It was an unbidden and unwelcome thought, straight from my unconcious mind that leapt in before it could be censured or justified away.

"that coat looks ridiculous"

The polka dot coat has already gone to the recycle pile, fabric to be recycled in some way.

Then I got out the Regretsy book and so many passages spoke to me of homemade folly. The key point though, was the story the author told when she and a friend got dressed to impress at at play they were going to. In the pre drinks melee a pair of women were staring at her. Not glancing, but outright staring. Then she overheard one of them say to her friend, "no, Halloween is tomorrow night."

At that point, she knew she was too old for whimsy dressing.

This skirt (Ottobre 05-2007-09) however is part of a more disciplined regime to make more clothes that are suitable for my lifestyle. The requirements are as follows:

- fabrics must be comfortable and durable, easy to launder and easy to care for
- styles must allow movement
- clothes must represent personal style, a little interesting, a little quirky, a little ugly, a little old fashioned, a little home made looking, a little fun but ONLY A LITTLE. Smirk, not guffaw

and I think this skirt nicely ticks the boxes, don't you?

back pocket, indearingly wonky:



front pocket, could be lifted from one of their children's editions:



.. and some very cute vintage cotton drill. Very happy with this skirt. Now I really do have to knuckle under and sew those tee shirts. In theory I have nothing against going out and purchasing them. In practice it would be like asking a vegetarian to go to a steak house and only eat off the salad bar. Could be done, in theory.