Me-Made-March '11: Day 1!!!

Can you believe here we are again?! A whole year since my first me-made challenge. I went to bed last night thinking about how genuinely apprehensive I felt going to bed Feb 28th 2010, not knowing whether I'd be able to last a month in me-made clothes without freezing/looking mental/dressing repetatively etc. Well, last night I didn't have quite that same apprehension, but if there's anything I've learnt from this year, it's that life is constantly changing. Each of these me-made/self-stitched challenges that I have undertaken have been very different which is a reflection of what else is going on in my life. Fundamentally, that's the point of these challenges: showing ourselves and others that we can rely on our skills and creations can dress us for Real Life, not just for a pretty photoshoot.

So, in reflection of how preoccupied I've been recently, I was still making my pyjama bottoms that I wanted to wear last night a couple of hours before bedtime. Like for MMMar '10 and the other challenges that have since followed, I wanted to go to bed in self-stitched pyjamas so I'd wake up already participating! This has to be the coldest me-made challenge I've participated in yet, as last March I was living in a significantly warmer climate, so I needed some warmer PJ bottoms than the bedsheet pair I have previously worn. There was some lemon fuzzy flannelette fabric knocking about at work that we couldn't really use for anything, so I used it with a pattern from Burda magazine 12/2007 and some elastic I had in my stash, and got them finished in time for bed! I haven't finished the hem yet, I plan to wash them a couple of times to give them a chance to shrink up before I make them the final length.

For the rest of my day, I looked very much like this:

• me-made black sailor trousers (first seen here)
• refashioned sweatshirt
• me-made pants (knickers) and vest
• also me-made coat and bag (not in shot)

Basically, I work in a studio that is chilly, dusty and dirty plus I need to move about easily, thus my clothing has to be pretty practical. I'm already beginning to see that my weekday wardrobe is going to look very boring and limited very quickly unless I focus on making some more trousers (I currently only have this pair and one other, which are the same pattern but made in denim), refashioning some more knitwear, and upping my usual mid-week quota of skirt/dress wearing.

I hope everyone else's day has been illuminating and fun, whether you are participating in MMMar '11 or not!