Dress like the woman you want to be...

Wow! I Cannot believe it is June already!

I made it, and hardly had to defer to me-made accessories.

The best bits?

Learning what suits me and what doesn't.

Seeing what gaps I have in my wardrobe. 

(that would be lower halves and outer wear, the same as most new sewists I guess. Also I don't have much in the way of knits)

Getting lots of ideas from other participants, both by seeing their outfits and reading their comments.

The worst bits?

Having a wardrobe dilemmas on important days, and not having much to choose from.

Seeing just how often I wear my jeans! But I think thats more about the time of year than anything else. They only just came out of summer storage in April.

I wear lots of blue! 

What am I going to take away?

Make more (work appropriate) skirts.

I made two skirts already, but I'm not much of a skirt person and don't have much to wear with them just yet. I'm a dress person in summer, but rarely separates. I might even have a go at trousers. Eventually.

More basics.

I'm a pattern-whore. I buy funky patterns, but then don't want to cut them and feel like a toddler wearing them. So I need to buy some more realistic clothing fabric to start with, and learn how to use prints to look like a grown up and not a 2 year old.

Think about how things will work together.

Maybe for summer I will plan a capsule wardrobe... a number of items that are "me" but  work well together. At the moment I buy and sew without really thinking what it will go with. 

I've been going through a bit of a quarter-life crisis in recent years (Though I'm now 27 1/2). I have a very young face, and I have hair that can be hard to tame. I have been trying to dress more age appropriate for a while, because in my industry its hard enough to be taken seriously as a woman, never mind as a girl. The number of times people have walked into my office and assumed its the admin department just because I'm the only girl around, despite the sign on the door saying "Mining- Geology"...

But I struggle to find the balance. I find it hard to look "put together", and my penchant for cute patterned fabrics doesn't help. Some times I feel like a toddler, other times the Boy has no qualms in telling me I look like an old woman... 

I guess its all about finding my own style as my situation changes. At school age I think mostly lived in jeans and t-shirts vaguely gothy, thought now what I wore would probably be called emo. Eeek! More or less the same at university, with less goth and more geek.

At work we wore safety gear, which never really came in  real-womens sizes (size 10... fits perfectly across the bust and waist, a good 6 inches too short in the arms and length...) and isn't the most flattering gear anyway. But at least everyone looked the same and you didn't have to think about it.

Now I'm back being a student, but as a post grad. I'm in the unusual situation after 5 years of having to decide what to wear every single day. People, and more importantly I myself, need to have confidence in what I'm thinking and doing...

 I've recently been thinking about the mantra:

Dress like the woman you want to be

And while I do believe that there is more to life than appearance... 

And I think its true to a point that you will look good in something you are comfortable to be wearing.

But it helps if you look like you know what you're talking about! So I guess thats my aim for the future. 

Make clothes that say "I know what I'm talking about" and faking it 'til I make it!