As the reasoning behind
Me-Made-May, coupled with the first 15 days of daily outfit photographs, has already been written, I'll just move on to the second half and conclusion of the month of handmades today.
I'm still using my
Photo Journal site to log the links to outfit information, as well as a mini-journal of the day, so if you want those, just click on the 'DAY' link under each photo to click on through from there. And by the way, these are truly what I 'wanted' to wear each day..... not what I wanted to 'show'. This month represents my 'life' well methinks.
THOUGHTS:
The biggest surprise of this month was twofold.... one: that my handmade closet supplies me with enough clothes to get through almost an entire month with very few repeats wearing a variety of outfits..... and two: that the photography and keeping up with everybody did not overwhelm me.
As 2018 was my 5th year participating in this annual event, felt both my handmade wardrobe and quality of photography improved this year. And speed in photography was kept manageable. Most photos took anywhere from 5-15 minutes of actual photography time, with maybe another 15-30 minutes to crop, edit if needed and upload to social media accounts. Not bad considering how it was such a struggle on all accounts in years past. Also I was afraid IG would sort of 'overwhelm me', as it sometimes does with these daily challenges, but felt I was able to hang in there well. Of course you can see everything, and then some!, at my
Instagram account, even if you do not have an IG account.
Me-Made-May..... the first thought that comes to mind is 'wow'. It has exploded, as I mentioned from the
first post. As of this morning the official IG hashtag mmmay18 shows 43,166 posts. If you divide that number by 31 days of May.... that equals roughly 1,392. So one could assume we had 1,392 participants this year, as opposed to 342 participants on Flickr in 2014, 243 in 2015, and 136 in 2016. (2016 was the first year also using IG) Me-Made-May officially moved to IG in 2017 and the hashtag mmmay17 shows 33,997 posts. See what I mean!!! An explosion!!! This is great though, as that means more folks are sewing their clothes and creating their own unique handmade wardrobes.
But maybe because of the volume of numbers now, the community that
Zoe created on the Flickr platform is a very different experience on IG. Keep in mind these are but my humble opinions, as others may differ, but feel IG is harder to get to know the other sewists who may be 'new' to me, or even to be able to encourage newcomers along. It may be because IG has already sort of brought the sewing community together in a way that blogs cannot do, and only Flickr was able to do during the month of May during pre-IG years. I don't know, but I do know how much it meant to me when
Carolyn and
Yoshimi, two women who still today, are my biggest icons in the sewing world, took the time to make the rounds to encourage all in the early Flickr platform years. For this new-to-the-sewing-world lady, creating simple, basic repeats, it meant
the world to me and helped motivate me to continue past the awkward newcomer stage to learn higher levels of skillsets. As I recall, it was also encouraged to sort of 'make the rounds' on Flickr..... to not simply stay put with one's already established friendset..... i.e. feed.
It's hard to do this on IG. For instance, in the beginning of this month on IG, I was trying to 'make the rounds' and like or comment on others' posts under the established hashtag mmmay18, when evidently I overstepped IG's rules and they put the dreaded 'shadow ban' on me. The 'shadow ban' means your hashtagged posts will not show up anywhere, only able to be seen by your 'followers' in their feed..... but will absolutely not appear under any hashtags you used. Well that knocks one out of the whole idea of 'participating' when your posts don't show up under the 'official' tags! Luckily it only lasted a couple of days for me, as I stayed off
IG, posting to the
Photo Journal account instead to keep up with my photos. For the rest of the month I limited my 'likes' and 'comments' to those I followed but no one outside that circle.
Did I enjoy this month? Yes I did!!! Very much!!! Going into the month with less than optimum enthusiasm, I really did have a good month. Most ladies on IG were also sort of journaling their days, along with their outfits, and it was such a pleasure to see a glimpse into their lives..... be a part of their lives...... during this month and I will miss that as we return to our normal feeds.
And I also want to take this moment to Thank You! to all of you, who read these posts. It is my hope to maybe inspire you in some way, to learn new skills, to enjoy creating your own handmades and to always love learning.
Happy Sewing All! :)
Me-Made the Month of May 2018 Days 1-15
Your pictures were a daily joy in my ig feed, Lisa. Isn't it nice that you now have enough me mades that some can be used for hot sweaty activities - which means you sew for the life you live, not the life you want to live. That's a lesson many sewists take years to learn.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice thing to say Barbara! Thank you! And so very true.... sometimes it's hard to break away from all the pretty lovely things to make..... to be realistic about the life one leads and be more practical. Trying to keep the right balance is tough sometimes. :)
DeleteWhat an interesting post, Lisa! I am so happy that you took part because you have -and are- always been so supportive. I would have missed you! You are describing a lot of my impressions, too! Not the photo part though as I just let take a phone picture which I only cut and posted. I loved seeing your beautiful pictures and it is worth the time you invested. I had the impression that I haven‘t seen all of the 40000 #mmmay18 posts although I followed the hash tag or maybe it was just too much to remember them? Anyway, I loved seeing the daily posts of outfits and glimpses of everyday life that were shared. It is so lovely and reassuring that we are home sewists with similar intentions and habits all over the world. Have a great weekend, Lisa! xxx
ReplyDeleteSo True!!!! And thank you again for encouraging me to participate this year. I needed your gentle nudging. Have a great weekend too SaSa!! :)
DeleteI enjoyed seeing your MMM on IG! Thank you for sharing your great works. I love all of garments, especially the brown jacket is so lovely. Have a great weekend, Lisa😊
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Eli!! You are so very kind. Have a great weekend too!!! :)
DeleteYou look absolutely gorgeous in your MMM photos - they wouldn't be out of place in a magazine.
ReplyDeleteThank you ever so much!!! What a kind thing to say! :)
DeleteOhh, you did so well Lisa. You have a lovely wardrobe with a great mix of clothes from dressy to casual and workout wear. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing your outfits. I only managed to catalogue about 60% of my wears on IG and I didn't post at all on IG except for Stories for nearly 2 weeks (I expect when I start to post again my likes will be way down) Life is a struggle with aged parents for me still unfortunately. Oh to have more hours in the day!
ReplyDeleteOh to have more hours in the day would be ever so nice!! You are doing well Diane. And thank you so much for your kind compliment. :)
DeleteLove day 16, you and the pup. The cape is beautiful. wow, IG can be weird!!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right!!! Miss the early days of IG... the new algorithms IG has in place now make absolutely no sense to me. And thank you so much! Suzi makes a lovely accessory and that cape is the most fun thing to wear!! :)
DeleteYes, you did do well. I have to admit I do not have a spare 30 mins for MMM since I have taken on a lot more business responsibility - at an age when most people are winding down and having time for these sorts of things. As for IG being a somewhat disconnected - I agree, but then the format encourages it. So I am moving more to IG as a record of making and my blog as my means of connecting with people - okay, so blog followers and comments have dropped off since the rise of IG but I value more the handful of people who comment on my blog than a large number of"likes" on an IG post - I am sure most likers will have no recall of what they have seen, whereas someone who reads a blog probably does. I think too, you have to spend lots of time with IG, checking in to see what happens - of course, this is what they want. Whereas with blogs, I tend to spend some quiet time reading them. It's my little pleasure!
ReplyDeleteYou've got a lot of extraneous responsibilities and am always amazed at the amount of lovely garments you are able to produce with such limited time. You've made some great points here and some of what you write I struggle with too. The time I spend on IG, takes me away from the blog... my first love and one I want to continue. But I have met some lovely folks on IG who only stay on the IG platform, and I would miss them. Another great point you bring up.... the amount of time checking in with IG.... Gee Whiz! So True!! Sometimes it's simply to make sure I don't accidentally overlook someone. Blogs are much less trouble in that regard and I continue to enjoy reading others' blogs too at my leisure. No clearcut answer I guess. As always, Thank You for the thought provoking comment Sarah Liz. :)
DeleteI didn't know Instagram does shadow ban people. That's kind of sad that you wanted to encourage people and got banned for it. I think it is time for another format or something. Maybe next year I'll start a link on party on my blog for mmm posts.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, your outfits look great and totally 'you'. Great that you didn't struggle to find enough me made clothes to wear. Your pictures are beautifully taken as well!
You are always so gracious and kind Katharina! Thank you!! :)
DeleteRe: IG and MMM - Don't know what the answer is there. Not a fan of IG's new algorithm, nor the 'shadow ban', nor the way they 'top' or 'cluster the most popular' posts now. Other apps have tried to compete with IG, but have not been successful. The sewing community seems pretty entrenched in IG now, and I have to say I DO like IG and the way it has brought us together in its own unique way.
I've enjoyed seeing your MMMay'18, beautiful outfits and backdrops. I am glad you took part and thank you for all sweet comments. Have a nice day and happy sewing to you Lisa. xxx
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Hana! And very much the same to you! :)
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