Do you ever change your mind?

A while ago Robin  posted an idea that has had me thinking for weeks.


She wrote that she sometimes sews bright and trendy, but keeps clipping Lands End.


I know exactly how she feels.


The first few days home I have been doing domestic catch-up, unpacking, laundry, groceries and visiting. Oh yes, I have been working too.


I have also put away my winter clothes and put out my recently worn-in-Florida summer clothes, despite the fact that it's still not all that warm here all day. I have actually seen people in wool hats around here. Yes I know.


Of course packing up a season brings you face-to-face with things that you didn't reach for all winter. Question is do you put them away and see if they appeal to you next year?


Probably not. 


This can be illuminating if the garments in question were things you worked hard at, ordered in patterns for, mail ordered just the right fabric, and yes paid the duty. It is entirely possible to make a great outfit that is currently totally on trend and still not something you wear - because it was designed for another kind of life or it just someone feels like someone else's clothes and not your own.


By contrast there are some garments that just get worn often, mostly because they are comfortable, maybe because they don't need ironing, but mostly because they are just you.


A long time ago I took out a style book from the public library, wish I could remember the name, where you were asked to choose three words that described you, not how you looked, but who you are.


Think this one over. It's pretty hard.


I am still working on my three words, but on the short list are: simple, resourceful, energetic, cheerful, family and people centered.


The idea now is to take your words (I am going to have a terrible time narrowing this down) and look at every style, forget the pear-shaped and whatever, and see if it reflects these words.


It is an interesting test.


Right now I have on my sewing table two patterns that I was all fired up about when I was at the "add to cart" stage but I now wonder if I will ever make up. Here they are:

OK I love this dress but am not sure if I would wear it. Does it look simple, resourceful, energetic, cheerful, family and people centered to you?

The other one, that I actually have laying on top of the fabric ready to be cut is this :

Now try those words again. The sequined pants top don't work but even still I think only the short sleeved version works for me.

I think I will make it up tomorrow and you can be the judge. Interesting at least to consider the person inside the person and not just the shape inside the garment.

What would your three words be?

Outfit versus wardrobe sewing

Before I left for this trip I did the big seasonal wardrobe change over. Moved my winter clothes down to the basement and my summer clothes upstairs. In that process I threw out a lot of clothes, most of my winter stuff in fact.

And speaking of facts this process forced me to face one.

I don't like my clothes and the way I dress any more, not at all as much as I used to.

What happened?

 I have always sewn most of my clothes, nearly everything I wear and I used to enjoy my clothes a lot more than I do now. I had to think hard about what has changed and then it finally hit me. With all the sewing contests and SWAPing going on in the sewing world I started to think like everyone else about capsule wardrobes, the list of the 10 things you needed to have, and making everything coordinate. My wardrobe became another job and making clothes for it became an exercise in filling in gaps. This struck me when I looked at a couple of tops with some prints that I really didn't like and wondered why I owned them. The answer of course was that they coordinated perfectly with my wardrobe plan, and met some contest criteria. Suddenly I realized that there were three of us in this closet, me, my clothes and the Wardrobe and one of us has to go.

Up to now I have had a basic colour scheme and a sort of style which I would describe as simple, comfortable, a bit fifties, the word I always wanted to say to myself when I looked in the mirror was kind of North American sharp ( Doris Day versus Chanel) and I used to think in terms of outfits. This is a good fabric for a dress, what shoes do I need, what earrings, what bag, if it gets cold what jacket/cardigan/coat will I wear with it - move on. This also made for easy dressing because once you had the outfit organized you could get up and get dressed in the morning without thinking, which is important because I don't do a lot of thinking in the mornings.

Now I realize this isn't really SWAP thinking and kind of slow and inefficient but I felt pulled together when I go dressed. 

This is of course a totally different way of dressing than figuring out five different ways to wear the same basic white blouse or all the combinations that you can wear from a core wardrobe. That makes my head hurt and I am not all that creative about putting things together, that is real fashionista stuff.

I have realized I am not a component sewer, that the module wardrobe makes me feel like I am always wearing the same thing, and that I can't see a big picture full of connections.

I think I am just happier with fewer outfits and that it is more fun for me to think of one thing at a time, than to take on a whole scheme. Works well with just sewing what is in front of you and not feeling that you have another chore lined up in your life.

But that's just me.

Oh dear

My great pant sewing experiment has run into a bit of a snag. The last of my P&S pants will be hemmed tonight, and if my husband and I can coordinate picture taking and daylight (which falls earlier every night now) we can get some good photos taken outside on the front steps. I have discovered that photos of dark pants taken inside just don't show up at all. So hopefully tomorrow.

I have made five pairs in the last week from this pattern and they are just fine, at least by my standards. I am more or less thrilled and feel pretty comfortable that I can make other pants fit fairly well with this method.

Now what do I do next? My original plan was to go on next to Wild Ginger and try that as a comparison but do I really want to make more pants I do not urgently need, now one month before Christmas? I did not plan in any way being satisfied with an early experiment.

I would probably go on to Wild Ginger after a bit of rest pants-wise for other styles, casual pants and something more fitted and conventional in a woven, like a twill and I would like to try Joyce Murphy's method because it has rave reviews. 

But to be honest right now I have a pattern that I am happy with already and may take a pause from pant production until I do that.

This is always the line I find hard to draw in sewing, the should-dos from the want-to-dos.

Which brings me to another one of my sewing dilemmas.

It's about the SWAP and group sewing and how fashionable am I comfortable being.

When you hit 55 it's time to get serious about maintaining your style. 

I have had a couple of weeks now of public places, meetings, doctor's offices, out in the stores and am quite distressed to see the number of women my age in jeans and sneakers in venues that I feel require lipstick. Sarah Palin even voted in jeans for goodness sakes, although I am sure that was deliberate and playing to the base.

There is no reason that comfortable has to equate with tired and bland, so I am going to try to keep an effort of some kind up. There are lots of stylish ways to be comfortable even at home, Loes Hinse patterns are as comfortable as sweats really as an example if you like her look, but I also have to negotiate the fact that I am more at home in classic clothes and simple shapes than anything too trendy.

So this is my compromise. I am going to work on the basic patterns that I can make over and over and to increase my style quotient I am going to try to make one item a month from Burda World of Fashion.

So back to the pant dilemma.

The thing I need to do now is compile my basic list and figure out what I need to develop. Feel free to contribute:

1. Pants - at least one version - Check

2. Straight skirt - a Wild Ginger version to revise - half Check

3. Twin set - need to develop

4. Basic blouse - see above

5. T shirt - I have a princess seamed Vogue with potential

6. Tank - can I devise from the above?

7. Comfortable dress that I can multi vary. What does this look like? I have a great fitting Wild Ginger straight sheath but I need something that is a little easier to wear to teach/walk to work.

8. A lounger. OK you know what I mean, not unwrappy like a housecoat, something that I can wear when I have family to talk to after my bath/book routine at night. Seriously schlepping. I am definitely getting old. Stop me before I hit the quilted brunch coat,

9. Lots of other things I will think of later.

Seems to me that while I focus on Christmas and other projects that I might do some work on a Wild Ginger blouse since the fit was so good in the dress, although I am likely to divert into pants too.

Lot on the go at the moment, renting out our house at the beach since we don't get down there much, and many calls from son-in-London who may have a new job in Washington D.C. Yeah! That's some place I can drive to when I miss him, not the same with the Atlantic ocean in between.

Now off to hem the last of those pants.

The gods must be crazy, at least ask the dogs

I came home from school today all fired up about my own what-not-wear. So I started pulling one outfit after another out of the closet and started trying everything on, and then running through the house from one full length mirror to the other to try and find one that made me look good. 

It was quite a scene and went on for a good hour and a half. Rascal and my daughter's dog who we babysit when she works days figured I had lost it. This made no sense to them at all, being classic dressers themselves. Finally they went down the hall and laid close to each other for protection.

This is what I learned in my wardrobe mania:

1. I tend to sew more rather than appreciate and use what I have sewn.

2. A lot of things I am not crazy about look just terrific when I pair them with other, different, units. My silk wrap tops, that were too patterned for me are great with drapey pants and under jackets, instead of the straight skirts I thought I was going to wear them with.

3. I have about ten more viable outfits in my wardrobe than I thought I had, simply because I have not put the time or effort into working what I have.

4. I forget what I have. I discovered tops and scarves, crammed there at the back that were orphans in the past but now have friends in later additions.

5. Slow down Barbara and make the most of what you have before you stress yourself out reaching for more.

Another of life's lessons delivered to me through sewing channels.