Monday 14 June 2010

Skirtaholic epiphany

So in my list of summer essentials I had said I would make a green patterned skirt. The fabric was some Ikea fabric I bought before Christmas. But then I had a moment of thought last week and I counted my skirts and found I have 16! I was shocked as I had thought I had about 8. Five skirts are Me Made and these are all A line, with some kind of print or picture on. Hmmmm, I am scratching that green patterned skirt for sure as I cannot justify having another A line, pictorial/graphic print. I am trying to make myself learn new skills and improve my sewing knowledge so I am going either a plain dark skirt in a new pattern or something else entirely.

I have been trying to be less of a consumer and yet here I am the (not so proud) owner of 16 skirts. I conducted a highly unscientific poll (by text) of friends as to how many skirts they owned. The answers ranged from "Two, but I have a lot of trousers", "Four that are wearable, not counting the packed away clothes" to "Twenty but I only wear four" and "Twenty skirts, 19 dresses" - so this puts me in the middle. I have been reading this library book,
"Ms Harris' Book of Green Household Management" by Caroline Harris. In this she makes suggestions for a "Lifetime wardrobe" "We've somehow got used to purchasing almost a whole new wardrobe each season - and then we're encouraged to de-clutter and get rid of everything we don't wear, taking the rejects to the charity shop to assuage our guilt. At its worst, it's a kind of binge-purge cycle." She goes on to suggest this for what skirts you could own, "...a warm one for winter, one for spring and autumn and a light one for heatwaves, plus one for smart occasions..." Hang on, that's four! I love the idea of only owning four, but don't know if I can honestly do this in reality.

I still feel 16 is too many for me so I have taken two to the charity shop, I have put three aside to sell on ebay and one aside to cut up and refashion. But then I got down to ten and there is one that I am sentimentally attached to, one I am saving in case I have an office based job again, and a couple that are so lovely I just want to keep them. I have put one in the dressing up box. As a child I loved dressing up and we had a trunk of clothes including two 1950s cocktail dresses of my grandma's - how I regret letting those be given away once we were grown up. I have this idea that now I have a daughter she may like some of my clothes for dressing up in or even to wear (who knows when she is grown up some of my stuff may be desirable vintage??) So, I am wondering if anyone else out there has too many skirts or is saving clothes for their children?

3 comments:

  1. Hi, i thought i had about 5 skirts but i just went and counted and i have 17! 15 of them are from charity shops or carboots, so i don't feel too bad, but i only wear about 3 of them, i think i need another sort out. I will definatly be going back to the rag market for more fabric soon...Have a lovely afternoon x

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  2. Fantastic post! I've been on a slimming-down-the-closet wardrobe kick lately (mostly because of necessity) and I totally agree there's a common binge-purge cycle. I'm starting to think now it's better to have fewer, quality things (though I doubt I could stick to four!) And I figure the closet can always accommodate me-mades! I think I'm unofficially only adding things to my closet if I make it myself, I'm every trying to toss one thing once I put something in. Of course, this is all harder than it sounds :)

    I've got jeans in excess. I can't bear to toss them. I don't know what my problem is. And they're definitely not heirloom quality, ha!

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  3. Hi thanks for the tip about the honey i'm going to get some from the local farm shop tomorrow. The Viking sewing machine is so lovely to use. I had a 19 year old Jones before this one. I did lots of research first on www.sewing.patternreview.com and went and had a look at them in the sewing centre in Worcester. I got mine from Sew Essential in Walsall though as they had £100 off. Hope you are having a great day xx

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