Monday, April 29, 2013

On Suit Shopping

My husband has needed a new suit for over a year. We finally got a chance to go shopping for one this past weekend. I am amazed at the choices available for suits! There are one, two and three button jackets, as well as double breasted. The fabric choices are astounding too! Six different kinds of brown, at least 10 grey, 20 blue and tons of blacks, all slightly different. (And that was just at one store!)

We went shopping at the newly renovated Bay store in downtown Vancouver, and also at a store close to it called Quorum. My husband must have tried on at least 30 suit jackets between the two stores. The best suit we found was at Quorum, but was also (unfortunately) out of our price range. We finally decided on a suit from The Bay, but now we have to find a tailor to make it fit just right. And fitting just right is why I like to sew clothes for myself - though I would never attempt to alter my husband's suit because I don't know how to go about it!

Also, why do men always look more handsome when they're dressed up?

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Making peace with me

Welcome! This is my blog focusing on sewing and sometimes design. I'm going to start with my thoughts on dressing me, and how I sew for me too.

As part of my weekly blog reading, I visit Coletterie. Last week, Sarai asked her readers "How do you deal with weight fluctuations?" A commenter named Milena wrote about making peace with her body, and many other commenters agreed. It got me thinking that there is so much (too much?) focus on being happy with your body, and not enough about being happy that you have your body, and making peace with it.

Some days I am NOT happy with my body. On those days I want to look good, because it helps me to feel better. And its okay, because I have made peace within myself about the body I've been given, and I have wonderful wardrobe pieces that fit my body. So even when I'm not happy with my body, I can put on clothes that look great on my body, and they make me feel good. I've also taken the time to figure out which styles look best on me, so that I find it easy to dress myself in the morning.

How did I figure out what looks good on me? Mostly trial and error, and knowing what shape my body is. I can't pull off super low waists, on pants or on dresses. I need something that barely nips in at my natural waist, as I really do have a square torso and hips (my current measurements show a mere two inches between my waist and hips). No low rise jeans, no drop waist dresses; full skirts or loose legs on pants. I can't really pull of knit dresses either. My body favors firmer fabrics, like cotton, linen, or polyester in dense weaves.

For style, I like the 50's and early 60's, though I can't honestly pull all of it off. Then again, few people can successfully pull off all styles. Its all about finding things that fit well, are comfortable and make you feel good.

So how do I sew for me? (Besides not very often...) I choose patterns that use the fabrics and styles I like, and then change their shape a bit to fit my measurements if necessary. My next three projects are going to be a cute top in a floral cotton and two dresses in stiff solid fabrics. They are:

- the Jasmine by Colette
- the Turtleneck Dress from BurdaStyle
- a 1960's McCall's pattern I bought off Etsy

And since I know they will look good and I have made peace with my body, I can be happy to have what I was given - a body that lets me do all this sewing that I love!