I never knew of this brilliant idea before but wish I had, I love it. and I'm in. Even if I'm late to pledge...
So, Zoe, who sews and has a blog called "So Zoe...What do you know?", started this online buddy community challenge and its great.
This is "... the popular online me-made/self-stitched challenge which asks sewers/knitters/crocheters/refashioners to wear hand-created clothing every day for a month. The aim is to encourage people to bring the DIY and handmade ethos into their everyday lives....Me-Made-May'14 (MMM'14 for short) is a challenge designed to encourage people who sew/knit/crochet/refashion/upcycle garments for themselves to actually wear and love them. The me-made and self-stitched challenges have been taking place for over four years now and they work on both a personal and community level. The participants decide the specifics of their own challenge pledge, so that the month is appropriate and challenging for them. A very common pledge is for a participant to aim to wear one self-stitched or refashioned garment each day for the duration of May 2014. The participants can also choose to document their challenge with daily photos (though this is in no way compulsory for taking part) and share them with other participants."
As it happens, today I did wear these pants I made about 3 years ago, so although I'm late to the MMM14 challenge, I'm actually right on time.
Tessuti fabric (IS there another fabric shop?), Style Arc Elle Pant
Wearing three Rosie-made items per week is definitely do-able, four or more will be very interesting (to me). Why? As the lovely sounding Zoe says:
"Ohh, there are squillions of reasons why you might choose take part! They may include:
Do your handmade items often get left in the wardrobe rather than worn as part of your everyday wardrobe? Participating in this challenge can give you a bit of a nudge to help you to integrate your self-stitched items into your daily life.
This challenge may also be useful for discovering the 'holes' in your wardrobe so in the future you are able to focus your precious garment-creating time towards making things that will be useful.
If you feel that what you tend to wear, day-to-day, doesn't really suit you or represent who you are, this challenge is a way to spend a monthfocussing on getting out of your wardrobe rut.
You may enjoy an excuse to focus on finishing off lingering UFOs (un-finished objects), or to start a project you've had on your mind for ages.
If you have been creating clothing for some time and already wear a lot of your me-mades, this challenge might help you to bring newer self-stitched items into regular rotation. If you tend to make all kinds of garments, you may even want to see if you can get by all month entirely without shop-bought garments (with undies or outerwear as notable exceptions, but not necessarily!).
There is also guaranteed to be a lovely online community of fellow participants to give support, advice and inspiration.
Now after a pretty glum day, I find this cool community thingy and I'm kinda insta-happy. Or kinda insta-ok, y'know? This is where its an advantage, being shallow. Sewing is so way cool.