Since I’ve (re-)discovered sewing, and since I read Overdressed, I’ve been looking at the clothes I already have. I have never had a particularly well-paying job so I’ve never really had the money to spend on high-quality clothes, so it’s mostly from Primark and H&M with some hand-me-downs thrown in for good measure. I’ve also never had much money spare to buy clothes all the time…..so how have I ended up with so many clothes? Most of which I hate? I think it’s because I can never bring myself to throw anything away – which means I’ve got a shirt in my wardrobe which I bought for Sixth Form 12 years ago, which is now falling apart and no longer white (thanks to a washing machine I had in a rented house ages ago which seems to make it its personal mission to turn all of my clothes grey – and I’m not just talking about ones that were originally white!).
I’ve also become bored with the colour palette I wear ALL THE TIME – black, grey, navy, other shades of blue and the occasional green. Just look at my trousers:
I basically never wear the one brown pair or the green linen ones (from Primark!). Do I really need 8 pairs of jeans?
My dresses are the same:
The cream one in the middle is no longer cream (it’s green, ooh what a treat!) – blog post to follow.
My skirts and more interesting tops are equally dull…are you spotting a pattern yet?
Why do I have so many t-shirts?
Seriously! They’re mostly from Primark which means they don’t fit nicely and have all gone a bit crap from being washed so many times. In my (very slight) defense, I bought a bunch of the vest and long-sleeved tops when I had to wear a uniform t-shirt, as tops to go underneath. I don’t really like most of these, which I think is the main reason why I always feel like I have nothing to wear . After all, the average modern wardrobe is probably largely based on t-shirts – but maybe I can work on having nice, more interesting t-shirts to wear.
My jumpers and cardigans feel as though they have a little more variety in colour, but only in shades of blue and green – they’re still all from the same spectrum of dull.
I hope that I have the balls to sew clothes in more interesting colours and I’m bored, bored, bored with my clothes. I have spent the weekend refashioning some of the stuff I never wear, so that I don’t have to throw them away (where they’re knackered) or give them to a charity shop. Not that I would probably do that as I would feel even more like I had nothing to wear…..twisted much? I’ll keep you posted on how I can clear space for the clothes I plan to make!
sewingmachinations.com 
How the hell do you have SO MANY clothes??? I have a total of four pairs of jeans (and one pair of black slacks for best which I’ve had over 15 years!) I have to say that in recent years I have discovered that even on a budget, its worth spending a bit more on individual items that you really like and that are better quality because they don’t wear out/lose shape/bore you. On the other hand, I can’t wait to see your sewing results as your previous post looked really exciting! (I may have to commission you to knit that cardigan for me!) Great post, and very thought provoking!
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I know – how do I have so many clothes?! And why am I making more?!?!
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I have the same problem! I was in my closet the other day and I counted…I’ve got twelve pairs of jeans, and I really only wear four of them. Why do I hang on to the other eight? And I’ve got more t-shirts than any one person should be allowed to have, but I just keep on buying them. It’s a sickness. *sigh*
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I feel like I never buy clothes, so how do I end up with so many?! I think one of my problems is that I buy boring, plain t-shirts and stuff so they they will ‘go with everything’. But this is a quick way to a boring wardrobe. I should definitely get rid of some of my jeans – having so many pairs (and not too many other nice trousers) means I wear them to work a lot, which is technically fine, but not the way to make you feel professional!
Thanks for commenting!
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I think you have lots of clothes because your weight’s never really fluctuated and you have a really classic sense of style – the things you wear haven’t gone out of fashion and you’ve never exploded out of stuff so you never need to chuck anything.
If you have lots of t-shirts you can turn them into a chunky yarn-type thing which makes really good crochet fodder or the basis of lots of rag rugs. And since you’ve got loads of co-ordinated colours I reckon they’d look really good 🙂 (http://www.craftpassion.com/2010/03/recycle-tutorial-woven-rag-rug.html/2 rug tutorial + http://www.craftpassion.com/2009/05/recycle-tutorial-making-of-t-shirt-yarn.html t-shirt yarn = awesome).
http://onebrowncrafter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/tuesdays-treasure-recycled-upcycled-t.html These are also things you can do with t-shirts 🙂
I hate the vast majority of my clothes just now too. I promised myself that when I lost the baby weight I’d buy a new wardrobe but I just can’t bring myself to chuck out the last few vestiges of what I used to wear and fill my house with cheap Primark stuff (since that’s the budget I’d have). Bleh. Sewing all the way! 😀
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The t-shirt yarn is genius! And I love the necklaces/ scarves too. I am loathe to throw all my crappy t-shirts away but I fear a charity shop wouldn’t want them either, so using the fabric is win-win!
I wouldn’t say I have a classic sense of style, I’d say I have no style which is why my boring clothes don’t go out of fashion. You’re right about the weight thing – that is a main reason I never get rid of anything – because I never need to. I do have quite a few things that are too big for me (like 2 pairs of jeans someone gave me), so why do I keep them? Or I could resize them, but with jeans it’s tricky!
I wonder if it’s our nature to just get fed up with all of our clothes sometimes? Probably always when we have no money to be able to do anything about it! You should try charity shops too and see if you can resize/ refashion them if they’re not quite right. You can probably get better quality stuff for cheap too.
But yes, sewing all the way! You should come and visit me and we can go to Walthamstow together where there is lots of cheap fabric – which makes making clothes financially viable (as well as fun)!
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Oooh… my sewing machine is tiny and light (and fits perfectly in the bag you made me!) – I could take it with me and we could have a weekend of attacking old clothes at some point? 🙂
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I think it absolutely is our nature to get fed up with our clothes periodically. its certainly something that happens to me every few years or so. I find myself drawn to a new set of colours to wear (at the moment its bright red bright green and navy) and change everything to go with that. And a few years later suddenly can’t stomach those colours any more (witness dark brown!) and change it all again. I’ve been doing this since I was in my teens, and I think it coincides with emotional changes, with moving itno a new stage of life. I think we think appearance is a superficial thing but actually it is an outward manifestation of our inner mental state and its crucially important. The way we look is a huge statement to the people around us, sometimes a cry for help and sometimes a celebration of ourselves. I wonder if all that bed covered in neutral tones says something about the way you have been ‘playing safe’ all these years? And now you are going to sew and rejoice in all this new colour and new fabric, and its an expression of a new happiness, a new confidence?
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I wonder if you’re right about me playing it safe and now not doing so. I hope so – maybe it will make me put up with my rubbish job for less long. I feel like I’m drawn to jewel colours at the moment – even pink (though I draw the line at purple)!
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