Hi Everyone!

The fab four return to check in on how they are going with MMMay2018.  Here is a little reminder of who we are:

And here is how we Me-Made-Mayers (or should that be Me-Made-Maidens??!!) are finding MMMay in 2018:

Wis — experienced Me-Made-Mayer:

We are twelve days into Me-Made-May ’18 and for me, the challenge is going smoothly. Even though I already wear my me-made clothes all the time, I’m enjoying it a lot. Mostly, because some of the clothes I wore the last days I hadn’t worn for a long time. Wearing them again made me happy, and probably these garments will go in the rotation more now.

Did I reach my challenge? So far, yes!

• I wore at least one me-made garment every day.
• I wore every garment only once; so I had no repeats!
• I wore 4 garments I didn’t wear last May 2017. So I am on track here as I pledged to wear at least 10 garments I didn’t wear last year. Only one skirt came fresh from the machine.
• All my combinations of two garments were different than the previous years.

When I look back at which garments I wore it strikes me that 9 out of 12 are dresses. And I always thought I was skirt kind of girl.

Was it difficult to select my clothes? No, it wasn’t. Partly because it is only the beginning of the challenge and there are still a lot of options. Also, partly because we were blessed with some very sunny weather last week, so I could wear some of my summer clothes.

Overall I am very pleased with how MMMay18 is going and I am really looking forward to the next weeks. Are you too?

Kate — experienced Me-Made-Mayer:

Woohoo, so far I’ve actually managed to wear me made everyday! A combination of a long weekend, work from home and 20 something degree weather has greatly helped, given the proliferation of summer dresses in my wardrobe. I have so many summer dresses I haven’t had to repeat anything (is that embarrassing?). On the office front, I have been making a conscious effort to wear the few me-made things in rotation but I don’t feel inspired by it. Though I know that seeing I spend a lot of time there, I need to embrace it as a creative wardrobe challenge, instead of just feeling limited.

My takeaway so far from MMMay is that I still love casual wear and I still love dresses. Call me lazy but separates are a challenge since too much thinking is required to get dressed and I don’t like jeans (shock!). This pic shows what might be my favourite dress of all time. In winter I layer it up with a roll neck and tights, but in nice temperatures it is perfect as it is for hanging out in the park with my toddler. Linen is from Merchant and Mills and the pattern is from the Stylish Dress book (Japanese pattern book translated into english). In the pursuit of sustainable sewing, recently I have been scoping out the internet for vintage and second hand fabric as I have decided to minimise buying new. Linen seems to be a fibre that is readily available so I might veer more into linen wear when I finish #makeyourstash and come off my fabric shopping ban. Please let me know if you have any favourite internet stores!

I hope your MMMay is going well, till next time, Kate.

Kim — first time Me-Made-Mayer

Hi Everyone!

Okay, so my prep didn’t end up going quite as planned (new job has seriously cut in to my couch mending time!!); however, that has been okay because it has been WARM. I love spring. I love my dresses, and my fun shoes, and the sunshine, and the flowers, I love everything about spring. I always feel so full of ideas and inspiration when it’s gorgeous out.

So far, I have only missed a couple of work days. Given that I originally intended to wear Me-Made only on work days (which at the time would be Monday to Friday — I’ve added weekend shifts at a second job since the month began), I’m pretty happy with my progress! Since the weather has been so warm, I’ve mostly been rotating through my favourite dresses.

The majority of my dresses have pockets, which is very necessary for me as I need to keep keys on me at all times in both jobs, and I hate wearing lanyards around my neck because they get in the way. Eagle-eyed readers will see my yellow lanyard hanging out of the pocket of my “Mrs. Frizzle” dress up there.

I”m not the kind of person that plans outfits way ahead of time, especially since the weather at this time of year can be inconsistent and unpredictable. (April gave us an ice storm bad enough to close all the schools. May, on the other hand, so far has hit 30C!) Despite my lack of planning, I am trying to reach for my me-mades more regularly in the mornings, and so far I’m doing quite well. I also have told a few friends at work about this project, and they have all been very sweet and supportive of this challenge! My co-workers were actually the ones that dubbed the yellow/blue dress the “Mrs. Frizzle” dress.

I hope everyone is having as much fun with this challenge as I am!

Until next time,

Kim

Chloe — first time Me-Made-Mayer

Hello! Chloe here on her first MMMay!  My aim was to wear me-made as many days as possible, plus to wear all my makes at least once.

Week one was great — I managed a full week of work wearing something me-made every day!  I met my goal of finishing the Cashmerette Harrison shirt I had on the go (seen below with a rtw blazer) and it will be a great addition to the work wardrobe.

Week two saw a lot of sewing but the weather got cold, so my me-made efforts tended to be trackies when I got home that I sort of wear as pyjamas.  While they are still me-made, this felt like cheating.  I am also not sure I will get to wear all the me-made tops and dresses I have that are more summery, given the change in the weather.

I was very pleased with this weekend just gone however.  I went down to Tasmania (cold!) and managed to spend a lot of it in my me-made Cashmerette Ames jeans, my Paprika Patterns Jasper (crossover collar) and my Cashmerette Appleton (top version).  I wore the jeans and top on Saturday and went to my friend’s hens party in a full me-made outfit! That felt bloody amazing — like I was so much closer to having a handmade wardrobe than ever!

Now I am back, I am going to try and make another couple of long sleeved tops that can be work or casual — this is a real gap in my wardrobe so feels like a good direction.

How are you finding MMMay?  I hope the season change isn’t messing with you too much!

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That’s it from us for another few weeks — we will see you on the other side of MMMay2018 to find out how we fared and how we feel once the month is over!