Well… May turned into a super busy month life-wise (I’ll fill you in on that another time), so I’m afraid my participation in Me Made May was a little bit half hearted!

My pledge was to wear at least one handmade garment every day throughout May. And apart from one day (where I forgot and went from pj’s to painting clothes, to gardening clothes then back to pj’s) I succeeded! As planned - I stuck with easy mirror selfies so that it wasn’t too time-consuming and I didn’t take photos of any outfit repeats.

These are some of the outfits I wore on repeat throughout May…

I normally spend a lot of time browsing the hashtag and find lots of new new people to follow and many things that I want to knit and sew… but I just didn’t have the time this May. If you discovered any exciting new makers or patterns let me know!

As always - I learned a lot about my wardrobe.

1: I have a lot of blue and teal clothes.

Of course that isn’t a surprise to me, but it’s good to have a reminder! I started introducing more colours a couple of years ago (hence the green Burnt top and the mulberry Merry jumper dress), but in a slow handmade wardrobe it takes time for changes to filter through.

I’m also working through stash fabric and yarn so I’ll be adding more blue and teal despite clearly having enough (what can I say… I just love it!). The above visual reminder has however made me question my recent decision to buy more teal fabric to make a skirt!

2: Old garment/new outfits.

I had two new garments to wear during May - my Festive Top (which I finally sewed a button on) and my Eventide top. I was somewhat unrealistically planning to make two new skirts to wear with these, but when that didn’t happen, I tried them on with my denim self drafted full circle skirt which I’ve not been wearing much… and it works really well! I’ve very much re-discovered the skirt and it’s nice to have two tops which are the perfect length with it.

3: Wardrobe gaps.

Me Made May is always good at helping me to identify gaps in my wardrobe. I already knew that I was short on bottom halves and I’m planning to make a couple of skirts (and possibly some Pomona Pants) to rectify that. But I also feel like I’m missing a warm throw on over anything/bung in the wash kinda cardigan.

I feel a bit precious about my fluffy cardigans and my Jamie cardigan (the long cabled one above) has grown in length and become rather tatty - so it’s pretty much my dressing gown now. I’ll definitely be adding a new (possibly navy?) cardigan to my Make Nine list for 2022!

Some days, during previous Me Made Mays, I’ve felt like I’m wearing things just to fulfill the challenge and it’s led to me having a clear out or upcycling anything that I didn’t feel comfortable in at the end of the month.

It was really nice to just put on the kind of outfits I wear regularly anyway. I’ve edited my wardrobe down to only contain items that make me feel good and comfortable, so (although I didn’t have time to get as involved as usual) this has been the most relaxed and enjoyable Me Made May I’ve done.