Me Made May Part 2

OK, before you say anything, I know it’s mid June now and I really should have posted this earlier. But hey, as per usual, life has got in the way of blogging.  For once, some of that life has been sewing, but not enough!

Anyway, I wanted to finish my thoughts on Me Made May this year and most importantly on what I learned along the way.

So, what did I end up wearing for the second half of May?

Well, the Grainline Morris blazer made quite a few appearances

As did the Deer and Doe Melilot top (which I will blog soon, honest!)

I’m still loving the Seamwork Brooklyn skirt in the right hand picture and really need to make a few more versions!

Agnes popped up again

There were a couple of dresses (Emery and Moneta)

plus Anna made a special appearance with May Martin (sorry, had to get that in again!)

New Look 6217 (new and old versions) also featured

And finally the Sew Over It Tulip skirt made an appearance (never again to be seen with this particular blouse as apparently the combination adds about 3 stone visually!)

So, what did I learn from the experience?

Firstly, I feel a whole lot better about myself wearing things I’ve made myself.  I desperately need that awareness at the moment; one of the reasons the blog’s been quiet is I’m being switched from one type of migraine medication to another and a side effect of the transfer (hopefully short lived) is being, shall we say, rather more down and emotional than usual.  Right now I need every little boost I can possibly grab hold of; me made as much as possible, then.

Secondly, I actually exceeded the challenge I set myself and wore Me Made every day – go me!

However, it was a struggle and towards the end, I felt very pressured to sew things FAST to fill wardrobe gaps.

This wasn’t the idea.

I thought very hard about this and about where the pressure was coming from.  Was it a keeping up with the Joneses situation, where the urge to post photos every day and join in was applying pressure?  But I came to the conclusion that it was that I genuinely do feel better in things I’ve made and therefore no longer want to settle for RTW when I don’t have to.

Thirdly was the realisation that, even for the garments I can sew myself, I am going to have to wear RTW some of the time.  I live a very busy, very full, timetabled life with responsibility for others.  I want to sew for myself and others.  Now and again I’d like to blog about that.  I have a massive wardrobe gap right now due to changing shape so I just can’t meet all this year’s wardrobe needs courtesy of my sewing machine.  And trying to do so is just taking all the pleasure out of it.

So, where’s the happy medium?

I’m still working on that.  Right now, my focus is on our upcoming holiday (49 days to go, so the nice man on the phone today informed me!).  I want several pretty dresses to go out in the evenings (probably a few BHL Kims and possibly the free New Look pattern from the front of this month’s Sew magazine for a start, plus hopefully a Colette jersey dress).  I need a couple more Seamwork Auroras (again, I will blog soon!).  I also need a few sun tops and a pair of shorts.

And then there’s my very good friend’s wedding next month.

So that’s the point at which I need to stop the immediate to sew list for the sake of my sanity.

MMMay2016 highlighted that, as well as the semi-expected top shaped hole in my wardrobe, I do actually also need the pretty dresses.  Which is actually kind of cool – sew allll the pretty things.

But take the pressure of myself; I did pretty well all things considered and this is supposed to be about enjoyment, not stress.

So, thank you again to Zoe for organising such a great event.  I thoroughly enjoyed taking part, both in terms of the community aspect and in terms of clarifying some of my sewing thoughts.  It has inspired me again and reminded me why I make the time for sewing, no matter what.

Becca x