Last June, when I first heard about Me Made May I thought it was an interesting idea; wear clothes you’ve made yourself for all of May.
I mistakenly thought, maybe from the seemingly trillion “what I wore today” photos on the blog where I first read about Me Made May, that participants could only wear clothes they made for every day of May. Wow, that would actually be a lot of clothes one would have to sew (well, to fit into our American culture it would be).
And then the little competitive voice in my head spoke up “Next May. You totally got this.” Sure, I could. I mean, I have a sewing blog, and I feel as if I sew all the time. I bet I even have enough self made clothing to wear a complete me-made outfit everyday of May; a different outfit everyday.
May starts in a couple days. I currently have in my wardrobe three skirts, four tops, one jacket, and three aprons that I’ve made for myself. One of my tops goes with one of my skirts but the other items are not mix and match (of course, the gold lamé halter top, made for a disco theme party, goes with everything and works for any occasion). I was rather surprised that this was all I had to show for my hours of sewing. Seriously, this is all I have that I’ve made? What have you been working on? Oh wait, there’s also those knit pants that didn’t fit right, and a dress already cut out but still needs lining fabric and a skirt I started on last week. I tell myself that the massive wardrobe clean up and donation I did in January contained some me made garments (It may have. I don’t remember.)
However, it hits me, this is only my ego talking; who I think I’m supposed to be or what I’m supposed to have or if I can be better than a sewing comrade. That ego talk needs to go away.
Luckily I found out what the challenge is really about. In fact, there are guidelines as to what Me Made May is not about. It’s not a competition or about panic sewing garments on 30 April and it isn’t an outfit of the day photo shoot. The Me Made May ’15 is about wearing the garments you’ve put so much of yourself into. Wearing them more often with appreciation for your talent and maybe some enthusiasm. Each participant sets their own challenge to be challenging for themselves. If you have 30 me-made garments, maybe aim for wearing one each day. If you have eight random pieces just try to incorporate them into regular rotation.
Therefore, after much sitting on the fence I am going to make my Me Made May ’15 pledge and take the challenge.
‘I, Mary Sigler of TheDalySew.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’15. I endeavor to wear something I’ve made at least five days a week for the duration of May 2015’
I hope you will also take the Me Made May ’15 challenge. Signing up is easy. Just go to Me Made May ’15, read the guidelines and post your pledge.