Sunday, 20th February

Today has been a most productive day - I've created a whole outfit. But I wouldn't wear it all together.



I generally have a mental list of projects that I want to begin. The alteration of my Viyella skirt has been a 'to-do' since I bought it in 2009. Today I finally completed the project - winner.




The skirt was bought from my favourite charity shop in Crookes, Sheffield. The RSPCA shop sells anything (and I mean anything) for 50p/£1. This beauty was bought for the low low price of £1. It wears a little high on the waist and the length was frumpy but the 'eternal optimist' in me (at least when it comes to sewing) said "Buy it, you can alter that". Its taken a year and a half to get round to (the sewing machine has obviously helped).

As you can see from the picture, the electric blue in it is great - not a frumpy colour, just a frumpy length. So I pinned a mini-skirt length into it, cut off the excess and hemmed that skirt into a cute tartan mini. For £1. This was most definitely a bargain.


A note on the picture, taking photos of yourself, by yourself looks a hash. Hopefully, once I find a willing volunteer and better light, I'll post a better picture.




Following the success of the tartan mini, I was emboldened to try a more recent idea. Following the explosion of lace in fashion, I thought a plain-grey-jumper-with-sexy-lace-back-panel would be a good make. I bought a simple grey longsleeved top (its fairly thin, my sewing machine doesn't handle thicker fabrics). from Primark (an amazing resource for clothes you may ultimately destroy in your experiements) and some lace from the sewing shop in my hometown on a recent visit. (On a side note, I adore this sewing shop in Worksop. After collecting the oh-so expensive fabrics from John Lewis, the sewing shop is a godsend to the purse.)


With the aid of greaseproof paper to sketch a template, I cut out a section from the back of my jumper top and placed in a slightly larger piece of lace. I then pinned it all together, sewed it up using a simple stitch and cut off the excess lace. So simple, so current, so cheap. The top cost £3, the lace cost £2.50 for a metre. Something incredibly similar sells in River Island for £16.99. Nuff said.




I even cobbled together a simple headband to complete the outfit. Again, I saw something in New Look which inspired me and its a mere fraction of the price, I have reams of lace left over. As I said, a very productive day - and then I wore my lacey outfit down the pub quiz and it was well received.