Before and After

There are certain times of the year when the seasons just seem to overlap. When you really should be wearing and sewing clothing for the season you are presently in but the lure of the next season has truly started to worm itself into your brain. It happens to me every year at two major junctions ~ winter into spring and summer into fall. I guess everything just changes so dramatically at the end of those seasons (winter and summer) that you naturally start looking out over the horizon to see what's next.

It doesn't help that RTW manufacturers, designers, stores, catalogues and magazines are all moving you in that direction by teasing you with the next season's offerings. And since I am such a huge consumer of fashion magazines and catalogues, my mind has already moved away from summer sewing and into fall sewing. On the one hand this is a good thing. I am getting a jump on my fall wardrobe by looking at and planning what new trends to incorporate into my fall/winter wardrobe. I am starting to go through my fall wardrobe and carefully examine the garments from last season. When you aren't wearing the garments every day, I think you have a much more objective eye about what you did and did not wear last winter and what needs to be auf'd!

You can also look objectively at what needs to be repaired, what didn't work for you and needs to be donated and what has just become outdated. Which brings me to the title of this post, "Before and After." Every season I sew several trendy garments ~ something that is highlighted in the fashion mags as the "it" garment. And inevitably, a year or two later the garment is now "out!" Sometimes the garment is donated to one of the charities seeking used clothing, sometimes the garment is stripped of all usable parts especially if the fabric is damaged or stained and the remaining piece thrown away. And sometimes, when I get really lucky, the piece can be altered, giving it a new life. So therefore, my sewing was not in vain.

This season that happened with two skirts that I made two years ago. I really liked wearing these skirts and they worked well in my fall wardrobe. So here are their befores:

The first fall skirt:

My "before" version of the Casual Corner Skirt with the ruffled hem.

The "after" version ~ which is a more classic and seasonless skirt.

The second fall skirt:

My "before" version of the Fringed Skirt.

And my "after" version of the same black plaid skirt ~ which makes it "trendy" for Fall 2006!

More pictures of "Before and Afters" can be seen in my Yahoo Photo Album.

I have to admit that this did satisfy some of my initial enthusiasm to sew "Fall Garments" and I can now go back and work on that blue silk crepe dress that I cut out prior to vacation. But even those pieces are transitional pieces ~ late summer into early fall.

So I guess I really am turning away from Summer sewing and heading into Fall. I know I can't be alone in this journey so how many of you have begun to think & plan Fall sewing?