Me Made May – week five and final round up

Wow, what a Me Made May it’s been! Only my second year taking part, but I’ve learned a huge amount about my style preferences, my wardrobe gaps and about taking better pics. Here’s this years’ posts in full: Pledge, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4.

And to wrap it all up, here’s the last few day’s outfits, followed by some general thoughts on the whole month.

mmmay17 29

Day 29: I wore my freshly made Striped Knit Sweetheart Top for the second day running (don’t judge! It passed the first test of laundry: it didn’t smell or look dirty, therefore it wasn’t dirty). This time I wore it under my needlecord Cleo dress, (fourth appearance) like I’d always planned for this top. Yay, it looked as good as I’d hoped!

mmmay17 30

Day 30: I pulled my crazy rainbow cord skirt out, remembering I now had the Knit Sweetheart Top (8th appearance!) I could wear it with. Yes, the skirt it way too mini, but over leggings it’s fine, and people always seem to love this skirt. How could you not love a corduroy Pride flag?!

mmmay17 31

Day 31: I spent the previous afternoon sewing up my long-planned denim Cleo, in a stretch denim with little stars from my stash. I wondered if it might look a little infantile with the pink tee (5th appearance) but Andy liked it, and so did the kids. Oh, all right, I like it too. The dress is wonderful to wear and just what I was after!

And now for a visual wrap-up, which I enjoyed doing last year and which is actually really helpful in analysing trends (by which I mean common themes rather than trendy trends, because obvs I’m not that fashionable!):

Repeat appearances (worn more than twice)

The Knit Sweetheart Top (8 days)

The Drop Pocket Cardigan (6 days in pics, but I wore it way more often first and last thing when it got chilly)

The Pink Tee (5 days)

The Needlecord Cleo Dress (4 days)

The Chunky Necklace (4 days)

The Wembley Cardigan (3 days)

The Rockabilly Headtie (3 days)

Knit and crochet

I didn’t pull out all my crochet cardies/tops as they’re just too dressy. These were the most wearable, along with my beloved socks!

Jewellery and accessories

I thought in order to wear two me-mades a day I’d be resorting to my me-made jewellery and accessories way more than I did. Turns out I only used one necklace, one hair decoration and one scarf. I have way more to choose from. Maybe I don’t really like the other ones…

Retired clothing

I said goodbye to three items this year: the grey surplice dress (I’ll give it one more chance in the autumn, but I think it’s for donation), the Colette Aster blouse (which will be relegated to gardening wear) and the red mini (not pictured, because I didn’t like it enough to wear it for more than a couple of minutes). That’s only half of what I tossed last year, so that’s something. As I’ve got more into defining my personal style I’ve been getting better at making hits rather than misses.

I thought some more items might get tossed, but I managed to find ways to wear them that I liked enough to grant them a temporary stay of execution.

May mades

I’ve been a busy little sewist this month, despite work commitments, and added two dresses, a top and a head tie to my wardrobe.

Re-mades

Two of these were worked on this month. I added the straps to my RTW leopard print dress and redyed my White Stuff green denim skirt to cover some bleach stains. And I’m including the fairly recent dye job I did on the mohair shrug too, as it’s totally resurrected this item for me. Proof to me that while I might resist working on mending/alterations, it’s always worth spending a bit of time to fix things I like, but that aren’t quite right.

Conclusions

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge I set myself, and reckon I’ve fulfilled most of it. Okay, so it did repeat one combo, but only because I was feeling ill and exhausted. I could have found something different if I’d had more mental energy. I did find new ways of styling my clothes and said goodbye to some, which was all part of my pledge. I also didn’t have to resort to cheats like using me-made knickers or an apron to get my daily tally, so that was good!

I didn’t finish my Rebel Lace Cardigan crochet project, but I did get a bit further along so that’s something. Maybe I’ll get it done this month… I think I’ve lost my impetus on that one because I’m just not sure it’s going to fit with my Rockabilly-lite style. At least it’s navy so it won’t clash with many things. I suppose that’s something.

Here are some of my other take-aways from this month:

I already own a few of the basics of a good wardrobe, but I need to work on more of the kind of items I’ll wear lots. It amazes me when looking at the grouped pics above, just how different an item like the Knit Sweetheart Top can look when styled differently. I definitely wear “boring” items like this more often than the statement ones, like the rainbow skirt! Also, my RTW indigo skinnies and denim maxi skirt saw a lot of wear over the month. And my denim jacket. Clearly I love denim and need to get sewing it more!

The plain white wall is getting a bit repetitive for photos, and I really enjoyed trying different locations around the courtyard. This was possible this year as it’s all looking much better out there now I’ve had the time to plant hanging baskets and borders. I think I’ve found my new favourite wall, and stuck with that one for the last few days.

I’m not going to enforce a RTW fast–if I see something I really want/need and can afford then I will buy it. That said, I’d really like to sew to fill the gaps in my wardrobe. I enjoy the challenge! It does mean more “boring” basics sewing in my future, but I’m sure I can find ways to make black fabric more fun to sew…

I could do with some more interesting accessories and layering pieces to help me express my new style. I’m thinking of some things I can’t easily make myself, like statement glasses/sunnies and shoes, along with those I can make like lightweight summer scarves, cardigans, hair decorations and bags.

And most importantly, this May I managed to wear a few outfits that felt like the embodiment of the style I’m after, and that made me feel utterly fabulous. That’s a fantastic result!

What did you learn from your Me Made May? Or if you didn’t take part, would you give it a try next year?

 

 

0 thoughts on “Me Made May – week five and final round up”

  1. This is a really interesting round-up post and I love your images showing the different way you styled things. I’d hoped to do a bit more of that but I don’t really have many versatile handmade things. Something to work on for next year perhaps. I absolutely love your rainbow skirt too.

    1. Thank you so much! I’ve been sewing for a fair few years now, and while I used to concentrate on party dresses I’ve been getting more into versatile separates when I realised I hardly ever wore the things I spent so much time on! The only problem is, sometimes the versatile separates can be a bit dull to sew. I mean, I really need a lightweight black maxi skirt for summer but summoning up the enthusiasm to sew one is a bit tricky right now…

      1. I know exactly what you mean, my head is turned far too easily by pretty prints when I need to spend the time building up some solids to go with all the prints I’ve already sewn.

  2. Well done!!! Looks like you took away heaps of lessons from your month. That stripy sweetheart top with the cap sleeves is amazing! xxx

What do you reckon? I'd love to hear from you!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.