Well, May's gone fast!

Here I was thinking I'd post a lot this month...after all, I was participating in Me-Made-May, which would be a great reason to keep up regular posting. Oh right, except for that fact where I was traveling to NYC for three weeks this month to work on a show. Which was absolutely amazing! It was a fantastic, mind-blowing experience, and I can only hope I'll get to work again with the terrific team I worked with for this project. A number of us from the lab basically came into an (already spectacular) existing show, did an experimental week-long run of adding several new technological components, and then packed everything back up and headed back to Boston. I learned so, so much during the process...it wasn't a resounding success, by any means, but we did an amazing amount with the short time and few people we had. It's taken me a week just to recover from the experience. I did keep up with wearing my Me-Made-May outfits (almost every day...had a couple of slips when I started running out of clean clothing), but I barely had time to sleep, so didn't get pictures of what I was wearing! We had many days of getting back to the hotel at 3-4AM, back at the theater by 9AM (or, if we were back at the hotel by 9PM, we all stayed up writing code together past midnight). By my "must have 8+ hours of sleep per night," that's an amazingly brutal schedule. It was such a terrific experience, though. Probably some of the best weeks I've had in my life (though I could have used a touch more sleep).

So! That's what you missed from me, this month -- living in the theater and writing thousands of lines of code! (I absolutely adore my work...) I also wore a number of outfits with self-made and refashioned things, and successfully managed to pack for two and a half weeks with me-made pieces in every outfit. The weather on the East Coast changed drastically, from cold and rainy a couple of weeks ago to a weekend in the 80's. And I randomly got a haircut today, basically because I'd been thinking a lot about it and was finally so overheated that I gave my boyfriend the scissors. I'm still not sure what I think about it; the last time I had hair this short was literally almost 20 years ago.

My hair also seems to have gotten a lot curlier/wavier since the last time it was this short.

Today's outfit is a refashioned dress and thrifted sandals...trying to dress up a bit after a couple of weeks of jeans and jean skirts and tops! (Parameters for my outfits in NYC included: need to be able to walk 30 minutes from hotel to theater, need to be able to deal with a range of weather conditions, need to work for tech work and sitting in our "control room" off the wood shop.)

And here's another outfit, from a couple of days ago... I refashioned this dress a bit ago. It used to have long sleeves and a giant lace collar. With both of those gone, it became a great piece for a summer day.

How has everyone's May been going so far? I hope it's been a good one!

Me-Made-May, Days 1-3

So it's apparently May, and thus the beginning of Me-Made-May, where I've taken up the challenge to wear at least one piece of refashioned or self-made clothing every day this month. It's going to be a challenge to make this happen, especially since I'm traveling for most of the month. We'll see how well my self-made wardrobe packs! The first three days of the month have been rather cold so far, and most of my me-made wardrobe is better for the summer. Here's most of the things I'll be pulling from this month:

6 skirts, 6 tops, 8 dresses. I've got a couple more not-pictured items to choose from, and hope to make another couple of weather-appropriate pieces over the course of the month.

Day 1: Me-made top, thrifted skirt and boots.

Day 2: Me-made skirt, thrifted dress, Payless shoes.

Day 3: Me-made dress, thrifted sweater and boots.

FBFF: Outfit Planning

For my post today linking up to Fashion Beauty Friend Friday (more like, Fashion Beauty Friend Sunday, but thus goes the weekend...) we're looking at outfit planning, discussing how we put together what we wear every day.

1. How do you go about picking your outfit for the day? (Do you lay stuff out the night before? Do you plan a whole week's worth of looks Sunday night? Do you wing it every morning?)

Generally I wing it, at least partway. Sometimes I'll have a dress or a skirt picked out to wear the night before, but first improvise with the shoes/accessories/layers in the morning. Other times, I'll completely change my mind when I try things on and see what works or doesn't work together.

2. Do you try stuff on and then take pics to see how it looks, like Cher in Clueless?

My mirror is fine for me when it comes to trying things on. Generally I don't care so much about what things look like in pictures -- if it works fine for me on my body as I'm looking at it, that's good enough for me. Though occasionally frustrating when I go to document an outfit and then find it doesn't photograph nearly as well as I'd like it to.

3. And are you consistent in your planning or lack thereof, or is your planning limited to special events?

I do step up the planning for special events, particularly in terms of thinking about what in my closet might give the sort of effect I want. I also plan more when I'm going to be traveling, not necessarily to the extent of planning out all my outfits but at least thinking about what sort of outfits I can make with different options.

4. Do you have a way of keeping track of which outfits you wore when?

If it's not something I documented on the blog, probably not. That's my best source so far. (which really makes me want to get back to posting more outfit photos...)

5. How do you come up with new clothing combinations? (An app? Computer program? Trial and error?)

Ah, don't phrase the question this way to a programmer. Now I am incredibly tempted to write a program to give me different clothing combinations. Hmm. Build a few simple rules of style into it (a shirt needs pants or a skirt), add options for weather-suitability...well, this would get complicated, even if we mostly leave out the aesthetic components. Though it might be interesting even to have an app that would just tell me something like, "The weather will be 50 and raining. Perhaps you should wear a top, skirt, tights, a sweater, and rain boots"...and then have me mix and match from those pieces. Or maybe randomly serving up combinations of colors, or images to inspire an outfit? What would you want in an outfit inspiration program?

To answer this question realistically: trial and error, mostly. Sometimes seeing things together when doing laundry or hanging them up in the closet. Serendipity. Instinct when the skirt I was originally intending to go with that top ends up really not working together and I have to grab something out of the closet in a hurry.

On a related note to outfit planning: I've taken the pledge for Zoe's Me-Made-May challenge.

I, Elly of Adventures in Refashioning, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade or refashioned garment (not just accessories) each day for the duration of May 2012.

Granted, when I signed up I didn't really think through the fact that I'm going to be traveling for work for about 2 1/2 weeks in May. So my fairly sparse me-made wardrobe is going to have to deal with living out of a suitcase, working in the theater (including at least some labor cable-running and such), probably variable temperatures as it is going to be May on the east coast, and not getting to do laundry. Hmm. I think I need some more tops that aren't intended for winter. It'll be a challenge, certainly!

End-of-May Wanderings

Yesterday was Memorial Day, so I had the day off work...it seemed that an adventure was in order! I met up with a friend/coworker around 1:30 with the goal of an adventure; however, we had no particular plans, so decided to walk into Boston and just go wherever seemed interesting. This led to a free-form 8-mile walk through the Commons, Beacon Hill, the South End, Northeastern, Roxbury, Mission Hill, Harvard Medical School, Coolidge Corner, and Brookline. (I think that's close to the order we went through areas!) Then we took the T back to Cambridge. It was especially interesting because I know these little areas of Boston, but normally get there by T, so don't have much of a sense of how things are geographically related to one another. This walk felt like I was stitching together a variety of different areas in my mind.


We first walked from Cambridge to the Boston Commons, where they had a display of flags for the holiday, each representing one serviceman killed in war.


The day took on a strange, mythical tone because the entire city was filled with smoke -- apparently from several large forest fires up in Quebec. So everything was hazy and unusual (and smelled like a forest fire for the first number of hours). Can you see the buildings in that picture (taken from Roxbury Station looking back towards Boston proper)? They're much closer than they seem!


One of the highlights of the day was stumbling upon this minaret near Northeastern. See, from the upper stories of the lab, if you stand at the right angle, you can see a faint spire in the distance, visible between two buildings...it's been a mystery exactly what the tower was, a mystery that we hadn't been able to solve. But this minaret was at EXACTLY the right angle from the lab...we found our secret tower!


The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Mission Hill. Just beautiful.


After we crossed through the medical district, we started heading up Brookline Ave, intending to go to Brookline. And then, suddenly, there was a small stream and a green park and a path, and it looked absolutely nothing like Boston. So of course we had to walk along the river for as long as we could. (Interesting detail: this path ran parallel to the Green Line B train. We didn't see the train till we were almost out of the park, and then didn't know which it was. But when we took the B train back from Brookline later, we went right along the park!)


Did I mention that the weather today was pretty perfect? In the low 70's, a bit hot when passing by lots of concrete and glass, but saved by an amazing cool breeze. And in wooded areas, absolutely ideal.


We crossed a bridge over the river and came down in the middle of an outdoor sculpture installation.


All of these surprises...every corner we turned, more interesting things.


Oh yes, and here's me. A fairly simple outfit for the last day of Me-Made May, with the same old jean skirt and a pair of handmade earrings. I'll talk more about the end of Me-Made May later, though, as this has become quite a long entry already.
Shirt: H&M, thrifted
Skirt: refashioned from a pair of Joe's Jeans
Shoes: Naturalizers, thrifted (Can I just note my amazement that I walked 8 miles in these shoes and only have a little sore spot on one heel?)
Earrings: handmade


A few other moments of note:
Tiny goslings in the park.
Walking from Coolidge Corner to Brookline, and actually finding the way pretty easily.
Dinner at a Chinese place in Brookline.
Continually stumbling upon new areas, and on areas that we knew.
The piano factory that used to be the second-largest building in the US.


This was a day to stop and smell the roses...around 4 1/2 hours of exploring the city, going wherever the urge took us. Really, a beautiful day. One of the best adventures I've had in a long time...and I'd say it definitely counts as an adventure by the percentage of time neither of us quite knew where we we were! I really love this city, which I hadn't anticipated when I moved to the area two years ago. But now...I'm so glad I'm here.

I'll end the giant post now...hope everyone had a nice Monday holiday, or a good start to the week!

Day 30, with a new refashion!

For Day 30 of Me-Made May Lite, I actually put together a new refashioned dress, so I wasn't just wearing the same jean skirt I've worn again and again this month.

It started out as this floral, lacy dress...is it early 90's, that had this style? Sometime in the 80's? Anyway. Not something I'd be comfortable wearing as is.


I hemmed it 10 inches. Took out the giant shoulderpads...really, we're talking much larger than my hand! Cut off the sleeves (starting with just part of the sleeves, then going for the whole sleeve)). This left large, gaping armholes...luckily, there was enough room in the bust for me to just take in the sides a little bit from the armhole down to the waist. Then I tied some pieces of lace around the top of each sleeve area (this is one part I may modify, and just gather it with a few stitches instead.) And now...


Wow, this looks even shorter in pictures than it did on. I think I probably hemmed it too much in retrospect, especially as it winds up looking even shorter in the back, thanks to having to fit over my rear. Look at that asymmetrical hem action! I swear I cut the same amount off all around...


I'm never entirely sure what to make of short skirts like this. I don't know that I'm totally comfortable with something this short, but I'm also not sure why that is...I see plenty of girls walking around with shorter things, so it's not like I'd be standing out in an uncomfortable way. Am I uncomfortable with my thighs? I don't really think so. Maybe I just don't think someone who doesn't have very slender thighs is "supposed" to have them bare? Eh, who knows what's going on in my mind. So, normally I'd layer a dress this length over something that was around knee-length, but it was so hot, particularly in my place, which (according to a digital thermometer) had been hovering around 85-90 degrees for the past week or so, even when it was more like 70 degrees outside. This may be a long summer.


Hope everyone has a lovely Memorial Day (and three-day weekend, if you have it)!

The time flies by...

Basically, this past week has been very, very busy. We had our twice-yearly sponsor week at the lab, which is always a major event. This week is when all of the companies that give money to the lab get to come and see everything exciting and cool that we've been doing recently. Which generally translates to a lot of work the week/weekend/days beforehand, making sure there ARE new exciting and cool things. It was a good, busy week, and I got the opportunity to have some interesting conversations about my work and possible future directions. A few people specifically sought me out to talk about my work after my adviser gave a presentation on different work that our group was doing...so that was pretty exciting.

I did all right with my Me-Made May pledge this week, but primarily through wearing handmade jewelry. I hadn't planned ahead for the lack of business casual clothing in my me-made/refashioned wardrobe! (granted, other students don't always dress up for sponsor week, but I tend to. Feels easier to talk with sponsors, somehow, when I look fairly professional.) Also, I definitely skimped on the taking pictures/blogging part of this week. But here are a couple of things (trying to take places in a different part of my place, as it's quite a mess right now...didn't quite work out as well)!

Monday, the last day of sponsor week preparation:


Details:
Blouse: Ann Taylor, thrifted
Skirt: refashioned from jeans
Shoes: Capezio, very old
Necklace: craft fair

Tuesday, the first day of sponsor week, so trying to do "business casual":


Details:
Shirt: H&M, thrifted
Skirt: I.N.C., thrifted
Earrings: handmade
Shoes: Liz Claiborne, thrifted

And Wednesday, I don't have a picture of my own outfit, but I do have a couple of pictures from the Imogen Heap concert that I went to right after the sponsor week dinner. It was a really beautiful show...she's an amazing performer, and it's always really interesting to see how she translates songs that are quite studio-produced on the album into a piece she can perform live. I hadn't known if I would go because of the busy-ness at the lab, but a friend who is working with Imogen got a few of us tickets. So I of course went, and stayed out till 1AM in the middle of the week when I had to be back at the lab early the next morning. It was a good decision, though!







Other things on days I didn't get pictures of-- going to the North End for dinner and enormous Italian pastries with a friend/coworker last Sunday (after spending much of the day in the lab); a picnic with a few Lab people Friday evening, on a dock on the Charles; several days this week helping my mother move (resulting in a lot of additional stuff accumulating in my place); opera design/technology meetings happening along with sponsor week meetings. Did I mention we start rehearsals for this opera in a WEEK? This summer is going to be crazy!

Me-Made May 19 and 20

For Day 19, I went pretty simple. This was another day when I had to get by with just me-made jewelry, mostly because it was cold and raining and I really wanted to wear some warm clothing. This implies that I need to do some more sewing this weekend!


Details:
Jeans: Seven, thrifted.
Jewelry: me-made
Top: Banana Republic, thrifted.
Shoes: thrifted.


I've been finding it interesting to see how thrifting has allowed me to have some more "grown-up" brands in my closet... For example, I tend to really like things now from stores like Banana Republic and Ann Taylor. Back when I was doing my clothing shopping at the malls, I would only buy clothing from those stores on rare super-sale occasions, generally turning to Forever21 and Wet Seal instead (sometimes Express as well). At the dollar-a-pound I shop at now, I run into a fair amount of Banana Republic/Ann Taylor/various other more tailored/polished/adult-seeming brands...so my closet has gradually shifted. Anybody else experience this with thrift-store shopping?

Day 20: polka dots!


So there's a bit of a reason for this outfit... one of my favorite style bloggers, The Glamourai, (actually, she was one of the first style blogs I started following...) had a week of wearing multiple polka-dotted items, and encouraged others to try it as well and send her pictures. Thus, the dotted skirt paired with the tiny dots on the blouse collar and cuffs. (and I wore my trench coat with the pink/brown polka dot trim, but that was completely unintentional, I swear!)


Details:
Dotted skirt: Liz Claiborne, thrifted and refashioned.
White skirt: Forever21.
Black top with built in collar: Voice, thrifted.
Shoes: Steve Madden, thrifted.
Belt and bag: thrifted.

Anybody else glad it's almost the weekend?

Another pillowcase refashion

Me-Made May Lite, Day 18 (we're already more than halfway through the month? Crazy!)


Yesterday, I decided to do the ridiculously easy pillowcase-to-top refashion that I'd been thinking about on Monday, before I detoured into skirt-making territory. I can't remember where I just read about this refashion (it's basically the same concept here, though I didn't do any of the clever measuring steps). You take your pillowcase, cut a hole in the top for your neck, cut holes in the sides for your arms, and you have a shirt/dress. Shirt, in my case, as this barely came over my thighs (and required the addition of a couple of slits up the sides in order to do so). I think this looks a little cuter in real life than in the picture...I don't think it reads quite so baggy around the waist. Maybe next time I'll put in a couple of darts, too. I also should probably finish off the neck and arms with bias tape or something.


Top: refashioned from garage-sale pillowcase.
Skirt: INC, thrifted.
Sandals: Target (I think), a million years ago.
Necklace and earrings: Ebay jewelry lots.

And...more playing catchup! Day 11:

I finally wore this skirt covered in layers of lace that I'd made last year and not quite dared to wear out of the house. I had seen some images of dresses constructed in a similar manner, with lace scraps over vintage slips, and was really inspired (in fact, I have a drawer full of pieces of lacy things for making others like this). The base to this skirt is a thrifted satin pillowcase, as I hadn't yet started to track down slips at the dollar-a-pound. But then I was a bit uncomfortable with the whiteness and lacy-ness of it (not helped by the fact that it fit like a pillowcase) and never wore it. Sad! I consider this out a Me-Made-May success in getting me to actually wear the things I make...

Here's a closeup of the skirt detail:


Skirt: me-made from upcycled components.
Top: thrifted.
Sandals: Naturalizers, thrifted.
Earrings: me-made.

Day 12 seems to have vanished into the undocumented aether, thanks to a final project due that day that required staying up till 2 replacing transistors the night before. Word to the wise: test your circuits early and often! Especially if they're being incorporated into clothing...it may be crafting, but it's still a circuit. And lack of a resistive load on the control pin of your transistors will cause them to short-circuit, overheat, burn you when you touch them, and stop working completely. I'll stop my circuitry ramblings, now...

I've been a busy blogger...

Rather, I've been busy with non-blogging things, as might have been guessed by my small posting hiatus (and limited viewing/commenting elsewhere). But I turned in my master's thesis on Friday! That's now officially done, which is really exciting. Along with that, the boyfriend was in town for a few days, and I've been helping my mother get ready to move.

So, I'll be playing catchup with Me-Made-May Lite outfits for the next little bit.


Yesterday, I was being frustrated by having not made many new items to add to my me-made and refashioned pile this moth, resulting in my wearing my refashioned jean skirt approximately one million times (more pictures will come...) So, before I headed off to the lab, I looked through my stock of pillowcases to make an easy top out of one. I grabbed this pillowcase with blue flowers that I'd gotten at a garage sale, and found that I'd already unpicked one seam at some point...so a skirt it was. I just cut a bit of length off the side opposite the original opening (to preserve the blue trim and lace as they were), folded down the top part and stitched it to make a casing, and threaded a shoelace through to serve as a drawstring. (This may be because I found a shoelace in my sewing box before I could find any elastic). And presto, a new Me-Made-May-appropriate item! I don't think it looks too much like a pillowcase now, does it? My strange pose is because I'm trying to hide my cellphone.


Details
Top: Express
Skirt: refashioned from a pillowcase
Shoes: Predictions, thrifted
Sweater: oh wait, I didn't have one. This is no longer an option for me, as the Lab is REALLY cold most of the time.

Saturday and Sunday I did keep up with Me-Made May (jean skirt on Saturday, ginko print dress on Sunday), but didn't get pictures.


On Friday, Day 14, I worked the outfit around a dress I'd refashioned. This had started out with long sleeves, a hem near midcalf, and far too much hot pink plaid. So, some chopping and hemming later, I got this mini-dress. The hem's much longer in the back than in the front, for some reason...while I took an even amount off the bottom all around, the waistband sits much lower in the back.

Details:
Dress: Liz Claiborne, thrifted and refashioned.
Jeans: Seven, thrifted (my friend convinced me to get them at the dollar-a-pound, and I'm very glad she did!)
Boots: thrifted
Earrings: Ebay


On Thursday, Day 14, I ended up having my jewelry be the me-made item...the earrings are my own design and construction, simple chains with a leaf bead on the end and some crystals dangling along the chain.


Details:
Patterned shirt: Ann Taylor, thrifted
Sweater: Express
Jeans: Seven, thrifted
Shoes: Sketchers, I think...can't quite see them well and don't remember
Earrings: Me-made

Hope everyone's week is going well so far!

Day 10

This was a rather weekend-like Monday...I went into the lab for a bit in the morning, without too much to do as I still have had no word on the thesis. Then I spent the afternoon working at home on a class project (a technologically-enhanced dress with color-changing sections) with my partner for the project. We did decide to scale back our plans quite a bit, as the project is due Wednesday afternoon and we'd rather not have to sew on 18 separate copies of our circuit...so that's going to be my late evening tonight, as well. But it's a pretty fun and interesting project, so that's all right.

On a semi-not-quite-related note...do any of you have fictional characters (from books, movies, etc.) that you look up to/aspire to be like/would want to be? I was realizing that I can't think of any right now. When I was a kid, there were heroines from fantasy novels who talked to animals and went on hazardous adventures in strange worlds and flew dragons and such things...I wished for those kinds of magical talents. But now, I'm not sure what my equivalent would be. My friend and coworker suggested that's because characters our age tend to have standard jobs, maybe families, fairly straightforward lives. Instead, we, working at the Lab and coming up up with exciting new things, are leading the life of other people's fantasies. Interesting to think about...


Details:
Dress: thrifted and refashioned
Leggings: Hue
Boots: GoJane


New cheap boots, thanks to an Amazon giftcard from my father a couple of months ago. I was needing a pair of mid-length, not too high of a heel, brown, slouchy boots...so these seemed to fit the bill.

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!

Days 8 and 9

This was a lovely, busy weekend! My best friend/college roommate for three years/overall amazing person visited me from California. She got in Friday morning (very early!) and stayed through last night. It was just amazing to see her!


We met the first day of college, as we were assigned to be roommates...I was really lucky! We roomed together for the next three years, then next door to each other senior year.


Saturday night, we went out for a drink at a nearby restaurant, after a day that was spent mostly with me working on a class project (but it was still social...we were at my home, my partner for the project was there too, and another college friend came by for a while). Also, my mother and brother kept popping by. So I admit that most of the day I was wearing the refashioned jean skirt and a fitted t-shirt...but I took pictures of the better outfit, when we dressed up a bit to go out.


Details:
Skirt: refashioned
Patterned blouse: J Crew, thrifted
Leggings: H&M, thrifted
Pleather jacket: thrifted
Shoes: thrifted


Day 9, Sunday, we both went to the dollar-a-pound and lunch with my mother. (Happy Mother's Day to everyone, too! Lovely seeing people's "Mom" posts!) So I had a pretty casual outfit, also affected by the fact that it was suddenly back down in the 40's and I have relatively little wintery me-made/refashioned clothing.

Details:
Velvet top: Me-made
White shirt: thrifted
Jeans: Seven, thrifted
Shoes: Ann Taylor, thrifted

(You may have noticed the absence of Day 7! I wore a refashioned dress and some sandals and didn't get a picture of it because I was busy having fun with people. Oops.)

Days 5 and 6, with a refashion.

For Day 5 of Me-Made May Lite, I wore a skirt I'd refashioned last weekend.


I started with this silk shirt from the dollar-a-pound. I really liked the pattern, but knew I wouldn't wear it as a blouse. On further examination, the sleeves were really stained as well.


So I cut a straight(ish) line across the top from armpit to armpit, then sewed down about an inch of that top edge to make a casing for a piece of elastic (should have done a nice edge finishing, but didn't). Measured elastic to fit my waist, threaded it through the casing, and sewed the edges together. Let the fabric gather around the elastic naturally. And...a skirt!


It's a bit short, so I wore it over a navy dress. I picked the belt and shoes to pick up on some of the colors in the skirt. I really liked this outfit, though it didn't photograph amazingly well (in the one picture I could squeeze out of my almost-dead camera batteries).The shoes, on the other hand...they were the perfect purple for this outfit, but they rubbed my feet in several places I didn't know about until I'd gotten to work. I guess this is why I have a box of bandaids in my office.

Details:
Dress: H&M, thrifted
Silk skirt: refashioned from shirt
Belt: Vintage, Ebay
Shoes: vintage, thrifted
Necklace and earrings: me-made



For Day 6, the jean skirt came out again. I suspect this may be one of my major pieces this month.

Details:
Striped top: H&M, thrifted
Jean skirt: refashioned
Necklace: craft fair
Sandals: Bandolino, thrifted


So good news and bad news about today (Friday). The good news: my college roommate arrives today! (in just an hour or so, actually.) The bad news: I am not going to be able to turn in my thesis today after all. I finally tracked down my last committee member yesterday, and he's incredibly busy and won't be able to read or approve anyone's theses until Monday at the very earliest. So...I had to get a bit of an extension on it and can hopefully get feedback and get the thesis submitted by the middle of next week. But I'm really disappointed about that; we'd all been planning to celebrate this afternoon after turning things in, and were looking forward to finally having these projects finished, but now that gets put off. And not just for me, either...actually, the two others in my group planning on turning in theses today have the same professor on their committee, so none of us get to turn in things today. Yes. Rather frustrating. But I guess this gives me time to proofread it again, right?


And a silly pose for the day. Have a lovely Friday, everyone!