Diary of a Chain Stitcher

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 o...

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 skir...

So I completely failed in my attempt to wear jeans less, well at least when wearing me-made. I did wear ready to wear dresses a few times this week, I have a lot of comfy jersey dresses in my wardrobe that are fairly practical but still make me feel a bit pulled together (mainly the same style of French Connection one over and over again in different print, even the same print and different colours!). When we actually get nice weather they become a bit of a summer staple, especially the maxi dresses which I am loving even more this year. I think I need to get making pronto before Me-Made-May is over and get the hang of knits, I know I wear jersey dresses a lot so why haven't I made any?! Anyway, on to the me-mades: Thursday May 16th:  Costume shopping, budgeting and a little bit of home sewing Top: Me-Made Black Lace Grainline Scout Tee Trousers: Levi Skinny Jeans - Macy's Coat: Lightweight Mac - Dorothy Perkins Shoes: Leopard Print Pumps - H&M (other...

I'm still going and I'm still enjoying it! I was super excited about Me-Made-May this week as I was going to get to wear my very special Elisalex dress to my boyfriend's brother's wedding! This in fact was one of the reason's I ended up signing up this year, because I knew I had one day sorted already! Friday May 10th:  My boyfriend's brother's wedding! Dress: Me-Made Cotton Sateen Elisalex with Circle Skirt Shoes: Teal Court Shoes - Marks & Spencer Bag: Hot Pink Satin Clutch - T K Maxx Accessories: Hot Pink Petal Earrings - V&A Museum Shop Saturday May 11th:  Relaxing and recovering(!) at the hotel wedding venue Top: Me-Made Papercut Patterns La Sylphide Blouse Trousers: Levi Jeans - Macy's Sale Shoes: Cream and Turquoise Ballet Pumps - Primark Tuesday May 14th:  A morning of costume shopping and an afternoon of fittings Top: Me-Made Liberty Tana Lawn Grainline Scout Tee Trousers: Levi Jeans (again!) - Mac...

So I'm a little behind on recording my Me-Made-May - well a lot considering we have just passed the end of week two! It's not the wearing handmade garments aspect of it that I'm finding challenging but the photographing. I don't know how you ladies who are doing handmade every day of May and are putting up gorgeous photos are doing it! I completely missed taking photos on the first two days so decided to go about it a different way! I've been taking photos of my outfits laid out on the floor. I know it's not as exciting as seeing it worn and it totally doesn't prove that I actually wore it but I (and my boyfriend the photographer!) can't cope with remembering to take a photo each day while I still look respectable! I've pledged to wear 3 me-made garments each week of May and am so far really enjoying myself!.I think usually when I'm groggily pulling an outfit together in the morning I tend to reach for easy ready to wear garments as I tend t...

After much umming and ahhhing I've decided to go for it and participate in Me-Made-May this year! I don't really feel like I have enough of a me-made wardrobe to be giving this a go, well at least not enough everyday wear, but I've got much more than I had this time last year and I do wear more me-made garments out and about as my sewing confidence has grown. So.... 'I, Fiona of Diary of a Chainstitcher, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made garment three times a week for the duration of May 2013' Hopefully three garments a week won't be too much of a push. I've already got some plans and am hoping I can get a few more bits and pieces made up during May itself to give me some variety towards the end of the month. I'm planning on doing a once a week post on here to round up my three outfits for the week. Hopefully the fact that I have you all to keep tabs on how I'm doing will keep me on tra...