Me Made May Update

If you follow me on Instagram at all this is pretty much all going to be old news, but for those that don't I thought I'd give a bit of an update on how Me Made May went for me.

Here was my pledge for this year:

I, Sarah Jane, of Prairie Girl Knits, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade item each day for the duration of May 2016' (not including my bras and handbags as that would be cheating since I only ever use handmade for them. LOL) I also endeavour to discover what "holes" are in in my wardrobe so that I can begin to fill them up.

Just like last year I looked at my Me Made May challenge as a great time to discover what was missing in my current hand made wardrobe.  I was surprised to find that there weren't really any in terms of what I wanted to wear day in and day out.  Something I counted as a big success compared to last year was that instead of repeating an outfit because I'd run out of hand mades to choose from it was a repeat because I just love it that much.  I didn't find it a struggle at all this year to reach for hand mades as I'm realizing the ready to wear is really being phased out in my wardrobe and the majority is in fact hand made at this point.

Other than a couple of pairs of jeans this past winter (that I used a gift card for) I can't remember buying any clothing for myself.  Lisa of Sew Over It often mentions her personal rule of not buying if she can make it and its a sentiment that I can relate to quite a bit.  It's not that I have a hard and fast rule for myself on the matter exactly, but more that I simply prefer to make my own clothes rather than buy ready to wear.

So here's a glimpse of what my month looked like mostly through the eyes of Little Man who was my designated Me Made May photographer.  He was occasionally assisted by Baby Boy and when both little guys were too busy (or fed up, because lets face it, taking Mommy's picture every day gets a bit boring after a while) a selfie did the trick for recording the me made of the day.  There is a photo for every day except for May 1st - I forgot to take a photo of my Me Made that day - off to a rollicking start wasn't I?  Ha ha! And in case you're thinking that I can't count there are a couple of extra photos just because I changed from one me made into another partway through the day because I was going out.

May 2 - 7

May 8 - 14

May 15 - 21

May 22 - 28

May 29 - 31

All in all it was a great month and I made a few happy discoveries along the way in terms of what I had available and what favourites were amongst those choices. I easily succeeded in achieving my goal of wearing at least one handmade item per day.  I really enjoyed keeping up with all the photos on Instagram too.  It was loads of fun seeing what others were making and wearing.  One thing I am kind of over is the whole daily photo thing.  I always feel pretty awkward in front of a camera and so I find the daily photo feels a bit weird and after awhile I start feeling a bit silly posting a "LOOK AT ME!!!!" photo every single day.

I'm continuing on with my own journey of utilizing and expanding my hand made wardrobe.  I just made a new top earlier this week, have a skirt on the sewing desk and top on the knitting needles as I type this, and have plans for several upcoming projects.  In the same vein as continuing on, it occurs to me that I didn't even think about it this morning when I grabbed a hand made to put on when I was getting dressed for the day.  I call that success on my personal challenge!

So that's pretty much it for my thoughts on the challenge this year.  Did you make a Me Made May pledge this year?  How did you feel it went for you?