I'm so behind on my outfits of late. Here's one from early last week, trying the ASOS camel pencil skirt I got in the sale in a new way. Not convinced about the pale shoes/dark tights combo, but this is what happens when you get dressed at 6am! Yuck!
All in all, a lovely day, and it was great to get to meet so many amazing bloggers!
So this weekend I attended the much anticipated Plus London meet. Here's a picture during the day section, after we'd all finished shopping and met up again.
I bought the Beth Ditto high waisted skinnies at the very end of the Evans sale (they had 20% off last week, so I scored them for £8!), and actually haven't really taken them off since! They fit perfectly, and haven't sagged at all over the time I've worn them. I've never found a pair of jeans that fit me well at all (the two pairs I own are jeggings, and aren't hugely comfortable), so now I have them, I'm regretting not buying two pairs!Sorry for my lack of posting this week! I am super busy, making a dress for the Plus London meet. Also my house hunting has been going badly (we lost out on three houses in a row, and now we’re easing off a bit, to avoid further disappointments), so I’m a bit glum.
As most of you probably know, I am a burgeoning crafter. By that, I mean that for many years I have attempted crafts of sorts. I am a average knitter, a failed crocheter, and I’m interested in embroidery and quilting (though as they are both time consuming hobbies, I haven’t really attempted any yet). As far as crafting goes, I’m not amazing - I work a full time job that sees me out of the house for 11 hours a day, five days a week, and I’m also juggling a long distance relationship, a semi-”band” of sorts and - oh yeah - blogging! So most of the time, I’m lucky to have an hour or two to myself a day, and quite frankly, I don’t have the time to build up epic skills.
Sewing is my favourite hobby, and it’s also the most cost-effective. I’m a bargain hunter in all other aspects, so I don’t believe that crafting should cost you the earth, though it can very easily do so. I’ve yet to pay more than £3 per metre for a fabric, and I can generally craft something which, if I bought, I’d pay lots for (if I could!).
My favourite things to make clothes out of include:
For modern fabrics, I also find eBay to be a great resource. Whilst not super cheap, I often pay less on eBay for fabric by the metre than I do in haberdashery shops. Etsy also has fabric options, though I don’t find them particularly cheap.
Patterns are pretty tricky to find in plus sizes, so in these cases, learning to enlarge patterns is your best bet. There are often boxes of patterns in car boot and antiques sales, these are also often to be found on etsy and eBay, so finding patterns for reasonable prices isn't too hard. My skills aren’t quite up to enlarging patterns yet, but I reckon this is the best route to go. Some swift googling just brought me to this, which looks like a reasonable and easy technique to size up vintage patterns, which I am definitely trying next. I’ve also been recommended this book as a resource, though I haven’t bought it yet so am curious to know if it’s as valuable a resource as I’ve been led to believe?
I also recommend searching for online tutorials, using the internet to self-tutor myself in the techniques of garment construction itself. Sometimes what you are looking for is easier to make than you imagine! Also, try inspecting items of clothing you already own, or in high street stores - I made my first skirt by sketching around the outline of a skirt I already owned, then stitching the sides and hems with a simple straight stitch. Start to think about how clothing is made, even if it’s beyond your immediate capabilities, it allows you to better understand what a project requires. I’ve made dresses out of stretchy fabrics with a similar approach (but sketching around a body con dress instead).
With my projects, I try not to expect perfection straight away. My projects started with fairly basic objects - cushion covers and a-line skirts without zips, now I’m competent sewing from patterns and making a relatively tailored dress. With each project I try to advance my skills slightly - in my latest project, I fitted a concealed zip for the first time, and adapted a neckline. It went as well as could be expected (though certainly not professional quality) apart from the neckline, which I ended up having to pleat slightly. Because I spend little on fabrics, I can also afford to make mistakes (though it is always a disappointment!).
As a last note, if you’re just starting out, don’t buy a new sewing machine!Depending on where you live, it’s worth checking whether there are any local resources that allow free use of sewing machines, or allow you to rent one by the hour. I remember Remade in Leeds used to do this, and it was a great way to get a sense of whether sewing was “for you” or not. Personally, I would recommend starting with an older model with a hand crank mechanism. These are everywhere in second hand shops, car boot sales, and on eBay (I got mine for £15 from a car boot), and range between £10 and £50 generally, though £20-30 is the average. These are less daunting to control as a beginner, as you are in full control of the mechanism. They only offer straight stitch, but this is generally all I use currently anyway, and they’re also incredibly durable in the long term.
Otherwise, try buying a refurbished vintage electric sewing machine. I bought mine from eBay for about £50 including postage, though if you look for electric models that haven’t been refurbished further bargains can be had.
Online resources:
Craftster.org (check out the “curvaceous” section on the community!)
Gerty’s New Blog For Better Sewing
If anyone has more, please post them in the comments!
Here's another work outfit for you. I was eager to try out the new velvet shorts I scored from the ASOS sale, and decided to try and workwear look with them - I work in a super casual environment, but somehow I still feel a bit odd wearing shorts to the office (even though this is much more formal than most of my colleagues!). Anyhow, the shorts are simply fantastic. I'm a larger size 22 around my hips (sometimes a 24) and these are actually slightly loose on me, making them a much more comfortable fit than other styles I've owned. The velvet is a dark grey which catches the light really nicely, with hugggge pockets (they're the entire length of the shorts!).
Excuse my slightly sketchy polyvore skills here. I'm big into wide legs and palazzo pants this season. I'm really interested in wearing these styles as a fatty, as I feel the super wide leg is deemed inappropriate to wear (as well as the super skinny, it seems to be all about being as AVERAGE AS POSSIBLE). Here are some fatty fitting examples - most from Dorothy Perkins which goes up to a size 22, two from Love Label (20, though I reckon they'd both fit larger, and that dress is more 60s than 70s, but the camel is more 70s as a colour) and one from ASOS curve (26). I've got to say I'm loving the focus Dotty P's has on the palazzo this season - normally I feel I have to wait months for an on trend cut to arrive (in a highly diluted form) in high street shops, but they're on it this season.
Anyway, I love the 70s as a period, and the luxurious nature of the excessive amounts of fabric used to create such styles, I love the garish-ness of the patterns, the uncoventional colour palettes (I have a serious love for 70s homewares in this respect too, in a horrific kitsch-y fashion). I'd love to wear some palazzos with the sheer waterfall style jacket above and a cami.
I'm interested in the wide leg as a 90s thing too - I can imagine turning the third trousers (which aren't a full length style) in a grungey look with the cropped blouse and my trusty docs and a plaid shirt.
These are all inspirations, as I'm still sticking to my £10 rule this month! So I'll be hunting out similar styles on sale rails, at vintage stores and car boot sales and on ebay.
Look at the detail! Beautiful!
Huge amount of vintage 60s polyester (perfect for shift dresses), £1, about 4 metres of grey polka dot cotton, £5 (bit more than I would normally pay, but it's beautiful), brown patchwork belt, £1. I also got a vintage slip for £1 that I plan to grunge up with some docs and a plaid shirt, and a copy of Watchmen on DVD for 50p. And looootttts of vintage stock.
Gooo-ood weekend. More to follow later, but suffice to say it involved a very successful car boot session. I broke out my old vintage cats eyes for the first time in ages this weekend. I had these glazed the same time as my trusty black specs, but the latter soon became my day wear and these more "special occasion". They're so different to my usual style that I often find them hard to style.
Run down:
Firstly, my picture taking sucks, but that's what you get late at night. Oh dear.
First day back at work. Apparently my strategy for hiding my evident lack of sleep involves dressing head to toe in pillar box red... not sure this was the best way to style this, but it was an experiment.
