Me Made May 2016 - wrap-up :)

May 2016 has come and gone and I am amazed and thrilled to have completed my #mmmay16 pledge of wearing a me-made garment every day of the month.

There were some repeats and some things that never made it out of the closet.  I learned a lot and had a marvelous time checking out everyone else's beautiful creations on Instagram.

Here's the lowdown of my last week+ and then onto reflections and summer sewing plans...

May 23rd - Twisted Grapes Cardigan.

I felt like I was cheating here a little bit - I had a ridiculously busy weekend and I just wanted to wear an RTW knit dress to look put together and comfortable because I had already repeated all my favorite me-made "secret pajama" dresses a lot the previous week... so I just wore a handknit cardigan over a t-shirt dress. The cardigan had also been in heavy rotation.  I totally bonded with this sweater this month and it is now one of my favorites. Sadly, it is too warm now to wear it for a while... but actually that's not sad - it's great to see summer coming in.

May 24th -Purple fingerling top-down cardigan & Michael Miller Ikat Kelly Skirt

The ikat with the stripes is one of my new favorites - I've fallen in love with mixing prints in the same color family and this Kelly skirt from 2014 fits beautifully into the mix. It was unseasonably cold and I thought that poor grey sweater needed a rest, so I chose this dark plum sweater - an unexpected color combination for me, but I quite like it and felt very jaunty this day.

May 25th - Pauline Alice Cami dress with modified neckline.

I haven't blogged this dress yet - I had high hopes for this pattern, but I ended up not liking the way the collar went together for print fabrics since the back of the fabric is visible when the collar lays open.  That would be fine for a solid color fabric, but anything with visible right and wrong sides looks less than polished to my eye with this finish.  Since I didn't like the collar, I chopped it off and made a scoopneck, finished with some singlefold bias tape.

I do love the fit of the bodice & the side zip, though.  It is supposed to be high-waisted, which means that it fits me perfectly, without having to fuss with alterations. I plan to use it to draft a plain front fit-and-flare which might be what I hoped from from the Emery once upon a time.

May 26th - self-drafted knit trapeze dress.

I've only worn this dress once, since I made it, so I thought I should try it again before the month was out.  This time, I added a belt.  There is still something weird about this dress that I don't really like.  I copied it from a Charlotte Russe RTW knit trapeze dress, but made it longer. I think I might shorten it to be the same length as the original... this was as long as I could make it with the fabric I had on hand, and it's a weird length that is sort of too long for a short dress and too short for a long dress. I think taking about 10 inches off the bottom might make it more of a go-to dress for me.

May 27th - Lucie#1 worn as a jumper.

Just a quick selfie of an outfit repeat - since I've worn this outfit like three times earlier in the month, it didn't really warrant much documentation, except for posterity.  While I was unsure of this pattern as a stand-alone dress (especially this make of it, due to is excessive over-size)  I fell in love with it as a jumper, layered over a 3/4 sleeve tee with tights, boots, a scarf and a cardigan.  It's great for early spring or fall when the weather is still cold and yucky. I'm thankful for #mmmay16 for revealing this way to wear this dress!

May 28th - Megan Nielsen Brumby Skirt

Lazy selfies and repeated garments... I started to really know which were my favorites when I wanted to wear them over and over again... this Robert Kaufman indigo dot chambray Brumby is definitely a favorite!


May 29th - New Look 6305 & Vogue 2429

Another frequently-repeated dress this month - I love this style/pattern and I want to make more.  I want to make a couple solid color versions and a plaid one for fall/winter.

The weather was really heating up, so I changed, after we got home from our trip, into a sundress that I made myself for my birthday back in 2014.

May 30th - Megan Nielsen Kelly in yellow corduroy with vintage green buttons

When I realized the #mmmay16 was almost over, I wanted to end by wearing some things I hadn't worn yet, instead of outfit repeating all the way to the finish line.  It was a cool day, just right for this cheerful yellow corduroy Kelly.  Incidentally, I bought this yellow corduroy from the Knittin' Kitten (now the Crafty Kitty) on my birthday weekend in 2014 while I was wearing the sundress above!

PS: I really like this outfit and I got several compliments on it that day.)

May 31st - last day!  Sewaholic Cambie in Michael Miller bird prints and wearable muslin of City Gym Shorts.

I finished off the month with another old favorite - the bird dress! Was it a little too fancy to wear to work on a regular day?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I felt cute and fun and really proud of myself for wearing me-mades everyday of the month!

When I got home from work, though, this was not a very comfy lounge outfit, so I threw on this pretty awful looking, but stupidly comfy muslin for the Purl Soho City Gym Shorts pattern, as I was stitching up a woven version.  One thing I learned from #mmmay16 is that I don't have a lot of at home, relaxing me-mades... so I'm starting to remedy that.

I can't believe I completed Me Made May for the first time and that I didn't even wear all the me-mades in my closet.  I am thrilled to have some many items that I love to wear and also to think a bit more deeply about things I could part with, store, or alter since they just aren't getting worn.

I'm already dreaming up a summer of sewing and thinking of a way to up the challenge just a little next year... Happy Me Made May to all and see you again next year! <3