Esteemed Sewing Assistant also works as an Esteemed Wardrobe Consultant.

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The longer I’ve been sewing, the longer I realize it’s not just the technical skills of following a pattern, making adjustments or even pattern-drafting, it’s also about being practical and making sure you wear what you make.

Things are taking a slightly different direction here sewing-wise. I’ve enjoyed and worn my knit projects almost every day, but they haven’t been very gratifying to make. My sewing skills also haven’t improved very much, unless you count that I can now successfully

Since I made my modern transition, I didn’t go out and buy a bunch of clothes since I wasn’t sure how long it would last. I started with two t-shirts, then it got warmer and I added two more tank tops.

I’ve also realized how few items of clothing you really need to make a versatile wardrobe. Since I’ve started sewing knits, I’ve been rotating:

Tops:
- plain black tank top
- black striped t-shirt
- plain dark red tank top
- plain black t-shirt
- plain grey t-shirt

- beaded black cardigan
- long tunic cardigan, homemade

Dresses:
- long striped dress, homemade
- long grey dress, homemade
- long black dress, homemade
- long leopard dress, homemade

Bottoms:
- long lace skirt (not pictured yet)
- long chiffon skirt
- short leather skirt
- leggings
- black pencil skirt, homemade

That’s about five items per category. The key thing is that all the pieces match color-wise (mostly all are grey and black), and all are layerable and have the same style. The dresses are all jersey sleeveless tank-dresses that I’ve been making all summer, and the skirts are either plain long skirts or high-low long skirts. They all have the same silhouette, which is long and layered.

I plan to go back to doing vintage (or vintage-inspired) sewing and dressing, but plan to remove elements that made me hate it in the first place:

- Still no plans to set my hair every night
- No regimented dressing (if something doesn’t fit in the period and I like it, I won’t ignore it)
- Greys and blacks, for now (maybe with a smattering of red, grey-blue, or dark green)
- No high necklines (not flattering on me)
- No circle skirts (too costume-like on me, for now)

Most of the time when I get to the fabric store, I have to ask myself to look at my wardrobe, imagine the finished product, and ask myself if I’ll even wear that. The past two months I’ve bought a lot of black and grey jersey, but I’ve worn my projects almost 3-4x a week. My goal is still to have fun sewing and to wear my projects the same way I’ve been doing now, just with a different look to them.

So what you’ll see here in the future:
- 40s/50s silhouettes
- vintage pattern with modern details (I actually haven’t seen a lot of examples of this on the internet, for example): leather pencil skirts with exposed zippers, cut-on 50s sleeves with lace contrasts, keyhole necklines with lace yokes and leather ties
- more vintage sewing
- more vintage-inspired sewing
- still a lot of greys and blacks