Preaching to the Choir

I decided that I would go out today and buy a new suit. I have exactly ONE solid color suit for interviews. It's blue (not navy) and I'm not really a blue wearing girl. I don't know why, I'm just not.

So, I walk into JCPenney (cheap is highly desired right now or else I'd be shopping at Dillards or Nordstroms or a few others) and was overwhelmed in a good way by all the styles and colors. I saw A MILLION dresses I would wear in a heartbeat. And another MILLION tops. Prints and fabric combos I could never find to sew. And they were all already made up. No muslins, no pattern alterations. Hence Ready. To. Wear.Which made me seriously consider giving up sewing, since my stash is so depleted and I'm going to have to spend $$ to clothe myself one way or the other.

So, I start looking for suits. First of all, finding a suit (or separates) with a matching SKIRT is near impossible. I don't want a pantsuit. Not for interviewing. Not really even for not interviewing.

Second, RTW jackets don't fit me. Not unless they're Petites. Apparently, I have T-rex arms. Any RTW jacket sleeve is at least 2 inches too long. I would hem them, no problem, if there wasn't a vent/button thing going on that would interfere. I don't even want to try to learn how to deal with shortening those.

Third, what the HELL size am I? My already-owned blue suit is a RTW 18P, modified. The jacket fits mostly great, just a leeeeetle wide in the shoulders but, really, only I can tell that. The skirt was way too big when I lost all that weight so I did take it in and shortened it as well as taking in the sideseams of the jacket to give it more curves to match mine. The suit still fits fine. The pencil skirt is a little snugger now since I'm still juggling a 20-ish lb. weight gain over the last couple of years, but it's not too tight.

So, did ANY 16 or 18 fit me? Yeah, you know the answer: Not. Even. Close. Arghhhh. Even though I have other 16s and 18s that I wear regularly. And until the 20-lb gain, even 14s.

I tried on every jacket in Penneys. I went to Lane Bryant and tried on the ONE black jacket they had. Huge. I went to Macy's and tried on a bunch more there. Some of the jackets would've been passable (and significantly more expensive) but the skirts were a no-go. Either too tight or too short. (Can you believe I was considering buying TWO skirts to take apart to refashion into one? Yeah, me either. And why can't separates include one or two NON-pencil shapes? I love me a me-made pencil but my butt doesn't love RTW pencil skirts. What do the booty girls who don't sew DO?) I even ventured to Macy's "Womens" (plus) department. Which was on the third floor, waaaaaaaaay in the back corner in a completely separate room-type area past some ugly clearance section, like they didn't even want to admit they HAD a plus department. Which, apparently, they didn't, because OMG the hideousness.

After two hours of torture, it was clear that I wasn't buying a new suit today. So, I regrouped and decided to buy a new top to match my blue suit. I've kinda not had anything specific to wear with the suit (see above comment about me and no blue) and have been making do with a b/w top as contrast and to tie in wearing black shoes or my plain ivory SBCC Mimosa. The blue of the suit is a kinda hard-to-match shade of blue. Figures. I bought the suit ONLY because it actually fit me, not because I fell in love with the color.

After returning to the call of the prints (and prices) at Penney's, I brought home two knit tops with some blue in them.

The first one, here, reminds me of the Jalie sweetheart top, modified with a drape. I really like the shape of this top (just not the blue!). But ...

... for kicks, I decided to try it on inside-out in the fitting room to see how it was made, thinking about copying it later. (See Peter, you're not the only one.) And look at how COOL this is!! I had no idea until I was wearing it inside-out that the self-facing for the drape was asymmetrical like this. I am SO modifying that Jalie pattern and copying this.

This is the other top. It's one of those uber-trendy crossover drapey styles, which is hard to discern in this photo. It's not really conservative enough print-wise for an interview, so I considered this a present to myself just because I need one. I'm sure I'll be buying one of the patterns that are currently out for this style since I do like it on me. And I might end up returning this one to the store because, well, blue. And brokeness.

And, so to come full circle ... I still half-way would like to be able to not NEED to sew my clothes because there are so many pretty choices in the stores, but the reality is I can't. They just don't fit.

Oh, and why the sudden urge for a new suit? Well, I have an interview Monday at 3 PM, and I REALLY want this job. So, cross those fingers and toes again for me please!

Also, thank you SO MUCH for the kind offers of notions and fabrics. Please know that it really touches my heart and I sincerely appreciate the generosity. If this or another job doesn't materialize, I may just have to take y'all up on those offers ... but, really, the bigger concern will be paying rent next month. So, you may see me actually begging in a few weeks. But let's stay positive and not think about that yet. :-)