Fit for a Princess

This looks like a lesbian wedding picture, but it' actually me as the maid of honour and my best friend on her wedding day. 

It was a truly memorable day, starting with swimming in the loch and drinking champagne for breakfast. After swimming, eating, make up and hair it was time to put on the dresses. I had bought a tailored vintage dress for the occasion, £40 from a local charity shop.

Do you know why it is so great to shop at thrift shops and charity stores?

1. The money goes to a good cause

2. Reusing clothes is a really fun way of saving the planet

3. You have the chance to find a real treasure

This dress was a treasure for sure. But, it was too tight. Really tight. I looked like a badly stuffed hay-ball. 

After wiggling my way out of the dress, careful to not rip any seams, I turned the dress inside out to see if I could take any of the seams out. 

I could! Vintage dresses, especially tailored ones, usually have plenty of seam allowance. What a relief! 

I paid for the dress and took it home, ripped up a few seams and sewed the dress out 1/5 inch in four different seams. The result: 

This gem of a dress is over 50 years old and is still going strong. They say people had smaller rib cages before, and that's why the dresses are so tiny. I don't know, I think we are fatter as well, but regardless the reason, don't despair when you can't fit into your favourite vintage outfit. Just take it out a few inches. 

Mad Men Coat

I got this coat at a charity shop a few years back. I saw a "All coats half price" sign in the window and came out 15 minutes later with a winter coat from Noa Noa, fall coat from Top Shop and this Italian silk coat:

I liked it, but it was missing something....When I need inspiration for a total makeover I google Vintage fashion, Mad Men style, 50s style icons and so on, and then browse through all the photos until I see something I like. I found a picture that inspired me to redesign the coat to look like this:

Basically shortened it, shortened the sleeves and folded the lining around the outside to make the contrasting edge, used the leftover lining from the bit I cut off to make a bow, and top-stitched with bright orange thread. 

Now it is a proper Mad Men coat. Again, it really doesn't take much, and it's really, really fun to transform something kind of boring to something Mad Men Look Alike. 

Ode to Bias Tape

Sometimes a spade is called a spade. Bias tape is called bias tape because the fabric is cut diagonally.
And why is this so?  Because fabric cut diagonally, or on the bias,  is more stretchy than  fabric cut in a straight line. And why is this important? Because when you want to fold bias tape around necklines, collars, armholes, hems, curvy edges and corners, you need the fabric to follow the shape of the garment and be sewn into place with the greatest of ease.

You can buy ready made bias tape, but obviously you can make your own. Rule of thumb: if you can buy it in a store you can make it yourself.

With a little help of bias tape (that I made from an old summer dress) I transformed this rather Plain Jane jacket to something fun and fresh. I don't have a before picture, but it is easy to imagine what this jacket would look like without this beautiful red and white floral border.

A bit more sporty, don't you think? Even the back looks better. It really doesn't take much.

Now it's one of my favourite spring/fall jackets. It literally has an edge to it, it no longer looks like an anonymous office uniform.

Adorned with this jacket and earrings from a street vendor in Camden, I'm dressed without being dressy. 

AND I reduced my already massive carbon footprint by fixing an old jacket instead of buying a new one. 

Go upcycling! 

Little Black Dress

What do you do with all those cool clothes you never wear? I have a closet full of treasures, treasures I never wear but are too good to throw out.

Like my little black dress, the one I was going to wear everyday when I moved to Paris.
It was time to bring out the inner designer and come up with a new and better use this ignored dress.

Turning a dress into a top is really easy. Just cut off the bottom. 

 After I hemmed the bottom edge, (with my new Overlock machine!) I removed half the fabric up the neckline and put in an elastic band. Now it doesn't slide of my shoulders all the time. (Probably one of the reasons I didn't wear it so often. )

Finally I decorated the shoulders with big, white bows. What a pretty top! It goes with skirts, jeans, anything at all really.

The transformation of the dress doesn't stop here. The bottom bit I cut off got attached to a black sweater that had shrunken in the wash. 

To make it a bit more interesting I sewed on a row of mother of pearl buttons on the back. 

Finally I attached a strip of lace at both sleeves. 

Not bad for a shrunken sweater and an unused dress. 

Phone Cover

I'm  always looking for ways to use those tiny scraps of fabric. I can't stand throwing them away, they are all so pretty.
A while back a made an iPhone cover from a gorgeous fabric with French design. I'm so smitten with this fabric, it makes my day just looking at it. It has an old-fashioned rustic quality to it. I makes me think of  a quieter life filled with lavender fields, home made bread, sun sets and a sleeping cat in the corner.

I find it very challenging to hem little projects with the machine, I just can't get my eyes, fingers, and machine needle to cooperate, so I sewed on the bias-tape by hand. Since I was sewing by hand, I might as well throw on some beads as well. It takes less time than you think, and it is very calming and soothing to take a break from the machine now and then. 

In order for the phone to fit better, I made those corners that we make on billows and tote-bags:

Now the phone is safe and protected from all the loose objects in my handbag. And more importantly, I get to see my favourite fabric every single day, several times a day. Brilliant. 

Lunch time.

Even a plain sandwich should be a joy to eat, a treat, a little mini feast. We are not pigs or cows, eating out of troths or grazing away mindlessly. Or are we? Do we really savour our food, noticing every spurt of flavour, enjoying every bite? I try to, but at least now I notice when I don't notice.

A lot of it has to do with presentation and visual illusions. People actually think wine served in an expensive looking bottle tastes better than the same wine served from a bottle with a plain label.
Food served on white, round plates tastes sweater than food served on dark plates.

Personally I think food served on any pretty plate, at a clean table, maybe with a vase of flours and a candle burning, tastes far superior to something served out of a plastic bag.
How to achieve this nice setting at lunch time? I've never been a big fan of modern, multicoloured, lunch boxes or plastic lunch bags, so what is the solution? A cloth bag of course.

See how snug and lovely that is? Not only is a cotton lunch-wrap a far superior choice to a plastic bag, both form an environmental and esthetic point of view, it is also a great thing to make from leftover fabric. 

After use you can just shake of the crumbs, and if it needs a wash I just throw it in the machine with my other cotton items. Easy. And good for the Mother Earth. And makes lunch-time feel like a little picnic. 

Sherlock Holmes Dress

Every day on my way to work I drive past the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes is one of those characters I have a hard time believing is only fictional. Like Harry Potter or Dorian Gray. On the other hand, when I was a little girl I assumed that Jesus was fictional, like Snow White and Peter Pan.

In any case. I had these 2 skirts that separate and on their own were quite hopeless.

Skirt 1.

Skirt 2. 

I cherish Skirt 1, but this is when self-awareness comes in handy. Even if I lost a gazillion pounds, my ass would still look like the size if Brazil in this skirt. I think it was made for a child, or someone without any body fat what so ever. Such is life......

Skirt 2. is at the opposite side of the spectrum; way, way too big. A tent, something to seek shelter under, it could double as a parachute. 

What if I combined them and turned them into one item, a cute little dress?

Skirt 1.became the top, I thought it was kind of cool that the split could now be the neckline. 

Skirt 2. remained as a skirt, but I obviously took it in a lot, which just made it full and poofy, in a good way. 

Really cute, if I may say so myself. Like a dress Sherlock Homes would have worn, had he been a woman. 

Now I just need a pipe and a mystery to solve.