Me Made May: Week Five and Spring Wrap

Last day of May, so last day of my spring rotation!  (And last day to run outside quick a minute and take an outfit photo--I am glad of that!)

I am feeling a bit better today that I have for a while.  The weekend was tough, though.  My husband took the boys to the monastery for the long weekend, so I was on my own with the girls without a lot of help.  And Ponchik spiked a bizarre and short-lived fever on Saturday that scared me a little because she looked so bad and it came on so fast.  

I am trying to eat more fat and protein and fewer carbs to see if that helps me feel better throughout the day.  So a Paleo-ish approach.  (Don't get me started on the oxymoron that is Paleo.  But it seems to be a sound dietary approach for the modern milieu)

But I digress (as usual).  My spring rotation didn't really change too much over time--I added several extra dresses, subtracted one or two things, but I wore everything and mostly felt good about what I wore.

Top left: Hobby Horse skirt, Zwei Leben denim skirt

Top right: Charcoal linen dress, Painted roses rayon dress, navy linen dress, Octopus dress

Middle left: Foxgloves dress, green knit eshakti dress, Liberty #1 dress, navy knit eshakti dress

Middle right: long line heavy cotton navy cardigan, long line purple cotton-wool cardigan, pink heavy cotton cardigan, wool Fair Isle cardigan

Bottom: navy blue undershirt, teal-blue undershirt, black undershirt

Top left: orange knit shirt, kelly green knit shirt, navy blue battenburg knit shirt, delft blue boatneck shirt

Middle left: navy lightweight cardigan, teal lightweight cardigan, black merino cardigan, coral lightweight cardigan, charcoal gray lightweight cardigan

Middle bottom: medium blue striped shirt, coral 3/4 sleeve shirt, light blue striped shirt, gray striped shirt

Right: First Light dress, Market Floral Zadie, Dandelion Zadie, Birch rayon

I mentioned that I wore my Zadies a LOT this spring.  The Market Floral one really looks pretty shabby.  The navy has faded quite a lot and it is starting to pill on the sides, especially under the arms.  I've already had to repair it in several places, and the seam stitching is starting to pull.  So I think it needs to be retired after this season.  The Dandelion one fared a bit better, but still looks slightly faded and just a little pill-y.  The color was kind of faded to start with, so it shows less.  I think I can wear it another season.  I am disappointed since the fabric was quite pricey for me.  I do wonder if these dresses look as nice as I think they do, since they seem to photograph very differently depending on the angle, but I'll keep the Dandelion one for now.  I have another knit dress pattern or two that I want to try for next winter/spring that may work better (and be less frustrating to put together).

I also wore my rayon dresses a lot.  So much that I made sure to include several rayon dresses in my summer rotation.  What I did not wear very much were my separates.  I like the Hobby Horse skirt a lot, but it took me a while to find a top that I really liked with it (and I did, but not until earlier this month).  So I think it will get more wear next spring.  I ended up wearing almost all the knit shirts as undershirts with my linen dresses.

Some fails: the Raindrops dress just doesn't look that good.  It faded a lot after being washed twice, and looks a bit worse for wear.  I also think the print doesn't "read" well at a distance.  I didn't like wearing the blue shirt that I found to match it because it had a lettuce hem that was annoying under the dress.  I never really did get the fit right on it, and it didn't look right with a lightweight cardigan.  I was kind of making myself wear it earlier this month just to make sure it got worn enough to justify the cost of making, but I ended up putting it to the side a few weeks ago.  

My summer sewing is mostly done, but I'm interested in trying a few new patterns for transitional apparel, so we'll see what I end up working on this summer.  The kids' school year is winding down, and with it, my mental space to try new things, so it might have to wait until later in the summer when they are in camp during the day.  I'm okay with that.  I do want to make the Everyday Skirt (or a similar Big4 pattern that I bought recently) so that is probably on deck for July.  I might make a linen blouse, but I might also save that for the fall.  We have a lot going on in June, and not a lot of extra help lined up, so I'm trying to not to have too much stacked up, creatively speaking.

I'll have my summer rotation tomorrow--stay tuned.