Changing Your Clothes

Shopping, Sewing, Upcycling, Repairing: Make the most of your clothes!

Category Archives: General

Whatever doesn’t fit easily into one of the other categories!


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It’s My Birthday, and I’ll Write What I Want To!

Okay, so my last two posts may not be the blog equivalent of War and Peace, but they are, shall we say, for the long-distance readers among you. And I’m getting ready for another edition of Makeover Monday. So today, I promise to keep my thoughts short! Well, shorter.

Since it actually is my birthday today, I’ve been thinking about birthday wishes. A lot of people have been wishing me a happy birthday on Facebook, and, reading these messages, I suddenly wondered what a “happy birthday” is. When I said “Happy birthday!” to my twin sister on the phone a little while ago, what exactly was I wishing for her? Lots of presents and a fabulous cake? No, those are things, which can be happy-making, certainly, but don’t constitute happiness in themselves.

Maybe it’s having that one day that’s focused only on you? That’s probably getting a little closer; remember that feeling from your childhood, that excitement building up for at least a week before your birthday? I do. (And I grew up with seven brothers and sisters, so having that one day really counted.)

And yet, this week, when my daughter asked me what I’d like to do for my birthday, I automatically said, “Oh, you don’t have to do anything. It’s no big deal.” ??? Excuse me, self, but it is a very big deal that you were born!

So, just for today, my happy birthday will be all about me: what I want to do (drive out to the ocean, a favorite winter activity), what I want to eat (a fabulous French menu, cooked by me except for the clafoutis, which Valerie has volunteered to make), and what I want to write! And now, since I’m about to head to the beach, I’ll leave you with one last deeply philosophical thought:

Great. Now I have that song stuck in my head.


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Fashion POV: Alber Elbaz

I had to share this quote* from Alber Elbaz, Lanvin designer, with you— it really sums up how I feel about clothes and fashion. Merci, Alber, for saying it more eloquently than I ever could!

“I love creating clothes for women, any women, aged 20 or 80, large or small…I’m not interested in creating dresses that make men fall in love with the lady wearing them. I prefer to empower women with their own love. I want to make women happy, make them shine from within, so their clothes are eclipsed by their personality. I want to see beautiful women, not beautiful clothes.”

(*This came from a fantastic Refinery29 slideshow.)


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Mix It Up 2: Oddball Outfits

I admit it: I’ve held on to certain garments for years a while now, long enough to know they’re well past their fashion expiration date, but somehow I’m unable to just let them go. (Hello, Lindy? This is the 1980s calling. We’d really like our leather jacket back. Yes, the shoulder pads too.) Don’t we all have at least one thing in our closet clinging doggedly to its hanger, way back in the darkest corner?

Refinery29 to the rescue: their latest slideshow will inspire you to shake the dust off those oddball items by mixing them with more modern pieces! I’m noticing in particular the creative use of accessories; in the example below (the oddball being the bridesmaid dress), sharpening up the soft color of the dress with the black jacket and clutch does wonders, along with the bright golden accents, and the little pop of red in the earrings.

Bridesmaid dress remix!

Bridesmaid dress remix! (Click on the picture to go directly to the slideshow.)

Continue reading →


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Practical vs. Extravagant: The Follow-up

I know you’ve all been breathlessly waiting to hear the results of my Practical vs. Extravagant question. Wait no longer! (For those of you who are breathlessly confused about what I’m talking about, you might want to read the post that started this great debate.) Here is my finished outfit:

Extravagant dance outfit!

My Extravagant outfit, all dressed up and hoping to dance! The skirt, with its glowing colors and asymmetrical hem (longer on the right side of this photo, shorter on the other side), is sexy without being inappropriate.

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An Exceptional Resolution

New Year’s Day. Reviewing my closet this morning, I was wondering what resolutions to make, relative to changing my clothes; after all, what’s in my closet changes of its own volition, at least a little, almost constantly. Just in the past week or so, I’ve had to let go of a favorite pair of red suede T-strap shoes that I’ve had for at least 10 years, decided an equally ancient sweater was just not worth any more mending, and that a favorite sequinned tank top was (sigh) just too small. I wonder: with a wardrobe in more or less continual evolution, is it worth making resolutions today that may just have to be amended tomorrow? Continue reading →


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Special Favors

2012. What a year! Looking back now, I think primarily about 2 events in my life: The first was when my daughter very nearly died of a sudden, total liver failure (still inexplicable), and what has happened since that terrible time in early March. The second was the official start of my blogging life, at the very end of July.

These seem totally unrelated, don’t they? I suppose they are, in most ways, but here’s where they come together for me: I am most profoundly grateful for both experiences. Continue reading →


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Practical vs. Extravagant: The Great Debate

Last week, when I was trying to plan a special holiday outfit, toying with various pieces of fabrics and patterns, I found myself in a familiar place of indecision. I had put together a selection of more or less coordinated fabrics from my over-abundant stash: I started with a gorgeous sequinned fabric with cutouts and a fabulous pointy border, which I thought would be most appropriate for a skirt, but this would necessitate some sort of lining. I came up with a tie-dyed georgette which looked wonderful under the sequins, but which was semi-sheer, so I found a bright coral satin for the undermost layer of what was now a 3-layer skirt.

(Those of you with sharp eyes and memories may recognize this satin from my recent post about making a skirt from a custom-fitted muslin; the satin lines that skirt. Good thing I like this stuff— even after making this second skirt, I still have a lot left over!)

Finally, I added a coral stretch velvet to make a simple top (with all that going on in the skirt, the top really needs to be simple). Here are the four fabrics:

Fabrics for dancing outfit

Fabrics for my dancing outfit: The sequinned beauty with the tie-dyed georgette underneath and showing through the cutouts in the sequinned piece, and the satin underneath both (you can see a little of this by itself in the lower right corner). In the upper left corner is the stretch velvet.

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Merry Christmas, everyone!

Here’s a little holiday cheer for all my CYC friends! (Talk about changing my clothes!)

Click on the link (or the screenshot) to watch this funny video, starring ME!

http://www.jibjab.com/view/L13Mdg6Fqp3wsyuMlKuI

Video screen shot

A screen shot from my Christmas video; click on the picture to go to the video!

 


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Changing Prices: Bargains on unique Knittique samples !

Here’s a last-minute gift idea, especially for that impossible-to-buy-for woman: a one-of-a-kind Knittique sample! These are the pieces I design and make in the process of creating my original knitwear patterns for Knittique; each is made with 1 or more of my own Scraplet Skeins, which are one-of-a-kind skeins I create by hand-tying multiple strands of yarn together to form a color sequence within each skein. (The skeins and patterns are also available in Knittique’s Etsy shop.)

Included in my sample sale collection are capelets, wraps, and pillow covers, and right now, I’m adding more at least once per day! And because they’ve all been very gently used— meaning tried on occasionally in yarn store trunk shows, and modeled for photography, including on Lola the Mannequin— I’m offering each of these truly unique samples at ridiculously great prices!

Here are just two of these extraordinary samples:

Aquamarine Capelet

Aquamarine Capelet, made with the Aquamarine Scraplet Skein from Knittique’s Birthstone Collection. (Click on the picture to go directly to this capelet in my Etsy shop.)

Continue reading →


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Fashion Catchphrases: A Video Vocabulary Lesson

Is your fashion vocabulary a little out of date? Confused by terms like “manthropology” and “fashion shower”? Brush up on the current jargon with this hilarious video, courtesy of Refinery29!

Fashion Catchphrases video from Refinery29

Fashion Catchphrases from Refinery29. (This is a screenshot from the video; click the picture to go directly to the video.)