Day 118: Learning from books

As I have been trying to dress better these last few weeks, my mind has been recalling scenes from some of my most beloved books.

In Anne of Green Gables, Anne yearns for puffy sleeves. For a very long time she is unable to get the coveted puffy sleeves so she uses her imagination - she imagines she has puffy sleeves when all she has is plain ol' boring ones. Anne finally gets her puffy sleeves (thanks to Matthew Cuthbert's kindness) and Anne slowly evolves into a very stylish young woman. Although she uses her bosom friend, Diana (who is known to have the best taste of all the young ladies), to help her dress on special occasions.

Like Anne, I have started to use my brain. My normal way of doing things is to stand in my closet, grab a pair of jeans, a bra, pick a top based on the color & style of my bra & be done. That works really great if you are not trying to build your "style muscles".

I am not going to start wearing business wear at home, but I can put a little more thought into my Sunday outfits, my date outfits and the things I wear during the week & on the weekend.

Now, sometime during the day (or right before I fall asleep), I try to think of my clothes, my necklaces & wonder how to put it all together.

It is actually something I do with the house. When I have a problem area (like too  many coats & not an adequate area for them), I use  my imagination to rearrange, redesign and reorganize an area long before I actually make my move. Steve thinks I decide to rearrange on a whim, but I actually have put a lot of brain power on the problem for several weeks or more.

Doing my outfits this way is a lot harder - mostly because I have never done it before. But I like the exercise & I feel like I am using my inner "Anne" - and who doesn't want to be Anne of Green Gables?

My other inspiration is the March Girls from Little Women & the sequels. All of the girls, but especially Meg, were great at turning old items into new items. In one of the sequels (Jo's Boys maybe?), Meg would do a sewing circle with some of the young ladies that attended their college. She would teach them how to make their items look "high end" by either adding touches, taking away touches, dying the articles of clothing and of course by sewing & mending.

In the past, if I had the problem of a skirt I loved, but didn't think I had anything to wear with it, I would usually just give it away...oh, how many items have I wasted! Thankfully most of my clothes are hand-me-downs, so I have not lost a ton of money! :)

Now, I am trying to channel my inner Meg & recycle some of these items - find a piece of jewelry that makes it look more modern, repair items or try every shirt I own with a skirt (heheheh - you have already seen that result!) and even, take the item to the store & see if I can turn it into a complete outfit - shoes, jewelry and all.

This is a really fun side journey & I love how thoughts of my favorite characters come to mind...makes me want to reread the books!

Happy Walking!