I'll not try to catch everyone up on the past year, because you've either been keeping up (more or less), or you don't care at this point. The general themes are the same: no one has died (thankfully), I have the same work (thankfully), and I live in the same geographic area. Of course I moved. My household goods are practically trained to jump into a moving truck at this point!
I suppose what prompted this post is that I've been pondering several things, and am willing to put the resulting thoughts out into the world for criticism, or, more likely, neglect. About a year ago, when I finally pulled out my sewing machine to give it some proper use, I was talking to a coworker about what I wanted to make, and we were joking about the general style (or lack thereof) in the office. One of her comments was that, in general, the men were more smartly dressed than the women, and this turned general expectations on their head. Giving in to curiosity, I asked her what she thought my style was. She answered "grad student".
Grad student? Not exactly a fashion look I aspire to. After a few fits and starts, and some reading, I started whittling out things that didn't fit--either my body or my lifestyle, and was left with this:
That, folks, is four seasons worth of clothes. Really. Special occasion clothes have been removed (as have shoes and outerwear, such as coats and hats). Personally, I think it needs a lot of fixing, expanding, and improving. One thing I did notice as I was doing this exercise was that I have a lot of "statement" pieces, and very little by way of basics. Until a couple of months ago, I did not own a black pencil skirt. Nor did I own black pants. Oh, there were times when I SHOULD have worn those things, but for whatever reason, going out and trying to find some that fit properly and I really loved didn't happen.
It's hard to launch off into anything if you don't have a trampoline, so one of my first steps has been to build that trampoline. Thanks to the Bernina, I churned out a pencil skirt I'm mostly happy with, a plain brown linen skirt that would be good for layering, and a white blouse that I rather like (my gripes with it have to do with the way the pattern was drafted than any failure on my part).
In general, though, I want to update my work wardrobe. This is a bit of a challenge, because every day is casual Friday around there. While I am not complaining about this situation, I would like to look less like a Poor Student and more like an Adult With A Paycheck. That being said, hopping straight in to business casual is neither necessary nor appropriate (except for a few days a year). This leads to the question: What does a single woman with a paycheck look like?
