Bidding (Hopefully Temporary) Adieu to Garments

I went through all my upper body clothing last night, which meant trying on every shirt and dress I own. This all started because of a Christmas dress I’d planned to wear yesterday because my beginner bass class was playing in their first concert in the afternoon and I wanted to look festive. I laid the dress out the night before along with a red cardigan I thought went well with it, and went to sleep feeling quite smug that I wouldn’t have my usual frantic outfit-deciding scramble in the morning. Except I still did. Because the dress would not zip up when I went to put it on. It was not even remotely close to being able to zip up. This was not the first time this had happened in recent weeks, but it was the final straw.

Let me start at the real beginning. I’m a music teacher, except I’m still in the process of getting my Bachelor of Education. There’s just no one else qualified in my subject area, so I got hired early. For my degree, I have to do five weeks of practice teaching each semester of the two year degree, which means right now I’m nearing the end of my stint in a grade 10-11 science classroom in a local high school. This has meant changing what I wear on a regular basis, because my regular job is an all-music location and music teachers around other music teachers can be a bit more adventurous, I find. In this high school, I have to be more conventional in how I dress. I’ve actually been tracking what I wear each day because I’m interested in doing a blog post once my practicum is over to look at holes in my wardrobe, which there is at least one GAPING one in terms of my teacherly clothes – professional pants. Because of this, I’ve been wearing a lot more dresses with tights, and thus encountering more dresses than I usually would this time of year. And some of them that did fit in the summer are no longer able to zip up at all.

“What has changed?”, you might be wondering. Well. In August, I was introduced to bouldering. And I got really obsessed. Like have a membership to the climbing gym, go 3-ish times a week obsessed. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen at least a glimpse of this. I was already a swimmer, plus I’m a double bassist, and now I climb. So it’s just one more thing that’s making my shoulders and back bigger (as you can see below). And some things aren’t fitting anymore. So I finally went through all my clothes and put the ones that were so tight I couldn’t breathe or just plain couldn’t get onto my body in a plastic bin in my closet so I could stop being disappointed and frustrating seeing them hanging there unable to be worn. A lot of them are things I’ve made.

I think so often with blogging and Instagram we keep posting all the fun new things we’ve made and aside from Me Made May, we don’t often see how those fabulous clothes actually end being incorporated into daily life after they’re fresh off the sewing machine. So I’m here to talk about that.

A lot of the garments I packed away last night honestly make me really sad. Among this group are some of my absolute favourite dresses. The first one is this beautiful Nani Iro cotton sateen dress I made using Butterick 6453. I made it around or just prior to the time I started climbing, and now I can’t even get the zipper closed (even with assistance).

The same thing applies to the next two versions of that pattern. I blogged about both here. Surprisingly, my most recent version of the pattern can still zip up, although it’s quite tight and we’ll see how it fares going forward.

Here’s the dress that pushed me over the edge yesterday morning. It’s unblogged because I made it long prior to starting this blog. It’s the keyhole back version of the Deer & Doe Belladone dress, made from a cute little Christmas print from Cotton & Steel that looks like mistletoe but is actually pomegranates. So now I no longer have a cutesy Christmas dress – I may try to remedy that, although probably not for this holiday season. (I have a navy blue velvet dress planned for this year if I can get to it in time.)

I have a draft post of the dress below done up but hadn’t posted it, and now it doesn’t fit! It’s a sleeveless hack of the Christine Haynes Emery dress, made from a Dear Stella dinosaur quilting cotton. It won’t zip up.

This one is a pretty tough pill to swallow. I didn’t make it, but it’s a dress from The Gap I got 4-5 years ago that I’ve worn for loads of occasions. I loved how it fit and how it looks like a starry sky, and it has these amazing bust darts that begin right where the side seam and waist seam meet and run diagonal up the bodice. It’s also fully lined and French seamed, which is rare in RTW. It has a beautiful low back that I love, and it is SO far from being able to zip up that I feel like weeping.

I didn’t make this one either, but it’s made in the USA by Bernie Dexter and I wore it to wear Easter bunny ears and hand out candy one year when I worked retail. The kiddies thought I was an actual assistant of the Easter bunny. It zips up, but it’s so tight I can’t even breathe or move.

I wore this RTW dress for my final undergraduate bass recital, as well as one of my MMus recitals. I’m really hoping it fits again some day, because it’s got this great vintage vibe and has a high bateau neckline and low V in the back that I’m super into. It currently will not zip up.

I’m not super upset about this one because I didn’t have a big emotional attachment to it (it’s RTW), but I’m including this picture because I think it’s the one that is the furthest from being able to fit – the zip edges were probably 4″ apart!

This is a sweet little vintage dress with adorable clock buttons that I bought when I lived in Toronto. It zips up, but it is VERY tight and I feel like I am straining its buttons and delicate seams to an obscene level.

The dress below is silk and was screen-printed and sewn by Peach Berserk, a textile artist based in Toronto. She did a pop-up at a store run by a friend when I lived in another Ontario city, and I fell in love with this dress. She altered it to fit me after the pop-up (included in the price) and mailed it to me a few weeks later. I tried it on and it fit perfectly, and ended up wearing it to my undergraduate grad dinner. It can no longer zip up.

This is a short-sleeved version of the Sewaholic Granville shirt that has many modifications to fit me. I’m kind of perplexed why this one doesn’t fit because a couple of the other Granvilles I’ve made with these same modifications DO still fit. But it has insane draglines across the front shoulders even with the top button undone and makes me feel like I’m hulking out, so it’s going into storage for now because I know I wouldn’t feel like wearing it like this. I’m too much into comfort and you know, being able to move my arms.

This is another Granville and I really love this one. I made it with a metallic cotton lawn from the Cotton & Steel/Rifle Paper Co. collection called Menagerie. I used buttons with the moon phases on them from Arrow Mountain (check out the rest of her Etsy store – her things are beautiful!). It also is pretty hulky, so I’m putting it away for now.

So those are all the things I’ve had to put away. I feel kind of conflicted about it, because I’m obviously disappointed that I can’t wear any of the things above anymore. I love a lot of that clothing and spent a lot of time making it, expecting to be able to wear it for a long time. But I’m also excited to be stronger and better at climbing. So maybe someday I’ll be able to wear those clothes again, but I’m not sure when that will be. I also want to retake my measurements so that going forward I can make clothes that will actually fit. I may stick with knits for the next little while in order to have more leeway with fit, kind of like making/buying clothes a little big for kids so they can fit into them longer.

I’m really excited to be able to share my holiday gift making with you soon! Although I still have two gifts left to make… Wish me luck!