Clicks, Coincidences, and Merging Thoughts

Many years ago - as in too many to count - a woman came up to me after church and said I just want to tell you how much I admire your style. Hers was one of those soul hugging compliments that you can live on for months, perhaps even years. It remains precious to me now.

In Monday's posting, I mentioned that I'd been sewing fashions for six months. That wasn't a start in sewing fashions; it was a return to sewing fashions. That part of my creative life had been on hold for what felt like forever and then finally, a comeback. In retrospect, I'm glad for the break because on return I bring with me twenty years of accumulated creative experiences gleaned in my art career. YES YES!

I also mentioned that I'd been experiencing a series of clicks, coincidences, and merging thoughts over the last few days. LOVE when that happens. It makes me feel like I'm heading in the right direction. It started with an email conversation of a more private nature with a woman I just met. We share similar experiences and understand how each other feels including the loss of self that comes in those experiences and the yearning to re-emerge and re-discover our changed and stronger self including our stronger sense of style.

One of the blogs that I read is Male Pattern Boldness. Last week, Peter shared his makeover. It was inspiring in a completely different way to see a man go through this process, and so quickly, and so confidently. Four days to a new Peter.

Day 1 - Heeeeere's CATHY
Day 2 - The Naked Truth
Day 3 - Approaching the Finish Line
Day 4 - Peter's New Look Revealed!

In my amazement, I found myself wondering if I was making too big a deal out of the process. LOL - who me? Probably. Probably not. That's just me. Since I came in at the end of Peter's makeover, I went back to fill in the who, what, when, why, where, and how gaps. Here's what Peter says in Do You Have A Look?

One of the surprises when I started sewing and getting involved with Pattern Review was how many passionate sewers are turning out ordinary looking -- albeit attractive -- clothes. No doubt they fit better than RTW (ready to wear) and are constructed of higher quality fabrics, but sewing for most people isn't about creating a look, or at least, not one that I can readily discern. Most people just want to look nice.

Click. Click. That finding resonated with me. Nice is not the look I'm after. More along the lines of stunning, confident, creative, unique, amazing. Core basics are essential but do not an entire wardrobe make. Churning out one look-a-like garment after another is not what I want to do. As I've said so many times that you're probably getting bored of it already... not only do I want clothes that fit and flatter, MORE IMPORTANTLY, they have to feel like me - unique and individual - not a carbon copy of movie star style nor part of a fashion subculture nor the victim of trends. I've done it before. I can do it again. I can re-emerge. Sure... how?

Ask and the universe (God in my opinion) delivers. Right after that, a link to this YouTube video of Iris Alpfel was posted on Stitcher's Guild. In it, Iris says...

Style is something integral. It's something that's you. It's part of your psyche. You have to study yourself. Learn who you are. Learn what you really like. What you don't like. What you're comfortable with. How you feel. How people react to what you wear. How much it bothers you if they don't like it. It's all of those things. And, I think that requires some hard work, which a lot of people don't want to do. But, if you don't do that you can copy somebody else's style but it won't be yours. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it.

Iris goes on to talk about how designing an interior and creating an ensemble are a similar mix of experiences, feelings, thoughts, likes, and dislikes. She says she likes clothes that are architectural and mixes and puts things together the way the spirit moves me.

Click. Click. Before watching that video, I'd been looking through fashion magazines and in a huge and current stack had found less than half a dozen pieces that appealed to me. The same thing happened snoop shopping at the mall. Maybe it's our mall. Maybe it's this season. Maybe it's me. BUT... the clothes were boring.




Plain vanilla BORING like this sweater in my closet. There are many things about it that are right - and I'm going to talk about that in another posting - but there is one over-riding impression that is a bad match. It's nice not stunning, confident, creative, unique, amazing. It does not create the impression I want others to have of me.

In contrast to our mall, Anthropologie is (to me) an amazing website. I get huge amounts of creative inspiration from their online catalogue. Imagine visiting an actual store. Hopefully someday.




Snowmelt $78.00 - love the three quarter sleeves, the dropped V, how the neck band is attached, and the feminine shape of the narrow curved peplum. See how it has similar elements to my sweater above and yet is vastly different? More alive. More interesting.

Plaza $148.00 - Iris said she liked clothes that were architectural. I say I like clothes with clean lines and details. That's a similar thought. Having been an interior designer, I relate to the connection between designing an interior and an ensemble. It's the same with an art piece - the bringing together of the principles and elements of design into a cohesive whole. With this sweater, the ruching, draping, twisting makes me want to reach out and ruffle. We react to clothes just as we react to art. What we see other people wearing and how they wear it is a huge part of the impression we form of them. Vanilla boring is not the impression I want to give. Interesting, touchable, soft, detailed, multi layered - those are all good words.

Oscillations $118.00 - an excellent illustration of what I mean by clean lines with details. This cardigan once again has similar lines to my sweater above and yet evokes a vastly different set of emotions.

Grassflower $178.00 - NOT me at all and yet it's that ribbing around the bottom that was the starting point and the inspiration for the cardigan re-fashion I showed in Monday's posting. It continues to inspire version two that I worked on yesterday. ANYTHING can spark an idea and send you off on an amazing creative journey. Here's a sneak peak. Who knows where it will go from here.




One of the most fabulous things about working in the studio on Saturday was how comfortable it felt to slice and dice and chop and form and create that cardigan - like coming home. Those internal bubbles, that creative energy, is something I'd experienced for years in my textile art. I missed them. I welcomed them. Don't get me wrong. I've been enjoying sewing fashions and I'm acquiring far more knowledge and experience but... by the end of the weekend, I knew that I wanted more of this type of energy and that's something I'll be working toward.

On Friday, when talking about a job that I didn't apply for and whatever job is in my future, I wrote - We'll see what God brings my way. This place of employment wouldn't utilize my accumulated knowledge in the areas of design, textile art, and fashion. It's perfect in many ways but not that one. The really perfect job would. Perhaps God has something different in mind a little further down the road. I know he has a plan. Time will tell.

After all the clicks, coincidences, and merging thoughts of these last few days, I've decided to begin in earnest on my personal make-over. It's been a buzzing thought in the back of my mind for a long time. Now, I'm ready to do the work that Iris talks about, to re-emerge with a style as Peter has done, to sew unique clothes as I long to, and to write it all down in a book/workshop format trusting that at some point in the future an opportunity to teach will return to my life.

I love teaching. I love supporting and encouraging others to their best. I love art, fabric and fashion. This may or may not be the destination but it's the direction I'm beginning to move in and I think, hope, pray that I've come to a place of piece about this period of fallowing in my life, that I enjoy fully the sabbatical that I'm on, and that this hint of the other side that is just beginning to appear is real. Maybe - just maybe. AND THEN...

sdBev wrote - It's so wonderful to have a professional tell me that I'm on the right track.

At first, I stepped back thinking that title didn't apply to me however, it IS true. I am a professional. Since my early twenties, I've worked in one area or another of design and all that information travels with me wherever I am, whatever I'm doing. I am on a sabbatical and I am carving out a new way of being and I'm not entirely sure what's next BUT... even so, I am the accumulation of my experiences and the knowledge I've gained over those years and it's up to me what I chose to do with them. I am a professional. Thanks for the confirmation Bev.

Talk soon, Myrna

Grateful - the beginning of a sense of direction

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Persona Growth - You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you. The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day. - Psalm 139

God has a plan. I have a project that feels personal and purposeful. That's exciting. It may be just a for now thing or the start of something more. I don't know. It doesn't matter. All my experiences, feelings, wondering and wanting have come together in what is and what will be. Today is delightful. The future will be amazing.