 Hi you guys! Lindsay here. Welcome back to my channel, Inside to Him. So another year of Me Made May is in the books and as I have for the past couple of years, I like to reflect on Me Made May. I like to at the end of the month think back to what I was able to learn about my handmade wardrobe throughout the month. And it's always a very honest time. It's kind of bittersweet because inevitably, as you'll see, not everything makes the cut. And but in the end, I think that it makes me a better sewer. It makes me a smarter sewer and I am usually better for it. So today I have a few things that I learned during Me Made May. The first of which is that inevitably, and I think this works whether you're sewing your own clothes or not, but you grab the things that you love first. The things that you know are comfortable. The things that you know fit. The things that you just really, really love. So because I have been sewing for so long and I sew so much, I have a lot that fit in that cream of the crop category. And I'm only now starting to struggle in finding something to wear in the morning. So for the past call it 28 days, it's been very easy. I have been able to put together 28 outfits relatively easily to fit all different parts of my lifestyle. And now that I've already worn all those things that I know and I love, it's getting a little bit more difficult. So I'll circle back to this in the end. But I just wanted to make a point of saying that to truly understand yourself, you have to kind of go through all of those things that you know and love and get to the nitty gritty part. And then that's whenever you're going to start really discovering, really analyzing, really trying to really understanding what you've got in your closet and what you don't. The second thing is I am a lazy launderer. I am just shocked that I even get it done. I will say I do not necessarily always wash clothes after wearing them one time. And I know that that's usually a good thing. But when I do go to wash them, I barely take any care at all. I don't typically sew with clothes that can't be washed cool and dried on like a low temperature. Mostly all the fabrics I sew with will be just fine with that. But what I don't take into consideration is for example, if you have a cotton dress and then a polyester lining, what do you think is going to happen in the wash? The cotton is going to shrink and the polyester is not. So I need to treat the dress better. Well, first of all, maybe I should use cotton linings. Second of all, if I don't do that, then I need to consider a different drying method so that the cotton isn't shrinking so much. So I have a couple of dresses that I know and I love and they're just not surviving well. They are not thriving. And inevitably, eventually I am going to have to toss them, which is sad. So what I want to do is pay more attention to what I'm laundering, how I'm laundering it. If I need to send it off to dry cleaning, send it off to dry cleaning. It's worth the investment than to have to throw away something you spent hours and hours working on. So that's been kind of a hard lesson to learn because they've been sewn well, they fit well, and then just gotten ruined in the wash. The certain seam lines are, it's not good. So that's the second thing that I learned. The third thing is that I have some things in my closet that don't fit. There are things that I pass by day after day after day, because I know that they don't fit. They're not comfortable or, you know, just I don't like wearing them. So I started analyzing, okay, well, why am I skipping past them? Is it, do they not fit because of me? Because my body's changed? Or do they not fit because the garment wasn't sewn well and sewn properly? And no matter what happens to my body, bigger, smaller, whatever, they'll never fit. And when I did that, I found several garments that I immediately put in a pile to donate to Goodwill. Now, one of them you saw already in my plans video, it's this guy here, super cute, but not only does it not fit, but it is, let's see, how do I say this? It's not that it doesn't fit because it's too small or because it's too big. It doesn't fit because it's either poorly drafted or I did something wrong when I was sewing it. There's something going on in the bust area. I think that that was whenever I was like gung-ho about grating, and I was overly aggressive about grating the bodice. Like I would do the shoulders at a different size than the side seams. I was a little nuts about it. So because of that, it's just, it kind of like billows here and is really tight across the chest and it's just not cute. So, but it's a durable dress, a super adorable dress and I wish it would have worked, but it didn't. Secondly, I don't know what I was thinking. I hate one-shoulder dresses. So that's another reason. Like, I don't know, I must have been like feeling sick or something and got a wild hair to make a one-shoulder dress. I don't like them no matter what size I am. So this is an example of one that's going to Goodwill. Another one is this top here. This top, I'm pretty sure, made it to the channel, but what you can't see in the video is that it is so overly pinned, nipped, tucked and held into place that it's ridiculous. This is a very poorly drafted wrap top. It crosses over like this. I think in the video, I might have worn a top underneath it, which would save it a little bit, but I don't, that's just not my style. I want to wear a cotton top by itself. I don't want to layer it. It's already hot enough as it is. I don't need multiple layers of clothes. So I don't know what it is about this top that makes it so poorly drafted. I'm not a draft expert. I just know that whenever you tie the inside string thing to its counterpart on the other side, whatever happens in the chest area is very, very large and gaping. The neckline, I think, needs some nipping and tucking. I'm not exactly sure. So unfortunately, this one is going to Goodwill as well. Super cute fabric, though, and if you're fuller chested, I think this would work for you, but I'm not well endowed, so it doesn't. There's also something wrong with the sleeve, so you'd have to be, you'd have to be big chested with little arms. That probably exists somewhere. So let me know and I'll tell you the pattern number. That sounds interesting to you. Thirdly is, and this is really sad because I just sewed this last year, but it is my camo skirt that I made with the Stylemaker fabrics camo twill. And I'm going to show you what's wrong with this. Look at that. Can you not see that little like weird thing that's happening here? I don't know why, but this is way too aggressive. And if I, if I, you know, grade it down again, then it won't fit. It also is pointed in the back, pointed down. You can see it comes down to a point here. That's not correct. I really don't know what happened other than I was in a very, very, very, very, very big rush to finish this before I left for New Orleans for a trip that I wanted to wear these to and it just never happened. So because of this little oddity, it's much more prominent in person. I wish I could figure out a way to show it to you, but it like literally sticks out like a little penis. I didn't want to say it, but that's what it is. It looks like men's boxer briefs. You know how they have that actual pooch there? That's what it looks like. So and then I don't, what was I thinking here? I don't even know, but I folded that back. I folded the tab back rather than I guess I put the button on and didn't realize there was a tab. I don't know what I did. I really don't know what I did, but this is just a disaster. So this was sewn poorly. The pattern I'm sure is fine. The fabric is great. It's not my body. This was just sewn terribly. So this is going. I also have this one. I went through some patterns too that were unseasonal, which I was proud of. This one just fits terribly. It worked for a while. It might have some funny things might have happened in the laundry, but here it is. It's really cute with the bow. I got a lot of compliments, but the neck line is like so tight I can barely get it over my head. So something, something's amiss there with my sewing and then whenever you wear it, it like doesn't lay flat. So and I know a lot of you're me like cut the band off and just fold it under, which I could do I guess, but I don't know. I'm kind of tired of it anyways. And someone will, someone at Goodwill will really love it with a small head. What else? We have this one here. And this was, you know what? I don't feel so bad about this one because this was always just going to be an experiment. And it was one of those things where I got a wild hair up my butt and I was like, I want to do this and I'm going to make it work. I don't care if I have the pattern. I'm going to find a way. And so it, it really didn't work. So this is a really cute sweatshirt fleece again from Stalmaker fabrics. The band matches perfectly. The problem is is I picked a pattern that has gathers and this fleece or I guess it's terry. This terry is like way, way too thick for that. I also picked a pattern where the arm cutout thing is like very large. It's a very big one. And it really needs to be smaller, something like that would be more appropriate. I think for this heavy sweater knit. So like I said, it's unfortunate, but this is a hard no. And then there's like some really, really weird stuff that I was like, oh, my hair will just cover it. I mean, what is that? I'm better than this. I am better than this, which is why I am doing away with it. I do have more of this fabric. It will make its way into my life somehow. I don't know how, but I have more of it. So there's that. And then lastly, this is the blank slate patterns tool up top that I extended into like a tunic length, which was really cute on someone else, but not cute on me. And I also didn't have enough fabrics. I made it a short sleeve, which is just odd to have a tunic sweater with short sleeves. Again, I don't really know what I was thinking. But it is super cute. And someone who's like more of a straight frame will look really adorable in it. So that'll be going to Goodwill as well. So like I said, not everything is going to make it through. And that's okay. If I kept everything that I ever made, A, most of it would just sit there and B, I wouldn't have room for the new awesome things that I'm making now, the things that I am better at making and things that projects that are just more successful. You know what I mean? So I'm trying not to be super hard on myself about it and just accept it. Thank it. Like Marie Kondo would say, thank you for your service in my life and pass it on to somebody else. There are a couple of things that I pulled out though that are worth an alteration. So the bubblegum pink linen pants. We talked about these in March when I was planning on making them. We talked about them a ton in May when I showed you what they actually look like on me. And I think we all decided that they're not flattering. They're either too long or too short. So I can't make them longer. So I'm going to make them shorter. I'm going to turn these into shorts, maybe like a five inch inseam or something like that, not super short, but not nailing. It's going to be somewhere in the middle. And it'll be my Hail Mary, my last ditch effort to make these work. It's not super hard to hem something. I'm really sorry about the sun. And we're just going to give it one last go and see what we can do and see if these are salvageable. The next time that I want to make the pants, I am going to increase the rise. A lot of you were like, they're sitting too low on your waist. And I agree they need to be up higher so that it's more flattering. So I am going to increase the rise by maybe an inch. So they sit at my true waist and then make the pant version. I only made these cropped because I didn't have enough fabric. So I guess another thing that I've learned is stop forcing things. Sometimes there are happy accidents. Sometimes you have a make it work moment and it works out. But a lot of times it doesn't. And you end up with a sort of half ass project when if you just waited for the right fabric or got more fabric or whatever to make it work, you would have been a little bit more successful. So patience is another thing that's coming up a lot. But that's comes up a lot in my life in general. So I can't just say as me made me. But anyway, so these are going to get altered. We will see how they look after that. And then there's this dress here that I made a few years ago. And honestly, it's a great dress. It's really beautiful. I am really proud of it. I feel like it was a Vogue dress pattern. However, there are some problems on the inside. So although the dress on the outside is a pleated flared skirt, the lining is actually drafted as more of a straight skirt. Was that a thing? I don't know why. So that's very uncomfortable. And I want this to be loose and free. And this fabric is fairly it's a midweight cotton already. So that plus the lining, I'm thinking scrap the lining skirt altogether. So I'm just going to pick apart the lining bodice from the lining skirt and just do away with the skirt. I don't need the skirt to be lined. It's not see through at all. And then sew down hand sew down the bodice lining to the seam allowances at the skirt. And voila, I will have a pattern that or a dress that I really enjoy wearing again. The only reason I don't wear this is because of that skirt lining. So I'm just going to fix that. And I'm going to undo a little bit of work and it'll be good as new again, or better than new, honestly. I did realize that when I was sewing this, but I was like, Oh, that'd be kind of cool. No, it's like so uncomfortable. Like maybe if I sewed it in a lining that was stretchy, but I sewed it with bamboo rayon. Like every time I sit down, I'm like, it's going to rip this time. It's definitely going to rip this time. It hasn't ripped yet, but it's just not comfortable for like a fun summer dress. You know what I mean? Okay, so those are the things that I will be altering that I discovered in Me Made May. Anyways, I'd love to know kind of your assessment of your own experience with Me Made May. If it was your first time, was it a struggle? You know, I know that everyone's been sewing as long as I have. So if you're a newer sewer, was it difficult to find something Me Made to wear every day? If you've been sewing for a while, did you find holes in your wardrobe like I did? Did you find things in your wardrobe that were just taking up space like I did? Let me know in the comments just kind of how it went for you guys. And until next time, that's going to do it for me today. I will see you all very soon. Bye.