travel wardrobe

Me Made Morocco

sakijane - me made morocco

We’re officially halfway through the month of June, and I’ve been meaning to blog this for weeks, but believe me when I say I’ve just been exhausted since returning from our trip to Africa. It was a whirlwind week between a flight home from Morocco and flying back across the Atlantic to Portland five days later, trying to tie up all my loose ends in Germany before being Stateside for three months, and, of course, spending what quality time I had left with John before going long distance again.

While I’d started processing these photos right after our Morocco trip, I hadn’t actually sat down to tap out this blog post until last Tuesday*. I didn’t make a pledge for Me Made May this year because I knew my Me Made Wardrobe was too limited to make a decent attempt at it. I mean, it would be boring and I would pity my Instagram followers; I would wear one item a day for a week and some change, and then the next week you would see me repeat the same garments. But I realized the day before we left for Morocco that I had more than enough garments to last an entire vacation, and that within my Me Made Wardrobe I could find garments that were respectable enough for Moroccan culture (knees and shoulders covered) or find ways to make them respectable. And that’s how Me Made Morocco was born.

My pledge to myself was to wear at least one Me Made item every day for the duration of our trip. Some days, I’d wear a Me Made item for the beginning part of the day for one activity and change into a different Me Made item for the rest of the day for a different activity, so how I show my outfits might not make much sense chronologically, but only because you don’t need to see the same outfit twice. Without further ado…

*On a related note, I have to apologize for taking so long to respond to all the lovely comments on my last post. Receiving comments on posts and hearing from my readers in general is such a joy and really makes this whole blogging thing so rewarding; it makes this little spot on the internet a point of connection. I read each comment as they came in, but being on mobile with limited internet made it hard to organize my responses, and as the days passed, so too did the priority of commenting back. I still want to say thanks for all the support guys, both in my last post and in this overall blogging endeavor. I wholly appreciate it!


Day 1 | Tilly and the Buttons Martha Dress Hack

sakijane - me made morocco

I’m actually really glad I took this dress with me to Morocco. To be honest, I made this dress because I happened upon 3 yards of this fabric for super cheap and it was the time of year when I can’t help but make a full length gown. But, let’s be real. This dress is not the most practical thing I’ve ever made. I mean, it’s kind of a winter weight material, but it’s backless? And it’s full length and proper, but the fabric itself is ultra casual? I love it, but it’s confused enough to make me too confused to wear it. So bringing it with me to Morocco was the best thing I could have done, primarily because I had to wear it in a way that actually made the thing wearable, and I had to wear it long enough to see how I truly felt about it. And my true feelings are that… well… I don’t love it as much in practice as I love it in theory. And it will still likely live in my closet for a long while yet.

Day 2 | Sewhouse Seven Bridgetown Backless Dress Hack

sakijane - me made morocco

I wore this romper (backwards!) on the morning of Day 2 for a cooking class. I know, it’s a super danger wearing a Me Made while cooking, but I wore an apron and I figured that the print is busy enough to hide any small accidents. We spent the morning perusing the produce and spice markets for ingredients before prepping and cooking our meal with local women in a beautiful open air courtyard. The romper was perfect for the day, both because the rayon challis is so lightweight and breathable and because the cut lends itself incredibly well to a very full tummy.

Day 3 | Frankendress V8994 + V9212

sakijane - me made morocco

Ok, full disclosure: This dress still doesn’t fit me any better than it did when I blogged it last fall. It’s still oversized, and it’s still got those ill-placed dimples in the bust darts, but I figured I could hide all the imperfections by just tying a collared shirt around my waist. And it was actually a perfect dress for a trip; it’s linen so it wrinkles nicely and breathes easily. And I’m actually quite glad I brought it and was forced to then wear it, because it made me realize that while the top half might be something I’ll have to move to the Unselfish Sewing Pile (my boobs may never be big enough to fill this thing out), I can actually salvage the bottom pretty easily by adding a zip or elastic and a waistband. And I would absolutely wear a tea-length dark navy linen skirt.

Day 4 | In the Folds Collins Top

sakijane - me made morocco

I actually wore this top A LOT in Morocco, so much in fact that I’m surprised John never complained about a lovely stink wafting from my general direction (he’s a peach). I wore this the morning of Day 1 when we did a hammered brassware workshop where we literally sat on the floor of a hut that belonged to a local artisan and hammered bowls out of sheets of brass (which I totally recommend, by the way, even if it almost made me cry in shooting pains. Those artisans are badass.). I wore it again on Day 4, where John very lovingly tried to take photos of it in the blindingly overcast Moroccan sunshine (spoiler alert: we got zero useable photos of it that day, see above). And I finally wore it AGAIN on Day 7, when we visited the Bahia Palace and the Menara Garden (and where we were actually able to get some decent shots… To be blogged soon).

Day 5 | Sewaholic Patterns Pendrell Blouse

sakijane - me made morocco

There’s not much to say about this blouse except that I’m glad I brought it, I’m glad I wore it, and I’m glad I wore it enough to later do the thing I’d been afraid of doing to it: throwing it in the wash. Post-wash, the ruffles retained their shape for the most part and where they didn’t, they were easily coaxed back into shape with a gentle iron. A++ for this pattern.

And because I’ve had a handful of people ask, no, I didn’t make the pants. They are Marc Jacobs from many moons ago.

Day 6 | Sewaholic Patterns Gabriola Skirt (TBB)

sakijane - me made morocco

There’s nothing like a vacation deadline to make you finish up some WIPs like you hadn’t been procrastinating on it for the better part of the year, yeah? I started making this skirt last summer in Portland before heading to Germany for the fall, and by the time we had my sewing room set up, I was so over matching plaids that I hung it up “for the hem to true” (aka the WIPs purgatory) for 8 months. After all the procrastination, it somehow only took me half an hour to hem the thing, and now I have an actual, wearable skirt. More on this later though… This one is TBB too.

Day 7 | Self-drafted Silk chiffon Romper (TBB)

sakijane - me made morocco

This entry is kind of a total fabrication: I definitely did not wear this Romper on Day 7 (see Day 4 where I talk about wearing my Collins Top like every other day), but I did wear it on Day 2 after our cooking class on a trip to the Jardin Majorelle. I had definitely planned to wear it again on Day 7 but realized I hadn’t gotten any useable shots of my Collins top in Morocco and already had more than enough of this romper, so it really only got a few hours of wear before being packed away again. I won’t go into detail on it since it’ll be blogged later, but it’s one of my most favorite, least worn Me Mades to date.


Something that I failed to realize when I poo-pooed my own ability to be involved in Me Made May this year was how helpful Me Made May is in helping you recognize the strengths and weaknesses of both your wardrobe as a whole and of each individual garment. It makes you stretch what you have and wear those things in possibly unconventional ways in order to fill gaps and make things work. I know there are at least two garments that I wore during my week in Morocco that I probably would have let sit unworn in my closet if it hadn’t been for the pledge I made. I’m definitely going to make a larger effort to pledge for Me Made May next year, because I can’t wait to see what I’ll learn from my wardrobe then.

I’ve loved reading through everyone’s posts about MMM and what you’ve learned from your experiences of wearing your own Me Mades every day. And thanks for taking the time to read this, everyone. I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

6 Comment

  1. I love these outfits and your photos. They look gorgeous on you. I am glad that you had a great time.

    Which do your friends call you, Jane or Saki? Both names are pretty:)

  2. Ooh…I’m looking forward to learning more about that plaid skirt in particular! That whole look in the Moroccan setting makes you look like a governess from a historical romance (in a good way, a.k.a. the only possible way!!).

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