I started sewing clothes for myself on a fairly regular basis last May. It’s been almost a full year, and I’ve made loads of clothes. Back then, I held a secret aspiration to participate in Me-Made-May in a year’s time, and now that event is starting tomorrow! I think I’m ready, and I just signed up. So excited. I’ve been wanting to participate for years.
I’ve noticed that on many sewing blogs, folks often talk about how they constantly make these beautiful clothes that just never get worn because they’re just not everyday appropriate or don’t actually mesh with their style or they don’t work with other items in the closet. When I first dabbled in stitching my own clothes back in 2008 or so, I found myself making fancy dress after fancy dress even though I hated wearing dresses (I now love them, but you know what I mean). I stopped sewing for myself when I went back to work shortly before 2009 and didn’t pick it up again until last year. This time around, I was determined to sew practical clothes. Funnily enough, even though I think I’ve been pretty good about staying true to my own personal style and focusing on “wearable” items, I still bypass a vast majority of the clothes that I make when morning rolls around. It’s perplexing.
When I posted the jacket that I adore so much earlier this week, I realized that I don’t feel that deep love for too many of the clothes I make. And because I can just power up my sewing machine and make something shiny and new and crow about the skills I’ve developed or the stash-busing I’m accomplishing, I haven’t been really thinking too deeply about how best to build a collection of clothing that truly works for my body, my lifestyle, and my aesthetics. Addressing these types of issues that often crop up with creating your own clothes, the always instructional and insightful Coletterie put forth the Wardrobe Architect series.
I have a feeling that the Wardrobe Architect brilliance combined with the practice of wearing my handmade clothes daily through Me-Made-May will help me focus and allow me to better navigate the still foggy terrain of creating a wardrobe that I love. To get a better sense of all the clothes I’ve slaved over in the last year, I painted each item, and whoa, I made 46 in total (not counting the infinity scarf). I obviously can’t seem to stay away from the colors blue and grey, which isn’t really a problem for me, but seeing them all together like this makes me want to explore a broader range of colors…
I have more thoughts on this as I’ve been mulling over this for a while, but for now I promise not to bombard you with photos of myself in my handmade wardrobe day in and day out this upcoming month.