Retail needs therapy.

I have been insanely busy, everybody -- in fact, I think we're all insanely busy right now. Karen's leaving New York this weekend and coming back to California, Kati's been working overtime for the past few weeks, and I am all in a fluster this week and next.

This week has been scorchingly hot, and so I went with my mom to Macy's to look for cute cheap summer dresses. We went to the ladies' dress department to see what they had in terms of summer dresses. Now, I may not be sixteen anymore, but I'm also not really ready for the ladies' department either, especially if I'm looking for something lightweight for wearing on brain-melting hot summer days.

And I was really disappointed at what I found, which was a whole bunch of nice AUTUMN dresses. In the first week of July! I know I've been getting emails about "end of season sales" and bikinis going on final sale -- in late June! Since when does bikini season end in June? Doesn't it START in June or, okay, Memorial Day? When it's the first week of July, it's not time to start bringing out the fall stuff, especially when there's a heat wave going on, all right?

Plus there's that whole issue of nothing ever fitting right. Lately more and more I've been going to shops and having the desire to buy something, but everything fits so poorly and is so non-standard fitting that it just frustrates me more. I tried on a dozen dresses and only two fit. I then tried on a pair of shorts that I couldn't even fasten up. Awesome. Oh, wait, no.

So I'm there presumably to find something cute, and I was just getting more and more frustrated at the whole thing -- the lack of selection, the dresses that didn't fit, and just the experience of being in a dressing room in general always kind of gets on my nerves.

It got to the point where I was standing in the dressing room grumbling, "I should just SEW IT MYSELF." Sewing isn't at the top of my crafty list (that would be knitting), but I can do it.

And so I got to digging around looking for vintage patterns. Lanetzliving.net has an incredible selection of patterns at great prices, plus they're searchable by bust size (which is awesome). I've been obsessed with shirt dresses lately, so I ordered a pattern for one (alas, once patterns are bought, the pictures come down). Some other shirt-y dresses I love are this zip-up jersey dress and this collared dress/tunic (it also comes with wide-leg pants!).

Needess to say, Etsy is also a great resource for finding vintage patterns too. I ordered three from gremlygirl.etsy.com, including a cute romper/jumpsuit pattern (WHAT, I KNOW, OKAY. The heat we've been having lately makes me INSANE). Another seller with excellent variety is vintagevice.etsy.com. Lots of good stuff to be had on Etsy!

I've also been really interested in the works of Machiko Kayaki, the Japanese designer whose dresses and skirts are so beautiful and simple that I feel like I could actually do it. Here's a Flickr pool of some of the Kayaki designs that bloggers have done, including Mariko of Super Eggplant. Mariko also explains how to work with Japanese sewing books, which is a lot of help even to someone like me who knows Japanese.

For something that doesn't require translation, I've been highly tempted by Sew U, the Built by Wendy book. I know it'll take a lot more thought and work than just cutting out a pattern and going for it, but it would also be an interesting project (because that's all I need right now, another project!). That said, now that they've opened up a boutique in the Mission, I may very well just go there instead. Either way, I definitely want to check it -- the book, the boutique, or both -- out.

Are you feeling flustered with retail lately? Is it the sizing, the weird seasons, or the whole experience of it? What's your solution, if you're not thinking of running to the sewing machine (and Britex) like me?

image from lanetzliving.com