Me Made May: Origins, Pledge Inspo and a Peppermint Challenge
It’s May stitchy friends! And you know what that means… Me Made May! What is Me Made May you ask? In its essence, it’s a personal sewing challenge, encouraging makers and home-sewists to get creative by styling and wearing their handmade garments while exploring their relationship with their handmade wardrobe.
Born out of a desire to see just how far her handmade wardrobe would stretch, in 2010 Me Made May creator Zoe Edwards set herself a challenge: a pledge to only wear me-mades for the month of May (aside from basics, socks and underwear). She put a call out on her blog So, Zo… to see if anyone else might be interested in taking part. As it turns out, a handful of sewists were very interested and now, over 10 years later, Me Made May is a hotly anticipated sewing event, attracting thousands of makers from around the world!
So how does it work?
Participants decide on their own particular flavour of challenge and pledge to live it out for the month of May. While it’s not a photography or social media challenge at heart, each consecutive year has seen participants gathering on Instagram in greater numbers to share and document their me-mades.
Should you go down the Me Made May rabbit hole (and we recommend you do!), hashtags like #MeMadeMay #MMMay21 and #MeMadeMay2021 reveal a world of handmade wardrobes, styling inspiration, new sewists to connect with and pattern labels to discover.
What should I pledge?
If you’d like to join in the festivities, there’s no requirement to share a formal pledge and definitely no need to panic-sew a whole new wardrobe – it’s your Me Made May after all, so you do you.
A personal pledge could look like:
- Wearing at least one me-made item every day or every week
- Wearing a full me-made outfit once a week or only on the weekends
- Taking the month to re-evaluate your handmade wardrobe
- Re-working old pieces or styling them in new ways
- Documenting some or all of your me-mades on social media
- Sharing none of your me-mades on social media
- Wearing every item you’ve made at least once during the month
Still need some ideas? We invite you to take inspiration from the global sewing community; from first-time participants to seasoned Me Made Mayers, these sewists have made Me Made May work for them.
“Almost a year ago, I bought a secondhand sewing machine and decided to say no to fast fashion. When I was lurking in this community, I was in awe of everyone taking part in last year’s #memademay. I’m so excited (and also kinda proud of myself) to be involved this year, to show off my makes, get creative and hopefully inspire some fellow sewists.” – @storyofstitches
“I love this month and seeing so many other makers in their creations is one of the main reasons I was inspired to share my own! This May I’ll be trying to wear at least one me-made a day to continue appreciating my existing pieces and use the occasions to try and document more of them.” – @nitahug.makes
“This year I will be going through my older makes to figure out what needs to be re-homed. I look forward to discovering new sewing accounts, meeting like minded people and perhaps even finding some new pattern labels I need to try out.” – @sleepless_in_bavaria
“In addition to wearing something me-made everyday, I want to focus on finding joy in my body, my clothing, and my making. I feel in need of an infusion of joy right now, and I think this yearly IG tradition will do the trick. I absolutely love seeing everyone’s makes and always find myself engaging more with other sewists online in May. IG sewists are the best!” – @all.the.lace
PEPPERMINT ME MADE MAY CHALLENGE
This year, we thought it’d be fun to throw our own Peppermint Patterns makers challenge into the mix! Throughout each week in May over on our Instagram we’ll be announcing a theme and giving away a Peppermint prize pack featuring a magazine, a set of sewing labels by Kylie and The Machine, a tote bag and other delights.
Keep an eye out on our socials as we’ll be announcing a winner and new theme each week, as well as featuring our favourite makes! Entries are open worldwide and there’s no need to snap a new pic (although we love it when you do!), feel free to tag an old photo that fits the weekly theme.
If you haven’t sewn up one of our patterns already, what are you waiting for? Head over to Peppermint Sewing School, download a free pattern and get stitching! We can’t wait to see what you create.
