I really fell off the picture-taking wagon lately. But I’m trotting out a mix of old and new pictures here so I can still give you a tour of some of the things I wore, things I found I couldn’t wear anymore, and things I made in the last days of May.

Sadly, I discovered that this Skipper Tunic I made last summer from fabric I hand-dyed myself is too small. It looks great in this pic from last summer but I never felt particularly great wearing it, and now that I’ve added a few pounds to my frame, it’s downright restrictive.

This scarf I made from cotton gauze (also hand-dyed by moi) came in handy on several cool-evening occasions this month. And it still fits despite the weight gain!

I already knew this flamingo knit tee was too small, but hoped I had judged it too harshly last summer and pulled it out again last week. Nope. Definitely too small, even if you squint at it. I have removed the sleeves and will turn it into a tank top. You can see that the sleeve seams are already sitting close to where a tank top strap might sit (crazy, right?), so not much refashioning will be required. One good thing to come out of a ridiculously small garment.

Beach volleyball season has started up again! Hooray! That means I spend most of the day on Sundays whacking a ball around and generally having fun with friends on the beach. The past couple of Sundays I wore this Aurora Tank which I fashioned out of an old T-shirt of my husband’s.

This next Aurora tank is made with much nicer cotton jersey so I save it for yoga rather than for getting dirty in the sand playing volleyball.

I was invited to be on a panel earlier this week about women in music production for an audience of music industry types. The occasion called for the terrifying yet chic clown suit! Below is a picture from when I originally made it two years ago. I have since slimmed it down around the bodice for a better fit and I LOVE LOVE LOVE wearing it. It’s comfortable and stylish. (Also: less than 5% of music producers are women. Now there’s a male fortress that needs dismantling.)

The jumpsuit in action below: smashing the patriarchy one panel discussion at a time! And look at the ‘bag’ the woman on the left is holding — seriously. That. Is. Awesome.

Here’s another casualty of the not-enough-exercise-too-many-cookies winter I had. I pulled out this dress as a candidate for a casual backyard party last weekend, but it failed the fit test. I’ll put it away until further notice and hope that some elastane finds its way into the fabric while I’m not looking. (Seriously, why do I even sew wovens with no stretch? Who wants to wear dat shit? Not me. And especially not Too Many Cookies Me.)

Instead I wore this BurdaStyle dress to the party. This one is so easy to throw on and comfortable to wear (knit fabric for the win!) and I *always* get compliments on it. And I ate a lot of cookies at the party.

Here’s the BEST thing that happened, wardrobe-wise, since I last posted. I made solid-coloured bottoms! Look, a complete outfit of me-made separates! THIS IS REVOLUTIONARY, PEOPLE!

These are Megan Nielsen Flint Shorts. I’ve been eyeing that pattern since forever, and now that I’ve made the shorts I have barely taken them off for days. The navy goes with pretty much every summer top/t-shirt I’ve ever made. I’m not entirely convinced that those front pleats are working for me, though. Megan has a lot of tutorials posted for this pattern and one of them includes instructions for removing the front pleats…I might try that when I make the pants version.

I’m wearing them with my Scout Tee made from an old gauzy beach sarong.

A blurry pic of the outfit but at least you can enjoy the lush greenery that has burst forth in my neighbourhood during the month of May.

Final thoughts on Me Made May 2018:

• By the end of the month I barely even had to think about making sure I was wearing something handmade. (It helped that I put them all together in the same drawer.) I have discovered that I have plenty of me-mades in my wardrobe, and it feels good to wear them regularly.
• I have to admit that I have some ready-to-wear items that I missed wearing a little bit this month. The ones I missed tended to be statement-y pieces that would be complicated to sew, or it would be hard to find such interesting fabric.
• I’m so glad I made solid navy shorts. So glad.
• More solid-coloured pants or skirts to come. Normally I would just buy them and save my sewing time for crazy/interesting/patterned/statement confections, but I’m still on the 2018 Ready-to-Wear fast until Jan. 1st, 2019! And woman cannot live on statement pieces alone.
• Despite not being able to live on statement pieces alone, it seems I can’t live without them. I recently went to a local dressmaker’s studio who was selling off her fabric (and dresses) from last season. While I did buy some solid cotton twill from her, I also walked out with these fabrics, which are NOT going to go with anything currently in my wardrobe, but are going to make me very, VERY happy when when they’re sewn up into something spectacular:

• I think it’s safe to say that sewing stand-out pieces makes me happier than sewing basics.

Hope you had a lovely May and enjoyed seeing everyone’s me-mades. Thanks for stopping by!

— Lori