The Wrap-Up

Before beginning Me-Made-March, I made a list of everything I had handmade or altered that I was still willing to wear (remember my Retirement Party?  Some things are put up on the shelf for good!), and was pretty shocked to find that the list was 56 items long.  As I've mixed and matched all month long, I did my best to wear as many things on that 56-item list as I could, and here's what I came up with:

Almost all my outfits!  30 of them anyway :) 
It's hard for me to believe that I made or altered everything I'm looking at in this entire collage.

(And even though I never actually put them in a post, I also wore my Long December Coat on an almost daily basis, did a lot of lounging in my Bats & Elephants Sweatshirt, and slept a couple of times in my Old Fashioned Bloomers.)

Of everything I wore this month, I still had 9 Me-Mades that went unworn, which is a little shocking to me!  That means I can easily get dressed for 31 days a in row with only things I've made myself, with plenty to spare.

Let me end with a few things I learned this month:

1.  I don't always feel fashion-forward in the clothes that I make, but I do always feel good.  This month I realized that I feel great knowing I made what I'm wearing even if I'm not wearing the latest trend, and that's okay with me (if you knew me four or five years ago, you would know that I used to shop, a LOT, and loved buying trendy things, and would plan entire trips around locations that had an H&M).  However, if I happen to find that something I make is also fashionable at the time, more power to me!

2.  I'm going to start putting elastic waists in every garment I possibly can.  It is literally the most comfortable thing in the world.

3.  I now have a closet filled with me-made things and a closet filled with store-bought things.  The me-made closet is getting bigger and the store-bought closet is getting smaller.  By next year at this same time, I don't really care which closet is bigger, but I do hope they are both completely filled with classic, well-made pieces that fit me perfectly that I can, and will, wear for years to come.

4.  I have somehow almost completely removed the thought, "I want that," from my mind.  Now when I see things online, in a catalog, or on the street that I like, I find that my first thought is, "How can I make that?"  If I'm going to keep thinking like that, I need to step up my sewing game!

5.  Sewing game stepped up = more pants, a pair of jeans, more dresses, more casual clothes that aren't for work, things with more color, more creative uses of fabric and trims, the list goes on!

Thanks for sticking around the whole month!  No more talk of clothes around here for the next couple of weeks or until I make something new - whichever comes first.