The inexpensive housewife: darn those holes!

A while ago Lane and I heard from Lane's mother that a vintage clothing store in Medford was closing down and on the final day before closing was literally giving away whatever was left to whomever showed up. After much begging and pleading Toni gave in and the next chance she had brought a van full of clothing up to Eugene to give to us or sell in what was bound to be an unsuccessful and unbearable garage sale.

So as we only sort of expected the bottom-of-the-barrel clothing was not as exciting as our visions of grandeur represented and most of it didn't fit me anyway - even if there is the rare vintage size 8 it's certainly not the size eight we're used to in the 2000s and being shaped like a "Norwegian farm boy" has never helped my cause either - a lot of my "vintage" experience is more the 90s throwback pieces they tend to sell side-by-side with tiny 1950s evening dresses with the 20-inch-long belts.
I'm not feeling sorry for myself - Britney Spears couldn't zip up Marilyn Monroe's jeans in her best days and Lane at size 2-4, I believe, doesn't fair any better than I do in proportions.

What did fit fit great and I snagged the single most flattering, most comfortable dress I've ever worn - my black silk dress with the white cheerios all over, if you've ever seen it. It gives me that vintage shape but the tag is "contemporary apparel" and the cinched waist is basically an optical illusion. There were a few other things I picked up but what I'm really getting at is the late 90s, skewing-male, Meg-Ryan-circa-French-Kiss, Julia-Roberts-in-My-Best-Friends-Wedding, navy blue wool sweater and khaki linen trousers (complete with inside buttons for the suspenders I WISH I had).

Although I felt pretty great in this get-up I had to face facts that I do not have the long, lean figure of Julia - the pants were too long and the outfit unflattering as a whole. And speaking of holes the sweater had several and the pants one noticeable one down low on the leg. I don't usually mind holes too much - better than stains is what I usually think - but for cold-weather clothes it's kind of silly and anyway, when try to pull of pleats and tapering at the same time it's best not to add any unsavory details - like holes - lest you look a bit frumpy.

The sweater - wool, like I said - is now being reworked into a snugly little outfit for my cabbage-patch doll of 22 years (Alice) who I haven't gotten a new outfit for in over a decade (!) and the pants are undergoing a hand-sewing that while hopefully be completed before Spring really kicks in.

The picture above is to show you, roughly, what the cropping will look like - although, I'm just cuffing my pants and sewing along the seam as they'd done in some distant GAP factory years ago and inches below. The cuffing just about covered the hole but not quite so I followed a natural crease in the linen (because, as if I was going to iron them anyway) and I made a little stick so the crease covered the hole and didn't move, but looked quite accidental and natural.

The pants are a great dark khaki color and my stitches are grey and really obvious - one reason being I have only grey and black thread, the other being obvious stitches are much easier in this case. But as it turns out the colors look so good together and it looks very laid-back. I know no one will notice this going on at my ankles but as you may have gathered already I dress almost solely for myself (no offense) and I am quite pleased with the whole thing.

My foray into sewing (hand sewing) has so far been successful (although tedious) and hasn't cost me a cent! Unfortunately this is reminding me that I haven't finished either project yet and that the white button I sewed onto my favorite dress (when I couldn't find the black one) has gotta go... a procrastinator's work is never done.