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

1. 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.
2. 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:
3. 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.
4. 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:
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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!