Me-Made-May '17: Sign-Up Here!

Welcome to the sign-up for Me-Made-May'17! Can you believe that Me-Made-May is in its EIGHTH YEAR?! This challenge is all about improving your relationship with your handmade wardrobe, and perhaps also learning about yourself and your creativity.

What is Me-Made-May'17 and how it works...

Me-Made-May'17 (#MMMay17 for social media interaction) is a challenge designed to encourage people who sew/knit/crochet/refashion/upcycle garments for themselves to wear and love them more. The me-made and self-stitched challenges have been taking place for eight years now and they work on both a personal and community level. The participants decide the specifics of their own challenge, so that the month is appropriate and challenging for them (more on this below). For example, 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 2017. Some participants choose to document their challenge photographically (though this is in no way compulsory for taking part) and share them with other participants.

Taking part can...

• To start integrating your self-made items into your regular wardrobe rotation.
• Help you get out of a wardrobe rut by focusing on your lesser-worn items and creating new outfits that include those.  
• Find out what the 'holes' in your wardrobe are so that you are able to use your garment-creating time more usefully in the future. 
• Begin wearing the clothes that you really want to be seen in, rather than the same old things you usually reach for most mornings.  
• Enjoy the excuse to finish off any lingering UFOs (unfinished objects), or to finally start a project that has been on your mind for ages. 
• Discover what the rest of this large community of makers has created and is wearing in their day-to-day lives, and enjoy the support, advice and inspiration that they will provide. 

What isn't Me-Made-May'17? 

• A photo challenge. You might have seen heaps of Me-Made-May related pictures posted on blogs, Instagram etc. during previous challenges showing participants in their awesome handmade creations. Many like to document and share their challenges in this way, which is obviously amazing, but COMPLETING YOUR PLEDGE is the actual challenge; taking and sharing photos of what you wear during it is ENTIRELY OPTIONAL. I cannot emphasise this enough: you do not need to take any photos. At all. But please do if you want to. 
• A reason to make lots of new clothes (unless you want to). This challenge is about wearing the items that you have already created more often, not about stock-piling more makes. However, if you want to use taking part in the challenge as the kick in the butt you need to finally hem that half-finished skirt, or rework an ill-fitting garment, then great. Remember, this challenge is meant to be fun, and panic-making isn't fun! 
• A competition. It doesn't matter how many self-stitched items you already have or haven't. You can take part even if you just have one solitary self-made item! You just need to set your pledge to make it challenging for YOU, no matter what criteria other participants have set themselves. 

How do I sign up?

All you have to do is copy the pledge below and paste it into the comments section of this post adapted to include your details and the personal specification of your challenge before 1st May:

 'I, (insert name here and blog address/instagram handle if you have one), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '17. I endeavour to wear......................................................... each day for the duration of May 2017'

Ideas for your pledge...

Remember, this is meant to be challenging (i.e. not what you usually do), so take some time to think about how to get the most from the challenge before writing your pledge. 

If the standard 'wear one self-stitched garment per day' pledge won't help or stretch you, for example, if you have to wear a uniform during the week or you already wear quite a lot of me-mades, then come up with something else. How about pledging to wear two or more self-made garments each day? Or pledge to try making a new type of garment by the end of the month to wear on the final day? Or pledge to finish all your UFO's by 31st May? Pledge to focus on wearing your 'meh' garments to see if you can fall back in love with some of them? Pledge to only wear separates to force yourself to get creative with your mix-and-matching? Pledge to only wear each garment or garment-combo once? Pledge to wear an outfit including one sewn or knitted garment AND one refashion each day? There are near-infinite ways to tailor the pledge to your own requirements. 

If you have a blog or social media accounts, why not re-post your pledge there so your readers and followers can see what you are up to and be inspired by your endeavour? If possible, please include a link to this post so others can also sign-up if they are interested. If there's one thing I've learnt from these challenges, the more people involved, the better the party!

If you would like to advertise your participation on your blog if you have one, why not treat yourself to the addition of the #MMMay17 widget/gadget/button? The code can be found at the top of the right hand column of this blog. The widget/gadget/button not only looks cute, but it shows other participants/potential-participants at a glance that you are taking part this year. Plus when clicked on, it will ping you to this sign-up post so others can read what this whole damn thing is about without you needing to go into too much of an explanation yourself. If you aren't sure how to apply/insert a widget/gadget/button code, check this post for explanations for Blogspot/Blogger and Wordpress blogs.


What's different about this year's challenge? 

Participants of previous years' challenges may notice a couple of minor differences this year. Mainly, that there's no official Me-Made-May'17 Flickr group or Pinterest board. Whilst Instagram activity has rocketed, these other platforms have seen less action over the last couple of years, so seeing as I'm pretty time-poor these days I've decided to do away with those this year. Also, for the same reason, I'm going to host one larger celebration giveaway for participants towards the end of the month, rather than smaller weekly ones.

I've signed up, what do I do now then?

Nothing in particular until 1st May 2017, except let an underlying sense of excitement brew! You may decide to finish up that UFO, but please people, NO PANIC-SEWING/MAKING NECESSARY OR CONDONED!!

If you are concerned or confused about any aspect of this challenge, please email me at sozoblog (at) g mail (dot) com.

Let the signing up commence!!!!!