Forty percent

Last Saturday, mere hours before catching our flight back across the pond, Himself and I had a Gap splurge. Forty percent off day (including sale items) at the Quincy Market Gap was too much to resist. We calculated (quite spot-on) how much we could fit into the suitcases back at the hotel and proceeded to buy.

It has been rather freeing, this decision to dispense with the refashion rules I wrote for myself then adopted through the Wardrobe Refashion Pledge. Being so rigid for near-on two years is probably a reason, but the fact of the matter is I like some of the styles out there at the moment. I was never one to buy things just because they were in fashion, or out of boredom or for comfort. That’s not going to change, nor am I going on a clothes-buying bender just because I have two years’ worth of spending to catch up on. I like to think I have come to a sensible balance.

Good bargain (i.e. it would cost more to make it than buy it), stylish (yet not limited to a season), passes the mutton/lamb clause and I’ll buy it.  However, I’ll still post refashions here when I have made something of interest.

Now to think of a new tag line for the blog.

NYC no, ENFIELD on the other hand….

Bought a bunch of clothes when I went shopping with my Mom yesterday.

Background first: she owes me a black cardigan so we had to sort that out. Last December when 8 inches of snow grounded our AA 777 to LHR we found ourselves back at Little Sis’s house for several days until we were able to get home. We had a very early morning car service pick up and I left my black cardigan on the guest bed in my haste to get out and start the trek home. She sent it up to the farm as that’s where I would be next but at the same time sent a few bags of clothes to our mother as hand-me-ups. Mom thought the sweater was part of that and once she chose what she wanted to keep the rest went to charity.

Including my black Land’s End cardigan, which had a note pinned to it that said ‘IWOM’s – please hang up and give back to her in the spring’.

Well before I started full-time refashioning I was of the view that if I liked an item and the fabric (patterns, notions et al) was going to be more than the price of said item I’d buy the ready-made. If you have read my tales of thrifting you know that I have not found a lot of nice things with a price tag to match. For a bit more I can buy new and better, providing I keep an eye out for sales, coupons and shop in the USA where things are a hell of a lot cheaper than anywhere in the UK. Himself, currently near the end of the man-cation, bought up a storm at the Vegas outlets (eeek — we might have room for only 6 bottles of wine next week when we take a tour of Sonoma!). Not that I need permission to shop and spend but between that fact, the death of Wardrobe Refashion and the simple fact that I cannot knit and am not likely to learn anytime soon I bought four sweaters of varying weight, style and price.

I don’t feel guilty. I’m not posting a Get Out Of Refashion Jail Free icon. I am thinking I may refashion a few sweaters at home that I wouldn’t have before. And I am thinking of going to a few more shops today, possibly with Mom, who kept me from buying a grey sweater that really WAS far too young for me (Himself, bless him, has never been much help clothes shopping: you need your mother to tell you that you look like mutton dressed as lamb).

Tomorrow afternoon I will be in San Francisco about three hours before Himself arrives. Little Sis was just there on business and highly recommends the Macy’s in Union Square. I know how I am going to keep myself sane those last few hours until I am back with the Love Of My Life.

Accountability

Being without refashion projects of my own, or in my sewing room these next few weeks or (most importantly) in possession of the digital camera (currently with Himself several time zones to the left) means that I can’t make one last picture post on the soon to be closed down Wardrobe Refashion. Well, I could write something about how inspirational the site has been to me and countless others but everybody out there feels the same so there is not much point. WR was useful in that it held you to your promise to refashion and make things from scratch — here’s hoping we all have the internal resources to keep that going. Plenty of us have blogs of our own so I guess I will need to figure out how to subscribe to my personal favorites and/or make a decent link list here on ALWOC. That will need to wait a few more weeks until I am home in my own house.

The news did make me think about my current reasons for refashioning. There has been a decided shift in purpose and focus since the ‘I am NOT buying ONE MORE ITEM TO WEAR IN HOT HONG KONG WEATHER’ days. The stat that one wears 20% of one’s wardrobe 80% of the time helped with assorted weed-outs, as has much dwelling on what I personally need clothes for. I LIKE to sew and did not do very much during the Hong Kong years and, frankly, not as much as I’d liked since our return due to the time it has taken to get my house and garden sorted. The paid work I do eats too much free time so another task upon my return is searching out other seamstresses who need and want the work more than me and passing my people to her/them.

I maintain that clothes do not make the woman and if you need certain clothes to feel good about yourself (and I’m not talking job-specific clothing that keeps you safe, warm or clean), well, I am never going to understand that so I will leave you to it. I certainly don’t refashion for environmental or green reasons and as I’ve mentioned before, my husband is constantly puzzled as to why I just don’t buy clothes when I see or like them. I have not actively shopped for clothes for me in near-on two years — sure I’ve looked about for inspiration, taken a fair amount of sketches and such, but never once saw an item and said ‘I must have that’. (We’re keeping in mind the jeans/underwear/shoes = okay clause that I have in my own personal pledge). I have tried the thrifting thing but it isn’t me for the most part.

I’ll be in NYC on my own for the day Wednesday. If I see something I like will I try it on then buy it? Dunno. Maybe two solid years on not buying clothes has been enough. I do LIKE more of the styles on offer these days, I certainly don’t lack for funds (thank you very much works-all-the-hours-God-sends international tax accountant husband!) and there is something to be said for retail therapy to boost one’s mood. I went shoe shopping after I sent Himself away on his mancation Sunday — before I borrowed Mom’s computer for a bit of surfing and discovered Nikki’s WR announcement — and as usual was tickled to see the things that are made to LOOK refashioned. Refashioning and by extension the refashioned look are here to stay no matter what small part the IWOM plays.

Pick your poison

Okay: what depresses the IWOM most tonight?

a). I’ve just dropped off Himself at the local airport for the first leg of his trek out West to meet up with a number of pals for their 40th Birthday trip (the trip is not the problem since I would never begrudge Himself a thing and we do meet up in San Francisco in a week once he gets the boys back on a plane to the Homeland),

b). I just have been asked by my (nearly 40 year old) brother and my  Mom if I want to watch Toy Story 3 with them so we all know what my nephew will be blithering about next week (did I mention that I’m in the house of my birth this coming week while Himself and the boys are living it up in Vegas/LA?),

c). The death of Wardrobe Refashion, or

d). All of the above.

You would not be wrong to pick ‘d’. To make it a little less awful I am going to set up my machine and tackle some family mending then work on some Waldorf-approved items for my nephew. For those of you not au fait with Waldorf, they are quite keen on natural material toys with no ‘pre-determined outcome’. Legos are out. Bright solid color fabric bags with eight pounds of sand in each are in. TV and videos are out. Puppet shows with handmade puppets, sets and props are in.  The IWOM is  the Coolest Aunt Ever for the times she can deliver on these requirements. Himself and I used to spend a fortune each trip on Legos so not only are my sewing skills put to good use, there’s more gambling money for Himself this week….