Me-Made May Week 3

Only 10 days left of Me-Made May! I've had such fun with this challenge this year.  I did not make any pledge to avoid repeating items; only to avoid repeating outfits.  Even so, I've tried not to repeat items too often.  This forced me to reach for less-worn things in my closet and is helping me evaluate my wardrobe.  Happily, there isn't much that I'm planning to part with!

Day 15: I wore my red linen/rayon Simplicity 1887 skirt again.  I really love this skirt (and its yellow sister), and am considering making a third one out of some teal linen I bought last year with this pattern in mind.  How many is too many?  I paired it with my new linen Bonn shirt, which I also really love.  And I wore the shirt tucked in the whole day.  I'm usually not a tucker, because I always feel like I am having to adjust the tuck and it feels too high-maintenance.  But this shirt is long enough for a fuss-free tuck and I very much like how it looks with the skirt.

Day 16: I wore a new v-neck Renfrew tee (blog post coming soon) with my green bamboo Lisbon cardigan and my denim Alberta Street skirt.  I usually wear this skirt a lot (like two or three times a week) even though it's not the most flattering one I own.   It's relatively high-waisted so it sucks me in and I feel secure in it, if that makes any sense.  I am still meaning to raise the hem a touch and maybe peg the side seams a bit.  The cardigan is getting pilly, but I have enough of this fabric left to remake it, so I might do that at some point too.

Day 17: I wore one of my Kirsten Kimono tees and my McCalls 3341 skirt.  Sadly, I think I am going to have to retire both of these.  Both items are kind of stretched out and I felt really frumpy wearing this to our homeschool enrichment program.  The fabric on the top was listed as a cotton/lycra jersey but it seems to have no lycra in it at all and is starting to bag out beyond repair.  The skirt has also stretched out considerably around the waist.  I washed and dried it in the dryer after wearing it to see if it would shrink up a bit, but it doesn't seem to have helped much.  I do have another cut of animal-print stretch twill in my stash that will make a good replacement skirt.  But I'll need to buy fabric for a new black t-shirt.

Day 18: I wore my rayon/lycra Kirsten Kimono dress.  I actually don't wear this all that often because I had got it into my head that the elastic around the middle was uncomfortable.  I wore it the whole day, though, and it really wasn't.  I feel like I should make another one of these. 

Day 19: It got really hot!  I pulled out one of my pairs of linen/rayon Simplicity 1887 shorts and a brand new v-neck Renfrew.  I felt quite a bit more casual than I normally dress, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  These shorts, and the others I made last summer, are very comfortable but the pleats aren't the most flattering thing around.  I think I might want to try to make a pair of elastic-waist flat-front shorts; maybe the Parkside Shorts?  I am not sure.  

Day 20: It cooled off.  We had brunch at a friend's house and I wore my new seersucker Bonn shirt (blog post coming soon) and my pull-on Gingers, rolled up.  Then Niko got sick in the afternoon and threw up all over me.  I changed into a new me-made outfit - a skirt, new t-shirt and cardigan - and proceeded to splatter chicken grease on the brand-new tee.  I should have worn an apron.

Day 21:  Niko was still sick so I took the other three kids to church by myself.  It was only in the 60s today.  I wore my new Alberta Street Pencil Skirt, my white v-neck Renfrew tee, and my green Lisbon cardigan again.

I think the most valuable part of Me-Made May so far has been the pressure to not repeat an outfit.  I definitely am guilty of wearing the same easy things over and over again, and I don't really need to do that anymore, because I have a pretty sizeable and varied wardrobe now, almost all of which is me-made.  Aside from that one long-sleeved tee from two weeks ago, I haven't even considered reaching for any of the remaining RTW items in my closet.  I like the stuff I have made better, mostly because it fits properly.  And that is really satisfying.

Thanks for reading!