speaking of clothes...

I bought some beautiful Italian wool yardage when I was in Germany a few years ago and packed it up in a box with all of the other beautiful fabric I bought and so it has remained.
My goal for the rest of the year is to make some garments that spark joy with some of this fabric.

One of the patterns I bought recently was the Marcy Tilton Circle Dress V9112. Marcy has posted several customers version on her blog and facebook page and that is what finally swayed me. I did not see a version I did not like.

I have some lovely black and white polka dot which I bought from Marcy's website and the aforementioned wool from the shop in Cuxhaven - a lovely shop!  Although the polka dot is a proven favorite I think I might risk the wool and have a jumper for the winter. Or maybe I will cut out both and have two. I have heard of people making four!
On this rainy day, I have a plan.
p.s. none of the links in this post are sponsored.

     Yesterday I bought some clothes. Yes this is a big deal for me. For the last 8.5 years I did not need to wear anything but a company branded tee shirt with jeans and sneakers.
     This made it very easy for me to avoid buying clothes. I could skate by on the minimum. And for the most part I did. There was very little that apppealed to me as a sophisticated, artistic older, no longer skinny woman. Clothes for women my age were all drab and humorless. And yes dammit I want my clothes to have humor and elegance and grace. I realize this is not a small expectation. But we only have one self, one body to dress and by the gods of fiber I am going to have some fun.
       So where does one turn? I get physically ill looking at the fashion rags with the starving children they use as models. I feel sorry for them and I want to take them home and make them soup and creme brûlée.
     I peruse the sewing patterns and feel more inspired but you cannot try things on and send them back once you have taken the time and effort to make them. You are stuck with them. They emit a reproachful aura of failure when they do not meet your expectations. Was it me? or was it the design?
     I am a skilled sewist, have made clothes for myself and all sorts of decorative items for my home so I am not likely to have a crisis in confidence at this point. But I do like to try things on.
So. This is what I found. First in Denmark and then here in NY
http://www.gudrunsjoden.com/us
                                                     and this is what I bought:

These fit the bill. And it seems to be a good company. And the clothes are FUN. And comfortable. And they fit.  And if you are so inclined, you can wear them with clothes from past collections. Love them.

dresses

dresses in the closet

I don’t know why I counted them 

seven survivors 

worthy  desirable

at least 

in so much

as can be revealed in public places

in a 

not denied entry 

kind of way.

: that would pass 

though.

given enough time,

even the carefully edited collection loses its relevance

you are the compendium of all of our hopes and dreams

and also the what we have to put before we go outside. along with our faces and expectations

I taste the cloth between my fingers 

and categorize each by its texture

a memory imprinted on my fingertips

signaling for recall 

to unfurl and fill in the rest. 

like a fern frond

slowly

That one was bought in a shop on a corner of a street in Barcelona. 

And that one I wore to lunch of tapas in Oxford.

Never mind that I have never been to either place. I could have,

in that dress.

It was a good time.