Hoarders Anonymous…

Last week I was embarking on an attic rearrange, because we are having the air-conditioning system replaced.  And the air handler part snakes through a good portion of one of my attics.  I say one of, because we have the “this old house” attic, the original, accessed through a funky closet in the guest room, which is mostly unused anymore, and the newer attic, over the addition that was put on the 100 year old house about 23 years ago.  Before I had any children.  We have in fact lived in this house since 1982, it is the only house we’ve ever owned, and there-in lies the problem…

Most of my studio surplus, looms and equipment, scrap fabric, and assorted things related to my fiber passions are stored up into the easily accessible new attic.  That is the attic where the air conditioning will be replaced.  So most of my assorted studio surplus had to be artfully rearranged to accommodate the construction.  That meant moving some rarely used items, tax records, etc, into the old part of the attic.  I hadn’t intended to do a clean out, it is on the “list” but way at the bottom, probably won’t be dealt with until I’d dead, but anyway, as I cleared away some odd boxes and trash, and there was a lot of that, I came across a torn and tattered plastic garment bag with a couple of things that surprised me.  I don’t know why I kept my Color Guard captain uniform from High School, my mom had made it, but what could I have been thinking?

There was a gown, store bought which was rare for me back in those days, I don’t have a clue why I saved it, it wasn’t anything special, but what really has me scratching my head, is the  gown from my Junior High School Prom.  I made it of course, and I haven’t a clue why I saved it either.  I always loved the floral, but the gown has no use or value, I never saved the senior prom gown, go figure, but there, in the bottom of the tattered garment bag, heaped on the floor or the attic, was my Junior Prom gown with a couple of nasty tears in it, or maybe squirrel tastings, but I’m going with tears at the moment.

Earlier in the week, I was mindlessly leafing through the latest issue of Real Simple Magazine.  It is my tea time perusal, I love the images, and the simple food, and occasionally I get to laugh over their attempts at organizing people who are clearly not of the ilk who save their Junior HS Prom gowns.  I flipped through the section on “hot trends” and came across this page.  Who knew?  And damned if that lovely floral blouse in the center from Lord and Taylor didn’t remind me of my Junior HS Prom Gown.

So what should surface in the attic?  I can’t really give it away, with the two large tears in it, and it is a lovely print, and there is a lot of fabric, so what does a hoarder do?  OK, I refuse to save it any longer so it is either use it or lose it.  I looked through the latest issue of Burda Style Magazine, and there was a lovely blouse, with a tie, that reminded me of the Lord and Taylor blouse, (that I could just buy for $79. but that isn’t the point…)

After clearing away all my critical computer work this morning, I traced off the pattern, after re-grading down a couple sizes because it seems like most of what I love in this magazine turn out to be for plus sizes.  I did a quick pattern check by stitching the pattern pieces together, and then carefully took apart the gown, until I had large pieces of cloth that I could use for the blouse pattern.  So now I have a pile of pattern pieces, all cut out, I had to piece the 45″ long collar/ties which are cut on the bias, but that won’t be a problem.  I think this will be really fun to wear though I’m not sure how much I want to tell people when they comment on it, that it was my old Jr. Prom gown.  The gown is after all 40 years old this month.

I don’t have a hoarding problem…

Stay tuned…