Me Made May: Week 4 and Wrap Up

I made it!  One whole month of wearing a me-made item of clothing every day, as well as a lot of sewing (that was planned for the month).  I did have several Saturdays that I wished I could pull out ready-to-wear garments, but then I've never aspired to a wholly me-made wardrobe.  I'm always going to have some ready-to-wear in my closet, and there are just some things that I don't want to make at this point.  My sewing frustration threshold remains quite low, which is naturally limiting.

I'm trying to sew for my changing body, looking for the best silhouette to suit my reality, and I'm not really there yet.  I do have several dresses I made this month that I'm quite happy with for this season (Fa So La, Baby Got Quilt Back, and Teal Medallions, specifically)  I'm happy with the 1934 McCall's Seersucker because of the challenge it represented to my drafting and construction skills.  I'm less happy with how it wears (it wrinkles badly and doesn't take a press well, but it *is* quite comfortable even at the end of the day, so there is that).  

I'm trying to make peace with the fact that some of the clothes I make or buy are only going to work for a season or two, or maybe just don't work straight off the bat.  Sometimes the lesson of the garment is in the sewing process rather than the finished product.  Sewing is a skill set that I'm working to develop, and there are so many aspects of it that I want to get better at; sometimes failures are more instructive than successes.  I'm still learning some lessons about what suits my coloring, and how much low contrast I can get away with against my fair skin (answer: not much)

Ignore the blue dress at the beginning of the lineup for now.  I have to make a whole post about that one, and retake the photos as my original photos are pretty terrible.  I also think it could benefit from some alterations.  It is very comfortable to wear, but I'm concerned that it is too big, which adds a lot of visual weight to my already not-svelte body.  

I actually don't even know what I'm doing sartorially anymore.  I don't feel comfortable in modern clothes, but I'm struggling to find a vintage silhouette that suits my changing body and tastes.  I have lots of things that appeal to me visually but don't necessary feel good on (I'm trying to remember that I'm not what I enjoy looking at).  Goes along with feeling like a stranger in my skin, I guess.  Being hot doesn't help--it has been in the low 90s with 80% humidity or more this past week and I feel like I'm melting.  It is 82-83 degrees in the house right now, and we haven't been able to cool things down at night at all because of the humidity. Short of sitting around in a linen sack (oh wait, I did--that was the blue dress we're not talking about yet), there's not much I can do.  I want to think about other things, but it is hard to ignore the need to get dressed in the morning.

I'm working on getting healthier, and trying to take better care of myself with various and sundry, so there is that.  I'm getting physical therapy for all the trouble with my foot and ankle, and so hopefully I can get back to moving more and sitting less sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy putting ready to wear back into rotation, continue to evaluate how I feel in my clothing and try to hone in on what works well and feels good throughout the day.