Me-Made-May 2014!

I, Nayla, (naylasnotions.blogspot.ca) sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear at least one garment handmade by myself each day (except for days when I have to wear a uniform for work) for the duration of May 2014'

That's my first official Me-Made-May pledge.  I'm actually looking forward to it and I think it is a really great idea. Click here to sign up!  I think we often get excited about sewing (or knitting) new garments but then don't feel as proud as we should to wear them out in public.  This is a month about being proud of what you made and showing it to the world.  Let the rest of the world see the amazing things that can be done by hand.  Much slower than mass-production factories but so much more rewarding, unique and sustainable.  

The few times I go to the mall,  I see all the same styles.  Everyone wears the exact same thing!  It's kind of funny actually.  I very often kind of giggle inside.  Pant leg styles, in particular are nearly always the same.  So, who exactly is it that gets to decide what the style is going to be?  Well, I remember my Home Ec. teacher in high school who taught us that fashion swings in a pendulum-like way.  At the time, all pants were pretty much straight or maybe slightly tapered.  According to our teachers theory, the dreaded bell-bottoms from the 70's will return (gasps erupted from the students).  Nobody believed such a thing could ever happen.  A short time later, we were all wearing flare-legged pants and thought they were great.  So…. my point is,  we are pretty much slaves to what is offered at the mall.  Personally, I don't care what is "trendy" and prefer not to know.  What I like about sewing and knitting is that I can create whatever I want.  I can sew vintage patterns if I want or I can make bell bottoms if that's what I feel like wearing.  I can also choose my own fabric, yarn or whatever.  The point is to make what you like to wear, not what the mall says you should be wearing.  I can go on for a long time about this.  I guess I am a bit of a non-conformist with some things.

I also don't like the idea of mass-production in general.  It just makes me sad.  Just a lot of suffering for all involved, including the planet.  The main reason is the focus is usually on quantity and not quality in order to make bigger profits.  People buy lots of cheap things that they can then throw out and buy new cheap things that are the new style.  It's just insane, really.  Then I think of all the poor underpaid workers ruining their health and well-being by making all this cheap clothing.  I really don't want to have anything to do with this whole system.  It's just totally insane.

Ok,  I've gone off on a tangent.  Back to the fun of sewing and knitting!

I've realized that I have more handmade garments in my closet than I initially thought.  It's time to learn to like wearing them more often.  Sometimes, if I know something is not perfect, even though it's not visible,  I tend to not wear it.  So this is about accepting imperfections and learning to love what you made.  I think it's going to be an awesome challenge.

Thanks for reading my rant and...
Happy Sewing!