Wednesday 1 June 2016

My Me Made May

This year I decided to take part in Me Made May for the first time. My pledge was to wear at least one me-made item per day, which I thought would be fairly do-able, and I was right. So much so that I actually decided to up the challenge part way through the month to see if I could manage without repeating whole outfits - and (thanks in part to warm weather making occasional appearances, allowing more summery dresses to come out of hibernation) I did!

(If you want any pattern details, they're all on my Instagram feed)

I'm in two minds about whether I should be proud about that or not - in some ways I definitely am because it shows that I've made a lot of things that I actually wear, but in other ways maybe it shows that I have more clothes than I really need.

I am conscious of constant fabric shopping and excessive dress making not being much better on a general sustainability level than high street fast fashion, but I also know that sewing, and creating pretty dresses in particular, makes me happy and keeps me sane. I also love my wardrobe now more than I ever have done in the past, and I feel so much more confident (something that I often struggle with) when I'm wearing something that I've made. So while I probably don't technically need to sew anything new for a while, I think it's safe to say that won't stop me from cutting out a another dress later this week.


So, what have I learnt from this Me Made May?
- The pattern I wore the most was the Emery dress - not a surprise! It's my favourite and most-used pattern
- Emery was closely followed in the popularity stakes by the Veronika skirt. My denim one in particular is a staple in my wardrobe
- While I wear a lot of blue. Also not a surprise. And not a bad thing - blue suits me and I like it!
- While that's true, I do like adding more colours into the mix - particularly when the sun's shining


- There are some me-mades (mostly fairly early creations) languishing in the back of my wardrobe that I didn't want to wear this month. I should probably think about passing them on to a charity shop. I'm a hoarder by nature so that might be hard though!
- If there's a gap in my handmade wardrobe, then it's probably knit dresses. I'm generally comfy in my woven dresses/skirts, but there are some days that need secret pyjamas! Something to work on...
- My flat is a very boring background for photos. I'm looking forward to the day (which may not be too far off - fingers crossed!) when I don't have to live in a rented magnolia paradise.


My main conclusion is that I actually wear me-made most of the time anyway so this didn't feel like too much of a challenge, and I'm pleased with that. I still enjoyed celebrating my creations and seeing what everyone else was wearing though - I'll definitely join in again next year. Did you take part? How did you find it?

6 comments:

  1. What a pretty wrap up! I've been following your blog for a little while now, so it's nice to see your style so well encapsulated. (Is that a word?) Very cool that you kicked up the challenge a bit when you realized it would be too easy for you!

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    1. Thank you! It was nice for me to see all my creations put together like this as well!

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  2. You have such a gorgeous collection of dresses, Ruth. I particularly love your apple print Sew Over It shirt dress. Summer dress perfection!

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    1. Thank you Jo! I love that vintage shirt dress too - I'm just hoping the weather warms up a bit again so I can wear it some more!

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  3. You have so many lovely dresses (the weather was great for dresses in May wasn't it?) I don't think too many though, especially not if you are wearing them most of the time anyway, you have to wear something! They are inspiring to those of us with less in the homemade dress department so really they are a public service!

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    1. Thank you! And if my dresses are a public service, then I really HAVE to keep making more of them, don't I?! :)

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