Mad For Plaid

I haven't been sewing much lately, but I am itching to start up again.  The truth is it is really intimidating to decide which project to start when I have so many ideas rattling around in my head and patterns piling up in my sewing room.  So I finally realized this summer that I needed to have a system if I didn't want to go crazy trying to do it all.  I have discovered that the most fun way for me to decide what projects I want to make for myself is to come up with a concept and a collection of pieces that all work together rather than just choosing randomly, and this fall, I have a pretty obvious theme.  Plaid all the way baby!

When I was around 17, the first thing I ever made on a sewing machine was a pair of high-rise plaid pants.  Back then, we didn't have the range of pattern sources that we have today, so I made some very skinny, very high waisted green plaid pants.  Skinny jeans were just coming into fashion and they were certainly not on my radar yet, especially not in plaid, and high-waisted was defiantly not the thing.   These were the days where if you saw a thong poking out of the top of someone’s pants (charmingly dubbed “whale tail”), you barely even noticed because pants were so low it was unavoidable.  I was not completely immune to the low low pant trend myself, in fact, I literally cut the waist band off of jeans so that they would be lower.  And then I wore those mangled pants with crop tops, and went bra-less.  The late 90's early 2000's were a classy, classy time.

I blame these Pussycats for a lot of the terrible trends of the time, but dang, I still love this movie!

Never-the-less, I wore my green plaid all-wrong pants with pride.  I also had a store bought red pair of plaid pants that I wore constantly.  Plaid was having a moment, and I was happily along for the ride.

Now, plaid seems to be back on the runways, and it couldn't be better timing since I started falling back in love with the pattern last year when I made my second ever pair of plaid pants.  To this day, they are the only other pair of pants I have managed to make that actually fit me correctly.  I’m not sure how I did so well on that first pair, but I must have thought pants would always be easy for me.  Ha!

So, just to show how plaid crazed I am this year, in my sewing roster for fall I have: one plaid pencil skirt, two plaid dress’s, and another plaid high-wasted pair of pants (this time because I love a high waist, not because it is the only pattern I could find).  Then I am making a solid colored jacket and skirt to go with all of the plaid that I will be sporting.  I am debating making a little video for this blog to show off my "collection" Project Runway style, only I will be the designer (sometimes- I am mostly going to be using patterns), the seamstress, and the model.  Would a video be too silly?  I’m not sure anything is too silly for me to be honest. It sounds like fun!

Just in case anyone was confused, no grunge for me.  Classic+plaid, or cute+plaid all the way for me!

Besides making my collection, my main sewing goals for fall are to focus on learning new skills, to sew more slowly and deliberately, and to make lasting pieces that I can wear for years.  I am going to force myself to really focus on the details, which is really hard for me, but I think it will be worth it. 

Summer is my favorite season because I love to swim, but fall is my favorite style wise.  Besides an avalanche of plaid, I am looking forward to deep, saturated fall colors, boots working over skinny jeans, cute jackets and cardigans, leggings under dresses and warm adorable felt hats.  What wardrobe staples are you looking forward to this coming season?  What trends can you not wait to try?