Last month I was cutting up a TON of lovely anniversary sale orders and I was so busy that I managed to LOSE a whole 2.5 yard cut of the Kelly Green Sandwashed Cotton Poplin and realized I had shipped it with someone else's order... so I posted that it would be a silly surprise to whoever finds it! Somehow Sarah B (a sweet quilt designer that I am friends with) was the one who received the free cut of surprise fabric! Sarah didn't see my post and actually offered to ship it back! I told her to just make some magic with her accidental surprise.
Anyways, this little snafu inspired me to send ALL of you who order in May a free little surprise gift with your order!! These will be small cute things like sew in labels, gold scissors, iron on patches, just any small and cute notions and tools. Just leave me a note at checkout if you have any preference but otherwise it will be a sweet surprise :) I will probably run out of the snips and iron on fruit patches mid-month.
If you are unfamiliar, #memademay is a month where people re-examine their relationship with their handmade wardrobes. It was started by So Zo Sews in 2010 (click to read her blog) after she realized she wasn't wearing her handmade wardrobe much so she challenged herself to wear me-mades for a month. A lot of people think you have to post photos every day to participate ... this couldn't be farther from the truth! You are supposed to set any pledge / intention that you want and do whatever that is ( could be photographing outfits just for yourself, purging old clothes, doing your mending pile etc - literally anything to do with your me made wardrobe).
Personally, I feel like my whole life is a "Me Made May" since my job involves celebrating and documenting my me-mades so I'm a lil burnt out on sharing... but I did think of a fun new way to inspire myself to participate. I'm taking a few photos of my outfits each week and I used Canva to eliminate the backgrounds (the paid version of Canva) so I can create little "style boards" to see my style at a broader scope. I think Pinterest will allow you to do style boards too.
I'm proud!! I feel like my style is getting a lot more colorful and cohesive which has been my goal for the last few years.
Only a few years ago I was wearing mostly rust, black, and plum which are all quite unflattering to my skin tone and don't go with my "colorful artist vibe" style goal. I did two life-changing color analysis sessions a couple years ago: one online with Curate your Style (the cheapest level, bronze I think and no I'm not affiliated but I did like them and it was accurate!) and I did a local session in Eugene, OR with the wonderful Charlotte Young (she's also a sewist! also not affiliated but I had more personalized advice from meeting with Charlotte.) Ask me for Charlotte's contact info if you want to get connected. Both sources thought I am a Summer. Charlotte things I'm a Cool Summer (cool tones) and Curate Your Style said Soft Summer (muted cool tones). The specific category isn't too important but knowing the overall season and warm/cool is the most helpful in my opinion.
From doing the seasonal color analysis, I feel like my style really took off because I can use the cool tones that flatter me as the "base" of my wardrobe and then I still have some warm / unharmonious pieces that I wear for fun or layer with cool colors. Local color analyst Charlotte explained that mixing the cool and warm colors will give me that "kooky artist vibe" that I am after.
Anyways, happy Me Made May to our beautiful sewing community!!
Enjoy your surprise presents :)
-B