goals | Tasha Miller Griffith

Hi everyone! Just a couple of quick things today.

First off, I’m teaching at my hometown wool festival Flag Wool and Fiber again this year, and it’s coming up: June 4 & 5. I’ll have a brand new class on modern free-form embroidery, and I’ve really been enjoying researching and brushing up my stitching skills for that. I’m also doing a “Knitter’s Toolbox” class that’s intended to take your knitting to the next level. Click through to the festival’s site to read more about both classes.

Second, it’s almost Me-Made-May! After some debate I’ve decided to pledge to wear only me-made (not just -altered or -repaired) garments this year, with a few exceptions: raincoat (not about to try making one when I have an almost-new one), socks (not enough me-knit ones yet), and then there’s a jacket which I would love to finish by May … but it might very well not happen, so I left myself a little wiggle room (if it’s cold enough for a jacket I’m wearing one, me-made or not).

We’ll see how this goes. I’m not sure that I’ll feel more self-sufficient wearing only things I cut from scratch rather than things I altered or fixed so I could wear them, and I’m pretty sure there are a couple of garments I’ll miss wearing. But this pledge seemed like the next logical step in the wardrobe direction I’ve been headed, and I’m curious to see how I end up feeling about it and what I’ll discover. I’d also like to share (most likely on Instagram) a little more of my MMM than I have in the past couple of years. Even though that can be hard on the road, I’m going to try.

And launching soon, a project which is actually a fusion of the two items above—I hope you’ll stay tuned!

The thing I love about setting a particular goal or participating in a challenge is that it can push me to take something I am vaguely thinking about doing and make it something I am actually doing and concretely thinking about.

I loved participating in Me Made May’12 this last month. I was surprised by how much pride and self-sufficiency I felt wearing at least one me-made garment every day, even though I didn’t make anything new for the challenge! It also got me thinking about what I really wear and how I want my style to evolve. Although I’m not sure I would want to spend as much time thinking about my wardrobe all the time as I did in May, it really pushed me to better define my style (see this post), to figure out what I really need to make (pants!), and to meet some other sewers/thinkers/bloggers, all of which has been wonderful. In another unexpected spillover, after MMM ended I found myself coming up with new combinations of my not-self-made clothes to better fit my style – bonus!

So when my new friend Alessa, along with Ali and Sarah, announced a new challenge for June, I was pretty much in at the word go. Plus, this one is a little less involved, you just sew one special garment in June, something you’d like to wear all summer. It’s good timing for me, since I have fabric I batik dyed last summer that’s supposed to become a dress in time for a special event which starts June 20! I’ll be making my self-drafted sundress, with a few modifications from the first one. And, I’ll be home late tonight!! One thing I have really missed during MMM is my studio – sewing starts tomorrow!

Again, it seems to me that there’s no reason you have to sew to set yourself a helpful challenge for this month. What about a cooking one? An art one? What are your broader goals and how can you set a specific goal to help you get there? What would you like to do more of? Why not set aside a specific amount of time for that every week? Whatever you decide to do, I’d be willing to bet you’ll get some unexpected lovely side effects.