Me-Made-May Week 4 (and a bit!) and Roundup

As the month of May is just over four weeks and my challenge involved wearing a certain number of handmade items per week I've included those extra few days in this last post and did four instead of three days of wearing me-made this time. It was a bit of a strange and hectic week and a bit for me, involving a trip to my fella's opera, travelling home for my Mum's birthday, finishing up and packing off one show on tour and starting on another which was a departure from the norm for me as I was doing a lot of prop making and set dressing. This combined with the fact that I'd worn pretty much all of my practical handmade garments already in May, meant I found it pretty tough to put together any interesting or different outfits and it was my least stylish week (not that any of them have really been!) by a mile. I even ended up wearing a skirt I never wear one day in an attempt to liven things up but all I achieved was reminding myself why I don't like wearing that skirt and it went straight in a bag for the charity shop that evening.

Friday May 24th: Final preview for Romeo & Juliet and the day it got shipped off to Ireland

Top: Me-Made Black Lace Grainline Scout Tee

Trousers: Levi Skinny Jeans - Macy's

Jacket: Black Tuxedo Style - Urban Outfitters

Shoes: Nude Ballet Pumps - Primark

Accessories: Bead Necklace - Urban Outfitters

Floral Print Scarf - Spitalfields Market

Saturday May 25th: Relaxing at home in relief that the show was done! (I feel like today was a bit of a cheat as I just slung on a me-made top under a jumper!)

Top: Me-Made Dip Hemmed Grainline Scout Tee

Trousers: Black Skinny Jeans - Topshop (ooo a different colour of jeans!)

Jumper: Loose Knit Rubbish! - Primark

Shoes: Fluffy Slipper Boots - Accessorize

Accessories: None!

Tuesday May 28th: A rapid bit of home sewing in the morning and a prop making in the afternoon

Top: Me-Made Grainline Tiny Pocket Tank (as yet unblogged and finished that very morning!)

Trousers: Levi Skinny Jeans - Macy's

Knitwear: Black Long Cardigan - Topshop

Shoes: Very Worn Out Trainers - Converse AllStars

Accessories: Brass Earrings - Camden Market

Friday May 31st: After a very late night at the opera, a morning meeting about my current show. I must confess I actually only wore this for half the day as the sun and some warmth appeared in the UK so I changed to a ready to wear summer dress for the trip home to my Mum's

Top: Me-Made Liberty Print Grainline Scout Tee

Skirt: Black Tulip Mini Skirt - Forever 21

Knitwear: Navy Cropped Cardigan - Hollister

Tights: Black Opaque - Wolford

Shoes: Black Ballet Pumps - Primark

Accessories: Pearl Stud Earrings - Tiffany & Co

Charm Bracelet - Nomination Italy

I would have liked to have been able to get some more sewing than I did done during the month to supplement my me-made wardrobe and fill some of the holes I was discovering as I went along but it ended up being a much busier month than expected. The next month is looking much quieter before things pick up again in July and August so I've got a list of projects as long as my arm to get cracking on before I run out of time (and energy!) to sew again.

The biggest winner of Me-Made-May was definitely my hammer silk Grainline Scout Tee with dipped hem. It's unsurprising really as looking at my collection of me made garments in comparison to ready to wear clothing this is the handmade item closest in style and fit to the clothes I wear most. I definitely need to concentrate on making more things like this and Jen's patterns for Grainline Studio are definitely the way to go I think. Another discovery was that I need to buy some better quality comfy spring/summer shoes! Ouch!

The biggest fail of Me-Made-May was definitely the number of times I wore my jeans! As discussed in a previous post I wish I didn't wear them as much but my work just makes it impossible to wear pretty dresses most of the time, plus the awful UK weather during May makes jeans the easiest and most practical choice. Hopefully next May we'll see a lot less of them! I was also a bit disappointed that I didn't wear any outfits than involved more than one handmade garment. I think that's partly due to the rubbish weather and type of work I was doing limiting m choices but also because of my limited selection of me-mades to work with.

I'd really like to be able to get involved in Me-Made-May on a bigger scale next year, I think it's such a great idea and just participating to this small extent this year has made me realise that I have actually made clothes decent enough to wear and wash repeatedly and in the week or so since the challenge finished I have found myself reaching for me-made garments more frequently than I did before. So that's it, I've got eleven months to sew up as much practical clothing as I can so next year's may can be a big 'I made this complete outfit' success!