Self-Stitched September line-up - now with pj's!

In preparation for Self-Stitched September, I gathered all my home-sewn stuff together, (and did a ton of laundry) just so I could see what my options are for the month, wardrobe-wise. I have over 70 pieces, not including accessories or jewelry (and 5-6 pr hand-knit socks, not pictured). Add to that a few more items that were made for me (4-5 items, on the extreme right left) and...

um, I have a lot of clothes.

Cuz, the closets are by no means empty, despite what is represented here. Ouch.

(I'd show you, but no flash. And, you know, embarrassing.)

Standing back, looking at this, I commented to my son that this would be a respectable wardrobe on it's own. It's lacking a few key pieces I'd prefer to have, but, plenty to wear. In fact, I'm sure I have friends who don't have this many clothes, period.

Too many dresses, skirts, and casual stuff in this line-up, for my liking. I generally wear nice pants to work almost every day, with nice buttoning shirts. I'm sadly lacking in the blouse/top/shirt department here (on the right left, next to the made-for-me stuff), so I'll be counting on those skirts (pretty much that whole middle section there), and probably not wearing any store-bought pants at all, unless I hurry up and get something sewn.

This is going to mess with my working wardrobe habits in a serious way.

I used to make myself nice shirts. Not sure when that stopped. Maybe when skirts got so cute? Or when you could buy a nice dress shirt for $10, making it not worth my while, unless the pattern was interesting in some way.

I'm going to have a few days where I'm only wearing me-made jewelry, as a token nod to this challenge, I'm afraid.

My first challenge, which I really thought would be, you know, challenging for me (what with me trying to wear something I've made every day in September), is the Storytelling Festival, for which I always wear casual clothes. Turns out, that's not going to be a problem, as long as I don't mind wearing a skirt one of those days. Which I don't. In fact, aside from Sundays (plenty of dresses in that line-up), this Friday and Saturday might be the only days I manage to wear only handmade.

Oh, and can I just tell you? I need to get rid of some clothes. I mean, my selection of white blouses alone fills up about 1/3 of my work-clothes closet. Yikes.

We're not even going to discuss the collection of not-yet-sewn clothes (I cut out 2 new blouses and some cute pj's Saturday, to add to that collection). Or the massive amounts of fabric that could become just about anything. (Never mind what's up in the attic, declared too warm to wear in this weather. Like any sane person living in this climate, I have two sets of clothes. Or three, if you want to separate out the all-weather stuff.)

Speaking of pj's, unless I get that new set sewn up, I don't have anything self-stitched to wear to bed. I've made myself pj bottoms around Christmas each year, but I just can't wear flannel until the temperature drops. Poor me.

Wait! I do have pj's! Last night, when I was getting ready for bed, I was sad to think that I would be spoiling it for myself, but, what can you do? Then I remembered I had this nightgown (which, incidentally, I wore as a dress for a couple of years before deciding it was maybe better as night-wear), and I was digging in the pajama drawer for that, when I found this:

Pretty happy with myself now. I made these pj's when my twins were little (McCalls 6861, long-time out of print), so it's got to be 16 or more years old. It's faded some, but hey, for pj's, it doesn't matter, right?

Is there a 12-step program for clothing addiction?

*above pictures taken in my hallway - I installed this shelf using left-over closet shelving, so I have that handy place to hang clothing-in-progress, or my outfit for the day, or whatever. Nifty, huh?*