Me Made May: Week 1

Me Made May is a month long personal challenge, for people who sew, knit, crochet or refashion their clothing, to wear the items they have made more often. The creator of the challenge, Zoe from So,Zo, goes over the specifics and intentions of the challenge.

I personally try to wear my handmade garments as often as I can, but I start missing some of my store-bought dresses after a while, and there is nothing wrong with that. I will skip a day to wear my “confetti” dress that I love and resume wearing handmade items the next day. Also, I will wear a store-bought shirt with a handmade skirt.

Here is the collection of what I wore for week one of #MeMadeMay.

May 1st – D.I.Y. Tiered Maxi Dress

This is one of my favorite dresses. I wear it all the time. It is self-drafted and the full tutorial is on my YouTube channel. It is essentially just rectangles sewn together with some gathers and elastic. The waist tie is part of the magic of this dress. It creates an instant waist and you pick how tight it is. I am going to make two more versions for summer. One with a shorter skirt and one with more intense gathered tiers and longer sleeves. These tiers are very subtle. ⁣
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The fabric was from fabric.com but I don’t think they have it anymore. It is an Art Gallery Rayon Challis called Gathered Foraged Garland. They have a similar print called Secret Garden Rayon by @artgalleryfabrics. I lined this dress with peach crepe.

May 2nd – Paper Bag Waist Shorts

These are self-drafted paper bag shorts. They are breezy, pretty, and the right amount of modest for me. I lined them with muslin for total opaqueness. This fuchsia seersucker is from @fabricdotcom.

Ellen Woven Short by Style Arc is a very similar pattern for paper bag waist shorts.

May 3rd – Floral Box-Pleat Skirt

I finished this book and it surpassed my expectations. It is more an in-depth research project than it is an opinion story. It is rich with information about the clothing industry and history of it. It is a look into U.S. and world economy too. I would recommend reading this if you are interested in clothing/fashion, business, economics, history, travel, etc. The title is Overdressed*, but I needed to cover the library name on the sticker. ⁣
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These pieces of clothing that I am wearing today are polar opposites. My skirt is handmade (McCall’s 6706) and my top is H&M. I bought this sweater about 8 years ago and made the skirt about 6 years ago. This book brings up a lot of thoughts regarding clothing purchasing. I’m thinking through what is important to me and personal goals related to sewing my wardrobe. In the last two years I have made more clothing than I have purchased. The main goal is to continue sewing most of my clothing simply because I enjoy the process.

P.S. I made a sew-along video for this skirt on my YouTube channel.

May 4th – Simple Elastic Skirt

The most comfortable outfit… a cardigan and an elastic waist skirt. I seriously could wear this every day. I have a tutorial video for this skirt. It is one of the simplest garments you can make and it’s so cute. This fabric is cotton gauze from Joann.

May 5th – Shirt Dress

Three things I made: that cutie girl (I get partial credit), my dress (McCall’s 6696), and this improv mystery top I am making. I’m piecing scraps together and winging the whole thing. This project is purely for the fun of it. I’m sharing the process on my Instagram stories. If it gets too silly I’ll put it in the dress up box.

May 6th – Knit Top and Refashioned Skirt

I knit this top a few years ago. This skirt used to be a dress that my mom bought when I was in high school and I chopped off the top. It is another item in my wardrobe that I have worn regularly for years. My floral tiered skirt is a copy of this skirt.

May 7th – The Scrappy Dress

These three fabrics are remnants from past projects. They all have the same weight and drape, so I started imagining what I could make by combining them. This is what I came up with. The smaller scraps are pieces together for the bodice and the large remnant pieces became the skirt. This was a pleasure to sew and I am very surprised at how much I like it. I feel like I am on my way to a fancy picnic. I can tell you now that it is going on repeat this whole summer. Hooray for wild ideas gone right!

That’s it for week one! Week two coming soon.