Me Made May 18: The Results!

Today is the final day of Me Made May. At the beginning of May I pledged to wear at least one item of handmade clothes each day and to document my progress on Instagram. I often start a project but don't finish and so this time I was determined to make sure I stuck to my pledge.

In the first week, I found myself enjoying picking out which of my me-mades to wear and creating an outfit for that day. I have got to grips with posting on instagram, although my terrible selfies have not improved at all. A camping trip over the first May bank holiday made dressing handmade slightly harder, but not impossible, thanks to the glorious weather that weekend.

During the second week I enjoyed wearing both some of my newer items of clothing but also some older items that do not get as much wear: my red sleeveless blouse on day 10 and my denim hollyburn skirt on day 13. I also dug out my one handmade t-shirt on day 11 which fitted but was super tight and not at all comfortable.

I found in week 3 that I still had many handmade clothes to choose from and didn't realise how extensive my wardrobe was. There were some pieces that didn't get as much wear as others and I'm not quite sure why as they were great when I wore them. In particular the turquoise blue sleeveless blouse I wore on day 18 had almost never been worn, I think because I find it hard to build it into an outfit and the colour is quite bright.

Weeks 4 and 5 presented their own challenges as I had to pack for our holiday to Spain. Having only a limited amount of space in our luggage I developed a black/white/navy/red capsule wardrobe of pieces which I could mix and match. This was successful and I managed to stay on track with wearing handmade clothes and posting (almost) daily on Instagram.

One of my aims in taking part in Me Made May was to re-evlaute my wardrobe to find out which of my handmade garments had the most wear and where my gaps are. Here's what I've learnt:

1. I wear an awful lot of red, white, blue and black. I don't know if this is necessarily a bad thing because my clothes are quite cohesive but I think I do need to add some accent colours to my wardrobe - mustard, yellow, pinks and emerald green would work well. 
2. Surprisingly I found it easier to dress handmade on my work days than when I was dressing casually to stay at home or at the weekend. I have plenty of clothes which are suitable for me to wear to work and did not struggle at all to find outfits. My navy skirt is looking a bit tired and faded so this may be something to replace in the future and would match with many other existing items.  
3. My most worn items are my black and white striped jersey pencil skirt which I wore 4 times, followed by my black and white striped jersey dress and red jersey pencil skirt each at 3 times. I love wearing these items and always felt fantastic wearing them. 
4. The ready to wear items I missed the most were my jeans and t-shirt combos. This would have been my usual go to outfit on a day at home cleaning and taking my son to the park or playgroup. I definitely need to sew some more items to wear at home and casually, such as more jersey dresses and t-shirts.  
5. I have a massive massive trouser shaped gap in my ready to wear wardrobe. I've never attempted to sew trousers and I think this is going to be my next adventure in handmade clothes. I currently do not have a decent fitting pair of work trousers and only one pair of ready made jeans that I like wearing.  
6. Another gap I have is jersey t-shirts. I only wore one handmade t-shirt this month, which I do not like and most of my handmade skirts were paired with ready-made t shirts. 

I have found taking part in Me Made May not only a fun and creative experience but also really useful in assessing my likes and dislikes in my current wardrobe. It has given me a direction for my future sewing plans. I'm not going to be focusing on making clothes for work but on casual clothes: jersey dresses,  t-shirts and jeans/trousers (eventually!)

Me Made May

So it's a bit belated but I've finally signed up for Me Made May 2018 hosted by Zoe of 'So Zo...'. I've wanted to sign up for years but have never been able to, I was either a newbie, pregnant/giving birth or too busy being a mum. So here's my pledge for this year...

'I, Fiona, of https://sewingvsknitting.blogspot.co.uk/ and @fiona.gibbs on Instagram sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '18. I endeavour to wear at least one item of handmade clothing every day and to discover which are my most worn handmade items and where any gaps in my wardrobe are during the month of May 2018.'

My aim is to reassess my handmade wardrobe and ready to wear wardrobe to see where the gaps are. I'm hoping to find out which are my most worn items and which are not successful. I'm then hoping that this will help me with planning future sewing projects.

I'm going to be posting daily outfits on Instagram @fiona.gibbs so follow me!