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My house is full of company right now. My son home from DC and my sister, brother-in-law and 18 and 20 year old nieces from Ottawa. Other family is coming over every night for dinner too so the place is jumping.
Not a lot of time to sew although I have done some more online pattern shopping (my Vogues finally came - good because at the end of next week I have to start my prep week for the SG Wardrobe in a Week competition) and some thinking.
I also got myself a set of good wooden hangers, the ones with the pant/skirt clips on them and in the process of company prep moved clothes around closets and while I did that decided to arrange my fall teaching outfits on these hangers. As all my courses are 24 classes per term, I always figure on 12 professional, more or less, outfits so I wear each outfit no more than twice for the same class a term.(Rotating the days of the week is another exercise). I quickly found out that I have this covered with things I like to wear (and noticed that all the clothes I like are the ones I have made and that my discards are purchases) and the thought hit me that even if I didn't sew a thing all fall for work I would be OK.
This is interesting because if you asked me I would say I needed to make a ton of clothes for fall, although I have a few suits planned for the odd conference talk etc.
Where my real wardrobe gaps are though is in my home casual clothes, and I am at home a fair bit as I do most of my course prep and marking from home, and also DH and I are basically homebodies anyway in our social life (see above).
It made me realize that my home clothes, are sort of left overs and not very thoughtful, certainly I don't consider them a wardrobe. T shirts and jeans and often the same comfortable old pairs of knit pants, presentable for sure but definitely not where I put my sewing energy.
This got me to thinking about leisure suits and what most of us wear when we have a home day or what we change into when we come home from work. Hour for hour I should be putting as much of my sewing energy here as into my work clothes. I pulled out my most precious possession which is an old 1950's pattern catalog and looked at what those women in those more formal time wore.
I am posting some pictures here of the Tee Vee coats (what you wore when you finally got that girdle off) and thought of the patterns that exist from the Indie designers in particular for comfortable clothes, good for schlepping/knitting/sewing/talking on the phone to relatives days, but still stylish. I am thinking maybe of Favourite Things and Indigo Junction
Some thing else to consider when the house is quiet again and I can start my bra and mini wardrobe sewing. Home wear might in fact be what I need most for fall.
