Actually, I Made it Myself (a fashion challenge for the month of May)

As promised, I wore my new wrap dress to the benefit dinner last night in spite of cooler weather. A benefit where, for the record, I ate and drank WAY more than I should have and now am nursing a petulant stomach and a headache. But before the overindulgence, I did have the pleasure of being approached by someone who wanted to know where I got my dress and how she could get one. And then I had the satisfaction of replying with "Actually...I made it myself."

This brief little repartee immediately brought to mind a fashion challenge posited by Zoe from So Zo for the month of May. I had almost forgotten all about it, but was pleased when my memory was jogged.

The challenge, simply put, is to wear handmade items during the month. Now the diehards are being encouraged to wear handmade Everyday, but Zoe acknowledges that not everyone has such a large stash of crafted creations in their closet. And so she just encourages participants to find a strategy that challenges them and stick to it.

For instance, she suggests maybe committing to wearing handmade accessories every weekend during the month if that habit falls outside of the norm for your day-to-day wear. Or, if appropriate, to amp up the challenge to wearing repurposed clothing during most weekdays if you can manage it.

In other words, the spirit of the challenge is to get us to think differently about the clothes we wear, and hopefully to inspire an appreciation for the handmade.

I haven't figured out exactly how I am going to challenge myself in May, but I'd like to do something. I doubt that I have enough in my closet to fill a whole month without looking like I never do laundry, but I do think that the exercise will encourage me to work on some of those summer projects I've been meaning to start.

And hopefully with a little bit of planning, I will have the opportunity to say "Actually, I made it myself" a few more times next month.

To learn more about Zoe's Me-Made-May challenge, and to [hopefully] join yourself, click here!
To see some of my patterns for repurposing your clothing, click here!