The Wears

I made some basic rules for myself — I didn’t want this to be stressful, so I gave myself weekends off to wear whatever caught my fancy. There were a couple times that I worked from home and didn’t get out of my PJs, so in those cases I usually made up for it on the weekends. I also challenged myself to wear something unique every day — I could repeat things, but only if I also wore something I hadn’t yet worn that month. That made it easier to think up outfits that complemented each other and combined pieces I like, and I didn’t have to worry so much about “repeating” myself.

Overall impressions: I have a lot of me-mades! Also, May is a tricky month: as the weather warms up, I have fewer me-mades to wear since the majority of mine are sweaters and scarves. For instance, I didn’t get to wear my Dreyma cardigan because it never got cold enough, I didn’t really get to wear any of my sweaters (only one day was cold enough!), and I really only wore 5 different scarves (out of 17).

In general, Me-Made May made me think differently about how and when I wear my me-mades. I do usually try to wear something I’ve made every day, but I don’t often thinking about not repeating myself over the course of an entire month (as opposed to a week or two weeks). I also found myself wearing fewer RTW tops that I really like because I don’t have a whole lot of me-made bottoms to wear them with.

The Makes

I didn’t go in to May planning on making anything specific, but I did find myself inspired throughout the month. First, I finally found an amazing lining for my second Wiksten Haori jacket to go with the chambray I found in January, so I made that.

A white woman wearing a blue jacket shows the inside lining made up of faces and ferns.

Second, one major thing I noticed about my wardrobe is that I don’t have a lot of warm weather clothes like t-shirts or tank tops. On a whim, I went to JoAnn and bought a tank top pattern from Butterick. Little did I know that Butterick patterns hail from the 1800s for their sizing, but luckily with a bit of fussing I made it work (including adding bust darts where there were none!). I’ve made a couple more adjustments in the ones I’ve made since, and I think I’ve finally found a winner. I may or may not be planning on making about 20 more…

Overall, I think my first #MeMadeMay was a success!