Me-Made-May 2019: Sign Up Here!!!

This is the TENTH year of the Me-Made-May challenge, and if you're interested in improving your relationship with your handmade wardrobe, then you've come to the right place. To take part, you will need to set yourself a pledge to wear your me-mades more and/or in different ways, and follow it through out May. Hopefully, by the end of the month, you will have learnt a whole load about yourself, your style, how you feel about your wardrobe, and how best to spend your clothes-making time going forwards. Here's what you do....

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 specifics of your personal pledge before 1st May:

'I, (insert name here), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May 2019. I endeavour to ........................................................................... during May 2019' 

Why should I take part?

The Me-Made-May challenge can help you...

• to start integrating your me-made items into your regular wardrobe rotation.
• get out of a wardrobe rut by focusing on your lesser-worn items and creating new outfits that include them.
• 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.

You just need to work out a tricky but do-able pledge for yourself that pushes out of your usual routine, and will be useful for you.

What isn't Me-Made-May?

• 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 participants like to document and share their challenges in this way, which is obviously amazing (and if you do, please use the hashtag #memademay2019), but COMPLETING YOUR PLEDGE is the actual challenge; taking and sharing photos of what you wear during it is ENTIRELY OPTIONAL. You do not need a blog or Instagram account or any social media presence at all. 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. This challenge is about wearing and enjoying the items that you have already created more often, not about stock-piling more makes. However, if you want to use 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. This challenge is about being thoughtful about creating, not about trying to make as much as possible just to have more options to wear.
• A competition. It doesn't matter how many me-made items you already have or haven't. You can take part even if you just have one solitary me-made item! You just need to set your pledge to make it challenging for YOU, don't concern yourself about what other participants have pledged for themselves.

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.

Many participants pledge to wear 'one me-made garment per day', but don't feel that you have to follow suit, particularly if that would currently be too tricky or too easy for you. Try to think up a pledge that will be difficult (AKA challenging!), but not impossible, and most of all USEFUL to you! There are near-infinite ways to tailor the pledge to your own requirements. Here are some ideas:

• pledging to wear things you made a year ago or more, to see if you can bring some of them back into regular rotation, or if it's time to let them go.
• pledging to only wear separates to force yourself to get creative with your mix-and-matching.
• if you'd like to wear dresses (or whatever) more often than you current do, pledging to wear each of your me-made dresses at least once during the month.
• pledging to wear each of your me-made garments only once during the month, perhaps to see what didn't make the cut and to therefore not make any of that type of garment again!
• pledging to finish all your UFO's by 31st May if the sight of your UFO pile has been weighing you down.

If you do have a blog or social media accounts, why not re-post your pledge and the logo at the top of the post 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!

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

Nothing in particular until 1st May 2019, except let an underlying sense of excitement brew! You may decide to finish up that UFO, but please people, NO PANIC-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!!!!!