A Year Older But Not A Day Wiser

It's my 23rd birthday and it feels like the beginning of something. I'm starting to think about clothing designs that I can try making to produce and sell, but I don't want to rush into things and I'm looking forward to playing around and having fun with it. Don't expect to be seeing me rocking London Fashion Week any time soon but I want to stretch my pattern cutting muscles again.

I like to take any opportunity to dress up, whether it's a party, a day out, or a big event, and I love seeing other people who are the same. One of the advantages of sewing is that if you're willing to put in the time and effort you can create almost anything and you can make it a lot cheaper than you would ever buy it in the shop. You pay in man hours.

(Ayumi Hamasaki Source)

But if you don't have the time or the skill, what do you do? Do you throw on something ready to wear? Do you make one dress that you can use with different accent pieces over and over again?

Personally I don't feel happy with ether of those. It's great to sew to your strengths and restrictions but everyone I spend time with knows that I sew and if I'm going to a big event I want to look special. I'm getting away with wearing my 40s dress today because my parents have never seen it before and they don't care as much about what I wear as long as I'm here, but I'd love to have a dress specifically for the day if I'm going to have a party. I know I'm not the only one. It seems like every time I go to Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing Victoria is making a special event dress.

(crystal wedding dress source)

I wonder about what people who don't sew do? Is there less pressure to look different every time? Do people pay less attention to your clothes when they don't have it in the back of their mind that you make some of them? Do most people just not care?

I was Googling birthday dresses (because I live off pictures of pretty clothing) and discovered that some people actually hire there dress for a big event. I have to admit, I don't really get it. It's not that it's been worn by someone else, because I'm a charity shop fiend. It's not that wearing something a bit above your price range doesn't call to me, because if I won the lottery or struck it rich tomorrow I'd live in couture. Maybe I just want to own and hold and have something for ever? Maybe that's why my house is full of junk.

What do you guys think? Would you ever rent a dress?