My first Me Made May or #mmmay2017 challenge is over! Organised by Zoe of the So, Zo, What Do You Know blog, it’s been a pleasure to take part in such a community-driven and enthusiastic endeavour. There are many reasons to take part and many things to take away from the experience, but I’ll restrict my waffling to a few key points that slapped me in the face like a wet mackerel.
Back in April I said that:
“I hope it will help me take a good, long look at my makes and wardrobe and come up with some great outfit ideas, as well as streamline and consolidate my style.”
Results
- It wasn’t as hard to wear one me-made garment a day as I thought it would be. I guess that was partly as a result of my effort to make some neutrals/wardrobe staples over autumn/winter. It also reflects the fact that I do actually reach for at least one me-made item on most days anyway. I hadn’t realised how natural that had become until now.
- My wearable me-made wardrobe is largely monochromatic. Or at least, monochromatic + blue. This was actually something of a surprise to me since I think of myself as someone who wears a lot of colour. There are a couple of reasons for this: the aforementioned focus on A/W basics, which were intentionally neutral, but also:
- I must finish me-made clothes completely. A few items of clothing I went to put on ended up having some small job to finish I’d forgotten about – a button here, a loosened hem there. They didn’t get fixed even though I intended to attend to them.
- I have a lack of summery clothes. It got fairly warm early in May and has continued like that here in Seattle. Most of my recent clothes have been warmer weather items: sweaters and cardigans and so on. I must rectify this; my pineapple t-shirt and just-finished Alder are a good start. Yes, okay, okay, the other two t-shirts in the Pineapple post are black and white prints, which brings me to:
- I am very, very bad at making solids/plain clothes. I don’t think this is an uncommon issue, but I keep intending to make a totally plain black top or grey skirt, and then end up adding something or using a slight pattern or plumping for the cool graphic print or whatever. It means that my co-ordinating item doesn’t quite co-ordinate and even though I’ve been making neutrals that match with each other, they don’t all quite match with anything else. I love a bit of clashing, but everyone needs solids. Must make some.
- Surprise hits: Black Moji trousers. I wore them a lot more than I was expecting and I rather like the resulting silhouette. Truthfully, they don’t actually fit me all that well, so I plan to make another couple of pairs of similar trousers and/or smaller Mojis. The Plantain t-shirt was also a goodie. I think I may try and run up a t-shirt dress based on that pattern.
- Consolidating my style will take a while longer. I don’t really recognise “my style” in many of the pictures, although I do in some. More musing and more experiments needed.
- Accessorise more: Such a simple thing, but something I don’t take the necessary time to do. I’m more of a run-out-of-the-door kind of gal, but it makes a huge difference to outfits. I need to make more effort to get back to this – I have tons of cool accessories.
Overall, I was rather pleased with my results from the month. And more importantly, I so enjoyed interacting with other sewers on IG, meeting a few new folks and cheering others on. I’m also really enjoying the round-ups. There are a few experienced sewers whose wardrobes are very inspiring in the breadth and cohesiveness of what they make. More than anything though, it’s been a lot of fun! And that’s exactly as it should be. Later!
Belle Citadel 