All Me Made May-d out!
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
This year marks my second full Me Made May attempt. And considering the challenge I'd set myself, I think I did quite well to deviate from my 'majority handmade' pledge (i.e. all separates have to be made by me) only once!
Here's what I wore for the second half of May:
Here's what I wore for the second half of May:
Week 3
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| Week 3! Top row: Days 15, 16 & 17; Bottom row: Days 18, 19, 20 & 21 |
Day 15 - Ralph Pink Sahara Shirt; Day 16 - Rise Turtleneck hack and GBSB pencil skirt which was my first ever blogged item; Day 17 - Named Talvikki Sweater and vintage-pattern hacked trousers; Day 18 - Fall Turtleneck and self-drafted skirt; Day 19 - Rise Turtleneck and velvet split-side skirt; Day 20 - A new wedding outfit! Vintage ruffle blouse and B6178 culottes; Day 21 - Fall Turtleneck and GBSB casual trousers.
Week 3 was a little bit of a mixed bag. I was really trying to incorporate a few older items that don't get much wear, but I felt like a bit of a jumble sale on a couple of days. Day 16's full outfit has since been designated for the charity bag - it just didn't feel very me and although I love the Rise Turtlneck hack, it needs work on the fit and remaking in a more suitable fabric. On the other hand, I LOVED wearing Day 20's newly made outfit to a wedding. Considering how the separate garments would work together from the point of making definitely worked and it's something I should aim to do more often.
Week 4
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| Week 4. Top row: Days 22, 23 & 24; Bottom row: Days 25, 26, 27 & 28 |
Day 22 - Sleeveless Rise Turtleneck and B6178 culottes; Day 23 - Ready to Sew Jane shirt and GBSB casual trouser hack culottes; Day 24 - Kielo Wrap dress with sleeves; Day 25 - Kielo Wrap Dress; Day 26 - By Hand London Flora/B6178 jumpsuit mash up; Day 27 - B6178 culottes and vintage-pattern wrap top; Day 28 - Sleeveless Rise Turtleneck and my brand new tester version of the Ready to Sew Joanne Culottes.
The warm weather combined with an insanely busy week at work should have thrown me in week 4, but looking at the week as a whole, I'm pretty pleased. I got some great wear out of my now many pairs of B6178 culottes and enjoyed adding the new, more relaxed, Ready to Sew Joanne culotte to the mix on Day 27. My main struggle was finding summer appropriate tops to pair with my many bottoms - as mentioned in my mid-way round up, I have masses of Rise/Fall Turtlnecks, but very little variation outside of that.
And in the final few days, here's where I got lazy/fell off the band wagon...
Days 29, 30 & 31
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| Days 29, 30 & 31 |
I was feeling a bit of pledge-fatigue by this point and just threw anything in my bag whilst packing for a bank holiday trip to Bristol. That included my favourite RTW top, which I broke my pledge in wearing on Day 29, and a few other repeat wears. In all honesty, I'm not too disappointed that my commitment tailed off towards the end. It was a long and busy month and I really did set the bar very high with my pledge.
Things I'll take from this month:
- The need to make a wider variety of tops.
- More consideration for how a new garment will work in an outfit as a whole before making it.
- A need for a couple of summer work-appropriate dresses. Luckily we're on the casual side of smart/casual, but it would still be useful to have some smarter dresses for warm days.
- I have LOADS of handmade clothes, many that I didn't even get round to wearing in the month. There's no need to kick myself or feel guilty if my sewing output is slow.
- I very rarely buy high street clothes, but the my few remaining RTW clothes have lasted this long for a reason - I really like wearing them! Although it was good to challenge myself with my 'majority handmade' pledge, it was also perhaps unnecessarily harsh in that it prevented me from wearing some of my most loved items. I'll eventually replace these old RTW favourites with a handmade alternative when needed, but until then, I'll be mixing them with handmade and aiming to get as much wear out of them as possible.
Whilst I'm relieved to relax the daily selfie game, I'm also already looking forward to next year's Me Made May to see how my efforts compare. It's been exciting and inspiring seeing everyone share their outfits as ever this May. Thank you Zoe for organising. Here's to another year!
6 comments
100% feel you on getting bored towards the end. A month is a long time to scrutinise your daily outfits especially on those days when you just want to be lazy. I like your reflections and just wanted to say that it's great you're not trying to speed up your sewing output - it would be sad for this sewing community to emulate fast fashion; it's much nicer to hear that people have taken their time on projects, enjoyed the process and created things that are valuable to them. That's why me-made-may is cool.. we may see the same clothes a lot but it is great to see which items have longevity. Love your style!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for a lovely comment! I've been very much aware of my old shopping/fast fashion habits and keen to not fall into that territory (or even close) with my sewing. Luckily there just aren't enough hours in the day for that to happen, plus sewing clothes has helped me to make much more considered wardrobe choices! Slow fashion wins the race :) x
DeleteYour outfits are all lovely, I'm impressed at the number of culottes/trousers you have!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I've surprised myself with the amount of trousers/culottes as I'd always considered myself more of a dress/skirt person. Now to make some tops to go with the bottoms :)
DeleteIt was nice to see what you wore through the month, all in one review. It shows you have great style and I love your combinations of items, especially the culotte/polo neck combos, you know what is flattering on you and you wear it.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I always wonder whether people are interested in these sort of posts, but I really like doing them, even if just for my own reference. The culotte/Rise Turtleneck combo is definitely a favourite :)
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