Hey-o, this was my first time participating in Me-Made May! This year, I finally felt like I had enough me-made garments to make it through the month.

In case you didn’t know, Me-Made May is a challenge started by Zoe of So, Zo… What Do You Know? sewing blog. The goal of Me-Made May is to encourage makers to wear their makes more. At the end of the month, Me-Made May is supposed to help you ID holes in your wardrobe and extract little-worn makes from of the darkest parts of your closet.

Everyone sets her own Me-Made May goal, and my goal was to wear at least one me-made garment every day. And I did it with little trouble, huzzah!

I also managed to photograph all but TWO days of #mmmay18 for Instagram. I shared my daily lewks in my IG Stories, and they’re archived on my profile under #mmmay18.

Here’s what I wore in May, and the captions tell you the patterns!

What I Learned from Me-Made May ’18

Dresses are Lazy and Wonderful

Most days I wanted to throw on a dress and go. Dresses are perfectly coordinating tops and bottoms. You don’t have to worry about proportions or tucking. They’re glorious, and you always look more “put together” wearing a dress.

Going to Great Lengths

Turns out, as a stay-at-home parent of little kids, I spend a lot of time playing on the floor. This spurred two conclusions:

1.) My floors need to be cleaned more often. Ew, gross.
2.) Long(er) dresses and skirts would help with modesty as I play on the floor.

I do love a mini skirt/dress, but I want to experiment with going longer for the sake of function. #formfollowsfunction

On Repeat

When I like something, I wear it a lot!

Here’s what I wore more than once:

• Seafarer T
• Larchmont woven T
• Briar T-shirts
• Saldana T
• Prefontaine shorts
• Darling Ranges dress
• Oslo cardi
• Valley muumuu

Following are Amazon affiliate links chosen for you! If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Built by Wendy Dresses: The Sew U Guide to Making a Girl’s Best Frock: If you like the shift dress I wore May 1, check out this book. It contains two other dress patterns for your to hack to your heart’s content!

Drying racks: My secret to long-lasting me-made garments is to never put them in the dryer. Like, ever. I have two styles of drying rack at Van Handel Headquarters: a foldable, accordion-style rack and a gullwing-style rack.

Delicate laundry detergent: Along with air-drying my makes, I often wash them with delicate laundry detergent. I like Woolite Gentle Cycle liquid laundry detergent and no-rinse Eucalan wash for fine fabric. This Forever New fabric care wash is popular, with more than 1,400 reviews and a four-and-a-half star rating.

Shout Wipes, case of 80: Full disclosure — my husband, Mark, works for SC Johnson, which makes Shout. But I gotta tell ya straight —it’s great to have a few wipes stashed in your purse, glove box, or desk to keep stains from setting. Protect those me-made garments! Plus, you feel like a boss when you whip out a wipe and hand it to a party in need.

Rubbermaid Configurations Deluxe Custom Closet Organizer System Kit, 4-to-8-Foot, Titanium: Because maybe #mmmay18 has you thinking about how to more efficiently organize where your makes live. This system has more than 2,200 reviews and a four-and-a-half star rating.

Rowenta DW5080 Focus 1700-Watt Micro Steam Iron Stainless Steel Soleplate with Auto-Off, 400-Hole, Brown: You can’t talk garment care without talking about irons. This is my iron, and it’s a beast. (BTW, I wrote this iron-buying guide: Buying an iron for sewing: 5 irons less than $100 from Amazon.)

Stripes Around My Shoulders

I wore stripes eight times! Stripes forever. Honestly, though, I kinda think I have a fear of solid colors, you guys. They’re just so… one color.

Blue Period

Based on my photos here, there was ONE DAY I didn’t wear something with blue in it (on May 14). I am consistent!

Project #SewMyStyle 2017

Last year I participated in Project #SewMyStyle, where I sewed a pattern a month. The SMS garments I wore during #mmmay18 were the Darling Ranges dress, the Yona coat, the Briar T, the Hampshire trousers, the Bridgetown backless dress, the Valley muumuu, the Anna dress, and the Pocket skirt.

Eight out of 12 patterns made is fabulous in my book! I did a good job matching patterns, fabrics, and lifestyle.

Shorts Story

I wore shorts four times in May, and I wore my Prefontaine shorts two of those times. Throwing it back to my observation about spending lots of time on the floor, shorts are good for playtime. I’m planning to make a couple pairs of Grainline Maritime shorts in the short term.

Over to you: Did you participate in Me-Made May this year? If yes, how did you do? Did you share pics of your handmade garments? The quality of my #mmmay18 photos is all over the place. Next year, I’ll work a little harder on that!

P.S. Here’s the previous post: Made-to-Measure Leggings: Online Sewing Class Review. This is a class from the ladies behind the Sewing Out Loud podcast.

P.P.S. As I lived through Me-Made May, I thought a lot about working through Wardrobe Architect. In this post on wardrobe planning, I homed in on my core style: colorful, classic, washable, lean, and playful. It was interesting to look back on what I wore during #mmmay18 and see that core style shine through.