Slow Fashion October.

I've always loved the idea of Me-Made-May and wanted to participate, but it has never worked out for me. (In case you didn't know, Me-Made-May is a sort of challenge to wear the clothes you've sewn. Most people try to wear at least one handmade item per day that month.) For one thing, I don't have a ton of handmade summer clothes, so there would have to be lots of repeats. Also, I only wear my "good clothes" when I'm going to town or church...which is about three days a week. On the days when I'm at home or babysitting, I'm usually in old t-shirts or holey jeans, so it would be almost impossible to work the challenge around that.

But when I read that Karen Templer of Fringe Association was going to be hosting Slow Fashion October? Yes. I can get behind that. You can read more here, but basically it's a broader take on Me-Made-May and there are lots of ways to interpret it. I've written a little before about this subject (here and here) and I was planning on doing a post sometime soon about why making my own clothes is so important to me. But now I'm hoping it will be easier to sort out my thoughts using the five weekly themes that Karen has come up with.

I don't think that I'll be able to make any additions to my wardrobe that month, unless I can squeeze in some sewing. (There's so much going on in October...two craft fairs, working on my niece's birthday gifts, hopefully starting on Christmas gifts, and just enjoying the amazingness of my favorite season!) I am hoping to plan some projects, though. I'll write more about this at the beginning of the month, but here's an idea of how I'm planning on participating.

I'm going to try to wear at least one handmade item each day in October. But I'm not being too technical here...some days it might not be an actual item of clothing. I'm counting all handknits (socks, hats, shawls, etc.) and pajamas and basically anything that I've made that is wearable. :) Of course I won't be doing traditional daily outfit photos (remember the old t-shirt and holey jeans thing I mentioned before?), but I am going to try to take a photo every day to document what handmade item I'm wearing. Then I'll do some sort of weekly post about that week's theme and include those photos in the post.

I'm really hoping that the weather will cooperate with me. October can still be pretty warm here, and if it's too warm for handknits, then this goal of mine will be much harder. :)

Anyway, I'm really excited about Slow Fashion October! All of this has been on my mind a lot lately because I haven't been buying clothes, and I have to get more motivated about sewing my own. (Besides t-shirts. I've sewn lots of Renfrews this year, but that's about it.) I think this will be a fun challenge and I hope it'll get more people thinking about where their clothes come from. :) Let me know if you're planning on participating in any way!