Eh, no. I am NOT dancing to 'You Can Leave Your Hat On'

Hey guys! It's JUNE. The SUN IS SHINING. I'm a BIT PISSED. This is a good thing! No, seriously though. I was teaching today at Berylune, and then I was drinking cocktails in Amy's garden. That is my kind of Sunday. My very excellent student finished her dress and looked gorgeous, and I can't wait to share the photos with you when I get them. But in the meantime, I have the last of my Me Made May dresses to show to you, and a little bit of reflection, too.

So. Here's what I wore on Bank Holiday Monday:

Honolulu Baby dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon Cherry shoes - and, just seen, my new yellow Zatchels satchel

It was warm and sunny but windy on Monday - hence the Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka hair. I can't really remember what we did on Monday. Nic and I had a picnic lunch in the park and went for a walk, and watched DVDs. Relaxing! I knew I had Tuesday off work so there was no need to worry about fitting lots in to Monday. I love this dress, and it really needed a sunny day to show it off!

Tuesday was a bit different though, weather wise. I don't think the sun even came up.

Tuesday 28th May 2013 - Stay The Course dress and red shoes from Topshop

Ah I love this photo but I kind of hate this photo. The weather was shitty on Tuesday but as I was spending the day indoors, it didn't matter. Nic was doing a screening of Round Midnight for some American Studies MA students, so I went along to see it on the big screen. I'd seen a bit of it before, but never the whole way through. The experience was marred somewhat by the person sitting next to me sniffing actually the WHOLE way through the film, but it's such a lovely lovely film and I was surprised by how moved I was by it. Then Nic and I came home and had dinner and watched a bunch of super-sad episodes of The West Wing (don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't seen it, but for those who have it was some season 7 episodes and one of them I cried the full way through it. Like actual, heaving sobs. God.) Anyway, yeah this dress. When I was making the Rue Paul Albert dress and two zips broke, I went to put this dress on and the fucking zip broke on it too! So I had to replace it, and I did, and I love this dress basically. Good old Michael Miller fabrics. My heroes.

Wednesday 29th May 2013 - Meta dress, yellow cardigan from H&M and Poetic Licence 'Backlash' boots

I can't believe I was wearing these boots in May! Depressing. I had a busy day at work on Wednesday because the temp who is taking over my job started and I had lots of induction things to do with her. She was dressed all in black and one of the first things she said to me was about how colourful I was! This dress made my colleagues laugh because recently we had a measurement-related error in our field of work and I had lots of orders to make measuring-tape ties or shirts. Obvs I'm not going to make them, but it made me laugh. Anyway, it took til the 29th day of May for me to figure out how not to look like a total hot mess in end-of-work day photos, so maybe I'm set for NEXT May, right?

Thursday 30th May 2013 - Feckin Birds dress and Topshop shoes

Um, yeah, so clearly haven't QUITE nailed the not looking like ass thing. I was working in London on Thursday so was on a very early train and had a very full day, and this is me upon arriving home. I'm actually pretty thrilled with how good the dress looks after a full day of wear though, although the tulip skirt has flattened a little bit with lots of sitting. Thursday was lovely, though. I had a busy day, then came home and made dinner for friends, and then more friends came round and we had an impromptu mini party thing. It was great - I have such wonderful friends. Friends who understand my need to drunkenly tweet them gifs that make me laugh.

Friday 31st May 2013 PART THE UNE - Home Sewing is Easy dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa shoes. Thanks to Lauren for taking the photo!

I wasn't in work on Friday. Nic was out all day at a conference so I had a lazy morning then rolled over to Lauren's house to sew and watch Made in Chelsea - she's watching it from the start, and we had some excellent series 2 episodes to watch together. It was so much fun. I actually think I need to take this dress in a wee bit because it's a bit looser in the waist than I would like, but of course I always love wearing it. As it was the last day of May and also payday, I had a dinner date planned with Nic in the evening, hence the part one. After spending the afternoon with Lauren, I went home and watched more Made in Chelsea, and then got changed and headed out for dinner with my sweetie:

Friday 31st May 2013 part two - Shepherd's Bush Sweetheart dress and Office 'Love Me Tender' shoes

This was worn for dinner and then drinks and then a walk home in the warm moonlight. I wore a petticoat underneath this dress and felt pleasantly ridiculous in it. I loved this dress when I finished it, but I love it even more now. And even more than that after a few of these on Friday night:

Raspberry mule!

And then it was over. I wore a non me-made on Saturday because I could. But I wore a handmade dress today.

What did I learn? Well, let's have a look at my pledge:

I, Roisin of But It Can't Be From Dolly Clackett, She Gave Me an Easter Egg!, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear one handmade dress each day for the duration of May 2013, with no repeats. In addition, I pledge to sew at least two more garments during the course of the month.

This was a step-up from last year's plegde, when I pledged to wear handmade dresses at least twice a week. That ended up being really do-able, and I realised then if I hadn't tagged on the 'no repeats' bit, I could have done the whole month. I've sewn at lot since then so I thought no repeats would still work out this time. In terms of the sewing new garments - well, I managed three complete dresses, and one that's just needing a hem. So, that's good!

I ended up not having any problems fulfilling the no repeats bit of the pledge. I have a lot of handmade dresses now, and I have the kind of job where most of them are totally suitable to wear to work. So, I didn't find that I had any wardrobe gaps really. I'm used to wearing dresses throughout the year too, so I didn't find the sudden drop in temperature to be a problem really either. I was pleased to find that my handmade wardrobe was suitable for work, holiday, and even a job interview! That makes me really happy. I did struggle to get a photo every day without looking tired, and that's partly because May was an uncharacteristically intense month. I got through it though, and for that I have to offer my heartfelt thanks to my darling Nic. He takes the majority of photos for my blog anyway, but Me Made May was a big ask of him. I'm lucky to have such a supportive thoughtful boyfriend, and one who is keen to be a part of my hobby. I'm so excited some of you all are going to get to meet him on 15th June in Birmingham! I was glad to get to the end of the month, mainly so I could stop taking photos every day.

I did learn a lot from the process. Last May, Me Made May kickstarted me into sewing more regularly. This Me Made May made me realise that the way I sew - basically a lot of repeats but in varying fabrics  - works for my lifestyle and my body. I felt proud to have built a collection that I love to wear and that makes me happy. I want to thank Zoe for arranging this challenge, I can honestly say that taking part in Me Made May 2012 changed my relationship with sewing and in a good way. I have been sewing a lot more this year and it's got me through some stressful times at work, and has made me happy. This will continue. So, while Me Made May is over for this year, Me Made Living will carry on!

Right, I'm off. I'll be back later in the week!