30 before 30 May '12 Update

May was a lot more eventful and full of accomplishments than I thought.  I completed more than expected and am having a great month participating in Me Made May '12.

Complete:

Eve 6 Rocking Out in Northern Liberties

23.  See Eve 6 again.  I was super lucky with this one, Eve 6 actually came to Philly to play a free show with Neon Trees.  Of course I went to see them.  They opened for Neon trees, and not that I'm bias or anything, but they put on a way better show than the headliner.  Their new album "Speak in Code" is amazing. 

15. Crocheted Doily Blanket.  I finished the last row of this last night.  I should have been done sooner, but I ran out of yarn with about two feet left to go and had to go get a whole ball of yarn to finish it off.  It's quite large and measures 58 inches in diameter.  I haven't blocked it yet so it might be closer to 60 inches once it's been blocked.  This was a pretty fun project and I will do this again as gifts for very special family and friends, but not this pattern, 36 rows is a lot of doily to crochet.

17. Make a pair of Jeans.  I'm calling this one officially complete.  With a pair of trouser jeans and now a pair of straight leg jeans under my belt (HA!) I feel like a jean master!  This process was amazing and not scary at all, from now on I will probably make all of my jeans.  It just goes to show that it may seem difficult, but if you take it in small manageable pieces it's easy as pie.

In Progress

18. Grow veggies in the apartment.  This is going better than expected and we will at least have one tomato, a few green beans, and a butt load of Swiss Chard (not pictured).  Our cucumber plants are also growing well.  Even though we are definitely going to have some veggies I'm not ticking this one off the list till we actually eat something from our little window garden.

Failed

*27. Make a me made wardrobe/stop buying clothes.  I recently purchased three cotton jersey dresses from Forever 21.  Why I think this is so awful as I bought them right in the middle of Me Made May.  A whole month dedicated to handmade.  What was I thinking?

First off I have to not be so hard on myself, this one is a lot more difficult that it seams.  I haven't really bought new clothes from the mall or a store or online in ages.  I can actually count the times I've bought something new this year, that wasn't bras, on my hand, and one of those times was this instance.  I see that as a big accomplishment, and maybe this set back isn't such a disaster.  I am constantly purging the things that don't fit me or that I just don't wear any more, at the same time making clothes is a process and there are just somethings that I have recently realized that I just don't want to make.  Those things are items made from jersey, like the three dresses I bought, here are my reasons.

I love jersey and there are times when I will sew with it, (to alter a t-shirt, or make a simple skirt).  But good jersey is hard to find, on top of that reasonably priced jersey is hard to find.  Jersey also demands different equipment and tools that wovens do not (ball point needles, ball point pins, ect.).

With this in mind, should I have gone to the thrift store and looked for dresses that were similar to the ones I bought, probably.  If I couldn't have found anything, should I have found something suitable to alter into what I wanted, yuppers.  But the fact remains the same that I bought new ready made clothing, I don't feel guilt, because I know that I won't be buying anything new for a long time, so is this really a fail or just part of the learning process?