The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 13
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made.
It’s sort of a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels.
DAY 85 – OCTOBER 24th
Moonstruck Sweater
Black Tank Top
Cascading Flowers Skirt
Black Flats
Bicycle Clock Necklace
Various Rings
It feels like, I haven’t worn this skirt in awhile, which is funny because I wore it almost non stop throughout August.
DAY 86 – OCTOBER 25th
Versio Sweater
Black Tank Top
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Sneakers
Clock Necklace
Various Rings
Not sure how I feel about this sweater with this skirt, some days I really like them together, and some days I feel like they just don’t quite work. I also think I prefer it with not so heavy a necklace.
DAY 87 – OCTOBER 26th
Boring Black Sweater
Black Tank Top
Black Maxi Skirt with a Slit
Black Flats
Bead Crochet Necklace
Various Rings
Back to all black, and I love it! I really do love wearing this sweater, even with it’s shrinking sleeves, and with it being a boring nightmare to knit.
DAY 88 – OCTOBER 27th
Moonstruck Sweater
Black Tank Top
Gingham Skirt
Sneakers
Various Rings
Eh. Not loving it at all. I mostly wanted to see if the skirt worked with sneakers – which it does – and threw the sweater on because I was cold. I would have liked it much better with my boring black sweater.
DAY 89 – OCTOBER 28th
Moonstruck Sweater
Black Tank Top
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Black Flats
Bicycle Clock Necklace
Various Rings
I’m the probably the only one to notice/be able to see/know that my necklace is on backwards in this shot.
DAY 90 – OCTOBER 29th
Boring Black Sweater
Black Tank Top
Black Maxi Skirt with a Slit
Khaki Scarf
Black Flats
Various Rings
More all black! Yay! Before this project top to bottom black was definitely one of my getting dressed defaults. And while I am glad to bring color into my wardrobe, I do miss the ease of throwing black on.
DAY 91 – OCTOBER 30th
Perfect Transitional Sweater
Black Tank Top
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Sneakers
Clock Necklace
Various Rings
I’m starting to crave new clothes again. Long skirts, cozy button ups, easy slouchy sweaters. I have a couple button up shirt sewing projects planned, a sewn sweater in the works, I’m scheming about another easy, long black skirt, and am wanting to get back to my jeans. First though, I’m concentrating on my winter coat…
The Perfect Transitional Sweater
This is not my typical type of sweater.
I’m not usually into short-sleeved sporty-looking hand-knit wool sweaters. But that’s what this sweater wanted to be, so that’s what this sweater is.
I tried to take down the sporty feel – that just looked half-assed.
I tried adding sleeves – they threw off the proportions – plus I ran out of yarn.
I tried doing turned hems – they were bulky.
I thought about doing buttons instead of a zipper – that felt wrong on every level – plus I love zippers on knits.
Once the body was done, instead of working a hem, I went back and added ribbing. I unpicked the bind off, dropped each stitch that I wanted to change from a knit to a purl, and picked them back up with a crochet hook.
This was definitely the right idea – even though it took forever and a half.
The turned hems were bulky, and sloppy, and felt heavy, whereas the ribbing is sleek and wonderful, and keeps the bottom hem from curling up beautifully.
My favorite part of this sweater is, by far, the zipper. I adore zippers in knits.
I’d never sewing a zipper into a hand-knit before, and am quite proud of how it came out. (Now I want to add zippers to all my sweaters.)
I put the zipper in by hand. First basting it in (to hold it in place, and help line up the stripes), and then using a back-stitch to sew it in properly.
Even with basting, the stripes are the teeniest smidge off (about half a row, most obviously on the first white stripe), which I’m a bit annoyed about.
Though not annoyed enough to take out and reattach the zipper.
And despite my face in this photo, I really do like this sweater.
It isn’t something I’d ever pick up in a store (theme!), but I’m really glad it’s part of my wardrobe. There’s something to be said for expanding your comfort zone.
And it really is kind of the perfect sweater for weird transitional weather.
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt – when what I love to sew meets what I love to wear
This is one of my absolute favorite pieces in my self-made wardrobe. It’s a very versatile piece, without being a true “basic.”
I made it one morning way back in June (during the first try at this project) when I was absolutely sick of everything in my closet.
It’s a two layer, square shaped circle skirt, with an elastic waist, and handkerchief hem, made out of a 100% silk printed fabric.
Meaning:
It has two layers of fabric, one on top of the other. (That I then rotated so they’re offset from one another – more of an explanation.)
A circle skirt is made by laying your fabric flat and cutting two circle, one within the other, the outer circle becomes to the hem of your skirt, while the inner circle becomes your waist. For this skirt, instead of shaping the hem as a circle, I shaped it as a square.
It has an elastic waist, so it’s wonderfully comfortable.
A handkerchief hem is a hem with points which, in this skirt, are created by shaping the hem like a square.
The fabric is a lightweight 100% silk with a really beautiful graphic print.
I picked up this fabric on a whim, mostly because of the print.
I love black & white prints, and it’s one of the places where what I love sewing and what I love wearing meet.
More often than not, what I love making isn’t what I love wearing (lace shawls for example), and what I love wearing isn’t what I love making (mostly because it’s boring).
Black & white graphic prints being one of the exceptions. They’re prints, which make them interesting to sew, and they’re black & white which makes them easy to wear. Love.
This is definitely and absolutely one of my favorite pieces.
