Snippets of Sweetness: Me-Made-May '15: Week 5 and Summary

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Me-Made-May '15: Week 5 and Summary

The end of May means the end of Me-Made-May. This was my second time participating, and I would definitely call it a success! I had pledged to wear at least one me-made garment every day, and to sew something with rayon, and I accomplished both. In fact, on several days I wore more than one handmade garment, and one day I managed to fit in four!

Over the course of the month, I wore twenty-one unique handmade garments, which I made from ten different patterns. Three of those items were made this month: my first Clémence Skirt, my third Aberdeen Tunic and my fourth Staple Dress. One of the garments, the Twinkle Twinkle Wiksten tank I made in 2013, was ruined due to a laundry mishap. The most frequently worn item was my Basic Black Aberdeen Tunic, and it’s no surprise that the pattern I wore the most was the Aberdeen Tunic, which showed up a total of ten times. The Julia Cardigan was a close second, at nine times. The only handmade garment in my closet that I didn’t wear was my Oslo Cardigan, so it may be time to donate it.

For the daily photographs, this year I set up my tripod inside our house, next to a window. While it was an improvement over last year’s smartphone photos in front of our door, it still left something to be desired. Most days, it was a little darker than I would have liked, and the limited space meant I cropped my feet out of every picture. Oh well, I have a year to figure out how to improve on this year’s photography.

I love participating in Me-Made-May and following along with other people on Instagram. What I enjoy most about the event, though, is recording my daily outfits and using that data to reflect on what direction I want to take my garment sewing next. Right now, I am conflicted on a couple of points. With the help of the Wardrobe Architect challenge, I have been moving towards a more cohesive capsule wardrobe. However, during this month, I got so bored with my clothes, that I impulsively whipped up the Crimson Poppies Aberdeen Tunic, which I love, and also brought out my two cat themed shirts that had been previously banished because they were the “wrong” colors. Going forward, I need to balance boring but useful staples with quirky and fun pieces that bring me joy. The other point I’m waffling on is the tension between my tendency to remake the same pattern over and over again and the need to try new patterns. I really enjoy making the same thing over and over again, but when I put thirty-one pictures of what I wore this month side-by-side, it looks a little boring, especially when I wear the same pattern two days in a row. There are times when I want to make seven of the same shirt and wear it every day of the week, and times when I want to dress more creatively. I’m not going to stop sewing repeats of the same pattern, but I am going to try to be more thoughtful about it, and intentionally try new patterns. I will admit that one of the reasons I make the same thing repeatedly is that I dislike both assembling PDFs and tracing patterns, so I tend to just reach for my already prepared patterns. I need to get over that.

Here are the details for Week 5: