Clothes for the big talk

I leave tomorrow for the Sunstone symposium I mentioned a few weeks ago, to give some presentations on parenting a child with special needs and teaching teenagers. I’m going to be there with some very well respected experts, so I had to shake off my mom-frump and find something to wear that was stylish without being ridiculous, and serious without being pretentious. As a woman with some serious curves, I am a major proponent of the pencil skirt, and if there is ever a time to rock the sexy librarian look, I’d say it’s as a layperson at an academic conference.

This is Butterick pattern B5429, a really great pattern. I ended up modifying it a little because the waist went in rather a lot, but it was easily done. The fabric I chose is a little busy to be ideal for this pattern, you miss some really cool pleating that makes a couple of pockets, but the home dec weight fabric makes a really lovely structured skirt.

Since I have really long arms and fingers, I always go for a big substantial bracelet. After years of mourning that I wasn’t more graceful and petite, I just learned to embrace what works for me and what a difference that has made. When I actually take the trouble to dress decently, I’m almost always wearing either a collection of bracelets or a big fat chunky cuff. This was just a simple three strands of these green glass beads that I tied onto a vintage clasp.

And to finish it off, the necklace I started a few weeks ago. I inherited all these vintage costume pearls from Bear’s grandma when she died, so I just used them altogether, every size and color, and tied knot after knot after knot to keep them all in place.

The rest of my outfits are storebought, after a sewing attempt that went swimmingly other than the small catch that it was absolutely unflattering on me. I might have to pick that one back up some day, but it was not the right project for deadline sewing.