Saturday 30 April 2016

Me Made May 2016 - My Pledge

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I am undertaking Me Made May this year for several reasons:

1 - To uncover gaps in my hand made wardrobe
2 - To engage with the wonderful sewing community
3 - To take part in a challenge (I love a challenge)

I am pledging to wear at least one item of me-made clothing everyday throughout May. I am also hoping that this will encourage me to make more over the course of the month as I start to realise where the holes in my handmade wardrobe are.

I have a hen do to attend at the beginning of the month, as well as days out for the Bank holidays and days at work, so a wide range of things to accommodate.

I will be aiming to post daily photos on Instagram using #mmmay16 so that I have a log and can assess my most and least successful outfits. All of this will help me to tailor my handmade wardrobe to my needs.

I'm really looking forward to the challenge and to reflecting on my success again at the end of the month!


Sunday 10 April 2016

#MIYmarch16 thoughts

I took part in Wendy's MIY March challenge this year on Instagram for the first time. This was also the first month-long challenge that I undertook and I really enjoyed it. I found lots of new people to follow and received some lovely comments on my photos.

 

It did flag up some points that I need to address though:

 

1 - Take better pictures!

My photo taking skills are shockingly poor. I didn't really notice until I looked through some profiles of other sewing bloggers and realised that their photos are much much better. My main issue is lighting, I struggle to get enough natural light on the subject/me to take a bright photo. I should really take photos outside, but that's tricky with a 9 month old and a messy garden.

 

2 - Engage with other people more!

Whilst I received some lovely comments on some of my photos, I wasn't very good at returning the compliments. It doesn't even take very long and it's so lovely to hear when other people like your makes. I have found the sewing community online to be so helpful and friendly. Definitely need to try harder with this.

 

3 - Be more creative!

There were some great takes on some of the themes, really witty and interesting. Also, lots of the photos were interestingly composed and stylish. I got lots of inspiration throughout the month on how I can be more creative with thinking, making and documenting.

 

Emma from @dressmakerssocial is organising #dressmakers52 which is now one week in. The idea is that a different theme is posted each week for a year. This is such a good idea, as I sometimes struggled to get a picture done during #MIYmarch16 if I was having a difficult day. I'm going to try to apply the points above to how I join in with #dressmakers52 and hopefully I will see an improvement in my photos over the course of the year!

 

Saying that, my first picture of #dressmakers52 is another terrible one! The next one will be better...

If you have any tips for how to photograph better inside please do share! I really struggle to do flat garment photos too, they always look so amateurish!

Are you joining in with #dressmakers52? What do you think to it running for a whole year?