In case anyone ever wondered whether I’m more into selfies or data, it’s absolutely no contest. I only took one proper #ootd photo for the month, and despite my dread of selfies I had probably about a 60% success rate of snapping a quick mirror pic in the morning, as backup. But I was 100% successful at keeping up the tracker I set up in my mini bullet journal for the month, and it was really interesting to me to see how it developed. In case it’s interesting to you, here are the results:
— I wore something me-made on 21 of the 31 days.
— The percentages of me-made for each day’s outfit averaged out to 46%. Data-fan Julia rightly commented on my earlier post that there’s a logical flaw in this column, as 1 me-made in a 2-part outfit would be valued at 50% while 1 me-made in a 3-part outfit would only be valued at 33%. I was curious to calculate it anyway. And I also gave myself small percentages of credit for garments that were modified by me in some way, such as 5% for the pockets added to a pair of RTW pants. So the me-modifieds factor into this particular calculation.
— There were a total of 69 garment instances in the daily outfit listing, not counting shoes, and they broke down as 31 Me-Made, 13 Hybrid, 25 Ready-to-Wear. This is a more accurate tally of what percentage is me-made, and that’s 45% MM / 20% H / 35% RTW. Pretty sure it’s a statistical coincidence that these two ways of calculating the MM percentage came in at 46% and 45%. But regardless, it’s mighty close to my original estimate of 50%.
— I wore a total of 27 unique garments during the month, 9 of which were me-made (mostly pants) and 4 of which I had some hand in: the army shirtjacket refashion, the State Smock I dyed, a tee I screenprinted and the black linen pants I added pockets to. That’s 13. The other 14 were purchased — so again, just under 50%. (Note that on weekend days where I only wore exercise clothes or all-day pajamas, I did list the pajamas in the outfit rundown, in parentheses, and indicated which were me-made, but I did not include any purely pj garments in the wear count.)
— Most worn garments were my jeans (which gave way by mid-month), my ivory canvas wide-leg pants (2018) and my black muscle tee (2016) — the latter two being my hardest working me-mades, so … no surprises there.
But what was really interesting was being conscious as I was getting dressed of what parts of my spring-into-summer clothes are homemade and … not. If I were to do this in winter, I’d have on a handknit sweater pretty much every day, so it’d be a question of whether the bottom half was also me-made or RTW. I still have a pronounced dearth of tops for this time of year, and what I do have is largely RTW, so if I wasn’t wearing me-made pants, I was likely not wearing any me-made at all. That tops issue is one I’m really working to address, and this strengthened my resolve to focus my sewing energy on that particular gap in my closet.
As always, I loved designing and maintaining this tracker, and I learned enough doing this little exercise that I think I will do it again in different seasons to see how the results compare!
(Notebook from Fringe Supply Co.)
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PREVIOUSLY in Me Made Bay: The bujo way
I’m still shock at the energy you put into keeping track of what you are wearing, but for what it’s worth, Grainline Studio’s Willow Tank is my most worn sleeveless top. I’ve just made three, all in linen. I remember you writing that you prefer sleeveless, even in winter under sweaters, and I’m with you there. Sleeveless is easier to layer and less confining.
Oh, it probably took a combined minute per day to snap a mirror selfie in the morning and then write in that day’s outfit before bed! But it’s fun to do and always interesting to see how reality compares to perceptions. I did initially think I would make a grid of all the outfits at the end to include in this post, but did not have time for that!
Glad to hear you’re loving your Willow — it’s on my list. But at the moment I have to address the fact that I have almost nothing in my closet that’s in between sleeveless tops and wool sweaters. Need to make some things with some semblance of sleeves for those in between months …
I should say I did probably spend an hour at the beginning of the month figuring out how I wanted to organize this spread, but that’s wildly fun to me! One of my favorite things to do.
I love my bujo and it’s for organizing and keeping track of so many things but also it feels very creative for me as well. Thanks for sharing your spread!
As a fellow Grainline fan don’t forget the Hadley top – love the high low hem. And you can do in long sleeve for cooler days or sleeveless. And if Secondo Piano’s Basic Instinct t shirt is great pattern if you haven’t tried that – free when you sign up to Sasha’s email list.
Thanks for the spread. I’d like to keep track of the clothes I wear just to see what I wear the most, what the gaps are, and what I might need to add. I don’t have as much me-made as you do, but I love the idea of knowing what the heck I’m doing with my closet.
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