Me-Made May Days 22-26

Day 22: summery striped jersey dress, made with Goldhawk Road fabric from my trip to London&Oxford in February. I only had one meter, because I meant to make long-sleeved shirt, but managed to squeeze a whole dress out of it! Ladybugs seem to like it. I do, too. The fountain is located in a little park around the corner from my flat.

Day 23: summery striped dress with me-made leggings. The red accessories and leggings take it from beach-wear to everyday-approproate, or so I like to think. And look, I can fly! Across the Brandenburg Gate and over to East Germany, if I so like! ;)

Day 24: green ballet wrap dress, in front of a red door in a lovely little street full of cafés, boutiques and restaurants, that's part of my cycle home from work. I'm in two minds about the dress, I love the blossom shape of the skirt but I'm not quite sure if I'm comfortable with the deep neckline and high skirt overlap. I guess it looks alright with the nude-colored slip I'm wearing underneath.

Day 25: strawberry Macaron in one of the hip streets of Kreuzberg! I took it in and shortened it a tiny bit since my last wearing, and like it even better now. I will need to wear shorts the next time I hop onto a bike, though, as it looks just a bit indecent this way. And for my next Macaron I will try a skirt with more flare! And yes, I totally forgot it was Friday, and hadn't even looked up the challenge for this week! Do you think anybody will realize if I swap in Day 22 instead...? ;)

Day 26: top-into-dress refashion, in front of Charlottenburg Castle (yes, again... it's the sight nearest to my flat, plus it's pretty!).

This work-week seemed rather short to me, situated as it was in between two long weekends (not Memorial Day, obviously. We get Pentecost off). The lovely, lovely summer weather may also have done its part. I'm doing my rotation in the PICU now, which is interesting intellectually, but there's a lot less hands-on work than in the A&E - especially for me as a student. We'll see how it goes next week, and after that I may rotate into neonates. Little babies! Although I hear they have a bit of a hands-off policy for students...

MMMay Days 15-21

Oh wow, is May really 2/3 over already? I also only have 4 weeks of the first part of my internship left, my second term, in internal medicine is starting next month. Oh boy...

I have been faithfully wearing me-mades, although I didn't get a photo last Thursday. It was anniversary day. I wore my me-made rose pyjamas and had champagne in bed. ;)

Day 15: coral Ottobre longsleeve and blue polka-dot skirt (self-drafted), in front of the gate to the Berlin Zoo.

Day 16: navy linen trousers (self-drafted), striped tee (traced) and Horeshoe cardingan in front of the lone, still standing wall of  Anhalter Bahnhof.

Day 18: Friday! The flickr group challenge was green, so aside from putting on my green knit tunic (half traced, half self-drafted) with me-made leggings (traced) I climbed a tree (in the park next to the Kanzleramt, during a game of frisbee). I added bust darts to the tunic, btw. As the side seams were sewn with a twin needle, that was the fastest piece of unpicking I have ever done! Now there's less wrinkles under the bust. Success!

Day 19: black&white jersey dress (traced) on one of my uni campuses. I don't think the hem really is asymmetric, but I tend to pull the back down while cycling...

Day 20: new knit-yoke strawberry Macaron, on one of the lovely bridges of Kreuzberg. You'll get a slightly more in-depth post about that one, soon. :)

Day 21: red skirt (refashioned/shortened) and striped tee (traced). Also, see the Llama? This is the back part of the Zoo (front gate seen in the first picture) which can be seen from a little path along the river that is part of my cycle home from work. I'll need to take a picture with the awesome orange birds next door, too!

Is anyone else getting a bit exhausted by this whole me-made month? It's not even so much the wearing of me-mades (which I do a lot, anyway) or even the picture documentation (I like trying to think of new locations to show you)... I think it's my own wish to keep up with all of you and your lovely me-mades. My reader has pretty much exploded with posts, I have hardly had a look at the flickr group for more than a week, even though that is one of my favorite parts, finding new people to blog-stalk... although I really shouldn't as I can hardly manage to read through the 250+ posts that have accumulated by the end of the week as it is... and now with summer approaching, I can actually think of better things to do than sit in front of the computer all day... Ah well, 10 more days and we're at least back to normal. :)

Have a lovely week, and rock your me-mades, everyone!

Rose Dress and Spring Cardi

Sooo. I've been trying to be a bit more detailed about my finished garments this year, so before I sit down to write up another MMM post, here's the works about my Rose Dress and Spring Cardi:

The Facts about the Rose Dress:
Fabric: roughly 2m of greyish rose-print cotton... lawn? from the LA FIDM scholarship store, 1$/yard. (I wish I had more reasons to visit...)
Pattern: McCalls M6011
Notions: lace hem tape (no zipper, as I broke it while trying to shorten it)
Time to Complete: about 4h, with little breaks in between
First Worn: trip to Zurich

Things I changed: The pattern comes with instructions for a back zipper, which I changed for a side zipper (cutting the back bodice, midriff band and skirt on the fold). I broke the zipper, though, and as it fit over my head without one, I just omitted it.
Thoughts: I like how it turned out a lot, actually. It features two pleats on each side of the neckline as well as gathering under the bust, which makes for a very nice look. I was also astonished that I could make a straight size 12 (especially since my measurements suggested a size 14/16), and didn't even have to shorten the waist. Maybe I should try some more Big 4 patterns?

The Facts about the Spring Cardi:
Yarn: about 250g (5 skeins) of Wolle Rödel Cotton Plus in a denim blue colourway.
Pattern: Horseshoes cardigan by Lien Ngo

Notions: five carved wooden buttons from 4grassdoll Time to Complete: one-and-a-half months
First Worn: MMMay Day 5 (see above)
Things I changed: The pattern is written for a DK weight yarn while mine was more of an Aran weight. I really wanted to use the pattern and yarn together, though, so I figured that maths couldn't go wrong and calculated a new ratio of stitches from the yarns' given gauges. Also shortened the length and lengthened the sleeves - and it worked! :D Math rulez.
Thoughts: It's a very versatile cardi, the colour seems to work with most of my garments and I like the length. The pattern was also very easy to memorize, so knitting it up took less time than I feared. I also love lace patterns! Pretty, fast to knit and they take up surprisingly little yarn!

 Hope you're having a wonderful day, wherever you are!

MMMay Day 10-14

Things are piling up again... actually, I don't think I've managed to wholly clear my to-do list even once in the last 12 weeks, but that's that. I had a lovely weekend visiting my parents and visiting my friend in Zurich and watching her play (a very nice rendition of The Tempest, in which she played the female Prosperoa). Tomorrow I'm on my last day in the A&E, I'm spending my last 4 weeks of paeds rotation in the (N)ICU and Thursday happens to be a public holiday, which is especially lovely since it's also the 10th anniversary of my boyfriend and I being together! So I will have a long weekend and hopefully manage to get a few things done, sewing or otherwise... (Plus celebrating, of course. :D)

So, on with the outfits! Thursday May 10 was warm and sunny, and thinking of the rather long drive I went with comfy jersey: my polka-dot half-circle skirt (made about 2 years ago) and last year's teal jersey top. The top really is a little flimsy and shows every nook and cranny. I have no idea what to make with my leftover fabric. Maybe a more flowy, drapey kind of garment? A shrug, possibly?

May 11: newly me-made grey rose-print dress, from McCalls M6011. The rose-print cotton is one of the fabrics I got at the FIDM scholarship store in LA a while ago, which is a story I love to tell, as I had to take a plane to NZ the same night and didn't make it to the post office before that, so I had about 8 pounds of fabric in my hand luggage... :D
I really like the pattern, it features four pleats along the neckline and some gathering below the bust. Combined with the midriff band and the almost-half-circle-skirt, I think it's very flattering! :) I also managed to omit the zipper after breaking it before I could manage to insert it. But it does fit over my head!

The first pic is for the MMM flickr group Friday challenge of "ugly places". I couldn't not take a picture of beautiful Lake Zurich (including swans and sail boats and a mountain panorama!) while I was there, though, so you get both.

May 12: still in Zurich but the weather turned cold and rainy. This is my coral jersey top, an Ottobre pattern, and my navy linen trousers. Also, no sight of Zurich. We only went out to buy chocolate before leaving. *g*

May 13: Mother's Day was back to sunny, though still cold. These are me-made black leggings and last years Fall Essential green boat-neck tunic. The tunic is made in a rather heavy and not very stretchy knit fabric, and the fit is just a bit looser than is my taste. I'm wondering if it would be possible/a smart idea to rip the side seams and put in bust darts? I'll just have to see... The lilac is the hedge between my parents's house and their neighbours. I so love the smell of lilac...

May 14: back in Berlin and only slightly warmer. I'm not at my most creative on Monday mornings, so it seems I just put on the first comfy thing I find, in this case the wild-print jersey dress (again!). It works well with my spring cardi, of which I haven't managed to take any detail-pics yet, btw. I also didn't manage to find a pretty sight. I wanted to go for the alpakas at the back of the zoo, but they were hiding in their shelter. So you get a slightly idyllic water-under-the-bridge pic.


Sooo, this was the last few days. Hope you're having a good week! I'm off to bed, else I'm going to develop social jetlag...

MMM Days 5-9

Hi everyone! Most of you will probably be happy to hear that the summer weather hasn't quite held, although we're back to temperatures where no jacket is needed during the day, after a coldspell last weekend. No more summer rain though. Hmpf.

Anyway, I had a lovely weekend, finally finishing up my cardi (featured below) and a grey rose print dress (unworn as of yet) as well as starting a strawberry-print Macaron!  I didn't get to finish it, yet, and I'm spending the weekend gallivanting around the country again (actually, visiting a friend in Switzerland to watch her newest play and visiting my parents on the way) so that will be my task for next week.

May 5: Me-made Sailor Crepe and new spring cardi. The pattern is Horseshoes Cardigan by Lien Ngo, although in a totally reckless firstie attempt, I shortened the bodice, lengthened the sleeves, and only cast on 3/4 of the stitches because I decided on short notice to use a yarn with a different gauge. It worked out surprisingly fine, if I do say so myself. :D There may be more close-ups, including of the cute, carved, wooden buttons, at a later time. Also, I actually spent most of the weekend in my new rosy PJs, but we went to see some friends with their improv theater performance, so I chose to dress up a bit for the occasion.

May 6: me-made linen trousers and stripey t-shirt (and red shrug received at a clothing exchange) at the May Fair. Aren't candy apples the greatest? :D We went as a group after choir practice and had loads of sweets and Crepe with Kinder chocolate and grilled sausages, and then had a go at the boxcars and some spinny rides. I love the thrill or going round and round very fast! *g*

May 7: After spending the night at the fair, of course Monday morning came way too early, so I put on the first comfy piece of clothing I could find: my polka-dot jersey dress, paired with the spring cardi and a pair of blue RTW leggins. I feel like I'm wearing a lot of blue lately...

May 8: me-made linen trousers and refashioned coral cardi. Not the most inspiring choice, but I really like the colour combination. This is also not a sight, just some statue in a lovely little park that I happened to cycle by. If I wasn't becoming a doctor, I might think of a carreer as an olympic spear thrower... ;)

May 9: today I wore the coral cardi again, paired with my first ever skirt, made of strawberry print quilting cotton. The rest of which is in the process of becoming aforementioned Macaron. The fabric is just so cute, and very soft for a quilting cotton! The background is Bode Museum, which I've actually never been inside of, but it's supposed to be very nice.

Are you enjoying my little tour-by-pictures around Berlin? It's fun thinking about what stations along my day-to-day life are interesting enough (or not too far out of the way) to show you next.

Btw, I'm sorry for not doing a lot of commenting right now, both on the MMM flickr group and on your blogs. My reader is already overflowing again since last Sunday, as I'm currently working on my little netbook screen, because the bigger one I usually use is occupied by my b/f preparing a paper about some film or other. And I'm sure I won't have a lot of time for the lovely WWW this weekend, either. I'll try to catch up next week. :) Have a lovely end of the week, everyone, and keep rocking those me-mades (if you're participating in MMM or not)!

Hello Summer!

Is anyone else having the feeling that the year is running by? It's May already, and just in time for MMM the weather has turned summery! This is my favorite time of the year, hands down. End of April and beginning of May is always beautiful in Berlin. The first warm-almost-hot days, the sweet smell of lilac and chestnut blossoms in the air, mixed with the smell of raindrops on hot asphalt and the feeling of naked feet dancing in warm puddles. Green grass between toes.

May 1: Me-made tunic and lacy jersey shorts. I spent May Day on a picknic in the park, eating cupcakes and drinking white wine with friends. Afterwards we found a playground for taking pictures. I thought I'd be a bit more creative with my documentation of MMM this year. 

May 2: Polka-dot jersey dress. My uni is located just a few hundred meters from the Reichstag, so as I was cycling by, I spontaneously decided that it would make a good background. I think I'll try to show you some more sights around Berlin for MMM.

May 3: Floral Macaron, next to a not quite famous sight of Berlin. Actually, not a sight at all, just a war memorial bell on some old cemetary. But it's quite pretty there. :)

May 4: Wild print jersey dress, in front of Charlottenburg Palace. This is about 5 minutes by bike from where I live, and we usually visit the Palace Gardens quite a bit in summer. They also hold concerts in period costumes there sometimes.

I've pledged to wear me-made outfits this month, and so far, the dresses are working out pretty well. ;) I will have to think about my collection of separates, though, as those don't seem to really work well with one another. Apart from all the blue polka-dots, my fabric stash isn't very colour coordinated... Ah well. I think my Colette Spring/Summer palette will also be mostly made up of polka dots. I counted fabrics in my stash, and they will make for 12 summer dresses and at least 6 tops/blouses, and an additional 4-5 dresses or skirts from refashions. Which means I'm trying to refrain from fabric shopping for a while, because all this unrealized potential bugs me! Although if I should trip over some nice navy jersey or cotton lawn with a rose print, I might have to go for a couple of meters!

On a totally different note, I was featured on Craft Corners! They feature crafty blogs every week, and also have lots of cool tutorials on all kind of things, from refinishing wooden tables and really cute pillowcases to how to organize your craft (or sewing) room. Thanks for the feature, guys!

Really cute pillow case

Another exciting thing: I am very close to finishing both my spring cardi and a new dress! May Day on Tuesday and a day off today meant that not only am I now almost caught up on my blog roll, I also had some time to sew! And with nothing at all planned for the weekend (besides choir practice on Sunday, and spending some time in the sun outside, weather permitting), I may even get further in busting my stash! Or maybe posting about my Spring/Summer palette. Or those pictures of my trip to Oxford, now two months ago. Or some other fantastic things that recently happened. And stuff. Talking about fantastic, my internship is going really well, too. After 2 months on the paeds ward, I'm now in paeds A&E and get to see a good number of patients every day (nothing gruesome yet, thankfully). It really is very interesting and sometimes quite amazing, especially seeing so many different parent-child-interactions... :)

Hope you're all doing fine, too! Have a lovely weekend!