What I learned from Me Made May 2016

Back at the start of May I posted about how I was participating in the Me Made May Challenge.

Me Made May 2016 (#mmmay16) this fun social media challenge encourages sewers to wear their me made makes all through the month of May. I’ve heard about this even a few years ago, but never thought that I had enough “me made” items to wear for the whole month.

This year however, I thought that I had quite a few “me made” garments and also had a few on my to make list, so I thought why not.

So, What Did I learn?

Participating in this challenge was a lot of fun and after a month of posting my daily me made  pics of the day, here’s a few takeaways I came up with.

It’s Not a Competition

I’m super competitive and while this isn’t a competition, I tend to make everything one. So, really telling myself it’s no big deal if I wear me made everyday or not, was a big part of my success. I wasn’t stressing every morning trying to figure out what to wear or pushing myself to make something for the next day.

Not All Me Makes Are Clothes

Me Made May is about things you’ve made, but that doesn’t mean they all have to be clothes.

On the weekends I’m doing a lot of housework, so I don’t usually want to dress up in one of my me made dresses. But that didn’t stop me from wearing me made stuff.

I’ve made a lot of hair scarfs from scrap fabric, which allowed me to share my me made pic of the day without having to get all dressed up.

Hair scarfs were just one other type of me made item, I also had a couple of me made purses, which I would wear on occasion as well.

You don’t have to get dolled up

It’s common for participants of me made May to share daily outfit pics on social media, this doesn’t mean that you have to get all glammed up in say a vintage frock you’ve made. Quite the contrary in some ways me made May has given me the opportunity to wear more of my causal makes to make more casual style items.

For example, I’ve been living in Simplicity 1364 blouse which I’ve now made like 4 versions of. This blouse is great because paired with a nice skirt I can wear it to the office or pair it with jeans to run around town.

On lazy weekends I would sometimes crop my unmade up head out of the photo, just to highlight the me made clothes, because in the end that what it’s really all about.

Share with Others

As I said earlier it’s common for me made May participants to share photos of their daily me made outfit the real goal is to wear your handmade clothing more often than you normally would.  

With that said, however, taking a quick snapshot of your me made make, is a great way to archive your participation and to share you makes and network with other great sewers, knitters and crafty individuals through social media.

I not only increased my Instagram following this month, but also started following some really great seamstresses myself. Participating via social media has also provided me with great inspiration for my sewing and wardrobe.

Will I Participate Next Year?

It’s hard to say, next year seems like an eternity away right now. However, I think if I keep the same mindset as I did this year I think that it would once again be a fun filled challenge to participate in.

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