As quarantine continues, our family is grateful for personal health and safety … and I’m clinging to my wardrobe challenge as a mental health practice – keeping my mind occupied and my hands (mostly) out of the cookie jar.  Hope you’re seeing how owning good solid-color basics and sticking to a consistent color range produce…

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Isolated by the COVID outbreak, I’ve resolved to sew a garment each day using only materials I have on hand.  (In addition, of course, to making protective gear to donate.) Do I really need new clothes right now?  Of course not!.  But I DO need the mental health benefits of exercising my creativity,  focusing on…

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A beautiful suit is a treat to wear, but maybe there  aren’t many occasions when you need to dress quite that formally.  I spent some time the other day playing with my royal blue skirt suit and found 3 new ways to wear those pieces in a variety of looks.  Here’s how …

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I’m not a big fan of summer clothes – or summer weather, for that matter.  But I still want to dress with style.   For mixing & matching in warm weather, I still prefer  an under-layer/over-layer top combo.    So I was thrilled to find these lightweight, open-knit cardigans at my new favorite store.  Made from…

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Half the fun of sewing is customizing a basic pattern to your own style, so when  PatternReview.com announced a contest for variations on a single pattern I  jumped in.  It was great fun getting to play designer and my sweet husband was happy to play fashion photographer. My starting point was a basic sheath dress (McCall…

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This is more detailed look at one of my three dress variations for the PatternReview.com contest.  Starting from my favorite sheath dress pattern — McCalls 6920 —  I wanted to create a classic dress I can wear for professional networking events, presentation and civic engagement activities.  I’ve been wanting to make a blush ponte jacket…

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I’ve often joked in workshops about building an outfit around a great zipper color — but this time a really did exactly that.  I found an amazing zipper source on a recent NYC trip (Botani Trims – 263 W 36th – find them online if you can’t visit in person).  I bought a teal separating…

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My third variation for the Pattern Review contest took my basic sheath pattern in a dressier direction, pairing winter white ponte knit with a set of 4 black lace motifs I’ve had on hand for a long time.  Of course – and you may be sensing a theme here – I had a project in…

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