It is June!  Which means that Me-Made-May has come to a close.  For those who don’t know, Me-Made-May is a month long event where sewists from around the WORLD pledge to wear their handmade clothes regularly all month long!  Most wear them every day of the month.  If you follow me on Instagram you already know that I participated in Me-Made-May (For the first time!) this year.  Now that the month is complete, I thought it would be interesting to do a recap of all the outfits I documented (some of them never before posted) and share my thoughts on the experience.  I did not pledge to wear me-mades everyday since I work from home and there are many days I don’t leave the house.  Honestly, though, even most of those days I did end up wearing me-made either as lounge wear or pajamas (or both) but I did not take photos.  May was, however, an unusually busy month for me, between birthday celebrations, family visiting from out of town, and my husband being home for a staycation for the last few days of the month, and I ended up being out and about way more than usual which gave me a lot of opportunities to dress in handmade.  We had quite cool weather for a good part of the month which really stretched my options.  In fact, if I had planned better I would never even have repeated an outfit!  (more on that later).  For sharing purposes I am posting my documented outfits by week (Sunday thru Saturday), with a list of the garments I wore.  Most if not all of my garments have been altered from the pattern at least a little (it is rare that I make a straight size of anything) and in some cases A LOT.  This post will get WAY too long if I share all my modifications but if you see a garment you like and want to know how much I altered it I encourage you to leave a question in the comments and I will be happy to share details!

Ok… On to the good stuff!

WEEK 1:

1. May 6:  Out and About Dress by Sew Caroline in Buttercup Drops by Amy Sinibaldi, an AGF knit I got for my birthday! (Sorry for the poor quality photo, it was raining this day and there isn’t a great place to take photos inside my house).

This was my only repeat during the month and if I had planned better I would not have had to repeat at all.  I wore this dress to sing for a First Communion.  In hindsight, I wish I picked a different handmade dress since it was my sister who gave me this fabric and she came to visit from out of town later in May so I wore it again when she was here. Not a big loss though since, thanks to my modifications, this dress fits me super well and is super comfortable.  And I was able to get a much better picture when I wore it the second time (it was raining this day).

WEEK 2:

 

2. May 7:  Jasper Sweater by Paprika Patterns in this awesome Ivory Heather Fabric.

3. May 9: Flower Stripe Top and self-drafted mini-cowl.

4. May 13: Cowl neck Renfrew Top by Sewaholic Patterns in Heather Pepper Jersey from the RK Laguna line which I LOVE.

WEEK 3:

5. May 14:  Bento Tee by Liesl & Co. in a Brushed Knit Blend from Cali Fabrics. Worn with a self drafted mini-cowl using my own fabric design:  Party Triangles printed on modern jersey fabric by Spoonflower.

6. May 18:  Lark Tee by Grainline Studio paired with a RTW Blouse.  Obvious selfie photos.  For the right photo, I was trying to show the armpit fit as I would like to have that portion fit a little closer.  This is my first Lark and I think I will size down on top for the next one.  I actually purchased this pattern via Sprout Patterns printed with one of my fabric designs and I couldn’t grade between sizes like I normally would.  So I sewed up a sample of the straight 8 to test the fit.  I think I can grade the top smaller, even on the pre-printed fabric so I will try another practice one like that.

7. May 19:  Oslo Cardigan by Seamwork in this awesome Chocolate Heather Jersey from Cali Fabrics.  This fabric almost looks like wool and has a lovely drape!  Worn with an infinity scarf made from the same fabric.

8. May 20:  Another Out and About Dress, peplum top version.  This was actually my wearable muslin for the dress.  I made some bodice changes for the dress version, but as top I kind of like this fit!

May 20th was actually a family outing day to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and we were a handmade wearing FAMILY that day.  My mom, sister, husband and I all wore handmade!

WEEK 4:

9. May 21:  Repeat Outfit!  Out and About dress.  I actually wore 2 different outfits out in the world this day.  The second included the Primrose Peplum but I never got a photo of it.

10. May 22:  Lane Raglan by Hey June Patterns in Shore Remains by Pat Bravo, another AGF knit.  I quite liked my whole outfit that day!  Everything else is RTW.  I did wear this top on April 30 and shared it as a PRE Me-Made-May since I knew I wouldn’t officially start until well into the month, but since it was April when I wore it, it is not technically a repeat!

11. May 26:  Another Lane Raglan.  I call this one my Sunset Stripe Lane.  I think the neckband on this one is a tad too big but there is no way I am redoing it since the body fabric is too thin to risk the unpicking.  This was made very early on in my handmade wardrobe endeavors.  Paired here under a RTW knit blazer I love.  You can see a full look at the top here.

Wanted to share one other photo from this week.  It is of my sister and I BOTH wearing Out and About dresses!  We are long-distance sewing buddies so it was really fun to have her in town and get to see each other’s makes in person!  Her version is her wearable muslin.

WEEK 5:

12. May 28:  Oslo Cardigan by Seamwork.  My newly finished second one, that is heavily modified to achieve a better fit compared to the first.

13. May 30: Another Renfrew Top by Sewaholic, this time short sleeved with a scoop neck.  Paired with one of my favorite RTW summer cardigans.

14. May 31:  Renfrew Top, again, in another AGF knit.  This design is Plumage by Bonnie Christine.  No longer available where I purchased it (On sale!), but you can find it here.

Wow!  14 documented days!  I hope all this info is useful to someone 🙂  If you want to read a little bit more about the days activities, more garment details, etc. I often shared more those on my Instagram posts.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

• Overall, Me-Made-May was a lot of fun!
• The photos became a little tedious.  I know that sharing photos isn’t really required to participate.  It is ultimately about the wearing and not the social media sharing. But, seeing everyone’s photos throughout the month is so much fun and, at least for me, I like that part of it.
• I did not share any bottoms!  This does not mean I do not sew them.  It has not been hot enough for me to wear skirts with bare legs yet.  I do have 2 pairs of PJ bottoms I wear regularly but the fit on both is pretty bad (I need to find a new pattern because my current “freebie” one is not very good) so they won’t be shared.  So a definite goal is to have some real pants made for next May!  (Plus I really NEED new long pants too).
• I did feel a little extra pressure to plan outfits, which did take away from some of the fun. I love my handmade wardrobe and don’t need an event like this to motivate me to wear my me-mades.  I WANT to wear them.  Me-Made-May took away a little of my spontaneity since I was thinking ahead of what I could wear so as not to repeat, etc.
• Even though my handmade wardrobe is still in the “toddlers” phase of its existence, the small quantity of clothes I have are VERY wearable.  I am happy to report that I have not fallen into the newbie trap of make clothes I won’t wear much.  Although, that also means that I have a lot of basics, which might seem a little boring.

I guess that’s it!  I hope you made it to the end of this LONG post and are still reading to see this!  If you aren’t a sewist, I hope that maybe this post inspired you to consider jumping into the world of handmade clothes! And if you want to learn more about Me-Made-May, Spoonflower had a lovely blog post interviewing the gal who created it!

Thanks for reading!

Brenda