What I wore today

I know there are lots of blogs out there where the main topic of the blog is “This is what I wore today.” I don’t quite get the point of those blogs. Maybe I’m just too old  to get the point of those blogs.

 

I am going to talk about what I wore today, not because I think that I am wearing something al that fabulous but actually because I want to talk about something else.

We are going through a bit of a warm spell. Soon it will be too cold to wear summer clothes. I chose this dress because soon it will be too cold to wear it.

 

I made this dress a few months back. It reminded me of what my mother might have worn in the mid 1970’s. It’s a simple boat necked cap sleeved dress with no darts. I made it without a pattern.

To be honest, the fit is a little weird. The belt camouflages some of the weirdness, but not all of it.

 

Today I had to go out to pick up my new hearing aids. I nearly changed my clothes before I left. All of my clothes just felt a little uncomfortable. I was reminded a little of an essay written by Anna Quindlin about 25 years ago . She was on her way to meet her editor and knew that if one didn’t look too closely she looked all put together and like an adult. She knew that her socks inside of her boots didn’t match and the blouse she wore under her sweater was stained. I felt the same way, there were lots of not visible to the public things that were off in what I was wearing. Those things were off in ways that were physically not exactly comfortable.If I were a toddler, I might have had a tantrum. But I’m not a toddler and went off to get my hearing aids.

 

While I was at the audiologist’s the staff kept complimenting my dress. They were amazed that I made it.

After I got home I checked the stats on this blog. it’s always fun to see where readership comes from. Several people came from Craftsy which is a craft forum. I clicked to see how the traffic might have come my way and saw that my blog came up in a discussion about sewing OCD, people who are so terrified of creating something imperfect that  the don’t finish sewing any garments.

The people posting commiserated about the paralysis  caused by  trying to achieve perfection. I completely understand that terror. Growing up my parents expected us to be excellent, even as we we learning new skills.

 

As an adult I have learned that the way to actually get good at something is to spend lots of time being terrible at it first. I was reminded of this last Sunday. I hosted a brunch for some of my college friends who all happened to be in town.  One of our guests was asked by his wife if I was a good cook in college. My friend laughed and described some of my truly terrible early efforts. Eventually, I got better.

My dress is imperfect.  No one aside from me knew that my tights had a hole in them, that the dress felt a little funny on. Those imperfections didn’t stop two women who are essentially strangers from complimenting my dress and asking me if they could learn how to sew dresses like mine.

All hand work is in some ways imperfect. I have a closet jam packed with clothing that I have sewn for myself. Some of those garments are pretty fabulous. Some of those clothes have elements that don’t work.

 

My skills keep improving…and it’s OK to have some clunkers along the way. Today I wore imperfect, and I was OK.