12 Months 12 Outfits - November

I am way ahead of normal this month...because I didn't actually sew or make anything.   But that works out well, since my sewing time is pretty much consumed with costuming at this point (I will have a post on that...eventually, lol).  But I would not have made this stuff in any case.

If you recall, this month is Outerwear month. I knew it was coming and I debated over what I would do.  I kinda thought I'd just use the trench coat; after all, I used it in the SWAP collection and it worked really well with everything; I had the whole deal to go with it.  BUT...I have needed a new WARM, semi-dressy winter coat for years; I've just kept making do with the old one that had a broken zipper and looked dingy.

If nothing else, this exercise has pushed me....more than once...to buckle down and add something to the closet that I had been postponing...mostly because I wanted to lose weight, lol.

So. Anyway.  I gave up looking for the perfect coat and got a coat from Lands' End that, while not elegant, will keep me warm in Alabama's coldest days.  We get very cold days...but the cold spells don't last long.  More like 3 - 5 days of really cold weather, and then we're back up into mild temps...or at least, mild compared to where I grew up.  Single digits happen (rarely, yes, but they do happen!), sometimes with below-zero windchills, so I need a warm coat for those situations. They happened to have a 50% off outerwear sale going on, so I feel like it was a good time to get it.  I downloaded a picture...they didn't have any of JUST the coat without a person in it...and then just today discovered that it was a very small, low resolution picture.  Tried to get another one, but LE apparently sold out of the coat and the image is gone.  So I'm putting the picture in this month's outfit slide, but I'm not going to try to squeeze it into the wardrobe collection.  It's a black coat. LOL.

You will notice I didn't add a hat; I have a black beret that I could throw in, but the coat has a hood.  Between the scarf and the hood, I didn't think a hat was necessary.  The gloves are  from some past offering at Lands' End...I know that from the tag, but I honestly can't remember if I bought them or if I got them for Christmas.  The scarf is a sentimental thing; it was hand crocheted for me by one of the girls in the high school class I taught at church for a season a few years back.  She worked on it in class, while we were having our discussions, and then gave it to me for Christmas.   The boots are definitely for wearing in the weather; from Propet via Zappos;  there's room enough for some substantial socks.  You can bet this stuff will get hauled to northern Indiana next month when we visit.

Here are the accessories to date:

When I started this journey, I planned to use royal blue as much as possible for the accessories and accents.  Red has been MUCH easier to source...

I haven't changed the garment slide, since I'm not putting the pitiful coat picture in , but just for a reminder, here are the garments I have so far:

One month left...wow...

Thinking about next year....

In the home stretch of the 12-months-12-outfits challenge, I'm finding myself thinking about next year.

I have a scarf that has colors in it that I would like to use to make an entirely different sort of wardrobe than I have this year but I don't think I want to do the full on 12 months.  I just don't think I need to add that many more shoes and bags to the closet, lol.  Maybe I could pick six outfits through the year and add them? The colors in the scarf are navy, gray, white, turquoise and jade...I think it would be lovely, to be honest, but I'd have SUCH  time finding those shades of turquoise and green...The white I already have from this year, and I have a fair amount of navy and gray already in the closet.  So I would pretty much just be adding the accent colors.  It appeals to me because I think my favorites of the wardrobes Janice creates every year are the ones with the soft gray in them...even though this year's gray, with the orange and coral, wouldn't suit me, I still like the aesthetic.

The SWAP rules have been announced over at Stitcher's Guild (note to self...send in that yearly membership fee!!!).  I'm just not feeling SWAPish this year...and I think it's because I've basically done a year-long SWAP and I'm kinda ready to be at least a LITTLE spontaneous.  Plus, this year includes a 'stretch' challenge...as in, work on a technique that is new to you, or that you need to improve.  While that's certainly a worthy goal, it doesn't fit with my concept of SWAP...which is from the original Australian Stitches magazine and involved using TNT patterns and planning your sewing so that you created all 11 new garments in about two weekends worth of sewing.  Hard to sew fast when you're working at perfecting a new or tricky technique or pattern or working with new fabric or whatever that 'stretch' goal is.  Not to say it won't work for the contest; the SWAPs over the years have evolved and they are no longer the 'use a TNT pattern and sew fast' variety anyway.  With 4+ months for sewing, there's lots of opportunity for folks to create wonderful stuff.  But my past history has shown that I. can't. finish...unless I'm using TNT's.  So I will cheer from the sidelines this year...and sew for fun, maybe.

So...no SWAP, but maybe a scaled back version of the 12 months exercise.

On the other side of the Christmas Production costuming, which has started.

I have some Angel outfits that I'm working on...unlike any Angels we've used before.  But that's a story for another day. ;-)

12 Months 12 Outfits...November Assignment

Janice posted the November outfit selections yesterday; no surprise; she's included a coat virtually every November since she started doing the series.

Let me tell you about my winter coat.  When The Princess was in 5th grade, my sister in law gave her a hand-me-down down coat.  It was too big for The Princess and she didn't really care for it; after a couple of years of it hanging in the closet, I tried it on...and lo and behold, it fit me pretty well.

Conservatively speaking, that was 20ish years ago.

It's a beige-y color that doesn't suit me well, but, you know, we don't have a lot of BITTER cold weather here so I only really wore it during the coldest days.

The zipper broke several years back; it's a below-knee coat with a one-way zipper, so it got a lot of stress. The tape behind the bottom anchor tab just shredded and the thing came off, along with the slider.

I made do with the buttons.

It's picked up some stains here and there...not bad ones, just enough to make the beige look more dingy.  It really needed replacing.

But I did like the vertical quilting; it was about as slimming as a puffer coat could be.

But, y'all, it was way beyond needing replacement.

So, prodded by the 'add a coat to the wardrobe' requirement for this month, I opened up my trusty Lands' End page and discovered that they had coats on sale for 50% off.

I waffled.  I put a coat in the bag and got cold feet and logged out.

LE sent me an email to remind me I had something waiting check out.

That process repeated itself for two days, y'all, before I finally just steeled myself and ordered it.

It's not at all flattering, I'm sure, but it will be warm.  It will zip.  Hopefully...it will fit, lol.

I have boots and a hat; probably have gloves as well.  And there is a scarf I could use, if I want.

So, no sewing is likely this month, either.  But that's probably a good thing; costuming work has finally started for the church Christmas production...and we are not having folks jumping up to volunteer. So my sewing plate will be full anyway.

OH...I had better go download a pic of the coat, just to make sure I have it when I'm ready to do the post, lol.