A charitable moan.

I do love the current vogue for refashioning old clothes, think it's an excellent way to end up with something completely one-off, plus I love rumaging in charity shops (they call them thrift stores in the states, how wonderful is that, much more romantic than charity shop). I should qualify this comment, I love rooting around in a 'proper' charity shop, to my mind there are far too many of them into selling branded fairtrade shopping bags (Oxfam and Cancer Research being the worst offenders) and flogging Next cast offs (looooaaathe Next) for hugely inflated prices. There is nothing wrong with Fairtrade anything, buy quite a bit of Fairtrade stuff myself but 5 quid for a t-shirt you can buy in a pack of 3 for a tenner is a bit much. The much more interesting charity shops are the smaller ones, that still sell old ladies wares for 50p a pop, all lined up on rails that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Rumaging heaven!!
It was in just such a shop that I picked up this little beauty for the princely sum of (yes, you guessed it) 50p, I was actually looking for something to refashion and this polka dot number caught my eye, hmm, I thought, jumpsuit. But when I got it home and laid it out on the bed, I realised that I love this cute little thing just as it is, although I may have to alter the waist, it's a bit big. So I shall keep rumaging for the perfect material in a naff dress to change into a shorts jumpsuit. Wish me luck!!

And Back to Nerys!!

I may have mentioned that I love 70's clothing, probably because I was born in the 70's but didn't have the misfortune to be a teenager in the 70's! Anyway, at the moment I have 2(!!) 70's style vest tops on the go in my knitting bag, which I know I will adore once I get round to finishing them. One is a wool in a cranberry colour and the other I have chirruped about further up these pages. I love the idea of these with an A-line skirt and a blouse with an exaggerated collar in the style of the petal of a large flower and I expecially like the idea of them knitted in Wendys double knit cotton. There's something beguilling about the shiny cheapness of its mercerised strands, which brings to mind the naffness of the man made fibres of that decade, but in a good way. I would rather like to knit one of these in Wendys dk cotton but with the ribbing in dark navy, here http://www.dragonyarns.co.uk/erol.html#3062X3068 and the main body of the tank in cream http://www.dragonyarns.co.uk/erol.html#3062X3073. Maybe I'll progress to a camel football managers coat a'la Gene Hunt of Life on Mars fame (lol), although I think that maybe taking irony slightly too far.

Disclaimer: I should point out that I do not nor shall I ever possess a camel football managers coat, if I ever seriously consider it, please feel free to call the men in white coats.

New ideas NOT inspired by Nerys Hughes!!

Thinking of all the things I want to make, have been on a bit of a splurge and bought an overlocker (it's a brother, not rich enough for a babylock). Hoping that a) it will neaten up my dire fabric cutting, by overlocking all my pattern pieces before I do the darts, seaming etc on the trusty ol' singer sewing machine. And b) I'll be able to get the full benefit of rolled hems, especially on jersey fabrics (supposed to give a lovely lettuce effect, apparently, which I can't wait to try). With this in mind, I've also coughed up for this lush bit of stretch jersey, on the right, want to adapt this pattern here http://www.voguepatterns.com/item/V8229.htm?tab=very_easy_vogue_dresses_br_includes_koko_beall_designer&page=3 (the dress on the right) and yes, I know I'm a beginner and stretch jersey is a nightmare but, I may just pull it off. This pattern is soooo highly adaptable that I want to do a version in bottle green large gingham for the main body of the dress (without the bottom ruffle) but make the collar into a kind of mary quant blouse collar, in white cotton. T'will be very cute.

As you may have gathered from my previous posts, I have a bit of a passion for retro clothing, expecially anything from the 60's or 70's, although I'm not immune to the charms of a 1940's tea dress either. I purchased this very 70's naff tank top pattern from our local market, apparently the stall holder was given an album of patterns from one of his patrons (love that word) whose mother had died and was selling them for 10p a pop (bargain). Predicatably I just had to buy it, it's sooo Liver birds, I completely fell in love with it. I didn't want to knit it in wool so scoured the net for some mercerised knitting cotton (Wendy's Supreme), all the better to make it supremely naff. Checked before I bought it that it had the correct knit tension, when I received the wool knitted up a swatch (love that word too) and got stuck in. Seems to be going ok, so far, need to make a grey A line skirt to go with the tank (already own the boots) and I'll be the South's answer to Nerys Hughes. And not the Heartbeat version either!!

A bit of skirt.

This gorgeous bit of granny curtain fabric will eventually be magically fashioned into the aforementioned 'one hot skirt', of Betsy Ross fame.
I love the exaggerated blooms and although the fabric has no real 'drape', I'm thinking (or rather hoping) that this won't matter for an A line skirt, and that the stiffness will provide the requisite shape.
I have metres and metres of this adorably retro print fabric, so if the skirt is a big success, then I will make a cute shift dress with the rest.... Or maybe a tea dress, you know, the sort that ladies from the 50's used to wear whilst attending the local dance, drinking tea and waiting for a 'gentleman' to ask for a waltz. Wearing such a dress, I would waft down the promenade of a suitably dated seaside town in order to take tea and scones until it was chilly enough to wear my handknitted cardi (naturally in a pale shade of pink), with lace panels on it.