Too Precious

In Felicia's blog post and in the comments there is mention of fabric that is "too precious" to use and finished garments that are too precious to wear. I rarely have the former but sometimes do have the latter. So I thought I would share a few of my "too precious" garments.

I don't think I ever blogged these first two. The color in these pictures is awful, especially the first one. It has been raining so I couldn't take pics outside. The ceiling light has CFLs that are supposed to mimic the color of incandescents and they ordinarily seem pretty close but in pictures they really throw off the color. But anyway...

This fabric features several of my favorite things: music, tea, and roses and the colors are fantastic - a sort of faded red-orange, peachy pink, ivory, with little touches of sea green. The complicated print has opera posters, fragments of musical scores, writing that I can't make out (possibly poetry? Or is it love letters?) roses, and the words "Tea for Two". I absolutely love it and I only wear it about once a year.

This next one is both beautiful and sentimental for me.

I bought this gorgeous fabric about six years ago and sewed it almost right away. I knew my mom would love it too and I was looking forward to showing it off to her but I didn't get the chance. Now? It doesn't really make me all that sad anymore but I still don't wear it except maybe once a year mainly because the fabric is just too gorgeous. I sort of wish I had used a different pattern. This one is okay. It used to be my favorite shirt pattern but not so much anymore.

Here's one that I made and blogged about last summer

Since it's still relatively new I'm not really sure if it's going to be "too precious" but I'm leaning that way. When it gets warmer though I am going to try to wear it and all of these too precious things more often. Here's one more in the category of "might be too precious," originally blogged about here.

What is it that makes something too precious to wear? It's love and fear. Really, really loving a garment and fearing that something terrible will happen to it. Besides just simply knowing that the more I wear them the sooner they will wear out, I have visions of clothing disasters involving barbecue sauce or blueberry pie filling. I worry that I will be in an accident and they will have to cut my clothes off of me, which is silly because in that case I would have a lot more to worry about than just my clothes but that's where my mind goes. But I have all these other clothes that I wear every week, that I have worn dozens of times without ever having anything at all happen to them so why worry? Why not enjoy the clothes I love the most. I'm going to try. I really am. I keep telling myself that but maybe this year...