The Me-Made-May Review post

MMM is supposed to be a challenge, and it was, in several ways:

Challenge #1 – A lot of my me-mades are samey. This is a result of my laziness- I use the same pattern over and over. If you asked non-sewers they probably wouldn’t have noticed, but when you’re trying to make different-looking outfits from a very small range of items, over 31 days, you realise how limited your wardrobe is!

Challenge #2 – I’d forgotten all about my dance teaching when I made the rules, and had to scrabble around to find something me-made that I could sensibly wear to class, and actually it all turned out fine, and gave some of my students ideas on what they could possibly try making for themselves, which is a MMM bonus!

Challenge #3 – The selfies. I’ve already posted on how that just didn’t work for me this year, and I’m kind of sad, because part of the fun of MMM is that sharing element. I tried to keep up with the flickr group and instagram, to see how other people were doing, but I felt much less connected because I wasn’t posting pictures myself. And I know there were good reasons why I didn’t have the energy to do it, and I’m not beating myself up about it, but I am noticing that it made a difference this time round. It’s also meant that I haven’t recorded every outfit, as I’d hoped to do.

Having said all that, MMM was also a source of great pleasure:

Pleasure #1 – I’m beyond thrilled that I managed to make it through the whole month wearing nothing but me-made outfits. My official pledge was “I will endeavour to wear Mostly Me Made each day for the duration of May 2015.” My personal rules for that were, apart from undies, tights and shoes, everything I wore had to have been made or refashioned in some way by me. That meant no coats, but that was fine, because I managed to not need one. And I did it! Go me!

Pleasure #2 – I found that a lot of my me-mades work together well. They’re well integrated together. This means I wear them fairly easily. That’s gratifying, and a definite improvement on last year’s MMM. I found I definitely used that experience to prioritise certain makes, and that did help to fill gaps in my wardrobe for this year. I’ll be reviewing my wardrobe again and seeing where I need to direct my attention in future. But to be honest, I sew for fun, so if I don’t feel like making a thing, well I’m not going to force myself.

Pleasure #3 – I told more non-sewing people about it, and it was fun to explain to them what MMM is all about and to see it suddenly dawning on them that everything I’d worn for the last few weeks were all made or refashioned by me.

I’m not sure how I’ll do it next time. I do think it’s important for me to do the photo-documentation, and that will probably be the thrust of my pledge next year. But I’ll have to work out a way to make it manageable. I’m sure this is feasible, I just need to think about it a bit more. And that’s ok, because I’ve got the best part of 11 months to ponder it.

Hitting the wall

I’m doing absolutely fine with the wearing of my Me Mades. But I’ll be honest, I’m struggling with the selfies. Moreso than last year. If I can’t do the photo at work, or get the Gentleman Friend to take it (we don’t live together so he’s not readily on hand) it’s been hard to get it done.

This year is different from last year. I’m working an extra job, for a kick off. In my main job, MMM comes right at the crescendo of our course planning timetable, This year’s curriculum planning work has been a lot harder – I’ve had more courses to plan, and even though we’re well past the soft deadline, I’m still having to do a lot of fixing and firefighting, not to mention having to add even more new courses, by request from on high, in time for the hard deadline. And on top of that we *still* haven’t had our visit from Ofsted, so we’re all living in the shadow of the dreaded Inspection. A Bank Holiday Weekend in Cornwall does not constitute a proper holiday, but that’s the closest I’ve had to a break this year. I’m stressed and I’m tired.

Poor me!

I know what I need to do to look after myself, but it’s not always easy to do those things.

So if that means I have to wimp out of daily selfies every so often, then I’m just going to be kind and forgive myself for that.

A Massive MMMay15 Catch-Up

I know this makes me sound like an old person, but… How? How has it got as far as 18th May? It was Christmas only a minute ago!

I’ve been doing fine with Me Made May. But I can see that I am going to be getting very bored with some of my options by the end of it, unless I make some immediate use of my lovely new sewing machine (I’m still waiting for her to let me know what her name is).

When I last posted about MMM, we’d got as far as Day 5. So there’s quite a lot of catching up to be done.

Day 6 – the slouchy cardigan gets an outing.

Day 6 saw the first public wearing of the Slouchy Teal Cardigan. It’s *really* roasty-toasty! Underneath I was wearing my Imperfect Polka Dots Belcarra blouse and the Counterintuitive Black Bird skirt. It was quite late when I remembered to take the picture, so it’s a bit dark!

Day 7, and it’s a lemon!

I was wearing my Jif Lemon Dress, which I do believe is my very favourite me-made garment. It’s always fun to wear.

Day 8 – Selfie Fail

Day 8 was a Total Selfie Fail. You will have to make do with the clothes piled together a day or two later. But this is what I actually wore: the unblogged refashioned top which I’d previously worn on Day 1, and the Denim skirt. I love that although it’s black, it’s got a slightly pink sheen to it. This photo really brings the pink out.

Day 9 – At the Old Ship Inn

Day 9 saw the making of the Ring (I don’t want to sound all Gollum-y but it is starting to become My Precioussss!). After a hard day at the Jewellery workshop, I met up with the Gentleman Friend and we had stone baked pizzas at the Old Ship Inn. I was wearing my Imperfect Polka Dots top, from Day 6, and the Pretty Summer Splodges skirt. For the sake of Internet Honesty, I did wear a pinny to the jewellery workshop which I didn’t make myself, but my aunt made it, so I think that’s only a technical breach of my MMM pledge. It still falls within the spirit of MMM.

Day 10 – This dress is actually much brighter than this photo looks!

On Day 10, which was a Sunday, I was visiting my sister, who’s in the throes of moving house. I wore The Dress of Many Colours, which is a dream to wear. It’s so soft and comfortable, and it cheers everyone up who sees it!

Day 11 – the Blue Roses Dress

Day 11 saw me in the Blue Roses Dress, not much to say about it. I feel very fondly for this dress, because I wore it for the interview for my current main job, and got the offer that very afternoon. So it’s a lucky dress.

Day 12 – the refashioned cardigan

 

Day 12 you’ve already seen, because I was wearing the long cardigan refashion. This refashion meets one of Gillian’s #SewingDares. Gillian of Crafting A Rainbow is issuing Sewing Dares, to those who, um, dare…  I did and I got two challenges, and the first one was to sew a cardigan. In my book, refashioning totally counts as sewing, so that’s that one Nailed. My second dare is to dig through the stash and find a piece of fabric I  was  *really* excited about when I bought it, and just cut it up and sew it into something! Now that I’ve got this beautiful new machine, I will be doing just that.

Oh and I’m also wearing the Watermelon Belcarra Blouse and the You Mean I’m Wearing Orange?! Skirt.

Day 13 was a photofail. I was feeling really ill, and left work early to fall into bed. I can tell you that I was wearing the What Could Possibly Go Wrong?! Belcarra blouse, and the denim skirt from Day 8.

Day 14 – honestly this bright green top was the best thing about Thursday.

I was feeling better on the Thursday, thankfully. I was wearing the Cadfael & Cats Belcarra Blouse, and the Counterintuitive Black Bird skirt, along with the Slightly Zebrafied Cardigan. My outfit was the nicest thing about Thursday which was an otherwise dreadful day!

Day 15 – it may not have been summery for everyone else, but it was for me

 

Day 15 was a repeat of the Dress of Many Colours. I spent the *whole* day being told I looked very summery or very bright, or very colourful. I don’t mind at all, I love these colours.

And I think I’ll leave it there for now, because this post is starting to turn into War & Peace. I’ll try to keep up better!

 

Me Made May – The first five days

I’ve got the first five days done and I think the first four were probably the worst, because I was away for the bank holiday weekend, and I had packed light. I had only a very limited choice of clothes with me. For the rest of the month I’ll have a lot more flexibility day to day.

Day 1

I was at work in the morning, and bunked off at lunchtime, to pick up the Gentleman Friend and drive down to Penzance, then go off for a bite to eat and meeting friends in the pub. So I needed to be office appropriate, comfy for driving and casual enough for the pub.

Me Made May 2015 – Day 1

I was wearing the Red Square Skirt and a stretchy black t-shirt top that I had refashioned around Christmas time-ish and totally failed to mention on the blog. The refashion had consisted of opening up the neckline and binding it with some strips of jersey that I had leftover, then deciding I had plenty of binding left and it would look nice to do the same thing to the sleeves. It was a hand-sewing job, which I always enjoy.

Day 2

We spent a lot of Saturday mooching around the Penwith peninsula. In particular we visited the Holy Well and Celtic Chapel at Madron, and Lamorna Cove.

Day 2 – Madron Baptistry

By the way, I wasn’t twirling, it was a rogue gust of wind that created a Marilyn Monroe moment. I was in my Minnie Mouse circle skirt (pre-blog), the When Two Become One Top and the slightly zebrafied cardigan I refashioned from a jumper dress. You are going to see this cardigan a lot!  I did wear my Slouchy Teal Cardigan later, back at the flat, when I was wanting to feel warm and snuggly.

Day 3

I wasn’t wearing anything massively different on Sunday. This was a day for sauntering into Penzance. I say “sauntering”, because that’s the sort of speed we were doing, but actually the Gentleman Friend made me ride a bicycle. This is not one of my normal natural activities. And I don’t know how well you might know Penzance, but… It. Is. Hilly. My thighs were not thanking me that evening!

Day 3 – Windblown!

I was wearing the Minnie Mouse skirt and the Slightly Zebrafied Cardigan again, but with a different refashioned t-shirt.

Day 4 

This was spent mostly getting the flat departure-ready, going for some lunch and then departing for home. And spending 8 hours in the car, stuck in delightful bank holiday traffic jams. This photo is the best I could manage, once I got home. There are not enough filters in the world to make me look less like I want to murder all other road-users. It was a *very* wearing journey.

Day 4 – Mixing and matching

Repeats all round – Red Squares Skirt, refashioned t-shirt from the previous day and the Slightly Zebrafied Cardigan again.

I’m fairly sure this skirt is on its way out – it’s not a very practical wear, and I don’t really love it. We’ll see if I can get away without needing to wear it again this month.

Day 5

I was back at work, so you get an office shot. Around this time last year I was posting about the ivy growing into the office through the window. This year, there’s a little bit of ivy growing through the walls into our room… It’s pretty but unnerving.

Day 5 – Brightly coloured!

Today was the Cadfael & Cats Belcarra blouse, and the Squares and Triangles Circle Skirt.

And it was a two-for-one day, because I was teaching dance tonight. I debated with myself whether I had to go me-made for my dance gear, and realised that of course I did. Anything less would have been cheating! So I rifled through my dance gear cupboard, and pulled out a practice baladi dress that must be at least 10 years old and a hip-skirt-thingy (a friend of mine calls them moustache skirts, because of the shape of the fabric when you cut it out). The thingy could do with some embellishment, it’s very plain at the moment.

Day 5 – bonus dance me-made goodness

I loved the colours together- a French navy and bright cyclamen pink. The dress is rather small for me- hardly surprising, given how old it is, but still completely wearable. That’s the wonder of lycra.

Thoughts so far…

I’ve already realised I’m terribly low on cardigans and jumpers. I’m working on improving that, but it’s a slow burn. I’ve also got no coat or jacket, so let’s hope May turns out to be mild! I’m going to have to work a bit harder at the dance teaching outfits, there are two more Tuesday evenings that will require teaching outfits, but I’m fairly sure that will be manageable.

I’m feeling very positive for the rest of the month.

Me Made May – giving my making a kick-start

There is *some* making going on. I have been knitting like a good ‘un, but it’s not very blogworthy. I am working towards doing a proper reveal during May, possibly even April. But seriously it’s just a boring black jumper. So don’t be getting all excited about it!

Consequently I need some quick and easy makes, to get my sew-jo running again.

And along comes the Me Made May Sign Up post. This is definitely something I want to do, and I’ve been trying to work out how I’m going to make it a challenge. The terms of my pledge will determine what kind of projects I put my attention to, so that I can make the challenge actually work.

My Me Made May last year reminded me that I do wear my makes, with considerable regularity, so a pledge along the lines of “wear at least one me made thing every day” was a bit too easy. It needs to be a challenge, so I need to ratchet it up somehow. I’m therefore pledging as follows:

I, Béa of Béa’s Sewing Adventures, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’15. I will endeavour to wear Mostly Me Made each day for the duration of May 2015.

My intention is that I will wear whole outfits that are me-made or refashioned by me, rather than a single item of me-made clothing per day. I am excluding shoes, tights & undies and coats (as I don’t have any me-mades in those categories – maybe next year!), but as I usually wear skirts and tops, that will mean both the skirt and the top have to be me-made. If it’s cold and I need a jumper or cardigan, it’s going to have to be one I’ve made or refashioned. I will be recording what I wear on a spreadsheet and there will be pie-charts and graphs.

This is a bit of a toughie- I will need to make sure I have a couple more jumpers/cardigans available, hence the need to get that knitting finished, and ideally some more tops too.

Anyone else joining in the MMM fun this time round?