been a day off from work, but it wasn't a day off from blogging,  My little helper likes to hang out and watch me type.

1:00 PM

Time to get dressed and get out of the apartment on such a beautiful day.

2:00 PM

The Hubs and I biked down to Ikea and Home depot.  I'll let you guess which bike is whose.

3:00 PM

Did I mention we went to Ikea.  We were there for awhile, but we actually only got the thing we went in for which I think is near impossible on most trips.

4:00 PM

Then we biked over to Home Depot and I got some more supplies for my window boxes and I bought a tomato plant.

5:00 PM

Finally back at the apartment only to leave to go to Whole Foods to pick up some fixings for dinner.  It was such a nice day.  I took this shot on my way to the store.

6:00 PM

Home from the store.  I put the groceries away.  I bought an avocado, Simon hates them but I love them.  That means more avocado for me.

7:00 PM

Making dinner.  I made these almost meatless burgers from one of my favorite cook books, Almost Meatless.  You make the burgers with 8 oz dry bulgar wheat, 16 oz black beans, and 8oz ground beef.  They are super yummy.

8:00 PM

A glass of Rooster Hill 2010 Chard with dinner.  I was trying to class it up.

9:00 PM

Finally getting some knitting done.  I was and still am working on the Variation Scarf from Interweave's Jane Austen Knits publication.  Um...have I mentioned I love Jane Austen.

10:00 PM

Watching Money Ball with Simon, Our living room is tiny just like our TV.

11:00 PM

Our nightly ritual, sleepy time tea, oranges and chocolate.  Then to bed.  I know 11pm on a Friday night, but after a late night the night before and a super long bike ride around the city we were done.

Me Made Wardrobe Part III: Filling in the Gaps or What I Plan to Sew in April

After weeding through all of my clothes and then picking though all my hand made items I have a solid start on a spring and summer wardrobe.  If you haven't heard I plan on taking part in So Zoe...'s Me Made May 2012. I am already starting to plan for the month of May and have made a decision that this years pledge is that for the month of May I will only wear garments that are hand made, (this excludes under garments, socks, shoes and hand bags).  This is much more extreme than last years pledge where I only had to wear one hand made item a day.

I need a few things though to get me through the month.  After a few days of really looking at my hand made wardrobe and taking a lot of pictures I have identified a few things that I am lacking.
Here they are:
-Bottoms that are not skirts
-Neutral tops to wear with my skirts
-Something warm
-Tees in general

So here is a sewing plan that I will be executing the month of April:

-First address my need for a pair of jeans for May.  I have the denim and the pattern.  The plan is to sew a pair of wide leg trouser jeans using the Janina pattern.

 Since I am familiar with this pattern it should only take me a few days to complete these.

-Next I need to make a few neutral tops to wear with my skirts.  I went to the thrift store the other day and perused the dollar room and found two gray tees, a white tee, and a royal blue tee to help satisfy this need.

The plan is to alter these into tops that will fit me.  I can have these ready to go in about two days.

-I need some more shorts.  I have some great purple stretch cotton and plan on using the Janina pattern again to make some nicer dress shorts.

I also have an old pair of jeans that I ripped the pant leg on my bike that will make a great pair of shorts.  The altered jean shorts will take less than an hour to complete, but the purple shorts will take a few days.

-I don't have anything warm to wear just in case it gets chilly.  I found a great black and white striped cashmere and merino blend sweater in the dollar room at the thrift store that I plan on altering into a Cardi.

I've never done this before so I will need to do some research before I take my scissors to the sweater.

-I also plan on making two more dolman tops.

 I have purchased the fabric and these won't take me long to finish about 45 min per top.

-I would also like to make one or two Sorbetto from the Colette blog.  Since I have never sewn one I will make one and judgment on weather or not I should make a second Here are some fabric possibilities:

-Finally once all of this is completed I will sew two more sundresses using the Anda pattern form Burda Style.

I have some pretty periwinkle linen and rayon blend that will make a great dress.

I also plan on finding a fun print to make the second Anda.  I might take a trip to Spool to get something fun.

Bustier Hibernation and a Quick Project

Here it is, unfinished.  I know I said it would be done at the end of March, but I just can't take any more bustier sewing.  Therefor this project is going in to hibernation.  I want to get things for Me Made May 2012 squared away before I wrestle this project into submission.

My frustration lies in the fact that my lining and garment aren't lining up and the hook and eye tape is pulling funny.  I need a break and so I'm taking one.

On Sunday I worked on the bustier for about an hour and it felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall.  I put the bustier away and I pulled out this lovely purple cotton blend jersey that I purchased a while back.  Then I looked up this awesome dolman sleeve top tutorial  from Merricks Art.  In about an hour I had completed a great top.  I love an instant gratification project.

It's super comfy and I can add it to my me made tops.  Yes three tops! I am going to make at least one if not two more of these as they will be great to wear to work.

I am looking to maybe stencil something fun on this top.  I found this great freezer paper stencil tutorial on Freshly Picked.  I was thinking an easy old heart or maybe something more me, maybe a unicorn?  I don't know the possibilities are endless.

Me Made Wardrobe Part II: Gaps

I refined my list and took a look at what I have and made some cuts and found a few things that were hiding in the hamper.  I have to keep in mind that May will probably be warm and that I will be working and won't be wearing my dresses or skirts to work.  I work with kids and it's much easy to wear pants and shorts.  That way I don't always have to mind how I'm sitting and can move around a lot easier.

Here is my updated me made list:
Sweaters: 7
Pants: 1
Shorts: 1
Dresses: 4 casual, 2 dressy
Jackets/coats: 0
Button ups: 1
Skirts: 3
Tanks: 4
Tees: 2

This isn't bad, I was expecting worse.  I'm going to break this down even more into what I will actually be wearing most of the month, and what I need either to filling gaps (like my lack of pants or tops that I can wear with the skirts I have).  I have already weeded out the things I know I'm not going to wear.  Oh did I mention there would be lots of pictures in this post?

Sweaters
A lot of my sweaters that are for warmer weather can actually help fill in the tee shirt gap that I have going on right now.

Here are the 4 knits that I have that can help fill in the t-shirt gap.  The top two are a bit dressy, especially the gray one which has a sparkly silver thread running through it, It is also a good neutral color.  As for the green and the taupe and fuchsia top both of these are comfy and made from a yarn that is breathable.  The yellow top will get less use from the first three, all though it is prefect to wear with some of my skirts, the fiber is a wool silk blend so it holds heat.

 These two sweaters are my layering pieces pieces.  Both are knit from a cotton or cotton blend and The colors actually work well with most of my wardrobe.  Unfortunately the stripped sweater is my only long sleeved item and it is not that warm.

This is one of my favorite pieces I love the nautical blue stripes and I will be able to wear this with a lot of different items.  The sleeves are also a great length and the fiber is cotton.

Pants & Shorts

 I only have one pair of shorts that I can wear and one pair of pants.  The shorts are great I made them from a thrifted pair of jeans and they fit me better now than when I first made them.  I am going to need to make at least two more pairs of shorts, and I will need them for the summer any way.  I may just alter some thrifted pants, but if I'm feeling ambitious I will sew some from scratch.

The pants are great for the spring and summer.  They are a neutral forest green, and the fiber content is a cotton silk.  The only problem with the pants is that they are super casual and not very structured, so I will need to make another pair of pants.  (I also just got rid of a pair of jeans so making another pair of pants is on my to do any way.)

Dresses

Here are my dressy dresses.  If I need to dress up for any reason in the month of May I am covered as the yellow seersucker dress can be worn for a daytime thing and my purple sheath is great for any evening shindig.

Here are my casual dresses.  The top left I made awhile ago, it still fits even if it was sewn a bit wonky.  I'm not sure if this dress will get worn during May, but I like having it in my arsenal.  The teal dress is one of my favorites, I expect to wear it at least once if not more.  The bottom two are the same pattern just in different colors.  These both look best when worn with leggings (which I do have a pair that I have made) especially the pink one which is pretty short to be worn with out leggings.  I can't really see these being worn much as they are great layering pieces for the fall and winter, but you never know.  I would like to have one or two more dresses sewn in a woven.

Button Up 

I have one button up that I altered last spring and I absolutely love it.  I plan that this top will get a good amount of use as it is a linen, cotton, and rayon blend.  The color is great to mix and match with and the front detail is the reason I thrifted the shirt in the first place.  I can wear this to work and out.

Skirts

I have three skirts and nothing to really wear with them.  You'll see my dilema soon as we are getting to tanks and tees.  If I was planing on doing the same pledge for Me Made May 2012 and I did for Me Made June 2011 I would be fine as I only had to wear one garment that was hand made, but this year I want my whole wardrobe for the month of May to be me made.

Tanks

I have four tanks that I have sewn from scratch or altered from tees.  I don't see too much of a need here, but I might make one or two that are more fitted and can therefor be worn tucked in with my skirts.

Tees

Here are my two lonely tees.  The teal one was altered from a men's polo and the stripped tee I made last year.  Now the stripped tee is tunic length and can be worn with leggings if I want, but I really like wearing it with my jean shorts.  This is where I need to make a few more tops since I live in jeans and tees.  I need some neutral tops I can wear with my skirts and maybe two or three fun tops to mix up with my pants and shorts.

Some may think that this is more than enough, but we don't have laundry in our building.  This means twice a month we go to the laundromat down the street so I will have to have a large enough wardrobe to make it through two weeks of work with the possibility of needing to change when I get home from work.

My Gaps:
-I need to make some neutral tops to wear with my skirts
-A couple of fun tees wouldn't hurt
-bottoms, I need to make more things that aren't skirts
-dresses, No more cotton jersey, it's time for some woven fabric
-I need one warm thing, it still can get chilly at night here in May

On Thursday I will have Part III up where I lay out my sewing plan for April.