I participated in Me Made May over on Instagram this year. Last time I’d taken part was Me Made May 2016 so I thought it would be fun to dip into it again.

Me Made May is a month long Instagram challenge organised by Zoe from SoZoBlog where you set yourself some sort of personal challenge for the month of May connected to wearing clothes you have made yourself. Some people pledge to wear only clothes they’ve made themselves all month, some to finish some Me Made items, you can tailor it to suit you and the amount of handmade clothes you have. The hope is that you’ll learn something about the clothes that you have made for yourself so far and maybe identify what you like, what you don’t like, gaps in your wardrobe etc.

You use the #memademay in your posts and then get really inspired looking at all the other handmade garments shared by everyone else - well that is what happens to me anyway!

Rather than flood my entire Insta feed with pictures of myself I shared my outfits daily on Stories and then did a post every 6 days as a summary.

I set myself the challenge to wear at least one Me Made Item every day. I included refashions as well as made from scratch items. Here’s how I got on:

I’m just going to start by saying I’m not thrilled by how much my face appears here. I did discover portrait mode on my phone after a while which I think helps! I also started on day 2 matching my mug to my outfit whenever possible which was good as it gave me a bit of a distraction and something to do with my hands.

Day 1) My Scrap Fabric Top, this is one of my favourite ever makes.

Day 2) A Sweatshirt with a slogan, refashioned with applique.

Day 3) My Suisse Embroidery Refashion.

Day 4) A One Yarn Minimalist Top made from an old dress, pattern from KZ Stevens

Day 5) A self drafted pattern made from some left over jersey - self drafted sounds really grand, I just drew around and old t-shirt and added a neck facing.

Day 6) My New Patchwork Modular Me top - I LOVE this pattern from Ministry of Handmade, it is a perfect basic top which you can then hack loads of different ways with add ons. The basic top is a freebie too!

Day 7) An oldie but goodie, a summer top made from an old men’s shirt.

Day 8) A Maddie Blouse from Sew Magazine, I made this with a matching skirt back in the autumn. I like how it can be a “dress” or separates.

Day 9) Simplicity 5456, a blast from my past! I first made this shirt as a teenager in a pink polycotton and felt very pleased with myself. This version is a Liberty lawn. You can see the cross stitch mural I painted with my daughter a few years ago in the background too. Her old bedroom is now my craft space as well as our spare room.

Day 10) My Modular Me patchwork top made a second appearance.

Day 11) A relatively recent upcycle, I gave this old thin jumper a makeover with some embroidered flowers last year.

Day 12) Another favourite although being linen it does crumple like mad, another man’s shirt turned into a woman’s blouse.

Day 13) A pretty New Look 6483 made with a Rose and Hubble Print, plus, as it was a chilly morning, my We Are Knitters Shimo Cardigan.

Day 14) The Modular Me Top from days 6 & 10 but hacked into a dress. This is a super swishy tiered dress and I LOVE it. You can see me swishing about in it on Instagram!

Day 15) Yet another of my refashioned man’s shirt. Another favourite although I do wish I’d made this just a tad longer and with an extra inch or so ease in the armhole.

Day 16) This is a Top Frou Frou from CLM that I made recently from my stash. I’m still not altogether sure if I like it on me or not. The pattern is in French but it’s pretty straightforward to follow so I was ok with my very basic school girl French. I did narrow it A LOT, the pattern is very wide.

Day 17) This top is one from one of the Sewing Bee books from a few years back, I think 2016. It’s a pattern for a bias cut top that is supposed to have a centre front seam but I took that out and cut on the fold as it would have been weird with this check fabric. The fabric was a sari given to me my a friend.

Day 18) It’s my scrap fabric top again, I told you it was a favourite!

Day 19) For some reason I’m posing in the bushes for this one, not sure what the thought behind that was! This African wax print vest top is one of my oldest me makes, I’ve had it since before the kids were born and our oldest is now 27!! I swear this fabric just washes and washes. The pattern was from an old 80’s Prima magazine I think, but it was a long time ago so I’m not exactly sure.

I missed Day 20, we had a family memorial event and I chose something to wear that was not me made.

Day 21) It’s that One Yard Minimalist Top again, this time with black cropped trousers. These are just an old pair of work trousers that I chopped off and hemmed.

Day 22) My simple elasticated straight skirt. worn with a refashioned lace top.

Day 23) My other Maddie from, pattern from Sew magazine. Do enjoy my favourite quote plate DIY on the wall by my desk too, it’s such a helpful reminder sometimes!

Day 24) The green Maddie top makes another appearance.

Day 25) This top is another ancient make! At least 20 years old, I made this from an old silk skirt. I think this was a Prima magazine pattern too. The cardigan is a refashion from a few years ago. Lord have mercy, my desk is such a mess!

Day 26) A simple T-shirt refashion, adding a lace heart to a plain top.

Day 27) It’s that self drafted t-shirt again! At this point it felt like most of my handmade clothes were all gathering in the ironing basket!

Day 28) This is the Tiana Top from Style Sew Me. I only made this last year but Style Sew Me doesn’t seem to have their website any more. You can still find them on You Tube and I think a quick search might find some other places you can buy the pattern. I tend to use this as more of a “going out” top but as I said, I was running out of options as most of my me makes were in the ironing basket!

Day 29) It was a chilly one, we went to some friends for a out in the garden party and so I finally got to wear a jumper this May! This is a lovely crochet granny jumper. The pattern is Crochet Revival from HG Designs.

Day 30) My modular me dress was perfect as I went for afternoon tea as a belated birthday treat. It’s a lovely loose fit! I paired it with my zhuzhed up denim jacket.

Day 31) I’d still not done that ironing so I found this sunburst crop top at the bottom of a drawer. The pattern is from Mama in a Stitch. I don’t wear this much as the yarn I chose is a little heavy and it pulls out of shape quite badly. It’s a shame as I do like the pattern. I also realised at bedtime that I wore this inside out all day!

That’s it, my month of wearing me made clothes was over. I have a few items that are just not suitable for the weather we had this May or that are just not everyday garments (mostly holiday clothes) but I did wear most of my handmade items. I feel I have demonstrated nicely that the things I share here on Sum of their Stories are actual real projects, things I make for a reason, things to be used.

What I learnt this time is that:

• I’ve got a lot of blue handmade clothes! I do like blue but prefer brighter colours like reds, oranges and pinks really.

• I keep some handmade clothes A LONG time! I feel like this is a good thing though.

• I wear jeans, a top and a cardigan almost every day.

I gave myself some bonus days when I wore handmade earrings too, all of these got an outing at least once in May.

Find out how easy it is to make the Button earrings here.

The red leather ones are simple but I’ve never done a tutorial for them. You just cut a leaf shape, make 2 holes near the top then thread through a small jump ring. You want the jump ring to be a tight fit, so it pulls the top of the leaf shape together. Then you simply attach it to a earring wire.

The other earrings are some of my favourites, they are made from lolly or popsicle sticks.

Do you join Me Made May over on the gram? Do you have enough handmade clothes? Do you think you will pop it in your diary for next year.

Julie