I've been thinking a lot about clothes lately. This was partly motivated by a dress-up extended family dinner. W- dusted off the suit that he hadn't worn in years. I realized I wasn't happy with any of my cold-weather dress options, so we checked out the shops. Dealing with the overwhelming array of choices, none of which I liked, I realized five things:

• Because it's difficult for me to find simply-styled, good-fitting clothes in small sizes, I should buy them when I find them, even if they're at full retail price because the season has just started
• Likewise, it's probably worth increasing my clothes budget, considering things even if they're more than a hundred dollars a piece
• If I shopped more frequently instead of waiting until I needed something, it might be less stressful
• Medium-term, I should learn what alterations can do and how much they would add to the price of an item
• Long-term, I'm probably best served by learning how to sew. Then I can make the basics of my wardrobe in whatever styles and colours I want.

I ended up wearing my office clothes (a blazer, blouse, and black slacks) to the family event, and that worked out just fine. But I didn't want to end up in this situation again, so I decided to work on desensitizing myself when it comes to this shopping thing. After all, I remember going from "Waah, this is overwhelming!" to "Actually, this is pretty interesting" in terms of shopping at Home Depot, so maybe I could do that with clothes as well.

While organizing my wardrobe, I realized that I had donated many of the T-shirts that I used to pair with skirts. I had a lot of technical tops, but they didn't go with slacks or skirts. For example, I didn't have anything to pair with the purple skirt I'd stored with my other summer things. I added T-shirts to my shopping list. When I saw a nice relaxed-fit pink V-neck shirt at Mark's Work Warehouse, I figured it would go with the purple skirt, my brown skirts, and my jeans. I also picked up an aqua shirt, a light blue shirt, and some khakis. Still couldn't find any other items I liked, though.

Although there are quite a few beginner and intermediate sewing classes in Toronto, I decided to see how far I could get by learning on my own. After all, I'd already made a couple of skirts and dresses I was passably happy with. If I got stuck, I could always check Youtube for tutorials or reach out to friends.

I remembered struggling with sewing before. Sometimes I'd do something incorrectly out of impatience or ignorance, and then I got frustrated trying to fix things. It was hard to pay enough attention to details. But I'd noticed myself mellowing out over time. I felt more patient now; I acted more deliberately and spoke more slowly than I used to. Maybe it's growing older, maybe it's because of the abundance of time in this 5-year experiment, maybe it's because I stopped drinking tea… Whatever the reason, maybe sewing might work better for me this time around.

I knew I'd enjoy things more if I could start with a small success, so I looked for a simple pattern: cotton, no buttons, no zippers, nothing finicky. None of my stashed sewing patterns met those criteria. I thumbed through the patterns at the Workroom (a small sewing studio near Hacklab), but they were more complex than I wanted to start with.

Eventually I found the free Sorbetto pattern from Colette, which also served as my introduction to downloadable patterns. I printed it, cut out my size, and doubled the pattern with newspaper so that I didn't have to mess about with folds. I'd previously decluttered my fabric collection, but one of the remnants I'd kept was large enough for the pattern.

I deliberately slowed down while making it. Instead of cutting around the pinned pattern, I chalked the outline of the pattern first, and then I cut that. Instead of cutting on the basement floor (where cats would definitely interfere), I cut on the large square coffee table in the living room. Instead of trying to use the sewing machine's guidelines for my seams, I chalked all my seam lines. Instead of eyeballing the darts, I chalked the dart lines and the centre lines. I cut and picked out the mistakes I made in staystitching or basting. I neatened the thread tails as I sewed. Instead of using store-bought bias tape, I made bias tape from the same fabric. I zigzagged the other edges instead of using my serger.

It took me a while, but it was a pleasant while, and now I have a top that I'm happy with wearing either on its own or over a blouse. More than that, I have a pattern for as many tops as I want, and the knowledge that that's one less thing I have to worry about buying when the stores have the right style, the right size, and the right colour.

I think I'll make this in:

• black (to pair with a black skirt, if I need to be more formal),
• white (to pair with everything),
• red (because that's fun),
• and maybe some geeky pattern that's in line with my interests, to wear to Hacklab and events as a conversation piece? Even better if I could wear it to the office and still blend in as I'm walking through the corridor. Maybe a subtle print? Spoonflower has lots of geeky patterns, but none of them particularly appealed to me because they signal geekiness without actually being my flavour of geekiness.
  • Not really me: chemistry, circuit boards, moustaches, hornrims, calculators, video games
  • More like me: Emacs, tracking, cats, cooking, doodling, blogging, Greek/Roman philosophy

So maybe I'll stick with solids for now. =)

I turned some scraps into a hair clip, since that felt like a more restrained way to match things than to have a scarf of the same print. Matching things tickles my brain – my mom can tell stories about how I wanted dresses with matching bags when I was a kid. Even now, I like it when people echo colours in their accessories. I'm looking forward to playing around with that through sewing, although maybe with more solids rather than prints.

Whee!

Related sketches:

• 2015-02-07 What would dressing better be like -- index card #clothing
• 2015-02-07 What do I want from my clothing and appearance -- index card #clothing
• 2015-02-16a How can I play the long game when it comes to stuff -- index card #clothing #maintenance
• 2015-02-14d What colour combinations do I like -- index card #clothing #colour #wardrobe
• 2015-02-14c Ideal for things to wear -- index card #clothing #wardrobe
• 2015-02-10d Things I would like to sort out clothes-wise -- index card #clothing