Tag Archives: me-made-may

My Me-Made-May 2020 |It’s a wrap

It’s the 1st of June today so that is the end of My Me-Made-May 2020. It felt a bit weird this morning that I could freely choose something from my closet to wear. Unlike the last 30 days when I had to choose something from the wardrobe capsules I composed for this Me-Made-May 2020.

My Me-made-may 2020

So this weird month—I call it the one-and-a-half meter month— is over. That means I finished my third wardrobe capsule of this year. Read below how it went!

My third capsule: ‘Everything goes!’

Oops! I did it again! I managed to dress 10 days with 10 different outfits using 10 garments from the ‘Everything goes!’ capsule.

wardrobe capsule
A 100% me-made ‘Everything goes!’ capsule

I documented my outfit every day with a photo on Instagram. Below you see them with Day 1 in the right bottom corner.

My Me-made-may
10 ‘Everything goes!’ outfits

How did I feel about the ‘Everything goes!” capsule?

I enjoyed this capsule! I had no problem finding pairings and I felt good with every outfit. The fact that it was 100% me-made capsule brought me even more joy!
Also, because there were two one-pieces in this capsule the outfit choices didn’t become tedious like with the previous capsule.

New combinations?

Except for the days that I only wore my dress or my jumpsuit, all the other outfits were new combinations. How am I so sure about that? In hindsight, I think it’s because I mostly paired an older garment with a newer sewed garment.

Top sewed in 2016 paired with the mashup skirt from 2019.

My Me-Made-May 2020 Wrap

Just like last year, I loved my approach to Me-Made-May. As I wear me-made clothes for 99% of the time I need a bit of a challenge for this month. So creating 3 wardrobe capsules with my me-made clothes turns it into the right challenge for me.

I’m satisfied with how it went. And I’m even excited about the bonuses the challenge brought.
* The discovery of new, and for me good, pairings. 26 days of 30 I wore a never worn before combination and I loved it.
* A renewed love for garments I lost interest in. I think especially of the woolen cache-coeur and the Kabuki Tees.

New Love!

I also learned a bit more about putting together a capsule. It is important to differentiate the type of garments. Like in the second capsule I didn’t include a one-piece (a dress or a jumpsuit) and that makes the possible combinations less exciting.

The it garment: the Venus robe

When I was selecting the pieces for the third capsule I needed a layering top. I have some self-made cardigans but they are too warm to wear them in May. That’s when my eye caught the Venus robe again. It had already been in both previous capsules and I thought it would be fun to make it a part of every capsule.

My Me-made-may
Venus Robe x6


Conclusion

Although we are living in these weird corona times now I loved Me-Made-May 2020. Creating three new wardrobe capsules and trying out all these new outfits made me happy. So happy that I’m now absolutely convinced I will do it again next year.
Come and see me in Me-Made-May 2021!

My Me-made-may
Me-Made-May 2020 Best Nine


My Me-Made-May 2020 | Second wardrobe capsule round-up

2/3rd of May is finished! This means 2/3 of my wardrobe capsules for My Me-Made-May 2020 are done. Just like last year, I created three wardrobe capsules for me-made-may.
Below you can read how it went with my second wardrobe capsule and how my third capsule looks.

My Me-Made-May 2020

My second capsule “Blue & Brown”: it worked!

Yes! I managed to dress 10 days with 10 different outfits using 10 garments. In fact, it wasn’t difficult at all because I had plenty of combination choices. More about this later.

Blue & Brown capsule wardrobe
Blue & Brown

I documented nine outfits with a post on Instagram. Click on the links of the days. Below you see my overview starting with day 1 in the right bottom corner.

My Me-Made-May 2020

How did I feel about the “Blue & Brown” capsule?

Well, I have some mixed feelings about this capsule. First, I am enthusiastic about the mix of the two colours. Like I said when I composed this capsule I don’t naturally gravitate to blue but I was surprised how good the blue garments were combinable with the brownish. Also, the “dress like a crayon” blue outfit pleased me a lot!

Dress like a crayon
Dress like a crayon 💙

Secondly however, I am not so thrilled about the capsule an-sich. More specific about the type of garments I selected. Although there are no strict rules on how you compose your capsule I experienced now that selecting only tops and bottoms makes it less exciting.
The putting together of my capsule is always a quick job. I select some candidates of garments around a theme and make up some possible combinations in my head. Then, when I reach 10 I go for it.
Being in the daily flow of this Blue & Brown capsule with 3 skirts and 7 tops it became a little dull. Because it was not really a challenge to make new looks and I felt like I had to repeat ( 5x the faux wrap skirt!) some items a lot! A good lesson for my next capsule: select at least 1 one-piece (dress or jumpsuit).

New combinations?

All these outfits are new combinations! I’ve never worn them before. How am I so certain about that? Because most of these garments have some kind “I am a poor lonesome cowboy”-status in my wardrobe. I did wear them in the past but always in other fixed combinations. So, bringing together “two lonesome cowboys” is absolutely the win of this Blue & Brown capsule.
My favourite is wearing the Venus Robe as a top!

Venus Robe Sew That Pattern

My third capsule: Everything goes!

For the third capsule of My Me-Made-May 2020, I made up two rules.
1. It has to be 100% me-made.
2. As I have my lesson learned, it has to contain at least 1 dress or jumpsuit.

My Me-Made-May 2020

For the top layer, I selected the Venus Robe (n° 2). I thought that was fun that this garment was part of every capsule for this year’s me-made-may.

Bonus

Again, I give myself permission to change any of these garments with a freshly new made one within the next 10 days! Unfortunately, I didn’t manage sewing something new during the last capsule but maybe now…

Sloppy Josephine Tee Papercut Patterns

On the first day of my ‘Everything goes’ capsule, I wear my fresh-off-the-machine Sloppy Josephine Tee with one of my oldest A-line skirts.

How is your Me-Made-May 2020 going?

My Me-Made-May 2020 | First wardrobe capsule round-up

In these weird corona times, it seems like time crawls and sprints at the same time. It feels like Me-Made-May 2020 only started and yet, I’ve already finished my first wardrobe capsule for this year! This means I’ve worn 10 different outfits created out of the 10 items I chose to fill my ‘A little orange 🍑’ capsule.
Below, below you can read how it went and how my second wardrobe capsule for Me-Made-May 2020 will look.

Me-Made-May Wardrobe Capsule
A glimpse of my second wardrobe capsule for Me-Made-May 2020

Did I succeed in my ‘A little orange 🍑’ capsule?

I did! I managed to dress 10 days with 10 different outfits using 10 garments.

Me-Made-May Wardrobe Capsule

I documented my outfit every day with a photo on Instagram. Below you see them with Day 1 in the right bottom corner.

Me-Made-May Wardrobe Capsule
Nine ‘A little orange 🍑’ outfits

How did I feel about it?

It took me some time to get used to this capsule. Why? I see two reasons:
1) This is the 4th capsule I created so I had to dig deep into my closet to find 10 pieces that I could coordinate around a ‘not-used-before’ theme. Although I did a quick check when I selected the garments I didn’t feel very confident I could make it work for 10 days.
2) The month started with some cooler days (the weather in Belgium is fickle). So, on these days I had to wear several layers to keep myself warm. This meant wearing the soft pinkish-orangish cache-coeur with which I have a love-hate relationship. But due to the many compliments I received, it grew on me and I even selected it 3 times.

After a few days, I got really enthusiastic about this capsule and in my head, I was preparing a lot of combinations to wear. A thing that helps is that you put your selected garments on a separate clothing rail so that, in the morning, you see all your options in a blink of the eye.

The selected items for the ‘A little orange 🍑’ wardrobe capsule

New combinations?

Except for the 2 days I wore my one-pieces (dress or jumpsuit), all the other combinations were new for me. Really, I never wore them together before. So this whole wardrobe capsule exercise sets indeed a new eye on your wardrobe. Mission accomplished!

Me-Made-May Wardrobe Capsule
A new favourite combination: cachecoeur and pleather Hollyburn skirt.

My second capsule: Blue & Brown

For my second capsule of this year’s Me-Made-May, I selected 10 items within the ‘Blue & Brown’ theme. Brown is a colour I prefer but blue not so much so I’m a bit excited about the outcome.
As I am the ‘master’ of my wardrobe capsule, in other words, I make the rules 😉 I selected the Venus kimono (n° 1) again. This time for its brown colour.

This capsule is 90% me-made. The short-sleeve blue top (n° 2) is the only rtw garment. But I hope to replace it with a new-made one!

Blue & Brown
Joker!

I’m allowed to replace one of the selected garments with a newly made garment during this period. I may have some sewing-time in the next ten days!

On the first day of the Blue & Brown capsule, I wore my Seamwork Astoria Top with the blue faux wrap skirt from Knipmode.

My Me-Made-May 2020

Even in corona times, a new month starts. So it’s the beginning of May and that means that the sewing community is celebrating one of it’s finest challenges: Me-Made-May. It’s the 11th edition this year and I’m happy that Zoe, the founder and hostess, decided to go through with it even if the world is upside-down at the moment. You can read what she means by a “Gentle-Me-Made-May” on her blog!

Me-Made-May 2020

My Me-Made-May history

This is my fifth Me-Made-May (hurray!). Why do I love participating?
* I enjoy wearing and sharing my makes!
* I love seeing what all of you in this sewing community has been making.

Back in 2016, when I didn’t have this blog yet, I documented my MMMay16 only on IG. But from 2017 onwards you can read all about my MMMay17, MMMay18, and MMMay19 on this blog.

As I already wear at least one me-made garment every day I decided to level up my pledge last year. So, I created three wardrobe capsules to wear during May 2019. And I could only select garments out of these capsules. I loved this so much last year so I decided to give it another shot this year.

My Me-Made-May 2020 pledge

I, Wis from www.whatisew.be and @wis_g, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May 2020. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made garment each day for the duration of May 2020.
I do not pick random garments each morning but I select garments out of wardrobe capsules I create especially for this May 2020.

Me-Made-May 2020

What is a wardrobe capsule?

The Me-Made-May wardrobe capsule I use is based on the 10 x 10 style challenge from Lee Vosburgh from StyleBee. “The concept is essentially a mini capsule closet of 10 items that you work with for 10 days, creating new looks and styling your clothes in ways you might not otherwise try.

The rules are simple:

  1. 10 pieces
  2. 10 outfits
  3. 10 days

Create 10 outfits with the 10 pieces you selected to wear the next 10 days. Just what I need to take my Me-Made-May 2020 challenge to the next level. I’m going to create three consecutive capsules with outfits to wear between 2-11 May, 12-21 May, and 22-31 May. More, these capsules will be different than those from last year. Will I succeed?

My first capsule: A little orange 🍑

Me-Made-May 2020
A “little” orange 🍑

I browsed through my closet and came out with 10 garments that could fill my ‘A little orange’ capsule. As I am the master of these capsules I can interpret ‘orange’ however I want!
For the next 10 days, there aren’t that many parameters I had to think about as I am working from home. Only the weather is a little unpredictable so some warmer layers should be selected.
This capsule is 80% me-made. There are two (very old) rtw tops. This no surprise for me because (solid) tops are the big gap in my self-made wardrobe.

On the first day of my ‘A little Orange’ capsule, I wear my Moneta dress and the two rtw tops to keep warm on this chilly day.

Me-Made-May 2020

And, how are you living your Me-Made-May 2020?

Me-Made-May 2019 | It’s a wrap!

Hello, my lovely readers!

It’s the first of June today so Me-Made-May 2019 is officially finished. If you read my blog regularly then you know that I approached MMMAY19 differently this year: I made three wardrobe capsules with 30 me-made garments.

So at the end of May, it means that not only I did I finish my third wardrobe capsule but I finished my total wardrobe capsule experience.  Below, you can read how it went.
Spoiler: I loved it!

Me-Made-May 2019 Wrap

 

My third capsule: ‘Everything goes’

The only parameter for the ‘Everything goes’ capsule was that it had to be me-made. The previous capsules contained also some rtw clothes, so this time I wanted it to be 100% me-made.
I gave myself a bonus: ‘If I would finish a new garment within these 10 days I could change with a previously selected one’.

I documented every outfit with a photo on Instagram. Click on the links of the days. Below you see my overview starting with day 1 in the left upper corner.

Me-Made-May 2019 Wrap

 

How did I feel about the-everything-goes-wardrobe capsule?

I must admit that when I selected these 10 garments that I was a bit skeptical that I would manage to make 10 different combinations. But I did! More, I am very pleased with the result. Of course, the new skirt— which I wore 3 times—gave me more combinable options than the Snowball high neck dress.
A second reason why it went so well is that 5 of the 10 garments were solids. That really expands the possible combinations.

New combinations?

Again there were a lot! I think it had been a year since I wore the Seafarer top and the Julia Sweater. So all these pairings were new and I renewed my love for both tops. I will definitely grab them more out of my closet in the future.

Me-Made-May 2019 Wrap

Me-Made-May 2019 Wrap

I told you already I so loved my approach to Me-Made-May this year. Not only did I wear at least one me-made garment each day of May but these all belonged to one of the three wardrobe capsules I created. Creating wardrobe capsules was new for me and I followed the guidelines of the 10 x 10 style challenge. I recommend these if you thinking about creating one for yourself.
I’m particularly proud that I was able to dress fit for all the occasions of life for 30 days and I never changed outfits during the day. There were even 4 flights last month.
Another benefit is that I discovered several new combinations I could make with my garments.

Me-Made-May 2019 Wrap
Very difficult to choose but here is my Top9 for Me-Made-May 2019. Three from every wardrobe capsule.

Conclusion

I’m a happy sewist who has a fond memory of Me-Made-May 2019!

Me-Made-May 2019 | Second wardrobe capsule round-up

It’s the 22nd of May and that means the start of my third wardrobe capsule for this year’s Me-Made-May. For MMMay19 I created three wardrobe capsules following the guidelines of the 10 x 10 style challenge.

Starting a new one also means I finished my second wardrobe capsule. You can read below how it went and how my third wardrobe capsule looks.

Me-Made-May 2019

 

I did it again!

Yes! I managed to dress 10 days with 10 different outfits using 10 garments. I called it my ‘Something Red’ capsule and I interpreted red with major liberty!

red wardrobe capsule

I documented every outfit with a photo on Instagram. Below you see a capture of my grid and I love the ‘Something Red’ vibe it radiates. My overview starts with Day 1 in the right-under corner.

red wardrobe capsule

How did I feel about the red wardrobe capsule?

First of all, I’m not particularly fond of the colour red. It’s not a colour that I gravitate to. So I’m rather proud of myself that I could make this work and enjoyed doing it. I managed to dress with something red 10 days in a row and my dressing was fit for all the occasions of my life. Teaching, dinner with friends, lazy day, school meeting… Even the chilly weather could be attacked by wearing red tights and my cardigan. By the way, this red cardigan is the winner of this capsule. I wore it 3 times!

New combinations?

There were several! The African Wax Brooklyn skirt paired with the colour blocked Seafarer top is absolutely a winner. I also enjoyed the pairing of the same skirt with the red striped Ali sweatshirt. I’m sure I will wear these combos again!

 

My third capsule: Everything goes!

For my third capsule, I wanted it to be 100% me-made. So I couldn’t work around one colour, although blue seems to be a little dominant.  I call it the ‘Everything goes with everything’ capsule.

  1. n°7 Vanlose trousers – How to do Fashion
  2. Julia sweater – Compagnie M.
  3. Wanted Tee – Vanessa Pouzet
  4. Faux Wrap skirt – Knipmode
  5. Kingfisher top – The Sewing Revival
  6. Hollyburn Skirt – Sewaholic
  7. Juniper Cardigan – Jennifer Lauren Handmade
  8. n°7 Vanlose top – How to do Fashion
  9. Snowball high neck dress – Waffle Patterns
  10. Seafarer top – Sew Much Ado

Bonus: I give myself permission to change any of these garments with a freshly new made one within the next 10 days!

On the first day of my ‘Everything goes’ capsule, I wear my monochrome Seafarer top with my blue Faux wrap skirt. Who says you can’t combine black and blue?

How is your Me-Made-May 2019 going?

 

My Me-Made-May 2019

It’s the beginning of May and traditionally that is the start of the sewing community festival month! Hurray!  This year it’s the TENTH year that the sewing community celebrates the Me-Made-May challenge. Zoe, the founder and hostess, describes it as a way to improve your relationship with your handmade wardrobe. You can read all about it on her blog.

Me-Made-May 2019

 

My Me-Made-May history

This is my fourth Me-Made-May that I actively participate in. MMMay16 is only documented on Instagram but you can read about my MMMay17 and MMMay 18 on the blog. To challenge myself I’ve tried to increase my pledge every year. However, last year I found that I’d reached my limit pledge-wise and it didn’t feel as much of a challenge anymore.  I wear my me-made clothes every day, sometimes combined with some old RTW’s. I stopped buying clothes—besides underwear, tights, and socks—in May 2015. So that’s why I wanted to level up my pledge a little, make it more challenging.

My  Me-Made-May 2019 pledge

 I, Wis from www.whatisew.be and @wis_g, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’19. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made garment each day for the duration of May 2019.
I do not pick random garments each morning but I select garments out of the wardrobe capsules I create especially for this May 2019.

Me-Made-May 2019

What is a wardrobe capsule?

I got this idea of creating three wardrobe capsules for Me-Made-May from Alex from Sewrendipity. Last year she created three wardrobe capsules to wear during May 2018.
So how does it work?
The Me-Made-May wardrobe capsule is based on the 10 x 10 style challenge from Lee Vosburgh from StyleBee. “The concept is essentially a mini capsule closet of 10 items that you work with for 10 days, creating new looks and styling your clothes in ways you might not otherwise try.

The rules are simple:

  1. 10 pieces
  2. 10 outfits
  3. 10 days

Create 10 outfits with the 10 pieces you selected to wear the next 10 days. Just what I needed to take my Me-Made-May challenge to the next level. I’m going to create three consecutive capsules with outfits to wear between 2-11 May, 12-21 May, and 22-31 May.

My first  capsule: Green & Black

So I dug into my closet and came out with 10 garments that could fill my ‘Green & Black’ capsule. I found it not so simple as there are several parameters that I had to think about:

  • the chilly weather that is predicted for the next 10 days
  • two short flights
  • several teaching days
  • a long weekend at our holiday house

 

Me-Made-May 2019

Nine garments are green(ish)/black(ish). I allowed my jeans jacket in this capsule because I find jeans neutral and handy for travelling and for chilly days. The capsule is 60% Me-Made. I’m a bit disappointed by this number but I know that I lack in self-made tops. I will try to increase my Me-Made percentage in the next capsules!

 

On the first day of my Green & Black capsule, I wear my Nanöo top and Seamwork Brooklyn skirt. 100% Me-Made!

And, how are you living your Me-Made-May 2019?

Me-Made-May ’18—It’s a wrap!

I’ve just finished my third Me-Made-May and I’m feeling happy and a little sad at the same time. Happy because I managed to wear me-mades every single day of May 2018. A little sad because it’s over now and I have to wait another year for a new Me-Made-May!

mmmay18
Standing in front of Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror on day 30 of Me-Made-May ’18.

Me-Made-May ’18: Day 19-Day 31

I already showed my first 18 wears of MMMay’18 before, below you see my 13 last wears (blog post linked where the me-mades have been blogged).

19. Seamwork Oslo Cardigan.
20. Seamwork Brooklyn skirt and  Sew Much Ado Seafarer top; new combo!
21. Maria Denmark Rachel Wrap dress.
22. In the Folds Rushcutter dress.
23. Newlook 6106 skirt with Burda Turtleneck Top; new combo!
24. Zippy top from See Kate Sew with box pleated skirt from Allemaal Rokjes.

25. New!! Vogue 9075 Jumpsuit; will be blogged soon ;).
26. Schnittchenpatterns Chari dress.
27. True Bias Ogden Cami maxi dress.
28. How to do Fashion n°7. Vanlose trousers and top.
29. New!! Seamwork Mesa dress.
30. Skirt from Knipmode with a 15-year-old rtw top; new combo.
31. In the Folds Rushcutter dress #2

The Me-Made-May challenge

Me-Made-May is all about setting a personal challenge regarding your me-mades, you can read all about this on Zoe’s blog. So the big question is: “Did I reach my challenge?”

  • I wore at least one me-made garment every day.
  • I wore every garment only once; so I had no repeats!
  • I wore 12 garments I didn’t wear last May 2017. So I reached my challenge here as I pledged to wear at least 10 garments I didn’t wear last year. I made 3 new garments this month.
  • All my combinations of two garments were different than the previous years.

Was it hard? No, not really. After nearly 5 years of sewing clothes for myself I have a considerable wardrobe to go through each morning and make a selection. Also, a bonus was the nice weather we had here in Belgium because I have a lot of summery clothes.
So it wasn’t hard, although I have to confess that towards the end of the month I would have loved to wear something I already wore this month.

Reflections

First of all, I am proud of myself because I’m able to wear 31 different garments that were self-made and appropriate to the situation, in a row. I didn’t give this feeling a lot of consideration the previous years.
Still, there are some serious gaps in my me-made wardrobe. Where are thou: solid tops? trousers? bras? in-between-seasons coat?  And I sound like a broken record here.
So, I am going to make that my challenge for the coming year: focus on sewing these types of garments.

See you at Me-Made-May 2019!

PS. An enormous thanks to my husband who took all the photos this month. I love you, baby.

18 days of Me-Made-May ’18

We are more than halfway through Me-Made-May ’18 and I wanted to let you know how the first 18 days of the challenge went.

As you can see in this little fragment— where I listen to my husband giving some posing instructions— the challenge is going smoothly. Even though I already wear my me-made clothes all the time throughout the year, I’m enjoying it a lot. Mostly, because I hadn’t worn some of the clothes I wore the last 18 days for a long time. Wearing them again made me happy, and probably (hopefully) these garments will come more in the rotation now.

18 days of Me-Made-May

Here’s what I’ve worn so far (blog post linked where the me-mades have been blogged).

18 days Me-Made-May '18

1. Odette dress – Blue Gingerdoll.
2. Seamwork Brooklyn skirt; new combo with very old RTW blouse and cardigan.
3. Seamwork Wren Dress.
4. New! Seamwork Eliza skirt.
5. True bias Hudson Pants; new combo with very old RTW tunic.
6. Colette Moneta dress.

18 days Me-Made-May '18

7. Daphe Day Dress from Sew This Pattern.
8. Colette Crepe Wrap dress.
9. DKNY Vogue 1349.
10. Telmadress from Vintage en Retronaaipatronen.
11. Megan Nielsen Briar Tee and A-line skirt; new combo!
12. Laneway Dress from Jennifer Lauren Handmade

18 days Me-Made-May '18

13. Festive plissé skirt in Lotte Martens fabric.
14. Veloculottes from Sew This Pattern paired with The Juniper Cardigan from Jennifer Lauren Handmade; a new combo!
15. The Rosa Shirt Dress from Tilly and the Buttons.
1
6. Julia Sweater from Compagnie M. combined with a self-drafted skirt; a new combo!
17. Papercut SJTee with an A-line skirt; new combo!
18. Deer and Doe Sureau Dress.

The Me-Made-May challenge

Did I reach my challenge? So far, yes!

  •  I wore at least one me-made garment every day.
  • I wore every garment only once; so I had no repeats!
  • I wore 7 garments I didn’t wear last May 2017. So I am on track here as I pledged to wear at least 10 garments I didn’t wear last year. Only one skirt came fresh from the machine.
  • All my combinations of two garments were different than the previous years.

When I look back at which garments I wore it strikes me that 10 out of 18 are dresses. And I always thought I was skirt kind of girl.

Was it difficult to select my clothes? No, it wasn’t. Partly because it is only the first half of the challenge and there are still a lot of options. Also, partly because we were blessed with some very sunny weather last week. So I could wear some of my summer clothes.

Overall I am very pleased with how MMMay18 is going and I am really looking forward to the next weeks. Are you too?

Me-Made-May ’18 ◊ I’ve signed up for #MMMay18

It’s the end of April and that means that Me-Made-May ’18 is very near. What is Me-Made-May? It’s a personal challenge to wear and to love your me-made-garments. This year is the ninth edition. If you want to know more about this challenge I suggest listening to the fantastic interview with Zoe, the founder, on the ‘Love to Sew’ podcast. Or read more on Zoe’s blog.

Me-Made-May '18 My Me-Made-May ’18 pledge

I, Wis (from @wis_g and www.whatisew), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’18.

  1. I endeavor to wear at least one me-made garment each day for the duration of May 2018
  2. I will wear every garment only once; so no repeats.
  3. I will wear at least 10 garments I didn’t wear last May 2017.
  4. If I wear a combo of 2 me-mades I will wear a different combination than the previous years.

Me-Made-May '18

My Me-Made-May history

My first became aware of Me-Made-May in 2015. I was reading several sewing blogs and there was some MMMay15 buzz, either in blog posts or in the sidebar widgets. I was intrigued by this and I wondered if I could meet the challenge to wear me-made clothes during a whole month.

In July 2015 I joined Instagram (@wis_g) and made a huge and very inspiring connection with the International Sewing Community. So when Zoe made the announcement on Instagram for MMMay2016 I decided to accept the challenge and make a pledge. More, I made it quite challenging for myself because I endeavored to wear at least one me-made item each day for the duration of May 2016. I had no clue if I could make it but I did. Even more, I was able to wear a different me-made garment for 31 days.

Every day I posted a picture on Instagram.  I know this is not the purpose of Me-Made-May but I wanted to document the challenge for myself. More, this was an opportunity for me to archive my me-mades from earlier years. For this, I use the hashtag #wgsewingXX (where XX refers to the year I sewed the garment; so #wgsewing18 is for all my sewing I do in 2018)

Also, the pictures made it easier to contemplate about my self-made wardrobe and sewing.

These were my observations:

  1. I was able to wear at least one self-made garment every day for 31 days in a row.
  2. No repeats!
  3. While I wore only black clothes in the eighties, I was wearing a lot of colour being 55!
  4. Taking a picture of yourself every day was quite confronting.
  5. My style is very eclectic!
  6. There are only 6 self-made tops.

My Me-Made-May’s from 2016

After my successful first Me-Made-May, I participated again last year in MMMay2017. This time I made the challenge a bit more daring for myself. Not only did I endeavor to wear at least one different me-made garment each day for the duration of May 2017. I would also wear at least 10 garments I didn’t wear during May 2016.

For the second time I succeeded and I enjoyed it enormously. To be able to wear a different self-made garment for 31 days in a row made me happy. On top of that, I was really pleased that half of them were recent makes. Though I must confess that I didn’t wear some of the older makes since May 2016, I was happy with the excuse to wear them again.

For MMMay17 I documented on Instagram and wrote three blog posts about it. (I started this blog in December 2016). Again this made it easier to reflect on my wardrobe and sewing.

These were my observations:

  1. A LOT of prints! I definitely have to sew some solids.
  2. A variety of colours.
  3. No repeats, at all.
  4. An eclectic style.
  5. At that time we had some ‘tropical’ weather in Belgium so I was happy to wear my summer clothes.
  6. Two old rtw-tops. The others I made myself.
  7. Taking a picture of yourself every day is still quite confronting.
  8. I enjoy the challenge to search my wardrobe every day to look for a new me-made!

Wardrobe-wise I made some progress on self-made tops but I’m still lacking some garments in solid colours to combine with all my prints clothes.

MMMay17
My Me-Made-May’s from 2017

Me-Made-May preparations

How do I prepare for Me-Made-May? I don’t! That’s not exactly true but I mean I don’t sew any new garments especially in advance, or even during the month of May. Of course, when I finish something for myself I will probably wear it. This happened three times in MMMay16 and only once in MMMay17.

How do I then prepare? Instead of grabbing the first garment that comes to my mind in the morning I sort of plan my outfit in advance.

  1. I go through my agenda and look if there are some special activities or parties planned. If so then I know already which clothes I am going to wear for them.
  2. How many days do I have to teach or go to school. I try to picture in my head the work appropriate garments I have and that I could wear.
  3. Are there some vacation days? Again, I make a selection for these days.
  4. I check the weather forecast as the weather in Belgium is unpredictable. I am hoping for some sunny days because then I can prepare (in my head) my summer clothes.

Be aware that this planning is not on paper. These are only some thoughts in my head and they are not fixed. It is possible that at the end of May I didn’t wear that skirt that I thought of in the beginning.  After all participating in Me-Made-May is fun and shouldn’t be a stressy business.

I am really looking forward to MMMay2018. I’m definitely aiming to wear a different me-made garment every day. Also, if I wear two pieces I am going to try to make different combinations from the previous years.

See you at MMMay2018!