A work-from-home exclusive

There aren't many outfits that I'd wear to work from home that I wouldn't also wear to work from the office, or lounge around the home, or go out in.

This, however, is one.

The long pink T-shirt is a cherished part of my wardrobe. I've worn it to the office on plenty of occasions, but never worn it around the house or out and about. I think of it exclusively as a "work shirt."

Conversely, the leggings are something I'd never ever wear at the office. Even though I occasionally go to work with leggings under a tunic, or as a substitute for tights with a dress, the capri length really limits their usability. The proportions would be awkward if I paired them with a dress of any appreciable length (remember that one time I tried that back in 2012?), but a barely-long-enough top and skin-tight leggings are an office no-no.

Fortunately the home office has a looser dress code, so I combined the top and the leggings, added a matching pair of ivory ballet flats, and wore the whole getup with pride!

Honestly, capri leggings are far from the height of fashion these days (another reason I'd never wear this outfit anywhere but at home), but I must say that to my own eyes, it's a great look overall.

Week 8: A Farewell to Arm Coverage

I haven't been posting my work-from-home outfits as the novelty factor wore off and they basically became variations on a tired theme, but this week I'm back! There are exciting developments afoot! This week, as the weather finally, hesitantly, approached something resembling warm, I got to wear short sleeves!

On Wednesday, it was a pink and red floral number, topped off with my still-new-and-exciting dusty pink duster! The color coordination came as a pleasant surprise even to me, the person who put it together!

On Thursday, my gold cardigan made its second appearance, over an off-white T-shirt and my still-new-and-exciting refashioned gold pants for another day of monochromatic dressing.

Both those days, the afternoon got warm enough that I was able to discard the cardigans for a few hours and enjoy freely flailing my limbs! But Friday was truly special. The forecast predicted 86 degrees, and I marked the occasion with my first dress since the first week of April! I didn't even need a cardigan in the morning!

Usually, by this time of year, I've already had my spring wardrobe out for several weeks and sometimes (as in 2018) even already begun wearing my summer clothes.

This year has been the cold and miserable exception. My usual cutoff for the Spring Switch, seven consecutive days of high temps above 59, has still not actually occurred—meaning that if I were following the rules, I'd still be decked out in my winter wardrobe of cable knits and furs.

But I haven't been following the rules. I went ahead and unpacked my spring clothes sometime in mid-April, as we'd had enough days in the high 60's and low 70's that I'd started re-wearing T-shirts. I'd also run out of interesting outfits for any weather condition, since wearing nothing but house clothes has effectively reduced my wardrobe to less than a third its usual size. So out came the transitional clothing, even though plenty of chilly days awaited!

There's no reason I shouldn't be able to fashionably enjoy whatever warm weather we have, whenever we have it! Following a set of arbitrary rules is needlessly restrictive and prevents me from living my life to the fullest! Rules are for the repressed! Plus, it's pretty clear that climate change is the new normal and I can no longer count on consistent weather patterns to guide me in my clothing selections.

So I think I've given up on the rules entirely. I revise them and make exceptions so often; I may as well just abolish them. From now on, I'll use my own good judgment as to when it's appropriate to rotate my collection. Rules? They're more like guidelines.

Facemask, but make it fashion

Never in my wildest dreams did I think a surgical-inspired facemask would become part of my daily attire, but here we are. In the state of Maryland, it is now required by law (or is it executive order? Facemask, Fahcemask, I guess) to wear a face covering any time you will be interacting with people in public, and it looks like that's going to be the norm for quite some time.

So, since I'll probably be wearing facemasks pretty regularly for the foreseeable future, and since all my usual avenues for creative sartorial expression have been cut off, it should surprise no one that "Make fancy facemask" became a must-do project for me.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, back when it felt like the sky was falling and there was a shortage of everything, I learned that some home sewists were starting to make fabric facemasks to help out people on the front lines. I jumped on the opportunity to join them and soon found a local group that was sewing and collecting masks for distribution in the area. So I've been sewing masks for months now and have actually learned to do it tolerably well (much different from my usual haphazard DIYs!). I am by no means fast (I usually manage about 6 finished masks per week!) but I now feel quite confident in my ability to sew a face mask from scratch!

I kept several of my early prototypes and "mistakes", so I have a decent-sized collection, but they don't make me feel good when I wear them. And in these depressing days, you have to do whatever you can to feel good. If that means wearing a festive facemask to the grocery store, then so be it! I debated long and hard about how I wanted to make my own personal facemask fun—rhinestones? glitter? graphics? trims? The answer came to me in the form of a ruined pillow.

Back when my dog had fleas last fall, I packed up most of the soft objects in my house and put them in the shed so I wouldn't have to flea-spray them every week. My shed doesn't leak, so I'm not quite sure how it happened, but when I finally brought them back inside last month, I found that several items had mold and water damage—including a pretty cool quilt that folds into a pillow. The stains didn't wash out, but fortunately, only the exterior pocket (the piece that helps it become a pillow) was ruined. I was able to remove that and salvage the quilt.

The fabric is lots of fun, featuring line-drawn forest creatures peeking out from an array of graphic flowers. It's just the kind of whimsical thing that I want on my face! Here's a picture of the front of the pillow pocket after I'd already taken it apart and cannibalized some of the fabric. The larger piece was just big enough to make a double-layer facemask!

This isn't a mask-sewing tutorial (there are plenty out there now!) so I won't be going into the details of how I constructed my mask, but it was based on the "Type A - Normal Face Mask" pattern from Craft Passion. I've tried several face mask patterns, but this one is my favorite based on fit and ease of sewing (especially if you don't bother with making casing for the elastic and just attach it directly!). It also has variations, so you can find one that best suits your sewing and wearing style. My one warning for this mask pattern, is it does seem to run small. I'm a woman with a fairly small head, and I wear the "man"-sized mask. For larger adults, this pattern might not actually be big enough, but I'm sure the front curve could just be extended if necessary.

With my newly salvaged fabric, I was able to make a mask with one side prominently featuring an owl, and the other side featuring a rabbit! It was reversible! [Pro Tip: Don't reverse your medical facemask without washing it first!]

But there was a problem—it was also prominently featuring the same stains that had marred it when it was a pillow. Embellishments to the rescue! Not only would they be able to hide the ugly parts, they'd also do that little something extra to make the mask a work of art!

From the remaining scraps, I cut out a few of the printed flowers. I didn't want them to fray, so I put permanent fabric glue around their outside edges on the back. You can just barely see it as a glossy sheen in the photo.

I wanted the flowers to really pop, so I hand-stitched around their centers and gathered the thread, causing the cloth to pucker.

Then, I opened up the bottom seam of the mask (if I'd been thinking in advance, I wouldn't have sewn the bottom to begin with, but we improvise here!) and sewed the flowers to the owl layer directly on top of the worst stains. I put more flowers on the rabbit layer in different positions, purely for show.

Then I repaired the bottom seam and was good to go!

Owl Side                              Rabbit Side

On the first day I wore the new "fashion" mask in public, I really pulled out all the stops! I put on eye makeup for the occasion and boots with actual heels! I don't think I've worn anything but flats since March, so it was indeed a thrill! I rocked the mask at Home Depot and the Post Office, but sadly did not get any comments. People are so much less friendly when we're all wearing masks. Oh well...maybe I'll try again the next time I venture out of my house in another 2 weeks!

Velvet leggings

Feast your eyes on another work-from-home outfit I'd never consider wearing to work-from-the-office....Because it features leggings as pants!

These blue velvet leggings are gloriously glam. As soon as I decided to wear them, I knew I wanted to wear them with black, for the starkest contrast possible with their shiny surface. I tried on every black top I own, but ultimately decided that my cape-like cardigan provided the drama factor I was looking for.

Ordinarily I only wear leggings with fully crotch-covering tops, but for these, I had to make an exception. The high waist and zipper closure was just begging to be noticed, and they didn't have the problems with excessive clinginess that makes most leggings too revealing. So I tucked my tank top inside and strutted my high-fashion stuff. The pom-poms on the shoes definitely added to the effect.

Now that I don't have any showplace for my outfits, I get inordinately excited whenever anyone sees them—anyone at all. Yesterday, I just about brimmed over with delight when my roommate complimented my leggings...in front of her mom, who happened to be visiting. An adoring audience of two! That's what Unfashionistas live for!