So, that closet challenge....

Hey, it's Friday! Let's have some fashion!

I haven't totally forgotten about my self-challenge. I just haven't really been bothering to take pictures. Truth be told, now that temperatures have dropped to winter levels, I'm once again finding it difficult to be inspired by my wardrobe. All I want to wear are sweaters and pants, and I've been rather dissatisfied with my selection of those. Fashion diet or not, it might be time to make a run to the thrift store and see if I can at least swap a couple of things out. Especially the sweaters--I'm craving some color!

I've also been pondering the whole idea that's been going around the blogosphere of cake vs. frosting and everyday wearable stuff. Now, I'm not one of those people who hangs onto every piece of clothing ever--my closet size just won't allow it. But I do find it difficult to let go of me-mades that I still genuinely like, even if I have trouble finding ways to wear them. Since 'tis the season for all things shiny, here's two that are giving me a bit of a conundrum:
Please pardon that expression on my face--this picture is basically me trying to take pictures of my me-mades while standing on my bed while I was in college! And this was the only one I could find of it. So this is a very simple skirt--bias-cut, elastic waist, silver satin. I like the shiny, liquidy, sci-fi look of it. And yet, I hardly ever wear it. It's a very thin fabric, so it's not very warm. And I kind of feel like I can only wear it around Christmas...it just has that sort of feel to it. It might be time to put this one into the refashion pile--with some careful cutting and maybe pairing it with a trim or another fabric to dress it down some, it might make a cute woven camisole/layering-type thing. Hmmm.










This one is a little tougher. Meet the "Inara" shirt. This was also one of my college-era makes, and this picture was taken the last time I wore it, in February. (Doug was taking me out to see the local orchestra for my birthday, and we decided to dress up some.) I do love this shirt--it's shiny, it's green, it fits well, and it has dragons on it. And yes, for all of my fellow geeks out there, I totally styled this one off of the shirt that Inara wore in the "Our Mrs. Reynolds" episode of Firefly. But this is also pretty much the only way I know how to wear it--with a black skirt, or maybe black pants. I would really like to put this one in more regular rotation, but I need to find a way to dress it down!

I guess it's off to Pinterest and Polyvore to find some inspiration...especially since I have 2 more pieces of brocade in my stash that I need to use up at some point!

Edit: Double that number. I've been flipping through my stash notebook lately to scope out some possibilities for a couple of other patterns that I've acquired recently, and I somehow have two different pieces of white brocade that I'm pretty sure were hand-me-downs from a project that my mom didn't do. I guess that's what I get for having the sartorial sensibilities of a magpie and liking shiny things.

when wardrobe disaster strikes

So, as anyone around the mid-Atlantic/northeastern region of the US knows at this point, a big stormy mess of doom is coming straight for us. (Particularly my area, if the fact that the Weather Channel is hanging out at the beach I visit every summer is any indication. It's rather weird to see a beach and boardwalk I'm actually familiar with on tv!) So, since the big concern is power outages and water, one of the main preparations today was catching up on my laundry. No big deal, right?

Except that somehow, despite the fact that I NEVER keep pens in my pockets, a pen somehow got stuck in with one of my loads and ran through the dryer. (Since I'm living at my parents' until after the wedding, my dad is the most likely culprit--we're guessing it must have somehow gotten left in the washer and then lost amidst my clothes.) The result is that the entire load basically got ruined.

Some of it wasn't so bad--the clothes I wore to paint at my fiance's house last night, for instance. A pair of pajamas that I got for Christmas last year got it pretty bad, but at least I just wear those to sleep in. The bigger problems were that nearly all of the t-shirts, the hoodie sweatshirt, and several pairs of the jeans I wear to work also got it pretty bad. (All thrifted, and most I only wear to work because they just don't fit right, but I did have one pair that fit well enough that I wear them outside of work, too. So now I'm just down to 3 pairs of "real" jeans, and I can only wear the skinny jeans with a limited number of tops. Boo.) My one brown pair of pants that I wear at least once a week, even though they're too short (I've been holding out until I have time to make some), also seem to have gotten a little, though it's not quite as noticeable. And aside from those cute pjs that I've had less than a year, this is what's making me the saddest...
This was one of my outfit pics from this past week--all me-made except the boots. The top was safe because that was from a different load, but my teal microfiber skirt, which has become a staple this fall, did get some ink splatters. Another me-made that I wore yesterday met the same fate. I'm trying soaking those and the work t-shirt that got it the worst in a combination of detergent and oxy-clean to see if it will help. The two me-mades might be salvageable, because the skirt is dark enough that the ink just looks like a smudge instead of an obvious stain, and the top has a kind of splotchy (on purpose) dye job to begin with. The black ink is an obvious difference, but unless I missed a spot, it looks like both splatters are on the back, and so I might be able to hide it by leaving my hair down. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, but it's rather upsetting to consider that these two things might be ruined, when they're both still actively involved in my wardrobe!

But this also leaves me with a dilemma--as much as I wanted to avoid buying clothes this fall, I do wonder if I should just replace the brown trousers and the one pair of jeans. I know I could sew them, and I have the fabric to do so, but I just don't have the time until the wedding dress is done. And that does put a dent in my wardrobe.

To leave this on a happier note, because I'm still way more upset about this than I probably have a right to be--after all, they're just clothes and it's not like I don't have more, I just get emotionally attached to the ones I spent time sewing in particular--here's my other fun outfit from last week. Again, both pieces of clothing are me-mades (the green Vogue dress from last fall and the Junior Mints jacket, again. Thankfully, this particular challenging-to-make dress was NOT in this load of laundry!)

Closet Challenge Update, weeks 4+

What I've learned so far: It is very difficult for me to motivate myself to take outfit pictures of myself. Probably largely due to not really having a good place to do so/lack of time until after dark. Plus I've honestly felt that I need a me-made garment to make the photos interesting, since this IS primarily a sewing blog....and I honestly don't have as many me-mades for the fall/winter so I do rely more heavily on thrifted clothes than I would have to in the spring and summer. And so I'm just combining the last couple of weeks (thus the 4+), with the really crappy self-timer photos that I did manage to get while crammed up in the corner of my horribly messy bedroom. (And putting them in collage form to minimize the crappiness. Half the time, I can't even get both my head AND my feet entirely in, because of lack of space to set the camera up in.)


So, in no particular order of days:
1. My convertible dress, which I attempted to fall-ify on a still warmish day with a brown cardigan. It works for mint chocolate chip stuff, right?
2. (Can you tell this is the one shot I had a photographer for?) A pre-blog leaf-embroidered me-made skirt and a thrifted top. And, of course, the boots!
3. I've been having trouble fitting in my 3/4-sleeved stuff lately, because it went straight from too hot to too cold (for me). So this is me warm-ifying my Chevron Blouse with the Junior Mints jacket.
4. Another fall-ifying attempt, this time with my sleeveless ModCloth dress refashion, worn over a black knit top and somewhat-refashioned thrifted grey pants.
5. This one is basically just to show off how well my latest knitting project goes with my vintage leather jacket!
6. I've mostly worn this outfit before-- my Painter Blouse with my trouser jeans, since it's pretty much the only pants I own that will go with that aren't way too monochromatic for my taste (i.e. grey or brown). I prefer this top with regular jeans, but that doesn't quite work for teaching purposes, since I do try to maintain an artsy-professional image for that. The belt, which I thrifted awhile ago, is a new addition, and I think it's a huge improvement, because that one change makes it look so much more pulled-together! It's amazing the difference that accessories can make, isn't it?

Also, can you tell I'm trying to offset the too-shortness of all of my pants by wearing more flats? :P

In order to better inform my AD sewing (After Dress!), I realized that I should probably also be tracking things that I wished I had in my outfits from week to week/things that would make some of my pieces less orphany. So I'm going to be making an ongoing list that I'll add to as needed.

1. Royal blue Clovers (or a similar style, if that particular pattern doesn't work for me), as stated here.
2. A cropped fitted black vest (while wearing some black purchased pinstriped pants and a gifted plain coral blouse. I wanted something bright because it was a dreary day, but the outfit was just a bit boring and it was too warm for jacket layers. Incidentally, that loop scarf I finished recently probably would have looked great, but it was too warm for a scarf too.)
3. Pants, in general. I've noticed that the outfits I've been liking from week to week tend to be based either on skirts or jeans. Now, the jeans I'm ok with, because that's totally my weekend wear. And the skirts were ok for most of this month so far--except for last week, it was pretty warm still. As it gets colder, I know I'm going to want to wear pants. And, well, I only own about two pairs of pants that I really like, and once it gets colder, I think that loose-fitting linen pants will be out. I don't like the way most of my store-bought pants look or fit on me, so I think I tend to find those outfits boring. I predict a Thurlow binge in my (somewhat distant) future. Especially given that I have fabric for at least 5 pairs of pants!
4. Not so much a "want" as a "need", but I could probably use another cold-weather solid-colored top or two that coordinates with black, due to the usual dress code of sorts for worship team at church. I have about two, and have been relying very heavily on my little collection of corduroy jackets (and the limited acceptable options that I have to wear underneath them) to make it work. Now for this, I might have to suck it up and go to the thrift store. 
5. I can't make this, but I find myself wanting a pair of grey boots. Something kind of like this (though I wish it was a lighter grey!) But that's going to have to wait, since finding shoes that fit is no small investment for me, and therefore I have to consider shoe purchases very carefully. 

I guess the other question is, aside from the pants, what I actually have fabric for....I still have a lot of stash to bust!

Closet Challenge Update, week 3

I have 3 outfit pictures this time, all from last week.

Admittedly, this first one (from last Monday) was a bit of a fashion experiment, and I'm not sure how successful it was. It was one of those days where I really wanted to wear this particular skirt, but nothing seemed to really go right with it. I finally settled on the "Spiced Chai" cami and the thrifted sweater, mostly because I was running out of time before I had to go teach. Also, for the record, my "North Country Regeneration" skirt does not have that big pleat-looking thing in the front. It's just your standard A-line. It's just because the top is longer than what I usually wear with it, and it's making it gather funny.












Outfit #2 (from last Wednesday) was a bit more obvious--the Corset-Laced Pants with my lonely only (for now) Renfrew top. But I was comfortable and quite happy with this one, even though wearing this top in particular always makes me feel like I need to sew 5 more Renfrews NOW, and right now I can't. (Someday...)

Incidentally, I'm still not totally satisfied with the ties on this. The color of the leather is better than the original ties, but they just don't lay right. I think I'm going to have to resort to braiding embroidery floss together some night. I'll have to see if I have any that are a close enough color match. 






The third one, from Saturday, is a top that I've featured before in the Me-Made months, but predated the blog. I guess this is one of my "elf" tops-- I made it during my college years, which was also when the Lord of the Rings movies were being released in theaters, and I was constantly being drawn to patterns with funky sleeves and those earthy colors as a result. (The reconstructed Renaissance-y shirt that I did last April was from the same era. Come to think of it, I still find myself drawn to those funky sleeve patterns. But hey, The Hobbit is coming out soon, so....) Anyway, there's things I wish I'd done differently with this top, like had a serger because the fabric is very prone to fraying. (At least I had the foresight to double-stitch the seams, which has greatly added to its longevity.) But I still love this crinkly mossy fabric, and those sleeves. And I always wish I wore it more than I do. So I paired it with jeans for a day of drinking tea with my sis-in-law and a mutual friend, and then running errands with Doug. (And testing out my future awesome reading chair, which is waiting for me at his townhouse.)

So let's see....aside from that, I've gotten some work done on the secret baby gift (so close to finishing!), got the stitching lines marked on the bodice pattern pieces for The Dress (but have not cut out the muslin yet), and started refolding my fabric for a possible storage solution in my future sewing room. (I also got paint for it!)

Closet challenge update

A few of last week's outfits.

This one was from last Monday, featuring the "White Stripes" top and the "Blue Suede(cloth)" skirt. It was on the warmish side, so sandals were definitely in order, but I was in the mood for a more fallish skirt. Taking pics of myself didn't work so well for this one--you'll have to take my word for it that there's also a camisole under that blouse. I wore this one for some teaching.

This one was from last Wednesday--it was pretty warm when I left the retail job, so I threw on the "Green and Gray" dress for the lesson I had to teach. I was going out with Doug afterwards to grab dinner, and noticed it was getting cooler, so I swapped out the sandals I was wearing for the boots, and threw on the (store-bought) denim jacket, rolling up the sleeves because it wasn't quite that much cooler. My jewelry is still kind of summery, though, since it's featuring abalone shell in the pendants. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've styled this dress a a layered look rather than just a dress, and I kind of like it with the jacket. (I also think Doug does a way better job of taking the pictures than I do on my own!)

Incidentally, I really would like to revisit this dress pattern sometime, but with a longer sleeve to take it into the fall/winter. If the yardage is right, I may already actually have two different combos of print and solid knits that would work in the stash!

I had another outfit I was pretty happy with, featuring the new jeans, but I can't show it yet--I wore it for our engagement photos and I don't have them back yet!

My closet challenge: Evaluating what I have

Early fall in the mid-Atlantic, for those of you who don't live here, is a really odd time for dressing. The mornings and evenings are getting cooler, but the later mornings and afternoons are basically still full-blown summer. And I find myself wanting to wear colors that are more fall-ish, but it's just way too hot to wear most of the things I have in those typical fall colors!  I had some (overdue) laundry to put away anyway, so I figured while I'm at it, I'd go through my closet and see what I currently have in there--I'll definitely have some turnover as it gets colder, since most of my short-sleeved and sleeveless stuff will go into hiding under the bed, but I'm challenging myself to fall-ify what's still out.

There are a few exceptions, because some of these clothes just scream SUMMER!!! at me. You know, stuff like the gauzy white maxi-skirt that is literally embellished with real seashells that I got at the beach one year. And out of my me-made stuff, things like my Sea Flowers, Dahlia, Lonsdale and Georgian on my Mind dresses just look way more springy-summery to me. But there's a few summer things that I want to challenge myself to style more fallish--things like the convertible dress, and the Mony Monet dress (playing off the blacks and the more olive green could help, I think). I'm thinking the Titania dress could look potentially really cute with tights and my favorite cable-loaded brown cardigan. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do with the rarely-worn-but-I-still-like-it-too-much-to-get-rid-of-it Morning Glory dress, or if that's pushing it...

I still have yet to drag out the stuff under the bed and add some more fallish things. I'm not quite ready to drag out all of the cold-weather stuff yet! But after pulling out those aforementioned summer-screaming items, and putting in a few things that never quite made it under the bed with the rest of the fall/winter clothes because of extra time spent mending/making/reconstructing them, this is what I noticed:

1. You can tell what my two favorite colors are. Because I found five knee-length skirts that are all basically the same shades of blue and green--yeah, one of them is just embellishment on black, and the sunflower skirt looks different because of all the white, but those other 3 are rather similar, aren't they? (I ended up adding the palm leafy one to the thrift store pile, because I'm more attached to the right-most one, which I made, and the middle one gets worn more often.) And I really don't need 3 nearly identically-colored knee length printed skirts. Especially since I also have a long one that's also almost those same colors!

I am, however, claiming that I need all 4 of these blue jackets. Including those two corduroy jackets that I made. After all, one is more teal, cropped and wide-wale and one is slightly more navy with a peplum, and that makes a difference, right?

2. I have a LOT of t-shirts. Admittedly, I have a weakness for t-shirts that are either music-related, or clever plays on my favorite geeky things like Lord of the Rings or Doctor Who. Discovering Woot.com did not help this at all.  I am a jeans and t-shirt girl at heart, and I don't feel the need to change that, so I would like to find ways to style those shirts in a more fashionable way! (At least on the weekends, because though teaching music means I can get away with a lot more than I could in an office setting, I do draw the professionalism line at wearing Princess Bride quotes on my shirt.

3. I also have a LOT of prints. There's been some discussion around as of late about sewing with solids rather than prints, for greater versatility. And I can see the point. But I just love prints, and I know I'd get bored if I just did solids all the time! (Especially knowing that The Dress is going to be solids, and I'll be working with those for quite awhile!) So the logical step for me, then, is to get braver about mixing prints! With that in mind, I present my outfit from this past Wednesday:

The cardigan is one of the few things I'd already grabbed for fall near the end of the summer--hey, look, I finally own something that's really from Anthropologie! (Clearance rack, which was the only way I could afford it, and I know I can't knit this myself at this point. Possibly ever, because it's made from an extremely thin yarn and those usually only come in wool.) I actually bought this to wear for the engagement photos we're getting taken, along with a sleeveless ivory tank to wear under it. I'd already figured I'd wear my brand-new me-made jeans to finish off the outfit! But I also noticed that, color-wise, this went very, very well with my sunflower skirt, so I couldn't resist trying it out! Look at me, wearing white after Labor Day! Such a rebel.

4. I'm very seasonal in my color choices. In spring and summer, I tend to wear a lot of blues and greens and bright things. When the weather starts turning, I turn to browns and purples and olive greens and such. I've also noticed that my winter colors tend to be very dark and dull, and I'd like to change that, because winter is dark and dull enough on its own. But we'll see how I do this year, given that I'm not buying anything. But for this exhibit, here's my outfit from Saturday, taken at a family function. I've been experimenting with wearing this jacket, which I love but it has a somewhat difficult neckline, in other ways. Like as an actual jacket layer instead of fully snapped up and functioning as a top. I also made the tank top (my Sadie top) and the jewelry. (And look, you finally get to meet my fiance! Though one person commented on this picture, which the cousin who took it posted on Facebook, that he looks more like my bodyguard here...)

Anyway, I've been having fun with this challenge so far. Meanwhile, on the sewing front, I've been working hard to make a baby gift as quickly as possible so I can start working on The Dress for real! (Though my sewing time got a little interrupted by a sudden need for mending. More on that later.)

a funny story and a fashion "diet"

I ended up at two parties over the weekend. The first was dinner out with 5 of my long-time friends--most of us have known each other since we were in the 4th grade, and I've been friends with one of them practically our whole lives. And though we're past the 10-year reunion stage of high school (even though my class didn't have one), most of us are now married and a couple of us have kids, we've still stayed friends and get together at least a couple of times a year.  This particular occasion was to send off one of the girls to England, where she'll be living for the next 16 months while she works on a masters' degree for architecture--exciting stuff! This was also the first time, other than parties that involved people outside of this particular circle as well, that we brought the guys along. (Mainly because a couple of them hadn't met Doug yet and wanted to.) During the course of the evening, the topic of redecorating his townhouse came up, as well as my future sewing room. And Doug said something along the lines of "I don't really care how she decorates it, as long as I can't see that headless Satan doll" (meaning Donna the Dress Form). So then there was all sorts of joking about how I could add a head to it to make it less creepy for him, including a hockey mask--Doug LOVES hockey.

The next day, I was surprised by an engagement party at my future in-laws'! One of the same girls was there, along with her husband, and this is the card they came up with:


















My friends are so creative. :)

So about that fashion diet...I've been seeing a lot of chatter around the blogosphere about fall sewing plans. Which is awesome--though my favorite season is summer, I do love the autumn, too. At least, until everything's dead and it starts getting really cold and basically acting like winter. I'm particularly fond of Sunni's Everyday Wardrobe plan/sewalong of sorts. So for all of you in the northern hemisphere who have fall sewing plans lined up, or just ideas, I'm cheering you on from the sidelines!

As for me, I'm feeling a teensy bit left out. I know I brought this on myself by choosing to sew my wedding dress, and I don't regret that. After all, this particular sewing project was pretty much the only wedding-related thing I wanted to do even back when I was a kid and boys still had cooties.  But the point is, I don't have time to sew any new clothes for the fall/winter, other than the jeans I just finished. That makes me a little sad.

At the same time, I don't have much of the option to buying new things, either. I've gotten by well for years on no health insurance, but now I have some appointments that I can't procrastinate on until after the wedding, including a 2-part dental surgery that starts later this week. I'll have to pay for it out of pocket. I got a card that allows me to put it on a payment plan, but I have to pay it off within the next year to avoid the killer interest fees and would greatly prefer to pay it off before the wedding, period. In other words, the money is going to be pretty tight for awhile.

I was also thinking that it might be nice to blog about some things other than The Dress for the next several months as I'm going through the fitting/construction phases. Otherwise, once I hit the hand-sewing bits, things could get very quiet around here for awhile. And an acquaintance of mine that I'm following on Pinterest recently linked this blog post about the writer's personal challenge to create several months' worth of outfits out of only things she already had in her closet. So that, and a dull day at work (the same one that inspired my post on blog commenting) spawned an idea for a self-challenge of my own. So here goes:

From now until the time I finish The Dress (estimating 6 months), I'm challenging myself to use only things I already have in my wardrobe to create as many varied outfits as possible. I'm also hoping to pick a couple outfits a week to feature on here--they may not always be me-made clothes, but there's a pretty good chance there will be something I made in there. I figure this way I can fill out my Flickr slideshows, find some new ways to wear some of my handmade stuff, pare down the amount of stuff in my closet to only the things I really love, and hopefully improve my outfit photo-taking skills! So to practice, I did take a picture of today's outfit, even though I didn't make any of the clothes....I hope you don't mind that I'm going a little more fashion-bloggy here!

 Pants: purchased
Top: Thrifted
Belt: Modcloth
Shoes: the same brown sandals I wore for most of Me-Made-May
Earrings: me-made. I know they don't show up too well in the photo (the sun was going down by the time I got home from teaching), but they're goldstone beads.

I got this top (actually a very short dress) years ago with the intent to slightly refashion it to a shorter top. Then I just threw it on as is one day and liked it, especially with the belt option. What I like about this outfit: It looks very fallish, but was still comfortable for warmer temperatures--though we're finally down into the 70s, which is nice! And it's nice to know the pants don't look too short when not paired with boots. (Though these are still ones I'm planning on replacing with some me-mades, once I can...the fabric is getting a bit worn to the point where I'm in danger of tears anyway, and I already have some brown fabric in my stash!) What I don't like so much about it is that I wonder if it's too monochromatic. Some royal blue Clovers might look pretty good with this, don't you think?