Fantasizing About Fashion... Again

I took a break from my freelance work this evening (ALMOST DONE!) to draw some fun little fantasy outfit illustrations. I've been super excited about clothes lately (which is highly unusual for me). I'm sure it's because I'm sewing and realizing that I can actually try to replicate some of the style from my favorite brands without having to rent my shed as a living space or take out a loan. 

I recently discovered the genius Tina Givens. I instantly fell in love with the whimsical and yet simple designs she sells as patterns on her website. They reminded me so much of some of the stuff you can order from Anthropologie and Free People and I was overwhelmed with the possibilities. 

Try to ignore how inaccurately these drawings portray my figure...lol.

The top for the first outfit is inspired by a Free People shirt. I haven't seen leggings like those anywhere, so if I ever decide to make some I may have to paint my own stripes. My sister has some rockin' pants with vertical stripes and I've been in love with them ever since I saw then on her tiny butt. These mary janes (from UO) are on my wishlist, so I decided to add them to my illustration for that first outfit.

The second outfit looks comfy enough to sleep in... I bought my first infinity scarf today which is why I included one on this outfit. I love the darn thing and decided I need to make myself a bunch more. That's another Free People shirt, but I thought it would be fun to see how something like that would look layered over a Tina Givens dress or slip that was made from a light linen. I'm in love with the idea. (Not very practical for nursing, though....Hm.)

Anyway, it was a fun, relaxing drawing exercise, and I'll probably do more in the future.
All this sewing/fashion dreaming has me wondering about things like dyeing fabric, fabric paint brands and garbage like that.

My Wardrobe To-Do Board

So, this pregnancy is coming to a close. Rapidly. In fact, the whole ordeal has come and gone rather quickly, but that's one of the perks of already having a kid during your pregnancy. I'm sure those that follow will be similar.

The light at the end of the tunnel has made me consider my clothing a little more. I don't really have enough time left to justify expanding my belly wardrobe, so I've been planning fantasizing about what I'd like to have in my wardrobe for after baby girl makes her debut. I say "fantasizing" because there is one major problem with my particular taste in clothing... I'm cheap.

Check out my "fashion" board on pinterest:

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You may notice that the majority of the clothes I've pinned are from Free People, which is outrageously expensive. I have ordered exactly one article of clothing from their website and will probably hold on to it forever to justify the shameful amount of money I scraped out of my paypal account for it. (Did I mention that I'm super cheap?)

So, what is the solution? Well, I could either go out and get a job that I would probably hate and order one or two things a month, or I can put my new sewing skills to use and start making my own FP inspired stuff. Enter the "clothing pattern" board. It's a great age for seamstresses. There are so many great patterns available to us. Sure, you can find a lot of really cool stuff that is probably easy to modify from Butterick, McCalls, etc, but have you SEEN all of the amazing independant pattern designers out there and the patterns their churning out like rainbow butter?!

And all the amazing Japanese pattern books!? I WANNA CATCH THEM ALL!

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So, there's a pretty good chance that sometime in the future my nightly sewing with yield more than just kids clothes and altered shirts for my husband. Hopefully I will be good enough eventually to stop buying most clothing items and make them for myself. I mean, you can even get some pretty darn cute lingerie patterns...