This is almost embarrassing me as I post it, since I know how high the rate of this project not coming out as I envision it is, but I am going to go ahead and post it anyway because I am so excited!
So, this month’s J. Crew catalog came in the mail a few days ago full of magical inspiration. Usually I think of J. Crew as nice, basic, overly expensive clothes that you wish you could have but for a much lower price. They are designed well, but pretty basic.
In contrast, this month’s issue was a surprising gift of beautiful patterned shorts, pants and shoes (just in time too since Anthropolgie’s usually beautiful spreads were pretty lack luster this go round), that I couldn’t wait to try to emulate.
Though I have so far been pretty unsuccessful in my attempts to make pants, I have never been particularly inspired by pants making considering the fact that there are already beautiful pants out there in the world that I could easily buy on the cheap.
Not so for these $150+ dollar shorts and $250-$450 dollar pants, which I just absolutely could not have if I didn’t know how to sew. And although my pants sewing hasn’t gone great as of yet, the Iris shorts pattern is just a lovely and easy to make pattern that I am excited to try again.
I also have a new pants pattern coming to me in the mail which may or may not be right for the project. Only time will tell.
The shoes however, I cannot make and I cannot buy, though they will live in my heart forever. Ugh, so beautifully out of reach.
The lesson here is that sometimes sewing does save you money, but only if you are lusting after really expensive clothes to begin with. On the other hand, I will stick to looking for a pre-made velvet blazer rather than making one, as the truly beautiful velvet I recently found at the fabric store was going for a whopping $25 dollars a yard and I’m pretty sure any jacket I made would not look worth more than .25 cents at this point in my sewing life.
I’m not quite sure if I will be able to pull off brocade shorts and pants construction, and even if I do, I’m not so sure how they will look on a leg three times the size of the ones pictured. So far, I have not found an example of a size 8 in this type of fashion, but hopefully if all goes well in the sewing process, I can blog about it here so that can no longer be the case. And yes, I am planning on wearing the fancy shorts with heals. Could there really be any other way to wear such awesome shorts? Don’t bother thinking about it, the answer is no.
And on another note, what are my least favorite catalogs asked no one ever? Well I’ll tell you; it’s a tie between Victoria’s Secret and Urban Outfitters. The Victoria’s secret catalog loses points for its constantly horrible photo shopping, and I’m not talking about the, ahem, enhancements (which are to be expected). I’m talking about people’s hands suddenly on backwards and belly buttons completely airbrushed out kind of awkwardness. Blah, it is just terrible.
Urban Outfitters loses my vote (which is oh so important to them) for its drugged-out looking models, who don’t just look thin and dirty, they also look so unhappy you would have to assume they were being forced into the photos against their will. I picture some guy in a van trolling around snatching up sick and homeless teenagers, forcing them into urban awesome clothes and then placing them at a camp site, in a trailer, or in front of an urban looking street and saying, “now pose dang you! Pose or I am going to eat this cracker I promised you as payment myself, and all you will get is the crumbs! Crumbs I say!”
"Hum, Maybe you should be more embarrassed about spending so much time writing about catalogs then you are about whether or not you can make pants," you say? Shut up you! this is compelling stuff!
So, what is inspiring you this month? What challenges are you willing to face in the name of, if not fashion, then something just for you that you really love? And aren’t you excited to see if I pull this off? I know I am.
Heeelarious!
ReplyDeleteTee hee. :)
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