I thought I was a belatedly writing up my observations from Me-Made-May but then I looked back at last year and found I didn’t manage it till July then! This year I took a slightly different approach to Me-Made-May. I suppose, I wanted to keep my participation relevant and introduce fresh ideas.
I decided to create three mini-wardrobes to be worn over 9 days each in the challenge, each with a colour theme. One of the reasons for doing this was purely practical, essentially I didn’t want to end up emptying my wardrobe onto the bedroom chair and floor so I could pick something each day! I also wanted Me-Made-May to be more representative of the way I normally dress – wearing clothes for a few days in succession, or mixing and matching from those that are on the chair, rather than diving back into the wardrobe each morning. This new approach felt more akin to that process. Actually constructing the mini-wardrobes was rather fun too; I liked finding different combinations and picking “sudoko-style” my three separates from the grid each day.
Graph 1 shows the number of wears per pattern company or magazine. I think that there was no particular surprise that the highest share was garments made from Burda patterns (34%). Although I would say that without exception I usually only make these items once. That may be because the designs are a little unique, or it could be that there are so many lovely designs to choose from that I find something new each time that I fancy making. The next most popular pattern companies were Grainline Studios (14%) and Papercut patterns (10%). Both indie designers, I have made repeats with these patterns. I think if I commit to an indie pattern, because of the expense, I like to buy designs that I’m going to make more than once. There are quite a few garments made from big four patterns, but on closer inspection, these all turned out to use vintage (mostly 70s) patterns. I have made a few garments with recent big four patterns, but they are few and far between and didn’t get picked this month.
Graph 2 looks a little different from last year’s graph. Like last year, the most frequently worn colour was blue (26%). No surprises there! But, because I had selected the mini-wardrobes on a colour theme (brown, grey, green) there were far more of these colours worn. Other colours such as red (3%) and purple (1%) were hardly worn at all.
Graph 3 speaks for itself. There has been a steady increase each year in me-mades worn (bar the 2017 blip where I pledged to wear only me-mades). This will I’m sure continue as new me-mades enter my wardrobe to replace RTW items.
From last year’s Me-Made-May, I identified that more jeans and a new hoodie were required. Well, I suppose I fulfilled that brief, more or less. I have made three new pairs of trousers since then, the brown corduroy trousers, the grey light-weight trousers and the shattered glass jeans. I didn’t make another hoodie, but the velvet zip-up I made is certainly another versatile layer.
What would be the take home messages from this year? Firstly, I enjoyed creating the wardrobe grids and they helped me keep to a plan. I can’t say that I didn’t end up with a pile of clothes that were worn but not quite dirty enough for the laundry in the bedroom, but it was better than previous years. Secondly, there was a real cold patch in the middle of May where my planned wardrobe (the green one), didn’t work well. This year my Make Nine includes numerous woolen and warm items to help me through all the cold, working-from-home days.
Steely Seamstress 