October 21, 2015

New considerations...

I haven't been sewing or blogging quite as much as usual lately. Partly, that happened just because I've been busy with other things but there is another reason too. 
I'm second-guessing some of the plans I announced earlier. Obviously, there turned out to be other wardrobe needs than just pretty vintage style dresses, but that is always to be expected.

The real issue which slows me down at the moment is this: I have been rock climbing occasionally for a few years but since about April of this year, I'm more serious about it. As in: I'm at the climbing hall two or three times each week. For climbing or bouldering. 
I'm really enjoying it and I am getting better. I hope to learn lead climbing in spring. 

However, all this sporting activity is not without effect. It was not a problem that the few pairs of trousers which had become too tight last year now fit again... But there are also some t-shirts on which the shoulder seam looks a bit short now and some other clothes feel a bit tight across the back. 
Fortunately, all my favorite dresses still fit. For how long is the question. It is to be expected that more climbing will give me stronger muscles in general and in my arms and shoulders in particular. 
Of course I can make new slopers to fit the new, more sporty, me but it seems too early to do that. 
And then there is the matter of style. Over the past years, I have pretty much perfected a look which suits my proportions (at least, I think so) but new muscles could make a real change there. Will my signature blend of 1950's and contemporary fashion still work then? 
Only time will tell...

3 comments:

  1. I know this feeling! Lately I've had to clear out a lot of my old wardrobe items as when I made those things I wasn't doing crossfit - after 2 years of it now though, things dont fit the same in the shoulders and hips. Its made me reevaluate my style a little - mostly cos I'm annoyed that I have to re-make a bunch of pencil skirts so I'm wearing looser fits around the hips.
    The good thing is - with a fitter body, your waist will stay small and you've got a well proportioned figure which will stay in proportion, its just the measurements may change.
    I'm struggling with coming to terms with being the heaviest I've ever been - is it all muscle? I don't feel heavier!
    I guess a solution would be making things that are less fitted in areas that still might change - more cap sleeved, cut-in-one or sleeveless tops. At least they will still be wearable in the foreseeable future!

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  2. Understood, and approaching it from the other side: my 50's are not being kind to my wardrobe. I am no longer the shape or person I was, and the clothes I wore no longer fit me or suit me (my current design work is all about incorporating ice packs into slimfitting "shoulder-wear"). And this is not occasion to make a whole new wardrobe; it's rethinking the whole sewing/blogging/sewing cycle.

    The advantage we have is that we can make the clothes we want to the specifics we need. And a shoulder ease adjustment has always been in my fit profile.

    That is the most splendid photo I've seen in a sewing blog in a long time! Climb on!

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  3. My dd has been climbing for years and it definitely has an impact on her shoulders and upper chest as well as flat abs and legs. So, smaller waist, and wider shoulders. Even though she wears a 32DD bra, don't know what that is in Europe, but large, but her upper bust measurement is only 2" less than her bust. She's been doing this for years, so it's not a sudden change except for the semester she spent at an outdoor school during high school and climbed, backpacked and hike for a semester. Her pants were very tight in the thighs!

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