Check My Math.

Believe it or not I worked in academic medical research for a damn long time. I say this because I am truly math challenged. Money is a whole other matter, that part of my brain works fine! The rest looks at numbers and goes to sleep.

The point of all that was I have been writing out the combinations possible with my choices. There are going to be a lot! I wanted to get a rough number of just how many since I've already got a hand cramp and I'm barely done with the outfits that start with pants as the bottom.

So here is what I figured out: 3 bottoms x 5 tops is 15 outfits of 1 top and 1 bottom. Each of those outfits can be worn with the cardigan for another 15 (30 total) or the sleeveless turtleneck sweater for another 15 (now 45 total). The T-shirt and a bottom can be worn under any of the tunics, of which there are 4 x 3 bottoms for 12 more outfits (57 total). The wrap dress can be worn alone or with either the cardi or the T-neck over it so I'm up to (60 total) outfits. The drape-y shirt, black t-shirt, blue silk tunic, and the b/w tunic, can all be worn under the dress (64 total). All of those, minus the t-shirt, and the denim tunic can be worn over the dress for 4 more outfits (68 total). Now the dress is on the shortish side, a little south of mid-thigh so I could wear it alone or with another bottom under it.

And yes I was the girl who wore shorts under my skirts at school. I was a fiend for the monkey bars and the boys used to look up girls skirts and I played a mean game of tag with diving tackles and everything. I also had a mother who was a debutante. There was a lot of fashion we did not see eye to eye on.

Anyway, back to the numbers! So if we pair the dress with each of the bottoms we are up to (71 total). But I can still wear the lighter tops under the dress so that brings us to (75 total) Oh good Lord! I am dreading the pictures of all of this!

The leather sleeved cardigan

This is a key piece in my classier (but still me!) wardrobe. It is based on an Eileen Fisher piece Currently on sale at Neiman Marcus for $278. I don't doubt that it is beautifully made but that is still a little rich for my blood.

Here are the pictures of the front and back:

It wasn't till I pulled these images that I realized the sleeves aren't entirely in leather. That could be a cost saving measure or/and make the sweater easier to fit. It totally solves my "Yikes, I don't know if I have enough lambskin to make the sleeves" problem. I have a Jan Bones T-shirt pattern that has a side panel that continues up the underarm and becomes the bottom part of the sleeve arm. If you HATE fitting sleeves into the armscye this is a great pattern. I've used it a bunch and like it, don't know why I didn't think of doing that with this.

It even has a jacket pattern that I could do with a crew neck. I really need to pull this out and look it over! What I was thinking I would use was Amy Barickman's cardigan pattern from her Magic Pattern book. This shows all the different iterations of that basic pattern. I was thinking the one second from the left would work well.

I like the length, though for someone so short I am incredibly long waisted (with shorter legs than a Hobbit!) so as much as I might like the length it may look awful on me. In my dreams, I have that model's legs, in reality, not even close! She made it up in a woven here and there is no closure. I am thinking to use a piece of merino wool knit for the body but I am undecided on the closure issue.

I am tired of never being able to close my sweaters and have tons of fly away front sweaters, but... I never see me wearing it closed, I just want to know I can which is stupid really. I know I don't want buttons and button holes but a zip? Maybe? Okay I am off to look at that Jan Bones pattern again!