Me Made May 2017 |

My pledge for Me Made May this year was to wear at least one item of me made (or refashioned) clothing each day in May. And I managed it! Yay! I remember when I first started sewing it was a couple of years before I felt like I had enough clothes to be able to take part, so to have enough to wear something every day is pretty cool.

Week One:

Day 1: black simplicity 2451 with my newest charity shop jumper; Day 2: navy spotty rushcutter dress; Day 3: navy blue simplicity trousers and red and blue checked violet blouse; Day 4: spotty drapey knit dress; Day 5: bright blue jersey dress; Days 6 & 7 blue spotty archer with rtw jeans.

Week Two:

Day 8: navy blue simplicity trousers and turquoise coco top; Day 9: black simplicity 2451 skirt and pink stripey banksia top; Day 10: silver toaster sweater; Day 11: flowery archer with rtw jumper and trousers; Day 12: my dressmaker’s ball dress; Days 12 & 13: refashioned coral mustard and navy dress into a shirt; Day 14: blue spotty archer.

Week Three:

Day 15: refashioners shirt refashion; Day 16: semi-successful moneta dress with mustard astoria; Day 17: black simplicity 2451 with my favourite charity shop jumper; Day 18: refashioned dress with peter pan collar; Day 19: navy simplicity trousers and electric blue coco top; Day 20: refashioned teapot dress; Day 21: simplicity trousers and my favourite charity shop jumper.

Week Four (and a bit)

Day 22: navy simplicity 2451 skirt and melilot shirt; Day 23: silver delphine skirt and rtw jumper; Day 24: navy scribble striped marianne dress; Day 25: wide-legged trousers I took in at the waist with breton striped plantain tee; Day 26: denim moss skirt with my merchant and mills sewing t shirt; Day 27: Gertie cigarette trousers (as part of my dressmaker’s ball outfit) with a rtw jumper and the coat I made from my Grandma’s vintage pattern; Days 28 & 29: Coco t shirt and rtw jeans; Day 30: navy simplicity trousers and silver toaster sweater; Day 31: electric blue jersey dress.
Things I’ve learned from Me Made May:

I hate taking daily photos. Thankfully The Boyfriend was a good instagram husband and took most of them for me, but quite often I’d realise we hadn’t taken a photo when I went to bed!
My simplicity trousers got a lot of wear. I definitely need more trousers I can wear at work – though I also wear them on days off too.
Quite often (unless I was wearing a dress) I would either have a top or a bottom but not a full outfit, so I need to make more pieces that go together. Hopefully by the time I’ve finished the Wardrobe Architect I’ll have ideas for more of a capsule wardrobe.
I failed to refashion anything in May, which was another part of my pledge. I have a bunch of clothes ready for alteration, so hopefully this month I’ll get back into refashioning.
There were a whole bunch of things I’ve made – mostly when I first started sewing which I haven’t worn this year and didn’t wear last year, so I’m going to have a wardrobe clear out to get rid of things I know I’m not going to wear.
I definitely need to make jeans, and more casual things to wear on my days off.
I found wearing dresses easier than putting together separates, so I’m planning to make a few more dresses. They’re also good for hot weather – if we get more hot weather than the one week we had in the middle of May!
It was nice to rediscover some of the clothes I’ve made or refashioned which I haven’t worn for a while.
There weren’t that many things I wore more than once (apart from my trousers and simplicity skirts), so I think I don’t need loads and loads more clothes, so I’ll try to be more thoughtful about what I make from now on.

What did you learn if you took part in Me Made May? Did you succeed in your pledge?

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Well, another month has come around! I can’t believe how quickly this year is going – is that a sign that I’m getting old?

I didn’t manage to blog much in April, but since I had a week off work, I did manage to make a few things! I sometimes find I either have time to make things or to blog about them, but not both. Does anyone else find that?

Hopefully you’ll have already seen the triumph that was my first pair of trousers! If not, you can read more about them here.

I also made a denim Moss skirt, pretty much like the one I made for my sister – I made mine from the leftover fabric from hers. I added the hem band, though, whereas hers was just a lengthened version of the mini length. I like that they ended up a little different.

I also made one of my #2017MakeNine, a Marianne Dress. It looks much better on my body than it does on a hanger! I’ll take some photos and blog about it in more detail soon. I think this might become one of my go-to patterns for jersey shift dresses. It’s a really lovely shape (though not on the hanger!).

Eagle-eyed readers will spot I didn’t quite make everything on my list that I had planned to make in April. This is partly because I’ve been making my Dressmaker’s Ball dress, which has taken a surprising amount of time – I don’t seem to have made much progress the last couple of weekend days I spent sewing, but I’m pretty much at the point of hand-sewing the hems and a couple of other little bits and pieces.

So my other plans for May are pretty much the ones I didn’t get around to in April:

My boaty Carolyn Pajamas

Hopefully some jeans

And I do have one addition, which I hadn’t planned before – a Roberts Collection dungaree dress from some black textured mystery fabric I got at the fabric swap at the first Sew Brizzle meet-up.

I think that should be enough for one month, especially since I’m probably going to make something for my nephew’s birthday too – so pretty inevitably I probably won’t make everything here, but I’ll do my best!

I’m also taking part in Me Made May again this year, so you can follow my progress over on Instagram if you’re interested to see how I wear my homemade wardrobe in my actual life. My pledge is to wear at least one me-made item each day through the month of May, though I imagine to manage it there will be quite a few repeats! I also am hoping to refashion something this month as I used to do it quite often, but haven’t done any in ages, but I have a whole loads of garments ready to be given a new lease of life!

Are you taking part in Me Made May? Will I see you at the Dressmaker’s Ball? I’m really quite excited about it, but also a little nervous – I’m glad some of the ladies I know from Bristol will be there!

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