MMM'13: Days 28, 29, 30 & 31: THE END!!!

So here we go, the final instalment of MMM'13 challenge documentation plus my thoughts on this year's challenge. Normal service will be resumed shortly, you may be saddened or relieved to hear!

Day 28:

Me-mades:

Mariner T-shirt

Blue treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Probs the last day I'll wear the Mariner T-shirt until after my pregnancy. I'm at risk of stretching it out and I love it too much to let that happen. 

Day 29:

Me-mades:

Leopard print batwing top

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Day 30:

Me-mades:

Stripey T-shirt

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand hoodie

Day 31:

Me-mades:

New smock top! (Will blog about tho next week)

Blue treggings

Pants (knickers/undies)

Later on I'll probably wear my Captain jacket and a second-hand cardi

Wowzers! It's the final day. It feels pretty momentous. It's nice to have something new to wear for the final day of the challenge, plus I'm going through some mental pregnancy-related hot flush today so I'm actually not covering it up with a million extra layers like usual! 

Ah what can I say?! Another me-made month of challenge is over. As I mentioned in my pledging post, my life circumstances made this a special one without me needing to try and think up ways to amp my personal pledge myself. This was a really interesting month, clothing-wise. I started prepping for the month by removing all the garments that I could no longer wear to make getting dressed each quicker than it would have been if I had to sift through all my clothing. I also added a couple of extra pieces hot off the sewing machine as the month evolved, but far more pieces had to get removed by 31st May. Even my beloved treggings are getting close to the end of their useful life (until after the birth at least, when hopefully I can do the opposite of what I'm doing now: gradually tightening up the elastic rather than gradually letting it out!).

I've found it interesting, if a little alarming, to look back on my documentation pictures from this month and see all the garments and outfits I wore a matter of weeks ago that I can't wear now I'm at the end of it! I'd imagine if I were to do a Me-Made-June or July this year (which I'm not, although I will be wearing A LOT of me-made clothes in those months and beyond), my outfits would have to consist of almost entirely different items than those I wore in May.

But aside from the strange and magical expanding trick my body is pulling, I've been really pleased with this month. Personally, I think I've created a pleasing amount of variety within my outfits despite having less me-made items to work with than previous challenges. I'm also happy to report that, thanks to the advent of my me-made black and blue treggings, I only resorted to wearing mass-produced (though second-hand) jeggings once throughout the whole month, despite my pledge 'permitting' me to wear them up to three times a week. Guess I am more clothing-self-sufficient than I had anticipated!

And on a wider, community level, I couldn't be more excited about how many people got involved and challenged themselves this year! A truly stellar flickr group of about 6000 images of me-made awesomeness has been created from this year's challenge, and of course not everyone challenging themselves is part of that, so even more days-worth of me-made outfits occurred this month than you can see over there. Hopefully most of the participants have got something from this challenge, be that feeling more confident in their making skills or appearance, or maybe having learnt about what they prefer to wear so they can tailor (nice pun!) their future makes to filling the gaps that came to the surface this month. Hopefully next year's will see many of this year's participants coming back to amp things up, and fingers crossed we'll be joined by more new-comers up for seeing what it can do for them!

Til next time....

MMM'13: Days 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 & 27

The penultimate round up of documentation photos from my own personal MMM'13 challenge...

Day 22:

Me-mades:

Grey Tova dress

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Yellow jacket

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Day 23:

Me-mades:

Stripey T-shirt

Blue treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket

Also worn: second-hand hoodie

Day 24:

Me-mades:

Black batwing top

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand cardi and second-hand jeggings

Oh no! I failed to get a photo on Day 24 itself so had to recreate my outfit on my dummy. This is the first time all month I've resorted to second-hand rather than me-made bottoms and I'm super proud and also surprised that I got this far before doing so. 

Day 25:

Me-mades:

Stripey T-shirt

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Day 26:

Me-mades:

African wax fabric Washi dress

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (in bag)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

I've said it before (Day 13 to be precise), but this time I really mean it. This is the LAST TIME I'm wearing this dress until my boobs deflate. It's just too damn tight round the bodice. I love it so much though, I know it'll see use one day....

Day 27:

Me-mades:

Stripey batwing top with Peter Pan collar

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

There are a few garments that I could wear at the beginning of the month that can't wear anymore, my mustard trousers being one. This challenge has been great for preventing myself from just picking one outfit that still fits and just wearing that each day! Knowing I need to document my outfit makes me rotate and experiment with the remaining pieces way more than otherwise I would. 

MMM'13: Days 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 & 21

Over half way through this year's Me-Made challenge! Umm, how did that happen? I'm going to document a whole week's worth of me-made outfits now as I seem to have fallen behind somewhat. Please remember peops, that if you are a twitter user, the challenge's hashtag is #MMMay13 

Day 15:

Me-mades:

Leopard print batwing top

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Winter Wonderland coat (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Sorry, you're going to have to trust me that this was the outfit I was wearing today, seeing as most of it is below the table! 

Day 16:

Me-mades:

Mariner T-shirt

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket

Also worn: second-hand hoodie

I promise that piece of amusing street art wasn't me! So now that Thursdays start with a pregnancy yoga session, I seem to spend the rest of the day looking uncharacteristically sporty!

Day 17:

Me-mades:

Stripey T-shirt

Mustard trousers

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

As I've mentioned before, Fridays during the MMM challenges are THEMEFRIDAY at the MMM'13 Flickr group. It's entirely optional, but those who wish to, can attempt to apply the theme of the day (as voted for my the group members) to their documentation photo that day. Seeing how different people respond in different ways to the theme is usually lots of fun. The theme this Friday was 'hat'. Now I must admit that I've never made a hat before, so I grabbed this little hat that my mum recently knitted for our baby as a prop. I think I got away with it coz the hat is so cute!

Day 18:

Me-mades:

Mustard batwing top with Peter Pan collar

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Haha! I can't actually play the ukelele, though Pat did once teach me to play 'Still D.R.E' by Dr Dre. I'm getting in to props in my documentation pics!

Day 19:

Me-mades:

Grey Tova dress

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Yellow jacket

Refashioned tights

Also worn: second-hand cardi

This is the last outing for these tights. They spent the whole damn day threatening to fall down round my ankles! I guess my belly has just got too big now. In fact I think this pic makes me look so round! 

Day 20:

Me-mades:

Stripey batwing top with Peter Pan collar

Blue treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Haha! I've clearly taken to heart the section in my Pregnancy and birth book about how I should be sitting down and relaxing more!

Day 21:

Me-mades:

Magpie batwing top

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Reversible bolero shrug

Leopard coat

Oh the shame! This pic was taken in the same cafe as yesterday's documentation photo. I do do lots of work during the week days, I promise! Anyways, what is awesome about today is that I made EVERYTHING I'm wearing (bra, socks and shoes exempt) !!!! No relying on second-hand cardis for me today. 

MMM'13: Days 11, 12, 13 & 14

More MMM'13-erie...

Day 11:

Me-mades:

Blue treggings

Stripey T-shirt

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic!)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Ah! An ace outfit. Comfy AND nautical, I was very happy in this all day. In fact, I had to self-appoint myself a uniform, this would be it!

Day 12:

Me-mades:

Blue treggings

Pussy bow blouse

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket (not in this pic!)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Oh no! I forgot to get a documentation photo taken before it got to dark to do so. I recreated the outfit the following day with my trusty mannequin. There's some great examples of MMM'13 documentation pics on the flickr group where the wearer is not in the photo (like this one). This will not be one of them!

Day 13:

Me-mades:

African wax fabric Washi Dress

Pants (knickers/undies)

Winter wonderland coat

Also worn: second-hand cardi

I had to really force myself to not wear my blue treggings today! They are just sooooo comfy. But I wanted to A) put a bit of variety into my month of me-mades, and B) get some use from this Washi dress before it gets even more tight around the bust area! 

Day 14:

Me-mades:

Magpie Batwing top

Blue treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket 

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Jeez, I look a hot mess in this pic! Ok, I promise the blue treggings will go in the wash now and hopefully regain their formerly-unbaggy appearance! 

My First Podcast / Audio Post!

Hi there peops! A few days ago Pat (Mr So Zo) and I recorded a little conversation which, through the application of science and magic, has be turned into a podcast! I am sharing it here as my first ever audio post. So, if you've got 10 minutes on your hands and fancy listening to me chat about Me-Made-May'13, pregnancy dressing and the like, just press play below.

Oh, and apologies for the pauses and excessive use of the word 'exciting', as you can tell this was entirely unscripted!

MMM'13: Days 8, 9 & 10

Clocking in to keep on track with my MMM'13 challenge documentation....

Day 8:

Me-mades:

Mustard trousers

Black batwing top

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn: second-hand cardi and Captain jacket

We had a day off and went to London for the day. We wandered all about, visited the Idler Academy and spent some time by a canal. And ate the most amazing pulled pork sandwich EVER. I'm still thinking about it, I may never stop.

Day 9:

Me-mades:

Black treggings

New stripey jersey top

 Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Captain jacket

Also worn: second-hand hoodie

So Thursdays are now officially Pregnancy Yoga day for me. I didn't want to go in exactly the same outfit as I did last week, so I was spurred on to whip up a jersey top that I'd been planning for a while anyway. Oh, and do you like my glamourous backdrop?! Got to love a 1960's built municipal building! It's the first thing you see when you leave our flat in fact. 

Day 10:

Me-mades:

Grey Tova dress (which I'm not longer calling 'Mild-Maternity, as I feel way passed that stage)

Black treggings

 Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn: second-hand cardi 

It's Friday, which means THEMEFRIDAY over at the MMM'13 Flickr group. Today's theme was to have our documentation picture taken in our sewing/knitting/creating space. Ironically, the night before a photo inside my flat was required, literally half the electrics blew out in the flat so I've nicked a standing lamp from elsewhere to illuminate my dark little room so I get on with my projects. 

MMM'13: Days 5, 6 & 7

Here's a little three-day update of my version of the MMM'13 challenge: 

Day 5:

Me-mades:

Mustard batwing top with Peter Pan collar

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn at various points: second-hand cardi and Captain jacket

So I've been trying to mix up the locations of my documentation photos a bit this year. I'm doing that for two reasons, 1) I find seeing snippets of other people's lives, homes and work places really interesting so following that logic I can only assume others might like to see some snippets of my life and its locations, and 2) I really like having these picture sets of a month in my life as a reminder of what I was up to and what my life was like that year, so a mixture of locations will be nicer for me in the future when I look back on 2013. For example, the photo above is taken at one of my places of work, Sew Over It in Clapham, South London. I was teaching a tulip skirt making class that day, can you see the students beavering away behind me to the right? 

Day 6:

Me-mades:

New School vintage navy dress with lace trim

Captain jacket

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn: second hand cardi

This is basically the only pre-pregnancy dress I can still fit in, thanks to it being an accommodating A-line shift style and being made from slightly stretchy synthetic double knit. The me-made/self-stitched challenges always make me wear dresses more often than I'd be likely to if left to my usual devices, but I really enjoy it when I do wear them. I taught a Pattern Cutting class on Day 6 in this outfit, and it made me feel much more put together and professional than I probably would in my usual jeggings/jersey top combo.  

Day 7:

Me-mades:

Pussy bow blouse

Black treggings

Vest (camisole/singlet)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn: second hand cardi and Captain jacket when I went out

Yes I can wear an outfit that doesn't have mustard-yellow in it, as long as there's red in there somewhere instead! It's starting to get silly how often I'm wearing these treggings now I've made them, isn't it?! I promise I have washed them at least. They are just soooo comfy. In fact, I'm thinking of making my challenge pledge a bit tighter and excluding the wear of second-hand (not me-made) jeggings after all. I'll see how big my bump grows towards the end of the challenge, I'd be not pledge-too-soon!  

MMM'13: Days 1, 2 3 & 4

Time to start documenting this here challenge....

Day 1:

Me-Mades:

Mustard trousers

Stripey batwing top with Peter Pan collar

Captain jacket

Vest (camisole)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

As sunny as it may be, it's windy as all hell here at the moment and damn chilly with it, hence all the layers. I'm truly amazed that I can still wear these mustard trousers when I had to decommission most of my other non-maternity trousers ages ago. I think it must be a combination of a high elastane content in the fabric and the style being quite low-rise. I'm not sure how many weeks left I have of wear from the, so expect to see them quite often!

Day 2:

Me-mades:

Hastily made treggings

Mariner T-shirt

Vest (camisole)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn at various points of the day:

Captain jacket

Second-hand cardi and hoodie

The reason the treggings/leggings were hastily made was because I signed myself up to a pregnancy yoga class then realised with a small amount of panic that I hadn't been to a yoga class since the 1990's and didn't have a clue what people wear to them these days! I then realised that I didn't have anything suitable so made these over two days. I'll blog about them properly soon. Paired with the Mariner T-shirt and a second-hand hoodie, it was a successful yoga outfit, hurrah! I was planning on getting changed before I went to a poker night later on, but the outfit was so comfy that I simply swapped the hoodie for a cardi and jacket and left the rest on. No I didn't win the poker, but I came really close!

Day 3:

Me-mades:

Mild-maternity Tova dress

Captain jacket

Vest (camisole)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Refashioned tights

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Another insanely windy day, but so nice to use the MMM'13 Flickr group's Friday photo theme of 'Water' as an excuse to head down to the beach to get my documentation photo taken next to the English Channel. The tights are refashioned in the sense that they are normal tights that I cut down and reattached some elastic to so they are kind of 'home-made' maternity tights. I'll blog about them soon. I'm also rocking a me-made bag which will be blogged about on Monday, and some new (to me) charity shop shoes that I'm mildly in love with at the moment. 

Day 4:

Me-mades:

Treggings again

Magpie Batwing top

Vest (camisole)

Pants (knickers/undies)

Also worn: second-hand cardi

Winter Wonderland coat

Oh I can really see me wearing little else below the waist this month, these treggings/leggings are so comfy. (I'll decide what I'm actually calling them soon too.) My batwing tops are some of the few pre-maternity tops I can still wear as they are just long enough to not rise up annoyingly with the larger belly (along with the Mariner T-shirt). 

Happy MMMay'13! Participants Giveaway with Sewbox.co.uk

***THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

I can think of no better way to celebrate the start of MMMay'13 than with a giveaway competition for the challenge's participants. Rather awesomely, one of the lovely sponsors of my blog, Sewbox.co.uk, has kindly offered two fabulous prizes and are willing to send them anywhere in the world totally free of charge to the two lucky winners. Both prize options are designed to aid yet more self-stitcthery. 

Prize Option 1: YOUR CHOICE of sewing pattern from their awesome selection. Sewbox.co.uk have a really wide selection of independent sewing pattern companies' products including blogger-favourites  Colette Patterns, Sewaholic, DIY Couture, Christina Haynes patterns and MANY MORE, and as you know we are all about that round these parts! If I were allowed to enter my own giveaway, I'd be sorely tempted to choose the Hot Patterns Riviera Hello, Sailor! Pants, or the super fun and sexy Marilyn Halter Dress by Eliza M Patterns. But that's just me.

Prize Option 2: YOUR CHOICE of 1 metre of fabric from their drool-inducing selection. They have more Liberty prints than you can shake a stick at, so if you are one of the Liberty-festishists out there, now's your chance to snaffle a metre of something delicious! (Remember, if you win you can buy another metre of your chosen fabric from Sewbox so you have enough for a blouse or something.)

How to Enter: Apologies to readers of this blog who are not participating this year in Me-Made-May, this giveaway competition is only for MMM'13 participants (Hint: come back in two weeks when I'll have a treat applicable to EVERYONE!).

So, if you are a participant of MMM'13 and fancy a new sewing pattern or 1 metre of beautiful fabric, then visit the Sewbox.co.uk site and decide which item you'd like to be in the running for. Then leave a comment on this blog post saying if you would like to win prize option 1 or 2, PLUS a link to the item you'd like to receive PLUS a way for me to contact you if you are successful (i.e. if I can't find your email address within two clicks of my mouse, leave your email address in the body of the comment). Email addresses will not be used for anything other than contacting you if you win this giveaway.

Make sure you have commented by midnight GMT on Wednesday 8th May to enter. Please choose one prize option only and please only enter the giveaway once. Multiple entries will be discounted. The following day (Thursday 9th May) I will use a random number generator to select one winner for a sewing pattern and one winner for 1 metre of fabric and contact them to get their postal addresses to forward on to Sewbox.co.uk so they can send out the prizes.

Good luck and Happy MMM'13!!!

Me-Made-May'13: The Record Breaking Challenge starts TOMORROW!!!!!!!

I don't know about you, but I am EXCITED!!!! So many former participants have amped up their pledges ready to flash their me-mades in new and interesting ways, plus HEAPS of first-timers new to the party are about to show us their unique take on handmade style. Honestly, what's not to be excited about?!

It's pretty impossible to give you an exact number of participants of MMMay'13 as some of the 440+ comments on the sign up post are duplicates or people commenting but not actually signing up. But hot DAMN that's still a LOT of people signing up! By comparison, last year's MMMay'12 sign up post received 290 comments. Plus there are more members of this year's challenge's Flickr group than ever before as well (MMM'13's Flickr group currently has over +100 more than MMM'12's!)! It's going to be one hell of a self-stitched fest.

It's so wonderful to see this (dare I say?) movement growing, and doing so organically. It shows that increasing numbers of people genuinely want to get a better relationship with handmade things, to bring them into their everyday lives rather than relying solely on mass-manufactured items. As participants, we are all stepping away from the prescribed formulae of consumption that benefits the large global corporations and their share holders that own most clothing retailers yet is so detrimental to the workers making that clothing and the shoppers who find that quality is consistently being sacrificed for profit. Instead we have discovered a more positive and authentic route of making our clothes ourselves. We are about to embark on a whole month of celebrating these facts! ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My MMMay'13 Pledge!

It's been utterly awesome to see so many creative peops signing up for this year's Me-Made challenge! In fact, I think we may be on track for a record number of participants, which is so damned exciting. Think of all those fabulous self-stitched items that will be getting a well-deserved airing for the duration of May, I CANNOT WAIT to see them! The signees currently range from people who have professed to have been knitting and sewing for 'a hundred years' but find they never get round to actually wearing any of their creations (hi Gill), to a signee who has yet to even make their first garment (!) (welcome and well done Flossie!) and every type of stitcher in between. If you intend to sign up, you have until midnight 30th April!

Don't worry, I hadn't forgotten to make my own MMMay'13 pledge! My, that would be embarrassing wouldn't it, if the creator/hostess of the challenge forgot to take part!? I delayed making this year's pledge because I was taking a slice of my own advice and having a good think about how to create a do-able but challenging pledge for myself this year. Here's what I've come up with...

 'I, Zoe of 'So, Zo...' blog sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear all me-made clothing with the exception of bras, socks, hosiery and knitwear each day for the duration of May 2013. I will also allow myself to occasionally wear second-hand jeggings but no more than 3 times a week.'

As you probably know, repeat participants of these challenges are encouraged to amp-up/alter their pledges each year to prevent their challenges from becoming easy and not a useful experience. It may seem to you that my pledge this year will result in less of a personal challenge than the pledges I've made in previous years, but believe me it'll be plenty-challenging!

In the past, I have really pushed myself to make increasingly difficult challenge pledges, like when I really restricted the use of shop-bought knitwear (I don't knit plus always feel cold, so coming up with solutions for that was most definitely a challenge!) or like last year when I gave myself the organisational headache of getting one friend or family member to also wear something I'd made for them each day.

At other times, life has thrown up things that have naturally made the challenges harder without me needing to come up with ways to do it for myself! Self-Stitched-September'10 was one such year. I'd just moved back to the UK having had to make a major wardrobe cull before dragging our belongings from Barcelona, through France, to the UK via trains, coaches and more trains. This year is firmly in the 'life making things challenging' category. Due to growing a human inside me, I'm finding that recently less and less of my wardrobe is now wearable. As garments have become too tight or short I've been putting them away in a cupboard and what is left on my clothing rail is increasingly looking like the type of vastly limited selection I was left with in September 2010! I've been making some mild-maternity friendly garments (some of which I have yet to blog) but I'm just not sure how long they will be wearable, hopefully until the end of May at least!

Anyways, if you have signed up for this year's challenge, I'm sending you a massive welcome, it's fabulous to have you on board. I'd love to head over and visit every single one of your blogs and leave a personal comment if you have one (which is of course no requirement for taking part in this challenge) but with nearly 200, there simply isn't time to do that plus eat, sleep and sew!