The Mr. Rogers Effect

I've always had a healthy appreciation of and affection for special occasion clothes and/or uniforms, like vacation clothes, church clothes, golf clothes, girls night out clothes, Art teacher smocks, scrubs, lab coats, Armed Forces uniform, etc.  Am I strange in this regard? (don't answer that).  I can't blame it on Catholic school since I went to public schools, but honestly, as a kid, I wished I was one of those lucky kids who got to wear a uniform to school.  Wonder if Richard Gere had anything to do with the uniform thing?  Hmmm...

Today, I changed out of my church clothes and immediately started looking for the lightweight fleece zip-up sweater I tend to wear when I'm not planning on doing anything but stitching.  I guess you could call it my Mr. Rogers sweater.  It's my "get comfortable, I'll keep the chill off you, prop your feet up and stay awhile" sweater. 

As you can see, this sweater has my EGA chapter embroidered on the chest and my name on the opposite cuff, but sadly, I didn't put a single stitch in it. Really, I should be ashamed.  I have machine embroidery on my stitching sweater?  The nerve of me.  seriously

One of my favorite parts of attending EGA regional and national meetings is seeing all the beautiful embroidery walking around.  Really, a more accurate statement would be, I go WILD for stitched shirts, skirts, jackets and accessories.  My naturally reserved nature evaporates the second I see an amazing piece of needlework walking down the hall.  I'll chase a perfect stranger down three flights of stairs just to ask if I can take a picture.  And don't we all love to hear these words, "Oh my, that is the lovliest x-y-z I've ever seen!  May I take a picture?" 

Here's just a few of my personal favs from years past:

crazy quilt skirt, stitcher/owner unknown

Nancy Pardue's needlepoint purse

pieced and crazy quilted vest, stitcher/owner unknown

Nadine Alexander's goldwork clutch

Mike Swan's denim shirt

And this June, I hope to catch Marion Scoular in one of her white linen blouses trimmed in blackwork.  Swoon!

Doesn't all this make my little fleece jacket look pitiful!  Rest assured though, I have a plan to rectify the situation;  I wanna be like Mike (Mike Swan, that is) and beautify stitch-ify this denim shirt:

my blank canvas

If only I knew where to start....hmmm.....

Do you have a stitching uniform?  Original wearable needleart?  If so, I'd love to hear how you got started.  Any help to overcome my analysis paralysis would be greatly appreciated. 

Just for Sadie, if you are out there, how would you "pimp my shirt"?

Happy weekend friends!