Ok, I realize that it’s the middle of Me Made May, and I haven’t said anything about it!  I have been thinking about it a lot though, and keeping a daily log of what I wear and my thoughts.  So far I have met my goal of wearing one me-made article every day, and on only one day has underwear counted.  (I have one sundress, not a me-made, that I wear when it’s just too hot to wear anything else.)

I wanted to make some kind of visual record so you could see what I’m thinking about for this project.  I loved Tilly’s photo collage of her me-made wardrobe, although photographing mine during several days of camping didn’t seem very practical.  But one of my goals for this summer is to draw more, a perfect activity for unplugged time.  Then I saw the book Information Graphics on Brain Pickings, and was inspired to make my own graphic for Me Made May.

The space we have in the truck for clothes is quite limited.  Every year I try to pack less, leaving out the things I don’t end up wearing much, but a little more of the most versatile, the things I can wear a lot of different ways and the things I know I wear all the time.  This also leaves me with a small enough wardrobe that my drawing project seemed practical.

I circled the clothes I made in yellow.  Somehow, this didn’t seem to represent the amount of effort that it feels like goes into what I wear.  So I circled things I had dyed or otherwise substantially altered in green.  Due to the careful selection of these clothes discussed above, there are only a few things here that I haven’t worn a lot.  I circled them in blue.  All four of these I included this season as a change from wearing mostly the same clothes I did at art shows last year – too much of that and it starts to feel like a uniform, which makes me start to hate even clothes I really like.  Still it looks like I have a little tweaking to do to make these pieces fit, and a couple of them may not fit in my summer wardrobe.

I was surprised to see how many tops I had in relation to pants and skirts, especially since I have been thinking I need to make some more.  I even have one about half done at home, based on the shiny top but in a linen fabric more suitable for every day.  Then I remembered that all three of my me-made tank tops are not exactly spring chickens, in fact, they are getting to the only-suitable-for-camping stage.  I circled everything that is wearing out in red.  After that, I does look like I could use a couple more basic tops, and sundresses, I live in those when it’s warm and it would be great to have a couple more.

One of my favorite things about a challenge like Me Made May is that it asks us to take a look at what we are really using and what we need.  For example, you can tell that pants that fit are the hardest thing for me to find ready-to-wear.  And making my own is still a journey, every time I wear those grey ones I think about what’s wrong with them, but I also get inspired to make better ones this fall!  In fact, with the cool weather we’ve been having so the past week or so, I’ve renewed my vow to make pants I like.

I’ve thought a lot the past few weeks about how what we wear is a compromise between what we’d ideally like to wear, what’s available (due to funds and time), and circumstances like the weather, what we have to wear to work, etc.

What do you think?

What’s in your closet?  What do you need, and what do you have but don’t wear?