More Body Thoughts

The last couple of years, my internal thermostat has been off.  Way off.  I've always run a bit cold, but it seems I'm running even colder now (like my core is cold somehow).  But I notice in the past couple of weeks, as the weather has fluctuated between the high 40s and mid-80s, sometimes within a single day, I'm a bit warm.  I'm still running pretty cold overall, but when I'm warm, I can't get cool.  (And conversely, when I'm cold, I can't get warm).  It's super annoying to have a body that can't regulate itself. 

All that is to say, I find myself in my familiar conundrum for this time of year: what the heck am I going to wear now it is too warm for boots and sweaters??

At the risk of rank melodrama, a lot of my warm weather clothing hurts my feelings. 

Lemme 'splain. 

Last Friday, I took a ruler and a pair of scissors to my red M7353 (my Pascha dress last year, sadly neglected this year) and cut off the sleeves and shortened it quite a bit.  I had already taken up the hem in the hopes that I would want to wear it shorter, but it still languished in my closet.  I couldn't even bring myself to wear it on Pascha.  Part of the problem is that a red dress is just so very...red.  Part of it is that I'm not really in love with the M7353 anymore, although I couldn't say why.  It's a flattering style on me, and comfortable, but I just feel very "meh" in it.

I put it on and took a couple of pictures, and while I wouldn't say I felt awesome in the altered dress, I did feel different in my body in that moment.  A bit more...powerful, perhaps.  Like: See?  I have arms and legs.  Get over it.  I've spent a lot of my adult life feeling ashamed about my body.  There are a myriad of reasons for this, most of which I'm not going to share publicly, but suffice to say, I'm climbing a mountain of baggage to work through it.

Powerful is not a word I would use to describe my feelings about my body lately.  I have not felt awesome in my body.  I had a couple of pieces in my late winter/early spring rotation that felt great, but as the weather has turned a bit more balmy, I find I'm at loose ends with it all.  All my Everyday Skirts make me feel bloated and whale-like, and I only have my two fitted denim skirts for warmer weather.  (And frankly, one of the denim skirts has major fit issues that I can't figure out).

I love the color of this skirt, and it looks great as long as I don't move at all in it.  Otherwise, it poofs and the waistband rolls, and I'm generally fussing with it all.the.livelong.day.  Pretty much the story of my Everyday skirts right now.

I'm between sizes in ready-to-wear and most of my me-made clothes are sloppy.  It's a weird place to be--having almost no clothes I want to wear (and fit well), and really no idea of what to make or buy to replace them.

Stasia Savasuk would say to just try things until something clicks, and to use my power words to feel good about it, but I'm struggling.  I've learned to use my words about what I do in the past year or so: "I'm a writer, I work from home," but I'm still working on the body stuff: My body is strong, my body is good, my body has housed five humans. The clothes are wrong, not my body.

But at the end of the day, the body that confronts me in the mirror is not a body I recognize.  The seven or eight pounds I gained last summer continue to hang around, and I fear I'm just continuing to gain.  I hate that I give the number on the scale so much power over me.  It's just a number.  The questions I should be asking are: do I feel strong in this?  Does this feel quirky?  Does it feel whimsical and interesting?  Powerful?  Does it make my today body feel loved and appreciated?

I've also been having a think about why I only feel good in my body when it feels "small" to me.  Sometimes this is literal--the size tag on the garment is small (or a lower number), sometimes it is more ephemeral--I just "feel" small in something.  Because big feels wrong somehow.  Why is that?  Why do I have this voice in my head telling me that it is wrong to take up too much space in the world?  What is "too much" anyway?  Why is "big" or expansive (by whatever definition) somehow less dignified or worthy?

Today I pulled out every piece of clothing I own and put it on.  (Well, most of it).  I looked at it in the mirror and assessed how everything felt on my body, and how things fit and looked.  Turns out that a big chunk of it needs to go.  Some of it just didn't fit me that well (either too big or too small, or too poofy, or needed more alteration than I am willing to make), and some of it just didn't suit my aesthetic.  With 40 staring me in the face, I find my tastes are changing rapidly.  Which is fine, because my bins were feeling a bit full.  The price of going through a transition within yourself is that it often manifests in the closet somehow.

It's not really about the clothes.  But it is, because we all have to get dressed every day.  So I'm going to give myself some grace about the flux of fabric through my hands these past months, and be grateful that I was able to wear all of it, many times, and look with curiosity to what this next phase will bring, sartorially and otherwise.

Project 333: Spring/Summer

Christ is Risen!  Truly He is Risen!

Христос воскресе! Воистину воскресе!

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!

Crist aras! Crist sodhlice aras!

Christus is opgestaan! Hij is waarlijk opgestaan!

Happy Bright Monday!  Our Bright Monday started off with a bit of a bang, as my husband was involved in a fender bender on his way to the Bright Monday liturgy.  He is fine, the other driver is fine, but our (very old, very decrepit) Toyota Corolla is on its way to the great car graveyard in the sky.  Rest in peace, faithful friend.  We are going to try and get by on car shares and Uber for the next few months while we evaluate whether we need to replace the car.  Weekends are the toughest, as that is primarily when we need to drive and need two cars to accomodate my husband's clergy duties at church.  But.  It could have been much much worse, and we are grateful for all the mercy of the situation.

On to less serious things.  I never posted a winter rotation wrap up for Project 333, nor did I post about my spring rotation (and here it is almost May already!).  This was actually deliberate on my part, as I'm sort of experimenting with things right now.  I've noticed, after doing this rotation thing for a couple of years now that March and April are kind of miserable clothing months for me, and I realized that rotating out most of my winter wardrobe at the end of February had a lot to do with it.  

Our weather in March and April is completely bananas.  80 degrees and humid one day, down to below freezing the next.  Snow storms and torrential rains and everything in between.  It is epic.  My spring rotation just wasn't up to the task.  The problem is that by May, I do want some lighter things, but it usually isn't that warm for most of May (although, again, huge and extreme temperature shifts).  Some years I am still wearing boots and stockings the first week of June and other years it is sandals weather by then.  

What I did at the beginning of March was to rotate out the heaviest of my winter garments and to rotate in a few things from my spring that could be layered appropriately for the colder weather we were still having then.  I didn't put my parka away for the season until April, so it was plenty cold.  I also added a few heavy cotton sweaters to my closet from ThredUp, and found those to be extremely useful additions.  (I'm wearing one today with wool tights and a denim skirt, as we're back in the 40s again after about a week in the upper 60s/low 70s).  

I tried not to focus very much on the total number of garments in the closet or in the drawer.  My style continues to evolve away from the relaxed silhouette/quirky art teacher vibe I've been wearing the last few year, but I can't quite tell where to land yet.  I've been experimenting with different hem lines and silhouettes, trying to work out what makes me feel good in my clothes.  

I've been wearing a lot of separates this year, but one problem my Everyday skirts have is that the waistbands roll a lot during the day.  It makes me crazy and looks frumptastic.  I'm trying to work out why--I've decreased the height of the waistband to 1", which helped, but maybe I need to go down to 1/2", which makes the back elastic bit tricky.  I don't mind wearing a fitted waistband, but I have trouble getting those fitted well because my middle can fluctuate a bit during the day due to gastroparesis.  

The side profile of the Everyday Skirt also doesn't do me a lot of favors.  It makes me look much wider/thicker than I am, and that doesn't make me feel particularly good in my body either.  My sewing limitations are such that I know I have some fitting issues to overcome, but lack the skills to figure it out.  

There is also the perennial struggle of making new things when there are so many second hand clothes that could be thrifted instead, saving some waste and churn on the environment, but my proportions are such that finding RTW skirts that fit well are difficult.

I'm very much into slim skirts right now, but they can be hot in the summer (particularly the disgusting swamp the city becomes every summer) so I'm thrifting, trying to find something that will work for me (thank goodness ThredUp has a nice return policy!)  I'm also between sizes which is always challenging.  I have some navy yarn dye Brussels linen to make into some kind of skirt once I figure out a summer silhouette that feels good.

I didn't even bother to get or make a proper Pascha dress this year, because it just felt too hard.  None of my me-made dresses make me feel great.  I ended up wearing my basic navy knit dress with a new headscarf and a long navy cardigan and boots and calling it good.  As it happened, I would have been better off in my wools, as it was quite chilly, and the AC was on in the church to keep the clergy comfortable.  It was so cold all night!!

Blah-blah-blah, clothes are hard.  I'll let you know when I settle to something!  

Over and out.

Project 333: Winter 2018

I confess, I swapped out my fall rotation almost two weeks ago for my winter things, because the weather turned rather suddenly at the beginning of November, and I got sick of being cold all the time.  My fall rotation can handle some pretty large temperature shifts (100+ degrees to about 40 degrees) but the amount of clothing I was wearing to be comfortable at 30 degrees or below just seemed silly when I had all this wool waiting for December 1st to be brought out.

Tartan wool blend skirts (I have two more coming in the post)

Previously, I wrote about my emerging Shetland style for this winter, and I still stand by it.  The one nice thing about pulling my winter things out early was that I used these couple of weeks to live with it, and tweak it a little.  I'm nearly there, in part because I have a few things on needles or in the queue that will round out my rotation nicely.

Knitted neckwear!  I wear something around my neck nearly the whole winter, and I have a nice selection of me-made and ready-to wear options.  Most of these are me-made.

The tartan wool skirts I ordered are amazing--I really can't say enough good things about them.  They are lined and have pockets!  I bought three, and ordered a plain navy one too.  At that price, I cannot make anything even close.  I am totally warm when wearing them (and I really can't say that about anything else in my closet) and so comfortable too.  I have enough sweater options that I think I could just swan about in those skirts all winter and be fine.  I've decided it is okay to have a rotation that is totally different from the others in weight and style, because this is about weather and my personal comfort.  My summer rotations have a similarly distinct feel because of the heat.  Right now, I'm tired of being bone-deep cold all the time.

These aren't really in my winter rotation proper.  They are hanging out in a separate place in case I want some variety or need a black dress for some reason.  I can layer up the dresses with wool sweaters and silk unders but they still aren't warm enough for really cold temperatures.  I don't know what is wrong with my internal thermostat this year--these cotton dresses would have been workhorses of previous winter wardrobes with the right layers over and under.

I think I'm moving in the direction of a more or less three season wardrobe: summer, spring/fall, and winter.  I used to do a distinct spring and fall rotation, in part because the temperatures differ dramatically in those two parts of the year--spring here is often more winter-like and chilly through mid-May, and fall is sometimes a long Indian summer all the way through to Thanksgiving.  But it's pretty variable too--I can remember years where it is arctic in October already, and sometimes spring can start in February.  I also find I like slightly different color palettes during the two seasons, so that was another factor.  I think what I might end up doing is a less rigid three-month rotation, and instead rotate my clothes when the weather shifts a bit, as I did this fall.  I suppose that means I'm not doing Project 333 per se, but the spirit is there, I think.

My winter dresses: unblogged holiday flannel Frankenwashi dress, the denim piny, Spruce knit, and Night Owl flannel Frankenwashi.  I'm not confident that the flannel dresses are going to be very warm (I wore the Night Owl dress last week and with two shirts under and a heavy sweater over and I was still pretty cold and uncomfortable in all the layers), but I wanted a holiday-type dress for Christmas, and I just loved the owl flannel print.  Maybe my in progress Carbeths will work to warm them up.

What I'm trying to get to with spring and fall is a core of clothing that goes with either season, plus a few pieces that are season-specific either for temperature reasons or color palette reasons.  For example, I never want to wear my Hobby Horse skirt in the fall, but I like it in the spring.  I also tend not to want to wear my rust or burgundy clothing in the spring, but I love it in the fall.  I think I can get away with wearing my marigold linen both seasons by wearing it with blue in the spring and olive or evergreen in the fall.  Yellow is a neutral, right??

Sweaters and tops: the bottom layer are all wool blends or heavy cotton, the top is thinner cotton layering shirts

 But for winter, the name of the game is warm, warm, warm.  My winter uniform is shaping up to be: tartan maxi skirt with heavy cotton tights and woolen long socks over top, heavy sweater with an undershirt of some kind, either silk or cotton, and a wool neckwarmer.  Obviously, I have All The Shawls on needles at the moment, in addition to the Carbeths and gift knitting.

Heavy weight cardigans in wool or cotton, plus my garnet L'Enveloppe

My rotations have mostly gotten smaller, which I think is no bad thing.  I appreciated Madeleine's recent post about the "just right" closet, and while hers is more spare than mine, I'm getting a feel for what is just right for my own sartorial needs and laundry cycle.  

Orange wool blend Everyday skirt, denim skirt, Geo flannel skirt.  The denim skirt is a bit thin for super cold weather, but I'm keeping it in just because.

One thing I'm trying to work out is when to retire a garment.  I tend to wear most of my clothes to bits, and it is hard for me to decide when a garment is truly done.  I can mend stockings and sweaters and the stress points on dresses and continue to wear them, but at certain point, things start to look very shabby, and I have a hard time determining that line.  I shave my wool sweaters regularly, which helps keep them looking nice longer, but I have a sweater right now that just went into the "wearing with pajama only" category because it looks tired after two years heavy wearing.  But I keep looking at it and thinking: is it really done for day wear?  Surely another shave will take away the long teeth on the thing?  

Ditto my Geo Flannel skirt.  I think I'm going to retire it, as the flannel is starting to have a halo and the pattern on the skirt isn't so distinct any longer because of it.  I don't love how it fits me right now, I'm not even sure it is worth wearing this season, to be honest.  (Which is probably just as well, as I'm not as warm in it as I would like and the sweater that goes best with it is difficult to layer).  I've had this fabric in my closet for close to five years now, and I think it is okay to retire it after this winter.

So still some things to tweak for winter, but I'm getting there.

Fusion Dress

Today: the Fusion Dress.

 I have been obsessed with this fabric since Art Gallery released the collection in the spring, and while the price was a bit dear, I bought it this summer, because I was afraid (correctly as it turns out!) it would be sold out by fall.  I ended up getting it at Hawthorne Supply Co. (formerly Hawthorne Threads) as they had the best per/yard price.

It behaves just like every other Art Gallery jersey I've worked with before, and was a good fit for my beloved M7353 pattern.  It was nice to make this again in a knit--it had been a while!  

Took me a bit to wear it, though, as we were kind of stuck in the armpit of the weather system for most of September and the first 12 days of October.  Thankfully, it has cooled down a LOT and is now pleasant and lovely October weather.  

The color is a bit difficult to photograph accurately (and truth be told, I missed my optimum lighting window this morning because of public bus issues and had to make do).

The most accurate photograph is the one at the top--the background color is a sprucey green, and the centers of the flowers are a deep saturated red-purple color.

As a happy accident, this necklace from ThredUp was a perfect color match.  I like them together very much.

No construction notes except I made the skirt slightly shorter (2" of length added, instead of 2.5") and I could even take it to 1.5" for a future iteration).  I guess I like slightly shorter dresses right now. The hardest part of the dress was thread matching, because it isn't quite green and it isn't quite blue. 

The scarf was another happy ThredUp find, and it is a reasonably good color match to the centers of the flowers.  I'm wearing a lot of scarves this fall--I seem to latch on something each season and wear it constantly.  I guess this is the scarf rotation.

I did a big try on over the weekend, which made for some major culling.  I'm feeling pretty good about how my clothing stands at the moment, as well as how future projects will fit (I have about one dress per rotation planned through summer).  I've reduced the total number of pieces I have by quite a bit, and am curious to see how it works out.  I used to have about 85 pieces total, and I'm sitting around 65 currently (including planned makes).

I've been having a bit of a think about what it is to be healthy, as I've gotten pretty hung up on the number on the scale.  I had a bit of an epiphany last week when my mom was here, as I realized that while our scale numbers are close to 40 pounds different (she is skinny!), our clothing size is very similar.  The difference?  I have a lot of muscle mass, and always have, always will, and muscle weighs more.  (I've always known that, and knew I was densely built, but somehow, having the comparison of my mother, who carries her weight similarly to me, but isn't densely built, was eye-opening).  

I'm not sure what healthy looks like for me. I've always measured health by the scale and measurements and BMI, and I'm no longer confident that they are good measures to go by.  I get 10,000 steps in most days, my CBC numbers are in the normal range, and my A1C has been normal for a few years now, and my waist measurement is below 35" but is that healthy?  I'm not sure.  I've got this ideal in my head (along with a particular scale number and measurements) that I can't quite seem to shake (but I do feel that I'm on the verge of being able to do so).

I'm not quite to anything definite yet, but I will say, I'm feeling better in my body, and learning to let some things lie.  I don't want to be the woman who is always on a diet, always trying to lose weight, trying to look a particular way, constantly obsessing about it all, but neither do I want to be a poor steward of this vessel.  I'm getting there.

A Situation

A few weeks ago, I started following Stasia Savasuk on Instagram (if you don't already follow her, you should!  She's great).  She runs a style school through her blog, and every six weeks or so, a group of women go through a course in style, but it is really about learning to love your body and accept your body while putting your best foot forward every day.  Stasia is on Instagram almost every day, and she talks a lot about body issues, and acceptance, and I've gained a lot of insight from her.  (One of her oft repeated mantras is: the problem is not your body, the problem is in the clothes.  Fix it if you can, let it go if you can't).  She recently gave a Tedx talk and it is now on YouTube--I highly recommend it (but have a kleenex handy!)

I've said this myself for a long time, even talked about clothing companies and sizing, and issues with slopers--all that.  I know why the clothes don't fit intellectually--that the reason why clothing doesn't fit isn't because my body is wrong, it's because the clothes are wrong.  But it is still hard not to take it personally.

When you make a lot of your own clothes, some of those lines get even blurrier.  I made it, I fitted it, therefore, it should fit my body.  It should feel like "me" on the inside.  And when it doesn't, or it doesn't fit all day (ahem,  separates), I get down on my body.  Why can't my body be the same size all day?  Why does my middle have to get so thick after I eat anything?  Why doesn't this skirt fit in the waist after being washed a few times?  Why is this dress pulling at my hips when I sit down?  Why do I have to carry most of my weight in my backside??

At some point this past year, my Dottie Angel frock style no longer matched my insides.  For a few years, it did.  I felt great in those dresses--like the best version of me.  And then I didn't.  And I'm still trying to figure out why and what does.  Match my insides, that is.  I make note of outfits that make me feel good, and keep those in regular rotation.  For most the summer, that was separates.  The reason why this matters, and why I keep banging on about it, is that the right clothing can take you through your days in a positive way.  The wrong clothing can make an otherwise good day seem bad.  I would rather show up for my life with a heavy dose of positivity!

I've been struggling a bit with my fall wardrobe, because I have a number of what Stasia would call Situation Clothing.  She had a story one day about a sweater that made her feel awful, even though she really liked the garment, and it fit her well.  As the day wore on, the arms of the sweater sagged at the elbows, they didn't stay pushed up to her preferred length, it just wasn't working with the activities for her day.  She ended up spending most of the day focused on how much the sweater irritated her, and not on the other things she was doing.  At the end of the day, she took the sweater off, washed it, and donated it without a second thought.  I think she even changed into something else that didn't bug her so as to end her day on a positive note. 

I've been thinking a lot about that, because I'm finding that those 10 pounds I gained last month are mostly sticking around and my gastroparesis is not in a happy place right now, so my middle expands and contracts a lot during the day.  It doesn't affect the fit of my dresses very much, but it does affect my skirts. A lot. You might even say, I have A Situation.

Earlier this week, I took apart the waistband on my marigold linen skirt and remade it.  The Petersham interfacing had shrunk during the past year of heavy wear, and had rolled in a weird way that made the front of the waistband look super schlumpy no matter how much I pressed it.  The back elastics were also tight. 

I pulled out the janky 1.5" Petersham, replaced it with 1" Petersham so the waistband won't roll, and put in 1" woven elastic in the back.  No regrets. 

My one moment of perplexity about this alteration was this: when I make an Everyday skirt as directed, with 1.5" petersham and the double channeled elastic in the back, I use 12" long braided elastic.  Any longer and the waistband sags in the front, any shorter and it pulls uncomfortably in the front and back.  When I swapped the elastics for a single 1" woven elastic (the kind used in every first skirt sewing project everywhere), I only need about 9.5".  The channel is still exactly the same length, it is just shorter.  And the 1" elastic is way more comfortable around my waist.  I'm starting to think that 1/2" braided elastic isn't a great choice for garments because it is "hard-fitting" elastic, whereas knit or woven elastic (not braided) seems much kinder to the body).  Note to self.

I had put it off and put it off, thinking that if I could just lose those pounds I gained last month, the skirt wouldn't annoy me so much, but I realized, I don't have time in my life for clothing that annoys me no matter the reason why.  (Thank you, Stasia).  I don't have time or emotional energy for clothing that causes A Situation.  I don't want clothing that reminds me of its existence or makes me feel bad about my body.  I want to feel good in my clothes, not have negative feedback from them. 

So, with that in mind, remember this skirt?  

Not too bad, but I really didn't like how it felt on me.  The center box pleat did not behave well (the fabric wants to curl along the edge in a weird looking way.  My olive linen skirt has a similar problem; I intend to fix it for next summer.

 I pulled off the eggplant linen waistband, and unpicked the center front box pleat and turned it into 18th century style pleats as on the marigold linen.  I changed out the 1.5" petersham for 1", and put the 1" woven elastic in the back and I'm MUCH happier with this skirt now.

This is my happy face:

I also made a skirt this month that I didn't blog that was clearly a Situation garment.  (I haven't even blogged in yet).  Actually, I made two skirts like that.  One was the eggplant Birch rayon refashion that I wore twice and hated so much that it went to the donation pile almost immediately, and the second is this teal twill skirt: 

this picture is true to color.

You might remember the fabric from an ill-fated Frankendress I made a couple of winters ago.  For some reason I had about five yards of this fabric, and so I had 2 generous yards left over after I made that dress, but I didn't know what to do with it once I stopped making pencil skirts.  When I was making my fall rotation palette and planning sewing projects, I thought this skirt would be perfect for fall.  I love teal generally, but it is particularly striking with fall shades.  I was gifted a ridiculously expensive length of wool challis in fall shades, and it has this teal in the pattern.  I have in mind to make a blouse out of it at some point, but I wanted to make the skirt first.

The twill was a poor choice for the pattern and the design decisions I made for it, as it ballooned out in the front in unflattering ways and didn't hang right.  I had to smooth it down every time I moved, and felt slightly preggers in it.  I was almost ready to put it in the donation bin (no regrets!) when I thought I should at least try the waistband alteration and see if that helps the fit.

I pulled off the waistband, turned the center box pleat into 18th century style pleats, and sewed it up again!  Worked a treat.  The skirt hangs ever so much better now, and I feel pretty good in it! 

After that, I pulled out all my bins and did a bit of an overhaul of all my clothes.  I decided that I want clothing in my rotations that I feel great when I put it on, not because it ticks a color box, or fits well, or goes with a lot of things.  I thought of outfits I've worn this season that I thought: yes, this is a good one! and kept those.  Anything that was negative or even neutral went away, either to store for later evaluation or to donate.  I tried to think in terms of whole outfits rather than individual pieces, which was helpful.  The process also clarified my winter rotation a bit as well, and identified some key holes that need filling and some other pieces that I don't need to make right now.

Now to sort my in-between seasonal shoes.  Again.  It is a perenniel problem: what to put on my feet when sandals are no longer appropriate, but it isn't quite time for tall boots and tights yet.  Oh, and I can't wear junky shoes because of all the issues I have with my feet.  The danskos only look good with tights, and the brown shoes above are okay, but not fabulous.  I've got a couple of promising candidates.  Watch this space.

The Piny

If you pay attention to fashion or sewing trends, the pinafore is having a Moment.  Beloved by toddlers everywhere, they've made their way back into adult women's fashion.  I admit, when pinafores first came back in, I wasn't a fan.  The styles seemed boxy and unflattering to an adult woman's body, or they seemed too young for me, so I put it out of my head.  (Can I also just say: all the clothes in the stores right now are from the mid-1990s.  Are we really recycling fashion from my high school years already?  Sheesh.  I appreciate the nostalgia trip, but I am nearly 40 and don't really want to go back to high school, thankyouverymuch). 

In the past year or so, there have been a few brilliant sewing patterns for a pinafore, plus lots of great styling on Instagram that made me curious to try the style.  I thought Jennifer Lauren's Ivy Pinafore and Pippi Pinafore were the best of the lot.  There are other indie pattern makers who have come out with pinafore patterns too (Collette, Victory Patterns, and Tilly and the Buttons all have versions), but I didn't think they would work for my body type. 

So imagine my delight when I happened to find just the thing in Target this week!  Ignore the creepy-weird styling on the website.  I think I would have passed it over if I hadn't seen it in person on the rack.  I wasn't too keen to spend a bunch of money on an untried pattern, a new style for me, and fabric and notions, so at less than $30, this Target pinny is the perfect way to try out the style.

I actually like this a lot--it ticks a lot of boxes on the pinny front: bust darts on the bib, semi-fitted silhouette, fitted waist band, side zip, right length, good denim in a nice dark wash.  It is very close in silhouette to the Pippi Pinafore, which was the pattern that most interested me style-wise.  I'm still trying new things right now, and this felt new to me.  (I guess I'm digging toddler styles?)

My only complaint is that I'm going to have to take in the bodice at some point--it is slightly too big, but in order to get a good fit on the skirt, I had to take a slightly larger than ideal size for the top.  (Such is the basic problem of pinafores on an adult pear-shaped body).  I bought a 14 for reference.  I think a 10 or 12 would have been about right on top, but too tight on the bottom as the 14 fits just right below the waist.  So I'll have a go at alterations soon.

In other news, I'm down four pounds this week, so I will take it.  (To recap: I gained 10 pounds in the past month and am trying to lose it, plus another 10 or so to get to where I'd ultimately like to be).  I'm still not sure what I think about Noom (an app that helps with weight loss).  Sometimes I think, yes, this is a great tool, and other times, I think: I hate this thing and am not going to pay money for it (I'm still in the 14 day trial period).  I do like that the app eases you into good habits, a little piece at a time, which is helpful.  And I've given myself permission to not be super precise with logging (I'm not measuring all my food; just eyeballing.  I've done enough measuring in the past few years to have a good sense of how much something is by looking).

I like the way the food log is set up--it is better than My Fitness Pal, which is totally neutral about what foods you log; I find MFP can become a sort of game about numbers rather than the quality of what you eat.  (As in: you can still meet your calorie goal for the day on Milky Way bars, but that's not really a great way to do so).  Noom flags your foods by color and tells you what percentage of your food day should be in each color.  The colors help you make less calorie dense food decisions (i.e grapes instead of raisins).  Some of their classifications make no sense to me, but I'm going with it for now.  I want to eat some carbs in my day and not feel like I'm getting totally derailed, and I also need to eat better in general.  Baby spinach is going down well lately, and doesn't seem to bother my GI tract (shocker!), so I'm trying to get at least one salad in per day.  I also need to quit eating in the evening.  My dinners are usually kind of a mess, so I spend the evening trying to make up for it.  I just need to get into a habit of making myself a proper dinner and eating it with the rest of my family and then be done for the day. (I often cannot eat what I make for my family, so am having to scramble to make a separate plate for myself.  After working for 45 or more minutes on a different meal, it is hard to then make myself do a proper meal for one at the end of it).

So that's that!  I'm hoping that with school in session, and things starting to get into the school year rhythm, I"ll be able to put better habits in place.

Project 333: Fall 2018

Time for the fall rotation!  I've been eager to start this rotation (as I always am very ready for fall and winter!) and I'm hoping this one works out well.  But first, I should say, this rotation is also kind of a hot mess.  Mostly because I'm still finding my way with my sartorial self at this juncture.  I've moved away from dresses as a daily uniform, to shirts and skirts.  I kept that in mind as I planned my fall, including my sewing plans.  I'm not sure I've quite hit it, and this rotation is a bit heavy, but I also know that these three months undergo the biggest shifts in temperature (we are in the high 90s with high humidity currently, and will probably drop below freezing by December).  

My skirts are almost all Everyday skirts, as I like this silhouette the best at the moment, as it is the most flexible and flattering.  My marigold linen skirt got heavy wear last fall and spring, and I expect to wear it a lot this fall too.  The olive linen was a favorite all summer, and will carry over nicely into the fall.  The Eggplant Birch rayon (far left) is a bit of an experiment in refashioning; I'll write a separate post about the details of the refashion later.

I have two more skirts cut and plan to sew them up this month: an eggplant rayon/linen mix, and a heavy cotton cord in a lovely cider color.  

 My dresses are lean: the Kermes (for this hot ridiculous weather we are having right now), the Motherdress (also for this hot weather), Rennie (layered up when cooler) and Bluebird (also for layering when cooler).  I can wear them now with a light cardigan to keep my arms covered.

I also have two knit dresses planned for the colder end of the rotation (M7353s of course!):

A plain navy knit, and the Splendid fusion knit by Art Gallery.  I'm especially looking forward to wearing the latter.

I have a lot of shirts in this rotation, and I just couldn't seem to whittle them down.  Some are better for layering under other things, some are better for warmer weather, some for colder weather, and so it goes.

Purple henley, blue striped knit shirt, green knit shirt, burgundy knit shirt:

Rust henley, Blue Forest blouse (unblogged), navy knit Battenberg shirt, chambray button down:

I'm unsure about the Blue Forest blouse and the chambray shirt for a variety of reasons, so we'll see how much wear they get.  I'll blog about the former soon--it was another experiment in refashioning.

Various lightweight cardigans:

I may not need this many cardigans, since I'm wearing fewer dresses and all my shirts have sleeves, but I'd rather start out with them in the drawer and then find I don't want them than have to dig through when I need a light layer.

Heavier weight layers: (L'Enveloppe, green jacket, purple cardigan, navy cardigan)

The jacket was eight whole dollars with a coupon, and it is the perfect length for my short torso (the unicorn of jackets, really). I thought it was a low risk way to try something different this season.

Heavier weight pullover tops: blue cowl top, cream button up sweater, black layering shirt, gray wool sweater, paisley scarf.

The scarf has a lot of my palette colors in it, and I love the color combinations that will go with that scarf.  I plan to wear it a lot!  I'm also still at work on my second Hitchhiker, which has all the fall colors in it, and hope to wear it before the rotation is finished.

I seem to be able to write a lot about not very much these days.  I do want to write a bit about what is going on with my weight and food life (it deserves its own post!) and have to blog some of these makes, but first I have to get my kids launched into their new school year this week and try to catch up on everything that got set aside this summer while they were home.

Over and out!

Project 333: Summer 2018 Wrap

I was away for the long Labor Day weekend, so I didn't switch my clothes until we returned today.  Just as well, as the heat and humidity are still high-high-high, and very summery feeling.  That said, I'm ready for fall.  But before I natter on about my fall rotation, best to wrap up my summer.  

My daily uniform this summer mostly consisted of a tank (below) paired with one of the five cardigans (above) with an Everyday skirt, or a 3/4 sleeve boatneck shirt paired with an Everyday Skirt.

The tanks are from Target, the Universal Thread line (so good!) and the cardigans are a hodge podge of thrifted goodness.  Ditto the shirts.  The navy and pink striped shirt was a bit of a miss.  I like it in theory, and I did wear it quite a bit with my denim pencil skirt, but I'm on the fence about keeping it.  The other three shirts (burgundy, yellow stripe and blue stripe) all got heavy wear.

Not spectacular photos, but here is one iteration with my red skirt:

Here's another (with the blue indikon Everyday skirt):

I wore a lot of yellow this summer.

My dresses did not get as much play this summer.

I did wear the chambray Motherdress (far right) a fair bit (it was particularly great for traveling). I wore the blue linen dress a handful of times (mostly to church). 

 The Liberty #1 and #2 dresses were worn once or twice late in the summer.  (I also wore Liberty #2 a couple of times in the spring with a long sweater).  I pulled them out of storage sometime in late July or early August when I wanted some variety in my closet.  

I decided it was time to retire Liberty #1 after I made more repairs to the fabric under one of the arms.  I still like the dress a lot, and want to keep it, but I don't want to have it on regular rotation any longer.  Liberty #2, I don't know what to do about it.  I like it, and I think it looks okay on me, but I'm sort of out of love with this style right now.  I'll probably just keep it in reserve for when I want something loose and pretty.  I always have some days in August when I can't stand to wear anything I've worn the rest of the summer.  It was perfect for those days.

The York double gauze dress (far left) ended up being a special occasion/church dress this summer, and I like it very well for that.  It was lovely to wear to the wedding in June.  I might even wear it for Pascha next year.  

The navy Birch dress (second from left) was a similar special occasion dress.  The striped knit dress was fine.  I wore it a handful of times, with a cardigan, and I like the fit and feel of it, but...I don't know.  I didn't love the way the fabric wore (it was a $20 amazon find) or the fact that the stripes were not matched on the side seams at.all.  I'm not sure it was especially flattering on me.  The Kermes dress (far right) was a nice church dress as well.

My Everyday skirts got tons of wear.  I decided that the chambray skirt will need to be replaced next summer with something similar but in a different type of chambray.  Perhaps another Brussels linen chambray, or even the Rustica I used for the Motherdress, because this chambray just doesn't hang well for a skirt.  My other skirts were fabulous, however, and I'm really happy with them.  

I started out the summer with two white linen blouses, but the other one had a higher neckline that wasn't as flattering on me, and the sleeves drove me crazy, so I'm just keeping this one, which I've had for several summers now:  

It is lovely and light and pretty.  The Gzhel skirt (middle) is another special occasion skirt, and I'm on the fence about my Gemini linen top (far right).  I only wore it once, but perhaps next summer it will feel better to me.  I put so much work into it, I'm leaving it in the rotation for next year.

Overall, my summer rotation was very lean, but I was actually pretty happy with it once I settled into a daily uniform of separates.  I liked my color palette, the accessories that went with everything, and felt good in almost all my clothing this summer.   That almost never happens, so I'll take it!  My weight has been all over the place this summer, and my food life has taken some rather interesting twists and turns (more on that later), but I still felt relatively good in my clothing.

My big takeaway from this rotation is that it is okay to have a few dresses set aside for church and feast days (of which there are quite a few in the summer), and that I don't need too much for my daily wear when the weather is fairly stable.

This post is probably long enough, so I'll be back tomorrow with my fall rotation.