Cull Aftermath

In my last post I outlined the extent to which I had to abruptly reduce the number of garments I own. The current number is approximately one third of the total from a week before. On one hand, this could be viewed as a problem due to my participation in my own brainchild Self-Stitched-September which looms close (sadly my handmade creations were far from immune during the recent cull). A crazy stitch-up session to repopulate my wardrobe before the onset of September is off the cards as my sewing stuffs and I are separated indefinitely until accommodation is found in my new adoptive city. In short, expect a lot of repeated outfits during September!

On the other hand, I believe the situation I have found myself in is actually pretty positive. Not only does it test my commitment to my aims to become as unconnected to mainstream clothing consumerism as possible, but it also sticks a rocket under the implementation of my more considered approach to sewing. Thanks to the interesting and ingenious comments left on my Stuff and Things post in which I asked for peops advice on how they decide what is worth sewing, I think I’ve got a clearer idea of how to avoid making garments that won’t see very much action.

It’s interesting to me that my recent decision to go a year without buying new footwear was shortly followed by my need to give 6 or 7 pairs of shoes away. This has somewhat forced my hand in coming to terms with how many possessions (in this case, footwear) I can actually get by with (or without). There will now be less ‘shopping’ within my own previously excessive shoe collection, which might have somewhat alleviated the symptoms of desire for new shoes. I’m predicting this will make me take better care of the shoes that I already have, keeping them cleaner and adding innersoles to pairs that would benefit from them, and encouraging me to experiment more with introducing them into outfit combos.

I’m hoping the next couple of months with a comparably limited wardrobe will confirm to me that I can dress sufficiently well that I don’t need to need to make clothes like the rabid sewist I was before. When I do get my little sewing factory set up again, I’m determined to slow my output down and spend more of the time I would be producing garments on the aspects I often tend to rush through (thinking about what would be most useful, planning outfits, altering existing garments, perfecting the fit including toiling a style before rushing into ‘best’ fabric etc.). Hopefully the revised approach will result in clothes that follow my style objectives (posts on this subject are due), fit my body well, are constructed to a high level and don’t result in many types of the same garment (eg, heaps of A-line skirts and short-sleeved blouses but no trousers or long-sleeved tops).

And if I need to get that fix from creating a garment super-quick with next to no thought required, I’ll turn to my new toy: origami fashion! A genius going away gift from my friends Lee and Isi, I was able to create a shirt, tie and entire suit whilst travelling through France by train. That or create more pants of course, because I’m not sure you can have too many of them!