I took part in Me Made May for the second time this year. My pledge was to try and wear items I don’t reach for often in an attempt to bring them back into my mainstream wardrobe or identify what is not working and either fix it or repurpose it.
That made for an interesting month – I do wear my MeMades most days but I am still working from home, I go into the office once a month on average, and that is going to be the case for the foreseeable, so there are a lot of tees and jumpers worn, not a lot of pretty dresses and skirts.
Week one included the following: Vienne dress from Size Me, three Coco tops and a Stevie top from Tilly and the Buttons, Canyon cardigan from Love Notions, Simplicity 8516 twill jeans, Amelia top and Helens Closet Blackwood Cardigan.
The Canyon cardigan has gone into the fix it pile, but it’s a simple thing – I am going to add a front fastening of some sort to give it a bit more shape, that will make it more wearable for me.
Week two included three more Coco tops plus Stella hoodie and Frankie tee from Tilly and the Buttons, Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers, McCalls 7092 top and By Hand London Zeena dress.
This weeks problem child was the McCalls top. I wore it for about two hours before it went into the repurpose pile. It is front heavy due to all the fabric around that lovely front detail which drags it down, the fit isn’t great either. I have decided to take it apart and use my scraps of this fabric to turn it into something else that I will actually wear.
Yet more Coco tops in week 3, plus Frankie tee and another Stevie top. Also another pair of Simplicity twill jeans, the Sabina skirt which is a free pattern from the Little Pomegranate, Worsley wallet and Shapely tote from Spencer Ogg, Mandy Boat tee from Tessuti and Cora tee from Dhurata Davies.
The conclusion from this week is that I should just get on and wear these garments, there is nothing wrong with them!
Week 4 had more of the same in terms of patterns if not the actual garments – twill jeans, Ultimate Trousers, Coco tops, Stevie tops, Blackwood cardigan.
These twill jeans don’t get worn too often as they are a difficult colour. It turns out I like burgundy and have a lot of burgundy coats, jackets, handbags and tees and there is a risk of dressing like a crayon!
For the final few days, we were on holiday in North Devon so lots of slightly windswept photos for this period! There had to be a Coco top of course, plus a KLP tee from Studio Jepson, a Simple tee from My Handmade Wardrobe and a Laundry Day tee in dress form, this pattern is from Love Notions. At this point, I was wearing garments I love. The tee dress is a new make and I think it could be good even for WFH when the weather warms up as I didn’t feel overdressed at all.
What I didn’t wear is interesting to me. I didn’t wear many of the dresses or skirts I have made – and I do love making dresses and skirts, I didn’t wear any hoodies, or sweatshirts. I’ve only made one coat, and it’s a winter coat so I didn’t wear that.
I did wear my new Carolyn pajamas, and actually I usually wear memade at night – I have some tees which are borderline novelty prints and some early memade shorts.
I have concluded that I should wear more of the blouses that I’ve made rather than wearing tees virtually every day. And if that works out, maybe use some of my lovely viscoses to make blouses rather than dresses that I rarely wear.
I am not convinced any of my Instagram followers would have enjoyed the parade of Coco tops and comfy tees but this is real life, and this is what I wear. What probably wasn’t very real is putting on a completely new outfit each day – normally I will wear clothes for a couple of days if they’re not dirty. But the pressure of daily photos put paid to that, which is a less positive aspect of the challenge!
I think it’s also very clear that I’m a pattern repeater – I wouldn’t like to count how many Coco tops I have made and worn this last month! But it’s such a versatile pattern – I’ve made it into jumpers, Breton tops, and tees for all seasons.
Anyway, that is how it went for me. I’ve got a couple of adjustments to make and I need to consider my future makes based on what I actually wear. And I certainly have enough MeMades to achieve #MeMadeEveryday
Happy sewing! Gemma x
Sew Mini Gems 