There is no rhyme or reason for it, but I have been ALL about the separates lately. Not that making skirts is necessarily a new thing for me, but I’ve been completely enamored with making skirts and a matching top that can masquerade as a dress, but can also be split to mix and match to my heart’s content. With time at a premium these days, I am all for tricks that make my wardrobe serve double duty…
I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, but I swear summer days move more quickly than winter days. And I don’t just mean in a daylight savings type of way, but more a blink-and-you-miss-it-because-summer-is-much-more-fun type of way. Summer afternoons zip happily by in a fiery swirl of lazy cocktails, BBQs, and travel, without a care in the world. On the other hand, winter days crawl forward inch by frozen inch, reaching for a tomorrow that always feels just out of reach.
When most people style an outfit, they probably start with the base: The dress. The skirt. The cigarette pant. They build from the foundation and find shoes and accessories to match. Now, while I’ve been known to be inspired by a dress a time or two, more often than not, I start with the perfect handbag…
My eyes are definitely always on the lookout for color. I feel most people’s wardrobes are full of basics – the perfect black pant. The simple nude pump. Mine is overflowing with the exact opposite: the statement shoe. The print you can see from space. Call it years of being a wallflower or someone who struggled with confidence for a long time, but I hit a point after college and grad school where I was ready to be seen.
I’ve always had a bit of a “Life Imitating Art” fascination, especially when it comes to fashion. I don’t know why, but I will forever be enamored with handbags that look like storefronts, or necklaces that look like rhinestone bagels, and shoes designed to mimic cake. Be it edible or not, I can’t get enough of a comestible lifestyle.
Personally, I’ve never identified as a trend-setter or a trend-follower. I sort of always have done my own thing (which, unless you’ve only happened upon me, you know to be a serious bent toward 1950’s Dior New Look, with a twist of sky high heels and a heap of glitter). This has afforded me the luxury of being somewhat impassive when it comes to the new “It Girl” accessory or must have handbag.
Have you ever met a dress pattern and fallen in love at first sight? Some just speak to me, and such was my first encounter with Simplicity S8873. It’s crisp and clean, but has a bit of sass in the shoulder ties. Plus, it looked like a pretty straightforward make. Truly, sometimes simplicity really is best.
You always hear that the start of a new year is supposed to imbue you with a renewed sense of impending possibility. Of hope for a new beginning. Now, as a glass half full kind of person, I can confess I’ve definitely bought into this a time or two. Despite knowing intellectually that New Year is just a time-honored construct of “endings” and “beginnings”, it still does help to have a mental model of leaving things in the past. But, this year I’m trying something new. This year, I think, instead of a “fresh start”, I’m going to tentatively sidestep…
Despite the fact that a calendar year is really an arbitrary block of time, there is something about an impending new year that gets me motivated to check things off the list. Be it a sewing project or the never ending To Do list at work, I always try to make that final push to put projects behind me, add one more tick in the Done Column. Almost as if, in doing so, I will truly feel as if I deserve a break. (Note to self: You deserve a break anyway)
Have you ever had an idea that, when thinking about it in retrospect, you realize if you had known then what you know now, you never would have started it? (the wave skirt comes to mind…) That’s a long winded way of saying my latest sewing project started as a sketch that seemed very doable, and yet took more hours and more steps than should ever be humanly possible.