 Hi guys! It's Lindsay. Thanks for tuning in to Inside the Hymn today. As you know, May, across the entire sewing community, across the entire world, is me made May. And it is a time for us to wear all the things that we've made loud and proud and kind of give us an excuse and a reason and motivation to wear the things that we have made. Which is awesome. And actually, this is the very first time I participated in Me Made May at all. And I guess part of me wasn't sure if I was going to make it through the whole month. You know when they do those photo a day things on Instagram? I never keep up with those. So I wondered if I was going to keep up with this. Full disclosure, I didn't post everything I wore to Instagram. That was just way too much. But I did post every few days or so. And ScoutsHonor, I participated and I wore something me made every single day. It was kind of cool because after a while people at the office and people in my regular life knew that it was me made May. And so then they would just say, oh you made that. That's so awesome. And it wasn't any question as to whether or not it was retail or not. And I think a lot of times people don't approach you about what you're wearing because they don't know that you've made it. But when they realize that you've made it, then it's like 10 times more awesome. So that was kind of fun to have other people participating too. But I wanted to share with you four things that I learned during and by participating in Me Made May. The first one is I have a lot of me made clothes. And I, like I said, wasn't sure if I was going to have enough clothes to go through the whole month. But I definitely did. I got to wear something that I made every day and I didn't repeat once. I think that you do realize the things that you love, the me made items that you love because you'd find yourself wanting to wear them again within a one month period. But I didn't. I didn't repeat anything. I found something new to wear. And you know, in the months time, you have a lot of different life experiences. You're not doing the same thing day in and day out. You have events you have to go to or parties or concerts, you know, in addition to your regular work and weekend stuff. So it's a real opportunity to see just kind of like what kind of lifestyle I really have and how my me made wardrobe fits into that. Which I'll come back to. It's kind of part of one of my other things I learned. But the second one is to let go of the bad makes. So now that I realize that I do have a lot of me made, I also realize that in that group are a lot of things, not a lot, that are a few things that are not up to the standard of my sewing now, if that makes sense. Little things like I made this top from like a quilting cotton and it was like a border print and the concept of the top is really cute. But the pattern that I used is like, what the heck? The collar is like so big. I don't know if it was a vintage pattern or what, but the collar is freaking huge and it's not modern anymore to have a collar that comes down so low. It's very 70s, very retro. And so I'm like, yeah, why did I do that? And so for that reason, I don't love that top and so wear that top that often. I did wear it this month and the whole time I felt a little self-conscious about it. So I need to just let that go. Take it to Goodwill. It'll find another home for someone who can pull off a huge collar like that. So yeah, so the second thing is just to kind of accept the fact that you have a lot of me made clothes and that's great. But that if things aren't perfect, just like with regular ready to wear clothes, if you don't feel comfortable in it, then don't keep it just because you made it. You have plenty of other awesome things in your wardrobe that you made that you can show off that make you feel more confident and more comfortable than the bad stuff. The third thing is, so I have this horrible habit and I talked about this before, but I like to finish things up to 99.9% of their completion and then I'll stop. And I'll put it in my closet, even though it's not totally done, like what is that? Like tell me, I'm sure there's some awesome psychological reason as to why I do that. But I need there's so many things that I took out of my closet and wore even though they weren't finished. And usually that's on the inside and double usually it has to do with hand sewing. So I need to go finish those things because those garments are so nice. Like they really are great makes and I'm proud to wear them. But they're they literally have raw edges like on the inside like no, nobody wants to wear that. So I have a lot of hand sewing to do to get my me made wardrobe completely done. I don't know why I do that. I have no idea. Okay, so what are we on the fourth thing? Like I said before, like you have a month so you have your whole life like happening in a month. You're going to different things doing different things, but then you also realize the things that you don't do. And what I found was I have a lot of clothes that are too nice for my lifestyle like I'm drawn to beautiful things. I'm drawn to like like that corded lace dress if you follow me on Instagram. I made a dress out of corded lace. I think corded lace is gorgeous. It's a baby pink color. It's really beautiful. I use the eyelash selvedge as the trending on the on the sleeve on the neckline on the hand. I mean it's a beautiful dress, but I literally have nowhere to wear it. And that is so sad because it's so beautiful. I have a lot of dresses that are backless. And while that's great for resort wear like whenever I go on vacation to Miami or you know other places. I really don't have a lot of places to wear that stuff in my regular life. I did get away with a couple of them at work by putting on a cardigan or a jacket, but that really only goes so far. And sometimes it's 102 degrees like that's what the heat index is today and you don't want to put on a cardigan. So you probably pick another dress. But you know what I'm saying like maybe I need to chill out on the backlist stuff or adjust to those patterns so that they don't dip so low. Because I just really don't wear them as much as I think I think I everyone that I have I made for a trip. And I should have thought about my regular life too. So the fourth thing that I learned is really just make clothes that fit into your lifestyle. And try and not be lured in by a really beautiful high end high quality fabric or like a really high design pattern if you know it's not going to it's not going to fit into your regular life. And then oh so I guess there's five. Did I say there was four? There's five. The fifth one is I realized I even though I have so many me made me made clothes and I was able to wear something every day. There are definite holes in my me made wardrobe hands down without a doubt. I found myself going to the grocery store in a sundress because I didn't have like basic t-shirts and shorts and like casual things to wear. So I got myself being like really overdressed to be like go run a simple errand like just to wear me made because I didn't have any of the super casual stuff. I mean five out of the seven days I'm wearing like business casual you know like I can get away with sundresses and stuff like that. But on the weekends I have hardly anything to wear. I have two Shytown Chino shorts. So that's one weekend. I don't have any t-shirts or tank tops or any of that stuff that I like. I have no stuff to wear to the gym. I have never made leggings or like athletic tank tops or anything like that. So the holes became obvious like within the second week. I was like okay now that the first weekend's done I've worn all my casual stuff and now I don't have anything casual to wear anymore. So I guess I'll wear this like work dress to go to the car dealership to get my sunroof looked at. You know what I mean? It was like a little bit strange sometimes. Anyways so me made is so much fun. I wish that there was a fall version. I wish that there was a what would it be like November me made. Would that be six months past May? So that I could do this same process for all of my fall and winter clothes. I guarantee that I don't have near enough fall and winter clothes. I also live in the southeast of the United States so I don't really have a winter. But I don't know it would be interesting to see like how it would compare to like a spring summer wardrobe. I can nail that because I love making dresses and tops and things like that. But in the fall winter like I don't have many sweaters. I don't have many pants that I've made jackets things like that. So it would be interesting to see but it was a lot of fun and as you can see like you know I don't do anything without over analyzing it. So I was able to kind of think about it and be critical about my sewing. I know that I sew a lot and I make a lot of stuff and how does that really translate to a wardrobe. I think that's so interesting to see about those of us that make our own clothes. And so yeah from that I was able to find these five things and I'll take those with me as I continue on my journey through the rest of the year until we get to me made next year. And we'll see we'll see how that goes. So if you participated in me made me first of all I want to see what you've been wearing. So if you are posting that on Instagram leave your Instagram handle in the comments or the link so that I can just click it real easily and go look also. Let me know if you learned anything during me made me like maybe this video will prompt you to kind of sit down and critically think about the past month and what you've worn. And how you felt about what you've worn and all of that. And maybe you can kind of come up with some things that you've learned as well. And I'd hope that you would share those with me and everyone else that's watching and reading the comments. So if you feel comfortable doing that please. I'd love to start a discussion about me made and and its wearability and how it fits into our our lives. You know we don't just spontaneously go and pick up something from the store a lot of thought goes into everything that we make. So how are we wearing that and how is it really fitting into our lives. I think that's such an interesting discussion. So feel free to chime in however you want in the comments and I will see you guys soon. Bye.