Reflections on Wardrobe, Idea Notebook, and Lifestyle

This post is the seventh in my series Sewing 101. We are nearly to the end of my first sewing series.

If you have been following along,  you have had some time to edit and review your wardrobe, collect images for an inspiration notebook and think about your lifestyle parameters.  You should never consider that these three projects are of the type that once completed they are forever finished. We are not the same people we were 10 years ago and we are not going to be the same people we are now. These areas, wardrobe, inspiration and lifestyle, should be re-evaluated on a regular basis. You may decide that you need to do this every season, but you should at least think carefully once a year about your clothes.

Now you need to take what you've learned about yourself and your clothes, and make some shopping goal and sewing goal lists. Why both? Because if you are learning to sew, you should not be making jeans, you should be buying them and if you already own five straight black skirts, you should consider a print blouse instead.

Let's consider this example.

After cleaning out your wardrobe of all the clothes that don't fit,  you find you're lacking in real basics. You need a raincoat, blue jeans, a skirt for work, a blouse, several tee shirts and PJ's. Here the priorities should be buying the coat and jeans and all your work clothes. Some of the tees and PJ's could make perfect beginners sewing projects.

Look at your idea notebook and lifestyle parameters to narrow down what types of clothing you will need to buy or sew.

A city raincoat that works with your business suit is very different that the barn coat you wear on a farm or the waterproofs you need to wear while running. Jeans for night-clubbing are very different than jeans used for carpentry work. Write up your shopping list with these parameters in mind. See how this focuses your clothes shopping and reduces impulse buying.

Here's my cardinal rule for clothes shopping and fabric buying. DO IT ALONE! Only you and you alone can take the time to make good decisions. Leave everyone at home, don't combine shopping for clothes with other errands and please don't shop with your friends. Make a date with yourself and keep it.

BUT.....What happens when you are out with friends and everyone gets sucked into shopping? We've all done it and it can be a lot of fun, but how do you avoid buyers regret and still not be a "party pooper" by not buying a thing. Make a list now for your purse or wallet. There are things that can be purchased "with friends" that won't be wasteful of your time and dollar. I find hosiery, accessories, and tee shirts or simple blouses the easiest to put on this list. I list sizes and colors on my 3x5 card and stick to it. For example, nude pantyhose are a yes, black smiley face toe socks are a no. A solid color tee within my color family is yes; a novelty print tee with a tie-dye background is a no, even if it's in the 2 for a $10 bin.

You should use these same criteria to develop your shopping lists for your first sewing projects. I find the fabric store much more difficult to negotiate that the shopping mall. It takes very little for me to fall off the crazy cliff and acquire very inappropriate yard goods just because they are beautiful when in all honesty I do not need a gold lame or cashmere wool.

So the moral of this post is plan now, write your lists and do far less crying later.

In Which I Lost My Sewing MoJo....

Dear Readers,

         It is with deep regret that I post again and confess that sometimes my sewing nearly does me in. This is the sad story of an unfortunate project that has haunted my sewing room and closet and mind for over three months. It is time now to come clean and move on. 

I purchase my first Japanese pattern book this spring, "Feminine Wardrobe" by Jinko Matsumoto. (ISBN: 978-1-78067-124-6) It was one of the few available in my area in English and where the projects didn't look to young or to "thin". In other words, there were a couple choices that might be alright for me. 

I chose this project. It's a shift dress. I thought I'd look at a properly drafted shift after my mediocre attempt of self-drafting with my retro Vogue look. It's called the ribbon shoulder shift in Matsumoto's book.

I chose to make this in size L. It should be noted that the traced patterns are net patterns. You have to add the seam allowances! I chose a  linen where the warp was cream thread and the weft black. The fabric registered as a greyish tweed. You can see some of here in the corner of the first photo. 

Here's some detail of the shoulder seam before the ribbons are added. The larger seam allowance is stitched down on either side of the seam to make two parallel casings for some elastic.

The directions in the book are very good and easy to follow. The drafting is precise. The dress went together like a dream. Everything worked! I was very pleased with the pattern.

Until....I put the dress on. All of the life drained out of me in less that 3 seconds. There standing before the mirror was an overgrown house elf wearing a grey pillow case. Dear God, what an unholy mess! This is perfect example of A+ execution and D- fashion sense. The dress is relegated to wearing on excessively hot and humid days, after my shower and before my PJ's....but only reluctantly. It really should go straight into the bin as it doesn't look good on me.  Really, it's much worse that this photo makes it out to be and wearing it makes me feel like an zombie extra in a post apocalyptic low budget film.

Let me make myself perfectly clear, I really don't have any complaints against the book or pattern itself. I got exactly what was pictured and on me, that wasn't good.





Garment Finish:
    A The pattern was easy, clear and precise.
Fit:                            
    B-  Considering my bust, a Japanese large size, was okay.
Material Choice:          
   D - I made a poor color choice and the linen became limp and soft on washing.
Style and Wearability -
   F The shift is not for me body type! Move away from this silhouette!

Overall: C-   I need to move on.

....and it  was the moving on that proved the greatest inertia in my work room this spring. I just couldn't bring my self to risk another style disaster like this one. And so I've spent nearly three months gathering the scattered sewing  mojo from between the threads on the sewing room floor.