My, how quickly that 2-month pledge flew by! Let's do it again, sorta.

At the beginning of May, I embarked upon a 2-month wardrobe shopping hiatus, in conjunction with a 2-month Wardrobe Refashion pledge.

The hiatus was actually pretty easy.

If you saw the original pledge post, you may remember that I allowed myself some long-thought-out caveats. Of the seven items that had been in the "These purchases are permitted to break my 2-month wardrobe shopping hiatus" list in the sidebar, I only purchased three: #1 "sandals for planned beach vacation", #2 "one wardrobe item of any kind when I'm on my upcoming roadtrip vacation through Quebec City and Montreal in Canada," and #3 "undergarments." In truth, items #1, 2, and 3 were all that I expected to end up purchasing, because items # 4, 5, 6, and 7 have been on my shopping wishlist for a couple of years, to no avail... I'm very particular.

Oh, and what I purchased for item #2, in case you're wondering: these shoes!


I had figured that my planned splurge in Canada would be something, you know, Canada-ish. Maybe a Canada-themed baby tee, or Inuit moccasins, or something made by a hippie artist/craftsperson in Montréal or Québec City. But, nope. I realized that the trip would be a lot happier if I had some footwear that would be better for walking than any of my beloved Danskos. Danskos are great for standing in all day, but not so much for intense walking. But I have an inconvenient aversion to wearing athletic shoes for occasions other than, you know, athletic. These Mephisto Allrounders were highly praised by a colleague who had worn hers for traipsing all over Scotland and much of Western Europe. And OMG (yes, I did just use teen text-messaging slang), they're actually kinda cute. So on our third day in Montréal, I located the nearest source for Mephistos, impressed the salesman with my passable French ("Ah, vous parlez bien pour une americaine!"), and walked out with these. I was mildly disappointed that I didn't invest in something locally-produced, but was glad to have acquired these shoes without breaking my personal wardrobe shopping hiatus pledge.

Joining Wardrobe Refashion was an even more enjoyable experience than I had expected. It's a very welcoming, supportive, international community. I feel like I really belong there. So much so that... get this... I was asked to be the Featured Refashionista for June! I answered some questions and shared some photos in an online interview, and what you see there is the result. Sallymandy (who introduced me to WR), it took so much self-control for me to not tell you as soon I was asked if I was willing to be interviewed! I was positively giddy. Since this post is sorely lacking in the eye candy department, I'll share some images that are also shared in the interview:



I tried to do a new Wardrobe Refashion post every week during my pledge, which meant forcing myself to actually finish and document at least one project every week, which was the HARDEST PART. In case you'd like to peruse some of them, here are all my WR posts, some of which I've linked to previously:

• some simple tweaking
• I finally finished dad's pajamas.
• It gets all sappy and sentimental.
• Faking a bow, weighting a hem with ball chain, and keeping bra straps in place.
• Subtle changes.
• The last-minute dupioni dress adventure.
• an "ease-y" alteration, and a funky sweater-to-cardi modification
• I can't decide if it's an alteration or a refashion, but whatever...

So, big surprise (not really):

I've renewed my Wardrobe Refashion pledge for another two months, through the end of August.

But I'm done with the personal wardrobe shopping hiatus. So, what does this mean?

• I'm now allowed to buy post-consumer items (i.e. used, such as from a thrift store, vintage shop, or ebay), whereas under my personal wardrobe shopping hiatus, neither used nor new was allowed. But still, no new clothing purchases are allowed. And I'm taking away my list of exceptions, so that I can't use them as a crutch.
• The rules governing the Wardrobe Refashion pledge make exceptions for things that are tricky to find in good condition post-consumer, and/or really hard to make or refashion yourself, such as: shoes, undergarments, special needs clothing (such as for sports), and employment-related apparel. This means that if I had only been doing the Wardrobe Refashion pledge and not the personal shopping hiatus over these past two months, then those items #1-3 that I purchased (shoes and undergarments) would have been irrelevant, because they're allowed under the WR pledge.
• You're also allowed one "Get out of Jail Free card" every two months, meaning that you can slip-up and buy one new article of clothing in each two-month pledge period. But you have to confess on the WR blog. I'm saving my Get out of Jail Free card in case I find any of items #4-7 from my previous list of exceptions.
• I'll keep trying to finish, document, and post a project to the Wardrobe Refashion blog every week, but I'm not going to be so hard on myself about it from now on. I figure I've earned my stripes.

So, off I go...