Have you been making anything lately? 

After a fairly long making-things-for-fun drought, I’ve dipped my toes back in.  Recently I spent some time sketching out, drafting, and making a backless dress that I’ve had in my mind for some time.  It’s been exciting for all of the reasons…I get to dust off my sketchbook, flex my problem-solving muscles, and watch fabric magically turn into the image in my head.  (or very nearly so)

This dress has been kicking around in my mind, asking to be made, for months.   Only to be pushed aside time and time again.

And, it’s a little riske’ for me!  Being backless and all.  And that’s always exciting.

One of those pieces of clothing that makes you acutely aware of your body, but not in the annoying fiddly, this pinches or falls down kind of way.  But in the oh..look at me, such a bold woman to be strutting around in this backless dress kind of way!

You know what I mean? 

It’s the feeling I used to get when I started wearing jaunty hats or dramatic scarves for the first time.  The feeling that maybe, just maybe, I was an imposter, posing as a human able to express myself so freely.  I mean, just who do I think I am?!

I had that feeling the first few times I dared wear such things, until, presto, I magically no longer felt like an imposter and those pieces, that way of expressing myself, became right.  Once my bravery caught up to my desires. 

I faked it until I made it.

And that’s exactly what I did with that perfectly green, backless dress with a drapey cowl neck.  I wore it, feeling like a wee bit of an imposter, AND feeling full of giddy excitement…until I no longer worried whether or not I could “pull it off”.  I’m pleased to say that took a mere matter of minutes.  Truly.  And that’s a testament to the work I’ve done to allow who I am on the inside to show up on the outside.  Maybe not simply allow, but insist.

What’s hard for you to wear or do because you feel like an imposter?  Hit reply and tell me!

In Kinship,

Tina