Zoe Edwards is running Me Made May again this year. And seriously, my very first Me Made May pledge was in 2012.

Back then my pledge was ‘I, Maria of Cleverthinking99.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’12. I endeavour to wear at least one ‘me-made-garment’ each day for the duration of May 2012 and I’ll use this time to plan sewing clothes to eliminate wardrobe orphans and tired winter clothes.’

Honestly I learnt where the gaps in my wardrobe existed. Did I feel the pressure to make during the month or take photos every day? Yes I did. Did I last the month? I think I did and the wardrobe gaps were really obvious at the time.

The best part of taking part in Me Made May, was the connection with everyone who participated and I learnt how valuable Zoe’s take is on being mindful about wearing clothes you made. She’s a great resource to learn about being mindful about using resources to not add to landfill. You should subscribe to her podcast Check Your Thread to hear from her every week now.

My work colleagues got used to taking my pic during the month of May. They didn’t grumble too much at the time.

In 2013 my pledge for Me Made May was:

I, Velosewer of cleverthinking99.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavour to wear 2 made me pieces each day for the duration of May 2013.’

I’m not sure what happened between 2013 and 2016 but that’s when I headed back into Me Made May in 2016. That year I kept it simple and tried to wear clothes differently to get out of a clothing rut.

When I look back at those clothes, I still wear most of them today…6 years later. They’ve all been great wardrobe staples with lots of colour and fitted really well.

This year 2022…“I Maria aka velosews pledge to wear different clothes I’ve made to see if they stay or go to a worthwhile home for throughout May 2022.

This means I need to find a community enterprise that provides good work clothes to women who need them for their prospective job as a starting point. I could simple donate my clothes to a charity, but I want to be mindful about where my handmade clothes are really going and not to landfill.

I know that working from home is still part of society right now but I need to find a local place where I can give my clothes that are in perfectly good condition to someone else who will use them.

I do like Judith’s mantra of sewing what you want to wear and not sewing what you want to sew.