Holiday Wardrobe
Patrick and I have booked a trip to New York at the beginning of June. Ostensibly we're going to visit friends, but by what is definitely a coincidence NYC also holds a ton of stuff we get very excited about (him: fancy dining and art galleries; me: dancing and fabric shopping; both of us: booze). I've been to New York once before, but it was before I started sewing (and also was with a friend who didn't budget for seeing anything or doing anything, and spent a full eighteen hours of the trip not speaking to me because I insisted we go for a proper meal instead of surviving off breadsticks from the 7/11), so I am determined to pay a visit to Mood. Since I cannot imagine a world in which I go to Mood and don't want to buy anything, I need to pack lightly to leave space for my future hypothetical fabric. I'm not going to make an entire wardrobe for this trip but there are a few gaps I can think of:
A jumpsuit or two. I think jumpsuits will be perfect for day-to-day wandering around and hitting up bars, and I bought a few patterns last month. They're all different styles of woven jumpsuit, and one of them is the most hilariously ugly sample garment I've seen in a while:
What IS this shiny green one-shouldered culotted monstrosity? I swear I can hear the static ripping when I look at this picture. Why would you force another human being into that thing, and why wouldn't somebody stop you? EESH. Despite the Jolly Green Giant getup, I bought the pattern because the two-shouldered version with full-length trousers could be very nice. This one is dressier than the other two, but ideally I'd like to make wearable toiles of all three. Possibly a tall order, and I might not get that far, but in my head at the moment that's the plan.
A pair of trousers. I talked about wanting a pair of swishy high-waisted trousers in my dream projects post, and lately I've been shooting my wardrobe really dirty looks because those trousers don't exist yet. The time is right. I still don't know what pattern to use - I can't find anything that looks exactly right. If the jumpsuit above works well I might knock together a waistband and use the trousers from that.
A Wanted top. I don't have a lot of T-shirts, so a short-sleeved Wanted top that works with a denim skirt and whatever the above trousers turn out to be would be just the thing.
A fancy-ass dress. I don't know yet whether I need to make anything new for this (my weight has been all over the place and I have no idea what currently fits me), but since New York restaurant dress codes seem to be stricter than London ones, I will need something I can wear to whatever swanky dinner Patrick decides we're going to.
Workout Gear
For the past five years my only form of exercise, when I have exercised at all, has been partnered dance classes and socials where everyone rocks up in their regular clothes, so I've never needed activewear. However, in a bid to get fitter and remind myself that I actually really love dancing, I'm currently signed up to a couple of more intense street dance-type classes (the thigh burn, OH GOD THE THIGH BURN). We record ourselves at the end of each class, and I'm kind of over watching videos of myself wearing the few pieces of ancient ratty RTW that I haven't thrown out yet. I only want a couple of things for now, so this is what I'm starting with:
Simplicity 8424. I've made a start on the vest top and wrap top already, and if I can find a suitable fabric I want to try the leggings as well. They'll be the full length ones - I like the look of the calf length ones with the ties, but if you think I'm going to wax my legs just so that I can look slightly fancier when I exercise then you've got another think coming.
A few T-shirts. This is tricky because I need to get the amount of ease right. I don't like doing dance classes in baggy clothes because it obscures my body positioning and makes it hard to tell if I'm doing the moves right, but if everything I'm wearing is skintight I get self-conscious and end up not committing to the dance properly. So this will probably take a bit of experimenting with style and ease and length. I'm going to try the Named Selja T-shirt, and I'm in the market for one or two other patterns as well.
This Would Be Cool But I Haven't Thought It Through Yet
A cropped stripy hoodie. I have never been remotely interested in owning a hoodie, but I have some really nice stripy ponte in my stash that's suddenly insisting on being made into one. Now that I've had the idea I really want it, but I'm aware that if the finished garment is even slightly wrong then I'm going to hate it. I don't have a pattern yet and will probably need to make a toile before I cut into my good fabric.
A Goth dress. Last month Teen Goth Jen insisted on buying some bright red tartan stretch cotton from Fabric Land, and since the only way to de-Gothify it would be to make weird Rupert the Bear trousers, I'm going to lean into it. My initial thought was to make another Anna/Hollyburn mash-up, but I've managed to lose both the Hollyburn pocket piece and my altered Anna bodice. I printed out the bodice and altered it again, but it doesn't look the same for some reason, so I need to toile that and try to reverse engineer the Hollyburn pocket. These are both really annoying jobs, so I might well end up making something else entirely.
This isn't everything I've got in mind, but even this much is a pretty tall order (and almost certainly won't all get done), so I'm going to leave it here for now. If anyone who knows NYC has any fabric shopping/eating/drinking recommendations, please do let me know!
(This was not as quick and dirty a post as I'd anticipated. Oops.)
Exciting plans! I have been thinking of higher waisted wider-legged trousers recently, too. I think they're sort of inevitable for me at this point. I bought Simplicity 3688 for the blouse pattern when it was a $1 sale, and I'm thinking the trousers have potential.
ReplyDeleteI was looking at that pattern too! Wish we had those kinds of sales over here.
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