Me Made May Days 23 to 31, and final thoughts.

Last week and a bit.

Day 23: SOI Ultimate Trousers with Belle & Sebastian tee bought the previous night, and Swedish Hasbeens. Day 6/8 of bottoms. We had stayed the previous night with my Mother in Law who had babysat the boys. We met my Father in Law for brunch, then I got the train back to Edinburgh (while the boys all stayed in Glasgow for a bit longer) to get my hair cut, and to squeeze in a bit of fabric shopping. Later we watched Eurovision.

Day 24: Megan Nielsen Eucalypt Tank with Gap jeans and Birkenstocks. And a haircut!!! We had a lazy day, pottering around the house. It wasn't as warm as it looked so this was pretty quickly covered with a cardigan!

Day 25: Pleat front Scout Tee with Gap jeans and Clarks brogues. Bank holiday, although the boys were at their respective nurseries in the morning. So we did DIY and housework in the morning, took Small Boy out for lunch to the local cafe, then picked Baby Boy up and went to Cramond for a walk/cycle along the foreshore (trying to teach Small Boy to pedal as he previously had a balance bike!). I also wore my metallic Linden for the walk. Quite like this photo angle!

Day 26: Colette Violet blouse with Gap jeans and Clarks brogues. And bonus towel on the windowsill for some reason. Housework, nursery, a bit of sewing.

Day 27: Simplicity 2360 (unblogged), with tights (seriously weather, it's nearly June!), crochet Converse and Oasis belt. Day 7/8 of bottoms. I honestly can't believe I have never blogged this dress. Although I haven't worn it since my early stages of pregnancy, I love this dress and usually wear it at least once a week to work. I actually made another version in silk.  I must blog them. And I must make another. It was super comfy to wear today, particularly with the Converse (never worn them together before).

Day 28: hot off the sewing machine Tessuti Brigitte tee (as yet unblogged) with Gap jeans and Converse. The usual stuff. Finished this top the previous night, as a me made version of my Boden Breton tee. Really comfy and a good basic, although it doesn't go with my Ultimate Trousers like I'd hoped.

Day 29: SOI ultimate trousers with Oasis tee and Converse, and later my metallic Linden because we had hailstones today!! A day of pottering around and getting admin done, while waiting on my friend driving up from Manchester for the weekend. 

Day 30: Scout Tee with hubby's cardigan, Gap jeans and Converse. My friend was staying so we went to Hidden Door Arts festival. In the evening we got takeaway pizza and watched bad movies. This was a great outfit for both - cool (IMO anyway) and yet comfy! 

Day 31: black jersey Linden tee (unblogged) under my metallic Linden sweatshirt

And... done!

So, some final thoughts from the month:

• I made trousers! I am glad this month gave me the push to finally get on with it, as without my challenge, I think I'd still be procrastinating away. Unfortunately my trousers seem to have stretched out at the waist and so now don't fit that well and washing doesn't seem to make them shrink back. I''m currently deciding whether to see if I can somehow take them in again without taking them completely apart, or whether to start again. Either way, I'd like a version in a stretch woven at some point. I have also just bought the Named Alexandria Peg Trousers and some fabric, so I hope to get cracking with them soon.
• My month mainly featured jeans with Scouts and/or Lindens. In fact I think my metallic gold Linden probably wins the prize for most worn item. If I hadn't made my Breton tee so late in the month, I think that would also have featured very regularly. I have just won (I know!) the Emmeline Tee from The Little Tailoress, which I think will be another great basic pattern, particularly as it can be made in both wovens and knits and has 3 sleeve variations. At some point, I need to make another French terry Linden.
• At some point I should make jeans, but I am not in need of them at the moment, so will park this idea for now.
• I regularly wear 3 items purchased from Oasis, all of which are orange. I ought to sew more in this colour, as it really is a neutral for me.
• I had no real desire to wear dresses or skirts. Partly this was comfort/practicality driven, but even once I did wear them comfortably (my red denim Kelly and my bird dress) I still had no real desire to repeat them. It will be interesting to see how this impacts my wardrobe once I return to work, where previously I predominantly work skirts/dresses. Ditto my Vintage Pledge, which is to make a shirt dress.
• In light of most of the above points, I really should have a clear out pretty soon, while it's fresh in my mind what I no longer want to wear.
• Taking selfies from above really is more flattering.
• I am really pleased with how my casual handmade wardrobe has grown since I last took part 2 years ago. Then, I had one knit tee which I didn't really like, and I found casual days really difficult. This time around there was a lot of repetition, but I'm OK with that, and it was pretty easy to find something to wear each day.
• I LOVED playing along on Instagram this year. It was such fun scrolling the hashtag, seeing what everyone was wearing and joining in the chat. Lots of inspiration, more Instagram friends and blogs to follow. And the validation and confidence boost of receiving lots of "likes" on a daily basis was nice too! I'm missing it already!

So, what about you? What did you learn? Any epiphanies? And are you missing it, or glad it's finally over?