Me Made May – how it went
My objective this year was to try to wear garments that i have made post March 20, some of which have had very little wear since being made. My initial impression was that i hadn’t made a very good job of this. With a month of largely wet and chilly weather, it seemed that i was returning to my old wardrobe for warmth and comfort.
However, having reached the end of the month, and totted up my note book, i am pleasantly surprised.
I went country walking (hiking) in my new walking tops, 9 times. Most of the time i also wore my light weight hoody. All of these garments are post January 20, as they were made for a cancelled holiday in March, but they all got a lot of wear last year as well. In fact, thanks for a comment left on my blog about wearing clothes, on average, 40 times. I have probably worn each of these garments 40 times, and they are still looking as good as new. Clearly a good choice of fabric!
The pleasant surprise was the other 13 ‘lockdown’ garments that i wore, some of which had had very little previous wear. In particular, the green utility jacket has turned out not only to be quite trendy, but also about right for mid to late May, along with its matching rucksack and purse. I randomly chose this picture to head up my Me Made May pledge.
I have also had quite a lot of wear from the ‘duvet’ dressing gown, also made a for a cancelled holiday, and very recently worn around my own house, in the company of the people with whom i was (and will be) going on holiday.
I’m not going to make a great long list of the things i have worn, but i was hoping to wear some of the lighter weight clothes, and i am pleased to report that i finished the month wearing my summer Aspen dress, for only the second time, whilst sharing dinner with a friend. Hurray! In fact, i am wearing it again right now.
I saw the following quote on Twitter. I don’t know who originally said it, but Dr Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell @hottycouture posted it.
“Clothes are a language we use to tell others about ourselves; Fashion is a conversation. If there are no other people to talk to, then what’s the point?”
Well, it’s only been at the back end of May that the weather, and law, has allowed me to share real space with friends, and provided opportunities to dress up, although on a couple of occasions i have reverted to rather old makes rather than the new ones. On days when ‘there was no conversation to be had’, at least not in anything other other than virtual form, the ‘Lark t-shirts‘ came out. The pattern that i didn’t know i needed! Eight of the garments worn were from the Lark pattern, including two items of night wear and the walking tops. Here are some of the others.
Conclusion: Well, there are still several post March 20 makes that i didn’t manage to wear. Back in the Autumn i did a FutureLearn course presented by Fashion Revolution about sustainability in fashion. I thought the course content was rather limited and lacking in any sustainable conclusion, but it’s a hot topic, part of whose message is ‘don’t buy as many clothes’. Or in my language, ‘don’t make as many clothes’. I have at least cut out the need to ask ‘Who made my clothes’ but concluded that finding out ‘who wove / knitted my fabric?’, can be quite difficult.
It presents a bit of a dilemna, when presented with a situation that you are on your own, largely confined to your house by law, possibly headed towards depression, but saved by a love a making, and so you sew a load of new clothes and keep yourself happy, and busy.
Rather sadly i need to conclude that i should probably stop making clothes, or at least re-direct my creative energies. A bit of that re-directed energy has been reflected in my blog over the past year or so, but i felt those activities were ‘time fillers’. I think i’m going to give Ruth Singer’s Maker Membership a try, and see where that takes me. We’ll see.
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One Week, One Pattern
Me Made May 2016
Me Made May 2015
Simplicity Competition
Sew Over it Patterns
all my own work by ann 
Its a dilemma isn’t it, you don’t need more clothes but sewing is your jam