Me Made May Days 17-31 and reflections

Me Made May is the sewing challenge I love the most but I'm always glad when it’s over. I get so sick of taking photos. I know Zoe explicitly states the photos are not obligatory but I love having that documentation for my records, but it gets old over a month! However, I think I only missed one day this year which is a personal best for me! This is was really thanks to my sister who took most of my photos (the good ones) and was good at pushing me to do it even when I didn’t feel like it.  I inevitably fell behind with my blogging though but if you're interested, sit back and prepare for one super long post.   

Day 17: My African wax print Sew Over It Vintage shirt dress.  This is my favourite dress so I'm surprised it took until this point in the month for me to wear it.

Day 18: Tulip Megan Neilsen circle skirt and black Mathilde blouse.  Again another outfit that I love.  

Day 19: Sew Over It Mia jeans and a Sew over it silk Cami in a liberty tana lawn.  The fit of this top is way off but I love the fabric so it continues to be worn, I like the shape of the top though so I need to do some work to get the pattern to fit better.  On the other hand, the jeans fit great but were made from a really cheap denim which is wearing poorly which makes me sad. 

Day 20: Sew over it ultimate trousers (I think my obsession with Sew Over It patterns is becoming super obvious by now!) and a hacked belladone top in a liberty tana lawn.  

Day 21: A By Hand London Charlotte skirt in a stretch cotton with a RTW top, another outfit I love.  It makes me happy when I feel like my wardrobe is rocking in the way that I want.

  

Day 22: Megan Neilsen Flint trousers and vintage shirt.

Day 23: 1960s jersey dress another dress that I love, I made this almost 2 years ago and it has been in consistent rotation since, I'm not sure how I haven't gotten round to making another one yet.

Day 24: Alex shirt dress.  I like this dress and wear it regularly but it doesn't entirely fit my usual aesthetic and so sometimes I struggle to work out how to wear it.  Luckily the warm weather meant no coordinating items were required.  

Day 25: I made this dress for my graduation in January. It’s the Sew over it 1940s wrap dress in a liberty wool. However the bodice sits funny, I don’t know if it’s the pattern or the fact that I made some alterations to it which I then tried to undo and I interfaced the collar with too stiff an interfacing. Whatever the reason I do not feel comfortable in this dress. I’m considering taking the bodice off and using the skirt as a stand alone wrap around skirt. I think that could be cute. 

Day 26: I wore my new Nettie dress seen on Day 13 but I didn't get a photo and I've decided that I don't feel comfortable in it and I'm going to refashion.

Day 27: hacked vintage top and Mia jeans.

Day 28: Hacked lady skater dress.  This is an old one but still in regular rotation.

Day 29: top from vintage pattern and new ultimate trousers

Day 30: Another Sew Over It Vintage shirt dress

Day 31: Megan Neilsen Flint trousers and hacked Sew Over It ultimate shift.

I'm surprised as I document at how few of the clothes that I love and wear a lot, have not made it to the blog at other times.  I'm a bad blogger.  As I write these posts I think it's a shame that I don't do it more as I enjoy writing them but I really struggle to take pictures.  

This year, as quite often, wanted to use Me Made May to help me to think about how to achieve a cohesive wardrobe that works together and I feel matches my style. I feel like this year I have actually managed to achieve this, which is great. I’m not entirely sure why this was, it may be that actually this is not a process that I could do in a month and this month is actually just part of a journey I’ve been on for years. I’ve now been sewing for long enough to have a selection of clothes that I really like and I’ve been considering for a while how to balance my making desires with what goes with my wardrobe. This second part is really the thing I’ve struggled with the most and this year I was more ruthless and pulled out all of clothes and worked out what had matching items and what were the lone wolves in my wardrobe! Also realistically it helped that we had a crazily warm May so I didn’t need as many layers as normal as I’ve always struggled with cardigans and jackets that worked with the rest of my wardrobe. That’s still a problem for me but I’m pushing achieving some workable top layers to the top of my agenda, even if they’re not ones that I make. For me the process was about achieving a wardrobe I feel and look good in, not necessarily about making all of it. 

Thanks Zoe for hosting, it was great as ever. 

Me Made May 18 days 9-16

This is the week where inevitably the standard of my photos start to slip!  Also as I was on holiday, doing some hiking, the limited glamour becomes even more limited!  On that upbeat note!  What have I worn this week?



Day 9: hacked lady skater maxi dress.  This was a fairly early make after I got into making my own clothes and there are so many flaws but yet it gets pulled out on a regular basis every summer, I love it!  It also never achieved it's own post, poor dress but just got entered into my round up of hacks to be made with the lady skater dress pattern.  The very unglamourous backdrop to this photo was Malaga airport because I was off on holiday!!!! Yay!!! 

 

Day 10:  We went hiking in the Andalucían mountains and I wore my Megan Neilsen flint shorts and the first true bias Sutton blouse that I made.  I made this a bit big so it's a bit oversized for my tastes normally but sometimes its good to have a t-shirt like this to pull out.  I really need to make some more Sutton blouses as I had another couple that I made in some lovely viscose but they frayed all the way through the French seams and are now unwearable-boo!
 

Day 11: All set for another days hiking in my very jazzy ultimate trousers and my mustard SoZo Dolores top.   At least they couldn't lose me up in the mountains.
 

Day 12: I wore the same as yesterday for the hiking part of the day and then had a much needed shower and change into a new Nettie dress for a night in Malaga.  This is my latest Sew crafty project so I will do a proper blog post about it soon. 
 

Day 13: I somehow managed to come down with a stinking cold, maybe it was all the exercise!  I wore my lady skater maxi again to wander around in the sun feeling sorry for myself.
 

Day 14: I wore my Sallie jumpsuit to brace the flight home with a cold!  It was so miserable to leave the sunshine and beach behind!

 

Day 15

I made it this far before forgetting to take a photo!  However, it was my first day back at work and I was ill so I think the rush to get into pyjamas at the end of the day (also me made) was understandable. I was wearing my ultimate trousers and an ultimate shift top. I’m not convinced by this top but since I was so miserable and full of the cold, I’m not sure that this is a fair judgement.


Day 16: Slipping standards!  I forgot until bedtime to take this photo so this was my best attempt with my selfie stick.  I was wearing a pair of flint trousers (I made these in an unidentified fabric from my stash which I'm not sure was meant for garments and I'm really concerned that they are not going to hold out all that much longer!), my liberty Mathilde and a new coppelia top (also a Sew Crafty project so see future blog post). 

What's lovely is I haven't struggled at all this May to find things that I've made that I wanted to wear and were appropriate for the occasion. This is really allowing me to consider style and shape preferences a lot more. 

Me made may 2018, days 1-8

I realised over the last few months that my me made May posts are the posts that I refer to the most on my blog. I think as I post fewer of my makes, it’s nice to have some document of what I’ve made and how I wear them. If you’re following me on Instagram, you’ll have seen the photos but even in the first week I’ve had lots of thoughts about my wardrobe that I don’t have the space to air on instagram.

Day 1

Starting with my love for Sew Over It patterns and a very arty picture courtesy of my sister, I wore my ultimate trousers and new (as yet unblogged, I really will get round to this) Clara blouse.  I wear these trousers a lot and each time I have recently I've been struck by how scruffy they're getting and think it's time for an upgrade.  When I was looking for the link I realised that this is because I made them 3 years ago!

Day 2

This is one of my favourite combos.  My newest Megan Neilsen Flint culottes with a Sew Over It Alex shirt, both made back in January or February.  I have three or four versions of both of these patterns now but I think only one has made it to the blog.  This is why I love the documentation of my Me Made May photos

Day 3

My Sozo Dolores dress.  This is a great pattern and I have a few tops and dresses made from it.  While I never think the dress is actually my style, I end up wearing this one all the time!

Day 4

London had suddenly become very sunny and I cracked out the tester version of my Mayberry dress to start off the bank holiday.  I want to make another version of this as shirt dresses are basically my work wardrobe!

Day 5

Another pair of Megan Neilsen flints and a recently made New Look 6217 top in a liberty lawn to do some DIY and hang out with friends in Greenwich.

 

 

Day 6



One of my Sew over it vintage shirt dresses in an African wax print for exploring London in the sunshine.  I love this dress but something happened with the hem line and its a lot shorter than my other versions so not really work appropriate, I'd like to make another in a wax print for work.

 

Day 7



 

More London exploring (we had visitors staying) in my flint shorts (get ready to see a lot of these as they're the only shorts I own and the weather in London has been incredible and I'm off on holiday on Wednesday!), plantain t-shirt and pants made from the plantain scraps.  I'm very excited by my first forays into knicker making and geekily happy when I can match them to my outwear like I did today!

 

Day 8

I wore my psychedelic 70s dress. I love this fabric but I was too fidgety in the dress all day, it made me feel uncomfortable as it pulled across the hips and stomach when I sat down. This has always been an issue but now I have decided that this is one for the refashioning pile (got to reuse that great fabric). 

I also decided to make a start on my coordinating wardrobe and pulled out all my summer separates and worked out what went together and what needs a match. All in all a pretty good start to me-made-may.