Away with the Turtleneck.

Can I ask you one other thing?
                   

What's with the turtlenecks?
                  

- It's the middle of summer.

- Seriously...
           

...why do you care what I wear?

- Just curious.
                

I like them. I've always liked them,

and I'm just a turtleneck kind of gal.
                   

You never get hot?            

- No.

- Never?                   

Not lately

Can anyone tell me what movie this is from? I just love this scene, suck a classic. 

I'm not against turtlenecks per se, but this sweater was taking it to a new level. 

This boat ofa neckline was impossible to tuck into a jacket, looked messy regardless of 

how meticulously I rolled and attempted to fold it into submission, so it had to go. 

Likewise with the sleeves. I am all for trumpet sleeves on elegant dresses and shirts, but on a 

thick woolen thing? Not so much. Off with the sleeves.

But resewing is more than just removing, we need to design and add things as well. 

My friend had given me a bag of baby clothes (such cute fabrics!) so I took 

the trouser-legs from a toddler outfit and attached them to the end of the sweater 

sleeves. 

Adorable. Just call me Lulu. 

Now I both wear it and love it. What more can you wish for in a simple sweater?

Zipper Time

Who? Who is designing all these clothes covered in visible zippers? Visible is the operative word her. I've spent a good portion of my life trying to master the art of hiding the damn thing, then all of a sudden they are displayed in full view. Up the legs, across the ass, three of them in a row, creating a scar down the back of an otherwise beautiful dress. Are we all dressing for a Dr Frankenstein and Mr Scissorhand convention? All I know is that I don't care of them. Just how I don't care for the sudden appearance of studs on everything either. Everything from keychains to g-strings are 'decorated' in little studs, making us look like wanna-be punks and/or Liberace . What works on one piece of clothing, let's say a dog-collar, doesn't necessarily have the desired effect on a windbreaker. The studs just makes the clothes look confused and bi-polar.

But, back to the zipper. I was recently given a lovely powder pink blouse. I'm still on a shop-stop mission, so hand-me-downs are even more appreciated than before. This blouse however, had one of those dreaded zippers. Down the side, serving no purpose other than scratch my skin every time I moved. So I removed it, sewed the blouse back up, but now it was too tight. It was like wearing a snake skin or a really big sock. Neither was the look I was going for, so I ripped up both side-seams and inserted a piece of lace. I've seen that done before, probably on one of Lady Mary's dresses. It looks good, noble almost. Playful yet decent.

Once done, I had to wear it when I went to a photography exhibition at Somerset House, followed by a Flat White hunt in Soho. It's the kind of thing you do wearing inserted lace.

This is a before picture, but I forgot to capture the zipper. It's there thought, on the left hand side. 

Not only is the zipper gone and lace in place, but I added a flattering pleat along the waist. Fitted is a good thing. 

And a close up. It was surprisingly easy, under an hour for sure. I've spent more time looking  for clothes. 

Vintage Bride

I think brides-to-be are really catching on to the fact that you don't have to spend your entire inheritance on a dress you will only wear once. I'n not suggesting the pendulum should swing all the way to something cheap and unworthy, but don't confine yourself to the up-scale Bridal Boutiques. Also, the poles are melting...just saying, no harm in buying second hand.

A colleague of mine revealed that she was eloping to Vegas.

Whenever someone tell me they are getting married, my mind immediately jumps to the dress. Will it be a vintage dress, modern look, scaled down, Ladi Di? With only a few weeks to go, she still hadn't found a dress and was kind of giving up on the whole thing. Not on my watch! I gently suggested we could hit some of my favourite vintage stores after work. You never know, we could find a real treasure.

After trying on a couple of maybes we went to "What the Butler Wore" near Waterloo Station.
(www.whatthebutlerwore.co.uk)
The owner was jut about to close, but she showed us some dresses.
There is was. Elegant, timeless, perfect in every way. Price: £60. It's like they were giving it away.

I know what you are thinking, that it's a bit formal for Vegas. That's what we were thinking too. 

However, picture it without the long sleeves. Better? All of a sudden it's a gorgeous Audrey Hepburn dress. It'f funny how one small alteration changes the whole thing. 

Look at the beautiful bead-work, the classic shape, and best of all; it's made from white velvet. I was really looking forward to bringing it back to my sewing room. 

All I did was cut of the sleeves about 1 inch past the seam. Then I made biastape from white silk which I use to hem the new sleeves with. 

Not only was it a perfect dress, it was also a perfect fit. She looks positively gorgeous in it. I think the husband agrees with me, just look at that smile on his face.  

..................ah................

How to walk comfortably in skirts

Do you have a lot of skirts you never wear? I do. Do you hang on to them because you really do like them but you can't figure out why you don't use them more often? Me too. 

The problem is often the length. You look in the mirror and it looks perfect. Start moving. Is it restricting does it feel like your legs are wearing a straight jacket? That was the case with a few of my skirts. 

A good friend casually mentioned that she always raises the hem of her skirts a few inches, if not they are so irritating to walk in. This person is  a great lover of sports and outdoor activities, no wonder she would pay attention to this.  It's so obvious, and yet it had never crossed my mind that the solution was so simple. 

The pictures below shows some of the skirts I have hemmed. Little changes makes all the difference. 

 

This one has so many nice details like the buttons, the belt-loops, I didn't want to make any other alterations. 

Long and plain. 

Nothing wrong with a little lace, it takes away the formal look of this particular skirt. 

Here is your typical office skirt, even though the colour is slightly more interesting than black or grey. 

After raising the hem and sewing on some flowers, it looks like this:

 That is just so much cuter! And it is really fun to wear something no one else has, something you designed and put together with your own hands.

This is the last skirt for today. Shiny, silky, fabric, but there is that annoying length again. So, up a few inches, and I added a double hem.  Result:

So why don't fix up some of your own skirts? It's one of the easiest things you can do. With very little effort you have a whole selection of brand new skirts, without spending a penny. 

The dilemma with vintage clothes

Should vintage clothes be preserved at all cost, not altered in any ways, even if it means I would never use them? I have this crazy long skirt, probably from the 70's. and even though I really do adore it, there is no way I can bring myself to wear it. It's not really my style, but I'm hesitant to destroy something that is in fact a fashion heirloom. On the other hand, what use is it just lying in a drawer? Ponder, ponder....

After much back and forth, I finally decided to alter it. Even thought I love the end result, I'm still not sure I did the right thing. See what you think:

There is no question about it, this is one weird skirt. It could come back in fashion, I could  come to love it as it is. Or not. These things are so hard to tell. 

To get the shape I wanted I not only cut off half the length, I also took it in quite a bit. Then it looked like this:

Now it's perfect! I wear it a lot, nothing is softer than velvet and wool. If you read the next post, you will see what the left-over fabric got used for. 

Coat or jacket?

 This is a lovely coat. Red, buttons up all the way, sort of a classic design. Could my dislike of this coat simply be that I've had it for too long? Almost 10 years to be exact.
Or, is the coat is in fact way too long and hopelessly boring?

It reaches to mid-ankle, something that makes it cumbersome to walk in. There is simply too much fabric to deal with. And come to think of it, the coat has clearly not been design with a specific season in mind. I can't wear a sweater under it, so it's not a good winter coat. On the other hand, the lining is really thick, so it's obviously not a spring coat either.

What to do? Change it of course. In this case, from coat to jacket.

I cut off the collar, the skirt part and got rid of the belt. Then I sewed on a green edge on the neck, but what next? I didn't want an 80's cropped jacked, but wasn't sure how to precede, or with what. I needed a vision.....Of course! I had to transform this outdated coat to the fabulous plaid jacket I had seen in a thrift shop in Ashland Oregon. Last week I cut off a velvet/plaid skirt, so I had all this left over fabric. I love it when it all comes together. 

Now my jacket looked like this:

As you can see it's still some hours away from being done but at least I knew what I was doing. 

One skirt fitting, new buttons, some hand stitching, and a bow later, it looked like this:

The bow in the back was originally a 60's hair-clip, but I thought it would look better on this jacket than in my hair. 

Now I know what to wear when I take the train to Glasgow in a few weeks.

Plaid and shortbread, here I come!

Easy fixes for four jackets

I have always had a lot of jackets, coats and blazer. Some of them have been my favourites for decades, like the Mao jacket signed by Chris Isaac or the vintage coat in blue wool.
Others need  professional help, otherwise they get overlooked and forgotten.
Sometimes is just the case of mending a tear or change the buttons, small changes really goes a long way.

Here are some minor repairs/styling first aid conducted on four of my jackets.

Every piece of clothing I work on goes through the same process of :

• Identifying the problem (Too long, too wide, too boring, wrong colour....
• Figure out how to improve it ( Take it in, cut it up, make it in to something else, dye it....)

Once those to steps have been thought through, I sit down with the sewing machine. 

1. First jacket is nice, but I'm not quite ready to dress like Hilary Clinton. Problem: Too boxy and the bow is flimsy and out of place. Solution: Take it in and get rid of the bow. See the difference? Super cool with jeans and a little tank top. It's a keeper!

2.   This I'm going out riding, but will be back in time for High Tea blazer is p e r f e c t. Perfect fit,     perfect style, but there is one flaw. Problem: There is a small whole in the fabric. Solution: Old fashioned mending with needle and tread. No machine needed. 

I'm not good enough for it not to show at all, but at least it is less obvious. 

3. I fell for this jacket back in 2008. I think I have worn it 3 times since then. Problem: It's lacking something, but I don't want to change too much either. Solution: Attach velvet bows on the pocket. 

The bows are made from the ribbon I cut off from jacket number 1. 

4. I have two black velvet jackets, almost identical, so I wanted to set them apart. 

Problem: Too similar to other jacket. Solution: Change the cuffs and add roses to the collar. 

The roses came from a headband. 

There you have it. Four jackets with four easy-fix solutions. I can't wait for the snow to melt and temperature to rise again so I can actually wear them. 

Spring, I'm ready for you.