Me Made May catch-up: Weeks 4 & 5 and reflections

Hello everyone, here is my forth and final Me Made May 2013 post and it's a bumper special covering the last 2 weeks. I must confess that I am missing a couple of pictures here - I debated re-modelling the outfits for these days but to be honest they were pretty much exact repeats of previous days so it didn't seem worth it. Apologies for my laziness! So without further ado, let's get on with it...

Day 20

 

Today was my birthday and I am modelling my third Pendrell blouse, as yet unblogged and saved especially for the occasion. Yep that's right, I've been sewing new stuff! This is the first of three items I pledged to make before the Birmingham meet-up as part of my stash-busting challenge. The cake in this rather attractive photo (!) was made for me by my lovely boyfriend and I'm sure you will not be at all surprised to discover it is an owl. Lets have a closer look....isn't he clever! It was very tasty. 

 

 

Day 24

 

At the end of the week my boyfriend's brother came to stay. He was visiting from Australia with his girlfriend. We had a lovely time and ate lots of curry. They left on the Friday and pretty much as soon as they left I had some friends arrive for the weekend. I wore my beloved crescent skirt but didn't manage to get a photo. However, it can be seen many times in my previous MMM posts....it has been a bit of a staple!

 

 

Day 25

 

 

 

Today was the day of my birthday BBQ! This has become a bit of a tradition and has now been going for about 6 years. It pretty much always rains but this time the weather defied the odds and we had beautiful sunshine! It was sunny enough for me to wear my New Look 6557 dress, which was the first dress I ever made. Apologies for the shoddy iPhone picture - this was snapped quickly just before going to bed.

 

 

Day 28

 

Another pictureless day I'm afraid. I wore my green double knit renfrew, which has been seen many times before over the course of this challenge!

 

 

Day 30



 

Sewaholic Pendrell blouse #1. I love this top and in fact I am wearing it now as I type this! Nothing else to report here, this was a work day.

 

 

Day 31

 

Me Made May draws to a close with the reappearance of Pendrell #3 for another day at work - it was a Friday, hence the jeans. I think this may be one of my favourite outfits of the whole challenge, although it's a close call.

 

 

Phew! All done! Looking back over the whole month, I think it was more of a challenge than I anticipated although I'm really glad I took part. Possibly due to the weather, there were a number of me-made items, mostly dresses, which didn't get a look-in, which is a shame. So what have I learnt from this challenge?

 

1) I need more me-makes in solid colours. I love prints, but this means that sometimes I struggle to put an outfit together.

 

2) I need to sew more work-wear. A lot of my makes so far are "occasion" dresses - frosting rather than cake as the saying goes! Since I spend most of the week needing relatively smart clothes, my handmade wardrobe need to reflect this. Which brings me on to the next point...

 

3)...I love dresses and I would wear dresses everyday if I could BUT my current wardrobe contains no me-made work-appropriate dresses! This needs to be a-dressed. Ahem.

 

4) I sew a lot of Sewaholic patterns! I knew I loved Sewaholic, but even I was surprised by how many of my makes are from this pattern line. This by no means a bad thing - it is a testament to the awesomeness of Tasia's patterns. They fit me well without the need for major adjustments and the patterns are extreamly versatile and easy to wear.

 

So - basics in solid colours and smartish dresses are my sewing future! Thanks so much to SoZo for organising this fantastic challenge. I am already thinking of next year where I hope to be in a position to up my pledge and commit to wearing me-mades at least 4 days a week. Bring it on!

 

Did you take part in Me Made May for the first time? What did you learn from the experience? And do you have any recommendations for smart work dresses?!

 

K xx