I’m still here! ^^ With lots of pictures. If you don’t know Me Made May, it’s a big annual event on sewing blogs. The point is to entice people to actually wear the garments they create and make a effort to coordinate them. People who wish to take part pledge to wear a certain number of outfits each week using handmade pieces, sometimes with other constraints. And then you can take daily pictures of your outfits to document your challenge, which you can share with others through the Flickr group and your own blog. I don’t find it very hard to wear my handmade pieces, I usually use them a regularly in my daily outfits, but I thought it could be nice to try and make a special effort this month by taking part anyway. It would force me to use my imagination to vary the coordinates. I didn’t make any pledge in advance because 1. I don’t have much time to post lately (as you might have noticed) and 2. I wasn’t sure how I would do in the challenge, because I don’t have that many different pieces that I can wear right now (hence the imagination challenge) and it’s not easy for me to take pictures each day. My pledge to myself was “Try to wear at least one handmade piece as many times per week as you can, with as little repeat outfits as you can” (but there will be repeat outfits, I’m pretty sure of it). I couldn’t do a weekly round-up post before, so here is my midway round-up.

But before the actual round-up, let me introduce the main “me-made” piece that will accompany me throughout this month:

I’m pregnant! We’re having a little boy (that’s what the text in French says)! ^___^ Okay so he will accompany me for a little bit more time that just this month, as we’re expecting him to arrive in August. This picture is a few weeks old, I’m at six months today. Can you believe it? I feel like it was just yesterday that we got confirmation that we would have a baby, and there’s only three months left… So you now understand why I was afraid it would be hard to follow the challenge, as most of my closet doesn’t fit anymore (and for the stretch tops that would fit, I’m afraid I’ll distort them and won’t be able to wear them post-pregnancy if I put them on now).

May 1st:

- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress. I finished this dress in early April, half of the detailed post about it is ready, I’ll share more details about it asap.
It turned out to be warmer than I thought it would be that day, so even though I started it with a top and a cardigan, I ended up wearing only the dress.

May 2nd:

- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress
- non maternity shirt from Camaieu that I can’t button below the bust anymore but it doesn’t matter ’cause it’s hidden by the dress! ;p
- charter school cardigan in rust from ModCloth (love those!!)
- shoes: Eram

May 3rd:

- handmade japanese tunic. This is the first garment I made when I went back to sewing after moving to Japan, on my japanese sewing machine, with japanese fabric, from a japanese pattern. ^^ I used to wear it a lot, but it doesn’t seem to fit in as well in France as it did in Japan. Plus I have more shapes at the back than standard japanese girls (slightly curved back + bigger hips) so I probably should have changed something there, it bags a little. So I tend not to wear it very much nowadays. Thanks to Me Made May for making me remember that it exists and try to arrange it in a nice way!
- maternity jeans from Verbaudet
- handmade patchwork belt. I also made it some time ago, from instructions in this very inspirational book. I probably should have interfaced the squares to help them hold their shape, but I didn’t think of it at the time… I love the fabrics that went into it and love the concept but sadly I don’t wear it often either, because I don’t know how to use it in a nice way. I think it’s either too short or too long for me to know what to do with it. Now that I’m pregnant I might be able style it more easily. ^^ What do you think of this?

May 4th:

Most of the day was spent cleaning and tidying the appartment in my jamies, so I’ll share the outfit I wore at the end of day to have diner with family members. ^^
- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress, because I wanted to show it to my family.
- non maternity striped top from Camaieu bought one size bigger to accomodate my belly.
- grey wool cardigan from Etam
- fabric flower pin
- blue & silver bracelet handmade by a friend
- shoes: Creeks for Andre bought two days before. I find them really nice, what do you think? Hope they’ll be around for a while.

May 5th: same outfit as the previous day for most of the day, as the diner ended later than expected and we slept there.

May 6th: no handmade pieces that day: maternity jeans + a cute maternity blouse lend by a friend. Which funnily has exactly the same kind of shape as some japanese or Citronille patterns, and is made from a rather stiff cotton (poplin?), so I actually could have made it. ^^ I’m toying with the idea of copying it in a softer fabric.

May 7th:

- handmade bear skirt. It has an elastic waist so I can still wear it, even if it looks less elegant that usual as it is supposed to sit at the waist, not the hips ;p I wanted something light and flowy but not too summery as the weather can’t decide between grey/rainy or nice.
- non maternity top from Camaieu bought one size bigger to accomodate my belly
- cardigan from gothic lolita brand Innocent World
- shoes: simple gothic lolita MJs bought in Japan.

May 8th:

- handmade bear skirt
- non maternity top from Uniqlo
- cotton shawl that I bought from someone off Ebay, handmade but not by me. ;p
- necklace handmade by me to go with the skirt. It has a small teddy bear and a yo-yo in the skirt fabric.
- shoes: simple gothic lolita MJs bought in Japan.

May 9th: no handmade, I wore basic comfy clothes to tidy the house (it was a holiday).

May 10th:

- maternity jeans
- non maternity top from Camaieu bought one size bigger to accomodate my belly
- handmade pullover. I haven’t shown this one here before because it’s not officially done, although it’s wearable and I’ve worn it several times. I find it’s lacking the nice finishing touches that it should have to match my other clothes, but I’m not sure of what to do… I’ll do a proper post about it later.

May 11th:

- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress.
- striped maternity shirt lend by a friend (from H&M I think)
- wool cardigan from Etam

May 12th:

The theme that day was “cold spring candy”. ^^ Okay for real I didn’t have a theme when I chose my clothes, but those socks remind me of candies, especially with that blue top. And as you can guess it wasn’t very warm.
- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress
- light turtleneck top (non maternity) from Etam
- charter school cardigan in peacock blue
- candy colored overknee socks

May 13th: I don’t even remember, but no handmade.

May 14th:

The weather is still very cold around here, I have a hard time finding handmade things to wear in new ways…
- non maternity elastic waist skirt from Etam, bought on sale two years ago
- non maternity top from Uniqlo
- handmade pullover
- handmade necklace, even though it doesn’t really count for the challenge. I made it during a workshop organized at a friend’s shop when I was living in Japan. The teacher gave us the pearls and a picture showing the finished necklace, so we all got the same piece in the end. I like it very much and wear it quite often.

What do you think of those outfits? I know they’re not as varied as what others are showing this month, but I’m glad I could go this far without any real repeat. Sorry about the blue dress showing up all the time, hope you’re not bored with it! ;p That said it’s very comfy and I feel pretty when I wear it, so it’s not going to change, unless I find the time to do much more sewing than I can do now. I want more dresses! And I need more simple tops to wear in this weird weither, that can be combined with skirts and dresses. If the weather gets better, as it’s supposed to at this time of year, I will have more things to wear. I can’t wait!