Do you ever feel bogged down by something you really enjoy but don’t know quite where you’re heading? That’s where I’m at. I expect you thought that my post on ‘style’ was just a random thought, hah! you were wrong – it was me thinking out loud and trying to get to grips with this ‘me-made wardrobe’ thingy.

Really the truth of it is we all have style, whatever kind it may be. You know what I mean, “that is just the sort of thing so-and-so would wear/look good in”  or ‘she wouldn’t be seen dead in that!”  type of thing, and there is nothing so likely to realise your own style than embarking on a ‘me-made’ wardrobe.

For a start, with a me-made wardrobe gone are the halcyon days of walking into a store, seeing something on a model or a rack and having instant love [usually for all of five minutes or until you get it home and realise it doesn’t ‘go’ with anything else]. First you must decide what you are going to make, then you choose a pattern, then the fabric. Not necessarily in that order – I frequently start mine the other way about! Then comes the process of falling in [or out of] love with whatever it is whilst you are putting in the stitches, pressing, sewing on the buttons etc., [I should also add here ‘ripping out the seams, doing it again and again……. but then no relationship is perfect]. SO to come to the point – do I keep true to my ‘style’, obviously evolved over many years and probably part of my identity by now, or do I explore other possibilities and techniques – and would it all be a waste of time because I probably wouldn’t wear it? Would that fit in with my intent of creating a ‘me-made wardrobe’?

You can see my dilemma, I want to explore, to make this an exciting and mind expanding journey but to reach a destination with clothes I will definitely wear. There are so many trees out there, but I can’t see the woods yet. I’d love to hear how other sewers find a solution to this one.

images; woodlandtrust.org and google