Mundane Adornment

I have reached the point at which clothes shopping is an exercise in frustration because I am neither my daughter nor my mother and I want neither to look like mutton dressed as lamb nor as though I should be shopping for retirement communities. Not to mention the few extra pounds that I hadn't seen since pregnancy lo these many years ago, and which have rudely reappeared and are Not Kind to me in my endeavours to get my wardrobe, if not into the current decade then at least into the current century.

It's spring and while black skirts are very, very useful, they're also threatening to take over my lower half every single day (they comprise the majority of my skirts), and I want something else.

I won't wear the screaming neons that seem to be this season's Hot Thing, and I'm over navy (I really prefer black or brown and I'm replete there) and white really only looks good on a yacht or at a garden party, and neither is a regular part of my life and oh yes, my knees (not to mention my thighs) are better covered than otherwise; hence the above-mentioned frustration.

Back in the day I used to sew about ninety percent of my clothes. Dress pants, shirts, blazers as well as the simpler skirts and tee-shirts, I did it all.

I did it because I could, because I love (yes, still) fabric shopping, because it galled me to spend three times the real cost on something that wasn't made to fit this body, but I stopped when I came to the realization that it wasn't my most fun thing in the world to do and that in general, even though it takes longer, I'd rather knit or spin.

It was a while before I realized that the fabric shopping also had to stop, so I'm well-supplied for the odd times where I just have to sew something.

Like a skirt that isn't black or howling pink and covers my knees and doesn't make me feel like my grandmother.

The fabric was originally going to be a pair of drawstring pants, but that just never happened.

I have another length of fabric on the cutting board.

I'm probably not going to revert to making more clothes than I buy, and I probably won't make all the garments for this season that I plan to, but I think I might end up with another skirt or two, perhaps even a dress.

And though the projects on my beading to-do list are somewhat time-critical, I am not, as has been noted before, extraordinarily disciplined, so I took a side-trip here:

It's spring, isn't it?