OMG! I bought some clothes.....

When people find out that I sew my own clothes, most will say something along the lines of being lucky to be able to make exactly what I want, when I want and not be restricted to what is available in the stores.  To a certain extent that is true - I could sew a summer dress in the depths of winter if I wanted and ignore passing trends for the style I favour.

But I don't think it's completely possible to make exactly what I want all of the time.  The clothes we make are limited by fabric availability, time to sew and the necessary skills in some circumstances.  For this reason I don't ever see my wardrobe being completely self made as some bloggers aspire to, and I am quite happy to clothes shop sometimes.  I've never really had a problem finding clothes I like, or clothes that fit - my real problem is that I can be a bit stingy and am quite picky in terms of quality of fabric and production!

I've been loving the soft blazer look that's been around for a while, and have had on my to do list a blazer made from a ponti knit in an emerald or kelly green but hadn't really been able to find a fabric in the colour and weight I wanted.  And then we recently had a weekend away with husband's work to a golf and spa resort (yes I managed to slip in a facial! bliss....)  so I needed wanted something new to wear, but certainly didn't have the time to make anything.

So when I spied a nicely made, ponti blazer in a marle grey colour in Katies I thought it would look very smart casual teamed with some dark denim jeans and a simple top.  I very nearly bought the grey too, until I remembered that I'm trying to incorporate more colour and less grey into my wardrobe - instead I bought a coral colour:

I'm so glad I did get the coral instead of the grey, I think the coral colour suits me nicely and I just love this jacket.  Because it's a knit fabric it has some stretch and is comfortable to wear, and putting a jacket on instead of a cardigan or sweater just seems to give a simple outfit a real lift.  So while I do still plan to make a jacket when the right fabric comes along, I'm happy to have purchased this.  And I even paid full price too!

The other garment I bought this week were a pair of red jeans to replace the red pants I made last month as part of my Burda challenge.  As much as I loved the fit of those red pants, the fabric I used had a bit of stretch but no recovery and after wearing them for a few hours they would stretch out so much that they were almost falling down.  Even if I did put belt loops on to keep them up, they look so saggy baggy and unflattering that they are unwearable.  Again I could have made another pair, except that I haven't found any red fabric in the right colour or weight but when I found a pair that fit me surprisingly well and were made of decent fabric in Big W of all places for the princely sum of $18 I didn't hesitate to buy them.  So now I can make the most of this trend while it lasts.....

Enough about my clothes shopping - this is a sewing blog after all and not a fashion blog.  Have you all seen the petition started by the Sewing Princess to urge the powers that be to improve the Burda magazine? I definitely agree with the points Silvia has made - their patterns have become repetitive in the 5 years I've been subscribing, the instructions have always been *ahem* challenging, and some of the crazy simple things they provide a pattern for are just silly.  I wouldn't mind fewer patterns if they were all really good patterns and also if it meant the tracing sheets were less complicated (my eyesight is bad enough as it is!).  So if you're of the same opinion, pop on over and sign the online petition.