Gosh, didn’t May go by in a flash?! As you probably know, I decided to join the hundreds of other sewists in the annual Me-Made-May challenge this year, with the hopes of wearing at least one Me-Made item every day during the month of May. I did give this challenge a go back in 2010 (when it was actually held in September, rather than May) but only made it to week 2. So I was a bit nervous about taking up the challenge again, but was hoping that the sewing I had done since 2010 and 2014 would be able to see me through the month. You can find details on each of my weeks here:
So how did I find it? Surprisingly easy really! And to be honest, it was quite an eye-opener for me. I have to admit that I really didn’t wear my me-made clothes very often before MMM and I think one of the reasons for that was because I just had the general feeling that I didn’t have many things that were suitable for day-to-day wearing. Well MMM certainly changed that perception for me!
When the month first started I was worried about having to wear ‘repeats’ – and I saw this cropping up a lot on Instagram or other blogs. And then I realised, why am I worried about wearing the same outfit twice in one month, I do it ALL the time when I’m not doing the challenge, why should it be any different this month?! My personal challenge was simply to wear my handmade clothes, not to wear a different item for each day during the month of May (that would be a whole OTHER challenge!). So once I got over that hurdle, things got a lot easier. Saying that, I don’t think I did actually repeat identical outfits and was able to re-mix garments to get slightly different looks. I think that was the most fun. It made me realise that my clothes have a lot more potential than I thought (for example my foray into pattern matching on Day 16 ending up being perhaps my favourite look of the month!).
Other things that I learnt during the month:
- Some items were my MMM saviours, namely my Jenny skirt, cowl tops and Plantains. I will be making MANY more of these I think!
- Opaque tights make short(er) skirts OK for the office
- The Jenny skirt gives you killer curves!
- I’m not as fat as I thought I was (sorry, not being needy, just stating a fact!)
- The Washi dress doesn’t actually make me look pregnant
- I need more work skirts (I’m on the case)
- I need more casual clothes
- I am obviously drawn towards pink and purple based fabrics, I have a lot of garments in this range – which actually helped with making outfits!
- I really like the colour combo of red, black and white – must make more things in these colours
I also had a lot of fun watching other participants join in the challenge, specifically on Instagram (I didn’t use Flickr at all I’m afraid – too much hassle uploading photos!) and I really enjoyed chatting to others about it there as well. So thank you so much if you commented on any of my photos and we got to chat, it meant a lot to me!
So I herby declare MMM 2014 a success! Will I join in next year? Probably – and I hope I have many new things to wear next time around as well.
By the way, did anyone else have withdrawal symptoms on the 1st of June? I put on my (non-me-made) clothes in the morning and had to stop myself from taking a selfie in the mirror! Oh, and on the 2nd I actually DID wear a me-made item and instantly wanted to share it with everyone again!
