Overdressed: The surprisingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

Okay, this book is interesting, mostly because lately I've been reading all these old books and being indoctrinated in ages past cultural normalities regarding shopping and spending habits. It's fascinating to read the history of cheap fashion when I was reading style books before cheap fashion, so you see how the cultural shift occurred, and why.

So. I'm not finished with the book, I'm taking it slow, but one of the things I've been thinking about lately is shopping as sport. One is bored, one shops. I know I'm a sport shopper. It's nice to wander around and see what's new, see what things are interesting and current, and I'm a cheap shopper, I hate spending money on things I could get less expensively somewhere else, but I'm also very interested in quality, sustainability, and having a personal style instead of an amorphous everybody everywhere wearing the same thing, doing the same thing...

So, I'm trying to shop from my closet. That means that I have a hole, I see it, and I fill it, instead of wandering around and finding something marvelous fall into my arms because it's cheap and so cute and current, whatever.

As a sewist, I love making adorable clothes that are fun and artistic, bright and flamboyant, which is why kids clothes are great for me, but I'm trying to force myself to focus on what I need instead of the, 'Oooh, that would be so cute and fun, I'll make it," and end up having nothing to wear it with because those dark brown skinny pants are boring to make, as are their twin in burgundy. But I will make them, oh yes because I can't make anything else fun until I do, oh, except adorable valentine's pinafore's for baby. They'll be so squealing cute.

On the subject of filling holes, I finally finished a skirt I've been trying to make myself make for years. It's a brown pencil skirt, only, not exactly because pencil skirts while the silhouette I need aren't flexible enough for all the crawling on the floor I do. So, I found the perfect pattern, tada!

So, that's it, but the picture is horrible, so follow the link here: http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v1296-products-16425.php?page_id=862

If you're actually interested. I'll try to post pictures of it in reality although I'm not 100% happy with the hem. It's a little weird.

So my personal challenge has to do with keeping track of all the little things I buy that add up to what I could spend on something high quality and world changing. Hallelujah!

Anyone buy/make anything boring lately?