Old Me-mades vs. New | How long do you keep the old?

Hola! Welcome back! As I've been purging my closet, I've gotten a chance to get a good look at some of the garments that I've made and reflect on how I feel when I wear them. What I realized was that I was more apt to keep older me-mades that had mistakes as long as they looked good on me. I also got a chance to look at the things that I've made more recently and noticed how I make much less mistakes and how professional they look as opposed to the older garments.

newer me-mades

Quick tangent: You know that feeling you get when someone finds out that you've made the garment you're wearing? How proud you are? How you want to show off a little? How you don't mind them inspecting it?

It got me thinking: Knowing my ability now, and how I can make things look (inside and out), I get nervous about people asking me if I've made an older me-made because I know that they can see the rough mistakes that have been made. I'm much prouder when people ask me about my Kelly Anorak or my leather-trimmed Poncho because those came out almost perfect. But when they start looking closely at the bindings on the bodice of my First Dress or the insides of my First pair of pants, I kind of want to give a disclaimer that "I made them years ago!"

older me-mades

Let's take a look at some of the pieces I still have now:

**For a light example, I'll start off with my Itch to Stitch hack of the Davina and Lindy.

The lining looks great, and the understitching is beautiful. All the insides are serged and I feel awesome in it.

But the makeshift double needle hem that I did on the dress is broken in multiple places with thread hanging off. The tension was also wrong so there's tunneling in some places and not in others. Those are really visible mistakes that people can see looking right at me.

On the other hand, I have my Plaid wrap dress, also with a nicely lined bodice and great topstitching, but also a really nice hem. And I didn't even use a coverstitch or double needle. I just serged the raw edge, pressed up the hem, and sewed two separate rows of stitching over the serged edged.

**Second example will be this quick kimono I made in like an hour before a trip I took to California back in 2015. I didn't really know how to do bindings around corners and it definitely shows on each corner of the kimono lol. I still wear it though, even though I cringe a little every time I pull it out of the drawer.

But now I have my Floral cold-shoulder top with beautiful stitching on the neck binding and the insides are beautifully finished and nice and crispy.

**For a more dramatic example, I have my Orange wrap dress. While I was doing a special stitch on the neckline, I ended up with a huge tuck of fabric at the left shoulder. Not only that, but after I had done an FBA, I forgot to add length to the inside bodice facing, so it does not reach far enough down to get caught in its correct seam. So on this dress, the inside AND outside show clear mistakes.

Now I have my Speckled faux leather cardigan that feels like a masterpiece in my closet. The insides are serged and finished nicely, I remembered to stabilize the shoulders with stay tape and all of the outside seams line up. Whenever people see me in it, they can't believe that I've made it, until I show them my label!

So basically what I'm asking is, do you get rid of your older me-mades quickly due to the lack in quality of them compared to what you produce now? Or do you keep your older me-mades and rock them just as proudly as the new ones?

Speak to me in the comments!

xoxo,
Tasha