Me Made May 2014 Round Up!

This year I decided not to make a Me Made May pledge, but instead to document all the 'me-made' clothing I felt like wearing and was practical for my life during May. I didn't want to feel the pressure of having to wear hand made clothing a certain number of times a week but I was interesting in thinking about how suitable my current hand made wardrobe is for my day to day life. I also chose not to do regular blog posts on the subject to instead to record my outfits with easy selfies and snaps via Instagram. This meant this aspect of the challenge was a lot less time consuming and stressful this year, although I still managed to fail on a couple of days and had to take a couple of non modelled garment pics after the event! It felt like many bloggers chose to use Instagram this year (with the hashtag #mmmay14 if you want to check it out) and I for one loved being able to follow everyone's May journey this way!

Anyway, so how did I get on?

Well I wore at least one me-made garment for 16 out of the 31 days in May which I'm pretty impressed with! It felt like that was approximately the number of days I would have worn me-made items anyway so I'm really pleased with how well my makes are slotting into my RTW wardrobe.

I only allowed my Robson Coats when worn with a RTW only outfit to count as a me-made day once each (days 3 & 20) but did allow myself repeats of other items. Excluding my Robson's my most worn item was definitely my silk Scout Tee (days 7, 13 & 22). And if you count my pleated voile Scout on day 11 that's 4 days out of 16 for that pattern! Jeans are just the most practical choice for work for me most days and making an effort to think 'me-made' in the mornings made me realise that I need to make more woven tops like this. A fact confirmed when I made a polka dot Laurel Blouse at the end of the month and ended up wearing it twice! I also need to get involved in the Jeans in June challenge and make myself some skinnies, that would make next year's MMM a breeze!

My Archer Shirt (days 4 & 18) was also a popular choice which surprised me as I've never thought myself much of a shirt wearer and so never bought one. Only after making this white one have I realised how versatile a garment it is. A black one is now on my sewing list!

Thinking about dressing handmade caused me to revisit some garments such as my Simplicity 2444 dress (days 12 & 25) which since making I've worn less than I expected because it's not the best thing I've ever made, with some fairly sloppy seam matching. However the print disguises all this and I discovered this month that I feel pretty great in it. plus it now has some lovely memories associated with it from Roisin's Spoolette hen do!

London had a fairly random mixture of weather over the month which made keeping a variety of outfits slightly easier. I definitely find it easier to dress handmade for the sunshine! I can't wait for some real summer heat (fingers crossed!) so I can wear my Tania Culottes ALL the time. I felt great the day I wore those (day 18) and would like to make another pair. This would also help with another goal I identified, which is to make more bottoms I can wear with my Coppelia Cardigans (day 8). I love the style of this pattern but they are unfortunately just a little too short to wear with my jeans and not ride up throughout the day. I need some more high waisted skirts and trousers to wear with these and would like to make a longer cardigan like Lauren's.

So I'm pretty pleased with my MMM this year and will definitely be taking the same non-pledge approach next year! Did you take part and how did you all get on?