I haven’t written for over a month.  So much has been happening in the world.  Black lives matter; here in Australia as well as in the USA (and elsewhere).

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When I signed up to take part in Me Made Made, I hoped that it would get me out of the ‘tracksuit and ugg boots’ routine that I’d quickly fallen into during covid-19 lockdown.  I figured that there were other clothing combinations in my wardrobe that would also be warm and comfortable, but might also lift my spirits a little.  I gave myself the challenge to choose an outfit each day that required shoes rather than ugg boots, and was based around a scarf/shawl/wrap that was either hand-crocheted (by me) or hand-knitted (by mum).

As you can tell from the photos, Melbourne was pretty cold during May!  I needed an additional layer on top of those to do anything outdoors, and there’s generally an additional warm layer of some type underneath each one.  Activity wise, during May I worked from home, went for an evening walk a couple of times per week, went to the supermarket once each week, and by the end of  May I was able to meet up with friends for coffee in a local park.  All these outfits worked well for those activities, and made me feel a little more like ‘me’.  Some outfit combinations worked better than others – actually, some are very well tried and true – and I found a few new ones that I’ll repeat in the future.

Do we dress for ourselves, or do we dress for others?  So many people have talked about how they have ‘let themselves go’ during covid-19 lockdown, eschewing makeup, fancy hairdos, hair dye, wearing their regular clothes, etc, often because ‘no-one is going to see me’.  So why do we normally do and wear these things?  Many of us would say ‘I do it for myself’ – but if we’re no longer doing it because no-one is going to see it, were we ever really doing it for ourselves?  I felt better psychologically when I was doing Me Made May and making more of an effort with my clothing – but what is the chicken and the egg in that situation?  Was I dressing ‘better’ because I was feeling better, or vice versa?  I don’t have the answers to any of these questions, but it interests me to ponder.

You may have also spotted a few garments in the above photos that haven’t been blogged yet – I’ll get on to that soon!  I have some catching up to do.